postnoon e-paper for 16 december 2012

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DECEMBER 16, 2012 HYDERABAD

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32 PAGES

COP’S HANDIN GAMBLING

DEN HEIST?REPORT ON PG 3

T ROW AT CONG MEET

The gala Congress meeting got off to a troubled start with Ponnam Prabhakar get-

ting snubbed openly on stage by PCCI chiefBotsa Satyanarayana for the former suggestinga two-minute silence in memory of theTelangana martyrs.

Actress Gwyneth Paltrow’s trainer Tracy Anderson made herstrip off to motivate her to work towards a fit figure. This

happened during Paltrow’s first meeting with Anderson.

PG 28

PALTROW'S TRAINERMADE HER STRIP

FLASH

Big Cinemas, Ameerpet, 30581470; Cinemax, Banjara Hills, 44565555; Cine Planet , Kompally, 61606060; INOX, Banjara Hills, 447677770,Prasads, Tank Bund Rd, 23448888; PVR, Punjagutta, 08800900009; Talkie Town, Miyapur, 40214175; Tivoli, Secunderabad 27844973CINEMAS

to name a few. Where: Taj Krishna,

Hyderabad When: OngoingContact: (040) 6666 2323

Pièce MontéeAlliance Française is screening aFrench film directed by DenysGranier-Deferre, starring JérémieRenier, Jean-Pierre Marielle andClémence Poésy.Where: Plot no.4, Road no.3,

Banjara Hills, Aurora colony,Road adjacent to Q-Mart

When: December 18Contact: (040) 2355 4485/86

Photo competitionAlliance Francaise, Hyderabad, is

Journey with poetryAn evening of telugu poetry withpost K Siva Reddy.Where: Lamakaan

Lane Adjacent To CBay, Opposite GVK One, Road No 1, Banjara Hill

When: December 165:30pm onwards

Contact: 96427 31329

Moplah MagicMoplah cuisine, form Kerala, will beserved with Arabic and Samarkanditouches. It will be served for aweek at Dakshin. Where: Dakshin,

BegumpetWhen: December 10-16 Contact: (040) 2340 0132

Christmas brunchThere is a Christmas Day TurkeyBrunch at Marriott Hotel andConvention Center. Europeaninspired Ginger Bread House willstart from December 15. Where: Okra, Hyderabad Marriott

Hotel and Convention Center When: December 25,

12:30pm to 4pm

Theatre festivalThe fourth annual SamahaaraHyderabad Theatre Festival is goingon in the City, where artists willperform plays from various genres. Where: Nift Auditorium,

MadhapurWhen: December 8-16,

7:30pm onwardsContact: [email protected]

RuhaniyatRuhaniyat is a national music festi-val in its 12th consecutive year. It isa sufi and mystic music festival. It isknown for its soulful songs. Where: Ravindra Bharathi,

SaifabadWhen: December 16

6:30pm onwards

Christmas carolsChristmas carols will be sung byGlobal Edge school till the end ofDecember at The Lobby. Where: Novotel & HICC Complex,

PO No 1101, Cyberabad Post Office, Near Hitech City

When: December 3-31Contact: (040) 6682 4422

Christmas hampersTaj Krishna is giving out the LuxurySanta Hamper and Deluxe SantaHamper, which include RemyMartin Xo, Lagavulin 16, luxurycanali tie, rose petal jam with canesugar, Kalmata Olives, assortedChristmas chocolate and plum cake

Story Writing ContestAnnapurna International School ofFilm and Media has launched thepreliminary phase National LevelStory writing Competition. Thestory writing competition is opento both undergraduate and gradu-ate students.Where: www.script2screen.inWhen: Before December 10

Public speaking There is a four-day workshop fromDecember 13 to December 16 atMedia Junction. The workshop ison effective public speaking.Where: Media Junction,

Parthani Towers, , Golconda Cross Roads, Musheerabad

When: 13-16 December6pm to 9.30pm

Contact: 98488 42471

Chai-Pakora RunTo spread the word about IndiaBike Week being held in Goa on2-3 February 2013, a chai-pakorarun will be organised inHyderabad. Where: Secunderabad Parade

Ground, War Memorial on Lamba Theatre Road,

When: December 23Contact: indiabikeweek.in/calendar

Handloom exhibitionPochampally Handloom Park isorganizing IKAT Mela, exhibitinghandloom linen, dress material andsaris, among others.Where: State Gallery of fine Arts ,

Department of Culture,Kavuri Hills, Madhapur

When: 13-16 Decemberfrom 6pm to 9.30pm

Contact: 92937 73970

Eclectic iridescenceAn exhibition of Dhiren Shasmal’sart work, based on various themesand styles of painting.Where: Residence Inn,

Amar Coop Soc.Lane,Opp. Madhapur PS, Kavuri Hills

When: Upto December 19,11am onwards

Contact: (040) 2311 3709

The year that wasDuckbill-Landmark "The Year ThatWas Quiz 2012” is being organizedby KCircleWhere: Landmark,

Road No 12 Next to Ohri's Restaurant, Banjara Hills.

When: 16-Dec-122:00pm to 4:00pm

Contact: [email protected]

conducting a photo competition.The theme is Professions of theworld. The winning entries will besent to Paris. Where:hyderabad.afindia.orgWhen: December 3-January 6

Aao! BajaaoAao! Bajaao: Let's Drum Together isan open drum circle organised byDrumberries. It is a unique interac-tive drumming experience. It is heldevery month in the city.Where: Pebble Creek High

Montessori School 1-13-88/134, A & B, Behind Railway Reservation Counter, Dr. A S Rao Nagar, Secunderabad

When: December 164pm-6pm

Contact:91600 01494

CITY 2SUNDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2012

Sunset at Hussain Sagar Lake.

