Dhoni had said: “It is not about dominating the cricket world. It is all about achieving something as a team. That is what we did during the World Cup. It is a constant process throughout the career of an individual.”

As India find themselves in danger of ending their tour a week earlier – if they are ousted from the CB Series at the end of the league stage – the Indian contingent must wondered on their 70-minute flight from Brisbane to Sydney what they had “achieved” on the tour Down Under.

Restoring pride
After a disastrous tour of England, where they not only lost their No. 1 ranking in Tests but failed to win a single game over 66 days, the players and their ardent fans alike were looking forward to the Australia tour as a redemption mission.

The first half of the tour appeared to be a sequel of the meek surrender in England. There was nothing to take home for any of the squad members, except for Virat Kohli, who established himself as a Test cricketer; and Zaheer Khan, who fulfilled his objective of lasting a full series in Australia.

In the wake of all this, when India started the title defence in the tri-series on February 5, optimistic Indian fans had hoped the next five weeks would mark the revival of the Indian team’s fortunes.

Needless divisions
Despite the cold war in the dressing room that was fast turning into a public spat, all was going well at the halfway stage, with India leading the points table.

It all changed from Friday to Sunday as defeats against Australia and Sri Lanka at The Gabba pushed India to the bottom of the points chart.

If the Test series saw the bigwigs of Indian batting fail miserably and the team management’s inexplicable reluctance to begin the transition process by blooding youngsters, the five matches of the tri-series have displayed how far the youngsters have to go if they are to displace the seniors.

After the defeat against Australia on Friday, Dhoni admitted that the tri-series was as much about taking back home something after a humiliating Test series as it was about preparing for the 2015 World Cup, to be jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand.

Both these objectives are in danger of not being fulfilled. India are far from being ousted. But if they lose their penultimate league game against Australia here on Sunday, the players as well as the selectors and administrators will have to seriously contemplate what the team achieved on this long tour.

Source: HT Media

Fate of 829 candidates, including that of leader of opposition in the state assembly Shivpal Singh Yadav, BJP leader Uma Bharati and former UP chief minister Kalyan Singh would be decided by more than 1.56 crore electorates.

Polling for 49 seats in Firozabad, Kanshiram Nagar, Etah, Mainpuri, Etawah, Auraiya, Ramabainagar, Kanpur, Jalaun, Jhansi, Lalitpur, Hamirpur and Mahoba districts started at 7am amidst tight security, Chief Electoral officer Umesh Sinha said.

The CEO said that polling was being held at 17,267 polling stations at 11,745 centres. While 2,104 stations have been identified as sensitive, 2,256 have been marked as hyper sensitive.

To check any irregularity at polling stations 981 video cameras and 2,100 digital cameras have been installed, Sinha said.

The fifth phase would cover assembly seats in backward Bundelkhand region, bastions of SP and former chief minister Kalyan Singh.

In this phase, Shivpal Singh Yadav is seeking re-election from Jaswantnagar seat in Etawah district.

Fate of firebrand leader Uma Bharati, who is making her debut in UP electoral politics, would be put to test from Charkhari seat in Mahoba district.

Charisma and political strength of former UP chief minister Kalyan Singh would also be tested in this phase when elections would be held in his stronghold of Etah.

While former minister and state president of BJP’s women wing Premlata Katiyar is in the fray from Kalyanpur seat in Kanpur, a minister in BSP government Jaiveer Singh is contesting from Karhal seat.

Among kin of political leaders, daughter of BSP state president and cabinet minister Swami Prasad Maurya, Sanghmitra Gautam is contesting from Aliganj seat in Etah district.

Similarly, Shikha Mishra, wife of former health minister Anant Kumar Mishra alias Antu Mishra, who resigned following the NRHM scam, is in the fray from Maharajpur seat in Kanpur district.

A relative of SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, Urmila Yadav would be contesting from Karhal seat in Mainpuri as a Congress nominee, after being denied ticket by the party.

Like previous four phases the Election Commission expects higher turnout of electorates as compared to 47.57% in 2007 polls.

