Monday, December 31, 2007
HAPPY NEW YEAR -2008
WISH YOU ALL A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR 2008, MAY THE COMING YEAR BRING ALL THE HAPPINESS FOR ALL OF YOU.
Monday, December 24, 2007
News Maker in 2007
Read something interested and like to add on my blog for future references
It was a year of Marx and malls, billionaire fantasies and pangs of land acquisition, Nobel glories and Nithari shame. In the scramble of events, it wasn't easy to pick just 10 names that dominated events in 2007. But this list of newsmakers compiled by IANS journalists attempts to embody the new India with all its contradictions.
The 10 headline-grabbers:
Prakash Karat
India's youngest Communist commissar, Prakash Karat, dominated headlines like no Marxist has ever had, almost killing a path-breaking nuclear deal with the US and injecting political uncertainty for a government when none existed.
The unassuming Karat dramatically took on the Congress-led government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, warning it not to sign the deal that had been arrived at after months of intense negotiations in New Delhi and Washington.
Even in his aggression, the Myanmar-born and Edinburgh-educated Karat was suave but made it amply clear that the government existed at the mercy of his Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and its smaller allies and that they could not be ignored without a heavy price being paid.
In the process, Karat became a powerful political actor, determining the future of one of the most significant and controversial foreign and strategic policies, without being in power and without ever contesting any election to parliament.
However, mirroring the dialectics of Marxism, Karat exhibited flip-flop, now hinting at early elections and then saying he didn't mean it, now insisting that the government can't talk to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and then giving a reluctant go-ahead.
Eventually, Karat did lose some sheen and contributed to the rumblings among his smaller allies that the CPI-M boss was acting unilaterally akin to a "big brother" - much like the George Bush he so much reviles.
In the CPI-M itself, the man who took supreme charge two years ago, succeeding the ageing but veteran Harkishan Singh Surjeet, remains the undisputed hero. And along with his wife Brinda, the Karats are probably the world's most influential Communist family.
Mayawati
If Karat made waves, Dalit icon Mayawati unleashed a tsunami in 2007. The feisty former school teacher single-handedly achieved what everyone thought was impossible: bringing her Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) to power in India's most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, on its own strength.
It was a success that had eluded her mentor, the late Kanshi Ram. At a time when all major political parties had accepted the inevitability of a hung house in Uttar Pradesh (population 166 million), Mayawati proved everyone wrong.
Having consolidated her base among the Dalit community and having expanded the BSP's fangs to all parts of northern and central India, using lingo that often put off other communities, Mayawati suddenly changed tracks to do a "social engineering". She forged bonds between the long-oppressed Dalits and the high-caste Brahmins to create an electoral revolution, having many others including large sections of Muslims already on her side.
It was a magic formula that decimated the Congress - the original inventor of the Dalit-Muslim-Brahmin formula, jolted the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and ousted an overconfident Samajwadi Party. For the first time, the BSP won seats in every region of the sprawling Uttar Pradesh, bagging 206 seats in the house of 403.
Mayawati, her admirers say, has set her sights high - very high. And the lonely ranger believes that the slow and steady always win the race. A "social engineering" of the Uttar Pradesh type may not be possible everywhere but the BSP chief knows the power even some seats in a hung assembly can command. With both the Congress and the BJP hoping to forge electoral ties with Maywati some day, she is most likely to play a more and more important role in national politics.
Buddhadeb Bhattacharya
While Karat rode high in 2007, his friend and fellow Communist Buddhadeb Bhattacharya hit a new low in the politics of West Bengal that has been in the grip of the CPI-M for three long decades.
From a 'bhadralok' who was counted as a saviour when he took charge of the state, Bhattacharya became one of its most hated figures when he sent hundreds of his party cadres to storm and "capture" Nandigram from those who had taken charge of the region to protest against the government's bid to hand over farmland to industry.
For the first time since the Left Front led by the CPI-M came to power in 1977, thousands, many otherwise sympathetic to the Reds, took to the streets to denounce the chief minister who had topped popularity charts since replacing the veteran Jyoti Basu and leading his nine-party alliance to victory in 2006.
But the theatre-lover Bhattacharya's love for industry, in a state where the CPI-M and other leftwing groups have had a strong base among farmers, proved to be his undoing.
As the chief minister unveiled plans to set up special economic zones, by acquiring farmland albeit after compensating the landowners, a revolt swept parts of West Bengal. The Trinamul Congress plunged in - and found unexpected support from within a disgruntled Left Front.
Even as Singur, where the Tatas will build small cars, and other places accepted fate, willingly or otherwise, Nandigram turned out to be Bhattacharya's Stalingrad. There, an assortment of anti-Marxists joined hands to drag the CPI-M into long-term misery.
