T he leadership issue is giving labour pangs to the BJP in its Goa conclave. Its choicest baby, Narendra Modi, may emerge clearly. Or perhaps, the party is pregnant with an idea whose time has not come. By the looks of it, the stage is set for Modi’s “national avatar”, but the pace of churning with- in the party fold has left lead- ers befuddled. The BJP is still grappling with the question with no prag- matic solution in the sight. The party is left with three options: Clearly project Modi as the PM-candidate, make him incharge of campaign panel for national elections or keep the decision in abeyance till a suitable time is found. As evi- denced in Goa, to choose from among any of these options is easier said than done. The first two options will be seen as Modi’s clear cut pro- jection as party’s face for 2014 elections. There is a deep con- cern that these two propositions could queer the pitch for the NDA. The third choice is equal- ly difficult to deal with, given the groundswell of support for Modi among BJP’s rank and file. BJP president Rajnath Singh is clearly in a cleft stick. Speculation is running wild between the climax of Modi being drafted incharge of the BJP and the anti-climax of party coming a cropper on the leadership issue. Top party leaders will burn midnight oil on Saturday to come to grip with the elusive finale. Sunday (the last day of executive meet- ing) is being viewed as a day of hope for the rank and file, a top BJP leader said. Even BJP chief Rajnath Singh generated ‘hope’ at the meeting. “When you return home on Sunday; you will be energised, happy and enthused,” Singh told members of BJP National Executive in his open- ing address at the meeting on Saturday, though party spokes- men remained tight-lipped on the kind of decision that will “energise” party workers. Sources told The Pioneer that an ‘informal’ meeting of members of the Parliamentary Board will take place later in the night to settle the “issue”. Singh has already started the deliberations (on Modi’s national role) with three Chief Ministers and leaders of the RSS whose joint general secre- tary Suresh Soni landed here on Saturday. Soni is incharge of BJP affairs in the RSS. Sources claimed a section of the RSS want the BJP to take the call on the leadership issues for once and all, instead of dis- cussing whether or not Modi should head the campaign committee for national polls. “They feel the tug of war with- in the BJP would not stop until this leadership issue is set- tled,” sources claimed. Apparently, Singh also spoke to senior JD(U) leaders to gauge their mood on BJP’s Modi plan. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is a known Modi baiter and Singh’s telephone calls to JD(U) leaders trig- gered speculation that some- thing ‘big’ could happen on Sunday and the BJP chief was testing the waters as to what could this lead up to. Still, uppermost on the minds of party leaders is the question whether the BJP can give short shrift to its veteran LK Advani, who skipped the meet- ing for the first time in party’s 33-year-old history. Advani, apparently, is not amenable to Modi being given the charge of the campaign committee for national elections. That Advani loyalists like Jaswant Singh, Yashwant Sinha, Shatrughan Sinha, Uma Bharti and others also skipped the meet escalated the speculation that ‘ailing’ veteran was not happy with BJP’s Panaji plans. Sources claimed top BJP leaders were trying to per- suade Advani to give his “bless- ings” to whatever decision that will be taken at the Goa meet. Related reports on P6, 7 N early five days after Bollywood actress Jiah Khan was found hanging at her residence, her family claims to have found a six-page note, in which Jiah mentioned about her troubled love affair with the son of actor couple — Aditya Pancholi and Zarina Wahab — before committing suicide, police said on Saturday. Jiah’s family preferred to retain the original doubting police action, but have agreed to give a notarised copy to the investigators, a police officer at Juhu police station said. The gist of the note, which is yet to be received by the police, reveals the strained relationship between the actress and Suraj Pancholi. “We would seek legal experts’ opinion and an appro- priate action would be initiat- ed if required. As of now, we do not want to jump into any con- clusion,” the officer said and refused to comment if the note named Suraj. Police will also take the help of handwriting experts to find out whether the letter was indeed written by Jiah. According to reports, the note says, “You have cheated me. I trusted the relation. You didn’t care about the relation. By the time you will be reading this letter, probably by then I won’t be there in this world.” F or long, the severe deficit of officers has been a cause of major worry for the Army. But since 2012, things have started showing signs of improvement with the Army witnessing a net increase of 1,000 officers in its ranks and the deficit coming down from 22 per cent to 20 per cent. This year, so far, over 650 officers have already made the cut. Battling with the perennial shortage of more than 9,000 officers, the Army now wants to sustain the momentum of increased intake and has pro- posed a slew of measures to the Government including more salary, study leave for preparing for Civil Services examinations, grant of ex-servicemen status and eligibility for Employees Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS) to Short Service Commission (SSC) officers. The Army feels that these measures will attract more young men and women to opt for the service thereby wiping out the deficit of officers by 2018, officials said here on Saturday. A move is also on to relax norms for jawans aspiring to become Permanent Commission officers. Turn to Page 6 L ady luck has always smiled on Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in Goa. The rain-swept coastal city is flushed with the hope this time around too. If it works out so, it will act as launching pad for him. If Modi is launched off Goa coast, it will be historic. Exactly 11 years ago, this city saw Modi coming out unscathed from a similar BJP meet in April where an attempt was made to dislodge him as Gujarat Chief Minister in the after- math of the 2002 post-Godhra riots. After BJP patriarch Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s famous Rajdharma swipe at Modi, the pressure was so intense on him that Modi himself was ready to put in his papers. But, veteran LK Advani proved a sheet anchor to keep him afloat. Then, Advani with the help of his loyalists put foot down to see to it that Modi remains firmly in the saddle. Now when Modi is gearing up for the most important role in his political life, the Chief Minister is still in need of the bless- ings of his one-time mentor. Though, Advani is little “indis- posed”, frantic efforts are on to secure his blessings.
The leadership issue is givinglabour pangs to the BJP in
its Goa conclave. Its choicestbaby, Narendra Modi, mayemerge clearly. Or perhaps,the party is pregnant with anidea whose time has not come.By the looks of it, the stage isset for Modi’s “national avatar”,but the pace of churning with-in the party fold has left lead-ers befuddled.
The BJP is still grapplingwith the question with no prag-matic solution in the sight.The party is left with threeoptions: Clearly project Modi asthe PM-candidate, make himincharge of campaign panelfor national elections or keepthe decision in abeyance till asuitable time is found. As evi-denced in Goa, to choose fromamong any of these options iseasier said than done.
The first two options will beseen as Modi’s clear cut pro-jection as party’s face for 2014elections. There is a deep con-cern that these two propositionscould queer the pitch for theNDA. The third choice is equal-ly difficult to deal with, giventhe groundswell of support forModi among BJP’s rank and file.BJP president Rajnath Singh isclearly in a cleft stick.
Speculation is running wildbetween the climax of Modibeing drafted incharge of theBJP and the anti-climax ofparty coming a cropper on theleadership issue. Top partyleaders will burn midnight oilon Saturday to come to gripwith the elusive finale. Sunday(the last day of executive meet-ing) is being viewed as a day ofhope for the rank and file, a topBJP leader said.
Even BJP chief RajnathSingh generated ‘hope’ at themeeting. “When you returnhome on Sunday; you will beenergised, happy and enthused,”Singh told members of BJPNational Executive in his open-ing address at the meeting onSaturday, though party spokes-
men remained tight-lipped onthe kind of decision that will“energise” party workers.
Sources told The Pioneerthat an ‘informal’ meeting ofmembers of the ParliamentaryBoard will take place later inthe night to settle the “issue”.Singh has already started thedeliberations (on Modi’snational role) with three ChiefMinisters and leaders of theRSS whose joint general secre-tary Suresh Soni landed here onSaturday. Soni is incharge ofBJP affairs in the RSS.
Sources claimed a section
of the RSS want the BJP to takethe call on the leadership issuesfor once and all, instead of dis-cussing whether or not Modishould head the campaigncommittee for national polls.“They feel the tug of war with-in the BJP would not stopuntil this leadership issue is set-tled,” sources claimed.Apparently, Singh also spoke tosenior JD(U) leaders to gaugetheir mood on BJP’s Modiplan. Bihar Chief MinisterNitish Kumar is a known Modibaiter and Singh’s telephonecalls to JD(U) leaders trig-
gered speculation that some-thing ‘big’ could happen onSunday and the BJP chief wastesting the waters as to whatcould this lead up to.
Still, uppermost on theminds of party leaders is thequestion whether the BJP cangive short shrift to its veteran LKAdvani, who skipped the meet-ing for the first time in party’s33-year-old history. Advani,apparently, is not amenable toModi being given the charge ofthe campaign committee fornational elections. That Advaniloyalists like Jaswant Singh,Yashwant Sinha, ShatrughanSinha, Uma Bharti and othersalso skipped the meet escalatedthe speculation that ‘ailing’ veteran was not happy withBJP’s Panaji plans.
Sources claimed top BJPleaders were trying to per-suade Advani to give his “bless-ings” to whatever decision thatwill be taken at the Goa meet.
Related reports on P6, 7
��� ����
Nearly five days afterBollywood actress Jiah
Khan was found hanging at herresidence, her family claims tohave found a six-page note, inwhich Jiah mentioned abouther troubled love affair with theson of actor couple — AdityaPancholi and Zarina Wahab —before committing suicide,police said on Saturday.
Jiah’s family preferred toretain the original doubtingpolice action, but have agreedto give a notarised copy to theinvestigators, a police officer atJuhu police station said.
The gist of the note, whichis yet to be received by thepolice, reveals the strained
relationship between the actressand Suraj Pancholi.
“We would seek legalexperts’ opinion and an appro-priate action would be initiat-ed if required. As of now, we donot want to jump into any con-clusion,” the officer said andrefused to comment if the notenamed Suraj. Police will alsotake the help of handwritingexperts to find out whether the letter was indeed written by Jiah.
According to reports, thenote says, “You have cheatedme. I trusted the relation. Youdidn’t care about the relation.By the time you will be reading this letter, probably by then I won’t be there in this world.”
������ ������ ��������
For long, the severe deficit ofofficers has been a cause of
major worry for the Army.But since 2012, things have
started showing signs ofimprovement with the Armywitnessing a net increase of1,000 officers in its ranks andthe deficit coming down from22 per cent to 20 per cent. This
year, so far, over 650 officershave already made the cut.
Battling with the perennialshortage of more than 9,000officers, the Army now wants tosustain the momentum ofincreased intake and has pro-posed a slew of measures to theGovernment including moresalary, study leave for preparingfor Civil Services examinations,grant of ex-servicemen statusand eligibility for EmployeesContributory Health Scheme(ECHS) to Short ServiceCommission (SSC) officers.
The Army feels that thesemeasures will attract moreyoung men and women to optfor the service thereby wipingout the deficit of officers by2018, officials said here onSaturday. A move is also on torelax norms for jawans aspiringto become PermanentCommission officers.
Lady luck has always smiled on Gujarat Chief MinisterNarendra Modi in Goa. The rain-swept coastal city is flushed
with the hope this time around too. If it works out so, it willact as launching pad for him. If Modi is launched off Goa coast,it will be historic.
Exactly 11 years ago, this city saw Modi coming outunscathed from a similar BJP meet in April where an attemptwas made to dislodge him as Gujarat Chief Minister in the after-math of the 2002 post-Godhra riots.
After BJP patriarch Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s famous Rajdharmaswipe at Modi, the pressure was so intense on him that Modihimself was ready to put in his papers. But, veteran LK Advaniproved a sheet anchor to keep him afloat. Then, Advani withthe help of his loyalists put foot down to see to it that Modiremains firmly in the saddle.
Now when Modi is gearing up for the most important rolein his political life, the Chief Minister is still in need of the bless-ings of his one-time mentor. Though, Advani is little “indis-posed”, frantic efforts are on to secure his blessings.
Yamla, Pagla, Diwana! Out ofsync, terribly misplaced and theworst from the Deols is herealong with its mish-mashcharacters to jolt you intolunacy — not the one thatmakes you laugh, but the onethat makes you cry, especially ifyou feel for the good oldDharmendra who has been soshort-shrifted by directorSangeeth Siwan that even theorangutan gets to do betterthings than him in the movie.
Why the good old, nowLondon-based Sunny Deol,who is known to have literallychased away two-bit producersfrom exploiting Dharmendra’sweakness for the liquid diet inreal life, would allow him todrink himself to death in thefilm and come out as real as hecan get, defies all explanations.At least, in real life, he is notreduced to drinking with anorangutan — in YPD2, he is sounemployed that this is all hedoes. No one should have beenallowed to do such a slight tothis yesteryear great, especially
not when more than half hisfamily was in the film, with thefilm.
That’s about Dharmendra.Sunny himself comes and goesout of the frame too manytimes to make an impact. This,despite his screams evoking avirtual nuclear explosion, hisdhai kilo ka haath throwing upall things that come in his way,his groovy eyes and his screen
presence. You couldcall him a smallblob of sanity inthis insane picture.
As for theyoungest of theDeols, Bobby doeshis best to be thebig Q (readquestion mark) inthe film and despitehis good looks, is
underworked.Now the main thing, and
that’s the humour. Well, it isloony but not in the way thatwould tickle you. It irritatesyou by being just too foolish tobe tolerable. Except for one ortwo jokes that catch yourattention — and your funnybone — there is pretty muchnothing in the movie that doesnot insult your intelligence,even if you had the smartness
to have left your brain behind.This is the worst the
Deols could do to. Why,perhaps Einstien-Vinci
orangutan is working onthe answer. Perhaps,dude JoginderArmstrong is still“malling” around withthe gravity of theblunder. Perhaps, the
sumos are still wrestlingto get to the bottom of it.
Perhaps, the story-writerhas stopped taking revengeon himself — and theaudience who will sitthrough this one onlybecause, in India, apne toh
apne hotey hain!
It would be unwarrantedindulgence towards M Night
Shyamalan to suggest that heshould have had the sixth senseto not make After Earth. Thedirect, more candid suggestionwould be to ask where the heckdid his common sense vanishwhile he was attempting tomount the most inane, stuck-upspatial sci-fi in a long-long while.
After Earth fails to showpretty much anything that makesfor a sustainable film — itsemotions are wronglyundertoned, action is missing inaction, adventure is as flat asKatirna Kaif ’s stomach (withoutthe same allure of course) and itspace seems to have been heavily
drugged to unexplainedparalysis —
like
the one the otherwise happeningWill Smith suffers in most of themovie.
As he gets hurt in a crash-landing on demonised,uninhabitable Earth where killerfauna rule the domain, he alsokeeps drugging himself to escapethe manual bypass he does onher broken leg. Why Shyamalanwould make even this look likebored stupor from the movieescapes all explanations — saneor otherwise. And then to debuthis son Jaden Smith in such acommanding role in such amessy, unhappening movie couldbe the dad and lad’s biggestcareer mistake.
Shyamalan, in short, needs tostick to ghosts — spirits whovisit your homes andminds and emotionsin simple humanmovies. That’s hiswonder. This oneis his blunder.
��)�(*��( �����+�,����+ '����'-��'.��'(FESTIVALIndulge in one of its kind winepaired menu. New ZealandWine festival at ConneXions,Crown Plaza, Gurgaon fromJune 1 to 10. It is an all-day event
FOODPizza Mania — get more thanjust pizza’s at Amsterdam.Kitchen & Bar, DLF SouthCourt Mall, Saket, New Delhifrom 11.30 am to 12.30 pm.Meal for two: �1500 plus taxes
EVENTMeet Chota Bheem and hisfriends, Jaggu, Kalia and Chutkion June 8 and 9 at DLFPromenade Mall, Vasant Kunj,New Delhi in an all-day eventfrom 10 am
MOVIEWatch The Scorpion King, anaction film at 11 pm on StarMovies starring DwayneJohnson, Steven Brand, KellyHu and others
Ayoung boy learns that he hasextraordinary powers and is not ofthis Earth. As a young man, he
journeys to discover where he came fromand what he was sent here to do. But thehero in him must emerge if he is to savethe world from annihilation and becomethe symbol of hope for all mankind.
A child, sent to Earth from a dyingplanet, is adopted by a couple in ruralKansas. Posing as a journalist, he uses hisextraordinary powers to protect his newhome from an insidious evil.
In the pantheon of superheroes,Superman is the most recognised andrevered character of all time. ClarkKent/Kal-El is a young 20-somethingjournalist who feels alienated by powersbeyond his imagination. Transported yearsago to Earth from Krypton, a highlyadvanced, distant planet, Clark struggleswith the ultimate question ‘Why am Ihere?’ Shaped by the values of his adoptiveparents Martha and Jonathan Kent, Clarkdiscovers having extraordinary abilitiesmeans making difficult decisions. Whenthe world is in dire need of stability, an evengreater threat emerges. Clark must becomea ‘man of steel’, to protect the people heloves and shine as the world’s beacon ofhope.
������"�������#�!�����$
On a week when two bigmovies bomb all over
your patience limit, this onesaves the evening. Yes, it doestake some time to grow onyou, but once the unlikelythriller gets going, it is reallywhat it deals with — magic.
Eisenberg, who onceplayed Mark Zuckerberg toperfection, is a mastermagician here who, alongwith three others, does anamazing show in Vegas,staging bank robberies as faraway as in Paris — live andand from that stage.
Though the role ofMorgan Freeman is not toofleshed out, the suspense
holds on till the last and that’swhat gives you that edge onyour seat. It’s a pacey moviewhich gives you no time tothink or catch what the FBIdeems the most innovativeheists in the world.
��2 ���'��#�$�8����$�����2�9:�
�������#�� ��00�#�� ���!���;������1
�*�(��(���.
��2 ���'��#�$8�����$�����2�<=<:�
��$$�($��6�1 ���;�"���0� �����3.��0$�� ��$0�*$��
�1
����+�,��((��(
��(��(!*�$!��������
�� ������ ������� ��� ������
��2 ���'��#�$�8����$ ������2�9:�
���#���� �"��3����0 ��663����0 ��������#�
�1
+�������/����((�����>
�$��3�#�1%�������'�!��0
The world’s most lovedcharacters — Mickey
Mouse along with MinnieMouse, Donald Duck andGoofy gave a mindblowingperformance in the Capitalrecently at the Disney Magicevent. They are now going tomeet and greet their fans inMumbai, Bangalore andChennai and give Mickey’sfriends a unique Disney expe-rience for the entire family.
�%;�������5��!��3
Nick pulls out all stops toensure children have an
entertaining summer holiday.With the brand new home-grown hilarious chase comedyPakdam Pakdai and new sea-son of Motu Patlu. The youngones will be entertained likenever before. That’s not all!Kids also get a chance to partywith Ninja Hattori by partici-pating in ‘Chocolate HorlicksPresents Nick Party with NinjaContest’.
Tune in to Nick onMonday to Friday, 6 pm to 7pm and win invites to a partywith Ninja Hattori.
������%���#&��������� �����( '�)����*+�,-./
�'��(0���
�How did you bag Mahamanga’s role?I’ve worked with Ekta Kapoor before
in Kasamh Se and Bairi Piya, so we sharea good rapport. Ekta offered me this roleand I didn’t even have to audition for it. Iam overwhelmed and nervous.
Since I was not good in History inschool, I’ve a scant knowledge about thatera. The only condition I put before Ektawas that she should narrate the script tome because her narration style ironsaway all doubts. It was Ekta’s confidencein me that has given me the courage to takeup this role.�What challenges did you face whileshooting?
It was a huge challenge from day one.The role is completely different from theones that I’ve played so far. So, yes, I hadadjustment issues to begin with. But, grad-ually, everything eased out. �Ila Arun played the same role in the2008 Jodha Akbar. Did you face perfor-mance anxiety about this at any time?
There is no question of comparisonwith Ila Arun who is a senior and very tal-ented artist. I respect Ilaji and can’t eventhink of comparing myself with her. Eachactor brings in his/her own individualityto the role and I’m hoping the audience willbe supportive of me.
�How did you prepare for this role —Urdu language and traditional attire etc?
I’m learning something new everyday.It’s a process and I’m enjoying the little dis-coveries coming my way. Ekta is a greatmentor and always there to guide actorswhenever they feel stuck. The roledemands a good command over Urdu. Ihad a lot of problems getting my dictionright but Naved Aslam, who playsBehraam Khan in the serial, was of greathelp. He would literally give me Urdutuitions.
It’s the first time that I have playeda burqa-clad traditional Muslimwoman. The going isn’t easy but I’menjoying it.�Do you ever fear getting stereo-typed?
I’ve played mostly negativecharacters, but that doesn’t stop mefrom taking up other kinds of roles.
I sign up for a project only once I’mcompletely sure I want to be a part
of it. I’m open to do all sorts of rolesand offers have been generous.�You are a trained Kathak dancer.Never pursued that line?
I’m a trained Kathak dancer but def-initely not a professional performer. Idon’t even know all the variations of thisdance form. I learnt Kathak when I wasa child and fell in love with it. There are
many more talented actors on the smallscreen who are greater dancers. I don’t seemyself towering over them.�Which one do you consider to be yourbest performance?
Every role has given me an opportu-nity to excel in different areas. I’m onlyconcerned about putting my best foot for-ward. I leave the rest to God.�With whom would you like to work inthe film industry?
Each one of them if that is possible.Bollywood is a talent house of legends. I’veworked with Ajay Devgn and would loveto work with him again.
Rohit Shetty is one of the most gen-uine and down-to-earth persons I’ve
come across. I’ll be on seventhheaven if I get to work withDevgn in a Shetty film again.Like everyone else, I too wouldlove to share screen space withBig B. Ranbir Kapoor is cute. Iwould love to play his leadinglady some day.�Tell us more about you as a
person?I’m a naughty and fun-loving
person who takes life as it comes. I’man out and out extrovert who makes
friends at the drop of a hat. Prachi Desaiis my best friend.�What do you prefer? TV or film indus-try?
It isn’t about TV or films. It’s about thework you’re doing and the time you’re will-ing to give. I’m an opportunist so I’llchoose whichever medium gives me max-imum exposure and presents plumb pro-jects.
Considered to be ComedyKa Rajnikath, Suresh
Menon put on his dancingshoes for Colors’ JhalakDikhhala Jaa’s Season 6 witha lot of verve. His Fufermanact in the premier round hadthe judges in splits, butSuresh’s funny jabs didn’tquite give him audiencevotes.
“I was expecting an evic-tion soon as I don’t knowdancing but was surprised tobe the first to be chucked out.Having said that, my objec-tive was to entertain theaudience and to familiarmyself with dancing. Thesetwo weeks are unforgettable.I’m happy I got to know howmuch dance I am capable of.To get acquainted with danc-ing was my sole purpose,”Menon tells you.
An ardent fan of dancereality shows, when Menongot the Jhalak offer, he wentfor it. “I enjoy watchingdance shows and I wanted toexplore one myself. That’swhy I said yes to Jhalak. Iknow ‘Pappu can’t dance’ butI thought of giving it a tryonce. I’ve been part of smallcompetitions but only forfun. I was never a seriouscontender for a dance showbefore this,” he says.
Though practice washard, shoots were fun. “MyFuferman act cheered up
many on the show. I had a lotof fun with my co-contes-tants. I believe in makingpeople around me laugh. Ican’t sit quietly because I loveto chat up people and putthem at ease,” Menon adds.
Along with Menon, hischoreographer’s journeyended too. But he says thetime spent with Suchitra wasa learning experience as sheworked on him endlessly.“Suchitra is a wonderfulchoreographer and dancer. Isalute the efforts she made tomake me dance. Last season,she partnered cricketerSanath Jayasuriya who wasthe second contestant to beevicted. But non-dancersdon’t scare this hardworking
woman. I wish that in nextseason she gets a participantwho has some dancing inhim,” Menon says.
In Season 6, Menon findslots of strong participants buthe would vote for KaranvirBohra as the best.
“I see potential in everycontestant but Lauren andKaranvir Bohra appear ener-getic and vibrant,” Menon,who worked in media mar-keting before venturing intothe entertainment industry,tells you.
So what’s this about film-maker Karan Johar hatinghim? “He is an intelligentdirector who has a differentperspective on how comedyshould be done. But I’msomebody who can laugh atmyself and I love mimickingothers (which Johar isagainst). I never had anyproblem being on the showwith him as judge. We talkedoff-screen and I even toldhim I wanted to work withhim,” Menon clarifies.
Though Menon loves thework of most comedians,Johny Lever is his all-timefavourite. “Kapil Sharma,Siddharth Yadav and PurviJoshi are doing a great job. Infact, I find Manish Paul anamazing comedian too. Hissense of humour is outstand-ing. We had a blast in Jhalak,”Menon says.
(DSGMC) has decided to goahead with the memorial con-struction to commemoratethose killed during the 1984anti-Sikh riots as planned. Thememorial has been planned inthe same complex, adjacent toParliament House.
DSGMC president ManjitSingh GK on Saturdayannounced that there will be nochange in the schedule forfoundation laying ceremonyof 1984 Sikh genocide memo-rial on Gurdwara RakabganjSahib complex. "There is noviolation of any buildingnorms. So the DelhiGovernment or any other
authority in Delhi has no rightto raise objection to our peace-ful endeavour. We are notgoing to construct any buildingin Gurdwara Rakabganj Sahib.A memorial is a memorial. Itcan be a pillar or a platform toperpetuate the memory ofthose lost their lives in anti-Sikh riots in 1984 that followedafter the assassination of thenPrime Minister Indira Gandhi,"said Manjit Singh GK, addingthat they are not going toderive any political mileage.
"The main objective behindthis memorial is to provide aplace for the bereaved familiesand pay respect to their dead,"he said. The memorial, accord-ing to him, would be dedicat-ed to the Sikh Panth before thecompletion of 30 years of the
carnage and would be would besymbol of peace, humanity,humility and compassion.
Manjit Singh GK wasreacting to the objection to thememorial raised by New DelhiMunicipal Council (NDMC)on June 7 by pasting a notice onthe gate of the Gurdwara com-plex. In the notice it was saidthat any illegal constructionwas not permitted inside thegurdwara complex. It alsoraised objection on three feet
wide and four feet high wallconstructed for foundationstone ceremony.
Speaking on the issueDSGMC general secretaryManjinder Singh Sirsa saidthat DSGMC would make noviolation and would stick to thebyelaws. "We have alreadyannounced that height of thememorial would not be morethan 22 feet, norms fixed in thearea due to security reasons,"adds Sirsa.
����������+���� ��������
Amid anxiety over race for admission totop Delhi University colleges and
courses of their choice, some admissionseekers are looking forward to studying atDU colleges with excitement. They feel theenvironment is diverse and student-friend-ly. Some also feel that it is the perfect placeto study given the world class faculties.
According to QS World UniversityRankings 2012, Delhi University's EnglishDepartment is one of the bestin the world. It ranksamong the top hun-dred along with otherreputed educationalinstitutions like StA n d r e w ' sU n i v e r s i t y ,Pennsylvania StateUniversity or Universityof Sussex and is consideredbetter than several other universities, includ-ing Nottingham University, PurdueUniversity and University of Liverpool.
"Though I am hoping to get admissionin a north campus college, in case I do not,I would be content in studying in any othercollege of Delhi University," said HimaniKapoor from Chandigarh. Economicsand Commerce are other courses, whichnot only attract students across the coun-try, but from abroad as well. Apart fromneighbouring countries Nepal,Afghanistan, Tibet, Sri Lanka and China,a large number of students from Vietnam,Thailand, Mauritius, Uzbekistan,Kazakhstan, France, Germany, Canada andeven United States apply to DelhiUniversity, under the category of foreignstudents for various graduate and postgraduate courses.
Ayushi Sarkar from KIIT InternationalSchool, who secured a 93.5 per cent in herboard exams said, "The interesting thingabout Delhi University is its exposure. Itgives the students an opportunity to excel.I can fully harness my potential here. Fromhere I can take my life wherever I want, beit in the field of sports or education. It isalways an honour studying in DU." Apartfrom its influential academic environment,the university also draws students for itsbest dramatics clubs and societies.
Neha Verma, an aspirant from UttarPradesh, who wants to pursue EconomicHonours said, "I would like to hone mydebating and acting skills too. As per whatI have heard from my seniors, the colleges
provide ample opportunities throughoutthe year to display hidden talents. I am so
excited that I am soon going to be part ofone of the top universities of the country.
����������� �< ��
Noida Authority's decision to cutdown nearly six dozen trees
inside the Noida Stadium for rede-veloping the facility has annoyed theresidents of nearby sectors. Theyhave alleged the authority fordestroying green belt area of the sta-dium in the name of redevelop-ment. As most part of the stadiumfalls under green area, residents ofSector 10, 11, 12, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25and others, especially senior citizenscome to the stadium for morningand evening walk.
The matter came to light a fewdays ago when the morning walk-ers noticed a red mark on 67 trees.While contacting the stadium man-agement, it was revealed that NoidaAuthority had ordered to cut thesewell-grown trees, marked with redcolour, for building cricket infra-structure. Against the move of theNoida Authority, a delegation oflocal residents approached the dis-trict administration, the pollutiondepartment as well as the forestdepartment. The delegation alsowarned to move National GreenTribunal (NGT), if Noida Authoritydoes not take its decision back.
According to the local people,when the construction workresumed one year ago, the thenCEO of Noida authority hadassured them to protect over 125large plants coming on the site ofcricket stadium. "As we had earli-er assured by the competent author-ity, we were totally shocked with therecent decision that has put thefuture of these trees in a limbo. Itis also painful that the DistrictForest Department had given per-mission to Noida Authority withoutobserving the ground reality. Theofficials' argument to plant nearly
350 trees, instead of the existingtrees, is totally baseless as the sta-dium is already facing space crunchdue to newly constructed cycletrack and other infrastructures,"said Manoj Kumar, an environ-mental activist living in Sector 12.
"Though we have been grantedpermission from the forest depart-ment on certain conditions, we arealso considering issues raised by theresidents in this regard and ifrequired we will take every possi-ble step to protect the existingtrees," said PK Agarwal, AdditionalCEO of Noida Authority.
����������� �< ��
On the line of Delhi Traffic Police, to ease con-gestion on city roads caused by movement of
heavy vehicles, Noida Traffic Police has planned torestrict entry of such vehicles during the peak hoursfrom July. The Traffic Department has started sur-veying various routes for this purpose and the finalreport will be sent to Noida Authority for approval.
Initially, the law enforcement agency is likelyto restrict entry on three key routes of Noida: fromDND Flyway to Noida, Film City to Sector 60 andSector 37 to Sector 71. The ban on entry will beimposed between 8 am and 11 am in the morningand between 5.30 pm and 10 pm in the evening.The restriction will not imply on Noida-GreaterNoida Expressway.
A senior official of Noida Traffic Police,"Timing of 'no entry' of heavy vehicles to the city,has been decided keeping the restriction in Delhiin mind so that traffic in Noida will not be affect-ed." Delhi Traffic Police do not allow entry of heavyvehicles from 7 am to 11 am and 5 pm to 10 pmfrom DND Flyway, while 7.30 pm to 10.30 fromChilla Regulator and Kalindi Bridge. “As the traf-fic load on various roads has registered manifoldincrease in last few years, smooth vehicular move-ment has become a tough task these days. With therecent move, we will be able to manage a hassle-free traffic in and around the city,” said MP Singh,SP (Traffic), Gautam Budh Nagar.
���22���������� ��������
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) onSaturday came out with its
second list of 44 candidates for10 more constituencies in DelhiAssembly elections scheduledlater this year.
To increase its credibility,the profiles and forms of these44 shortlisted candidates havebeen uploaded on AAP’s web-site to give people an opportu-nity to clear their doubts, if any,regarding the selection.
Party volunteer Gopal Raihas applied from BabarpurConstituency and VinodKumar Binny councillor fromEast Delhi’s Kichdipur area hasalso applied for party ticketfrom Laxmi Nagar. Binny hadrecently joined the party andstarted holding Mohalla Sabhas.
The party has selectedcommon people from differentwalks of life. Musharraf Khan,a daily wage earner, is one ofthe shortlisted candidates fromRajouri Garden Assembly.
����������������� ��������
Despite several communiquéto State Transport Authority
(STA) by the Delhi Metro RailCorporation (DMRC), the issueof imposing penalty on ticketlesstravellers on Metro feeder buseshas not been settled yet.Consequently passengers havebeen travelling without tickets,thus, causing huge loss to theMetro authority. DMRC hasshot two letters to STA betweenJanuary to May.
In their last letter whichwas sent in April, DMRC hadurged the STA to impose thepenalty as there has been anincrease in the number of tick-etless passengers. Sources said
that significant part of themoney was also pocketed bythe conductors as they are inconnivance, hence theCorporation also wants theconductors be fined.
Till now, in all DTC buses,the ticketless passengers havebeen imposed a penalty of Rs200, but in the absence of anyprovision, number of ticketlesspassengers remain scot-free.The number is increasing overtime. According to an estimatecollected from the STA, near-ly 15 passengers per day trav-el in Metro feeder buses. Rightnow, there are around 250low-floor, non-air conditionedfeeder buses plying at variousroutes under the DMRC.
Online registrations for admission to Delhi University soared to 82,000 on the fourthday, remarkably higher than the registrations on day one. A technical glitch had
hampered online admissions on Wednesday because of which the number of appli-cations received was merely 5,500. As soon as the maintenance team of the univer-sity addressed the issue, the number of applications took a leap.
The authority admitted to have faced a technical error which had caused majorinconvenience to online applicants. The online registration website was either run-ning slow or hanging frequently on the first day.
INDIAN ORDNANCE FACTORIESAMMUNITION FACTORY KHADKI, PUNE-411 003
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA, MINISTRY OF DEFENCE
E-TENDER NOTICESl. TENDER NOMENCLATURE QUANTITY EMDNo. ENQUIRY NO. OF MATERIAL AMOUNT1 20130144 RUBBER SLUGS FOR CARTG 152039 Nos Rs. 32,000/-
dtd: 14.05.2013 12 BORE ANTIRIOT TO DRG with 50%O.D. 23.07.2013 NO AFK/SK-2675 SHEET option
NO. 1 DATED 23.9.99
4) TIME & LAST DATE OF RECEIPT OF QUOTATIONS IN E-PORTAL:1400 HRS ON AT 23.07.2013 WWW.OFBEPROC.GOV.IN
5) TIME & DATE & PLACE OF OPENING OF TECHNICAL BID IN E-PORTAL: 1430 HRS ON 23.07.2013 AT WWW.OFBEPROC.GOV.IN
NOTE: Detailed descriptions, credentials required, eligibility criteria,terms & conditions etc. are available on Govt. website www.ten-ders.gov.in & on www.ofbeproc.gov.in.
This procurement action is in 2 bid system, i.e. technical bid & pricebid and for new source development hence established suppliers maynot quote for above items. Firms having One Source Devp. Order alsoneed not apply. Please note that VRRF should be enclosed with technical bid and capacity verification fees should reach AFK on orbefore 1400 hrs. on at 23.07.2013. Please note that technical bid willbe rejected if fees and VRRF not received within stipulated time anddate and no correspondence will be made in this regards.
For any clarification please contact at Ammunition Factory, Khadki, Pune30 - Fax - 020-258 13205, Tel No- 020-25810554 Ext-2018.
The Delhi Police has startedinterrogating Mumbai's big
time bookie Ramesh Vyas (52),who has been brought to Delhion production remand. Policesources said that Vyas, a resi-dent of Napean Sea Road, wasoperating as a facilitator for cel-lular conversations betweenbookies in Pakistan, Dubaiand from Jaipur, Delhi,Mumbai and Ahmedabad.
For connecting all thesecalls between the bookies ofthese places, he earned Rs 1.2lakh per day. He also controlsD-Company's operations inSouth India and was arrested in2005, while his associate Feroz,who is absconding, was arrest-ed in 2012, for allegedly bettingduring IPL matches. Vyas wasarrested on May 12 by MumbaiPolice on the charges of run-ning a well entrenched bettingsyndicate.
