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THIEFTHIEFVIOLINVIOLIN Philip Johnson’s Philip Johnson’s fingers are no longer fingers are no longer strong enough strong enough to play any violin, to play any violin, never mind one so never mind one so

unforgiving. So he unforgiving. So he keeps the Strad in keeps the Strad in a plastic crate. The a plastic crate. The instrument is the instrument is the only thing he has of only thing he has of value. It is also his value. It is also his biggest secret.biggest secret.

ConocoPhillips offers food for thought

at QIFF

| 03THURSDAY 24 MARCH 2016CAMPUS

Stenden University Qatar hosted its Open Day for high school students recently. The aim of the event was to familiarise students with the university, the programs it offers and the general atmosphere of its campus. Potential students stopped at program stalls and spoke with program leaders and current students about the curriculum and career options. A more detailed presentation was later given, after which the students were given a tour around the campus.

Students from DeBakey High School - Qatar attended an interactive presentation about the basics of journalism by an experienced Aljazeera journalist. The students took a quick tour of the studios used by the Aljazeera journalists. This was an extension of their classroom learning about freedom of expression.

DeBakey students get a taste of journalism

Stenden University Open Day

COVER STORY

04 | THURSDAY 24 MARCH 2016

By Geoff Edgers The Washington Post

He is dying, Q-tip elbows poking through a baggy shirt. Friends visit, spooning him ice cream and playing music. His daugh-ters are around as well, stopping in af-ter school, too young to process the grim scene. And there, carefully placed in the closet, out of view in the room his ex-wife has set up, is the Stradivar-ius.

Philip Johnson’s fingers are no longer strong enough to play any violin, never mind one so unforgiving. So he keeps the Strad in a plastic crate. The instrument is the only thing he has of value. It is also his biggest secret.

When he’s gone, the news will shock them all, from the FBI to his family to the daughters of Roman To-tenberg, who stand to inherit the in-strument. They will ask how this once-promising, later penniless eccentric stole an 18th-century violin worth mil-lions — and got away with it. After all, he was the only suspect when it was taken in 1980. As death approaches, Johnson, usually the loudest voice in the room, keeps his mouth shut. It is the fall of 2011. This has been his se-cret for 31 years.

Johnson, who was never able to hold a job, a mortgage or a relation-

ship, somehow accomplished some-thing most everyone thought impossi-ble: He played Totenberg’s Stradivarius in plain view until the end.

He did this through chaos and con-trol, by building an impenetrable wall between his past and present. Those who suspected Johnson of the crime lost track of him. Those who knew him during the last two decades of his life had never heard of the Totenberg theft. They just thought Johnson had an old violin.

“Why,” asked Gregory Maldonado, a friend and fellow violinist, “would Phil have a Strad?”

The trail remained ice-cold even af-ter Johnson died of pancreatic cancer two weeks before Thanksgiving 2011. Then, last summer, Thanh Tran, John-son’s ex-wife, decided to look into sell-ing the violin. She had no idea it was a Strad.

A friend suggested she contact Phillip Injeian, a dealer in Pittsburgh. It was Injeian who, working off emailed photos, saw that it matched a Stradi-varius built in 1734 and stolen from the late Totenberg.

Injeian arranged to meet Tran in New York in late June. He also called the FBI. Within hours of her showing him the violin, two agents with the agency’s art theft team swooped in to claim the Strad. They contacted the To-tenbergs, including daughter Nina, the longtime National Public Radio legal af-

fairs correspondent.In August, during a packed news

conference in Manhattan, the author-ities returned the violin to the family.

Across town, in the locker room of the Metropolitan Opera, two musicians got ready for a rehearsal.

“Did you hear about Totenberg’s Strad?” asked cellist Jerry Grossman.

Abe Appleman paused. A name the violinist hadn’t thought of in years popped into his head.

“Was it Phil Johnson?” he asked.“That’s exactly the guy,” said Gross-

man.

The crime defies logic. The young violinist, with so much ahead of him, brazenly acts while the master mingles in the next room. He leaves town un-der a cloud of suspicion. And even as he squanders his career, he refuses to reveal his secret. This delicate, hand-crafted masterpiece of wood and gut strings is his to possess, to play, to im-prison.

There were hints all along. Only now, in the months after the discovery, can those who came into contact with Johnson piece together how this cocky amateur became a professional thief.

A violinist’s prized secret: A violinist’s prized secret: A Stradivarius he stoleA Stradivarius he stole

COVER STORY

| 05THURSDAY 24 MARCH 2016

His siblings think of his childhood just outside Philadelphia. The parents coddling the baby of the family, spark-ing a lifetime sense of entitlement. The ex-wife points to his anxieties, the ones that seemed to haunt his mother, and the manic behaviour. The symp-toms led her to consider the possibility of undiagnosed attention-deficit disor-der. Others note Johnson’s relationship with God. He grew up deeply religious but later lost faith.

In the end, Johnson’s sister admits that she will never fully unpack the mystery.

“Can we ever figure out what makes someone else tick?” Carol Anderson asks. “Do we really know ourselves that well? The Bible says, ‘The heart is de-ceitful above all things, and desperate-ly wicked: who can know it?’”

One thing Johnson did know. The beauty of a Stradivarius.

The stringed instrument, named for the Italian craftsman Antonio Stradivari, is considered the finest one can play. It is also very rare. Experts estimate that of the 1,000 or so violins crafted be-fore Stradivari’s death in 1737, about 500 survive today.

“The magic of a Strad is very hard to put in words,” says violin star Josh-ua Bell. “It’s sort of the difference be-tween listening to Pavarotti sing and listening to a very good tenor. When you play a Strad, a great Strad, there’s something about it. Like, ‘Oh, my God, that’s what a violin should sound like.’ “

In 2001, Bell paid nearly $4m for a Stradivarius with its own fascinat-ing history: In 1936, a journeyman player named Julian Altman snuck in-to Carnegie Hall and stole the violin from Bronisław Huberman, disguised it with thick layers of shoe polish and performed on the Strad in B-rate gigs for decades. The Altman theft was un-covered only when he died in the mid-1980s.