Nandigram was not the only black spot. The role of some of his senior police officers in the mysterious murder of a young Muslim man who had married the daughter of a Hindu industrialist and the manner his government asked Bangladesh writer Taslima Nasreen to quit Kolkata following Muslim protests shocked many.
In no time, Bhattacharya lost the high moral ground he had for so long. Towards the end of 2007, Bhattacharya looked like a poor shadow of the Chinese revolutionary he tried to ape: Deng Xiaoping.
Ratan Tata
It was a glorious year for Ratan Naval Tata, chairperson of India's biggest industrial house, and for India Inc when his $29 billion group bought Anglo-Dutch steel maker Corus for $11.1 billion - the largest acquisition of an overseas company by an Indian business house.
The global corporate elite was impressed with Fortune magazine naming Tata as one of 25 most influential people in the world in 2007. This deal pitchforked India into the big-league of the multibillion-dollar world of mega mergers and acquisitions and raised many an eyebrows as Corus, at that point, was ranked the eight largest producer of steel in the world and several times larger than the Tata Steel.
A graduate of Cornell University, Tata pulled off something a coup when he announced that Tata Motors, another company in the group's stable of 97 companies, would sell a small car for all of Rs.100,000 ($2,500) that India's burgeoning middle class could afford.
The hiving off of Tata Consultancy, India's largest exporter of software, into a separate company, part acquisition of Energy Brands of the US for $677 million and buy out of Singapore's NatSteel for $468 million are some of the major deals that bore his distinct personal stamp.
Buoyed by a string of successes, Tata Group has now set its eyes on acquiring two iconic British automobile brands - Jaguar and Land Rover. The global business community saw the Tata success as the symbol of India Inc's new acquisitive appetite and global ambitions.
Shah Rukh Khan
Whether for his six pack abs, his one-liners or as the man who gave Bollywood its two biggest hits in 2007, Shah Rukh Khan was seldom off the news this year - or from our consciousness.
He began the year as the charming quizmaster in the TV show "Kaun Banega Crorepati" that had men and women of all ages blushing as he flirted outrageously or took gentle jibes. In between he was the intense Kabir Khan who battled stereotype and failure in "Chak De! India", which was made for Rs.200 million ($5 million) and garnered more than three times as much - Rs.640 million.
For the 42-year-old SRK, 2007 has also ended in a blaze of glory with his portrayal as the goofy Om in the madcap "Om Shanti Om", produced by him and directed by pal Farah Khan. The film is going strong and is already being touted as the biggest hit of the millennium, beating the 2001 partition melodrama "Gadar".
Off the screen, Shah Rukh was the most seen and most talked about star, who shone as an actor too, with his many endorsements and pronouncements on everything from Islam to his six pack abs.
He spoke to a newsmagazine about his family and what it meant being a Muslim in today's India, he was an invited guest at the HT Leadership Summit and talked about his vision for the future, he was chief guest at the Summit on Entertainment and Media organised by the industry lobby Assocham. The young Khan was also widely believed to be taking on the mighty Bachchans - Bollywood's premier family.
Shah Rukh Khan was everywhere this year - because he was the most saleable, because he was the thinking person's hero who read his newspapers, and also because he now sports washboard abs and a gelled ponytail that has spawned a thousand look-alikes.
Sanjay Dutt
Is he the lovable Munnabhai who brought Mahatma Gandhi back into the reckoning or a pampered brat once again jailed for his connection with the 1993 Mumbai terror blasts? The many faces of actor Sanjay Dutt kept him in the news for much of 2007, with his screen successes eclipsed by the drama in his real life.
Dutt's biggest success "Lage Raho Munnabhai" was released last year. But the magic carried on to 2007 with the screen persona of the lovable hoodlum who becomes a Gandhian still holding sway. And when a Mumbai court sentenced him to six years in jail after absolving him of terror charges and convicting him for being in possession of illegal weapons, he captured the public imagination -- and the headlines.
The hot topic of discussion everywhere was whether he deserved it. Intricacies of the Arms Act and the Probation of Offenders Act under which he appealed for leniency were avidly debated.
The irony didn't escape anyone. The man who popularised the apostle of non-violence was playing around with deadly weapons before the worst terror attack in the country, and that only enhanced his appeal.
Dutt, who had only one big release "Shootout at Lokhandwala" in 2007, was in and out of jail from August onwards and every detail was lapped up. What he was wearing in court, what he ate for lunch in jail and even what his girlfriend was wearing, every incidental detail about the star's life was prime time news for the star-struck nation.
His mother's death from cancer and his wife's from a brain tumour, his battle with drugs, his straying to the other side of the law and his jail term... Dutt's has been a star-crossed life that is more compelling than fiction.
