Text Credit : Shibul Pavithran

Jacqueline Fernandez is one of the most popular names in the film industry nowadays. Hailing from Sri Lanka, she has made a huge mark in Bollywood, having worked for blockbuster movies like Murder 2, Housefull 2, Kick, Roy and Dishoom. In spite of coming from a modelling background, she has made it big in the industry. From item numbers to strong lead character she has done it all.

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The charming actress recently was spotted celebrating Christmas with the kids of Pehlay Akshar, an English program that aims at teaching the language to the underprivileged kids. The actress not only interacted but also participated with them, danced and clicked lots of selfies with kids. The Dishoom actress distributed gifts to the 80-90 kids present there. The underprivileged kids in the age group of 6-15 years, were super excited to meet their favourite actress. They also prepared a special dance performance on her songs like Chittiyaan Kaliayaan, Jumme Ki Raat and Lat Lag Gayi.

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She encouraged everyone to contribute and join the noble cause taken up by the foundations like Angel Xpress – give back and take forward to our society to make the difference we all want to see.  On being asked what are her Christmas plans, she said, “I love the festival and I spend this time with my family in my hometown. I think this is the season’s best time and for me it is the time to give back to the society and be thankful for what I have.”

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The actress spent the day amidst the children, spreading some warm love and smiles.
Jaccky thanked the NGO for being her “home away from home” on Christmas. In the pictures, she’s seen donning the Santa cap along with the children and helping them with their craft work.

The post How Jacqueline Fernandez Celebrated Christmas With A Difference appeared first on FWD Life | The Premium Lifestyle Magazine |.

Christmas is the festival of joy and giving. This year, celebrate it in a different way by finding happiness in the little and simple joys in life. We have made a list 10 simple things you can do to make your Christmas better.

Buy books for strangers

Image source: woman.thenest.com

Greet everyone with a smile

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Take your partner on a date

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Donate blood and save a life

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Bring a box of toys to a children’s hospital

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Write a note or send an email of appreciation to someone who has positively impacted your life

Image source: thebritishfashionista.com

Adopt a new member

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Call a friend you haven’t spoken to all year

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Bake some holiday cookies and share it with your neighbors.

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Gather up your old clothes and donate them to Goodwill or a homeless shelter.

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Text: A.Ankitha

It’s natural to feel a mix of emotions around the holidays. But, even if you are by yourself, you can still enjoy every minute of it! You can be just a little selfish and experience a celebration of your independent self. We at FWD tell you just how!

‘Surprise’ yourself with a present!

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Yes, yes! Buy a gift for yourself this Christmas! After all, you’ve come so far this year and you deserve it! Love that bright orange lipstick you saw online? Or did you see a book that you badly wanted to buy? Go ahead and splurge on a ‘surprise’ for yourself and happify yourself!

Dress up and get going!

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Being alone doesn’t mean you have to sit at home and be glum. Wear your favorite red dress (Festive spirits, you see) and a pair of high heels and go to your favorite restaurant and treat yourself! Don’t forget to try out our list of restaurants at Wtzup City!

Binge watch your favorite Christmas movies

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Remember that movie you watched every Christmas with your family? How long has it been since you watched it? This Christmas, bring back your childhood memories with your favorite movies and that mug cake!

Psssst! Here’s a list of our favorite Christmas movies for you to choose from (You’re welcome)!

• Home Alone
• A Christmas Story
• A Christmas Carol
• Love Actually
• Miracle on 34th Street
• A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas

For more such movies you can binge watch, click here.

Drink away!

Gif Source: Giphy

Cant’t you just smell that yummmmmy wine from the kitchen next door? Too shy to go spend Christmas with them? Order your favorite wine this Christmas and savor the lingering taste while reading your go-to book on the couch.

Grab that phone!

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Festivals are the days when you call your friends and family whom you haven’t called in a looooong time (Mostly, since last Christmas). Grab that phone and make the calls! Spend some time with them, even if not physically.

Bake the easiest cake possible!

Since you’re alone and probably wouldn’t want to bake an entire cake (I won’t judge if you want to), try baking this simple mug cake, that’d take only minutes to cook! Okay, so you’re probably so over mug cakes and you’re probably rolling your eyes at me right now, but STOP! I promise you this isn’t like any other mug cake out there. This is the moistest (Yes, not spongy, but moistest!) mug cake ever! Go on, give it a try.

