2007-10-21

lalita larking

Wow! wow! wow!

"I don't believe that," I said flatly. He was encroaching on my territory, after all. "No, really," he said. "So tell me, and I will check," I said. If the mongoose family motto is 'Run and find out', my family crest, if I ever get one, will have the words 'Verify, cross-check' on it. Look, if we are talking about words and word games, I am the resident expert, okay? I take his help if I run out

Lalita, 2007-10-21 03:40 PMకి రాసారు.

2007-10-20

తెలుగు మాట...తేనె ఊట <br>TELUGU...a language sweeter than honey

Indian Made Foreign Film

When రజనేష్ దోమలపల్లి (Rajnesh Domalpalli) decided to make a film set in rural Andhra Pradesh he wanted to cast real people—not Tollywood stars. But when he visited schools and hutments, rumours went around that he was after their kidneys. In the end, he got what he wanted. The cast of his first feature film, వనజ (Vanaja), includes a school girl, a bottle sealer with a sixth-grade education who had been married off at the age of nine, a municipal sweeper, an agricultural labourer, a bicycle mechanic (and also Grasim Mr India 2003).

Working with a cast of amateurs, who had never faced a camera before, was tricky enough. But Domalpalli was also making his own debut as a director. Vanaja is the Silicon Valley engineer-turned-film-maker’s Master of Fine Arts thesis film and it’s surprised everyone by winning awards at film festivals around the world and is now enjoying an art house release in the US.

Domalpalli’s excited about the film’s success (The New York Times calls it “an engrossing fairy tale’’) but also acutely aware that films like his have as much chance of really making money as Vanaja herself does of breaking through caste, class and sex barriers in a small village in Andhra Pradesh in the sixties. “The art house scene in India is more or less dead,’’ says Domalpalli sitting in a coffee shop in San Francisco. “The big theatres draw the autorickshaw-wallas and college kids who want fun. The multiplexes show Bollywood and Hollywood.’’ Vanaja has three strikes against it—it’s about village life, it has no stars, and it’s in Telugu. “That means it’s a ‘foreign’ film in India,’’ smiles the director.

In America, the language doesn’t matter. It’s just another subtitled film and Domalpalli says it’s been a very mixed audience, mostly Americans “who embrace other cultures’’. He does get a fair sprinkling of Indians too, though some of them complain that it’s 2007 and here’s yet another film about caste, class and a little girl being exploited in a village.

“My India is harsh but beautiful,’’ says Domalpalli. He admits some issues defy cultural translation. Vanaja becomes a servant in Rama Devi’s home, in the hope that in between sweeping and chopping she will learn Kuchipudi. “We too have servants at home,’’ says Domalpalli. “So I can’t point a finger and say this is bad. Our servants at home cannot sit at the table. But just because I am part of the system doesn’t mean I can’t record it.’’

But in directing Vanaja, the director had to reach across the class divide. He remembers how, while making the film in 2002, his cast was sitting around on mats, having lunch. As soon as Domalpalli sat down in their midst all conversation stopped. Eventually they put out a chair for him and set his food there. “Then all the laughter came back,” he remembers. In 2007 he went to a film studio in Andhra Pradesh. The studio boss insisted on taking him to the officer’s canteen. The next time he insisted on going to the canteen his driver went to. “We were totally comfortable but it took five years to get there,” says Domalpalli. “But I still can’t repeat it at home.”

Vanaja is suffused with Domalpalli’s nostalgia for everything that’s fading in the onslaught of urbanisation in India. The folk singers who open the film are now dead and their children have not followed the family footsteps. When he asked young children to sing a traditional Andhra folk song, they were embarrassed but they could belt out the latest Chiranjeevi hit. When Domalpalli found young Koya tribal boys they all wore shirts and pants. He asked one why he had given up his traditional clothes. “Because I want to be like you,” the boy replied.

It was probably the dream of much of his cast. Post-Vanaja their lives have changed but there has been no fairy-tale ending. The vivacious Mamatha Bhukya who plays Vanaja will probably have a career in films, says Domalpalli, though he worries she will be exploited. Somayya, who played her father, is now a gardener at Domalpalli’s mother’s friend’s house. Krishnamma who plays the old mail is sick but won’t take the medicines prescribed to her by Apollo Hospital, relying instead on tribal remedies. Krishna who plays the postman is married but stuck in the same manual labourer job. Krishna’s younger brother Prabhu lives with Domalpalli’s parents and is enrolled in an English-medium school but is having a tough time.

“So it’s mixed,” says Domalpalli with a smile. But he didn’t make a film to start a social revolution. “I just wanted to record India, the memories of my childhood, even the bad things. That’s why I named it Vanaja or water lily, it grows in the muck, but it grows into something beautiful.’’

Courtesy: TOI

v_tel001, 2007-10-20 08:30 PMకి రాసారు.

TODAY INDIA NEWS

India beats Australia by seven wickets

20-oct-2007 INDIA beat Australia by seven wickets overnight in a one-off Twenty20 match at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai thanks to a hard-hitting 63 by Gautam Gambhir. Earlier Ricky Ponting's 76 propelled Australia to 5-166 from their 20 overs. The Australian captain's 53-ball knock at least provided his bowlers with something to defend on a typically barmy evening in Mumbai. Spin duo

Mohd. Shamsheer Ali, 2007-10-20 02:26 PMకి రాసారు.

