Three separate incidents brought the subject of age and our attitude to it centre-stage this week.

Old Bones Nation

Business Standard

I K Gujral has written a meticulous, insider&rsquo;s account of his life in politics.

Inside out

Considering the factor of rocketing petrol prices and my annual run of approximately 18,000 km (which includes one long trip of 2,500 km, to and fro), I am planning to upgrade from a hatchback to a diesel sedan. My budget is Rs 10 lakh and I can wait for a couple of months. Kindly suggest a car which is good in terms of comfort for city driving as well as on long drives, has good mileage, reliability, low maintenance, excellent after sales service and reasonably priced spares.

Vento buy?

A year or two ago someone phoned me, on behalf of the Swedish embassy, to say that Astrid Lindgren&rsquo;s books were now going to be available in India.

People of note

When the sun sets on April 29, most of the guests will have gone home and the streets cleared of all the flags and other throwaway memorabilia littered earlier that day along the path the couple took to reach Westminster Abbey. Most will feel the ennui that sets in after a grand wedding.

A right royal affair

The Oberoi, Gurgaon opened this week. Bhupesh Bhandari gets a preview.

Open for business

Joyjit Talukdar is a fashion designer with an ecological conscience. His label, Ela, is entirely comprised of garments made of organic cotton &mdash; cotton that is grown without any chemical fertiliser or pesticide. At his booth at the Will Lifestyle India Fashion Week A/W 2011 (WIFW), which concluded in the capital last Sunday, he showcased a line of dresses, tops, bottoms and jackets &mdash; all of them in shades of bleached white, beige and browns. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s because no chemical dyes have been used, only vegetable ones, and there are limitations on colours. For instance, tea was used in this one,&rdquo; he says, pointing to a simple shift dress with asymmetrical hemline subtly embellished with pintucks.

The ecological designers

My Life My Style: Ravi Venkatesan

Chattrasal Stadium is located in Model Town of New Delhi, off the highway to Karnal in Haryana. It was renovated last year for Indian athletes to train for the Delhi Commonwealth Games. It is also home to India&rsquo;s top wrestlers &mdash; this is where they train, eat and live. Everybody knows where the person I want to meet lives. A brand new Ford Endeavour is parked outside the room. Sushil Kumar, India&rsquo;s first Olympic medalist in wrestling since 1952, shares this room with fellow wrestlers &mdash; seven or eight of them. After the bronze at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Kumar was offered a separate room, but he turned down the offer &ldquo;because it would have set a wrong example for the young wrestlers&rdquo;. But it isn&rsquo;t one of the cramped rooms that most wrestlers have to contend with &mdash; it is spacious and has a laptop, television and refrigerator.

Following the champion

Scene 1: The candles are lit and as the wax drips, the sombre mood is lifted by the haunting strains of Vande Mataram.&nbsp;The dusky pink sky turns dark and the stars descend on Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, the Gateway of India and Azad Maidan in Mumbai, the streets of Bangalore and Kolkata. All lit in small flames, small fires igniting the imagination of the nation. United by one man, fasting. The government bows to the will of the people. This is a Revolution.

For somebody and nobody

For those who have seen it, Death of a Pope is arguably the best painting of F N Souza&rsquo;s career &mdash; but you can decide for yourself now, with the 1962 work on view by appointment only at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sanghralaya where the efforts of collector Jehangir Nicholson to dedicate his 800-odd works to the nation have finally found a home in a 4,500 sq ft wing in his name, to be managed by a foundation that has liquidated his assets to manage the collection.

Art (be)quest

The rule of thumb for a Swiss open is that, given n players (say 64), it takes the square root of n +1 rounds (8+1=9) to have a clear champion.

Chess (#675)

When the star cast of Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra&rsquo;s 3 Thay Bhai, a story of three brothers, went to Nagpur recently for pre-launch publicity, people recognised Om Puri and Shreyas Talpade but could not put a name to the third brother, Deepak Dobriyal. &ldquo;Pappi jee aa gaye&rdquo; (Pappi is here), they kept saying, referring to Pappi, the character Dobriyal played in his last release, Tanu Weds Manu.

The scene stealer

Yes, I do feel I have arrived,&rdquo; says Raghu Dixit on his entry into Bollywood as music director with a Karan Johar caper titled Mujhse Fraaandship Karoge which releases this August.

The 'Aam Aadmi' ballads

If you are ready to look beyond Apple&rsquo;s iPad, Creative&rsquo;s ZiiO &ndash; available in both white (7-inch) and black (10-inch) with a choice of 8GB or 16GB of storage &ndash; could be your pick.

Budget choice for tablets

Known as the maker of commercial vehicles such as vans and light trucks, Force Motors is ready with its first passenger offering. The still-unnamed sports utility vehicle (SUV), slated for launch this June, will be in line with its heritage, Force Motors Managing Director Prasan Firodia tells Sayantani Kar. However, this will not be the first attempt at an SUV by the company.

Q&A: Prasan Firodia, MD, Force Motors

Just a month after Newscorp&rsquo;s prince-in-waiting James Murdoch toured India talking about digitisation, Star is set to give you an overdose of high-definition (HD).

Star sets a new frequency

It is a simple truth that all successful companies have a very specific strategic approach for the way they communicate, whether that is to consumers, the trade, or to internal stakeholders.

The new rules of engagement

Korean consumer durables major, LG Electronics, is doing everything it can to retain its number one position in the Indian consumer durables market, estimated at Rs 35,000 crore. With more than 30 per cent share of this market, it now expects its India operations to overtake its Korea sales in the next three to four years.

LG Electronics: Innovation is key

The premium segment is the battlefield for ice cream makers this summer with almost all major players lining up new launches.

Battle for the creamy layer

While middle-aged women are checking out products at the newly-opened gourmet section on the first floor, twenty somethings are waiting to try the designer pret by Lajjo C, whose collection is exclusively displayed at the revamped store of Tata-run Westside in the Kala Ghoda area in south Mumbai.

Makeover on the shop floor

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