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Narayana Murthy on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose - indian-enews

Tuesday 24 January 2012 0 comments



“Netaji could have taken us past China” — the TOI quotes Infosys chief mentor N R Narayana Murthy. Here’s a bit.

“He was bold, upright and could take on anybody. He could question even Mahatma Gandhi and dared to disagree with him, which he did on the dominion status issue. Netaji knew that areas like population control, industries, agriculture and health were key to the country’s growth and had expressed his views on these. His views were strikingly modern and practical which makes me conclude that India would have done better than China with him in the front seat of the government,” Murthy said.

Criticizing the Centre for not paying “due respect to this great son of India”, Murthy felt it was time to correct the mistake. “I have heard that Delhi doesn’t have a single prominent avenue named after him. This is a shame and I hope our wonderful Prime Minister will soon correct this lacunae,” he added.

Wonderful prime minister, eh? That wonderful prime minister would correct something right after hell freezes over.

That PM belongs to the slave dynasty.

Consider this. New Delhi has major roads named after a ruler who slaughtered Indians wholesale. Aurangzeb. New Delhi will never have a road named after a nationalist.

The unpalatable truth may be that Indians have been in slavery too long and cannot imagine freedom from the tyrants that have ruled the land — and still continue to rule it.

An Italian, Antonia Maino aka Sonia Gandhi, heads the UPA, the ruling coalition in New Delhi. This fact does not seem to bother too many people, does it? This would not have ever happened to a people who had any sense of pride and honor.

Fact is that India has been ruled by foreigners for centuries. If Indians in fact indeed had had pride and honor, centuries of foreign rule would not have happened.

That Antonia Maino has hanger-ons like Dr Singh and the rest of the unmentionable gang of crooks is not surprising at all. The tradition is long and enduring. Foreigners ruled India because of people like them.

India is a long way from freedom. While India’s enemies rule India, the names of India’s enemies will be seen in its capital. The time has not yet come for Netaji Bose’s name to adorn anything in India.

Kalam, Dhoni to urge young voters to register

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New Delhi, Jan 24: Former president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam along with cricketer M.S. Dhoni will urge the youths in the country to get registered as voters and participate in democracy.

"Messages from regional icons are also being used to ask the youths to register and vote."

As part of the drive, Kalam will distribute Electors' Photo Identity Cards (EPIC) to 20 newly eligible and enrolled voters of Delhi to mark the second National Voters' Day Wednesday, commemorating the foundation day of the Election Commission of India.


Officials said the objective behind National Voters' Day is to increase enrolment of voters, especially newly eligible ones, by using this occasion to make universal adult enrolment a reality.
Election Commission officials said approximately 3.83 crore new registrations have been done throughout the country, of which 1.11 crore are in the age group 18-19 years as on Jan 1, 2012.

Last year, around 52 lakh young voters who had attained the age of 18 years were enrolled, marking the biggest empowerment of youths on a single day anywhere in the world.

Kalam will also give away National Awards to District Electoral Officers (DEOs) and Superintendent Police (SPs) for adopting "Best Electoral Practices" and Special Awards to other officers for doing exemplary work during polls. (IANS)

13/7 Mumbai blasts case cracked, 2 from Bihar arrested: ATS | 13/7 Mumbai blast case solved

Monday 23 January 2012 0 comments



Mumbai: The Maharashtra Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) on Monday claimed to have cracked the July 13, 2011 Mumbai blasts case, in which 27 people were killed and over 130 others injured. Two people, Naqee Ahmed and Nadeem Mukhtar, have been arrested and Yasin Bhatkal, who commissioned the blast and two others involved are yet to be arrested.

The police claimed that the financial trail of the blasts has been fully uncovered. "A lot of stress and importance was given to trace the financial trail of these blasts," Maharashtra ATS chief Rakesh Maria said.
According to the Maharashtra ATS, 23-year old Naqee Ahmed and 22-year old Nadeem Mukhtar had stolen two scooters used in the blasts. Bhatkal reportedly gave Rs 1.5 lakh for the execution of the terror attack and provided the explosives for the blasts.



Naqi Ahmed Wasi Ahmed Sheikh (22) and Nadeem Akhtar Ashfaq Sheikh (23) were arrested on January 12 but the mastermind of the crime Yasin Bhatkal, a top Indian Mujahideen operative, and the planters of the IEDs used in the blasts are still evading arrest, Anti-Terrorism Squad chief Rakesh Maria told reporters.


