What is fibrocystic breast disease?

Fibrocystic breast disease or painful lumps in the breast is a non- cancerous condition wherein the lumps move freely within the breast tissue creating pain and discomfort in one or both breasts. Lumps are formed due to small cysts in the breast which are filled with fluid and enlarge premenstrually in response to hormonal changes during this time. The breast tissue is very sensitive to hormonal changes and the cysts can enlarge and shrink as much as 50 per cent before or during the menstrual cycle. Most lumps that pain are non malignant. It affects women between 35 and 50 years of age.

Why do lumps happen?
The lymphatic system normally transports fluids out of the breasts tissue. But if a person is overweight or prone to idiophatic edema (water retention due to an unknown cause); then there are more fluids than the system can handle and small spaces in the breast tissue may fill up forming cysts. These cysts swell up before the menstrual cycle and a resulting pressure causes pain in the breasts. Some lumps may press against a milk gland resulting in a production of prolactin (which helps milk secretion). All this may cause further cyst formation. So any little discharge, lumps or any change in the breasts tissue needs immediate medical attention.

Popular solutions

Mammograms, lump biopsies, needle aspirations (a needle is inserted into the lump to get a sample of the fluid) are used to evaluate a breast lump. Some hormone balancing medicines are also used to shrink the lump and the tenderness. However, a detailed case history of the individual needs to be taken to identify the potential problem areas. Also, a medical examination, by conducting a mammogram test or an ultrasound, may be required to confirm the lump formation in the breast.

Dietary guidelines
Increase consumption of vegetables, especially the cruciferous family (cabbage, broccoli, brussel sprouts and kale). Eat fibrous fruits like apple, pear, orange, sweetlime, papaya, melon etc, vegetables like spinach, fenugreek leaves, beans and peas which are rich in fibre as well as B complex vitamins. Raw seeds like flaxseeds, black til, nuts like almonds, walnuts, whole grains cereals like wheat, millet, ragi, oats etc should also be consumed.
Eating these foods will change your biochemistry and may help prevent cyclical fluctuations in the cyst size and tenderness. The addition of seafood to the diet, particularly fish high in the Omega-3 fatty acids like salmon, trout and mackerel may be useful in preventing breast cysts (due to its iodine and healthy oils content). Vitamin A has been found to be useful in reducing both the pain symptoms and the size of the breast lesions in women with fibrocystic breast disease. Therefore consumption of beta carotene found abundantly in many yellow, orange, red, and dark green fruits and vegetables is beneficial. Vitamin E is also found to be quite helpful in reducing the pain and tenderness, as well as the size of breast lumps.
Diets high in fat, with meat and dairy products contribute to the formation of painful lumps. Caffeine in coffee, colas and energy drinks, theophylline in tea, theobromine in chocolate have also shown to contribute to this inflammation and should be reduced or eliminated from the diet. Do not eat food made from wheat flour (maida), excess salt and sugar and fried foods.

BOOK: THE MARRIAGE PLOT (2011) BY JEFFERY EUGENIDES (1960-)

Read to form a reading list

BOOK: THE MARRIAGE PLOT (2011) BY JEFFERY EUGENIDES (1960-)
SYNOPSIS: This book traces the lives of three students graduating from Brown University in 1982. Madeleine Hanna, is a pretty and smart, yet uncertain English graduate; Leonard Bankhead, her sometime boyfriend is brilliant, brooding, charismatic but poor; and religiously inclined Mitchell Grammaticus, who yearns in alternation for Madeleine and God.

WHAT’S IN IT FOR YOU: Loads of literary references:
All three protagonists are interesting fictional characters, who introduce you to other, real people based on their circumstances, mindsets and career choices. While Leonard’s “list” combines his two preoccupations – genetics and psychosis, Mitchell’s life will introduce you to several religious characters, sects and texts. English graduate Madeline, who connects the various situations in her life – both pleasurable and trying — to the writings she’s come across has the longest, and, to me, most interesting, catalogue of references.
Check out this excerpt that had me running for a pencil:

To start with, look at all the books. There were her Edith Wharton novels, arranged not by title but date of publication; there was the complete Modern Library set of Henry James, a gift from her father on her twenty-first birthday; there were the dog-eared paperbacks assigned in her college courses, a lot of Dickens, a smidgen of Trollope, along with good helpings of Austen, George Eliot, and the redoubtable Brontë sisters. There were a whole lot of black-andwhite New Directions paperbacks, mostly poetry by people like HD or Denise Levertov. There were the Colette novels she read on the sly. There was the first edition of Couples, belonging to her mother, which Madeleine had surreptitiously dipped into back in sixth grade and which she was using now to provide textual support in her English honors thesis on the marriage plot.

