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Tihar Jail was meant to house hardened criminals, thiefs, rapists, murderers, cheats and other gentlemen of similar caliber, and train them to become useful units of Society. But recent events in our country have brought eminent bureaucrats, leaders and corporate giants into Tihar Jail (or should I call it ‘Tihar Corrrectional Centre’) as M’me Kiran Bedi had aptly named it. 

The problems with the Tihar administrators have grown manifold. These new Five Star inmates have to be lodged in VIP Wing for which they were not fully prepared. To add to their woes, Tihar authorities were understaffed. They had to check and report what these inmates were doing on a day to day basis – for instance if Kalmadi was having tea with the Jail Superintendent then, this fact had to be reported to the Government as Government’s ‘further’ policies depended on these and other similar intel reports. Read the rest of this entry »

The dancing star of the 1950s and the 60s, the inimitable Shammi Kapoor, is no more. Veteran actor Shammi Kapoor breathed his last at 5:50 am Sunday morning in Mumbai. He was 79 years old. Shammi had been hospitalised for the past one month and was undergoing dialysis thrice a week and he ultimately succumbed to renal failure. He was born on 21st. October 1931.

Shammi Kapoor

Bollywood’s legendary actor passed away at the Breach Candy Hospital at 5.50 a.m. He had been suffering from chronic renal failure. 

The funeral for the Bollywood legend will be held today, August 15th. at 11 am at Ban Ganga crematorium, Mumbai. Shammi Kapoor’s son stated that they were awaiting the arrival of the icon’s grand-son Vishwapratap Raj Kapoor. 

Twitter  was the first to catch the sad news and  has again emerged as the fastest media. Read the rest of this entry »

M.S.Dhoni won the toss for Chennai Super Kings and opted to bat against Royal Challangers Bangalore at the jam-packed M.A.Chidambaram Stadium in the final of the IPL 4 match played here on Saturday. Murli Vijay and Mike Hussey opened the innings for CSK and had saved their best Cricket for the last game. They posted the finest opening partnership of 159 runs for the IPL, which enabled CSK to post a huge total of 205 runs. 

Murli Vijai

Vijay and Hussey hit sparkling half centuries en-route to the 159-run opening stand and gave Chennai a quick start which laid the foundation of the mammoth score of 205. 

CSK had reached their 50 in 5.1 overs with a six from Murli and the score-board later went on to read hundred in just 10.3 overs. The 159-run opening partnership was broken when Hussey played a lofted shot off Syed Mohammad over long-on and was caught by Mithun. 

Dhoni scored 22 runs and then lit up Chepauk with his two sixes but he and Vijay fell to S Aravind in consecutive deliveries. Vijay 95, fell just five runs short of his century while Dhoni departed in quest of quick runs. Vijay stroked four boundaries and six towering sixes in his 52-ball knock.

For RCB, Aravind and Gayle picked two wickets apiece while Syed picked one. Bravo then hit a six off the last ball to take the total to 205 runs. Read the rest of this entry »

Puttaparthi: Sri Sathya Sai Baba, the spiritual leader, who died three days ago, was laid to rest at his Prashanti Nilayam ashram with full state honours.  Thousands of devotees bid farewell to him as he had a phenominal following across the globe.

Sri Sathya Sai Baba

The coffin of the 84-year-old was lowered in a grave during the nearly two-hour private ceremony at Sai Kulwant Hall, where the godman used to give “darshan” to his devotees and deliver discourses. The burial was in accordance with the practice for Hindu spiritual gurus.

A select gathering, including family members of the Baba, members and officials of the Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust, politicians and top bureaucrats was present in the hall.
Thousands of devotees watched the last rites on giant screens outside while millions of devotees in India and abroad watched it live over television.

The Sai Kulwant Hall in Prashanti Nilayam, the Ashram from which Sai Baba ran a spiritual empire reverberated with hyma from the Vedas and Chants of “Om Sai Ram” as the last rites were performed. Read the rest of this entry »

Sathya Sai Baba, the 85 year old spiritual leader breathed his last at Puttaparthi super-speciality hospital Sunday after a prolonged illness. He was admitted there on March 28th 2011 for treatment of cardiac problems, kept on ventilator support for a few days and his doctors pronounced him dead at 0740 hours on Sunday. The godman’s body was taken from the hospital to his Prashanti Nilayam Ashram on Sunday. 

Sathya Sai Baba

The Prime Minister Manmohan Singh condoled Sathya Sai Baba’s death and said – “I express my sincere condolences to the millions of his followers, disciples and well wishers. His teachings were rooted in the universal ideals of truth, right conduct, peace, love and non-violence”.   

The Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh N.Kiran Kumar Reddy announced that the last rites of Sri Sathya Sai Baba will be performed on Wednesday with full State honors. He has also announced a full state mourning period of four days. 

According to sources close to Sathya Sai Trust, The President Pratibha Patil and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh are also expected to arrive to pay their respects to Baba.  Read the rest of this entry »

After a lull in attacks on Indians and despite several preventive measures taken by the Australian Police to prevent such attacks, a 28-year-old Indian man has been stabbed to death in Rushworth in Australia. 

The victim, Lakhvindar Singh, had migrated to Australia in 2007 and was working as a helper in a farm near Melbourne.  Read the rest of this entry »

History was made at Lords by Kapil Dev and his men in 1983 and repeated after 28 years at  Wankhade Stadium, Mumbai on Apr 2nd 2011, by M.S.Dhoni and company. Kumar Sangakara won the toss at Wankhade and chose to bat Sunday in the final of the World Cup 2011 against India. In the end India beat Sri Lanka by six wickets to clinch the coveted trophy.

M. S. Dhoni

It was the determined effort from Gautam Gambhir who scored 97 runs and a chanceless 91* from M.S.Dhoni which paved the way for India’s victory over Sri Lanka. This helped India overhaul the score of 274 set by Sri Lanka for India to win the title and it is the highest ever run chase in the World Cup final. 

For Sri Lanka Jayawardane scored 103* and Sangakara 48 runs.  Read the rest of this entry »

India’s dream of a World Cup triumph at home is one step closer after their bowlers throttled Pakistan’s batsmen to set up a 29-run victory in the semi-final in Mohali. Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat at Motera Cricket Stadium, Mohali against Pakistan in the Semi-final of the World Cup 2011 on Wednesday. 

Virender Sehwag gave India a magnificent start before Sachin Tendulkar survived a series of close calls to reach his half-century, and by the halfway mark he was the key to India posting a decent fighting total on a good batting pitch.

But that was not to be as Sehwag got out on 38 runs played with his usual gusto and Tendulkar also helped in building up the Indian innings with lady-luck sitting on his right shoulder.

Tendulkar was on 60 with Virat Kohli on 9, and India had reached 140 for 2 at the halfway point of their innings, with 300-plus total in sight. Pakistan had only them to blame for Tendulkar’s good fortune, after Misbah-ul-Haq put him down at midwicket on 27 and Younis Khan spilled a regulation chance at cover when Tendulkar had 45.  Read the rest of this entry »

Ricky Ponting won the toss at Motera, Ahmedabad in the quarter final  of the World Cup 2011 and elected to bat on Thursday. Ponting silenced his critics with a swash-buckling century made with grit and determination. In reply to his century Sachin made a half century and in the process completed his 18000 runs in Cricket, but it was Yuvraj Singh who ultimately matttered the most so far as the outcome of the match was concerned.

Yuvraj Singh

Despite Ponting’s century, Australia were able to score 260 runs only. R.Ashwin Harbhajan Singh did not give anything away to the opposition and Zahir Khan stuck at will.

For Indian batting, Tendulkar had made the base by his half-century required for the rest of the team to stand on but it was Yuvraj alone who stole the show. With his single handed determination India managaed to eliminate the Aussies in the quarter final. India has now  been set up with a spine-chilling encounter with Pakistan in the semi-final.

India was heading into the jaws of defeat upto the 40th over but by then Yuvraj had ensured the turn-around of things for the Indians. Suresh Raina gave him ample suppport and in the 41st over Bret Lee was bludgeoned to the fences for 14 runs. Read the rest of this entry »

Netherlands won the toss and elected to bat at the Feroz Shah Kotla Grounds,Delhi on Wednesday in their Gp B encounter against India. Their openers started very well and the Indian attack looked very feeble in front of their batting. They lost their first wicket after posting half a century on board, which is their highest opening wicket partnership, and were 86 for 2 at the  half-way stage.

Yuvraj Singh

India defeated Netherlands at the Feroz Shah Kotla with more than 14 overs to spare though the margin of victory couldn’t mask a lacklustre performance from the home side. The Indian bowling was just about tidy against some dour Netherlands batting, and their bunch of big hitters came unstuck for a while against the left-arm spin of Pieter Seelaar in a low-intensity match.

In the Netherlands batting, there were a couple of avoidable run-outs as well, but the dismissal that was most embarrassing for Netherlands was Alexei Kervesee’s; he swiped a long hop from Chawla, expertly picking out Harbhajan Singh at deep midwicket.

Sachin Tendulkar became the first man to reach 2000 World Cup runs with a hat-trick of boundaries in the fifth over, and Virender Sehwag backing that with three more fours in the sixth. Read the rest of this entry »