Recalls one of the most successful fashion designers of the country, Neeta Lulla. Preeti Devnani reports

Today’s hottest cookbooks don’t just tell you how to boil rice. They take you on a journey that begins with your palate and ends on the dinner table

Almost every foodie is a fan of Jamie Oliver and Anthony Bourdain, as well as Nigella Lawson. One can’t help but stare in amazement as these master chefs prepare scrumptious dishes. It’s one thing to watch a show and hastily jot down the recipe that flashes at the end, but it’s another thing to buy a cookbook and go through it in leisure.

There’s a cookbook for every kind of person. So pick a category — housewife, vegetarian, working woman or the ultimate foodie. We’ll tell you which books to buy if you want to create culinary delights.
 

Jaipur’s wait for one of the most loved desserts, the doughnut, may nearly be over

The other day I was watching a feature on Dunkin Donuts, the famous American chain of doughnuts and coffee, on television. It was then that it occurred to me how similar the cooking process of doughnuts and our Indian vadas was. Both are fried with a hole made in the centre giving them the shape of a ring. The only difference is that while the former is a dessert, the latter is a salty snack. Of course, the batter is different too. Doughnuts are made of white flour mixed with yeast and our vadas are made of ground lentils.

Pre-marital sex higher among youth in villages than city counterparts

Forget sex in the city, the villages are where all the action is. A study has found that more youth in rural areas of the state indulge in pre-marital sex than their urban counterparts, thanks largely to the fact that they face none of the space and privacy problems young couples in cities are constantly grappling with.

Findings of the 'Youth in India- Situation and Needs' study, which were made public on Thursday, showed that the chances of young men in rural areas indulging in pre-marital sex is three times higher than young men in urban areas.

For women, size does matter - at least as far as televisions are concerned, says an Aussie businessman.

Ryan Emmett, who's an owner of a supply and installation company, said that when it comes to plasma televisions, women, and not men, always go for the bigger telly.

"I've been selling these for 51/2 years and every single time, when it comes to a choice between say a 50-inch (125cm)and a 60-inch (150cm), the wife will always go for the bigger screen, every single time," The Courier Mail quoted Emmett, as saying.

His company, Smart Fit Australia, of Toowong, supplies and fits cabling and products that turn homes into touch-screen-automated empires.

Start up

Driven by a passion to design and create something out of the ordinary, Nidhi Shringi started up with the unique artefacts and home accessories store two years ago in Mumbai. After travelling round the globe with husband Gaurav, the two wanted to settle down in their hometown Jaipur. And the urge to provide Rajasthan with something unusual led them to open their second store here in the city. “Rajasthan is the home of handicrafts, but it does not have a concept store like this. So we thought it was great for both and would, in turn, promote handicrafts too,” says Gaurav.