First time women politicos

(Left to right) Poonam Mahajan Rao, Pankaja Munde Palve


By Rinky Kumar, Team iDiva


The assembly elections are just around the corner. Politicians are making last minute rounds of their respective constituencies to woo voters. And of course making empty promises and more...

We decided to not harp about that and instead profile five women politicos who are contesting the assembly elections for the first time.

Biker chick
Name: Shakuntala Khatak
Age: 41
Claim to fame: Close to Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s family

Profession: Nurse

Promises to: Work for the schedule castes

Contesting from: Kalanaur, Haryana

Politicians are often seen travelling along with their entourage during campaign trails. But here’s a woman with a difference. Shakuntala Khatak, who has been allotted a Congress ticket, likes to woo her voters in style on a bike. Apparently, the former nurse does not want to change her image of being a 'commoner' in the electoral fray for the October 13 polls. At most places where she campaigns and addresses rallies, Khatak prefers to ride her black Hero Honda Passion motorbike.

Will she ride into the sunset with a victory? Let's wait and watch.

Cause goddess

Name: Praniti Shinde

Age: 28

Claim to fame: Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde’s daughter

Profession: Social worker

Promises to: Issue Below Poverty Line cards to all beedi workers

Contesting from: Solapur city, Maharashtra

A graduate in politics and economics, Praniti founded Jai-Jui, an NGO that works with women and youth in Solapur, her father’s constituency. She claims her NGO has set up over 1,000 self-help groups and 50 small-scale industries for women. She’s contesting in the Solapur City Central constituency on a Congress ticket. Once she is elected, like all politicians she too promises to work for the upliftment of handloom, powerloom and beedi factory workers.

The culmination of the polls will only tell if her cause helps her rise above the rabble.

Like father, like daughter

Name: Poonam Mahajan Rao

Age: 28

Claim to fame: Prominent Bharatiya Janata Party leader, Late Pramod Mahajan’s daughter

Profession: Political worker

Promises to: Create jobs for the poor

Contesting from: Ghatkopar, Mumbai

After the demise of Pramod Mahajan, speculations were rife that his son Rahul will make his debut in politics. But Mahajan jr is busy trying to find a girl for himself on television. His low-profile sister Poonam Mahajan has decided to take ahead the family legacy. A trained pilot, Poonam joined the BJP in 2006. In the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections earlier this year, she made efforts to register new and young voters in south Mumbai and expected to get the LS ticket from that area. However, due to internal differences within the party and with Shiv sena she was denied a ticket.

Now that she has got a ticket, let’s see if she will really work for her constituency.

Programming success

Name: Pankaja Munde Palve

Age: 30

Claim to fame: Gopinath Munde, BJP national general secretary’s daughter

Profession: Political worker

Promises to: Build a five-star industrial development zone at Parli, Maharashtra

Contesting from: Parli, Maharashtra

Pankaja is not new to politics. The Science graduate has been her father’s campaign manager during the Lok Sabha polls. An MBA, Pankaja wrote computer programmes for her father’s sugar factory and ran a small software company in Pune. She has an advantage over her rivals, or so we are made to believe, since she is the first woman to stand from this constituency. She promises to work for the empowerment of the rural women.

Hmmm, now where have we heard that before? Tell us something new!

The 'Z' factor

Name: Karya Bagang

Age: Early 30s

Claim to fame: First generation Zilla Parishad Member

Profession: Politician

Promises to: Provide employment to the poor

Contesting from: 9-Chayang-Tajo, Arunachal Pradesh

A first generation Zilla Parishad Member, Karya turned a rebel and left the Indian National Congress and joined the All India Trinamool Congress after she was denied a nomination. Like all politicians, even she claims that she is quite famous in her constituency and might wins hands down. That's a tough call, especially since she has been pitted against one of the senior-most legislators of the state, Kameng Dolo.

Nutri bars: The new fad?

They are loaded with nuts and pack in a punch. But are they really healthy?

For 28-year-old media professional Ashish Tewari, health bars are a life saviour. He munches on them in between meals while he's on the move. He says, "They keep me away from gorging on junk food and give me the mental satisfaction that I am eating something healthy, without feeling guilty."

Ashish is not alone. There are many like him munching on nutri bars, thinking they are healthy. In fact, there has been a rise in this trend in the last couple of years. But do these health bars really live up to their name? We decided to ask some experts.

Nothing chikki about it

According to Leena Mogre, Director of Leena Mogre's fitness studio, health bars are nothing, but another version of chikki. "Chikki is the oldest health bar. It has been in existence for a really long time. Made out of pulses, cashew nuts and peanuts and jaggery, it is a healthy option."