The story, in some ways, mirrors that of Totenberg, who knew Huber-man and was also a supremely gifted

violinist from Poland. There is an im-portant exception.

Johnson was never meant to be a journeyman. At one time, he was thought by many, including his college teacher Joseph Silverstein — one of the great orchestral violinists of the 20th century — to be a dynamic player with considerable promise.

“The secret. I think the secret killed him,” says Maldonado, who knew John-son for decades.

It is May 13, 1980, and Totenberg is playing an all-Mozart recital at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is not just the star attraction that night. He is also the school’s director.

Johnson, here to attend the concert, isn’t famous, but after four years as a student in the tightly knit Boston music community, he’s a familiar face.

He is 27, a handsome man with Beatlesque brown hair. That night, Johnson brings a violin case to Pickman Hall and takes his seat. This case will be remembered later as authorities try to piece together how somebody could have smuggled a 246-year-old violin out of a crowded building.

Today, if you walk into Longy’s main building on the edge of Harvard

Square, you’ll be captured on camera. That wasn’t the case in 1980. You could easily disappear within the building’s winding hallways.

That night, about 200 people packed Pickman to hear Totenberg perform with pianist Lily Dumont.

After performing, Totenberg scoots across the lobby and leaves the Stradi-varius alone, in a dressing room con-nected to the director’s office. He steps out to mix with the crowd. When he returns, his violin case is gone. The FBI says that it was found nearby, but empty.

Who took it? Immediately, talk cen-tres on one suspect. Phil Johnson.

“He had been seen in the building that day, and it was odd because he wasn’t a fan of Totenberg,” recalls Irene Quirmbach, a violinist who had studied with Totenberg. “We didn’t really un-derstand why he was there.”

Kenneth Sarch, one of Totenberg’s former assistants, says Johnson was overheard grumbling that night that the aging master didn’t deserve such a fine instrument.

Karen Marie Marmer, then a young violinist visiting from New York, re-members running into Johnson in the lobby of Longy. She thinks it may have

even been the night after the concert. He was agitated.

“I can’t believe they’re accusing me of something like this,” he told her.

The Johnson family’s neighbour-hood, just a half-hour southwest of Philadelphia, is made up of the neat, modest brick houses that sprang up all across postwar America.

It was not a happy home. Robert, his father, had studied to become an artist before giving it up to become a machinist. Marion, his mother, is para-lysed by anxiety and depression. By the time the children come along — Rob-ert Jr, Carol and finally Philip — Marion won’t so much as leave the house for the supermarket.

“She would say, ‘It’s like the day you were born, my life ended,’” Carol recalls being told.

Life for the baby is different. He ar-rives early in 1953. Carol isn’t allowed to get up from the table unless she fin-ishes all of her carrots. Phil eats gobs of butter, sometimes dipped in ketch-up. Bobby, 11 years older, finally speaks up. Why is he getting away with eve-rything?

“You keep your mouth shut,” his fa-ther shoots back.

Bobby plays the violin first. But he lacks discipline. When Phil is 7, he no-tices the instrument. He asks whether he can try it.

“I could barely think of what to show him,” Robert Johnson Jr says today.

“He said, ‘OK, I guess I’ll see what I can do with it.’ He just kept at it and kept at it, and by the end of the summer, when it was time to go to school, he could play every hymn in the hymn book. We were absolutely dumbfounded.”

The Stradivarius is being restored with a purpose. The Totenberg sisters are not searching for the highest bid-der, a collector eager to place a mysti-cal trophy on his mantel. The violin is being restored for a very specific buyer. A player. So that one day, the Stradivar-ius, a secret for decades, can be free, to sing again.

COMMUNITY

06 | THURSDAY 24 MARCH 2016

Gift of life: HMC gives family a new beginning

The Peninsula

When Inaam Abdul Ha-mid moved to Qatar from Syria with her hus-band and a young family three years ago, she knew she would be able to give her family a better life.

She didn’t know that she would al-so be able to give one of her children the gift of another chance at life with the help of Hamad Medical Corpora-tion’s (HMC) Qatar Centre for Organ Transplantation – just one of the main-ly clinical teams that has been recog-nised by the Joint Commission Inter-national (JCI) who this week gave the Corporation the gold seal of approval for quality and safety.

Inaam’s Eldest daughter Lilas had developed kidney disease at age sev-en and the condition was worsening.

“I saw her suffering every day and naturally as her mother I wanted to do something to help her,” Abdul Hamid said. “It was affecting her in so many ways – she couldn’t do the things oth-er young girls her age did. As a mother this is very hard to see.”

That help would literally give the gift of life to her daughter — she would donate one of her kidneys. As in all live donations in Qatar, the procedure took place at Hamad General Hospital (HGH) after a series of exhaustive clin-ical, psychological and ethical investi-gations.

Donor surgery at HMC for kid-ney transplantation is carried out by highly trained surgical teams through state-of-the-art laparoscopy, which is an advanced technique involving only a small incision — this means the pa-tients have a shorter recovery time. Af-ter the procedure, both Lilas and her mother left hospital a week later in good health which continues, thanks

to the follow-up care from HMC’s net-work of hospitals.

That was in 2014 and Lilas is now 11 and thriving – attending school and playing with her friends. Lilas, who be-fore her operation had wanted to be an artist, now wants to be a doctor.

“She’s going to school and living a hap-py life,’ said her mother. “Donating a kidney to my daughter was the easiest decision I have ever made.”

