SUNDAY 20 NOVEMBER 2016

CAMPUS | 3 FOOD | 8 BOLLYWOOD | 11TAMUQ

welcomes Yassmin Abdel-Magied

For a feast, try this over-the-top

mash

E-SKATEBOARDS

AND BEYOND

P | 4-5

Email: dohatoday@pen.com.qa

welc

11

How do people get to and from transit hubs — the first and last legs of a commute? In places where owning a car isn’t practical, this is as much of a problem as it ever was.

Tum Bin 2: Lifeless, despite great performances by cast

CAMPUSSUNDAY 20 NOVEMBER 2016 03

TAMUQ welcomes Yassmin Abdel-Magied

Texas A&M University at Qatar (TAMUQ) wel-comed Australian mechanical engineer, activist and the founder

of Youth Without Borders Yassmin Abdel-Magied for an inspiring talk on her life story on November 9 in the Texas A&M Engineering Build-ing in Education City.

Abdel-Magied was welcomed by the Australian Ambassador to Qatar Dr Axel Wabenhorst who spoke to Abdel-Magied’s “outstanding repre-sentation of a global citizen.” Wabenhorst also emphasised the value of a STEM (science, technol-ogy, engineering and math) education, like his in computer sci-ence and Abdel-Magied’s in mechanical engineering, as a tool to secure your future. “You’re not clos-ing any avenues by studying the STEM disciplines,” he said.

That sentiment was especially fitting since the talk was sponsored by the Office of Development, Engagement and Outreach at Texas A&M at Qatar, which oversees the branch campus’ STEM outreach pro-grammes designed to inspire young people in Qatar to take up STEM

disciplines in school and university. Wabenhorst stood as living evidence that even a Ph.D. holder in compu-ter science can lead to a career in diplomacy and fluency in Arabic to boot.

Abdel-Magied spoke to the Texas A&M at Qatar community about her journey, which began with her birth in Sudan and subsequent emigra-tion with her family to Australia. She was unofficially the second Sudanese family in Brisbane. “I was not your typical Australian girl,” she said. That

otherness was on display when she announced to her mother her dream to be the first female black Muslim Formula One driver. That dream shifted to maybe just designing race cars, which she did. She designed and built her own race car named Habibi.

At 16, Abdel-Magied founded Youth Without Borders, a youth-led organisation that empowers young people to work together to change their communities positively. She started a mobile lending library in the jungles of Indonesia, an

initiative to encourage Muslim girls to play soccer called “Shin pads and Hijabs” and a free engineering camp called “SPARK.”

What was her impetus to start Youth Without Borders? A simple saying of her mother’s: “If there’s something wrong, why don’t you do something about it?”

Abdel-Magied went to England to fulfill a dream to work for a For-mula One team, but then decided it was no longer for her and rather decided to work on an oil rig in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. She was the first female hired. There she became acutely aware of workplace discrimination and biases toward woman engineers. “A woman is deemed incompetent until proven otherwise.”

Abdel-Magied, through her expe-rience with Youth Without Borders, realised to “never underestimate the impact a single individual—you—can make. Provide other people a leg up. Giving opportunities to people who may not share our background is really important. The reality is we all can’t necessarily change the world, but we can change the world around us.”

DeBakey holds Twin Day

In celebration of school spirit and team collaboration, students

at DeBakeyHigh School – Qatar participated in their annual

Twin Day, sponsored by the senior class office. Grade 11

students are pictured.

Children’s Day celebrated at OIS

Olive International School (OIS) celebrated Children’s Day on Nov 14 with great passion and excitement. It is also the birth anniversary of India’s first prime minister Pandit Jawarharlal

Nehru, who fondly loved all children. As part of the event, there was presentation highlighting the importance of Children’s Day along with surprise visit of Chacha Nehru. OIS Principal Jacob KM said that all children are very special and wished them all success.

COVER STORY SUNDAY 20 NOVEMBER 201604

Josh Petri Bloomberg

Americans could soon witness a revolution in public transportation infrastructure. In New York alone, a new sub-

way line is nearly ready to open, and plans are afoot for a new Penn Station and Port Authority Bus Ter-minal. President-elect Donald Trump has proposed spending heavily on infrastructure, “which will become, by the way, second to none” — though details on exactly how are scarce.

But one glaring issue remains: How do people get to and from transit hubs-the first and last legs of a commute? “Many places were only built to be reached by car,” said Adie Tomer, a fellow at the Brook-ings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program. In places where owning a car isn’t practical, this is as much of a problem as it ever was.

America has 50 bike-share pro-grammes now, but few span beyond the densest parts of cities. In short, we are left to hack our commutes.

Thankfully, there are gadgets.

A crowd of companies is beginning to offer solutions, ranging from the wildly impractical to the so-crazy-it-just-may-work. I decided to take a few for a whirl. But should you choose to do the same, you should probably check whether the gadget is legal where you live-whether you’re trying to bring it on the bus, ride it in a bike lane, or just use it at all. Regulations vary widely, and I’d prefer that you not get arrested or

ticketed.The $1,499 OneWheel is exactly

what the name implies: a single wheel, flanked by platforms for a rider’s feet and stabilised by iner-tia sensors. To ride, simply step on, lean forward slightly, and off you go. The OneWheel will cruise at up to 15 miles per hour, has a range of about seven miles, and recharges in 20 minutes. The single wheel is big enough to handle most

obstacles, from potholes to small curbs. It will even cruise over grass and dirt. Riding is fairly easy, espe-cially if you have experience with other board sports.

