Meera Borwankar.....
I have been a big admirer of high achieving women....I have mentioned about high profile CEOs like Cary Fiorina, Meg Whitmann, Carol Baratz....etc....

How about our own "desi" executive.....

Meet....Meera Borwankar...first woman....IPS officer to decorate the coveted post of Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) ......B'bay....when I googled on her....I was simply imrpressed....what a story....

Small town girl....rose to one of the most celebrated post in Indian Police due her sheer hardword,tenacity and grit......

You need to know something abt crime branch and its operations to appreciate the toughness it demands....

Hats off to Meera and good luck to her when she takes on underworld menace.....

Cheers!

Mukesh !
Mukesh....what a voice...singer....who sang his heart out.....

Listened to whole lot Mukesh songs at a stretch and can not tell what I am overcome with.....

Mukesh Chandra Mathur was his name...he was the voice of Raj Kapur that how Raj Kapur exclaimed when Mukesh died...."my voice is gone"

Incindently, Mukesh sang maximum songs for another hero , Manoj Kumar but was a must have for Raj Kapur....

What a melodious voice...any emotion he could produce...

His son Nitin Mukesh also is a good singer but did not sing much.....

Cheers !

Underworld.

Check This Out!!!

Log on to : http://www.timesofindia.com

New mole in bhai's world
After Mandakini, Monica Bedi, Shilpa Shetty, it is actress Nagma's turn to be linked to underworld....D-company in particular....

News reports say that one of the arrested in gutkha case has revealed her links with D-company.....

What's new? Let the sensational new start to trickle...Maza aayega.....

Nagma now actively campanining for Congress denied....

Let's watch !

Deepika Padukone
Looks like it is the season to celebrate new kids on the block in various fields....

In Tennis, it is Sania Mirza....

In modeling, if you go by what is being written in media.....new Ash is in the making....and the person is Deepika Padukone, an 18 year old model from B'lore taking the modeling world by a storm....

She is the daughter of former badminton champ Prakash Padukone....I think he had won All England Championship in 1979....After that there was a long gap till P.Gopinath won it a couple of years ago.....

Deepika has inherited the best of Padukone couple it seems like.....

Let's see how far does she go...sometimes modeling world can be totally unpredicatble...if you want the proof of unpredicatbility, google for Lakshmi Pandit and see of yourself how her claim to fame ended in a moment and how she was stripped off of her Miss India crown last year for fabricating some documents which hid her martial status....she simply was forced into obscurity....

Trivia.....who got the Miss Inida title once Lakshmi Pandit was stripped off of her crown....
Answer -Jyoti Brahmin

Incidently Lakshmi's elder sister was a Miss India too....I think Kalpana Pandit was the only beauty that I am aware of who exhibited that beauty and brains can co-exist and proved it...Kalpana was ranker in both X and XII in Karnataka Board !

Cheers!

Sania Mirza
Congratulations to Indian Tennis's budding star - Sania Mirza.

Recently, she has been in news a lot. First after her encounter against Serena Willians which she lost but won appreciation from everyone including Serena. Also made a histroy of some sort.

Now she recently won some championship in H'bad. Very impressive..

Read her success story which is like rags to riches....this girl from a lower middle class family in H'bad has poured her heart and soul into becoming what she is today...Her parents also should be commended for all their sacrifices....Try to google and you should see a nice article abt her parents in TOI.....It was her mother's ardent wish to make Sania an ace tennis player after she watched Martina Navratilova. That time Sania was still a toddler...That is the power of dreams....if you can dream it, you can do it....

Sania is on the verge of getting into coveted top 100 list soon. Needs one or two more wins.....Next to watch out is Dubai open in next a couple of months...

One concern is her ankle pain...I hope that can be cured and does not become an impediment to her career...

Looks like a bright star on Indian tennis....hope it glitters for a long while.....

Good luck Sania !

Way to Hell
"The way to the hell is laid with good intentions" by GBS

Other Maheshs
Ok, who are all those famous people who share my first name....let's give a try....

Mahesh Yogi - of TM fame

Mahesh Dholakia - Associate of Dawood Ibrahim bumped off by rivals in 1980s

Mahesh Bhupathi - Tennis star married to former Miss India contestant/winner Shweta Jaishankar

Maheshgouri - Pune top cop who was under Telgigate scanner

Mahesh Agarwal - friend who I go to know while doing PS-II at Nucleus Software, Delhi

Mahesh Bhatt - Film director

Mahesh Manjrekar - Film director

Mahesh Bhat - family friends' kid

Mahesh Patil - junior in college in Dharwad. Do not know personally.


Ok...that's all I can think of now...Feel free to add...

