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| What's in the bottle? Sula's red |
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Ancient
legend has it that lord ram along with his wife and brother spent
a considerable part of his exile near Nashik. A few millennia
later, the town still attracts thousands of pilgrims every year,
but this correspondent was sent out on another sort of pilgrimage
to the town.
True, it may not be Bordeaux or southern
California, but the erstwhile Godavari floodplain outside the
town has become India's answer to Napa Valley. The ostensible
purpose of the visit to the Sula Vineyard-to reveal the secrets
behind the bottle.
The sad thing is that winemaking, the way
they show it on Discovery and NatGeo, has almost died out. There
is no large wooden tub where buxom beauties crush grapes underfoot.
Nope, other than the occasional photo shoot involving nubile item
girls, the wooden tub has itself been replaced by a nameless (or
was it) unromantic three-and-a-half-ton heavy press. "Given
the volumes of grapes we have to process, it would take forever
if we did it manually," laughs Ajoy Shaw, Winemaker at the
Sula Vineyard.
Oh, well. Maybe the catacombs where the bottles
are left to mature might throw up some nasty surprises. Nope,
nothing here as well. In fact, instead of seeing cobweb-lined
walls with flickering candles, hundreds of bottles were placed
in racks in a room lit by a tube light, no less.
The romance had seemingly evaporated under
the onslaught of machines, a la Matrix. But the bar with its breathtaking
vista of the vineyards and the river beyond came around. Actually,
give the guys a break, winemaking in India is still in its infancy;
the first vineyards only came about towards the latter half of
the last decade. Maybe by the time the grandchildren come along,
things might look more 'ancient'.
And then again, Nashik
is a mere 200 km from the heart of Mumbai, a whole lot closer
than travelling to the classic vineyards of southern Europe. And
if you are thinking of an offbeat weekend excursion from the hustle
and bustle of a megapolis, the wine experience might be just the
thing to get your spirits up. If not, you can always get your
spirits up at the bar.
Cheers!
(Sula Vineyards, Samant Soma Wines Ltd.,
35, Govardhan, Off Gangapur-Savargoan Road, Nashik 422222; Tel:
0253-2231663; www.sulawines.com; approximately five hours drive
from Mumbai; bar open from 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; best time of the year
to visit: January-March)
-Priyanka Sangani
TREADMILL
Stop Whining, Start Working Out
 You're
35 (plus or minus a couple). You're successful as hell. You made
vp in record time and as you cruise into your corner office every
day, you can feel scores of pairs of jealous eyes burn holes in
the back of your bespoke suit. That feels good. You're on top
of the world and you have only one person to thank for that: yourself.
But when you strip down to your briefs and get on that weighing
scale, what do you see? And your waistline? How cheerful does
that make you feel?
Hundreds of executives on the fast track
find it easy to sacrifice fitness on their way to success at work.
When your work schedule is crammed, workouts can often take a
backseat. It's the easiest excuse in the world: "I'm so busy;
I can't find time to work out." But then, if you're smart
you would have realised early on that fitness is as important
to career progression as anything else.
In any case, the lack of access to gyms or
long working hours shouldn't be a deterrent to exercising, at
least not if you accord the same priority to workouts as you do
to that review meeting at 9 a.m.
The bottom line: you can exercise without
going to a gym or having access to expensive equipment or weights.
Here's a routine that you could follow anywhere-in your office,
in a hotel room or at home. Use your bodyweight. For instance,
do push-ups with your feet up on the seat of a chair (see illustration).
Do 20-25 repetitions of two sets. Then without a pause, do two
sets of squats, again without weights using only your body weight.
Follow that up with biceps curls and shoulder presses-instead
of barbells or dumb-bells, use objects that are in your office,
a thick book, a full bottle of water, a couple of rolled up magazines
(Business Today will do!), anything. A thick book can be used
to do shoulder presses, a bottle of water (with the cap tightly
secure) or the rolled-up mags can be held horizontally for arm
curls. Remember, where there's a will there's a way. And if that
doesn't motivate you, here's an empirically determined fact: physically
fit people tend to get promoted more often than their out-of-shape,
unfit colleagues. So pick up that fat tome on the Companies Act
and get cracking.
Tip of the fortnight: Do the plank or bridge
to strengthen your core abdominal and back muscles. Here's how.
Lie on the floor, supporting your torso with your arms, with your
palms shoulder width like you would do before a push-up. Maintain
your hips and torso in a straight line. Your toes should be touching
the ground and feet arched towards your shin. Hold this position
for 30 seconds. Relax. Repeat.
-Muscles
Mani
write to musclesmani@intoday.com
NEGATING
ADD
No,
this is not a math article. We're talking A-D-D (as in Adult Attention
Deficit Disorder) here, a condition that is often mistakenly thought
of as something that happens only to children. However, adults
are as prone to ADD as well. Here's a primer:
What it is: Says Dr. Shamsher Dwivedee, Senior
Consultant, Neurology, Vidyasagar Institute of Mental Health and
Neurosciences (VIMHANS): "There are no defined criteria for
the diagnosis of ADD, but there's a realisation in the scientific
community that an adult who has ADD may be sharing the same traits
as that of the commonly-known ADHD (Adult-Deficit/Hyperactivity
Disorder), which is found in children." ADHD's frequency
in India is approximately 5 to 6 per cent in pre-pubertal children,
20 per cent of whom develop ADD as adults.
Symptoms: The trouble with ADD is that its
symptoms are similar to stress-related problems, and therefore
may not be taken very seriously. Indications could range from
having trouble wrapping up the final details of a project once
the challenging parts are done, having problems with organising
work, feeling overly active and compelled to do things and so
on.
Effects and cure: Adults with ADD have a
history of subtle brain injury due to infection. Toxins, infections
or bad obstetric care might also be the causes for the disorder.
As for cure, artificial stimulants like Methylphenidate, Amphetamine,
Desimipramine and Clonidine help control ADD if administered on
a long-term basis. Behavioural therapy is another option that
one could go in for. So, if you're getting those stress blues
too often, you'd do well to check out the doc.
-Indrani Rajkhowa
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