"Vyas was operating byusing Pakistani numbers andwas directly in touch with fourbookies of Delhi. Bookies fromPakistan and Dubai have beenputting on huge stakes on theongoing IPL matches and werebetting on every IPL match onminute to minute basis. Thesleuths of Special Cell hadintercepted his call with
Ashwini Aggarwal alias TinkuMandi, when Vyas was con-necting his call to a Pakistaninumber," a source said. Afterthe arrest of Vyas along withtwo associates,police had seized 92cell phones and 30lines directly linked toPakistani contacts from theirpossession.
After the sustained inter-rogation of Vyas, a SouthMumbai-based property deal-er and also a sweet manufac-
turer told the investigators thatinitially he used to run his ownproperty dealing business, butin 2005 he indulged in bettingand with the help of Shoban
Mehta aliasS h o b a nKalachowki,
a well-known bookie, hestarted operating the illegaltelephone exchange in SouthMumbai, to run his bettingnetwork.
Several calls were made toDubai and Pakistan from his
illegal telephone exchange. "In2005, the crime branch ofMumbai Police had busted hisillegal telephone exchange andarrested him. Investigators hadrecovered a conferencingmachine, power supply unit,phone, internet terminal box,net-to-phone devices andaccount books. His arrest hadled to the arrest of top bookieMehta. However, within somemonths, he got bail and wasback in the betting racket," thesources added.
"Vyas also told the inves-tigators that he never dis-closed to his parties that phonelines connected by him werefrom Pakistan and Dubai.Before the start of any IPLmatch, he would first make acall to one bookie abroad andlater connect him on confer-ence call with another bookiein India. He was getting Rs4,000 for connecting per callbetween all the bookies ofPakistan, Dubai and India," thesources added.
��+����������� ��������
The Delhi Government hasembarked upon a novel
idea of counting trees acrossthe city. Being termed as the‘tree census’, the exercise is afirst-of-its kind in Delhi, and isexpected to help the cityGovernment in preparing andimplementing schemes toincrease tree cover in the city.
Delhi Parks and GardenSociety (DPGS) has roped in fiveRWAs and as many schools forits pilot project, before it isintroduced across the city. Thecounting of trees is expected tobegin by next week in five areas— Rohini, Dwarka, MayurVihar, Chittaranjan Park andPaschim Vihar.
It would be pertinent tomention that Mumbai is thefirst city to conduct a tree cen-sus in the country and so,Delhi would be the second city.The Delhi Government hasbeen working on this projectfor the past two years.
Sources in the Government
said 19 years after bringing inthe enforcement of TreePreservation Act in 1994, a treecensus is all set to start by nextweek in Delhi in a bid to curbthe declining number of treesin residential colonies. “TheGovernment has asked Nerolacpaint to provide eco-friendlypaints for counting trees inDelhi. The counting wouldstart with the help RWAs andmembers of DPGS, who havebeen given special training forthis purpose,” said a source.
The residents of SarvodayaEnclave in South Delhi haverecently conducted a tree sur-vey with the help of home-makers, children and environ-mentalists and it was found thatit had 4,011 residents, 1,583vehicles and 1,122 trees, severalof which were in danger ofdying due to rampant con-struction and unnecessarypruning. A total of 787 treesalong the roads were num-bered. The survey was con-ducted between 2011 and 2012.Similarly, a survey by an NGOalso revealed that SamacharApartment has 265 cars against139 full-grown trees, and thisnumber is expected to rise
due to large scale of plantation. The DPGS has claimed to
have prepared an action plan.Data compiled in the process hasshown that there are 414 speciesof trees of 270 genres in theCapital. Delhi's total green coveris 19.97 per cent. It is notewor-thy that according to the State ofthe World's Cities, a reportreleased by UN Habitat last year,ranked Delhi at 58 in the worldgreen index among 95 cities.
In Delhi, where land isscarce, the green cover is oftencompromised for developmentprojects, such as the expansionof the Metro, flyover or BRT.
���22���������� ��������
Some respite in sight from thescorching heat for Delhiites
as the city is likely to get lightshowers in the next three days.The Met department predictedlight rain and thunderstormwith a dip in temperature in themiddle of this week.
However, with no signs ofrain on Sunday, the maximumtemperature is expected to hoveraround 43 degrees Celsius andthe minimum 30 degree. Laterin the day, the city is likely to beenveloped in a dust storm, pre-
dicts the Met department.“The day will remain part-
ly cloudy with no rain but duststorm is likely to hit some partsof the city within the next 24hours,” an India MeteorologicalDepartment (IMD) official said.
Monday is likely to be pleas-ant, but the temperature willremain the same as that onSunday. Denying advancementof monsoon in Delhi, the weath-er department said that thecity will mostly remain dustyand windy with only slight rainin some parts this month.
A senior Met official
admitted to advancement inSouth-West monsoon in a fewStates. It is expected to hitMaharashtra, Gujarat, AndhraPradesh and parts of Jharkhandwithin next three days. "Whileheavy showers are expected inthe Eastern, Central andNorth-Western parts of thecountry during the second halfof the week, Delhi will experi-ence only a minor dip in tem-perature," added the official.
The maximum tempera-ture on Saturday settled at 41.2degrees Celsius, while the min-imum was 29.1 degrees Celsius.
���22����������=����=��< ��
Nutan Singh Tewatia, wife offarmer leader Manvir
Singh Tewatia who hit head-lines during the clash betweenthe police and Bhatta-Parsaulfarmers in 2011, attemptedsuicide on Saturday.
Nutan allegedly tried hang-ing herself at her Greater Noidahome. She has been admittedin the ICU of a city hospital andis in a critical condition, policesaid. No case has been regis-tered with this regard so far.
According to the police,they received informationabout the incident around 6.15am. The victim was rushed tothe hospital by relatives anddoctors have put her on a ven-
tilator. "She is not in a condi-tion to talk and her familymembers were not clear aboutthe sequence of events whichled to the suicide attempt," saidBrijesh Kumar Singh,Superintendent of Police(Rural), Greater Noida. "We areconducting a detailed investi-gation into the case," Kumaradded.
It may be recalled thatNutan's husband ManveerSingh Tewatia had beenreleased from Dasna jail aftertwo years on June 5, 2013. Hehad been lodged in jail sinceJuly 22, 2011, for abductingGovernment officials andkilling a policeman.
The police had bookedTewatia in 22 cases including acase of murder.
���22���������� ��������
A27-year-old chef of a restaurant reportedlydied of suspected suffocation inside the
restaurant in Connaught Place (CP). A case ofnegligence has been registered against uniden-tified persons and further investigation is on.
A New Delhi district police official said thatthe deceased, identified as Shyamudin, aliasMukesh, a native of Nepal, was working in arestaurant for the last three months. “He wasfound unconscious on the kitchen floor on June6 evening by another chef of the restaurant,Kishor Kumar. He immediately informed themanagement of the restaurant, who in turninformed the local police,” the police official said.
The victim was taken to Ram ManoharLohia Hospital, but later died there. “Preliminaryinvestigation revealed that the restaurant, situ-
ated in F-block of CP, has two floors but theirrestaurant was operational only on the first floor,while their kitchen was operational in both thefloors. After reaching the spot, the investigatorssuspected gas leakage and found that there wereno exhaust fans inside the kitchen. There werefixed windows and two deep freezers,” the offi-cer added.
After scanning the CCTV footage installedin the kitchen, it emerged that the victimShyamudin was working inside the kitchen, butsuddenly fell unconscious. "Police had shiftedthe body to Lady Hardinge Hospital for post-mortem, which was conducted on Saturday.Now, we are waiting for his autopsy report toascertain the cause of death and currently, a caseunder Sections 287 and 304 of IPC was regis-tered against unidentified person at ConnaughtPlace Police station," the officer added.
���C*���D�
Acity court on Saturdayallowed the Delhi Police
to quiz alleged bookieRamesh Vyas. MetropolitanMagistrate NamritaAggarwal sent Vyas to thecustody of Delhi PoliceSpecial Cell till June 18 afterthe investigators said theaccused needed to bequizzed so that his role andthe magnitude of the bettingand fixing syndicate can beascertained.
Vyas, who has recentlybeen granted bail by a
Mumbai local court, washanded to Delhi Police inpursuance of a productionwarrant issued against him bya city court.
The investigators toldbefore the court that theywanted to know about therole of other members of thealleged betting syndicate,including Vyas's associate
Feroz, who is on the run.However, the sources inCrime Branch of MumbaiPolice claimed that Vyas andFeroz, are rivals.
Despite the 20-day-long multi-level discussions among Central
and State leaders, the Congress inKerala is set to miss the June 10deadline it had set for a crucialreshuffle of the party-led UDFCabinet, thanks to an unprecedent-ed escalation in the war between fac-tions led by Chief Minister OommenChandy and State Congress presi-dent Ramesh Chennithala.
The plan was to bring in a balanceof communities to the Cabinet to paci-fy certain major majority communi-ty organisations before the start of theState Assembly’s Monsoon Sessionstarting Monday but the nationalleadership, which failed to establish aceasefire between the warring factions,has now decided to postpone thereshuffle till the Session is over.
National president Sonia Gandhiand Congress Working Committeemember AK Antony, who met theother day, came to a decision thatreshuffling the Congress posts in theKerala Cabinet in haste would causemore harm than good at this junc-ture. This decision became necessaryafter Antony refused to directlyintervene in the Kerala issue.
On Saturday, MadhusudanMistry, Congress general secretaryincharge of Kerala affairs, indirectlyconfirmed to newsmen the decisionto postpone the Cabinet reshuffle bysaying, “The organisational issues inKerala will be settled at the appro-priate time.” Despite repeated queries,Mistry was unable to explain by whenthis appropriate time could be.
He also said that the State leaders,including Chennithala and Chandy,had been given strict instruction torestrain themselves from makingpublic statements on issues concern-ing the organisation. Sources said thatSonia Gandhi did not want Congressleaders to wash their dirty linen in
public just when the party was prepar-ing for the Lok Sabha election.
“The Congress high commandunderstands that the issue has nowbecome highly sensitive for the twoKerala leaders as both of them areconsidering this as a question ofpride,” said a Congress source inDelhi. “Therefore, it will be difficultfor the high command to take a deci-sion without hurting the pride ofeither of them,” he added.
Though both the ‘I’ group led byChennithala and ‘A’ group of Chandyare relieved that they could now sus-pend their war for some time, group-neutral Congress leaders are worriedthat the inability of the party to carryout a simple task of a “minor”Cabinet reshuffle could hurt itscredibility in the eyes of the people.
“Till now, we have been jeering atthe CPI(M) for its divisionism. But theCongress leadership must realise thatthis group standoff in our party hasalready affected the entire UDF and hascaused an administrative standstill. Itis a cause of concern during the runup to the general election,” said a seniorCongress leader from Alappuzha.
The proposal to reshuffle the
Congress-led positions in the KeralaCabinet was mooted around May 18,the day Chennithala’s month-longKerala Yatra concluded, in order toput an end to the majority commu-nities’ complaint that the Cabinet didnot have community equilibriumand that the Government was beingcontrolled by the minorities.
The idea was to keep the major-ity communities, especially Hinduupper caste Nairs’ outfit NSS, happyby inducting Chennithala, a promi-nent Nair, into the Cabinet.Chennithala also was not against theproposal as he knew he could notcontinue for long as State partychief, a position he held for eightyears, as PCC chiefs could not holdoffice for more than two terms.
However, the reshuffle efforts gotderailed following the rejection of the‘I’ group’s demand for the post ofDeputy Chief Minister forChennithala by the high commandand that of the Home Minister byChandy himself and his ‘A’ group.With this, Chennithala and his ‘I’group decided that he should not jointhe Cabinet unless the high com-mand instructed otherwise.
mently rejected the allegationsthat the JD(U) candidate andState Education Minister PKShahi faced any sort of back-stabbing or cool response fromNDA workers in Maharajganjby-election, State JD(U) leadersare considering to take strongaction against those foundguilty of working against theinterest of the party candidate.
Shahi, himself, has accusedlocal NDA leaders for notextending their full cooperationand even backstabbing him inby-election, ultimately resultingin his defeat.
The RJD candidate fromMaharajganj constituency,Prabhunath Singh who defeat-
ed Shahi by a margin of over1.37 lakh also claimed that hereceived the support of bothJD(U) and BJP workers.
He said that several localNDA leaders and workers ofMaharajganj supported himin the bypoll as he has a longand “personal” relationshipwith them.
“Rising above their partylines, they supported me in theby-election,” the newly electedMP claimed.
The chairman of JD(U)disciplinary committeeGyanendra Singh Gyanu toldThe Pioneer that he has notreceived any written complaintfrom either Shahi or anyoneelse that JD(U) workers extend-ed their support to PrabhunathSingh in the by-election.
Gyanu said that he had
himself sensed that some localNDA leaders were not fullysupporting Shahi in the bypoll.
Prabhunath Singh, whohas represented MaharajganjLok Sabha constituency onthree occasions, on JD(U) tick-et still commands considerablesupport base among the JD(U)rank, a source claimed.
BJP MLA from Sonpur,Vinay Kumar was not presenton the occasion when Shahifiled nomination papers. Healso remained away from cam-paigning for Shahi, despite alarge number of StateMinisters, MPs and MLAscamped at Maharajganj formobilising support for Shahi,sources added.
Singh has also claimed thatState Legislative Council
Deputy Chairman SaleemParvez has worked in his favourin the by-election.
Parvez, however, hasstrongly refuted the allega-tions, stating that he neverindulged in any such anti-
party activity and on the otherhand claimed that he wouldexpose all such JD(U) leadersand workers who spoilt the vic-tory chances of Shahi. He alsosaid, he would take up the mat-ter with Nitish Kumar too.
All these issues wil lremain shrouded in the mys-tery until an official positionis taken by the JD(U) andChief Minister Nitish Kumarclarifies the situation.
���� ����
Acity sessions court will pronounceits ruling on Monday on the
admissibility of Bollywood actorSalman Khan’s revision applicationchallenging the Magistrate court’sorder invoking the charge of “culpablehomicide not amounting to murder”against him in the much-discussed2002 hit-and-run case.
After the actor’s senior lawyerAshok Mudargi and the prosecutionconcluded their respective argumentsfor and against the actor’s revisionapplication on May 8, Sessions JudgeUB Hejib had scheduled June 10 as thedate for delivering the verdict onSalman’s appeal.
In his appeal, the actorhas challenged the BandraMagistrate court’s orderenhancing the chargeagainst him from “causingdeath due to negligence” to“culpable homicide notamounting to murder” inthe hit-and-run case.
The actor was not pre-sent in the court at the pre-vious hearing, as he hadbeen exempted from mak-ing a personal appearancein the earlier hearing heldon April 29. The actor hadsought exemption frompersonal appearance in thecourt on the ground thathe would be out of townowing to some professional engagement.
As he concluded his arguments but-tressing the stand taken by the actor inhis revision application filed before theSessions Court on March 6, Salman’slawyer Mudargi had reiterated thatMagistrate Vasant Patil’s order was“erroneous, bad in law and contrary toevidence on record”.
In an 80-odd page revision applica-tion filed before a session court - towhich the Bandra Magistrate commit-ted the 2002 hit-and-run case for a trial,
Salman stated that Magistrate VasantPatil had “failed to appreciate” that he hadneither intention (to kill anyone) norknowledge of the fact that the alleged actof driving rashly and negligently wouldlead to the death of a person.
In the September 28, 2002 hit-and-run incident, Salman — allegedly in adrunken state — drove his Land Cruiserrecklessly near his Bandra residence onSeptember 28, 2002, killing a pavementdweller and injuring four others, whowere asleep.
Salman was initially charged underSection 304 (II) of IPC for culpablehomicide not amounting to murder.
However, nearly nine-and-halfyears after the Bombay High Court
dropped the charge filedagainst the actor underSection 304 (II) of IPCwhich attracts a maxi-mum punishment of 10years’ imprisonment, theBandra court on January31, 2013 allowed the pros-ecution to revive thecharge of “culpable homi-cide not amounting tomurder” for allegedlykilling a pavement dwellerand injuring four others inthe hit-and-run case.
Incidentally, theMagistrate’s court passedthe order enhancing chargeagainst the actor and com-mitting the case trial to asessions court, while it was
trying Salman for a lesser charge of caus-ing death by negligence (Section 304 AIPC), which provides for a maximumpunishment of two years in jail.
The trial in the hit-and-run casebegan in 2006 and the prosecution hasso far examined 15 witnesses. However,two witnesses, Ravindra Patil, theactor’s former police bodyguard andRamasray Pandey, turned hostile, dur-ing the trial. In fact, Patil died of acutebilateral tuberculosis, at a city civic TBHospital on October 3, 2007.
��������������������D��=�����
Ending months long sus-pense, Andhra Pradesh
Assembly Speaker N Manoharon Saturday disqualified 15members of the rulingCongress and main OppositionTelugu Desam Party.
The disqualification cameafter a prolonged hearing intothe complaints of the two par-ties against the MLAs whohad violated their whips andvoted in favour of no trustmotion moved by TelanganaRashtra Samiti (TRS) againstthe N Kiran Kumar ReddyGovernment in March last.
But the main grouse of thetwo parties against the MLAswas their defection to the YSRCongress of YS JaganmohanReddy. Those disqualifiedincludes 9 MLAS of Congress
and six of the TDP.Nine Congress MLAs
include Sujjaykrishna RangaRao (Bobbili, Vizianagaram),Alla Naani (Eluru, WestGodavari), PeddireddyRamachandra Reddy(Punganur, Chittoor), G RaviKumar (Addanki, Prakasham),Jogi Ramesh (Pedana,Krishna), D ChandrashekharReddy, (Kakinada, EastGodavari), Shivaprasad Reddy(Darsi, Prakasham), M RajeshKumar (Chintalapudi, WestGodavari), Perni Naani(Machlipatanam, Krishna).
Disqualified TDP MLAsinclude P Sai Raj (Ichchapuram,Srikakulam), Parveen KumarReddy (Tambalapally,Chittoor), Amarnath Reddy,(Palmaneru, Chittoor),Balanagi Reddy (Mantralayam,Kurnool ), T Vanitha,(Gopalapuram,West Godavari),
Kodali Naani (Gudivada,Krishna ). The suspension hascome just couple of days beforethe resumption of BudgetSession of State Assembly.
The MLAs had openlyadmitted wrongdoing anddared their parties to takeaction against them and urgedthe Speaker to disqualify them
immediately. The MLAs aswell as the beneficiary party —YSRCP — were keen for anearly disqualification to pavethe way for by-elections. Butnow that less than one year isleft for the next Assembly elec-tions, it will not be mandatoryfor the Election Commission toconduct the by-elections.
Still, complaint againstfour other MLAs is pendingwith the Speaker. Theyinclude Venugopala Chary,Harishwar Reddy and GKamlakar (al l fromTelangana) and Rama Kotaiahfrom Andhra. The three TDP rebels are fromTelangana and they hadswitched their loyalties to theTRS as they were unhappywith the party l ine onTelangana statehood issue.
Despite the disqualifica-tion of 15 MLAs, there was nothreat to the Kiran KumarReddy Government as theoverall strength of the 295-member Assembly has alsocome down to 271. While thehalf-way mark is 136, theCongress has 146 membersand the scattered Oppositionis no position to throw achallenge to the Government.
Bikram Singh is pushing forsteps like giving two months’extra salary to those SSC offi-cers leaving the Army after fiveyears and four months’ salary tothose going out after 10 years.
Besides, the Army is infavour of granting two years’professional enhancementtraining leave to SSC officersprior to their release from ser-vice; relaxation like grantingleave for preparing for UPSCCivil Services examination;and ex-servicemen status.
Explaining the rationalefor these proposals, officialssaid though SSC officers per-form the same duties as
Permanent Commission col-leagues, they do not enjoyperks and facilities entitled toPermanent Commission offi-cers. This leads to disillusion-ment and if the Governmentgives its nod to these measures,then the Army hopes to attractmore youth, they said.
At present, SSC officersserve up to 14 years whilePermanent Commission offi-cers have to put in a stint of20 years before they becomeeligible for full pension andother benefits like full med-ical cover for self and family. However, SSC officers,so far, are not entitled tomedical benefits and theArmy has urged the Defence
Ministr y to okay ECHS facility to these officers.
Highlighting the impor-tance of reduction in shortageof officers this year, they saidthe Army is short of officers atthe level where actual combattakes place and steps like open-ing a new Officers TrainingAcademy (OTA) at Gaya isnow showing results.
This academy, whichbecame functional in 2011,trains 350 SSC officers everyyear besides OTA, Chennaiwhich also grooms the samenumber of officers. Moreover,1,300 cadets pass out asPermanent Commission of f icers ever y year from Indian Militar yAcademy(IMA), Dehradun.
A batch of 631 officers fromIMA were commissioned and 37
from OTA, Gaya on Saturdaywith IAF chief Air Chief MarshalNAK Browne and Army ChiefGeneral Bikram Singh taking the salute at Dehradun andGaya respectively.
After the f irst batchpassed out from Gaya after ayear’s training last year, theArmy recorded a dip of twoper cent which in numbersmean 470 more officers com-prising one per cent.
In actual terms, now theannual intake is 2,000 officersevery year and net increasecoming to 1,000 officers as thesame number of officers retireevery year, officials said. TheArmy aims to maintain thetwo per cent trend t i l l 2018. They also informedthat the authorised officerstrength is 47,000.
�#3�!0��$�0"%��4��$��!$===
��� �� �=�
Asenior official, during a sur-prise inspection, on Friday
found CCTV cameras installednear bathrooms of a girls’ hos-tel in the city area of Bharatpurdistrict, prompting authorities toconduct an inquiry.
The cameras were installedin such a manner that activitiesinside the bathrooms can becaptured easily by moving theirdirection, DM, Bharatpur,Neeraj K Pawan, said.
It was not clear immedi-ately whether any objectionablevideo was captured or misused.
Pawan said he receivedsome complaints about thehostel, following which he con-ducted a surprise visit of thethree-storey hostel buildingrun by a young couple in thecity area. The building has onebathroom in each storey.
“Hostel owner Pankajused to operate the CCTVcameras. He denied capturingany video of the bathroomand claimed that the devicewas used for the monitoring ofcorridors only,” he said.
The local police, later, unin-stalled the camera devices andstarted the thorough probe ofthe laptop of the hostel owner.
���� ����� I=� �=
Chhattisgarh Chief MinisterRaman Singh on Saturday
won standing ovation of theirparty bosses as one after anoth-er Central leaders of BJP laud-ed his efforts for deftly tacklingthe Maoist insurgency whichreached its zenith in the Statewith gory attack on theCongress convoy in which theState’s Opposition party’s lead-ership was virtually wiped out.
On the first day of the BJPnational working committeemeet in Goa on Saturday, topleadership of the BJP includingits national president RajnathSingh, Leader of Opposition inthe Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj,Leader of Opposition in theRajya Sabha Arun Jaitley,Gujarat Chief Minister
Narendra Modi,Madhya PradeshChief MinisterShivraj SinghChouhan and oth-ers supported thesteps taken by theC h h a t t i s g a r hGovernment andexpressed their sol-idarity withRaman Singh inthis critical period.
T e r m i n gNaxalism and ter-rorism as two facesof the same coin,Raman Singh saidthat Maoist insurgency wasthe biggest danger for democ-
racy of India and informed thegathering about the steps takenby the State Government tocurb it. He said that Maoistinsurgency was not the prob-lem of Chhattisgarh alone butthe entire country as a numberof States are feeling its heat.
Raising the demand onceagain for framing a nationalpolicy on this issue, Singh saidthat the ChhattisgarhGovernment was trying tosolve this menace by strength-ening public security as well asimplementing developmentprojects as we want to free thepopulace from the clutches ofrebels through peaceful devel-opment and better securityarrangements. He requestedthe Union Government tochart out a unified action planin cooperation of affected States
to give final blowto this scourge.
CM RamanSingh said in theBJP working com-mittee meet thatdespite being anadolescent State,Chhattisgarh isfighting the biggest fight of thecountry againstMaoist insurgency.Maoists alwaysoppose democrat-ic norms under-mining the factthat democracy
and development are comple-mentary to each others.
State chief Subhransu Lenka,who was maintaining a lavishlifestyle by riding luxury carsand visiting his home by hiringhelicopter, was sent to jail onSaturday for illegal money cir-culation and duping thousandsof investors in the State.
Lenka was arrested by theEconomic OffenceWing (EOW) of theCrime Branch onFriday night from thecity on the basis of thecomplaints ofinvestors who hadalleged that the com-pany cheated them ofaround �500 crore.
A special teamof the Crime Branchinterrogated Lenkafor the fraud case. Aninvestigation is on tonab the other culprits,said Crime Branchofficial sources.
Crime Branch DIGRajesh Kumar said that theinvestors of the company hadlodged a complaint onThursday at the EOW officehere against the company’sState head. “The CB is trying
to get information fromLenka regarding company’sinvestment, property andother persons involved in thefraud case,” he said.
Astha International andAstha Goat Farming IndiaPrivate Limited were havingseveral offices in the State,including in Bhubaneswar,Brahmapur and Baleswar,which were doing money cir-culation by launching several
schemes, informedthe DIG.
The DIG saidthe company wasoffering interest athigh rate to theinvestors on fixeddeposits. Hopinghefty returns,
investors were deposit-ing money, he added.
The company’s Suratbranch also cheatedthe Odia investors.The Gujarat policehad arrested a few
officials of thecompany after they
received complaintson illegal money cir-
culation. Earlier,investors had lodged a com-plaint at Baidyanathpur policestation at Brahmapur cityagainst the company.
BJP president Rajnath Singhpromised a “happy ending”
to party workers and office-bearers attending the three-dayparty conclave in Goa, even asthe party’s National Executive viaresolutions heavily criticised themanner in which the Congressundermined the interests ofIndia, both vis-a-vis internalsecurity and external relations.
In his inaugural address tothe National Executive Meethere, Rajnath Singh said every-one will go home “happy, ener-gised and enthusiastic,” themedia was informed by partyspokesperson Prakash Javadekar.
He also urged the BJPcadre to strive for a decisive vic-tory in the next elections.
In his inaugural speech tothe National Executive, the BJPpresident began by expressingregret over the attack on theCongress convoy inChhattisgarh. Talking about theissue of terrorism and Maoism,Singh said the issue had aggra-vated due to the “misguided poli-cies of the Central Government”.
“Unless there is an integrat-ed approach, there will be nopermanent solution to both(Naxalism and terrorism) prob-lems. If even after ruling for 56years out of the 66 years sinceIndependence, the resource richareas are under the influence ofNaxalism, the policies of theCongress are directly responsi-ble for it,” Singh said.
“The biggest problem isthat the Congress and Left par-ties have made huge mistakes byprotecting people who believe in an extremist ideology and
violent activities,” he added.Attacking the Congress,
the BJP chief blamed the rul-ing party of being habitual ofmaking false promises.
“Making false promises isnot something exclusive to thisUPA led by Manmohan Singhbut it has been the DNA of allCongress Governments in thepast as well,” he said.
The BJP president thenwent ahead to say if his partygets 10 years in power, it wouldchange the face of the nation.
“But I would like to assurethe people of our great nation, ifwe are given a chance to rule forat least 10 years, we will make somuch difference that the need forany populist measure like BharatNirman or Food Security Bill willbe reduced to a naught,” he said.
He also promised the for-mation of Telangana State, ifthe party comes to power.
Singh also took up theissue of Tibet and recent self-immolations, saying Indiashould not remain “insensitive”to the “atrocities being com-mitted on Tibetans monks”.
“In past few months hun-dreds of Buddhist monks havecommitted self-immolation inprotest against the violation of human rights by China in Tibet... India cannotremain insensitive to the atroc-ities being committed on theBuddhist monks in Tibet as weshare a long history of culturalaffinity with this region,” he said.
Addressing media later,party spokesperson NirmalaSitharaman quoting BJP reso-lutions accused the Congress ofmisleading the country on theMaoist issue. She said that whilethe Congress-led UPA was giv-ing Maoists an easy hand, it wasalso accusing State Governmentsof committing human rights vio-lations. The party’s resolution oninternal security, she said, con-demned the manner in which
the safety of the countrymen was compromised.
“The fight against Maoistshas been badly handled,” shesaid, claiming that the responseof the party in the wake of therecent Chhattisgarh massacre,was “shockingly inadequate”and bordering on “mischief ”.
She said the BJP had evolveda long-term and multi-prongedplan to handle the Maoist crisis.
The resolution, she said,also condemned the manner inwhich the Congress was tryingto bring the colour of religion tothe issue of terror by tamperinginvestigations in such a waythat a particular religion was tar-geted only in order to bolster it“secular” credentials.
�����+�������� �����
As the BJP is taking its owntime in anointing Narendra
Modi as the campaign com-mittee chief, its alliance partnerJD(U) has made it clear that ithas no objection to appoint-ment of the Gujarat CM as thepoll campaign chief as it is aninternal matter of the BJP.
The JD(U)’s assurancemight help cool down the heatgenerated after BJP general sec-retary Rajiv Pratap Rudy’s strongadvocacy for taking the help ofBJP’s top leadership includingNarendra Modi for improvingvictory chances of NDA candi-dates in the 2014 LS polls.
“The JD(U) needs help ofNarendra Modi as much asthe BJP for improving theirrespective positions in theelection,” Rudy had remarkedlast Thursday.
State JD(U) presidentVashisht Narayan Singh toldThe Pioneer that his party doesnot find any valid reason to raiseobjection to the appointment ofModi as chief of the electioncommittee as a political partyenjoys the freedom to takedecision on its internal matters.
When asked whether hisparty will oppose election cam-paigning by Modi, he said thatit is up to the BJP how it wantsto use its leaders but the JD(U)
will take any decisions on suchmatters when an appropriatetime will come for it.
On PM nominee for thenext general elections, Singh saidthat his party had made itsposition very clear on the issueof the Prime Ministerial candi-date for the 2014 Lok Sabha elec-tions and now the party does notwant to enter into a debate withany party on a daily basis.
He said that the JD(U) hasalso given a deadline to the BJPto declare its PM nominee andhence his party cannot domuch beyond it.
A close confidant of NitishKumar and JD(U) MLCDeveshchandra Thakur toldThe Pioneer that his party has noproblem if Modi is appointed asthe chief of the BJP electioncampaign committee as the BJPhas the prerogative of takingcalls on its internal matters.
�������������(F(',��)(��((���/NEW DELHI: Senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha said he hadchosen to stay away from the party’s National Executive meet-
ing in Goa not because of ‘NaMonia’, which hasemerged as a euphemism to refer to a groupof BJP leaders, including senior party leadersLK Advani and Jaswant Singh, who havereported sick and skipped the party’s meeting,
in view of Gujarat Chief Minister NarendraModi being made the party’s poll campaign com-
mittee chief. “I don’t have ‘NaMonia’. I am in perfect health. Butthere could be other reasons for not going to Goa because ofwhich I have not gone there,” Sinha told reporters. PNS
Rajnath Singh’s demand forPrime Minister ManmohanSingh’s resignation, sayingthat UPA does not face anycredibility crisis which hasproved by the KarnatakaAssembly polls where theparty emerged victoriouswhile the BJP was decimated.
Launching a counter offen-sive, Congress spokespersonRenuka Chowdhury expressedshock and astonishment overthe demonstrations by rowdyelements outside the house ofsenior BJP leader LK Advani toforcibly get the consent of vet-eran BJP leader for GujaratChief Minister Narendra Modi’selevation as the ElectionCampaign Committee head.
“Today, what is happeningoutside Advani’s residenceshould frighten all of us. If aman who is virtually the archi-tect of that political party isnow faced with that kind ofrowdyism, then the nationstands warned that what isgoing to come to them. Thatterrify us,” she said addingthat the incident clearlyexposed what kind of treatmentBJP leaders and workers meteout to their elders in the party.
“The country has seen thetrailer. The full movie is yet tobe seen. They are not evenmaintaining dignity of theirown senior most leaders, hisage or experience or even thesituation. And the nationremembers these things,”Chowdhury said
She said that seniorMinisters like Advani, YashwantSinha, Jaswant Singh skippingthe BJP meeting in Goa hasproved that the BJP is a dividedhouse and there is no unity in theparty. She charged the BJP withnot contributing positively to anypolicy decision be it relatedFood Security Bill or removingmalnutrition. The BJP has alwayshad a destructive approachresulting in demand for resig-nation of PM, but there is noquestion of his resignation asKarnataka poll results haveproved it is for the BJP to answera lot on the issue of corruption.
Renuka said that theCongress is not concerned overModi’s elevation as he is noteven being projected as PMcandidate but just the ElectionCampaign Committee head.
protests by a group vouchingsupport for Narendra Modi, asthe former chose to skip party’sNational Executive Meeting inGoa, where the Gujarat ChiefMinister is expected to begiven a larger role.
While the BJP was quickto condemn the incidentssaying the protesters havenothing to do with the party,Congress latched on to itreminding people of thetreatment meted out tosenior leaders within theOpposition party. A handfulof protesters holding a ban-ner ‘Narendra Modi’s Army’shouted pro-Modi slogansoutside Advani’s 30-Prithviraj Road residenceon Saturday afternoon.
TENDER NOTICE1. On behalf of the President of India, sealedtenders in two bid system (Technical Bid and Cost Bid)are hereby invited from OEM and their authorizeddealer/distributors/retailers agents for supply of Spareparts of Maruti Gypsy. The stores have to be delivereddirectly at No 1 Wksp AR, Dimapur, (Nagaland), No 2Wksp AR, Silchar , No 3 Wksp AR, Jorhat, (Assam) No4 Workshop Assam Rifles, Keithelmanbi( Manipur) .Tender papers alongwith list of items, Terms andCondition or any further information can be obtainedfrom our website www.assamrifles. gov.in.
2. Tenderers are requested to submit documentsand earnest money as mentioned in schedule attachedto our tender notice No IV .15011/EME-CP//MV/MG413/2013-14 dated 05 Jun 2013. The last date foracceptance of tender bid is 04 Jul 2013 upto 1400 hrsand will be opened on the same day at 1430 hrs.
1. Sealed tenders are hereby invited in two bid systemby Director General Assam Rifles from registered transporterswith RTO on behalf of the President of India Union for 09buses of 34 seats each in up and down convoy betweenMinuthong and Dimapur for conveyance of troops betweenTransit Camp Dimapur and Transit Camp Minuthong for the fy2013-14, as per terms and conditions mentioned in thisDirectorate tender notice No. I.11016/CHT-14/2013-14/036dated 05 Jun 2013, which is available on Assam Rifles websitewww.assamrifles.gov.in.
2. The tender will be received in two bid sytem(Technical bid and Cost bid) at Headquarters DirectorateGeneral Assam Rifles, Shillong-793010 upto 1500 hours on03 Jul 2013 and technical bid tender will be opened at 1530hours on the same day.
TENDER NOTICE1. Sealed tenders are hereby invited in Two Bid
System i.e Technical and Cost bid on behalf of The
President of Indian of Union from Manufacturing Firms and
their Authorised Dealer/Distributors for supply of Water
Cooler qty 145 Nos.
2. Tender papers with complete sets of Terms &
Conditions and details specifications can be down loaded
from our web site www.assamrifles.gov.in.
3. Pre Bid conference.
(a) The pre bid conference with the
prospective bidders will be held on 18 Jun 2013 at 1530 hrs
at Tender Room, HQ DGAR, Laitkor Shillong-793010 for
clarification of any technical details pertaining to the tender
notice.
4. Bid Security / EMD. The tender should be
accompanied by Earnest Money for a sum of Rs.
3,10,000/- (Rupees Three Lakhs Ten Thousand Only) in
respect of Vendor not registered with DGS&D/NSIC to be
submitted duly pledged in favour of Director General
Assam Rifles, Shillong - 10.
5. Tenders will be received upto 1100 02 Jul 2013
and will be opened at 1130 hours on the same day.