It is perhaps that tragic flaw in the otherwise charmed life that ensures that he is never away from the headlines.
Rajendra Kumar Pachauri
R.K. Pachauri is not your typical eco-warrior haranguing corporations and governments on their blithe indifference to the perils of climate change. But when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a UN body which Pachauri heads, jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize with former US vice-president Al Gore, this poetry and cricket-loving environmentalist was all over the world's airwaves.
The IPCC's seminal report on climate change is a collaborative work of hundreds of authors and thousands of contributors from all over the world. One of Pachauri's major achievements has been to put these together into a logically coherent report that has done more than anything else to bring home the danger and immediacy of global warming.
After the publication of this report, Pachauri went on an evangelical tour of the world, tirelessly explaining its significance to policymakers and common people alike. At the Bali meet on climate change, Pachauri's smiling urbane self and calm voice did much to bring some coherence into fierce quibbles over the contours of the new climate regime.
The 67-year-old Pachauri has been chairman of the IPCC since 2002. He has also headed the New Delhi-based think-tank The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) since its inception 25 years ago. As a member of the Prime Minister's Advisory Council on Climate Change, Pachauri is playing a major role in shaping India's response to global warming in the form of a national action plan, which is to be finalised by February or March.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni
He's the Captain Cool of Indian cricket who relishes pressure cooker situations. Leading from the front, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the 26-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman from Ranchi, showed that he had it in him and more. Not just did the Pepsi & MTV youth icon carry India through five humdinger matches at the Twenty20 world championships in Johannesburg, he pulled off an incredible victory against Pakistan and plunged cricket-crazy Indians into wild euphoria.
More importantly, his presence marked a tectonic shift in Team India's selection process. His self-belief and consistency have served as a model for aspiring cricketers, inspiring many to transcend their social and economic class to make it big in Indian cricket.
Now shorn of his neck length tresses despite Pakistan President Pervez Musharaf's advice to him not to change his coiffure, the cricketer's scant regard for world rankings and emphasis on performance have led him to don the mantle of India's one-day international captain.
Affectionately called Mahi, the talented cricketer has scaled great heights in just a short time since he debuted in international cricket three years ago. His on-field exploits have also made him one of the hottest properties in advertising, with his charisma selling products as diverse as Reebok to Mysore sandal soap!
He could well have been lost to football but for his soccer coach who felt he was destined for cricketing glory. Football's loss has become Indian cricket's gain, and Dhoni's fairytale career is peaking new heights.
Rajnikant
His real name is Shivajirao Gaekwad. But he goes by other soubriquets such as Periya Thalaivar (Big Boss) and Kadavul (God) and rules millions of hearts not just in India but also across the world who literally worship his machismo and flamboyance. Without doubt, Rajnikant, the style icon of south Indian cinema and loosely described as the country's answer to James Bond, is a phenomenon that just gets bigger all the time.
After three decades in filmdom that has helped him achieve superstar status, the 57-year-old Rajnikant broke all records June 15, releasing the much-awaited big-budget Tamil movie "Sivaji: The Boss" worldwide. It was his 100th release, the most expensive Indian movie ever made at an estimated Rs.800 million and the first Tamil film to be released simultaneously in the US, Canada, Europe, Singapore, Malaysia, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Australia.
Just in sheer terms of reach and marketing the movie was a roaring success story and bore testimony to the star's incredible fan following. In Malaysia there were riots by Rajni fans in front of theatres when the prints didn't arrive in time, sure-fire sign that Rajni's mystique transcends cultures and territorial boundaries.
Such is his trans-national appeal that even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh could not resist evoking the cult of Odori Maharaja, as the star is known in Japan, in his address to the Japanese Diet last year. For the man who started his life as a bus conductor, it's been one long glorious journey and one that carries agonies and ecstasies of millions of his fans.
Moninder Singh Pandher
Evil lurks in the unlikeliest of places. It was a story of gruesome killing of children, rape and even cannibalism that repulsed India - and the man at the centre of it was the benign looking businessman Moninder Singh Pandher who lived in a bungalow in Noida and had studied in some of India's best institutions.
When skeletons of children and women started emerging from a drain adjoining the house in the fading days of last year, conventional notions of barbarity and shamefulness were challenged.
The skeletal remains of at least 19 children and young women were dredged out from the drain. Pandher, alias Goldi, and his servant Surendra Koli were alleged to have raped the victims, then mutilated the bodies - and there was talk of cannibalism too.
Almost every day since the scandal first broke, macabre details emerged about how the master and the servant colluded to enact a pornographic horror show with victims hacked to pieces after the orgy was over.
The 10 headline-grabbers:
Prakash Karat
India's youngest Communist commissar, Prakash Karat, dominated headlines like no Marxist has ever had, almost killing a path-breaking nuclear deal with the US and injecting political uncertainty for a government when none existed.