The OneWheel was clearly designed with fun in mind, not com-muting. Plus, it’s heavy-almost 25 pounds-and awkward to carry on a bus or train. But if you’re a snow-boarder stuck in an office job, you might be willing to lug it around for those few moments of freedom at the beginning and end of your day.

If one wheel isn’t enough, per-haps you’d prefer four. Starting at $999, the Boosted Board is a bam-boo longboard capable of cruising at 18 to 22 mph for up to 14 miles, depending on the model.

Testing the commute of the future

COVER STORYSUNDAY 20 NOVEMBER 2016 05

The battery recharges at a rate of one mile of range per minute of charge, so it’s nearly always ready to roll. The board was conceived with short journeys in mind. As a graduate student in robotics at Stanford University, Boosted Boards co-founder and chief executive officer Sanjay Dastoor found there were places he wouldn’t go because they were both too far to walk yet too close to justify taking the time to unlock, ride, and relock a bike.

“The board was designed to maxim-ise the time you’re spending moving productively toward your destina-tion,” he said. “Walk outside, put it down, take your trip, pick it up, and go inside.”

Riding the Boosted Board is

laughably easy. You control the sin-gle motor or dual electric motors via a wireless remote. Push the control-ler’s wheel forward with your thumb to move forward, push it back to go in reverse or activate the brakes, which, in turn, charge the battery. Everything about the Boosted Board seems solid. It feels like a beautifully made tool, not a toy.

The board is fast enough to keep up with traffic on crowded city streets-perfect for carving clean arcs around slower-moving cars or just holding a steady line if you find a clean section of a bike lane . The turning radius, however, is not great. Redirecting 90 degrees requires a bit of foresight, but it’s a small price to pay for the stiffness

and stability of the board.Razor Inc, a company best

known for children’s scooters, recently found an opportunity with former children: Its coming line of products will have wheels and plat-forms large enough to handle adult riders thumping over potholes.

Unfortunately, the new line wasn’t quite ready for testing, so Razor gamely sent over its E300, a $269 electric scooter that will go 15 mph for up to 40 minutes, with the rider just standing, not scooting. The truth is, each of these gadgets seems more gimmick than solution. For commuters who can’t stand walking, the dream of the not-so-distant future would be fleets of small autonomous vehicles

capable of shuttling passengers short distances between transit hubs and their ultimate destinations. Car-sharing networks like Car2Go and ZipCar are already giving us a glimpse of that future.

Uber, meanwhile, sees profit in extending the reach of public tran-sit. It has forged partnerships with nearly two dozen transit agencies, city governments, and housing developers in order better to link homes and hubs. As part of a trial this summer, for example, riders on the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority (SEPTA) received 40 percent off Uber rides that began or ended at select rail stations.

Lyft, in turn, is integrating its services into mobile ticketing sys-tems so people can buy a train ticket and a Lyft ride at the same time. Eventually, “the differences between these services will blur for customers,” said Emily Castor, director of transportation policy at Lyft. “Transportation will become seamless.” Google and Apple Maps are leading the charge when it comes to this sort of integration, allowing people to book rides in the same place they go to get directions in the first place.

Lyft co-founder John Zimmer believes private car ownership “will all but end” in major US cities by 2025. “Cities of the future must be built around people, not vehicles,” he wrote in a recent blog post.

The future sounds great. But for now, we have to make do with the vehicles, be they big, expensive ones or little, quirky ones that test our balance-and sometimes our pride.

COMMUNITY SUNDAY 20 NOVEMBER 201606

Hameedian’s Fantastic-5 Futsal Tournament held

Another colourful great day ended on November 11, which enhanced the unity among Sri Lankan Com-munity. It was Hammedians Fantastic-5 Futsal Tournament

2016. It was fabulous team work organised by

the guys of Hameed Al Hussenie College Colombo OBA Qatar. Tournament included by 24 teams and conducted in league manner at Pearling International Seasonal School Doha. The main sponsorship provided by Abdullah Abdulghani& Bros Co.

That was a remarkable tournament and Team Maroons FC crowned as Champions and embarked their team name as First Futsal Champ in History Qatar among Sri Lankan Communiy. Team Wesley won the runner up title.

BASF organises cricket tournamentBASF Construction Chemicals

Qatar enjoyed cricket tour-nament at Mesaieed Cricket

Ground, Doha, together with Gal-far Al Misnad Engg& Contracting WLL, Unibeton Ready Mix, Read-ymix Qatar, Smeet Readymix Qatar, Larsen & Toubro Limited, Aamal Readymix, and Brookfield Multi-plex Medgulf JV WLL.

The event was organised to allow partners of BASF to engage through the popular game of cricket and at the same time promote a sense of team building throughout the matches. The day was divided into a series of knock-out matches with 7 games.

The 8 teams enjoyed a long day of exciting and challenging matches. Each of them demonstrated valu-able and supportive team work worthy of great commendation. Nevertheless, the BASF trophy was won by Galfar Al Misnad Engg &

Contracting WLL, one of the lead-ing construction companies in Qatar, winning all three of their games. The runner up team was Brookfield Multiplex Medgulf JV WLL and a Fair Play Team trophy

was awarded to Ready Mix Qatar.The Chief Guest Emad Shawky

— General Manager for BASF Con-struction Chemicals Qatar

— presented trophies to the winning teams and medals to the best

bowler, the best batsman and the best fielder. Furthermore, the umpires and commentators were presentedwith certificates and medals for their great efforts and participation throughout the day.

