Indholdsfortegnelse for February 18, 2019 i India Today

Ten weeks from now, the greatest democratic spectacle on Earth, the Indian general election, will kick off. Manifestos will be laid out, promises will be made and politicians will go hoarse echoing them or reminding the electorate of how they have benefitted. More importantly, the first government with a majority in three decades will be returning to the people to seek a fresh mandate. The NDA, of course, knows the odds it is up against—in 35 years, only one government has ever been returned to office, that of the United Progressive Alliance led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2009. One of the factors that contributed to a second consecutive term was schemes such as the MNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act), which assured employment and kicked in…

“I WILL NEVER BECOME THE PRIME MINISTER. I ENTERED POLITICS TO WORK UNDER CHARISMATIC LEADERS... THE DAY ‘PRADHAN SEVAK’ NARENDRA MODI DECIDES TO HANG HIS BOOTS, I WILL ALSO LEAVE INDIAN POLITICS” Textiles minister SMRITI IRANI, speaking at a festival in Pune, answered a (surely sarcastic?) question from an audience member about her chances at the top job with a paean to the personal magnetism of Prime Minister Modi and his BJP predecessor Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Modi, according to some commentators, has been Irani’s mentor. Under his guidance, her ascent to ministerial positions has been meteoric even if her performances in those roles have been mixed. In 2004, Irani, then an acolyte of Vajpayee, had threatened to fast until Modi resigned as chief minister of Gujarat.…

When Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray summoned party MPs, in Delhi for the Parliament session, to Mumbai for a meeting on Tuesday, many thought a headway had been made in alliance talks with the BJP. Others heard it was a meeting with Supreme Court advocate Prashant Bhushan. It turned out to be a meeting with JD(U) vice-president and poll strategist Prashant Kishor. However, the Sena’s attempts to upstage the BJP by roping in Kishor came undone after the latter tweeted that he hoped to join hands with the Sena for an NDA victory. A red-faced Sena said Kishor’s was a “courtesy visit”. Anilesh Mahajan, Kamlesh Sutar, Shwweta Punj, Amarnath K. Menon, Sahil Joshi…

The US Special Representative for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, who has been negotiating face to face with the Taliban over these past few weeks, has announced that a basic framework for an Afghan peace settlement has been reached. The Taliban have agreed to provide verifiable assurances that Al Qaeda and Islamic State elements will not be permitted to use Afghan territory to undertake hostile activity against the US. In return, the US agrees to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan within a specified time frame. The US has also demanded that there be a ceasefire between Taliban and Afghan security forces and talks held with the Afghan government concerning a political settlement. These additional conditions are still under consideration within the Taliban leadership. The Taliban may agree to these conditions for two…

“The Centre needs to allocate a minimum Rs 30,000 crore per year to Ayushman Bharat. Otherwise, it’ll end up being a poll stunt” DR EKBAL BAPPUKUNJU Member, Kerala State Planning Board Beyond tom-tomming the benefits of Ayushman Bharat, “the world’s largest public healthcare scheme”, on which finance minister Piyush Goyal held forth with gusto, the healthcare sector got little in Budget 2019. No big policy shake-up, no new targets worth any mention. Attention and budget rupees were lavished, though, on the government’s flagship healthcare scheme. At Rs 6,400 crore, the Ayushman Bharat budget is a 167 per cent increase over its outlay at launch of Rs 2,400 crore. Even this ignites a firestorm of scrutiny: “ jumla,” “inadequate numbers not tallying up”, its critics scream. But, then, politics is…

The India Today State of the State study of Punjab identifies broad trends of economic development and ranks the performance of its 22 districts across 10 categories, each a composite index of parameters for which uniform, continuous data is available. The rankings are based on the Borda method, in which voters rank options/ candidates in order of preference. The evaluation has two segments: best performing district at a particular time and the most improved district over the past decade. The most recent year is used to rank the best district. The difference between the most recent category value and the value 10 years earlier is used to rank the most improved district. The data was collected and standardised by research agency Nielsen from sources such as the Census, National Sample…

