“Crossing The Threshold” is the festival theme this year and the organisers promise that there would be plenty that’s new, including an additional venue at the Cross Maidan. And adding a grand touch to the festivities will be the launch of a book on the history of the street arts festival written by Abha Narain Lamba. So we have Alien Chutney, Prateek Kuhad and Karsh Kale who are otherwise music festival favourites. Also, thanks to the government’s Make In India campaign, there will be a special focus on homegrown content. Cartoon Network has also allowed us to use their mascots so there will be a Mr Bean, Johnny Bravo and so on. This is the largest street festival in the city, and it brings together artistes from every field.. Omar Qureshi, cinema curator: This time around, the focus in the cinema section is to provide diverse content. This year we are upping the ante with a staggering 600 events on the schedule much more than last year and there is something for everyone. And what makes KGAF special is not only that it is arguably one of the biggest festivals of its kind in Asia, it is also an event that caters to all segments of art. If you are a tea lover, you need to be at the event! Tea taster Sanjay Kapur will launch the signature Kala Ghoda blend: An assemblage of floral Darljeeling tea and a select strong Assam tea. Nicole Mody, food curator When we started out, we were worried about people’s reception to the food section, but slowly it has become a favourite with KGAF visitors. Then we have Nir Koren with the electric sitar, Natalie Di Luccio — a Candian singer who has worked with Amit Trivedi and A R Rahman. We have also asked the more than 150 authors who will be participating, to donate two signed copies each of their books apart from the usual call for book donations, and these will be donated to the David Sassoon and other libraries in the city at the end of the festival. The highlight this year will be the food and crafts expo too is expected to CUBE LARGE VACUUM COMPRESSION BAG be a major draw.Juhi Babbar, theatre curator Ever year we try to outdo ourselves, but I believe what we have in store will prove to be the most interesting. And the highlight this year will be the food and crafts expo. There is a sense of community that is built during the days of the fest — I am looking to experience more of that. Brinda Miller, festival director:The KGAF is a street festival like no other. So this year we’ve partnered with Cartoon Network and consulates of several countries including the US, Canada and Italy to play children's content from across the world. A new aspect we are adding this year is dividing the venues and schedule according to genres. The masterminds have planned 600 events across 12 categories spread over a dozen venues. Arpana Gvalani, music curatorWe will kickstart the festival with the Symphony Orchestra of India, with children from the group presenting a concert. Personally, I am looking forward to Sancha: The Tea Diaries event on February 12. I am excited about Piyush Mishra’s Jab Shehar Hamara Sota Hai, which is inspired by Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet. Clinton Cerejo is another artiste to look forward to; I think his Coke Studio session was one of the most talked about, and it will be an experience to watch him live. We have critically acclaimed, experimental, musicals, commercial and even amateur theatre. Pankil Shah, Farhad Bomanjee and Yohaan Datoobhai will talk about the organic food movement — there is so much food jargon we come across that we do not understand the meaning of. I want to understand what their response is going to be like once they look at the performance list. Then we have Ustad Amjad Ali Khan with his sons Amaan and Ayaan Ali Khan at the Cross Maidan. We have introduced a lot of local theatre this year. More than anything, I am excited about the audience’s reaction.jpg The heritage precinct’s annual arts and culture festival is back, which means it’s celebration time for Mumbaikars!As the city prepares to kick start its culture calendar with the 17th edition of the iconic Kala Ghoda Arts Festival, the organisers are hoping to cross the staggering 1. This year, we have talks, book launches and workshops from celebrity chefs.