Image Source: Table for two blog

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If you’re craving some scrumptious meal instead, let the chef in you come out and cook the yummiest meal possible! There is nothing better than food! We have suggested a couple of 3 course meal ideas for you to try this festive season.

Appetizer

Cucumber Avocado Caprese Salad, 15 minutes. Caprese sounds fancy but is secretly effortless. For this recipe, slice, mix, and admire your work.

Beer Cheese Dip, 15 minutes. You can’t go wrong with beer and cheese.

Main Dish

Baked Herb Fish Fillets, 15 minutes. This recipe is easy to customize – simply use whatever white fish you find at the grocery store (salmon would work too), put the fish in the oven, and stir up a 2 minute herb sauce.

Creamy Avocado Pasta, 15 minutes. If you can make pasta, you can make this dish. It’s vegetarian, vegan, and can easily be made with gluten-free pasta.

Dessert

Healthy Strawberry Frozen Yogurt, 5 minutes. Do you have strawberries, honey, yogurt, and lemon in your fridge? With these four ingredients, you can create fruity magic.

Healthy Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge, 10 minutes. You need a food processor for this recipe, but if you have that tool, the fudge only takes a few minutes to make.

Pamper yourself in a homemade spa

How often have you wanted to take a break and just unwind in a spa? This Christmas, make your very own home spa and indulge in the goody goodness of various exotic ingredients like coffee, cocoa powder, or even some berries and fruits! We love you too much and so, here’s our favourite coffee facial recipe for you to try!

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Coffee, Oatmeal and yogurt face pack

Coffee and oatmeal both have exfoliating properties, yogurt and oatmeal also soothes and softens skin.

1. Take one tbsp of coffee and add in 1 tbsp of powdered oatmeal powder and yogurt.
2. Mix well, you can add honey also.
3. Apply on face and neck, keep for around half an hour and rinse off.

We wouldn’t judge if you lick some off the side of your lips *yummm*.

So now you know what to do this Christmas to make it your best one yet! Go on and tell us your favorite things to do on Christmas in the comments section below.

The post Fun things to do if you are alone this Christmas! appeared first on FWD Life | The Premium Lifestyle Magazine |.

Christmas is the festival of joy and giving. It is that time of the year when you spend time with your loved ones. With Christmas falling on a Monday, it’s going to be a long weekend for many of us. Here is our list of places where you can spend the weekend with your family and friends.

Wayanad

If you are an adventure freak, Wayanad is going to be the best place for you. Adventure activities from Cycling to Mountain Climbing, Wayanad brings out the adventure soul in you. A relaxed night camp with campfire on a starry night would be the best way to spend your weekend.

Munnar

Munnar is a beautiful hill station in the Idduki district. The term Munnar refers to ‘Moon Aaru’ which means three rivers. It is known for cardamom and tea plantations. This hill station is also famous for the ‘Neelakurinji’ flower which blooms once in 12 years. If you are looking for a laid-back holiday, just soak into the beauty and greenery of the place. You can also go for boating and pay a visit to tea museum and tea plantations.

Thekkady

Thekkady is heaven for nature lovers. This place evokes the love of nature in you. It is known for the Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary which is one of the largest national parks in the country. Bamboo rafting, visiting the reserve through trekking, jeep or boating, camping in the woods are few of the highlights of this place.

Vagamon

Vagamon is a hill station located on the Kottayam- Idukki border. The greenery expanded across and the gushing water place is a favorite spot for photographers and couples. Since this scenic place has not been touched with any kind of commercialization, it offers many adventurous activities for people like rock climbing, trekking, paragliding etc.

Alappuzha

Alappuzha also known as Alleppey is one of the famous tourist destinations in Kerala. This place will make you fall in love with backwaters.  Lazily cruising in the houseboats with lush blue sky and allure of the greenery around will make you forget about all your problems.  Apart from boat rides, the city is home to many holy shrines like Ambalappuzha Sri Krishna Temple, Chettikulangara Devi Temple and more. There are also many churches in the town like Champakulam Church, St. Sebastian’s Church and Edathua Church. The city also has a carefully preserved statue of Buddha.

Make your Christmas Merrier by going to these beautiful places with your loved ones.

The post Perfect weekend getaways in Kerala for your Christmas holidays appeared first on FWD Life | The Premium Lifestyle Magazine |.