For and on behalf of The President of India
Tele No. : (0364) 2705090 (Col Prov)
(0364) 2705093 (SO-1 ORD)
Fax No. : (0364) 2230146
��������� � ��������
����������MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS
DIRECTORATE GENERAL ASSAM RIFLES :SHILLONG - 793010
310/Engr/MRR/NIT/2012-13/20 Dated : 23 May 2012NOTICE INVITING TENDER
1. Separate applications are invited from Assam Rifles approved contractors and enlistedcontractors working with other Central Govt Departments/ Organizations meetingeligibility criteria for selection of contractor for issue of tender for the following works.The application shall be addressed to the “Deputy Inspector General of HQ 23 SectorAssam Rifles”, C/O 99 APO:-
Ser Name of works Approx cost Earnest TenderNo of work money Fee
(in Lacs) Rs.
(a) Provn of bituminous road, culvert and 19.88 40,000/- 500/- road side drain at BOP Tuipang of 40 AR (Now 28 AR).
2. Earnest money should be deposited along with tender documents.
3. The last date for receipt of application is upto 24 Jun 2013.
4. Tender will be issued to suitable applicants wef 26 Jun 2013 hrs after submission ofpre-paid challan of Rs. 1000/- (Rupees one thousand only) in Government treasury astender fee under account “2055” Police, Assam Rifles, Pay and Accounts Office (MHA),Laitumkhrah main Road, Shillong - 03.
5. The department reserves the right to reject or accept any tender including the lowesttender paper or application without any assigning any reason.
6. For any queries/details required by the tenderer the under undersigned may becontacted to on any day from 0830 hrs to 1330 hrs except on Sunday and holidays.
7. Tender paper will be received upto 1200 hrs on 17 Jul 2013 and will be opened on thesame day at 1230hrs at Engr branch, HQ MR Range Assam Rifles, Khatla (Aizawl),Mizoram which is available on Assam Rifles website www.assamrifles.gov.in.
Sd/-(EG Muthuraj)Lt ColSO1 (Wks)for Commander
����������OFFICE OF THE DEPUTY INSPECTOR GENERAL ASSAM RIFLES,
HEADQUARTERS 23 SECTOR ASSAM RIFLES, C/O 99 APO
��������� � ��������
����������'������( '�)����*+�,-./
��B�����������C���������)
��������#7��������� '������( '�)����*+�,-./
!�����
�����+�+�� ��������
While it is comforting formany to hear from the RBI
governor that there is no prop-erty bubble ready to burst inIndia , there are several econo-mists who caution on the con-trary. Most realty experts areafraid that it is a danger in themaking. Property bubble, char-acterised by rapid increase in val-uation of real estate until itreaches unsustainable levels andthen collapse, is simmering inIndia .
Till very recently, for a mid-dle class Indian, investing in goldor property was always the bestbet. More so, when on an aver-age, values for both shot up fourtimes in the last decade.However, now there are increas-ing signs that the dream run thatreal estate has enjoyed couldcome to a halt. Just, as what hap-pened with the yellow metalprice charts. Real estate analystsalready point to slowing salesand rising inventories both in bigcities and in small towns.
Over the past decade, suchbubbles have been reportedfrom various countries includingthe US , Britain , Singapore , theNetherlands , Canada andGermany among others. Allthese nations faced real estatebubble which was followed bycritical price falls, taking prop-erty valuations below the mort-gage value.
So, the question is, could2013 be the year when real estatebegins to crack? Analysts saythat the bubble started buildingup in 2002 continuing till 2009,when prices started appreciating.
However since 2010, the pricesare growing in a way where it isbecoming exceedingly expen-sive, primarily because of tworeasons. First being the far-fetched claims of overbookingby developers, thereby creatinga false shortage and secondly, theshort span of possession ofproperty which ranges from sixto 12 months. With everychange of hand, the profit keepsincreasing.
According to experts, theentire real estate sector can gaintransparency and be saved fromthe bubble burst simply bystrictly tracking short-term pur-chase and sale. Analysts suggestthat policymakers should look atproviding a system to track saleand purchase and to documentand publish details of buy andsale, with details of previousowners, if any, apart from pro-viding details of fair value, build-ings’ age and the number of suchhouses or flats on sale in an area.
While, presently RBI tracksthe housing price index, expertssuggest that there should be aregulator for this, which can alsotrack and develop a financialratio about valuation of property.This would prevent the ratesfrom being unrealistic and astro-nomical.
Real estate plays an impor-tant role in the Indian economy,as it is the second largestemployer after agriculture. Thesize of the Indian real estatemarket is expected to touch USdollar 180 billion by 2020.Policymakers need to tacklethe lack of transparency whichis marring the growth prospectsof the sector.
'�������������������������
���� �������� I;<�;���
Standing Conference ofPublic Enterprises
(SCOPE), the apex body pub-lic sector undertakings (PSU),is mulling setting up an inde-pendent training institute formember PSUs.
"There have been goodsuggestions for an academictraining institute for entry leveland middle level managementemployees of public sectorenterprises and we will lookinto it," SCOPE and SteelAuthority chairman C S Vermasaid on Saturday.
He was addressing themedia after meeting easternregion SCOPE members aftera gap of seven years, markingthe revival of the eastern chap-ter.
The institute could also beused as a knowledge plaformfor sharing technology, amongothers, especially for smallerPSEs.
Verma said that there hasto be a level playing field.Smaller PSUs were strugglingwith issues pertaining to indus-try, HR, market and technolo-gy.
Of the 220 operating cen-tral PSUS in the country, 35were located in the easternregion.
The latest total combinedturnover of the PSUs of the eastwas Rs 1,22,117 crore while 12were in loss with the total lossat Rs 1429 crore.
Verma said SCOPE wouldsupport PSEs of the easternregion using possible means.
�'��(�#"00$����1�$��"�����#�#6����($
���� ��������
Less than a month after being sacked as iGate'sCEO, Phaneesh Murthy has ceased to be the
company's board member foll-wing the decision of its man-agement.
Murthy, who was sacked onMay 20 this year as iGate's chiefexecutive for not disclosing arelationship with a subordinate,ceased to be its board membereffective June 7.
"A majority of the share-holders of iGATE Corporationremoved Phaneesh Murthy for'cause' from the Board ofDirectors by written consent in lieu of a meet-ing. Murthy's removal is effective June 7,2013," iGate said in a filing to the US Securitiesand Exchange Commission (SEC) .
No positions were held by Murthy on any
committee of the Board of Directors at the timeof his removal, it added.
"Murthy's removal was not due to a dis-agreement with the company on any matter
relating to the company'soperations orpractices."Rather, the share-holders determined that itwas in the best interests of thecompany to remove Murthyfrom the Board of Directorsfor 'cause' because he engagedin conduct detrimental tothe company, including with-out limitation, violating com-pany policy and breaching hisduty of good faith in his
dealings with the Board of the Directors," it said.The filing further added. "as a result of this
conduct, Murthy was previously terminated asthe Chief Executive Officer and President of thecompany on May 20, 2013."
������$���"��3��#�4�����#�/���@$�6���
��������D<=;
Ketchup maker H J HeinzCo began a new chapter on
Saturday.The company, which also
makes baked beans, vinegarand Classico pasta sauce, saidthat it completed its acquisitionby Warren Buffett's BerkshireHathaway and 3G Capital, theBrazilian investment firm thatalso owns Burger King.
With the completion ofthe deal, 3G is shifting one ofits partners from the helm ofBurger King to head Heinz.Bernardo Hees, 43, is takingthe reins from WilliamJohnson, who was the seventhCEO of the 144-year-old com-pany for the past 15 years.
Johnson walks away with agolden parachute of $56 mil-lion, in addition to the $156.7million in vested stock anddeferred compensation heaccrued over his career.
Back in Miami, 3G iscrowning another one of itspartners to head Burger King.Daniel Schwartz, 32, had beenserving as chief operating offi-cer of the fast-food chainknown for its Whopper sand-wich.
3G is known for its aggres-sive cost-cutting at the com-panies it takes over, suggestingHeinz could be in store for big
changes.At Burger King, for exam-
ple, Hees did away with exec-utive offices at the corporateheadquarters in favor of openspaces. He sat at a desk rightoutside the elevators on theseventh floor, in front of bigboard that was updated withdaily sales reports from aroundthe world.
Hees also oversaw therevamping of the chain's menuto make it more like that of itsmore successful rival,McDonald's Corp. The moveslaid the groundwork for 3Gtaking Burger King publicagain last spring, a move that
helped the firm more thanrecoup its investment based onthe chain's opening share price.
3G, which still owns amajority stake in Burger King,has stressed that it remainscommitted to the chain's over-haul and growth.
In announcing the Heinzdeal earlier this year, Berkshirehad said that it would act as afinancing partner while 3Gwould run the company. Inaddition to Hees' appointment,3G partner Paul Basilio wasnamed chief financial officer ofHeinz.Shares of Heinz willstop trading after the stockmarket closes.
9/�$�"��0�$�'(�$���%�#!0��������.��G����0
���� ���4�Fortis Healthcare on Saturday said it has raised $ 55 million (nearly �313 crore)through allotment of 550 foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCBs) to the InternationalFinance Corporation.The company has alloted FCCBs of $1,00,000 each to InternationalFinance Corporation (IFC) on a preferential basis, at an issue price of $1,00,000 per FCCB,aggregating to $55 million, Fortis Healthcare said in a filing to BSE. �
e-Tender NoticeThe General Manager, Ordnance Factory Dum Dum, on behalf of President of India,
invites quotation through e-procurement portal under two bid systems (i) Technical Bidwith commercial terms and conditions, (ii) Prie Bid for supply of the following items.
2. This is an OPEN TENDER ENQUIRY for procurement of stores and services. Printedcopy of the Tender documents will not be issued. Any manual document submittedother than through online mode will not be entertained. New as well as establishedvendors of these items registered with OFDC or other Ordnance Factories comingunder control of Ordnance Factory Board are eligible to participate against this OTE.
3. The details regarding participation in this OTE for bidding through electronic mode,system requirement, instructioh, specific terms and conditions, drawing etc. areavailable on the following website: https://ofbeproc.gov.in
4. New vendors not registered for c-procurement should Class-Ill Digital SignatureCertificate with Token. The with details of certifying authorities are available onwww.cca.gov.in. It is mandatory for all the Firms to get enrolled on the e-procurementportal (https://ofbeproc.gov.in) for participating in the e-tenders.
5. The Items with quantity and Tender Enquiry No.
Sl. T.E. No. Item Quantity Delivery ScheduleNo.
01. 130088M1OT EXPANDED POLYPROPLYNE 55 g/L 1008 Kg. Within 2 monthsIN BLACK COLOUR.
02. 130089M1OT HDPE TO GRADE HOSTALEN GD 7255 44868 Kg. Within 2 monthsDYED GREEN TO BS 381C NO.285
03. 130090M1OT EXPANDED POLYPROPLYNE 60 g/L IN 2584 Kg. Within 2 monthsBLACK COLOUR.
04. 130091M1OT PLUNGER IN FINISHED COND. TO DRG. 213 Nos. 50 Nos. per monthPT. NO. CM-6846 DC.36782-A.DT-08/09/01.
05. 130092M1OT BRASS STRIP IS:410-67 TO SIZE 25.40 237 Kg. Within 1 monthMM WIDE X 0.6350 MM (24 BO) THICK.
06. 130093M1OT APC NO.7 TO SPECN.JSS:8030-19:2003 75 Kg. Within 1 monthDC.NO. 3790-ME
07. 130094M1OT HEAD TO DRG.PT.NO.IUX-843 [DC.36264-A 70 Nos. Within 2 monthsDT.29-03-97 IN SEMI FINISED CONDITION
08. 130095M1OT MILD STEEL ELECTRODE TO SIZE 1.6MM 6622 Mtr. Within 2 monthsDIA.X350MM LONG
09. 130099M1OT PAINT FINISHING CHLORINATED RUBBER 6890 Ltr. Within 4 monthsTYPE SPRAYING TO SPECN. DEF STAN @25% per month80-72/1, COLOUR DEEP BRONZE GREEN(NO-224JTO IS:5.
10. 130111M1OT STUD ASSY.DET NO-40 TO DRO.NO. 8300 Nos. 2000 Nos. per ARDE-2121 IN FINISHED CONDITION. month
11. 130112M1OT PAINT PRIMING CHLORINATED RUBBER 1657 Ltr. Within 2 monthsTYPE SPRAYING TO SPECN. DEF. STAN-80-72/1,COLOUR RED OXIDE(NO44QTO IS:5.
12. 130113M1OT COLLAR DET NO-17 TO DRG.NO.ARDE-2121 630 Nos. Within 3 monthsIN FINISHED CONDITION.
13. 130103M2OT TRANSPORTATION OF DEFENCE STORES 47 Trips As and whenFROM O.F. DUM DUM TO O.F.KHAMARIA, required within 24JABALPUR (MP) BY ROAD TRANSPORT IN hours of demandFULL LOAD OF STD 9 MT TRUCK
14. 130104M2OT TRANSPORTATION OF DEFENCE STORES 17 Trips As and whenFROM O.F. DUMDUM TO A.F. KIRKEE/ required within 24DEHU ROAD (MAHARASTRA) BY ROAD hours of demandTRANSPORT IN FULL LOAD OF STD.9MT TRUCK
15. 130105M2OT TRANSPORTATION OF DEFENCE STORE 29 Trips As and whenFROM O.F.DUMDUM TO O.F.BOLANGIR required within 24(QRRISA) BY ROAD TRANSPORT IN FULL hours of demandLOAD STD. 9MT TRUCK
16. 130106M2OT TRANSPORTATION OF DEFENCE-STORES 54 Trips As and whenFROM O.F.DUMDUM TO A.F.AMLA DEPOT. required within 24(MP) BY ROAD TRANSPORT IN FULL hours of demandLOAD OF STD. 9MT TRUCK
17. 130106M2OT TRASPORTATION OF DEFENCE STORE 10 Trips As and whenFROM O.F.DUMDUM TO O.F.CHANDA required within 24(MAHARASTRA) BY ROAD TRASPORT IN hours of demandFULL LOAD TRUCK (9 TONS)
18. 130107M2OT TRANSPORTATION OF DEFENCES 3 Trips As and whenSTORES FROM O.F.DUMDUM TO SAF, required within 24KANPUR BY ROAD TRANSPORT IN FULL hours of demandLOAD OF STD. 9MT TRUCK
20. 130110M2OT AIR SUPPLY EQUIPMENT FOR CNC MACHINES, 7 Nos. Within 1 monthMODEL NO: SS1 5090HN, MAKE:ELGI.
21. 130114M30T OXYGEN GAS. PURITY-99.999%. 1671 As and whenCu. Mtr. required within 24
hours of demand
22. 1301 15M30T HELLIUMGAS.PURITY-99.996% (4.6) TO BE 174 As and whenUSED FOR LASER CUTTING MACHINE. Cu. Mtr. required within 24
hours of demand
23. 130116M30T NITROGEN GAS.PURETY-99.996 % (4.6) TO 591 As and whenBE USED FOR LASER CUTTING MACHINE. Cu. Mtr. required within 24
hours of demand
24. 130116M30T PERIODICAL CALIBRATION OF SHOP FLOOR 1 Whole As per requirementFLOOR GAUGES. (AS PER SCOPE OF WORK) Job
6. The closing date and time for bid submission and tender opening are given., below:Closing Date and Time : 28-06-2013 (14.00 Hrs)Technical Bid Opening Date & Time : 28-06-2013 (14.00 Hrs)
7. The quantity and items may be varied / changed at the time of placement of order.Corrigendum if any will be hosted in the website only. General Manager reserves theright to modify/cancel the procurement process of the above items at any time duringthe tendering action.
8. The contact numbers for seeking clarification regarding TEs are given below:S.C. Yadav, Works Manager Ph. : (033) 2569-4015Sunita Mansukhani, Jt. General Manager Ph. : (033) 2569-4006S.K. Yadav, Addi. General Manager Ph. : (033) 2569-4002
In case you are not satisfied with the response, you may contact The GeneralManager, Ordnance Dum Dum, Ph.: (033) 2569-4001
sweeping surveillance ofphone and Internet commu-nications, President BarackObama has asked fellow-Americans to accept this “modest encroachment”on privacy as a “tradeoff ” toprotect the nation from terrorist plots.
“You can’t have 100 percentsecurity and also then have 100percent privacy and zero incon-venience,” Obama said inresponse to the furore triggeredby media revelations about the unprecedented sweep of phone calls and web traffic,adding: “We’re going to havemake some choices as a soci-ety.” But Obama asserted thatnobody is listening to thephone calls, asserting that safe-guards were in place.
All that the sweep of phonecalls involves is that the intel-ligence community would be
looking at phone numbers anddurations of calls.
As for the mining ofInternet data, which targetspeople across the world, heconfined himself to assuringthe US citizens and residentsthat this surveillance activitydoes not involve reading theirmails, except for ones relatingto federal court action or crim-inal investigation.
“I think on balance, wehave established a process anda procedure that the Americanpeople should feel comfortableabout,” Obama said, withoutaddressing the concerns trig-gered by web users in theworld outside. Answeringreporters’ questions during avisit to California, Obama saidboth the surveillance pro-grammes have been autho-rized by the US Congress bybroad bipartisan majoritiessince 2006.
“When it comes to telephone calls, nobody is lis-tening to your telephone calls. That’s not what this
programme is about,” he said, adding: “What theintelligence community isdoing is looking at phonenumbers and durations ofcalls. They are not looking atpeople’s names, and they’re notlooking at content.
“But by sifting throughthis so-called metadata, theymay identify potential leadswith respect to folks who might engage in terrorism. If these folks — if the intelligence community thenactually wants to listen to aphone call, they’ve got to goback to a federal judge, justlike they would in a criminalinvestigation.”
He stressed that this programme is fully overseennot just by Congress, but by the FISA Court that hasbeen set up to make sure thatit is being carried out in accordance with theConstitution and the rule oflaw without any abuse byexecutive branch orGovernment in general.
��� ���<=�
Measles has claimed thelives of 10 more children
in Pakistan’s Punjab provinceover the past two days, takingthe toll in an outbreak of thedisease to 148.
Three to five children havebeen dying of measles everyday since the outbreak in theprovince a month ago.
According to a spokesmanof the Health Department, thedeath toll in Lahore alone is 80.
Since Thursday, three children succumbed to
the disease in Lahore, two each in Faisalabad andHafizabad districts, and oneeach in Toba Tek Singh, MandiBahauddin and Gujranwala.
At least 195 more cases ofmeasles were reported inPunjab, including 19 in Lahoreyesterday, the spokesman said.
The failure to launch an immunisation campaignagainst measles and the failureto purchase the vaccine weresaid to be the main reasons forthe outbreak. After assumingcharge, Punjab Chief MinisterShahbaz Sharif held a meeting
yesterday to review the out-break and approved an actionplan to protect children againstthe disease and called for a vigorous campaign against thedisease on a war footing.
“All out steps will be takenon an emergency basis to savechildren and I will personallyreview the situation every weekwhile the Chief Secretary willhold a meeting every day,”Sharif said. Sharif also direct-ed officials to speed up theprocess of buying vaccineswithout waiting for supportfrom international donors.
0������ �����123 ���������'����
�2�� � =<
An Egyptian court in theretrial of fallen dictator
Hosni Mubarak for allegedcomplicity in the killings ofprotesters barred lawyers incivil cases from the proceedingsat a brief session on Saturday.
Presiding judge Mahmoudal-Rashidi adjourned the courtto Monday, shortly after opening the second hearing in Mubarak’s retrial, a criminal case.
Mubarak, 85, watched theproceedings while sitting up ona stretcher inside the defen-dants’ cage, shared with seven
of his former security commanders and his two sons.His original trial led to a lifesentence for Mubarak andhis interior minister Habib al-Adly, and acquittals for sixpolice commanders.
But an appeals court
ordered a retrial, citing proce-dural errors. Rashidi onSaturday barred lawyers filingcivil suits against Mubarak andhis co-defendants from attend-ing hearings in the retrial.
Those filing civil suits hadbeen allowed to attend thefirst trial. One of the mainlawyers filing civil suits, SamehAshur, told AFP Rashidi’s rul-ing would not have a majorimpact on the proceedings.But the decision angered thelawyers in the makeshift courtin a police academy lecture halloutside Cairo. “The peopledemand the cleansing of thejudiciary,” they chanted.
Mubarak’s lawyer Farid al-Deeb appeared visibly satisfiedwith the ruling. He haddemanded the same of thejudge in Mubarak’s first trial.Before adjourning the session,Rashidi said the court wouldexamine a request to jail threeout of six police commanderson trial with Mubarak for theiralleged involvement in thedeaths of protesters during theearly 2011 uprising.
The three police comman-ders have not been remandedin custody but attend everyhearing. All of the defendantshave pleaded not guilty to thecharges against them.
Three car bombs, includingtwo blasts by suicide attack-
ers, killed 15 people in Iraq onSaturday, the latest in a spike inviolence that has sparked fearsof all-out sectarian war.
The suicide car bombsstruck a police checkpoint nearRamadi, killing at least fivepolicemen and wounding eightothers, officials said. In northof Baghdad, a parked vehiclerigged with explosives deto-nated in the restive town ofMuqdadiyah, killing 10 Iranianpilgrims and left 30 hurt.
Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan will be thenew Pakistan Government’s point man for dealing
with law and order problems and a Taliban insurgencywhile Power Minister Khwaja Asif has been entrustedthe tasking of addressing a crippling energy crisis.
Khan, a hawk considered close to the military anda political heavweight from theRawalpindi region, was allocated theInterior Ministry hours after 25members of Prime Minister NawazSharif ’s council of ministers weresworn in yesterday. Asif, a formerbanker, has been allocated the cru-cial water and power portfolio at atime when cities and towns acrossPakistan are coping with power cutsof up to 20 hours a day.
According to a notificationissued by the Cabinet Division,Zahid Hamid was allocated the law and justice portfo-lio, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi petroleum and naturalresources, Abdul Qadir Baloch states and frontierregions, Ishaq Dar finance and revenue, Khwaja SaadRafiq railways, Ghulam Murtaza Jatoi industries andproduction, Birjees Tahir Kashmir and Gilgit affairs,Pervez Rashid information and broadcasting, KamranMichael ports and shipping and Sadaruddin Rashidioverseas Pakistanis affairs.
!����4��������'�.���������������������������5���
����+������������� ��<�
Holding their first summitmeeting at Rancho Mirage
in Southern California,President Barack Obama andhis Chinese counterpart XiJinping vowed to work for “anew model of cooperation”even as their parleys weredominated by American con-cerns over cybersecurity, posedby China-based hackers.
Obama said the UnitedStates welcomes the “continuingpeaceful rise of China as aworld power”, commenting that“a peaceful and stable and pros-perous China is not only goodfor Chinese but also good for theworld and for the United States”.
But at the same time,Obama let it be known thatBeijing should play by thesame rules as other nations onfree and fair trade, besidesaddressing issues such as cyber-security and protection of intel-lectual property rights.
“As two of the largesteconomies in the world, we’regoing to have a healthy eco-nomic competition, but we alsohave a whole range of challengeson which we have to cooperate,from a nuclear North Korea —or North Korea’s nuclear andmissile programs — to prolif-eration, to issues like climatechange,” he said.
Obama also made it clearthat in his dealings with China,he would continue to emphasize
the importance of human rights. “President Xi has spoken of
a nation and a people that arecommitted to continuous self-improvement and progress,and history shows that uphold-ing universal rights are ulti-mately a key to success andprosperity and justice for allnations,” he said.
Xi noted that the summittalks were about charting thefuture of US-China relations.“The two sides must worktogether to build a new modelof major country relationshipbased on mutual respect andwin-win cooperation for thebenefit of the Chinese andAmerican peoples, and peopleelsewhere in the world,” he said.
As expected, Obamabrought up the cybersecurityissue prominently, given thebackdrop of recent incidents inwhich Chinese hackers targeted US military secretsand businesses in a big way.
Xi, for his part, did not quiteappreciate the American mediaaccounts painting Beijing as
the villain. During a joint mediaappearance after Fridayevening’s talks, he took thestand that China had its ownmajor concerns on this subject,but asserted it was firm aboutupholding cyberscecurity.
The Chinese leader went onto say that the application ofnew technology is “a double-edged sword”, commenting:“On the one hand, it will driveprogress in ensuring bettermaterial and cultural life for thepeople. On the other hand, itmight create some problems forregulators and it might infringeupon the rights of states, enter-prises, societies and individuals.”
Xi said he and PresidentObama have “reached impor-tant consensus” after holding“an in-depth, sincere and candid discussion on thedomestic and foreign policies ofChina and the United States, onour joint work to build a newmodel of major country relationship, and our interna-tional and regional issues ofmutual interest”.
Yet another American shoot-ing rampage, this time in
California, has left five peopledead, including the gunman,who shot dead four people inthe streets of Santa Monica andinjured five others. Two of thevictims were believed to be thegunman’s father and brother.
Police were still to iden-tify the heavily-armed gun-man, who was said to be 25 to30 years old. There was noimmediate word about thevictims or about the cause ofthe rampage through thissouthern California town ona day when President BarackObama was visiting the Statefor a Democratic party event,followed by a summit meetingwith Chinese President XiJinping. Some reports said thegunman had mental issues, as has been noticed in a num-ber of mass shootings inrecent times.
Dressed in black and carrying an assault rifle, thegunman fired at people, cars,
a public bus and buildingsbefore being shot and killedby the police at the SantaMonica College Library.Initially, the police said sixpeople had been gunneddown. The figure was revisedto four later. One of the fiveinjured persons was said to bein critical condition.
Bangladesh has asked Britain to repatriate the fugitive elderson of former premier Khaleda Zia to face trial on massive
graft charges. Tarique Rahman, opposition Bangladesh NationalistParty's senior vice president, is wanted on charges of graft anda deadly grenade attack. A Dhaka court on May 26 issued a war-rant ordering Rahman to face trial on graft charges brought byAnti-Corruption Commission (ACC) during the 2006-2008emergency rules under the army backed interim government.
"Our High Commission in London has handed over a let-ter to the British authorities seeking Mr Tarique Rahman's return...The copy of the court's arrest warrant ordering his arrest wasalso provided to the British authorities," a senior foreign min-istry official told PTI. The official said the letter was sent to theBritish Foreign Office last week also pointed out that a Dhakacourt ordered Bangladesh foreign ministry to execute the war-rant engaging the Interpol as Rahman was living in London since2008.
�� ���������������� ���� ��.����4�?������(���
������� �����������������������
�2�� ��= �
Serena Williams won her secondFrench Open title on Saturday,
11 years after her first triumph,defeating title-holder MariaSharapova 6-4 6-4 in a brief, buthigh-quality final.
It was the 31-year-oldAmerican’s 16th Grand Slam titlewin, taking her to within two ofChris Evert and MartinaNavratilova who are tied for fourthon the all-time list.
And it underscored her neartotal domination of the women’sgame, having won three of the lastfour Grand Slam titles — atWimbledon, the US and FrenchOpens — and reaching the quar-ter-finals at the Australian Open.
For Sharapova, it was a 10thstraight loss to her Americannemesis dating back to 2004when she defeated her inthe Wimbledon finaland the WTAChampionships whenshe was just 17-years-old.
“It was very difficulttoday. After 11 years(since last win) and now Ihave 16 (Grand Slam titles),” saidWilliams, addressing the crowd inFrench.
“But I want to come backnext year because I adoreParis and I adore the pub-lic here. I want to winhere again. I spend alot of time here (InParis) ... And I think Iam becoming aParisienne.”
Sharapova said:”Iplayed a great tournament,but ran into a really toughopponent today. She has beenplaying so well this year and thewhole of last year as well.
“But this court has broughtme so many nice memories.Last year, was so incredible towin and to be back as one of thelast two players was great.”
In what was the first FrenchOpen women’s final involvingthe two top seeds since 1995, thetwo biggest names and biggestearners in women’s sport werepitted against each other forthe 16th time, the thirdin a Grand Slam final.
Williams was thestrong favourite, havingwon 13 times for twodefeats against theRussian and stormed intothe final for the loss of just one set,taking her career-best winning
streak to 31.Sharapova though was on a 13-
match win run at Roland Garros,having finally come to terms withthe demands of claycourt tennislast year when she defeated SaraErrani in the final.
Williams opened up with asequence of brutal service returnsthat had Sharapova scamperingfrom side to side and within min-utes 0-40 down.
But the tall Russian served herway out of trouble and then showedher aggressive intentions by break-ing Williams in the next game.
Sharapova had two points for a3-0 lead, but Williams started to findher range again to break back andwas soon on level terms at 2-2.
She broke again to lead 3-2 andsuddenly she looked in commandof a match that had started sobrightly for Sharapova.
The crowd tried to lift the title-holder, who was seeking her fifthGrand Slam title and second atRoland Garros, and she did man-age to get back on level termsbriefly at 4-4 with Williams both-ered by the gusting wind.
But the American producedher best tennis of the match in thenext game with some big hitsdown both flanks and then heldserve to take the first set in 51minutes.
The task on hand forSharapova was huge, illustrated bythe fact that in Grand Slam tennis,after taking a one set to love lead208 times, the American had failedto complete the job just five times.
Sharapova saved five breakpoints to start the second set, buttwo games later she struggledagain on serve and this timeWilliams converted her first breakpoint to put herself in the clear at4-2.
She then comfortably servedout twice, with three aces to con-clude with, to gleefully banish 11years of frustrations at RolandGarros.
At 31 years, 247 days she is theoldest women in the Open Era towin the French Open title, takingover from Chris Evert who set theprevious mark in 1986.
Ian Bell cracked a responsible 91 andJames Anderson scalped three wick-ets as England dished out a disci-
plined all-round performance to notchup a convincing 48-run victory overAustralia in their Group A match of theChampions Trophy here on Saturday.
Riding on Bell's half-century,England first posted a challenging 269for six, despite some good bowling bythe Australian bowlers, after electingto bat. The hosts then returned totighten the noose around Australia'sneck with a very disciplined bowlingdisplay and eventually restricted thevisitors for 221-9 in their 50 overs atEdgbaston here.
Seamer James Anderson becamethe highest wicket-taker in one-daycricket for England during his three-
wicket haul as he along with TimBresnan (2/45) and Stuart Broad (1/35)put Australia under tremendous pres-sure.
Spinners James Tredwell (1/51) andpart-time spinners Joe Root (1/20) andRavi Bopara (1/34) also supported thepacers well and didn't allow the Aussiesto free their arms.
For Australia, skipper GeorgeBailey was the top-scorer with a 69-ball55, while James Faulkner scored anunbeaten 54 but they never got the sup-port from the other end as Australiakept losing wickets at regular intervals.
Earlier, Bell's partnership of 111with Jonathan Trott, who made 43, wasthe backbone of the English innings asBopara (46 no, 3x4, 1x6) struck a fewmeaty blows in the end.
During his 115-ball innings, Bellhit seven boundaries and seldom did
he hit any rash stroke. Bopara providedthe late charge and added 56 runs forthe unbroken seventh wicket standwith Tim Bresnan (19 no) afterEngland were reduced to 213 for sixat one stage.
For Australia, seamers Clint Mckay(2/38) and James Faulkner (2/48) werethe most successful bowlers.
Chasing 270 to win, Australianopeners David Warner and ShaneWatson found the going tough rightfrom the beginning, thanks to a tightand consistent line by England pacers.The first boundary for Australia cameonly in the fourth over when Watsoncame up with a well-timed flick acrossthe square leg.
However, Broad accounted forWarner (9) in the sixth over when heinduced an edged off the batsman to JosButtler, who took a fine catch behind
the stumps. Two overs later, Watson andHughes managed two boundaries —one off a miscued leading edge by theopener, while the other an excellentdrive by the new batsman. However,with the seamers bowling in tandem,Australia could manage only 35 runs inthe first powerplay.
Bresnan was introduced into theattack then and Hughes welcomed himwith an sweetly-timed drive past extracover for a much-needed boundary.However, the pacer along with spinnerTredwell tightened the screw further todry up the runs.
Brief scoresEngland: 269 for 6 in 50 overs (Ian Bell91, Ravi Bopara 46 not out; ClintMcKay 2/38, James Faulkner) beatAustralia: 221 for 9 in 50 overs (GeorgeBailey 55, James Faulkner 54 not out;James Anderson 3/29) by 48 runs.
��� �=� 99
Their morale sky high after a2-1 series win over England,
New Zealand would look tocarry their good form into theChampions Trophy when theyclash with Sri Lanka in a GroupA match here on Sunday.
Sri Lanka have an over-whelming record of winning 10of their last 11 ODI matchesand six in a row against theKiwis but the Black Caps wouldback themselves to reverse thetrend particularly when theirbatsmen are in superb touch.
Opener Martin Guptillsmashed two consecutive hun-dreds against England and RossTaylor hit half-centuries in allthe three match-es of the series.
S k i p p e rBrendon McCullum on his daycan demolish any attack, somuch of the Kiwis’ fortuneswould depended on how theirtop-order performs.
The Kiwis are also perhapsthe best acclimatised side afterhosts England having spentsome good amount of timehere. They know the condi-tions well which will helpthem sort out their team com-bination quickly.
However, while againstEngland they faced a pace-pronged attack, in Sri Lankathey face a side which is full of
wily spinners, led by SachitraSenanayake. Jeevan Mendis,Rangana Herath are other spe-cialist spinner while TillakaratneDilshan can also be handy.
That spin attack would bekey to Sri Lanka’s performanceeven as Lasith Malinga andNuwan Kulasekara can do thejob in helpful conditions.
Even Kiwi coach MikeHesson has acknowledged thisfact.
“We could conceivably befacing 30-35 overs of spin. Weneed to be proactive against it,”Hesson said ahead of the clash.
The big worry for SriLanka is their batting. Neitherthe top-order nor the middle
order bats-men are ingood form.M a h e l aJaywardene
and Kumar Sangakkara neverlooked in good touch duringthe recent IPL.
Skipper Angelo Mathewestoo had to sit out and give upcaptaincy of his IPL side due topoor form.
It means that the Kiwiattack, to be led by young pace-man Mitchell McClenaghan,will bowl at a bunch of batsmenwho are short on confidence.
Tim Southee, Kyle Mills,Dough Bracewell form thepace department while NathanMcCullum will look after thespin department.
Rafael Nadal is happy to suffer if it allows him tobecome the first man to capture the same Grand
Slam title eight times when he tackles Spanish com-patriot David Ferrer in Sunday’s French Open final.
Nadal, who won the Roland Garros crown in2012 for the seventh time to pull clear of BjornBorg’s six titles, goes into his 17th Grand Slam finalseeking a 12th major overall.
Ferrer, 31, Nadal’s senior by four years, will beplaying on this stage for the first time and will behandicapped by a 19-4 losing streak against his fel-low Spaniard, 16 of those losses coming on clay.
But Nadal is taking nothing for granted andis prepared for another marathon encounter afterhis epic 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, 6-7 (3/7), 9-7 win over worldnumber one Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals.
“I learned during all of my career to enjoy suf-fering, and these kind of matches are very special.You don’t have the chance to play these kind ofmatches every day,” said Nadal.
Nadal has been the sensation of 2013, winning42 of 44 matches and six titles since his return inFebruary from a seven-month injury lay-off to resthis troublesome knees.
Ferrer, the fourth seed, has reached his maid-en final without losing a set.
Ferrer then eased past Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-1, 7-6 (7/3), 6-2 in his semi-final but he will be wellaware that his only victory on clay against Nadalwas in their first meeting at Stuttgart in 2004 whenhis compatriot was just 16. As well as losing to Nadalin the quarter-finals in Paris in 2005, and in thesemi-finals last year, Ferrer has already lost threetimes to his countryman in 2013, again all on clay.
