Often considered dull and uninviting, Indian museums are storehouses of history and culture, and deserve repeat visits saysShailaja Tripathi

It’s no surprise that Usha Bane’s one and only tryst with acting inCourtwas a such a standout one. She played a manual scavenger’s widow, whose life struggles resonated with eerie similarity to her own

The 31-year-old actor said after megastar Amitabh Bachchan and superstar Shah Rukh Khan, he is the only actor to be directed by Bhansali and Chopra.

In India Conquered , English historian Jon Wilson demystifies the British rule in India

Cambridge [Cambridgeshire] ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1987

Sensex, Nifty updates on 18th April 2024: Equity benchmarks BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty extended losses on Thursday. As per provisional figures, BSE Sensex fell 332.23 pts or 0.46 per cent to trade at 72,611.45 as of 3.35 pm and Nifty 50 declined 103.70 pts or 0.47 per cent to trade at 22,044.20., Bharti Airtel, Power Grid Corp, M&M, BPCL, and Tata Steel were the top gainers, while Nestle, Apollo Hospitals, Axis Bank, HCL Technologies, and ONGC were the major laggards. The stocks that hit a 52-week high on the NSE include AAA Tech (19.33 per cent), Just Dial (12.95 per cent), Indo Tech (10 per cent) and Hi-Tech Gear (10 per cent).

Mirae Asset Nifty MidSmallcap400 Momentum Quality 100 ETF offers a blend of passive and smart-beta investing

Navigating the intricacies of ETF-investing involves understanding the disparity between an ETF’s market price and its Net Asset Value (NAV)

Rahul Goswami, CIO &MD - India Fixed Income, Franklin Templeton Asset Management, on what investors can expect on the debt side from the AMC and on his rate cut expectations

Buying passive mutual funds, which simply mirror the basket of stocks making up an index, can help capitalising on a correction

Since its inception in December 2020, HDFC Dividend Yield fund has outperformed the broader markets convincingly

Exposure to indigenised defence spending through a passive fund

If you’re a Non-Resident Indian eyeing India’s growth story, here are the basics that matter

A look at the stock positions of Quant Mutual Fund’s Mid- and Small-cap schemes, stress-test results (as of May 2024) and adjusted Net Asset Value (NAV)

Performance, portfolio composition and downside protection are three reasons that work for Mirae Asset Great Consumer Fund

Open to spinning off passive fund business under MF Lite, says Swarup Mohanty, Vice-Chairman and CEO, Mirae Asset Investment Managers

Multi-cap and Focused funds were the best performers with 75 per cent and 64 per cent or 18 each of the 24 and 28 schemes beat their respective benchmark

Broad portfolio of holdings in equity and debt to limit portfolio downside during corrections from the peaks

The ultra short duration scheme is a new offering from the fund house after a long gap

Guide to withdrawing a fixed sum from MF investments at regular intervals for a fixed period

Non-submission of ‘choice of nomination’ shall not result in freezing of MF folios for existing investors. But, you have more to lose not doing it

Kotak Nifty India Tourism Index fund will invest in airlines, airport operators, hotels, restaurants and travel portals

Exposure to multiple sub-sectors differentiates the funds in infrastructure

A brief explainer on the amendments pertaining to investors recently brought in

Applying filters of the style throws up companies in market-leading positions with a competitive moat

Raising the retirement age seems to be an invitation for demographic disaster.

Book Review: Mass Historia
Fiction Book Reviews

Emmy award winning comedy writer Chris Regan has turned his considerable talents to past events and come out with a winner in this uproarious look at 365 days in history. Embellishing facts with liberal doses of light humor, history has never been more entertaining as demonstrated by the January 4 entry celebrating Utah’s statehood that explains how Utah became the forty-fifth state which coincidentally, was the average number of wives enjoyed by most Utah men at the time. Then learn about the army suppression of an uprising of a hoard of Donnie Osmond groupies and the five top Mormon fun facts.

Food & Wine magazine’s “Best of the Best” cookbooks feature in the June 2009 issue will include

The Art and Soul of Baking by Sur La Table with Cindy Mushet

and

Secrets of the Red Lantern: Stories and Vietnamese Recipes from the Heart by Pauline Nguyen with recipes by Luke Nguyen and Mark Jensen







Food & Wine magazine’s “Best of the Best” cookbooks feature in the June 2009 issue will include

The Art and Soul of Baking by Sur La Table with Cindy Mushet

and

Secrets of the Red Lantern: Stories and Vietnamese Recipes from the Heart
by Pauline Nguyen with recipes by Luke Nguyen and Mark Jensen

Good Morning America food editor Sara Moulton’s picks for
Best Cookbook of the Year included Knives Cooks Love: Selection. Care. Techniques. Recipes. by Sur La Table with Sarah Jay.

The segment aired 12/23:

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/HolidayTheme/story?id=6511192&page=1

No Laughing Matter By JIM MCTAGUE
Cartoonist and blogger Scott Adams is outspoken about economics, politics and more -- but tight-lipped about Dilbert, hero to cubicle jockeys.

JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT THE ECONOMY COULDN'T POSSIBLY get worse comes this disturbing news: Dilbert's mismanaged high-tech company is foundering, jeopardizing the lovable cartoon character's oppressive but steady job as an electrical engineer in a stuffy cubicle, where he's manufactured laughs about illogical and inhumane corporate managers for nearly 20 years.

