Category: Lookit!

Categories
Do

Sula Fest 2015: A roundup

Nashik rocked – like it annually does – as it hosted the Sula Fest, its wine, food and music jamboree.
by Salil Jayakar | @Salilicious on Twitter

All roads from Mumbai led to Nashik over the weekend where Sula Vineyards was hosting Sula Fest – its annual wine, food and music jamboree. Naturally, the mood among the revelers was quite high what with all the free flowing wine.

But among the usual wine and cheese tasting tours, the music and the food, here’s our pick of the unusual and interesting…

SulaFest 2015_Prahlad Kakkar at B & BBQEveryone’s favourite ad man Prahlad Kakkar (seated at extreme left in pic) caught us quite by surprise as he deftly took orders and dished out plates of vegetarian and chicken biryani at the food court! The ad man popped up a stall for his office cook who has been making meals for him for the past 40 years. “My cook makes the best biryani. Till some years ago, we had an open house in my office every Saturday where we’d feed 15 to 20 people,” he said.

We were thrilled to see winemaker Hardys at Sula this year who came on board as wine partner. As we sampled their reds and whites with Thai prawns curry and veg ravioli, we got chatting with Mumbai girl Najeshda Deshpande, Sula’s import manager. Born and raised in Vile Parle, Najeshda’s (means ‘Hope’ in Russian) love affair with wine began on a holiday in Australia. “I was done with number crunching and didn’t quite know what to do next. I made friends with wine-making surfers and here I am today,” she told us. You go girl!

Celebrity chef Saransh Goila (in pic on right) who’s quite the regular now at all such dos kept us quite entertained over the two-days we hung out with him. The Cecilia Oldne, Global Brand Ambassador & Head - International Business, Sula Vineyards with Chef Saransh Goilareality TV star is all set to release his first book, a travelogue with recipes from his travels. The 70,000-words tome should be an exciting read, we hope. “My favourite author Ruskin Bond kindly consented to write a few words for me in the book. I’m thrilled!” said Saransh.

By far the biggest draw on Day 1 at Sula Fest was the American indie rock band Young the Giant with the ‘desi’ connect. Lead singer Sameer Gadhia, half-Gujarati and half-Bengali, was studying Human Biology at Stanford before he dived headlong into the music scene. With performances at the Video Music Awards a few years ago and a Top 50 appearance on the Billboard 200 albums chart, this desi boy had the girls swooning.

Chief winemaker Ajoy Shaw took us on a tour of the Sula cellars and we came away quite impressed with their sustainability efforts. The cellar has skylights to let in natural light and also has two entire roofs with solar panels that provide almost 15 per cent of their electricity requirements. With rainwater harvesting, composting, spot application at vineyards and encouraging natural predators, Sula’s green efforts are quite commendable. “Our aim is to reduce our water consumption by 5 per cent every year and do our bit to conserve natural resources,” he said.

Categories
Eat

Go on a culinary world tour at Ghatkopar

The World Food Festival will feature all the cuisines in the world at one spot – R City Mall in Ghatkopar. On till February 15, 2015.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

If you’re a fan of world cuisine, you should be making your way to Ghatkopar this week.

R City Mall in Ghatkopar is hosting the World Food Festival from February 7 to 15, 2015, with a delicious and diverse food menu. Visitors to the venue will get the chance to not just sample food from around the world, but also interact with famous chefs.

Apart from the array of food items, there will be also be fun activities to keep visitors occupied, of which the most popular one is learning to cook various dishes at live cooking sessions arranged in the fest.

Vvikas Aroraa, Director Sales and Marketing, Runwal Group said, “At our malls, we constantly endeavour to provide the best experience to our customers with innovative initiatives. Customers at our malls come for world class shopping and entertainment experiences. This Food Festival is a unique way of offering a wide array of cuisines under a single roof.”

Noted food companies are expected to showcase their most popular dishes at the event, and even reveal a few secret recipes. Retailers like Indigo Deli, Punjab Grill, Bowl House, Rajdhani, Banana Leaf, Taco Bell, Yokos, Zaffran and many more are participating in the food festival and offering discounts on their food menu. Few restaurants will set up their live cooking counters, such as Salad and Tiramisu dessert from Sbarro, Malbar curry and appam from Banana Leaf, Thai lemon grass prawns and Burmese Khowsuey from The Bowl House, Mughlai dishes from Zaffran, and Microwave cooking from E-Zone, among others.

Categories
Watch

Watch: ‘The Government Inspector’

The brilliant play about a small money-laundering town and an official arriving to investigate is on at the NCPA tonight.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

If you like humour and intrigue, you cannot miss this play.

The Government Inspector, an NCPA Production in collaboration with Akvarious Production, is on tonight. A group of dysfunctional actors comes together to play a group of small town money-grabbing officials. They get the shock of their lives when they learn that a government inspector is being dispatched to investigate their town and all its local dealings. Gogol’s classic is an energetic comedy of manners, taken one step further by not only satirising corruption in a small town, but also the theatre process itself.

The play has been adapted and directed by Akarsh Khurana, and stars Adhir Bhat, Hussain Dalal, Adhaar Khurana, Dilshad Edibam Khurana and others. The play is on at 7 pm tonight at the NCPA.

(Picture courtesy ncpamumbai.com)

Categories
Event

Participate: Flamingos and children’s creative competitions

BNHS, in association with the Mumbai Port Trust, is organising children’s creative competitions in three categories to celebrate Flamingo Festival.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

Mumbai is truly blessed to annually host beautiful flamingos every year, and making the occasion even more special is this festival.

BNHS, in association with Mumbai Port Trust, is organising three Children’s Competitions in the categories of Painting, Poetry and Slogan Writing. Winners will be felicitated at the time of the annual BNHS Flamingo Festival that will be held on February 28, 2015.