“I will fight. It’s very difficult to beat Rafael onall the surfaces, but on a clay court it is more dif-ficult. I think I need to play my best tennis to beathim. I need to play very aggressive all the match.”
Victory for Nadal will take him clear of RogerFederer and Pete Sampras, who have sevenWimbledon titles, as the most successful player atone major in the Open era.
Meanwhile, at 31 years and 68 days, Ferrer isbidding to become the oldest man to win a GrandSlam title since Andre Agassi (32 years 272 days)at the 2003 Australian Open.
Before 11-year-old ShabnamShokeen landed in Australiato train with Sharon
Hannan, she had neither heardabout her nor had any clue abouther protégé Sally Pearson being anOlympic champion.
For this seventh standard girlfrom Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalayain Dharampur, Najafgarh, life tillthen was all about hide and seek,helping her mother happily inhouse chores, loving Social Studiesand hating Science. In last twoyears, even her coach SurenderFauji had to make efforts to sustainher interest in athletics training.
But Speedstar, a Kids Out OfHome (KOOH) Sports initiativechanged it all for her. As it did forthe other five kids too, who wonthe nationwide talent hunt forfastest 100m sprinters in variousage groups. The six winners — aboy and a girl each in under 12, 14and 16 categries — were reward-ed with a week-long training ses-sion with Sharon Down Under.
“She has returned a complete-ly different person from Australia,”said Shabnam’s coach SurenderFauji, who spotted her potentialduring a competition, a part of hisinitiative to groom talented schoolkids into future athletes. Earlier thisweek, Fauji also started his resi-dential training school BaalakBhavishya in Ghummanhera vil-lage to help under-privileged kidsget regular training without havingto worry for day-to-day necessities.
“Earlier I used to give up try-ing to ask her to give attention toher starting action. She wouldhardly listen. And, now she is theone who tells others how impor-tant it is to have good action for agood start into the race,” Faujiadded of Shabnam, who now staysin the ‘Gurukul’, trains in themorning, goes to school, trains inthe evening and helps the seniorswith work as the set-up is com-pletely run by the coaches and theirfamilies, with the help of rawmaterial donations and volunteerwork from nearby villagers.
“The facilities there were somuch better and different thanhere,” began Shabnam, who wonthe Delhi leg before winning theunder-12 final with a timing of14.04 seconds. “Everyone there waseither running or cycling. No onewas sitting idle, killing time. Wewould take at least 100 years to getsuch facilities,” added the chirpygirl, whose home in Deenpur vil-lage is hardly three kilometres froma certain Virender Sehwag’s housebut cricket has failed to excite herthe way athletics did.
Sharon on her part was thoughimpressed, she advised caution tokeep the kids from burning out dueto excessive training. “My initialanalysis is that these children aretraining far too much for athletics,”Sharon told The Pioneer in anemail interview when asked abouther analysis of the kids’ talent.
“They should be enjoying avariety of activities like gymnas-tics, swimming, ball sports, climb-ing, crawling, breathing exercis-es, stretching and playing activi-ties. I definitely don’t believe chil-dren should be participating inone sport every day, and definitelynot for several hours each day,”added Sharon, who coaches atGold Coast Victory AthleticsClub in Queensland.
“I hope that next time they canbring some coaches to Australia.”
Sharon also shared Sally’straining secrets and full training
schedule with the kids to give theman idea about Long Term AthleteDevelopment Training.
And, Shabnam was indeedimpressed with the variety intraining, especially as it came
with an occasional visit to thebeach and zoo, where koalas wonher affection over the famousAustralian kangaroos.
“Sharon ma’am told us somuch about how to train, how towarm-up, stretch, action at the startof the race and how to work onareas susceptible to pain. I evenlearned how to swim as ma’amfocused on a lot on pool sessions,”Shabnam said.
While five of the six winnersmade it for the training stint,under-16 boy winner MS Arunfrom Chennai could not join thegroup as his passport formalitiescould not be completed in time. As
a KOOH Sports official informed,“many of the kids that participat-ed don’t even have channels to con-tact them. For Arun too, theprocess of getting a passport wasproving quite confusing. We triedto get his process done but due todifficulty in contacting him wecould not get his papers on time.”
Pune girl Siddhi Hirey, theunder-14 winner in girls with13.01 seconds, also found thewater training different and effec-tive. “My coach Sanjay Patnakarhad also given me almost similartips but the training sessions inwater were quite different. She(Sharon) made us train in variousdepths. She showed us how ouraction would improve that wayand even if we have any injury,training in water would make surethe speed doesn’t go away duringrecovery,” said Siddhi, who is cur-rently on a vacation-cum-trainingin US at her maternal aunt’s placein Madison.
“I came here for vacation butdidn’t feel like discontinuing mytraining. So my uncle introducedme to Hassan Pasha, who coach-es the local kids,” Siddhi added.“But one thing that stood out dur-ing the training sessions withSharon was the importance shegave to arm action. And the bestpart was that no one else than theathletes and coaches would be onground during the sessions, noonlookers to distract you.”
Getting to watch Sally herselfat work was an added bonus. “Wesaw her training. She was so full ofconcentration that it seemed noone could disturb her. She wouldnot speak to anyone till she wasdone with her practice,” animpressed Siddhi said.
“Just by looking at her run-ning we could understand a lotabout the right movements,”Shabnam added.
Sally was also equallyimpressed with the youngstersfrom India. “I watched some of thetraining session of the youngIndian athletes with my coach. Iwas quite impressed with theirkeenness to listen, try and then lis-ten again. They seemed especiallykeen to try different techniques andthen listen again to feedback. I hopethey enjoyed the opportunity towork with my coach,” Sally said.
An XI grader in Pune’sAbhinav Vidyalaya, Siddhi thoughhas the luxury of a private trainerback home and enough supportfrom her former national levellong-distance runner mother, facil-ities stood out even for her.
More so for one Palisetti Siva,for whom track meant “mitti kaground” and synthetic tracks weresomething new to him. AnAndhra Pradesh Sports Schoolproduct, Siva’s school in Shamirpetis almost 30 kms from better facil-ities of Hyderabad.
“I was training for the first timein water. Sharon ma’am focussed alot on basics and technical training,”Siva managed in his confusing mixof Hindi-English. “I was in fourthstandard when I started training. Ihave just cleared ninth now and onething I am sure about is that Iwould continue in sports.”
Facilities and supportnotwithstanding back home, likeSiva, Shabnam has also found hercalling. “Ab to bas Olympic medallana hai Sally ma’am ke jaise.”
The country is also waiting forthat. But as Sharon warned, let’s notforce them out of childhood soon-er than required.
� Tell us about your experi-ence at the Asian YouthWeightlifting Championships?
We reached there around10 days in advance. We reachedDoha in the morning andwent for training in theevening. We trained two timesa day till the day before theopening day of the competi-tion. My event was around twoor three days after that, so I justrested at the hotel and con-centrated on controlling mybody weight in order to makemy weight category.
� Tell us about your perfor-mances in earlier events?
I won gold at the sub-junior nationals in 49 kg cate-gory and in the 56 kg categoryat the junior nationals a coupleof years ago. I finished fifth atthe World YouthChampionships last month andnow these gold medals at theAsian Youth Championships.
� So how did you start off?I belong to a small village in
Kolhapur district ofMaharashtra. There is a gym inmy village and that is where Ifirst started. My father was aweightlifter. He wanted me to bea weightlifter as well. He hasalways encouraged me andgives a lot of useful tips.
�What kind of a daily routine
do you follow?I start training at the gym
at six in the morning and con-tinue till nine o’clock. In theevening also I train from six tonine. Before the selection trialsfor the state team, we have amonth long training camp inmy village and we train for sixto twelve in the morning and
then six to nine in the evening.
� So how do you balanceyour studies with such a toughtraining schedule?
I go to school after I fin-ish my morning training ses-sion. After school, I go direct-ly to the gym from school andthen after my evening training
session ends at nine, I gohome, have dinner and thenstudy till eleven before goingto sleep. I wake up by 5:30 inthe morning.
�Why did you decide to takeup a tough sport likeweightlifting?
There was an inter-dis-trict sports tournamenttaking place in myvillage. There was aw e i g h t l i f t i n gcoach over therewho was a friendof my father.Since I was a fatkid and a bit stur-dy for my age, hethought that Iwould do well inweightlifting. So I start-ed going to the gym and for thefirst few months, I underwentlight workouts, learned thetechnique and watched othersgoing about their training. AfterI got the hang of things after thefirst few months, I started to doserious training.
�What kind of a reaction didyou get at home when you toldthem about your decision totake up weightlifting?
I got a mixed reaction athome. My father was very sup-portive while my mother was abit apprehensive. But after Istarted winning medals at var-
ious competitions, everyoneat home started to sup-
port me.
�A weightlifterneeds to fol-low a reallyhigh qualitydiet regime.So how do you
manage that?My family
provides me all thatI need. Whatever food
items or supplements that Ineed to eat, they provide me.
� Food supplements arequite expensive. How muchhelp do you get from thegovernment?
When I train in my village
I have to get the supplementsfrom my own resources, butwhen I am in the state ornational camps, then the gov-ernment provides us all that weneed.
�Do you look up to anyone asyour role model?
I do not have any rolemodels as such. I just concen-trate on working hard andimproving myself. I just want todo the best that I can.
�What are your future plans?The Commonwealth
Games are coming up nextyear. I want to make thesenior Indian team and winmedals over there. The AsianGames will also take placenext year. Winning a medalover there will be very toughbecause the standard is real-ly quite high. But I am willingto work hard and if I make itto the senior national team, Iwill give it my best shot.Right now, I am preparingmyself for these two events.
�+���������� ��������
He is the main striker in the current Indianteam and is tipped to be the successor to
Baichung Bhutia. But apart from his exploitson the field, Sunil Chhetri is now set to scorefor Indian football off the pitch as well.
The ace striker is all set to conduct a coach-ing camp for budding footballers in the coun-try. The camp, which will be held from June16-23, will involve 100 children from severalschools across the national capital region. It willhave 40 boys from the u-14 age group, anoth-er 14 from the u-16 age group and around 20girls in the u-18 category.
But what prompted him to venture intocoaching. Surely training and matches with hisclub Churchill Brothers and the national teammust be taking up all the time of India’s pre-mier centre forward? “A few of my friends whowork in the corporate sector are eager to starta football academy. They are big football fansand is really concerned at the lack of world classfootball academies in India.
“These boys came to me regarding an acad-emy. But I advised them that to open an acad-emy right away is not very easy and feasible,and told them to first conduct a camp and getan idea about how to go about things, and thendo it,” Chhetri told The Pioneer.
But football camps and clinics are a dimea dozen these days, especially with seeming-ly every English Premier League club worthits salt eager to wade into the lucrativeIndian market. But critics have cast doubts ontheir effectiveness since such short durationcamps can hardly be expected to provide toomuch benefit.
But Chhetri insists that his coaching campis a lot different from the others and has adetailed plan to ensure that the youngstersretain what they learn over the seven days ofthe course.
“It is a good thing that European clubs areshowing such a keen interest in India. Indiankids are getting an opportunity to train withsome of the best clubs and best youth coach-es in the world. That is surely a good thing,”he said. “But my coaching camp will offersomething extra.”
He also said that the dates for I-Leaguematches should not be changed. “If the matchdate scheduled is say Jan 10, then the matchshould be held on that date and should not bechanged without any rhyme or reason,” he added.
However, Chhetri is more interested in thefuture generation of footballers rather than theworkings of the AIFF and cannot wait for thecamp to start. “The kids are not going to learna lot over these seven days of training. But theywill take away with them is a way of trainingthat will continue with them for the rest of theirlives and will also help them quite a lot whendealing with other stuff in life other than foot-ball,” he signed off.
Talktime�������������Better known for his serious roles in Gulal andSarkar, he is back in action as a villain in AnkurArora Murder Case. He plays a surgeon whobotches up a patient, killing him. MANJARI SINGH chats up the versatile actor
� Tell us more about the roleI am playing this top notch surgeon
excelling in difficult surgeries. But, onemistake changes his life. Everybody startsblaming him for a death and his achieve-ments do not matter at all. Just like it hap-pens with a sportsman where, most of thetimes his worst performance gets stuck inpublic memory, here too the same happens.I play many shades in this film
� Again a character with shades of grey?Not just grey, a human being has varied
colours and I am glad actors have got theprivilege to show shades of human com-plexities.
� How did you prepare for this role?It was a watertight script so I had the
job cut out. I also read up on medical neg-ligence which made me understand mypart better. And then there were doctors onthe set to tell me about the usage of surgi-cal tools. We have tried to make it asbelievable as possible.
� When do we get to see you in a bigbudget film?
I don’t understand the concept of bigbudget films and why makers spend thatkind of money to make one? Do they playcasino or what? Every film is shot with thesame kind of camera. It’s not the case thatbig-budget films are shot with a gold cam-era. So, I am happydoing what I amdoing.
� In an interviewyou said that 90 percent of Bollywood isnon cinema. Really?
That’s true, 90per cent ofBollywood is mar-keting and the restcinema.
� Please elabo-rate...
Cinema, for me,is a form of story-telling but mostfilmmakers todayforget the storylineand focus on mar-keting instead. I amnot against market-ing but cinemashould not be bas-tardised.
For example,suppose your grand-mother is readingyou the Ramayanaand suddenly shesays ‘there’s an itemgirl who starts dancingto lure the sadhu — itsounds unnatural andout of context. But ifshe would have saidapsaras started dis-tracting the sadhuwhile he was meditat-ing, that is completelybelievable. Marketingand cinema are two dif-ferent departments andshould not be merged.
��%,��%,52����������'������( '�)����*+�,-./
‘Don’t bastardisecinema’
He is a smooth talker on the couch, afantastic director who has the
power to immediately transform youinto a realm of happiness. He can shakea leg and act as well. That’s Karan multi-talented Johar for you. This summer,Karan Johar is all poised to start shoot-ing for his maiden film as an actor in anegative role and he can't stop smiling.“Yes it is a good feeling,” he tells you.
KJo will be playing an antagonist inAnurag Kashyap’s Bombay Velvet, featur-ing Ranbir Kapoor and AnushkaSharma. “It is an unusual role.Something no one has ever tried before.When Anurag narrated the script to mehe wanted my opinion. I told him it was
an awesome concept andthe characters werewell fleshed out. I hadno idea he wantedme to come onboard. But when heoffered me a rolethe next day, I hadno reason to decline.He is a great friendand a good directorsitting on a brilliantscript. What more could adebutante ask for?” Johar asks.
Kashyap and KJo had earlier workedtogether for Bombay Talkies, a film madeto mark 100 years of cinema. “The
response we got was great. We havestarted a trend of sorts for young
directors. Personally, I likedZoya’s and Anurag’s stories alot,” he adds.
Known to be a supersti-tious person, Kjo doesn’twant to reveal anythingmuch about Bombay Velvet
just as yet. “I play a business-man with shades of grey. That’s
all there is to my role at themoment. We will get to know more
as we go about the film. I don’t liketalking about my films before they hitthe floors so let there be a suspense,”Johar says.
Bombay Velvet is the first part of atrilogy planned by Kashyap and KJowill feature in all parts. “It is a three-part series pre-decided by Anurag.This is why the film is so special. I amgoing to have something to do in allthe three parts. He hasn't decided any-thing concrete for part 2 and 3,” Johar,who is busy with his own productionfeaturing Ranbir Kapoor, says.
The 41-year-old filmmaker has hisplate full with films and TV assign-ments to wrap up. As a judge inJhalak... on Colors, “I have drawn upa list of all things my mother wouldwant me to do and I like tickingthings off as done. She wanted me tolearn dancing and eventually becomea choreographer. So I chose to judgethis dance show. Next up, she want-ed to see me act in a film. With
Bombay Velvet I have done that aswell. Let’s see whether she will like mein that grey shade,” Johar adds.
As for his plans of adoption, Kjowants to extend his family. "What'swrong with that? My mother wouldenjoy bringing up a grandchild. I loveto play the role of a father," he says,leaving you with that thought.
�While shooting, was there aperformance pressure? How didyou deal with it?
There are a lot of people expect-ing a lot of things from this film. Iaccept that responsibility but Idon’t allow the pressure to mess withmy head. To do justice to Supermanis my only focus. The trick to dealwith performance anxiety is toturn it into a positive energy.�The film is due for a big release.What are your expectations?
Man of Steel is a very Snydermovie. It was his dream of mod-ernising Superman and makinghim more believable. It is a gamblewe have willingly taken and are hop-ing that it works well. I want peo-ple to look at Superman from ourperspective. That'll do.�How did Man of Steel happen?
Zack Snyder had been toyingwith this idea when he thought ofa reboot. When he called to discussthe role with me, I was on a vaca-tion and not in the mood to sign onscripts. But when I heard him outand what was on offer, I rushedback. Not every day one is offeredthe role of Clark Kent. I had no rea-son to doubt Zack. I was on board.�How difficult was it for you to beSuperman? Any fond memories?
I have been on an intenseworkout for the past six months justto fit into the redesigned suit. Oneof the many problems was to get thebody language and the Supermanswagger right. Once I figured thatout, it was easy. Shoots were hecticso I don't recall moments of fun. �Are you a superhero fan? Whichone is your favourite?
I would have loved to saySuperman but you may not believeme. So, I will stick to my secondfavourite – and that’s Batman. He isa real superhero with many shades.I like him because he does not comeacross as pure fiction.�You had to shoot for long hoursat a stretch. That must have beenphysically draining...
No. Shoot hours were decent.�What kind of research you did?Luckily, I was handed out a guide-line of what to do and what not to.The research team and Snyder haddone all the groundwork. I just had
to follow their instructions. In asuperhero film, you don’t need toread up. You go by instinct.�The star cast has some biggiesfrom Hollywood. How was yourrapport with them?
They are all senior artists andI have a lot of respect for them. I amthe biggest and the luckiest fan ofRussell Crowe. I was barely 14 whenI met him during the shooting ofGladiator. I walked up to him andasked him how it was to be an actor.He told me I needed to pursue it tillthe end. That bit stayed with me.�Do you think Superman hasevolved since Christopher Reeve?
A lot has changed since Reeve.Technology and influences are onlya part of this metamorphosis. I amsure he would have loved to be apart of this transformation. The soulof the film will always be the same.Evolution in all forms is good.�How is Man of Steel different?
This being the reboot, theentire look and feel is different. Wehave a redesigned suit, amore expansive set and a dif-ferent way of telling the story.�You are tagged the unluck-iest actor in Hollywoodbecause you lost out toRobert Pattinson forHarry Potter andTwilight, toChristian Bale inBatman andBrandon Routh ear-lier in Supermanseries…
I had audi-tioned for HarryPotter twice. I don'tknow how close Iwas. But Twilight wasdefinitely in the off-ing. Stephenie Meyerthought I was the per-fect Edward but I hadalready given my datesto another producer.Batman was neveroffered to me and Inever auditioned! I wassigned up for aSuperman film titledSuperman: Flyby butthat did not comethrough.
As Zack Snyder's Man of Steelis gearing up to hit the the-
atre this Friday, critics, comicbook fans, bloggers, and in factthe entire world is awaiting itsmammoth release. From Internetgossip and expert projectionsand a darker Superman suit, tothe nostalgia of General Zod andLieutenant Faora — a lot has keptthe anticipation levels high.
For decades, a relentlesslyflying Superman carried thehopes of America’s comic bookreaders, going so far as to liftHitler up in the air and kidnaphim. But, thanks to 9/11 and thenever ending financial crisis,America changed and so didSuperman as Man of Steel.Superman, always characterisedas the boy-scout, ever ready to dogood, unable to take a life in spiteof his almost endless powers haschanged. He is darker, grimmerand, perhaps, not so good look-ing anymore. Or, that’s whatdirector Zack Snyder and pro-ducer Christopher Nolan wouldhave you believe.
A fact co-producer CharlesRoven doesn't deny. “It isn’t aregular Superman film. It’s ZackSnyder’s baby and he is prepar-ing the world audience for a newversion as opposed to the con-ventional one,” he says.
“It’s in the spirit of makingSuperman — a very contempo-rary character. We’ve approachedthe film from the standpoint ofwhat it would be like if there wasan individual who looked like us,but had the ability to do thingswe could never do. We have triedto make it as real as it can getemotionally & visually,” he says.For the first time, Superman willbe vulnerable to shades of grey.
Snyder’s wife Deborah says,“The way Zack has set this filmup and shot it, it almost feels likea kind of Western face-off whereSuperman’s on one end and the
Kryptonians onthe other. It’spure mayhem,and then it just getsmore elevated.”
Think Superman andChristopher Reeve comes inwearing a sky blue body suit andthat legendary red underwear.Year after year, the basics of theuniform remained the same,expect the shade of blue gotdarker. However, in the latestedition, Man of Steel will be seenin a completely new avatar. Thesuit is cutting-edge and for thefirst time, Superman has no redunderwear on top. Costumedesigners James Acheson andMichael Wilkinson, who hadbeen working on re-imaging thesuperhero for a long time, want-ed a fresh concept. “As perKrypton mythology in comic
book, Superman’s suit is made ofthe cloth his parents wrappedhim in while sending him off theplanet. However, we have intro-duced this new suit as a protec-tive layer that every Kryptonianwears under layers of robes andarmour. So, the suit has a histo-ry of its own,” Wilkinsonexplains.
A similar shift is seen inother comic book films.
Batman is darkerthan ever. Green
Lantern has hisfair share ofp ro b l e m s .Hulk isa n g r i e rthan ever,and so on.B u t
Superman,most memo-
rably portrayedas by Reeve, has
always seemed incontrol — never conflicted,
his S-shaped-lock of overhang-ing hair never out place. Even inthe 2006 Superman Returns, theman of steel is dutifully thesame.
The problem withSuperman, as opposed to othersuperheroes, is that he has alwaysbeen steadfastly devoted to hisduty and invulnerability. Hisincredible array of powers, com-bined with his good looks makeshim a rather dull character intoday’s perception. If Snyder’svision and first-look is taken intoconsideration, that trend is set tochange.
Growing up in Bihar in the 1980s hadits charm — and so had its challenges.Things were worsening but the Statehad not yet hit the nadir. Life was easy
and innocence still in the air. But it wasSundays that would be particularly exciting.Anxiously we would wait for the day, and whenit came we were often grappled with just oneissue: What if the power went away — arecurrent phenomenon even to date? One dayelectricity went just when Ramanand Sagar’sRamayana was about to begin. Disgusted, I went to the roof seeking divine assistance tobring the power back, while simultaneouslylooking at a bulb hanging on an electric polestanding next to my house. Lo and behold, thebulb started glowing in no time. Thereafterwhenever there was a power cut, I would justgo upstairs and stare at the pole. I wasn’t luckyat other times, however, but my faith wouldalways take me there. Then one day I heard thata group of agitated people had burnt down anelectricity substation. There was no power cutin the area thereafter, particularly on theSunday morning. People in adjoining areastook the cue and gheraoed their respectivesubstations. Soon the power situation in theentire region improved dramatically — at leastfor an hour between 9 am and 10 am whenLord Rama and Krishna walked amongst us!
Such was the sway of the Ramayana and theMahabharata that the streets in cities across thecountry looked deserted every Sunday morning.In rural areas, people would walk miles just toget to the nearest house with a television set. Abride would prefer to go missing for herwedding, because it clashed with the timing ofthe epic show. Even politicians — otherwise des-perate to grab ministerial posts — would ask fortheir swearing-in ceremony to be delayed so thatthey didn’t miss the telecast. Interestingly, theshow had to be shifted once to the evening sothat there was a good voter turnout in the LokSabha election! Even for kids, playing thecharacters of the Ramayana, particularlyHanuman’s, was a rage, and one would oftenhear them screaming: “Jai Sri Rama.”
Twenty-five years after this hysteria-likesituation generated first by the Ramayana andthen the Mahabharata, it’s interesting to notethat the telecast of the two epics happened bychance. Bhaskar Ghose, the Director General ofDoordarshan between 986 and 1988, recalls inhis memoirs that in 1985 Prime Minister RajivGandhi had asked Information & BroadcastingMinister VN Gadgil and Secretary SS Gill to“broadcast serials that depicted the valuesenshrined in our ancient texts and philosophy,
the kind of values that were contained in theMahabharata and the Ramayana”. Gillinterpreted it as the Prime Minister’s desire tosee the epics being telecast on Doordarshan and,in a rush to please him, despite being a Leftist byorientation and of the belief that the nationalchannel should not have anything with ‘religious’programmes, wrote letters to two prominentfilmmakers — Ramanand Sagar and BR Chopra— who accepted the offer in no time.
As the fate would have it, Sagar managed tobeat Chopra in shooting a few episodes of theRamayana, thus ensuring it was aired first.Maybe he was more desperate to get thingsmoving, as his filmi career, after a string of flops,was moving nowhere. Looking back, onewonders what would have happened had Chopragot the Mahabharata on air first. Would Sagarstill have created the magic? Would people haveliked the Ramayana which, if senior journalistMadhu Jain is to be believed, appeared like“moving calender art pictures”, particularly afterthe telecast of the Mahabharata, which wasmuch superior in content, style and acting? Howcould it, then, have shaped the contours of theRama Janmabhoomi movement?
�������������� To begin with, no one expected the Ramayanato do so well. As the story goes, Bhaskar Ghosewas petrified to see the initial rushes of theshow. Mark Tully quotes him as saying in hisbook, No Full Stops in India, “There was far toomuch ritual and not nearly enough story. He(Sagar) had used the worst extras he could get,because he was doing it on the cheap. Theinfant Rama looked half-starved. Some of thedance sequences were ridiculous.”
Most of these charges hold water. Theextras, for instance, were brought from Surat, asthe makers thought Bombay artistes were fartoo expansive! Scripts were written on a day-to-day basis and there was hardly any consistencyin the making of the show. Everything was onan ad hoc basis. And yet, Sagar could do whatno one had ever done in the history of televisionin India. Maybe it was because there existed notemplate for making a mega serial. Expectationswould have been different had the Mahabharatabeen aired first. And since there was nothingworthwhile to look at, people took Sagar’s workas yet another Ramleela where, as Tully says,“you take a story which everybody knows. Youremove any hint of sex and reduce violence toelectronic gimmicks acceptable in a videoparlour for nursery children. You slow the storydown to a crawl. You use archaic languagewhich even actors find difficult to speak, let
alone the audience to understand. Youdeliberately choose unknown actors,although India is a country where the starsystem is very much alive and kicking”.
The Mahabharata was a different ballgamealtogether. Compared to the Ramayana, whichwas celebrated annually in the form ofRamleelas, it had its challenges. Foremost wasthe fact that it wasn’t always given a pride ofplace in traditional Hindu households. Iremember my grandfather telling me not toread the Mahabharata as it would lead tofamily feuds — and my mother still does! So,BR Chopra had to do something spectacular toget the Ramayana-like response. And he didpretty well with about 150 main actors and aproduction team of more than 100 people,dealing way too competently with the complexsubject involving characters with differentshades and equally complicating emotions andequations. Also, Chopra gave emphasis tosound screenplay and got some of the bestminds — including a Muslim in Rahi MasoomRaza — to create some incredible lines,including Mein Samay Hoon. All this had itscost, and a conservative estimate suggests thatno less than �10,00,000 were spent on eachepisode, which was an huge sum in the contextof the era in which it was made.
The Mahabharata held the collectiveattention of 200 million Indians across thenation for 45 minutes week after week fornearly two years. But more than popularity,what the show did well was that it changed thevery rule of the game for Indian television. Ithelped Doordarshan transform from being atool of socio-economic development tobecome, in the words of Tully, “almostexclusively middle class, promoting a consumersociety whose products most Indians can’tafford to consume”. Sevanti Ninan discoversthrough her interviews for the book, ThroughThe Magic Window, how the lives of the urbanpoor have been influenced by television’s loudmix of soaps, songs and ads. She finds childrenthinking Sunsilk and Fair & Lovely can changetheir looks for good, and mothers believing thattwo-minute noodles will improve theirchildren’s performance in school. TheMahabharata brought — for the first time in abig way — the market to the homes of TVowners, a phenomenon which became all themore pervasive with the arrival of the cableculture in the country a couple of years after its final episode on June 24, 1990.
II�!>
���,����%,���������
������ ����*�����������
/�:�����������3��������������+����.�� ��
������������������*�%�������������%G ��%� ����
��*����������%��� ���+�������
������������*����G
�� ��
�D����
�����$�
������
�
Charaibeti, meaning movingahead in Sanskrit, is aunique programme true toits name. Providing specialeducation on wheels free of
cost, it is transforming the lives of dif-ferently-abled children in the slums ofKolkata in West-Bengal. Launched inDecember 2010, under the aegis ofTomorrow’s Foundation, an NGOworking for the indigenous communi-ties in the country, it has brought a rayof hope for children born with cerebralpalsy, autism, speech-hearing impair-ments, among others. The best part ofthe project is that its education, whichincludes physiotherapy, occupationaltherapy, speech therapy, etc, is impartedat the doorsteps of the special children.It will soon be replicated in seven othercities of the country.
Besides helping students cope withtheir routine activities, the projectworks towards making them self-reliantand confident in the long run. Hence,along with imparting specialised train-ing, Charaibeti aims to ultimately intro-duce them to regular schools. This, in away, helps in their psychological reha-bilitation. The project has so far helpedmore than 100 special children to braceup to the challenges of life at par withnormal kids. Currently, this specialschool has the strength of 329 children.
Two buses move around targetedareas on different days of the week. Oneof the buses is funded by TerrePlurielle, Foundation, France, and theother by Cognisant Foundation, India.These mobile classrooms are unique inmany ways. Their bright yellow wallshave flamboyant paintings and motifsdone by children themselves. The class-rooms have been partitioned by cur-tains. These units have special educa-tors and therapists, where children andtheir wards receive individual attention
from teachers. The annual runningcosts of the buses are borne by theFrench Embassy along with a Delhi-based philanthropist, Akshay Jaitley.The embassy is also collaborating withTomorrow’s Foundation in a number ofactivities for the development of indige-nous children in Chhattisgarh.
“Our beneficiaries are essentiallyfrom the economically underprivilegedsection of society who cannot affordspecialised training/care for their dif-ferently-abled children,” says RitwikPatra, Chief Operating Officer,Tomorrow’s Foundation.
Further, the team is in constanttouch with schools, where they areeventually transferred for their formaleducation. “It is not enough that thesechildren just learn to overcome theirphysical impediments. Our ultimatesuccess lies in the fact that they do notfeel ostracised, and learn to mingle wellin society,” Patra adds.
Nitish and Sudip Shaw (aged 8 and9 respectively), from the Tollyganj areaof Kolkata, have proved Patra right.Both were born with cerebral palsy, butleaving their physical challenges waybehind, they are today inspiration forcountless others. The two brothers haveclinched the first and second positionsrespectively in the 75m running race ina State-level competition held at SaltLake Stadium in 2010. Last year, theyonce again won awards in the State-level sports meet organised for the dif-ferently-abled children at OxfordMission Ground.
For their mother Rekha, the successstories of her sons are incredible. “Theworld had come crashing down for me,when I realised my sons had cerebralpalsy. They could not even get up fromtheir beds and I had to do everythingfor them. The doctor told me that mysons have no brains and would need
treatment throughout their lives,”recalls she. Rekha is today beamingwith joy. “It is certainly a big leap forour family,” says she with pride.
In the course of two years,Charaibeti has covered more than 50slum areas in the northern, southernand eastern parts of Kolkata. Apartfrom arming the beneficiaries with con-fidence and training, it also ensurestheir access to various schemes of theGovernment, which include DisabilityCard, Railway Concession and Bus Pass.
Meet five-year-old Zoya Khatoonfrom the Garden Reach area of Kolkata.She was born with “down syndrome”,which has symptoms of cognitiveimpairment, besides problems withthinking and learning. Such patients alsodevelop certain distinctive facial charac-teristics. Her father is a driver who sup-ports the family of seven members witha monthly salary of just �3,000.
“We were told that our daughterhas a hole in her heart,” says her moth-er Shahnaz Begam. The cost of thesurgery was �1.78 lakh which wasbeyond the reach of her family.However, providentially, theyapproached Tomorrow’s Foundation,which showed them the way ahead.“Within five months we raised the fundand admitted her in the RabindranathTagore International Institute ofCardiac Science,” says Nazim Khan,Project Coordinator.
The surgery was successful. Today,Zoya enjoys the tutelage of her specialeducator Nandini Bannerjee and phys-iotherapist Ema Kashfi. “She is a brightchild and is responding well to ourefforts,” says Bannerjee, adding: “She ismuch more self-reliant and is able to dobasic works like wearing clothes, eatingfood, combing hair, etc, on her own. Asshe gets older, she will overcome herchallenges to a greater extent.”
It is often not easy for the projectpersonnel to find such special children.“We have to undertake elaborate sur-veys of the slums to spot these children,who are normally kept away from soci-ety by their family members,” saysSultana Laskar, community mobiliser.These families often suffer from a senseof stigma. “Hence our first challenge isto convince their family members andtake them on board with our project.There is initial hesitation on their part,but we win them over by giving themhopes,” says she.
Twelve-year-old Ramshila Kamat,from the Masjid area of Ras Behari, is avisually-impaired child. Her brotherKhokkan Kamat is completely blind.“We discovered them during our surveybut unfortunately their family was quitedejected. They were not keen to allowtheir children to come to us. But finallywe persuaded them,” says Laskar.
Today, Ramshila is doing well andis a student of Standard V. Good at cul-tural activities, she even performed at aschool function on the occasion of theWorld Disability Day last year. Hermessage was loud and clear: “I do notconsider myself disabled or physicallychallenged... It is just that I do certainthings differently from others.”
The project has also opened upavenues in vocational training. “Thisdepends on their ability to perform,”says Patra. Eighteen-year-oldShahnawaz Hussein has polio. Hisfather Afroz, who earns his living as adriver, did not have hopes. “I used to beanxious for his future, but today there islight at the end of the tunnel,” he says.His son is undergoing a training coursein the vocational unit of the IndianInstitute of Cerebral Palsy, Kolkata.
“We link them with other institutesthat provide vocational courses,depending on their potentials,” says
Khan, adding that 17 such childrenhave been absorbed in various trainingcourses in the city. A yet another stu-dent Rajiv Rajubhunik (aged 19), whoseailment was categorised as mentalretardation with additional symptomsof epilepsy, is currently getting trainedto be a cook in the same institute. Theotherwise shy and withdrawn Rajiv isbrimming with enthusiasm today. “Iwill be absorbed in the institute messnext year as assistant cook,” he gushes.
Another novel aspect of the projectis the participation of parents. “It isimportant for them to identify andunderstand the traits of their children.Only then they can play a constructiverole in their development,” says NazimKhan. Hence there are special classesfor family members as well. It is com-pulsory for them to take part in vari-ous therapy sessions administered totheir children, besides participating incounselling classes.
Parents are encouraged to formself-help groups (SHGs). “This notonly enables mutual interaction butalso provides patience and insight tohandle the challenges of life,” saysPatra. Each member contributes �2from their daily earnings and bankaccounts have been opened in thename of each of the SHGs. Thesegroups have innovative names — asNotun Dal (new branch), UrontoPaakhi (flying bird), Disha (direction),etc. There are already 12 such activegroups in the city.
This has created a financial poolwhich can help members in their hourof need. “The project also supplementsour daily earnings by getting us linkedto vocational courses of making paperbags, tailoring, etc,” says Zoya’s motherShahnaz Begum. For Ritwik Patra,how-ever, “This is just a beginning as wehave miles to go before we sleep”.
It is, therefore, no surprise that Doordarshannetted �65 crore from the Mahabharata asadvertising revenue. Such was the demand
that its advertising rates were raised three timesduring its telecast — from �65,000 for 10seconds in October 1988 to �100,000 for 10seconds in May 1989. “In comparison,” saysNinan, “the rate for the Ramayana neverexceeded �70,000.”
