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For
several days early February, I drove around town with a punctilious
woman in my car (let me finish, dear). Every time I got into the
car with her, her first words would invariably be "drive
carefully". Now, I am ordinarily a patient man, but not when
it comes to back-seat drivers. In fact, I don't even like anybody
else driving my car-one reason why I've stoically resisted the
temptation to hire a driver for my 70-km commute to and fro work.
So why was I suffering this matron, allowing her to dictate my
every thrust and parry in Delhi's notorious traffic? For one,
she wasn't really a back-seat driver; she wasn't even seated beside
me, but stuck to the windshield, about 45-degree north-west to
my steering wheel. Actually, she wasn't even a lady, but the Nippon
SatGuide, except that the Destinator (that's what the navigation
software on the Pocket PC is called) did come with pre-recorded
instructions in the voice of a woman. (As for my uncharacteristic
patience, did I mention I have a job to keep?)
Priced at Rs 37,990, the Nippon SatGuide,
touted as India's first in-vehicle navigation device, currently
covers three cities: Delhi & NCR, Mumbai and Hyderabad. Apart
from a driving map for the cities, the SatGuide offers information
on a variety of other things: points of interest, public utilities,
entertainment locations like malls and multiplexes. To put the
Destinator to test, I pick a route I know better than the device:
the Jhandewalan-Gurgaon stretch, snaking through the ridge and
onwards to NH8. The system performs beautifully, telling me to
take a U-turn at the Jhandewalan roundabout to head up onto the
ridge. The first problem surfaces at the Dhaula Kuan spaghetti
junction. The Destinator's map hasn't been updated, and the lady
seems annoyed that I am not following her instructions. The same
thing happens at a couple of other places, but on the whole, the
Destinator works beautifully, even on routes I am not familiar
with. Would I buy it? Yes, if it ends up mapping inter-city routes.
But in its current form, the Nippon SatGuide has little use for
a city-rat like me.
-R. Sridharan
Lazeeeeeeeeee Boyyyyyyyyyyy
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| The ultimate recliner: 106 springs do
the trick |
The editor of
this magazine is a fitness fanatic and it shows. I am not and
it shows too. Then, there is a price to be paid for wanting to
put one's feet up, all the time. Take it from me, it isn't easy
to do this. For one, there are deadlines to be met. Then, there
is the mechanics of it all. For instance, if I tried to effect
the putting-the-feet-up thingamajig while sitting on my chair
in the office, I'd probably damage my spinal cord.
I have always been partial to soft, thickly
upholstered furniture and have owned recliners (right from a stiff
bare wooden one owned by my grandfather, which was made of Burma
teak) to a recently-acquired Chinese one whose reclining mechanism
rather cruelly reinforces that old axiom about there being a direct
relationship between quality and price.
So when the real McCoy arrived in the marketplace,
I had to check it out. The verdict is in. There are recliners
and then there is La-Z-Boy. When cousins Edward Knabusch and Edwin
Shoemaker in 1927 designed a wooden slat outdoor folding chair
fashioned from orange crates, boy, did they catch on to something
or what?
Sunil Suresh, CEO, Stanley Seating that imports
La-Z-Boys, says it is the product's 106-patented-moving-springs
mechanism that gives it that ultimate-recliner feeling. (Not just
the overall mechanism, but each of the 106 moving springs have
been patented, he points out to any would be adventurers). And
yes, the handle of the recliner mechanism is made of solid wood,
which gives it that perfect feel compared to the cheapy, tacky
plastic one on my current Chinese recliner. All I am waiting for
now is my next hike to go and exercise my right to recline.
Price: Rs 26,000 to Rs 60,000
-Venkatesha Babu
TREADMILL
When Less Is More
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| Supersets: More muscle in half the time |
The
universal quest for anyone who's seriously into weight training
is to get a ripped and well-defined body in the shortest period
of time. Wouldn't it be a boon if you could do your workout in
half the time it normally takes and yet build stronger muscles?
In fact, you can and I'm not talking about performance enhancing
drugs or steroidal supplements. Indeed, if you've been weight-training
for a while you will probably have heard of super-setting, a way
of working out that packs more into less time and can give you
better results.
Supersets, as many readers know, is an advanced
technique where two exercises targeting the same muscle group
are done one after the other without resting in between. So, say
you're doing exercises for your chest muscles. A superset could
be a set of barbell bench-presses, quickly followed by a set of
dumb-bell flys, both targeting the pectorals but done consecutively
rather than with a rest in between.
Besides an obvious boon for those starved
for time, super-setting has other advantages. Supersets increase
the intensity of a workout. Because you don't rest between two
sets, a superset makes you do more work in a shorter period of
time, thus, putting your muscles through a more intense workout.
And, more intensity is equal to bigger, stronger muscles.
Secondly, supersets can help prevent injuries
during workouts. How? Well, because during supersets you can usually
lift (or push, or pull) less weight than you can in straight sets,
the chances of injury because of lifting too heavy are less. In
other words, you can put pressure on your muscles through supersets
without going very heavy with weights. Say, you can do 80 kg in
a straight set of squats. In a superset you'd probably do just
60 per cent of that. Most gym injuries are caused either by wrong
technique (posture or movement) or by using too much weight. Supersets
can help prevent both because it's easier to maintain good form
when you use lighter weights.
