Srinivas Padma: Personal Musings on Life, Growth, and Connections

Beyonce new hit Irreplaceable is the kind of song that stays lodged in your brain, says KELEFA SANNEH If you go down to your local record shop today and buy a copy of the recent Beyoncé album, B’Day, you might notice a sticker on the cover, advertising the contents. “Includes Deja Vu featuring JayZ,” it says. Also: “Ring the Alarm And: Bonus Track: Listen.” There is no indication that the album includes one of the year’s best (and maybe biggest) pop songs. No warning that, after listening to track nine, you may find a silly little catchphrase — “To the left, to the left” — lodged in your brain. In other words, there is no mention of a fast-rising hit called Irreplaceable, which might just be the greatest... Well, let’s not get carried away. But let’s acknowledge that this is precisely the kind of song that makes it easy to get carried away. The outdated sticker is proof that a lot has changed since September, when Beyoncé’s second album was released, a day after her 25th birthday. It w...

Sourav Ganguly was named in the 16member squad for the threeTest series against South Africa starting from December 15, here on Thursday. With the Indian team barely enduring a baptism by fire in South Africa, the selectors had no choice but to strengthen the batting line-up. Out went Suresh Raina, Mohammad Kaif and Dinesh Mongia and in came the tried and tested — Ganguly and V.V.S Laxman. Laxman will not only carry the load of batting but also of vicecaptaincy on this tough tour. Ganguly’s name was in the air ahead of the selection committee’s meeting that was shifted from Mumbai to Delhi as BCCI president Sharad Pawar was in the national capital, busy with the ongoing Parliament session. “Our batsmen have not played well. We need experi enced players,” said selection committee chairman Dilip Vengsarkar. “Our senior players have performed reasonably well. Our bench strength is not good but the experience of Ganguly and Laxman should come in handy on the pacy wickets.” Laxman being thr...

3 KILLED, CURFEW IN SOME TOWNS(Nashik-Maharashtra) ¦ AMBEDKAR STATUE DESECRATION IS CAUSE Three persons were killed, two of them in police firing in Osmanabad and Nashik, and curfew was imposed in four areas across Maharashtra as violent mobs belonging to different factions of the original Republican Party of India went on the rampage, protesting against the desecration of a statue of Dr B.R. Ambedkar in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh. Mumbai bore the brunt of the anger of the dalits as mobs stoned buses on the highway and roamed the streets, moving southwards from the eastern and western suburbs to the central part of Mumbai city, asking shops to down their shutters and stopping trains in some areas. The mobs did not spare the stately train Deccan Queen, which was coming from Pune. Near Ulhasnagar they torched five carriages of the train. Eyewitnesses said they asked the people to get off the train before setting it on fire. Many dalit leaders were shocked at the intensity of the violence. Nam...

Cellphone is bringing economic clout and profit to poor laborers in India For less than a penny a minute -- the world's cheapest cellphone call rates -- farmers in remote areas can check prices for their produce. They call around to local markets to find the best deal. They also track global trends using cellphone-based Internet services that show the price of pumpkins or bananas in London or Chicago. By Kevin Sullivan Short Story: Babu Rajan pointed off the starboard bow and shouted: "There! There!" In choppy, gray seas four miles from shore near India's tropical southern tip, Rajan spotted the tinselly sparkle of a school of sardines. He ordered his three dozen crewmen to quickly drop their five-ton net overboard. Within five minutes, the cellphone hanging around his neck rang. "Hallo!" he shouted, struggling to hear over the big diesel engines of his 74-foot boat, Andavan. "Medium sized! Medium sized!" he said, estimating the haul for a wholesal...