The unassuming Karat dramatically took on the Congress-led government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, warning it not to sign the deal that had been arrived at after months of intense negotiations in New Delhi and Washington.
Even in his aggression, the Myanmar-born and Edinburgh-educated Karat was suave but made it amply clear that the government existed at the mercy of his Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and its smaller allies and that they could not be ignored without a heavy price being paid.
In the process, Karat became a powerful political actor, determining the future of one of the most significant and controversial foreign and strategic policies, without being in power and without ever contesting any election to parliament.
However, mirroring the dialectics of Marxism, Karat exhibited flip-flop, now hinting at early elections and then saying he didn't mean it, now insisting that the government can't talk to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and then giving a reluctant go-ahead.
Eventually, Karat did lose some sheen and contributed to the rumblings among his smaller allies that the CPI-M boss was acting unilaterally akin to a "big brother" - much like the George Bush he so much reviles.
In the CPI-M itself, the man who took supreme charge two years ago, succeeding the ageing but veteran Harkishan Singh Surjeet, remains the undisputed hero. And along with his wife Brinda, the Karats are probably the world's most influential Communist family.
Mayawati
If Karat made waves, Dalit icon Mayawati unleashed a tsunami in 2007. The feisty former school teacher single-handedly achieved what everyone thought was impossible: bringing her Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) to power in India's most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, on its own strength.
It was a success that had eluded her mentor, the late Kanshi Ram. At a time when all major political parties had accepted the inevitability of a hung house in Uttar Pradesh (population 166 million), Mayawati proved everyone wrong.
Having consolidated her base among the Dalit community and having expanded the BSP's fangs to all parts of northern and central India, using lingo that often put off other communities, Mayawati suddenly changed tracks to do a "social engineering". She forged bonds between the long-oppressed Dalits and the high-caste Brahmins to create an electoral revolution, having many others including large sections of Muslims already on her side.
It was a magic formula that decimated the Congress - the original inventor of the Dalit-Muslim-Brahmin formula, jolted the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and ousted an overconfident Samajwadi Party. For the first time, the BSP won seats in every region of the sprawling Uttar Pradesh, bagging 206 seats in the house of 403.
Mayawati, her admirers say, has set her sights high - very high. And the lonely ranger believes that the slow and steady always win the race. A "social engineering" of the Uttar Pradesh type may not be possible everywhere but the BSP chief knows the power even some seats in a hung assembly can command. With both the Congress and the BJP hoping to forge electoral ties with Maywati some day, she is most likely to play a more and more important role in national politics.
Buddhadeb Bhattacharya
While Karat rode high in 2007, his friend and fellow Communist Buddhadeb Bhattacharya hit a new low in the politics of West Bengal that has been in the grip of the CPI-M for three long decades.
From a 'bhadralok' who was counted as a saviour when he took charge of the state, Bhattacharya became one of its most hated figures when he sent hundreds of his party cadres to storm and "capture" Nandigram from those who had taken charge of the region to protest against the government's bid to hand over farmland to industry.
For the first time since the Left Front led by the CPI-M came to power in 1977, thousands, many otherwise sympathetic to the Reds, took to the streets to denounce the chief minister who had topped popularity charts since replacing the veteran Jyoti Basu and leading his nine-party alliance to victory in 2006.
But the theatre-lover Bhattacharya's love for industry, in a state where the CPI-M and other leftwing groups have had a strong base among farmers, proved to be his undoing.
As the chief minister unveiled plans to set up special economic zones, by acquiring farmland albeit after compensating the landowners, a revolt swept parts of West Bengal. The Trinamul Congress plunged in - and found unexpected support from within a disgruntled Left Front.
Even as Singur, where the Tatas will build small cars, and other places accepted fate, willingly or otherwise, Nandigram turned out to be Bhattacharya's Stalingrad. There, an assortment of anti-Marxists joined hands to drag the CPI-M into long-term misery.
Nandigram was not the only black spot. The role of some of his senior police officers in the mysterious murder of a young Muslim man who had married the daughter of a Hindu industrialist and the manner his government asked Bangladesh writer Taslima Nasreen to quit Kolkata following Muslim protests shocked many.
In no time, Bhattacharya lost the high moral ground he had for so long. Towards the end of 2007, Bhattacharya looked like a poor shadow of the Chinese revolutionary he tried to ape: Deng Xiaoping.
Ratan Tata
It was a glorious year for Ratan Naval Tata, chairperson of India's biggest industrial house, and for India Inc when his $29 billion group bought Anglo-Dutch steel maker Corus for $11.1 billion - the largest acquisition of an overseas company by an Indian business house.
