Imagine yourself at the final rounds of a competitive Bollywood quiz contest. As you struggle to whip your slippery memory into helping you win the day, you realize the value of author Diptakirti Chaudhuri's 'Kitnay Aadmi Thay: Completely useless Bollywood trivia'. Bollywood and its contribution in shaping popular culture is widely acknowledged. The book caters to fans of Indian cinema who find films an inseparable part of their lives. 'Kitnay...
05:35 PM, Jul 31, 2012
Nora Ephron, in one of her columns - possibly in 'Esquire' though I can't be sure - had wondered about the exact time the word ...
02:52 PM, Jul 28, 2012
New Delhi: The Delhi Disaster Management Authority will on Saturday conduct mock drills at 11 Delhi Metro stations to check if the staff are ready to deal with earthquakes, bomb blasts and terror attacks. The timing of the drill has, however, not been disclosed, said DDMA. "How would we fathom the preparedness if the timing is disclosed," an official said. The drill will be conducted at Central Secretariat, Shahdara, Pitampura,...
01:20 AM, Jul 28, 2012
New Delhi: Acting on complaints received from consumers and consumer organisations, Telecom regulator TRAI on Friday directed telecom companies to provide broadband services in a transparent manner and through updated information. "Authority has been receiving complaints...that service providers are not delivering broadband services in a transparent manner as they are not providing adequate information to the consumers regarding broadband services," Trai said while asking telecom service providers to take care...
07:29 PM, Jul 27, 2012
Indian author-poet Jeet Thayil is among the 12 authors who are long-listed for the 2012 Man Booker Prize for Fiction worth 50,000 pounds and an assured spurt in the sales of the prize-winning book. His debut novel Narcopolis is a tale of vice and passion set against a backdrop of late 1970s Bombay finds a New Yorker becoming entranced with the underworld culture of an opium den and brothel where...
12:43 PM, Jul 27, 2012
London: Noted Indian poet and writer Jeet Thayil is among 12 authors long-listed for the 2012 Man Booker Prize for Fiction worth 50,000 pounds and an assured spurt in the sales of the prize-winning book. Kerala-born Thayil, 53, is the only Indian writer in this year's long-list that includes known writers such as Will Self and Hilary Mantel. Thayil's book selected for the long-list is titled 'Narcopolis'. The 12 books...
11:15 AM, Jul 26, 2012
Islamabad: A day before the expiry of a deadline set by Pakistan's Supreme Court for reviving graft charges against President Asif Ali Zardari, the government on Tuesday informed the court that the federal cabinet has made no decision to approach Swiss authorities to reopen the cases. The government conveyed its position to the court through a reply submitted by Attorney General Irfan Qadir. A five-judge bench headed by Justice Asif...
03:10 PM, Jul 24, 2012
Bangkok: Two Canadian sisters die mysteriously in their rented bungalow on an idyllic Thai island, believed poisoned. Less than a week later, a 60-year-old Australian woman is stabbed to death in a botched robbery outside a luxury resort in Phuket. Their deaths are the latest in a tumult of violence and intrigue to shake tourism in postcard-perfect Thailand, raising questions over whether it is squandering a prized asset by failing...
02:49 PM, Jul 24, 2012
London: The International Olympic Committee will not take any provisional measures ahead of the London 2012 Olympics against those allegedly involved in unauthorised sales of Games tickets, they said on Saturday. The IOC is investigating a report that National Olympic Committees (NOCs) and Authorised Ticket Resellers (ATRs) representing some 54 nations have broken rules over the sale of London 2012 tickets. "The hearings of all parties involved are taking place...
11:30 AM, Jul 22, 2012
Salt Lake City: Considered a pioneer in the self-help genre aimed at helping readers become more productive in their lives, Stephen R Covey, the well-known motivational speaker and author of the best-selling "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People," which sold more than 20 million copies in 38 languages, died on Monday at a hospital in Idaho Falls, Idaho, due to complications from a bicycle accident in April, according to...
10:47 AM, Jul 17, 2012
In a big breakthrough in HIV research, the US Food and Drugs Authority on Tuesday gave the nod for a pill that prevents HIV. ...
09:37 AM, Jul 17, 2012
Islamabad: Pakistan's Supreme Court on Thursday set July 25 deadline for Premier Raja Pervez Ashraf to approach Swiss authorities to reopen graft cases against President Asif Ali Zardari, triggering a fresh political crisis over the issue which had cost his predecessor his job. A five-judge bench headed by Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa directed Ashraf to write to the Swiss authorities without any further consultations on the matter with legal...
08:47 PM, Jul 12, 2012
The Cabinet deferred the stake sale in SAIL since Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma is not present in Delhi. ...
01:40 PM, Jul 12, 2012
New Delhi: The Cabinet on Thursday deferred a decision on selling 10.82 per cent stake in Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) as Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma was away on official tour. The Steel Minister is in Tokyo on an official tour and could not attend the Cabinet meeting. In the absence of Verma and Steel Secretary, who is also in Tokyo, the Cabinet did not take up the...
12:19 PM, Jul 12, 2012
Melbourne: A team of Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) will visit India later this year to evaluate standards of Indian service providers amid their growing role in overseeing back office functions for the country's largest four banks. A report quoted an APRA spokesman as saying that all new and existing outsourcing arrangements must adhere to Prudential Standard CPS 231, which came into force on July 1, and ensure that APRA...
11:54 AM, Jul 04, 2012
New Delhi: Laxman Rao is no ordinary chaiwallah (tea vendor). His tea stall at New Delhi's ITO complex offers more than just a hot brew. For a few hundred rupees, you can pick up one of his 24 books, written over 40 years. "I observe people from my tea stall. They become my characters and my stories are based on them," he says. In 1975, when Rao came to Delhi,...
08:19 AM, Jun 25, 2012
New Delhi: SAI Director General, Desh Deepak Verma, on Sunday exuded confidence that Indian athletes will win more medals in this edition of the Olympics as the country is fielding the largest contingent at the London Games. "The number of Indian athletes who have qualified for the London Olympics has reached the figure of 81 in 13 disciplines. This is the largest Indian contingent ever in the history of the...
04:56 PM, Jun 24, 2012
New Delhi: An Empowered Group of Ministers, headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, is likely to meet on Thursday to discuss crucial issues of spectrum price, payment terms and network roll-out obligations for auction of airwaves due before August 31. As part of terms for payment, the EGoM would discuss if telecom companies can mortgage spectrum or airwaves for seeking loans from banks and financial institutions, official sources said. Sector...
09:29 AM, Jun 21, 2012
Virudhunagar: Vexed over the delay in getting a birth certificate, a man in Virudhunagar hit upon a bizarre idea of sending a demand draft for Rs 100 as bribe to a local body, stunning the municipality authorities who made amends for the lapse and home delivered the document. Rattled on receiving the DD and the accompanying note which mentioned it as bribe, Municipality Commissioner Sermakani swung into action, reprimanded concerned...
05:23 AM, Jun 17, 2012