VSNL will offer Wi-Fi Network to NTT Japan

Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL) has partnered with NTT Japan to provide to its international in-roaming service on Wi-Fi. VSNL is also providing Wi-Fi network to customers of Singapore based Starhub in India. VSNL informed the stock exchange in its filing. The tourists will be able to easily access wireless broadband in top 10 cities across India. The company has planned to upgrade its network

Mohd. Shamsheer Ali, 2007-10-20 01:22 PMకి రాసారు.

RComm edges out GSM operators in spectrum race

Mumbai, Oct. 19: Anil Ambani’s Reliance Communications (R-Com) has received the department of telecom’s (DoT) approval to launch nationwide GSM services. R-Com now offers CDMA services in 20 circles and GSM in eight circles. R-Com has been allowed to offer the new services under the DoT’s existing unified access service licence. The DoT permission, therefore, fulfils Ambani’s vision of

Mohd. Shamsheer Ali, 2007-10-20 01:16 PMకి రాసారు.

J&K teacher 'killed' by soldiers, inquiry ordered

SRINAGAR: The Army has arrested a soldier for allegedly killing a teacher in Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir as massive protest demonstrations sparked by the incident continued in the area for the second day on Saturday. The teacher, Abdul Rashid Mir, was killed accidentally by a bullet shot from Mohammad Tariq's service rifle after he was stopped by security personnel at a check point to

Mohd. Shamsheer Ali, 2007-10-20 01:11 PMకి రాసారు.

Bollywood star Dutt could head to jail Monday

20-oct-2007. MUMBAI - Bollywood bad boy Sanjay Dutt, who is out on bail from a six-year sentence for illegal arms possession due to a technicality, could be back in jail as early as Monday, his lawyer said. India’s Supreme Court agreed to his conditional release in August after the anti-terror court in Mumbai that jailed him failed to provide the actor with a copy of its judgement. “Dutt has

Mohd. Shamsheer Ali, 2007-10-20 01:07 PMకి రాసారు.

తెలుగు మాట...తేనె ఊట <br>TELUGU...a language sweeter than honey

Chennai - A Telugu name (?)

"The chief minister had been informed that ‘Madras’, like Bombay, was actually a Portuguese coinage, derived either from a trader named Madeiros or a prince called Madrie. ‘Madras is not a Tamil name,’ announced the chief chauvinist to justify his decision to rename the city of ‘Chennai’, the word used (though not always) by Tamil speakers.

Once again, name recognition — Madras kerchiefs, Madras jackets, Bleeding Madras, the Madras monitoring system — went by the board as Chennai was adopted without serious debate. More unfortunately, however, the chief minister had overlooked the weight of evidence that Madras was indeed a Tamil name (derived, alternative theories go, from the name of a local fisherman, Madarasan; or from the local Muslim religious schools, madarasas; or from madhu-ras, from the Sanskrit and Tamil words for honey). Worse, he had also overlooked the embarrassing fact that Chennai was not, as he had asserted, of Tamil origin.

It came from the name of Chennappa Naicker, the Raja of Chandragiri, who granted the British the right to trade on the Coromandel coast — and who was a Telugu speaker from what is today Andhra Pradesh. So bad history was worse lexicography, but in India-that-is-Bharat it is good politics."

- Shashi Tharoor

Read the complete article by Shashi Tharoor

Courtesy: Business Standard

v_tel001, 2007-10-20 01:04 PMకి రాసారు.

2007-10-19

Sulekha: Featured Blogs

Cocktail of Memories

Another tale of relationships, perceptions, rejections and acceptance.

2007-10-19 11:31 AMకి రాసారు.

The Forked Path

How often in life are we faced with choices that divide our heart and mind?When faced with two paths, how does one decide which path is the right one?

2007-10-19 08:24 AMకి రాసారు.

Raju Sykam raju.net.in

APGenco Assistant Engineer(Electrical) exam syllabus

apgenco-assistant-engineerelectrical-exam-syllabus
syllabus for APGenco assistant engineer post. APGenco announced the syllabus for competetive exam for recuritement of Assistant Engineers(AE) for 2007. SYLLABUS FOR THE COMPETETIVE TEST FOR THE RECRUITMENT OF ASSISTANT ENGINEERS (ELECTRICAL)

Raju Sykam, 2007-10-19 05:21 AMకి రాసారు.

Technology News, Tips and Tricks

7 Things You Should Know About…

The EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative’s (ELI’s) 7 Things You Should Know About… series provides concise information on emerging learning technologies and related practices. Each brief focuses on a single technology or practice and describes:

* What it is
* How it works
* Where it is going
* Why it matters to teaching and learning

Some of my favorites from this series that are already available:

7 Things You Should Know About RSS : http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7024.pdf

7 Things You Should Know About Facebook II: http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7025.pdf...

7 Things You Should Know About Grid Computing: http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7010.pdf

Chandu, 2007-10-19 04:41 AMకి రాసారు.