LET’S CALL IT A DAY

N S

HIV

A K

UM

AR


In a highly suspicious case, a minorstudent is reported to have com-mitted suicide by hanging herselfat her home in Jawahar Nagar in

Chikkadpally area. Parents maintainthat the girl was suffering from health

problems and she may have taken theextreme step from dejection.

However, many in neighbourhood disbelieve the stance.

Minor girl kills herself

Representatives of TDP, BJP, CPMand Lok Satta attended demand-ed that all steps be taken for pro-

moting Telugu. The all-party meetingon World Telugu Conference endedwith this firm resolve to cooperate inpromoting Telugu. Chief Minister NKiran Kumar Reddy convened themeeting on Saturday ahead of theconference to be held at Tirupati.

Steps for Telugu promotion

Anew political party ‘ManaTelangana Communist Party’came into being. A wall poster

was released and it was inauguratedby Chillaka Raju Laxmipathi, who hadparticipated in Telangana agrarianarmed struggle. Party founder-presi-dent Kotham Madhava Reddy hasdemanded that the government pass aBill for formation of Telangana State.

New political party formed

In an amusing incident, twowell-built men in safari suitpretending to be from theCrime Investigation

Department rode into a gam-bling den in Sainagar,Kushaiguda, on Sunday nightand looted `7 lakh and a dozenmobile phones.

There were 15 gamblers inthe den at that time. Beforeleaving, the duo asked them tocome to Kushaiguda police station and collect the mobilesthe next day. The “CID officers,”however, had a word of advice:desist from gambling or theywill be back.

The gamblers looked agapeas the two sped away on a bikewith their money. One of themhappened to be a constable from

CID and he had noted down thebike number. The next day hetried to trace the bike and foundto his dismay that it was a fakenumber. Now, realising they hadbeen taken for a ride, theyapproached the Kushaiguda

police inspector K SrikanthGoud, and told him the entirestory.

Goud had a good laugh andasked them why they had notoverpowered the two, thoughgambling is an illegal activity

and they were on the wrongside of the law. They said thetwo behaved so convincinglythat all the 15 thought of theconsequences if booked forgambling. Most of them are inservice and some in business.The bad name that would followif the news is out deterred themfrom making a move. Rather,they surrendered and gave theduo the cash.

Goud believes it could besomeone who knew gamblingwas going on in the place orsomeone related to the gam-blers. The men admitted theyoften came here to try theirluck. Based on the descriptionthe victims gave, the Kushaig-uda police are making a list ofthe men who are likely to beinvolved. The police have nottried to collect possible evi-dences from the crime scene asyet. However, the suspicion hasfallen on the CID constable whowas part of the gambling teamfor not raising an alarm whenhe spotted the fake officials.

Biz manrobbed, facespolice quizUpon investigation,police find the man’sallegations suspicious.Postnoon [email protected]

Abusinessman who claimed tohave been robbed in a busy

road by six men last night is fac-ing uncomfortable questions bythe investigating police.

The curious incident hap-pened at Petlabruj in theCharminar police limits.Mahinder Singh, a businessmandealing in plastic at BegumBazaar, claimed he was returninghome with `2 lakh when six menon three bikes blocked his way atPetlabruj and took away the cash.

Charminar AssistantCommissioner of Police MRammohan Rao said the petition-er had no clear answer to thesource of cash and the purpose ofcarrying it home.

Nor is it clear as to how anybody knew that he was carrying huge amounts of cash.Rao said there seemed manyholes in the complaint and thepolice were trying to ascertainthe truth. As it happened at avery busy crossing, it is all themore suspicious, he added.

[email protected] SUBHAN

Pseudo CID officersraid, loot gambling denTwo men pretending to be from the CID, ‘raided’ a gambling den, ‘confiscating’ `7lakh. Strong suspicion falls on a CID constable who was part of the gambling team.

AIESEC is an international, youth-led, non-profit organisation present in over 113 countries. AIESEC Hyderabad’s biggestevent, Balakalakaar-An Artist in EVERY Child! is aimed at improving the quality of life of City’s underprivileged children.

Omar [email protected]

The AIESEC’s main eventBalakalakaar started infull swing with a painting

competition that brought out thecreative best in children. About30 schools attended the event.The children were providedwith papers, colours, crayonsand pencils. The entire eventtook place at Rail Nilayam andthe sponsors provided food anddental check up for the children.

Twist and Turns performeda dance for the children andthey loved it to the extent of anencore. Radio jockey Kajal fromRed FM came over to entertainthem and made the childrendance, sing and recite whatever

they wanted to. Ajay, an AIESECmember, along with one other,took the stage and sang for thechildren in Hindi and English.All the AIESEC membersdanced with the children.

Birad Yajnik put up the ban-ner of peace, truth and ahimsawith handprints of the childrenand Mahatma Gandhi’s picture

in the centre. People from NGOs in Brazil

are interning with AIESEC andare staying in Hyderabad fortwo months to assist with theBalakalakaar project.

SMILES, UNITY, FREEDOMBALAKALAKAAR, WHICHSTARTED IN 2005, ISHELD EVERY YEAR INTHE CITY. NGOSFROM BRAZIL HAVECOME DOWN TO ASSISTWITH THE PROJECT.

4SUNDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2012

CITY

The State-level conven-tion of ruling Congressbeing held at the LBStadium today saw the

rival camps working at crosspurposes. The gala meeting,billed to be attended by some10,000 party workers, hadthrown up hiccups andanguish where grumblingswere heard above the roar or traffic.