Maria said while Naqi came to Mumbai in September 2010, Nadeem, his co-villager, from Bihar's Darbhanga district, was living in Antop Hill area of the city.Naqi, according to Maria, came in touch with Ahmed Zarar Siddibappa alias Yasin Bhatkal alias Imran in 2008.He said Nadeem was called to Delhi by Bhatkal and handed over a cloth packet containing the explosive and detonators used in the blast that was handed over to Naqi.

Naqi, he said, was given Rs 1.5 lakh by Bhatkal as commission for the crime in which at least Rs 10 lakh, received through hawala channels, was used. He said Naqi and Nadeem had stolen two Activa scooters that were used for carrying out the explosions. Two motorcycles also stolen by them and kept for future use have also been recovered from Bihar.Rubbishing media reports that Naqi was innocent and that he was being tortured in police custody, Maria said he was aware of Bhatkal antecedents.
Naqi not only assisted Bhatkal in scouting for an apartment in Habib Building in Byculla but also paid the money for accommodation, the ATS chief said.

"Yasin Bhatkal was the main accused in this case (13/7 Mumbai blast), he started the Darbhanga module," ATS Chief Rakesh Maria told reporters in the press conference in Mumbai.
Maria also said that transfer warrant was being sought from court for 3rd accused, identified as Haroon Rashid, in 13/7 blast case.

"The wanted accused in the case is Yaseen Bhatkal. We will release his sketches soon," he said.
Rakesh Maria also thanked the agencies in different states who extended the willingness to help at every stage of the investigation.

"Our teams visited 18 states and a lead was obtained by the ATS in last week of November," the ATS chief said.

The investigation was being conducted by teams of the Mumbai Police, Maharashtra's Criminal Investigation Department (CID), National Investigation Agency (NIA) and others, with support from the local security agencies in several states.

Three blasts at close intervals, on July 13 last year, shook the country's diamond and gold hubs - Opera House and Zaveri Bazar - and a busy commercial area of Dadar, killing at least 27 people and leaving around 125 injured.

Australian attack among best I've faced, says Sehwag

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Virender Sehwag rates the current Australia pace attack as among the best he has faced in his 10-year test career.
The 33-year-old opener, who has scored 8,098 runs in 95 tests since his debut in late 2001, is standing in as captain for the fourth test against Australia at the Adelaide Oval starting on Tuesday.

Australia's pace attack - Ben Hilfenhaus, Peter Siddle, Ryan Harris, James Pattinson and Mitchell Starc - have helped bowl India out twice in tests in Melbourne, Sydney and Perth to take an unassailable 3-0 lead in the series with three crushing wins.

With the hosts coming into the series after a home defeat to New Zealand and the memory of the 3-1 Ashes defeat at the turn of last year still fresh, many were questioning whether it was a case of Australia bowling being good or India batting bad.

"They are bowling in good areas, they are not giving up easy balls to hit boundaries. They are playing with your patience and all," Sehwag told reporters on the eve of the final test.

"I think that's the best bowling attack I've ever seen, especially against Australia.
"Generally, when I played the fast men ... I'd get a couple of balls I could hit for boundaries. But in this attack I hardly get any balls. So, I think, one of the best bowling attacks."

The tourists' world class but ageing batting line-up - which features the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and Sehwag - could not claim to have had a great series and not one Indian has managed to notch up a century.

"I feel bad because in the last 10 years we have done well overseas but in the last two series we have not live up to expectations," added Sehwag, who was also part of the team that lost 4-0 in England last year.

"But we are working hard, we are trying hard. Sometimes you do what you can and it doesn't click. That's part of life, part of the game.

"In 2008 and 2009 every batsmen scored runs, top order and middle order, but now it seems that everybody's time is not good," he added.

"It is important that at least two or three batsmen get hundreds but unfortunately, that's not happening right now in team India."

Certainly Sehwag and his opening partner Gautam Gambhir could have had a better series having failed to put together a partnership of more than 25.

Although big opening stands have long been the bedrock on which Indian test victories were built, Sehwag refused to take all the blame on behalf of the current top order.

"It's everybody's responsibility to score runs, especially outside India," he said. "Unfortunately, on the last two tours the batsmen didn't get those runs. Yes, the openers need to make a good start but other batsmen need to score too."

Despite much conjecture in the Australian media that the opposite is the case, Sehwag said his team were "up" for the test.

"We lost the series but there is a pride in team India and we will play for our pride and, for ourselves, to improve our performance," he said.

"I think I'll have to show some patience against the Australian pace attack because perhaps then I'll get some balls to hit."

(Edited By Mitul Mehta)



Jaipur Literature Festival: Oprah Winfrey charms 'chaotic' India | Oprah In India

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JAIPUR: Amid raucous cheers from thousands of admirers, television superstar Oprah Winfrey praised the contrast of calm and chaos in India at the annual Jaipur Literature Festival which is fast becoming a global cultural gala.

