Prime South: Tidings From The Southern States

Spread over 1,100 acres and built by the sixth Nizam’s prime ministerVicar-ul-Umra, the palace is a treasure-trove of the finest craftsmanship of the times.Among other things, it is famous for its library, where almost all books of the 18th andearly 19th century are available—from the collection of romances from Spain to thehistory of Britain in the 10th century. It is believed that the Nizam had a passion forcollecting the first copy of any book published anywhere in the world. Since the Tajacquired the palace on a lease for 50 years in 1998, restorers and interior designers havebeen studying the structure. The whole idea is to restore the palace without changing itscharacteristic look and ambience. About 80 new rooms would be added above the originalharem which housed the Nizam’s 200 concubines. A striking aspect of the palace is theworld’s largest dining table which now gets an add-on—a silver toy traincarrying dishes, chugging across the table.

The palace needs restoration work on some of its priceless furniture and wall pieces.Professionals are trying to restore the tattered gold curtains, sofas and wood and inlaywork and other artifacts. Elaborate work has also started on the five exquisite gardens ofthe palace, including the Chinese and Mughal gardens. All this before the tourists get ataste of the royal lifestyle.

The Kerala state tourism tourism department recently took M.F. Husain on a whirlwind tourof the beaches and backwaters and treated him to cultural fastfood in the form ofKathakali and Mohiniattam to have the state on his celebrated canvas. "Kerala is richin colours," said the artist before boarding his flight back to Mumbai. VerdantKerala too needs that dash of green. Hussain’s canvases will surely help.

Gone are the days of your humble, friendly-neighbourhood beauty parlours. There’sa lot to choose from to pamper yourself. Two new entrants in the body-pampering industryof Bangalore are the Ayurgram and Angsana spas. Ayurgram is being promoted as India’sfirst heritage ayurvedic health resort. Housed in the Aranmula Palace (1849), Kuroor Manaand other Kerala houses, it is run by the Kerala Ayurveda Pharmacy Ltd, which has beendispensing ayurvedic medicines and treatments for 60 years now from its network ofclinics, Ayurgram offers ayurvedic treatments, yoga and meditation classes, and a range oftherapy packages—rejuvenation, stress management, anti-obesity, and even treatmentsfor banishing the signs of old age. The facility is manned by a residential team ofdoctors and therapists.

The beauty regime at Angsana, Oasis Spa & Resort is run by Singapore-based BanyanTree Hotels & Resorts. The spa has ayurvedic therapies, a yoga/meditation room,gymnasium, aerobics centre, and temperature Roman Pools. But the usp of the spa is Thaitreatments—Angsana says it is the first Thai Spa in the country with masseurs trainedby the Banyan Tree Spa Academy, Thailand. Some Thai offerings—honey and sesame scrub,tangerine body wrap and Maui massages.

In these times of high-decibel rhetoric on corruption, a senior bureaucrat has made asombre suggestion—dismantle merit-based civil service and adopt a new managementmodel with a limited tenure in office, one that is open to public audit. In Public Office,Private Interest—Bureaucracy and Corruption in India, S.K. Das portrays aninsider’s view of how babus kow-tow to politicians and how both acquire pelf aspeople are left high and dry. But the book does not mention names of corrupt babus ornetas.

After a buying binge, shoppers at Kempfort in Bangalore can binge some more—at TheSeven Rupees Food Court.

As the name suggests, all the items, whether it is a grilled sandwich, mock meat kababs orchikoo milk shake are priced at an unbelievable Rs 7. But there’s acatch—everything from Chinese to chaat is veggie. Situated on the first floor of thestore, the food court has small stalls serving just about anything—pizza, dosa,Chinese, juices, chaat, pav bhaji and veggie kabaabs. So what’s the reason behindthis pampering of the customers? "We are always perceived as an expensive place. Thisis to dispel that notion," says proprietor Ravi Melvani. But then, thea-bit-too-inviting price list had to have the freeloaders flocking in. Now the goodiescome with a rider—only genuine shoppers who produce a bill worth at least Rs 50 areeligible for the deal. Still good enough to eat.

Playwright Mahesh Dattani returned to stage after seven years with Luigi Pirandello’sHenry IV. He plays Henry IV, an aristocrat, who believes himself to be the 11thcentury German emperor. It opens with a young man trying to understand his work in thevilla of an aristocrat: he is supposed to dress up in 11th century costume and pretend tobe privy councillor to a man who believes himself to be Henry IV. Despite a long breakfrom role playing, Dattani’s powerful voice makes it easy to sit through the heavydialogues. It’s an intimate theatre production, the highlight being its all-blackambience and the soulful background music.

Cinema is what Keralites thrive on and French cinema is no less popular in the state.To tap this goodwill between the two cultures, the Alliance Francaise de Trivandrum andthe French Embassy have hit upon the idea of Saturday Night Fever—the screening of aFrench film with English subtitles on a Saturday each month at the state-run Kalabhavan.Lauding this first move by a foreign embassy, veteran filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan, whoinaugurated the event, said that he expects the programme to raise awareness of Frenchcinema among Malayalis. So if you want some quick lessons on what makes a Bressondifferent from Besson, walk in and check it out for yourself. Best bit is that there areno tickets or special invites required.

It’s a gizmo freak’s dream come true: the glass walls enclose every kind ofhi-tech contraption your heart could have ever yearned for or have ever thought of. Nevermind that it is not remotely possible that you would want to strap a chunky spy watch toyour wrist just so that you can secretly take pictures of your business contacts. If youhave about Rs 10,000 in petty cash, just get yourself one of these Casio beauties and itis possible that you may be directing your own Tehelka.

You are just the sort of gadget-freak Naveen Bhandari knew he could hook when hestarted Tech Zone in Chennai’s snazzy Spencer Plaza a few months back.

Inspired by London’s Gadget Shop, Bhandari, who ran an electronic business in thecity, decided to add yet another specialist shop to the city’s exotic buyer’sdirectory.

So what’s on display? A voice pen you can clip on to your shirt front and recordup to eight hours of conversation? Eminently suitable for a busy executive with a penchantfor a "different" dictaphone. And the basic model costs only about Rs 850.
Then there’s a tiny spycam about the size of a large button. Attach it to thepeephole on your front door and connect it to your TV. When someone comes calling you canget a sneak preview. There’s more: small digital cameras about the size of acigarette case, or fibre optic stars for your barbecue dinner or perhaps just a 5.6-inchlcd teevee for your office so that you don’t miss out on Oprah in the afternoons.

Now guess what the fastest moving pieces are? The voice pens, the burglar alarms and,of course, the mini spycams. Eat your heart out, Bond. Your most bizarre doodad is nowright here for sale at the neighbourhood shop.