In last assembly elections in 2007 there were 53 seats in fifth phase of which BSP won 27, SP 14, BJP 6, Congress 4 and others 2. This time polling would be held in two new districts Kanshiram Nagar and Ramabai Nagar.

Source: HT Media

If romance was his genre, Prem had to be his protagonist. Salman Khan was his Prem in almost all his directorial ventures except Main Prem Ki Deewani Hoon and Vivaah. Vivaah (wedding) nevertheless remained the central theme of nearly all his films.

Maine Pyar Kiya, starring newcomer Bhagyashree and Salman Khan, was one of the biggest hits of 1989 in India and Sooraj Barjatya didn’t look back after its success.

Then came Hum Aapke Hain Koun (1994). Critics at that time ripped the movie apart, saying it looks like a wedding video. The film went on to break many records, establishing Barjatya, as the king of wedding flicks. Madhuri Dixit’s Deedi Tera Dewar Deewana, Waah Waah Raamji and many others songs composed by Raamlaxman ruled charts for a very long time.

In Hum Saath-Saath Hain (1999), a multi-starrer movie, Barjatya had the scope to show more than one weddings – Mohnish-Tanu, Saif-Karisma and Salman-Sonali.

Trying to keep up with the changing times, Sooraj Barjatya treated Main Prem Ki Deewani Hoon (2003) differently. He played out the Prem angle, rather triangle in a unique way. Hrithik Roshan and Abhishek Bachchan both played Prem. And Kareena played Prem Ki Deewani. Despite all the correct ingredients, the recipe somehow failed to whet the viewers’ appetite.

In 2006, he was back to doing what he’s best at. Shahid-Amrita starrer Vivaah, though old-school, set the box office afire. Shahid, the new Prem and Amrita, his flame, were successful in wooing the audience.

He remade some of his grandfather’s films, but in his own way. Hum Aapke Hain Koun was inspired from Nadiya Ke Paar and Main Prem Ki Deewani Hoon was based on Chitchor.

Sooraj perhaps is the most peace loving directors of Bollywood, as his films starting from Maine Pyaar… to Vivaah hardly had any action. It was pure romance, and yes, it had great music.

Rumour has it that Sooraj Barjatya is planning his next directorial venture with Salman Khan, but it has not been confirmed. If it’s true, his reunion with his original Prem is much awaited.

Source: HT Media

“I want to do something where there is lots of drama as our lives are dramatic. May be do something like Arth , Silsila kind of film, something on extra marital affair as wherever we go we get to hear about it,” Vidya said in an interview.

Arth, a 1982 film directed by Mahesh Bhatt, starring Shabana Azmi, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Smita Patil and Raj Kiran,was about his extramarital relationship. Even Yash Chopra’s 1981 film, Silsila featuring Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bhaduri , Sanjeev Kumar and Rekha, revolved around the same topic.

Vidya even showed her interest in doing a film that would centre upon late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.”I may like to do a biopic on Indira Gandhi or something like that,” Vidya said.

However, she is now doing a comedy thriller, something that she has not tried her luck in yet, opposite Emraan Hashmi.”Comedy is something I would like to explore. And speaking of other genres like action, its something I am not interested in,” she said.

Source: HT Media

Pulse is a mash up of Nokia Maps, Check-ins, Group Messaging and Media sharing. And if we can believe what Nokia promises, Pulse is first of a series of interconnected apps that will mark Nokia’s foray into social networks. It allows for the user to create custom groups of friends and family (much like Circles on Google+ or Lists on Facebook) and share specific content (messages, photos, and locations) with them.

What is left to be seen now is how Pulse would perform in an ecosystem where services like Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and Latitude already have a strong hold, given that the feedback to Pulse during the beta test hasn’t been very encouraging (only 3 stars, from 46 reviews). Pulse is right now available for Windows Phone 7, Symbian 3, Meego and as a web based service.

The move is also very clearly indicative of North America’s growing importance as a market for the Nokia+Windows Phone devices, given that Nokia will soon be releasing the Lumia 900 in the North American market. The development of the app has taken place in Boston as well, and not in Finland as it used to be.

