DNA tests to confirm Alfie Patten's paternity

The latest developments in the case of Alfie Patten who hit the headlines last week by becoming father at 13 years age is that two other teenagers claimed that they could be father of Maisie Roxanne, the week-old infant baby Alfie Patten and Chantelle Steadman. However, Chantelle rubbished away the claims of the other boys saying Alfie is the only boyfriend she shared bed with. Chantelle was also reported of saying, "cruel things have been said but I am just trying to look after my baby and ignore them."

Penny Steadman, mother of Chantelle, said that she had never seen her 15yo so upset and dismissed the claims that she is intimate with several boys. Obviously, Pattens’ are disturbed with claims of paternity about Maisie Roxanne, and the only resolve for the issue is DNA test and Nicola Patten agrees for the DNA tests to confirm Alfie’s paternity

Amidst rumors that the two British tabloids The Sun and The People paid huge 5-figure money to the Pattens' The Press Complaints Commission announced that its on a mission to set up a commission which will enquire about the entire issue and check if the two newspapers have violated the industry code. The Press Complaints Commission does allow violation of code for certain issues of public interest.

The issue though has raised so many worrying questions about the modern society, in particular, its repurcussions on growing kids.

Should the DNA tests confirm paternity of Alfie Patten, the boy will become youngest father in Britain, but mankind in its entirety will hang their heads down in shame!

Sami Labs Utsav 2009: My V Day dayout!

When the organizers of Sami Labs Ltd Utsav 2009, approached me with a request to be one of the judges for their inter-unit competitions, I had one more reason to smile. Beating recession during turbulent weather like this and celebrating company day is something amazing, and to be a part of such an event will be great I thought. I gladly obliged to be one.

The Sami Labs Utsav 2009 marked with several sports and cultural competitions among their different units. The sports competitions culminated last week though, and I had been part of the one-day cultural fest which they rightly named Sami Labs Utsav 2009. The event fell on the 14th day of February 2009.

Traffic jams at multiple places took the car that picked all 3 of us (all 3 from our DOS Housing colony went as competition and event judges) a little late to the venue and as soon as we occupied the three distinguished seats, the Sami Labs Utsav 2009 began.

Sami Labs Ltd., should take pride in the wonderful and spontaneous MC they had in Mr. Jayaraman (I guess I recall his name right). He started the day’s event with an invocation. He rendered it so well, let me honestly confess, he surely invoked The Almighty, and I could feel presence of The Divine for a while at least inside the auditorium (Its the Bunt’s Sangha on the Vijayanagar Road). After invoking God/s the event kick started with lighting the lamp and Sami Labs Ltd., Board of Directors helped with the proceedings.

The first event we watched had been the Group Song. The participation had been quite enthusiastic with several teams (as I recall Organica, Corporate, Corporate R&D, Edkal, Kunigal, Hyderabad…..so on so forth) group rendering folklores to some spirited patriotic songs. I earnestly waited for the Hyderabad unit’s group singing, but they’d disappointed me. After this event, there had been a small kitkat break (and kitkats were not served but yes we were served some hot coffee and cookies). I looked around the inside of the auditorium, and it’s a huge one jam packed with the staff and is generous enough accommodating about at least 500 members. What impressed me the most is the wonderful acoustics inside.

After the coffee break, it was the solo song and the solo dance events, and there had been a mixture of good and bad performances. What I liked again is that the MCs (and believe me, they are no other than the company's own personnel who looked adept at MCing as well) were so spontaneous and they never allowed monotony to break inside the auditorium, they threw some quiz questions every now and then and the spirit was all the time with the crowd. The solo dance ended with Sami Labs Ltd own MJ performing some cool number. Boy Oh! Boy, he tried to bend every bone( although his costume looked slightly mismatching).

This was followed by a lunch break and we were taken care of very well by the staff there (Did I thank them individually?). Sravanthi, my 5yo told me she’d been having a nice time (she indeed had been trying hard to bias me saying, “Amma! 5 marks for this person and 3 marks to those she felt not all that nice....and of course with her own reasoning).

After lunch, the competitions continued with event being group dance (I liked maza kali choreography, where three people danced or rather mimicked as birds, but god knows why they had to accessorize themselves with flowers around their necks and also they seemed to dance with consciousness) I love to see people dancing to losing…err did you get what I meant?…Losing themselves in the world of dance, enjoying their dance rather than consciously move around.

The group dance was followed by fashion show. I was so apprehensive about this event for obvious reason. I have brought my 5yo kid with me. But it was kind of refreshing and a lovely event that I thoroughly enjoyed having not seen in live ever in my life.