The global corporate elite was impressed with Fortune magazine naming Tata as one of 25 most influential people in the world in 2007. This deal pitchforked India into the big-league of the multibillion-dollar world of mega mergers and acquisitions and raised many an eyebrows as Corus, at that point, was ranked the eight largest producer of steel in the world and several times larger than the Tata Steel.
A graduate of Cornell University, Tata pulled off something a coup when he announced that Tata Motors, another company in the group's stable of 97 companies, would sell a small car for all of Rs.100,000 ($2,500) that India's burgeoning middle class could afford.
The hiving off of Tata Consultancy, India's largest exporter of software, into a separate company, part acquisition of Energy Brands of the US for $677 million and buy out of Singapore's NatSteel for $468 million are some of the major deals that bore his distinct personal stamp.
Buoyed by a string of successes, Tata Group has now set its eyes on acquiring two iconic British automobile brands - Jaguar and Land Rover. The global business community saw the Tata success as the symbol of India Inc's new acquisitive appetite and global ambitions.
Shah Rukh Khan
Whether for his six pack abs, his one-liners or as the man who gave Bollywood its two biggest hits in 2007, Shah Rukh Khan was seldom off the news this year - or from our consciousness.
He began the year as the charming quizmaster in the TV show "Kaun Banega Crorepati" that had men and women of all ages blushing as he flirted outrageously or took gentle jibes. In between he was the intense Kabir Khan who battled stereotype and failure in "Chak De! India", which was made for Rs.200 million ($5 million) and garnered more than three times as much - Rs.640 million.
For the 42-year-old SRK, 2007 has also ended in a blaze of glory with his portrayal as the goofy Om in the madcap "Om Shanti Om", produced by him and directed by pal Farah Khan. The film is going strong and is already being touted as the biggest hit of the millennium, beating the 2001 partition melodrama "Gadar".
Off the screen, Shah Rukh was the most seen and most talked about star, who shone as an actor too, with his many endorsements and pronouncements on everything from Islam to his six pack abs.
He spoke to a newsmagazine about his family and what it meant being a Muslim in today's India, he was an invited guest at the HT Leadership Summit and talked about his vision for the future, he was chief guest at the Summit on Entertainment and Media organised by the industry lobby Assocham. The young Khan was also widely believed to be taking on the mighty Bachchans - Bollywood's premier family.
Shah Rukh Khan was everywhere this year - because he was the most saleable, because he was the thinking person's hero who read his newspapers, and also because he now sports washboard abs and a gelled ponytail that has spawned a thousand look-alikes.
Sanjay Dutt
Is he the lovable Munnabhai who brought Mahatma Gandhi back into the reckoning or a pampered brat once again jailed for his connection with the 1993 Mumbai terror blasts? The many faces of actor Sanjay Dutt kept him in the news for much of 2007, with his screen successes eclipsed by the drama in his real life.
Dutt's biggest success "Lage Raho Munnabhai" was released last year. But the magic carried on to 2007 with the screen persona of the lovable hoodlum who becomes a Gandhian still holding sway. And when a Mumbai court sentenced him to six years in jail after absolving him of terror charges and convicting him for being in possession of illegal weapons, he captured the public imagination -- and the headlines.
The hot topic of discussion everywhere was whether he deserved it. Intricacies of the Arms Act and the Probation of Offenders Act under which he appealed for leniency were avidly debated.
The irony didn't escape anyone. The man who popularised the apostle of non-violence was playing around with deadly weapons before the worst terror attack in the country, and that only enhanced his appeal.
Dutt, who had only one big release "Shootout at Lokhandwala" in 2007, was in and out of jail from August onwards and every detail was lapped up. What he was wearing in court, what he ate for lunch in jail and even what his girlfriend was wearing, every incidental detail about the star's life was prime time news for the star-struck nation.
His mother's death from cancer and his wife's from a brain tumour, his battle with drugs, his straying to the other side of the law and his jail term... Dutt's has been a star-crossed life that is more compelling than fiction.
It is perhaps that tragic flaw in the otherwise charmed life that ensures that he is never away from the headlines.
Rajendra Kumar Pachauri
R.K. Pachauri is not your typical eco-warrior haranguing corporations and governments on their blithe indifference to the perils of climate change. But when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a UN body which Pachauri heads, jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize with former US vice-president Al Gore, this poetry and cricket-loving environmentalist was all over the world's airwaves.
The IPCC's seminal report on climate change is a collaborative work of hundreds of authors and thousands of contributors from all over the world. One of Pachauri's major achievements has been to put these together into a logically coherent report that has done more than anything else to bring home the danger and immediacy of global warming.
