Amazing Yaana Gupta: From Babuji to hip-hop

 After becoming a hit in modelling and item numbers, Yaana Gupta has decided to try her hand at something new.

Yaana has turned singer, and is all set to release her first English album, an 11-song collection with hip-hop influences. Impressively, the album is entirely self-composed: Yanaa has composed the music, written the lyrics, and sung the vocals.

She credits an early training in instrumentation for making her musically inclined, recalling, "I took eight years of flute classes. In fact, on this album, I play flute on a song called Turbulence."

On another song, she plays guitar, but adds, "I'm not very good at it."

She keeps discussion of the album to a minimum, because it is yet unreleased and untitled; she wants people to listen to it first, before forming opinions. The album will be released in the United Kingdom in a few weeks, and in India after that.

 

 

 

 

 

Amazing house having stairs leading nowhere

Most of us want to get home construction over as soon as possible. We worry about the expense and complain about the inconvenience. But for Sarah Winchester, construction was a way of life. For 38 years, she had construction going 24 hours a day at her home in San Jose, Calif. This was no ordinary construction job, though; the house is an oddball labyrinth of rooms that at one point reached seven stories. It's filled with weird things like stairs and doors that go nowhere. And I haven't even mentioned the ghosts. 

 

Sarah Winchester didn't always want to build a haunted mansion. Born in 1839, Sarah Pardee was one of the social stars of New Haven, Conn. Although she only stood 4 feet 10 inches, she was known for her beauty and her sparkling personality. In 1862, Sarah married William Winchester, who was the heir of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. The company had developed the repeating rifle, a gun that was easy to reload and fired rapidly, at a rate of one shot every three seconds. The gun was used by Northern troops in the Civil War and was also known as "the gun that won the West" [source: Silva].

The young couple started a family in 1866, but their daughter, Annie, died in infancy, a blow that Mrs. Winchester never recovered from. Mr. Winchester died of tuberculosis 15 years later. Distraught over these losses, she visited a medium for spiritual guidance.

The medium told her that the Winchester family had been struck by a terrible curse and was haunted by the ghosts of all those killed by the Winchester rifle. Their spirits were seeking vengeance, and the only way to appease them was to build a house for them. The ghosts had another request: that the house never be completed. Never stop building, the medium told Mrs. Winchester, or you will die. We can't know exactly how she interpreted this advice; she might have thought the spirits would get her if she stopped, or she might have seen continuous construction as a path to eternal life.

 Mrs. Winchester headed west to build a home for herself and her ghosts. She bought a six-room farmhouse on 162 acres in California and set to work building, a task that would occupy her until her death 38 years later. But how did she end up with such a weird house? Why did she construct stairs that went nowhere and doors that opened into walls? Find out on the next page.

Source: HowStuffWorks.com

Bollywood loves IPL

 

SHOT -1, TAKE – 1, BOWLED: SRK with his top brass and Priety flaunting her corporate connections, at a human auction. Looks like a scene from one of their movies, Right? Wrong, we are talking about not so recently formed NEXUS, but cemented recently by a bond called IPL.

 

SHOT-2, TAKE- 3, LBW: Hrithik delicious Roshan to be the face and the body for Mumbai  Indians, Akshay daredevil Kumar to cheer for Delhi daredevils, if SRK plans to raise the temperature and…… the X factor for team Kolkata by showcasing the  S quotient of  Bangla beauties ( read Rani & Bipasha) then how can the style czar Vijay Mallya remain in the state of trance for perpetuity . So to douse off the fire generated by SRK's Angeles', Mallaya the maverick wants to put testosterone    of millions of Indians on test by teasing and treating them with the astounding magnificence of reigning industry sirens  Katrina Kaif and Deepika Padukone.

 

SHOT-3, TAKE-5, CAUGHT & BOWLED: Picture abhi baaki hai bhai. If the first take was a teaser and the second one the promo, well then wait with the baited breath for the complete filum. At the beginning of every match, you may find a certain Ms. Sherawat giving altogether a new meaning to hip-hop movement, or a thunderous thigh Ms. Reddy, taking you to a new high... If that is not enough, wait for a match break where some Dhupia or Sawant would force you to raise your grunt.       