The purpose of the meet-ing, as decided by the PCC, is topass nine resolutions on various issues like FDI, BC, minority sub plan, cash transferscheme, education, health andyouth affairs.

What marked the greatconfluence of the party creamwas the dominance of the PCCchief Botsa Satyanarayana.Though many committees wereformed and apportioned respon-sibilities like the manifestocommittee, food committee,transport committee, publicitycommittee, VIP accommodationcommittee, they were overshad-owed by the one-upmanship ofthe PCC president.

Office-bearers of PradeshCongress Committee allegedthat the PCC president insultedthem by depriving them oftheir work. “The meeting isbeing held against the back-drop of lack of organisationalstructure with the help of adhoc committees. As the office-

bearers of ad hoc committees,he gave us various responsibili-ties to make the arrangements.But, we were not allowed to doanything as the loyalists of thePCC president had alreadytaken over everything,” ruedan APCC general secretary.

Similar was the complaintof the group loyal to ChiefMinister N Kiran Kumar Reddy.

But Botsa supportersridiculed their complaints, say-ing that whatever one does,critics abound. They pointedout how the party is beingsteered clear of the YSR legacy,which gave YSRC undeservingadvantages. No YSR portraitwas seen among the giantcutouts, which were adorned

by photos of Sonia Gandhi andRahul Gandhi, followed by, insmaller sizes, photos ofGhulam Nabi Azad, VayalarRavi, Kiran Reddy, RajaNarasimha and Botsa.

SENIORS DENIED PASSESApart from this, the most shock-ing thing of these arrangementsis the issuance of delegate pass-es to the convention. Many of

the senior Congress leaders,including former MLAs andMLCs and office-bearers, werereportedly denied delegate pass-es and invitation to the meeting.Lack of co-ordination was alsoevident in distribution of thepasses. Many of the seniorCongress leaders and office-bearers had to stand in queuefor long to collect their passes atGandhi Bhavan, the party head-quarters.

STORMY AFFAIRThe day-long convention is like-ly to be a stormy affair, follow-ing the differences of the partyleaders coming to fore.Congress MP GV Harsha Kumarboycotted the meeting, protest-ing the lack of representation tohis community in PCC co-ordi-nation panel.

Banners adorn the gate of LB stadium where the meet is being held; (below) Congress leaders at a meeting yesterday

Rival camps squabble at meet

[email protected] AHMED

Factionalism, a perennial Congress trait, was seen in abundant measure at the brainstorming session in LBstadium today. At the end of the day nine, resolutions on crucial issues are likely to be adopted.

Banner war evident atthe convention site

Supporters of eachgroup had put up pic-

tures, while the officialbillboards and bannerscontained only photos ofSonia, Rahul, Azad, Botsa,and Kiran. The notableexclusions were Chira -njeevi and Telangana lea -ders. Botsa has forbiddenslogans hailing individualleaders, except Sonia andRahul. For a change, cam-eras were kept out of thevenue. Only reporterswere allowed in.

Guv briefs Centre on Telangana?ESL Narasimhan works as the third eye of the Congress and his stance on Telanganaand Congress in AP are likely to carry weight when decisions are taken.Postnoon Newsfeedback @postnoon.com

Despite his protests that hisvisit to Delhi leaders wasapolitical, AP Governor

ESL Narasimhan’s meeting withCentral leaders assumes greatimportance in the light of theall-party meeting on Telanganascheduled for December 28.

Narasimhan has fair knowl-edge of AP’s geopolitics and hav-ing served as IB chief, he isprivy to many things not alwaysknown to the public. He is reli-ably learnt to have been askedby Sonia Gandhi to be theparty’s third eye with regard toTelangana movement and partyprospects.

In August and September, thegovernor had visited someTelangana districts and ascer-

tained the efficacy of govern-mental schemes, which is not inthe purview of a governor whena government is in office.Political observers believe hehas submitted a confidentialreport on Telangana to theCentral leaders, which would behandy at the all-party meeting.

However, Narasimhan has

earned the ire of many. The CPIalleged that the governor iscrossing the lakshman rekha. “Iam sure our party president andother top leaders are givingmore value to his advice thanthe Congress leaders from theState,” a senior Congress leaderwho is very close to GhulamNabi Azad told Postnoon onSaturday.

The Congress leader wasalso of the opinion that theCentral leadership relied moreon the governor than on ChiefMinister N Kiran Kumar Reddyand PCC president BotsaSatyanarayana on the T-prob-lem. “His recent tours have beenan indication of it,” he added.

Congress MP fromKarimnagar Lok Sabha seat,Ponnam Prabhakar, too hasdoubts about the governor’s mis-

sion in Telangana districts,where he attended a series ofmeetings. Besides, his positionallows him to meet anyone onstrictly private terms.

But some Congress leadersbelieve the governor’s recentgames extended to assessing theparty’s chances in the nextGeneral Elections. Telangana isonly one of the agendas, theysay. “I think the governor is try-ing to help the Congress in figur-ing out where the party standsin the next General Elections.Whether it will retain power orlose the elections,” saidPrabhakar.

The purpose ofNarasimhan’s visit to Delhiremains shrouded in mystery,and the party rivals andOpposition have not taken kind-ly to it.

SOME CONGRESSLEADERS ARE OF THEOPINION THAT THEGOVERNOR’S RECENTTRIPS ARE TO ASSESSTHE PARTY’S CHANCES INTHE NEXT GENERALELECTIONS.


What drew you to Jazz?As a five-year-old, I used to find

the piano in my house quite fascinat-ing. Like all kids, even I used to playaround a little and it helped that mymother knew how to play. I studiedmusic at the Bangalore School ofMusic but had quit for a while as Iwas tired of the goal-orientedapproach that teachers in India had.I even believed that maybe musicwasn’t the thing for me then.