Let me appreciate through this post, the enthusiasm sported by Kunigal team whose theme is simplicity. They all walked the ramp with so much of guts, but other teams were too good for them. Inner light theme did lack clarity, but their costumes and presentation outclassed others. Our obvious choice was the team that represented that theme.

End of the day, my feeling was that Sami Labs personnel are not just research scientists and operators of factory equipment. Nah! These are not mere nerds; they have loads of talent and given an opportunity they might become musicians, and dancers and wonderful event organizers at least Utsav 2009 proves to me so!

Before we left we saw people cheering to the results, and it had been a satisfying and purposeful day out for me and my kid with people of Sami Labs Ltd. I wish and pray that the company grows big generating more and more employment to Indians as well as making a big name for itself in the field of cosmoceuticals and nutraceuticals as well as research. And ah! I ignored to mention that we three judges were sent off with some lovely Sami Labs Ltd Utsav 2009 momentos. We came home with those momentos as well as some good memories!

If you happen to be a Sami Labs Ltd., employee who is reading this post, accept my hi :-)and you people rocked really!

13-year-old Briton, Alfie Patten becomes father

Alfie Patten and Chantelle Steadman with their newborn
(Looks to me like elder brother feeding his younger brother)

Today morning, I woke up to some disturbing news on Times Of India daily. A 13 year old becomes father, said the news. The news piece that featured a picture of the 13yo boy with his girlfriend who is 15 years of age, sent me to tizzy. I know that kids these days are stepping into maturity way sooner than earlier generations. I’ve long discussions with my friends quite often and we almost believe that it’s due to over exposure by media and sadly by over nutrition and chemicals pumped by cheeseburgers and those fried chicken kind of stuff, that children, these days are losing innocence way sooner and started experiencing basic instincts of life sooner than supposed to be(deep sigh).

It became very hard on my part to believe the story. Because the boy, Alfie Patten, in particular looked darn so cute maybe like a 7-8 year-old, so innocent with not even a single pimple popping out on his lovely cheeks. But, yes this 13-year-old whose name is Alfie Patten reported of saying that he will be a good dad and does care to be one. Acting way too big for his age. His girlfriend, Chantelle Steadman, who is just 15 is in a birth suite struggling to breast-feed her baby, Maisie Roxanne, while her peers are enjoying in school playground. What to wish these two father and mother duo Alfie and Chantelle, who left their childhood and embraced parenthood this early in their lives?


Alfie Patten whose face is still baby like holding his baby, Maisie Roxanne

I think Homo sapiens became a sick species by now and looks like mutating to something horrible (we have seen enough of paedophilics and enough of perverts but this is something indigestible). Isn’t this high time for parents, governments and media to take a pledge so we don’t see happening of such disturbing things in future?

Birthday Wishes For My Dearest Friend!

What do I wish you on your birthday?
Do I wish for realization of
your fondest dreams? or
piling up experiences big and small
that can enrich you all in all?

Maybe I cant contain in words what I wanted to wish you! To sum it up I wish that

Every candle put on your cake
galore you with gifts slake
everything you’ve wanted most in your life
may come to you in rife,

I hope and wish that you derive as much pleasure
from the friendship we share as I derive.
I always wished we were born as sisters,
that would have given me chance to know you from the beginning

never mind I’m now looking forward to cherishing the relationship we share
not just for today but for many more birthdays you are going to celebrate!
I'm ever glad that you were born, because you’ve brightened my life in more ways than you know and your contagious smile fill my life with joy than I ever experienced!

Many million happy returns of the day dear!

PS:
I thank Google for it gave me a chance to express my love this way!

Billu: Movie Review

Film: Billu (earlier it had been Billu Barber but now changed to Billu)
Genre: Drama
Cast: Irrfan Khan, Lara Dutta, Shah Rukh Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Deepika Padukone, Priyanka Chopra, Ompuri, Asrani, etc
Director: Priyadarshan
Producer: Shahrukh Khan
Writers: Manisha Korde
Mushtaq Sheikh
Sreenivasan
Duration: 2 hours and 20 minutes
Reviewer's rating: 2.5/5

The film, Billu (Barber is no more in the title) is a scene-to-scene rather frame-to-frame copy of (err…remake) of the original, Kadha Parayambol which is a story of Krishna and Sudama in the modern setting. This was remade as Kuselan in Tamil and it had been a disastrous failure. But that didn’t move Priyadarshan. The man who earlier filmed some memorable flicks such as Virasat had courageously attempted to remake the movie in Hindi which doesn't impress audience for sure.