2007-10-18

తెలుగు మాట...తేనె ఊట <br>TELUGU...a language sweeter than honey

Textures of Time: Writing History in South India

Book Review by Sunil

v_tel001, 2007-10-18 10:40 PMకి రాసారు.

TODAY INDIA NEWS

Mobile Handset Users Unsatisfied

India Mobile Handset Usage and Satisfaction Study 2007 conducted by IDC indicates that the contentment score of mobile handset users in India, has fallen down for the first time in last three years. Sony Ericsson’s owners are most satisfied with the performances of their phones. Motorola is on the second position and Nokia on third. Last year Nokia was on the second rank and Motorola on third.

Mohd. Shamsheer Ali, 2007-10-18 10:30 AMకి రాసారు.

SBI Cards says it's beyond RTI ambit

NEW DELHI: SBI Cards, a joint venture between the nationalised State Bank of India and a private company has approached the Delhi High Court contending it is a private entity and does not fall within the ambit of the Right to Information (RTI) Act. The verdict in this case will decide whether a business scheme launched by a public sector bank — such as credit cards, home loans and other

Mohd. Shamsheer Ali, 2007-10-18 10:22 AMకి రాసారు.

Teachers can't use mobile phones in classrooms: TN Minister

Chennai : The Tamil Nadu Government's ban on the usage of mobile phones by students in schools, would soon be extended to teachers, who would not be allowed to use the gadget inside the classrooms. The School Education Directorate has issued a circular asking teachers not to use mobile phones inside classrooms or while taking classes, School Education Minister Thangam Thennarasu told PTI on

Mohd. Shamsheer Ali, 2007-10-18 10:19 AMకి రాసారు.

2007-10-17

Dexter's Lab

Firefox 3...

Some neat features in the upcoming Firefox 3 version.

Things I did notice are these:


  • One click bookmarking

    I love it. Theres a star residing in the url bar which when clicked on gives you the option of storing it in a folder. Sweet. Though Ctrl + D works for me this ain't bad too.
    Also now you can tag your bookmarks. But now the Organize Bookmarks sees a lot of clutter. Too may unwanted options.

  • Places

    This ones a decent functionality too though doesn't seem useful for me. It resides as a folder on the Bookmarks Toolbar.
    It lists the most visited pages, recently visited pages, recently starred, used etc etc...
    Again seems redundant since we have all our bookmarks keyworded properly. And am not much of a history using guy.

  • History search from url bar

    The feature which Opera did so well with Kestrel. Its there in firefox too. Now contextually searches in the text too form your history pages. Is handy.

  • Along with extensions, themes now we get a plugins tab in the Addons.

  • A few minor enhancements I have seen. I have this habit of middle clicking on the folders to open all the bookmarks but I always longed that they open in along with the current tabs.
    Earlier they used to replace the current tabs, now they open in addition to the current tabs. Sweet ! Also now the movement of the tabs looks smooth now.

One feature I miss is the bookmark synchronization.

Overall it doesn't seem as exciting a release as Kestrel. Opera gains huge margin with kestrel. Mind you its still in beta too.

BTW tomorrow is the Ubuntu gutsy release. This one is yet another decent release.

2007-10-17 06:32 PMకి రాసారు.

TODAY INDIA NEWS

India beat Australia by 2 wickets in final ODI

MUMBAI, October 17: India pulled off an incredible two-wicket victory relying on the tail-enders to salvage some pride in the seventh and final cricket One-dayer against Australia here on Wednesday night. In a low-scoring thriller, India first bundled out Australia for a paltry 193 in 41.3 overs, riding on Murali Kartik's career-best six for 27 and then staged a dramatic recovery to overhaul the

Mohd. Shamsheer Ali, 2007-10-17 01:13 PMకి రాసారు.

CBSE accepts on-line application for Pre-med entrance exam-08

New Delhi The CBSE has begun accepting on-line applications for the All India Pre-medical/Pre-dental entrance examination, 2008. Aspiring students can submit their applications on-line on the website of the Central Board of Secondary Education, a CBSE official said. The entrance test, conducted for 15 per cent of the merit positions in medical and dental colleges all over the country, involves

Mohd. Shamsheer Ali, 2007-10-17 11:28 AMకి రాసారు.

Sex daily improves male fertility: Study

Melbourne: If men think that limiting sex will improve their sperm count, they are completely on the wrong side. If scientists are to be trusted, everyday sex will perk up their fertility. A new research by Australian researchers, regular sex not only boosts male sperm quality but also helps those who suffer fertility problems to improve their chances of fatherhood. Lead researcher Dr. David

Mohd. Shamsheer Ali, 2007-10-17 11:26 AMకి రాసారు.

Brain sees fear faster than smile

CHICAGO: Smiles may take a while, but a horrified expression is a sure-fire attention getter, US researchers said on Sunday, based on a study of how fast people process facial expressions. They believe fearful facial expressions make a beeline to the alarm center of the brain known as the amygdala, cuing humans to potential threats. "We think what is happening with fear is that this is a

Mohd. Shamsheer Ali, 2007-10-17 11:07 AMకి రాసారు.