MARKET PLACESUNDAY 20 NOVEMBER 2016 07

InterContinental

Doha The City gets

Luxury Hotel award

InterContinental Doha The City has recently been awarded the Luxury Hotel award in the country category of the World Luxury Hotel Awards.

The World Luxury Hotel Awards this year celebrated its 10thanniversary in awarding the world’s finest hotels for their lux-ury offerings and exceptional

service delivery, hosted in Doha. The evening saw over 350 guests from the world’s leading hotels and resorts gather to be recognised on stage for their outstanding efforts.

“We are honoured and proud to have been presented with the World Luxury Hotel Award coun-try winner for Qatar 2016. Since its opening in 2012, InterConti-nental Doha The City has consistently delivered excellent personalised service to its guests and carved a niche in Qatar Hos-pitality sector. These recognitions are result of our combined team work and a reflection of how com-mitted we are to deliver an exceptional experience to all our guests.” said Pascal Eggerstedt, General Manager of InterConti-nental Doha The City.

Perfectly situated in the

exclusive West Bay area, close to all the major areas of interest, the stylish and modern Intercontinental Doha The City stands tall amid the action of the city.

The hotel offers 349 luxury guest rooms and suites, as well as 176 residence suites offering vari-ous layouts consisting of one to four bedrooms.

Guests and apartment residents enjoy the hotel’s seven exciting and innovative dining and entertain-ment establishments. From the award-winning Prime steakhouse and Hwang Pan Asian restaurant

to all-day dining at The Square, InterContinental Doha The City offers an extensive variety of inter-national cuisine. In addition, the hotel is home to three vibrant lounges, including Strata which boasts stunning views of the amaz-ing Doha skyline.

Along with magnificent city views, the state-of-the-art health and fitness club offers a tempera-ture controlled open-air rooftop swimming pool, the latest cardio-vascular equipment and free weights, as well as steam and sauna rooms and whirlpool.

Fitness venue ‘T23’ to open at The Pearl in JanWith the goal of empower-

inghealth enthusiasts and keep-fit fanatics in the

country with an extensive platform — and a challenging environment — that promotes health, fitness, well-being and community, Qatar’s one-of-a-kind Box ‘T23’ (CFTXXIII) will be opening its doors to The Pearl residents and all surrounding communities this coming January.

The upcoming fitness venue will prepare trainees for any physical contingency,by giving them the chance to experience the energy, the challenge, and most importantly the high levels of encouragement and teamwork that will build their strength, enhance agility, and push each individual to achieve their very best, through an all-inclusive regi-men (known as CrossFit) that forges

the best aspects of gymnastics, pow-erlifting, weightlifting, running, rowing and much more, in a desig-nated space referred to as a Box

– and not the average gym.“T23 is very different from any

other commercial gym, and not just because you won’t find any ellipti-cal machines, weight machines or Zumba classes, but rather because

we are dedicated to creating better athletes and healthier individuals. Above anything else, T23 is a com-munity-driven box where standards for ‘Elite Fitness’ are upheld through proper coaching, strong program-ming, and adherence to CrossFit benchmarks and principles”, Luke McKimm, Senior Trainer at T23, said.

T23 brings to Qatar

the masterful art and sophisticated science of CrossFit; an all-embrac-ing fitness practice supported by measurable, observable and repeat-able results. Each day, a challenging workout tests a different part of the trainee’s functional strength or con-ditioning, not specialising in one particular thing, but rather with the goal of building a body that’s capa-ble of practically anything and everything.

Previous research has shown high intensity interval training (HIIT) to significantly improve car-diovascular fitness, blood pressure, and body fat after just ten weeks of a workout regimen composed of 25-minute workouts conducted three times per week. CrossFit remarkably takes those results to the next level.

Maura JudkisThe Washington Post

Mashed potatoes must be versatile. They need to taste good next to every single thing piled high on your plate, because they’re the glue that binds it all together.

Make them too weird, like the green jalapeño mashed potato recipe I encountered, or too rich, like a hedonistic hazelnut-and-brown-butter mash I tried, and the meal will feel off-kilter. They’re a team player that can work equally well with, say, seitan loaf as with gravy, but they don’t take attention away from the star of the table.

They also need to be decadent. Load ‘em up with butter and cream, with garlic and cheese. Save your austerity for another part of the plate, like the salad.

That’s why José Andrés’s Spanish mashed potatoes will be on my family’s Thanksgiving menu this year. Imbued with roasted garlic, and mashed with olive oil, cream and Manchego

cheese, they’re a more indulgent and flavorful version of the dish that many families already make. The Manchego adds interest and gives it a good texture - eat it straight out of the pot, and you might be able to pull some melty cheese strings in your bite - but it doesn’t overpower. Also, the Food & Wine write-up of the recipe says Andrés “prefers to add richness with olive oil and Manchego” instead of butter, which is a hilarious understatement about a recipe that calls for three cups of cream.

It will be a great addition to our table this year - next to all the other potatoes.

Mashed Potatoes With Manchego and Olive Oil

Cheese and oil, instead of butter, add extra richness here.

Be sure to add the oil gradually, so it’s evenly incorporated.