Irrfan Khan played as Billu Barber in the film and it feels like he is apt for the role. It is learnt that Irrfan learnt the art of haircutting from a street barber and not a hairstylist. No wonder he looked more than natural as Billu the Barber in the film, and the more he commits to his roles the more adorable this guy becomes. The storyline of Billu goes like this: Bilas Rao Pardesi (Irrfan Khan) is a village barber and is called by his villagers as Billu Barber. It’s not all that picture perfect life for Billu, who is married and has two kids. He with his wife Bindiya (played by Lara Dutta) and two kids struggle in day to day life to meet daily necessities. His measly income as fulltime village barber seems just not enough, yet he remains a man of self respect.

Things are not the same forever for Billu. Super Star Sahir Khan (Shah Rukh Khan) comes to his village for a film shoot and Billoo realizes that the super star is none other than his childhood buddy Sahir. This fact changes the image of Billu Barber in the village and he attains popularity overnight. The rich of the village, his kids school headmaster and all of Sahir Khan’s fans want to use Billu to catch a glimpse of the super star, some even willing to help Billu the monetary way and entire village threatening to boycott him from the village as well.

The modern Sudama aka Billu doesn’t use his childhood friendship with Sahir Khan to tide away the financial difficulties, and the modern Krishna aka Sahir Khan is no different either, he being modest and generous to his childhood friend. Priyadarshan doesn’t deviate from the folklore, and we all know it anyway. The narration of the story appears flat with no twists. The emotion-loaded climax is the only respite.

By accepting the role of Bindiya, I thought Lara Dutta started evolving into some serious acting. I’ve also read too much about her de-glamorized natural makeup. I seriously thought she would be perfect Billu’s wife, only to my disappointment. She miserably fails to impress as wife of Billu the barber. Irrfan Khan steals away the show. OMG! He charms a lot by acting with such ease! His body language syncs so perfectly with any role he plays, and you are never bored by a stereotype from him. Maybe, he should not be accepting every other offer and take his talents serious. Roles like Billu can make him a laughing stock sadly. SRK adds glamour quotient to the Billu movie with three sexy babes and item numbers. Its Kareena Kapoor, Deepika Padukone and Priyanka Chopra that add the femme fatale quotient and they are seen in just the item numbers. I liked the song Mar Jaani which features SRK and Kareena. Rest of the songs fail to impress and you keep wondering if it is the same Pritam. In fact, I liked the re-recording more than the songs.

Overall, I sum up Billu movie as an average movie, and if you go to the theaters without too much of expectations you can sit for 140 minutes without too many huhs and ouhs!

Valentine's Day-Celebrate it Lord Krishna Way

This post intends to say one thing to the protestors of Valentine’s Day, members of Sri Rama Sena group. Sari for chaddi will not stop anyone from enjoying a party. There is no harm celebrating love. What is our own vasanthotsav meant for? It’s a celebration of love and didn’t you know about Lord Krishna who advocated only LOVE and its celebration?

Didn’t you see Krishna celebrating love with radha and 16,000 gopikas. Its well depicted in our own temples. Their love is elevated so much so that we’ve been admiring Krishna, the lover.

Krishna’s style of celebrating love is by far the greatest if you know Hinduism in depth, and Hinduism certainly gets a promotion from Lord Krishna’s policy on love. Anyone to discount that? And FYI Krishna and Rama are only incarnations of Lord Vishnu and its only now that Sri Rama Sena group is trying to deface the otherwise peaceful Hinduism per se.

So my dear Sri Rama Sena friends do not over react! This is just not the way to treat pub culture. Learn that if you suppress the desire (going to pubs) it only gets magnified and people will find routes to satiate the same.

Jai Krishna! Just celebrate the Valentines Day and Spread the message of love Lord Krishna style. Have a great time!

AdSense: Optimize and Maximize Your Profits Doing Nothing

AdSense has become a fantastic advertising idea that was conceptualized by Google, the specialist in search engine technology, a few years back. There may be a lot of general advertising ideas inferred later on, but this can be given credit to be something unlikely in nature. The program presents itself with an income opportunity by allowing Google to post text- or image-based advertisement on the websites. It even extends to new website publishers or inexperienced internet marketers the chance to make money.

For Google AdSense publishers, website owners and advertisers, new and old, the click-through-rate or CTR is one of the most important components to make money. The ads are served based on a website’s content that it becomes the advertisers’ effective medium to advertise their products. Your benefit in return is getting paid for each click on the AdSense advertisement; and as this rate increases, the more revenue. It may sound simple, though; but to those who have already screened and sorted out the AdSense “waters,” they will be able to prove that it takes energetic attempt - producing the contents, setting up AdSense, getting the clicks - to be able to bag the dollars into their bank account.