To connect with more people, we are also introducing the concept of Tweetchat, which allows people to interact directly with our panellists through Twitter. This year is also special because we will be launching a book on the journey and history of the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival, which is written by Abha Narain Lamba.5 lakh footfalls that the event had got last year. We are also partnering with the Make In India Campaign for the first time with the aim of improving quality. This year, we have made sure that there is a good mix of every genre. In fact, this time we have a host of celeb chefs: Ranveer Brar will present a few recipes, there’s a food walk with chef Vicky Ratnani, Sanjeev Kapoor will share select recipes.. There’s something for everyone. Then there is a play in Hindi based on the Comedy of Errors. Some of the most interesting additions include our own book installation, the “bookstallation”, that will be put up at David Sasson Library and also a heritage tour of the library itself. We are hoping to educate people with this talk. Another new aspect this year will be the addition of the Cross Maidan as a venue which adds a lot of space. We are kickstarting the plays with Tee, a Marathi play that is rarely explored on stage. The children’s section and the stand-up comedy section, owing to their growing popularity, have been drastically expanded this year. We have themes for each day of the festival, ranging from horror to dark films, and we’ll be ending with love and romance as the last day of KGAF will coincide with Valentine’s Day. There will be 95 art installations in all, 119 stalls, 48 workshops and panel discussions on topics that range from food to literature to avant garde art to Johnny Bravo. We have gone beyond the seasoned stars, and Bollywood faces to accommodate new talent.. Some of the interesting panel discussions include the one by artist/illustrator and writer Molly Crabapple and Malay rapper/poet Omar Musa.The heritage precinct’s annual arts and culture festival is back, which means it’s celebration time for Mumbaikars! STALLS4. This is my first time curating for the festival and I felt that we need to focus a lot more children’s content as that is what India sorely lacks.Finding one’s way through a maze of so many events may be a mind-boggling task for many. So we got curators of specific sections to provide a roadmap.This year we have made a conscious effort to make it a ‘mixed bag’ and also, to include talent that isn’t mainstream. I remember when we held a session by Pooja Dhingra in the first year, we had to send about 75 people away because it was a full house. We have ramped up the mainstream content that we have and there is also a lot of focus on shorts and especially the children’s section. Asad Lalljee, literature curator: Apart from the usual workshops and panel discussions, we are conducting three-hour long masterclasses with some of the most well-known names in literature across the world. We have drastically expanded two of our sections — the children’s section and stand up comedy.

Moscow recently held an anti-terrorism military exercise with Pakistan, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi bent himself to woo President Vladimir Putin.Deliverance for India came in the shape of Russia.. This was an insouciant attempt to defend its strong relationship with Pakistan and paper over Islamabad’s use of militant proxies. Their cool bilateral vibes could impact Brics’ economic agenda. Moscow signed defence deals worth thousands of crores of rupees with India.Beijing also reiterated that Pakistan was its “all-weather friend”. It’s evident that its stakes in Pakistan have increased phenomenally with the pledging of $46 billion for infrastructure development that would culminate in the building of Gwadar port in trouble-hit Baluchistan, which is likely to become a Chinese naval base.On Monday, the day after the conclusion of the summit, the Chinese foreign ministry noted that Beijing was not in favour of blaming a country or a religion for terrorism.India’s effort was to emphasise that terrorism emanating from Pakistan is an international and regional scourge that bedevils peace, stability and development prospects. In Goa, they spoke out strongly against terror attacks against India.Of the eight Saarc countries, all except three Pakistan, Afghanistan, Maldives are in Bimstec on account of their geography.

The Brics communiqué devoted several paragraphs to condemning terrorism. These include the supply of five S-400 Triumf anti-aircraft systems, a joint venture for manufacturing 200 Kamov light helicopters, and four guide missile stealth frigates, and agreements in space, security, railways, energy, and smart cities. It remains to be seen, though, how India’s recently stamped strategic convergence with the United States plays with Moscow, though the two can do much together, including in Afghanistan and Central Asia despite Russia’s proximity to China.The recent Brics summit hosted by India in Goa, and along with it the outreach to the seven Bimstec Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation nations that were r The recent Brics summit hosted by India in Goa, and along with it the outreach to the seven Bimstec Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation nations that were represented at the summit level except Thailand was sought to be designed by India to suit its current foreign policy imperatives.Given this context, India may expect little by way of solicitude from China on matters like NSG membership. It named outfits such as ISIS and Al Qaeda, but not the Pakistan-based groups that wreak havoc inside India, though there was a reference to terrorist organisations named by the UN, of which Pakistan’s Jaish-e-Mohammed is one. In fact, the Goa summit may be seen as China’s attempt to scuttle India’s anti-terrorist agenda and diplomatically give it a shove in a conference of countries that only weeks ago rejected Islamabad’s invitation to attend the Saarc summit. The results can said to have been mixed at best. Of course, they also court China on account of Chinese military and China Hanging vacuum storage bag economic heft.

