Bollywood’s women of style and substance

They may be queens of glamour and fame but these lovely ladies don’t shy away from going all out for the greater good. Take a look at some of Bollywood’s famous beauties with a cause.

Glamour girl Priyanka Chopra has since carved a niche for herself as an acclaimed actress. But She’s also one of the most socially responsible actors in India. Through the years she’s supported and spoken about many causes education for the underprivileged, female infanticide and feticide. In 2010, she was appointed the Unicef Goodwill Ambassador. She’s the brand ambassador for NDTV Greenathon which looks into the lack of electricity in rural villages. As part of the campaign to raise awareness she adopted 3 villages to work towards their welfare. The ever brazen Preity Zinta might be known for bubbly roles on screen but, she has definitely reached heights with her courage and humanitarian work. She works with charities involved in creating awareness about female infanticide, HIV/AIDS, Blood donation and human trafficking. On her 34th birthday she adopted 34 girls in Rishikesh to provide them with education and a better life.

 

India’s ultimate fashionista Sonam Kapoor might be well known for her keen style sense but this girl not just about the labels. In 2012 Sonam auctioned her clothes online. The proceeds of which went to Smile Foundation which works to support poor children. She wanted this money to help educate underprivileged kids. She was also chosen the brand ambassador of Ogaan Cancer Foundation to help spread awareness about breast cancer.

 

Former Miss India and actress Celina Jaitly is a strong supporter and activist for equal rights for the LGBT community. She was a prominent face during the protests to repeal Article 377 and has worked for the welfare of the LGBT community. Celina has also campaigned for PETA and has reportedly pledged her eyes Aditya Jyot Eye Hospital in support of eye donation.

 

Former Miss Asia Pacific and actress Dia Mirza is also a socially responsible actress.She supports social organisations such as Cancer Patients Aid Association. She's also the spokesperson for a green environment campaign. And has been actively involved with the Andhra Pradesh government to spread HIV awareness and prevent female foeticide? Add to this, also supports PETA and CRY.

 

In the wake of the Delhi gangrape case Shilpa Shetty and Raj Kundra organized a women’s self defense camp and professed the importance of self defense in a woman’s life in today’s time. The actress is also a supporter of PETA and worked with organizations to help spread awareness about HIV/AIDS.

 

Bollywood's queen bee Kareena Kapoor joined the Shakti Campaign which aimed at fighting violence against women in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day. Through her years as a prominent personality Kareena has never shied away from being involved in several humanitarian causes.

 

India's global star Aishwarya Rai was appointed UNAIDS goodwill ambassador to help raise awareness on issues related to stopping new HIV infections in children. She also donated her eyes to the Eye Bank Association of India.She founded the Aishwarya Rai Foundation to help those in need. And was chosen as the first Goodwill Ambassador of Smile Train - an international organisation that provides free cleft lip and palate surgery.

 

India’s first Miss Universe, actress Sushmita Sen set an example for the world to applaud when she adopted a baby girl. Today Ms Sen has two adopted daughters and is a supporter of the girl child movement. She’s associated with several charity events and has carved a niche for herself as a humanitarian.

 

One of Bollywood’s finest actresses Vidya Balan is also an involved philanthropist. Reportedly she’s worked for the welfare of underprivileged girls and has become the brand ambassador for drinking water and sanitation campaign.

Let’s Talk About It: Fathers, daughters and the R-word

Murder is kosher. War needs no introduction. Even school shootings make the cut at the dinner table. But rape? No. Never. We never talk about it.

My daughter, nearly five, can read. She reads fairy-tales aloud, she reads shop-signs from a moving car (we’ve successfully deflected her attention from the ‘Piles and Fistula’ clinics in the proletarian parts of town), she spots hilarious if confounding legends on the backs of auto-rickshaws (yes, we’ve had engrossing family debates over ‘Mother is god, lover is danger’) and she catches typos in the fliers that the paperboy gets paid for tucking into our breakfast reading.

When she’s really bored, she reads the newspapers.

At home we get two dailies, three on weekends. Since December 17, the headlines have consistently screamed a certain four-letter word in our faces. It has latched onto our consciences and eaten into the comfortable fabric of our lives. Despite such bombardment, we cannot escape being startled to violent, impotent rage every time it is uttered. The images it evokes are unbearably terrifying, even dooming. Yet, as we attempt to shrug away the deluge of horror stories now pouring out of the prisons where they have long been locked away, we hear and read that this – this thing – is more commonplace than we imagined. That it could be only a single frightening degree of separation from our sheltered lives.