BOOK: THE SACRED DIARY OF THE WERE WOLF (2005) BY VICTOR PELVIN (1962-) TRANSLATED FROM THE RUSSIAN BY ANDREW BROMFIELD IN 2008
SYNOPSIS: This book examines contemporary Russia through the eyes of A Hu-Li, a 2,000-year-old Taoist were-fox who impersonates a fifteen-year-old sex worker. Her experiences are standard for an ancient were-fox until she meets Alexander, a high-ranking Russian intelligence officer, who happens to be a werewolf! The two share a whirlwind romance, and argue about religion, death, truth and the like until they both claim to be the super-werewolf, a were-creature who has attained the highest order of self-improvement—moksha, in a way.

WHAT’S IN IT FOR YOU: Loads of philosophy
references: Known for his dark humour, Pelevin combines satire, history and science fiction — a strange but interesting blend — to discuss life in the post-Soviet era.
From the Tao philosophy and Han dynasty to Vladimir Nabokov and Nikolai Gogol, the book describes, and even suggests alternate, hidden meanings to various schools of thought and writing.

Check out this excerpt that had me running to Google:
My name, A-Hu-Li, is actually very beautiful in Chinese, and has nothing to do with its obscene meaning in the Russian language. I was given the name at a time when the phrase didn’t exist in the Russian language, because the Russian language itself didn’t even exist yet. Who could ever have imagined in those times that some day my noble surname would become an obscene word?
Ludwig Wittgenstein once said that names are the only things that exist in the world. Maybe that’s true, but the problem is that as time passes by, names do not remain the same - even if they don’t change. We foxes were not born in the same way as people. We are descended from a heavenly stone and are distantly related to the king of apes, Sun Wukong himself.

I have not made such a significant mark in history as others of my kind. But even so, I am mentioned in one of the greatest works of world literature, and you can even read about me if you like. To do that, you have to go to the bookshop and buy the book Anecdotes of Spirits and Immortals, written by Gan Bao, and find the story of how the governor of Sih during the late Han period searched for the commander of his guards, who had fled.

Govt to fund ZTCCS, organ donation in state to get a boost

 To boost the Zonal Transplant Co- ordination Commitees (ZTCC) in the state, the state government has proposed to give each of the four ZTCCs a sum of 61,000 per month. Currently, the four ZTCCs run on donations from private institutions and individuals.
The four ZTCC centres are situated in Mumbai-Thane region, Pune, Nagpur and Aurangabad. The primary duties of the ZTCC are to ensure fair distribution of cadaver organs in the city, and create awareness about organ donation.

“While Mumbai ZTCC is somehow managing with donations, the other ZTCCs are very low profile. We want to make their functioning efficient so that it boosts the organ donation campaign all over the state,” said Dr Kempi Patil, assistant director, DHS in charge of implementation of Human Organ Transplantation Act (HOTA). Dr Patil said that it could take about two months for the proposal to be cleared by the state.
“This is the usual costing of the ZTCC. A sum from the state government will help us run the office smoothly, and pay the salaries of the two people we employ. We can also boost our awareness campaign,” said Dr Sujata Patwardhan, secretary, ZTCC Mumbai. The two employees include a transplant co-ordinator and a data entry operator to maintain the list of patients who need organ transplants. The state is also in the process of increasing donations by way of registering non-organ transplant organ retrieval centres (NTORC). In these centres, though transplantation does not take place, organ retrieval can be done if the centre has a intensive care unit, and surgical wards.

WHY YOU SHOULD CARE

ZONAL TRANSPLANT
Co-ordination Committee (ZTCC) is a non-profit, nongovernmental organization started to promote organ donation.

IT AIMS TO PROMOTE
cadaver transplant, optimal use of all cadaveric organs, and to reach out to every needy waiting recipient with fair distribution of organs as per government guidelines

Mastectomy is not the only way to treat breast cancer: doctors The surgery along with radiotherapy can help reduce the chances of recurrence of cancer

Mastectomy is not the only way to treat breast cancer: doctors

The surgery along with radiotherapy can help reduce the chances of recurrence of cancer

MUMBAI: Removal of the entire breast is not the only effective way of treating the cancer. Recent data suggests that a combination of conservative breast surgery (removal of just the cancerous parts and not the entire breast) and radiotherapy can reduce the chance of recurrence by 16% over 10 years.
The study is an eye-opener for those reluctant to undergo mastectomy (partial or complete surgical removal of breasts) for breast cancer. “The first instinct for women is to undergo mastectomy when diagnosed with breast cancer, but once counselled about breast conserving surgery, the majority would like to conserve the breast which is so important for self-image,” said Dr Bhawna Sirohi, consultant medical oncologist, Tata Memorial Hospital (TMH).
“Most women who undergo mastectomy suffer emotional disturbance. Breast conservative surgery with partial radiation on the breast is very effective,” said Dr Nagraj Huilgol, chief of radiation oncology, Nanavati Hospital, Vile Parle.