MAKE AHEAD: The mashed potatoes can be refrigerated up to 3 days in advance; to reheat, cover and steam in a heatproof bowl over a pot of barely bubbling water, stirring occasionally until warmed through.

Ingredients: (12 servings)2 heads garlic, top third of each cut off1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, preferably

Spanish, plus more for drizzling6 pounds baking (russet) potatoes, peeled

and cut into 2-inch chunksKosher salt3 cups heavy cream8 ounces young Manchego cheese, cut into

1/4-inch diceChopped chives, for serving (optional)

MethodPreheat the oven to 350 degrees.Drizzle the exposed garlic lightly with oil,

then wrap each head in heavy-duty aluminum foil. Roast for about 1 hour, until the garlic is soft. Squeeze the cloves from the skins into a medium bowl and mash with a fork to a pastelike consistency.

Meanwhile, place the potatoes in a large pot and cover with water by a few inches. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and add a gener-ous pinch or two of salt. Cook for about 20 minutes or until the potatoes are tender. Heat the cream in a separate saucepan over medium-low heat or in the microwave until warmed through. Drain the potatoes and return to the pot over medium-high heat. Cook for 1 minute (to evaporate excess moisture), then mash with a potato masher. Add half the heated cream, mashing until well incorporated. Add the remain-ing cream, stirring to incorporate, then add the cheese, stirring until it has melted.

Gradually stir in the mashed garlic and 3 tablespoons of the oil until well incorporated. Taste, and add salt as needed.

Just before serving, transfer the warmed potatoes to a bowl; top with the remaining table-spoon of oil and with chives, if desired.

Nutrition | Per serving: 510 calories, 10 g pro-tein, 44 g carbohydrates, 33 g fat, 19 g saturated fat, 95 mg cholesterol, 190 mg sodium, 0 g die-tary fiber, 2 g sugar

FOOD SUNDAY 20 NOVEMBER 201608

For a feast, try this over-the-top mash

HEALTHSUNDAY 20 NOVEMBER 2016 09

IANS

A handful of walnuts every day can help young men happily tackle life’s daily stress as this nutrient-dense

snack can lead to a happier state-of-mind, suggests a new study.

The researchers found a signif-icant improvement in mood in young, healthy males who con-sumed walnuts every day for eight weeks.

“In the past, studies on walnuts have shown beneficial effects on many health outcomes like heart disease, diabetes and obesity,” said researcher Peter Pribis, Professor

at University of New Mexico in the US. “Our study was different because we focused on cognition, and in this controlled randomised trial (CRT) we measured mood out-comes in males and females,” Pribis added. The participants of the study were 64 students between the ages of 18-25.

The participants were asked to eat three slices of banana bread every day for sixteen weeks -- eight weeks of banana bread with wal-nuts and eight weeks of banana bread without walnuts.

The nuts were finely ground into the dough so the two banana breads were similar in taste and appearance. While eating banana

bread with walnuts the participants consumed half a cup of walnuts daily.

The mood of the students was measured at the end of each eight-week period.

“We used a validated question-naire called Profiles of Mood States (POMS),” Pribis said.

“It is one of the most widely used and accepted mood scales in stud-ies on cognition. The test has six mood domains: tension, depression, anger, fatigue, vigor, confusion and also provides a Total Mood Distur-bance score (TMD),” Pribis explained. The researchers found that consumption of walnuts led to a significant improvement in mood

in young, healthy males.“In non-depressed healthy

young males, walnuts seem to have the ability to improve mood,” the study, published in the journal Nutrients, said.

“There was a meaningful, 28 per cent improvement of mood in young men,” Pribis pointed out.

There are several nutrients in walnuts that could be responsible for the improved mood like alpha-Linolenic acid, vitamin E, folate, polyphenols or melatonin, the researchers said.

“However we did not observe any improvement of mood in females. Why this is we do not know,” Pribis said.

IANS

Although well associated with lowering cardiovas-cular disease risk

high-density lipoprotein (HDL) -- known as good cholesterol -- may not always be able to protect against heart disease.

A new study has suggested that it increases the inflammatory response of certain immune cells

called macrophages. This can potentially counteract its well-established anti-inflammatory effect in various other cell types, the study said. “Good cholester-ol’s functions are not as simple as initially thought, and appear to critically depend on the target tis-sue and cell type,” said Marjo Donners of Maastricht University, the Netherlands. “In the end, it is the balance between its pro- and anti-inflammatory effects that

determines clinical outcome,” Donners added.

In the study, the researchers found that HDL treatment enhanced inflammation in mac-rophages, in contrast to its effects in other cell types. Similarly, mac-rophages taken from mice with elevated HDL levels showed clear signs of inflammation.

This pro-inflammatory effect induced by HDL showed enhanced pathogen protection, the researchers said. Lung mac-rophages ingested disease-causing bacteria upon exposure to HDL. On the other hand, mice with low HDL levels were impaired at

clearing these bacteria from the lungs. The results demonstrate that HDL’s pro-inflammatory activity supports the proper func-tioning of macrophage immune responses. According to Donners, these findings suggest that patients with persistent infections or specific immune disorders might benefit from HDL-raising therapies. The research could also lead to the development of cell-specific therapies that exploit the benefits of HDL-targeted thera-pies while avoiding the side effects, the researchers noted. The study was published in the journal Cell Metabolism.

