A BYTE OF LIFE Friday, July 25, 2008

12
CASUAL TIES NEPAL
10
The necktie ditches A mysterious land
the suit

FREE CIRCULATION Vol. 2 No. 145

SET TO PERFECTION

Known for his expansive sets and volatile

temper, Aamir Raza Husain teaches Ergo a
thing or two about theatre. Mithra Suresh
catches up with Aamir and wife Virat Husain,
who’re in Chennai to stage Love in a Tub.
» Page 04
02 ERGO Friday, July 25, 2008

Get your voice trained

Namma Chennai
Thespian En is organising a comprehensive voice training
workshop on breathing, voice through breathe, diction,
pronunction, modulation and personality through voice. The
sessions will be held on July 26 and 27 at Parnasus, 192,
Poonamalle High Road, Kilpauk. For details, call 98401 27103.

Four frames in one JustUs presents excerpts from four of its play
Man found dead near ERGO CORRESPONDENT
feedback@goergo.in

Koyambedu. Police rule

W
atch and enjoy the coming
out serial killer theory together of music and po-
etry in a multilingual the-
The body of a man believed to be in his atrical frame. JustUs
mid-30s was spotted with severe head Repertory presents selected scenes
injuries near Koyambedu in the early hours from four of Dr. Gowri Ramna-
of Thursday. Police say it is a hit-and-run rayan’s plays – Dark Horse, Rural
case. Phantasy, Flame of the Forest and
According to Koyambedu police, the Water Lilies.
unidentified man’s body was found on the Narrated by
road opposite the crematorium at Chinmaya Gowri, Deep in
Nagar near Koyambedu at around five in Both Worlds articu-
the morning. Following a call from one of
What where
when lates the connec-
the passers-by, Koyambedu police rushed to tions between
Venue: Alliance
the spot and conducted preliminary traditional and
Francaise
investigations and said it was a clear case of modern perfor-
Date and time:
accidental death caused by an unknown 4 shows – July mance genres used

A SCENE FROM WATER LILIES PHOTO: K V SRINIVASAN

speeding heavy vehicle. 26 and July 27; in the plays, and
Several injuries were visible on the man’s 3.30 p.m. and 7 the reasons behind
body. The body was later sent to Kilpauk p.m. each choice. The
Medical College for autopsy, police added. Tickets (Rs.100) show highlights the
In the wake of a series of mysterious available at vibrant interplay of
murders in South Chennai spreading panic venue. classical, folk and
throughout the city, the residents of Reservations: devotional art
Chinmaya Nagar and adjoining areas are 98400 98396 / forms of India on
fear-struck following the above incident. 98407 17256 the one hand and
Police, however, have ruled out the secular perfor-
possibility of murder and say it is a road mance and lyric
accident that occurred in the early hours of traditions of the western world on
the morning. the other. Aimed at theatre lovers
The Anna Nagar Traffic Investigations team and music aficionados, the play re-
is probing the incident further. flects the rich synergy of music,
dance, lyric and drama in contem-
porary Indian theatre and perfor-
mance culture. ■

A musical date
ERGO CORRESPONDENT This artist is wonderful and full
feedback@goergo.in of delightful compositions, and
why not, after all he was trained

S
pend an evening in the compa-
ny of Prasant Radhakrishnan,
critically acclaimed for his excep-
by Carnatic saxophone pioneer,
“Padmashri” Dr. Kadri Gopinath.
So don’t miss a chance to be part
tional approach to his music and of this truly musical experience.■
instrument.
He has enthralled audiences
in various locations, from con-
When and Where
cert halls in India to jazz shows
Date& Time: July 27, 7 p.m.
in Japan. Radhakrishnan is a
Venue: Sir Mutha Venkata-
versatile saxophonist identi-
subba Rao Concert Hall
fied with both the South Indian
(Lady Andal Concert Hall),
Classical (Carnatic) and jazz dis-
Chetpet.
ciplines. The unique vocal texture
Tickets available at Gatsby
of his sound on saxophone reflects
Raymond Showroom, Nun-
Prasant’s continued study of tradi-
gambakkam
tion, constant innovation, and vast
concert experience.

Eight sides of a coin
A bunch of arts
students come
together for ‘8
Dimensions’ at
Lalit Kala
Akademi
RINI MUKKATH
rinimukkath@goergo.in
E
xplosions of vibrant col-
ours coated under subtle
themes that speak of life in
all its richness – eight arts
students from Namma Chennai
have their own stories to tell.
Each portrait a unique experi-
Art displayed by Fine Arts students at Lalit Kala
Academy. PHOTO: R. RAVINDRAN.
ence, from wildlife to Bharata-
natyam poses, the art exhibition
‘8 Dimensions’ at Lalit Kala Aka-
demi has a lot to offer an art en-
thusiast. You may
disappointed if you’re looking
be
for a Monet-like experience, but
for college students who are still
exploring their own potential
this is definitely a good display.
Artistic crew
Most people might think that
art exhibitions are boring, but a
little chat with these students
and you may find something
you like. They will even initiate
you into the world of colours
and strokes with a quick lecture
on the arts. Faseeha, Gum Sun,
Jessie, Monisha, Nithila, Potra-
rasan, Sulthana and Swarupa
are pursuing their undergrad-
uate studies in arts and they met
Friday, July 25, 2008
03
a few months ago and decided
to put up a show together. The
My paintings are semi-abstract and I
have not copied anything. They are from
team booked the hall four
months in advance and got to my imagination and the colours I have
work, producing their individual
collections with personalised used depend on my mood
themes and styles. “Although we
study the same things at college,
the way we conceptualise and
execute a piece is very differ-
ent,” says Monisha, one of the
artists.
Storyteller
Eighty paintings, each with a
different story to tell, and the
four borders of a canvas offer
limitless possibilities for an art-
ist, and more so for someone
who is just learning the ropes of
the field. “My paintings are
semi-abstract and I have not co-
pied anything. They are from my
imagination and the colours I
have used depend on my
mood,” says Faseeha.
For Nithila, her passion for
animals has been clearly reflect-
ed in her art.
“I was not allowed to keep
many pets at home, so I decided
to use animals as a subject for
my art,” she says.
Swarupa’s landscape painting
of a beautiful sunrise will grab
your attention. It is such mo-
ments that she likes to capture.
Gum Sun likes still life painting,
while Portrarasan gets inspired
by photographs he has taken
during his journeys. For Sultha-
na, her dream of learning Bhara-
tanatyam is materialised
through the paintings of salan-
gai she has done.
Each frame succeeds to cap-
ture the emotions of the artist
behind it. ■
The exhibition is on till July 28
at Lalit Kala Akademi, Greams
Road
.
 04 ERGO Friday, July 25, 2008

10 Ka Dum

Big Story When Govinda and Salman are around can dance
be far behind? Catch Friday’s episode of ‘Dus Ka
Dum’ with the two and David Dhawan to add to
the fun. Tune in to Sony today at 9 p.m.

Aamir Raza Husain

(left) and Virat
Husain, in a
rehearsal of their
play ‘Love in a tub’
PHOTO: S.S. KUMAR

Eerie Mr. Aamir

This outspoken director of many magnificent sets is in town for a new production

“There is no philosophy or nu-
merology attached to it, we follow
a route when staging a show
around India, and it always starts
in this city, travelling along the
coast to Delhi and then stopping
at Calcutta.”
Acres and acres
Virat smiles benignly, but adds
that effort should not be short-
changed for quality. Incidentally,
his repertory Stagedoor is reput-
ed for their grand sets. Legend of
the seats were placed on a plat-
form on three parallel tracks, with
the help of the Railways. So, the
seats moved along the stage, to
lend a feeling of travelling with
Lord Ram in his travails across
India.
Love in a Tub does not boast of
elaborate sets, as it is a comedy of
capers, and is set in a hotel.
The theme revolves around
marriage and infidelity, juggling
the wife and the mistress and
such. “For this play, it is not nec-

A
amir Raza Husain is con-
stantly on the phone and he
swears at his actors, as he
calls the waiters liars. Alleg-
edly, he slapped a journalist more
than a decade ago – these ru-
mours turn into urban legends
given the time to ripen like wine.
So, as I sat across Aamir and his
wife Virat at Chola Sheraton hotel
on Thursday, I prepared to ask
questions with potential for
drawing quotable quotes from
this couple.
The cast and crew of Love in a
Tub, a play by George Etherege,
are staging the play for the first
time starting with Chennai.
Define supper theatre
Since the invite lists that cock-
tail and dinner will be served af-
ter the play, I ask if Love in a Tub
will be staged in a supper theatre
format, only to be questioned
what I meant by the term. “Sup-
per theatre was originally staged
in restaurants, primarily in Lon-
don and New York, where one did
not even know who the actors
were.
Typically, there is a murder,
and the killer could be anyone
sitting around you. Only those
with little interest in theatre
would use the term loosely.”
Ram was an open-air play, staged
first in Delhi in 1996, where the
city of Ayodhya was recreated.
Seats were constructed to hold
700 audience members, and in
order to take them through the
travails of Lord Ram across India,
I have never watched
a show with minimal
sets that has
succeeded, whether it
is in London or New
York
“The sets mean everything. I
don’t believe in a show that uses
a door frame or a stool as props.”
She explains that the sets lend
themselves to a good show, to
which Aamir’s leonine voice
growls, “I have never watched a
show with minimal sets that has
succeeded, whether it is in Lon-
don or New York, because the au-
dience comes to watch a good
show, which means the lighting,
costumes and sets have to come
alive to make the production look
good.
No one comes to watch a com-
edy or a tragedy – they come for a
good show.”
essary to have elaborate sets.
Once we had put up a production
only in Delhi, where we con-
structed a 40-feet high Taj Mahal,
but for this play, the carpentry is
less.”
The Ramleela has been a
source of inspiration to the cou-
ple, because there is no message
in it. They believe that the play
has run in so many countries for
so many years purely because,
“the treatment of a well-known
story is more important than the
message. Shakespeare can be
boring or delightful depending
on who’s directing it.” ■
Entry by invitation only.
 Friday, July 25, 2008
05
Once upon a time…
Catch the IT theatre group Rebelz stage ‘Once
upon a time in Arabia’ at Sivagami Pethachi
Auditorium, Mylapore on July 26 and 27. Book
your tickets online at www.ticketnew.com. Or
call 9840095253.