The Ramayana can never be read the same way by men and women, and the phrase ‘Ram Rajya’, a favourite among politicians, must sound like a threat to at least half of their voters. If Indian women are traditionally exhorted to be like Sita, can they refrain from feeling Sita’s anger, her sense of betrayal at being judged for her abductor’s crime, her bitterness that a man’s love, even if eternal, is conditional? Doesn’t every girl who first reads Sita’s story in an Amar Chitra Katha feel all of this? The love story of Ram and Sita has no surprises left, and the epic told from Sita’s point of view must travel the same ground, from Mithila to Lanka and back. Even if we haven’t read Sita’s perspective before, we…

RUSSIAN DOLL What Black Mirror: Bandersnatch failed to accomplish, this series does with humour and drama. Natasha Lyonne, the lead and one of the creators of the show, plays the blunt Nadia stuck in an ongoing loop, reliving her 36th birthday, at the end of which she dies. NETFLIX ONE SMALL STEP One of the five Oscar-nominated animated shorts, it follows Luna, a Chinese-American girl who battles anxiety and the challenges that come with adolescence to achieve her dream of becoming an astronaut. YOUTUBE UNSANE The Crown’s Claire Foy stars in this Steven Soderbergh psychological thriller as a woman who finds herself involuntarily admitted to an asylum which also hosts the stalker she was desperately trying to escape. HOTSTAR PREMIUM…

GLORIA YUAN AROMATHERAPY EXPERT A licensed aromatherapist, Gloria Yuan studied chemistry at university and works as the international trainer for Neal’s Yard Remedies. DHIRAM SHAH FOUNDER, LUXURYLAUNCHES.COM Based in Mumbai, Dhiram Shah has been writing about premium lifestyle for more than 13 years. He has a keen interest in timepieces and is a petrol head. When not behind a workstation, you are most likely to find him behind a steering wheel. RAJNI OHRI FOUNDER, OHRIA AYURVEDA Rajni Ohri is the founder of ayurvedic skin care brand, Ohria Ayurveda. After years of study under her ayurveda acharya, Ohri has based her secret recipes on what she learnt under him and so her products are in tune with traditional and authentic ayurvedic formulations. RYAN FERNAND0 NUTRITIONIST Ryan Fernando is a…

Immortal Skin Capture your best ever skin with L’Occitane’s Immortelle Reset serum. Using acmella oleacera and marjoram extracts, immortelle essential oil works hard at night to restore your glow while you catch your zzzz’s. Price ₹3,980 Availability LÓccitane stores and online Mask-erade Sheet masks are everyone's current go-to beauty trend. This Korean beauty secret has taken over our beauty regime, Instagram feeds and lives. And why not? They're an easy way to infuse some major moisture into your regular CTM routine. The Kiehl's Instant Renewal Concentrate Mask is infused with cold-pressed Amazonian oils that moisturises and smoothens. The two-piece biocellulose-embedded hydrogel mask is also completely plant derived. Price ₹2,300 Availability Kiehl's stores and online Lit from Within Wouldn't it be marvellous if we could achieve that soft, glowing…

THE KITTY LITTER FACIAL This questionable sounding facial is immensely popular with the DIY crowd. Made popular by Youtuber and Instagrammer beauty blogger Michelle Phan, this treatment essentially involves smearing unscented kitty litter on your face to remove free radicals, cellulite, age spots and other toxins. Supposedly. Phan says that since your cat's poop sand is essentially bentonite clay, which is what makes up most clay masks out on the market, it cleanses and smoothens skin as well as any pricey facial. COST From ₹300 THE GEISHA FACIAL Normally, bird feces wouldn't be something to be excited about. But if the feces belong to the Japanese bush warbler you might just change your mind. Touted as the secret of a geisha's porcelain skin, using uguisu no fun is an ancient…