How to avoid breast cancer

Tuesday October 16 2007 . This is Breast Cancer Awareness month, and thousands of women are diagnosed with the disease each year. But there are 10 simple lifestyle changes that can help you stay healthy, as Jeremy Laurance explains 1. DRINK LESS It may be unpopular, but it works. Every alcoholic drink a woman consumes on a daily basis increases her risk of breast cancer by six per cent.

Mohd. Shamsheer Ali, 2007-10-17 01:08 AMకి రాసారు.

The cost of India's nuclear U-turn

NEW DELHI: A day after India formally conveyed to the US ‘difficulties’ in continuing with the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal, a disappointed US was left hoping that India would continue efforts to push through the deal. The US was clearly taken aback by the government’s sudden turnaround on the deal with US ambassador to India Davic C Mulford frantically making rounds to South Block to

Mohd. Shamsheer Ali, 2007-10-17 12:51 AMకి రాసారు.

Health is Wealth

Reiki - an introduction

At every stage of human evolution we are given certain tools to help us deal with our problems at that particular time. Life today is more complicated than it used to be. We go through complex and stressful situations. What we are now looking for is something that will help us cope with life and live it as it should be lived; in peace, joy, harmony and abundance. There is an increasing

JO, 2007-10-17 12:11 AMకి రాసారు.

2007-10-16

Technology News, Tips and Tricks

How Google maps the world

Technology Review interviewed engineers at Google and at ­DigitalGlobe, the company that supplies Google’s satellite photos, and did a little bit of reverse-engineering to figure out how it works.

Read it out here : http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/19524/

Chandu, 2007-10-16 06:44 AMకి రాసారు.

2007-10-15

తెలుగు మాట...తేనె ఊట <br>TELUGU...a language sweeter than honey

How do you say 'American Idol' in Telugu

రఘురాం వడరేవు
RAGHURAM VADAREVU

The Associated Press


http://asap.ap.org/data/interactives/_entertainment/etv/


Across the country, countless immigrant parents and families who yearn for the sights and sounds of the home they left behind are tuning into ethnic language television.

There are channels in dozens of languages, from Arabic, Mandarin and Polish to Vietnamese, Portuguese and Urdu. There are channels called CTI Zhong Tian, TV Polonia, TV Globo and GEO TV.

Each night, parents (and sometimes their children) gather to watch these programs. These shows may be prime time ethnic language versions of American favorites such as "American Idol" and "As The World Turns." Or they may be shows original to the culture from where they come.

While the parents cozy up to the couch when their imported shows hit the tube, sometimes their immigrant children (reared in America and accustomed to everything American, for better or for worse) get antsy.

In an asap video, Raghuram Vadarevu explores this particular generation gap bubbling up within his own family now that his dad got a satellite dish and programming from India.

See the video here: http://asap.ap.org/data/interactives/_entertainment/etv/

Courtesy: theolympian


v_tel001, 2007-10-15 11:21 PMకి రాసారు.

Filmmaking Techniques

Special effects

Special effects (also called SPFX or SFX) are used in the film, television, and entertainment industry to realize scenes that cannot be achieved by live action or normal means. The term is very rarely used and has now been renamed visual Effects, it can also be used when talking of mechanical effects Special effects are used when creating the image by normal means is fantastic, impossible, or

Srivenkat Bulemoni, 2007-10-15 10:46 PMకి రాసారు.

lalita larking

I want to hold your hand

"Does it hurt," you asked. I looked at my hand engulfed in yours. My hand seemed so small and fragile there, nestling between your hands. You held your hand out that first time remember? Open, palm up and leaving it up to me to give my hand. I thought with some amusement that men must take lessons. My first boyfriend had held his hand out exactly like that too. I remember how we sat

Lalita, 2007-10-15 04:14 PMకి రాసారు.

TODAY INDIA NEWS

Study finds that people are programmed to love chocolate

WASHINGTON: For the first time, scientists have linked the all-too-human preference for a food — chocolate — to a specific, chemical signature that may be programmed into the metabolic system and is detectable by laboratory tests. The signature reads ‘chocolate lover’ in some people and indifference to the popular sweet in others, the researchers say. The study, according to a press relesase by

Mohd. Shamsheer Ali, 2007-10-15 02:13 PMకి రాసారు.

Coming soon: YouTube’s India site

India’s contribution to YouTube’s global traffic is less than one per cent but that is not stopping the Google-owned video-sharing service to launch an India-specific website, according to a top YouTube executive. “We plan to launch YouTube India anytime between January and March 2008,” said Shashi Seth, head of monetisation at the San Bruno, California-based YouTube. He spoke exclusively to

Mohd. Shamsheer Ali, 2007-10-15 02:06 PMకి రాసారు.

Renegotiate K-G deal: HC to Ambanis

Mumbai October 16, 2007 The Bombay High Court has directed the Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries (RIL) and Anil Ambani-owned Reliance Natural Resources (RNRL) to go back to the negotiating table and sign a fresh gas supply contract within 120 days, giving a new twist to the two-year-long dispute between RIL and RNRL over supply of gas from the Krishna-Godavari (K-G) basin off the Andhra

Mohd. Shamsheer Ali, 2007-10-15 02:01 PMకి రాసారు.