It is rape we’re not talking about. Although we have all read enough to be informed that we must talk about it. But when we nod our heads in agreement in a social situation we’re talking detachedly about the lives of others – people we don’t know, over whose pains we shall never lose sleep.

And the headlines they continue to scream, telling of shocking tragedies that we pray we won’t ever have the misfortune to endure. If we’re careful, we whisper soothingly to ourselves, if we’re careful.

It’s only a matter of time before my daughter, who has learned to argue with conviction about her “fundamental rights”, asks me what rape means. We’ve discussed everything from butterfly migration (“Where are the blue butterflies we saw last year?”) to retail supply chains (“Where do the toys in toy stores come from?”), all in answer to direct, sharply framed questions from which there is no weaseling out. To her, I’m the fount of encyclopedic wisdom, the Jedi master who unlocks the mysteries of the Force. I can’t afford to let her down. Or she might go and find out from somewhere – or someone – else.

When I’m not Superdad, I’m a cog in a media machine where news is chosen not for its salience but for its propensity to turn casual, accidental readers like you into patrons who will come back for more. We media-types place rape high among our priorities, right up there next to the Bollywood starlet’s wardrobe malfunction and anything cricket. It’s a hot-ticket item with great stamina and shelf-life, what with all the moralistic chest-thumping and TV debates and candle-light marches and water-cannon-baiting protestors. Oh yeah, we devote a lot of space to rape.

But we don’t talk about it. Not at home.

Murder is kosher. War needs no introduction. Even school shootings make the cut at the dinner table. But rape? No. Never.

And not just because we fear or loathe it, but because somewhere in our heads we confuse it with carnal knowledge – an unwelcome, premature, irreversible initiation to life’s embarrassing truths.

Talking about rape isn’t like clearing your throat, putting on a poker-face, and delivering a preamble on birds and bees and dogs and cats. Though it begins there. Sort of.

Unlike consensual sex, which a person has a right to experience upon attaining legal age for it, rape is an act of violence where the perpetrator does not always care if his victim has attained sexual maturity. Minors, toddlers, even babies – of all genders – are raped more frequently than we want to know, most often by people known to them. People they trusted.

There’s the rub. So, whom can you trust?

My wife, for reasons she can justify, distrusts men in general. In her book, no one is a saint. Everyone – no exceptions here – starts at a zero-trust level and then works their way up, if at all. It’s an approach that is effort-intensive and stressful; it requires her to keep a sharp, paranoid eye on our little girl at all times. Often, when she deputes me to stand in, I can tell she’s not entirely confident of my level of alertness to danger. I’m comfortable with that for the most part, but there’s one thing of which I’m watchful: I don’t want our daughter growing up fearing the world she must at some point confront on her own.

We both want her to understand danger, to be able to read the warning signs, and to act appropriately to save her skin. We want her to be able to cope positively in adversity. We want her to be confident about her body, not resentful of it. We want her to feel proud of her femininity, not threatened or vulnerable on account of it.

There’s no easy way. We started the conversation with an iPad app for kids that confirmed her suspicions that male and female bodies are indeed different and work differently. While bathing her and dressing her, we encourage her to talk about her body without shyness or reserve. We tell her about parts of her body that are “private”, which only she and her caregivers can examine or touch, and in what circumstances it is all right for them to do so. We tell her about “good touch” and “bad touch” – and debate endlessly over the social mechanics of it. We drill her on how to respond and react if she thinks a touch is “bad” and how, and whom, to call for help. From time to time, when we get lost, we turn to The Yellow Book: A Parent’s Guide to Sexuality Education and other online resources.

None of this, we know, is going to erase rape from the world, or keep the headlines from screaming. At least not until fundamental systemic changes take effect in our society. Meanwhile, the questions, when they come, will fly at us thick and fast. I try to wrap my head around the answers I will give. I try to frame them mentally so that they sound neither unconvincing nor terrifying. Both are undesirable outcomes – the last thing we want is to have her believe that sexual abuse or rape isn’t serious enough to be talked about, or develop a fear of it so overblown and irrational that it cripples her for life.