But the ones available in the market use sweeteners. "Chikki has jaggery while these health bars use sugar. Jaggery and sugar have the same calorie intake, but the former has more iron content," says Mogre.

Energy or fat?

Ishi Khosla, dietician and owner of Whole Food's Café, Delhi, which offers a variety of energy bars to weight watchers says, "Health bars have come in as a replacement to cookies and snacks. They are high on energy. They are promoted as health foods that give you nourishment while you are on the move."

Khosla however emphasises that the ones available in the market use a lot of corn syrup and binders, which end up making the product high in sugar and fat. "Without corn syrup, preservatives and artificial sweeteners, the product is much healthier with whole grains, seeds, nuts and jaggery. They keep you full for a longer time." So whenever you are buying a health bar, check its ingredients for added preservatives, transfats and artificial sweeteners.

Snack on it

Health bars like GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Consumer Healthcare's Nutri Bar and General Mills' Nature Valley Crunchy Granola Bar are being promoted as meal replacement bars and as pre-workout meals. Mogre says, "The best time to eat these bars is before you start your workout, as it provides instant energy or between 5-7 pm, when your hypoglycemic index (level of glucose in the blood circulation) becomes low. These bars are especially beneficial for people who are always on the move and who miss out on their daily intake of minerals and vitamins."

Word of caution

But think twice before biting into those tempting bars. Mogre cautions that all these products should be taken only after consulting their dietician or nutritionist. She also advises that lactose intolerant people and diabetics should be careful before munching these health bars.

"Some of these protein bars have milk. This might cause stomach upset and bloating in lactose intolerant individuals. For diabetics, the time when you eat these bars is very important. The calorie intake and insulin forms the most important part of their diet."

Options galore

You can take your pick from GSK's Nutri bars which are available in three flavours, cereal, milk, choco, crispy and nuts and raisins. They are available for Rs 15-Rs 18. You can also grab a bite of Nature valleys bars. They are available in flavours like oats and honey, roasted almond and apple crunch and priced anywhere between Rs 13-Rs 25.

Khosla's Whole Food Café offers its patrons, bars like gur seeds byte, soya health bar and slimmer's health bar, priced at Rs 25. Khosla confirms healthy substitutes like watermelon seeds, white flax seeds, peanuts, cardamom, green fennel, jaggery, oat bran, wheat bran and cornflakes are used.

Home-made health bars

You don't have to stock up fattening health bars from the market. You can make a healthier option at home. All you have to do is mix some oats, raisins, jaggery, walnuts, ghee and ground cardamom and heat it on a hot tava. Then cool the mixture and cut it into rectangular bars. Voila, your nutri bar is ready.

So munch on these healthy home-made bars and pack in a punch.

Rock n roll, filmi style

By Rinky Kumar, Team iDiva

Rock music seems to be the new flavour of Hindi films. And you're not talking conventional rock where you have the lead singer in a black t-shirt and dread locks, singing away in his raspy voice. Instead, we have established actors like Ajay Devgn and Salman Khan, who are in their early 40s, grabbing the mike and strumming the guitar in a very un-roll n roll manner. We're not surprised!

After Rock On, many Hindi film directors are trying to cash in on the rock music trend. Though Rock On was about an Indian rock band, it had soul-stirring music quite unlike the heavy metal of Def Leppard or Metallica.

Soon to be released movies like All the Best and London Dreams are apparently based on rock bands. But we are sure the portrayal will be anything but realistic.
Don't believe us, check out these Bollywood 'rock' flicks

Hello: One night at the call centre

Based on Chetan Bhagat's novel by the same name, this movie directed by Atul Agnihotri, sank without a trace at the box office. Not only did the movie failed to do justice to the book, but it also had atrocious performances by Sohail Khan, Sharman Joshi, Gul Panag and Isha Koppikar.

Agnihotri convinced his brother-in-law Salman Khan to do an item song for the movie in his rock star avatar. We think he must have guessed the fate of the film beforehand and approached Sallu Bhai as a last resort. Salman took off his shirt and gyrated away to the song, Party like a rock star. The film had lyrics that went like "Bang, bang, bang, zamana bole, party like a rock star". Can you believe it? Sad lyrics, equally sad music and an ageing Salman Khan made us cringe in our seats.

Jashnn
This Mukesh Bhatt film had Adhyayan Suman and Anjana Sukhani in the lead roles. It apparently revolved around a rock star's professional struggle but the film was far from it. What we saw was an emotion-laden family drama with Suman in usual, terrible form. Rather than a quintessential rock star, Adhyayan was made to wear tacky outfits, mouth bad lyrics penned by some newbies and holler away to glory.