MORE STUDENTS ARE OPTING TO PURSUE TECHNOLOGICAL RESEARCH AND FASHION DESIGNING IN ITALY. WE LOOK AT WHY ITALY IS CONSIDERED ONE OF THE HOTSPOT STUDY DESTINATIONS OF YOUNGSTERS TODAY 2007 HAS BEEN DECLARED AS THE YEAR OF ITALY BY INDIA, AND THERE ARE PROSPECTS OF EXCHANGE PROGRAMMES OPENING UP BETWEEN MANAGEMENT INSTITUTIONS LIKE THE IIMS.. I n the last couple of years, Italy has become one of the most sought after study destinations by Indian students. Italy ranks as one of the eight most industralised countries in the world and promises much more than internationally recognised education, along with opportunities to study Italian and experience one of the fashion capitals of the world. Some of the oldest universities in Italy have alumni who were pioneers in the fields of medicine and architecture. For example, University of Bologna had names such as Dante Aligheri and Nicolaus Copernicus, studying at the university while the University of Pisa had noted physicist and astronomer, Gal...

By SHAMIK CHAKRABARTY Kolkata Sourav Ganguly on Wednesday stepped down as Bengal captain to pave the way for his expected return to the Indian Test squad. Speculation is rife about Ganguly’s imminent comeback and a sudden shift of venue for the selection committee meeting, due on Thursday, has added grist to the mill. The team for the South Africa Test series was to be picked in Mumbai on Thursday, but the venue has now been changed to New Delhi. This is to enable the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, Mr Sharad Pawar, to interact with the Dilip Vengsarkar-led selection committee. A BCCI directive on the former India captain appears to be on the cards. Ganguly’s chances have also brightened after coach Greg Chappell’s reported remarks that he wouldn’t mind if the Bengal left-hander was considered for the Test squad. Chappell, in any case, is not in a position to call the shots against the backdrop of a dismal tour so far. It is learnt that the majority of selectors...

IF YOU ARE BETWEEN 20 AND 40 AND HAVE A SEDENTARY JOB IN FRONT OF THE COMPUTER, YOU ARE A GOOD CANDIDATE FOR LOWER BACK PROBLEMS - HYDERABAD: A few years back, lower back problems could have been termed rare, however today it’s become as common as the common cold. If doctors are to be believed almost 95 per cent of the population suffers from low back pain at some point in their life. Says Dr Surya Prakash, an orthopedic surgeon, “Almost 50 per cent of my outpatient turn up has this complaint. Most are in the age group of 20 to 40.” While most often people tend to neglect such pain, they are advised not to, for it could get serious, resulting in sciatica (slipped disc), spondylolysis or spondilolythesis. That’s exactly what happened to Vinai Rajaram, a research scholar, whose work in the lab involved sitting at one place for long hours, studying samples and carrying out experiments. “Eariler I thought it was normal back pain and neglected it. I would sit at one place for 5-6 hours at a...

Looks like Nokia's announced their new E60, E61, and E70 3G (WCDMA) phones with WiFi and mobile mail targeting mobile business users (yes, it's got GoodLink, Nokia Business Center, Seven Always-On, Visto Mobile, and BlackBerry Connect support). All the Series 60 Es run on Symbian OS 9.1 and will support advanced voice services such as Push-To-Talk and SIP allowing companies to integrate these phones into their Avaya or Cisco IP PBX (think 4-digit dialing and assisted call answering). The E60 candybar is optimized for voice and targets GSM 900 / 1800 / 1900 and WCDMA2100 networks while the E61 takes a shot off the Motorola Q's bow and includes all the IP telephony functions but is optimized for mobile email and operates in quad-band GSM and WCDMA 2100 networks. The E70 is their enterprise all-in-one messaging device and will be released in two flavas: one for Europe and Asia and another for the Americas. Available in the first quarter of 2006 worldwide priced between €350 an...

There has been quite a buzz about Hrithik Roshan’s appearance and his negative role in Dhoom 2. But the Krrish actor says that he doesn’t see his character, Aryan, as negative. “He is always on the wrong side of the law. My character, Aryan, is a guy who has this secret mission to rid the world of all objects of desire that give rise to greed and dirty politics.” H r i t h i k ’s character believes gold and diamonds create greed and come in the way of true compassion, so he steals them. “So I don’t really see him as a vil lain. However, one really doesn’t know what he does with all the things that he steals in the film. His modus operandi is unique because he steals with such skill that it really makes you want to be like him,” says Hrithik. About his look in Dhoom 2, Hrithik says that the makeup artists from London completely transformed him. “They were truly people with a magic wand. It was exciting to try out these different disguises. Aryan is very good at what he does, but he’s an...