Upsize your car’s cool quotient

Vikram, our reader and automobile enthusiast, on how
upsizing the car’s rims can make the vehicle look cooler
though it comes with some disadvantages
VIKRAM SUDERRAJ crease in diameter the tle exaggerating on the
s.vicky@gmail.com percentage of rubber is reduced ride quality, it’s not that
drastically when compared to the bad as it sounds and

W
ant to burn some rubber?
We are not talking
about environment-un-
friendly Bhogi but upsiz-
ing your car’s wheel size to a
larger one to make it look cooler.
We all want our cars to look cool
and I have noticed many cars, es-
pecially the Swift with 15", 16"
and 17" rims with wider tires and
hey you will go ga ga at the very
first glance.
The tire upsize refers to in-
creasing the diameter of the rims
from stock size (factory spec) to
custom size. But it has its disad-
vantages as well, due to the in-
tires that come with the car and
this in return gives you bad ride
quality.
These tires are called the low
profiles that have better handling
capability and grip due to its wid-
er tracks. Hey I might sound a lit-
These tires are called
the low profiles that
have better handling
capability and grip due
to its wider tracks.
we can’t ignore the
fact of having a real-
ly cool looking car
either isn’t it.
My car has a 15"
rims and it’s a black
car with black rims
and you should take a
load of the people giving
your car the glance, there is a
nice gripping and ‘revving feel’ to
it. ■
Vikram is from Satyam
Computers and blogs at
www.motorheader.com,
shoutat.blogspot.com and
chennaiwithin.blogspot.com.
06
Village
No chit-chats,
please
Local advised to avoid asking unnecessary
questions to Olympic visitors
D
on’t ask a tourist’s age or how to show proper hospitality,
wage, steer clear of sex a department spokesman said.
and avoid religion: what “Don’t ask about income or
many Chinese consider expenses, don’t ask about age,
idle chit-chat has now become don’t ask about love life or mar-
the latest area of censure in riage, don’t ask about health,
Beijing as it prepares for an in- don’t ask about someone’s
flux of Olympic visitors.
Posters displayed on bulletin
home or address, don’t ask
about personal experience,
boards in the neighbourhood
which includes tourist magnet
don’t ask about religious beliefs
or political views, don’t ask
the Forbidden City, and which what someone does,” the Olym-
will host Olympics boxing pics logo stamped poster advis-
events, counsel locals against a es.
wide range of potentially awk- Several etiquette guidelines
ward conversation topics with have already been issued in the
foreigners. run-up to the Games, as China
The list of ‘eight don’t asks’ prepares to put its best foot for-
was issued by the Dongcheng ward with a faultless event. ■
district Propaganda Depart- Reuters
ment as a guide for locals about
N’T ASKS
EIGHT eDorOex
penses
■ Incom
■ Age marriage
■ Love life or
■ Health dress of any
■ Home or adperience
■ Persona l
■ Religious be
ex
liefs and
ew s
political vi ne does
■ What someo
ERGO Friday, July 25, 2008
Wrong destination
An English family hoping to spend a relaxing
weekend in Lanzarote ended up in Turkey
instead. The family didn’t realize the mix-up
until the plane landed and the airline
stewardess said ’Welcome to Turkey’.
Saddam’s ’beauty’ on sale
A convertible Rolls Royce of former Iraqi dictator Saddam
Hussein has gone on sale with a price tag of 1,85,000
pounds. The maroon Corniche sports vehicle, reputedly
owned by by the Iraqi leader, boasts of heated, brown
leather seats with red piping, a CD multichanger and a
climate control system. The top-of-the-range car comes
with papers confirming its ownership by the tyrannical
leader. According to Steven Brown, the owner of car
dealership ‘Autocontinental’ in UK’s Surrey, the car will be
shipped from Baghdad to its new home within the next
28 days. Brown is also hoping to get his hands on a top-
of-the-range Maybach Mercedes which Saddam had fitted
with 23-carat gold but never got the chance to drive
before he was arrested and executed for crimes against
humanity in 2006.
PTI
Prince William’s royal tribute to
mom
Prince William, the second-in-line to the British
throne, has paid touching tribute to his mother
Princess Diana by incorporating her family logo in
his royal symbol. Williams ’Knight of the Garter’
crest, made out of lime wood and gold, was
revealed to incorporate Diana’s family logo the first
time this has happened. “Prince Williams crest has a
bit of his mothers family crest which he requested,”
sculptor Ian Brennan was quoted as saying by The
Sun tabloid on Wednesday. Both William, 26, and
brother Harry, 23, requested a scallop shell on their
crests and Coat of Arms in her memory, the tabloid
said. The scallop is the symbol of the Spencer Coat
of Arms, which is for Dianas family.
PTI
Father shuts toddler inside car to
go see Batman
A man who left his two-year old son inside his car,
windows rolled up, while he watched the latest Batman
movie, was arrested mid-way through the show and
charged with child abuse, The Salt Lake Tribune said on
Tuesday. David Farnham’s son was found by police
thirsty, crying but otherwise unharmed inside the car,
where the temperature soared to 30 degrees Celsius (87
Farenheit) Saturday evening. A passerby alerted police
to the child’s predicament, the daily said. Police
interrupted the showing of ‘The Dark Knight,’ in a
multi-cinema complex of Utah capital Salt Lake City,
and arrested Farnham on the spot.
AFP
Lesbian couple’s lawsuit over IVF
twins dismissed
A lesbian couple in Australia failed on Thursday in a bid
to sue their doctor after one of them gave birth to twins
rather than one baby following fertility treatment. The
women, who cannot be named, were suing Robert
Armellin for more than 4,00,000 Australian dollar to
cover the cost of raising one of the girls to the age of
21. The birth mother of the twins, now aged four, had
told the Supreme Court that Armellin implanted two
embryos even though she told him before the in vitro
fertilisation (IVF) procedure that she wanted just one.
The woman said her relationship had suffered as she and
her partner were distracted by the everyday chores
involved in raising twins.
AFP
 Friday, July 25, 2008
This day, that year
It was in July 25, 1871 that perforated wrapping paper
was patented by Seth Wheeler of Albany, New York.
‘Obamania’ hits Berlin
He is awaited like a magician who can clear away the clouds
of a troubled world, says the German newsmagazine
U
S presidential hopeful Ba-
rack Obama on Thursday
kicked off a European tour
in Berlin, which was ready
to give him a rapturous welcome
amid a yearning on the continent
for change in Washington.
Obama, who arrived from Is-
rael, was to meet German Chan-
cellor Angela Merkel and Foreign
Minister Frank-Walter Stein-
meier before making a foreign
policy speech in front of an ex-
pected cheering crowd of tens of
thousands.
“He is awaited like a magician
who can clear away the clouds of
a troubled world,” the influential
German newsmagazine Der Spie-
gel said in a cover story.
Hope of Western world
“Obama is the hope of a West-
ern world with a lot of worries.”
Germans have followed the US
election campaign intensely. The
vast majority – 76 per cent, ac-
cording to one recent poll –
would vote for Obama if they
could versus just 10 per cent for
his Republican rival John
McCain.
Bill Gates to show
tobacco the gate
M ultibillionaires Bill Gates and
Michael Bloomberg launched
a worldwide anti-smoking cam-
paign on Wednesday, fueled with
500 million dollars of their mon-
ey. Microsoft founder Gates told a
press conference he will donate
125 million dollars toward the
campaign, while New York Mayor
Bloomberg said he would chip in
with 250 million, on top of the
125 million he already committed
in 2005. “Our goal is to support
and complement the Bloomberg
initiative,” Gates said. The cam-
paign will back strategies to raise
taxes on tobacco products,
change the image of smoking in
society, protect non-smokers
from second-hand tobacco
smoke and help smokers give up
their habit. There are some re-
sults already: Egypt recently
raised sharply its taxes on tobac-
co products, the Philippines
banned all tobacco media adver-
Double duty café service
07
Townspeople always wondered how a couple ran a
busy 21-hour cafe seemingly by themselves. The cafe
is actually run by two couples - and both men and
women are identical twins. Each couple also has
young three year-old sons who look very similar.
The Illinois senator, 46, has fre- The current leg of Obama’s trip
quently drawn comparisons with begins in the heart of what the
former US president John F. Ken- current US administration dis-
nedy, who entered the history missively called "Old Europe" for
books with his ‘Ich bin ein Berlin- its fervent opposition to the Iraq
er’ vow to the then-divided city in war.
June 1963. They strongly support Obama’s
German newspaper columnists foreign policy goals including
spoke of an ‘Obamania’ gripping closing the Guantanamo Bay
the city ad wondered whether the lock-up for terror suspects, fight-
senator would match those rhet- ing nuclear proliferation and fac-
orical heights in his keenly await- ing up to climate change with an
ed evening address. EU-style emissions cap-and-
trade plan. ■
New Kennedy AFP
Newspaper seller Klaus
Schlicht, 49, who had decorated
his kiosk with an American flag
for the occasion, said he saw
Obama ‘as a new Kennedy –
young and dynamic”.
“There will be better relations
between the US and Europe” if
Obama wins in November, he
told AFP.
Police have cordoned off a
broad section of the city centre
around the speech venue, where
European bands and DJs are to
warm up the crowd before Oba-
ma takes the stage at around 7:30
pm.
Mind-blowing
Bill gates and Michael
Bloomberg launched
anti-smoking
campaign
tising, while in Brazil and other 쒀 Guinness world record card stacker Bryan Berg completes a model of the Beijing
countries tobacco packaging Athlete Village out of playing cards in Hong Kong on Thursday. Berg took 160
bears graphic images to discour- hours to construct the entire piece, which includes "Bird’s Nest, the National
age sales. ‘ ■ Aquatics Center and the Beijing CCTV Tower. AFP PHOTO/ANDREW ROSS
AFP
08 ERGO Friday, July 25, 2008

24-inch LCD monitors

Technorama BenQ has launched its 24-inch

widescreen LCD monitor touted to
be the world’s slimmest in the
Indian market.