I have but one chance to get this right.

Looking up from a book she is reading, my daughter smiles. Maybe she can read my mind.

Sony Xperia Z @ Rs 39,990 and its rivals

Sony made its aggressive sales pitch at the launch of its flagship Xperia Z smartphone, priced at Rs. 38,990. Xperia Z has a 5'' screen supporting full high definition visual display, 13 megapixel camera and is built on Android 4.1 platform. The phone has quad core processors and 2GB RAM. Xperia Z would compete with Samsung's Galaxy series, Apple's iPhones and Nokia's Lumia series. Here's a look at its rivals:

Priced at Rs 38,990, the Xperia Z has a 5'' screen supporting full high definition visual display, 13 megapixel camera and is built on Android 4.1 platform. The phone has quad core processors and 2GB RAM. Here's a look at its rivals:

Priced at Rs 21,500, the Samsung Galaxy Grand runs on Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean. It sport a 5-inch display which provides users with an expansive viewing experience, presenting messaging, multimedia and Web content in brilliant color and clarity.

Priced at Rs 26,500, Apple released the iPhone 4S in October 2011, accompanied by a key new feature: Siri, a voice-activated personal assistant that lets you talk to your phone to send messages, schedule meetings, place phone calls, and find nearby restaurants, among other tasks.

 

Priced at Rs 25,900 - the Galaxy S II's features are a dual-core 1.2 GHz processor, 1 GB of RAM and a Super AMOLED Plus screens, which are stunningly bright and make for an extremely sharp, colorful display. The Samsung Galaxy S II is photo-ready with a built-in 8 megapixel rear-facing camera, with a 2 megapixel cam up front for video chat. All three devices can record video in 1080p HD.

 

Price at Rs 29,500, the Galaxy S3 has a 4.8 inch AMOLED screen, 8 megapixel camera and will use the latest version of Google's Android software, Ice Cream Sandwich version 4.0. The smartphone features 'S Voice', a voice command option to listen and respond to users' words. The option can be used to go off users' phone alarm, turn volume up, send text messages, organize schedules, and automatically launch the camera and capture a photo. 

 

Priced at Rs 32,999, one of the first great features that you're bound to notice about the BlackBerry Bold 9900 is its slim and sleek design. The BlackBerry Bold 9900 features a QC 8655 1.2GHz processor, 768MB of RAM, 8 GB of default storage space with room for up to 32GBs of expansion via a microSD card

 

Priced at Rs 35,500, the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 features a thinner and slightly bigger 5.5-inch screen, 1.6 GHz quad-core processor, the latest version of the Android operating system called Jellybean, and improved stylus function. It has 2GB of internal RAM; and comes with 16 GB of onboard file storage and supports up to 64GB of additional memory.

 

Priced at Rs 35,000 - the Nokia Lumia 920 has 4.5- inch PureMotion HD+ touch-screen with a resolution of 1280 x 768 pixels. With a dimension of 130.3mm x 70.8mm x 10.7mm, it weighs 185 grams. It has a pixel density of 332 ppi and a super-sensitive touch screen protected by Gorilla Glass 2.

 

Priced at Rs 36,499, the 4S looked exactly like the iPhone 4, but comes with an A5 dual-core processor and an upgraded 8-megapixel camera.

 

Priced at Rs 34,700 - the HTC One X Plus has a 4.7 inches display with 720 x 1280 pixels resolution and runs on Android's Jelly Bean. The phone is packed with a 8 megapixels camera, Quad core 1700 MHz processor.

 

The much-awaited BlackBerry Z10 smartphone was launched at a price of Rs 43,490. The BlackBerry Z10 will compete against Samsung Galaxy SIII, priced at around Rs 29,500, and Nokia Lumia 920, at Rs 35,000. The Z10 features a 1.5GHz dual core processor with 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal 

 

Priced at Rs 45,500 - the iPhone 5 has been completely redesigned to feature a stunning new 4-inch Retina display; an Apple-designed A6 chip for blazing fast performance; and ultrafast wireless technology—all while delivering even better battery life. iPhone 5 comes with iOS 6.