Meanwhile, Inaam, who had des-perately wanted another child and had been trying to conceive for seven years, fell pregnant and in February, gave birth to daughter Lamar.

“It is like being blessed twice,” said Inaam who attributes her daughter’s survival to the team at the Qatar Cent-er for Organ Transplantation and HGH.

All procedures, related to organ donation and transplantation in Qa-

tar are free of charge for all patients; both Qatari citizens and non-Qatari residents. Also, donors and recipients receive healthcare coverage for life in Qatar at all of HMC’s JCI accredited fa-cilities.

Dr Yousef Al Maslamani, Director of the Qatar Centre for Organ Transplan-tation and HGH Medical Director, said the long-term transformation of clini-cal services and the focus on quality and safety at HMC meant organ trans-plant procedures like Lilas’s were now becoming common place.

“Lilas’s story isn’t unique — more patients are benefitting from the tre-mendous advancements in the deliv-ery of care by teams such as those at the Qatar Center for Organ Transplan-tation,” Dr Al Maslamani said.

“We simply wouldn’t have been able to make these advances unless

we had a real and consistent focus on quality, safety and research – a com-mitment that was celebrated by the JCI this week.”

Dr Riadh Al Fadhil, Director of the Qatar Organ Donation Centre (Hiba) said live donations from family mem-bers are encouraged as they provide a better match.

“International statistics have shown that living kidney donors go on to live healthier and longer lives with regular follow-up care,” Dr Al Fadhil said.

“This story of Lilas and Inaam is a wonderful example of how a fami-ly member can help a loved one with kidney failure, the best match for living donations is from a family member. In-aam didn’t hesitate to help her daugh-ter and now they are both happy and healthy and now blessed with another child,” he said.

Donor surgery at HMC for kidney transplantation is carried out by highly trained surgical teams through state-of-the-art laparoscopy, which is an advanced technique involving only a small incision — this means the patients have a shorter recovery time.

MARKET PLACE

| 07THURSDAY 24 MARCH 2016

From burgers and Buffalo wings to artisanal coffees and des-serts, food trucks from Qa-tar and across the region are gathering at The Pearl-Qatar to serve mouth-watering delights throughout this year’s Qatar International Food Festival (QIFF).

Food trucks including Shawarma, Bustaurant, Rotisserie, Art Cafe, Burgeri, Pick n Shake, Potato Truck, Buffalo Truck, and Cafestation, are stationed along-side picnic tables and a shaded seating area that will be illuminated at night at Lido Venezia Beach,Qanat Quartier,The Pearl-Qatar. In addition to the partici-pation of Hospitality Development Com-pany (HDC), one of United Development Company’s Subsidiaries, represented by Al Tabkha and Wafflemeister.

The 7th Qatar International Food Festival is being held at Lido Venezia Beach, Qanat Quartier, The Pearl-Qatar, from March 22 to 28.

For the first-time ever, this festival will feature over a dozen local and in-ternational food trucks, where visitors will be spoilt for choice. With authentic food truck experience being the new trend of late, visitors will be able to sample all the wonderful culinary de-lights, experience live cooking demon-strations and enjoy all that the festival has to offer.

Food trucks dish out delicacies at The Pearl-Qatar

Kulluna for Health and Safe-ty, ConocoPhillips’s signature corporate social responsibil-ity campaign in Qatar, is wel-coming all visitors of this year’s Qatar International Food Festival (QIFF) to come to its booth at the at the Muse-

um of Islamic Art (MIA) park till March 28 to learn more about heart disease risk factors and ways to prevent it. People also have the opportunity to sign up for on the spot free check-ups provided by medical profession-als and measure heart rate, blood

pressure, blood sugar, Body Mass In-dex (BMI) and cholesterol levels.

The Kulluna healthy heart team which is made up of multidiscipline professionals from Hamad Medical Corporation are offering people a range of advice, health checks and tests for those concerned about the state of their hearts. There is also the opportunity to talk to healthcare ex-perts and to learn about the risk fac-tors and warning signs of heart dis-ease and some potential lifesaving steps needed to help someone suf-fering from a heart attack.

Dr Khalid Saifeldeen, Chairman of Kulluna said, “We at Kulluna are de-lighted to be a part of an exciting community event like the QIFF 2016 for the second year in a row. The un-derpinning of our work in collabora-tion with founding sponsor Cono-coPhillips is to encourage people live healthy lives. Leading a healthy life-style which includes a balanced and varied diet, directly reduces the inci-dence of heart disease. Through our Healthy Heart stand at QIFF we are of-fering education about healthy life-styles as well as offering basic health checks to visitors. Through this we are able to educate the public visit-

ing QIFF about eating well, incorpo-rating exercise into their day-to-day activities and getting regular health check-ups.”

ConocoPhillips Qatar president, Gary Sykes stated, “It’s no surprise to us that the ‘Kulluna for a Healthy Heart’ stand at QIFF has attracted a large number of visitors on the first day of the festival, and the number of visitors is increasing each day. We’re pleased to have the opportunity to show people at QIFF what heart dis-ease is all about, how they can prevent it, and, where necessary, how it can be treated. Getting people to under-stand the way heart disease develops will help them to accept that changes they make now will benefit them for years to come. We look forward to re-ceiving many more visitors before the end of the festival and encourage eve-ryone in Qatar to come down for a fun and informative day.”

“Kulluna for a Healthy Heart” cam-paign particularly focuses on the be-haviors, lifestyle and risk factors that can lead to heart related illnesses. These include smoking, unhealthy diet, obesity, lack of exercise, high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol.

ConocoPhillips offers food for thought at QIFF

08 | THURSDAY 24 MARCH 2016FOOD

By Barbara Damrosch The Washington Post

Hot peppers, sweet peppers — they’re all hot items in the cat-alogues this spring, and eve-ry year there are more. What’s up?