Why good cholesterol may fail

to protect against heart disease

Walnuts can help young

men tackle daily stress

LIFESTYLE SUNDAY 20 NOVEMBER 201610Chikara Shima The Japan News/Yomiuri

Vintage fuel lanterns manufactured dozens of years ago have a distinc-tive appeal, not only for camping but also in everyday life. As their designs and colours present the nos-

talgic atmosphere of a bygone era, they can bring a glow to your life if placed in the garden and on the balcony, or used as a room ornament.

Fuel lanterns can shine much brighter for a longer time than oil lamps. They were created in the United States in the 19th century as a light-ing device for daily use. As electric lighting spread, gasoline lanterns began to serve for leisure activ-ities, too. Because of their simple structure and easy maintenance, they have been used for generations.

“If you properly care for your lantern, you can use it practically forever,” said Naoki Ishikado, who operates Viblant, a store selling vintage lanterns in Setagaya Ward, Tokyo. “I’m surprised its basic structure has remained unchanged over a century.”

Ishikado added most non-operating prod-ucts can be repaired.

The most popular items at his store are red gasoline lanterns made in the United States from the 1950s to 1980s. Their features - a rounded appearance and fuel tanks thickly coated with rich colours - are eye-catching.

Scratches and dents are inevitable on the surfaces of aged items, but they “can rather increase their visual appeal,” Ishikado said.

“None [of the vintage lanterns] is identical to each other.”

The price ranges from 10,000 (about $92) to tens of thousands of yen. His store sells British and Swedish products, too. White gasoline for fuel is available at outdoor supply stores.

You may think summer is the best season for camping, but Ishikado recommends autumn and winter for the use of lanterns. When you light a lantern outdoors, it makes a hissing sound. Hear-ing the sound melting into the natural surrounds makes people feel comfortable, Ishikado said.

Gasoline lanterns can add to your daily life as well. In a garden or on a balcony, the warm illumination from the lantern can create a happy, relaxed atmosphere to spend time with your fam-ily or guests. You can also read a book while enjoying a drink by lamplight on a balcony on a long autumn night.

Gasoline lanterns can also be a nice room ornament at home. Ishikado suggests remode-ling gasoline lanterns to become electric desk and floor lamps without changing their appearance.

Many lanterns are inscribed with their pro-duction year and month. Getting a product inscribed with your birth year and month or that of a family member adds to the fun.

However, you should cautiously choose places to use gasoline lanterns and treat them with great care as they involve gasoline and fire. You absolutely should not light them indoors.

Importantly, you should not use them in parks and riverside areas where using flamma-ble substances is prohibited. In some apartment buildings and condominiums, using fire is pro-hibited. At camping sites and other outdoor places, you should adjust their brightness con-sidering the time and place.

“You just need to use the lantern appropri-ately to enjoy their warmth, which you can’t get from electric lighting,” Ishikado said. “I hope you light your lantern for relaxation and have a won-derful time.”

Battery-powered lanterns using light-emit-ting diodes are recommended for use by children, or indoors and in tents.

Some LED lanterns can switch between bright white light and mellow gold light. Some products can emit a flickering light that mimics genuine flames. They are useful not only for camping and leisure activities, but also to cre-ate a special space in your everyday environment.

Vintage lanterns gain popularity in Japan

BOLLYWOODSUNDAY 20 NOVEMBER 2016 11

Troy Ribeiro IANS

Film: “Tum Bin 2”Director: Anubhav Sinha; Cast: Neha Sharma, Aditya Seal, Aashim Gulati, Kanwaljit Singh and Sonia Balani Rating: **

An old-fashioned love story about self-less love, friendship, forgiveness and sacrifice, Anubhav Sinha’s “Tum Bin 2” is a sequel to his earlier film “Tum Bin”, made in 2001. The setting is

different, the faces new, but the story line is almost the same.

Taran (Neha Sharma) and Amar (Aashim Gulati) are in love and on a holiday together, when while skiing in the Alps, Amar meets with an accident and goes missing. Devastated, Taran tries to put together the pieces of her life and is helped by Shekhar (Aditya Seal), a well-wisher, along with her family and friends. Just when she is able to reconstruct her life once again and makes an effort to be happy, life deals her another blow.

While the emotional quotient of the film’s theme is high, the pace drags and somewhere, it fails to involve you as the momentum is lost. You do not empathise with the characters. The

film recourses to several cliched dialogues and situations and is predictable from word go, with no element of surprise. The outcome of the love triangle too seems a tad outdated given the sen-sibilities of the youth today. There are some light-hearted moments, some real situations, one can relate to, but these are few and far between.

The performances of the lead cast are praise-worthy as of the other supporting characters. Aditya Seal as Shekhar shines with his subtle his-trionics and charms you immediately. His acting style is strongly reminiscent of Akshaye Khanna. Neha Sharma as Taran is natural, emotes rea-sonably well and is endearing, while debutant Aashim Gulati appears confident, but seems filmi making an earnest effort to act. He lacks spontaneity.

Kanwaljit Singh as Amar’s father aka ‘Papaji’ renders a sincere and heart-warming portrayal. Sonia Balani as the youngest sister Gurpreet, is competent and lights up the screen with her effervescence. The actor playing Manpreet, the older sister, is equally a treat to watch and makes good use of her limited screen time.

Written and directed by Anubhav Sinha, the film lacks freshness in its writing and the dia-logues are verbose and hackneyed. The treatment of the film too, is expected and there is no hook to keep the audience engaged. He treads cau-tiously, keeping the old framework intact but makes changes, where there was no need.