London: British-born Preeti Desai has become the first person of Indian origin to win the Miss Great Britain title replacing original winner Danielle Lloyd after she was stripped off the award for reportedly dating judge Teddy Sheringham and agreeing to pose for Playboy magazine. The 25-year-old, from Guisborough, North Yorks will now represent Britain in the Miss Universe beauty pageant. Preeti’s family — mother Hema, father Jitu, and sister Anjlee are ecstatic at her win, according to the Sun newspaper. Preeti gave all credit to her mum, who is recovering, from a serious illness. “When she was crowned Miss Great Britain she rang to tell me and said, ‘The crown is for you.’ I burst into tears. I felt as if I won that crown. I felt as if I am Miss Great Britain,” Hema said.

Simon Winder London: Half a cen tury after his invention, having now outlived his creator by more than 40 years, James Bond has taken on an almost religious role in our lives, miraculously reincarnating and retooling. His arrival in multiplexes in his fresh, blond avatar, Daniel Craig, adds to this mystic atmosphere. The film, Casino Royale, is a remake based on the first of Ian Fleming’s Bond books: an attempt to return the character to his roots, a fresh beginning after the increasingly witless Pierce Brosnan years. In astrological terms, this is the equivalent of several planets or suns or whatever being perfectly aligned. Will Bond’s latest rebirth usher in some new era in our history? The comparison is far from facetious. Like all cults, the Bond sect has gained strength through a constant rain of setbacks and humiliations. The wild success of the books and the initial 1960s films created the range of texts against which all later experience has been judged. Ian Fleming and Sean C...

Kylie Minogue dazzled an adoring homeland crowd on Saturday in the diva’s triumphant first foray onto the stage since she discovered 18 months ago that she had breast cancer. “Good evening, Sydney!” were the Australian’s first words as she rose on a platform from the centre of the stage. “How are you feeling tonight?” she asked the cheering crowd. The 38-year-old Grammy winner’s performance before a sell-out crowd of 10,000 was the much-anticipated comeback from her shock diagnosis in May last year, just days before the Australian leg of “The Showgirl Tour” was set to begin. Minogue had a successful surgery in her hometown of Melbourne and underwent chemotherapy in Paris, where her French actor-boyfriend, Olivier Martinez has a home. During her recovery, she wrote a children’s book, The Showgirl Princess and launched her own perfume, Darling. The former soap opera teen star wore a pink feathered headdress and flowing gown by designer John Galliano to kick off her renamed “Showgirl Home...

It’s just a myth that that some people look good even in sackcloth. Just check out how terrible the otherwise gorgeous Angelina Jolie is looking in this drab ensemble. It just goes to show that even if you are blessed with stunning good looks you still have to make an effort and dress well. So get into the habit of being neatly turned out at all times.

CHRISTINA FRANCIS HYDERABAD You can believe it or not, but if jeans are your second skin, unfailingly updated every season, you are making a huge contribution to environmental pollution. According to a recent report in Slate, large amounts of carbon dioxide emitting chemicals and fertilisers are used to produce cotton clothes, particu larly jeans. The report revealed that ‘to produce one pair of regular cotton jeans it takes threequarters of a pound of fertilisers and pesticides’. Seen this way, your jeans are not as harmless as the look. So does that mean that ecofriendly youth will ditch their denims? “No way. I’ll never give up jeans,” exclaims 20-year-old Divya Bhandari, an engineering student. “If I had to remove all my jeans, I’ll have a totally non-functional wardrobe,” she says. Divya points out that most young sters are totally dependent on their jeans, which have become “365-days-a-year clothing,” because they can be worn both as casual and for mal wear. In fact, many youngst...