Peppers, which spread globally from the New World, were put to new and

exciting uses everywhere they went. Al-though heat-loving, they were welcome even in northern countries such as Hun-gary, which became famous for its pa-prika. An accommodating crop for home gardeners, most require no staking and fit well in small spaces - even planters and pots. You might think it’s all about looks. Even “green” peppers rarely stay that way, but progress to yellow, orange, red, chocolate brown or even a lustrous nearly-black purple hue, as with Purple

Beauty from Pinetree Garden Seeds.Often you get several colour chang-

es in sequence and can thereby grow a rainbow mix on one plant as the peppers mature. Purira from Seeds of Change is one such variety. With a pep-per called Fish, carried by Seed Savers Exchange and others, the fruits are col-ourfully striped, with variegated foliage to boot. Filius Blue, from Baker Creek and West Coast Seeds, is a jewel box of multicoloured little balls, nestled

among blue-green leaves.In the end, though, flavour counts

the most. Want the sweetest pepper ever? Fedco Seeds says it’s their Amish Pimiento. The hottest? Many claim it’s the legendary Ghost from India, known there as Bhut Jolokia. (Find it from Har-ris Seeds and elsewhere.) Some pep-pers taste richer and fruitier than oth-ers, and it pays to try new ones to see which please your own set of taste buds.

Wise seed sellers match peppers with the dishes a gardener-cook might want to make. For stuffing, R H Schum-way’s recommends its Chinese Giant, six inches across. I’m drawn to John-ny’s Selected Seeds’ Eros and Cupid or Burpee’s Cherry Stuffers, for a platter of babies you can eat in one or two bites. Cooks like a thick-walled pepper for stuff-ing and for slicing as well - maybe Piz-za Pepper from Territorial Seeds.

For pickling or for pepper vinegar, there’s the Pennsylvania Dutch heirloom Hinkelhatz (“Chicken Heart”), named for its shape, from Fedco Seeds and Seed Savers Exchange. For sweet ground spice pepper, Alma Paprika (from Terri-torial Seed and others) has long been a favourite, but for hot spice I’d sample Cyklon from Seed Savers. It dries well because of its thin-walled structure. To jazz up crab cakes, the obvious choice is the aforementioned Fish, named for its traditional use at Chesapeake Bay oys-ter and crab houses.

As cooks get more adventurous, we want to grow ingredients that will make our ethnic dishes more authentic. For Japanese cookery, try the peppers from Kitazawa Seed, which also sells Thai va-rieties for curries.

Mexican cookery is very popular, and everyone must be making chiles rel-lenos, judging by the number of ancho/poblano peppers, so essential to that recipe, being sold. Territorial sells a large one called Mulato Isleno, as both seeds and plants. For an Oaxacan mole, I’m intrigued with Pasillo Bajio from John Scheepers Kitchen Garden Seeds. It’s a medium-hot pepper that’s allowed to dry on the plant, where it turns a dark brown. Scheepers also tells you how to roast its Basque Piquello peppers as well as what to do with its de Padrons: Fry them in oil, sprinkle with sea salt and black pepper, then, “holding the stem, eat whole with a cool drink.” Summer cannot come soon enough for that.

So many peppers, so many flavours

| 09THURSDAY 24 MARCH 2016

IANS

Nine designers, distinct visions and a myriad of stories to tell —all of this was weaved togeth-er with ‘India Modern’ theme through a kaleidoscope of colours at the finale of the Amazon India Fashion Week (AIFW) Autumn-Winter 2016 at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here.

It laid down the final chapter of the five-day fashion saga here with names like Rahul Mishra and Samant Chauhan presenting Indian traditional craft with a contemporary twist and in a more global format.

With an aim to pay an ode to the rich heritage of India through their en-sembles, the designers blended tradi-tional craft and weaves to showcase their modern styles and sensibilities of contemporary India.

The designers splashed myriad col-ours on a blank canvas as they used the runway to narrate their interpreta-tion of the ‘India Modern’ theme with a dash of innovation, creativity and ex-perimentation.

Suits, lehengas, dresses, gowns, formal suits and skirts dominated the show.

Apart from Mishra and Chauhan, stalwarts from fashion industry like Rajesh Pratap Singh, Anju Modi, Ab-raham and Thakore, Rohit Gandhi and Rahul Khanna, Amit Aggarwal, Pankaj and Nidhi and Aneeth Arora came to-gether for the finale. They presented five to six ensembles each.

With shades of indigo blues, earthy blues and greens, and whites, the show focused on Indian contemporary, fusion wear and western wear.

A surreal vibe seeped on the ramp with cylindrical lights hanging from the ceiling, adding glamour to the run-way. Sticking to the theme, the show seemed like a story of India with birds and a live band plugging in the musical chords at the show.

The show commenced with a small story with the line: “It is thread of life that ties past and present together embracing the change.”

Singh, known for subtle yet fash-ionable lines, started the fashion par-ty with panache. He experimented with natural indigo dying in gold colour with the outfits running high on zardo-

zi work, linear pattern and hints of gold. He painted a modern chapter of In-

dian textiles with silhouettes likes long flowy dresses and gowns.

After a formal affair with Singh’s en-sembles, it was time for some casual

style from Arora under her brand Pero. Her comfortable and functional out-fits were backed by jackets and casu-al dresses with polka dots and a splash of gold.

Mishra, who has made a name with

his collections at the Paris Fashion Week, said that his ensembles were an “extension of what I showcased at Paris”. He played with hues of blue to bring forward artisanal evening wear like long length gown with the use of Indian textiles.

Mishra chalked out his creations with intricate embroideries, delicate work of cuts and smart detailing of hand work and prints with a bit of in-fluence form nature as he incorporat-ed flowers, branches, leaves to his vi-sion as well.