All the Best

The promos of the film are out. And we can't bear to see Sanjay Dutt, Ajay Devgn, Fardeen Khan, Bipasha Basu and Mugdha Godse making futile attempts to ape rock stars. They are prancing around on the stage, with fake smiles in place, all the while screaming… sorry… singing to their heart's content.

London Dreams
Forty-something stars Salman Khan and Ajay Devgn are playing rock stars in Vipul Shah's London Dreams. The movie is based on the life and times of a 'rock band'. While Devgan and Khan play rock musicians, female lead Asin plays the guitar in the movie. The music is far from rock, and we can't bear to watch forty-year-olds prancing around on the stage as 'young' bad a** rock stars.

After seeing the promos, we were highly disappointed. Shruthi Nair, a die-hard rock fan says, "They are abusing and ruining the sanctity of rock music. They have no knowledge about it. Just by wearing tight t-shirts and hollering away, they can't be rock stars." We can't agree more.

Love and intimacy after breast cancer

By Rinky Kumar, Team iDiva

Alok and Nandita Shroff were a happy couple. Apart from spending some much needed quality time together, they also enjoyed an active sex life. But all this changed when Nandita was suddenly detected with breast cancer. After the surgery, she started suffering from extremely low self body image and refrained from having sex. This caused a lot of friction between her and Alok.

Nandita is not alone. There are many women like her, who after being diagnosed with breast cancer, develop low self esteem and refrain from sharing an active sexual life with their partner /husband.

According to Dr. Sharita K. Shah, a Mumbai-based consulting woman and child psychiatrist, it's quite natural for a woman to feel this way. She says, "For the Indian woman, breasts and menstruation confirm her femininity. During breast cancer, this extremely private part of her body gets affected. As a result, the patient starts suffering from low self esteem and confidence. Moreover, treatments like radiotherapy, chemotherapy and surgery can cause lack of desire."

Communication is the key

The first step to resolve this issue is to communicate with her partner/husband. "She should talk to her partner about her feelings and make him understand her point of view."

The couple can gradually re-invent their sexual relationship by taking small steps like holding hands and sharing a good conversation. They can also indulge in other forms of intimacy with sexual overtones.

"The patient should also consult her doctor who can refer her to various self-help groups. These groups comprise cancer survivors who can understand the patient's point of view and help her rebuild her confidence," says Dr Shah.

Acceptance is the first step

Dr Raj Brahmbhatt, a sexologist, acceptance is the first step towards easing out the situation. "The patient should accept the reality. She should realise that breasts play an important role in a sexual act but over all, they form a small part of the body. She can also rebuild her self confidence by communicating with her husband, eating the right food and working out regularly. After a good workout session, endorphins are released in the body that ensure a feeling of well-being."

The couple should also strive towards spending some quality time together like reading books together, watching a film, holding hands or going for a walk. They can also opt for counselling sessions with a sex therapist where they can undergo sex therapy to rebuild intimacy.

"Sex therapists usually recommend sensate focus exercise where the focus is on sensuality," says Dr Brahmbhatt. The couple can also indulge in other forms of sexual acts like masturbation and oral sex. "They should try to experiment. They can try out various sex positions, use sex toys and indulge in some fantasy," he adds.

Take your time

Dr Brahmbhatt recommends that if the patient has undergone surgery, she should wait for six weeks before indulging in sex as it usually takes that much time for any surgery to heal.

Here are some tips that you can follow to enjoy a healthy sex life.

1) When you indulge in the love making act, ensure the lights are dim. "If the man sees the scars on the woman's breast, no matter how well he is mentally prepared, he might get dejected. It can also result in erectile dysfunction," recommends Dr Brahmbhatt.

2) The couple should try the side to side position where the woman's normal breast is on the upper side.

3) The patient should avoid trying out the woman on top position.

Follow these tips and rediscover a new facet of your relationship.

Mover & Shaker

Model-turned-actress Gauhar Khan has made news with her dance moves and feisty tiffs

Gauhar Khan has been the queen of controversies at Jhalak Dikhlaa Jaa. Though she won accolades and full marks on a regular basis thanks to her dancing prowess, it was her various tiffs with choreographer and fellow co-contestants that grabbed the headlines.

Ask her about it and she says quite nonchalantly, "There's always one scapegoat in the reality show. Here, I guess it was me. I was honest, level headed and spoke my mind. I never wanted to hurt anyone's feelings. In fact, my feelings were hurt. But at the end of the day, it was a part of the whole journey."