But a series of incidentschanged my mind. My exposure tojazz began when I moved to Ohio tostudy, where most students knewhow to play at least one musicalinstrument — it was like it was partof their culture. I noticed a manplaying the piano; when I asked hima little about the piece, he said thathe had made it up as he played — Iwas hooked. I took to the piano andnever looked back.

What kind of differences or similar-ities did you observe in the teachingstyles abroad and in India?

In India, we practised just beforethe exams. The goal was to clear thetests respectably. However, thingswere different abroad. There wereso many students to learn from. Onehad to constantly keep motivatingoneself to do better.

Indian parents are infamous forbeing biased against creative arts.Have your parents always supportedyou or did you have to struggle onthat front?

My parents always left it up tome to do what I want to do. It helpedthat they both come from a slightlyoffbeat field themselves — mymom’s a painter while my dad is aresearcher. While many would

assume that my mother would havebeen the more supportive one as shetoo belonged to creative field, shewas a tad apprehensive at first.Since she belonged to the field herself, she knew the struggle thatit comprised.

What have been your struggles so far?To get paid adequately. Jazz, one

must be realistic, is not the mostpopular forms of music in India orthe rest of the world. And, at times,one does feel that the payoff is notequal to the effort put in.

Like you said, jazz is still a nichemarket here. Is that changing andwhat’s been your approach to thegenre?

The number of youngsters inter-ested in the genre has certainlyincreased but it might take a whilebefore it can be on par with genreslike rock and hip-hop.

In fact, before I explored jazz,even I used to believe that it wasvery boring. I’m sure people will change their minds onceexposed to it.

Where do you draw your inspira-tion from?

Mostly western and Indian clas-sical music.

The Sharik Hasan Paris Trio is agroup of three young musicians —you, Gael Petrina on the bass guitarand drummer Thibault Pierrard.How easy is it to be able to impro-vise music in a team?

Playing with others is quiteexciting as there are lots of opin-ions and minds working at the sametime. Moreover, the connection thatI share with our band, especiallyduring performances, is what keepsme going as a musician.

Performing solo at the opening ofthe Jazz Bar at Taj Falaknuma today,this will be your fourth visit toHyderabad. What are your plans?

I like to think of my perfor-mances like a story — somethingthat has a beginning, a middle andan end. Today too, I plan to tell astory. Also, I’ll gauge the energy ofthe crowd this evening and impro-vise my performance accordingly.

Ranjani [email protected]

Doctors at Oxygen Hospital inVikrampuri gave a new leaseof life to 72-year-old Mani -

amma when they performed a totalhip replacement surgery through aminimally invasive technique.

The surgery, which took placelast week, is one of the first hipreplacements to have been per-formed with an incision that wasless than 10cm wide.

“Any surgery that is performedwith an incision not more than10cm wide is considered minimallyinvasive and to do so for a hipreplacement procedure is a ratherrare occurrence in our State.Fortunately, we were able to suc-cessfully perform this procedure onour patient and I can proudly saythat she is now able to move aboutwith much less pain than before,”said Dr Ganesh, who trained inorthopaedics and minimally inva-sive techniques in England.

Maniamma was first diagnosedwith arthritis of the hip two monthsago, when she was assailed by

immense pain and found it hard towalk on her own. Further investiga-tions revealed that she had a condi-tion in which blood supply to theball area of the hip had been com-promised for quite some time, caus-ing it to develop into arthritis of thearea. However, the problem onlycame to light when her pain becameunbearable — so much so she had tobe carried around.

“Given her age, other optionslike core decompression, whereholes are drilled in the bone andthen left to heal, were less viable.Also, in this option, there was noguarantee that the pain wouldreduce. Hence, her family chose tohave a hip replacement surgery inorder to ensure healing and toeliminate the pain. We then decidedto do it through the minimallyinvasive technique so that damageto the tissue and the resultant painwould be reduced,” explained DrGanesh.

On December 10, Dr Ganesh andhis team successfully operated onManiamma. “She is now able towalk about with her walker and herpain too has reduced drastically.”

Tellinghis story

[email protected]

NIDHI BHUSHAN

One of India’s most promising jazz musiciansSharik Hasan talksto Postnoon about what drewhim to the genre, the struggleinvolved and all that keeps him going.

Surgeon does rare hip op

SRINIVAS SETTY

N SHIVA KUMAR


MORIGAON (ASSAM): One womanwas trampled to death by a wild

tusker at Sonaikuchi hill in centralAssam’s Morigaon district last night,police said today. The wild elephant

came from Amsoi hill through theSonaikuchi

elephant corridor and attacked thewoman, killing her on the spot near

Jagiroad, sources said.

Elephant kills womanNEW DELHI: Against the backdrop ofsuicides and face-offs between officersand jawans, defence minister AKAntony has ordered a study into stresslevels and asked the DRDO to developmethods to mitigate them. He hasinstructed that the study, along with itsresults on the stress profile of youngofficers in the Army, should be present-ed to him next month.

Antony orders stress studySRINAGAR: Authorities Sunday issuedan avalanche warning for the higherreaches of the Kashmir Valley, advisingthem to move about with utmost cau-tion. Aamir Ali, head of disaster man-agement in the valley, said: “Mediumdanger avalanche warning is issued forpeople living in Keran, Tangdhar,Machil, Chowkibal, Gurez, Bannihal,Uri and Gulmarg areas.”