After the publication of this report, Pachauri went on an evangelical tour of the world, tirelessly explaining its significance to policymakers and common people alike. At the Bali meet on climate change, Pachauri's smiling urbane self and calm voice did much to bring some coherence into fierce quibbles over the contours of the new climate regime.
The 67-year-old Pachauri has been chairman of the IPCC since 2002. He has also headed the New Delhi-based think-tank The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) since its inception 25 years ago. As a member of the Prime Minister's Advisory Council on Climate Change, Pachauri is playing a major role in shaping India's response to global warming in the form of a national action plan, which is to be finalised by February or March.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni
He's the Captain Cool of Indian cricket who relishes pressure cooker situations. Leading from the front, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the 26-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman from Ranchi, showed that he had it in him and more. Not just did the Pepsi & MTV youth icon carry India through five humdinger matches at the Twenty20 world championships in Johannesburg, he pulled off an incredible victory against Pakistan and plunged cricket-crazy Indians into wild euphoria.
More importantly, his presence marked a tectonic shift in Team India's selection process. His self-belief and consistency have served as a model for aspiring cricketers, inspiring many to transcend their social and economic class to make it big in Indian cricket.
Now shorn of his neck length tresses despite Pakistan President Pervez Musharaf's advice to him not to change his coiffure, the cricketer's scant regard for world rankings and emphasis on performance have led him to don the mantle of India's one-day international captain.
Affectionately called Mahi, the talented cricketer has scaled great heights in just a short time since he debuted in international cricket three years ago. His on-field exploits have also made him one of the hottest properties in advertising, with his charisma selling products as diverse as Reebok to Mysore sandal soap!
He could well have been lost to football but for his soccer coach who felt he was destined for cricketing glory. Football's loss has become Indian cricket's gain, and Dhoni's fairytale career is peaking new heights.
Rajnikant
His real name is Shivajirao Gaekwad. But he goes by other soubriquets such as Periya Thalaivar (Big Boss) and Kadavul (God) and rules millions of hearts not just in India but also across the world who literally worship his machismo and flamboyance. Without doubt, Rajnikant, the style icon of south Indian cinema and loosely described as the country's answer to James Bond, is a phenomenon that just gets bigger all the time.
After three decades in filmdom that has helped him achieve superstar status, the 57-year-old Rajnikant broke all records June 15, releasing the much-awaited big-budget Tamil movie "Sivaji: The Boss" worldwide. It was his 100th release, the most expensive Indian movie ever made at an estimated Rs.800 million and the first Tamil film to be released simultaneously in the US, Canada, Europe, Singapore, Malaysia, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Australia.
Just in sheer terms of reach and marketing the movie was a roaring success story and bore testimony to the star's incredible fan following. In Malaysia there were riots by Rajni fans in front of theatres when the prints didn't arrive in time, sure-fire sign that Rajni's mystique transcends cultures and territorial boundaries.
Such is his trans-national appeal that even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh could not resist evoking the cult of Odori Maharaja, as the star is known in Japan, in his address to the Japanese Diet last year. For the man who started his life as a bus conductor, it's been one long glorious journey and one that carries agonies and ecstasies of millions of his fans.
Moninder Singh Pandher
Evil lurks in the unlikeliest of places. It was a story of gruesome killing of children, rape and even cannibalism that repulsed India - and the man at the centre of it was the benign looking businessman Moninder Singh Pandher who lived in a bungalow in Noida and had studied in some of India's best institutions.
When skeletons of children and women started emerging from a drain adjoining the house in the fading days of last year, conventional notions of barbarity and shamefulness were challenged.
The skeletal remains of at least 19 children and young women were dredged out from the drain. Pandher, alias Goldi, and his servant Surendra Koli were alleged to have raped the victims, then mutilated the bodies - and there was talk of cannibalism too.
Almost every day since the scandal first broke, macabre details emerged about how the master and the servant colluded to enact a pornographic horror show with victims hacked to pieces after the orgy was over.
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
FACTS OF LIFE
. 1. At least 5 people in this world love you so much they would die for you.
2. At least 15 people in this world love you in some way.
3. The only reason anyone would ever hate you is because they want to be just like you.
4. A smile from you can bring happiness to anyone, even if they don't like you.
5. Every night, SOMEONE thinks about you before they go to sleep.
6. You mean the world to someone.
7. If not for you, someone may not be living.
8. You are special and unique.
9. someone that you don't know even exists loves you.
10. When you make the biggest mistake ever, something good comes from it.
11. When you think the world has turned its back on you, take a look you most likely turned your back on the world.
12. When you think you have no chance at getting what you want, you probably won't get it, but if you believe in yourself, you probably sooner or later will get it.