'Dance is my passion'

The fiery model who made to the finals of the dance reality show along with hot favourites Karan Singh Grover and Baichung Bhutia is not a trained dancer. But she confesses that dance is her passion. "It is in my personality. I always had the rhythm and grace. But somehow I neither got a chance nor the time to learn it."

Nevertheless, the feisty performer's stint at Jhalak has not been less than a rollercoaster ride. After having an ugly spat with her former choreographer Hanif Hilal, she had an equally bad tiff with co-contestant Hard Kaur.

She was also eliminated from the show due to lack of votes but was back with a bang as a wild card entry. Gauhar describes her stint as "a masala packed journey of someone who had the best and worst of everything." Despite all that, "I was the only one to reach the finals and survive right till the end only on the basis of talent."

'Nothing real about Jhalak'

This year Jhalak has seen quite a few major upsets. After Shilpa Shukla was eliminated from the show, after scoring straight 30s Hard Kaur had to say goodbye. Despite being a mediocre performer, Karan Singh Grover, held his ground, thanks to his popularity. This was not quite welcomed by the judges and everyone else. So while Saroj Khan, Vaibhavi Merchant and Juhi Chawla staged a walkout, other contestants alleged the show was scripted.

Gauhar says, "The show is not scripted throughout. But yes, what you see is some thing which is changed to fit someone else's interests. There are several loose ends. Jhalak is a dance reality show. Contestants should be judged solely on the basis of dance. If contestants are eliminated initially on the basis of dance offs, then that should be the format right till the end."

'Karan and Baichung are not great dancers'

The performer confesses that her co-contestants Karan and Baichung are not 'great' dancers. "But they are definitely very popular and great human beings. What gives them an edge over me is their popularity. But at the end of the day, Jhalak is not a popularity show but a dance reality show."

'An actress at heart'

Gauhar loves modern, contemporary dance form as it gives her a chance to emote. "After all I'm an actress at heart. I am as filmy as filmy as can get," she says. The 'filmy' model has received formal training in acting from an institute and is all set to make her debut in a big banner film. Though she refused to divulge any details, speculations are rife that she will be seen in Ranbir Kapoor-starrer Rocket Singh.

Let's wait and watch if this dancing queen can impress us with her acting skills.

It's raining remakes

By Rinky Kumar, Team iDiva


It's time for remakes in Bollywood. (Actually, when was it not?!) While the Hindi film industry has always been inspired by Hollywood, it's now seeking inspiration from its own repository of yesteryear blockbusters.
Actor-producer Sohail Khan is planning to remake the super hit Satte pe Satta with elder bro Salman Khan all set to play the role of Amitabh Bachchan. David Dhawan will don the director's hat for this movie that was originally inspired from the 1954 musical Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.

Sajid Khan's soon-to-be-released Housefull starring a plethora of stars like Akshay Kumar, Lara Dutta, Deepika Padukone, Jiah Khan, Arjun Rampal and Ritesh Deshmukh is inspired by the all-time hit Chupke Chupke. The Hrishikesh Mukherji directed film had stalwarts like Dharmendra, Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, Sharmila Tagore and Om Prakash.

Apart from this, Karan Johar is all set to remake Hollywood superhit Stepmom. Kajol and Kareena Kapoor will reprise the roles of Susan Sarandon and Julia Roberts. The duo will be seen together after they made an appearance in Kabhie Khushi Kabhie Gham. That's not all.

The 2003 Hollywood flick Phone Booth is being remade into Knockout by director Mani Shankar. Irrfan Khan plays the role enacted by Colin Farrell in the original, Sanjay Dutt plays a cop while Kangana Ranaut will be seen as a television journalist.

We take a look at some popular remakes of yesteryear Hindi and Hollywood films that have managed to win rave reviews.

Don -The chase begins again This Shah Rukh Khan starrer was a remake of the 1978 film Don. SRK played the dual roles that were originally portrayed by Amitabh Bachchan. The Farhan Akhtar-directed flick kept us glued to our seats with its action sequences and surprise ending. Though SRK went overboard with his acting skills, Arjun Rampal and Priyanka Chopra gave decent performances. Kareena Kapoor, however failed to match up to Helen's sexy moves to Yeh mera dil pyaar ka deewana. She ended up looking fat and boring!

Parineeta

This Saif Ali Khan and Vidya Balan starrer was a remake of the 1932 film by the same name. The original saw Ashok Kumar and Meena Kumari play the lead roles. The new film was directed by ad filmmaker Pradeep Sarkar. Vidya and Saif shared a sizzling chemistry and won critical reviews for their natural performances. Shantanu Moitra's lilting music had an old world feel about it. However it lacked the simplicity of the original.