Anand 'touched' by Delhi reception

New Delhi : World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand on Monday said he was "touched" by the enthusiasm shown by his fans who received him at the airport on his first home coming a fortnight after winning the crown in Mexico. The World Champion had no complains at all about the unruly scenes even as the organisers, one of the top IT education companies of the country for whom the Anand is a brand

Mohd. Shamsheer Ali, 2007-10-15 01:57 PMకి రాసారు.

Surreal Images

Happy Days - A must watch film

Vamsi, 2007-10-15 01:07 PMకి రాసారు.

2007-10-14

తెలుగు మాట...తేనె ఊట <br>TELUGU...a language sweeter than honey

GM Rao: The man who plays to win

15 Oct, 2007, 0006 hrs IST,Soma Banerjee, TNN

NEW DELHI: It was the late 60s and Andhra Pradesh, like Orissa, West Bengal and Kerala, was grappling with Maoist forces, which is now known as the Naxalite movement. A young lad from its heartland — Rajam village in Srikakulam district — who belonged to a small trader community set out to discover the world. Thirty years later, this man is rewriting rules in the most challenging spheres of the Indian economy — infrastructure. Straddling airports, power stations, roads and realty, గ్రంధి మల్లికార్జున రావు (Grandhi Mallikarjuna Rao), chairman of the GMR group, is full of more dreams, and ET’s Entrepreneur of the Year.

This serial entrepreneur, with a penchant for executing projects before time, has always been ready to seize every opportunity that came his way. At one point, when India was a licensed economy, GMR had applied for and managed to get licences for a wide range of industries which had very little in common — from earbuds to ferro alloys, jute yarn to sugar, breweries to textiles. What may come as a surprise is that he managed to dabble in quite a few of them, making money every time he exited.

“My father has always believed in focusing on one project till such time that we secure it,” says Kiran Kumar Grandhi, GMR’s younger son who heads the aviation vertical. “This is why we have managed to be successful in whatever we have taken up. Perseverance and single-point focus is the clear message for all of us.”

Daring is a trademark with GMR, even in the most unlikely arenas. He, for instance, accepted the challenge of changing his dietary habits and venturing into non-vegetarian food during his college days, to prove a point to his fellow students. “My classmates at Vizag Engineering College called me pappu (a simple, vegetarian village boy) as I had came from a Dhumpbaldi — a ‘sweet potato school,’ a nickname alluding to village schools in interior Andhra where children would eat roasted sweet potatoes as a special treat,” recalls GMR, revealing that he was the first in his family to join an engineering college.

“They found it difficult to believe that I could contest student elections and often ragged me for being vegetarian. But I had great support and I was not willing to let them down; I won the election and became general secretary of the students’ union. That’s the time I also took to non-vegetarian food like fish to show I could match them on all counts!”

This passion for challenge has not only seen GMR scripting his own story, but also changing his characters and goals to cope up with changing scenarios. His foray into the power sector, for instance, was thanks to the imposition of ‘prohibition’ in the state. In the early 1990s, GMR Technologies got a licence for breweries. Land had been bought and the project was about to begin. Then, chief minister NT Rama Rao decided to impose prohibition in Andhra Pradesh and the company was left groping for an alternative.

“Most of the people had no idea how to deal with that sudden turn of events. But GMR decided to take advantage of a new growth area — the power sector — and soon acquired the licence for a power project in Tamil Nadu, the Basin Bridge power plant in Chennai, which became the first to be developed by the group,” says BVN Rao, a long-time friend and now chairman of the energy vertical. The group now has three operating power projects — Basin Bridge, Tanir Bavi in Karnataka and the Vemagiri Power in Andhra — and has already ventured into the hydel power sector too.

GMR relishes beating competition decisively. Right from those watershed college elections (his victory margin is still a record there!) to bid for road projects where seasoned players were left guessing how the numbers worked, he has a will to win.

“We were always several notches lower in our bid when it came to road projects,” remembers a close associate of GMR, who has been working on the financials of various projects. “Being a first in many, competitors were sceptical. But project execution and financial engineering has been a hallmark of this group. While we bagged projects with low bids, we managed to securitise them as soon they went onstream, which provided us with capital for other projects.”

GMR, who cut his entrepreneurial teeth with a jute yarn facility in Rajam, went on to display his talent in sugar and other agri businesses, ferro-alloys, IT and banking before he finally decided to zero in on infrastructure. It all began when his father, who was a small-time jewellery trader, decided to divide his wealth among his children. GMR’s share of Rs 3 lakh was the seed capital for his first dream project.

“My dream today is to build the group into one of the leading infrastructure companies of the world,” he says with pride. “We have made a beginning overseas with the Istanbul airport project. But lessons learnt from my jute and banking days hold good even today, and I think they have played a large role in shaping my current thinking and outlook.”

Setting up a jute yarn facility taught him a great deal about teamwork and taking his fellow workers along. His banking experience is what he treasures the most. “Turning around non-performing assets and building confidence among customers after a total change in the top management was not easy. We were dealing with public money,” he says. “We had to work individually on each of the NPAs and it required personal relationship skills. It is then that I acquired most of my friends in the banking and financial world.”

