DNA India

Twenty years later, Boom Shack-A-Lak is still doing the rounds after being re-jigged to include animated beat-boxing ‘happy meals’ in a McDonald’s commercial that hit European markets in 2010. The track has been used in over 70 advertisements and seven Hollywood films. Apache Indian released his latest album It Is …

Justin DiCioccio used to be the official White House drummer. Yolande D'Mello speaks to him about his new music school in Mumbai that's fast becoming his second home. The True School of Music (TSM), an institution that introduces students to the aesthetics of Western contemporary music opened in Mumbai two …

Sales are dropping but loyalists are still raising their glasses to the iconic brand. Yolande D'Mello finds out what makes this dark rum a favourite in our rum-loving nation. Here's a question for you: name an Indian brand of rum. We can bet that nine out of ten answers would …

You think stories in newspapers are depressing and the front page dosen't give you a reason to smile? Yolande D'Mello meets the funny bunch who spell out why humour is less likely to return to mainstream press anytime soon Political cartoonist with the Indian Express EP Unny vividly recalls a …

Curious foreigners are digging through records of the East India Company to trace what their forefathers did in India during the Raj, finds Yolande D'Mello. One winter evening in Bordeaux, France, the cold didn’t allow retired entrepreneur Michael Pearce to pursue his usual hobbies of gardening and camping, so he …

When a film student began a project on Female Genital Mutilation, she was warned against it. Then she won a national award. Yolande D'Mello speaks to the director. It started out as a college project that Priya Goswami, an alumna of National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, worked on in her …

'Goodbye my beasts,' says Sujit Dilip, who owned elephants, lions, bears and a circus, will soon have nothing because the modern world has become 'kinder' to animals. Once upon a time, there lived a man they loved to call the Indian Prince. Damodar Gangaram Dhotre aka Damoo was brave and …

Following the split of Irish pop group Westlife, singer Shane Filan is trying to kick start his solo career. Is there life beyond the boy band, asks Yolande D'Mello. When former Westlife member Shane Filan sat on the plush sofas of Hard Rock Café in Mumbai, he found himself surrounded …

The Pawars are among the 84 families in Vanicha Pada, an adivasi village in unit 5 of Aarey Milk Colony in Goregaon (E), whose homes have never seen power supply. It’s a just a little past 6pm, but a village less than a 30-minute drive away from the Mumbai international …

Ozone Signature range is the natural/organic skin care range made in small batches with homely grown herbs October 28: With a young, technology-enabled and user-oriented outlook, Sanchi Sehgal founded Ozone Signature- a skincare brand with a research and development, ‘formulation first’ approach to treat skin and hair concerns. She says …

Ozone Signature range is the natural/organic skin care range made in small batches with homely grown herbs October 28: With a young, technology-enabled and user-oriented outlook, Sanchi Sehgal founded Ozone Signature- a skincare brand with a research and development, ‘formulation first’ approach to treat skin and hair concerns. She says …

It was midnight. The earth was white, and the skies, amber. In came waddling a “tuxedo gang” to check out what the newcomers in polar parkas were doing with gauges and funnels on the fast ice. These curious penguins were the the first picture Dr Priyankar Kumar Datta clicked. Datta, …

Following the brutal rape and murder of a young physiotherapy student in Delhi in December 2012, six fast-track courts were set up in Delhi to try cases pertaining to sexual offences.

During Ramadan, Tawakkal Sweets in Bohri Mohalla dishes up phirni and malpua outside the shop, but step inside. A row of shallow dishes in various colours will catch your eye. You'll find fruit malai (cream), ranging from pista and strawberry to mango and blueberry.

While profiling Sherwin Rodrigues, an amusing thought popped up. Sherwin could as well be an alter ego for a Marvel comics' superhero. Glasses. Check. Boy-next-door demeanour. Check. A day job that doesn't give a hint of his superpowers. Check. Superpowers. Check! His uncanny ability to conjure up winning words on …

Married to an Indian engineer, and currently living in Mumbai, the Estonian marzipan maker, as Thea Tammeleht is known to city gourmet connoisseurs, is a woman on a mission. She wants people to rediscover the marzipan that her city gave to the world in the 15th Century made with the …

Food connoisseurs in Kolkata and discerning travellers these days have been talking about a one-year-old gourmet restaurant and a boutique hotel within a revived mansion that's more than a century old. And holding the fort is a 29-year-old first- time hotelier Megha Agarwal

He's a tall kid - six feet two inches - and if you've watched him at work, you'll wonder if he really has bones in his body, as he flips, somersaults and defies gravity at odd angles.

It's not easy to understand all the brouhaha around this new name in the food world. Not until you've eaten his food. Till then, his career graph would have to do. For it took Chef Rohan D'Souza all but three years to become the much-in-demand, high flying chef, who works …

With a Masters from USC's Peter Stark Producing Program, Los Angeles, it was perhaps considered a given that Trishya Screwvala would soon join her father, Ronnie Screwvala, who then headed Bollywood's most powerful production house, UTV. That she produced a documentary with Shekhar Kapur on 100 years of Indian Cinema …

If Rina Shah desires for something, she gets it. At least that’s how she makes it sound. 'Easy peasy!' From being India’s first shoe designer to now being the first woman in the country to learning polo and owning a polo team at 40, the biggest takeaway from her story …

Here's your map to breakfast places that rise and shine even before sunrise. From plump Irani breads to mutton kebabs, even falooda and ice cream, there's something for every kind of craving.

Off and on, there’s talk of organic produce, but who’s selling it? How can we be sure if it’s organic? And, most importantly, does it tip our monthly budget the wrong side? All these questions have answers. Read on...

You may have not come across it yet. But keep a lookout for a bright yellow, fragrant, octopus-like fruit at gourmet retailers. We are talking about Buddha’s Hand Citron. And whenever it arrives, it’s most likely to be labelled as Californian, and that’s going to have me cringe. The reason …

A special committee of senior Maharashtra forest officials has rejected clearance to Adani Power Ltd’s proposal for setting up an open cast coal mine in Chandrapur’s Lohara block. A special committee of senior Maharashtra forest officials has rejected clearance to Adani Power Ltd’s proposal for setting up an open cast …

People living in SGNP believe worshipping the tiger god, Waghoba, is preventing leopard attacks. On three sides of Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) are some of Mumbai's most rapidly-urbanised suburbs but within its forests are hamlets that continue an ancient practice that despite being rooted in pre-modern times may be …

Almost a year after the Mendha Lekha experiment, it seems the Forest Rights Act is only on paper as most Gadchiroli villages are yet to get transit permits “We were expecting them [the Maoists] to do something like this,” said a villager from Gadchiroli district, referring to the killing of …

The Indian scientific fraternity has once again come under fire as reports have emerged of plagiarism on the part of a couple of eminent scientists, including Professor CNR Rao, the scientific adviser to the prime minister.