Ek Hasina Thi The Sridhar Raghavan directed film was loosely inspired by Double Jeopardy. Urmila Matondkar played the role that was originally portrayed by Ashley Judd. Saif Ali Khan was effective as the uber sexy villain. The tight screenplay penned by Raghavan kept us riveted. Urmila and Saif won several nominations for their acting prowess. The remake was however slow paced as compared to the original.

Chak De India Very few people know that this Yashraj film was a remake of the 2004 film Miracle. Shah Rukh Khan played the role of a coach that was portrayed by Kurt Russel in the original. The original was based on a true story of the 1980 US Olympic ice hockey team winning the gold medal by defeating Soviet Union and Finland. The desi version had the Indian women's team defeating Australia. SRK and his gang of girls gave a superlative performance. However it was hard to believe that a coach could bind an all women's team so effortlessly within such a short span of time!

Teen Deewarein

The Nagesh Kukoonoor film was inspired by The Shawshank Redemption, which in turn was based on a Stephen King novella. The desi version had Nagesh, Naseeruddin Shah and Jackie Shroff play the lead roles. Shah gave a stellar performance. Juhi Chawla was seen on the big screen after a long time. While the film had a surprise ending, the audience was quite peeved with its slow pace.

‘Baichung is not a dancer’

Sonia Jaffer-Fraser, the soccer star's choreographer, says he has poor co-ordination skills.

Twists, twirls and lifts, she has made Baichung Bhutia do all that and much more. Whenever he gets a perfect 30 on Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa 3, she's the first person he thanks. We are talking about Sonia Jaffer-Fraser, the choreographer, who has made the soccer star a household name for his dance moves.

You may think she might be all praises for the sportsman. But she confesses candidly, "Baichung is not a dancer at all. His co-ordination skills are zilch. But he has got amazing determination. If he applies his mind to something, he can do anything."

A disciplined sportsman

While choreographing tough acts like the circus act or the rumba, Sonia capitalised on Baichung's strengths like agility and athletic built. "Since he's young, he's strong and agile. So I could make him do difficult movements."

Sonia knew she had a winner in her hands when she discovered Baichung's biggest strengths, his discipline and determination. "He's very disciplined and is always focussed. He's confident and has excellent instincts. Somewhere deep down he always knew he could win JDJ."

Happy to have Baichung

Sonia, who has learnt dance from the age of six and trained from the Royal School of Ballet, London, was not surprised when she got the soccer star as a partner. In fact, she heaved a huge sigh of relief.

"During the six weeks of initial training, I had four different partners. But due to various reasons, they kept changing. Just three days before the actual shoot, it was declared that Baichung would be my partner." Considering the duo got just three days to rehearse, they managed to pull off a decent performance.

Surprisingly, Sonia was not star struck by the sportsman. "I always knew Baichung was the captain of the Indian soccer team as my family members are football freaks. They were really happy and excited."

Baichung can never be as good as Gauhar

Surprisingly, Sonia was greatly influenced by co-contestant Gauhar Khan while choreographing her act. "I saw a little bit of me in Gauhar. She has this amazing attitude where she's ready to do anything given to her. I would keep her in mind before performances. She was a strong contender."

Contrary to popular reports, Sonia and Baichung would often hang around with Gauhar and her choreographer Himanshu and shared a great rapport.

Favourite performances

Ask Sonia about her favourite performances and she says, "I liked the hip hop dance which we performed on Kabhie Kabhie Aditi and the one where we used the table as a prop."

She was also completely floored by the Indian soccer team captain after he did the solo Dard-e-Disco act. "It was a brilliant performance. It was commendable how Baichung stood his ground and pulled off the act wonderfully. I was cheering for him so loudly that I lost my voice."

Favourite dance form

The choreographer, who has mastered various Western dance forms, considers Rumba as her favourite. "The intricate hip movements and wide scope of emoting make it a difficult dance form," she says.

Toughest act

JDJ 3 was Sonia's second stint with the dance reality show. In the earlier season, film-maker Mahesh Manjrekar was her co-contestant. But it was in this season when she surpassed herself as a dancer. She recounts how the blindfolded salsa act was one of the toughest performances she has ever done.

"Initially, I was under the impression that only Baichung had to be blindfolded. So we rehearsed in Kolkata accordingly. But when I returned to Mumbai, just one day before the shoot, I realised that both of us had to be blindfolded." After rigorous rehearsals, Sonia perfected the blindfolded act and scored a perfect 30.

Let's hope this dancing queen enthralls and entertains us again in the next season of Jhalak too.