Vibrate call
If you are the one who gets frustrated to
hold the phone close to your ear while wait-
ing for the person on the other end to an-
swer the phone call, this tip will be soothing
to hear. A new free software Vibratecall can
help you avoid hearing that boring ring tone
Kuselan trailers
or Hellotune whatever it may be.

How it works
You usually dial the number and place the
phone to your ear. But if you upload this
software, you need not do that. The phone
on handset
starts vibrating as soon as you dial the num-
ber and stops vibrating when the call is an-
Platform for mobile video transfer launched for Singtel users
swered.
FRANCIS P BARCLAY
Advantages francis@goergo.in
Radiation emission is said to be more

A
when the call is getting connected than dur- t a time when mobile
ing the course of call. You can just hold the phone is evolving as a mass
mobile in your hand and you will know ex- medium for entertainment,
actly when the call is connected. education and more im-
Most of the latest Nokia handsets are said portantly marketing, Chennai-
to support this software. Download link: based Bay Talkitec on Thursday
http://www.ziddu.com/download/1734222 announced its foray into mobile
/ThinkChange.VibrateCall.v1.02.rar.html VAS (Value Added Services).
File size: 30 KB Talkitec, which had gained rec-
ognition in domains like Com-
puter Telephony Integration
(CTI) and VAS, has partnered
with Saimira Access Technolo-
gies, part of Pyramid Saimira
Group to distribute the latter’s
video content through its Video
Service Delivery Platform.
The tie-up means Singtel cus-
tomers in Singapore will be view-
ing trailers and video clips of
Rajnikant’s Kuselan on their mo-
biles. “We were looking for inno-
vative ways of reaching out to the eo greetings and mobile TV. that is done, the platform will rev-
audience and found trailers olutionise the video transfer ap-
through handsets interesting,” Wait for 3G plication and the utility of mobile
said R. Venkatakrishnan of Saimi- However, Talkitec’s video de- phones,” said K. Shekar, co-foun-
ra Access Technologies at a press livery platform can find its appli- der of Bay Talkitec.
conference in the city. cation only on 2.5/3G networks Founded in 1991, Talkitec has
Exhibited at the CommunicA- and hence Indians will have to till over 2,000 installations of its Cus-
sia held recently in Singapore, the 3G arrives in the country. tomer Interaction Management
platform helps faster transmis- “Mobile penetration is increas- products. It has its R&D centre lo-
sion of video through mobile net- ing at a fast pace and 3G tech- cated in Chennai and offices in
works. Its use can be found in nology is expected to be launched other major cities of the countries
applications like video SMS, vid- in India in a few months. Once and abroad. ■