 

No prizes for guessing, what direction we are heading in? We the people of India have always liked to see Bollywood stardust sprinkled on cricket ground and more so on Cricketers. So far this association and liasioning of the 2 most uniting glue was restricted to off field and in-house activities. Every now and then, one could read in gossip columns about a starlet dating a cricketer or a cricketer dumping a wannabee for some new chick on the block. And the best so far, one most promising debutante, leaving two super studs of cricketing world in limbo, tch… pyar tune kya kiya? Ok, so far so good, these little, tiny love affairs (?) would always keep TV channels and yellow (or should we say Blue) journalists in business, but the IPL business has elevated the level of polity, economics and romance involved in the Relationship to a new platform.

 

Yesterday, it was an infatuation between a dreamy girl and a prince, and today, it's  flirtatious advances of a Bollywood Badshah to lure the best cricketing samurais and rake off  magnitude of cricket mazuma. The affair  between the two is getting  more ardent and amorous, coz its about passion, passion for green bills. Definitely Love is in the air, but in form of a sixer, out of boundary. PDAs have replaced grease paint and your screen gods are donning the role of Spin docs, always  at work, working on who could spin more money, a spinner or a pacer.

 

Ok, fine, some of them own teams on the lines of EPL and NBA and may capitalize on their star power and performance of their fighting tigers, but what about the other superheroes,neighbour's envy and owner's pride! No, tune up yourself with the latest: Hrithik Krish Roshan is charging a bomb for appearing in the promo kit of Mumbai Indians team, and for the uninitiated he's being provided with the personal chopper service of Mr. Mukesh Ambani to hop over from Bandra To karjat, just to shoot for the promotional video. Akshay action Kumar has been roped in as an ambassador of Delhi daredevils' team for a sum unknown to us poor lings.

 

One thing is for sure, that this entire hullabaloos shrouding our lives for last quarter of a year, proves and reconfirms our believe that SRK, Priety, Hrithik, Akki and ilk are definitely paanchvi paas se tez. Love cricket,cric-o-dollor but cricketers. Think, if a Hindi news channel wanted to summarize the new love equations developed between the Bollywood and the IPL, what name would they have coined? Inhe(stars) Paise (se) Love.Jai Bollywood, hail IPL.

 

Source: The Hindu

Shoaib can play in IPL: PCB

 

This comes as a major boost to the Kolkata team. The PCB's disciplinary committee has allowed pacer Shoaib Akhtar to play in the IPL as well as in the county cricket. Climbing down from his confrontational stand against the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar on Monday agreed to accept any disciplinary action taken by the board.

 

Akhtar left everyone surprised at the first regular hearing of the appellate tribunal which is hearing his appeal against the five-year ban imposed on him by PCB by agreeing to its disciplinary action.

 

A statement read by Akthar's lawyer said: "I (Akhtar) would like to apologise from the bottom of my heart for any grief or embarrassment that may have been caused to the nation, particularly to the PCB chairman Nasim Ashraf. I have resolved to alter my habits to refrain from such incidents in future and I will obey the PCB rules and regulations," the statement said.

 

The 32-year-old paceman was banned earlier this month for breaching the players' code of conduct by publicly criticising the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) after he was not offered a central contract in January. Shoaib can still not play for Pakistan as he is serving a five-year ban.

 

Source: The Hindu.

Dhoni will also dance for the team’s album

 A music album in Tamil and Hindi, the highlight of which is a special song performed by Dhoni, will comprise the official theme song as well as victory anthem of the team.  

A bilingual musical support to Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings is to be provided by BIG Music, following a tie-up between the franchise and the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group company.

 

A music album in Tamil and Hindi, the highlight of which is a special song performed by Dhoni, will comprise the official theme song as well as victory anthem of the team, said a media release.

 

The songs in Tamil are penned by well-known Tamil film lyricist Vairamuthu and Dhoni will perform for the Hindi version of the Tamil-cum-English theme song, the release added.

 

Source: The Hindu

Microsoft's Next Move : Walk or File Board Slate

Microsoft (MSFT) will make its next Yahoo (YHOO) move this morning, says Kara Swisher. (The WSJ is more vague, saying a move is "imminent."). Whenever it happens, the move will likely be either 1) walking or 2) filing a board slate.