GMR, in his capacity as the single-largest shareholder of Vysya Bank, had to walk in almost overnight to rescue it after its then-CEO Ramesh Gelli walked out with the top 100 employees to form the Global Trust Bank. “This was, in some ways, his biggest challenge. It is in his DNA not to leave a project mid-way. We have to pursue it and make it a success,” says BVN Rao.

Running the bank required some tough talking and decisions: in 1985-86, RBI pressurised the bank to increase capital from Rs 60 lakh to Rs 120 lakh. The bank was listed, the shares were sold at Rs 10 each and they gave 18% dividend. Even then, only Rs 30 lakh could be mobilised. He managed just about Rs 3-4 lakh more from friends.

This left him with no other option but to turn to family assets. He persuaded his wife (who is learnt to have been reluctant at that point) to pledge her jewellery, which helped GMR make up the rest of the amount. Even today, he cherishes this example of how his family played a role in building his empire. GMR, incidentally, later exited the bank by selling his around 37% stake to ING.

His entry into the airport sector, however, was a considered decision, and GMR bagged the Delhi airport improvement project and a greenfield airport at Hyderabad. “We decided to get into this sector in 1999 at Hyderabad,” says GMR’s younger son Kiran Grandhi who is now chairman of the airport venture. “That meant dealing with several improbabilities. But we went ahead and it was only in 2004 that we finally bagged the project. We had seen the early bird advantage in other sectors and we were ready to take up the challenge.”

Having relied on taskforces for most of the early projects, GMR has now stepped back to take on the role of a strategiser for the group. And he is taking his new job seriously. A rigorous exercise schedule with meditation is a must to take up the new challenges which require him to stay ahead of the curve — even to beat his sons at the business!

“He is so agile and alert that he beats us at almost everything,” laughs Kiran Grandhi. “I’ve learned most of the things on the shop floor as I was made to get exposure in almost every business of the group. I even spent time at the sugar factory in the village! My father told me that was a live MBA programme!”

GMR, unlike most family-run businesses, has also put in place a succession plan in the form of a family constitution, which has been revealed to shareholders as well, to ensure transparency in operations. On criticism about the family’s role in his companies, GMR has a confident answer: “It’s run by family professionals. Almost 70% of the listed companies on BSE are family-run businesses anyway.”

But even at 58, GMR, has merely written the preface of his entrepreneurship story, it seems. He’s now poised to enter the big league and if early indications are anything to go by, getting awards too could become a habit!

Courtesy: Economic Times
Telugu

v_tel001, 2007-10-14 04:14 PMకి రాసారు.

2007-10-13

Dexter's Lab

Happy Days...

Happy Days is a good movie...
Go watch :)

2007-10-13 07:59 PMకి రాసారు.

TODAY INDIA NEWS

Cinema News

www.veryhotsimage.blogspot.com Plz Click any add

Mohd. Shamsheer Ali, 2007-10-13 03:01 PMకి రాసారు.

Airtel Offers 8 Mbps Broadband in India

Airtel has become the first Internet Service Provider (ISP) to provide 8 Mbps broadband to India. Currently, the speeds on offer range from 256 Kbps to 4 Mbps. Launching the service, Atul Bindal, president (Broadband & Telephone Services) of Bharti Airtel, said that with 8 Mbps speed, their network would be "Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) ready". Higher speeds like the 8 Mbps broadband mean

Mohd. Shamsheer Ali, 2007-10-13 02:53 PMకి రాసారు.

BSNL launches TV in mobile handset service

BSNL launches TV in mobile handset service BSNL Broadband - BSNL DataOne, GSM Service Providers, Mobile Television October 13th, 2007 BSNL launches TV in mobile handset service Government owned telecom company BSNL has now launched their ‘TV in mobile handset’ service in the market. This service is currently available in the eastern and north-eastern regions of the country. With this service BSNL

Mohd. Shamsheer Ali, 2007-10-13 02:48 PMకి రాసారు.

New telecom licensing nears reality

The new licensing and M&A policy for the telecom sector is closer to reality now. The Telecom Commission is learnt to have finalised the new licensing norms for the sector two days ago, and on Friday, it put up the issue before communications minister A Raja. Department of Telecommunications (DoT) secretary DS Mathur, who chairs the Telecom Commission, along with other members of the panel, had a

Mohd. Shamsheer Ali, 2007-10-13 02:43 PMకి రాసారు.

Mobile Phones

LG KE850 Prada

LG KE850 Prada The LG KE850 Prada is a fashion conscious users dream handset as its a sleek, slim & highly capable mobile phone. The KE850 Prada comes with an advanced touch screen interface which offers the user capacitive touch screen technology which means the user will not need a stylus for their touch screen but the screen simply reacts to the touch of a finger. The phone comes with

Mohd. Shamsheer Ali, 2007-10-13 01:31 PMకి రాసారు.

Samsung D840

Samsung D840 The D840 is a member of the D range designed by Samsung with usability in mind. The Samsung D840 is a communication & entertainment mobile phone which comes in a stylish casing. The casing is available in either a sleek black finish or an eye catching brushed silver coloured casing. The phone comes with a slide open mechanism which is smooth to use. The Samsung D840 is from the

Mohd. Shamsheer Ali, 2007-10-13 01:28 PMకి రాసారు.