The data was collated and presented in Early Breast Cancer Trialists Collaborative group meeting, where a group of 620 breast cancer specialists from all over the world, including TMH shared data of its trials at Oxford University this September.
The study also shows that mortality of women after breast conservative surgery and radiotherapy reduces by about 4% over a period of 15 years. Radiotherapy added to breast conserving surgery can reduce risk of recurrence and of death from breast cancer.
Of the women detected with breast cancer in India, most are from urban areas. The data has been collated after taking into consideration 17 trials from across the world, where 10,801 women were studied.
“Even in cases like cardiac ailments, there is still a gain in survival with the addition of radiotherapy,” said Sarah Darby, professor of medical studies, University of Oxford, UK, and one of the authors of the study. The toxicity of radiotherapy has reduced a great deal as newer technology is more accurate in targeting the tumour site.

RADIOTHERAPY MAY BE RISKY FOR

PEOPLE WITH
previous history of ischaemic heart disease
PEOPLE WITH

high blood pressure, diabetes, a smoking habit, lung problems, obesity
THOSE WITH
high dependence on painkillers

BREAST-CONSERVATIVE SURGERY

It is an operation to remove the breast cancer but not the breast itself. Types of breast-conserving surgery include lumpectomy (removal of the lump), quadrantectomy (removal of one quarter, or quadrant, of the breast), and segmental mastectomy (removal of the cancer as well as some of the breast tissue around the tumor and the lining over the chest muscles below the tumor).
 

 

IN NUMBERS

About 19,900 people
died of breast cancer in India in 2010, as per the Million Deaths Study.
One in 28 women
develop breast cancer during her lifetime.

1 in 22 women
develop breast cancer in a lifetime in urban areas
1 in 60 women
develop breast cancer in their lifetime in rural areas

 

KALAKAND AND FLORENTINE ALMOND CAKE

Here, kalakand, that classic Indian mithai, is blended with almond florentine (almonds in caramelised sugar). It is then infused with butterscotch and raspberry sauce to create a dessert that is at once so familiar but oh so exotic. A small word of warning though: this delectable dessert is not for those watching their weight. It’s high on taste as well as calories. But frankly, it’s Diwali, so throw your diet put of the window!
 

PHIRNI IN CHOCOLATE

If the idea is to provide a new twist to something that is traditional and yet simple to make, phirni fits the bill perfectly. But instead of serving it straight, use chocolate flowers to give the sweet dish a contemporary touch. Another interesting variation is to make chocolate balls and fill them with shrikhand (also not difficult to prepare). They make great sweet munchies for when guests visit, or when you’re giving out party favours.

RANGOLI FRUIT CAKE

Want to have the flavour of a fruit cake and also indulge in your paan fetish? This rangoli fruit cake is filled with dry fruit and a dash of gulkand to add some sweetness. It also contains cinnamon and cardamom to give it a spicy twist and to keep it from tasting extra sweet. Considering it’s Diwali, you can put a pretty diya on top of it instead of a candle. The best part about the cake is the colourful rangoli-like design on top which makes for an attractive centrepiece too. (And yes, all the colours used in this rangoli are totally edible!)

GULAB JAMUN CHEESE CAKE recipe

GULAB JAMUN CHEESE CAKE

Bakery aficionados in the West swear by the cheesecake for its softness and flavour. Closer home, there are few things as satisfying as a nice juicy hot gulab jamun, particularly on a cold winter day. What if you want the best of both worlds? Well, you cook a plain cheesecake sans flavour (recipe below). That’s when the gulab jamun will impart its own distinct flavour – and sweetness – to the cake. And yet it won’t be as sweet as a gulab jamun.

THE RECIPE

INGREDIENTS:

150gm mascarpone cheese; 250gm whipped sweetened cream; 5gm gelatin; 20-25 gulab jamuns; 100gm cookie crumbs; 30gm unsalted butter; 1tsp cardamom powder, 1tsp saunf powder, a few drops kewra water.