Considered one of the world's most influential women, Winfrey lived up to her billing as the headline draw at an event boasting literary giants such as Tom Stoppard, Michael Ondaatje and Richard Dawkins, charming the crowds on Sunday morning.

"I came here with an open mind, and it has been expanded... It's the greatest life experience I have ever had," Winfrey said.

"You feel like you're in the centre of something bigger and greater than yourself."

Hundreds of eager visitors jostled against barricades at the back of the main stage area as Winfrey began speaking. Security guards struggled to shut the main entrance gates as angry admirers tried to push their way inside.

“It's like being in a video game. I don't know which way to look, Winfrey told crowds on her arrival in Mumbai. It's a bit chaotic, but there's an underlying calm, a flow, that you all seem to understand. India is a paradox,” she said.

The 57-year-old has caused a media storm in India, with news channels and front pages filled with stories of her touring the city of Mumbai with the Bachchans, Bollywood's first family. On Sunday she drew huge cheers as she appeared on stage in a traditional Indian churidar kameez smock.

“I will take with me a sense of calmness, and a genuine respect... people don't talk religion here, they live it,” said Winfrey.



Her appearance on Sunday was seen as a welcome distraction from the Salman Rushdie furore that has overshadowed the five-day festival, after the author cancelled his planned visit due to reported assassination threats against him.

The talk-show host and interviewer's "Book Club" turned little-known authors into global stars, with 59 of the club's 70 selected books making the USA TODAY Top 10 best-sellers list.

Winfrey told the festival that in 2008, after witnessing the completion of her mission to get then-Senator Barack Obama to the White House, she stuck a picture of a woman riding a camel on her pinboard, that said "Come to India".

"It was important for me to go to slums but not show the worst of the worst, but show that people can live in poverty and still have hope and meaning in their lives," said Winfrey, who also called for Indians to work to eradicate discrimination against widows in society.

Jaipur Literature Festival:Speculation continued over the visit of controversial writer Salman Rushdie

Sunday 22 January 2012 0 comments



Jaipur: Speculation continued over the visit of controversial writer Salman Rushdie at the Jaipur Literature Festival, with representatives of some Muslim organisations today meeting the organisers and asking them to cancel his appearance at the event.

Sources said that in a meeting suggested by the Rajasthan government, Muslim organisations made it clear that the invitation to the author by the organisers should be withdrawn.

However, organisers said it is up to Rushdie to decide whether he will attend the Jan 20-24 event.

"We will chalk out our strategy of protest tomorrow on Friday," a representative of the minority community delegation told media.

A mystery literary session on the Jan 24 roster of the Jaipur Literature Festival called "Midnight's Child", without naming the participants, kept fuelling the speculation whether Rushdie would descend on the pink city.

"Our stand on Salman Rushdie continues to be the same. He will not attend the festival for the first two days...beyond which we are not sure of his schedule," Sanjoy Roy, the managing director of Teamwork Production, the organisers of the Jaipur festival, told the press here.

Roy said the festival has not rescinded the invitation to the author of "The Satanic Verses". Roy and his teammates, writer Namita Gokhale and Nand Bhardwaj, met representatives of several minority organisations and heard their views.

"We also presented our views," Roy said, adding that the festival was a platform for freedom of expression - "to say, write and paint". He refused to elaborate on the arguments put forth by the Muslim groups.

Roy clarified that "the festival has not received any request from the government to stop Salman Rushdie from coming to India".

"The festival has 208 authors and 150 performers... Salman Rushdie is a non-story that has been made into a story," Roy said.

The festival has a glittering line-up of writers and celebrities like television host Oprah Winfrey and writers Michael Ondaatje, Ben Okri and playwright Tom Stoppard.

However, fans refused to give up hope on Rushdie's visit. "There is a session listed on the last day of the festival, Midnights's Child, which gives no name. Who knows... he might come to the delight of his admirers here," Raj Gupta, a Jaipur-based student of English, told media.

Rushdie's proposed visit to the festival came under cloud after several Islamic groups demanded that he should not be allowed to come to India for allegedly hurting religious sentiments of the community in his book "The Satanic Verses" - published in 1988.

The book was banned in 1989 and a fatwa was issued against the author by Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran.

The clamour to stop his visit forced a rescheduling of Rushdie's visit and his arrival to Jaipur Jan 20 was postponed. Rushdie's name was also taken off the festival schedule.

Abul Qasim Nomani, vice chancellor of Darul Uloom Deoband, the country's most influential Islamic seminary, said not allowing Rushdie in India was a "welcome" step.

