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

Luciano Pavarotti , whose vibrant high Cs and ebullient showmanship made him the most beloved and celebrated tenor since Caruso and one of the few opera singers to win crossover fame as a popular superstar, died on Thursday. He was 71. His manager, Terri Robson, said in an email statement that Pavarotti died at his home in Modena, Italy, at 5 am. Pavarotti had been diagnosed with pancreatic can cer in 2006 and underwent further treatment in August. "The Maestro fought a long, tough battle against the pancreatic cancer which eventually took his life. In fitting with the approach that characterized his life and work, he remained positive until finally succumbing to the last stages of his illness," the statement said. Speaking from inside Pavarotti's home, which was guarded by the police, Pavarotti's assistant Edwin Tinoco told Sky TG 24 that Pavarotti's final days had been "tranquil." For serious fans, the unforced beauty ...

As lists go, it is understandable if Shane Warne's top 50 (published by the Times, UK ) is even more subjective than authors generally are when tackling people and events in a large time frame like a long cricket career. The list is also very cheeky, which is quite in keeping with the show boat leg spinner's character. While there could have been only a 50:50 argument over whether Sachin Tendulkar or Brian Lara would head the Victorian's list, his treatment of contemporary Australian greats has made this typically, to invent a word, "Warnesque". Steve Waugh , Test cricket's most successful captain who also won one World Cup for Australia, is rated a lowly No. 26. The "Ice Man" captained Warne in some of his most productive years. Yet, under the surface there must have been such tensions in a team that rolled on like a juggernaut through 16 successive Test wins. The passage of time may heal most fissures. Warne is, however, a different kettle ...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc sharply cut the price of its iPhone on Wednesday and revamped its full iPod line, including adding a model with a touch screen that can browse the Web and buy songs wirelessly. While a $200 cut in the price of the most powerful iPhone to $399 raised some investor concerns about demand, the move and an array of new iPods, such as tiny colored nanos with video screens, left analysts forecasting Apple would stay ahead of the pack among gift-givers at the crucial year-end sales. "It's hard to see how anyone is going to take much ground away from them this holiday," said Jupiter Research analyst Michael Gartenberg. The new touch-screen iPod, from $299, will have many of the features of the iPhone, including the ability to connect to the Internet using Wi-Fi wireless technology, and a mini Web browser that can view YouTube videos and search on Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc sites. The revamped iPod line ranges from $79 ...

Sachin Tendulkar inspired India to beat England by two wickets to win the sixth one-day international at the Oval here on Wednesday and so level the seven-match series 3-3. England's total of 316-6, built around Owais Shah's unbeaten 107 and capped by 30 off the final over from Dimitri Mascarenhas, had seemed commanding, but India's reply got off to a superb start. Sachin Tendulkar , who batted brilliantly, and Sourav Ganguly added 150 for the first wicket, setting up an enthralling finish. Ganguly went for 53, slapping Stuart Broad to Kevin Pietersen at cover, and England were given hope as Paul Collingwood pulled off a superb catch to remove Tendulkar for 94 as he drove uppishly at Monty Panesar. That hope was enhanced when Yuvraj Singh and Rahul Dravid fell cheaply. Gautam Gambhir followed for 47, but MS Dhoni and Robin Uthappa tipped the balance back towards India. Robin Uthappa played a nerveless innings to guide India to a thrilling two-wic...

If you have a cellphone, you know you've done it before: hustled around to get your phone out of a pocket or bag to check the caller ID, only to find out you didn't want to answer anyway. Sony Ericsson and Fossil have teamed up to create a watch that will try and make sure you never do it again. The Sony Ericsson MBW-100 Bluetooth Watch ($245) has the classic, sleek looks that Fossil is known for, along with a small OLED screen that can display caller ID info, a digital time readout (there is a normal analog face on the watch), notification of text messages, and more. The buttons on the side of the watch can ignore calls and control the audio player of your Bluetooth phone . This is a must have accessory for the holidays. Nikon Coolpix S700 Normally, we're not too big on pocket cams — they tend to be light in weight and light on image quality — but that might change with the Nikon Coolpix S700 ($380; Sept. 2007). This new metal-bodied cam boosts image quality with featu...

The Nokia N95 , the only smartphone to come close to rivaling the iPhone , has called in reinforcements in its battle with the Jesus phone. The new Nokia N95 comes in an all-black design with 8GB of built-in storage and a new luminous 2.8-inch QVGA display. Add that to its predecessor's killer features — a 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics , GPS, Wi-Fi, HSDPA and its 2-way slide keyboard — and you have one hell of a device. And you thought the iPhone was expensive . Nokia N81 N-Gage is dead, long live N-Gage. While gaming isn't the Nokia N81 's (430 EUR/$590, Q4 2007) only feature, it is part of the company's revival of the long-dead gaming platform. With features including non-US HSDPA, Wi-Fi, 8GB of storage, a new 3D multimedia menu, and the ability to buy and manage games and music from the Nokia Music Store and N-Gage service, the N81 is a do-it-all pocketable powerhouse.

Are you being haunted by telemarketers while you are busy driving or attending an important conference? Your woes will soon end, thanks to new guidelines of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) which restrict telemarketers from intruding into your private life. TRAI has found that telemarketing is one of the most cost efficient tools for marketing products. Private banks like ICICI are ahead of others in using telemarketing to offer new schemes to customers. To curb unwanted telemarketing calls, TRAI has asked National Informatics Centre (NIC) to create a national "do not call" registry (NDNCregistry) which would contain telephone numbers of subscribers who do not want to receive unsolicited commercial communications. The telecom service providers will have to set up call centres within 15 days after the establishment of the NDNC registry by NIC. However, the NIC and service providers are yet to fall in line though the deadline is September 5, 2007 for settin...