��������������The telecast of the Ramayana and theMahabharata coincided with the RamaJanmabhoomi movement, which culminated inthe destruction of the Babri Masjid inDecember 1992. Arvind Rajagopal, the authorof the book, Politics after Television, tells us howthe Janmabhoomi campaign resonated withsome of the Ramayana’s concerns in harkingback to the mythical Rama Rajya. Whilestudying the interface between three seeminglydisparate elements — economic liberalisation,the rise of Hindutva and the role of the media— he finds a common link: Just as the markettreats society as a single, homogeneous entity,the forces of Hindutva see the Indian people asa vast mass waiting to rediscover their commonculture and identity. The catalyst in the processwas television, beginning with the Ramayanaand the Mahabharata.
This brings us to the question: Had theAyodhya movement taken a different course if the Mahabharata was launched before theRamayana? Rajagopal suggests that had thisbeen the case the “ethical rather than the
identity component of Hindu culture mighthave been foregrounded”. This, he writes, wasbecause there “are few rakshasas (demons) inthe Mahabharata”, and the focus here was onan intra-family war at Kurukshetra.
No doubt, the telecast of the Ramayana hadchannelised Hindu anger, but to say that themovement wouldn’t have happened without itwould be premature. The Ramayana, in fact,only galvanised the mass already dejected withthe Nehruvian secular oder. It had symbolicrelevance: For instance, when the shila yatraswere carried out, karsevaks would actuallydress like Rama and Lakshman of the epicshow. The rath yatra, too, resembled the kindof chariot we saw on television.
If we look closely, we find that the twoepics played a complementary role: Oneprovided a renewed sense of unity amongHindus, while the other gave them justificationnot to accept any unjust order, something thePandavas faced and Krishna exhorted them not to take it lying down.
Devdutt Pattanaik has an interesting takeon the issue. “In the Ramayana, Rama followsthe rules but in the Mahabharata, Krishnabreaks the rules,” he says, adding: “In theRamayana, the villain breaks rules. NeitherSurpanaka nor Ravan respects the laws ofmarriage. In contrast, in the Mahabharata, thevillain does not break a single rule. Not evenwhen a woman was being disrobed in public, astechnically Duryodhan has not broken a singlerule in the gambling hall. A rule-followingRama can combat a rule-breaking Ravan. But
would he succeed against a rule-followingvillain like Duryodhan?”
Taking his argument further, Pattanaik says that corruption we were witnessing todayis also not about breaking the rules. “In India,every politician follows the rules, and everybureaucrat follows the rules. Despite this, landis grabbed but no one is arrested or punished.Rapes take place but rapists are released ontechnicalities,” he says. So, the Mahabharatacan be looked in the context of the post-Boforsscenario and how it helped the country see thescam through Krishna’s eyes — just as theRamayana helped Indians galvanise in thewake of the Shah Bano case.
Twenty-five years down the line, we areagain witnessing the return of the two epics ontelevision — on a bigger scale and through betterpromotions. Does it suggest anything, especiallywhen today’s political scenario — muddied withone scam after another — reminds us of the late1980s when the Bofors was the talk of the town.TV critic Shailaja Bajpai finds the timinginteresting. “Another Ramayana... from the onlyteam that seems capable of repeating itself threetimes: The Sagars... Who else to turn to in thesetroubled, treacherous times? Perhaps they canachieve what team Anna set out to: To remind usthat there is something called righteousbehaviour and good governance.”
But the issue remains: Will the return of theepics herald the resurgence of the BJP, as wasthe case in the 1980s? The jury is still out, butone thing is certain — the next few months aregoing to be interesting and eventful.
More people watch moreminutes of video onYouTube in India thanthey do on any otherchannel. This is not a
statement made in jest, this is a matterof fact. So much so that today mostIndian entertainment and news channelshave a substantial presence on the videostreaming site. Indians, on their desk-tops, tablets and mobile phones, havefallen in love with Internet video.
Cisco, in its recent VirtualNetworking Index (VNI) forecast,expects Internet data traffic in India togrow six-fold in India between 2012 and2017, one of the fastest rates of growth inthe world. Total Internet data traffic isexpected to be 33.5 exabytes in 2017, theequivalent of eight billion DVDs per year,or just under a million DVDs worth ofcontent per hour. And with a total userbase of 348 million users as against 132million users today — not the ‘total’ con-nectivity that we should hope for, but stillis a quarter of Indians can access the
Internet — India will become the third-largest Internet market in the worldbehind China and the United States.
The recent move by Star Sports tostart broadcasting live games on its web-site in High-Definition with a constantstream of player information below thescreen is a sign of the change. The fact isthat television remains a mainly fixedmedium, you can only watch it wherethere is a screen. And there are not manyscreens outside homes and offices.
The Internet changes that; you canwatch TV on the move, and not just a fewchannels. On YouTube and other videostreaming sites such as DailyMotion andVimeo, you can watch almost anythingand everything including full movies andTV shows. And you can watch them onthe move, thanks to high-speed data net-works, and also anywhere. So even if youare travelling to a country where you donot get live cricket broadcasts, you canwatch the match on the web. Even if youare on holiday with your family, yourspouse need not be deprived of either
soap operas or Indian news channels.However, for this growth to take
place, there needs to be more bandwidthavailable, and as of today that is a prob-lem in India. The growth of wiredbroadband has been far too slow, thanksto regulatory issues particularly con-cerning last-mile connectivity. Wireless
broadband over 3G networks has pro-gressed, and thanks to new pricingschemes by manufacturers of high-endsmartphones more Indians are buyinggood smartphones than ever before. Infact, global sales of smartphones exceed-ed that of regular feature-phones lastquarter and even in India the switch
might take place sooner than later.But to ensure this growth and also to
ensure that the market is not captured byany one player, the Government needs tobe proactive in auctioning more spec-trum, particularly in lower frequenciessuch as 700 megahertz. This, along withgreater focus on tax collection, was one ofthe reasons the Government began theprocess of digitisation of cable networks afew years ago, and despite a few hiccups,this move has been moving apace.
Across many countries, easy avail-ability of broadband connections hastransformed the video market. Forexample, in several countries consumerswatch TV shows and movies throughonline streaming sites instead of watch-ing them during the shows broadcasttime. The producers of these showshave realised that to combat piracythrough torrent sites and through illegalstreaming, they have to offer consumersthese shows. If consumers can easilywatch the content they want to watchanytime and anywhere, they will not
mind paying a little bit.The other big change has been in
television. Today, all flat-panel displaysabove a certain size have become ‘SmartTVs’, wherein you are able to access theInternet over a wired or wireless connec-tion. The differentiation between a com-puter and a TV is disappearing. Theeventual idea is the ‘Three-ScreenTheory’ and you will be able to accessand watch your favourite content acrossscreens, depending on what is available toyou at that point of time. At home itcould be the TV, on the move it could beyour tablet/computer or mobile phone.
The Internet was described as beingthe killer of the print medium, but it isquickly destroying the classical notion oftelevision as we grew up with. Recently,Prasar Bharati started a pilot to broadcastTV signals onto mobiles, but this mightbe too little, too late. It is not as if videocontent will die, it will only grow mani-fold, but TV as you and I know is dyingand the Indian television industry oughtto be prepared for that as well.
Six decades ago, scientists began scan-ning the skies for radio signals sent byintelligent alien life. The search
focussed on nearby stars similar to our ownSun, as it was thought these would be themost likely hosts for Earth-like planets. Sofar, of course, the search for extraterrestrialintelligence (SETI) has yielded nothing.
Now, however, new research suggeststhat we may have been looking in thewrong place all this time. It may not be big,bright yellow stars like the Sun that are themost likely to harbour ET, but small, dimstars called red dwarfs — by far the mostnumerous type of star in existence, yet sofaint that not one is visible to the unaidedeye. The new analysis by NASA scientistRavi Kopparapu, published in theAstrophysical Journal, has shockedastronomers, since it suggests not just thatthey might have been looking for life inspace in the wrong place, but that it may becloser than they thought.
Red dwarfs might be dim, but they areutterly remarkable. They have been outthere in the darkness since the universewas young, but are only just getting started:Their expected lifespan is 10,000 timeslonger than the 13.8 billion years that havepassed since the Big Bang. Some day,indeed, the universe will belong to them:In the unimaginably distant future, theywill be the last stars to go out as the age ofeternal darkness begins.
Previously, red dwarfs have been large-ly ignored, but in recent years those whosearch the sky for planets suitable for lifehave been increasingly drawn to them, andthe most powerful telescopes turnedtowards dwarf stars such as Gliese 581,
Gliese 667 and Gliese 163.The red dwarfs’ secret lies in their low
surface temperature, just a few thousanddegrees, and the fact that they are fullyconvective. This means that materialthroughout the star is constantly being lift-ed to the surface and plunged back downagain, almost as if on the boil.
Larger stars like our Sun are only con-vective in their outer regions. Down in theSun’s core — where the nuclear energy isgenerated — there is not muchmixing of material, and con-sequently our Sun doesnot use all of its hydro-gen fuel. A red dwarfnot only mixes allits fuel, but deliversit to the core,where it is burnt atsuch a low ratethat the star laststrillions of years —easily long enoughfor complex life toevolve on any suitableplanets in orbit aroundit. One of the most spectac-ular attributes of red dwarfs istheir surface. Huge dark blemishes —starspots — form out of erupting bundlesof intense magnetic energy, bristling withsuperhot gas and rippling with unstablemagnetic pulsations. Titanic explosionscome from these spots as the magneticenergy collapses explosively, heating thealready hot gas to even greater tempera-tures and producing spectacular flares.
Until recently, the radiation from theseflares — and the feebleness of their light —
was why such stars were consideredunsuitable sites for life. But we now knowthat neither of these is as great a problemas we thought. At the Earth’s distance fromthe Sun, a planet circling a red dwarfwould certainly freeze, and life as we knowit would be impossible. Closer in, however,it’s a different story. The past 20 years inastronomy have been the era of the exo-planet — the discovery of worlds that circleother stars of all types. In particular, rocky
planets have been found circling reddwarfs in super-close orbits, close
enough — some at only 15 percent of the distance from
our own Sun — for tem-peratures to be like thoseon Earth. Such a worldwould probably be“tidally locked”, withone side permanentlyfacing the star (as theMoon does the Earth).
That means it would bebaking hot on one side
and freezing cold (and inpermanent darkness) on the
other — rendering the planetinhospitable. Or so it was considered.
Recent calculations, however, suggestthat even a thin atmosphere would trans-port heat around the planet, evening outthe extremes and making it much friend-lier to life. There could also be a twilightregion on such a world where the reddwarf hovers just above the horizon. Insuch shadowy zones, strange forms of lifemight exist. Perhaps on the shores of melt-water pools, black microbes or black plantswould form large mats to absorb what
energy they could; black because theywould be able to absorb the entire spec-trum falling on them by letting it bereflected. Earthly leaves, which reflect lightat a wavelength we see as green, wouldseem very inefficient alongside them.
The best example of a red dwarf withplanets is Gliese 581, which has attracted alot of attention in recent years. “Only” 22light years away (or 129 trillion miles), ithas four, or possibly six, planets in orbitssmaller than that of Venus around our Sun.One of these worlds, Gliese 581d, could bethe first truly habitable planet we have dis-covered with Earth-like conditions.
In 2008 a radio signal was sent fromEarth aimed at this system, consisting of501 individual messages selected from acompetition run by the social networkingsite Bebo. The signal will arrive in 2029.
In the past, those searching for life inspace focussed on stars like our Sun. Butthere is the possibility that it might not beSun-like stars that provide sites where lifecould exist. Our solar system, with its fat,bright star, could be a rarity.
And long after our relatively short-lived Sun has died and become a cold cos-mic cinder, the red dwarfs will have hardlystarted their cosmic lives. None of themhas even left childhood yet. Perhaps, onworlds around some of them, there aresuper-civilisations of beings who have hadfar longer to evolve than would be possiblearound a Sun-like star. We cannot evenimagine what they might be like, or whatsuch life could become. Perhaps one daywe will find out: After all, the return signalfrom Gliese 581 could be here in 2051.
���)������������
In the 1960s, claims were madein books with titles such as TheEvolution and Eradication of
Infectious Disease that “it seems rea-sonable to anticipate that withinsome measurable time, all themajor infections will have disap-peared”. Some have; smallpox hasgone and polio may be on the wayout — in spite of the murderousefforts of Islamist militants, whohave been attacking vaccinationteams in Pakistan. But many bigkillers remain. Malaria, for exam-ple, infects around 200 million peo-ple a year, with half the world’s pop-ulation at risk.
In the 1950s, DDT was theanswer, but resistance got in theway. Even so, there has been successwith other insecticides. Seventy ofthe 99 countries across the globethat still have endemic malaria haveagreed to provide an insecticide-treated bed net for everyone at risk,and new wallpapers impregnatedwith the stuff may help. Planning— working out the most dangeroustime of year and of day, and theplace and time where the insectsbreed, as well as constantly moni-toring new outbreaks — muchimproves the process.
All very clever, but biology hasfought back. Mosquitoes that usedto bite people while they were inbed have changed their behaviour,and now hit them in broad daylightand the open air. In 60 countries,mosquitoes have evolved resistanceto the chemicals, and no new ver-sions have been approved in thepast 30 years. To add to the prob-lem, some have the habit of breed-ing in old tyres — and the stuff thatleaches out of the rubber may itselfact as a weak insecticide, so thatlarvae become cross-resistant tochemicals that have not yet beenused in the wild.
The malaria parasites, too, havebecome resistant. Even artemisinin,the Chinese miracle drug recentlyaccepted in a synthetic version bythe WHO as equivalent to the ver-sion extracted from plants, is losingits power in some places. Four mil-lion chemicals have been tested inthe lab, and 20,000 do something tokill off the culprit — but none hasbeen passed as safe for humans.
The malaria parasite is a busylittle beast. It takes only 10 minutes
to migrate from the bite via thebloodstream (where it is open toattack by the immune system) tothe liver (where it is more protectedand multiplies with enthusiasm).Then it bursts out again into the redcells, and the symptoms begin.
The biggest problem is itsamazing diversity. Unlike smallpoxor leprosy, malaria comes with adizzying array of distinct identities,which means that a vaccine thatworks against one variant, or in oneplace, fails against another. Indeed,every patient may carry his or herown unique infection. Also, in aMachiavellian response to theirhost’s defences, the parasites canalso change their personality byshuffling through their wardrobe ofcoats as they multiply in the redblood cells. An infant bitten manytimes will gain some general protec-tion, but only at the cost of thedeaths of many who are less lucky.
The battle goes on. Victorymight, perhaps, come via a vaccinethat acts in the skin or in the liverand stops the attack before it reallygets going, but that is years away.New sprays against larvae, andfungi that attack adults, or hor-mones that disrupt their sex lives,are all being tried. The situation isnot hopeless: Turkey, for example,has reduced the annual rate ofinfection from more than 100,000people 40 years ago to just four in2011. Even so, plenty of controlprogrammes have failed over thedecades; and most did so for thesame reason — not enough moneywas available to keep the troops inthe field. The malaria problem maybe solved by throwing cash at it.
The extraordinary interestshown by media in the BJP’stwo-day National Executive
meeting that concludes in Goatoday could have been termed asgenuine professional commitmentto disseminating news, had it notbeen for the fact that very little ornothing that was disseminatedhad anything to do with the truth.Beginning Friday morning, televi-sion channels and newspapersdesperate to keep pace with‘breaking news’ kept on indulgingin kite-flying, attributing theirown views and opinions, worthtuppence and no more, to‘sources’. The fact is that these‘sources’ do not exist in real life;they are as much a figment ofimagination as what is attributed to them.
Here are some facts thatwould serve to highlight how thecoverage of the BJP’s NationalExecutive meeting was turnedinto a tamasha that bordered ontheatre of the absurd. The Nation-al Executive was scheduled tomeet on Saturday and Sunday,which it did. In keeping with pastpractice, office-bearers met onFriday to take stock of organisa-tional issues and discuss the agen-da for the meeting. In otherwords, Friday’s meeting was not apart of the National Executive’sproceedings, nor was it meant todiscuss key policy issues, leavealone take any important deci-sions. That would have renderedthe National Executive meeting meaningless.
Such boring details, however,are irrelevant to our mainstreammediapersons. They made out asif Friday was the first day of theNational Executive meeting andfloated various stories on theagenda of the office-bearers meet-ing, including whether NarendraModi should be made head of theelection campaign committee.This was never meant to be dis-cussed on Friday, nor did it comeup for any discussion. Facts, how-ever, are not allowed to stand inthe way of a juicy story and hencethey were brushed aside as mediaran amok, peddling colourful ver-sions that may have served to grab eyeballs but have done noth-ing to enhance media’s hugely diminished, and rapidly vanishing, credibility.
The day began with wild spec-ulation over LK Advani’s absence atFriday’s meeting. Once again, themedia chose to speculate on hisabsence without bothering to checkwith his office or family as to whyhe had not travelled to Goa aheadof the National Executive meeting.Had reporters done their basichomework they would have knownAdvani was unwell and unable totravel. At his age, this should nothave come as a surprise. Butnobody did a fact check becausethat would have killed a story man-ufactured with great effort.
This constant spinning of sto-ries to keep the news cycle mov-ing 24x7 may be a compulsion,given the dynamics of today’sinformation industry. Thosedynamics are as much media’s cre-ation as of readers of newspapers
and viewers of news channels, notnecessarily in that order. In fact, itcould be argued, and not withoutbasis, that there is a craving forsensational news, or news that isnot dull and boring which thetruth often is, and it is only natur-al that competing news channelsand newspapers should try topander to that craving.
It could equally be argued thatthe craving is the creation ofmedia which, having madetamasha the staple of its fare forthe day, can only turn news into aburlesque of half-truths and out-right lies peppered with the pro-found punditry of know-all com-mentators, many of whom wereknown as ‘hand-out’ journalists inthe organisations they worked forafter securing jobs with more thana little help from political patrons.If the inside story of mainstreammedia were to be ever told, jour-nalism in this country wouldstand denuded of respectand dignity.
But let that not detain us.What is of greater interest, if notimport, is the monkey chatter ofthese commentators who make agreat show of their earnestness onopeditorial pages of newspapers or
during television debates wherelimitless ignorance is presented asprofound wisdom. Witness themanner in which Narendra Modiis demonised as a politician who‘polarises’ — since when has poli-tics been devoid of polarisation? —and who won’t be able to attractallies. In the same breath, thosewho mocked at Atal Bihari Vajpay-ee through 1996 and 1998, praisehim and seek to elevate LK Advanito a stature they have insisted ondenying him all these years.
The dishonesty is truly starkand stunning. It’s moral dishon-esty and it’s intellectual dishon-esty. You can’t like Advani anddislike Modi, just as you can’t likeVajpayee and dislike the BJP.These are not identities that areindependent of each other. Norare they individuals who can bede-linked from the party and theideology they represent. But whois to tell the commentariat so?Smug and secure in the convictionthat they shall never be confront-ed by those who know better, theycontinue to play Bible-thumpers.
The consequences of main-stream media treading this pathcannot be overemphasised. Thephenomenal growth of social
media in India is an indicator ofthe low esteem in which newspa-pers and news channels are heldby an increasing number of peo-ple, most of them young, educatedand well-informed. Admittedlythis is an urban phenomenon, butit would not be inaccurate to sug-gest that the contempt for main-stream media is no less intense inrural areas. Even the most casualreading of what people have to sayabout media on Twitter wouldserve as an eye-opener for thosewho orchestrated the jaundicedcoverage of the BJP’s NationalExecutive meeting. But theproverbial writing on the walltragically goes un-noticed.
That is bad news. The goodnews is that more and more peoplehave begun to shun traditional ormainstream media. If the trendcontinues, the peddlers of misin-formation and planters of disinfor-mation shall one day find them-selves kicked off the pedestals onwhich they have placed themselves.Along with them, mainstreammedia shall come crashing down— like Humpty Dumpty never tobe put together again.
(The writer is a senior journalistbased in Delhi)
��$��E"#��&00!�3�����6$���%3
��������������������� �!���Reader response to Swapan Dasgupta’s column,Usual Suspects, published onJune 2:
Business of education: InIndia, education has becomean industry that not onlyencourages factory-line pro-duction of students-workersbut, worse still, turns rawmaterial into waste product.This is unfortunate.
Sardindu Kurup
Lack of accountability: Thewriter seems to have ignoredthe fact that the oppositionto the Four-YearUndergraduate Programmeat Delhi University has anextensive support base whichincludes teachers, studentsand even administrators. Atthe crux of this oppositionlies the inequitable features
of the four-year programme.And that is not all. Even
the manner in which theFYUP has been introducedhas left many deeply uncom-fortable. The process hadalmost no sense of publicaccountability at all.
And then, of course,there is the case of the auto-cratic Vice Chancellor ofDelhi University. Most willagree that he has done a lotto push for the ‘saffronisa-tion’ of education in India.
Rajiv
No to change: The authorhas hit the nail on the head.The opposition to the four-year programme is rootedlargely in the refusal ofteachers to change with thetimes. They simply do notwish to lose the ‘comfortable’manner in which they havebeen doing their jobs.
Megha
"����#�!$#%!�&�!'#�!$#(�#��)*!$����!�Reader response to Kanchan Gupta’s column,Coffee Break, published onJune 2:
Equally problematic: Theword ‘Congshals’ is wellcoined. After all, theCongress leaders who sup-port the Naxals are no lessthen problematic than theNaxals themselves. Also, it isbecause of the Congress’sfailed policies and bad gover-nance that the Red terroristshave risen in this country.
Subodh
Congress does not care: Thearticle exposes the sinisterdesigns of the Congress. Ifthe party does not seem tocare about its own members,then how can we expect it tobother about the nation?
Amora
Many unanswered questions:Senior Congress leader AjitJogi’s suspicious escape fromthe Maoist attack in Chhattis-garh, even as he left behindparty colleagues, is not partic-ularly surprising.
Let us not forget thatmany suspect an internalCongress conspiracy even inthe assassination of formerPrime Minister Rajiv Gand-hi. Till date, several unan-swered questions remainregarding that attack in 1991,but no one bothers to askthem anymore.
Mukunthan Iyer
Biased views: It’s unfortunatethat points raised in this articleregarding the deadly Maoistattack in Chhattisgarh are noteasily available in mainstreammedia. One would like to hearthe BJP’s critics respond tothese questions.
Mitul Raiyani
��+!��� �#������'�$$��,!��#�#Reader response to Rajesh Singh’s column, Plain Talk, published on June 2:
Handle Maoists with a firmhand: It is shocking thatdespite losing almost theentire State party leadershipin Chhattisgarh in the recentMaoist attack, a seniorCabinet Minister of theCongress is not ready tobelieve that the Maoists areindeed terrorists. While asection of the media andsome pseudo-human rightsactivists are already there tohelp the Maoists, the liberalapproach of political leaderstowards Maoist violence willonly weaken the fight againstthe terrorists.
In order to deflect atten-tion from the anti-nationalactivities of the Maoists, a well-
oiled propaganda machine is atwork so as to malign theGovernment’s offensive.
The basic ideology of theMaoists completely rejectsthe concept of democracy.The tribal cause is merely amask to further the Maoistagenda. Since Maoists havebecome a national threat, itis time the Government fol-lows the Sri Lankan modeland pursues a military solu-tion to end the insurgency.
Manoj Parashar
Maoists are not Gandhians:The manner in which a sec-tion of the Left-LiberalIndian intellegentsia hassought to romanticise theMaoists is tragic indeed. Theentire ‘Gandhians with guns’narrative needs to be dis-carded. Hopefully, the recentMaoist attack will drivehome that point.
Often you are in a rush in life. Andwhen you are in a rush, you areunable to perceive things properly.This takes away the charm, thethrill and the beauty from your life.
You can never be close to the truth becauseyour perception, observation and expressionbecome distorted. The rush to enjoy robs thejoy from life. It denies the freedom ofcelebrating the here and now. Often one doesnot even know why one is in a hurry. It almostbecomes a biological phenomenon to be in arush. Wake up and become aware of this. It isridiculous to be in a rush that slows you down.Just be aware and it will take care of itself.
Slowing down does not mean lethargy orprocrastination. It is easy to be in either extremeof being in a rush or being lethargic. Feverishnessarises out of lack of a need to achieve; whereasdynamism is an expression of fulfillment.
The golden rule is to be awake, and beingawake, you cannot help but be dynamic.Suppose you go to God, get a boon and walkaway. When your intention is to get a boon,then you can’t be in a hurry. A person whoknows he owns God is not in a hurry foranything. Infinite patience comes up in him.When you know you own God, you are not in ahurry to get something out of Him. Your hurryto get something throws you off balance andmakes you small. When you have infinitepatience, you will realise God belongs to you.Either through awareness or through practice,you reach the same conclusion.
Divinity belongs to you. When you knowyou are part of the divine plan, you stopdemanding. Then you know everything isbeing done for you. You are taken care of.Usually we do it the other way: We hurry themind and are slow in our action. Impatiencemeans hurry in the mind; lethargy meansslowness in action. Patience in the mind anddynamism in action is the right formula.
The very question — “What’s the purposeof life?” — is very precious. It means a lot toyou. If this question has arisen in your mind,you can give a big pat to your back because thisquestion can remove the cobwebs or confusionfrom your mind. It can guide you to the righttrack always. There is no single answer. It is apath on which we need to travel. “Who am I,what do I want, what is the purpose of my life?”It will move you forward in life. Many don’t
even think about this question. They simplyexist. They eat, sleep, watch television and thenthey die. You are on this planet for a veryunique and big purpose, not just to eat, sleepand talk. Always remember that you are herefor a greater cause and don’t lose your smile.This is something everyone has to find forhimself/herself.
Many souls compete to get a body and onlyone can win. It’s like running a race. Likemillions of people compete and only one wins,in the same way there is a rush and only onegets a body. That’s why it is said that the humanbirth and life are very precious. Don’t waste iton insignificant things. We eat to live and notlive to eat. Many people start living just to eat.There are many possibilities — what soul cancome and what not? The possibilities areinfinite. The ultimate truth of life is that we willleave everything behind. We may have kept allour valuables in a locker and keep the keyssafely with us, but when we die, we will leaveboth the locker and keys behind. We do not takeanything with us. When you travel in a bus,train or airplane, do you consider that as yourhome? You may enjoy the services there for theduration of your journey, but what will happenif you consider that as your home? When youreach your destination, you will be forced to getout. No matter how much you protest, you willbe forced to leave. You cannot say that it wasyour train or plane. You may drive your car to adestination but once you reach the garage, youwill have to leave the car.
But there is a place you can come whereeverything is beautiful. Tourists travel from placeto place looking for beauty. With photos andsouvenirs, they try to take the beauty back homewith them. They only get tired and tanned. Yet,the most beautiful spot anywhere is right here.When you come here, you find that everything isso beautiful. Where is this place?
Don’t look here and there; look within you.When you are here, then any place becomesbeautiful. Then wherever you go, you add beautythere. If you are unhappy, even the moon irritatesyou, sweet things nauseate, music disturbs. Whenyou are calm and centred inside, noise is musical,clouds are magical, rain is liquid love. Bookyourself on a trip to this most beautiful place inthe universe. Then you’ll find that every day is avacation and a celebration.
�������D����G������( �G���
!--'�������=����;��=�� ;����
Scientists say that nothing isadded in existence, and noth-ing deleted. Not a single atom
has been added, cannot be added.From where can you bring it...when we talk about the total, fromwhere can you bring a singleatom? Or if you want to destroy asingle atom, how can you destroyit? Where can you push it? Sciencesays that nothing can be destroyedand nothing can be created. Thetotality remains the same, but theparts change. A tree is destroyed, abody is dead; a flower is comingup, a tree is alive.
Things come up, things godown; things are born, things die.But the totality remains as it is.
A tree dies because a tree is apart. When it dies it goes backdown to the total, but the totalremains the same. This sutra says:I suffer not destruction, neitherhave I birth... How can the total beborn? This point also must be
looked at deeply.All the religions have tried to
think how the world came intobeing. Where is the beginning?Christianity says that before JesusChrist, 4,000 years ago, the worldcame into being, suddenly, in aweek. In six days God created theworld, and on the seventh day Herelaxed. That’s why the seventh dayis a holiday. In six days He createdthe world — on a particular date.This is absurd, because this totalcannot come out of nothing. Andeven if the world came into being,God was before it. So there was aworld of a certain kind. God wasthere, so existence was there.
Hindus say this is withoutbeginning and without ending;existence has no beginning and noending. So worlds may be createdand worlds may be destroyed, butexistence continues. The Hindumind says that one world is creat-ed and another is being destroyed
simultaneously. A star is born andanother star is dying. Our earth isjust now old, and soon it will die.Whatsoever we do, the earth isgoing to die; now it is old. Manythings will happen which will helpit to die: The population explosionwill help, atomic research will help,
pollution will help, chaotic trend,revolutions, rebellions will help;everything will help this earth todie.
Man going to the moon is avery symbolic act. Whenever someplanet dies, life tries to go some-where else. It happens only then,
never before. Whenever someplanet is going to die, life begins totry to go somewhere else, to bereplanted somewhere else.
Still scientists are not able tofind out from where life came tothis earth; there seems to be noreason how it can come up sud-denly. It must have come fromsomewhere else. It is possible thatsome old earth dying, someancient planet dying... Even oneman and one woman transplantedto this earth would create thewhole thing. It may have beenAdam and Eve coming from someother planet which was dying; andtwo are enough to create millions.
It is felt deeply that this earthis going to die soon; that is whythere is so much search to gobeyond this earth — to the moon,to Mars, or to somewhere, some-where to find a home again. Life isjust going to die here. Neitherpoliticians can help us, nor paci-
fists. This earth is going to die.Everything born is bound to diesometime. And for the earth, onethousand, two thousand years arenothing. So it may continue, but itis just on the verge. Every symp-tom shows that it is just on theverge. So one earth may be born,another may die.
One world may be born.When I say world, I don’t meantotal, because there are many,many worlds. Our world consistsof the solar system: This sun andthe family of this sun. We don’tknow. Out there are other worlds;there are many universes. We aretotally unaware of them. Everydaya new star is born and every day astar is dying, disappearing. But thewhole remains, and the wholeremains the same. It is neitherborn, nor is there any possibility ofits being dead. It is without begin-ning and ending.
We live in a fast-paced world where everything isperformance-oriented. Today, all our relation-ships, be it personal or professional, depend on
our performance record. In the good old days, thingswere quite different. One such manifestation of degener-ation today is the trend of “multiple partners”. A closestudy of majority of divorce cases or separation acrossthe world points towards “non-compatibility betweentwo partners” as a key factor in the slow but steadydemise of the institution of marriage. Further studiesmade by psychiatrists reveal that poor performance inrelationship scores high as the sole reason for two peo-ple getting separated. In such situations, one can’t helpbut ask the all-important question: Is physical love ‘theonly criterion’ for sustaining a relationship? Well, untilthe time when there was no Internet, discussing sex wasa taboo, but now the scenario has changed. Today, withmass media explosion, anybody can have anything onhis/her fingertips. With MMS, high-end digital camerasand mobile phones, it has become easy to fulfil one’sdesires with just one click.
People living in the ‘modern’ society have startedbelieving that it’s next to impossible to have a life with-out physical relationships. But in reality, it’s not thecase. Because when you are left with just one choice,you accept it, in spite of knowing that it’s not the choicethat you have made. We all are habituated to swim withthe tide, rather than swimming against it to set anexample. There are very few of us who have the courageto walk on a self-chosen path, in the face of arduoussetbacks and apparent loss of respect. The society thatwe live in cannot accept the fact that physical relation-ship can be replaced by our eternal relationship withthe ‘supreme’, which is universal, and above all religionsand forces. The basic reason for its unacceptance isbecause we are all so deeply drowned in our worldlypleasures that once we are in, we cannot look anythingbeyond it, thus becoming slaves to instincts.
So, is there really a genuine solution to this prob-lem? The answer is yes. By simply remaining in the con-sciousness that we are an eternal soul and not body, wecan easily transform human love into spiritual energy bychanging our feelings of lust into feelings of love, there-by dissolving lust automatically without any kind of sup-pression whatsoever. Science has proved that energy canbe transformed from one form to another. Why can’tthen we transform physical energies to spiritual energiesand liberate ourselves? We can definitely do that if wehave the will, mental strength and the belief in thealmighty. Remember, all kinds of desires are play ofmind. It will then become easy to transform them. Sogive it a try and experience the magic yourself.
The woman’s body is luscious butself-contained, suggesting that thisis not an erotic pose, not quite. Sheis naked from the waist up, herheavy breasts seeming to offer an
invitation, yet her thoughtful glance, staringout beyond the picture, suggests that she hasother things on her mind. The painting, titledSelf-Portrait as a Tahitian, poses a question. Ifthe artist isn’t Tahitian, nor, as her dark skinand full lips suggest, European, what are herorigins? In fact, this painting is the work ofthe 20th-century Hungarian-Indian artistAmrita Sher-Gil, whose brilliant career endedwith her tragic death at the age of 28.
Sixty years before Tracey Emin, Sher-Gilscandalised audiences around the world byputting women’s bodies — her own, herfriends’ and those of ordinary Indians — atthe centre of her extraordinary art. By thetime she died in 1941 her paintings wereonly beginning to become popular in Indiaand in Europe. “I hate cheap emotionalappeal,” she declared as she went about chal-lenging the clichés of the ‘exotic East’ —bejewelled figures posing in splendour withan elephant somewhere in the mix — withher truthful painting, full of the heat anddust of 20th-century India as it emergedfrom a century of British rule.
Often referred to as ‘the Indian FridaKahlo’ because of the revolutionary way sheblended the outlines of modern Europeanpainting with ‘primitive’ forms, Amrita led alife as compelling and unorthodox as her art.What makes her story more fascinating isthat her early years were recorded for poster-ity by her father, a photographer — and offerinsights into both Amrita herself and Euro-pean and Indian high society in the 1920s.
Born on the eve of World War I, AmritaSher-Gil grew up in Budapest. Her parentswere Marie Antoinette Gottesmann, aHungarian opera singer, and Umrao Sher-Gil, a Sikh aristocrat with a deep scholarlyinterest in Sanskrit and astronomy. The pairfirst met in 1912, while Marie was touringLahore, and the following year moved to herhome city, where they were forced to remainuntil the end of the war. And it was when
Amrita was eight the Sher-Gils were finallyable to return to the family estate at Simla.
In 1929, at the age of 16, she moved toParis to study art at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. There, Amrita — who had always dis-played a rebellious streak (as a child she wasexpelled from her convent school for declar-ing herself an atheist) — plunged into every-thing that bohemian Paris had to offer.
The photographs taken by her fatherduring his visits show her experimentingwith her identity, sometimes wearingWestern fashion and on other occasions opt-ing for a sari. Others reveal a burgeoningsexuality, and it was in Paris that Amritaembarked on a lifelong pattern of sexualadventuring, conducting affairs with bothmen and women. She could do so, accordingto one of her many lovers, because “she hadthat hard core of the artist that keeps itselfaloof and untouched”.
Amrita’s intense physicality fed directlyinto her way of making art. Her early paint-ings from this Paris period show every signof having been made in the Western tradi-tion. Young Girls (1932) was a remarkablework. Astounding in its technical compe-tence — the critics were especially impressedby the way the young artist was able to con-vey so many tonal variations of the colourwhite — the picture was awarded a goldmedal at the Grand Salon of 1933.
Despite this prestigious recognition,Amrita found herself increasingly longingfor India, convinced that it held the key toher future career. Never one for false mod-esty, she declared, “Europe belongs toPicasso, Matisse and Braque and many oth-ers. India belongs only to me.”
