Best of Weekender: Sex, health, music, and comfort food in the time of coronavirus

Chennai based musician and singer, Nitika Kurian has embarked on a journey of nostalgia through the release of her powerful R&B musical singles. Her new song, titled Blue, is a soothing number, inspired by the ocean, and her love for it.

Keba Jeremiah, who has worked with musical legend AR Rahman, plays the guitar for this track.

Nitika’s musical numbers can be downloaded across all major musical streaming platforms, such as Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, Amazon Music, and Deezer among others. Her earlier song, Phoenix, garnered over 58.1K streams till date, while her recent song, Blue, has got over 1.65 K streams since its release on March 27th.

Don’t miss our exclusive interview with this talented singer as she talks about the release of her new single and what made her venture into song writing.

If you want to get well, begin with your nutrition, says Nikhil Chaudhary, wellness coach and dietitian. He goes on to explain how we need to make healthy choices to combat disease. Ultimately, it is your immune system that fights viruses, and food can impact the immune system in a positive or negative way.

Most diseases like diabetes, heart disease among others are not genetic - a lot of scientific evidence is now coming out on this. Many of these diseases happen because of an unhealthy diet and lifestyle.

Read all about how Nikhil has reversed many of these lifestyle diseases with the right diet and exercise.

Our pet animals hold a special place in our hearts and they often know when we are feeling blue or down in the dumps.

With the coronavirus pandemic affecting citizens globally and keeping us in isolation indoors, our pets have been our constant companions. We need to take necessary precautions to make this lifestyle shift easier for them as well.

Meet Devanshi Shah, Founder and CEO of PetKonnect, which aims to build a safe and loving environment for pets. In an exclusive interview, she talks about how we can be better pet parents and how to safeguard our own health.

Check our pet guide on how to make your pets comfortable and safe during the lockdown period.

Even for couples who live together and are either married or in a steady relationship, it is not quite business as usual.

While some say the frequency of physical intimacy has actually decreased because couples are too tired after doing their household chores, some are finding more time for sex and togetherness.

Delhi-based pulmonologist Dr PP Bose and Mumbai-based physician and researcher Dr R Ghosh have some advice for couples during the lockdown.

Read our interviews with doctors and couples to find out how to practise safe sex during the time of coronavirus.

Many five-star hotels are offering home deliveries during the COVID-19 lockdown, so if you have a special event coming up at home, or if you want to treat yourself to some luxurious fare for a change, a world of options have opened up for you.

The Taj Group of Hotels is offering a variety of hampers like the Gourmet hamper, Bakery and Confectionery hamper, and the Wellness hamper. The Oberoi, Bengaluru, is currently offering a special Easter Week home delivery menu. The Easter menu includes staples like Hot Cross Buns, Mini Babka cakes, Easter Ham and much more.

The Conrad Bengaluru, InterContinental Chennai, Mahabalipuram, The Park, Bengaluru, JW Marriott, Pune are some of the other five-star hotels which have launched home delivery services.

Don’t miss reading all about the five-star menus on offer during the lockdown.

Some of the most popular names in the film industry have come together to create a one-of-a-kind short film to emphasise the importance of staying apart during the coronavirus-led lockdown.

The recently trending movie, 'Family', released this week. It was virtually directed and conceptualised by Prasoon Pandey. The 4-minute, 35-second light-hearted film is also a united effort from superstars representing various linguistic groups of the country, who were seen speaking their native languages.

Other films like 3rd Wedding Anniversary, Ek Choti Si Ego to Tutti Frutti, have also been shot in indoor locations.

Read all about the short films that will offer short bursts of entertainment if you don’t want to invest in a three-hour movie.

Are you oscillating between stress and boredom? At this time, when each one of us is forced to stay indoors for the sake of social distancing, it is easy to run the risk of eating the wrong foods and eating too much.