The film scores high on its music by Ankit Tiwari and Nikhil-Vinay, as the songs “Teri Far-iyad” rendered by the late Jagjit Singh, and “Ishq Mubarak” are soulful and a treat for the listen-ers. The title song “Tum Bin” however fails to recreate the magic of the 2001 film song sung by K.S. Chithra, which haunts music lovers even today. “Nachna aaonda nahin” with Mouni Roy in a special appearance is a damp squib.

Ewan Mulligan’s cinematography does jus-tice to Scotland in all its hues, making each scene look like a picture postcard.

Overall, “Tum Bin 2” had the potential of being a love story that could warm the cockles of your heart, but somehow this one does not, despite the strong performances by Aditya Seal and Neha Sharma.

Tum Bin 2: Lifeless, despite

great performances by cast

HOLLYWOOD SUNDAY 20 NOVEMBER 201612

Michael O’SullivanThe Washington Post

For some of us who felt that eight “Harry Potter” films was not nearly enough, the prospect of a prequel stirred up a sense of tingling anticipation, mixed with dread. For “Pottter” nerds, it

might be enough simply to return to that wiz-arding world for a couple of escapist hours. But would it be too much to hope that the film was also actually any good?

As it turns out, “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” is much better than the low bar that some of us had pre-emptively set for it, thanks to a funny/scary screenplay by “Potter” scribe J K Rowling and the assured direction of veteran David Yates, who handled the last four

“Potter” films with aplomb, and who maneuvers around several challenges here.

Set in New York City of the 1920s, “Beasts” takes its title from a textbook taught at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, taking its hero from the author of said book, one Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne). Newt is an Eng-lish wizard and field researcher in magical creatures who, when we meet him, is en route to Arizona, where he plans to release a magical Thunderbird named Frank to its natural habitat. A twitchy, self-effacing mumbler - even when he’s not uttering faux-Latin incantations - he is also, by his own description, slightly unlikable. (Most people, Newt says “find me annoying.”)

With the debut of this new character, Red-mayne has a tall order: make himself not just lovable, in two hours, but indispensable. After

all, there are already four “Beasts” sequels planned.

That transition doesn’t happen quickly, but it does go fairly smoothly. The first half of the film plays out like a protracted game of Poke-mon Go, with Newt trying to retrieve a handful of adorable and/or freaky-looking animals that have escaped into the streets of Manhattan from the portable menagerie that he drags around with him in a bottomless magical valise. (Think Hermione’s handbag, which had an Undetecta-ble Extension Charm placed on it, and could hold almost anything.)

This brings me to my next point. If that last sentence made no sense to you, you’re proba-bly going to have a bit of a learning curve with this film. Before the main action has even started, an opening title sequence is dropping the name of a minor but significant character from the

“Potter” books that you will eventually need to know for the ending to make sense. That’s on top of all the other stuff that Rowling’s script expects you to have at least a passing familiar-ity with, such as the ongoing conflict between Wizards and Muggles (or non-magical people), called “no-mages” here.

That conflict informs the central dramatic tension in “Beasts.” Although the gotta-catch-

’em-all action of the first hour films is cute enough - and the CGI bestiary, which includes such familiar critters as nifflers and bowtruck-les, is well done - the stakes are low, evoking the lighter tone of the early “Potter” films, before Lord Voldemort and the Death Eaters settled in for the night.

Eventually, however, “Beasts” finds a darker,

more satisfying groove.Assisting Newt in rounding up his missing

creatures is an auror, or magical police officer, by the wonderful name of Porpentina Goldstein (Katherine Waterston), her ditsy, mind-reading sister (Alison Sudol) and a nomaj who has inad-vertently become entangled with them (an appealingly goofy Dan Fogler). Soon these glo-rified dog-catchers have more important things on their minds than stray murtlaps and invisi-ble demiguises, as another, more somber storyline coalesces and takes over. That one involves Percival Graves (Colin Farrell), a shad-owy colleague of Porpentina’s from the law enforcement agency MACUSA (Magical Congress of the United States of America) and a mysteri-ously intense young man (Ezra Miller) who has been adopted by an anti-wizard crusader (Samantha Morton).

The plot thickens, along with the emotional tension, which was always the best part of the

“Potter” universe, and not the dazzling special effects. By the end of the film, Newt will proba-bly have grown on you, as he does on Porpentina. (You saw that coming, didn’t you?) As she proved with seven “Potter” books, whose intricate, inter-woven plots Rowling planned out years in advance, the writer has a great long game. She isn’t in this for just one movie. Judging by the pleasures delivered by “Fantastic Beasts,” you probably won’t be either.

Three stars. Rated PG-13. Contains fantasy action violence. 132 minutes.

Ratings Guide: Four stars masterpiece, three stars very good, two stars OK, one star poor, no stars waste of time.

‘Fantastic Beasts’ hits the

‘Harry Potter’ reset button

TECHNOLOGYSUNDAY 20 NOVEMBER 2016 13James GaddyBloomberg

If you’ve ever felt like those MC Escher-like doodles you made during the meeting deserved a larger audience, then Mont-blanc’s new Augmented Paper notebook will blow your mind.