Avalanche warning in J&K

NATION

Hooda disputesModi’s claimNEW DELHI: Narendra Modi’s claim ofGujarat being a leader in development hasbeen contested by Congress MP andHaryana chief minister’s son DepeendraHooda, who has cited official figures to por-tray a different picture. Hooda referred tokey development indices like per capitaincome, gross state domestic product(GSDP) and human development index tocontend that Modi is not being “truthful”.Citing Planning Commission figures onGSDP, Hooda said Haryana was the secondfastest growing state, registering economicgrowth of 17.1 per cent in 2011-12 comparedto 15.68 per cent of Gujarat in the fiscal.

NEW DELHI: External affairs minis-ter Salman Khurshid has written to hisUS counterpart Hillary Clinton, con-demning the killings at an elementaryschool in Connecticut and expressedsolidarity with American people. “Iwas deeply saddened to learn the terri-ble news of the shooting at an elemen-tary school in Connecticut...The killingof children is a particularly abhorrentact; one which leaves the whole worlddiminished,” he said. Twenty-six peo-ple including 20 children were killedwhen a gunman opened fire at anschool in Connecticut on Friday.

Khurshid slamsschool killings

5

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14,000 sites hackedin 2012 till October

NEW DELHI: Over 14,000websites have been hackedby cyber criminals tillOctober this year, anincrease of nearly 57 percent from 2009.

While the number ofwebsites hacked in 2009stood at 9,180, it grew to14,232 in 2011 and in the first10 months of this year, ithas crossed the 14,300-mark.

About 16,126 websiteswere hacked in 2010, while14,392 websites were hackedin 2012 (till October), as perthe information trackedand reported by IndianComputer EmergencyResponse Team (CERT-In).

To check hacking andcyber crimes, the govern-ment has conducted sixcyber security mock drillssince November 2009 toassess preparedness oforganisations to withstandcyber attacks, minister ofcommunications and ITKapil Sibal had said inParliament. He said min-istries and departmentshave been advised to carryout IT system audits regu-larly to ensure robustness ofsystems.

A total of 294 websitesbelonging to various min-istries and governmentdepartments were hacked

between January andOctober 2012.

During May-June 2012,Distributed Denial ofService (DDoS) attacks werelaunched against a numberof government websites byhacker groups. Sibal saidthere is no proposal toestablish an autonomousinstitution on cyber securi-ty. He stated that accordingto National Crimes RecordBureau (NCRB) a total of696, 1,322 and 2,213 cybercrime cases were registeredunder the IT Act and cybercrime related IPC sectionsin 2009, 2010 and 2011,respectively. PTI

Actress Katrina Kaif performs during the World Kabbadi match closing ceremony in Ludhiana on Saturday. PTI

GRAND FINISH


SEOUL: North Korean leader KimJong-Un led thousands of officials in a

triumphant memorial service for hislate father and ex-ruler Kim Jong-Il,

days after a long-range rocket launch,state TV showed Sunday. The servicefollowed a mass rally two days earlier

that also lauded the launch of thethree-stage rocket, a move which was

condemned by the UN.

Memorial for Kim Jong-Il WASHINGTON: President BarackObama has chosen Senator John Kerryto succeed Hillary Clinton as US secre-tary of state, news networks CNN andABC reported Saturday. CNN cited aDemocratic source who had spoken toKerry, while ABC mentioned unnamedsources. Asked for comment by AFP,the White House did not immediatelyconfirm the reports.

Obama chooses John KerryWASHINGTON: US House SpeakerJohn Boehner’s office would not con-firm or deny a late Saturday reportwhich said he has proposed raisingtaxes on wealthy Americans as part ofa deficit reduction deal. In what wouldbe a significant concession in negotia-tions, Boehner would agree to letmarginal tax rates rise on people mak-ing $1 million or more annually.

Boehner for tax hike on rich?

WORLD

Taliban strikes Pakistan airport; 4 die, dozens hurt

Victims were in six-seven age groupMariano Andrade and RobertMacPherson

NEWTOWN: Shattered familiesand grieving residents struggledSaturday to grasp the news thatmost of the 27 people shot dead bya US school gunman were childrenaged just six and seven.

President Barack Obama wasdue to join the vigils in the smallConnecticut community ofNewtown on Sunday, to leadnational mourning after this latestmassacre that has revived calls fora debate on gun control.

But the political ramificationsof the tragedy were far from theminds of most in this picturesque

dormitory town, where parents ofthe survivors and the dead alikewere struggling to come to termswith the stunning loss.

Robbie Parker, a 30-year-oldhospital physician’s assistant whocares for sick newborns, said thedeath of his loving six-year-oldEmilie should “inspire us to bebetter, more compassionate andcaring toward other people.”

And he included the family ofthe apparent shooter, 20-year-oldAdam Lanza, in his condolences,addressing them through the newsmedia to say: “I can’t imagine howhard this experience must be foryou.”

AFP

PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN: A suicide and rocket attack targeting jet fight-ers and gunship helicopters at an international airport in northwesternPakistan killed four civilians and wounded dozens more. The assault lateSaturday, claimed by the Pakistani Taliban, sparked prolonged gunfireand forced authorities to close the airport, a commercial hub andPakistan Air Force (PAF) base in Peshawar, on the edge of the tribal belt.Television pictures showed a vehicle with a smashed windscreen, anotherdamaged car, bushes on fire and what appeared to be a large breach in awall. Mian Iftikhar Hussain, information minister for KhyberPakhtunkhwa province, of which Peshawar is the capital, said fourattackers were involved. “One of the attackers was wearing a suicide vestand was driving a car. He rammed his car in the outer wall of the airport(compound),” he said. “Another attacker wearing a suicide vest blew him-self up prematurely, killing three of them (the attackers),” he added.