As fashion gravitates towards niche homegrown labels a growing number of curators are choosing to showcase local designers who emphasise craft over labels. The Wardrobe is a bi-annual fashion and lifestyle exhibition in Kochi that offers clothes and accessories by an assortment of new and interesting designers. Founded in 2016 by Tracy Thomas, The Wardrobe is a travelling concept store for those who want to stay ahead of the curve in fashion. “I studied fashion retail at Pearl Academy of Fashion where I learned about styles that blended the heritage with the contemporary. After a stint as retail merchandiser with Fabindia, I ran a multi designer store for four years. I took a hiatus from work after my daughter was born which was when The Wardrobe was conceived and planned,”…

The September 26, 2018, judgment of the Supreme Court was unequivocal: the Aadhaar Act, 2016, where it enabled companies (bodies corporate) and individuals to seek authentication from the Unique Identification Authority of India, or UIDAI, database was “unconstitutional”. Making “Aadhaar compulsory… in the name of checking money laundering or black money is grossly disproportionate” and “unconstitutional”. The linking of the UID number with mobile phones was “disproportionate and unreasonable state compulsion”; the circular that required the linking was “unconstitutional”. Yet, in just a few months, the government has introduced a bill in Parliament to amend the Aadhaar Act, 2016, to make all these uses ‘legal’ again. ‘Legal’, of course, cannot override unconstitutional, but clearly the government has no patience with such niceties. Why this urgency to give corporates access to…

The new census figures on urbanisation state that by 2025 four out of five Indians will live in cities. This revives the age-old debate between the Gandhian view of the village as a place of virtue and human dignity versus the city as a desirable alternative. What then of a place that started as a village of mud houses in open sugarcane and wheat fields, and in a mere 20 years became a city, with all the features of urban life—industry, commerce, highrises and night life? Gurgaon, Delhi’s first suburb, had an unnatural beginning. Since the 1980s, the capital’s garden city ideals had been on a decline—shrinking homes, deteriorating air, depleting water supply, poor sanitation, overstretched transportation and an elephantine bureaucracy. Delhi had become an unsightly blemish, a place of…

Still three months away from completing a year in power, fresh cracks have appeared in the Janata Dal (Secular)-Congress alliance in Karnataka. Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy even threatened to resign on January 28, jeopardising the coalition’s seat-sharing talks for the Lok Sabha election. The crisis is unlikely to blow over anytime soon, with the JD(S) camp maintaining that the Congress leadership is not keen to intervene even after JD(S) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda’s appeal to rein in dissenting Congress MLAs who have been at the CM’s throat. “There’s too much at stake for the coalition,” cautions Bengaluru-based political analyst A. Veerappa. “Congress MLAs, especially former CM Siddaramaiah’s supporters, are targeting Kumaraswamy relentlessly. This is an open invitation for the BJP to destabilise the government.” Differences between the allies deepened after…

SOON AFTER VLADIMIR PUTIN took over as president of Russia in 2000, he was confronted with the Kursk submarine disaster that resulted in the death of 118 navy personnel. Putin was vacationing outside Moscow and handled the crisis from there. But he was criticised for not cutting short his trip and being in office. Putin confessed to this writer that he had learnt his first big lesson in politics: a leader must not only take action but the public must see him doing so. Putin never made that mistake again and has ruled Russia unchallenged since then. Narendra Modi made a similar mistake in his first year as prime minister. He faced his first big farmers’ crisis in March 2015 when unseasonal rains damaged farmers’ crops in Punjab and Haryana…

To address widespread dissatisfaction among farmers, and going a step beyond farm loan waivers announced by various states, the Narendra Modi government, in its interim budget a hundred or so days before the Lok Sabha election, announced what it called the first direct income support scheme for small and marginal landholder farmer families (with holdings of less than 2 hectares). Under the Prime Minister Kisan Samman Nidhi or PM-Kisan scheme, as it is called, Rs 6,000 will be transferred directly into the bank accounts of such farmers in three equal instalments every four months. Going by the budget projections, PM-Kisan will benefit 100 million of the country’s 140 million farmers, including 22 million in the electorally pivotal state of Uttar Pradesh. Expected to cost the central exchequer Rs 75,000 crore…