The first things we reach out for when we are lonely, are comfort foods. Most of the time, these comfort foods lack nutritional value and are very high in calories and poor-quality ingredients, besides being high in starch and sugar.

You cannot avoid your favourite comfort foods but make sure you make them the right way. Whether it is a platter of onion pakoras or a plate of sweets or glass of homemade sherbet, just make sure you use fresh ingredients and healthy condiments.

Don’t miss reading about how you can tweak your comfort foods to make them good for your health.

Beer is one of the oldest alcoholic beverages in the world. There are a number of beer festivals that take place annually, like Oktoberfest in Germany, The Great British Beer Festival in England, and Asia’s largest beer festival Qingdao, among others.

April 7 is usually observed as ‘National Beer Day’ every year but though it was not celebrated this year, beer lovers could check out what breweries in India have been doing with the drink that "cheers the spirit and softens the temper".

Meet Hari Singh, Founder of Briggs Brewery, who tells us all we need to know about craft beer, from selecting the right ingredients and what makes this type of beer so popular.

Don’t miss reading all about the different varieties of beer and brewing processes in the country.

We may be currently stuck at home due to the 21-day lockdown amid the coronavirus pandemic but it is very important to have a fitness regime in place.

According to multiple research, being sedentary not only has a detrimental effect on physical health, but also affects mental health. Working out regularly and being physically active can help lower stress and blood pressure, reduce the risk of stroke, and prevent the onset of diabetes.

World Health Day falls in the month of April, so take time out to read our tips on fitness, the importance eating healthy, sleeping soundly, working out, and maintaining virtual connections during the pandemic.

While citizens in India remain indoors, following the 21-day lockdown in the country, cops in various Indian cities and states are getting quite creative when it comes to spreading the message of staying indoors, practising proper hygiene, and following government protocol.

Some cops have come up with novel ways of sending their message across as they tell people to stay indoors. From wearing coronavirus-themed helmets to donning T-shirts with ghost and skeleton motifs to putting up interesting dance performances on how to wash your hands, our cops have been at their innovative best during the pandemic.

Check out what police officers from various cities have been doing, and how they are creatively making people stay off the roads with their coronavirus messages.

Ankit Chhajer and Jigar Doshi, the Co-founders of Komparify.com, recently launched Flixjini, an app to help people find the right movie to watch, by aggregating content from all streaming services in one place.

Jigar and Ankit met each other during their undergraduate days in engineering school, and then headed their separate ways for higher studies. When both of them moved back to India in 2009, they were baffled by the complexity of discovering the right mobile plan for themselves. That led them to start komparify.com - a discovery platform for Mobile Plans, Internet Plans and DTH Plans and now, they have launched the Flixjini app too.

Read all about the launch of Flixjini and how it can help you select the best TV shows and movies to watch.

Entrepreneurship might appear glamorous. However, running a business is tough. Malini Agarwal, founder of MissMalini Media, who is also an Indian digital influencer, TV host, entrepreneur and best-selling author, is often approached by business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs to share the secrets of her success.

Among her many tips, Malini tells aspiring entrepreneurs how to listen more than you speak, delegate to grow, believe in yourself, stop selling and start helping, finding a mentor and more.

Don’t miss reading her key learnings over the years.

Are your favourite writers JRR Tolkien and Nassim Taleb? Are your heroes of fiction, Aragorn and Gandalf. Do you believe that entrepreneurship is as much a game of psychology as it is a game of strategy? If so, you will find a kindred soul in Sanjay Bhatia, Co-Founder and CEO of Freightwalla, a technology enabled freight forwarding company.

Freightwalla provides instant quotations for ocean freight, real-time tracking and digital solutions to streamline logistics operations. Sanjay’s motto for life is, ‘You only fail if you never try’ and he believes that this is the best way to conquer obstacles on the journey of life.

Don’t miss reading all about his greatest loves, regrets, heroes, and much more in his responses to our Proust questionnaire.