‘Stretching the truth’ over page hits

IAB warns website operators against using tricks to boost traffic

A
n expert from the Internet
Advertising Bureau (IAB)
has warned that website
operators are using tricks
to boost traffic numbers in the
eyes of advertisers. Patty Keegan
says that one such trick to boost
click counts is stretching news
stories across multiple pages.
“There are things like news
sites that rotate new ads in as
news is updated,” The Australian
quoted her as saying.
“Perhaps the most nefarious
thing I saw was in another coun-
try where two newspapers were
competing evenly for the same
market. Overnight one of the
newspapers suddenly doubled its
page impressions, and it turned
out they had split their national
news page into two pages,” she
added.
She even said that the IAB was
undertaking a concerted review
with the aim of developing a new
and more accurate audience
measurement system. Mean-
while, several key buyers of on-
line advertising have admitted
that they do not believe the num-
bers most of the websites claim.
New-age ads
Pop-up advertising, which
helped increase impression num-
bers, is another element many
websites are countering to offer
best practice to advertisers.
“The first trend we’re seeing is
an increasing use of pay-per-click
search marketing by publishers
to drive website traffic on news
items,” says Sandra Hanchard, an
analyst with online monitoring
company Hitwise. “This is impor-
tant because search engines ac-
count for more than one in five
visits to news and media print
websites,” Hanchard adds.
She says that news publishers
have even started to utilise social
networking sites to boost traffic.
“News and media print websites
are receiving more traffic from
Web 2.0 properties,” she says.
Simon Van Wyck, founder of
web advertising company Hoth-
ouse, says that many web pub-
lishers and portals count visitors
to allied sites, but do not neces-
sarily have the right to claim such
traffic — like Ninemsn, which
claims Hotmail and Yahoo. ■
ANI
 Friday, July 25, 2008
Shaadi on your TV
Dish TV and Shaadi.com have joined hands
to offer an interactive service called ‘Shaadi
Active’. Subscribers of Dish TV seeking a
suitable alliance will be able to search
according to the age, community, caste, etc.
All music and
no smoke
KARTHIK SUBRAMANIAN
karthik@goergo.in
L
ast week we told you how to
revive the archaic cassette
player to play mp3 songs for
a solution under Rs.300. This
week we feature something even
quirkier – how to convert your
car’s cigarette lighter to play mp3
songs.
Presenting the ‘Made in China’
mp3 FM modulator that can be
plugged into the cigarette lighter
port of your car. In case you are
wondering, like I did initially,
where the hell is the cigarette
lighter port, it is the same port
used by mobile phone chargers.
The modulator comes with a
SD card port as well as a USB port
that can be used to plug in your
mp3 player.
What it essentially does is mod-
ulate the mp3 songs into FM fre-
quency; the users can tune in on
their FM sets to listen to the
songs from the mp3 player as if it
were a radio station in itself.
Unlike last week’s cheap and
lovely toy, I could not really test
this product in my car.
But I understand that the FM
modulator suffers from ‘hissing’ –
meaning, don’t expect CD-qual-
ity sound. There are a couple of
kinds of hissing that are possible
– hissing related to the over-
crowded FM band and also the
hissing that could be triggered by
the device.
The shopkeeper with whom I
checked the device told me the
prices begin at around Rs.750. I
was shocked, to say the least. Was
he saying it because he knew I
was going to publish this? Or has
the darned inflation finally
crossed the impregnable barrier
that was ‘Made in China’ goods?
■ ‘‘Their strategy appears to be: ’If you can’t beat them, sue
Ritchie Street Chronicles is a
weekly geek peek into the wonderful
world of cheap goods sold in the
overcrowded electronics market off
Anna Salai in the street less
popularly known as
Narasingapuram Street. You can
ping me at karthik@goergo.in
for feedback.
09
Fakebook
versus
Facebook
German site incures wrath
of Facebook
E
hssan Dariani, founder of German social network
studiVZ, never made any secret of his admiration
for Facebook, which is now suing studiVZ for copy-
ing its ideas and look.
When he and two of his friends launched studiVZ
(www.studivz.net) in October 2005, it was modelled after
the U.S. network that began as a way for college students
to keep in touch and became an online phenomenon.
In fact, studiVZ is so close to the original, the German
network for students has been dubbed “fakebook”.
Dariani is reported originally to have wanted to create a
men’s cosmetics line. But that endeavour failed
to take off and he found inspiration instead in
U.S. social networks Facebook and
MySpace.
He managed to persuade two friends to
launch studiVZ. The founders of online
T-shirt shop Spreadshirt provided ini-
tial funding of 5,000 euros ($7,960)
and within months studiVZ turned
into Europe’s largest student so-
cial networking site.
Facebook filed a complaint
last Friday accusing studiVZ
of copying the look, feel,
features and services of
Facebook, ultimately
seeking to put an end to
the German site.
The name studiVZ is
an abbreviation of ‘‘Stud-
ienverzeichnis’’, which means
‘‘students’ directory’’ in German,
and the site -- while it visually resembles
Facebook, only in red instead of blue -- is
more practical than playful in its features.
It has since branched out into SchuelerVZ for school
pupils and MeinVZ for graduates and non-students.
Industry experts attribute some of studiVZ’s success to
the fact that Facebook waited too long to make its site
available in foreign languages. Facebook launched a Ger-
man version in March.
Facebook’s deputy general counsel, Mark Howitson,
says: ‘‘We ... are very disappointed that studiVZ has un-
fairly used our creativity, innovation and effort by build-
ing a ’clone’ site to compete directly against us.’’
StudiVZ’s Chief Executive Marcus Riecke is unruffled:
them’.”
Privacy concerns
According to data on its website, studiVZ currently has
Car MP3 Player more than 10 million members in Germany, Austria and
(MP3 - FM Switzerland and continues to add hundreds of thousands
modulator). of users every week. Despite its popularity and success,
PHOTOS: S. S. KUMAR studiVZ has had its share of negative headlines in priva-
cy-conscious Germany. ■
Reuters
10
BackPackers
A magical land
Nepal – a patch of nature’s bounty in the Himalayan foothills
PRATHAP
P
overty and cleanliness
are not correlated. I real-
ised it when we reached
Kathmandu after hours
of travel in a grubby train with
invariably soiled toilets even in
the A/C compartments. Rain
was lashing with a vengeance
in the wee hours of the morn-
ing and it was hardly anything
to be rejoiced on a trip when
you have to make stops from
hotel to hotel trying to find out
if there was a vacant room. But
all this changed the next day.
Thankfully Kathmandu does
not see much tourist footfall
during June as it is the onset of
1 2
monsoon in this beautiful Hi-
malayan kingdom. Dark clouds
gathered every now and then
and hung over the sky waiting
to squirt the monsoon rains at
the most unexpected moment.
Keeping all that aside Nepal
was fun. Neatly groomed peo-
ple with chiselled features pep-
per the country with their
incandescent smiles and ex-
hibit special attention and
warmth towards Indians. After
all, India supplies 53.7% of Ne-
pal’s imports of essential com-
modities.
Clean and nice
Kathmandu is one of the
cleanest cities in South-East
Asia and although the streets
are narrow, there seems to be
uniformity about everything.
The exposed brick architec-
ture renders the place a signif-
icant and ethereal beauty.
Especially in places like Patan
Darbar and Bhaktapur, the pa-
goda-like structures emit a rare
luminosity that is further re-
flected by the early morning
sunshine.
Manokamna Devi temple
and Pasupathi Nath temple are
popular pilgrimage attractions
of which Manokamna requires
a cable-car ride that lasts 20
minutes and a strong stomach
that suits higher altitudes.
Buddha’s birthplace Lumbini
3 4
is located on the way to Khat-
mandu and overlooks Mount
Everest. If you are a nature per-
son, Pokhara is a must visit for
it is often compared with Kash-
mir.
Nepal also offers avenue for
adventure sports like bungee
jumping, river rafting, moun-
tain biking, and trekking. If you
have time you can also try the
butterfly spotting tours ar-
ranged by some tour operators.
Don’t worry about your for-
eign exchange for you will be
better off with Indian currency
since it is accepted everywhere.
Do try the delicious Momos – a
Nepalese specialty – that taste
better from a road side eatery.
ERGO Friday, July 25, 2008
1. In front of
the Buddhist
prayer
wheels
2.Lumbini
Park Lake
3. With the
locals
4.Bhatakpur
5. The
Pagodas
And yes, your food expenses
are likely to burn at least a little
hole in your packet since eat-
ing out could prove to be a
costly affair because of the high
rates.
From Gorakhpur in Bihar,
Kathmandu is a seven hour
drive by road and it is easy to
hire a vehicle.
Nepal is also easily accessi-
ble from Siliguri, West Bengal.
Although Nepal could be vis-
ited throughout the year, the
best recommended season is
autumn (September to Novem-
ber) and spring (March to May)
comes a close second. ■
The writer works for
Polaris, Chennai.
 Friday, July 25, 2008
Enchanting Seoul
Seoul was battered by Japanese and Manchu invasions in the 16th and 17th
centuries and flattened by the Korean War; most of its cityscape is modern.
Overshadowed by high-rises and 12-lane freeways, it yet retains a hidden
history of centuries-old temples, palaces, pagodas and pleasure gardens.
THE WEIRD,
WILD AND,
ULTIMATELY,
SUBLIME
MATT GROSS
S
ometime after midnight on
a Sunday, the streets of the
Myeongdong neighbour-
hood in Seoul were quiet
and cold. The young shoppers
who flit from Adidas to Tommy
Hilfiger to Club Monaco had
gone home to study for Decem-
ber exams, and restaurant work-
ers were setting barrels full of
leftovers onto the curb to be
picked up by early-morning gar-
bage trucks. The city was going to
sleep.
But over near the subway sta-
tion, in a little orange tent, or po-
jangmacha, a good night’s rest
was on no one’s mind, least of all
mine. Inside, a semi-permanent
kitchen was working overtime,
cranking out hearty, salty, spicy
dishes to warm the air and fill the
bellies of the drinkers around
plastic tables.
Behind me sat a pair of univer-
sity students practicing Manda-
rin; to my left were hip-hop
hipsters in knee-length Nike par-
kas discussing, partly in English,
how to pick up girls in Tokyo; be-
fore me, a man in late middle age
regaled a group of 20-somethings
with stories and jokes. On every
table stood bottles, tall ones for
beer and petite emerald ones for
soju, the Korean spirit made from
sweet potatoes.
Sudden drama
Suddenly, from one corner of
the tent came a crash! Bodies and
bottles tumbled to the ground,
and for a moment all conversa-
tion halted. One fallen tippler
pulled himself back onto his
stool, and a grim-faced waitress
rushed over to wipe the blood
from his head and bandage the
wound. Then it was back to nor-
mal. I sipped my beer and
plunged my spoon into a bowl of
kimchi jigae, a rich stew of pork,
tofu and kimchi, the pickled cab-
bage that is Korea’s national dish.
I had been in Seoul 30 minutes,
with plans to eat my way through
the city, and already, I felt, I was
getting to the heart of things.
It was easier than I’d expected,
but I’d been well-prepared,
thanks to Korean cuisine’s ascen-
dancy in the United States. In Los
Angeles and New York City, Ko-
rean barbecue has become an ur-
banite comfort food on a level
with dim sum and falafel.
Drastic changes
In the last two years, South Ko-
rea has spawned one major trend
overseas – Pinkberry, Red Mango
and other cheery frozen-yogurt
parlours – and at least one minor
one: the fried-chicken joint Bon
Chon Chicken, which arrived in
Manhattan last year to much ac-
claim. Meanwhile, Momofuku’s
David Chang has rocketed to the
top of best-chef lists, thanks in
part to his clever reinterpretation
of traditional Korean dishes and
ingredients.
To understand where these
trends were coming from – and, I
hoped, to discover the next ones
– I spent a week eating the weird
and the wild, the tasty and the
comforting, and, more than once,
the sublime. Oh, I also ate lots
and lots of kimchi.
(If you don’t like kimchi, you
might as well stop here. Everyth-
ing comes with kimchi: spicy or
mild, salty or sour, crisp or soft,
with mineral notes or the briny
aroma of dried shrimp. The varia-
tions are endless, but all have one
thing in common: ubiquity.)
Let’s begin with the familiar:
barbecue. There is perhaps no
food more accessible, in any cul-
ture, than meat grilled over an
open flame, and in Seoul you
can’t walk down a street, whether
in the? ber-trendy Apgujeong
neighborhood or a grayer district
like Dongdaemun, without inhal-
ing the invigorating fumes of
charcoal fires.
Actually, those fumes can be a
bit much – who wants to leave
dinner smelling like arson?
Thankfully, there are solutions.
When four friends and I arrived at
Hongik Sootbul Kalbi, a barbecue
spot in the frantic dining-and-
night-life zone near Hongik Uni-
versity (“Meat Street”, one friend
called it), the first thing our wai-
tress did was hand over a huge
garbage bag – for our coats, to
protect them from the smoke.
And boy was there smoke! It
wafted up from dozens of small,
round metal barbecue tables,
turning the air so opaque I could
barely make out the enormous
wall mural featuring caricatures
11
PHOTO: SEOKYONG LEE/THE NEW YORK TIMES
of Korean celebrities – and Mi-
chael Jackson. We clustered
around a table, and soon the
house specialty arrived: chunks
of well-marbled pork neck. (The
restaurant’s owner was previous-
ly a butcher, a good sign.) The
meat came pargrilled, to cook
faster, and my friends spread
kimchi around the base of the
grill, where it slowly fried in the
rendered pork fat.
Soon we were wrapping pork
chunks in red-leaf lettuce leaves –
along with spicy bean paste,
shaved scallions and kkaennip,
an anise-flavored leaf, similar to
Japanese shiso, that I found ad-
dictive. A typically gleeful night
out in Seoul, and we left with
laundry-fresh outerwear.
Modern city
This city, however, is home to
electronics giants like Samsung
and LG, so the same brilliant en-
gineering that goes into your 50-
inch plasma TV and microscopic
3G cellphone is also directed at
the problem of barbecue smoke.
Sariwon, a calm, family-friendly
restaurant, employs special ex-
tractors on its grills to keep the air
perfectly clear.
And yet high technology does
not trump high taste: Sariwon’s
kalbi, or beef short ribs, were the
most tender and succulent I ate
in Seoul. Better yet, Sariwon of-
fered a lengthy wine list that
mixed New and Old World bot-
tles, and at reasonable prices (a
Gigondas cost 42,000 won, $41, at
1,050 won to the dollar.).
Wine, in fact, was Seoul’s trend
du jour when I visited. Wine bars
were popping up all over the city,
with some selling rare bottles,
like the 1996 Roman?-Conti at
Kabinett, in the expatriate-
friendly Itaewon neighborhood.
It cost 4.5 million won. ■
NYT News Syndicate
12 PORTFOLIO ERGO Friday, July 25, 2008

KNOT
BAD

The necktie
has lost its
snobbishness.
It’s thinned
down and can do
without the suit

J
ust when we thought Friday Dressing and the
casualisation of formal wear spelt the death
knell of the necktie, it’s come back. And how!
It’s been narrowed down and has stepped down
from its pedestal. Its best friends are not formal suits and
stiff shirts but things more casual and less sophisticated –
collarless T-shirts, jeans, cardigans, sports coats and even
boy shorts. Celebs like Justin Timberlake, Elijah Wood and
Avril Lavigne might have made the casual necktie popular a
while ago, but it is only now that it has stopped being dismissed
as another symbol of celebrity eccentricity. In pubs and streets,
the necktie is showing up with increasing frequency.
It was probably during the 17th century, during the Thirty
Years’ War, that the knotted handkerchiefs used by Croatian
Mercenaries caught the fancy of the Frenchmen.
However, the classic necktie that we’ve been accustomed to
till now came out of the drawing board of Ralph Lauren in
1967, who made the 4-inch ties the focus of his menswear
collection. He, along with British designer Michael Fish,
made the 4-inch necktie the standard.
The thinner neckties in vogue right now can be
credited to Scott Sternberg of the label Band of
Outsiders, who introduced them in around
2006. Clearly, the narrow strips of silk
haven’t taken long to spread their fangs.
Recently, Jazz musician Roger Cicero
was chosen by the German fashion in-
stitute in Cologne as the ‘Necktie Man of
the Year’. One look at the Men’s Spring-
Summer 2009 show held in Paris this June will
tell you how omnipresent the narrow necktie has
become. Every prominent designer – from Jean- Paul Gaultier
to Veronique Nichanian for Hermes , Christian Dior, British designer
Paul Smith and Belgian Anne Demeulemeester – has made it a part
of his collection.
Still need a reason to knot up? ■
 Friday, July 25, 2008
13

