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Diwali, the festival lights, sees millions of people attend events across the world every autumn to celebrate the triumph of good over evil. Celebrated by Hindus, Sikhs and Jains, Diwali is one of the most significant festivals in Indian culture and calls for a number of traditional dishes. From the popular sweet treats to the savoury main meals, here are some of the key foods eaten over the course of the five-day celebration, which this year begins on Sunday 12 November. Mithai South Asian sweets and desserts are called mithai and are a staple part of Diwali celebrations. Many of the treats are fried foods made from sugar, chickpea flour and condensed milk. They vary between regions but common ones include balushahi, which are a bit like doughnuts, laddoos and barfis. They can be eaten alongside savoury items or eaten alone as a snack. It is custom to exchange decorated boxes of mithai among family and friends during Diwali. Chivda Snacks are a fundamental part of the Diwali menu and many of them come in the form of chivda, a spiced Bombay mix that consists of a variety of dried ingredients, such as peanuts, chickpeas, fried onion and fried lentils. Sometimes, it’s eaten as part of a meal but most of the time it’s enjoyed on its own as a snack. Lapsi Halwa This sweet dish is often eaten on the very first day of Diwali and is made from large-grain cracked wheat, which is then cooked with ghee and sweetened with sugar and cardamom powder. It’s incredibly popular and is often served with a yardlong bean curry, as the beans are thought to represent longevity. Aloo Tikki These small, fried patties are made from shredded potatoes and are usually served alongside regional sauces, such as mint sauce or tamarind sauce. They look and taste a bit like potato pancakes and are usually crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, making them an irresistible traditional Indian delicacy. Samosas Though they’re eaten all year round, samosas peak in popularity around Diwali. The fried pockets of pastry usually come in the shape of a triangle and are stuffed with either mince meat, lentils or vegetables. Because Diwali is all about celebrating the sweetness of life, special sweet versions are often made to mark the festival, containing ingredients such as coconut, cardamom and of course, sugar. Read More Festival of light: Diwali celebrations around the world When is Diwali 2023 and how is it celebrated? How to get free nuggets at Wendy’s for the rest of the year Why I’m giving up sobriety when everyone else is giving up drinking

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Nicki Minaj has opened up about her feelings of anxiety after becoming a new mother. The rapper, 40, is the latest Vogue cover star for the magazine’s December 2023 issue. Speaking to the publication, Minaj shared many details about her ongoing motherhood journey, after she and husband Kenneth Petty welcomed their son in 2020. Minaj and Petty, who were married in 2019, were formerly high school sweethearts and grew up together in the same neighbourhood in Queens, New York. The “Superbass” singer explained how Petty was unfazed by her level of fame, and noted that he even calls her by her real name - Onika Tanya Maraj. “Because I’ve known my husband for so long, there’s an ease we have with each other,” she told Vogue. “We make each other laugh. We’re silly. And we’re always reminiscing about some old story. If it was a guy that I met as Nicki Minaj, I think I’d feel like they liked me because I’m Nicki Minaj, and what if I don’t look like Nicki Minaj every day? And that, combined with pregnancy, would probably have made me crazy.” The pair welcomed their son, who Minaj has nicknamed “Papa Bear” on social media in order to keep his privacy, on 30 September 2020. The “Barbie World” rapper admitted that she and Petty struggled with their relationship after becoming a family of three, much like many couples do when they become new parents. “I’m not going to lie, things got testy between us. Because of our history, I think we knew we’d get past it. But there’s no such thing as confidence in parenthood,” she explained, before recalling the amount of anxiety she felt after becoming a mother. “I kind of wish that someone had told me - although I’m sure I wouldn’t have been able to understand it - that there’s a level of anxiety, and you think it’s going to go away, but in fact it gets scarier,” Minaj added. “So often you think: I don’t know how to do this!” Minaj’s highly-anticipated fifth studio album, Pink Friday 2, is due for release on 8 December. The “Starships” singer previously told her millions of fans on X, formerly known as Twitter, that she had “decided to retire and have my family” just one month before she and Petty were married. However, the Grammy nominee soon realised that the studio was still calling her name - even if that meant needing to balance her family life with her professional career. “I think that deep down inside, I believed that once I had a family, I would just lose the desire to make music,” Minaj told Vogue. “I would always tell people: ‘Watch, when I have a child I’m going to cook every meal for him and bake cookies every day.’ Maybe subconsciously I hoped my focus would just be on being a mother, and I looked forward to that idea. It felt like a relief. But what happens is that you find out you have to work.” This isn’t the first time Minaj has opened up about feeling anxiety as a new mother. In an interview with E! News published in October 2022, the rapper revealed that she often feels like her “heart is being ripped out” when she is away from her now-three-year-old son. “I hate that I have more anxiety now because you’re like: ‘What if the one time I leave my child, I get that phone call?’” she said at the time. “I think moms feel like they have to be perfect.” Minaj then recalled when she was in the United Kingdom and started “bawling” over being away from her son. “And when I try to FaceTime him, I get more sad,” she said. “So, I try to hold out on FaceTiming him because to then put the phone down is so difficult.” The “Super Freaky Girl” rapper shared that she and Petty have never hired a nanny to take care of their baby. “I’m a Trinidadian woman,” she said. “Culturally, we’re not really used to nannies and strangers taking care of the babies. “It’s not a bad thing when moms do it. It’s just that I have to get conditioned. I have to get it out of my mind that it’s a weird thing, because there are tons of celebrities that are doing it and they’re raising amazing children.” Back in September 2020, Minaj announced the birth of her son by posting several photographs of handwritten notes from her celebrity friends congratulating her on the baby news. One of the pictures in the post featured a note from Beyoncé, which read: “Onika, welcome to motherhood. God bless you and your family. B.” “Thank you to Queen B, Kim & Ye, Riccardo Tisci, Winnie, Karol and everyone who sent well wishes during this time. It meant the world to me,” Minaj captioned her post. “I am so grateful and in love with my son. Madly in love. My favorite liddo boy in the whole wide world.” Read More How much water should we be drinking in a day? Irina Shayk reveals how she and Bradley Cooper make co-parenting daughter Lea ‘work’ What is silent reflux? How much water should we be drinking in a day? Irina Shayk reveals how she and Bradley Cooper make co-parenting daughter Lea ‘work’ What is silent reflux?

No – celebrities won’t be wearing pajamas at the 2024 Met Gala. Yesterday, Vogue announced the theme of The Costume Institute’s 2024 exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Met Gala motif entitled, “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion.” The reveal was met with a myriad of confused individuals online, predicting a display of designer jammies on the red carpet for the famed opening as well as a parade of princesses on the museum steps thinking “Sleeping Beauties” was a reference to the classic Disney animation. Yet, neither are correct. So, if the theme doesn’t call for nighties or knights, what does “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion” mean? First, let’s dive into the intention of the exhibit. The new exhibit promises to display 250 archive pieces from the Costume Insititute’s permanent collection, some of which date back 400 years to the Elizabethan period. According to Andrew Bolton, Wendy Yu Curator in Charge of The Costume Institute, the entire exhibit is centered around 50 historical garments, latent and so fragile they can never be worn again – the “sleeping beauties” of the exhibit. The main motivating piece was a Charles Frederick Worth original, an 1877 silk satin ball gown. Each delicate piece, some no longer in their true form, will be reimagined inside innovative casings made to bring the garments back to life. While the inherent movement of each piece is apparent even in a state of stillness, CGI, soundscaping, light projection, the illusion technique Pepper’s ghost, and video animation will be installed to propel these pieces out of their shelling. Just as a 17th century bodice is said to be contextualised next to a modern acquisition, each archival treasure will be juxtaposed with more current designs from lauded creatives like Stella McCartney, Phillip Lim, Yves Saint Laurent, Elsa Schiaparelli, and Christian Dior, all mimicing the same structural concept of its counterpart. Through careful curation, the organic essence of each textile piece will be categorised under three “zones” or sections – land, sea, and sky. By doing this, the idea is to highlight views of the natural world, how perception of these areas has changed, and how they’ve been configured in fashion. In other words, we’ll get to see the evolution of nature and how it’s been developed by industry inventors. Notable pieces by Alexander McQueen like the razor-clam shell dress from the 2001 “Voss” spring/summer collection and the mesmerising butterfly dress from Sarah Burton’s first collection at the fashion house in 2011, will be featured. Overall, “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion” intends to dig up tangible pieces of history, some of which were put to rest years ago, to motivate conversation about natural elements and emotion, as well as pay homage to the intimacy between a garment and its wearer with the transformative power of current technology. Based on the aim of the exhibit, we can expect to see the A-listers attending the Met Gala – the annual Costume Institute benefit held on the first Monday in May – in custom-made or revived period pieces that channel all or one of the sections. Designers often collaborate with celebrities to come up with renditions of past runway looks, but this time they’ll most likely be imagining traditional structures, built with organic fabrics and materials. The looks should implement a historical aspect, reminiscing on the evolution of fashion in tandem with conversations and feelings about climate and landscape. We may see a lot of creatives tap figures from Elizabethan times, playing with long and full silhouettes. But one guarantee for the Met Gala every year is stars dressing with absolutely no intention of being on theme. So, who knows maybe someone will show up in their matching PJ set. Read More Met Gala officially announces its 2024 theme Karlie Kloss pokes fun at viral Met Gala 2019 dress: ‘Looking camp right in the eye’ We can’t bash or boast billionaire Kylie Jenner’s brand – yet