Text: Nimisha S

Are you ready to make Christmas a memorable one?

Yes! The Christmas countdown has begun and it’s time to be excited about the Christmas preparations which includes decorating houses, inside and out shopping, for family, friends and relatives.

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As we go out for shopping, you can find extremely unique collection of items because it’s Christmas time but then when you try new handmade crafts like Origami and paper quilling, it’s going to be fun-filled days where you get to spend time with your kids and also save the money that you had planned to spend buying decors from the store.
Let’s take a look at what all we can do for Christmas to make it memorable with new ideas. Here are some simple designs that you can try at home.

Paper Stars

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The paper stars will look extremely different and attractive while hanging on the Christmas tree and you can try different shapes which is really fun and all the children out there try to engage in doing craft with attractive printed papers.

Source: Youtube

Paper designs

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The paper designs pay homage to the real things and it is simply adorable. The paper designs can take any form and it looks extremely different when you see it atop the tree and dangle freely.

Source: Youtube

Easy hearts

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The hearts are more simple paper crafts that you can use to make tiny and attractive hearts.
The paper ornament will add elegance to the tree with different shapes of little hearts made of colorful paper strips.

Source: Youtube

Making Santa Ornaments

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This is one easy craft in which you use materials you already have on hand. There is no Christmas without Santa. Santa is always remembered and is always loved by kids.

Source: Youtube

Make Colorful Yarn Trees

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It is great as foyer decoration or center-piece, these yarn covered tree will add a colorful pop to any room that is present and decorated.

Source: Youtube

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The post Christmas Preps on! Try Something New! appeared first on FWD Life | The Premium Lifestyle Magazine |.

There are just 30 days to Christmas and we just CANT KEEP CALM! Christmas isn’t just the time for loving a giving, it is also the time for eating, drinking and merriment of all kinds. In my family, the Christmas traditions begin well in advance, the fruits for the plum cakes and pudding are soaked months in advance, the grapes and pressed and left to ferment for the wine and a month in advance the all the goodies that go into the`Gon Swadh’ (Creolised version of a Dutch phrase, meaning `For friends and family’), a tray of sweets and savouries are prepared.

As we ring in the Christmas season here are a few of my mama’s and grandmother’s recipes to get you into the Christmas spirit with everything from snack, main course, dessert and even a homemade boozy treat. Reminiscence assured.

KulKuls – Crunchy, Sweet & Savory Snack

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Kulkuls forms an integral part of the sweets distributed to family and friends during Christmas. Some say that its a form of Filhoses Enrolodas, the Portuguese Christmas sweet, although my only knowledge of them is from sitting around the dining table with my family, making these tiny delights and engaging in banter. Before I run down memory lane, let’s take a look at the process behind making this crunchy delight!

Ingredients:
300 Gms Flour
3 Table Spoons Butter
50 Gms Castor Sugar (Powdered Sugar)
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Essence
1 Egg Yoke
Coconut Milk for Kneading

Process:

Kulkuls are relatively simple to make and do take a bit of skill and as usual patience. Start off by melting the butter. Pour the melted butter into the flour, add the yoke to it. Next, comes the vanilla essence add the sugar to it and begin kneading. To ease the kneading process add dashes of coconut milk occasionally. When the mixture begins to stop sticking to the vessel you know the mixture is done. Place a moist/damp cloth and place it over the dough for 10 minutes. Your dough is now ready to use. To begin making the Kulkuls take tiny portions of the dough and flatten it in your palm. Use a fork and run the prong downwards the flatted dough to make a pattern. Make a toll out of the flattened and textured dough – they should look like small shells. Your Kulkuls are ready to be fried. Heat up the oil. Once the oil is hot, fry your kulkuls till golden brown. Once your batch of Kulkuls has cooled down, coat them with melted sugar (optional) and serve hot.

Sumptuous Roasted Chicken

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The cornerstone of any Christmas meal is the roasted chicken. Our family occasionally roasts other fowl as well, including turkeys and ducks, but the chicken in a personal favourite. The quantities of the ingredients are a bit of a blur as mum never goes by the book and its all based on taste. So I’d say, go about it as per your taste.

