Food and more food!
The Food Festival, a part of the Pune Festival, was held at Ramchandra Sabha Mandap on Monday, and yes, the main draw was food! Mouth-watering vegetarian biryani, in about thirty versatile presentations, and dhokalas in different shapes and sizes, some even in the shape of the Ganesh sent one into a tizzy. The mung dal halwa, richly garnished, was followed by the enticing looking coconut barfi, carved out as shlokas, rangoli and one even as the tri-colour! As if this as a menu wasn't enough, there was a magnificent flower and toran arrangement competition too, colourfully supplementing the array of food dishes.

Quite a sight, wouldn't you say! Eknath Kulkarni, the chief organiser says,``If there is chole, we had a Punjabi judge, and this year there was a Gujarati for judging the dhokla, we are trying to open up the festival as much as possible.''

All said and done, the whole festival was quite a mouth full!

Tough bike
The new motorbike from Kinetic, K4-100, was put on an endurance test on rough terrain before it is launched on the market. It has covered a distance of 3591 km from Kashmir to Kanyakumari in 38.76 litres with a mileage of 92.55 km per litre, claims Kinetic's in-house magazine Fast Forward in its July issue. Flagged off at Patni Top (Kashmir border), on June 15, the rally was conducted by four enthusiastic riders from the Scooter Motorcycle Repair Association, who took turns to ride the two vehicles - Prashant Dekole, Ashish Paiyawal, Shrikant Chauhan and Prasanna Modak. A service team from the company accompanied the riders. The rally went through various cities, to reach Kanyakumari on June 28. The K4-100 employs a four-stroke engine with a unique technology for an exceptional on-road mileage. A rugged bike for rugged riders!

Sound mind
Yoga is supposed to be an exercise of the body, as well as the mind. Precisely why a six-day course in yoga and pranayam was prescribed to the disabled soldiers and some civilians at the Queen Mary's Technical Institute (QMTI). ``The sudden shift from perfect physical fitness to being disabled can result in psychological fears and anxieties. We, at the QMTI, try to find new ways of generating the feeling of support and the course in yoga and pranayam was part of this programme,''says Col. Arun Moghe, executive director, QMTI. The programme conducted by Dr. S.A. Sidhanti had to assimilate modifications in yoga postures keeping in mind the disabilities of the 80 who participated. ``Twenty eight participants are wheel-chair bound while the others sat on the ground during the exercises. The activity has already had a positive effect in terms of imparting exercise and mental peace,'' says Moghe. So much so that the institute plans to conduct yet another round in ten days time.