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

Barbara McNair, the pioneering black singer-actress who hosted her own TV variety show and starred with Sidney Poitier in the early 1970s, has died. She was 72. McNair died on Sunday in Los Angeles after a battle with throat cancer, her sister, Jacqueline Gaither, said. “She was very family oriented,” Gaither said. “She was more than just a star or a famous personality. She was a person of her own.” Gaining fame in the 1960s as a nightclub singer, McNair graduated to film and television as opportunities were opening up for black women late in the decade. She made her Hollywood acting debut in 1968 in the film, If He Hollers, Let Him Go. She later starred with Elvis Presley in his 1969 film Change of Habit and as Poitier’s wife in the 1970 film They Call Me MISTER Tibbs! She found movie acting “a more rewarding kind of work than singing,” she told the Washington Post in 1969. “When I’m working in a club, I must go from one song to another rapidly and I don’t have much time to express my

After Rajinikanth turned down the offer to play the powerful character of Ravana in the epic film Ramayan, director Raj Kumar Santhoshi has cast actor Prakash Raj in the role. While Ajay Devgan and Kajol have been selected for the role of Rama and Sita, Rekha will play the key role of Kaikeyi. A visibly thrilled Prakash says that Santhoshi has offered him the role of a lifetime. It is reported that the director will be taking the key members of the cast, which includes Prakash to Australia next month for a special training programme. Meanwhile Prakash Raj is also busy with the release of his home production Mozhi and is happy with the way the film has shaped up. He is certain that Jyotika, who plays a deaf and mute girl in the film, will win a National award for her performance.

Legend has it that the 16th century Rajput ruler Maharana Pratap had survived in exile by eating rotis made of grass. In 2007, Gangaram Gautam , a daily wage labourer in Kanpur , seems so inspired by Maharana Pratap’s example that he eats 2 kg of grass every day, and thrives. “I was around 7 years old when I first ate grass. I liked the taste and gradually increased my intake without letting my family members know about this habit. I had heard about Maharana Pratap eating ghaas ki roti and I thought I would eat it too,” he says. Now, at 41, Gangaram feels “incomplete” unless he has eaten his staple diet of 2 kg of grass. “Initially I would eat normal food along with the grass, but for the past four or five years I have been eating only grass. After eating grass, I walk at a speed of 15 km per hour in order to digest the food,” he explains. Every day, when he feels hungry, Gangaram goes to nearby parks and gardens and “grazes” till he has had his fill. “In the beginning the gardeners

Indian American astronaut Sunita Williams and I nternational Space Station commander Mike Lopez-Alegria went on a seven-hour, 55-minute space walk in the first of an unprecedented three outings in nine days. The duo returned to their home in space through the Quest airlock at 4.39 am on Thursday after working on the reconfiguration of the station’s power and cooling systems, US space agency Nasa said. They are scheduled to take their second space walk February 4 and the third February 8. While flight engineer Williams — wearing an all-white suit — reconfigured electrical connections, Lopez-Alegria — in the lead in a suit with red stripes — worked at the “rats’ nest”, an area near the base of the Z1 Truss with numerous fluid and electrical connections. As the space walkers stood by, the ground control retracted the starboard radiator of the P6 Truss. After retraction, they installed six cable cinches and two winch bars to secure the radiator and then installed a shroud over it. William

MPaper' gives the option of browsing the pages of 11 Indian Leading English newspapers HYDERABAD : A pioneer in providing access to newspapers over the web, city-based Pressmart and IMImobile , on Wednesday launched `mPaper' giving the option of browsing the pages of 11 Indian English newspapers to mobile users on WAP-enabled phones . "Tired of waiting to hear the thud of the daily newspaper in the morning and rushing to open your main door? mPaper is the answer. Browse through the pages of 140 newspapers," said Sanjiv Gupta, CEO, Pressmart, at a press conference here on Wednesday. In just 15 months, Pressmart has a presence in 21 countries, with people in 214 nations accessing newspapers and publications of their choice, with `ePaper' thanks to the initiative. Mr. Gupta said their target in two years was to enable access to a 1,000 newspapers, periodicals and other publications over a mobile phone. IMImobile A.R. Vishwanath, CEO, IMImobile, said that based in Hyd

THAIPUSAM is an annual Hindu festival which draws the largest gathering in multi-racial Malaysia - nearly a million people in 2000. In Kuala Lumpur, the festival is celebrated on a mammoth scale at the Batu Caves temple on the outskirts of the city. It began in 1892, started by early Tamils who migrated to colonial Malaya. Thaipusam falls on a full moon day in the auspicious 10th Tamil month of Thai when the constellation of Pusam , the star of well-being, rises over the eastern horizon. Several hundred devotees spear their cheeks with long, shiny steel rods - often a metre long - and pierce their chests and backs with small, hook-like needles in penance. Tourists watch in awe as metal pierces the skin with hardly any bleeding and, apparently, no pain as the devotee stands in a trance in the dawn light after weeks of rigorous abstinence. Over the years, curious British, American and Australian medical experts have come to observe and speculate. Some think the white ash smeared on the

After being pronounced winner of the British reality show Big Brother, Shilpa Shetty’s walking away with 1,00,000 pounds and plush assignments… Hyderabad Times celebrates her victory FROM an unrecognisable Bollywood celebrity in the UK to winning one of the greatest reality shows, with a racist controversy in between, Shilpa Shetty has certainly come a long way in the 26 days between January 4 till Sunday last. As the debate on whether or not it was a rigged victory continues, she’s certainly struck gold. And we are also talking of a sure leap from Bollywood to Hollywood, if speculations are to be believed. But first a quick recap. Enter Shilpa Shetty On day one, Shilpa became the first ever Indian to be a part of Big Brother, a reality show which was started seven years ago in Britain, cashing in on voyeurism and receiving huge following over the years. “The only thing I really hope to keep is my self-respect and dignity,” said a tense Shilpa before she entered house. Trouble brewing