METHOD: Melt butter, add cookie crumbs to it. Line base of cake tin with crumb mixture. Spread evenly and press hard to form a firm base. Refrigerate for 15 mins. Soak the gelatin in 20ml water. Stir the mascarpone cheese in a bowl till it is creamy. Add cardamom, saunf powder and kewra water. Add melted gelatin to the creamed cheese, mix well and fold in the whipped cream. Place a layer of gulab jamuns on the crumb base. Pour the cheesecake mixture into the tin. Refrigerate for 2 hours, then keep at room temp for 10 mins. Slice and serve immediately.

RANGOLI FRUIT CAKE 

PHIRNI IN CHOCOLATE

KALAKAND AND FLORENTINE ALMOND CAKE

 

 

Fusion mithais

A Sweet Spin

Want tradition with a twist? Fusion mithais offer the best of both worlds. Ask your halwai to create these for you

A CHEESE CAKE with gulab jamun, a blend of phirni and chocolate, and a rangoli cake filled with gulkand. These exotic-sounding concoctions aren’t the stuff of fantasy – they’re what sweetmakers are now devising to please bored palates.

People like indulging their sweet tooth during the festive season, but in the past few years, there’s much more than ordinary mithai out there. Chocolate has become the new ‘mithai’ for a lot of us (except that a lot of locally made chocolate is pretty ghastly). But there’s a new dessert trend now: ‘fusion mithai’, in which the best of traditional mithai is teamed with exciting new global flavours.
“The idea behind creating these fusion sweets is to offer something that is healthy, tasty and sweet so that people can indulge themselves without guilt,” says Rashma Sud, owner of Dessert Carte, a Delhi bakery. A patti (you can’t get more traditional than that!) filled with apricot, anyone? “Traditional sweets are going in a new direction. Chefs are mixing them with Western ingredients. It makes for a nice change. But traditional desserts and their unique flavours will never lose their lustre,” says chef Vishal Atreya, executive sous chef with The Imperial, New Delhi. Bon Appetit!

tips from interiors experts, it can be as simple as experimenting with the lighting

Do over your home this Diwali. With tips from interiors experts, it can be as simple as experimenting with the lighting

CANDLES ALL THE WAY
Interior designer Bubble Batra’s house is filled with ornate woodwork, which is her forte. However, she says, she likes to keep it simple during Diwali, relying mostly on tea lights. The quick-fix tips from Batra include rearranging furniture and placing Ganesha idols across your house. “Instead of brass idols, go for porcelain idols for an abstract touch. You could also use silk carpets as wall hangings for a period look,” she says.
BRING OUT THE PEARLY WHITES

Mumbai architect Shilpa Daga recommends new theme-based decor every year. This year, she’s going with a simple pearl theme. “String the pearls into any number of chains, but ensure that the chains don’t overpower the space you have,” she says. “A Diwali must-have is the toran [wall hanging for the door]. Also, a fun way to get your loved ones together is to host diya painting parties. This way, people feel that they’ve done something for their homes,” says Daga.
IT’S A BED OF ROSES
Florist Jasleen Kochhar, founder of Bougainvilla Design, likes to take a break from the ‘marigold’ design scheme of the season, preferring white, gold and rose. “Using mogra for your puja room is a good idea, it has such a divine fragrance,” she says.
If you don’t have the patience to oil your diyas, Kochhar suggests using more pillared or textured candles as a quick fix inside the house. She opts for red, orange and purple coloured versions. “Throw some big cushions around the sitting area for a cosy look,” she adds. Don’t fret if you don’t have ornate bowls for your flowers and floating candles. Even a fruit bowl will do! Buy your diyas from charities and NGOs. And for fresh flowers, there’s no place better than the Dadar market.

I think it is silly to try and eliminate fat from our food

FAT CHECK

The health establishment is in disarray when it comes to fat. While I’m aware of the health aspects, I think it is silly to try and eliminate fat from our food

The lean meat keema comes from the top of the thigh of the goat, but good chefs will not use the fat from that part