"He should apologise to the entire Muslim ummah (society) for his blasphemous remarks against Islam and the Prophet. Only then we can allow him to travel to India," Nomani had told IANS from Deoband.

The media today quoted intelligence bureau as saying, "Salman Rushdie could be a victim of a homegrown terror attack in case he decides to take part in the Jaipur Literary Festival".

Imran “left” PTI! | Gilani Questions Imran Khan’s Credibility | Talk Shows | Pakistan News | Current Affairs

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How easily (within one year) Imran compromised on his sixteen years long stance is surprising and worrisome too. Now there is an immense difference between the ideology of 16 years back PTI and current PTI. Unfortunately, PTI is no more Imran’s party.


Is he the same Khan who said that he would never compromise? People like Dr Shireen Mazari and Omer Srafraz Cheema, who were with him through thick and thin are now left out as non-entities. In addition, people like Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Sardar Assef Ahmed have taken the key position in the party within few days. Why? How? Unanswered questions.

Imran has said that PTI needs electable. My question is why don’t PTI create electable? Why they have to rely on the tried and tested people (people who did nothing when they were in power).Bhutto never came into power with any of the leftovers. He made his own electable. So why cannot Imran?

Currently it looks like Imran has joined a party of leftovers. Why Imran left PTI, what could be the possible reasons? Is it the establishment using PTI and Imran for its own motives?  On the other hand, Is Mr. Khan is too innocent to comprehend all this. Moreover, very recently the formation of a forward block with the name “PTI Nazaraiti” is much evident that Imran has left PTI.

Imran Khan, the man who chanted slogans of change, justice, and youth. Imran who gave us vision and hope has now fall prey to the same people, people who betrayed us. Sad but true that Imran has left PTI….the party which we all consider a breath of fresh air was unfortunately turned out to be just another party.



Gilani Questions Imran Khan’s Credibility


Islamabad- Questioning new parties’ credibility, Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has said that new political parties do not have any concrete programme and manifesto. Though, he didn’t take any name (Imran Khan or PTI), but said that new political parties don’t have the roots in the masses.



Addressing a public gathering at Company Bagh Sargodha, after inaugurating and laying foundation stones of a number of development projects, Gilani said, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) being an ideological party has the roots in the masses and derives its strength from them.

The Prime Minister said that despite all the efforts of dictators to finish PPP, the party was still intact and vibrant with the strength of the workers and masses.

 While referring to Imran Khan’s PTI, Gilani asserted that the new entrants in politics talking about bringing about political tsunamis did not have public support. He said that revolution was only possible with the support of masses.

Gilani said: “Pakistan People’s Party didn’t come to power through backdoors but with the power of the vote and people always stood with the PPP in difficult situations.”

Talking about PML-Q, ANP, MQM and other leading political parties, he said: “It is our power that we are going along with all the parties through reconciliation.” The PM alleged that other political parties were misguiding the masses.





Twitter lashes out at Google search changes

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Ex-googler coming on board?
San Francisco: Twitter lashed out at changes Google Inc unveiled for its search engine on Tuesday, describing the changes as "bad" for consumers and for Web publishers.

Twitter, a microblogging service which allows its users to broadcast short, 140-character messages to groups of "followers," said Google's changes would make it tougher for
people to find the breaking news often shared by users of its service.

"As we've seen time and time again, news breaks first on Twitter; as a result, Twitter accounts and Tweets are often the most relevant (search) results," the company said in a
statement.

"We're concerned that as a result of Google's changes, finding this information will be much harder for everyone. We think that's bad for people, publishers, news organizations and Twitter users," the statement continued.

Twitter's criticism, which came hours after Google announced new features aimed at making search results more personalized, underscored the growing competition between the Web companies.

And it comes at a time when Google is facing antitrust scrutiny for favoring its own services within its search results.


A Twitter spokesperson declined to answer a question about whether the company might reach out to antitrust regulators about Google's changes.

A Google Inc page is shown on a blackberry phone in Encinitas, California April 13, 2010.  REUTERS/Mike BlakeGoogle did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A 2009 agreement, allowing Google to offer a real-time feed of Twitter messages within its search results, expired in July. Google launched a social network, dubbed Google+, in June that offers many of the capabilities available in Twitter and in Facebook.

With Tuesday's changes to Google's search engine, photos and posts from Google+ will increasingly appear within the search results.

The changes effectively create customized search results for people who are logged in to Google. A person who searches for the term "Hawaii," for example, might find private photos that their friends have shared on Google+ as well as public information about the islands.




