Dilli Haat in London

Delhi and London seem to be getting increasingly inspired by each other, writtes Vijay Dutt.

The weather is just fine for "importing" Delhi to London, the two twin cities, which seem to be getting increasingly inspired by each other. The famous Dilli Haat, which enamoured Prince Charles so much that he wished he could get it transported to London, is now being showcased for the Londoner. The hundreds of thousand of tourists will also be able to glimpse and "taste" the best of the Dilli Haat at Trafalgar Square under the watchful eye of Nelson.

Chief minister Sheila Dikshit is coming for the function and one is quite sure the Greater London mayor Ken Livingston will be there to renew his rapport with her. But before that Haat weeks starts Rohit Khattar's Chor Bizarre rated as one of the top 10 most entertaining restaurant held a "preview" of what the gourmet should expect at the Haat.

His lunch meet, with all those delicacies of Delhi Hatt, did more in publicising the event. His chef had flown out to "learn" about the special cuisine and returned with a few more pounds added to his weight. A good publicity for the Hatt dishes. The Delhi government has, one is told, promised to create the Hatt atmosphere. But its tourism promotion has not been much. There has been very little - though much needed - publicity to highlight the event amongst Londoners.

Dilliwala Kabir Bedi, once again an actor in demand, following his role in the West End musical adaptation of "The Far Pavilions", inaugurated the food festival at Chor Bizarre. The ex-St Stephanian reminisced about his college years when he used to stroll down Daryaganj and Jama Masjid, for a bite. But there is more than food and theatre happening in the actor's life. The epic film "Taj Mahal", is being eagerly awaited this month, in which Bedi is starring as Shahjehan. The villain in Bond film is now quite a philosopher, "Lets say, I've survived the bad times. All the work I have been doing over the last three to four years is starting to show now. It's all coming together."

So will the Indians, the old, true Londoners and Asians from all over Britain at Trafalgar Square to visit Delhi Haat. Dikshit should be congratulated for doing something great for the image of India and tourism. I hope tourism department follows her example for greater efforts.

Advani Jinnah ripples in London

The Advani resignation, his praise for Jinnah's secularism and the consequent upheaval in the BJP has caused more ripples here than any other recent event in India, bar the Gujarat riots. I was surprised at the intensity of feelings whenever his resignation and utterances in Pakistan were being discussed.

The general consensus favoured Advani, and felt the BJP members must cut their umbilical cord with the RSS and let VHP rave and rant. The feeling was that new and young BJP members --- a few named included Arun Jaitley and Shatrughan Sinha -- who have, seemingly, little in common with the RSS ideology, should extricate the BJP from obdurate ideas and the past moorings. BJP is thus back in reckoning. Advani has at least given some oxygen to the party suffering from suffocation and near collapse since the poll loss.

The Bachchan saga

Bachchans are well known here. Ajitabh and family lived in Hampstead for ages; Amitabh has been a frequent visitor and has, as everywhere else, a huge following. Ramola Bachchan's parties are still talked about. Well, she is now gone to Delhi too. But, the report that Ajitabh is to write a biography of his brother Amitabh has caused quite a sensation here in the London socialite circles.

The reason is that many believe the relations between the brothers is not very brotherly and they expect "revelations" which would be fodder for them to digest their avarice for gossip. The other evening a socialite who attended Ramola's parties grinning and smirking said that she was waiting to see what the young brother would write about the brother who has a new brother. This was quite a tongue twister. But the lady was happy at her thoughts and pun, maybe.

The learned sleep well

Studies these days are great fun. We learn women with a good education have much less trouble getting to sleep than men with the same level of qualifications. Although women in general are far more likely than men to suffer from insomnia, those who are better educated enjoy the best night's sleep.

But the reverse is true of men. The well educated tend to toss and turn, while the less-learned drift into blissful slumber. One reason is that while well-educated men may lose sleep because they feel under pressure to get high-powered jobs, educated women often have a choice about whether or not to go out to work once they get married or enter a stable relationship.

Men with lower levels of education do not experience the same expectations to succeed as their better-educated counterparts. Poorly educated women, on the other hand, are more likely to face the stress of being single parents with no financial support from the father. So education seems to be directly linked with sleep. They say the mad sleep real well!

Another study has found that men cannot read women's faces at all. It confirms that males are almost incapable of reading female facial expressions. From joy to despair, experts found that the way a woman feels will often go over a man's head. Women on the other hand, are far more adept at understanding what the opposite sex is going through.

The research seems to back up what many women have already discovered - that it does not pay to take a subtle approach when trying to convey your feelings to a man. The reasons behind it, other than the fact that women fulfill more care-taking roles, the female brain has more grey matter in the so-called limbic system, the area involved in emotional processing. No wonder Alpha women have no need for the male variety.

The last word

It is far better to depend on God whom you do not know than the devil whom you do.