M
y name is Aishwarya. I am 10 years old and study inClass V in St. Britto’s Academy, Velachery. I love Bar-bie since the time I joined school and started collect-ing them. I got my first Barbie on my fifth birthday and I have around 12 Barbies so far.I would like to share my Barbies with all my friendsduring my holidays. We play various themes of Barbieand have watched all Barbie movies. I want to donate allmy Barbies to any child who wants them and cannotafford them, as I grow up. A couple of my favouriteones will be with me always.Happy Birthday Barbie... I love you and you are abeautiful part of my childhood.
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Aishu
(Aishu has replied to Ergo’s Big Story Alert for last Friday’s issue. Though the deadline for feedback was Thursday, we decided to make an exception in little Aishu’s case. Barbie turns 50 today.)
My 12
Barbies and I
Monday,March9,2009
03
“C
ome on Deepa, have aglass of wine, please.It’s a lady’s drink,” my brother-in-law told meon his birthday last December,and out of sheer reluctance I hadit, not to disappoint him on hisD-day. It was a strong one thatburnt my throat and I decidedthat was the first and last time Iam ever going to have a sip. Witha smile and ‘No, thanks’, I used torefuse it and was really content-ed. But one fine day, my editortold me to go for a wine-tasting event held at Alliance Francaiseof Madras, Nungambakam, andall the bitterness and sournesscame flashing back in a jiffy.”“No, thanks” was my answeragain as I didn’t want to turn off my taste buds, which were ac-tually enjoying the ‘happy state’. Well certain times, there is nochoice and this was one of them. With the thought it will be a socialgathering with hands full of wineglass, to my surprise, the eventturned out to be a formal pre-sentation on enjoying wine in thespirit of Plato’s banquet relating to the historical meeting of a fa-mous Greek Pythagorean Appoli-nius and an Indian Brahmin inthe 1st century AD.My reason for not having winehad nothing to do with my cultu-ral or racial background but it was for only the taste. Ironically, when a question related to Brah-min and wine was asked by so-meone, I was served by Chinmaya Arjun Raja, presidentof Alliance Francaise , Madras,the chilled rose or pink wine –Reuilly of pinot gris grape variety from Loire valley. After taking adeep breadth of the wine, I hadone sip, and then twirled my tastebuds around the tingling wineand, to my surprise, it was not sostrong but very light and dry.That’s because Dr. Bruno Mo-nange , the wine connoisseur and wine maker from France, who was presenting the wines, said it’sa light pink wine with strong fla-vours and aromas of fruits likelitchi and white peaches apartfrom white grapes. As I was celebrating within, my first successful trial of wine-tast-ingsession; I could see25-odd people, comprising for-eigners and Indian wine connois-seurs, admiring their glass withpride and adulation. Wine is a la-dy’s drink, is what I have beentold all the time, but ironically,there were more of health-con-scious old men who were enthu-siastically asking questions onthe right proportion of intake of wine.Seventy-five-year-old P.S. San-thanam, FRM Chairman of Indo- American Chamber of Com-merce, Tamil Nadu, asked, “Is itbetter to have this wine before orafter or during meals?” To which,Monange said, “This wine is a ca-sual drink which can be con-sumed anytime of the day whilecelebrating an occasion. It’s notnecessary to eat something whileconsuming this wine, which isgenerally served cold.”My hunger pangs were satisfieda bit after having bread that wasserved to neutralise the taste. Iguessed another wine was com-ing my way. I asked for just for ateaspoon as I remember having this one earlier and the taste waskind of turning off. Yes, my mem-ory was not bad – it was theHautes-Cotes de Bourgogne red wine made from Pinot Noir varie-ty and the taste was strong, pun-gent and made my throatparched and dry. I had it again,but it was not that bad after all,but given a chance again, my an-swer would be again “No,thanks!” But, overall, thanks tothis event, my horizons wereopened about wines that now suit my taste-buds.
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“No, thanks” and widening one’shorizons at awine-tasting session at AllianceFrancaise
DEEPA VENKATRAMAN
Wine and whine… not really
Discount Alert
Aavaranaa, the saree boutique in Alwarpet, has completed threeyears. As part of its anniversary sale it is offering a discount of upto 50 per cent on all its merchandise till March 15. The store is atNo. 15, Ashoka Street, Alwarpet.
PHOTO: S.S. KUMAR
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