Walking would certainly shake up the country club. Yahoo stock would crash to the low $20s, and Yahoo shareholders who have been pissing and moaning about how Microsoft won't even give them one lousy additional dollar will have some other things to piss and moan about. Especially if the economy continues to deteriorate for the next quarter or two.

The filing of the board slate, meanwhile, would really just be a placeholder, a way for Microsoft to keep the pressure on and its options open--perhaps while Steve and Jerry hold secret meetings in Oregon. Our understanding is that, even if Microsoft goes fully hostile, it will take a week or two to get all the paperwork done for a formal Exchange Offer (direct to shareholders). The filing of the proxy slate, therefore, would be a half-measure, a way of ratcheting up the pressure without actually doing anything.

(It would also really be a non-event. Despite some twitter yesterday afternoon when TechCrunch reported that former News Corp exec Ross Levinsohn is on the slate, it is largely irrelevant who Microsoft picks. If Microsoft wins the proxy fight, the directors will have to vote to sell the company. That's it.)

 

Source: alleyinsider.com

#eof

A crorepati who lives in a hut!

His story is an inspiration for millions. A self-made entrepreneur, his mission is to help the poor through job creation. E Sarathbabu hit the headlines after he rejected several high profile job offers from various MNCs after he passed out of IIM, Ahmedabad two years ago.
He instead started a catering business of his own, inspired by his mother who once sold idlis on the pavements of Chennai, worked as an ayah in an Anganvadi to educate him and his siblings. As a child, he also sold idlis in the slum where he lived. "We talk about India shining and India growing, but we should ensure that people do not die of hunger. We can be a developed country but we should not leave the poor people behind. I am worried for them because I know what hunger is and I still remember the days I was hungry," says Sarathbabu.
In August 2006, Sarathbabu's entrepreneurial dream came true with Foodking. He had no personal ambition but wanted to buy a house and a car for his mother. He has bought a car but is yet to buy a house for his mother. The "foodking" still lives in the same hut in Madipakkam in Chennai. Today, Foodking has six units and 200 employees, and the turnover of the company is Rs.32 lakh a month. But it has not been a bed of roses for Sarathbabu. After struggling and making losses in the first year, he managed a turnaround in 2007.

Source: rediff.com

IPL founder warns England stars

Indian Premier League co-founder IS Bindra has warned England players not to reject their central contracts to take part in next year's competition.
England's centrally-contracted players have been told they cannot play in the IPL until 2010 at the earliest.
But Bindra does not want them to take matters into their own hands.
He told BBC Sport: "We will not have any player revolting against their establishment and becoming part of the Indian Premier League (IPL)."
England star Kevin Pietersen has described the ECB's stance as "ridiculous" and there has been speculation that England players could refuse to sign their contracts when they come up for renewal in September.
English players are currently the only international stars prevented from competing in the competition.
But Bindra, a former head of Indian cricket and the principal adviser to the ICC, is adamant that the IPL will work with the ECB to find a solution.
He is planning to meet Clarke when the ECB chief arrives in India for the IPL inauguration ceremony in Bangalore on Thursday.
"We don't want to be a rebel league, we want to be part of the system with the support of the ECB," Bindra said.
"We are looking forward to meeting Giles Clarke and other members of the ECB during the inauguration in Bangalore.
"We can make adjustments, we can postpone our league by a couple of weeks.
"If we can find a solution, it will be in the interests of everyone involved, including the players.
"I am a born optimist and am sure every problem has a solution. I had a chat with Giles Clarke in Dubai. We are looking forward to having him over and continuing our informal discussions during the inauguration.
"The ICC have said they will try and find if they can find a permanent slot for the IPL. That will make it a lot easier for the players to know what the calendar is, what the options are. It will facilitate everyone going forward."
Dimitri Mascarenhas is the only English player who will be taking part in this season's IPL, although Surrey pair Alistair Brown and Mark Ramprakash turned down offers.
Bindra admits he would love to see the likes of Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff in the IPL.
"People in India love icon players, and they are certainly among the best eight or 10 players in the world," he said.
"We would love to see them as part of the league. Other than the English players, we have all 70 to 80 of the top ICC-ranked players."
The first match of the IPL will be between the Bangalore Royal Challengers and Kolkata Knight Riders on Friday.
The eight franchises will play each other in a round-robin format, with the top four sides qualifying for semi-finals on 30 and 31 May.
The final will take place on 1 June in Mumbai.
Bindra said he was delighted with the "global stir" that the competition had created, but admitted he would wait to see how many spectators attended the matches before getting too carried away.
"At the end of the day, it depends how many bums are on seats and how many people are in the grounds," he said.
"That is where the major success of the tournament will lie. These are early days and the real sales pick up in India a few days before the match.
"In terms of marketing it's been a great success and we're looking forward to a wonderful tournament.
"I hope it's the beginning of a new milestone in the cricketing history of the world. In the long run, we will do a lot of good to cricket and make it truly a global sport, in terms of monetary rewards and monetary compensation.
"It's the first season and there will be a few hiccups, a few aberrations, but I'm sure it will settle down in a couple of years to a very smooth and very significant league that will become a prominent part of world cricket."