Scottish musician Annie

Lennox during the Elle
Fashion Star 2008 awards at
B erlin’s fashion week, which
ended Sunday, saw a new
fashion award sponsored by
the Berlin Fashion Week. AFP the German edition of Elle
PHOTO magazine and Mercedes-Benz.
The event had been brought
“quite consciously” to Berlin,
the capital of Germany, said
Sabine Nedelchev, the maga-
zine’s editor-in-chief. “Germa-
A model walks the runway at ny needs a fashion capital,”’
the showing of the spring/ she said during her presenta-
summer 2009 collection of tion.
Germany’s fashion label With the German supermod-
Scherer Gonzalez during the el Claudia Schiffer handing the
Berlin Fashion Week night’s top prize to the legend-
ary German designer Karl La-
gerfeld, it was easy to imagine
that Berlin had arrived at just
that point. That is, until one re-
membered that the German
edition of Elle is based in Mun-
ich, that Lagerfeld works in Pa-
ris and that Schiffer lives in
England.
Plus, the Mercedes-Benz
Fashion Week Swim kicked off
in Miami, Florida, with Ed Har-
dy, Pistol Panties, Diesel and
others showcasing their collec-
tions. A busy week on the run-
ways and off it.
Agencies

A worker prepares
’The Ideal Man’
exhibition in
Gemeentemuseum
in The Hague on
July 22. Classic
garments and A model
newest designs of presents fashion
top designers like by German label
Vivienne Michalsky at the
Westwood and Berlin Fashion
Jean-Paul Gaultier Week. AFP PHOTO
can be seen from
July 26 to October
26. AFP PHOTO

A model
presents
fashion
Michalsky at
the Berlin
Fashion
Week. AFP
PHOTO

Models walk
down the
runway
wearing Diesel
swimwear
during the
2008
Mercedes-Benz
Fashion Week
Swim show in
Miami
14 ERGO Friday, July 25, 2008

Wellness Your skin

The average human body has
14 to 18 square feet of skin.

The greatest thing a person can do

democracy the majority rules.
When it happens unconsciously, your
whole life is accidental. When it is acci-
dental, whatever the situation around
you, you become that. When you are an
accident, at any moment you may be-
SADHGURU JAGGI VASUDEV come a calamity.
Now you came here with nothing.

T
he best thing that you can do to Whatever all these things, your identity,
this world is not service, not spiri- your name, your clothes, your gods,
tual teaching; the greatest thing your beliefs, your heaven, your hell, eve-
that you can do to this world is, rything you picked up on the way. Eve-
you being a joyous person. What kind of rything that you know has been taught
people do you want to work with? What to you, including your gods and de-
kind of people do you want to live with, mons, everything. You only picked it up
miserable people or joyous people? The on the way. When you go, anyway you
best thing that you can do to the people have to go empty
around you is that, you are a joyous per- handed. So when
son. Isn’t it so? you came with How many
So the best thing that you can do to nothing, whatever
anybody in this world, the greatest thing is happening here,
moments are
that you can offer this world is to be a you are in profit. you truly
joyous person. So, why are you becom- Isn’t it? So you conscious of
ing miserable? Everybody wants to be must be happy al-
joyous. By choice they want to be joy- ways. You are go-
who you are?
ous, but they have become miserable ing about your life How many
because they are unconsciously choos- as if you came moments?
ing misery. Their whole life happens in here with a big in- Very, very few.
unconsciousness. Please see, in twenty- vestment. You did
four hours time, how many moments not come with any Isn’t it?
are you truly conscious of who you are? investment. Did
How many moments? Very, very few. you? You came with
Isn’t it? So your whole life is happening nothing, so whatever is happening, you
unconsciously. And the majority of the are always in profit. It doesn’t matter
people around you are anyway miser- what is happening with your life, any-
able. So, this is a democracy and in a way you can be joyous. ■

Internet, sleep and alcohol

triggers weight gain
G irls and young women who devote much time to the
Internet, get too little sleep or regularly drink alcohol
are more likely than their peers to put on excess
ger than 18 years old. When it came to sleep, those who
clocked 5 hours or less tended to gain more weight
than those who got a standard 8 hours. And girls and
weight, a new study suggests. women who had 2 or more alcoholic drinks per
The researchers, who followed more than 5,000 week put on more pounds than those who drank
girls between 14 and 21 years, found that the the least.
more spare time girls spent on the Internet, the Spending hours on the Internet likely con-
more their body mass index (BMI) increased. tributes to weight gain by taking time away
Similar patterns were seen when the re- from physical activity, according to Berkey’s
searchers looked at alcohol consumption and team. Lack of sleep may make people too
sleep. In the latter case, lack of sleep was linked tired to be active during the day; sleep depri-
to greater gains in BMI – a measure of weight vation also affects hormones and metabolism
in relation to height. The effect of each may be in a way that might promote weight gain.
small, but over time the pounds can add up, Meanwhile, alcohol contains a significant
according to the researchers, led by Dr. Cathe- amount of calories, and research suggests that
rine S. Berkey of Brigham & Women’s Hospital people usually don’t make an adjustment for
and Harvard Medical School in Boston. liquid calories by eating or drinking less
In general, the researchers found, as Internet use throughout the rest of the day. ■
climbed, so did BMI, particularly among girls youn- Reuters
 Friday, July 25, 2008
15
Soy and sperm count So better sleep
Eating a half serving a day of soy-based You burn more calories sleeping
foods could be enough to significantly than you do watching television.
lower a man’s sperm count, U.S.
researchers said on Wednesday.
Reuters

To a tea
A
cuppa comes as a great respite dur-
ing any of those long meetings or
seminars. Referred to as ‘tea break’
or ‘high tea’ or ‘tea party’, a steam-
ing cup can rejuvenate those tired mus-
cles and stressful eyes. This ancient
beverage doesn’t just taste great, but is
also good for you. Though you have dif-
ferent varieties of tea in the market, they
all come from the same plant (Camellia
Sinensis). The difference comes in the way
each of them is processed. A look at the
four main types of tea and their benefits.
Black tea
Here the leaves are fully fermented, re-
sponsible for imparting tea the black col-
our. Black tea is also the strongest in
flavour and highest in caffeine content.
Benefits: Researchers claim that black
tea has the benefit of preventing cancer,
heart disease, arthritis and viruses. It even
helps in fighting tooth decay.
Oolong tea
Oolong is slightly less oxidised than
black tea and so has less caffeine. This is
best known for its aroma.
Benefits: Drinking two cups of oolong
tea every day is said to shed that extra
flab. It also promotes strong and healthy
teeth; prevents allergies and is good for
your skin.
Green tea
Unlike the other varieties, green tea is
dried and not fermented. Its shorter pro-
cessing time gives green tea a lighter fla-
vour than black tea, thus retaining all the
beneficial chemicals. Above all, green tea
is easy to make and is packed with Vita-
mins and minerals.
Benefits: It is slowly getting popularity
among Indians, at least for the immense
health benefits it carries. If you are serious
about losing weight, green tea comes as a
perfect solution.
White tea
White tea is also not fermented, but
hear the tea leaves are picked from newer
buds, making it different from green tea.
Benefits: As white tea is the least proc-
Grandmother’s secrets
essed tea, it has very high in antioxidants
■ If you have constipation, then black tea should come as an immediate cure. Also, a
and very low in caffeine.
This plays an important role in reduc- spoon of honey with the black tea is known to help.
ing the risk of cancer, particularly lung, ■ Make a paste out of dry ginger and pepper pods and have it with tea. These natural
colon, and skin cancer; antioxidants also herbs promise to cure cough and cold.
strengthen your immune system and help ■ Add a dash of tulsi leaves to your morning cup of tea to prevent cough.
with metabolism. White tea is also excel- ■ If you have a kitchen garden at home, make sure you put the tea remains to good use.
lent for hydration of the body and the The remains are a good source of manure.
skin, which acts naturally to reduce the ■ Fry pepper, jeera, ajwain leaves and tulsi. Boil the mixture, add tea leaves and serve it
signs of aging.■ with jaggery. This homemade medicine is a perfect cure for headache and other ailments.
Compiled by Ergo Correspondent

Old is not necessarily gold

The highs and lows of dating an older man
MITHRA SURESH tomorrow for us.’ Don’t buy it. is ‘dating’ you, he has no inten-
mithra@goergo.in tion of marrying you. By now, you

H ow old is too old? And we’re

not talking about the cheese in
your fridge. Ladies, we need to
define what qualifies as older,
and the personality cut-off on
each age limit. Let us assume that
you, the readers, are in your
mid-20s as I am.
5 plus
If he is five years older, he will
be mentally as mature as you.
This means that he will under-
stand your need, for constant
SMSs, to click pictures of him
holding babies, to be gifted roses
and general cry for ‘Attention: we
need to discuss where this rela-
tionship is going!’ This, many will
discuss, is a perfect age gap in a
male-female relationship. How-
ever, consider that the man at
this age is a busy professional and
is likely to prioritise work over
woman, all for ‘creating a better
15 plus
If he is 15 years older and you
are still with him, then he already
has the upper-hand of being
more experienced than you. He
has already been almost married
and thinks women will survive
without the constant attention.
In fact, say good bye to the roses,
taking happy pictures and gener-
al revelry. With this man, you will
find in yourself a philosopher dis-
cussing the parallel world of Ter-
ry Pratchett’s Discworld, or an
alternative musician with a flair
for xylophones or didgeridoos.
The learning curve will be steep,
but he will never keep you bored
in bed.
30 plus
If he is 30 years older, he will
take you for a holiday. Can you be
his wife? The term ‘mistress’ de-
notes a younger woman, and if he
should realise his libido is dip-
ping and it is you who will be the
performer in bed. You are the
general entertainment in his life,
and there are no strings attached.
He knows tried and tested tech-
niques of seducing young, im-
pressionable women and will
make you feel you are the most
special person in his life. Wait un-
til he runs into his first wife. So
you, as his young mistress has
much to achieve before you get
his pituitary gland activated.
Now, if after reading this
you feel that the man unfair-
ly has the upper hand no
matter what, then start
with baiting a man five
years younger to you. Just
make sure he’s out of col- How old is too old? And
lege and living on his own,
before you start educating we’re not talking about the
him about what a ‘real’ cheese in your fridge.
woman wants.■
16 ERGO Friday, July 25, 2008

Kumble opts for referral system

Sport
Anil Kumble asked for the first-ever review of an umpiring decision allowed
under new cricket laws, but his appeal during the first Test against Sri
Lanka was turned down after replays were scrutinised. Kumble asked for a
review of a leg before wicket verdict on Sri Lanka opener Malinda
Warnapura which on-field English umpire Mark Benson’s had ruled not out.