But first things first: The name is a bit mis-leading. The real innovation here is in the revamped Starwalker pen that comes with the set, which uses a technology known as electro-magnetic resonance to transfer your notes from paper to screen. You write with the smartpen, and together with a tablet hidden inside the leather booklet, it will remember your pen strokes. It’s similar to the technology used by Wacom, the company that for years has sold its pens and tablets to illustrators so their digital files could retain a hand-drawn quality. How that affects people who write, though, has been a decidedly niche proposition. For the Aug-mented Paper set, Montblanc partnered with Wacom to make a modified version of the Star-walker pen that would replicate the technology but on paper instead of a tablet.

Taken individually, everything works mag-nificently. The technology allows written notes and sketches to be transferred from paper onto a mobile device with the press of a button. Once on the device, your handwriting can be edited, colored, highlighted, erased, or translated directly into a digital text and shared.

The Montblanc Hub app is a breeze to set up. The pen doesn’t require powering up or regis-tering online like Moleskine’s version, and it’s the same exact size as a nonsmart Starwalker pen, so it doesn’t feel like a bulky piece of tech-nology, as with the Livescribe Smartpen series. Its battery will get eight hours of life on a 4-hour charge, and there are 100 pages of internal

memory.You’ll be encouraged to buy Montblanc’s own

paper, but there’s nothing special about it—the pen works with pretty much any type of paper. But you need to be writing in the booklet. There’s a thumb-size button on the right side that syncs your scribbles to the cloud. Press it, and a rep-lica of your page shows up in the app you download on your phone. It can also convert your handwriting to plain text and has one of the best accuracy rates on the market, but if you’ve got doctor-style handwriting like me, there’s a lot lost in translation.

If you’re a person who is conditioned to scrib-ble notes on paper in meetings or on the go, it has utility. But the “smart writing” trend has always seemed like a solution in search of a prob-lem. And though the current technology certainly

may feel like a novelty act , the simple act of transferring from notebook to phone still feels a little bit like magic.

Key Details: leather booklet, paper, Starwalker pen, three refills (with tweez-ers for exchanging), USB cable charger, and Montblanc Hub app, available on iOS and Android

Competitors: Moleskine Smart Writ-ing Set, $199; Bamboo Spark, $160; Livescribe Smartpen 3, $149.

Price: $680Why It’s Worth It: A digital upgrade

for Montblanc connoisseurs and the luxe leather-bound note-taking set

This gadget will save your paper scribbles in your phone

3D photo pod for personalised VR avatarsDavid MardisteReuters

For gamers fed up with being just another avatar when playing with their friends, an Estonian firm has come up with a photo

booth that creates a 3D image of your face. At Wolfprint 3D’s white egg-shaped pod in a sub-urban shopping mall in Tallinn, six cameras and a touch screen allow people to create a high res-olution 3D face and enter the increasingly personalised world of virtual reality (VR).

By 2017, Wolfprint aim to make getting a personalised avatar into games as quick and easy as changing clothes or equipment in exist-

ing games and interactive VR platforms.But unlike other 3D scanning, which usu-

ally involves a full body scan and requires a trip to a studio at a cost of some $500, the Luna Scanner can be installed almost anywhere.

For now, the scans in the Tallinn booth are offered for free as the company tests the unit

and collects biometric data. Minutes after the photo is taken, a link to the 3D image is sent to the user’s nominated email account and can be viewed on a VR viewer app on a mobile phone. And at a science museum in Helsinki a Luna Scanner allows people to almost instantly put their faces on a virtual astronaut and start exploring VR space. Wolfprint 3D plans to mass produce its distinctive booths and expand beyond existing sites in New York, Finland and Estonia to theme parks and exhibitions on the U.S. East Coast.

“Every person needs a unique 3D avatar of themselves for VR to truly become social”, Wolf-print 3D’s co-founder Kaspar Tiri told Reuters.

BABY BLUES

HAGAR THE HORRIBLE

ACP Yashvardhan teams up RAW Agent KK to bring down the master mind terrorist, Shiv , a mastermind terrorist who orchestrated the assassinations of three RAW agents across Asia.Note: Programme is subject to change without prior notice.

FORCE 2

NOVO ROYAL PLAZA

AL KHOR

ASIAN TOWN

MALL

LANDMARK

Bleed For This (2D) 10:00am, 12:20, 2:40, 2:45, 5:00, 7:20, 9:00, 9:40 & 12:00midnightFantastic Beast And Where To Find Them (2D/Adventure) 11:00am, 12:00noon, 2:00, 5:00, 5:15, 8:00 & 11:00pmTrolls (2D/Animation) 11:00am, 1:00, 3:00, 5:00, 7:00, 9:00 & 11:00pmOperation Chromite (2D/Action) 10:15am, 12:30, 2:45, 5:00, 7:15, 9:30 & 11:45pmRaven: Little Rascal (2D/Animation) 10:00, 11:45am, 1:30, 3:15 & 5:00pmAteej (2D/Arabic) 6:45, 8:30, 10:15pm & 12:00midnightThe Accountant (2D/Action) 11:00am, 4:00 & 9:30pmJack Reacher: Never Go Back (2D/Action) 1:30, 6:30 & 11:30pmGood Neighbor (2D/Thriller) 10:15am, 2:15, 6:15 & 10:15pmShut In (2D/Thriller) 12:15, 4:15, 8:15pm & 12:15amDoctor Strange (2D/Adventure) 10:45am, 1:15, 3:45, 6:15, 8:45 & 11:15pm Fantastic Beast And Where To Find Them (3DIMAX/Adventure) 10:00am, 12:45, 3:30, 6:15, 9:00 & 11:45pm