Homai Vyarawalla - The First Lady of Indian Press Photography | Farewell Homai Vyarawalla

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India’s first woman press photographer:
India’s first woman press photographer Homai Vyarawalla, who passed away January 15, 2012 at the age of 98, captured the last days of the British Empire in India. Her work also traces the birth and growth of a new nation. The story of Homai’s life and her professional career spans an entire century of Indian history. This selection of rare photographs tells her life story amid footnotes of an emerging nation, as she saw it.

India’s first woman press photographer Homai Vyarawalla, who passed away January 15, 2012, captured the last days of the British Empire in India. Her work also traces the birth and growth of a new nation. The story of Homai’s life and her professional career spans an entire century of Indian history. Belonging to the small Parsi community of India, Homai was born in 1913 into a middle-class home in Navsari, Gujarat. Her father was an actor in a traveling Urdu-Parsi theatre company. Homai grew up in Bombay. She was the only girl in her class to complete her matriculation examination.

 Having learned photography from Maneckshaw Vyarawalla, whom she married later, Homai was to spend nearly three decades of her career in Delhi. After a career of 33 years as press photographer, Homai gave it up one day at the age of 57, disillusioned when the Nehruvian dream began to falter. She lived in near-anonymity until 1989. Fiercely independent, she continued to live on her own in Vadodara until she passed away.

The great value of Homai’s work lies in her vast collection of photographs that archive the nation in transition, documenting both the euphoria of Independence as well as disappointment with its undelivered promises. She was the only professional woman photojournalist in India during her time and her survival in a male-dominated field is all the more significant because the profession continues to exclude most women even today. Ironically, Western photojournalists who visited India such as Henri Cartier-Bresson and Margaret Bourke-White have received more attention than their Indian contemporaries. In an already invisible history, Homai Vyarawalla’s presence as a woman was even more marginalized. 

   Prime Minister Nehru with Mrs. Simon, the wife of
the British Deputy High Commissioner, on board the
first BOAC flight in India. Photos courtesy: Homai
Vyarawalla archive,
Alkazi Collection of
Photography
Prime Minister Nehru with Mrs. Simon, the wife of the British Deputy High Commissioner, on board the first BOAC flight in India. Photos courtesy: Homai Vyarawalla archive, Alkazi Collection of Photography
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 
While much will hopefully be written in the coming years about Vyarawalla's professional contribution as a pioneering professional — she was India's first woman press photographer who captured the first three decades of a nation in transition — what stays with me are memories of an elderly Homai Vyarawalla who I met when she was 87. Her memory was razor sharp even though it needed a little jogging to set her recounting stories and anecdotes that spanned almost a century of Indian history. She was an untrained but skilled archivist. She meticulously preserved her beautiful monochrome prints and negatives in boxes and hand-made negative jackets stored in Tupperware cases. For years, she struggled to protect them from the humid climate of Vadodara and was palpably relieved when they were finally handed over to the Alkazi Foundation in Delhi on permanent loan.


Everything put to use
Nothing that came Homai's way was discarded easily. Everything was put to good use. Her simple and sparse home had pieces of driftwood that looked like sculpture. Her walking stick, polished with age, was carved out of a piece of wood while her nameplate was made from broken glass bangles. Many who knew her intimately wanted to photocopy her hand-written book of recipes and medical home remedies. She could also cut her own hair and tailor her own clothes. She once sawed an oversized baking tray, repaired my slippers and fixed the plumbing in her water tank. All this and more when she was well into her nineties!

She often said she was like Robinson Crusoe. Her island was her home in Vadodara where she lived independently till the end with her plants and a few personal photographs.

Time spent with Homai in Vadodara had a different quality. We always talked about photography but as the years went by and we became closer, our conversations about the grand events of history melted into smaller more intimate discussions about the everyday. Belonging as she did to a middle class Parsi family, Homai had to struggle for most of her life. She always said that had she not become a photographer, she would have joined any other profession that was available to her. Not working was never an option for her. Her father, an actor in a travelling Urdu-Parsi Theatre troupe had to borrow money to return to India when his company declared bankruptcy in Rangoon. He died soon after and Homai's mother augmented the family income by weaving the parsi kusti (sacred thread). Homai was the only girl in her class in the Gujarati school where she studied.

Thereafter, she received a diploma at St Xavier's College. She studied further at the JJ School of Arts in Bombay where she was introduced to many of the subjects of her early photographs, including the beautiful Rehana Mogul.

Captured official histories
Homai learnt photography from her boyfriend Maneckshaw who she later married. The two would walk the streets of Bombay in the 1930s and early 40s taking photographs. In 1942, they moved to Delhi and as employees of the British Information Services were plunged into the thick of nationalist politics. Homai photographed official histories as they unfolded but she also captured images of leisure as elite Indians and expatriates met at social functions at the gymkhana club in Delhi. She photographed marriage ceremonies, school functions, fancy dress parties and more.