Kuch to gadbad hai....
Topic: Movies
Kuch to gadbad hai....starring Sushant Singh, Vivek Shaq, Gurleen Chopra....

Comedy movie.....full of comedy of errors....confusions .....funny dialogs....

Sushant Singh and Vivek Shaq really shine with comedy roles. Others join and overall an entertainer albeit less classy.....

Supriya Karnik.....gosh she is so graceful....I had always wanted to know who this supporting actress was....Now know her name....she was an air hostress in several airlines before coming to movies. In her youth, she must have been heroine material...looks too cute....

Cheers!

Children International
Charity begins at home.....

I think I wrote about Children International a while ago as one of the charities I support and recommend.

I have been supporting Children International since 1997 by sponsoring children.

Today, number of my sponsorships is 4 with 2 children in India, one in Columbia and one in Zambia....Small donations but pooled together with the resources from org like Children International makes a big difference.

I have been quite happy with Children International and their professionalisms...They keep the sponsor updated on every sponsored child and send reminders for special ocasions for birth days....etc....

They have a very good web presence and make things easier to manage your accounts....No hard pleading for funds etc...all for you to decide...

My principle has been to increase the amount of charity everytime something good happened to me or just felt I was ready to give a little more....It feels good to know that you are maing a difference however small it may be....

So, if you are looking for a charity to contribute to...please take a moment to see if children international appeals to you... I hope it does and you also become a sponsor and experience for yourseld the joy of knowing that you are making a difference in some child's life....

www.children.org.

Cheers !

Don't swaet the small stuff
Topic: Audio Book
Don't swaet the small stuff.....nice boook...

Good tips to reduce stress in life.....as one matures you see things and pick up wisdom not to sweat small stuff.....this book reinforces......very good. As I said in my previous post.....reinforcing uncommon common sense is very important.

Good quote - TGIT- Thank God It's TODAY....meaning live in the present without worrying too much about the future or brooding over the past. Makes a difference from TGIF or TGIM.....

Cheers !

Chaos
"Chaos is the law of nature; Order is the dream of man"

Make peace with Chaos and be happy:)

Flight of the buffalo.....
Topic: Audio Book
Flight of the buffalo......another management pep talk book.

Book starts off with saying that buffalos are lead by a lead buffalo and follow the leader blindly....kill the lead buffalo and rest of the herd goes clueless and you can butcher the entire herd.....so goes the story how buffalos were killed in the Americas in the past.....

Same analogy applies to organizations with lead buffalo like leader who makes all decisions without empowring his people...

On the contrary.....geese too have a leader but the leader takes different positions in the pattern without affecting their soaring performance....

So on and on it goes with many management tit-bits....

Common sense is so uncommon that you tend to benefit by listening to such books....They help to reinforce time tested uncommon common sense....

Very rarely you will come across a book on leadership or management which is revolutionary....Most of them are uncommon common sense in different flavors.....good to listen to as many of them are possible....that way it starts becoming part of your psyche.......

I do not think I would have been successful reading and completing this book but listening makes it much easier.......

Overall, an okay book.....

The Jerk
Topic: Movies
The Jerk....starring Steve Martin etc.....

Decent movie but Martin could have been utilized better......looks like it is director's fault to have made him over-act.....Otherwise....Martin could have delivered a decent comedy.....

2 Starrs......

AK-47
Topic: Movies
AK-47......if you like action movies.....surprisingly well made low budget.....low profile movie....no big names........but still an entertainer.......

Fight Mater Ram Shetty.....deliveres a decent movie ....as a director.

True to Shetty's original forte.....full of well done action sequences.....

Om Puri deliveres a nice powerful performance as a tough cop in a short role.....

New comers do a decent job. Aashish Vidyarthi acts well as baddie......Supporting actors like Satam, Mohan Joshi, Amrapurkar contribute their might as well....

Item song is really good :)

Way to go Shetty !

Anara - back in soup
Somewhere some conspiracy......

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Nightmare begins afresh for former beauty queen

Indo-Asian News Service
New Delhi, February 10, 2005











Advertisement

Just when she thought it was all over, former Miss Jammu Anara Gupta - accused of starring in a porn video only to have her name cleared by a forensic laboratory - finds herself dragged into the controversy again.

A Hyderabad laboratory gave a clean chit to Anara, but now forensic experts in Chandigarh claim they tallied 60 of her photographs with the porn video attributed to her and found "mostly similar" features.

Her family, which had heaved a sigh of relief after weeks of "police harassment", now finds itself pleading her innocence again.

"My daughter is innocent and can face any trial because she has nothing to hide," Raj Rani, Anara's mother, told reporters here.