The collection from the house of Abraham & Thakore took inspiration from the peasant jackets of Rajasthan and Gujarat. The “Kedia” was re-imag-ined as contemporary jackets and tops in earthy hues combining fine hand-loom mulmul with metallic highlights. It also had a sparkle of gold and shim-mer with surfaces intricately worked with applique and cut-worked.

Chauhan went back to his Rajpu-tana collection to seek inspiration, as he played with silk in its natural and raw form through the clothes. He won over the audiences with asymmetrical skirts, long jacket teamed up with trouser with work of brocade and thread work in shades of white with a hint of red.

Anju Modi used red and olive green to present ethnic collection like suits with layers, long skirts with zardozi, mirror work and hand embroidery.

Pankaj and Nidhi played with pink and white for western wear like bal-loon skirt, fishtail skirt, dress with long strings of threads flowing down giv-ing a feel of a long scarf and in one a sleeve.

Known for his extravagant red car-pet gowns, Aggarwal tempered with bright shades like pink, orange and red with use of sheer and ruffles.

It was ‘jharokha’ play for Gandhi and Khanna. They picked orange and red pallet for the ensemble with ‘jha-rokha’ prints on them.

After the finale, the designers were seen in a jovial mode as they laughed, joked and celebrated at the post show briefing, saying that “It was a great show with a perfect end. Let’s party”.

The show seemed to carry a strong deja vu feel as it reminded one of the finale of the last two editions, in which an array of designers came together to pay an ode to the rich heritage of India.

FASHION

Modern touch to Indian crafts at AIFW finale

10 | THURSDAY 24 MARCH 2016HEALTH & FITNESS

By Ahmed Salem The Peninsula

Basel M K Magboul, an accom-plished manager living in Qa-tar, has suffered from obes-ity for most of his life. How-ever, with the help of VLCC’s extensive weight-loss programme, he was able to successfully drop 78kg in 10 months. That was no easy road for Magboul. A self-described foodie, Basel had been suffering from chronic obesity, without realising how deeply his bad eating habits, and lack of exercise had been affecting his health.

“For years I had been suffering from obesity, yet I was always trying to prove to myself that my weight wasn’t affecting my life, I was very headstrong in believing that. Yet deep in my mind I was very unhappy with how my weight was affecting every aspect of my life and for the longest time I never did an-

ything proactive to help my situation.” It was not until Magboul suffered

from a life threatening health-crisis, that he finally decided to do some-thing to help him lose the weight. Like most people who suffer from obesity, Magboul tried to utilise many weight-loss techniques to help him shed weight without having to put in the ef-fort. “I tried about everything that you could think of in my fight against obes-ity. Tried all the diets that people swear by, the trendy ones, the unhealthy ones, everything you could think of, I’ve tried it,” said, Magboul. “Howev-er, I wasn’t being realistic with myself. I tried to believe that weight-loss could be achieved without having to physi-cally work on it,” he added.

One of Magboul’s closest friends, who had been suffering from obesity as well, contemplated getting gastric bypass surgery to help him with his weight struggles. However, for health reasons he was denied the operation until he was able to drop 30kg. Things

got depressing for Magboul and his friend, and it wasn’t until they stum-bled upon a VLCC weight-loss ad, that things started turning around for them.

“I got so desperate, and I explored the Internet for ways that could as-sist me in combating my weight woes. I came across a VLCC ad and did my research online and read testimoni-als from people who have had success with the centre and that encouraged me to share that information with my friend.” After sharing the news with his embattled friend, they decided that Magboul’s friend should effectively try out VlCC’s services. He went on to lose 90kgs within 12 months and that truly inspired Magboul to try out their serv-ices for himself.

“I wanted to have my friend try it out first, because I wasn’t sure myself. In a way he was my guinea pig,” laughed Magboul. Magboul joined VlCC’s weight-loss programme 10 months ago, and has been working closely with Specialist Khaled Mokdem, Regional Trainer VLCC Qatar, and Slimming In-Charge to help him keep the weight off ever since.

“Basel is one of our many success stories. He joined our weight-loss and slimming programme about 10 months ago, his initial weight was 155kg and has successfully been able to lose 78kg in that time frame,” said Mokdem. Un-like other Weight-loss programmes,

VLCC’s programme encompasses and employs all aspects of efficient weight-loss regimens and techniques, with-out jeopardising the clients’ health or hindering their progress. “When I first started the programme with VLCC, I was suffering from high blood pres-sure and complications that was af-fecting my heart and to ensure my safety wasn’t affected, Khaled put my programme on pause till I got these is-sues sorted out and in that moment I realized how morally committed VLCC were towards their clients,” Said Mag-boul. The VLCC leight loss and slim-ming programme goes beyond drop-ping the excess weight, it also focus-es on helping the patients maintain their weight loss and monitoring that process closely to help the patients with any weight gained after the slim-ming period and to look into the rea-sons why the weight was gained again. The program consists of Diet Chart by dietitian, Exercise Chart by physiother-apist and Treatment Sessions which include therapy sessions, appliances session and advanced sessions such as advanced Turboslim, Slimsonic, Re-juve, 3D Tummy Treatment , 3D Hydro-Balanced Water Treatment, Ultra-son-ic Treatment. VlCC’s weight loss pro-grammes are designed to adhere to every client’s physical and psycholog-ical needs and that is the key to the programme’s success. “Every client’s weight loss journey is different. We recognise that at VLCC and so we de-sign the programme to meet our cli-ents’ needs and expectations,” said Mokdem. The centre’s latest technique utilizes DNA Fit Diet and Exercises anal-ysis which helps them customise each patient’s weight-loss programme with a far greater accuracy than was ever possible before. This technique brings in laser sharp focus while designing a diet and exercise regimen that is best suited for each patient based on their genetic profile. The reason why Mag-boul decided to come forward and share his story is that he believes that his story could inspire people to fight obesity in a proactive and healthy manner, and help them seek change.