SUVA: Fijian authorities scrambled to evacuate residents from low-lying areas Sunday as a monster cyclone threatened the Pacific nationwith “catastrophic damage” after causing widespread devastation inSamoa. At least four people were killed when Cyclone Evan slammedinto Samoa and the toll was expected to rise as a search was launchedfor eight men still missing on three fishing boats. Only one survivorhas been found, the New Zealand Rescue Co-ordination Centre, whichis overseeing the search, said. After crossing Samoa, Evan intensifiedas it ploughed through the Pacific and forecasters said destructivewinds could reach nearly 300 kilometres per hour (186 miles per hour)by the time it hits Fiji early Monday morning. Government officialsfear it could be as devastating as Cyclone Kina which killed 23 peopleand left thousands homeless in 1993. Squally thunderstorms wereexpected to flood low-lying areas.

Fiji fears catastrophicdamage from cyclone

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JOBS

TYPHOON TOLLTOUCHES 1,000MANILA: The deathtoll from thestrongest typhoon tohit the Philippinesthis year has topped1,000, the govern-ment said.

An Egyptian girl waits withrelatives queuing to vote ata polling station in centralCairo on a new constitutionsupported by the rulingIslamists but bitterly con-tested by a secular-leaningopposition on Saturday.Counting was underwayearly Sunday after a first-round referendum on a divi-sive new constitutionpushed through by PresidentMohamed Morsi and hisIslamist allies despiteweeks of oppositionprotests.Polling stations in half thecountry, including thebiggest cities of Cairo andAlexandria, were tallying theresults from Saturday’s voting.The second round of the ref-erendum is to be held nextSaturday, after which theofficial result is to be given.The official results will beannounced after the secondround on Saturday.AFP PHOTO/MARCO LONGARI

THE COUNTING BEGINS...

Killer’s dad grief-strickenNEWTOWN: The father ofthe 20-year-old US man whois thought to have killed 26people including 20 youngchildren along with his ownmother expressed grief andshock Saturday. Peter Lanza isthe father of Adam Lanza,who is thought to have takenhis own life shortly after carry-ing out Friday’s massacre inNewtown, Connecticut. Heexpressed grief in a state-ment to WFSB television.

Readers’ viewsWe invite you to write to us comments, sugges-tions, viewpoint or just about any-thing to [email protected] #1246, Level 3, Jubilee Casa,Road No 62, Jubilee Hills,Hyderabad – 500 033 oreven by way of a call on040-4067 2222.

COMMENT 8SUNDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2012

The US must seriously considerchanging it’s gun laws. There willbe many more incidents of

school shooting if this status quo goeson. Obama must push ahead with gunlaw reforms and do something histori-cal like Abe Lincoln.

Sreeja Svia email

Need for change

It’s nice to see Dhoni among runsonce again, though it be after a verylong time. His knock of 99 comes at

a crucial stage and it’s mighty sore luckhe got run out before completing acentury. I hope we win this Test, levelthe series and save our pride.

Rajeev Ravindranvia email

Go Dhoni! Touching

EDITORIALS

EDITORIALS

MAKE SPACE for every one

There were conjectures thatthe villain of the Sandy Hook

School, Adam Lanza, was aloner. Now it has been con-

firmed. He was a smart kid, buthe had problems interacting

with people, very shy and diffi-dent about being in the compa-

ny of others. While talking to theAssociated Press, Richard Novia,who advised the school technol-

ogy club that Adam and hisolder brother belonged to, asks,

“Have you found his bestfriend? Have you found a friend?

You're not going to. He was aloner.” The boy also had severalother issues to tackle and it wassort of a routine that his motherwould be summoned to schoolwhen he had an ‘episode’. He

was not bullied, but might havebeen teased and we will never

know to what extent that mighthave hurt him. Novia says there

might have come significantchanges to the boy in the lastfour years to make the loner a

killer. Society may not beblamed for people being differ-ent, but it has a responsibility to

make space for every sort.Lanza, who had problems feel-

ing emotional and physical pain,may have been deemed differ-ent and may have encounteredreactions that may have made

him shun proximity to his fellowbeings. A look at similar inci-

dents will show you that the per-petrators were people who have

‘failed’ in life, were shunned bythe rest of the world. So insteadof making ourselves inaccessible

and the society insulated forthem, let’s make space for themthat they may come forward and

seek help.

NEVER SAY DIE:Keep fighting

Thanks to the brave stand ofDhoni and Kohli, we seem to

have a chance to save our hon-our: let’s not let this chance slip

from our hands.

Your picture page on blind boys’cricket (Dec 14) was touching. Wewho have normal sight never

understand the plight of those whocan’t see. It would be nice to have atalk with them and know more aboutthem. At least, our cricketers should.

Varun MishraBanjara Hills

Twenty-year-old AdamLanza on Friday enteredan elementary school inNewton, Connecticut,the US, and killed a total

of 26 people including 20 chil-dren. His mother was foundkilled in their home and it is pre-sumed that Adam had killed herbefore committing the massacrein the school.

Such incidents are becomingincreasingly common not only inthe US but in China too. Europeand Canada too are not immuneto such incidents. Schoolshootouts have become a catego-ry of crime.

School shootouts are commit-ted by students as well as out-siders, children and adults, soone wonders if there is some-thing common between them.Schools are a vulnerable targetwhere one can find large num-bers in one place, and the perpe-trator is sure to notch up num-bers and feel the thrill of successwith practically no resistance.

President Obama hasordered State mourning andcalled for a relook at the prevail-ing gun laws. It can be safely sur-mised that the easy availabilityof firearms not only increasesthe incidence of such crimes butcasualties also increase. InChina, similar incidents are onthe rise but casualties in com-parison are lesser as the crime iscommitted with knives or blades,due to unavailability of guns,but is nevertheless horrifying.The incident of 22 childrenstabbed outside an elementaryschool in Beijing on the sameday the Connecticut incidenttook place is an example.