తెలుగు మాట...తేనె ఊట <br>TELUGU...a language sweeter than honey

US Congress honors బాలమురళికృష్ణ


NEW YORK: The US Congress has issued a Congressional recognition honouring Indian music maestro M. Balamuralikrishna for his stellar contribution to Carnatic music for the past seven decades.

The proclamation, successfully piloted by Texas Congressman Nick Lampson, was presented to the music maestro at a function held here last weekend.

New Jersey State Assembly's resolution paying a tribute to Balamuralikrishna was also read out on the occasion. A concert by the maestro followed the function.

The event commemorated Balamuralikrishna's career spanning 70 years as well his 77th birthday. It was organised by Shri Vari Foundation, formed in New York to promote Indian music and dance in the US.

Prakaash M. Swami, a journalist who has launched Shri Vari Foundation, described Balamuralikrishna as a living legend.

His rich contribution to Indian classical music includes sustained efforts to resurrect forgotten ragas and innovating on the tala system.

He has over 400 compositions to his credit including varnams, krithis, javalis, devotional songs and thillanas. He has sung in Telugu, Tamil, Bengali, Oriya, Kannada, Malayalam, Sanskrit, Marathi, Hindi and French. He has given concerts across the world and cut scores of albums.

The acclaimed vocalist's duets with North Indian vocalists and instrumentalists such as Bhimsen Joshi, Kishori Amonkar and Hariprasad Chaurasia have forged national integration through music. He is also an accomplished instrumentalist, playing the violin, veena, ganjira, viola and the mridangam with equal ease.

The MBK Trust founded by him in Chennai is carrying out research on music therapy. Balamuralikrishna's contribution to Indian music has won him laurels at home and abroad.

He is a recipient of the Padma Vibhushan, the second highest Indian civilian honour, the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, and Sangeetha Kalanidhi of the Madras Music Academy.

France has bestowed on him the title of Chevalier des Arts et Letters (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris honoured him with the Gandhi Memorial Medal.

Balamuralikrishna has been conferred honorary doctorates by 10 universities in India. He served as pro chancellor of Telugu University in Hyderabad and as first professor of Dr. Radhakrishnan Chair at the Central University, also in Hyderabad.

Chennai-based Balamuralikrishna was born in East Godavari District of Andhra Pradesh. Beginning to perform at the age of eight, he was a child prodigy.

Courtesy: TOI

v_tel001, 2007-10-13 01:51 AMకి రాసారు.

2007-10-12

lalita larking

The train you intended to board

There is immortality of a sort in being quoted. When the origin of the quote is forgotten and the lines pass into collective vocabulary, the author lives on in his words. Shakespeare comes to mind. There are so many things we say to sum up a situation that are his words. That it should come to this. What's in a name? The list is endless. A line from my father's work, TvamEvaaham is one such. "

Lalita, 2007-10-12 05:41 PMకి రాసారు.

Lokabhiramam

Who is Happy?

This story was in circulation in our circles for a long time. They say, it is also used in a film recently. Stories are not the sole property of any one. The story goes like this. There was this man trying to catch fish. He was patiently waiting with his rod in the waters of the village tank. There was this other man who came there, spread his upper cloth under the tree and started sleeping. The

Vijayagopal, 2007-10-12 04:05 AMకి రాసారు.

2007-10-11

welcome to the future

car

mukesh, 2007-10-11 07:05 AMకి రాసారు.

2007-10-09

Lokabhiramam

Phani's Rambles: Life, blocked.

Phani's Rambles: Life, blocked.: "I spend most of the day at work. I'm too tired to do anything when I go home. Whatever is to be done is done in a hurry, or pushed to the weekend. So basically I'm living life in the weekend. Or am I? Whatever." This is an excerpt from my son's blog.

Vijayagopal, 2007-10-09 08:48 AMకి రాసారు.

2007-10-08

తెలుగు మాట...తేనె ఊట <br>TELUGU...a language sweeter than honey

Film-crazy techies run riot on the Net

Abhijit Dev Kumar

Spoofs of Telugu movies on youtube turn super hits

Hyderabad: Who doesn’t like a parody? For thousands of techies from Andhra Pradesh working abroad, making spoofs of Telugu movies seems to be the favourite pastime.

Don’t believe it? Then just log onto youtube.com and …search for spoof episodes on even movies like Mahesh Babu’s super hit ‘Pokiri’.

పోకిరి పండుగాడు (Pokiri Pandugadu)

‘Pokiri Pandugadu Spoof- ‘Yes’ AP Consultant’ is the most popular one which registered more than 2,34,090 hits in the last nine months. The spoof takes on a software firm that is hell bent on employing a SAP consultant who happens to be our very own ‘Pandugadu’.