F AT IS a foodie issue. For some decades now, there has been a divergence of opinion between the medical establishment and people who love good food. Most foodies have no real problems with fat. In fact, I would go so far as to argue that if you don’t like butter, the taste of a good olive oil, the little specks of marbled fat on a steak, the delicious fatty taste of top quality bacon (assuming, of course, that you eat meat, pork, beef etc.) or the rich fatty flavour of homemade ice cream, you are probably not a foodie at all.
MEDITERRANEAN FLAVOURA good olive oil is worth using for the taste alone no matter how many calories it has The medical establishment, on the other hand, takes a view that is not only complex but also changes every few years or so. For decades we were told that fat would make us tubby. Cut out the fat content of our meals (“make your salads without oil….”), and we would all become slim. Anecdotal evidence suggests that this is too simplistic a view. And besides, research over the last decade suggested that it was starch (white bread, white rice, etc.) not fat that made you fat. That discovery led to the popularity of highprotein diets where you were allowed to eat butter, bacon etc. as long as you steered clear of pizza, pasta etc. Medicine now concedes (grudgingly) that yes, anybody who embarks on a high protein diet will lose weight no matter how many calories are consumed. But doctors argue, accurately enough, that too much fat can clog the arteries and contribute to putting pressure on the heart. Except that it is not as simple as that, either. Some decades ago, doctors came to the conclusion that some fats were really bad for you while some were okay. The science is a little boring (monounsaturated, poly-unsaturated, blah, blah, blah) so I’ll spare you all those details. But what the doctors said, in essence, was that animal fat was bad while vegetable fat was good.
So we stopped cooking in ghee. We put away the butter. And we switched to vegetable-oil based substitutes like Dalda and margarine. Then, medicine had a change of heart. Actually, said the doctors, stuff like Dalda was worse for your heart than ghee. (They took care to wait for many decades and thousands of heart attacks to come to this conclusion.) The real problem was trans fats or hydrogenated fats. Again, I’ll spare you the science (all about adding extra hydrogen atoms to molecules or something as boring) but basically what they said was that if ‘good fats’ (i.e. vegetable fats) were converted in any way (from liquid to solid as in Dalda) then they became Very Bad Fats.
So, a new orthodoxy developed. Trans fats were bad. Animal fat was still not very good. But olive oil was the best. The empirical evidence for this was something called the French Paradox which used statistics to show that the French who ate lots of red meat had low rates of heart disease because they drank red wine and cooked in olive oil. Both red wine and olive oil contained substances that went through the arteries removing plaque and therefore acted as nature’s own heartattack preventers.

There were two problems with the French Paradox. The first was that the lowest rates of heart disease occurred in those parts of France where they cooked in butter or lard, not olive oil. And secondly, rates of heart disease are going up in France even as olive oil becomes more popular.
At present, the health establishment is in disarray when it comes to fat. About all we can agree on is that trans fats are bad. Vegetable oils in their natural state are probably okay (but beware of excessive health claims made by every expensive imported oil) And there’s nothing wrong with butter, ghee or a little animal fat but don’t eat too much of it.
All this makes foodies feel much, much better. We may or may not always realise it but most great food cultures are based on a foundation of fat. When Auguste Escoffier, the French chef who codified old-style haute cuisine, was asked what the three great secrets of French cuisine were, he said “butter, butter and butter”.
 
And the French use a lot of other animal fat too: they like to cook their potatoes in goose fat, they use lard for baking and their great delicacy, foie gras, is nearly all poultry fat. In the Mediterranean, the cuisine is based on olive oil. The Chinese like to pretend that their cuisine is healthy and fat free but they love their pork fat. A MATTER OF TASTEThere is simply no substitute for butter – and ice cream (right) tastes best when the fat content is high
Which brings us to India. When we think of rich and complex vegetarian cuisines, we like to imagine that they have no room for animal fat. In fact, the basis of many Indian vegetarian haute cuisines is animal fat: ghee.
Indians don’t like to think of milk as an animal product but that is what it really is (even if no animals are harmed in its production). Because all cuisines need a dose of animal fat now and then to make their dishes work, most Indian vegetarian styles of cooking respected milk fat for the richness it brought to dishes.
In the North-East they don’t have much time for milk, so they use pig fat for the richness; this is why so many of their dishes have large chunks of pork, and a good momo is one where the animal fat in the stuffing has melted and coated the meat. In the North, there is a divergence between Hindu and Muslim styles of cooking. Hindus rely on dairy fat while Muslims like goat fat. None of them feels any embarrassment about the quantities of fat they use. Tell a traditional Hindu chef to go easy on the ghee and he will act as though you have destroyed the basis of his cuisine.
Muslim chefs are more upfront. Talk to a traditional Qureshi chef and, because he comes from a butchery tradition, he will hold forth at length about the kinds of goat fat that go into his dishes. Most recipes will specify which part of the animal the fat comes from. The most famous recipe is the one for the kakori kebab. The lean meat keema comes from the top of the thigh of the goat but good chefs will not use the fat from that part of the animal. Instead they will take the fat from around the kidney and add it to the lean meat.