The incident resulted in a $74 million settlement with the state of New Mexico for numerous permit violations at both the lab and the repository. Investigators said the misstep could have been avoided if existing policies and procedures had been followed. The settlement, signed in early 2016, was at the time the largest ever negotiated between a state and the Energy Department.Since then, some areas of the repository have remained off-limits, making it impossible for crews to do maintenance to prevent its ever-shifting salt ceilings and walls from collapsing. In one area, monitors last month picked up on increased movement, indicating some instability. A rockfall last November forced a brief evacuation of workers but there were no injuries or contamination.As the mining work resumes, officials said crews will install rock bolts to provide stability inside the new disposal vault. A machine called a continuous miner removes the salt. It’s loaded into a large truck and then a hoist that carries the material nearly a half-mile (0.8KM) to the surface. ”. "You can learn so much from looking out the window," Fox said.9 million miles of the sun's surface, where temperatures exceed 2,500 Fahrenheit (1,377 Celsius) (Photo:AFP) A new NASA mission aims to brush by the sun, coming closer than any spacecraft in history to its scorching heat and radiation in order to reveal how stars are made, the US space agency said Wednesday.A 20-day launch window for the spacecraft&Travel Vacuum Space Bag39;s liftoff atop a Delta IV Heavy rocket opens July 31, 2018.Time for a visitThe spacecraft will measure plasma waves and high-energy particles, and carry a white light imager to capture images of the structures through which it is flying, according to Nicola Fox, mission project scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland.9 million miles (6. "You can see the sun is shining, you can see the birds are singing."It's a testament to the importance of his body of work, founding a new field of science that also inspired my own research and many important science questions NASA continues to study and further understand every day."I'm sure that there will be some surprises," he added.

After liftoff from Kennedy Space Center in Florida in July 2018, the Parker Solar Probe will become the first to fly directly into the sun's atmosphere, known as the corona."This is the first time NASA has named a spacecraft for a living individual," said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.Scientists hope its data will improve forecasts of solar storms and space weather events that affect life on Earth, satellites and astronauts in space.""One would like to have some more detailed measurements of what's going on in the solar wind," he said."."We will brush closely by it," she said at an event in Chicago to unveil the mission, which NASA has touted as promising to provide humanity's closest-ever observations of a star. But until you actually go out, you have no idea quite how hot it is out there or how windy it is, or what the conditions are like.3 million kilometers) of the sun's surface.The plan for the unmanned spacecraft is to orbit within 3.43 cm) carbon-composite shieldRoughly the size of a small car, the probe will make seven flybys of the sun over a seven-year period, in what NASA described as a "mission of extremes."Parker, who is days away from his 90th birthday, described the mission as "very exciting.The solar Probe will liftoff from Kennedy Space Center in Florida in July 2018 The Parker Solar Probe is set to orbit within 3.Re-named after astrophysicist Initially called Solar Probe Plus, the mission was renamed after the astrophysicist Eugene Parker, 89, professor emeritus at the University of Chicago.5-inch-thick (11. "There always are.""I think we have really come as far as we can with looking at things and now it is time to go up and pay it a visit," she added.Temperatures in that region exceed 2,500 Fahrenheit (1,377 Celsius), for which the spacecraft is equipped with a 4."Traveling at a speed of 430,000 mph, the spacecraft will move fast -- like going from New York City to Tokyo in less than a minute.He published the first paper to describe solar wind -- the high-speed matter and magnetism constantly escaping the sun -- in 1958.

Animal motifs are a horror. Quirk is decidedly fun, if handled with elan. There was something reassuring about the hurriedly assembled wigwam, that felt toasty and intriguing, even mysterious to welcome our puerile capers.. The classic white and black combo is here to stay. It needn’t have to conjure up images of over-the-top goth or an unsavoury visual from Fifty Shades of Grey! If that is your intent, then so be it. Or splash onto the headboard or the droplights to quirk up the space without it looking like you just returned with your kill from the savannah! Avoid making your home look like a souvenir store! Or a pet store for that matter!! So do it with finesse and don&vacuum compressed bag39;t hesitate to run it by someone that may give you an honest opinion. To add to that mystique, thread on silken linen strips in lieu of tacky bead curtains and boho the heck out of the place, albeit snazzily. Having said that, often intended design does look like the casualty it was meant to avert!Helping customers translate their fantasies into design reality is always a challenge and one that is most exciting to a designer. But, quirk managed well can be just as inviting and pleasing. Not many expect to see a boat on the roofing, so that stands to exact some oohs for certain.Throwback to the times when we grew up draping on sheets around the furniture and making ourselves a cozy, warm teepee while pretending to play mom and pop. Restored period furniture, with a coat of varnish or paint with Athangudi tiles nestled in the gaps; or place an old pillar wedged with colourful tiled sections, in an opened up doorway to create a partition with a quirky difference. But go primitive if you will, with caution, with perhaps quirky frames around motley feral prints.We have barely made a dent in the scope of quirk in design.As with many things, turning things about does give one a new perspective.My all-time favourite in wall finishes remains the quintessentially elegant, untreated, exposed brick and concrete walls.Walls lends themselves as canvases to etch along memories. My personal take, monochrome never ceases to please.Helping customers translate their fantasies into design reality is always a challenge and one that is most exciting to a designer. With oodles to play with viz. Flowing fabric on the walls or ceiling and perhaps silk shades for custom-made lamps are great ways to quirk it up while keeping the place stylish.