By MARIA SANMINIATELLI Bracciano, Italy: Officially, they got married in Los Angeles, but the spectacle of the wedding between Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes was here, in a 15th-century castle that evoked fairy tales and lit up with red, white and green fireworks for a cheering, celebrity-laden crowd . There were fireworks inside, too, a “never-ending kiss” between the betrothed after they exchanged vows on Saturday. The kiss lasted so long it caused guests to shout “stop, stop!” said Giorgio Armani, who attended the wedding and designed the outfits of the bride, the groom and their baby, Suri. The ceremony was a lavish apex to perhaps the celebrity world’s most closely watched relationship, proclaimed with Cruise’s leap on Oprah Winfrey’s couch, bestowed with the nickname “TomKat” and raised to a new level seven months ago when Holmes gave birth to their daughter.

Paris: Cyprus pro duced the landmark performance of Wednesday’s batch of Euro 2008 qualifiers when the Mediterranean minnows held mighty Germany to a 1-1 draw in Nicosia. Captain Michael Ballack gave Germany a 15 minute lead but Cyprus, a yawning 73 rungs below them on Fifa’s world rankings, fought back courageously with Yiannakis Okkas’ first-time volley from the edge of the area just before the break earning them a deserved share of the spoils. Despite squandering a forecast three points Germany at least left Cyprus with the consolation of moving top of Group D ahead of the Czech Republic on goal dif ference. Cyprus are placed fourth with in fifth the Republic of Ireland who bade farewell to their creaking stadium at Lansdowne Road with a 5-0 rout over San Marino. Germany coach Joachim Low accepted the result was not what he had expected. “It’s obvious we are not pleased. This was a tough and at times physical games,” he said. However, he did concede that it was a “fair result” and w...

Deccan Chronicle: SHAUKAT H. MOHAMMED If you think that the mails you have seen sending or forwarding e-mails using Yahoo! of Gmail or other free Web-based mail cannot be traced, think again. Each and every mail can be tracked back and you could be in a world of hurt if you have forwarded sensitive stuff, or vulgar stuff for that matter. The following case should illustrate just how careful you need to be with your emailing habits. Admittedly this has happened, is happening, in the United States, but it is equally germane anywhere around the world . First, some quick facts of the case: A former employee, let’s call him Mr. X, of Source Media, which publishes financial market information, has been arrested and charged for reading confidential e-mails about pending personnel moves and for sending e-mail messages to the affected employees, tipping them off that their jobs were in jeopardy. Mr X had been director of information technology at Source Media, which employs over 1,000 people, b...

Hyderbad: United in action we rise, Divided we fall... No Multiplex (PVR Cinemas), No coffee day, No Barista, No S.L.V hotel, No Adigas hotel, No thetares... (You know where to go and where not to go after reading this mail...) between 16-Nov-2006 and 15-Dec-2006. Its not just a thought. How many of you are ready to follow this? Real Estate price hike is known open robbery from IT guys by brokers / whoever it is and it's not only Flats / Real Estate, IT guys undergo open robbery from all rich shop owners / a person who wanted to become rich as fast as possible... The salary whatever we get, it's our hard-earned money, most of the times sitting in the night, away from family functions, friends, etc...but all our money or most of the money are going to someone who just takes advantage of our stressful life (both mentally and physically) and our new western life style. I do not find anything wrong in having a US / UK life style, but many open thieves (starting from Ministers to ...

By VALENTINE WILSON Hyderabad B. Manoj Kumar and Md Shaibaz Tumbi of St Peter’s High School broke Sachin Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli’s world record stand of 664 runs when they hammered triple hundreds and were involved in an unbroken opening partnership of 721 runs in the Hyderabad Cricket Association’s under-13 cricket league championship at the Parade Grounds on Wednesday. It was a massacre of the innocents as Manoj (320) and Shaibaz (324) went on a rampage sending the St Phillips High School bowlers to all parts of the ground to help their school register a massive 700-run victory. “I dedicate the triple hundred to Allah, my coaches, parents, brothers and sisters and particularly my driver Vijay Sharma, who sincerely drops and picks me up from practice everyday,” said Shaibaz, whose highest score had been 65 so far. Manoj said he was “thrilled to have broken my idol Sachin Tendulkar and elegant batsman Vinod Kambli’s record.” “I am ambitious but I did not think that I would get such ...