13. Always remember compliments you received. Forget about the rude remarks.
14. Always tell someone how you feel about them; you will feel much better when they know.
15. If you have a great friend, take the time to let them know that they're great.
2. At least 15 people in this world love you in some way.
3. The only reason anyone would ever hate you is because they want to be just like you.
4. A smile from you can bring happiness to anyone, even if they don't like you.
5. Every night, SOMEONE thinks about you before they go to sleep.
6. You mean the world to someone.
7. If not for you, someone may not be living.
8. You are special and unique.
9. someone that you don't know even exists loves you.
10. When you make the biggest mistake ever, something good comes from it.
11. When you think the world has turned its back on you, take a look you most likely turned your back on the world.
12. When you think you have no chance at getting what you want, you probably won't get it, but if you believe in yourself, you probably sooner or later will get it.
13. Always remember compliments you received. Forget about the rude remarks.
14. Always tell someone how you feel about them; you will feel much better when they know.
15. If you have a great friend, take the time to let them know that they're great.
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
When you rearrange the letters
DILIP VENGSARKAR
When you rearrange the letters:
SPARKLING DRIVE
PRINCESS DIANA
When you rearrange the letters:
END IS A CAR SPIN
MONICA LEWINSKY
When you rearrange the letters:
NICE SILKY WOMAN
DORMITORY:
When you rearrange the letters:
DIRTY ROOM
ASTRONOMER:
When you rearrange the letters:
MOON STARER
THE EYES:
When you rearrange the letters:
THEY SEE
GEORGE BUSH:
When you rearrange the letters:
HE BUGS GORE
SLOT MACHINES:
When you rearrange the letters:
CASH LOST IN ME
ANIMOSITY:
When you rearrange the letters:
IS NO AMITY
ELECTION RESULTS:
When you rearrange the letters:
LIES - LET'S RECOUNT
SNOOZE ALARMS:
When you rearrange the letters:
ALAS! NO MORE Z 'S
A DECIMAL POINT:
When you rearrange the letters:
IM A DOT IN PLACE
THE EARTHQUAKES:
When you rearrange the letters:
THAT QUEER SHAKE
ELEVEN PLUS TWO:
When you rearrange the letters:
TWELVE PLUS ONE
AND FOR THE GRAND FINALE:
MOTHER-IN-LAW:
When you rearrange the letters:
WOMAN HITLER
Thursday, November 29, 2007
IT Shayari - for those who know hindi
> Kal jab mile thhe....
> to dil mein hua ek sound.
> Aur aaj mile to kehte hain...
> Jo muddat se hota aaya hai,
> woh repeat kar doonga...
> Tu naa mili to apni zindagi
> ctrl+alt+delete kar doonga...
> Shayad mere pyar ko
> taste karna bhool gaye...
> Dil sey aisa cut kiya
> ke paste karna bhool gaye...
> Laakhon honge nigaah mein
> kabhi mujhe bhi pick karo...
> Mere pyaar ke icon pe
> kabhi to double-click karo...
> Roz subha hum karte hain
> pyar se unhe good morning...
> Woh aise ghoor ke dekti hain
> jaise 0 errors aur 5 warning...
> Aisa bhi nahin hai ke
> I don't like your face...
> Par dil ke storage mein
> No more disk space...
> Ghar se jab tum nikale
> pehen ke reshmi gown...
> Jaane kitne dilon ka
> ho gaya Server down...
> to dil mein hua ek sound.
> Aur aaj mile to kehte hain...
> your file not found!!! *
> Jo muddat se hota aaya hai,
> woh repeat kar doonga...
> Tu naa mili to apni zindagi
> ctrl+alt+delete kar doonga...
> Shayad mere pyar ko
> taste karna bhool gaye...
> Dil sey aisa cut kiya
> ke paste karna bhool gaye...
> Laakhon honge nigaah mein
> kabhi mujhe bhi pick karo...
> Mere pyaar ke icon pe
> kabhi to double-click karo...
> Roz subha hum karte hain
> pyar se unhe good morning...
> Woh aise ghoor ke dekti hain
> jaise 0 errors aur 5 warning...
> Aisa bhi nahin hai ke
> I don't like your face...
> Par dil ke storage mein
> No more disk space...
> Ghar se jab tum nikale
> pehen ke reshmi gown...
> Jaane kitne dilon ka
> ho gaya Server down...
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
NEW TECH Experience
Today I got chance to experience something new. I herd about this for a long but never got a chance to experience it. I have gone for one seminar which was with Video Conferencing people from Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbie and Calcutta attending it at the same time.