VLCC helps client shed 78kg body weight

| 11THURSDAY 24 MARCH 2016ENTERTAINMENT

By Jeff Guo The Washington Post

To modern eyes, the classic trio of Disney princess films — re-leased in 1937, 1950, and 1959 — can seem painfully retro-grade. Why are characters so ob-sessed with Snow White’s looks? Why doesn’t Cinderella have any talents or hobbies? And why doesn’t Sleep-ing Beauty do anything besides get drugged and await rescue?

A generational gap divides Disney’s princess franchise. After 1959’s Sleep-ing Beauty, it took 30 years for the studio to produce another animated princess feature. The intervening dec-ades saw dramatic change. Walt Dis-ney died. Betty Friedan published The Feminine Mystique. Martin Luther King Jr marched on Washington.

In 1989, when Disney finally re-leased The Little Mermaid, critics praised this modern new heroine. Un-like her predecessors, “Ariel is fully re-alised female character who thinks and acts independently, even rebel-liously,” Roger Ebert wrote. The New York Times called her “a spunky dare-devil.”

And yet, in one respect, The Lit-tle Mermaid represented a backward step in the princess genre. For a film centred on a young woman, there’s an awful lot of talking by men. In fact, this was the first Disney princess movie in which the men significantly outspoke the women.

And it started a trend. The plot of The Little Mermaid, of course, involves Ariel literally losing her voice — but in the five Disney princess movies that followed, the women speak even less. On average in those films, men have three times as many lines as women.

These data come from linguists Carmen Fought and Karen Eisenhauer, who have been working on a project to analyse all the dialogue from the Disney princess franchise. Since so many young girls watch these movies

— often on constant repeat — it’s worth examining what the films are teaching about gender roles.

“We don’t believe that little girls naturally play a certain way or speak a certain way,” says Fought, a pro-fessor of linguistics at Pitzer College.

“They’re not born liking a pink dress. At some point we teach them. So a big question is where girls get their ideas about being girls.”

The Disney princess research is still in its preliminary stages, but a few weeks ago, Fought and Eisen-hauer gave a preview during the na-tion’s largest conference of linguists. Their goal is to use data to shed light on how the male and female charac-ters in these films talk differently. They started by counting how often the characters spoke. That’s when they hit

upon a surprising irony.In the classic three Disney prin-

cess films, women speak as much as, or more than the men. Snow White is about 50-50. Cinderella is 60-40. And in Sleeping Beauty, women deliver a whopping 71 percent of the dialogue. Though these were films created over

50 years ago, they give ample oppor-tunity for women to have their voic-es heard.

By contrast, all of the princess movies from 1989-1999 — Disney’s

“renaissance” era — are startlingly male-dominated. Men speak 68 per-cent of the time in The Little Mermaid; 71 percent of the time in Beauty and the Beast; 90 percent of the time in Aladdin; 76 percent of the time in Poc-ahontas; and 77 percent of the time in Mulan.

Part of the problem is that these newer films are mostly populated by men. Aside from the heroine, the films offer few examples of women being powerful, respected, useful, or co-medic.

“There’s one isolated princess try-ing to get someone to marry her, but there are no women doing any oth-er things,” Fought says. “There are no women leading the townspeople to go against the Beast, no women bonding in the tavern together sing-ing drinking songs, women giving each other directions, or women in-venting things. Everybody who’s do-ing anything else, other than finding a husband in the movie, pretty much, is a male.”

The older princess films had few-er speaking roles in total, and more gender balance. But The Little Mer-maid pioneered a new style of Disney movie, modelled after Broadway mu-

sicals, with their large ensemble casts. As the number of characters grew, so did the gender inequality.

“My best guess is that it’s care-lessness, because we’re so trained to think that male is the norm,” says Eisenhauer, a PhD student at North Carolina State. “So when you want to add a shopkeeper, that shopkeeper is a man. Or you add a guard, that guard is a man. I think that’s just really in-grained in our culture.”

The chatty sidekick is another good example of a role that goes to men by default. This is a staple charac-ter in more recent Disney films, and he — yes, he — often gets some of the best lines. There’s Flounder, Sebas-tian, Lumiere, Cogsworth, Iago, Genie and Mushu. Why can’t any of them be women? Mrs Potts, the teakettle from Beauty and the Beast, is the only ex-ample of a female sidekick, and she’s overshadowed by the other castle staff.

After Mulan (1998), Disney took a 10-year break before releasing its next series of princess films. These newer films are better at giving lines to men and women equally. In Tangled, wom-en have 52 percent of the lines, and in Brave, a film about a mother-daughter relationship, they had 74 percent.

Frozen breaks with that trend, though. Despite being a story about two sister princesses, men claim 59 percent of the lines in that film.

The Disney princess research is still in its preliminary stages, but a few weeks ago, Fought and Eisenhauer gave a preview during the nation’s largest conference of linguists. Their goal is to use data to shed light on how the male and female characters in these films talk differently. They started by counting how often the characters spoke. That’s when they hit upon a surprising irony.

Researchers spot a major problem with The Little Mermaid

12 | THURSDAY 24 MARCH 2016ENTERTAINMENT

By Durga Chakravarty IANS

Ever since the news of his sepa-ration from his wife of 15 years emerged, Farhan Akhtar’s per-sonal life has been surrounded by rumours of link-ups with his co-ac-tors. The actor-singer-filmmaker on-ly laughs at it and says people some-times confuse onscreen chemistry of actors with their real life.