The competitions are open to children residing in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region only. These are the details and rules:

BNHS Children’s Competitions – Flamingo

Categories: Painting, Poetry Writing, Slogan Writing

Language: English, Marathi or Hindi

Age Group: Students of 5th to 8th standards

Eligibility: Those students residing in Mumbai Metropolitan Region (Mumbai City, Mumbai Suburban, Vasai-Virar, Thane, Bhiwandi, Kalyan-Dombivli, Ambernath, Badlapur, Ulhasnagar, Khopoli, Matheran, Karjat, Uran, Panvel, Navi Mumbai, Pen, Alibaug)

Last Date: Entries should reach BNHS before February 21, 2015 by post, courier or hand delivery

Rules:

– Paintings, Poetry and Slogans should be original

– Each participant can send entries in one or more categories

– Each participant can send only one entry per category

– Paintings should be sent on A3 size white drawing paper

– Poetry and Slogans can be sent on any white paper

– Do not send entries on glossy or laminated paper

– Do not stick anything on the paper

– All entries of one participant in different categories can be sent in a single envelope

– For Painting, any medium such as poster colours, colour pencils, crayons, etc can be used – Computer graphics will not be accepted

– Teachers can collate all entries of their students and send together

– Participants should write their name, age, standard, residence/school address, email, contact number and teacher’s name in pencil on the rear side of the paper

– Three winners will be selected from each category and prizes will be given on the occasion of BNHS Flamingo Festival (Sewri Jetty, Mumbai) on 28th February 2015

– Kindly note that no entries will be returned to participants

Interested? Ask your child to participate in the competitions and send entries to BNHS, Hornbill House, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Road, opposite Lion Gate, Fort, Mumbai – 400001. Contact number: 022-22821811 (Monday to Friday).
(Picture courtesy Siddhesh Surve)
Categories
Event

School children paint to spread cancer awareness

Wockhardt Hospitals organised a ‘Cancer Awareness Day’ on its south Mumbai premises with an intra school drawing competition inviting Mumbai students.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

Wockhardt Hospitals, South Mumbai, yesterday organised ‘Cancer Awareness Day’ with an intra-school drawing competition on its premises. The event invited students from different city-based schools to participate in large numbers and was aimed at debunking the myths and fear about cancer and to spread a ray of hope amongst the survivors.

Explained Zahabiya Khorakiwala, Managing Director, Wockhardt Hospitals,“We set the event theme as ‘Life wins – fight against cancer’, and children in the age-group of 8 to 12 years responded enthusiastically by turning out intriguing and colorful sketches on their drawing sheets. It was such a wonderful experience for both the school children and the Hospital, since children undergoing cancer treatment also participated in the event. We found that the children who had participated in this competition had given a thought and conceptualised with research and read about it.” She added that it is possible that children might not be interested in the subject it it remains restricted to textbooks.

Talking about the Hospital’s preventive and curative program against the cancer, Dr Boman Dabhar,  Medical Oncologist at Wockhardt Hospitals said, “It was an overwhelming experience to witness a huge gathering of students and their schools supporting the noble cause of creating awareness about cancer. As children are the future of the nation, such initiatives create an immense impact amongst the population at large.” He added that cancer is the leading cause of death worldwide today, with an estimated 13 million new cases diagnosed every year. “Numbers are rising and, compared with figures at the start of the new millennium, are expected to double by 2020, and triple by 2030. Yet, according to the WHO, up to one in three cancers can be prevented through diet and lifestyle changes” said Dr Dabhar.

The drawing competition was followed by a street play, ‘Suresh ki Kahaani’ by Ameya Mahajan and his team. Subsequently, a corporate film was played for doctors, school principals and teachers on coping with cancer. Students were awarded for their best drawings and trophies were given as a token of appreciation to the participating schools. Similarly, the principals and teachers of each school were felicitated by the Hospital and were handed out the participating certificates for their respective schools.

Schools participating in the event included St Mary’s High School – ICSE, Regina Pacis, St Lady Engineer High School, NMT English Medium High School, Balmohan Vidya Mandir, KMS Shirodkar High School – CBSC, KMS Shirodkar High School, Sharadashram Vidya Mandir High School, Cankid High School, and Banerjee School.

Categories
Watch

Watch: The Merry Widow – Lehár

Don’t miss this opera screening from The Metropolitan Opera of New York; stars brilliant actress Renée Fleming in the lead role.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

The great Renée Fleming stars as the beguiling femme fatale who captivates Paris in Lehár’s enchanting opera, seen in a new staging by Broadway director and choreographer Susan Stroman (The Producers, Oklahoma!, Contact). In an art-nouveau setting, it features a scintillating climax with singing and dancing grisettes at the legendary Maxim’s. Nathan Gunn and Kelli O’Hara co-star and Andrew Davis conducts.

The basis of the story, concerning a rich widow, and her countrymen’s attempt to keep her money in the principality by finding her the right husband – comes from an 1861 comedy play, L’attaché d’ambassade by Henri Meilhac. The operetta was first performed at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna on 30 December 1905 with Mizzi Günther as Hanna, Louis Treumann (de) as Danilo, Siegmund Natzler as Baron Zeta and Annie Wünsch as Valencienne. It was Lehár’s first major success, becoming internationally the best-known operetta of its era. Lehár subsequently made changes for productions in London in 1907 (two new numbers), and Berlin in the 1920s, but the definitive version is basically that of the original production.

The Merry Widow is on at the NCPA from today, February 2 to Wednesday, February 4, at 6 pm.

(Picture courtesy www.nromusic.com)

Exit mobile version