SUNDAY FEATURE

New Delhi: The overtly masculine image of amber liquid sloshing gently on rocks of ice as gentlemen hold their glasses and clouds of cigar smoke swirl around is changing rapidly with whisky brands tapping into a diverse customer base and experimenting with flavours as diverse as coffee and tea.

The staid whisky spirit is getting a fun makeover with cocktail connoisseurs joining in too, either using ingredients to enhance the velvety smooth flavour of whisky or disguising it, to woo those who usually stayed with sweeter fruity cocktails. Shreshta Saha, who kept away from whisky for almost half a decade, now says Whiskey Sour is her drink of choice.

Jaipur: From sweeping streets as a municipal worker to becoming a Rajasthan government official, Asha Kandara, 40, has shown what true grit can achieve. A single mother of two, Kandara cleared the Rajasthan Administrative Service (RAS) examination, 2018, the results of which got delayed and were finally declared on July 13, 2021.

“I had to go through a lot from a broken marriage, caste discrimination to gender bias. But I never let myself drown in sorrow and instead decided to fight back,” she said. A few years after separating from her husband, Kandara decided to pursue her education. She completed her graduation in 2016.

When 43 ministers were sworn in to be part of the Modi cabinet in a brief ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Thursday, former senior Congress leader and now a BJP Rajya Sabha MP remained the cynosure of all eyes.A third-generation politician from all-powerful Scindia royal family of Gwalior, Jyotiraditya Scindia had witnessed an ideological divide for long between the Jansangh-BJP and the Congress. The divide was bridged last year when Scinidia, along with 22 party MLAs, joined the BJP following a rift with the state and central party leadership of Congress.

His elevation as a union minister comes as an obvious news for many after he helped BJP regain power in Madhya Pradesh but along with it come several political connotations.

After 15 years of togetherness, Aamir Khan and Kiran Rao announced their divorce through a joint statement earlier on Friday. The couple, who had first met on the sets of Lagaan, tied the knot in 2005 and have collaborated on an array of critically successful films including Peepli Live, Delhi Belly, and Dangal, among others. The announcement has left the fraternity and the audience, including Khan’s close friend, Amin Hajee, in shock.

Talking about the couple’s decision, Hajee says, “My family has known about this for a while but it’s just Aamir and Kiran and has decided to announce it today. I am still coming to terms with this great loss. As we speak they are together with Azad (Rao Khan) in Kargil. In fact, Kiran sent me a photograph of the three of them today morning. I showed it to my family and told them that they are still together but it is just that their marital status has changed."

Whenever queen Laxmibai, the brave queen of Jhansi is remembered, Scindias find a customary mention alongside, though it remains anonymous at times. This was the case again last week when the martyrdom day of queen Laxmibai was observed in Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh.

At one of the functions held in Bhopal, the Congress party demanded that Gwalior be renamed after the brave queen as Laxmibai Nagar. Former minister Sajjan Singh Verma went a step ahead seeking inclusion of additional facts in the history taught in school syllabus on Rani Laxmibai’s life. Not naming anyone, Verma said everyone should know who had conspired against the queen in 1857 war of Independence.