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

By SALIM MIA Dhaka: French superstar footballer Zinedine Zidane delighted thousands of Bangladeshi villagers on Tuesday with an impromptu show of his legendary skills. Zidane was on a visit to the village of Kamar Basulia near the capital Dhaka to meet former beggars who had transformed their lives through tiny loans from Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus’s pioneering Grameen Bank. “He is my hero. I never thought I would see him in my own village. I still cannot believe this is happening,” said 16-year-old schoolboy Zakir Hussain as he watched Zidane play from a tree top. Zidane, who is on a twoday visit to the Muslimmajority country at Yunus’s invitation, was showered with flowers by the villagers. Some 10,000 people turned out to watch him play. “I am completely taken aback,” Zidane, a Muslim, told the private NTV television channel. “I never thought that people living thousands of miles away in small villages here in Bangladesh would know who I am,” he added. But he brushed aside qu...

Vincent Van Quickenborne, Belgian Secretary of State, opened the visa application centre at Churchgate It will take you just 24 hours and a visit to the Visa Felicitation Services (VFS) (India) Private Limited, Stadium House, Churchgate with the right set of documents to get a visa to anywhere in Belgium. The government of Belgium has decided to outsource the administrative services required to facilitate travel and business visa too. In a meeting held on Tuesday the Secretary of State, Vincent Van Quickenborne inaugurated the visa application centre at Stadium House, Churchgate. The Secretary of State who is also the Deputy Prime Minister is accompanying the Belgium Prime Minister and his schema includes inward investment plans from the Indian business community. “"Apart from the diamond industry, Indian companies can also invest in other sectors like pharma and energy. During our meeting with the Indian prime minister, we offered our expertise in newer energy systems," he s...

Robert Levine: Owners of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 game console will soon be able to watch sci-fi epics as well as play them. Microsoft said it would offer movies and episodes of television shows for downloading through its Xbox Live online service in the US from November 22. With the new offerings, Microsoft is joining cable giants and Internet start-ups on the long list of companies hoping to profit from video downloading. But Internetbased services have had trouble getting traction because it can be complex to send a downloaded film to a television screen and frustrating to watch it on the small screen of a computer. Owners of the Xbox have already connected it to a TV and, in most cases, the Net. “What makes this big is that there’s no PC in the middle,” said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at Enderle Group. Microsoft has negotiated the rights to rent or sell more than 1,000 hours of material from CBS, MTV, Paramount, Warner Bros and Turner Broadcasting. The video store will work much li...

Abhishek Bachchan roped in to dance in RGV’s ‘Sholay’ Shubha Shetty-Saha: RAM Gopal Varma’s ‘Sholay’ has yet another glittering star addition. Abhishek Bachchan will be dancing along with Urmila Matondkar to the melody of the famous ‘Mehbooba Mehbooba’. “Abhishek is doing the song. Other details, like his look, have yet to be finalised. He just happened to hear the track recorded by Ganesh Hegde and loved it immensely He got . so excited that he volunteered to perform,” confirms Varma. Helen and Jalal Agha were the original performers in the Ramesh Sippy’s ‘Sholay’. What’s interesting in the new version is that senior Bachchan, who’s playing Gabbar Singh in the remake, will be watching his son and Urmi dance to the song. According to sources, Amitabh will also be dancing towards the end of the song. Senior and junior Bachchan had earlier danced together to ‘Kajra Re’ in ‘Bunty Aur Babli’ and more recently to ‘Soniye’ in ‘Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna’. Both ended up being huge chart-busters....

Actress Nisha Kothari has been chosen to play the role of Basanti in Ram Gopal Varma Ke Sholay . The actress is excited about it and has no qualms that she will be compared to Hema Malini. “There are bound to be comparisons, but my role is completely different from that of Basanti in the original Sholay. I am playing the role of Ghungroo in Ram Gopal Varma Ke Sholay and I will be riding an autorickshaw named Laila. Ghungroo is bold and has loads of attitude. I have a lot of respect for Hemaji and I am glad that I have got an opportunity to perform her role. I would request my audience to give me an opportunity to showcase my talent,” Nisha says. She elaborates about her autorick shaw and says, “Laila is very colourful and whatever money that Ghungroo earns is spent on the interiors of the rickshaw. Laila is decorated with disco lights, perfumes, a music system and picture of goddess Durga.” This is the first time that Nisha will be acting with stalwarts like Amitabh Bachchan, Ajay Dev...

Glenn Chapman, San Francisco: Google is in behind-the-scenes talks with film and music studios trying to make newly acquired video-sharing website YouTube a gold mine, and not a lawsuit-generating black hole. While some analysts questioned the sanity of Google buying YouTube in a 1.65-billion-dollar stock deal, Internet insiders contend that Google is shrewdly manoeuvring on solid ground. “The Internet offers real opportunities for media companies to reach a wider, global audience and to interact more directly with users,” Google said. On the day the online search powerhouse bought superstar start-up YouTube it also announced deals with CBS, Sony, BMG, Vivendi Universal Music and Warner Group to feature their videos on the Internet. A number of studios have contacted Google to explore ways to cash-in on their shows, films or songs becoming Internet sensations. Google can shield itself from lawsuits by taking down copyrighted videos after the owners complain, according to attorney Jason...

Raj Kumar Santoshi was on the look-out for a very big star for the vital role of Ravana for his film Ramayan, so he approached Rajinikanth CHENNAI: According to sources, Raj Kumar Santoshi , who has undertaken the ambitious Rs 100 crore film, Ramayan, has managed a casting coup by roping in superstar Rajinikanth to play the role of Ravana. The bi-lingual recreation of the Ramayan, this film is being produced by K Sera Sera, and has real life couple Ajay Devgan and Kajol playing the lead characters of Rama and Sita. According to sources, Raj Kumar was on the look-out for a very big star for the vital role of Ravana. He went to Chennai recently and met Rajinikanth to see if he’d be interested in doing the role. Rajini was impressed by the offer but said he needed some time to think about it. Though Ravana is commonly depicted as an evil man, in Indian scriptures he is portrayed as a figure of immense moral and physical strength. He is a man of immense penance, learning and devotion to Sh...