Kylie Minogue was forced to pull out of a performance with U2 due to exhaustion. The diminutive pop princess, who has beaten breast cancer, after being diagnosed with the illness in May 2005, was due to join the Irish rockers on stage on Monday as a thank you for frontman Bono performing a duet with her on the second night of her resumed “Showgirl Homecoming” tour in Sydney. However, Kylie, who is still not fully fit following an intensive programme of chemotherapy, had underestimated just how physically demanding the two-and-a-half-hour performances would be and was forced to grudgingly cancel her appearance. A source told Britain’s The Sun newspaper, “Kylie called Bono to explain that she had worn herself out. She is really feeling the physical effects of her return to the stage. He told her to spend Monday resting, get her energy levels fully restored and relax. It wasn’t a problem at all. Everyone realises Kylie is putting herself through the mill for the tour.” Kylie’s tour has ch...

By JUSTIN POPE New York Times Sevice: Students studying overseas increases The number of U.S. students studying abroad rose 8 percent in 2005. A merican college students are becoming more adventure some as they study abroad, showing less interest in English-speaking destinations such as Great Britain and Australia and more in such alternatives as China, India, Argentina and Brazil. Britain remained the most popular study destination last year, according to annual figures due for release on Monday by the Institute of International Education, followed by Italy, Spain and France. But the number of US students studying in Britain and Australia declined slightly, even as the number of American students abroad rose 8 per cent overall to 205,983 in 2005. The growth came in nonEnglish-speaking European countries and in Asia, which still attracts lower numbers overall but is growing rapidly. China is now the eighth most popular destination for American students, attracting ne...

With the launch of a new online application unveiled by Microsoft, users will be able to “fly” over cities and in between buildings just like they do in virtual reality environments. Known as Virtual Earth 3D, this new technology lets users view a three-dimensional map of, initially, 15 American cities when they use “Live Search”, Newsweek magazine reported in its latest issue. With the upgraded Virtual Earth 3D, Microsoft has edged ahead of Google in at least one aspect of the race to bring immersive maps to the Internet: it has added a missing piece — photorealistic buildings that sprout from the ground and evoke the lifelike but illusory world of The Matrix, the magazine said. For now, it’s merely a novel way to spend some time. But if Microsoft continues to add new cities and improves an already expensive project, the 3D Web could become a carbon copy of the real world and a powerful new platform on which to blend advertising, social networks, search and e-commerce, the report sai...

A three year-old son of the Indian head of global software giant Adobe was kidnapped in broad daylight from outside his residence at Sector 15 in Noida, a satellite town adjoining New Delhi, by two motorcycle-borne criminals on Monday morning. A senior police officer said that Anant Gupta had come out of his house in the upmarket Sector 15 locality to board a bus to go to school with his maid Seema at about 8.30 in the morning. His father, Naresh Gupta, the CEO of Adobe India, is now out of the country, on a business trip to the United States. He is expected back here on Tuesday. The police said that Seema was taking the child to the school bus stop when two young men on a motorcycle, with their faces hidden by masks, came up from behind and asked Anant something. In the meantime, they also attempted to snatch the child from Seema’s hand, but could not do so because the maid had gripped the child’s hand strongly. When this failed, the pillion-rider held Anant’s hand tightly and the oth...