Indian art traditionally tended to thesketchy and sentimental, but Amrita wasdetermined to find a new way of showingthe reality of the country that her fatherhad taught her to love. “There are suchwonderful, such glorious things in India, somany unexploited pictorial possibilities,that it is a pity that so few of us have everattempted to look for them even (much lessinterpret them),” she explained.
It was not, though, until late 1937 that
Amrita finally found the subject and thestyle that would come to define her art. Latein the year she embarked upon a three-month journey through the rural south,determined to investigate an India that couldnot have been more different from the colo-nial tea-party atmosphere of Simla.
As she travelled deeper into the denseperpetual sunlight, the colours becamebrighter while the bodies turned dark. Nowwas her chance to fill her canvases with farmworkers, camel drivers and nurses. Steeringclear of sentimentality, she developed a stylethat drew its inspiration as much from thebold shapes of European modernism as therich cultures of Mughal miniatures and thecave paintings of Ajanta. The Wedding Partyis a signature work from this time, capturingthe isolated lives of women whose innerworlds seethe with boredom and resignation.
Returning to India may have revolu-tionised Amrita’s art, but it did not interrupther sexual experimentation and by her mid-twenties her exploits had become so wellknown that Marie Antoinette and Umrao,liberal though they were, took the decisionto burn many of her intimate letters for fearof them getting into the wrong hands.
When Amrita, at the age of 25, declaredher intention to marry, the announcementsurprised everyone. But her mother’s joy wasshort-lived, for Amrita chose as her husbandan impoverished cousin from the Hungarianside of her family. Victor Egan was a doctorwho had enjoyed a special bond with Amritasince childhood. He had managed to obtainabortions for her on at least two occasions,which perhaps gave Amrita the sense that hewould always look after her. Sadly, though,there were limits even to Victor’s protectivepowers. In the closing days of 1941 Amritahaemorrhaged and died.
According to her most recent biograph-er, this was caused by yet another abortiongone wrong. Still only 28 at the time of herdeath, Amrita Sher-Gil left behind her abody of work that would become crucial toIndia’s growing sense of itself in the decadesfollowing Independence.
���)�����������
�!��������5 ��
�������������-���"� � ��!�� 1��30@
�������������������������� �������������
Michael Douglas’spokesman Allen Burry
has released a statementexplaining that the actor wasjust saying that oral sex cancause cancer, not that it neces-sarily led to his diagnosis.“In a discussion withthe newspaper, theytalked about the causesof oral cancer, one ofwhich was oral sex,which is noted and hasbeen known for a whilenow,” Burry said.
Previously, Doug-las has opened upabout his past diagno-sis, revealing thatoral sex, not smok-ing or drinking,caused his type ofthroat cancer.
In a candid newinterview with UK’sThe Guardian,Douglas admits thathis illness was caused by
the human papillomavirus (HPV).“Without wanting to get too specific,this particular cancer is caused byHPV, which actually comes about fromcunnilingus,” 68-year-old star explains.
Douglas, who fought a six-monthbattle with the disease from August
2010 until January 2011, also con-fesses that he thought that
his battle with cancerwould be a fatal one. Hesays at first he assumed thestress from his sonCameron’s legal troublesplayed a big factor in hissickness. (Huffington Post)
����������� ���� ������������
Atweak to state lawsin the German state
of Mecklenburg-WesternPomerania to conformwith current EU regula-tions has caused an unex-pected casualty: Thelongest word in theGerman language.The Rindfleischetike-
ttierungsueberwachungsauf-
gabenuebertragungsgesetzis no more.
The “law delegatingbeef label monitoring”was introduced bythe state in 1999 aspart of measuresagainst mad cowdisease. But thedpa news agencyreported the lawwas removed from the books recentlybecause European Union regulationshave changed. German still has wordslike the very robust Donaudampf-schifffahrtsgesellschaftskapitaenswitwe tofall back on — meaning “widow of aDanube steamboat company captain.”
Dpa reports such words have beenso rarely used, however, that they’re notin the dictionary. There the longestword honour falls to Kraftfahrzeug-Haftpflichtversicherung: Automobile lia-bility insurance. (Huffington Post)
���������������������������������� �������� �� ��
In a bizarre instance of role reversal, apatient stole an ambulance in Atlanta
and took two paramedics in the back on
a wild ride, author-ities said.
The episodebegan at a hospi-tal and ended
when the patientcrashed the ambu-
lance into a chiro-practor’s office near
Decatur and fled on foot, TheAtlanta Journal-Constitution reported.He remained at large several hours later.
The two DeKalb County fire para-medics who found themselves trappedinside the stolen vehicle escaped seriousinjury, the newspaper said. The uniden-tified patient took control of the ambu-lance about 2 pm while the paramedicswere in the back completing paperworkafter having dropped off another patientat Emory University Hospital.
DeKalb fire Battalion ChiefChristopher Morrison Jr said the man“came out of the hospital, dressed in agown and rubber gloves, jumped in thefront seat, locked the doors and took offin the unit.” The suspect “lookedthrough the little window in the backand told them, ‘be quiet and hold on,’”Morrison said. (UPI)
���������������������� ������2������
AScottish woman hasdefied odds of
500,000 to one by giv-ing birth to twins forthe third time. KarenRodger, 41, welcomedher first pair of girls(Rowan and Isla) afterhaving twice givenbirth to twin boys.
“I still haven’t real-ly taken it on boardbecause I was con-vinced I was havingtwo boys,” Rodger toldSky News. Karen saysher husband Colin wasequally stunned when the pairlearned they were going tohave their fifth and sixth child.
The average couple hasabout a 3 per cent chance ofhaving twins when not account-ing for fertility drugs. And witheach subsequent pregnancy, theodds of producing twins a sec-ond, or even third time, become expo-nentially less likely. (Yahoo News)
����������>� ����������� ������� �����22�
Singer-actress Pia Zadora wasarrested at her Las Vegas home
following a rapidly escalatingattempt to impose a bedtime onher teenage son.
The spat, which ended withthe one-time blond bombshellscratching the faces of her 16-year-old son and husband, beganwith her attempt to hustle herson to bed so she could get somerest, according to a police report.
Zadora’s son was hangingout with her husband and hisson when she asked him to turn
in. When he protested, shesprayed him and his step-brotherwith a hose, according to her state-
ment to police.She then began scratching and
punching her husband, MichaelJeffries, and his son as they tried tocalm her down, according to the16-year-old’s statement to police.
Zadora was arrested on suspi-cion of domestic battery and coer-cion and released after posting$4,000 bail. (AP)
How can a Government thatreceived almost 50 per cent
of the vote be authoritarian?”asked an adviser to Turkish PrimeMinister Recep Tayyip Erdogan,even as police attacked crowds ofpeaceful protesters. The questiongoes to the heart of what is wrongwith Erdogan’s ruling style, andthe answer can be found not onlyin the policies pursued by the rul-ing Justice and DevelopmentParty (AKP) during the pastdozen years but also in the way ithas responded to protests by hun-dreds of thousands of citizens.
Turkey is an electoral democ-racy, but the past week’s eventshave underlined that the countryno longer has the robust free pressfound in Western nations.
In a democracy, peaceful dis-sent not only is accepted but alsooften compels changes in govern-ment policy. Turkey’s protestersbegan with a local but legitimategrievance, a government decisionto eliminate a park adjacent toIstanbul’s Taksim Square. Ratherthan tolerate them, the Govern-ment dispatched riot police,which in turn caused the demon-strations to spread and to raisebroader issues. Turkey’s secularand religious minorities havemuch to lament, from the recentimposition of tight controls onalcohol sales to Erdogan’s supportfor Sunni rebels in Syria.
The ongoing demonstrationsacross Turkey have revealed a
gaping disconnect between theaspirations of Erdogan’s Govern-ment and those of the people, butif he is clever, the Prime Ministercan take this opportunity to listento what his citizens actually want,and need. Either that, or he risksalienating his Government fromWestern friends, and jeopardisingthe future of the country, vis-a-visits relationship with Europe.
Virtually every major Euro-pean city has witnessed protestsover the last few years, whetherinspired by economic cuts, theright to gay marriage, or animalrights. And with perhaps theexception of Greece, these havebeen allowed to proceed calmlyand peacefully, just as theyshould, in any state which wishesto call itself a democracy. Protestscan also allow the Government togauge the views of the people,and to consider adjusting policiesaccordingly, which would, in fact,help it to remain in power.
The response of the Turkishauthorities has clearly been dis-proportionate to the peacefulprotest. Instead of letting theprotesters in Istanbul expresstheir democratic right, the Gov-ernment tried to contain thedemonstration, using tear gasand unnecessarily aggressivecrowd-control tactics.
day”. “Massacre”. “Big YellowDuck”. All of these words arebanned on Sina Weibo, China’sversion of the banned social net-working website Twitter, alongwith various combinations ofJune 4, 1989, and the numbers sixand four. China’s “Great Firewall”is nothing if not thorough.
Internet censors haveclamped down this week eventighter on online exchanges andinformation about the crack-down on pro-democracy pro-testers at Beijing’s TiananmenSquare on June 4, 1989, whichkilled hundreds. China is a rich-er, freer place than it was in1989, but it has never truly cometo terms with what happened on“that day”. The Chinese Govern-ment has never fully disclosedthe course of events that led toso many deaths.
In Hong Kong, tens of thou-sands of people held a candlelitvigil in a park to urge China torespect human rights. The annu-al vigil in the former Britishcolony is regarded as a symbolof the island’s relative freedom.But for those in mainland Chinawho were involved, TiananmenSquare is a suppressed yet pow-erful memory.
�"���������";�3�
�����#��-$�1��$��
!���'�������
Tens of thousands of HongKong residents, joined by a
smattering of mainland Chinese,converged in central VictoriaPark on Tuesday to honour the24th anniversary of the Tianan-men Square crackdown and venttheir anger at a Chinese leader-ship that has increasingly signaledits intent to broaden its limitedcontrol over the territory.
Speakers shouted “down withthe Communist Party” and “freeelections for all citizens.”
Such protests are effectivelybanned in mainland China, creat-ing a draw for the mainlanderswho attended. The annualdemonstration is the most vividdisplay of the continuing passionsover the 1989 crackdown on stu-dent protests in Beijing, an eventwhose name and date has beenstricken by censors on mainlandChina. Armed soldiers andarmoured vehicles swept throughBeijing, shooting dead — by mostestimates — hundreds of peopleto end two months of protests,hunger strikes and passionatespeeches at Tiananmen Square.Student leaders backed by thou-sands of mainly young Chinesehad been urging the CommunistParty to attack official corruption,expand citizens’ rights and takesteps toward democracy.
India has been known asthe land of sufis andsanyasins. Its rich her-itage owes a lot to theseholy men who held aloft
the flag of spiritualism amid aflurry of materialistic pursuits.
Delhi may be the capitalcity of India, the seat of politi-cal power, but to many whoknow ‘Dilli’, it is the darulaulia, or the home of sufis.This great city has seen manypious souls, whose remainsstill enlighten people. The dar-gah of Nizamuddin Aulia isone such place which attractsvisitors from far and wide.
The present work, TheBook of Nizamuddin Aulia, isthe story of the 14th centurysage who continues to evokeawe and inspiration, love andreverence in human heartshundreds of years after hisdeath. The dargah of the mys-tic saint is a huge draw formen and women cutting acrossreligions. The author, MehruJaffer, has certainly doneyeomen service by writing thisabsorbing account of the sufisaint in her easy-to-read styleof writing. This biographicalaccount does well to spreadthe ideas of love, compassion,devotion and spirituality of theenigmatic Nizamuddin Aulia.
Hazrat Sheikh KhwajaSyed Muhammad NizamuddinAulia was a famous saint of theChisti order. He was born inthe year 1238, though somescholars give a slightly differ-ent date of the year of hisbirth. The 13th century was aperiod of great upheaval in notonly South Asia, but the entirecontinent at large. Indian sub-continent in particular was awitness to countless wars ofsupremacy. Interestingly, the
the era was not just known forthe exploits of Islamic militarystrategists but also for thepresence of great Islamicscholars. The author has han-dled the historical account ofthe period rather meticulouslyin his prologue to the book.But what is really illuminatingis her detailed treatment of thebasic tenets of NizamuddinAulia’s teachings.
Aulia transformed themystical movement in Delhiinto a mass humanitarianactivity that could help humansouls overcome the challengesof life — anger, pain and suf-ferings. The moral and spiritu-
al tenets practised and advo-cated by him formed thebackbone of countless Chisticloisters spread all over thecountry. The author has verysuccinctly summarised thespiritual principles ofNizamuddin Aulia. Hequotes: “Service tohumankind is the only ratio-nal of religion. Sublimateordinary desires into cosmicemotions. Nurse an attitudethat rejects the wasting of lifein petty material pursuits.Acts of violence create moreproblems than they solve.Place absolute trust in thewill of God.”
The description of Aulia’sconversation with himself isan interesting feature of thebook and forms the bedrockof the sufi saint’s mystic phi-losophy. Some of the anec-dotes from his life are quitetouching. For instance, thestory of his encounter with hisfriend, Khwaja Abdul Rahim,who brought some pomegran-ates for the saint knowing thathe often fasted throughout theday. Aulia picked up one seedof a pomegranate and chewedon it. When asked to eat somemore, he replied: “So manypoor and destitute people aresleeping in the corners of
mosques and on the platformsof shops! They have nothing toeat, how can this food godown my throat?”
Nizamuddin Aulia wasknown for his love for thepoor. This often invited the ireof the rulers of Delhi. Theauthor has described severalencounters of the sufi saintwith the Delhi sultans ratherabsorbingly in the book. It’s athorough account of the lifeand times of Aulia and willprovide an interesting readingto the spiritual-minded peo-ple. However, the accountcould have been more crisply written.
Before LK Advani converted anIndian icon into a Hindu deityas he flexed his nationalistmuscles astride a makeshiftchariot, he was on his way to
the destruction of an unused 16th cen-tury mosque in Ayodhya to reclaim themythical glory of his Mother India.”Thus wrote Jawed Naqvi, India corre-spondent of Dawn, Pakistan, in an arti-cle on humour in religious discourse.The Indian icon in question is Rama,the most popular incarnation of LordVishnu and the most beloved deity forat least two millennia.
Naqvi would have us believe thatAdvani’s rath yatra made Rama a deity.He cannot see the hollowness of hisclaim, for if Rama in his own view wasalready an Indian icon (a symbol of rev-erence and devotion), it means he wasalready a deity.
Naqvi, like others, is in the busi-ness of negating and mocking the civil-isational memory associated withRama, and believes his minority statusconfers upon him the privilege to do sowith impunity. Yet, he would not daresatisfy non-monotheistic curiosity on afundamental confusion of Abrahamicdogma: Did the patriarch Abrahamoffer his son Ismail in sacrifice to God,or was it his son Isaac? Christians andMuslims both accept the historicity ofthe event and agree only one child wasoffered. Which one?
Over the past two decades, severalLeft-wing historians have indulged inhigh-voltage propaganda that Ramawas not a deity before Tulsidas wroteRamcharit Manas in the 16th century.The purpose, of course, is to discreditthe movement for reclamation of hisbirthplace. For if there is no proof ofRama and his Ayodhya, the movementfalls into disrepute.
Historian Meenakshi Jain has givena robust reply to those who question thehistoricity of Rama as deity, and provid-ed ample historical proof of Ayodhya asthe city of Rama. Activists may questionthe memory of a civilisation with super-ficial and politically-motivated argu-ments, but the book, Rama and Ayo-dhya, has demolished their case.
Jain leaves no stone unturned incollating all historical and literary evi-dence relating to Lord Rama. She hascovered a vast corpus of literature fromthe eighth century onwards. ThePratihara dynasty, which ruled westernand central India from the ninth to the13th century, claimed descent fromLakshman, younger brother of Rama,and considered themselves defenders ofIndia from mlechha (barbarian)invaders, and were proud of their victo-ry over them. For four centuries theygave an intrepid fight to invaders.
The book covers the popularity ofRama in antiquity in three long chap-ters, citing evidence from literature,sculpture and epigraphy. The authorhas compiled her evidence State-wise
to conclusively prove Rama’s pan-national popularity throughout antiq-uity. The question of his becoming adeity only after the publication ofRamcharit Manas in the era of theMughal emperor Akbar, has beenanswered with ample evidence to dis-courage even the most arrogant Leftisthistorian from repeating old lies again.
Some notable references includeVarahamihira’s Brhatsamhita (sixth cen-tury AD) which formulates rules formaking images of Rama. The Ramastory finds mention in three earlyBuddhist texts, Dasharatha Kathanam(first-second century AD), AnamakamJatakam and Dasharatha Jataka. Thegreat poet-dramatist, Bhavabhuti (eighthcentury), a native of Vidarbha, wrotetwo dramas based on the Ramayan —the Mahaviracharita and theUttararamacharity; the latter containedthe earliest verbatim quotations of versesfrom the Ramayan, according to Jacobi.
A Gupta period stone panel fromMathura shows Ravan shaking MountKailasa, a scene from the ‘UttaraKanda’. A Gupta period brick templeat Bhitargaon, Kanpur (fifth centuryAD), has several terracotta panels, one
of which depicts Rama and Lakshmanseated and engaged in conversation. M Zaheer, in his book on theBhitargaon temple, mentions two ter-racotta reliefs showing scenes fromthe Ramayana: One has a womanoffering alms to a giant man, clearlyRavan in disguise, while the otherdepicts a seated Rama and Sita.
The Rama cult was promoted byMadhavacharya Anandatirtha (variouslyplaced between AD 1199-1278 and1238-1317). He devoted seven chaptersto the Ramayana story in theMahabharat-tatparya-nirnaya andbrought an image of the “world-con-quering” Digvijaya Rama to the south.Similarly, Narahari Tirtha, probably thesame as Narasimha, is recorded in aTelugu epigraph dated AD 1293, as hav-ing set up the image of Rama, Sita andLakshman in the Vaishnava temple nearChicacole, Ganjam district.
The Vayu Purana and the ‘UttaraKanda’ mentioned two Kosalas, withShravasti the capital of Uttara Kosala andKausavati of Dakshin Kosala orMahakosala. The two Kosalas were oncebelieved to have been under the suzerain-ty of Rama, who installed his son Lava in
North Kosala and Kusa in South Kosala.The book is additionally important
for the detailed analysis of the AllahabadHigh Court ruling on the Babri Masjidcase. The motives and scholarship ofmany of our famed historians are hilari-ously exposed during the court proceed-ings. The book shows how an exclusiveclub of historians (Leftists, of course)have been making false claims of exper-tise to perpetuate their own agenda, tothe detriment of true scholarship. Thishelps us understand why history hasbeen taught so poorly in our schools colleges and universities — the profes-sors have been taking liberties withtruth. No wonder, a nation with such a rich history has some of the dullesthistory departments!
The Allahabad High Court notedthe links between the academics repre-senting the Sunni Central Waqf Board.Suvira Jaiswal, former Professor of theJNU, told the court, “I have not readBabarnama... It is correct to say that Iam giving statement on oath regardingBabri Mosque without any probe andnot on the basis of my knowledge, ratherI am giving the statement on the basis ofmy opinion... Whatever (information) I
gained with respect to the disputed sitewas on the basis of newspaper or whatothers told, that is, from the report ofhistorians. By historians’ report I mean‘Historians Report to Nation’.”
Satyawati College lecturer SC Mishraintoned, “Prithvi Raj Chauhan was kingof Ghazni; he (Muhammad Ghori) wasking of its adjoining area... I have heardof jaziya tax... At present I fail to recol-lect when and for what purpose it waslevied. I do not remember that the jaziya was levied only on Hindus...”
Little wonder the court observed,“He accepts of being expert in Epigraphybut... neither he knows Arabic norPersian nor Latin, therefore he had nooccasion to understand the language inwhich the alleged inscription was writ-ten... The slipshod and casual manner inwhich he made inquiry about inscrip-tion is further interesting.”
The Ayodhya debate reveals a dis-turbing aspect of the personality of pre-eminent historian Irfan Habib — he hasnot hesitated to cast serious aspersionson the integrity of academicians andinstitutions in disagreement with hisviews. This book challenges such lordchaplains of Indian history.
For personal appointments, call Meenakshi Rani at 011-29234653/29239636 or e-mail her at [email protected]
(8������ '�-�����;�� �=��
Laws of karma and that ofdestiny are often confused asbeing one and the same. No
wonder, as they both stand on thesame premise: As you sow, so youreap. Evidently, taken on facevalue, the two concepts are relat-ed to each other. They, however,carry varying connotations interms of how one would negotiatelife in practical terms.
Destiny, as we understand isthe final culmination of how onewould have conducted in thepast. Those subscribing to thisconcept blindly submit to theirfait accompli, whatever way itcomes. But they seldom care tofigure out their own infirmities, ifany, that could derail their efforts.They prefer blaming their ownluck for all the bad happeningseven if it would be because of
external limiting factors. As aconsequence, they often fail toexert to improve their lot.
On the contrary, the law ofkarma, which is based on the self-automated laws of nature, allowsthe scope of human interventionintended to give a qualitative turnto life through conscious efforts.For, the laws of nature allow therole of the power of freewill dulyaided by the faculty of discrimi-nate intelligence, inherent inhuman beings. Those acknowl-edging this concept apply thisexclusive human prerogative tofirst discover their inner traits ofmind, make necessary amends,and set right the premise for abetter tomorrow. Second, theylook at the external factors withan open mind without any pre-conditioning whatsoever. They
are, therefore, able to look at theexternal challenges in perspective.They do not dither even if someunseemly challenges confrontthem. They rather try to intelli-gently articulate their responsesand initiatives. So they negotiatelife mindfully, and that brings inqualitative difference in life. Attimes, even they may fail in theirmission. But they prefer go downfighting rather than blindly sub-mitting to the mercy of destiny. In
fact, it is this very spirit that hascarried forward the human civili-sation from its primitive stage tothe developed world of todaythrough all its lows and highs inbetween.
See how a blind fatalist keepsgrieving rather than mindfullytaking on the challenges. Neitherhe is devoid of strength nor hashe always fared badly in life. Buthis attitudes make him habituallyself-pitying, worrying, and taking
life negatively. Look at theimmense potential reflected in hischart. Intellectually-ordainedUranus is well placed to the Sun,Mercury and Saturn. That grantshim with dramatic talent. Hethereby is supposed to have animaginative, ambitious, inventive,innovative and analytical mind. Italso points towards the qualitiesof a good leader who would bethorough in work. Mercury andMoon are both favourably placedto Saturn, which grants him anorderly mind with the capacity tokeep an eye on details. It alsopoints to the patience and perse-verance necessary to pursue thetask in hand to its logical conclu-sion. Efforts signifying Marsextending its support to Venusbring in the spirit necessary topursue his ambitions in rightearnest. All these put togetherqualify him to make it big in life.
His positives, however, stand
marginalised because of fewinherent negatives that he hasfailed to address. His biggestweakness is an impaired emo-tional frame as would Venusplaced adverse to the Sun suggest.That makes him too much emo-tionally touchy and sensitive, andvulnerable to get often stuck totrivial issues. Debilitated Mercuryplaced opposite Moon brings in aworrying syndrome. The Sun,debilitated in navamsha, makeshim self-pitying, and lacking inthe spirit to take on challengesahead in stride. The irony is thatthese traits are all repairable, pro-vided he exercises his discrimina-tory faculty and the power offreewill correctly.������������� �����������8�((�������� ����� �� ��������������� �����G�,,������������������
Will I be able to get through the civilservices examination?
— Niharika JadaYou can; just remain focussed.When do I become a mother?
— RichaHopefully, you should become a mothernext year. But you may have to seekhelp from an Ayurvedic specialist.Do I have to stick to medical profes-sion I am studying or go for busi-ness/consulting to make good money?
— AmitYou seem to be best suited to medicalprofession, which eventually may bringin good money. Will I be able to get my own sharefrom disputed parental property?
— Suresh KumarYou may get your due share but youmay have to take the matter to court foradjudication.
Yuvi will never endorse a gutkabrand. Virat Kohli will not dounderwear ads. Cheteshwar
Pujara won’t ever coax you to buyfairness creams. And SachinTendulkar will never feature inany commercial which does notcarry a message for the youth.
Says who? Say the respectivecricket managers who manage liai-son and endorsements for thesecelebrity players. High-profile clientsfrom the corporate world tell you thatthese managers are an impregnable shieldand no one can get to the star playersdirectly without consent of these businessagents.
From the client’s perspective, thewaiting period before one gets to hearabout the final deal can sometimes lastan eternity. And if an agent is finicky onmaking the choices, then only God canhelp you.
“First and foremost, there has to berelationship building with these man-agers. If they are convinced that theirplayer’s profile will match the brand, he isabout to endorse, your job becomes sim-pler. Without their consent, things don’tbudge. It is irritating but then we have tofollow it as a bitter rule. There is no otherway,” says Ankit Chawla of Revital, abrand that Yuvraj Singh and othercricketers endorse.
For Chawla, it was aHerculean task to convince hismother-manager Shabnam Singhto get him on board. “Shabnamjineeds to be absolutely sure beforeshe moves ahead with anyendorsement deal. She gives herinputs which we have to take very seri-ously. A deal is not signed overnight.There are a lot of people involved.Advertising agencies are also roped in tosuggest a makeover for the player if needbe,” he adds.
Among the top players, Yuvraj isprobably the only one who has changedmore managers than cricket bats. The tal-ented cricketer had a five-year contractwith Percept D’mark which ended inOctober 2008 and then a two-yeardeal with sports management com-pany Cornerstone from 2008 to2011. Now, his mother has formal-ly taken over his business profil-ing. She takes the call on all brandassociations for him. A hard-nosednegotiator, she follows market trendsclosely and is very particular aboutwhich brand her son should endorse andhow it should be completely in sync withhis personality.
“Brand endorsements are a way tokeep players in the spotlight all the time.It is one way to ensure their continuedpopularity. Of course, it hugely mattersthat the player performs on the field. Ifhe is going through a lean patch, clientspin their hopes on cricket being a trickygame which can change any moment. So,endorsements happen nevertheless. WithYuvi, we did not want to sign up for any-thing just to make money. If you noticed,all advertisements featuring him have astrong message to them. There are manyconsiderations and consultations beforesigning a deal. I am very careful that anappearance does not jeopardise his crick-eting image,” Shabnam tells you. She isadamant that Yuvi should look good withthe brand he endorses.
Ogilvy is her favourite. “Yuvi made abrilliant comeback into the endorsementmarket after the 2011 World Cup. He hasa personality that can match many prod-ucts and he is a natural charmer. He isalso passionate about his work scheduleand doesn’t throw attitude. An absolutegood mix to work with,” Piyush Pandey,chairman of Ogilvy & Mather, says.
The dashing all-rounder was in the�5-crore signing bracket, equivalent toDhoni and Tendulkar. He rose up by �2crore after his performance in the 2011World Cup. “There has been a 30 per
cent growth in Yuvi’s market value and heis going stronger than ever. He may notbe playing many matches for now, butthat has not affected his endorsementvalue,” Singh adds. Today, however, hisbrand value falls in the �2 crore bracket.
About the conflict of interest contro-versy involving Dhoni and his managingcompany Rhiti Sports, Shabnam hasnothing to say. “Every company has itsown rules. We don’t interfere in eachother’s businesses,” is all she is willing tosay.
But when the talk is about perfor-mance-oriented brand endorsing, theProfessional Management Group (PMG)makes sure that Virender Sehwagremains among the top brands — his dryrun with the Indian team, notwithstand-ing. “How we pitch for a player dependson which sponsor we are approaching.Like, if we are looking for a sponsor forViru, the most obvious ones would be thesports brands who can sign him up as an
ambassador. But lots of other opportuni-ties also come up. For example, Viru isknown for his powerful play so some-thing like a cement brand — JK Cements— can have him as their brand endorse,”Melroy D’Souza, chief operating officerof PMG, tells you. He also tells you thatthe role of a manager is to try and under-stand the requirements of a player. Amanager recommends to his player howhe should mould his image in public eye,what he should do in terms of beingmedia friendly and also tries to getbrands to see value in the cricketer.
D’Souza has played university-levelhockey and college-level cricket and foot-ball. He always wanted to pursue a careerin sports. His USP is his association withPMG, India’s first sports managementcompany launched way back in 1985 bycricketing legend Sunil Gavaskar andadvertising professional Sumedh Shah.
“Today, most cricketers know aboutthe downsides of negative publicity.Still, if is crucial for us and our player,especially if he is a young and rising
star, to educate him about brand endors-ing,” D’Souza says.
For D’Souza, the most challengingpart of his job is to manage the dates of aplayer.
“The most challenging job is to findtime and space to make sure all commit-ments are fulfilled outside of the player’shectic, year-round playing and travellingschedule,” he says, clarifying that “wedon’t handle investment and finances.Most cricketers have their investmentbankers to see to this aspect.”
D’Souza, 30, who handles ManojTiwary and Varun Aaron besides Sehwag,started his career with Nimbus Sports asa rookie in college. While he did odd jobs
like identifying and jotting downdetails of shots from more than 1,000tapes of old cricket matches, his only
stimulus to deal with this monotonywas its roundabout link to his biggestpassion in life — sports. He always want-ed to pursue a career in sports, so hejoined PMG more than three years agoafter quitting Tiger Sports Marketing asits country head.
D’Souza is not willing to discuss howthe continued absence of Sehwag fromTeam India makes his work more diffi-cult but fact is that at one time, this dash-ing opener was demanding as much asTendulkar’s endorsement charges.However, from �1.5 crore to �3 crore, hehas seen a downslide and now comes inthe �1 crore to �2 crore bracket, endors-ing four major brands, including HeroHonda, Kingfisher and JK Cement,besides a few small ones. Pepsi droppedhim after Coca-Cola became DelhiDaredevils’ sponsor and pasted his pho-tos all over India.
While D’Souza may be busy strategis-ing the future course of branding forSehwag, Vinod Naidu is doing well in hisgolden cocoon. After all, master blasterSachin Tendulkar, with whom Naidu hasshared a 15-year relationship as his busi-ness manager, is too big an icon for cor-porates to not come running.
World Sports Group’s Naidu tells youthat though with the changed format ofthe game, brand demands have changedtoo, the player-manager relationshipremains the same. “Sachin is the bestplayer to handle. He knows what is goodfor him and he takes a keen interest infollowing market trends. He is a verymedia savvy person, which is a huge plusfor us,” Naidu says. In his long relation-ship, he has ensured that Sachin neverreally falls below his �3-5 crore endorse-ment bracket.
“Brand Sachin needs no promotion.His huge fan following and charisma dothe trick for him off field too. But Sachinis a man of principles so we have to becareful about what brand he is endorsing.
well be that they are a thriftylot, given to frugal living.But that belief is beingturned on its head lately, ofall places in the UnitedStates, what with visitingChinese leaving Americansagape with their sheerspending spree.
Chinese travellers havetruly earned the reputationof being the world’s biggestspenders. A recent reportfrom the UN World TourismOrganisation put theChinese right on the top ofglobal tourism spending.
Chinese travellersreportedly spent a whopping$102 billion on their foreignjaunts in 2012, up from $73billion the previous year — a40 per cent jump in just oneyear. Expenditure byChinese tourists abroad hasincreased almost eightfoldsince 2000.
The volume of interna-tional trips by the Chinesehas also grown in leaps andbounds over the past decade— from just 10 million in2000 to 83 million in 2012.
Buoyed by a rising cur-rency, higher disposableincomes and easing of gov-ernment restrictions on for-eign travel, it would seemthe Chinese travellers havenever had it so good.
What more, the Chinesetourists now outspend thebig spendthrifts like theAmericans by a big margin.
The UN report says theUnited States and Germanyhovered around $84 billionin tourism spending lastyear. Britons were waybehind with $52 billion, fol-lowed by Russians ($43 bil-lion), the French ($38 bil-lion) and the Canadians ($35billion).
Others in the top 15tourism spenders includeJapan, Australia, Italy,Singapore, Brazil, Belgium,Hong Kong and theNetherlands.
Indians do not make thecut as far as big tourismspenders are concerned, but
the country is progressing asa major internationaltourism destination.
India figures 18th interms of internationaltourism receipts, with $18billion in revenues. It’s a farcry though from what sever-al other countries such as theUS, Spain, France and Chinagarner. The US tops this list,with a revenue of nearly$129 billion.
“The impressive growthof tourism expenditure fromChina and Russia reflects theentry into the tourism mar-ket of a growing middle classfrom these countries, whichwill surely continue tochange the map of worldtourism,” UNWTOSecretary-General TalebRifai says.
In 2005, China rankedseventh in international
tourism expenditure, andhas since successively over-taken Italy, Japan, Franceand the United Kingdom.
Shopping is what theChinese travellers love to dothe most — something thatpleases American retail out-lets and department stores,which are still in the processof bouncing back after therecent years of economicslowdown. They focus onluxury goods that are stillcheaper in other global citiesthan in China itself.
As Dr Wolfgang GeorgArlt, director of the ChinaOutbound Tourism ResearchInstitute, put it to CNN: “Ifyou plan to spendUS$10,000 on shopping andonly spend US$1,000 on air-fare, it's much cheaper forChinese tourists to flyabroad to shop.”
As he puts it, “ForChinese people the UnitedStates is the only competitorleft. They have an interest inthe model for capitalisticdevelopment and want to seewhat they can learn so theycan overtake and becomenumber one.”
Figures compiled by theUS Office of Travel andTourism Industries indicatethat Chinese tourists spendan average of $2,932 per visitto California, compared with$1,883 for other overseas vis-itors.
Chronicling one suchvisitor, the Los Angeles Timeswrote how Guoshing Cui, aSamsung supervisor fromGuangzhou, proceeded tothe Coach store, picked outthree expensive handbags,and paid more than $800.The bags were gifts for fami-
ly and friends in China,where Coach goods report-edly sell for two to threetimes the US prices.
“That kind of powershopping has made theChinese tourist the highest-spending overseas visitor tothe US and one of the mostvalued customers for USoutlet malls, shopping cen-tres and tour bus operators,”wrote the LA Times.
The visiting Chinesereportedly target a host ofUS brands including Polo,Nike, Tommy Hilfiger,Neiman Marcus, Ugg andL’Occitane.
Some years ago, Robert J.Shiller, professor of econom-ics at Yale University, wrotean article, under the caption:“Thrifty China, SpendthriftAmerica”. His argument wasthat China’s gross saving rate
of around 50 per cent at thattime as against just about 10per cent of the United Stateshad placed China in a virtu-ous circle where rapid eco-nomic growth leads to highsaving, which in turn sus-tains rapid growth.
Shiller, however, con-cluded that while Chinawould continue to be savingmore than the US for yearsto come, the picture couldchange with the next genera-tion taking control of thatmost populous nation. “Asthis change unfolds, theenormous willingness tosave, and to tolerate high-saving government policies,will fade,” he wrote.
Very true, one mightconcur, looking at the big-time shopping that theChinese tourists haveembarked upon.
Restoring competitiveness inFrance remained a critical pri-
ority, the IMF said last week, as itcalled on the Government to liber-alise its economy and lower labourcosts to create growth and jobs.
Europe’s precarious growthprospects and the high tax burdenin France had weighed on spendingdecisions of households and enter-prises, the IMF said in a regularreview of the country, and meantFrance’s recession would be deeperthan expected.
The fund lowered its estimatefor French economic growth in2013 and 2014 to — 0.2 per centand 0.8 per cent respectively, fromits April estimate of — 0.1 per centand 0.9 per cent. The French econ-omy shrank by 0.2 per cent in thefirst three months of 2013, follow-ing a 0.2 per cent contraction at theend of last year, putting the econo-my back in recession.
The IMF criticised the “signifi-cant rigidities” in France that hadcreated a triple burden on theeconomy. Amid declining produc-tivity, French wage growth hadbeen sustained at the expense ofprofit margins, which in turn hadundermined the capacity of enter-prises to innovate and remain com-petitive in international markets.