Ingredients:

For the Roast:
1 chicken
Lots of butter or ghee
Salt
Black pepper

For the Stuffing (Optional, but yummier)
A few slices of bread
Butter
Onion
Garlic
Bacon (optional)
Boiled chicken livers (optional)
Peas
Spring onion
Celery
Cashewnuts (when someone arrives from the Gulf we use Pine nuts)
Raisins

Melt butter in a frying pan over medium heat. Cook the chicken livers, garlic, onion and bacon, peas, spring onion, cashews and raisins (add last) stirring, for 6 minutes or until onion has softened. Transfer to a bowl. Tear bread into small chunks. Add to onion mixture. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside to cool completely.

Process:

Rinse chicken inside and out under cold running water. Dry chicken thoroughly. Add the stuffing into the cavity and close the opening with a toothpick. Tie the wing and the legs together and run the chicken will with either ghee or butter and the salt and pepper. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 – 200 degrees Celsius for about one and a half hours until the skin is a deep golden brown and crisp.

or

If you don’t have an oven to bake your chicken, you could do what my grandmother did and boil it in butter in a large pot. Don’t forget to baste it occasionally with the butter which it is frying in and keep turning it. Once all sides are browned, slow the fire and let it cook. Don’t forget that if the butter runs out at the bottom of the pot the chicken could burn. Add two cups of boiling water salt and whole spices. Cover and cook for an hour.

Rich Caramel Pudding Dessert

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We are firm believers in the fact that no meal is complete without dessert. Caramel pudding takes me back to my childhood when my grandmother prepared it in a steamer for special occasions. It was something my grandfather and I relished. We ate every last drop.

Ingredients:

500ml milk
3 eggs
A bit of grated nutmeg
Sugar (as per requirement)
Vanilla essence

Process:

Add 3 – 4 tables spoons of sugar and a little bit of water to a vessel (my mum used a shallow aluminium baking pan sort of thing). Turn on the heat and proceed to caramelize the sugar. As it turns golden brown take the vessel off the heat and turn in such a way that it coats all the sides. Set aside. Boil milk and sugar (about half a cup or more depending on your taste) stirring regularly and take it off the heat when the sugar is completely dissolved. When completely cooked, add beaten eggs, vanilla and grated nutmeg and whisk it well. Pour this mixture into the caramel vessel. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 45 minutes. Allow it to cool. To serve, run a knife through the sides of the pan and then place the pan on the plate you are serving, bottom side up. Flip it over and slowly pull up the pan.

or

If you don’t have an oven, place the custard vessel in a steamer and close the lid. Once the steam emerges, simmer for 10-12 minutes and then switch off the fire and leave it for another 5 minutes. Can be served both warm and chilled

Boozy Delight – Irish Cream

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Irish Cream is a liqueur that is served either as an aperitief or digestifs (normally served before or after a meal). It is a family favorite that has left me and my cousins in a boozy blur under the Christmas tree thanks to my aunt’s overly generous addition of alcohol to the mix. Best served chilled, this is perfect for any occasion.

Ingredients:

1 cup heavy cream
1 tsp. instant coffee powder
1 bar of chocolate (melted)
1 cup of whiskey (or more)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 and a half cup sweetened condensed milk

Process:

Combine cream, coffee and melted chocolate to make a smooth paste. Slowly add remaining cream, whisking until smooth. Add whiskey, vanilla extract, and sweetened condensed milk; stir to combine. Pour into a bottle and keep refrigerated until ready to serve. Lasts up to 2 weeks. To serve, pour into a tumbler and add ice if you wish.

The post Curated Family Christmas Recipes appeared first on FWD Life | The Premium Lifestyle Magazine |.

Christmas is never complete without a delicious cake and some great wine to compliment it. A lot of expertise and effort goes in making good quality wine. And to become the country’s leading premium wine producer, takes more effort. Sula Vineyards is a name that every wine connoisseur would be familiar with. These vineyards have transformed Nashik into the ‘Wine Capital’ of India. So what is it that makes Sula special, read on to know what makes these vineyards a must visit tourist destination.

Like most stories, this one begins with an engineer who quits his hi-tech job to come back to his homeland. Here in this story, the hero is Rajeev Samant, founder of Sula Vineyards, who quit his Silicon Valley Job and came back to Nashik. The climate in Nashik is perfect for growing wine grapes, however, there were no vineyards there. Wondering why, Rajeev did some investigation and was amazed when he found out that the Nashik climate was on par with the winegrowing regions in Spain, California, and Australia. He realizedthat this could be his calling and traveled to California in search of a winemaker. There he found Kerry Damskey who enthusiastically agreed to help him start a winery in his 30- acre family estate. In 1997, the duo planted the French Sauvignon Blanc and Californian Chenin Blanc, which was regarded as a revolutionary step as that was the first time these varieties were planted in India. By 2000, Sula was widely acclaimed as India’s best white wines. From that point, there has been no looking back for Sula.