Sania
knocked
out
Sania Mirza
once again
fell at the
second round
stage when
she lost in
straight sets
to Meng Yuan at the USD 600,000 East West
Bank Classic tournament. The 16th seed
Indian lost to her uns-eeded Chinese
opponent 4-6, 3-6 in one and a half hour
contest to crash out of the hard court WTA
event. Sania broke Yuan once and dropped
her own serve twice to go down in the first
set. Then in the second, Sania could convert
just three out of six breakpoints while the
Chinese cashed in on all the five breakpoints
to snatch the match away from the Indian.
The defeat came as a big jolt to Indian fans,
who have pinned hopes on India’s number
one woman player to win a medal at Beijing
Olympics. Sania had also lost her second
round matches at WTA events in
Birmingham, Hertogenbosch and at
Wimbledon singles last month. Last week
she had lost to a British qualifier in the first
round of the Stanford WTA tournament.
PTI
Bhupathi-Knowles in
T
he end of Roger Feder-
er’s long reign as world
number one moved
closer when he suffered
a shock second-round defeat
by Frenchman Gilles Simon
at the Toronto Masters on
Wednesday. Back on court for
the first time since his epic
loss to Rafael Nadal in the
Wimbledon final, Federer
was beaten 2-6, 7-5, 6-4 and
his ranking is now under seri-
ous threat from Nadal who
beat American qualifier Jesse
Levine 6-4, 6-2.
Federer had looked ready
to take out his Wimbledon
disappointment on Simon
when he won the first four
games on the way to the
opening set. But Simon, rid-
ing the momentum from his
championship win in Indi-
anapolis on Sunday, refused
to buckle, battling back to
beat the 12-times grand slam
winner and reach the third
round. It was the first time
Federer had lost his opening
match in a tournament since
falling to Briton Andy Murray
in Dubai in March.
Not an ideal start
“The hard court season just
started so it is not the end of
the world but I wish I could
have started better,” Federer
said. “I like this surface, I like
this tournament, I have done
well in the past here so it defi-
nitely hurts. I have to regroup
and look forward. The bigger
picture is the Olympic Games
and the U.S. Open and those
are the places I really want to
win so I have to make sure I
am ready for that.”
Tricky opponent
The 22nd-ranked Simon
represented a tricky oppo-
nent for the rusty Federer,
who had only resumed prac-
tice four days before arriving
in Toronto and received a
first-round bye. Simon,
meanwhile, was well into his
hard-court campaign after
claiming his fourth career win
and second title of the season
in Indianapolis with a
straight-sets victory over Rus-
sian Dmitry Tursunov. “I was
playing like I was in a dream,”
Simon said. “I just saw the
ball and hit it as hard as pos-
sible. I don’t know it is really
unbelievable to beat Roger
like this. I’m so confident ac-
tually because I won the tour-
nament last week. For sure
this is my best victory. I don’t
think that you win so many
times against the number
one.”
Nadal, also back in action
for the first time since Wim-
bledon, struggled to find his
rhythm and fell 4-1 behind in
the opening set against Le-
vine. But once the Spaniard
found his range his opponent
had few answers, Nadal tear-
ing through the next five
games to take the first set and
cruising to an easy victory
which stretched his unbeaten
run to 25 matches. “The first
match is always tough, espe-
cially after one week off after
Wimbledon,” said Nadal, who
claimed his first career hard-
court title in Canada in 2005.
“I only had a few days for
practise, it’s important to
think that I can come back
and I won.” ■
Reuters

quarters
Mahesh Bhupathi and his partner Mark
Knowles did not have to do anything to
enter the quarterfinals of the USD 2,615,000
ATP Rogers Masters as they got a walk over
from their opponents in the second round.
The fourth seeded Indo-Bahamas were up
against American duo of Mardy Fish and
Andy Roddick, who conceded the match
because of knee injury to Fish. Bhupathi
and Knowles are yet to play a single ball in
A S I T E ASY
NADAL H
the tournament as the pair had also got a
bye in the first round of the sixth of the 10
Masters Series tournaments. They may next
face seventh seeded Leander Paes and his
Czech partner Lukas Dlouhy, if the Indo-
Czech combine can manage to prevail over
Swiss pair of Roger Federer and Stanislas
Wawrinka in their second round match.
PTI

Somdev excels
Indian qualifier Somdev Dev Barman
stunned second seed Bobby Reynolds
to storm into the singles quarterfinal
of the USD 50,000 ATP Challenger
tournament here. Dev Barman, who is

FEDERER
ranked 566th in ATP charts, piped
92nd ranked American Reynolds 6-7
(4-7), 7-5, 6-4 in a tough second round
match of the hard court event. Dev Barman
next faces Italian Andrea Stoppini, who
knocked out American wild card Bryan
Koniecko 6-1, 7-6 (7-1) in his second round
match.
PTI SUFFERS TORONTO UPSET PHOTO: AFP
 Friday, July 25, 2008
17
Pull out

‘‘
We are far behind in the Olympic disci-
plines, the kind of money that’s needed
is not there as cricket hogs all the limelight.
IOA General Secretary Randhir Singh
Iran’s double Olympic gold medallist
Hossein Rezazadeh has pulled out of the
2008 Games because he was not in good
enough shape to defend his title, a
weightlifting official said on Thursday.

Sodhi
snubbed
INDIA’S WORLD CHAMPION FAILS
TO BAG WILDCARD

I
ndia’s double-trap world
record holder Ronjon Sodhi
will not be able to take part
in the Beijing Olympics after
failing to bag a wildcard, a top official said on Thursday.
“It is really unfortunate,” Baljeet Sethi, secretary of the
National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) said. “Sodhi is
in top form and he could have brought us a medal from
the Beijing Olympics.” Sodhi, 28, did not make the nine-
member Indian team as the double-trap berth went to
Athens Olympics silver medallist Rajyavardhan Rathore.
Sodhi however shot into Olympic contention when he won
the World Cup in Belgrade last month with a world record-
equalling final score of 194 out of 200. Ranked number
five in the world, Sodhi was banking on a “hardship”
quota that is awarded to an individual who fails to
qualify but gives an outstanding performance in any
of the official events. “I had a chat with the interna-
tional federation officials last night and they said
they had no quota left in the double-trap,” Sethi
said. “Sodhi deserved to be at the Olympics but this
was not to be. We can only pray now that Rathore is
able to win a medal.”
Sodhi caught international attention when he up-
set a top-class field in Belgrade with his record-
equalling score set by Italian Daniele Di Spigno at
the 1999 world championships. The bearded Sikh,
coached by Olympic gold-medallist Mark Russell of
Australia, matched the previous qualification rec-
ord held jointly by Richard Faulds of Britain and 14 Days to Go....
Michael Diamond of Australia. Both Faulds and Dia-
PHOTO: PV SIVAKUMAR

mond are the top medal contenders in Beijing along

with Di Spigno.
AFP

US swimmer tests positive

Jessica Hardy, an American who qualified to swim the 50-meter freestyle and 100 breaststrokes at the
Beijing Olympics, tested positive for a banned substance, Swimming World magazine reported. The
magazine’s website said an unidentified coach not on the Olympic staff confirmed the positive test while
NBC television’s Olympic website reported that both “A” and “B” samples from Hardy have tested positive.
Both organizations cited unnamed athletes as saying Hardy is no longer at the US swim team’s training
camp after the results, which NBC said came from a test taken at the US Olympic trials that concluded earlier
this month. Hardy won the 100 breast and was second in the 50 free at the trials in Omaha, Nebraska, but
could face a two-year ban for a positive dope test. Expedited arbitration proceedings have already started to
decide if Hardy will remain in the US line-up for Beijing, NBC reported, saying the banned substance in
question is thought to be a stimulant. Should Hardy not compete at Beijing, it would be a major blow to
American medal hopes in the 100 breast, her premier event, and hurt US relay chances as well as bring a
cloud of doping controversy over the US swim squad in Beijing.
AFP
18 ERGO Friday, July 25, 2008

Best paid actors

Flick
Will Smith, Johnny Depp and Eddie
Murphy were the best paid
Hollywood actors in the past year,
according to Forbes magazine.
AFP

KARTHIK SUBRAMANIAN even letting out a collective sisted before – Bala and Ameer. listen to her silent smile all the shoulders for bringing to
karthik@goergo.in howl when the villain meets a The movie begins and am- time. The movie takes a turn screen the Madurai of the
gory death. bles along until the intermis- closer to the intermission, 1980s, every small detail cov-

T
he last five years have
probably seen the arrival
of a new generation of di-
rectors, all confident to
the point of being brash, and
all focussed on delivering Ta-
mil cinema from the depths of
star-dominated movies. They
have all firmly declared that
cinema is a director’s medium.
(To elucidate in Tamil – the
movies have ‘kathai nayagan’
(protagonist of the story) not
‘kathaa nayagan’ (hero or star).
Subramaniapuram follows
the trend to the T.
A group of mavericks have
pulled off a sleeper hit that has
delivered what even some of
the so-called blockbusters
have failed to do: get the au-
dience charged up. It has been
a while since I went to any mo-
vie that had the audience en-
joying the songs without
walking out for popcorn, clap-
ping for the dialogues and
The story of youth gone
astray is nothing new. But di-
rector M. Sasikumar’s treat-
ment takes the movie several
notches above the ordinary.
Set in the 1980s, the story is
about a group of youths in
Subramaniapuram, a slum of
Madurai. The core seems to be
inspired by Fernando Me-
rielles’ City of Gods, a movie I
personally rate above even The
Godfather. Sasikumar also
seems to be inspired in parts
by the two directors he had as-
sion with the trappings of a
regular fare though done well.
Paraman (played by the direc-
tor Sasikumar, Azhagar (Jai of
Chennai 600 028) and Kasi
(Kanja Karuppu) form the core
group of a group of jobless
youth, who while away the
time picking petty fights. Then
there is Thulasi, the daughter
of an ex-councillor Somu, who
knows how to speak with her
eyes. Azhagar is there for her to
when Kanagan, Somu’s broth-
er, poisons the mind of Azha-
gar and Paraman to kill a
political rival. From this point
on, the movie picks up break-
neck speed, keeping the au-
dience guessing till the very
last scene on the various twists
and turns as the youths fall
prey to the life they chose
unwittingly.
The director and all the tech-
nicians deserve a pat on their
ered incredibly, be it the black
and white television sets play-
ing ‘Oliyum Oliyum’ or the
grand reception Superstar’s
‘Murattu Kaalai’ gets on the
day of its release.
There is also a dark horse
within the dark horse of a mo-
vie – music director James Va-
santhan. Until now better
known as a television presen-
ter, Vasanthan scores such
high notes with the songs as
well as background scrore that
makes one question his career
choice in the first place. Al-
most every song has an Illaya-
raja ring to it, which is not bad
at all considering that the
maestro seems to be in a bit of
an exile of late.
All in all, a movie that is a
must-watch.
A small warning though: this
is surely not a movie to be
watched with kids. Not for the
faint of heart either. ■