Another important component is optimization, if you really intend to make the best results out of AdSense and to keep visitors coming back to your websites and blogs, make your AdSense link units incorporated perfectly within the overall layout and design of your website. The earnings you gain from the program are entirely contingent on you and your best abilities as AdSense serves targeted ads on the website. So, once it is set up, the flow of revenue is automatic without having to do anything or, perhaps, a little performance analysis and tracking can also raise your profits.

Here are some optimization ideas to properly integrate the AdSense ad blocks more into your website's pages that work wonders:

1. AdSense ad blocks should be strategically located on prominent parts of every page for higher visibility to make them easy for visitors to get to. To make more money, place at least three ad blocks above the fold of the website, some within the web content, or in parts where visitors are used to seeing links.

2. Make the AdSense color palette easier to alter to fit the website’s color outline. It is also important to try on different color combinations and make the links and the text color within the AdSense block the same as the website to make it look as part of the content, and not perceived as a different advertisement.

3. Update your website’s content regularly. AdSense advertisements are mostly likely targeted if the website content is aimed at one specific topic. On top of tweaking the website design, the more interesting the topics are within the AdSense block, the more clicks users would intend to do.

4. Recognize specific keywords and phrases to optimize your website content. Always go for the most sought-after keyword groups.

The rapid rise in popularity of the Internet and the bigger number of visitors received by different websites, online advertising was born. It is the most efficient and economical way of advertising, and AdSense found its perfect hub in the Internet advertising world, and that’s through your websites.

Tata Nano will roll out in March

Tata Nano has not yet rolled out on the Indian roads, but much before it has found a place in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s cheapest car.

According to the company sources, this 1 lakh car is expected to roll out during March 2009, most probably March 03 2009 which is the birth date of Jamshedji Tata, the founder of Tata Group. Initially, Nano car will roll out from the Pantnagar plant. It is also believed that the bookings for the Nano car will start from February end. Pre-booking for Nano car asks you 70% upfront payment. Even with a whopping Rs. 70,000 as upfront the company still expects more than a lakh orders within a weeks’ time. So this is the hype surrounding the small car Nano, in India despite economic slow down, recession, job losses or whatever.

World’s cheapest laptop, the $10 laptop for sure disappointed the netizens, but thankfully Tata Nano lived up to expectations of people. Ask me how Tata Nano will revolutionize India, here are my thoughts:

Tata Nano will soon replace most two wheelers on the roads.

Nano will likely replace even auto rickshaws (as small cab choice).

More and more Nano cars on the road also mean more traffic congestion (meaning we can expect more flyovers and more infrastructure projects…so lot of employment generation and a reason to cheer).

More Nano cars also mean, that even teens will get hands on 4-wheeler driving experience (even if they become patients of attention disorder, co’mon the positivism is that they are able to drive a 4 wheeler despite their education-induced stress...time will say if they run the car on roads or on people).

More Nano cars will also replace public transport buses.

In the long run we will see increasing cases of anxiety sufferers....again our doctors are busy.

Nano cars might also lead to a condition where traffic cops will give up their jobs, but we can see machines controlling traffic. Ah!

All of the Indian cities will find place in Guinness Book of World Records for most road accidents.

Yes, we as Indians, are anyway proud of this metal piece called Tata Nano, the boon (or a bane?) to aam aadmi.

Underage Drinking Awareness Week Kicks off in Delhi by Delhi University and CADD

No drunken driving for over a week, and this is the pledge taken by the students of Delhi University for this Valentine Day. Their pledge is a part of another wonderful initiative by the students and an NGO named Underage Drinking Awareness Week, which is being observed currently (February 8th to 14th) throughout Delhi

The combined initiative between Delhi University and CADD (Campaign Against Drunken Driving) assumes so much significance considering the fact early teen kids have embracing the habit of alcohol consumption and there is abundant research saying the earlier a person starts taking it the longer they continue with the habit.

Assuming the importance of V-Day in our Indian calendar, of late, to celebrate the Valentine Day true to its meaning while staying away from alcohol and pledging against the drunken driving by the students of Delhi University is more than a wonderful gesture.

Several thousands of Delhi youth supported the campaign and CADD hopes to see more youth supporting the movement by the weekend. As part of the campaign students are conducting several activities and programs including signature campaign, drunken driving awareness through street skits, distributing campaign stickers and literature to youth. Hopefully, the Underage Drinking Awareness Week does a world of good to awaken the youth and with law enforcement initiative wanting from the government side, campaigns like CADD and Underage Drinking Awareness Week are good and followable by other universities and even schools throughout India. It's then that we can hope to see the young Indian brigade embracing the message of St. Valentine in the truest sense.

Khadi Saree for every Pink Chaddi-the war between Sri Rama Sena and secularist groups continues..