Force 2 (2D/Hindi) 3:00 & 11:30pm Tum Bin 2 (2D/Hindi) 5:30pmAteej (2D/Arabic) 2:30 & 6:00pm Trolls (2D/Animation) 4:00pmPuli Murugan (2D/Malayalam) 8:15pmRaven: A Little Rascal (2D/Animation) 2:00, 3:30 & 5:00pmFantastic Beast And Where To Find Them (2D/Adventure) 6:30, 9:00 & 11:15pm The Good Neighbor (2D/Thriller) 7:30pmBleed For This (2D/Biographical) 9:30 & 11:30pm

Trolls (2D/Animation) 2:15pmForce 2 (2D/Hindi) 2:30 & 11:00pm Raven: A Little Rascal (2D/Animation) 3:00 & 4:30pmAteej (2D/Arabic) 4:00 & 7:45pmPuli Murugan (2D/Malayalam) 5:00pmBleed For This (2D/Biographical) 5:30 & 11:15pmTum Bin 2 (2D/Hindi) 8:00pmFantastic Beast And Where To Find Them (2D/Adventure) 8:30 & 11:00pm The Good Neighbor (2D/Thriller) 9:15pmAndron (2D/Action) 11:00pm

Ateej (2D/Arabic) 2:00 & 7:15pmForce 2 (2D/Hindi) 2:30 & 8:45pmThe Good Neighbor (2D/Thriller) 3:30 & 7:15pmRaven: A Little Rascal (2D/Animation) 2:30, 4:00 & 5:30pmBleed For This (2D/Biographical) 5:00 & 9:00pmFantastic Beast And Where To Find Them (2D/Adventure) 5:30, 8:00 & 11:15pm Puli Murugan (2D/Malayalam) 10:45pm Tum Bin 2 (2D/Hindi) 11:00pm

Puli Murugan (Malayalam) 11:00am, 2:00, 5:00, 8:00 & 11:00pm

Fantastic Beast And Where To Find Them (2D/Adventure) 12:30, 3:15, 6:00, 8:45 & 11:30pm Trolls (Animation) 11:00am, 1:00, 3:00 & 5:00pm Operation Chromite (2D/Action) 7:00, 9:15 & 11:30pm

Achcham Yembadh (Tamil) 7:00 & 10:00pmForce 2 (2D/Hindi) 9:00 & 11:30pm Tum Bin 2 (2D/Hindi) 6:15pmPuli Murugan (Malayalam) 7:00 & 10:00pm

SUNDAY 20 NOVEMBER 2016

VILLAGGIO & CITY CENTER

CINEMA PLUS14

CROSSWORD CONCEPTIS SUDOKU

ALL IN THE MIND

08:00 News08:30 People & Power09:00 Circle of Poison10:30 Inside Story11:00 News11:30 Talk To Al

Jazeera 12:00 News12:30 TechKnow13:00 NEWSHOUR14:00 News14:30 Inside Story15:00 Al Jazeera World17:00 News17:30 The Listening

Post18:00 newsgrid19:30 101 East 20:30 Inside Story21:00 NEWSHOUR22:00 News22:30 Talk To Al Jazeera 23:00 Orphans of the

Sahara

13:05 Ax Men13:55 Billion

Dollar Wreck

14:45 Alone16:00 American

Pickers16:50 Storage

Wars17:15 Storage

Wars Miami17:40 Mountain

Men18:30 Time

Team19:20 American

Pickers21:25 Pawn

Stars22:40 Britain’s

Bloodiest Dynasty

23:30 Pawn Stars

10:10 Wildest Europe

11:05 Lone Star Law

12:00 Big Fish Man12:55 Bondi Vet15:40 Weird

Creatures With Nick Baker

19:20 Treehouse Masters

20:15 The Vet Life21:10 Wildest

Europe22:05 Wild Animal

Repo23:00 Treehouse

Masters23:55 Gator Boys01:45 Mountain

Monsters02:40 Weird

Creatures

13:05 Deals, Wheels And Steals

13:30 Storage Hunters

15:10 Gold Divers

16:00 Deadliest Catch

18:30 Deals, Wheels And Steals

18:55 How Do They Do It?

19:20 Gold Divers

20:10 Storage Hunters

21:50 Telescope22:40 Rebel Gold23:30 Fast N’

Loud: Demolition Theatre

King Features Syndicate, Inc.

BRAIN TEASERSSUNDAY 20 NOVEMBER 2016 15

Yesterday’s answer

Conceptis Sudoku: Conceptis Sudoku is

a number-placing puzzle based on a

9×9 grid. The object is to place the

numbers 1 to 9 in the empty squares so

that each row, each column and each

3×3 box contains the same number only

once.

ASTRONOMICAL, ATOM,

COLOSSAL, DOT,

ELEPHANTINE, ENORMOUS,

GALACTIC, GARGANTUAN,

GIANT, HUGE, IMMENSE,

INFINITESIMAL, IOTA,

ISOTOPE, JOT, JUMBO,

LARGE, LITTLE, MASSIVE,

MICROBE, MICROSCOPIC,

MINISCULE, MINUTE,

MITE, MOLECULE,

MONOLITHIC, MONUMENTAL,

NEUTRON, NUCLEUS,

PARTICLE, PINCH, POINT,

PROTON, SCINTILLA,

SMALL, SMIDGEN, SPECK,

TINY, TREMENDOUS, VAST.