Though the Qureshis are reluctant to part with their recipes, animal fat is often the secret ingredient in many of their dishes. Other chefs have taken those techniques and used them but not always with the same finesse. For instance, while judging Foodistan I was served a biryani with the unmistakable taste of goat which was odd because the dish had no meat – or so we were told. It turned out that the chef had put in a little kidney fat (from a goat) in the finishing to give the biryani a richness. At dhabas in parts of India where beef is legal, some cooks will put a little beef fat into the gravy at the final stages (even if the curry is made from chicken or goat) just to give the dish a meaty heft.
On the other hand, Hyderabadi cuisine is much less dependent on fat. While shooting for the second season of CustomMade last week in Hyderabad, I had the honour of enjoying a meal cooked by the great Mehboob Alam Khan. The kebabs at his house were divine but he made sure to point out that unlike the rival Lucknow tradition, Hyderabadi cuisine relied on the flavours of meat and spices without requiring chefs to add extra animal fat to everything.
My own view on fat is that while I’m aware of the health aspects, I think it is silly to try and eliminate it from food. Ice cream tastes best when the fat content is high. Pork is not much of a meat without the fat. There is simply no substitute for butter. A good olive oil is worth using for the taste alone no matter how many calories it has.
And fat used correctly can be divine. The single best Kerala-style beef fry I have ever eaten was made by Purushotham, the Leela group’s legendary South Indian chef who despite being an Andhraite has mastered Mrs Leela Nair’s Malayali recipes. All of Purushotham’s beef fries (like the rest of his food) are fantastic but on this occasion, he made the dish with Australian Wagyu. As the meat cooked, the fat melted and gently coated the masala with delicious richness. The mixture of fat and spice was simply irresistible.
So here’s my advice: don’t worry too much about the doctors; they change their minds every week. Eat fat in moderation and once it is in your mouth, enjoy the silky richness of good butter, a delicious olive oil, or a melting kakori kebab.

Chef Kunal Kapoor lists ten kitchen must-haves

Gourmet Gifts

Chef Kunal Kapoor lists ten kitchen must-haves. If you don't lot, run to the market now. Shop for yourself or for your friends. (How on earth were yo managing without them?)

A GOOD SET OF KITCHEN KNIVES

If you love cooking, this is something you really can’t do without. Nothing can be as irritating as not having good knives to work with in the kitchen. And nothing can be better than a nice knife block, choc-a-bloc with sharp, gleaming knives. Talking about sharpness, you will be surprised to know that more fingers are cut due to blunt knives than sharp knives. Even if you are not a professional cook, you should still have at least two to three varieties of knives in your kitchen.
The chef’s knife: An all-purpose knife with a 9 to 10-inch blade, useful for chopping vegetables and everything else.
The fish knife: A long knife with a thin flexible blade. This is really helpful for deboning a fish or even clearing the insides.

The paring knife: Want to lend a dash of creativity to the way you present your salads? This knife helps carve out small grooves in a carrot or radish to make them look interesting.
The cleaver: Also known as a butcher’s knife, this is a heavy knife with a big blade that helps cut bones or big joints of meat. It is also useful for smashing garlic, ginger and spring onions.
Kitchen scissors: They come in handy to chop veggies such as spring onions or to cut other vegetables.

A FOOD PROCESSOR

You can call it the all-rounder of the kitchen. A mixer and grinder facilitates blending, grinding (both dry and wet), chopping, pureeing, whisking and the kneading of dough.

ZESTER, PEELER, GRATER

Peeling veggies is a breeze with a peeler while a zester can help you remove the zest from lemons and oranges. A good grater comes in handy to grate cheese and even some hard spices such as nutmeg.

A WOK

Compared to the traditional kadhai, a wok is not just more convenient, it is also a smarter option as it heats food faster. Don’t go for the huge woks you see in hotels. A 9 to 10-inch diameter wok is ideal for households. Choose one with wooden or stainless steel handles. Apart from deep frying and stir frying, a wok is also ideal for making stock and soups.

A COFFEE MACHINE

While all coffee machines make coffee in a similar manner – pass hot water through ground coffee beans and get their flavour while doing so – there are some that can make an espresso or a cappuccino that tastes as good as a barista. They are available in varieties like percolators, drip and espresso.

A CAST IRON SKILLET

A square pan with straight lines, this comes in handy for grilling vegetables and meats. Plus, the dainty grill marks make the food look delectable.

