Delights Troop

It’s called the generation that refuses to grow up—preferring to remain unmarried, childless, living with the parents, with a lifestyle of endless socialising. Are you part of the phenomenon? You’re 35 and living with your parents/in-laws, because: a.    There’s someone to have a hot meal ready on the table when you get home from work, and monitor the maid when you leave in the mornings. b.    There’s no way you can afford a house loan and still maintain your lifestyle of alternate nights out and yearly international holidays. c.    Your parents are dependent on you to manage the expenses of the home and you come home to a comfortable, clean apartment with food in the refrigerator, which you haven’t had to worry about. It’s a mutually beneficial situation. You’re 32, have been married five years, but kids aren’t on the cards. a.    Kids mean responsibility and you can’t stand the idea of 3 am feedings and your kids’ exams putt...

Keen to push through the food security bill, Congress has initiated fresh moves to forge a consensus with allies and the Opposition over the measure. A meeting of the Congress top brass on Saturday decided to hold a meeting of United Progressive Alliance (UPA) coordination committee on Monday, while an all-party meet is likely on June 7 for evolving a consensus on the key bill, which is being touted as a revolutionary measure by the ruling party ahead of the next Lok Sabha (Lower House of Indian Parliament) polls. Sources in both the party and the government said that a special session may happen if other parties agree to it. At a meeting of the Congress Core Group chaired by party president Sonia Gandhi, with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh by her side, that lasted for more than three hours, it was decided that the UPA will finalise its strategy on Monday on the ambitious Food Security Bill. If all parties agree, a special session can be called, otherwise the government may take the ro...

While it takes a lot of patience to hold on to a fatigued relationship, it takes even more courage to walk away from it. Many of us carry on with empty relationships even when we know deep down that we deserve better, and we could get it. Though, pretending to be happy can sometimes be easy, living a lie is always tough. So, listen to your heart when it says it’s time to move on—as these three women did. When he constantly puts you down “My ex-boyfriend and I were like chalk and cheese. I am talkative; I don’t care much for social graces and I love going out with friends. He is an introvert, particular about his Ps and Qs. He loves western classical music and he could never stomach my bhangra-pop playlists. When we first met, the physical attraction made our differences seem negligible. But as the relationship continued, he’d keep correcting my language, table manners, the way I dressed and how I interacted with people. He berated me often and sometimes in public. Later, the sex was a...

Every other day we have someone somewhere doing a study/survey on women. Some are insightful, while some are plain funny and leave you wondering about the need of investing time and resources for such a survey. Here are some funny surveys conducted on women. 1) Woof at first sight A recent study by More Than Pet Insurance reveals that 43 per cent of the 2,000 women polled for a survey said that they have ‘little memory of first glimpsing their man, while 77 per cent have total recall of day one with their dog.’ 2) A confirmed cliché This survey begs the question, “What was the need to even conduct this survey?” Some clichés are just spot on. Recently, Boris Schiffer of the LWL-University Hospital in Bochum, Germany, proved through his research that men indeed have difficulty understanding how women feel. His team showed images of 36 pairs of eyes--half belonging to men and half belonging to women, to 22 men. They were then asked to choose which of two given emotions the person was...

A few hundred metres short of where the Maoists would launch an attack that would propel them as far as the pages of the New York Times, a young adivasi boy, not more than ten years old, stood in the dull afternoon heat, facing perhaps the biggest dilemma of his life. He knew what lay ahead on the road. He possibly struggled with the burden of what to do about it for a couple of moments before he flagged down a motorcyclist. “All he said was ‘aage kuch hai’,” recounts Om Prakash Singh, a 42-year-old businessman and Congress party worker who was racing ahead of a convoy of party leaders on his motorcycle when he noticed the boy and slowed down to hear him out. Singh ignored the boy’s words of caution. A few minutes later, he heard an explosion ring through Darbha Ghat. While Singh had safely crossed the bend where 30 kg of ammonium nitrate laid buried, the convoy of about 25 cars had not. An explosion heaved the road. What followed was a bloodbath its survivors are not likely to forget...

Arvind Kejriwal Sunday set the ball rolling for a direct electoral fight with Sheila Dikshit in the coming Delhi Assembly elections here choosing to contest from the constituency where the Delhi Chief Minister will file nomination. At a convention of Aam Aadmi Party workers to decide from where he will contest in the November elections, Kejriwal also chose to attack BJP, saying the party fielded weak candidates against Dikshit in the previous polls and challenged Vijay Goel to contest against him and Dikshit. He said he wished to contest from New Delhi constituency and take on Dikshit directly in the electoral contest. "If she decides to avoid such a contest in New Delhi constituency out of fear and move to another, I will also move to the seat from where she is contesting," he said after the workers suggested that he fight against the Chief Minister. However, the final ratification of Kejriwal's candidature will come after a process, which includes collecting 100 signat...

John pulls strings for exciting middle-road movies like Madras Café and talks about his personal life. Q. You seem to be excited about Madras Café? A By far, Madras Café is light years ahead of its time. This is me telling the world, ‘Hey, India can also create cinema like this’. It’s not just commercial but can also reach out across borders – not just to an Indian Diaspora overseas but to a complete North American and a European market. Q. Do you believe you have an eye for a good script? A I’ve always been keen about doing different films. My first film Jism was a different film too. John Abraham could be a pure A-list commercial actor but he’s always chosen a path that’s been different. Even if some of my films failed, I believe they were smart decisions and I will stand by them. If those movies were offered to me in the future, I’d still do them knowing they would flop. Someone has to go through the bleeding period. If no one has the audacity to do it, I'll do it. I want...