Last week had been a battering time for Sri Rama Sena group and its chief Pramod Mutalik who bore grunt from all over; the secular groups across India and Karnataka in particular, women groups and even social networking folks online.

Still unperturbed, Sri Rama Sena Chief Mutalik came out public with his plans to disturb the Valentine’s Day 2009 celebrations here. He said his men will spring into action if they find a man and a woman in obscene scenes in public will be forced to marry. He said that his moral cops would carry Mangal Sutras on the big day.

Much to the disappointment, there had been over pour of anger from all sections of the society including senior citizens. And a new campaign called pinkchaddi campaign was launched against moral policing, especially against the Sri Rama Sena who warned people against celebration of Valentine’s Day.

In what is supposedly a hilarious move by the “consortium of pub-going, loose and forward women” a pinkchaddi campaign was launched wherein pink undergarments from all over will be collected and sent as Valentine's Day gift to Pramod Mutalik saab. The consortium remarks that the movement is to show their annoyance for moral policing by Rama Sena and pink under garment will be a symbol of woman’s anger. The movement although kicked off online last Thursday, has now picked up fast on the streets as well.

Obviously, the pinkchaddi campaign irked Pramod Mutalik and his moral hectoring antics continues along the same lines.

In an answer to the pinkchaddi campaign started by a social networking group the Sri Rama Sena Chief said he would return a saree for chaddi as because saree is regarded as symbol of sanskruti and chaddi a symbol of vikruti.

Reiterating on change that is to be brought with the perverted people, Pramod Mutalik says that he is annoyed to see youth being played in the hands of pseudo secularists. As regards to pink chaddi campaign he says that a return of saree for chaddi is perfect to shut the mouths of campaigners. He also said that Sri Rama Sena has no intentions of contesting in the elections and that their motive is to spread word of Hindu culture and its greatness.

$10 laptop launched

So much of media hype about $10 laptop and people and scientific communities have had lot of expectations. Although, the $10 laptop prototype became a laughing stock when it was inaugurated at the abode of Lord Balaji, Tirupathi.

VIT, IISc, IIT, UGC and MHRD are involved in conception and design of the $10 laptop project. The entire world eagerly waited for what is dubbed as the Nano laptop or nanotop, and at the inauguration MHRD disclosed that the price of the laptop came around 20 clams but reassured that it could be brought down to $10 with mass scale manufacturing. But the laptop-like computing device with a 2GB memory did disappoint the so-called netizens.

The nano laptop measured 10 inches by length and 5 inches by width and comes with a hard disk and relevant eBooks and eJournals. People including media were taken aback when a computing device was unveiled saying it’s the $10 laptop. Other details such as screen, storage and processor are kept still a secret by MHRD. However, I still appreciate the efforts. Did you know that this computing device consumes just about 2 watts of energy? Considering the fact that villages are encountered with frequent power cuts, isn’t this an amazing work?

The $10 laptop or nanotop will be one that would bridge the rural and the urban divide at least after a few more tweaks. What makes me feel bad is we have been under utilizing so many resources. In fact, under the government scheme Sarva Siksha Abhiyan all government schools are equipped with computers as well as Internet connectivity. The misery is that there is no knowledgeable staff to educate the kids and so the computers have become as good as junkies. I didn’t want to spew this in ridicule, but our government does poor management of so many resources. The existent equipments itself is enough should they be utilized by sharing and cooperation to bridge the gap between rural and urban divide.

I know the $10 nano laptop is only the start of a big dream and that we can realize it in the real sense to every student with Internet connectivity.

People who are ridiculing (they must be obviously using the high-street laptops and using it for otherwise purposes like games) this $10 laptop endeavor must remember one thing. The main objective of the project is to bring forth an educative laptop that could be afforded by every Indian student, and the laptop is solely for education and not for entertainment and it doesn’t require an AMD or an Intel processors or even a duo core or multi core technology. The project may not have met the expectations, but is definitely one to go in the right direction (after all laptop didn’t come all of a sudden, it came after so many years of desktop) to erase digital ignorance and illiteracy amongst the rural masses. Media should join hands in commending the efforts not pooling ridicule.

I appreciate and applaude the efforts of students who are involved in the project aimed to bring down digital illiteracy in just Rs. 500.

Delinquent kids are not born, they are made by us!

It is sad to know that some schools and teachers still do away with corporal punishment. A news headline in today’s paper says that a boy is beaten to bled by teacher and it is learnt that some teachers and schools are still averse to the idea of giving away with punishment to kids. I am only trying to say that children should be disciplined, but its possible through love and affection and not this kind of treatment.