ALSO GOOD TO HAVE

First-aid kit: It’s a useful thing to have, to deal with a small cut or a kitchen burn.
A calibrated thermome

ter: Ideally, heat the food to 73 degrees and hold it there for 20 seconds to keep it bacteria free. This will help avoid food-related ailments.
Sanitiser: Not only should you keep your hands but also your kitchen free of germs.

AN ELECTRIC WHISK

If you like baking, you can’t do without this. The gizmo is ideal to whisk eggs and prepare cupcakes and mixing batter.

AN OTG

The oven toaster grill (OTG) is considered ideal for slow cooking. The food is baked or grilled to just the right quality. A bigger OTG enhances better air circulation, leading to much better, faster cooking.
 

 

MEASURING SPOONS

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These work well to gauge both dry foods (spices, etc) as well as liquids (soups, oil). While tablespoons are abbreviated to tbsp, teaspoons are shortened to T or tsp.

 

A bandi is a short open vest with a Chinese collar

FOR GUYS

Guys need to remember to coordinate an entire look, not just throw on a kurta. And if they put on a kurta, they need to do it right.

The bandi: This is a great investment for any young man. A bandi is a short open vest with a Chinese collar. It’s so versatile. You can wear it with your churidar, with jeans and a Tshirt, or with a linen shirt and drawstring pants for a day event. It’s less restrictive and stuffy than a whole bandgala and if you want to dress it up, tuck a silk pocket square in a contrasting colour into the breast pocket.
The linen and silk kurta: Fully embroidered kurtas are out, unless you’re the groom and it’s done tastefully. Otherwise, stick to a solid colour and let the material be luxurious, not ostentatious, with embroidery or handiwork on it.

Try the Anarkali

IF YOU WANT TO PUMP IT UP

Don’t want to be draped in six yards this Diwali? Try the Anarkali instead. It not only gives you a festive look but does well over bodies that have something or nothing to hide. The modern Anarkali is lighter so you’ll look slimmer still.
Red Anarkali suit in georgette richly embellished with resham embroidery, sequins and gold silver zari tari patchwork From Panash, available at Fashionandyou.com

NIKASHA TAWADEY

If you’re going to a formal event such as a wedding or a puja – don’t play around. Keep it classic with a simple sari or lehenga. But if it’s a mehendi or sangeet or a fun party, Indian wear that has been given a funky modern twist works so much better, and more Indian women are getting comfortable with it too. Here are three ideas to try:
The waistcoat: It’s possible to work androgynous chic even with ethnic wear. Indian waistcoats for women hark back to the Punjab of the late 18th and early 19th century, so don’t be afraid of them. Team your kurta with a well-fitted sleeveless waistcoat, or just wear dhoti pants with a short kurti and a waistcoat. The fitted sleeveless jacket also goes well with a Patiala salwar suit and crosses the boundaries between Indian and western dressing.
The wide-leg sharara: Because it’s just so comfortable. Again this is unique to our fashion heritage – they are from the 16th-century Mughal period. Wear it with a short kurta or low-back kurti, and to make things more modern, team it not with a threemetre dupatta, but a short scarf or stole.
The pleated pant: Forget the salwar and go with bottoms in soft silk. Team them with a fitted brocade jacket. Or if you like a little more drama, pleated pants, with a sari blouse and a dupatta draped like a sari pallu Gujarati or Kerala style.

But if it has to be an Anarkali… Choose a design that ends mid-thigh – so as to become an empire-line dress, not a full
on kurta. It makes for a younger look.
FOR GUYS Make sure you look good enough for your sherwani. Remember that kurtas are still the mainstay of an Indian look. Here’s what to keep in mind:
Keep it simple: Avoid embroidery all over your kurta. Choose colour and tailoring over embellishment. Try simple white Aligarh kurtas instead of heavy zardosi and use pops of colour to brighten up the white – like a crushed silk scarf in orange or fuchsia. This is the time of the year when a bright colour is not sissy.

ANITA DONGRE

ANITA DONGRE

Enough embellishment, bling and over decoration. There’s a better way to make a statement this season.
The light Anarkali: The new twist on the garment is a reduced ghera, less volume and a simpler style. Short, petite women tend to get swamped in all those layers of fabric. So the new look is more streamlined, with a silhouette that makes you look less like a tent. Get one that concentrates on the upper body – a good shape from the bust to the waist, leaving volume for the lower half – most Indian women have beautiful shoulders. And forget heavy borders – discreet trims add length and look better. The good thing about the Anarkali is that is always makes you look dressed up – it’s like wearing a sari.
The A-line Jacket: Coordinate a long well-tailored A-line jacket with a kurta and flared pants. These add length and blend Indian wear with western chic. Again, don’t overdo the embroidery. Go for an interesting fabric instead.
DON’T FLARE UP
Anita Dongre’s Anarkalis are low on fuss and high on style – they’re fitted to make the most of your bust