Bihari Yadav, 30, an untrained guard working with a security agency in Patna, is not particularly enthused by the new contributory pension scheme announced in the budget for the unorganised sector. “Forget Rs 100, why would I pay a single penny as contribution? If the government wants to give me a pension of Rs 3,000 per month, it should pay from its own funds,” he says. The Pradhan Mantri Shram-Yogi Maandhan offers unorganised sector workers with monthly incomes of up to Rs 15,000 a monthly pension of Rs 3,000 after the age of 60. The scheme is expected to benefit 100 million workers, including street vendors, rickshaw drivers, construction workers, ragpickers and agricultural workers, over the next five years. A worker needs to contribute Rs 55 (if joining at the…

• Technically, it’s a victory for the CBI, backed by the Narendra Modi government. The central probe agency wanted to question Kolkata police commissioner Rajeev Kumar for his alleged role in the disappearance of certain papers and electronic evidence related to the Saradha scam. • The CBI visited the residence of Kumar, Mamata’s most trusted officer, to interrogate him, but were stopped at the gate. The central government wanted to unnerve the West Bengal chief minister. Her unprecedented mode of counter-attack derailed the BJP’s plan. • By sitting in a dharna against the Modi government and roping in support from opposition parties, including fence-sitters such as Naveen Patnaik, Mamata has positioned herself as the leading force among the rivals of the BJP, with the ability to take Modi and Amit…

Singing with classical vocalist Girija Devi to jamming with Kolkata guitar veteran Amyt Datta—drummer and percussionist Sambit Chatterjee had already experienced quite a bit by the time he was in school. Born to tabla artist Subhen Chatterjee and vocalist Sutapa Chatterjee, Sambit grew up in a fusion environment. Sambit was trained in the Lucknow gharana of tabla, but around the time he started college, he began experimenting with drums, guitar, keyboard and bass as he entered Kolkata’s rock circuit. “In a band, everyone comes to jam at the drummer’s house and since people are usually lazy about carting their instruments back and forth, they would want to leave them behind and I’d only encourage them,” he says. It allowed Sambit to try his hand at a variety of instruments. After…

Taranath Tantrik is based on a character from stories written by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay and his son Taradas Be it his first film Gandu, or his last offering Garbage, which travelled to the Busan International Film Festival, or his recent web series Taranath Tantrik that released on Hoichoi.tv, Qaushiq Mukherjee’s (popularly known as Q) protagonists are often not heroes. One such character is Taranath Tantrik, an occult practitioner with fantastic powers, who has now fallen from grace and on hard times. He can be even wooed to tell tales from his fantastic adventurous life for a cigarette and a cup of tea. The series, featuring the character, revolves around the lesser known stories written by Bengali author Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay known for literary gems like Pather Panchali and Chander Pahar. Bandyopadhyay created…

Q. How did you hit on ‘cultural outreach’ as a key element of your brand philosophy? One way to drive positive change is by being a strong participant in the cultural life of the community we serve. Once you’ve fulfilled your basic needs, how does one find meaning? It’s the cultural actors who give meaning to what we do. It’s the poets, the philosophers, the artists who ultimately examine and tell us why we’re even alive. Q. Did you have much exposure to the arts as a child? My family was a great consumers of the arts. My mother, Indira, a history teacher from Lucknow, also did theatre, which she left to join Bollywood and did one film with Kishore Sahu. Then she met my father and became a journalist…