"How did this Chandigarh laboratory report surface?" asked Raj Rani.

The Central Forensic Sciences Laboratory (CFSL) in Chandigarh Wednesday said Anara's photographs were tallied scientifically with the facial features of the girl in the video. The girl could be Anara as features tallied with her photographs, it said.

CFSL director R.S. Verma said the tape and pictures were sent to them by the Jammu police on January 27 and the findings were sent back Feb 7.

The Chandigarh report gave the Anara case a new turn barely four days after police withdrew their cases against her.

The report that the girl in the porn video could be Anara contradicts an earlier report by CFSL Hyderabad that her features did not match those of the girl in the video.

The Hyderabad-based CFSL, however, stands by its report, giving a clean chit to Anara.

"I can't say anything on this. May be the tapes and videos they examined were different," said laboratory director K.P.C Gandhi.

Defending the Hyderabad report, he said after five hours of detailed study they found that the girl in the CD was not Anara.

"We compared the CD as per forensic biometric studies from head to toe, including the fingers and toes and the hairline," he said.

"Two CDs or any two forensic samples examined under the same conditions by using the standard methodology will bear the same results," Gandhi said, implying that the Chandigarh laboratory may have examined other tapes.

Anara and a cable operator were arrested by the Jammu and Kashmir Police on November 4 for allegedly producing pornographic movies and were later released on bail.

Ash Rai on David Letterman show
Ash is in the US to promote 'Bride and Prejudice" which releases here this Fri....

She was quite witty on letterman show.....Avi downloads are available on the net. Google and go to groups....

You will also find her apperance on 60 minutes soome time back......

Trivia - what is common betwenn Ash and Sush other than being beauty queens......

Both are SCORPIOs.....Danger !

Creative way to celebrate Valentine's Day
Check out the creative dudes from Hindu College.

Last time I was impressed with dudes from Hindu college was during many OASIS fests in Pilani. They were indeed very creative....be it street plays or antakshrai or drama......

=======
Hindu College's whacky Valentine's Day ritualAdd to Clippings
RATI CHAUDHARY

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 09, 2005 11:01:52 PM ]
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NEW DELHI: Every Valentine's Day, a unique tradition is observed at Hindu College. A group of male students, mostly hostel residents, offers prayers to "Damdami Mai" and celebrates a female icon who it feels has hogged headlines for all the wrong reasons.

As college japes go, this February 14 "ritual" is just a little more whacky than some others. Last year it was Janet Jackson with her nipplegate at the Superbowl who grabbed the honours.

This year, unless there is a last-minute challenger, it could be former Miss Jammu Anara Gupta who has been in the news for porn CDs, said college prime minister Sandeep Kumar.

According to college students, the tradition of Damdami Mai ki puja is self-invented. She is supposedly the goddess of girls and the puja is performed by male students to please her on this special day.

Given the fact that the female "star" has to be someone who has gained some notoriety, the choice is made carefully.
The male students take out a procession in the college with one of them dressed up as a pandit carrying all the material for aarti in the lead, and another student carrying a semi-nude poster. Each year the portrait is further embellished.

The popular virgin tree in the college campus is then decorated, not with buntings or streamers but with condom balloons.

Amidst the reverberating sounds of drums and dhols and slogans of 'Damdami Mai ki jai ho' , the aarti progresses. Words of the aarti are changed every year by the students and they are definitely not for the bashful.

Now when there is an aarti there has to be prasad too. Of course, the prasad contains doses of bhang for the special touch.

Also, there is lal mirchi teeka which causes a burning sensation on the forehead if applied. If freshers are warned by a senior, they can escape. If not, even Damdami Mai cannot save them.

Fiorina outta HP
HP's board today ousted Carly Fiorina.....much news available anyway on the internet.....

Only woman to hold CEO, President and Chairman titles at the same time....

From what I have read in the business press,'execution' was not Carly strength. She did a great job of developing a new strategy for HP but sarted, it appears, faltering in its execution. Anyway, she is a very smart executive to go and fix similar problems elsewhere.

But, her grit and ability to withstand all the pressure during Compaq merger as documented in 'Perfect Enough' is simply astonishing.......

Walks away with $21 mil in severance.....what a deal....

Cheers !

God bless MTR
There is a proverb in Sanskrit-"Annadata sukhi bhav" meaning " may the food provider be happy and hearty".

I wish this to our MTR people for making all sorts of Indian foods avilable so far from home. Be it tasty Navrathan Koorma, or Channa masala or many other entrees.

Saves people like me.

All those people engaged in providing food services be happy and healthy.....

Cheers !