SOUNIA GOHIL - designer

designers tell you what to wear, how to wear it and what to stay away from this festive season

SOUNIA GOHIL

This Diwali, it’s not about going heavy. No long dupattas or yards of fabric. The big trend is to go minimalistic, but style your ensemble with lots of accessories. Keep it light with these picks:
The maxi dress: Pick one that is long and simple but has Indian embellishments. You could team it with a churidar and dupatta or just wear it as a dress.
The statement accessory: Don’t layer it on. Pair your kandoora [full-length kurta] or sari with a brooch. It’s more eye-catching.
The new Anarkali: Choose a lighter style and wear it as a dress. And ditch the dark purples. Neons, pastels and nudes all work just as well and can be festive too. Neons and black, particularly, make a very chic statement.

Fashion for art’s sake That’s what designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee believes in, as he showcases his designs as part of a gallery’s diamond jubilee celebrations Sanaya Chavda In a bid to pay homage to some of the finest Indian artists, designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee will be giving a fashion presentation tonight at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya lawns. The special event, which is part of the Diamond jubilee celebrations of the Jehangir Art Gallery, will begin with a performance by singer Shubha Mudgal, followed by the designer’s showing. “The evening will be a sensory overload in terms of beautiful sounds, textures and colour to match the seriousness of art. I will be displaying an extension of my line at the Delhi Couture Week, which was very eclectic, a combination of different cultures yet staying very Indian,” says Sabyasachi who has been inspired by international artists such as Paul Gauguin, Henri Matisse and Frida Kahlo. The designer’s interest in paintings began at an early age, with his mother being an artist. Having started the Sabyasachi Art Foundation a few years ago, the designer himself supports and encourages new talent. “I interview a lot of artists and then decide on those that need support. Some don’t have the ability to market themselves, so they take up odd jobs instead. We pay these artists a sustainable salary so they can run their homes and continue their art,” adds the designer, who plans to hold the first exhibit of these efforts next summer. And will this exhibition have art works by the designer himself? “No, I’m not a great painter. My works are not good enough to be put on display,” he adds. Sabyasachi believes that if one does good work, the money will follow. “Even when it comes to designing, I always do what I think is right. Often projects of commercial importance may not be of great artistic value. It’s important to follow your instinct,” he says. Having constantly incorporated Indian textiles in his creations, Sabyasachi feels the only way to go ahead is by reviving these traditional crafts. “Today, a number of young designers are using these techniques in their work... It’s important to have an understanding of where you come from,” adds the designer as he gears up for work on his latest interior projects.

Fashion for art’s sake

That’s what designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee believes in, as he showcases his designs as part of a gallery’s diamond jubilee celebrations

In a bid to pay homage to some of the finest Indian artists, designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee will be giving a fashion presentation tonight at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya lawns. The special event, which is part of the Diamond jubilee celebrations of the Jehangir Art Gallery, will begin with a performance by singer Shubha Mudgal, followed by the designer’s showing. “The evening will be a sensory overload in terms of beautiful sounds, textures and colour to match the seriousness of art. I will be displaying an extension of my line at the Delhi Couture Week, which was very eclectic, a combination of different cultures yet staying very Indian,” says Sabyasachi who has been inspired by international artists such as Paul Gauguin, Henri Matisse and Frida Kahlo. The designer’s interest in paintings began at an early age, with his mother being an artist. Having started the Sabyasachi Art Foundation a few years ago, the designer himself supports and encourages new talent. “I interview a lot of artists and then decide on those that need support. Some don’t have the ability to market themselves, so they take up odd jobs instead. We pay these artists a sustainable salary so they can run their homes and continue their art,” adds the designer, who plans to hold the first exhibit of these efforts next summer. And will this exhibition have art works by the designer himself? “No, I’m not a great painter. My works are not good enough to be put on display,” he adds. Sabyasachi believes that if one does good work, the money will follow. “Even when it comes to designing, I always do what I think is right. Often projects of commercial importance may not be of great artistic value. It’s important to follow your instinct,” he says. Having constantly incorporated Indian textiles in his creations, Sabyasachi feels the only way to go ahead is by reviving these traditional crafts. “Today, a number of young designers are using these techniques in their work... It’s important to have an understanding of where you come from,” adds the designer as he gears up for work on his latest interior projects.