Cheers!The writer is an interior designer and director at Sugar My Space, Studio SMS. Cluster it up or align along the bow with trimmings along the edges with fairy lights to quirk up the room. They lend a genteel touch to the surroundings. Never going out of style.Another successful breakaway is with the likes of a buttoned down French-style footstool and a chic brass and glass coffee table or a classic chesterfield with a stylish bookshelf. # Things often happen by accident rather than by design. Find fantasy in quirky themes for wall frames… if its geisha prints then go cherry blossoms and pencils sketches in funky backgrounds and frame them over the stretch. Scandi Chic in warm pines and monochromatic tones will stage the rage forever. While there may be rule books that iterate the importance of order in spaces, nowhere does it say that spaces can’t be snug and safe with layered floor rugs, throws and cushions and perhaps a gorgeous canopy around your favourite armchair in your bedchamber, to provide the cosiest of nooks. The indoor swing from yesteryear’s in rose and teak wood with brass chains, adds comfort and elegance to any space.“I’m a designer, and I think if you work in fashion, you have to give people fantasy,” said the famed Christian Louboutin. Delightfully, life in monochrome is an oft-requested theme. They are uber quirky. Most times in life and love!Flip it on its head when it comes to your private spaces too. There’s so much inspiration doing the rounds when it comes to creating ‘me’ spaces, and here’s a cheeky yet unique take on the interiors spiel.For more chic and cheeky, bring back the traditional Oonjal, with a twist. Quirk it up with throws, pillows, rugs and the shimmer of brass or copper for the pop. Quirk it up with unique beaded links instead of the usual metal chain and soften edges with basic upholstery perhaps with a coat of paint to make it a cozy spot to curl up in. Stay tuned for more as we roll out the design rug over many more brews… help is here before you commit headlong to misadventure with your space.Go Andy Warhol on tiles! Or substitute with handmade floral or a line-drawing collection of Athangudi tiles. Graduating finishes and colours and textures to keeps it basic and artistic. But as a designer, one unabashedly refrains from going the whole hog with the unusual requests, only after debunking some whims and homing in on universal truths. Personally, they ought to be restricted to clothing only, and with much discretion.Canoe on the ceiling with pendant lights suspended from it for extra oomph and swag., paints, texturing, highlights and lighting to give them pizzazz.As requests go, they do take on a life of their own with the extraordinary overtures. The perfect meld of fantasies with the natural order of life must be maintained at all times.

“ISRO has done the final assembly, integration and testing along with the private companies. Hand roll vacuum compression bag PSLV-C39 Liquid Stage at the Vehicle Assembly Building during Vehicle Integration (Photo: ISRO) In a new beginning to the private sector in space enterprise, ISRO is set to launch the IRNSS-1H satellite, the first satellite jointly assembled by the space agency and a private consortium on Thursday.S.IRNSS-1H, the backup satellite in the indigenous navigation system, will be launched by PSLV-C39 rocket from Sriharikota at 6.Gradually, more and more industry participation will happen in future in building the rockets and satellites,” ISRO chairman A. ISRO handheld the team of 70 engineers from the consortium companies in testing and assembling this satellite while the work on the second satellite will be done more independently.Kirankumar said. Private firms had so far only built components and systems for India's satellites and rockets.“The larger participation of the private firms in the space programme will help ISRO to launch more satellites. We also called for an expression of interest from domestic entities to join hands with us to help achieve the ambitious target of launching up to 18 satellites in a year,” the space agency officials said..It is the first of two satellites to be assembled and tested by the consortium of small companies led by Alpha Design Technologies, a Bengaluru based company.The IRNSS_1H satellite scheduled to be launched today is India's first 'private' satellite.59 pm