It came as a shock to me when I heard from a friend of mine that a parent (who also worked as a teacher) disciplines her two kids (one aged 11 years and the other 4) through unimaginable ways. She puts ‘soodu’ (heat a steel ladle and transferring the heat to her child’s skin by touch) and it seems she beats on the tender knuckles of their fingers. And call it coincidence or her fortune; her kids are so disciplined and behave so well. I was answering to some question on a forum recently for a question if it were right to mix girls with boys in a school. How can one think of not mixing girls and boys I wonder?

Do you think delinquent kids are born? They aren’t for sure. They are a result of a malfunctioning home and a society. I see this 12-year-old boy in our colony who is always mistaken for his misbehaving. His parents are in white-collar jobs and he is looked after by himself once he is back from school. The mother locks all rooms but one (god knows for what reasons). He was remarking other day, how it hurts if one’s own mother doesn’t trust one. How true? Why should she lock all of the rooms? She doesn’t get time to educate him on the good and bad, instead spanks when she gets little time.

People in our colony by now came to conclusion that he is a neglected child and I wonder when the parents will realize this. The boy is a kleptomaniac and steals money from people, writes graffiti inside lift, does all crap one can’t imagine a boy of that age could do in fact. He can’t be blamed but only his parents for what he is today. I can only wish that he didn’t become one anti social and threat to society.

Punishment is never a solution to discipline a child.

Brain Damage- Just for laughs

In the hospital, where their family member lay gravely ill, the relatives gathered in the waiting room.

Finally, the doctor came in looking tired and sombre.

'I'm afraid I'm the bearer of bad news,' he said as he surveyed the worried faces. 'The only hope left for your loved one at this time is a brain transplant. It's an experimental procedure, very risky but it is the only hope.

Insurance will cover the procedure, but you will have to pay for the brain yourselves.'
The family members sat silent as they absorbed the news. After a great length of time, someone asked, 'Well, how much does a brain cost?'

The doctor quickly responded, '$5,000 for a male brain, and $200 for a female brain.'

The moment turned awkward. Men in the room tried not to smile, avoiding eye contact with the women, but some actually smirked.

A man unable to control his curiosity, blurted out the question everyone wanted to ask,
'Why is the male brain so much more?'

The doctor smiled at the childish innocence and explained to the entire group, 'It's just standard pricing procedure. We have to mark down the price of the female brains, because they've actually been used.'

Courtesy: Email received one!

We will now see a Millionaire Slumdog

If the industry gossips are to be taken seriously, here’s some news. Danny Boyle (you got him right, the director of Slumdog Millionaire) approached Satyam’s former CEO, B Ramalinga Raju and asked him to play the lead role in his next endeavor titled ‘Millionaire Slumdog’ (for whatever reasons he named it so). And, yes, rumors are that it's about real life story of a Slumdog Millionaire...ah!....What did I say, nah nah...real life story of B Ramalinga Raju.

So, will it be a reverse of what we saw in the storyline of Slumdog Millionaire…a rich jerk ending up behind bars after acting somewhere stupid? Well we need to wait. But their is already so much of a hullabaloo about the term slumdog and wonder if they approve of a title like this with an anti-hero element in the story!

But Ramalinga Raju himself enacting as Ramalinga Raju will be great to watch. I would exclaim a WOW for the chance this man had got inspite of being behind bars! We saw Anil Kapoor quoting “I am delighted that Slumdog Millionaire, which has me in a major role has my own story.”

Back to the former CEO and our own rich jerk Ramalinga Raju, he will strive to win the hearts of women audience, especially in his home state Andhra, and with the sympathy ground who knows he will dare float a political party to have ONLY his community Rajus as party convenors and this and that. Unfortunaltely, Sanjay Dutt wasn’t that smart enough to float something on his own and is seen flirting with 'some ajwadi' party. But yes this man is smarter and he must be dreaming of the same from behind bars.

Childhood and books

Growing up, I as a kid, loved to read everything I found. When I am asked to clean (literally sweep the house with a broom) the front and the backyards, my mother knew that I would take a minimum of 2 hours for the job. I used to sit with every print paper (torn) I found on my way and I used to long for a weekend that’s because I could read more. There was a library close to my home, I would say, just about 200 feet and me and my brother used to wait for a weekend to be there in the library and spend almost the entire evening there (4 pm–7 pm), and even get back few magazines on hire (there used to be membership card for which we needed to pay 2 rupees for an entire year).

In spite of some financial limitations my dad still subscribed to a few good magazines. I thank him in this post for being so kind because he doesn’t know how many memories I have associated with those magazines.

Chandamama used to be one of my favorites with so many stories. I used to get it in my mother tongue and I loved the big serial (princess salvaging kind usually) and I also recall stories from Vikram and Betal series.