The move from Nokia is an interesting one, given how Nokia is getting more into the role of an app-developer, building a new social platform tightly integrated with the Windows Phone, to begin with, and taking head on against existing social giants.

Only time will tell how the story unfolds.

Source: HT Media

On Friday, a day after the Pulitzer Prize winner died of an apparent asthma attack in Syria, House of Stone was in the top 40 on Amazon.com. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt had planned to publish the book March 27, but House of Stone will instead come out Feb. 28.

The 43-year-old journalist had worked previously for The Associated Press, The Washington Post and The Boston Globe. He won Pulitzer Prizes for international reporting in 2004 and 2010 when he was with the Post. His other books include Night Draw Nears, based on his reporting in Iraq.

Source: HT Media

“People new to the industry are choosing varied themes to create their own space in the market. Social issues, or topics of day-to-day importance are increasingly being portrayed through comics,” says Jatin Verma, founder Comic Convention. that concluded here recently.

Increasingly welfare groups and NGOs have been seen using the medium to spread awareness about the social issues.

“We conduct workshops in different parts of India and the world to enable people to tell their own stories via comics, especially those who don’t have a voice. In a workshop conducted in Pakistan, we encouraged people to create comics about the girl child, early marriage, floods, issues which were important to them,” says Sharad Sharma, cartoonist and founder, World Comics India.

“The mainstream media often hesitates to show issues like underground movements and this is where comics play an important role,” says Sharma

Source: HT Media

The findings also reveal that coffee drinking does not appear to increase the risk of heart disease or cancer, the Daily Mail reported.

In total 42,659 people took part in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) Germany study, and were followed up for almost nine years on average.

During that time, there were 1,432 cases of type 2 diabetes diagnosed, 394 heart attacks, 310 strokes cases and 1,801 cancer cases.

Drinking more than four cups of coffee a day – caffeinated and decaffeinated – compared with less than one cup was not linked to a higher risk of developing a chronic disease.

A lower risk of 20-30 per cent of developing type 2 diabetes was linked to moderate consumption of both kinds of coffee.

Although caffeine is known to act as a stimulant, it has been unclear how much a driver needs to keep alert during long journeys.

The latest study, carried out by scientists at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, suggests a single cup of caffeinated coffee is all it takes to boost alertness midway through a four-hour motorway drive.

Caffeine acts as a stimulant and is known to combat tiredness during monotonous tasks such as motorway driving.

“This study adds to the growing scientific data that suggests moderate coffee consumption, four to five cups of coffee per day, is safe and does not increase the risk of a range of chronic disease,” said Dr Euan Paul, executive director of the British Coffee Association.

“It is particularly encouraging to see that coffee consumption may lower the risk of type II diabetes given that around 90 per cent of all adults in the UK with diabetes have type 2 diabetes,” Dr Paul added.

The findings were reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Source: HT Media

Google’s doodle celebrates the renowned physicist who died early due to Wegener’s granulomatosis at the age of 36.

It is a Google tradition to honour famous people and days with a Google Doodle. The last doodle was a video animation on Valentine’s Day.

Source: HT Media

Davydenko, a semifinalist at the ABN Amro World Tennis final in Rotterdam last week, broke Beck’s serve three times in the match. The Russian next faces fourth-seeded Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina for a place in the quarterfinals.

In other first-round matches, Frenchmen Nicolas Mahut and Albano Olivetti, and Russia’s Igor Kunitsyn all advanced in straight sets, while David Goffin of Belgium was up 6-2, 1-0 against Adrian Mannarino when the Frenchman retired.

Select results: Nikolay Davydenko beat Andreas Beck 6-1, 7-5; Igor Kunitsyn beat Roberto Bautista 6-4, 6-4; Nicolas Mahut beat Arnaud Clement 6-3, 6-4; Albano Olivetti beat Matthias Bachinger 6-4, 6-3; David Goffin beat Adrian Mannarino 6-2, 1-0 (Mannarino retired).

Source: HT Media