The tradition of reading cartoons in the Sunday paper may be antiquated (and one that is unheard of by millenials), but The Peanuts gang formed an integral part of this ritual. The creator of the comic strip, Charles Monroe Shulz, is considered one of the most influential cartoonists for tackling hard-hitting topics like feminism, faith and racial equality through the eyes of his much-loved characters Snoopy, Charlie Brown, Linus and Lucy among others. The Somerset House’s exhibit Good Grief, Charlie Brown! brings together Schulz’s original Peanuts cartoons along with the works of several contemporary artists, designers and collectors who have been inspired by this pop culture icon. The fun exhibit (on till March 2, 2019) will also feature clothing brand TSPTR founder Russ Gater, artist and performer Mira Calix, sculptor…

ON HER BEAUTY REGIME I don’t use that many products on my face so even if it is a face pack I will put squashed tomatoes and bananas. During the day I can’t leave the house without sunscreen, mascara and lip balm. For the night, my ritual is to keep the skin hydrated so it’s a night cream or coconut oil. Drinking lots of water makes me feel good about my skin. My mother made me install an app which reminds me after every hour to drink water. ON FITNESS I do weight training just to be healthy, stay fit and feel strong. I am blessed with great metabolism so I eat whatever I want. I recently started yoga. My dad put me on to it. Then my mother started…

Invented by Georgia Louise, this risque sounding facial actually involves the cells cloned from newborn baby boys' foreskins (not actual human body parts) The hour-long treatment includes a, cleanse, chemical peel and an electrifying mask, while the special serum is applied along with peptides using a microneedling wand. This helps in rejuvenation, smoothing overall skin texture and correcting discolouration. Sandra Bullock and Kate Beckinsale are fans. COST $650…

It isn’t easy to put your finger on an SUV these days. They come in all configurations and strangely, even different sizes. But if you’ve decided that the SUV of your choice is one that should be lithe and a sure-fire head-turner with the body of a bull but the zest of a gazelle? Look no further than the house of Porsche—selling 385,000 units of Macan, the brand's best-selling car. Although it made its debut in 2014, for 2019 the Macan has got a face lift, which in true Porsche style is more evolutionary than revolutionary. It now rolls into the frame as the very face of modern-day SUVs—more sporty than clunky, more curved than chiseled and importantly, more agile. It brings a subtle variation to design on the outside,…

The festive season may be waning but we can always find new reasons to celebrate with Early Dark’s new offering Lions De Batailey 2014, by veteran winemakers Abhay Kewadkar and Rishad Minocher. This carefully curated portfolio of wines are produced in the vineyards of Sud Quest, France and follow traditional winemaking techniques. The Lions De Batailey 2014 is a grand Cru Classé 1855 wine crafted in Pauillac, France. This wonderful second wine of Chateau Batailley, shows crisp red berries, tobacco, and espresso notes on the nose. It has an aromatic note of black fruits and spices. The wine pairs wonderully with red meats like steak or lamb and artisianal cheese. Price ₹10,097 Available: Across Maharashtra and Karnataka in select stores…

US President Donald Trump might have ranted about India’s high tariffs on Harley Davidson motorcyles and US-made whisky, but here’s something he can cheer about. India’s defence ministry recently approved the purchase of 72,000 battle rifles for the Indian Army made by SIG Sauer, a New Hampshire US-based small arms maker. SIG’s bid emerged as the lowest among six global firms who had responded to the army’s fast-track procurement tender last year. MoD sources say the deal, worth an estimated Rs 700 crore, is likely to be signed within a week. All rifles are to be manufactured in the US and shipped to India by next year, ending the army’s decade-long quest for a modern rifle to equip its soldiers. The SIG 716 battle rifles worth roughly $100 million are…