The less than five-minute clip parodies Mahesh Babu, a mercenary in the movie. ‘Pandugadu’ plays the role of the protagonist, but he is the ‘mercenary’ SAP professional who is to be hired by the software company. Interlaced with some shots of the original movie, the clips have become so popular that there are sequels too. “The idea is to make people laugh and relieve them of stress even it is for a few minutes,” Vijay Prabhu, director of the Pokiri spoof told The Hindu over phone. Based in Madison, Wisconsin, Vijay has made a series of spoofs on the movie but underlying messages in the series talk about prevailing working conditions of Indians in the United States.

‘Desi’ flavour

Indian students from Purdue University have their own production house. Remakes of Telugu movies with a bit of the ‘desi’ flavour got them several hits on the site, which is quite a hit among students here. Spoofs on films like ‘Athadu’, ‘Gudumba Shankar’, ‘Narashimudu’, ‘Dil’, ‘Anandam’ and ‘Indra’ have been laugh riots.

Some satires take a serious note on the existing problems that Indians face in the West. One such movie is ‘ACF- Tagore Spoof’, that talks about the way Indian consulting business agencies in the United States operate. “It’s a platform for upcoming filmmakers to showcase their talent. Taking movies and making them into comedies is simply amazing. All my friends have seen these movies. The important thing is that they give simple messages which we tend to overlook,” says Apurva Raghotam, a film student at OU.

These parodies may not be hitting the 70 mm screens. But they are a sure hit among Netizens across the world. Lights, camera, spoofs!

Courtesy: The Hindu

v_tel001, 2007-10-08 11:22 PMకి రాసారు.

Studies in Telugu language slack, says Buddha Prasad

GUNTUR: Studies in Telugu language are not going on at expected lines, Minister for Animal Husbandry Mandali Buddha Prasad has said. He laid the foundation-stone for an administrative block, to be constructed at a cost of Rs 6.21 crore, on the campus of Acharya Nagarjuna University on Friday.

University Vice- Chancellor V Balamohan Das laid the foundation for an open auditorium in the university.

Speaking on the occasion, the minister said though the demand for classical status to Telugu was forthcoming from all quarters, Telugu departments were showing little interest to come up with evidence to prove that Telugu was an ancient language.

On the other hand, Tamils strained their every nerve to get classical status to their language whereas our researchers and Telugu language lovers were not keen as their counterparts in Tamil Nadu did. If the situation continued, Telugu may lose its sheen and finally its existence, the minister added.

If Nannayya had written the Mahabharata in Telugu, the language might have flourished evidence to substantiate our demand for ancient status to Telugu, Prasad observed.

ANU was catering to the educational needs of Guntur and Krishna districts. There was a need to set up another university in Krishna district, he said and added that Chief Minister

Y S Rajasekhara Reddy’s ambition was to set up a university in every district. MLC Rayapati Srinivas said that after Balamohan Das took over the reins of the university, it was equipped with good infrastructure.

Balamohan Das said that many new buildings were coming up on the campus to provide all facilities to the students.

The open auditorium to come with Rs 1.5 crore would have a student facility centre, he added. YOUTH FEST: A three-day youth festival would be organised in ANU from October 27, said university students affairs coordinator N Samuel. Students from 406 colleges under the university purview would take part in the festival.

The winners of the festival would participate in the inter-varsity youth festival to be held at Padmavati Mahila University at Tirupati from November 12 to 16, he added.

Courtesy: NewIndPress

v_tel001, 2007-10-08 11:15 PMకి రాసారు.

Chennai : Fanfare, huge billboards mark release of Telugu movies

K. Lakshmi

The recent festivity was for ‘Chirutha,’ in which Ram Charan Tej plays the lead

CHENNAI: Theatres in the city that screen Telugu films of late are marked by fanfare and huge billboards on the day of film’s release.

Fans of Telugu actors indulge in elaborate celebrations to rejoice the film’s release on the same day as in Andhra Pradesh. Staff of city theatres observed that such enthusiasm by Telugu film fans associations emerged in the city in the last five years.

The recent festivity in the city was for the much-awaited film, చిరుత (Chirutha) with debutant actor Ram Charan Tej, son of matinee idol Chiranjeevi, in the lead. Several fans who thronged the theatres burst firecrackers and distributed sweets to celebrate the release.

A staff of the Casino theatre said the merriment was almost on par with the celebration for Tamil movies. Huge billboards were also put up by members of Telugu film fans association to cheer the movie. However, most of these fans associations that are formed by a group of youngsters or college students are short-lived.

Earlier, the students used their college names in the billboards. After they faced disciplinary action from their colleges, they had formed associations, he said.

Courtesy: The Hindu

v_tel001, 2007-10-08 11:14 PMకి రాసారు.

TODAY INDIA NEWS

Vodafone will await court order on tax claim

New Delhi: Vodafone's Indian-born chief executive Arun Sarin said Monday his company would await the court verdict on the $1.7 billion claim by the tax department for buying Hutchison's stake in a joint venture with the Essars. We will wait for the court's decision," Sarin told reporters here after he met Finance Minister P. Chidambaram. He maintained that the particular matter was not discussed

Mohd. Shamsheer Ali, 2007-10-08 08:50 AMకి రాసారు.

పైకిబ్లాగులువ్యాఖ్యలువార్తలువెబ్‌పత్రికలుఫొటోలుenglishసేకరణలు