In comparison, in India wehave a report of only one suchincident in the EuroInternational school inGurgaon Haryana where 14-year-old Akash Yadav and VikasYadav, a year younger, shot andkilled a fellow student in

December 2007.Perpetrators of such crimes

are not narrowed down to ‘cer-tain type’, and since most ofthem are killed by the police orkill themselves after the crime,more commonly on the site ofthe crime, there have been noprecise theories that classify thetype of people most likely tocommit such crimes. Againstsuch a situation denying easyaccessibility to the means bywhich the crime is committedwould be an immediate damage-control measure.

While a large number thinkit would be logical to bring instringent gun-control laws,there are a substantial numberin America that think that liber-alising gun laws will help con-trol the situation. They arguethat if students and teachers areencouraged to carry guns, theycan protect themselves. Thisargument will hold water if theassumption that generally stu-

dents and teachers are con-trolled and balanced in theirthoughts and behaviour and inthe face of provocation or threatremain balanced and use theirguns to the best advantage andpossible results is true. This israther loading too much respon-sibility on an average humanbeing, not to mention enormousfaith on the positive abilities ofhuman reactions in formidablecircumstances.

When we look at the situa-tion in our own country, we seethat such type of violence is notthe norm. Let us not presumethat it makes us superiorbeings. We need to only look atthe incidents of ragging thatwas hitherto quite prevalent inour colleges and had reachedhorrific proportions and had tobe contained by directives fromthe Supreme Court, to knowthat our educational institu-tions have their fair share ofblack marks.

Yet, what makes such inci-dents rare in India is the non-availability of guns plus a veryaccommodative attitude in thepeople that comes out of livingin joint families and populousneighbourhoods. The diversitythat is found in the country is aperfect learning ground foraccepting different strokes.Individualism is constrainednot only because of the limita-tions of the environment, but isconsciously not fostered as acountry as populous, as diverseas ours can ill-afford exacerbat-ing its straining structures.Therefore, we are not witness tosuch mass crimes particularlyagainst our children.

The US needs to look at theraison d’être for its laws thatpermit holding guns in this age,when the rule of law is wellestablished and the days of theWild West are nothing but folk-lore. It owes this change to itschildren.

From the hipSYED SHOAIB

Let’s be done withthe Wild West ways

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2012

Consumer electronics industrybody CEAMA has asked the

government to incentiviseinvestment proposals of over `1,000

crore in the sector to boost small andmedium enterprises. High inflation,

increase in diesel prices, rise in interestrates, slowdown in economy and low

consumer sentiment have affected thesales of consumer durables adversely.

CEAMA seeks `1K-cr boost

Online shopping in India, which isat a nascent stage, is poised towitness significant growth in the

next few years, with the industry likelyto touch $34.2 billion by 2015. Goingby the current trend, the industry isexpected to grow at a compoundannual growth rate of 57 per cent andis likely to reach USD 34.2 billion by 2015.

e-shopping to hit $34 bn

Overseas investors have madenet investments of $2.44 billionin the Indian equity market in a

fortnight, taking the total inflow for2012 so far to over $22 billion. DuringDecember 3-14, FIIs were gross buyersof shares worth `39,435 crore and sell-ers of equities worth `26,157 crore —translating into a net inflow of `13,278crore ($2.44 billion), according to Sebi.

FII inflow touches $22 bn

BUSINESS 9

Hélène [email protected]

Temperatures are fallingfast in Greece but withnew taxes sending theprice of heating fuel high-

er than ever before, many crisis-hit households are unsure theycan afford to warm their homesthis winter.

The government in Octoberabolished tax breaks on heatingfuel in a bid to claw back mil-lions of euros in tax revenue lostto petrol smuggling. In doing so,they created a stark choice forhundreds of thousands ofGreeks, whose spare income hasalready suffered from threeyears of austerity cuts tied toEU-IMF bailout loans for therecession-hit country.

Conditions are even worse inGreece’s north, where tempera-tures can fall under 15 degreesbelow zero Celsius (five degrees

Fahrenheit) in winter.Last month, residents of the

northern town of Kavala sym-bolically dumped slabs of ice infront of the parliament inAthens to protest their plight.

The fuel reform means that alitre of heating oil costs 1.35euros ($1.76) compared to 95cents a year ago.

Interior Minister EvripidesStylianidis pledged the sum of80 million euros to heat upschools.

But local mayors and teacherunions insist the money is inad-equate.

“Even people with regularsalaries cannot pay (these oilprices),” said Sofia Kanaouti, a39-year-old Athenian who onlyhas a part-time job as a universi-ty researcher. “Last winter, wespent 1,500 euros on heating, thisyear we’re going to need over

2,000 euros,” she told AFP.“Many of the tenants still

owe payments from last year, sothe building manager decidedagainst fuel orders this year,”adds Nikos Bouskos, a 45-year-old unemployed man who for-merly worked as a web designer.

In recent years, smugglerswould take advantage of the lowprice of heating fuel to pass itoff as higher-price diesel forcars.

According to a recent study,a fifth of car fuel currently cir-

culating in Greece has beensiphoned off from heating andship fuel reserves.

With petrol now out of thequestion for many, attention hasturned to alternative forms ofheating — wood pellets forstoves, electrical heating panelsor air conditioning.

Others have turned to illegallogging.