Former cricketers, ex-army chiefs and actors, the BJP is roping in all to win Lok Sabha seats in Punjab, Haryana and New Delhi. The party has zeroed in on 75 probables. Frontrunners include General Dalbir Singh Suhag, the army chief during the surgical strikes in 2016 and, earlier, across the border in Myanmar; western army commander Lt General K.J. Singh; and former Haryana DGP B.S. Sandhu. Ex-cricketers Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir are being seen as hopefuls in Haryana. Akshaye Khanna, who starred in The Accidental Prime Minister, is a potential nominee for Punjab, while Bhojpuri film star Ravi Kishan is tipped to contest from East UP.…

Over a hundred Indian students allegedly enrolled in an obscure university in Michigan were arrested after it was revealed that it was a set-up by US government agencies to crack down on visa scams. According to US authorities, the students knew that the university was a ‘pay to stay’ front. None has been accused of entering the US illegally, but authorities say they transferred from legitimate institutions to seek employment while pretending to be students. The ministry of external affairs has demanded consular access to the students. Some students accused the US government of “entrapment” and some reports quote anonymous students saying they believed the university was legitimate. As the second largest group of international students in the US, Indian students contribute billions of dollars to the US economy. 129…

On February 4, reckoned as the most propitious thai amavasya (full moon day) in 400 years, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) began receiving applications (for a fee of Rs 25,000) from ticket aspirants and discussing the draft of the manifesto for the forthcoming Lok Sabha election. This even as it began crucial talks to forge an alliance with the BJP. The alliance has a compelling logic. The AIADMK has lacked a charismatic leader after the death of J. Jayalalithaa, who had helped the party win 37 of the state’s 39 seats in 2014. And the BJP, desperate for a toehold in the South, needs an ally to take on the DMK (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam). A formal announcement that the AIADMK will contest 24 seats, leaving 16, including…

Q: Is the interim budget economically/ fiscally prudent or populist? How so? Is the government likely to meet its fiscal deficit target? A: N.R. BHANUMURTHY The interim budget, not surprisingly, is a populist budget. It hasn’t been fiscally prudent either, given that it said it would miss the targets set by the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act this financial year and the next. Some argue that the government almost achieved the fiscal deficit target for 2018-19, but, according to the Medium-Term Fiscal Policy (MTFP) Statement, it is ignoring the revenue deficit target as set in the original FRBM Act. Then, it is unclear how the government achieves the public debt target as all three targets—fiscal deficit (FD), revenue deficit (RD) and debt/GDP—are internally consistent with a growth of…

Saradha scam: The financial scam worth Rs 12,000 crore involving 1.7 million small depositors was busted in April 2013. In May 2014, the Supreme Court, observing the inter-state (Assam, Odisha and West Bengal) ramifications of the scheme as well as possible international money laundering, handed over the case to the CBI. Big names arrested for their involvement in the scam include Srinjoy Bose and Kunal Ghosh, both former TMC MPs; Madan Mitra, former ministerial colleague of Mamata Banerjee; and Rajat Majumdar, former DGP of West Bengal. The CBI has filed a charge sheet against Nalini Chidambaram, wife of former Union minister P. Chidambaram. The probe agency also interrogated Mukul Roy, who switched from the TMC to the BJP in 2016 and Assam finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who moved from…

From January 30 to June 30, the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) is hosting the first ever retrospective of Arpita Singh. Born in 1937 in Baranagar, West Bengal, Singh moved to Kolkata and, subsequently, to Delhi where she witnessed both the Independence movement as well as the communal violence that followed. She completed a diploma in Fine Arts from the Delhi Polytechnic in 1959, studying under teachers like Jaya Appasamy, B.C. Sanyal, Biren De and Sailoz Mookherjea. Singh’s early practice was marked by a sense of community with her peers—she co-founded the artists’ group ‘The Unknowns’, which had its first exhibition in 1960 and also worked with the Weaver’s Service Centre with textile crafts traditions across India. Singh’s first solo show was held in 1972. Her work has been…