IITF - Indian International Trade Fair
It's more then 15 year since when I'm regularly vi sting IITF. It always has some kind of attraction I don't know what it. I start going there with my friends when I was studying then with my sis and now after marriage going with my husband he is I must say he was not actually interested in all this but now he also like going there. In last three years once I lost my wallet which was full of money and my credit and debit cards then once my sis lost his purse then also we lost quite huge money but still all this doesn't stooped me going there. It's always fun going there. Quite difficult to go through all the stalls in one day and more difficult is to get time and somebody to go there more then one day so once you go wait for another year to go again................... but still it's fun going there and watching those new items new products that crowd and all that.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Luv v/s Marriage
I read this some where and liked it put it here
Love is holding hands in the street.
Marriage is holding arguments in the street.
Love is dinner for 2 in your favorite restaurant.
Marriage is a take home packet.
Love is cuddling on a sofa.
Marriage is one of them sleeping on a sofa.
Love is talking about having children.
Marriage is talking about getting away from children.
Love is going to bed early.
Marriage is going to sleep early.
Love is a romantic drive.
Marriage is arrive on tops curvy tarmac.
Love is losing your appetite.
Marriage is losing your figure.
Love is sweet nothing in the ear.
Marriage is sweet nothing in the bank.
Tv has no place in love.
Marriage is a fight for remote control.
Love is 1 drink and 2 straws.
Marriage is "Don't you think you've had enough!"
Conclusion: "Love is blind”, Marriage is an “Eye Opener"
Love is holding hands in the street.
Marriage is holding arguments in the street.
Love is dinner for 2 in your favorite restaurant.
Marriage is a take home packet.
Love is cuddling on a sofa.
Marriage is one of them sleeping on a sofa.
Love is talking about having children.
Marriage is talking about getting away from children.
Love is going to bed early.
Marriage is going to sleep early.
Love is a romantic drive.
Marriage is arrive on tops curvy tarmac.
Love is losing your appetite.
Marriage is losing your figure.
Love is sweet nothing in the ear.
Marriage is sweet nothing in the bank.
Tv has no place in love.
Marriage is a fight for remote control.
Love is 1 drink and 2 straws.
Marriage is "Don't you think you've had enough!"
Conclusion: "Love is blind”, Marriage is an “Eye Opener"
Thursday, November 15, 2007
My Visit To Jaipur
On diwali holidays got chance to visit to the Jaipur, this is my second chance to visit to Jaipur. In 2005 on holi also I got chance to be there in Jaipur. It's just a co-incidence that when I go there it's Sunday and not able to get chance to see anything there..........chalo next time ke liye bhee kuch chodana chahiye.
Shree Durga Saptshati
here is the link to download Durga Saptashti of Geeta Press, Gorakhpur
http://www.gitapress.org/books/paath/866/Durga_Saptashati.pdf
http://www.gitapress.org/books/paath/866/Durga_Saptashati.pdf
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Something Very Unique I have seen
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ओम रुद्र्कः पर (OM ON RUDHRAKSH)
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त्रिशूल रुद्र्कः पर (TRISHUL ON RUDHRAKSH)
Thursday, August 16, 2007
My Trip To Varanasi
once again Lord Shiva give me chance to visit to the holy city Banras/Kashi/Varanasi. It was really nice to spend two days there with whole family.
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(Ganga Maa, Naav aur Naavwale)
कितना बदल गया है बनारस जब पहली बार मौका मिला था वहा जाना का पापा के साथ और अब हम लोग गए पापा की आख़री इच्छा पुरी करने. तब के बनारस और विश्वनाथ मंदिर में और अब में बहुत फर्क आ गया है. पहले मंदिर में जाते ही सब भूल गया था एक आजीब शांति एक आजीब सुख था तब मगर अब एसा कुछ नही था. शायाद १२ - १५ साल भी हो गए है और फिर लोगो ने अब एस जगह को भी थो कॉमर्शियल टूरिस्ट स्पॉट बना दिया है, फिर भी काशी की धरती मैं अभी भी कुछ तो है जो मंतर मग्ध कर देता है ;
Here some pictures from this trip :
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(Ganga Maa, Naav aur Naavwale)
Saturday, July 7, 2007
Friday, June 22, 2007
SPAM MAILS
I don't no what the fun people having by sending these mails to make fool of others. I am the current victim of this. I’m using internet for last more then 10 years and first time this happened with me, I never opened such mails but I don't why this time I believe on this and keep replying the why that foolish person want me to do it. I got mail by the name of British Lottery and believed that and they make a fool of me for more then 3 days. Still I thank god that I may save from some loss.
शुक्र है भगवन का.
To all my friends who reading this experience of mine be aware of this, and don’t believe in such mails.
शुक्र है भगवन का.
To all my friends who reading this experience of mine be aware of this, and don’t believe in such mails.
But as someone said "Every Problem has Gift in its Hand” I do get the gift of it, so at end I’m happy by what all happened.
Monday, June 18, 2007
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