Adventurous
Homai was an adventurous woman. Stranded in Sikkim, she hitched a ride back on an army truck after taking images of a young Dalai Lama crossing the border in 1959. Once she came tumbling down while trying to shoot Mohammad Ali Jinnah, bringing to a halt the proceedings of his last press conference the day before he left for Pakistan in 1947. Homai's fall brought a smile on Jinnah's face.

She had also photographed the meeting of the Congress Working Committee that ratified the decision to Partition the country. Acharya Kripalani, who was chairing the meeting, was not happy to have photographers around so Homai had to keep ducking behind the benches. Her desire to discover new frontiers made her travel to the U.S. and the U.K. at the age of 95 in 2008. When she saw the statue of Gandhi at Tavistock Park, her only comment was that he was not wearing spectacles!

Homai's last birthday brought a stream of visitors to her house. The Parsi Dharamshala sent us a delicious parsi meal and we went shopping for a new television set. In the evening, we cut a cake and, as it got dark, Homai held a lamp in her hand and pretended to cast a spell over us. The next day, I recorded an interview with her. She said this was the first time she had ever celebrated her birthday. Talking about the future she said: “My body may be wrecked and wasting away but my spirit is as young as when I was 40. It resides within this body like a tortoise. When the time comes to go, it will only be leaving this temporary home.” Her only regret was that she had started to fall sick and she hated that. In another interview, she said she would not mind coming back to the same kind of life once again, “because I like this life very much.” She was looking forward to going to New York for an exhibition of her work in a few months. What else would you wish for? I asked. Her reply was simple: “Good friends, peace and quiet and to be able to sit in the sun.”

As the evening ended, I realised to my shock and disappointment that I had accidentally erased the interview. I tried returning to the subject but that moment had passed. By now the sun had set and Homai looked tired. I returned home depressed that I had lost that interview till a friend suggested that perhaps certain moments are not meant to be recorded but treasured in our memories.

As a friend bids farewell to you for now Mrs. Vyarawalla, I wish you a happy birthday once again. I have been privileged to have known you and I hope that wherever you are, you have found peace and that quiet place to sit in the sun.
Doing it myself
At 94, I drive, do my grocery shopping, cook, clean, take care of my plants, give myself a haircut and can even stitch myself a dress! I am a photojournalist and I believe myself to be a good homemaker as well. I don't believe in giving myself big titles.

Pictures as history
I was passionate about photography and journalism, and I did my work honestly. Today, I am happy that the photographs are helping young Indians to take a glimpse of those glorious years when we fought for our independence.

Picture perfect
One of my pictures has captured an intensely private moment between Jawaharlal Nehru and Vijayalakshmi Pandit. Panditji had come to receive Vijayalakshmi, who was then the Indian Ambassador to the USSR, and as she landed at the airport in Delhi, he hugged her spontaneously. It was a beautiful rare moment between a brother and a sister and I was lucky to be there to frame it for eternity.

Life is beautiful, and 'funny'!
Once, a Jamaican woman from America came to meet me. At that time, my car had the number DLD-13. She assumed that it was my name as well! When she made a film on me, it was called Dalda 13. For those who saw the film, my name must have sounded very exotic and strange!



Precious memories
My pictures of Dalai Lama when he first came to India are also very precious. I got my best pictures in the years 1954-56.

On the Patan incident
I am deeply concerned about the security of women. What happened in Patan is deplorable.

Celebrating womanhood
As women, we have immense choices and reasons to celebrate, but we have a responsibility as well. I started my career in 1943. I remember I used to drive on my bicycle, during the midnight in Delhi. I always felt safe, and I never faced an incident of eve teasing. Very fewwomen were journalists then, and most preferred to stay home. It was a choice that they were comfortable with. I feel, whatever you do in life, you have to be content and happy. Gracious and not prone to frivolities. I might sound conservative but a personal sense of morality is important. Celebrating womanhood is not just about glamorous clothes or beauty, it is about a philosophy of life.