“AS IF YOU WERE ON FIRE FROM WITHIN. The moon lives in the lining of your skin,” said Pablo Neruda, highlighting how some people shine with an internal luminosity while others have to work that much harder to bring their look up to that wattage that qualifies as beautiful. We are surrounded by stunning things and it is often dazzling as we flit from one Insta-worthy image to another. Beauty in this age of fickle followers has been repurposed to go beyond the one-size-fits-all approach and the same holds true for what qualifies as new-age wellness as fitfluencers and fad diets acquire an elevated status. In this issue of Spice, we chase the twin pillars of beauty and wellness, both of which have a tendency to be elusive. Our cover…

Music to the Ears Never be without music with the Finis Underwater MP3 Player. This music player works best underwater up to three metres. Price ₹10, 500 Availability Brand boutiques and online Keep Track A must-have for most fitness enthusiasts, Fitbit’s latest version Alta tracks activity, exercise and sleep. This one also alerts you to messages and events. Price ₹10,700 Availability www.amazon.in Fitness Next Improve your output with a little help from this tidy little Hyperice Hypervolt massager. This vibration massage device helps relax sore and stiff muscles to improve mobility and speed up recovery. Price ₹32,700 Availability www.amazon.in Fit for a King Inject ultimate luxury into your yoga session with Chanel’s yoga mats and cushions. The sports range also has a tennis racket and…

Sun Soaked A multi-utility product, Givenchy’s Mattifying Fluid combines sun protection and skin care to simplify your routine. Price ₹5,100 Availability Sephora stores Smooth Moves Experience the smoothest shave with The Man Company’s Passion gift set. The set consists of a pre-shave oil, shave gel, shaving brush and post shave lotion. Price ₹3,298 Availability www.themancompany.com Precious Oils Inspired by essential oils, Schwarzkopf Professional’s Oil Ultime range hydrates and nourishes hair while cleansing. Price ₹1,650 Availability Leading salons across India Clean Conscience Omorfree’s organic bodywash has all natural ingredients like myrrh and lime that cleanse without stripping the skin dry. Price ₹1,299 Availability Brand boutiques and online Close Shave This slick razor and brush set from Pankhurst London is ideal for men who prefer a clean…

The interconnectedness between memories and moods, the senses and sensitivities is no urban legend. In fact, the entire science of aromatherapy is based on the use of smell, fragrance, herbs, incense and herbal oils in medical treatments, food and daily beauty regimes. Aromatherapy restores the balance between active plant botanicals and the energy of nature using essential oils as a way to reconnect with nature. Volatile molecules present in plant botanicals maintain a plant's health; for instance, if you cut a part of the frankincense plant, the resin that oozes out actually helps heal the plant, protects against disease and attracts pollinators. That's why the natural occurring chemicals in these essential oils harbour therapeutic value. For instance, if you have headaches or migraines, just one drop of peppermint oil can…

If classic elegance is the Longines imprimatur, the marque’s Record collection is the perfect brand ambassador that represents a bridge between tradition and innovation. The brand has now introduced new variations in rose gold or in stainless steel and rose gold, certified as “chronometers” by the Swiss Official Chronometer Testing Institute (COSC). The watches in the Record collection are available in four sizes (26, 30, 38.5 and 40mm) and a variety of dials that are intended for men or women. The stainless steel and rose gold or 18-carat rose gold case features a transparent back that allows you to admire the detail of the movement up close and personal. Some models also offer a version inlaid with diamonds. The watch is available with a stainless steel bracelet with a rose…

The perception of Indian food has undergone a sea change in the past few years, with an increasing number of chefs embracing the finer nuances of Indian cooking and consciously moving away from the banality of chicken in orange gravy. London-based Mallika Basu’s new cookbook, Masala: Indian Cooking for Modern Living, celebrates cooking in the way Indian homes do—simple, healthy and made with a lot of love. Excerpts from an interview. What is the book about? When I had my two children one after the other, I started looking for ways to simplify the authentic taste of Indian food so that I could fit them into a very busy existence. Eventually, three years ago I decided to quit my corporate career to pursue my passion for food writing. The book…