Tinkle! Ah! And this had been (to date remains) one of my favorites. I wonder how old the Suppandi must be and wonder how it be if Suppandi becomes wise at all. And how can I forget Shikari Shambu. His picture still remains the same, how sweet? Shambu’s hair never grows bigger or shorter to reveal his eyes. I remember buying the tinkles especially at the Railway Station. My father used to get these for us and some Tamil mags for my mother. Still, we’ve made a big collection of Tinkles and again mom got them all bound into one. I remember enacting a Suppandi story for school annual day and we receivd good applause.

How can I forget the Pancha Tantra stories? I remember when I finished my 6th standard annual exams my parents got me a pile of panchatantra tales. My mother took the books to her office and she had the small booklets bound to one huge big book. I remember counting the left over booklet number once I was done with one. Strangely always used to feel that the book should be read but with still lot left (did you get what I meant?)

Then, I remember subscribing to Bommarillu. Unlike Chandamama Bommarillu is big with a lot more pages, so that used to be quite good and BIG enough for me.

And, then we’ve read so many books of Wisdom. My sister-in-law buys it even now. It’s still the same you know to enrich your wisdom. Makes children and adults awe with its facts. I did notice that Wisdom is on some weight loss recipe, seems like it has cut down a lot of its weight. Again, Wisdom also was bought in Railway Station and we mostly read in during traveling times. Wisdom quotes used to be favorites. I used to get by heart one nice catchy quote and give it as an autograph to friends end of every academic year (makes me smile now!).

Missing all those good ol’ days, today, I’m still a reading buff. I buy Magic Pot to my kid and it’s a fortnightly magazine with wonderful activities to involve small kids and lovely stories. Luttappi is a lively character in MP. I also get Little Words (but guess this is not so abundantly available as Magic Pot). I didn’t subscribe for it but I told the shop wala to keep one aside for me. But if he remembers we would be lucky to get one for the month. It’s again a lovely book for the under 8 age kids. Guess Little Words people should take more care to print it error free. I see a lot of typos and mistakes. There is Mogambiko in this mag which is a lively character. I vote for the activities and stories Little Words has got. The stories in this book are more trendier and you know matches today’s children’s’ imagination. Then, my sil subscribed a magazine named My School. It’s a monthly magazine and priced 20 rupees, but I feel there are hardly any stories (just about 2 of them and they are not quite old moral stories).

Books are such a company in a person’s life, that I love my kid becoming another book lover. If you could afford buy or subscribe one for your kids, they are all worth instead of hitting a mall or sitting in the system with a video game!

Johanna Sigurdardottir becomes first woman PM of Iceland

Iceland selects its former Social Affairs Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir as its new Prime Minister. So what you might wonder. The 66-year-old Johanna Sigurdardottir is also the first woman Prime Minister of the country and also probably first lesbian PM in the modern times at least in Europe.

Johanna Sigurdardottir's sexual orientation is truly a surprise to the so-called conservative European and Asian nations because homosexuals are looked at as demons in few countries and killed in some Arab nations. In fact, the fact doesn't quite stirr so much of excitement in her home country Iceland, like it is doing here in Asia.

I appreciate the liberal thinking of the Iceland voters, they didn't attach too much of an importance to her sexual orientation. It will take hell of a time for countries of Asia and even some parts of Europe to reach to that level of tolerance.

It was about a week back the French parliamentary relations minister came out of his closet and made public about his sexual orientation. He admitted himself to be gay. A political veteran Johanna Sigurdardottir started her life as a flight attendant with the then Icelandair. She; while serving the airlines as stewardess, became an active union organizer and that's where she got her political roots.

She divorced her husband but had 2 sons with him. Johanna Sigurdardottir is having an openly admitted civic relationship with another divorced mother, a playwright, journalist and author Jonina Leosdottir for the past 6 years, from 2002.

Soon after taking in the realms of the Government Johanna Sigurdardottir she promised to try for debt relief for deserving Icelanders and promises to alleviate the housing and the unemployment problems. The country's leading banks nationalized following almost a collapse after million dollar debts and , the country's currency value dipping in with increase in unemployment problem and fall in housing prices drew lot of global attention. Thanks to IMF that stepped in with a $10 billion to salvage every inhabitant of Iceland.

For the 320,000 Icelanders there are many serious problems, and their new PM, Johanna Sigurdardottir's sexual orientation is not worth thinking at all at this point in time.

Australian Open 2009 Men's Singles Winner is Rafael Nadal

It’s always a treat to watch the great tennis warriors Swiss Roger Federer and Spaniard Rafael Nadal fight for supremacy. It was no less than a great Finals match today when the two top seeds sweated out at the Rod Laver Arena to win the Australian Open Men’s Singles trophy. I see that Rafa grew far from any one’s imagination to dethrone Roger Federer from the No.1 position. He is deservedly the numero uno player in Men's Tennis circuit today.