Google+ Review – Can It Beat Facebook? | The Year in Review: Google

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A good friend of mine who was one of the first people on Google+ shared a photo of his wife with me yesterday. As he shared it through Google+ I was automatically sent an invite so that I could join up and see the photo. This has proved to be a great opportunity to learn a little bit about Google+ before it is released to the general public.
On first glance Google+ is very much like Facebook. Your homepage has your entries on, then you see notifications from friends and acquaintances. Your profile photo is to the left, the search bar above and the menu to change settings all on the top right. It feels familiar to start with.
However, Google+ features something which is very new – Circles. This is likely to be the single feature that will encourage more people to migrate from Facebook to Google. In the news tech reporters are talking about Google+ being more secure and having better privacy settings than Facebook. The main reason for this is that you have much better control over who sees you and your content.
Google+ Circles
Google+ Circles allow you to place other Google+ users and non-users (they receive an invite when you share something with them) into seperate “circles”. This allows you to avoid embarrasing situations such as your parents hearing about what you have been getting up to in the evening, or your boss hearing what you really think of the company that you work for. Here is how it works.
You start with 3 main circles; Friends, Family and Acquaintances. There are also Following and Blocked, which allows you to Follow people without them becoming your friend and also allows you to Block annoying people.
So, whereas with Facebook everyone will see your latest status update or photo, in Google+ you can upload a photo and then select the Friends circle to share with. Everyone else will be unaware of your new photo.
You can of course break this down further, for example you may want one group just for University friends and another for your friends in the football club. Likewise, you could use acquaintances for everyone in your work and business life, or use it exclusively for people you have met online but do not know very well. For example, I had added many people to Acquaintances who I have chatted to on forums and known through blogs etc.
So if I post something specifically about me or my family, I can share with just friends and family. If I post an article about a great new service I have found, such as MyBlogGuest.com, I can share it with Acquaintances only as many of my friends are not interesting in the business of the Internet. You can select people to individually share items with too, which makes it like a private messaging system. This is really what Circles is about. It is simple in theory but can become very powerful.
The other main features are the integration of Picasaweb photos into Google+. Any Picasaweb photos that you upload or comment on from now will appear on your Google+ homepage and be visible in accordance with the rules set in your Picasaweb settings. This is the first of the negative points though. If you chose to follow someone who is very popular then you may find that their photos infest your homepage as each time a new comment is added the photo will jump to the top of the page again. This is where the Mute button comes in very useful – you can chose to stop seeing updates on a post / photo / video etc.
Sparks so far seems to be lacking in any substance. The sites that come up in Sparks are generally not very well chosen. I have nothing else to say about Sparks at the moment other than it is a disappointment.
The other main feature is the Hangout. Here you can chose to arrange a Hangout with up to 10 people and chat in live with video or just audio, and generally use it to hook up. This is another feature which Facebook is severely lacking in and could be something to draw in the younger crowd.

Some Tips for Google+
When you first sign up by default you will receive email notifications for everything that you are involved in. You may want turn off these emails as your inbox will quickly get flooded. I chose to only receive notifications for when someone shared something with me for the first time. This seems to work well.
At the moment it is very clear that the Googlers are still doing a lot of testing, which is why not many people have been invited so far. Down the bottom right there is a “send feedback” button which will allow you to send a screenshot of any problems you are seeing.
The main difference between Google+ and Facebook at the moment, other than the lack of people, is that there are no diversions. No games, no extra add ons. It is refreshing in a way, but Facebook’s strength is that people login in the evening and stay glued to it all night as even when their friends are busy there are games to play or groups and pages to discuss things in. Google+ is a little quiet at the moment, and no groups either – apart from your own.
So how has this experiment gone?

Actually Google+ does pretty much what I it want to do as far as a social media hub.  I know that Google+ has been reviewed and reviewed and reviewed by almost everyone it seems over the past 5 months or so.  Will I add any new or earth shattering ideas on different uses or views about it that others have missed? No.  It is just a review of Google Plus based on my experiences with it and why I decided to make it my primary social media hub.

Things that I would like to see


  • post directly from my Blogger blog. Now I have to manually post and link my blog posts, which is not a big issue, more of an inconvenience really, but would seem to be a feature that Blogger/Google+ would integrate more quickly than they have, especially with so many people using Blogger.
  • the suggestions for people for your Circles could be more aligned with Sparks or Circle names. My address book is not always indicative of the type of people that I would want in my Circles or to follow.
  • Not allowing psuedonyms is a problem for a lot of people for various reasons, but Google seems to have reversed course on this one a bit and appears to be allowing them in the future.
  • Have a link to my Google Voice account in the sidebar, I would find that more helpful than gChat.
  • Have more of my friends and family on G+ - nothing Google can do about this one. :-)
  • Column views for the feed similar to TweetDeck or others. 
I do wish there was a way to make the stream into a column view like I have on TweetDeck forTwitter and could just pull the tab/page over to the side.