You needn't do supersets all the time. You
can use them to spice up your workout. When my workout schedule
gets drab and monotonous or my body gets used to the same old
routine, I sprinkle in a week or two of supersets. And, of course,
they're a great way to work out if you're short on time.
A variation of supersets is the pre-exhaust
set. In this, you target the same muscles but use two exercises,
the first-usually an isolation exercise-totally exhausts the muscle
followed by the second-a compound exercise. But more on that in
another instalment of Treadmill. Till then, lift your dumb-bells
and clink. Happy super-setting!
-Muscles
Mani
write to musclesmani@intoday.com
Caveat: The physical exercises
described in Treadmill are not recommendations. Readers should
exercise caution and consult a physician before attempting to
follow any of these.
ALL ABOUT CHOLESTEROL
What exactly
is cholesterol? It's a fat the body needs to help form certain
hormones, cell membranes, and bile. Unfortunately, too much of
this soft, waxy substance means trouble. With so much at stake,
advertisements increasingly tout foods with no or low cholesterol,
while others claim to lower cholesterol.
What Is It: High cholesterol is the best
known of all the many threats to a healthy heart. When excess
amounts of fat-like substance build up along the walls of the
arteries, one faces a dramatically higher risk of a complete blockage,
leading to a heart attack or stroke. Says Dr Ashwani Mehta, Senior
Consultant, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital: "In India, the rate of
incidence is as high as 30-40 per cent of the population."
Causes: "Poor diet leads to unhealthy
high cholesterol values. Cholesterol in diet comes exclusively
from meats and dairy products," says Dr Mehta. Eggs are the
best-known source of cholesterol. Inactivity and other lifestyle
choices such as smoking and drinking alcohol contribute to unhealthy
high cholesterol values.
Symptoms: Symptoms of high cholesterol are
usually rare. It does not make one feel sick. Blood cholesterol
levels in both men and women begin to go up around age 20. If
enough oxygen-carrying blood is blocked from reaching the heart,
a person may experience chest pain.
Treatment: There are two ways to treat high
cholesterol. The first is with simple lifestyle changes including
change in diet, weight management. The second is to combine lifestyle
changes with cholesterol-lowering medicines. Diet should be low
in saturated fats. It's also important to eat plenty of fibre
found in fruits, vegetables, beans and oats. According to Dr Mehta,
"the disease can be controlled by medicines. Surgery is rarely
resorted to." If not dealt on time, the disease could also
affect brain and liver functions.
-Manu Kaushik
PRINTED CIRCUIT
Nokialand?
E Series Phones
 Finland
is known for a few things. One is that it snows a lot out there.
Two (judging from the number of Formula 1/wrc drivers the country
churns out), that Finnish children are born drivers. And three,
Finland might well be renamed Nokialand. Just when you thought
the company couldn't come up with more phones, it does, and not
just with one, but three. The E series phones (all 3g) have the
works, e-mail, PDF readers, internet browsers and an office suite.
The e60 looks like a fairly normal candy-bar phone, but in reality
can change into Superman if you ask it to (really). The e61 looks
like a Blackberry, but won't get its knickers in a twist about
some patent, or so we hope. And the e70 looks like Nokia's old
6800 and 6820, but one that has been put on a steroid-heavy diet.
When/where/how much: Expect them to hit Nokia dealerships in March-April
at pricepoints starting around Rs 20,000. .
 A
Steady Hand
Gorillapod
The
worst part about owning a camera is the blurred images you get
when the camera (ok, your hand actually) shakes just before you
click. Even though all the latest cameras have 'Image Stabilisation'
software, these can only do so much. And tripods are either bulky
or expensive (or both). Say hello to the Gorillapod. With ring
and leg grips that can fit just about anywhere, and flexible joints,
you don't need a flat surface to use it; you can attach it to
the branch of a tree for example. It is quite simply the best
digital camera accessory out there. Expect Indian retailers to
start selling this in a few months. It is available from www.gorillapod.com
for $24.95 (Rs 1,123 approx).
Control Freak
Evergreen Remote, EG-LR 21D
 What
do you buy someone who has everything? a universal remote, of
course. If you are the kind who tries to reduce the temperature
on the air-conditioner with the CD player's remote or tries to
zap channels using the DVD-remote, Evergreen Electronics' universal
remote is just the thing for you. The EG-LR 21d can control your
TV, CD/DVD player, amplifier and ac. Sure, it is available only
in Japan right now, but give India's grey markets some time. Should
retail at between Rs 5,000 and Rs 7,000 in India.
 2-in-1
Phones
The BenQ-Siemens Phones
What do you do
when your company is not #1 or #2 or #3 in the mobile handset
space? Well, you form an alliance with another laggard. That's
what BenQ and Siemens have done and the four new phones that the
companies expect to showcase at the next 3gsm summit at Cannes
do look good, although they could have been named otherwise (they
are called, clockwise from top left, the Venus c3, Hermes B, Ulysses
b1 and the Cupid). Availability and price? No details yet.
-Compiled by Kushan Mitra
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