The Vineyard

Good wine can only come from good grapes and the grapes can only be as good as their terroir (the magical combination of the geographical and climatic conditions) permits. The wines are produced with grapes harvested from the Nashik and Dindori estate vineyards as well as from local contract farmers. These grapes go on to form Sula’s wide range of delicious wines, including their Red Wine, White Wine, Sparkling Wine, Rose Wine and Dessert Wine.

Sula Tasting Room

The Sula tasting room is an innovative idea. After your visit to the vineyards, relax at the Tasting Room -India’s First- atop their winery. The interior design is enough to leave you amazed. Designed by Californian architects Andy Hope and Laurel Roth, this 2,000 sq.ft. marvel boasts of a blue mosaic balcony bar with a panoramic view of the rolling vineyards surrounded by
the hills and the picturesque Gangapur Lake in the distance. The bar is lit by wine bottle lamps hanging from the ceiling. More wine bottles glow from the backlit cases in the wood paneled wall. A large window in the back offers a view into the winery’s bottling room.

Time with Wine

Sula is a perfect getaway for you with your family and friends. You could tour the vineyards with the knowledgeable and friendly tour guides. Later taste the best choice of wines, buy your favourite wine to take home or enjoy it at their ‘Tasting Room’ with a delicious cheese platter as you take in the gorgeous view of the vineyards. Oh, yes then there’s the Sula Fest, that you can’t miss!

5 reasons why you should not miss out on the Sula Fest 2016.

1. It most awaited Gourmet World Music Festival!

2. They feature amazing artists at the festival.

3. Cafe Zoe, Woodside Inn, Maroosh and Busago will serve great food to go with the wine.

4. The Sula Fest Bazaar showcases a wide range of fun items for sale.

5. Special tours and tastings at the Tasting Room for the wine enthusiasts.

Words by Amritha Sukumar and Photos by Sula

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Christmas is just around the corner; Shruti had to deal with a towering Nutella cake and stud it with hazelnuts. She was putting the final touch, grating the lemon zest on the cupcakes, and was making a call for a pumpkin. She got a funnier question in return, “Mam would you like a disco pumpkin?” That’s why a merry follows a Christmas. Enjoying some mint and Belgian chocolate macarons, we were seated amongst Christmas decorations.

There was a book that rested beside the Santa candle holder, The Food Bible. We knew it wasn’t exactly going to deliver us from the temptations of sumptuous treats. After all, desserts have the song Joy to the World tuned to its taste. The Christmas ribbons and the fairy lights set up for the shoot suddenly transformed the café setting.

The stories we shared were like the macarons, crispy but gooey inside. I enjoyed Shruti’s story, unlike the usual ones where they say I started baking since I was a young child, and my Nana taught me everything. The call for cooking was while she was studying her culinary course in Ireland. She decided for her majors she wanted to specialize in patisserie – an idea like dough left to rise. She later whisked away to Le Cordon Bleu and told me her hilarious stories in France, on how she used to whine and be horrified of making flower figurines out of melted sugar. Marie Antoinette’s ‘let them have cake’ was the best lesson ever taught and how she used to dive into the cake she baked after class. I envy her now, her assignments were so tasty. Her fascination for the Famous

Five was not because of the adventure, but all the meals they enjoyed. I could not agree any less; Enid Blyton has a lucid and lovely explanation of tea parties from those fancy scones to ginger tea. Shruti said, “She wrote so much about ham, I wanted to eat it despite not knowing what it is.”

When asked about the days, she baked something that truly warmed her heart. She said, “It was the first time I made the perfect croissant.” As we were arranging the props, she did not mind the rustic look, a few crumbs here and there. She bakes with a homely touch, that’s how the banoffee pie came about. It tasted like ‘avulos podi’ except with the rich dol lop of whipped cream. Shruti laughed because she had a friend who thought the same. We were winding up the last shot, milk, and the cardamom cookies.

Knowing that Santa is coming to town, I asked, “What would you serve San ta?” She said, “A cup of hot chocolate, a chocolate loaf and of course a magazine.”

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