Unfortunately, G+ doesn't shrink when you reduce the size of the window, it cuts the page.  If it shrank I could use the G+ stream in a window as a sidebar, continue using the rest of the browser for whatever and still be able to monitor the stream - which is what I do now with Twitter.

                                                                                  

Hopefully, TweetDeck will include G+ into their program like they have with Facebook andLinkedIn, but since it was acquired by Twitter - I wonder if that will happen?  We will see.

Features

  • Circles - of course no choice in the matter.  It is more difficult to figure out how to organize and name your Circles than using them. You can just see the streams of those Circles you want or the main stream.
  • Sparks - good place to go to find people who write about and share similar interests as you have
  • Google Chat - Never Used, haven't used chats in any program or OS since I started using Twitter.
  • Profile - I linked it to my blog
  • All of my posts or shares are in one place
  • +1's - I really like how they keep track of all the stuff you +1, so you can go back to it again if you want
  • Picassa - integration is slick
  • Hangouts - Used it earlier in the summer - very easy and intuitive.
  • Games - I don't usually play them on the web, but they are there if you want/need them
  • Just recently G+ started to support #hastags, another way to find subjects/interests.
  • One of best one is there are not endless menus of check boxes that you need to find to change settings.
  • Data Liberation is easy - I downloaded my entire Picasa/Photo library to .zip files
  • The ability to edit entries after posting - you know when you notice how badly you spelled, missed words or other errors that need to be fixed.
Chrome Extensions

Also I have found several Google Chrome extensions that have helped make Google+ more useable.

I even started putting my running log in G+ as an experiment, posting publicly and to my RunLog circle to hold myself accountable. I don't run so much for time anymore and it gives me more of a holistic running log entry, which I am liking so far.

Not a Power User

I am not a Power User, who switched over to Google+.  I am just a 50 something, pretty ordinary guy, who likes many Google products.  I had to look around to get an early invite (thanks Richard) and started playing around with Google+ over the summer, but wasn't too serious about using it.  However, as Facebook began to make all their recent changes, like a lot of people I got really uncomfortable with them - even more than I had been already (which is saying a lot).  As a result of their changes I decided to look a lot more closely at Google+ as a serious alternative to Facebook.

Choice

Although both Google and Facebook both have had their problems with privacy issues in the past, I felt that I had to make a choice about which free service I trust more with my personal data (I don't trust either one completely).  I had to decide whether to use a service that already has most of my personal information anyway (I use a lot of Google's services - Search, Chrome, gDocs, Blogger, gMail, etc.) with the company motto of "do no evil" - Google or continue to use a service that wants to intrude more beyond the confines of their service - to access my personal data and has a bad reputation about how they get it and keep it - Facebook.

Ultimately, I chose Google - Let's hope that I chose correctly.

Impressed

All that being said, since I took the plunge on October 10th, I have have been very impressed with Google+, its ability to do most of what I want from my social media hub and as the API opens up to other developers, I can see the potential for a lot of stuff that real people can use G+ for -- not just power users or techies (which there seem to be a lot of on g+).

Now if I could just get more of my family and friends on Google+.  I guess the attitude is "Build it and they will come" - we will see.

It will be interesting to see what social media looks like next year at this time.


15 GREAT THOUGHTS BY CHANAKYA | Literary Persons of india - indian-enews

Saturday 21 January 2012 0 comments


1) "Learn from the mistakes of others... you can't live long enough to make them all yourselves!!"

2)"A person should not be too honest. Straight trees are cut first and Honest people are screwed first."

3)"Even if a snake is not poisonous, it should pretend to be venomous."

4)"There is some self-interest behind every friendship. There is no friendship without self-interests. This is a bitter truth."


5)" Before you start some work, always ask yourself three questions - Why am I doing it, What the results might be and Will I be successful. Only when you think deeply and find satisfactory answers to these questions, go ahead."


6)"As soon as the fear approaches near, attack and destroy it."


7)"The world's biggest power is the youth and beauty of a woman."


8)"Once you start a working on something, don't be afraid of failure and don't abandon it. People who work sincerely are the happiest."


9)"The fragrance of flowers spreads only in the direction of the wind. But the goodness of a person spreads in all direction."


10)"God is not present in idols. Your feelings are your god. The soul is your temple."


11) "A man is great by deeds, not by birth."


12) "Never make friends with people who are above or below you in status. Such friendships will never give you any happiness."


13) "Treat your kid like a darling for the first five years. For the next five years, scold them. By the time they turn sixteen, treat them like a friend. Your grown up children are your best friends."


14) "Books are as useful to a stupid person as a mirror is useful to a blind person."


15) "Education is the Best Friend. An Educated Person is Respected Everywhere. Education beats the Beauty and the Youth."

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