The IMF called on France toincrease competition in productand services markets to improvecompetitiveness, and close the gapwith the periphery, which contin-ued to implement painful austeritymeasures in return for EuropeanUnion (EU) rescue loans.
“The gap relative to Europeantrading partners in terms of costand non-cost competitiveness
remains a dampening factor andultimately a risk for macroeconom-ic balances,” the IMF said.
“The external environment isalso changing rapidly with euroarea periphery countries registeringlarge competitiveness gains. Apowering up of the reformslaunched by the government in thelast six months is needed to closethis gap,” then added.
Portugal and Greece posted thebiggest competitiveness gains com-pared with their eurozone partnersin the 12 months to March, accord-ing to ECB data. The competitive-ness of Greece and Portugal gained1.9 per cent and 1.8 per centrespectively, followed by Irelandwith 1.2 per cent.
The IMF said French taxeswere already “excessive”, and urgedthe country to focus budgetaryefforts on containing expenditure.“The recurrent use of revenue mea-sures to fill budgetary gaps has notonly raised the overall tax burdento excessive levels, but has alsoundermined business and house-hold confidence,” it said.
European authorities haveissued repeated warnings that lowFrench competitiveness and highgovernment debt threaten theeurozone’s single currency.
Last month, France was grant-ed a two year extension to meet a 3per cent EU deficit target. Inreturn, the European Commission(EC) called for widespread pensionreforms, an increase in the retire-ment age and a labour marketoverhaul.
However, French presidentFrancois Hollande’s responded tothe demands with a warning that it
should not “dictate” orders on howFrance should run the economy.
“As far as structural reforms areconcerned, especially pensionreforms, it is up to us, and us alone,to say which is the best path toattain this objective,” he said.
The report on France comes aday after the IMF cut Germany’s2013 growth prospects in half, as itwarned that the outlook forEurope’s strongest economy couldworsen if a eurozone recovery failsto materialise.
The IMF said falling businessinvestment and the eurozone’songoing recession, which havehampered German growth, meantthe economy would grow by just0.3 per cent this year, comparedwith an April estimate of 0.6 percent.
��������������Residential house building
grew at the fastest pace for 26months, after Government plansunveiled in March to make it easierto get a mortgage spurred a con-struction drive.
“The Government’s attempts toboost house building has givenmonths of lackluster growth a shotin the arm,” David Noble, head of
the Chartered Institute ofPurchasing & Supply said.
The house building boost liftedthe Markit/CIPS UK ConstructionPurchasing Managers’ Index to 50.8in May, from 49.4 in April, its high-est level since October 2012.
Economists had expected May’sreading to come in below the 50level that divides growth from con-traction. However, the markethighlighted that construction out-put was still below the long-runaverage of 53.9, while publicspending constraints would contin-ue to drag on growth.
“The continued decline in civilengineering can be largely attrib-uted to the lack of public sectorprojects, which show no sign ofincreasing. This, coupled with poorperformance in the commercialsector, means house building aloneis driving industry growth,” Noblesaid.
Firms also put-off hiring, withemployment levels remaining stag-nant in May, despite the improve-ment in output. Nevertheless,Tuesday’s data will add to hopesthat a recovery in the constructionindustry, which accounts for about7 per cent of the UK gross domes-tic product, is gaining traction afteryears of decline.
Data for the first three monthsof the year showed the volume ofconstruction output was at its low-est level since the final threemonths of 1998. Private-commer-cial new work, which includes theconstruction of factories, ware-houses, schools and offices, is now38 per cent below its 2008 peak,according to the Office forNational Statistics.
Chancellor George Osborneannounced a series of measures tosupport house building in theMarch Budget, including help tobuy, where the Government pro-vides a loan of up to 20 per cent ofthe value of a new property, andthe extension of its Build to Rentscheme, which encourages thebuilding of new homes for privaterent.
The Belgian police have demanded that Lola, a the-atre-starring donkey, be removed from the balcony
of a cultural centre in Brussels after neighbours com-plained about her braying.
Lola is staying on the first-floor balcony while sheperforms in a play at the Arab Cultural Centre, locatedin the same building in the Belgian capital. Staff hadlaid out straw and a bucket of water so she could getsome fresh air.
But police ordered Lola’s keeper to move herindoors after receiving complaints about the donkeymaking too much noise.
Despite the police demands, Lola was still outsideon Friday, and the director of the cultural center wasangrily berating her neighbors for interfering.
“I say to the neighbours, well done. What does itmatter to you?” Hawa Djabili shouted to reporters andpassersby. Asked why the donkey was out, she replied:“Lola needed to breathe.”
A spokesperson for the Brussels police said theywould return with animal welfare officers to removeLola if the centre did not comply with the order to keepthe donkey indoors.
You have burned midnight oil sothat your child studies throughthe night for his final exam.
You’ve foregone that luxurious car anda foreign assignment, just so your fami-ly gets the best of everything. You’vealso, down the line, become complacentabout your own well-being. This isn’tthe ideal situation, experts tell you.They say it’s a healthy habit to do ‘mefirst-me first’.
����� ����������������“This is typically seen with people
over the age of 40 years. Such peoplethink the time is right for them tointrospect whether they have compro-mised with their principles and basicvalue system. For instance, if you’re thelaw abiding righteous sorts who hasover time given in to corruption (jump-ing a red light, bribing a policeman toget out of a quandary) then you mayfeel that you’ve compromised with yourown belief system. While it’s fine todeal with personal monsters, oneshouldn’t get too bogged down withthem,” Jitendra Nath Bohra, aBangalore-based psychologist, tells you.Bohra has recently submitted a propos-al which deals with how one can main-tain a healthy and sustaining relation-ship with oneself.
For 39-year-old Neeti Thakur, therealisation came early. “We had gone toa popular restaurant for a meal to cele-brate our anniversary. Because it waspacked, we had a waiting of 25 minutes.I had this sudden urge to jump the
queue. A quick call to the manager andour seat was ready in five minutes.Midway to dinner, my husband said, ‘Ican’t believe you’re the same Neeti whoused to be the voice against favouritismat one point’. That night, I couldn’tsleep well trying to come to terms withthe person I had become,” Thakur says.
She isn’t the only one who faces thiscrisis every now and then. “Many of mypatients come with this complaint.They start questioning their inner self.They find it difficult to cope with whatthey have become or what society hasmade them. This isn’t a problem. It’sonly a state of mind. It’s a good thingthat you’ve started questioning yourself.That’s the only remedy,” Bohra says.
����� ���������The next common guilt factor that
comes to light while exploring relation-ship with self is whether you’re givingtime to yourself. Are you doing enoughfor that or have you let personal selftake a backseat? “Contrary to belief,more men come with complaintsregarding space than the fairer sex.Men find themselves in a spot, especial-ly whenever they’re in a relationship (itgenerally worsens with marriage andfatherhood).
They feel they aren’t giving enoughtime to their self. This is also a mindcondition that can be dealt by doing lit-tle things. First, remove any doubt inyour mind that indulging in yourself isbad. If you’re a father, or a mother,doesn’t mean your life has stopped.
Balance is a key word here,” DrGeetanjali Sharma, relationship expertssays. She tells you that in many cases, she had to convince par-ents that it was okay if they went outfor a movie together without takingtheir children.
Sharma says, psychologically,‘under-indulgence’ with self can haveserious repercussions, depression beingthe worst fallout. “It’s like you’ve putyour own self in solitary confinement— you can’t do this, that and the other.It doesn’t have to be that way. Each per-son needs a breathing space for him-self/herself and not allowing that canhave a huge number of side-effects,”Sharma says.
����� ����������It’s a fact that we value other rela-
tionships much more than we valueourselves. But, does this compromiseend somewhere? “There is nothingwrong in making a compromise whenone is in a relationship. But like every-thing else, there is a balance here too.You can’t and shouldn’t forget your ownwants,” Dr Abhishek Garg, senior con-sultant psychiatrist with VIMHANS,says. He tells you that this relationshipwith self is probably the most impor-tant one that needs to be kept intact.Other things are subsidiary.
Anita Lokhande, a Maharashtrianvegetarian Brahmin, didn’t think twicebefore cooking meat and fish for herBengali husband. It was a part and par-cel of marriage, she kept telling herself.
But when she was asked to give upbeing a vegetarian, she raised a hue andcry. Lokhande knew where to draw theline. But there are many others whodon’t consider themselves that impor-tant. “If I don’t expect my husband tochange his food preferences, whyshould I do it myself? It is a small thingbut it matters. It isn’t healthy to pushyourself into a corner. Because then,when you go in for damage control, itmay be too late,” Lokhande says, sum-ming it up aptly.
insurance company last week,that they were offering a 50 percent discount plus the benefit ofno-claim bonus, she was not surewhether she should go for thisoffer. Of course, the person at theother end of the line said that thepayment has to be made beforeMay 31, 2013, otherwise the per-centage of discount will go down.Usually such offers always have ahidden agenda and in the end itis the customer who ends up pay-ing a heavy price.
An advertisement on TV alsosays how many companies areoffering discounts on renewalsand that one must compare thevarious offers rather than stickingto one company. Industry expertstell you that the reason why com-panies are doing this is becausethey want to retain theirrenewals. What should peoplelike Suman late do in such a sce-nario? What’s the catch and whyare insurance companies makingthese offers?
“When a customer pays postdated cheque (PDC) the proba-bility of the customer moving toother players reduces to greatextent. The PDC also gives insur-ance companies assurance ofbusiness placed with them,” NirajJain, CEO and principal officerwith insurancemall.in a Mumbai-based company says adding thata PDC may help customer notonly to get some instant dis-counts but it will also save thelast minute renewal hurry.However, customer also run riskof missing any existing offers invirtue of small instant discount.
Agrees Yashish Dahiyafounder and CEOPolicyBazaar.com. “Competitionand entry of new players are theprime reasons for insurers tooffer discounts on car insurance.With an aspiration to capturelarge chunks of the market share,insurers are becoming moreaggressive on pricing and inter-nally increase efficiency. In thisrespect, the online space is look-ing to becoming more relevant as
it involves virtually no paperworkor the physical need of an agent,”Dahiya explains.
But one has to understandthat while companies like BhartiAxa Car Insurance that is offer-ing a 50 per cent discount andICICI offering around 30 percent discount, the percentage ofrebate that a company offers
greatly depends on the type ofcar one has. In other words, if aperson has a Santro, the amountof deduction offered by an insur-ance company on it may be dif-ferent in case he owned a HondaCity.
“Even though there are manyinsurance companies which areoffering big discounts, the remis-
sion does vary from vehicle tovehicle. The only rider in suchcases, where 50 per cent discountis given is that there can be high-er deductibles and less coveragewhen it comes to third partyinsurance” Jain tells you.
Though there isn’t an ulteriormotive involves as such, thoughits advisable for consumers to becautious about sharing theirdetails while purchasing carinsurance. “Cases may occurwhere an agent offers additionaldiscounts by putting in the wrongdetails. For instance, in case ofcompanies offering discounts onthe basis of age, the agent mis-quotes your age leading to yourclaim being rejected,” Dahiyacautions.
So, how does the entire sys-tem of giving such huge dis-counts work? “An overall dis-count on car insurance is basedon various factors including lossratio and claim frequency.
Discounts are calculatedbased on the datacollected from eachRegional TransportOffice or zone and
for every car onthe roads. This isthe reason whyit’s possible for aspecific carmodel to nothave the samediscount from
an insurer acrossIndia. In addition to these, dis-
counts are also being offeredbased on parameters like age andprofession. An unique initiativenow has companies basing theirdiscounts by analysing people’sdriving skills. Hence, for exam-ple, if a person is in age group45-60, companies offer discountup to 10 per cent as the chancesof a person causing accident inthis age group is less,” Dahiyatells you.
For now, there are no addi-tional benefits being offered byleading insurers while renewingthe policy. This is inclusive ofthere being cases where no claimshave been made. The best optionfor a consumer is to make aninformed decision on the founda-tion of his requirement, based ona comparison of the variousoptions available from leadinginsurers.
“Hence, it’s important thatthe owner whether purchasing anew policy or renewing an oldone, it’s crucial to understand allaspects of your car insurance pol-icy including the various dis-counts on offer. Many a times itmay happen that an agent sellsyou an affordable policy whichcompromises on its features,”Dahiya advises.
Another thing to keep inmind is to check for additionaladd-on benefits available withmost insurers that can helpenhance the coverage withoutsignificantly increasing the pre-mium.
Florida State University (FSU)released the results of a report
of five studies which concludedthat individuals who prayed for aclose friend or romantic partnerwere less vengeful and more co-operative. “We’ve objective mea-sures to show that colloquial, inter-cessory prayer focused on the part-ner changes observable behaviour,”Dr Frank D Fincham of FSU, said.
“In prior research, when partic-ipants were asked to pray as theyusually do, their relationshipbehaviour didn’t differ from thoseasked to think positive thoughtsabout their partner.”
“If there was any surprise, itwas in relation to this finding,” DrFincham added.
The debate over the secularbenefits of prayer has been a long-
standing controversy, with differingopinions over how prayer canaffect physical and mental health.Roy Speckhardt, executive director,American Humanist Association,told The Christian Post that thereare “some intrinsic benefits tothoughtful contemplation whichsometimes shows positive resultsfor activities like prayer and medi-tation.”
Apropos Has he run out of cement? byKumar Chellappan in Foray dated June 2,2013. The article has rightly pointed out
that cricket is not Srinivasan’s first love and hisentry into cricket was purely because he wantedhis business to prosper through that connection.Now, when writing is on the wall for him, hedoesn’t want to resign proves the point. Such ishis height of arrogance that he wants his men tobe appointed for the vacant posts before hedecides to resign. Actually he is more worriedabout his franchisee CSK than cricket or thedamaged reputation of the game in the country.The spot fixing in IPL this season has exposedthe true colours of how Board Of Control ForCricket In India is run and how our cricketbosses use it as their own fiefdom.
— Bal Govind
Apropos Don’t treat mental health as aCinderella service by Shalini Saksena in
Foray dated June 2, 2013. it is true that mentaldistress exists everywhere. Unfortunately, in ourcountry, every person who has a mentalproblem is considered mad and looked withsuspicion. The fact that a British psychologist
Claudia Hammond traveled to Indiaand studied the problems means thatIndians are still struggling to dealwith the situation. Hammond iscorrect when she says that there is stilla big difference between care availablein cities and rural areas. There is ahuge shortage of psychiatrists andstudents who wish to be trained.
— Sunil Sharma
This refers to Right law, wrong moveby Devi Cherian in Foray June 2,
2013. Women often file FIRs allegingharassment over dowry and seeking thereturn of the gifts received at the time ofmarriage. Though dowry is banned, giftsare still very much on offer. A woman canfile the case under the Protection ofWomen from Domestic Violence Act. Butit has been found that women often misusethese laws to settle a score with the husbandand or the in-laws. Laws are made toprotect, any law that is wrongfully used forones advantage is not good. At the end, itdenies women who genuinely need a redress
under the law. — Mahesh Kapasi
This refers to For a better future byChandrabhan Prasad in Foray dated June 2,
2013. It is hard to agree with the writer’s viewthat migration to the industrial cities is asolution of the woes of the tribals. Developmentof the tribal areas can solve the problems. Notonly civic amenities but opportunity ofemployment also must be provided to them intheir areas. But as the writer has mentioned,some anti-national elements are scaring thetribals from walking the path of progress.Many State Governments particularly, theRaman Singh Government in Chhattisgarhhas done very good work in the tribal areas.But these efforts of development have notgone down well with Maoists, the self-styledchampions of the tribals. Tribals mustunderstand that Maoists have nothing to dowith their welfare because they have theirown political agenda. The recent attack onthe leaders in the State is proof of theirdangerous design. However electedGovernments too need to do more in
tribal areas in order to strengthen their faith inthe Indian democracy.
— Manoj Parashar
This refers to Mulayam weighing optionscarefully by Hari Shankar Vyas in Foray
dated June 2, 2013. With the-2014 Lok Sabharound the corner, the political pundits havetaken to speculating about the country’s futuregiven the kaleidoscopically changing scenario inpolitics. The sword of Damocles is constantlyhanging over the UPA-II after a few of itsalliance partners withdrew their support placingthe ruling coalition at the the mercy of theSamajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party.Mulayam Singh Yadav and Behenji find there nouse causing the pre-ponement of the elections atthis juncture when only a few months are left forthe General Elections. Therefore, it is notsurprising that names of Defence Minister AKAntony, Chief Minister of Madhya PradeshShivraj Singh Chauhan and Chief Minister ofGujarat Narendra Modi are in the air. In such asituation, Mulayam Singh stands a good chanceof being the king-maker or being the kinghimself at the Center. — Rukhsana Khan
The Maoist attack onCongress leaders in
Chhattisgarh has left theparty shaken. Hence, theparty has been holdingmeetings on how to tacklethe situation seriously.Discussions were held atlength during the Congresscore committee meeting acouple of weeks back and,last week, at the UPA-II co-ordination committee meet.
Sources say that theCongress is looking at alloptions and strategies thatcan be used to confrontMaoists in the region. Thestrategy that has been putforth by senior party leaderDigvijay Singh and RuralDevelopment MinisterJairam Ramesh wasdiscussed at length.
There was a consensusamong the Congress and itsalliance partners thatFinance Minister PChidambaram’s plan shouldbe implemented rather thanwhat Digvijay or Rameshhad to say.
Almost all leaders wereof the view that operationsagainst Maoists in Andhraand West Bengal were quitesuccessful. In fact,Operation Green Hunt hadstarted against Maoistswhen Chidambaram wasHome Minister and Maoistsin West Bengal were wipedout.
For now, the CongressHigh Command andalliance partners are inagreement withChidambaram’s plan.But an all-partymeeting willbe held soonto evolve aconsensus.
Sources say,the BJP and otherpolitical parties are infavour of direct action. So,the UPA-II Governmentis not likely to face anyroadblocks.
K�����������The CPI MP
Gurudas Dasgupta hasraised a question — Candifferent set of actions betaken against twopeople for thesame crime? Hisquestion is in reference toformer Law MinisterAshwini Kumar andattorney general GEVahanvati.
Dasgupta has alleged
that, as Law Minister, ifKumar had seen the CBIreport on coalgate, thenVahanvati in his capacity asattorney general had alsoseen the report and madesuggestions. According toDasgupta, if Ashwini’sresignation can be sought,why not Vahanvati’s?
In fact, Dasgupta haswritten to Prime MinisterManmohan Singhdemanding Vahanvati’sremoval. For Dasgupta, thecrime committed byVahanvati is more serious ashe is the attorney general.
Dasgupta has allegedthat it was Vahanvati whohad suggested to Kumar tocall a meeting with CBIcounsel Harin P Raval,CBI investigating officers,Joint Secretary from theMinistry of Coal andofficials from thePrime Minister’sOffice.
It appears the Dasguptawants the entire issuearound coalgate to beinvestigated properly.
��������������The Samajwadi Party is
doing its best to prove thattheir neta — SP chiefMulayam Singh Yadav — isthe real messiah of thebackward classes. The SPGovernment in Uttar
Pradesh iswithdrawing
all
pendingcases against
the Muslimyouth facing
terrorcharges. Theparty is also
organising Pressmeets in theState to woo
Other BackwardClasses (OBCs).
These meetsare being held at district andsub-division levels. In fact,for some time now, the SPhad been only wooing theMuslims and Brahmins. This
made the Yadavs and OBCsunhappy. Information cameto the SP that the Brahminswere not likely to vote the SP.
So, obviously, the SP hasto win back its OBCvotebank. Hence theconferences, rallies andmeets at regular intervals atall levels in UP.
Party insiders say thatthe reason for such meets isto send a message — that theSP is a friend of the OBCs.The aim is to ensure thatMulayam becomes the nextPrime Minister.
����������������The Congress, it is
learnt, is all set to takeadvantage of the martyrdomof its leaders killed in theMaoist attack inChhattisgrah a few weeksback. The party hasannounced that it will startits parivartan yatra from thespot (Jiram Ghati) where itsleaders were massacred. It isrumoured that the yatra will
have a new name — it maybe named after one of theslain leaders.
Sources say that sons ofthe slain leaders —Mahendra Karma’s sonDeepak, NandkumarPatel’s son Umesh Pateland former MLAUday Mudaliar’s sonJitendra Mudaliar —will be part of the yetto be named yatra. TheCongress hopes to gainsympathy votes that maybe riding of these threeyoung leaders.
While the State partypresident may have adifferent take on this, theCongress has made up itsmind to go ahead with itsplan. Probably, the leadersare expecting to break theBJP votebank with thismove.
There are reports thatDeepak, Umesh andJitendra will be given ticketsto fight from their father’sconstituency. Deepak may
fight from Dantewada,Jitendra from Rajnandgaonand Umesh from Kharsia.
The Congress isexpecting a lot from thesethree young leaders.
��+�����2�����In Delhi’s politics,
Arvind Kejriwal plays aninteresting role. The BJPand the Congress arecriticising him. The BJPsays that Kejriwal isCongress’s Plan B and theCongress says that Kejriwalis Plan B for the BJP.
While, most people willfeel the heat from the twobiggest national parties,Kejriwal is least bothered. Infact, he is very happybecause he will steadilygaining ground with theCongress’ and the BJP’straditional voters.
It is said that Kejriwal’sAam Admi Party (AAP) hasmanaged to lure the jhuggidwellers and auto-taxidrivers (Congress voters)and middle class (BJPvoters) on its side.
This is probably the firsttime when there is a thirdchallenger in Delhi’spolitics.
2������ �2�����There are reports that
Anna Hazare will start hiscampaign demanding theLokpal Bill from November.This time, he will sit on afast-unto-death. Anna hastimed the place and time ofthe fast perfectly. Delhi’sAssembly elections arescheduled for November.Exactly a month before the
elections, Anna will siton a fast at RamlilaMaidan in the Capital.
The timing of the fastcould not be better for
Anna’s disciple and AAPfounder Arvind Kejriwalwho will be fighting theelection for the first time.
Kejriwal hasannounced that he will
stand against DelhiChief Minister SheilaDikshit. And if Anna
sits on fast at that timeDikshit and the Congress
may face problems. It issaid that AAP supportersmay back Anna’s movement.No price for guessing whowill benefit if Anna goes onfast during Kejriwal’scampaign.
However, Anna hasalready said that he willcampaign for Kejriwal.
�"$�1$���#���400�1��������00$As a young boy I grew up in villages. I also attended
boarding school in a hill station. All that was a longtime ago. Amidst the slow pace of life in a village up in thehills around Mukteshwar in Uttarakhand, I am reminded ofthe past — with village and hills rolled into a compact littlepackage. Nostalgia is imbued with sentiment. Regular citylife with its cut and thrust imperatives, assaults the sensesand deadens them. In fact the shutting out of sentimentand nostalgia is a coping strategy. It is how we deal withthe rough edge of competitive existence, since we are con-tinually required to prove ourselves better than others,simply because that is the inexorable and unchallengedlogic of our participation in urban society. Here up in thehills, the senses awaken, alert to the inconsequential, likethe little sounds by tiny birds, the gentle rustling of fallenleaves, the haunting whistle of the breeze as it dancesthrough sharp pine needles, and of course the almost mad-dening buzz of hill flies that assuredly are more insistentthan insurance salespeople.
I for one have never romanticised village life. LastNovember I was in a Bengal village to be a part of mymaid’s wedding. The pristine south 24-paragana surround-ings at the edge of the Sunderbans were enchanting, butmore haunting was the decrepit state of affairs of the vil-lage folk, with zero economic surplus, and the resultantignominy of enforced migration as a wage workers. Mypresent station is happier. It has successfully excavated nos-talgia and sentiment from the deep recesses of my memo-ries of a past that I not only cherished, but one which, Imust confess, has had a fundamental role in shaping mybeing. The primary importance in my present station ispeople. Work is secondary to personal relationships. Thesource from which all else follows, even commerce, is howyou relate to the people around you.
The village where I am resident (in a cottage built upfrom ground up) is not entirely non-prosperous. The landis fertile, the trees droop from the weight of fruit, mainlyapricot, peaches and pears. On very flat stretches, you seelittle white flowers dance, trapping under them the secretsof a healthy potato crop (the famous Haldwani potato).Wheat and rice are grown in patches. Cows provide milk.The stores have pretty much everything. Six kilometersaway is a little township called Batalia (from where youturn for a 6.5 km drive up to Mukteshwar). Meats andother provisions are aplenty in Batalia. Thanks toUttrankhand’s intelligent power policies, electricity supplyhere is better than what it is in Gurgaon. And some vil-lagers have pooled resources to build a little dam uphillfrom where water is abundantly sourced around the village.By the way, the sarkari supply works too, but the privatearrangement is more reliable. So this is a village where lifeis not too tough. The weather is bracing, kids go to school,the fruit business keeps loads of people occupied, and bird-song fills the valleys.
With the material aspect of life adequately compensat-ed for, the mind bends to the luxury of the natural beautyand the quality of human communion. The unhurried paceof every little thing, like waiting with a smile for a minitruck to unload before the narrow single lane road canallow you to pass. By sharing warm tea with the people(labour force in urban vocabulary) engaged to work onflattening you land to create terraces for plantation. Youpay them and yet you share a commonality of presencewhen you sit and eat and talk together. Labour does notcreate hierarchy; it is merely an important necessity. Peoplewho walk by drop in bushels of fruit. It is their house-warming gift.
Plucking fruit, or even asking for some from lots thatare being loaded onto trucks are not considered rude. Ihave been encouraged by a landlady to pluck the choicestplums from her orchard every time I have trekked past herproperty. Money is important to people here. And there isnative cunning when it comes to negotiating work. Yet, it isnot the defining index of life in these hills. I am learningmore these days than I have in some time now.
Let me recall a discussion I recently hadon welfare schemes for Dalits with an
IAS officer who belonged to the uppercaste. The officer argued that support theDalit students be given in kind — booksand stationery, not in cash. According tohim, Dalits can’t handle cash. If the moneyis given to students, they will spend it onclothes and shoes rather than on books. Ifthe money is given to the mother, it maybe spent on buying household items. Ifgiven to the father, he may either gamble itor buy liquor.
A similar debate took place at theJawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) whenan upper caste activist/student leader hadcriticised Dalits student who had beengiven fellowship. With the money, theDalits were buying ice-creams. The uni-versity was originally a research-orientedinstitution where fellowships were com-mon. Many students who belonged to theupper caste were also given fellowships.Many bought motorbikes with scholarshipmoney. I, too, bought a scoter with schol-arship money.
Scholarships and fellowships aremeant to support students. To name a fewneeds, a student has to buy books and sta-tionery, clothes, food, accommodation,transport and places where he can go andentertain himself. Then why, though wellintended, do people from the upper casteonly talk of how Dalits will spend moneyon other things if they are given cash.
Be it an IAS officers or a student
activist, how they typecast Dalits/tribals isoften puzzling.
Take the case of Naxalites in tribalareas. Why should the these people, whomost often are not even tribals, leaveAndhra Pradesh and roam in the forestseeking a revolution? Why should thesepeople want to create a separate Telanganain Andhra Pradesh or for that matterdemand a separate region in Chhattisgarhand Jharkhand? Why can’t they let thetribals fight their own battle? Tribal lead-ers know better what is good for their peo-ple.
Let us debate the classic case ofNational Scheduled Caste Finance andDevelopment Corporation (NSFDC). Setup in 1989 by the Centre to eradicatepoverty of Dalits/tribals through entrepre-neurship. To begin with, the NSFDC alsohelped the tribals. But by an order by theCentre, there was a bifurcation of theNSFDC into two separate corporations(one each for SCs & STs). The existingNSFDC is now functioning exclusively forthe development of the Scheduled Casteswith effect from April 10, 2001.
The NSFDC can give a loan of up to�30 lakh to a Dalit entrepreneur. Since itsinception in1989, not a single loan hasbeen disbursed to any Dalit entrepreneur.The reason behind the failure of thescheme is equally puzzling. The eligibilitycriteria is such that a loan can’t be given toa Dalit if his annual income in the ruralarea is above �81,000 and �1.03 lakh in
urban area. In other words, A Dalit mak-ing more than �6,750 a month, in the vil-lage, is not entitled to a loan.
The question is — will a Dalit whoearns �6,750 a month ever apply for loanof �30 lakh? Needless to say, the abovescheme was conceived by a well-intendedupper caste officer.
Take the case Mid Day Meal Scheme(MDMS). I haven’t seen any Dalit askingfor MDMS and I have also not met a Dalitwho appreciates the scheme either. MostDalit I have spoke to, say that schoolswhere such schemes are in place haveturned into eateries. “Slates have beenreplaced by Plates”, commented a Dalitschool teacher in Uttar Pradesh. Needlessto say, the NSFDC was conceived by uppercaste officers.
Take the case of ‘no fail’ idea of educa-tion activists. Students don’t given anexam till they are in Class VIII. Studentsare promoted to the next class and no onefails. As a result, a great number of stu-dents can’t read or write even though theyare in Class VIII. A good number of stu-dents drop out. Many don’t get admissionin Class IX as most schools fear badresults in Class X board. Needless to say,the well-meaning upper caste officer start-ed the n‘o fail’ campaign get their childrenadmitted to public schools where childrenare tested on a weekly basis.
For the past few years, I have beenworking with Dalit Indian Chambers ofCommerce & Industry (DICCI ) which
has a slogan — be job giver, not a jobseeker. We are trying to bring in Dalityouth into our fold so that dependence onjobs is reduced thus opening a new careeroption. Many upper caste people workingfor the uplift of Dalits have taken offenseto our effort. To them, it will be unwise forDalits to become businessmen.
Earlier, we had a campaign where allDalits were motivated to learn English andsend their children to English mediumschools. Many upper caste people whohave the best interest at heart for theDalits were upset. They think that thecommunity is creating an elite class withinthe group. My question is — should Dalitsremain underdogs forever?
This of course, doesn’t mean that thereare no well-meaning people who belong tothe upper caste who don’t want the Dalitsto progress. It also doesn’t mean that thesepeople should stop working in Dalits’interest. The point here is that upper castepeople working for Dalits should listen towhat the Dalits have to say and respecttheir opinion. After all dalits know whatthey need the most and when.
Since the upper caste ignores the Dalitviewpoint, they end up making policiesthat hurt Dalit/tribal. Thankfully, Dalitshave closed their doors to what the uppercaste has to say. Sadly, they have foundtaken up the cause for the tribals who willend up paying a heavy price.
It is time that the upper caste starts lis-tening to what tribals/Dalits have to say.
'��)����������������� �� ���7������BIwas looking at those amazing pictures of Hillary and Tenzing, and I
could see how the news must have broken over London like a thunder-clap. Just imagine. The beautiful young Queen is on the verge of beingcrowned. After years of post-war privation the country is already buzzing— and then word comes from Kathmandu, a coded message that takestwo days to arrive.
For millions, if not billions, of years, Mount Everest has been thehighest place on Earth, a sacred and implacable place, a white goddess ofthe clouds; and in all that time no human being has ever set foot on itssummit until today. Today, the people hear that a team of alpinists hasmade it, and, by Jove, they are British! Well, one of them is a NewZealander and the other is Nepalese, but the expedition is British, allright. Hooray! After all the anxiety of the Second World War, after all thatfeeling that we weren’t quite up to it any more — there we were, literallyand figuratively on top of the world. I looked at those photos of the sum-miteers, and I wished I had been around to feel that surge of collectiveserotonin, the incredulous pride. And then I wondered about our genera-tion, and I asked myself: How do we top Everest? I mean, at some stage inthe dim, distant future, there will be a new coronation, of a new monarch— and I wonder what kind of simultaneous triumph we can pull off?
What deed will Britons do, to show their new king that they still havethe mettle? What feat can we perform? There’s no point in looking toEverest, because the noble peak seems to have become part of the back-packers’ trail, swarming with gap yah students and teams from the localpub. The Hillary Step is so congested that they are thinking of installing aladder. In fact, there are so many octogenarians climbing Everest to raisemoney for the church roof that they might as well fit one of those chair-lifts you see in colour supplements.
As a monument to derring-do, Everest no longer qualifies; so whatdoes that leave? We have plumbed the sea; we have probed the darkestrecesses of the rainforest; we have circumnavigated the globe – even nowthere are probably gap yah students criss-crossing the oceans blindfoldedin a pedalo to raise money for some good cause or other.
Perhaps we should make sure a Briton is on the next trip to Mars(and perhaps we could all club together to sponsor Ed Balls). Or instead,perhaps we should concentrate on the amazing things we are alreadydoing, and that we hardly even notice — things right under our feet.
Last week, I went to see the Crossrail excavations at Canary Wharf,four years after we had officially got them going, and I remembered howfragile the project had seemed. There was a time when we had to fight forCrossrail, when senior Cabinet Ministers were denouncing it as a madplan to build a pointless trench across London. It was an easy way to save£16 billion, they said. Axe it now, they said, and no one will even miss it.
Well, thank heavens we didn’t listen to that guff. Crossrail’s tunnel isnow a giant and growing fact, that will revolutionise east-west transit inthe greatest city on earth, pinging you from Heathrow to the City in abouthalf an hour. Its fast air-conditioned network will run from Maidenheadin the west to Shenfield in the east.
Crossrail will increase London’s rail capacity by about 10 per cent, andgenerate an estimated £42 billion worth of growth across the country.Even in its construction phase, Crossrail is good for the whole of Britain.Of its 1,600 contracts, 62 per cent have gone to firms outside London —more than half of them small and medium enterprises (SMEs). There arebridges from Shropshire, cranes from Derbyshire, grouting fromCoventry, piling from Oldham, lifts from Preston and vast quantities oflubrication from Bournemouth. The project is responsible for about55,000 jobs across the country, and it would have been utter insanity tocancel it —– not just because of the jobs it creates, but because it is essen-tial if we are to cope with the demands on our transport network.
London will have a million more people in the next 10 years, andwithout Crossrail the Central line would become so packed and overheat-ed that it would not be fit, under EU rules, for the transport of live ani-mals. It is a vivid and powerful lesson in the vital importance of investingin transport infrastructure, and of driving on ruthlessly with essentialschemes: The Tube upgrades, new river crossings, Crossrail Two, and oth-ers. They are not just good for London, but for the whole of Britain.
And yet none of these Crossrail statistics do justice to what is beingachieved. When Patrick McLoughlin, the Secretary of State for Transport,and I went into the new station box at Canary Wharf, I felt a sense ofprimeval awe, like a Neanderthal stumbling into the gloom of Lascaux. Itis akin to a gigantic subterranean cathedral several times the size ofChartres. The boring machine is like a colossal steel-toothed remora orlamprey, grinding her way through the clay.
I stood beneath her jaws, and fingered some of that thick blackBournemouth lube, and they told me how the machine had driven withsuch accuracy that when she entered the station box she was only 5 mmoff target. This is the biggest engineering project in Europe, an amazingadvertisement for British construction; and when you look at it you won-der why we are sometimes so prone to self-doubt.
When the next coronation rolls round, we won’t need a new moun-tain to climb. We’ll have the joy and excitement of Crossrail Two, as shechomps her way from Hackney to Chelsea; and unlike climbing Everest,the scheme will be of practical benefit to all.
In the meantime, we need a proper name for Crossrail, the vast newline on London’s underground network – and who better to give hername to that line than someone who has served her country so unfailing-ly and well for 60 years? N���������)�����������
.1��!%�����!�3-��!�����( ����=�������=����
"�'������6��<= ���<���<�
If there are rumblings of theformation of a Third Front, it
means that elections are def-initely round the cor-ner. It has, by now,become a norm.All political par-ties begin toexamine optionsin the event of apost-poll alliance.So it is expectedthat SamajwadiParty chief MulayamSingh Yadav hasinitiated talks offorming a ThirdFront prior to the2014 Lok Sabhaelections. Ofcourse, it is quitea different mat-ter that he isworking on thispossibility with aneye on thePrimeMinister’s chair.
