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Smile mantra Speak to your father to strike the chord of happiness London, June 18, PTI Do you want to know the secret to happiness? Well, just talk to your dad, says a study. Researchers at the University of York have found that children who regularly talk to their fathers are happier than those who do not — the findings are based on an analysis of the British Household Panel survey into 1,200 young people all aged between 11 and 15 years. Young people who said they talked seriously to their dads “most days” gave themselves an 87 per cent score on a happiness scale compared with 79 per cent for those who said they hardly ever spoke to their fathers in this way. Nearly half of young people — 46 per cent — said that they “hardly ever” spoke to their fathers about important topics compared with 28 per cent who hardly ever spoke to their mothers about the things that matter most. Only 13 per cent confided in their father “most days”. The study, commissi...

Language tips II South African slang guide JOHANNESBURG, June 10, Reuters: In the second part of this visitor-friendly guide on the A-Z of slang (the first part appeared on Thursday), we run through the I-Z possibilities. I: Izzit. Another product of the same linguistic mangle as "Howzit", the abbreviation of "Is it?" signifies vague disbelief or surprise as in: "My girlfriend is something of a soccer fundi." Reply: "Izzit?" J: Jol. Afrikaans for "party", a surprisingly widespread term given the former Dutch settlers' puritan reputation. K: "Ke Nako". Sesotho for "It's time", and the expression that helped convince FIFA bosses in 2004 to award Africa its first World Cup. L: Lekker. Pronounced "lacquer" but has nothing to do with furniture polish and everything to do with "good". Likely to be heard in conjunction with another L, "Laduma" –– Zulu for "He scores" –– if the...

Language tips Key to unlock the African lingo! JOHANNESBURG: Even though English is South Africa's official first language, many World Cup visitors may find it hard navigating the local lingo, a bewildering mixture of Afrikaans, Zulu and nine other native tongues. The first part of the A-Z of slang, featuring A to H offers a rough guide for soccer fans worried about getting lost in South Africa's linguistic jungle. A: Ayoba. A made-up word meaning "cool", and given continent-wide currency after its appropriation as a World Cup slogan by MTN, Africa's biggest mobile phone company. B: Braai. Cooking meat on a fire is one of the few things that appeals equally to all South Africans, no matter their colour. Expect to go hungry if you refer to it as a barbecue. C: China. No, not the country, which failed to qualify for the World Cup. China, as in "Howzit, my old China?", means "friend", much as it does in London's East End, its probable port of ...

Que Sera Sera By G K Gupta The song was an instant hit in the USA and equally popular elsewhere. Those fans of Alfred Hitchcock, now in their 70s, will recollect the great movies of that master of suspense, like ‘North by Northwest,’ ‘Psycho,’ ‘The Birds’ and others. But what fascinated me most was ‘The Man Who Knew Too Much,’ released  in India during the late 1950s. This is the only Hitchcock movie with a song. The song  ‘Que Sera Sera’ (Whatever will be, will be)  sung by Doris Day has not been outdated by the ravages of time nor its impact  abated. Written by Livingston and Evans, the song received the 1956 Academy Award for the best original song. The song was an instant hit in the USA, the UK and equally popular elsewhere. Doris Day made it the signature-song for her popular TV shows. Popularity was such that ‘Que Sera Sera’ was the name given to the first US aircraft which landed at South Pole in 1956. A duet in the Hindi movie ‘Pukar’, released in 2000 has s...

Olympic bronze medallists Vijender Singh (left) and Sushil Kumar at their felicitation in Bangalore on Thursday. DH PHOTO I enjoyed this photo in Deccan Herald today. I enjoyed this middle in Deccan Herald today. RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE Vignettes from a bibliophile By Sharbelle Fernandez Reading adds to the font of trivia stashed away in her interested mind. Groucho Marx said, “I find television very educative. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.” Reading is indeed, a wonderful hobby. I find it very enlightening and often, amusing. The trivia that I have collected is notable. Allow me to share some of it with you. I remember reading Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. In it was one of the longest sentences that I had ever read. It had eight hundred and twenty three words, ninety-three commas, fifty-one semi colons and four dashes. Presently, William Faulkner’s novel Absalom holds the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest sentence. It has one...