Lifestyle

05

Sep

By The Press Editor

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Lifestyle

Acoustic systems at home: from design to placement, what really matters

What really is ‘good sound’? Is it crystal-clear music, with no technical glitches? Is it the perfect filler to conversations with your loved ones? Or is it perhaps the aesthetic appeal of the speakers? For Harry Jones, sound experience engineer at audio-tech brand Sonos, it’s all of them, and maybe even more. “Even good battery life contributes to a good sound experience. For example, on a beach, if the battery [of the speaker] runs out, a bad sound experience is actually no music at all,” he laughs.In a chat with The Hindu, Jones talks all things sound — what really constitutes…

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05

Sep

By The Press Editor

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Lifestyle

Swipe now, pay forever | Credit card debt in India is no longer a silent crisis

On the ‘Credit Cards India’ subreddit, a user writes, “Lost my job, ₹80k in credit card debt, no income. What are my options?” Another says, “Drowning in credit card debt (ICICI, Axis, HDFC, Federal) — no income, no support. Please help.” A third asks, “Struggling with EMIs. Is foreclosure a good idea?” These are just a few of the hundreds of desperate posts that expose the harsh reality behind India’s growing financial aspirations.Living on creditCredit card debt is no longer a silent crisis. Last year alone, defaults in India surged 28%, touching ₹6,742 crore. This sharp rise reflects not just…

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04

Sep

By The Press Editor

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Lifestyle

Onam recap: Celebrities share their fondest Onam memories

Even for those who are not prone to nostalgia, Onam opens a floodgate of memories. Of a time when flowers for the pookkalam did not come out of plastic bags, sadya was a community affair that families and neighbours got together to make, festivities brought entire cities and villages alive and how people came together in a shared sense of co-existence.Celebrated personalities from various fields share their special Onam memories with MetroPlus.Vinayak SasikumarLyricist Vinayak Sasikumar | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement In childhood, Onam meant sadya and I relish the sadya from my hometown, Thiruvananthapuram. Parippu, sambar, vada curry, which is…

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04

Sep

By The Press Editor

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Lifestyle

“We have brought over two million girls back into school”: Safeena Husain on her Ramon Magsaysay Award-winning organisation Educate Girls

Safeena Husain, 54, was with a group of teenagers celebrating a learning milestone in a small village outside Udaipur, Rajasthan, when she asked one of them why her education had been interrupted. The girl had passed her Class X with Pragati, a second chance programme offered by Husain’s award-winning non-profit Educate Girls. Pragati was designed for older girls who are ineligible for formal schooling. “I’m 18,” she told Husain. “I left education 10 years ago when I was married.”Husain just won the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award (the first for an Indian organisation) for her nearly two decade old labour of…

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03

Sep

By The Press Editor

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Lifestyle

Joonus Sait & Sons celebrates 120 years as Chennai’s iconic winterwear and rainwear store

The irony is impossible to miss. Outside, the Chennai sun blazes with its usual fury. Inside Joonus Sait & Sons, neat stacks of woollen sweaters, cardigans, and thermal wear line the shelves. For 120 years, the store has been an unlikely fixture in Madras — a place where generations of families have come, not for the weather outside their doors, but for the journeys beyond them.“The store was started by my grandfather’s grandfather Hajee Abbas Yunus Sait, who was called Joonus Sait because the Anglo-Indian name for Yunus is Joonus. He was doing business in Bellari, Karnataka in the 1900s,…

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03

Sep

By The Press Editor

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Lifestyle

Bangladesh, Pakistan among Aga Khan Award for Architecture 2025 winners 

The Aga Khan Award for Architecture for the year 2025 was announced on Tuesday (September 2). While India, which has won the award only six times till date, didn’t even make the final shortlist of 15 countries (19 studio projects were shortlisted from 369 submitted this year), South Asia has scored big with Bangladesh and Pakistan among the seven winners of this edition. The other awardees include Palestine, China, Egypt and two winners from Iran. The winning projects will share the $1 million award, one of the largest in architecture. The award ceremony will be held on September 15 in…

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02

Sep

By The Press Editor

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Lifestyle

In Indore, Atelier V’s daring new cocktail menu flirts with ingredients, techniques and stories

First, we get in line for poha. Served with crunchy mixture and finely chopped onions, it is best eaten with freshly fried, deliciously sticky jalebis.  Then come the cocktails, paired with an intricate tasting menu and luxe setting at Indore’s Atelier V.  By midnight we head to the city’s celebrated Sarafa market, jostling between hungry crowds, to do icy jamun shots, eat sweet-savoury khopra potato pattice stuffed with coconut, and kulhad pizza. (Which is exactly what it sounds like.)  We pause eating only to admire the ‘Gold Man,’ who is weighed down with glittering jewellery, and gape at Joshi’s famous flying dahi…

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01

Sep

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Lifestyle

Anna Chandy: the one who stood tall in court

A picture of Justice Anna Chandy published in The Hindu on February 13, 1959. | Photo Credit: The Hindu Archives A feminist, the founder-editor of a magazine, and most importantly, the first-ever female judge in the history of the Indian judiciary. This is the story of Anna Chandy.A fierce advocate of women’s rights and equality, Anna Chandy was born in Travancore, Kerala, in 1905. She was raised by the women of her family due to the death of her father at an early age. Perhaps that is what made her ideas and thoughts on equality modern and quite ahead of…

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01

Sep

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Lifestyle

Apartments have to get their ‘Act’ together

A year since Tamil Nadu Apartment Ownership Rules 2024 prepared by the Housing and Urban Development Department came into effect, many apartment complexes in Chennai are yet to complete the process involving registration or renewal of association status. Tamil Nadu Gazette dated September 24, 2024 requires owners of units in an apartment (starting from four-flat apartments to massive multiple-tower societies) to submit “Form-A” towards initial registration. It wants apartments with multiple blocks/towers in a compound to form a federation, and make bye-laws. Irrespective of the size the apartment, flat owners are required to appoint an auditor, submit audited accounts and balance…

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31

Aug

By The Press Editor

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Lifestyle

Vastrabharana 2025 in Bengaluru showcases handcrafted textiles and jewellery

(L-R) Creations by Econic and a weave by Hosa Arambha, a revival project by the Yali Store in collaboration with The Registry of Sarees | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement Next week, the 33rd edition of Vastrabharana — the annual exhibition of handcrafted textiles and jewellery — will commence in Bengaluru. Organised by The Crafts Council of Karnataka (CCK), the event will bring together weavers, designers, and artisans from across the country. This year, Vastrabharana is themed on Illusion and Fantasy, and is slated to be a tribute to the ‘power of imagination and storytelling in textile traditions… and invites participating…

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