Mulayam,rather critical ofBihar Chief MinisterNitish Kumar due tohis cosying upto theCongress,sprang a surprisewhen he changed tack. In a state-ment, he was all praise for theBihar Chief Minister. Perhaps, hehas an eye on roping in theJanata Dal (United) leader intohis conglomeration for a viable
alternative to the UPA.However, Mulayam’s plans ofan alternative Governmentat the Centre are a part ofthe post-poll scenario.
Although the Left is scep-tical of Mulayam’s designs,
the SP chief is relent-lessly making effortsto realise his politicalambition — that ofbecoming the PrimeMinister. He has
already installed sonAkhilesh Yadav as Uttar
Pradesh ChiefMinister. Now, itis up to the party-men to ensure thatnetaji sits on the
Prime Minister’schair.
In the past, evenformer Chief
MinisterMayawati had hit
upon the idea ofassuming power at
the Centre, thanks tothe Left party leaders
who raised the politicalambitions of behenji.
Contrary to allpolitical equa-tions, the BSP
leader’s elevationto the post of Prime Ministerturned out to be a fallacy. Nowthe SP leaders are keeping theirfingers crossed as netaji is busyworking on permutations andcombinations.
Even as the chorus is grow-ing louder in the BJP ranksregarding Gujarat Chief MinisterNarendra Modi’s candidature asPrime Minister, Mulayam isfocusing on his plans of roping inJD (U) since there is oppositionwithin NDA regarding Modi’scandidature. Although theRashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chiefAjit Singh is known for changingparties to bargain for a berth inthe Cabinet, the SP can eveninclude the RLD in the event of apost poll alliance.
Political observers believethat talks of a Third Front haveonly turned out to be a politicalritual. The BJP is fully geared upto replace the UPA-II in the 2014Lok Sabha elections and has,therefore, dismissed the possibili-ty of a Third Front. The partyhas said that the formation of theThird Front is just Mulayam’simagination in an effort towardsrealising his goal of being inpower at the Centre.
��������2����������DMulayam doesn’t hesitate in
giving advice to his son ChiefMinister Akhilesh Yadav. Ofcourse, we all know thatMulayam has pulled up his sonin public umpteen number oftimes. He has even asked him toimprove the performance of hisGovernment. However, recently,Mulayam asked the media tohighlight Akhilesh YadavGovernment’s achievements on
the lines of Bihar ChiefMinister Nitish Kumar.
Mulayam was quickto point outthat if NitishKumar can dowhat he did inBihar, son sonAkhilesh can dothe same inUttar Pradesh.MulayamSingh’s statementthat had he beenin the ChiefMinister’s chair he wouldhave improved the law andorder situation in a fort-night.
Of course, politicalanalysts interpreted themessage differently. WillAkhilesh follow in hisfather Mulayam’s oft giventips? Let’s wait and watchafter all the SP Governmenthas only completed 13months in the State. Thefirst six months weregiven as a grace periodby Opposition as well as themedia to the Akhilesh YadavGovernment.
����������Everyone in the Samajwadi
Party was surprised when theparty decided to withdraw theLok Sabha ticket earlier given toits national general secretaryAnuradha Choudhary. The ques-tion being asked was: “Was it a
step to appeaseRLD chief Ajit
Singh?”Anuradhawas takenin the SPfold when
she desertedthe RLD.Insiders in the
SP ranks admittedthat one of the main
reasons for cancel-lation ofAnuradha’s ticketwere a string ofcomplaintsagainst her.According tosenior SP lead-ers: “Anu
madam had beenregularlypulling up
senior bureaucratsand humiliating themfor some reason or theother.” More important-ly the ruling party afterconducting a survey in
various Lok Sabha constituencieslearnt that some of the candi-dates who had been given ticketsfailed to come up to thewinnability criteria, hence therewas a change in candidates or insome cases tickets had been can-celled.”
Now that Anuradha’s LokSabha ticket, there are reportsthat the SP may give her a ticketto the Rajya Sabha.
The drama that is beingplayed out on news
channels these days withregards to IPL spot fixingnot only saddens the fansbut entertains them as well.The 24X7 buzz has given aninsight into nexus that existsamong politicians, business-men and bureaucrats.
It is strange that menwho have actually con-tributed to the game — KapilDev, Sunil Gavaskar andeven Sachin Tendulkar —have virtually no say incricket. Many would notknow that Kapil Dev, whowon us the first World Cupever, fought tooth and nailand yet did not manage tobecome a member of theHaryana CricketAssociation.
The IPL 6 spot fixing has
brought to light the messthat exists in Board OfControl For Cricket In India(BCCI). What is even worseis that the top managementin the board just refuse totake the responsibility. It isdisheartening for an ordi-nary man who loves thegame to know that the lead-ers who are usually at log-gerheads with each otherhave now come together tosave their skin. None of theleaders wanted to face thecamera. These are the sameleaders who otherwise areseen romancing the media.
It’s now out in the openthat there are many people atthe top who are partners incrime. Why is it that FarooqAbdullah is the president ofJammu and Kashmir CricketAssociation. As a politician,
Farooq should be payingattention to the politics andleave the sports governanceto the people who will dojustice to the post they willhold. In Himachal Pradesh,Anurag Thakur, (son of for-mer Chief Minister PremKumar Dhumal), who is anMP is also president ofHimachal Pradesh CricketAssociation.
Coming to the now for-mer BCCI boss Srinivasan.He has confessed that hedoes not watch IPL. So whatis his interest in cricket? InGujarat, the PrimeMinisterial candidate for theBJP, Narender Modi is thepresident of Gujarat CricketAssociation. This is a bitconfusing. Why would a per-son who aspires to becomethe next Prime Minister of
the largest democracy in theworld is the president of agaming body. In Rajasthan,we have the RailwayMinister CP Joshi as presi-dent of the Rajasthan CricketAssociation.
Then there are two RajyaSabha members Arun Jaitleyand Rajeev Shukla who arepart of a game that lies inshambles today. The politi-cians today have spoilt theessence of cricket single-handled to the annoyance ofthe Indians. They haveproved they can mess upanything for their selfishinterests.
Even the brutal attack inChhattisgarh did not manageto wipe this scandal offnational headlines. It is timesportsmen manage the sportassociations from now on.
How can our AgricultureMinister Sharad Pawar, inwhose constituency, thou-sands of people are dyingdue to starvation and malnu-trition, take time out fromhis Ministerial duties to givetime to BCCI?
It was Power MinisterJyotiraditya Scindia who wasthe first to come out andvoice his views onSrinivasan’s resignation. Theothers followed him. Now ofcourse there is a tug of warin full public view. It isshameful that our leadershave become so thick-skinned that they are notready to resign despite theirinvolvement in various scan-dals. You scratch my back, Iscratch your’s is the norm.
Common interests acrossparty lines comes first. I
wish they would show suchmaturity during Parliamentand on national policies.One wishes that the amountof time politicians spend try-ing to make money on theside, could be spent on wel-fare of the people.
In the midst of all this,what is the Sports Ministrydoing? Why is it silent? Whyhas it not stepped in? Theonly thing that our politi-cians have to say is that sportbodies should be headed bythose who know the game.But is that enough?
The common man feelscheated. His interest in thesport, that is considered tobe national pastime, hasgone down. It’s upsetting forthe public to see the insensi-tivity of the cricket bossesand the politicians.
As high-end smartphones areoffering higher mega pixel(MP) camera to capture that
perfect picture, 92 per cent cus-tomers are preferring to buy a smart-phone over a digital camera,” anAssocham report says. The reportalso says that people are buying thosephones which have a good cameraquality and they are relying onsmartphones to capture moments asstill photos as well as videos.
Agrees Faisal Siddiqui, countryhead, HTC India. “Our new technol-ogy in the smartphone sector is HTCUltraPixel Camera with HTC Zoe.HTC One Zoe offers the best-in-classf/2.0 aperture lens and a break-through sensor that gathers 300 percent more light than traditionalsmartphone camera sensors. Multi-axis optical image stabilisation forthe rear camera also help sensorvideo footage smoother whether sta-tionary or on the move. The cameraadds effects like enhanced 360-inchpanorama, time sequencing andobject removal,” Siddiqui says.
Seeing the fall in sales of high-end digital cameras like Nikon,Canon, Sony and Fujifilm, will digi-tal cameras become redundant? “Nomatter how many features a smart-phone can get you, it would nevertake away the industry of digitalcameras.
Major features like sensor, optic,low light quality, frame per second,full height destination video feature
and optical zoom are basically meantfor digital cameras. That’s the reasonwhy digital cameras continue to berelevant in the market,” Dr AlokBharadwaj, executive vice-president,Canon India, insists.
Started from 1 MP, the numberhas now gone to 41 in both digitaland smartphone cameras. But whatcomes into play is the quality of thelens and sensor size of the camera.“In the last five years, digital photog-raphy has become fashionable. TheMP has been over-hyped and con-sumers have been misled a little. In
the beginning, MP meant a lot. From1MP to 3MP, no doubt MP hasimproved the quality of picture. Butas MP touched above 12, it lost itsmeaning. What is more important isthe quality of lenses and size of sen-sor,” Dr Bharadwaj explains.
������Sensor size of the digital cameras
are larger. This gives better pixelspace and can capture low lightresulting in better photos.Smartphones are equipped withsmaller sensor, it can’t accommodate
more light.
����Smartphones are equipped with
tiny lenses, which means smalleramount of light is filtered through.Thus, many smartphones has built-inHigh Dynamic Range to improveimages. It captures a greater dynamicrange between the lightest and darkest areas of an image than cur-rent standard digital imaging meth-ods.
A digital camera’s lens is moreadvanced therefore more capable ofgetting light to its sensor and captur-ing sharp, clean images. It also has atelescopic lens which helps to get agood zoom. But if one zoom’s smart-phone camera, the image pixelates.
������2��������Features like low light quality,
and frame per second, full heightdestination video feature, opticalzoom and many more features thatmakes digital camera a better option.Even the flash power is higher in dig-ital cameras, giving a lot moreoptions to capture light and play with the colour combina-tion.
As compared with the smart-phones, digital cameras are leavingno stone unturn to offer the best toconsumers. “Connectivity is no morea problem. Many digital camerashave come up with wi-fi connectivity.One can instantly upload and share,”Dr Bharadwaj says.
the launch ofFujinonXF55-200mmF3.5-4.8 R LM OISlens for theFujifilm X-Pro1 and X-E1compact system cameras.Fujinon XF lenses featureadvanced lens capable ofdrawing the maximum per-formance out of the highly-descriptive ‘X-Trans CMOSsensor’ in the Fujifilm X-Pro1 and X-E1 cameras.
The new Fujinon XF55-200 mm lens produces sharpimages across its entirezoom range, well resolvedcorner-to-corner. The fastF3.5-4.8 lens facilitatesimage capture in scenesrequiring a fast shutterspeed. Its image stabilisationfunction enables the use ofshutter speeds 4.5 stopsslower, preventing camerashake even when shootinghand-held in low-light, or ata stopped down aperture.
Furthermore, it’s built toinclude two linear motorsfor high-speed AF of 0.28seconds, instantaneouslyfocusing on the subject.
Rohit Pandit, executiveVP, sales and marketing,Fujifilm India said: “InIndia, the Lens will be avail-able from June 10, 2013. Itwill be a perfect companionto the X-E1 and X-Pro1camera bodies, this lens isalso an important milestonein our journey to populatemore lenses for the Fujifilminterchangeable range”.
The lens also offers min-imum working distance of1.1m across the entire zoomrange to enable telephotoclose-ups and capturing asmall part of a subject.
�����
!���������(�������
There are many PC manufacturers who have eyedthe booming smartphone market in India. Be it,
Dell’s XCD35, HP’s Pre3 and Veer or HCL’s Rythmehave all been ineffective at the market. However,Lenevo is the only player from this sector, which hasbeen able to garner some positive consumer reactionswith their budget smartphones like P700i and now,P770.
Priced at �14,500, the phone has a long battery life,easily withstanding a-day-and-a-half to two days. Italso features a dual-sim. However, the camera qualityis disappointing and slows down while playing games.
As far as the design and built is concerned, thisone is a little bulky, similar to Samsung’s Galaxy NoteII. The only good part about the design is the solidityof this phone. It isn’t hard to imagine that it can take afew knocks and falls without much damage.
The P770 screen and dis-play is an IPS type with540X960 pixels. The display isbright and the sunlight legibil-ity is just about viewable. Thecontrast isn’t up to the markas compared to other phonesin the same segment. Whilethe phone doesn’t hang asoften and the keys work justfine, yet the on-screen keypadisn’t quite responsive. The music and recorder too aregood.
Overall the phone is a decent buy with more posi-tives than negatives, however at this price range, theXOLO Q700 is a much better buy on the Android plat-form. If one is willing to shift out of Android, NokiaLumia 620 is a good option in this segment.
Until mid-May, four prominentnewspapers in the Kashmir Valleyrepeatedly published an ad on the
schedule of a ‘saint’ living in an obscurehamlet in Budgam district. In the quarterof an inch space, a picture of the ‘holyman’ in white attire with a flowing darkbeard and an unusual headgear attractedmuch attention. Occasionally, on pub-lished fixtures, he would leave the villagein a cavalcade, followed by his disciples,both men and women, to deliver ser-mons at various locations. His fan fol-lowing was on a huge surge.
However, circumstances drasticallychanged for this uncrowned king of akingdom he developed surreptitiously inthe past 15 years. On May 22, followingrepeated summons from the police, this‘godman’ surrendered in court andremanded to police custody. Cops saythey have clinching evidence that thisman misused religion to sexually exploityoung village girls, mostly naïve andunmarried, on the pretext of ‘purifying’them.
This 42-year-old sex predator goesby the name of Gulzar Ahmad Bhat, whomysteriously metamorphosed from apetty illiterate carpet weaver into a spiri-tual guru. He changed his surname andwent by new appendages of Syed andReshi, two highly revered lineages inMuslims. On May 28, when Hazrat SyedGulzar Ahmad Reshi was presented incourt for remand extension, he had losthis headgear and fallen from grace.
By the time this report was filed,nine girls had already deposed in court,narrating horrifying details about the sexmaniac. The common thread in thestatements is that Gulzar entranced thembefore they fell on their knees beforehim. He made them believe that sexualactivity was a religious obligation topurify their bodies and souls. He wouldtake a pledge in the name of God andHis Prophet while holding each girl’shand and asking them not to reveal thedetails of the incident to anyone.
He told them that he had received adivine commandment to marry 72women.
A group of his trusted maids, knownas madams, did the reassuring and con-gratulated the girls on losing their virgin-ity. They made them believe that the sex-ual act, referred to as yeksaan (unifica-tion) in the cult, purified them and grad-uated their souls to spirituality. The girlswere mostly enrolled in an unregisteredresidential institution, run in the premis-es of Gulzar’s ancestral home. Theschool, Idara-e-Noor-e-ain SyedatunNissa Hazrat Fatimatuzzuhra, offeredshort-term religious courses based on avague syllabus set by the illiterate Reshiand his sidekicks.
Gulzar’s sleazy secret began leakingin December 2012 when some girlsquestioned his sexual escapades. “Islamdoes not allow any woman to have a sex-ual relationship with a person who is notformally married to her. This man(Gulzar) is exploiting us”, a southKashmir girl first told a batchmate. Thegirls could only whisper but had nocourage to herald a rebellion becauseReshi was a big man with a huge follow-ing and they were overawed by his influ-ence over his entranced followers.
But the murmurs soon breached theconfines of the dormitory compelling the
shaken ‘saint’ and his aides to go in fordamage control and silence the girls boththrough lure and intimidation.
The girls left the hostel and went tovarious religious and separatist leaders toexpose Reshi. Only sympathy and assur-ances came their way, till, MaulviMuhammad Amin, the Valley’s head ofLondon-based International Khatam-e-Nabuwat Movement, decided to verifytheir claims.
Before stirring the hornet’s nest, heencouraged the girls to formallyapproach the Government throughappropriate channels. Finally, these girlsfiled a complaint with the police andtheir medical examination confirmedthat they had lost their virginity. Thecourt issued warrants and cops went on alookout.
“We have clinching evidence againstthis man”, Bashir Ahmad Dar, DSP,Khansahib, who is heading the SpecialInvestigation Team, told Foray. The dis-trict police constituted the SIT after for-mally taking Reshi into custody. “We areonly focusing on sexual exploitation. Fornow, we are not exploring the sources ofhis funding”, he said.
The police have seized a mattressfrom his secret chamber, which hereferred to as hujra-e-khas or specialroom, where no man other than him hadaccess. “It (mattress) is full with deeptraces of dried seminal fluid”, Dar said.The police have recovered medicines,possibly aphrodisiacs, and several gar-ments, from this secret room.
One garment, a pheran (long flowingcloak) is splashed with edible oil. Policesaid that a girl deposed that she onceresisted Reshi and during the scuffle anoil container turned upside down on herpheran.
Reshi has hundreds of followers inthe Valley. His male followers, known astalibs, grew long facial hair and manehiding their necks and wore skullcapsand pherans. They don’t offer prayers incommon mosques but gather on Fridaysat Nendwenpora where they have built ahuge mosque. Reshi used to deliver hisweekly sermon in that mosque. InMalabagh locality of Srinagar, his talibsonce attacked an Imam who dared toconfront their religious beliefs as anti-Islamic. Most of these talibs have goneinto hiding after the expose.
Reshi’s victims have told the policethat he used to begin the sexual activitypast 11 pm. Sometimes, it turned into anorgy with up to 11 girls in a larger roombut usually, he used to sleep with one girlhe chose for the night. “There was somekind of spell Iwent into
whenever he called me into his room. Iused to watch everything happening butcould not resist”, one of the girls said. Anaudio clip of a victim narrating her talehas gone viral on the Internet.
Reshi used to tell the girls that theyhad been chosen by God to secretlymarry him and that his touch wouldabsolve their bodies from hell fire. “I amGod’s chosen one. My body is noor(divine light) and whichever body part Itouch, will not be affected by naar (fire)”,a metric dropout quoted him as saying.
During or after the crash course,Reshi’s confidants would secretly informthem that bab (a revered name given tofamily elders or mystics) wanted to meetthem in his secret room, which was outof bounds for men. There, he made themtake an oath of secrecy and convincedthem that their union was sacred. Hetold them that they were not required toperform ghusul (full body ablutionmandatory for Muslims under theShariah), after intercourse.
Reshi, the victims narrated, wouldengage in sexual activity till 3 am andthen take a nap till 6 am. From 9 am, hewould go into seclusion and memoriseQuranic verses and their meaning to pre-pare for sermons and interactions withdisciples. Between 7 and 10 pm, hewould watch television in the companyof girls who would caress and fondle hislegs, shoulders and arms. After 10 am,he used to play harmonium for an hourin his secret room or listen to sufi musicon music system.
Police say, they have rounded upsome of the madams who had been withhim for a decade. “They are ready todepose in court but not willing to gothrough the medical test”, an officerrevealed.
Reshi’s arrest and revelations havestunned the conservative society of theValley. Some quarters, especially sepa-ratist circles, have suggested that hisactivities were funded by ‘unknownagencies’. They opined that without thebackground support, he would not havebeen able to raise huge buildings. AbdulHameed Kumar, a diehard disciple ofReshi, told Foray that �72 lakh had beenspent in raising the four-storey buildingadjacent to his ancestral mud-house andinsisted that the money was collectedthrough donations.
Locals are flabbergasted over thephenomenal rise of a carpet-weaver. “Wehave seen many wealthy people comingin expensive cars to pay obeisance tohim. He travels the length and breadth ofthe Valley”, sarpanch Mohiuddin Bhatsaid, adding that his victims were fromthe lower strata of society.
“Reshi’s rise as a spiritual leader is asad commentary on our flawed under-standing of Islam. This shows the igno-rance of people, their blind faith inlunatics, besides lack of quest for real,original Islam”, Dr Hameed NaseemRafiabadi, former head of the Shah-e-
Hamdan Institute of Islamic Studiesat Kashmir University, said.
Interestingly, sufism has awide following in the Valley.
They pay obeisance atgraves of saints and
shrines. Ironically, Reshiused to introduce him-
self as alambardar(torchbearer) and
Rishi Buzurg (spiritually exalted saint).During his sermons, he admonishedwomen without purdah and decriedtransactions based on interest and insist-ed on following spiritual leaders.
But as expected, the reaction to hisarrest is mixed. On May 29, when thiscorrespondent visited the area, there wasa protest going on in Krimshore village.Shops were closed and people were outon the streets. The road was blockedwith boulders. “He has brought a badname to our area,” Ghulam Nabi Bhat, awhite-bearded local prayer leader, spear-heading the protests, said. Another pro-tester shouted, “hang the offender”.There was also a Reshi disciple in thecrowd, his lone talib who had surren-dered before the crowd for his safety.
But barely a few km away atShamsabad village, men and womenwere swearing by Reshi’s innocence andpiety. They said he had been framed byhis detractors. “I swear on the Prophet,he is haqq (a true saint). We did not evenknow how to pray and he taught us all”, agirl said from behind a veil. She said thatthe so-called victims might have beenlured by money to testify against ‘ourmentor’. His followers staged a protest inSrinagar, chanting slogans in his support.
Reshi’s followers guide you to hissecret room. The unusually designedbasement of the sprawling building has arow of small cells, many covered withcurtains facing a podium on the oppositewall. “These (cells) are for meditation ofgirls”, Muhammad Rafiq Dar, his ardentfollower for several years, says.
Outside the building, a long earthenoven under a tin-shed lies abandoned.“The girls have left. They never wantedto leave but some people forced them tovacate”, Nazia Akhtar, a neighbour, tellsyou.
Reshi’s stepfather claimed that hehad no sexual cravings and cited this as areason for his divorce some 15 years ago.“He was into spirituality. We got himmarried but the marriage lasted for just aweek. The bride did not return to ourhouse and then sought divorce after twoyears”, he said.
But police say, the claims of pietyand impotency are false. They say theyhave evidence that he was engaging insexual acts without a chance for concep-tion. “The seized mattress is full of stainsbecause Gulzar would ejaculate only onthe mattress. He knew how to avoid apregnancy,” Dar said.
The man would have been exposedmuch earlier had one of his victims notgone into mental depression, taken backto her home in a south Kashmir villageand later immolated herself. “Possibly,she had conceived after being raped byReshi and thought that ending her lifewould save her the trauma,” anIntelligence officer said. This girl’s broth-er approached the police after Reshi’sescapades became public.
As for the case, Reshi has sought bailand his counsel claims he is impotentand, thus, all allegations against him arefabricated. Cleric Qazi Yasir has askedpeople not to draw conclusions withouthim being put to a fair trial. Separatistleader Syed Ali Geelani has ridiculedsections who “follow self-made faith andhand over their wards to such taintedpeers and quacks,” Geelani recently saidin a statement.
approaching a newrecord, there is always be abeeline of top corporateclients for him. He doesn’t likesigning up for brands whichare not good for society. He isvery conscious of his image,”Naidu tells you.
Naidu, is so overly drivento keep himself out of lime-light that it is almost as diffi-cult to get him to talk as it isto get the master blaster him-self for an interview. Naidutravels extensively to get theright deals for Tendulkar andalso manages CheteshwarPujara who, he says, is too shya person to endorse some-thing like a fairness cream.
The Naidu-Tendulkarassociation is the longest play-er-agent relationship in India.This is despite the fact thatNaidu didn’t have any educa-tional training to represent aplayer. It was his love forsports that pushed him tolearn the trade on job.
After graduating in com-merce from St Joseph’sCollege of Commerce,Bangalore, he joined OgilvyOne Worldwide, which is adirect marketing arm of
famous Ogilvy & Mather. In a1998 media event, he metMark Mascarenhas, formerhead of WorldTel who hadacquired the rights to manageSachin Tendulkar in 1996. Heasked him for an opportunityto work in the sports businessand duly got the chance. Fromthereon, he never lookedback. At that time, apart fromSachin Tendulkar,Mascarenhas’ portfolioincluded Sourav Ganguly,Robin Singh and VenkateshPrasad as well and Naidu wasthe part of the team managingtheir interests. Mascarenhasdied in an unfortunate acci-dent.
Over the years, Naidu’sbonding with Tendulkarbecame so strong that whenthis agent moved to Saatchi &Saatchi’s celebrity manage-ment firm Iconix in 2006,Sachin moved along withhim. But the relationship withIconix didn’t work and withinthree months, both of themmoved to World Sport Group.
Naidu is known to be avery particular about howTendulkar should be por-trayed in ads. So, when Coca-
Cola approached Sachin in2011, Naidu would have noth-ing but a “mature icon” imageto be projected and not as atypical cola endorser. Theresult? The master blasterbecame the happiness ambas-sador of the company andparticipated actively in Coca-Cola’s corporate social activi-ties.
Under Naidu, Tendulkarhas been the country's high-est-paid sportsman for twodecades. At present, he is theface of about 17 brands andearns between �5-7 crore perbrand annually.
However, many of hisendorsement contracts are setto expire between now and2014. According to mediareports, the downslide hasalready started. Coca-Cola,whose HappinessAmbassador Sachin has beensince 2011, will not be renew-ing the contract. Brands like
the ITC, Adidas and Avivahave also taken his ads off airand Canon and Jyothi Labshave not renewed their con-tracts. Tendulkar’s manage-ment company doesn’t wantto comment on this.
It is not only Naidu whois particular about Sachin get-ting dignified and plumbassignments. Even celebritymanager Bunty Sajdeh ofCorenerstone Ltd is finickyabout the brands his clientVirat Kohli endorses. Sajdeh isthe man who convinced Kohlito sign up for HUL’s men’sFair & Lovely cream. Notdoing an underwear ad “isVirat’s strict personal choise,”he concedes laughingly. But tomake him sign up for the Fair& Lovely men’s cream, Sajdehhad to use all his persuasivepowers. What brought a hesi-tant Virat on board wasSajdeh’s argument that sincehe was always on the field and
exposed to the sun, he had totake care of his skin and that'swhere a fairness cream formen would be an appropriateendorsement for him to do.
Sajdeh, also managesRohit Sharma and DineshKarthik. Both, he says, areconsidered mature cricketerswho know how to handlemedia pressure. “We areblessed to be handling starperformers. Their on-fieldperformances do make a hugedifference in brand endorse-
ment but with IPL and otherformats becoming popular, itis just a waiting game beforethey take off,” he says.
Sharma and Karthik’sendorsement values hadbriefly skyrocketed after theTwenty20 championships in2007. Prior to this, both werestruggling to command morethan �10 lakh to �15 lakh perendorsement. But after theintroduction of the new for-mat, Sharma and Karthikhoped to hit �30 lakh for newdeals.
In 2011, a finicky Sajdehturned down an offer forKohli from a leading two-wheeler company because ithad multiple celebritiesendorsing it. “We didn’t wantVirat to be one among many.Hence, we signed anothertwo-wheeler company —TVS,” he says, emphasisingthat it is brands who need thecricketers and not the other
way round.Melroy D’Souza agrees
that “branding and promotionis a competition. We are sim-ple agents who are there toprovide guidance. That’s all,”he concludes.
Like Naidu, Sajdeh toohad a commerce backgroundwhen he entered this field.But he was better connectedthan Naidu. After graduatingfrom the HR College ofCommerce and Economics inMumbai, Sajdeh joined hisbrother-in-law, film producerSohail Khan, in his eventmanagement company, toavoid working in his father’sgarment manufacturing busi-ness. After learning thebasics, he joined PerceptD’Mark as a manager wherehe put in a solid five yearsmanaging high profile eventslike the Hero Indian SportsAwards and several SaharaIndia events, including thethe Sangeet Awards. Sajdeh,who has representedMaharashtra in tennis, joinedGlobosport, and diversifiedinto celebrity management.He spent 10 years in theindustry before starting out
on his own with CornerstoneSports & Entertainment.
Though MS Dhoni’sfriend and manager ArunPandey refused to join thisstory, preferring to not returnphone calls or emails, he isthe most powerful agent inthe field today. Pandey found-ed Rhiti Sports in 2007. InJuly 2010, Rhiti grabbedheadlines when it bagged therights to represent Dhoni on arecord minimum guaranteeof �210 crore for three years.With that deal, Dhoni sur-passed Sachin Tendulkar, whohad a �180 crore deal forthree years.
Once a national-levelcricketer, Pandey has been afriend of Dhoni since hisearly playing days. They firstgot to know each other 15years ago when Pandey wasbowling to Dhoni at the nets.As Dhoni moved up as acricketer and became a keyplayer for India, he encour-aged Pandey to get into sportsmarketing and let him strikea few deals for him.
Today, Pandey is like afamily member for Dhoniand his closest confidante.
�������� �������� 22�It is one of the most beautiful crick-
et grounds in the world. Generally, themoisture and overcast conditionsdecide the nature of the pitch here. If itis moist and overcast, one can expectthe faster bowlers to play a major role.Umesh Yadav and Ishant Sharma,because they have pace, should be veryeffective on this pitch. BhuvneshwarKumar will also get good purchase.
But if it is dry and sunny, it will bean intelligent decision to include anextra spinner because they would gaindue reward on the surface if they bowl
well. Here, R Ashwin and RavindraJadeja will need to raise their hands andtake the responsibility to lead India to avictory. Though Amit Mishra, despite
his recent form, is unlikely to play, hegives skipper MS Dhoni a safe option ifsuch a need arises.
Whether the skipper who wins the
toss decides to bat or bowl firstdepends entirely on the weatherconditions.
������������� ��Here, the pitch has something
for everyone. If the batsmen find iteasy to score runs, seamers areencouraged by the pace and bounce ofa dry surface. That will also keep thespinners interested. And because it’sEngland, the ball will swing like at allother venues.
Dhoni is not known for tin-kering with the winning combi-nation, so it is unlikely that hewill add another seamer orspinner for his second GroupStage match in theChhampions Trophy.
The onus will again beon the pace trio and spinduo to either defend the total or stop the oppo-sition from setting a bigone.
Since the pitch here isfull of runs, Indianbowlers will need to thinkon their toes and comeup with ideas to stoprival batsmen — one ofthem will be ChrisGayle. He is one ofthose who not onlyscores but scores like a hur-ricane, destroying the bowlerscompletely.
� �����������������Since the pitch here is full of runs,
Indian bowlers will need to think ontheir toes and come up with ideas to
stop rival batsmen.If Amit
Mishra has anyhopes of rolling
his arm in England,it is here.
Historically, the pitchhere has always beenon the slower side.But again, Dhoni isexpected to stick tothe three-pacer-two-spinner combina-
tion.Faster bowlers
Umesh, Ishant andBhuvneshwar will have tobowl cleverly. Though over-head conditions, if predomi-
nantly cloudy, help pacers getswing, they will have to rely onyorkers and change of paceinstead of pace and swing if thesun stays out during thematch. Since India is sched-uled to play Pakistan in theirlast league encounter here,the dry pitch promises aninteresting battle consider-ing that both the teams areknown to play spin well.
India will have to takecare of Saeed Ajmal.
Something hasd e f i n i t e l ychanged in
Dinesh Karthik. Thoughit is difficult to spot the
change for an untrained eye, hisperformance — back-to-back cen-
turies in two Champions Trophywarm-up games in England — has cer-
tainly caught attention.The day he turned 28, Karthik scored
an unbeaten 106 against Sri Lanka in thefirst warm-up game in Edgbaston to makethe chase of 334 possible after the Indian
top-order had misfired. Then, three days laterin the second warm-up game, Karthik played
a glorious innings of 146 not out off 140 balls, res-cuing India from a miserable position of 39/4. Henot only saved Team India the humiliation of get-ting out for less than 100, but also helped the teampost over 300 runs on board.
These runs came on the back of a strongdomestic season where he scored 577 runs at anaverage of 64.11 in Ranji Trophy, 436 runs at87.20 with one century and four half centuriesin five innings in the Vijay Hazare Trophy and301 runs at 100.33, including 176 not out, in theCorporate Trophy.
His golden run continued in this year’s IPLtoo, as Karthik scored 510 runs in 19 matches.The figure was almost double in comparison toany of the earlier IPL editions. His previous high-est was 288 runs from 13 innings in the 2009 sea-son. After moving to Mumbai Indians fromKings XI Punjab in 2012, Karthik scored just 238runs from 14 innings at a strike-rate of 111.73and an average of 18.30.
This metamorphosis hasn’t come overnight.Karthik has earned it with sheer hard work thathe has put in with Prasanna Agoram, who workswith the South African team as performance ana-lyst. While working with Karthik, Agoramfound a few technical glitches in his batting andone of them was balance.
He had all the shots in his repertoire. He hadthe confidence and temperament to play them. Buthe was doing it without the required balance. Hewas playing his shots without a solid base. He wasalways on the run. His hands and eyes were fol-lowing the ball but his body was lagging behind.He was wasting those precious micro-seconds thatcould give him an edge over the bowler.
Once the flaws are found, it is not difficult torectify them, especially when one is as dedicat-ed as Karthik. The two worked relentlessly to cor-rect the problem. After months of hard work andwith improved balance, Karthik has become moreconsistent in his scores.
Now, he has time to go back and pull or hookshort-pitched stuff bowled at his body. He canlean on his front foot and drive through the cov-ers. He can rock back and cut ball. Basically he
can do all the things that he was doing earlierbut with a firm base.
The only thing that he needed was an oppor-tunity to justify his talent and the people whohave believed in him since the day he debutedfor Tamil Nadu as a teenager. And it wasn’t veryfar after his good showing in the domestic tour-naments and IPL.
For selectors, it wasn’t difficult to pickKarthik since there was not any better optionavailable for the middle-order. Yuvraj Singh was-n’t giving clear signs about his form and fitness.Rohit Sharma has always been patchy. And, IrfanPathan hasn’t done anything worthwhile toinstill any confidence in his allround abilities.
Since the retirement of Indian stalwarts, thepressure to keep the ship sailing during the mid-dle overs has been on Virat Kohli, Suresh Rainaand MS Dhoni. With all these players beingaggressive in their batting style, the middle-orderrequired a calm head, who could switch gears asper the situation. Karthik was the best option,which he proved later.
If his two centuries are dissected into pieces,it is easy to understand how carefully he built thoseinnings. Mindful of team’s position, he playedwatchfully initially and then didn’t shy from tak-ing over the role of an aggressor.
His ability to keep the score board tickingwithout hitting boundaries makes him special.During the 211-run partnership that he put upwith Dhoni against Australia, the duo collected94 runs in singles, doubles and triples. Similarly,against Sri Lanka, he ran 91 runs with Kohli dur-ing their 186-run association.
“He’s someone who can bat really, really wellin the middle of the order. The reason being he’sa good runner. He reads the situation pretty well,and he’s someone who can look to go on and playbig innings, and that is what is really importantin the middle order. He’s technically sound, whichmeans he has all the right talent to get going, andonce he gets going, he’s someone who keeps him-self busy throughout the innings,” Dhoni said high-lighting the big change in Karthik.
With the World Cup is less than 20 monthsaway, Karthik’s coming of age also augurs wellfor the World Champions considering the needto identify the probables as quickly as possible.That was, perhaps, the one reason Dhoni point-ed out that he would like Karthik to bat anywherebetween No. 3 and not deeper than No. 5because, then, the team would not extract themaximum out of him.
“I’ve always stressed that the players need tobat in a specialist position where they really suitthemselves and the team. In the past we haveplayed a few players on different slots, more accord-ing to the fact that we said they’ll do well but thatwas not the route or original slot. I think it’s thesame for DK also. He’s someone that should batat 4 or 5, 3 also, but definitely not someone whoshould bat at 6 or 7,” Dhoni said.
Karthik’s natural composure and tem-perament has beautifully blended with anewly-found balance to give his career a newlease of life. Hopefully, Dinesh Karthik version2.0 will not let go off this opportunity like theprevious one.