When it comes to styling their hair, men tend to take the safest route possible and avoid experimentation. The good news is that you can look stunning with your signature style if you make these minor changes to your hairstyle. Thankfully, for men, internationally hairstyle trends are moving towards the classy cuts that always suited men. CLASSIC CUTS: Think manly, macho. Think George Clooney, Amitabh Bachchan and Pierce Brosnan. A clean cut with neat styling is big. MID-LENGTH HAIR: Bordering between long and short, this look is sported by Hrithik in Dhoom II. Just enough length to make your hair look a little messy and short enough so that it’s doesn’t extend beyond the nape of the neck. Note the bangs that he sports in this picture. ABSOLUTE NO-NOS ¦ The rat tail sported by SRK for a while is totally passe. ¦ Mushroom cut. Even Leonardo Di Caprio is going for a new look, so there’s no excuse for you to sport this ancient look. ¦ Cover-ups. If you are bald ing, do it naturally like A...

Scientists conduct lab experiments based on conditions in Titan’s atmosphere measured last year by Huygens probe Will Dunham Washington : Billions of years ago, Earth may have been shrouded in a blanket of atmospheric haze like that seen on Saturn’s moon Titan, providing organic material that nourished our planet’s earliest life forms, researchers said on Monday. Some scientists look to Titan as a model for what early Earth’s atmosphere may have looked like. They think Titan’s atmosphere, packed with organic aerosol particles created when sunlight reacts with methane gas, may offer clues about Earth’s climate when primitive organisms were first arising 3.6 billion years ago. University of Colorado scientist Margaret Tolbert and her colleagues conducted lab experiments based on conditions in Titan’s atmosphere measured last year by the Huygens space probe. They irradiated methane gas with an ultraviolet lamp, then mixed in carbon dioxide to see whether conditions that may have existed e...

Electrical or electromagnetic devices have come into vogue among migraine researchers Amanda Schaffer In ancient Rome, patients with unbearable head pain were sometimes treated with jolts from the electricity-producing black torpedo fish, or electric ray. Electric fish have long disappeared from the medical armamentarium. But recently, electrical or electromagnetic devices that hark back to the head-zapping torpedo fish have come into vogue among the country’s prominent migraine researchers. Two different kinds of stimulatory devices are now in large-scale clinical trials for possible use in patients with the most severe migraine cases. The the two kinds of stimulatory approaches are occipital nerve stimulation, or ONS, and transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS. In occipital nerve stimulation, a pacemakerlike device is connected to electrodes placed at the back of the head just under the skin. Electrical current is delivered through these electrodes, with the goal of inhibiting or ...

India’s highest-paid actor shoots in Pune for Rs 60-cr Sivaji —The Boss Rajaneesh Vilakudy: Cameras are rolling in Pune. Weeks after a Hollywood unit picked and camouflaged it as Karachi for the film ‘A Mighty Heart’, Rajinikanth, India’s highest paid actor, is shooting in the city for his latest film ‘Sivaji - The Boss’. The Rs 60-crore film, directed by ace director Shankar, is said to be the costliest Tamil movie ever made. Sources very close to the production unit said they would shoot in Pune for two days. Previously, they had shot in Panchgani, Satara and Vai village for a week. It is Pune’s calmness that has brought the production unit to the city. Sources said, “It is a peaceful city, yet cosmopolitan in nature. And we can’t shoot a Rajinikanth movie in Chennai or in other parts of Tamil Nadu. It will be a nightmare. That is why we have selected Pune and other parts of Maharashtra. The Vai village near Satara is one of the most beautiful places.” Shankar, who shoots his picture...

The city is considering a proposal to separate anatomy from gender: Damien Cave, New York: New York City is moving ahead with a plan to let people change the sex on their birth certificate even if they have not had sex-change surgery. Under the rule being considered by the city’s board of health, which is likely to be adopted soon, people born in the city would be able to change the sex on their birth certificates by providing affidavits from a doctor and a mental health professional laying out why their patients should be considered members of the opposite sex, and asserting that the change would be permanent. Applicants would have to have changed their name and shown that they had lived in their adopted gender for at least two years, but there would be no explicit medical requirements. “Surgery versus non-surgery can be arbitrary,” said Thomas R Frieden, health commissioner. “It’s the permanence of the transition that matters.” The new rule would put New York at the forefront of eff...