Barron's won't divulge the climax of the current plot. During a recent interview, Dilbert's creator, Scott Adams, asked that we merely hint at what lies ahead for the cylinder-headed nerd with the upturned, clip-on tie. But read the daily Dilberts carefully over the next few days or weeks; clues abound and they don't point to a happy conclusion.

That's fitting because, as Adams notes in Dilbert 2.0, his $85, 576-page 20th-anniversary collection of 4,000 of his more than 8,000 cartoon strips (plus a DVD): "Dilbert is most popular when the workplace is at its worse." In fact, the strip, a window on workplace absurdity, took off during the downsizing binge of the early 1990s. In one memorable sequence from that period, Dilbert competes with a monkey to keep his engineering job. Dilbert wins, but his victory jig is short-circuited by his pointy-haired boss' decision to place the monkey on the upper-management fast track. Sounds like a telling commentary on the corporate world of 21st century's first decade, too.

Adams' current strips and very funny blog (http://www.dilbert.com/blog/), which often feature the cartoonist's insightful economic and stock-market commentaries, provide more hints about Dilbert's fate. A Dec. 12 blog argues that the recession is anything but temporary: "I think we are on the verge of a change as profound as the Industrial Revolution. Society will have to retool its expectations to meet the reality that there just won't be enough money to provide necessary services if we insist on consuming in an inefficient way."

One clue about Dilbert's fate appeared on Dec. 13 in newspapers around the world (Dilbert is published in 70 countries and 25 languages) in what turned out to be one of the most popular episodes in the strip's history: A financial adviser recommends that Dilbert's pointy-haired boss invest all of the company's funds in sick livestock. Don't buy just one sick cow, the adviser urges; buy an entire herd, because by aggregating sick cows, the risk goes away. "It's called math," the adviser adds, in a send-up of the asset-backed securitizations that have helped topple the global economy.

The financial adviser, by the way, is a malicious canine. In his blogs, Adams is equally unkind to real advisers and money managers. In his view, formed long before the disrobing of Bernie Madoff, they're always conniving to steal investors' money. Perhaps this depiction is payback: Adams lost a bundle following advice during the tech bubble, which also convinced him that investing in individual stocks and "professionally managed" funds is a losers' game. His advisers put half of his portfolio into WorldCom, Enron and other sure things and lost 40% of his invested cash, he says. He managed the other half and lost 20% in the tech wreck.

"Most of the investments I made in individual stocks went bad because managements were lying. They are the source of the information for the markets." His conclusion: "It is even dumber to pay an expert to talk to the liar for you and charge you 1% of your portfolio." Some folks who bought funds of funds that invested with Madoff surely would agree.

Library Journal included The Art and Soul of Baking by Sur La Table with Cindy Mushet on its list of Best How-To Books of 2008.

This addition to renowned culinary authority Sur La Table's cookbook series, The Art and Soul of Baking (Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC; $40.00 hardcover), guides readers through the world of baking, where the tantalizing aromas of chocolate, vanilla, butter, and cinnamon fill the air and tempt the palate. Whether turning out a rustic olive and thyme bread or crafting a show-stopping triple-layer chocolate cake, pastry chef and baking instructor Cindy Mushet provides indispensable tips and tricks to help home bakers achieve professional-looking—and professional-tasting—results.

More than 275 tested and delectable recipes cover all the bases from tasty pies, tantalizing tarts, melt-in-your-mouth meringues, and delicious cookies to more complicated creations such as flaky pastries, decadent cakes, and lighter-than-air soufflés. Novice bakers and pastry perfectionists alike will be tempted by such treats as Dulce De Leche Éclairs with Milk Chocolate Glaze; Pumpkin Spice Cake with Maple-Cream Cheese Frosting; Gingerbread Shortcakes with Caramelized Apples and Cider Sabayon; and Warm Cranberry Crumble Tart. Of course, there are savory recipes, too, including fragrant Parmesan-Herb Popovers; Potato, Onion, and Gruyère Galette; and a perfect Herbed Chicken Pot Pie. And for a delicious twist on tried-and-true favorites, there are recipes for Bananas Foster Bread Pudding; Citrus-Goat Cheese Cheesecake; Chocolate Velvet Pound Cake; and Peanut Butter Thumbprints with Peanut Caramel.

People Are Talking About columnist Danielle Nussbaum on Teen Vogue called Jurassic Towel Origami "The best thing we got in the mail this week."

http://www.teenvogue.com/industry/blogs/entertainment/2009/03/best-thing-we-got-in-the-mail-this-week.html

Tom Flynn Reads from Bikeman

Journalist Tom Flynn decided to respond to the events of September 11, 2001, by writing an epic poem in which he recalled how, on that fateful day, he had hopped on his bicycle, braved the chaos, and headed down to the World Trade Center to cover the attacks for CBS News. When the second tower was hit, Flynn found himself in the middle of the unraveling horror. In his book, Bikeman: An Epic Poem (Andrews McMeel), Flynn's poetic dispatches reflect on the sorrow, fear, and humanity shared by the nation on that “forever September morning.”

In celebration of National Poetry month, VF.com presents an exclusive audio excerpt.