Source: news.bbc.co.uk

England bosses soften IPL stance

English cricket chiefs have softened their stance on the Indian Premier League, insisting centrally-contracted players are not banned from playing.
They had been told the earliest they could play in the IPL was 2010.
An ECB spokesman said team director Hugh Morris will decide which players can be released - but England fixtures will always take precedence.
He said: "The ECB has never stated that centrally-contracted players are banned from the IPL."
The head of the Professional Cricketers' Association Sean Morris said: "There will be a little bit of a window when the England players return from the West Indies.
"They will then be able to participate in possibly the last two weeks of that (IPL) tournament in 2009."
The first six-week competition, which starts in Bangalore on Friday, features most of the world's top players, including Sachin Tendulkar, Andrew Symonds, Jacques Kallis and Chris Gayle.
Morris told BBC's Radio 5 Live that England would benefit were they to allow the likes of Michael Vaughan and Kevin Pietersen to play in India ahead of next year's World Twenty20, which is being held in England.
"I think they will play," he said. "It is going to be driven by market forces, the players will go and play Twenty20 cricket.
"It makes a lot of sense to allow them to play based on the fact that we've got the World Twenty20 coming up five weeks later.
"Don't we want our best player practising and competing in the leading domestic tournament at that time?"
Morris added: "The communication between the England players and the ECB has increased.
"There are so many positive from the players' point of view to come out of these Twenty20 tournaments that they can't refuse it.
"If you've got a family and you've been travelling the world for 10 months of the year and you've got the option to go an earn twice as much money for five weeks work, no one is going to reject that."
Michael Vaughan has already said it is inevitable that England stars will compete in the IPL, while Kevin Pietersen described not being allowed to play in the IPL as "ridiculous".
England captain Vaughan told BBC Sport: "We are naive to think England players aren't going to end up in the IPL.
"England players will end up in the IPL, whether it is next year or the year after."

England close to Twenty20 revamp

The England and Wales Cricket Board is on course to create its own version of the Indian Premier League by 2010, says chief executive David Collier.
Collier told BBC Radio Four that talks with billionaire investor Sir Allen Stanford were "well advanced".
"We've had some very positive and constructive discussions with Sir Allen during the last week," said Collier.
"I think Sir Allen has certainly mentioned 2010 and I think that's the more likely (date)."
In an interview with BBC Sport, Stanford suggested a new English Twenty20 competition must come into force no later than 2010 or risk losing his backing.
"We're looking for no later than 2010," said the Texan.
"If I was to make a more aggressive bet I would say 2009. But no later than 2010 or they've missed the boat.
"We all know that and I don't think the British are going to miss the boat."
Stanford, who runs his own Twenty20 tournament in the Caribbean, was in London this week for talks with the ECB and believes an English Premier League could be worth as much as £500m.
When asked if the ECB were moving towards a deal, Collier replied: "I think we are. Our discussions are well advanced and we are enthused.
"I think people tend to forget it is only a week ago today we were in Bangalore for the opening of the IPL and things have happened remarkably quickly during that period."
Stanford has also proposed a £10m winner-takes-all series between an England side and his own West Indies All-Stars XI.
"The discussions we've had regarding one-off internationals are particularly important," said Collier.
"They are hugely beneficial to the game because they don't add an awful lot to workload and yet they do give the players opportunities to earn large sums of money.
"They also bring large sums of money into county cricket and certainly into grassroots cricket, which is also something dear to Sir Allen's heart.
"We're one of the fastest growing sports in the UK at the moment - there has been a 27% increase in participation - so certainly cricket is on an very upwardly mobile track at the moment."

Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Counties split on Twenty20 idea

The England and Wales Cricket Board holds its annual general meeting at Lord's on Tuesday, with the domestic game facing radical change. Several counties are open to the idea of a new Twenty20 league made up of a handful of city-based franchises. Others are opposed and Somerset chief Richard Gould told BBC Sport: "My aim is to knock this idea on the head". While the EPL is not listed as an item on the agenda for the meeting at Lord's, it is still bound to be discussed. And representatives from the 18 first-class counties will hold informal talks ahead of the meeting.
Surrey chief executive Paul Sheldon has mooted the idea of the counties being regrouped into franchises such as "Vodafone London" in the wake of the creation of the Indian Premier League.
And Sean Morris, chief executive of the Professional Cricketers' Association, has admitted he doubts whether an EPL made up of the existing 18 counties would be a viable commercial proposition.
He said: "When you look at the broadcasting deal that will drive it and for sponsorship partners and for fans, does playing 18 teams really stack up?"
But Gould said a Twenty20 Premier League based on franchises would set the game on a slippery slope.
"We are hugely against regionalising - that would lead, eventually, to the domestic game being reduced to eight regional franchises for all forms of the game," he said.
"I don't have a problem with an EPL, as long as it involves the 18 counties. Otherwise it would drastically reduce the number of English-qualified players available.
"The Test-match playing grounds might benefit, because they would host the matches but the rest of county cricket would not."
Leicestershire chief Neil Davidson agreed, telling BBC Sport: "Franchises would be a negative and could turn a lot of people off the game".

Source : news.bbc.co.uk

The Photographer

After years of frustration, the Smiths had no children and decided to use a proxy father to start their family. On the day the proxy father was to arrive, Mr. Smith kissed his wife and said, "I'm off. The man should be here soon".

Half an hour later, just by chance, a door-to-door baby photographer rang the doorbell, hoping to make a sale.

"Good morning madam. You don't know me, but I've come to..."

"Oh, no need to explain. I've been expecting you," Mrs. Smith cut in.

"Really?" the photographer asked. "Well, good! I've made a specialty of babies."

"That's what my husband and I had hoped. Please come in and have a seat. Just where do we start?" asked Mrs. Smith, blushing.

"Leave everything to me. I usually try two in the bathtub, one on the couch and perhaps a couple on the bed. Sometimes the living room floor is fun too; you can really spread out."

"Bathtub, living room floor? No wonder it didn't work for Harry and me."

"Well, madam, none of us can guarantee a good one every time. But if we try several different positions and I shoot from six or seven angles, I'm sure you'll be pleased with the results."

"I hope we can get this over with quickly," gasped Mrs. Smith.

"Madam, in my line of work, a man must take his time. I'd love to be in and out in five minutes, but you'd be disappointed with that, I'm sure."

"Don't I know it!!" Mrs. Smith exclaimed.

The photographer opened his briefcase and pulled out a portfolio of his baby pictures. "This was done on the top of a bus in downtown London."

"Oh my god!!", Mrs. Smith exclaimed, tugging at her handkerchief.

"And these twins turned out exceptionally well when you consider their mother was so difficult to work with." The photographer handed Mrs. Smith the picture.

"She was difficult?" asked Mrs. Smith.

"Yes, I'm afraid so. I finally had to take her to Hyde Park to get the job done right. People were crowding around four and five deep, pushing to get a good look."

"Four and five deep?" asked Mrs. Smith, eyes widened in amazement.

"Yes", the photographer said. "And for more than three hours, too. The mother was constantly squealing and yelling. I could hardly concentrate. Then darkness approached and I began to rush my shots. Finally, when the squirrels began nibbling on my equipment, I just packed it all in."

Mrs. Smith leaned forward. "You mean they actually chewed on your, eh...equipment?"

"That's right. Well madam, if you're ready, I'll set up my tripod so that we can get to work."

"Tripod??" Mrs. Smith looked extremely worried now.

"Oh yes, I have to use a tripod to rest my Canon on. It's much too big for me to hold while I'm getting ready for action."

.....Mrs. Smith fainted!!