BedTea.in | Ravi Matah's Blog

Rajesh Khanna, the romantic hero, the heart-throb of millions of people, breathed his last on Wednesday after a brief illness at his residence in Mumbai. He was 69. His estranged wife, Dimple Kapadia, also a renowned actress, and his two daughters Twinkle & Rinkle were by his bedside at the time of his death.

RAJESH KHANNA

He was ailing for a few months and everyone thought that his ailment was age related and he would be alright very soon. That was not to be, and his son-in-law Akshay Kumar (Actor) informed the media that he passed away on Wednesday after a brief illness.

Rajesh Khanna, proudly called ‘Kakaji’ by his friends and admirers was born on 29 Dec 1942. In 1966 he was selected amongst 50 contestants to become an actor in United Artists contest and Chetan Anand gave him a break in Akhri Khat.

Those who lived in the era of late 1960s-early 1970s saw his phenominal rise to stardom. His filmy career certainly reads like a fairy tale. Read the rest of this entry »

The world-wide recession has diminished the purchasing power of money, making some of the essential commodities beyond the reach of the common man and now Rupee has gone beyond the Rs.57/- mark in exchange to One US Dollar.

The memories of the good old days when Rupee had it’s purchasing power, are still fresh in my mind and I thought to pen down these few lines for my readers to read and believe that even the coins had enough value in the Golden days.

Five decades ago, I was dropped daily at the school gate by our driver in our car which was of ‘Opel’ make. It’s shiny chrome-plated wheels had iron spokes, it’s stepney rested on the right hand side mud-gaurd, and it had a horn, which is similar to a breast pump which I blew once everytime after alighting and it used to make a distinct sound – ‘chi-ghawn-uk’. Read the rest of this entry »

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar  has scored his hundreth International Century at Mirpur, Bangla Desh. He has achieved this feat in the fourth match of the Asia Cup after keeping his fans all over the world, waiting, for almost a year.

Sachin has so far scored 51 Test Centuries and 49 ODI hundreds.

After achieving this he said that he had shed “50 kilos” and said – “Enjoy the game and chase your dreams. Dreams do come true.”  He denied that he was not under any sort of pressure to achieve the hindreth international century and it was the media who hyped it.

Twitter was abug with tweets on Sachin Tendulkar’s feat and I quote some of the tweets here –

Read the rest of this entry »

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 »