Farhan, who announced in Jan-uary his separation from his celeb-rity hairstylist wife Adhuna Bhabani, with whom he shares two daughters

— Shakya and Akira — has been linked to his Wazir co-star Aditi Rao Hydari, his Rock On!! 2 actress Shraddha Ka-poor and even with Kalki Koechlin, with whom he worked in the 2011 film Zind-agi Na Milegi Dobara.

Asked why actors end up in the midst of such link-up rumours in the first place, Farhan said: “Well, I really don’t know why the rumours spread like fire and why the rumours have started. I guess people enjoy what they watch on screen and feel the chemis-try that is happening on screen... may-be (they) confuse it with what is hap-pening in real life.”

Farhan and Adhuna had issued a joint statement to declare their mutual and amicable decision of ending their marriage and had stated that their pri-ority remains to be their children.

Farhan has since been busy with his new projects — whether it is film-ing Rock On!! 2 or his music journey. In fact, for International Women’s Day, he

came up with a new song dedicated to the ladies, and said that it was inspired by a painting by his younger daughter.

Talking about the increasing exist-ence of Bollywood songs on girls, par-ties and alcohol, the 42-year-old son of veteran writer and lyricist Javed Akhtar, said: “I don’t agree that (Bollywood) music is only about that (girls, alcohol and parties). There is a lot of music that is not about those things.

“There is a lot of music that talks about other aspects of human emo-tions and eventually it is up to the lis-tener on what they want to listen to.”

The actor strongly feels that “each listener and viewer have to decide for themselves as to what they would like to hear”, and he is especially hap-py that filmmakers are bringing out projects “that are content-driven...”.

“We are relatively at a place in the movie world, where a film like Aligarh talks about a serious issue. It talks about things that are important to dis-cuss. So, for audiences like us who want to see something beyond the popcorn entertainment, I think it is important to talk about these films,” said Farhan, who has helmed films like Dil Chahata Hai, Lakshya and the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Don.

While the Hindi film industry is at its experimental best, one still won-ders why there’s preference towards actioners or mostly films which fall in the romantic zone, instead of delving on an art form like music or dance.

To that, Farhan said: “The produc-ers, actors and directors have their own choices. It is very difficult to com-ment on why someone makes an ac-tion or romantic movie.”

People confuse reel chemistry with real: Farhan Akhtar

Bollywood’s “Queen” star Kangana Ranaut was on Tuesday announced the face of contemporary ethnic wear brand Melange by Lifestyle, and she launched a new range which reflects her strong individuality.

For the Lifestyle International Pvt Ltd brand, Kangana has scorched its latest ‘Rethink Ethnic’ campaign, which challenges the conventional and is inspired by her fearless, bold and strong individualistic style.

With this association, Melange by Lifestyle aims to “further enhance its appeal amongst its target audience, most of whom see Kangana as an inspiration with her appealing persona, ec-lectic fashion choices and stellar achievements”, read an official statement.

Kangana said: “Melange is a brand that gives a contemporary twist to traditional Indian wear and adds a chic vibe to ethnic looks, much like my free-spirited sense of fashion. The way the

brand marries Indian aesthetics with fun, mod-ern nuances makes me rethink ethnic and fall in love with it. Hence, the endorsement.”

The brand’s spring-summer line has modern silhouettes, classy cuts and vibrant patterns.

At an event here, where Kangana even cut her birthday cake in advance, she took centre stage along with Kabir Lumba, managing direc-tor - Lifestyle International Pvt Ltd to unveil the new collection, ‘Kangana Ranaut for Melange by Lifestyle’. Lumba said: “Kangana wholly em-bodies the Melange Woman with her effortless style, fierce personality and independent per-sona. Her achievements as a versatile actress coupled with her quintessential confidence are inspirational to women across the country, and we are delighted to have her as our brand am-bassador.”

The line is priced between Rs899 and Rs2999.

Kangana to endorse ethnic wear

Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice (2D/Action)2:45, 5:30, 7:00, 8:15 & 11:00pmKung Fu Panda (2D/Animation) 2:00 & 5:15pmZootropolis: Zootopia (2D/Animation) 3:30pmKhanet El Yek (2D/Arabic) 5:45 & 9:45pmRocky Handsome(2D/Hindi) 7:30 & 11:30pmEvery Secret Thing (2D/Drama) 2:30, 9:45 & 11:30pmThe Invitation (2D/Horror) 4:00pm

AL KHORBatman V Superman: Dawn of Justice (Action) 11:00am, 12:00noon, 2:00, 3:00, 5:00, 6:00, 8:00, 9:00, 11:00pm & 12:00midnight Rocky Handsome (Hindi) 12:30, 3:15, 6:00, 8:45 & 11:30pm

ASIAN TOWN

NOVO

MALL

LANDMARKVILLAGGIO & CITY CENTER

ROCKY HANDSOME

BABY BLUES

ZITS

The story revolves around a man who sets out to take vengeance against drug mafia after they take away an eight-year old girl, with whom he shares a special bond.

13THURSDAY 24 MARCH 2016

CINEMA PLUS

Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice (Action) 3D 10:00am, 11:30am, 1:00, 4:00, 7:00, 10:00pm & 12:55am 2D 10:30, 11:15, 11:30am, 12:00noon, 1:30, 2:15, 2:30, 3:00, 4:30, 5:15, 5:30, 6:00, 7:30, 8:15, 8:30, 9:00, 10:30, 11:15, 11:30 & 11:55pm & 01:00amEvery Secret Thing (2D/Drama) 10:00am, 2:00, 6:00 & 10:00pm The Invitation (2D/Horror) 12:00noon, 4:00, 8:00 & 11:55pmThe Wave (2D/Action) 11:00am, 3:15, 7:30 & 11:45pmThe Witch (2D/Horror) 1:15, 5:30 & 9:45pmZootropolis (2D/Animation) 10:30am, 12:10, 2:20, 4:30 & 6:40pmLondon Has Fallen (2D/Action) 8:40, 10:40pm & 12:40am Kung Fu Panda 3 (2D/Animation) 11:00am, 1:00, 3:00, 5:00, 7:00, 9:00 & 11:00pmBatman V Superman: Dawn of Justice (3D IMAX/Action) 11:00am, 2:00, 5:00, 8:00 & 11:00pm