Although beginning of the tournament I had great expectations on some fresh talent including Andy Murray, Tsonga none of them lived to my expectations. I, in fact, had hopes of seeing Monfils somewhere in the top 4 (don’t take me mad, but I believe that this boy will go a long way in Men’s tennis).

While I watched Rafa play fellow Spaniard Verdasco, I almost thought he lost the match to Verdasco. It was mere luck on part of Nadal that he went on to Australian Open finals. Roger Federer entered finals with a hope to win 14th grand slam title and it is their seventh encounter in a final and I was glued to the television saw the 2 tennis rivalries fight out, it was worth every second. The first set was Nadal's (7-5) followed by Federer even out with one set (6-3). Third set was a real feast to my eyes and it was an outstanding play by both fighters never willing to give up. It went to Nadal in a tie breaker (7-6) and the fourth set was a cake walk for Nadal with (6-3) and fifth set saw Federer fight up again, but it was cool nerves of Nadal that help him win the set (6-2)and title. Rafa also becomes first Spaniard ever to win Australian Open.

PS:
To see Roger break down saying 'God! It's killing me' made me cry along for this tennis hero. The fantastic sportsman settled down fast and took mic saying speaking last words in the tournament deservedly belongs to Rafa and he thanked all of those who've been there supporting him. Roger is a true ambassador of tennis and love to see him come to #1 again!

Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza win the Australian Open Mixed Doubles Finals 2009

One more reason for Indian tennis fans to cheer as the Indian duo, Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza becomes first Indian duo to become Australian Open 2009 mixed doubles winners.

An hour back the Rod Laver Arena cheered the two Indians lift the Australian Open 2009 Mixed Doubles Trophy. The unseeded duo drubbed the Israeli-French pair Andy Ram and Nathalie Dechy in straight sets 6-3 and 6-1 to lift the coveted title. Bhupathi and Mirza pair entered the tournament through a wild card and never shown signs of fumble throughout the turnament and this match in particular. They Indian duo have dominated the Israeli-French duo from the beginning and displayed an enviously fiery form. I especially loved the way Sania played in the net almost checking on every ball. No wonder the match did not even last for an hour and the duo clinched the title.

For Mahesh Bhupathi, who missed Australian doubles finals yesterday with partner Mark Knowles, this win must be great relief as it will make him one Indian to have won all four Grand Slams, a record in rarity and will pump up confidence into both of them, especially Sania Mirza who had come to mainstream tennis after string of injuries. This win indeed is the first doubles Grand Slam win for Sania Mirza.

Year 2009 started off very well and Indians have all reasons to cheer. While the Indian cricket team is dominating lankans in Sri Lanka, the Australian Open 2009 sees Yuki Bhambri and Sania-Mahesh pair clinch respective titles. Chak de India

Yuki Bhambri First Indian To Win Australian Open Boys Title

Born on 4th July 1992, into a family that is obsessed by tennis, Yuki Bhambri, the 16-year-old lad from Delhi wins the Australian Open 2009 Boys' title beating German Alexandros-Ferdinandos Georgoudas in straight sets of 6-3 and 6-1. By winning the Junior Grand Slam title, Yuki Bhambri joins the band of Indian Tennis heroes Ramanathan Krishnan, Ramesh Krishnan and also Leander Paes. Top seed Yuki Bhambri won the final match in less than an hour against the unseeded German.

However, Yuki is very fortunate to have it won at 16 years of age, and hopefully if he can continue the form he is in now, he can win for himself one or a couple of more Grand Slam titles this year. He his honing his playing skills at the Nick Bolletieri Tennis Academy, Florida, US. Thanks to his ever encouraging family and the accomplished tennis players Anita Bhambri and Sanaa Bhambri and also his coach Aditya Sachdeva, Yuki got his basics from home from the two sisters and coach. And, to be born into a family that loves and knows about Tennis is a great blessing, acknowledges Yuki.

The right handed player started playing Tennis as young as 6 years of age and he admits he is a big fan of Rafael Nadal. The best part is that Yuki plays much better when he is playing singles. It is also evident from his doubles result at the Australian Open. He, with Taipei partner lost in their Semi Finals match.

After the win, Yuki Bhambri is envisioning to see himself in the men's tennis circuit, but guess he needs to exercise caution as to the matches he will choose to play. He needs to slowly transition to the men's tennis and does need to improve his physique besides honing his tennis skills and will be another Tennis great from India. For now, Yuki Bhambri definitely done us all proud by creating history.