 

Priced at Rs 45,900 - the new 'Butterfly' has a 5-inch screen with a pixel density of 440 ppi (pixels per inch) and full 1080P HD resolution, while iPhone 5 has 4-inch screen at 326 ppi at a lower resolution. Power and performance of the phone is faster with its latest generation 1.5 GHz Quad-Core S4 processor.

Traditional Chinese New Year recipes

These traditional recipes can be used anytime of the year.

While rice symbolizes luck, shrimps are believed to bring happiness. Here are some tried and tested recipes
Even though the Chinese New Year has passed, who says these recipes can’t be used anytime of the year.  The origin of the Chinese New Year is as old as the country itself.  Legend has it that one of them was a terrible mythical monster called Nian who preyed on its villagers. Another story claimed that Nian was scared of the color red, so the villagers pasted red paper cutouts and scrolls on their doors. The day the monster was conquered, the Chinese recognized it as the ‘passing of the Nian’ which is synonymous with the celebrating of New Year.  The Chinese New Year starts with the New Moon on the first day of the New Year, and ends on the full moon 15 days later. The 15th day of the New Year is called the Lantern Festival.
The highlight of the tradition is a religious ceremony given in honor of Heaven and Earth, the gods of the household and the family ancestors. A dinner is arranged for them at the family banquet table. The communal feast called ‘surrounding the stove’ or weilu symbolizes family unity, and honors the past and present generations. The type of food presented at the table is supposed to bring good luck to the family. Traditionally, the rice symbolizes luck and wealth, while shrimps are believed to bring happiness.   Chef Tan Aik Lan , the Chinese specialty chef at Renaissance Mumbai, shares three traditional recipes.

Stir-fried prawns with pumpkin sauce
Ingredients: 400gms king prawns, 200gms pumpkin, 100gms chicken stock, 2tbsp butter, 6 chillies, curry leaves, 80ml evaporated milk, ½ tsp chicken powder, 1½ tsp sugar, salt to taste
Method:

• Trim the legs and head of the prawns, clean, dry and coat with a little cornflour and set aside.
• Slice pumpkin and steam till cooked. Add Chicken stock and blend into a creamy gravy. Set aside
• Heat up oil in a wok and fry prawns to medium - well done. Remove and drain
• Heat butter in a wok and sauté side ingredients. Pour in pumpkin gravy, add seasoning and cook well till gravy thickens
• Add prawns, pumpkin and cook until the gravy is fully absorbed and serve hot

Stir-fried chicken with three-cup Chinese wine sauce

Ingredients: 300gms diced chicken, 200gms green chilies, 20gms spring onion, 5gms  garlic,10 gms ginger, 1 tbs light soya sauce, 1tbs oyster sauce,1tbs black vinegar, 1tbs Chinese wine, 1tbs rice wine, 1 ½ tsp sugar, 1tsp potato starch, 1tbs rose wine

Method:

• Heat up oil in a wok and deep fry the chicken till golden brown
• To prepare the seasoning sauce, add light soya sauce, oyster sauce, black vinegar, Chinese wine, trice wine, sugar and rose wine (in the same order) and cook well
• Add 1tsp of potato starch to thicken
• Add the fried chicken pieces, add green chilies, garlic, ginger and spring onion (chopped in julienne) and cook for 2 minutes
• Serve hot

Chilled Mango Sago with Pomelo

Ingredients: 600 gms mango, 600ml water, 100ml cream, 100ml milk, 100gm sugar

Side ingredients: pomelo, sago

Method:

• Put mango pieces into a blender, add water and blend well till it forms a puree
• Boil the mango puree for 8 minutes and leave aside to chill in a refrigerator
• When the mango puree is chilled, add the pomelo and sago and mix well
• Serve chilled

How Volkswagen's outsmarting its competition

Ulrich Hackenberg isn't yet a household name but if Volkswagen's $70 billion bet on his big idea pays off, he may join the likes of Henry Ford, Alfred Sloan and Taiichi Ohno in the canon of auto industry pioneers.

Since the heyday of Henry Ford and his Model T, the world's automakers have considered the "global car" to be their Holy Grail - the same basic design that can be built, in subtle variations, and sold in different markets.
Take that fundamental concept, stretch it across many different vehicle types, sizes and brands, then build them by the millions, and you begin to sense the enormity of Volkswagen's rapidly evolving "mega-platform" strategy and its potential impact on competitors around the globe.
 