Send us your verdict on the

movie to verdict@goergo.in

B oy and girl are best friends. Boy real-

ises he’s in love with the girl. Just
when he’s about to pop the question,
the girl’s fiancé pops up. “Steal the
bride,” the boy’s friends tell him, and
off he goes on the mission. Sounds fa-
miliar?
Made of Honor is, at best, a reverse
My Best Friend’s Wedding. Only without
the things that made the latter what it
was. Tom (Patrick Dempsey) and Han-
nah (Michelle Monoghan) have been
best friends for 10 years. Hannah goes
to Scotland for six weeks and Tom real-
ises he can’t do without her. She re-
turns, and he has a bouquet in his hand
and she a ring on her finger and Duke
(Kevin McKidd) in tow. As her best
friend, Tom is asked to be her “maid of
honour” and he consents, with an
agenda to replace the groom in the ais-
le.
The problem is, Tom and Hannah
Film: Made of Honor Director: Paul Weiland Cast: Patrick Dempsey, Michelle Monoghan, Kevin McKidd, Sydney Pollack
hardly ever look in love. Tom’s half-
hearted desperation looks forced and
you wished Hannah rather stayed with
Duke. And just when you would have
expected the makers to show some ma-
turity and abstain from turning the oth-
er guy into a weirdo, you’re proved
wrong. From the sensitive hero in the
beginning, he’s turned into the snob-
bish aristocrat who plays wedding
games in a kilt, practises the bagpipes
every night and who considers unciv-
ilized anyone who touches his dessert
bowl on the dinner table. The other guy
needn’t always be the villain. ■
Shalini Shah
Been there, seen that
 Friday, July 25, 2008
19
I don’t deserve Expensive photo shoot
Actor Dhanush, who celebrated his birthday If internet buzzes are to be believed,
with his fans recently, was conferred with the the photo shoot of Shankar’s
title Junior Superstar by fans. But Dhanush magnum opus Robot is being held at
said that he does not deserve this title. the cost of Rs.1.5 Crore.
www.cinesnacks.com www.cinesnacks.com

Director
Vijay on
Ajith,
Remaking not
Kireedom
and Poi
that easy
Solla
“R
emaking is not an easier job” One good reason I wanted to kick-start for a continuous 33 days. The entire
says Vijay, the young and vi- my directorial venture with the remake of shooting set was a fun place, where both
Porom vacious director of Ajith-star-
rer Kireedom. An assistant of
Kireedom was the appealing theme it had.
Lohitha Das’ script blended with Sibi Ma-
the younger actors and seniors like Nass-
er, Mouli and Nedumudi Venu had a
director Priyadharsan, Vijay has lots to layil’s direction and astounding perfor- good time.
speak about his forthcoming movie Poi mances by Mohanlal and Thilakan were a Looks like you’ve opted for naturalistic
Solla Porom, which is a remake of one of mind-blowing combination. I could well actors for the film.
Bollywood’s most enjoyed comedy flick, visualise that Ajith and Raj Kiran would Yes. As soon I had an idea about the
Khosla Ka Ghosla. be apt for the roles of loving dad and son. film, I wanted to rope in actors who
The films that you have directed, It was a great pleasure working with ver- would look apt for the roles they play.
both Kireedom and Poi Solla satile personalities and the film indeed as One needn’t describe Nasser Sir, Nedu-
Porom, happen to be a re- it fetched good credits. muni Venu and Mouli. Karthik Kumar
makes. Your take on Ajith Kumar… was already there on my mind and I met
I feel remaking films isn’t Defining him in simple lines, Ajith Sir is Umar, the other guy, at Sathyam Cinemas
an easy job. It needs a lot a genius, and in terms of an actor he has a while heading for a movie. I just asked
of work to get it done, blend of Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan. him if he was interested in acting and he
suiting it to the regional He has the mass appeal of Rajinikanth said yes.
tastes of mass. Ob- and does come up with a unique style of How about penning dialogues for Pri-
viously, it is quite performance as Kamal Haasan does. yadarshan’s Kanchipuram?
backbreaking since Something about Poi Solla Porom… I can say that Kanchipuram would be
the remake This flick has nothing to do with head- the best film made in India and the days I
should be breaking themes. It’s a simple tale sans was working on it were like the golden
equivalent to violence and complicated motives and it days of my life.
or better than will be a grand fiesta of hilarious ele- Poi Solla Porom would be a movie that
the original ments. Come to the theatres, grab your has everyone uttering a whole lot of lies.
version. drinks and popcorn, sit back and enjoy How about you? Do you remember the
Was it so watching it. biggest lie you ever told?
tough remak- Did working with a combination of se- (Laughs) I think I haven’t lied yet. But I
ing the Malaya- nior and younger of actors make your job am sure, if it’s for a good cause I would lie
lam film Kireedom tougher? more than thousand times a day. ■
in Tamil? Not at all! I enjoyed shooting this film Richard Mahesh

Cine City
Kuselan banned in
Karnataka?
It looks like Kuselan will not release in
Karnataka, causing a loss of Rs 1.50 crore
to its distributors Pyramid Saimira. The
Karnataka Rakshana Vedika (KRV) is
determined to block the release of the film
scheduled for August 1. The organisation’s
grouse is that during the Tamil film
industry’s protest fast opposing
Karnataka’s stand on the Hogenakkal
project, Rajinikanth had come down
heavily on Karnataka. He had warned the
state not to politicise the issue. Rajinikanth
had said: “Karnataka should not test our
(Tamil Nadu) patience by not letting us
draw water from our own land.” KRV is
demanding an apology from Rajinikanth,
failing which his films will not be allowed
to be screened in Karnataka. Rajini at that
time expressed regret if he had hurt the
sentiments of anyone, but also added: “If
my films do not release in Karnataka, it’s
not a problem for me.”
20 ERGO Friday, July 25, 2008

Tops the chart

Scan
France’s first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy shot to
the top of the charts with her latest album in
its first full week on sale.
Reuters

PICK OF THE DAY - Friday

Zee Studio Filmy Set Max AXN

Con Air – 22-30 pm
Cameron Poe, who is a highly
decorated United States Army
Ranger only to run into a few
drunken regulars. Cameron
unknowingly kills one of the drunks
and was sent to a federal
penitentiary for involuntary
manslaughter for seven years.
Guru – 8 pm
A school-teacher in India sires a son
named Gurukant, but is
disappointed as the child fails to
live up to his high expectations.
When Gurukant grows up, he is
unable to secure decent
employment so finds a way to go to
Turkey, where he finds employment.
Zeher – 10-40 pm
Inspector Sonia is married to her
subordinate Siddharth. A woman
named Anna goes missing and is
believed dead. There is also the
question of a suitcase full of cash
that is also missing. Sonia assumes
charge of this investigation
The Bourne Identity – 10 pm
Pulled half-dead from the
Mediterranean, amnesiac Jason
Bourne slowly pieces together the
fragments of his life. He’s American,
highly skilled in combat and lots of
people want to kill him. The film is
an adaptation of the Robert Ludlum
spy thriller.

PICK OF THE DAY - Saturday

Star Movies Travel and Living Star World Animal Planet

The Mummy Returns – 6-30
pm
The malicious mummy walks again!
Concomitantly an even more
heinous force is set loose sending
the O’Connell’s on a desperate race
to save the world from unspeakable
evil.
Passport to Europe with
Samantha Brown – 7 pm
Geneva, Switzerland. Samantha’s in
Geneva, Switzerland - a city where
70% of its visitors come to work!
Sam discovers plenty of fun
shopping for treasures at what
might be the world’s most
expensive flea market.
Prison Break – 8 pm
First Down. Series 2, episode 4.
Bellick teams up with Michael,
Lincoln and Nika to find
Westmoreland’s money. Kellerman
continues to target Sara, who
receives a surprising phone call.
King of the Jungle – 11
pmWildlife abounds as our
competitors test the outer limits of
their animal expertise. Our
competitors play hero to
endangered tiger cubs, but a
challenge leads to a shocking
elimination.

PICK OF THE DAY - Sunday

Sony Pix Star Movies 9X Discovery Travel and Living

The Grudge – 8 pm
Karen Davis moves to Tokyo and
encounter a supernatural spirit who
is vengeful and often possesses its
victims. A series of horrifying and
mysterious deaths start to occur,
with the spirit passing its curse onto
each victim.
Scary Movie 4 – 9 pm
The unemployed Cindy Campbell is
hired to work in a cursed house as
caretaker of an old lady and meets
the ghost of a boy. Meanwhile, the
teenager son Robbie and the young
daughter Rachel of his next door
neighbor and crane operator Tom
Ryan are spending.
Eklavya – 5-30 pm
Eklavya has been entrusted to
guard the lives of Rana, Ranimaa,
and their children, Harsh and
Nandini. Eklavya, who also carries a
dark family secret, slays the two
assailants of the Rana and also finds
out that the one who hired them is
his very own son.
World’s Best Beaches – 7
pm
If it’s the beach you long for, and
you demand the best, then get
ready to think big! Travel experts
bring to you a comprehension of
the world’s best beaches.
 Friday, July 25, 2008
21
Forgetful shoplifter
Greetings
A shoplifter who tried to nab expensive cosmetics
was caught because she left her six-year-old
daughter behind. Birgit Mahler stuffed $160 (GBP80)
worth of cosmetics in her bag and fled a German
store only to realise her daughter was still there.