Maheshinte Prathikaram (Malayalam) 2:00, 3:30, 4:15, 5:45, 6:45, 8:00, 9:00, 10:15, 11:15pm & 12:30amPuthiya Niyamam (Malayalam) 1:30, 6:45, 9:00 & 11:30pm Rocky Handsome (Hindi) 1:30, 4:00, 6:30, 9:00 & 11:30pmAction Hero Biju (Malayalam) 4:00pm

Maheshinte Prathikaaram (2D/Malayalam) 2:30 & 11:15pmThe Invitation (2D/Horror) 5:00pmEvery Secret Thing (2D/Drama) 7:00pmBatman V Superman: Dawn of Justice (2D/Action)5:30, 7:00, 8:15, 9:00 & 11:00pmRocky Handsome(2D/Hindi) 2:15 & 11:30pmKung Fu Panda (2D/Animation) 2:15 & 4:00pmKapoor & Sons (2D/Hindi) 4:30pm Khanet El Yek (2D/Arabic) 9:30pm

Note: Programme is subject to change without prior notice.

EASY SUDOKU

14 THURSDAY 24 MARCH 2016

Yesterday’s answerEasy Sudoku Puzzles: Place a digit from 1 to 9 in each empty cell so every row, every column and every 3x3 box contains all the digits 1 to 9.

Yesterday’s answer

How to play Hyper Sudoku:A Hyper Sudoku Puzzle is solved by filling the numbers from 1 to 9 into the blank cells. A Hyper Sudoku has unlike Sudoku 13 regions (four regions overlap with the nine standard regions). In all regions the numbers from 1 to 9 can appear only once. Otherwise, a Hyper Sudoku is solved like a normal Sudoku.

HYPER SUDOKU

Yesterday’s answer

How to play Kakuro:The kakuro grid, unlike in sudoku, can be of any size. It has rows and columns, and dark cells like in a crossword. And, just like in a crossword, some of the dark cells will contain numbers. Some cells will contain two numbers.

KAKURO

ACROSS 1 Earthquake-related 8 Some Impressionist paintings14 You might put a fist through it15 Things to wear17 Art supplies since 190318 Looney Tunes character with a strong

Southern accent19 Gluttonous sort20 Requiring constant reassurance22 As a result23 Belligerent son of Zeus25 NNW’s opposite26 Never-before-seen28 “___ Last Bow” (Sherlock Holmes story)30 Plain ___32 Egypt’s ___ Dam35 Kindergartner’s stickum36 Flapper accessory39 Director with three films on A.F.I.’s list of 100 greatest movies, all of them silent41 “I’m Henry VIII, I Am” band43 Cowboy nickname44 Give a speech46 Coupes and sedans47 Repulsive48 List-ending abbr.49 Uses a divining rod53 PC key55 Unsubtle performers59 Southernmost Great Lake60 Nebraska’s largest city62 Farrow of “Zelig”63 “The Little Foxes” playwright66 Laundromat fixture68 Make room for

69 Sanctifies with oil70 Discards71 Actual amount paidDOWN1 Ali G portrayer ___ Baron Cohen2 Ballgame bobble3 Public relations concern4 Reticent5 Project Apollo destination6 Reason for missing work7 Stops8 “Back to the Future” hero Marty9 Lotion ingredient10 Yuletide quaff11 “I Love Lucy” role12 Barb in a bush13 Fabric used for suits16 Fall in winter21 ___ vu24 Quick on the uptake

26 Start the pot27 Ogle29 Smitten31 Arthur of tennis32 Parliamentary output33 Ship, to its captain34 Stuff rubbed on skis35 “In the ___ Colony” (Kafka story)36 Fisherman’s purchase37 Not fooled by38 Blockhead40 Eye piece42 A lot45 Uniform-wearing group48 Component of natural gas49 Indira Gandhi International Airport site50 Show the ropes to51 Radioer’s “I’ll do it”52 Doesn’t stay on the shelves54 Badge wearer56 ___ acid57 Bowlful next to a restaurant’s cashier58 Most prudent, as advice60 Dollar bills61 Foppish neckwear64 “___ in the Morning” (radio show)65 Fruit drink suffix67 Fruit drink brand

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE

P R O W S A S S Y J U D A HL A V A T I T H E O Z O N EA G E R A R I A S K I T T YN U R S E R Y R H Y M E

A U G O A R S M A NW R A P P U P E U R O

E T A I L B L I M PA P O C K E T F U L L O F R Y EL I B Y A A S B I GP L E A A P T S M O GS L Y N E S S E T A

S P A C E S T A T I O NJ A M E S L O S E R O S L OA D A G E M A P L E R E D OB O T O X S T Y L E S E E K

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

14 15 16

17 18

19 20 21 22

23 24 25 26 27

28 29 30 31

32 33 34 35 36 37 38

39 40 41 42

43 44 45 46

47 48

49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58

59 60 61 62

63 64 65 66 67

68 69

70 71

CROSSWORD

However, in a crossword the numbers reference clues. In a kakuro, the numbers are all you get! They denote the total of the digits in the row or column referenced by the number.Within each collection of cells - called a run - any of the numbers 1 to 9 may be used but, like sudoku, each number may only be used once.

BRAIN TEASERS

Hoy en la HistoriaMarch 24, 2002

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For the first and, to date, only time in the history of the Oscars, two African-American actors, Halle Berry and Denzel Washington, scooped the top acting awards

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Cartoon Arts International / The New York Times Syndicate