Auto engineer Hackenberg nurtured this bright idea for three decades, after early pitches to auto executives were largely ignored, until somebody finally bought it wholesale. The man who bit was Volkswagen Chief Executive Officer Martin Winterkorn.

Hackenberg's fundamental rethink of vehicle platforms, the industrial Lego from which cars are designed and made, is helping power the German company to the top of the global sales charts several years ahead of its 2018 target. It could also make VW one of the most profitable carmakers in the world.
The strategy is not without risk. It could, for instance, expose Volkswagen to the threat of a massive global recall if a single part, used in millions of cars, fails.
 

But rivals have taken note of the power behind its move. Volkswagen's modular platforms are being benchmarked by most of the world's top automakers, including Toyota Motor Corp and Ford Motor Co (NYS:F), according to company executives.

"We'd be crazy not to," said a senior Ford official, requesting anonymity because of the proprietary nature of the subject.
VW's work on its largest mega-platform, known internally as MQB, began in earnest in 2007 and is being implemented over the next four years at a cost of nearly $70 billion, estimates Morgan Stanley. The potential payoff is compelling: Projected annual gross savings by 2019 of $19 billion, according to the bank, with gross margins approaching 10 percent.
 

SIX-YEAR GESTATION
After a six-year gestation, VW has just begun to implement its sophisticated and highly flexible platform with the deceptively simple label MQB, a German acronym for "modular transverse matrix." Virtually all of the group's small and medium front-wheel-drive family models, including the latest generations of the VW Golf and Audi A3, are being designed around MQB as their base.The new platform features a far greater degree of plug-and-play modularity, flexibility and parts commonality than at Toyota, General Motors Co, Ford and other competitors.
 

MQB "could be the single most important automotive initiative of the past 25 years," says Michael Robinet, managing director of IHS Consulting in Northville, Michigan. "It really changes the game."

With the new mega-platform strategy supporting its 12 brands, from spartan Skoda to Audi, Porsche and Lamborghini, VW is poised to snatch the global sales crown from Toyota as early as next year, according to investment bank Morgan Stanley.
 

VW envisions enormous leverage from MQB. The plan is to boost global sales to 10 million or more, with roughly two out of every three cars - some 40-plus models totaling 6.3 million sales a year - built on some variation of the MQB platform, according to U.S. research firm IHS Automotive.

None of VW's competitors has the diversity of brands, the breadth of technology, the sweeping geographic footprint or the deep pockets necessary to support and take advantage of such a wide-reaching initiative as MQB.
Even Toyota, the current global sales leader, is playing catch-up with its German rival.
 

Each of the three modular component sets will come in different variations that will enable enormous flexibility in terms of product design, while accommodating a wide range of powertrain options, from gas and diesel engines to electric motors and batteries.

"Modular platforms have grown beyond the technology (alone) to become a management tool which helps support the brands' development. The toolkits help the brands to preserve their character and sharpen their individuality," said Hackenberg, now development chief for the Volkswagen brand.
 

Excess exposure to a single market such as China contradicts VW's philosophy of spreading growth evenly and potentially makes it vulnerable to negative market developments and possible government interference, says Pieper.

To hedge its potential emerging-markets exposure, VW also has overhauled its loss-making North American operations - an estimated $4-billion investment, according to Morgan Stanley, that could more than double U.S. sales by 2018 to 1.3 million.
Even then, it would remain a mid-level player in the U.S. market dominated by GM and Ford, which sell nearly 5 million vehicles a year between them.
 

CHANGING OF THE GUARD
The full rollout of MQB may not be accomplished until the end of the decade, estimates Pearson. By then, the chief stewards of VW's corporate strategy - CEO Winterkorn and Chairman Ferdinand Piech - may be retired and the next generation of management moved into the top slots.The Austrian-born Piech, 75, is a third-generation auto executive. A mechanical engineer by training, he is the grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, the legendary Austrian designer of the original VW Beetle.
 

VW's supervisory board has yet to clearly anoint potential heirs to Piech and Winterkorn, 65, and it won't be easy, particularly since much of the power has been closely held by the two patriarchs since Winterkorn became CEO in 2007.

As for the company's strategic vision after Piech steps down, Morgan Stanley's Pearson says: "His legacy is (building) the world's largest and most successful auto company. I don't think the strategy will change any time soon."