Hi Ram, Dear Vijay Mathews,

Happy Birthday.(Hope you give us the last
bachelor birthday party!!!)
From Raambommu, Arunkumar, Karthik, Gobal,
Mathivanan
Tata Consultancy Services.
Dear Lux,
A very Happy and Dazzling birthday to
you..!
Have a wonderful and crazy year ahead.
Luv, Chooru, Jolz, Sabz, Gomz, Thoogu, Sorish,
Ram, Bansi,
iNautix Technologies.
Dear Swathi,
Many more happy returns of the day. Have
a wonderful year ahead.
Pirandha naal vaazhthukalManikandan E ,
Infosys Technologies Ltd
Hi Stephan,
Today is your last day in Wipro!!!! Keep up
your good work and be the same where
ever you are. We all will MISS you for sure
All the very Best for your future endeavours.
Farmers Account, Wipro Technologies
Dear Sahaya George,
“May this year ahead bring you Love, Peace
and Prosperity...
Belated Birthday Wishes!.....
From Thalha, Verizon.
Many More Happy Returns Of The Day
!!!
May God Bless You With Success In
Every Aspect Of Life !!!
Special Wishes From Vijay Mathews Team -
Balaji, Sarvan, Ranjith, Sham, Esa Mohideen,
Dileep, Madan, Vasanth, Anjan, Naresh &
Johnny,
Real Networks Tech Support, Cybernet - Slash
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Hi Lakshmi,
Many more happy returns of the
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Priya,Vaibhav,Suvi and Anjali Hexaware
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Dear Siva,
T-Hub wishes you a very Happy
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May God give you a prosperous and
healthy life throughout the year.
Let all your dreams come true!!
Hearty wishes from T-Hub team,
TATA Consultancy Services (SNR).
Hi Kamal,
Advance birthday wishes. I send to you

Dear Radha,
Wish you many many happy returns of the
day on behalf of all our college friends and
wish you all the best for your prosperous
career with lots of fun at your work place.
Gangapatnam Dorababu,TCS
Hi Preetha,
Many more happy returns of the day and I
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With loads of luv and prayers,
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niki,rinu,aishu,vel,achachan,
Syntel Ltd
Dear Bharathi,
Many more happy returns of the day.
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Tidel Park
Dear Kezia Prem Sangeetha,
We wish you many more happy returns
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Dear Ashi,
Regi & Uma,
Wipro Technologies
My advance Birthday Wishes for u!! Wish u
achieve all
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Regards,
Sindsa, Cognizant.
Dear Divya and Sarika,
Wishing you a very happy birthday. Have a
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Cheers, Mellon-Flex Team, Infosys Technologies
Ltd.
Dear Subangi,
I send to you warm wishes, that your
happiness will be as wonderful as the
happiness, you have always given me. Wish
you Happy Birthday da.
From Kalyani, Hexaware Technologies Ltd
Dear Sankar,
We wish you many more happy returns of
the day and a great year ahead.
From BI (Unisys), Hexaware Technologies (HT-5)
Hi Baski,
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bless you our dear friend.
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Dear Nithya Ramamurthi,
Wish you many more happy returns of
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endrum nee sandhoshamai irundhida
vazhthukal!!!
Regards, Harihara Subramanian N & Sreena
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22 ERGO Friday, July 25, 2008

Traffic Jam
Great heights
Two Chinese wire-walkers set new world records when they
crossed a single wire, more than 850 feet off the ground. The
wire was 1.1 kilometres long.

sudoku

Manikanda
Poopathy of
TAKE Solutions
clicked this
picture with his
Kodak DX7630 at
Hamilton Pool in
Austin, USA. His
hobbies include
cooking,
travelling and off
course
photography!

KAKURO
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the PRB Act). RNI No. TNENG/2007/24553
 Friday, July 25, 2008
Lemur in honour of Cleese
English actor John Cleese is to have a
species of lemurs named after him, an
honour he insists he’d rather have as than
a knighthood - which he was offered in
1996 but turned down.
23
Word’s worth
"Echopraxia" (eck-oh-prack-see-uh) the meaningless
imitation of the movements of others, probably including
that parlor trick where you yawn or scratch your nose and
watch the movement make its way through all the people
in a room. From echo and the Greek word for ’action.’

B.C

ARIES MARCH 21 - APRIL 20

You may take initiative in meetings today. Ganesha
finds you very confident today. You may remain
lively at office and home. This will attract others
towards you. Personal life seems very charming and
promising today, by the Grace of Ganesha.

TAURUS APRIL 21 - MAY 20

Ensure that you do not put in your efforts in wrong
direction today. You may be distracted from the
prime responsibilities. Your personal life may remain
in perfect balance and you may have a wonderful
time with your beloved one or life partner.

GEMINI MAY 21 - JUNE 20

It is a time to participate in activities that involve
BORN LOSER many people. Given a chance, you can be a good
leader today. If you want to present something in a
meeting, you can do it impressively. Ganesha feels
you may sideline love life while focussing on career.
CANCER JUNE 21 - JULY 20
Today, your entire focus may be on the career. You
may wish to progress more. To progress further you
may need to take more stress. Ganesha finds you
pretty active today. Personal life may remain a little
stressful so avoid conflicts over emotional matters.
LEO JULY 21 - AUG 20
Today you may seek attention from others. At
office, your opinions may be considered seriously
which will make you feel ’special’. You may be
trying to woo your life partner in best possible
manner, with a gift or with a candle light party!
VIRGO AUG 21 - SEPT 20
You may be busy dealing with some technical stuff
FREE RANGE WORKING IT OUT or with something that is complex to solve. You
must avoid rashness and give time to think over the
matter and find proper solution. At home, you may
enjoy routine life without any ups and downs.
LIBRA SEPT 21 - OCT 20
This is a perfect day to establish good public
relations. If you are in technical field, you may be
dealing with permutations and combinations. Perfect
day for new relationships. Ongoing relationships
may see good times in the evening.
SCORPIO OCT 21 - NOV 20
You may need to work harder than usual, to finish
off a particular task. You may not be able to
concentrate on one work but might have to indulge
in multitasking. At home control over criticism. In
short, Ganesha advises you to remain ’cool’.
SAGITTARIUS NOV 21 - DEC 20
At work, you may take projects to next stage. To
carry this further, you may require some guidelines.
Your mind is focussed right on the target today.
You could be loving but very demanding while you
are in the company of beloved one.
CAPRICORN DEC 21 - JAN 20
You may be impatient to see the result of a
particular work. Ganesha advises you to give more
time to it. If you rush, you may be disappointed. On
the personal front, you may find everything in
perfect rhythm, by the Grace of Ganesha.
AQUARIUS JAN 21 - FEB 20
PREVIOUS Your energy levels would be very high so you may
be able to deal with good amount of work load. On
ISSUE’S the personal front, you may need to remain in
harmony and should avoid anger. Your temperament
SOLUTIONS may spoil your life partner or beloved one’s mood.
PISCES FEB 21 - MARCH 20
Today you will be handling your work nicely. You
may start work at right time and lead it to the right
level at right time too. Everything seems to be
happening at perfect moment. Good day to propose
someone. The day is good for married people also.
Predictions by Bhavesh N. Pattni
24 ERGO Friday, July 25, 2008

Glued to PM

!
An English environmental protestor made sure he’d get plenty of
time talking to Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Dan Glass tried to
glue himself to Gordon Brown by placing a glue covered hand on
his sleeve in order to demonstrate that ‘climate change isn’t a
problem that can be shaken away’. He was not arrested.

Suicide on wheels
A Thai man drove his passenger car into
the Chao Phrya River in an apparent
suicide, media reports said on Thursday.
Sakda Pholfarang (41), a single male with
no regular employment, on Wednesday
morning drove his Toyota Vios into the
Chao Phrya river off a pier outside a
Buddhist temple in Nonthaburi, a province
neighbouring Bangkok.
When bystanders dove in to the river to
save him, Sakda shouted at them to stay
away, rolled up his windows and sank to
the bottom. Sakda’s brother Phichai
Pholfarang (37) expressed surprise over the
vehicular suicide, saying his brother may
have been suffering stress. The Chao
Phrya, or River of Kings, flows from
northern Thailand past Bangkok, the
capital, emptying in to the Gulf of
Thailand.
DPA

Rabbit to the
rescue
A pet rabbit in Australia
was credited with saving
its owners on Thursday
after scratching at the
door of their bedroom as
their home burned, emergency workers said.
The couple were in their bedroom of their
Melbourne home on Thursday morning
when the pet, named simply ‘Rabbit’, began
scratching at the door prompting the
husband to investigate, Metropolitan Fire
Brigade commander Mick Swift said.
He said the man discovered a fire in the
back room with smoke spreading through
the house and the couple could have been
seriously injured if the bunny had not
hopped to the rescue.
“The rabbit saved the couple from injury,”
Swift said.
He said it took four fire crews to extinguish
the blaze, which caused substantial damage.
The rabbit and its owners were unhurt.
AFP

Talula Does The Hula from

Hawaii
A New Zealand judge has ordered a name
change for an embarrassed nine-year-old
girl called Talula Does The Hula From
Hawaii, a local newspaper reported on
Thursday.
The girl was so embarrassed that she had
not revealed the name given by her
parents to friends, who simply knew her as
K, the Taranaki Daily News said.
Family court judge Rob Murfitt said in a
judgement made in February – but not
released until Thursday – that oddball
monikers created social hurdles as children
grew up.
“She fears being mocked and teased and in
that she has a greater level of insight than
either of her parents,” he said of the girl.
AFP