Kanaouti chuckles as shereads an advertisement from asubsidiary of German engineer-ing giant Siemens, offering heat-

ing solutions to “get rid of oil”.“We can’t rid ourselves of

the Germans,” she says, a refer-ence to anger in Greece towardsEU paymaster Germany’s per-ceived role in pushing for ever-increasing austerity measures inreturn for state loans.

Meanwhile, the fall indemand has also hit petrol sta-tion owners.

“Housing fuel sales are down80-85 per cent compared to lastyear,” says Michalis Kioussis,chairman of the federation of

petrol station owners.Another fuel station owner,

Stefanos Karablias, says he’sconfident that demand can onlyrise if temperatures continue todrop.

But many households saythey’ll hold out as long as theycan. “We still have oil in thetank from last year, it will beenough to warm us at least until Christmas,” saysAnastassia Kanellou, a 64-year-old pensioner.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Greeks slash householdheat as fuel prices rise

Children look at a Christmas tree made of milk tin cans, after donating some on December 14, 2012, during an event organized by Medecins du Monde, a non-governmental humanitarian aid organisation. For the second year in a row, Athenians donated milk and food to Medecins Du Monde, which will then distributethem to the poor. AFP

With petrol now out of the question for many, attention has turned to woodpellets for stoves, electrical heating panels or air conditioning.

KANAOUTI CHUCKLES ASSHE READS ANADVERTISEMENT FROM ASUBSIDIARY OF GERMANENGINEERING.

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 16, 201210INTERVIEW

The Pied Piper of Romance

Gautham Menon, unlikemost other filmmakerstoday, actually understands what womenthink about and how theydeal with relationships.As he continues to spinreel after reel of complexrelationships and charming love stories inhis films, we wonderwhat keeps him going. Inan exclusive interview toPostnoon, GauthamMenon talks about histryst with romance,women and why hemakes films in first place.

There’s a beautiful love story inevery film you make. And youseem to be particularly obsessedwith the idea of first love. Whatkeeps you going? I can’t put a particular thought towhy I do that, but I guess evenwhen I am writing a love storywhere the guy is 25 years old, mythought goes to whether he hasmet someone special before thatage. I try to work out a small detailabout what happened at variousstages of his life. My mind automat-ically searches for moments likethat. Maybe I am obsessed with theidea of first love, but I am not sure.

Yeto Vellipoyindhi Manasu like thatthough. There’s no first love assuch. This is the only love in theguy’s life because he meets her at avery young age. Instead of showinglong drawn-out sequences, I havecaptured moments of their conver-sations over various stages in theirlife to take the story forward.

The depiction of love in cinemahas changed over the years. Butyou seem to doing it quite wellover and over again. What’s thethought process like when youdecide to make a love story?I didn’t think much about why Ishould make another love storyafter Vinnaithandi Varuvaya (YeMaya Chesave in Telugu). But therewas a point where I asked myselfhow different is Yeto VellipoyindhiManasu was from what I had doneearlier. And then I realized that Ihave Nithya who’s completely dif-

ferent from Jessie which is my start-ing point. Obviously, the film willalso be different. But because it’sthe same filmmaker, there’ll be sim-ilarities with respect to the tech-nique, which as a filmmaker, I wouldnot like to avoid because it’s theway I would like to make a film. Ihave tried to bring in a lot of musicinto the screenplay and the entirefilm is driven by songs. YetoVellipoyindhi Manasu is a simplefilm which becomes quite intenseat some point and Nani andSamantha share a great onscreenchemistry.

Portrayal of women in yourfilms is quite interesting. Theyare vulnerable and at the sametime, they have a lot of attitudeand spunk. Is it because youare intrigued by what they thinkor do you understand themquite well?Both actually. I had this discussionwith Samantha while shooting thefilm and she used to always wonderhow I know so much about what agirl would think. My idea of portray-ing women on screen is to makethem look beautiful and they shouldbe almost worshipped by the guy.It’s the only way I have looked atthem right from my childhood. Ithink it stems from the fact that Ihave grown up watching how mytwo sisters and mother behave andreact. I am very close to them andwhatever I know about how a girlthinks comes from how my sisterbehaves.

Has your approach to filmmak-ing changed over the years?

I think the search to make thingsbetter and shoot scenes differentlyis always there. That will never end.Somewhere from the first film, theshot division has always been in myhead. I have learnt things only byreading, watching films and observ-ing. I could walk into this room andautomatically, I come up with the

shot division if I have to shoot ascene here. I have been very luckyabout that.

Some people take inspirationfrom what they see to maketheir films and few others getrestless everytime an idea popsup in their head. What’s yourreason behind making films? It’s the second one actually.When I think of something, ithas to be on paper and finallyon screen invariably. The urgeto make films is primarily becauseI can’t think of doing anythingelse. At the end of every week, Ineed to see ten scenes andprocess the film and watch it onAvid. That’s a feeling that cannotbe described. It’s almost close tohow I feel when I am playing withmy son or at home.

(Read more atwww.postnoon.com)

HEMANTH KUMAR

[email protected]

My idea of portrayingwomen on screen is tomake them look beauti-ful and they should beworshipped by the guy.It’s the only way I havelooked at them.

Gautham Menon,Film Director

Take some time off from yourhectic schedule and get those

knots worked out. The Soul Spa, with its soothing

ambience, is a good choice foran occasional indulgence.

We’re so caught up withwork, busy coping withthis superfast lifestyle,hooked to the internet

for most part of the day, glued to ourseats, that we don’t really realisehow it weighs on our body andmind. Even if we do, we’ve learnt tolive with it.

“Massage is the easiest way tomaintain physical health andrelieve stress,” says Rajan Pal, spamanager at Soul. “We suggest a mas-sage according to the person’slifestyle. Some people come for (spe-cific) treatments, others just comefor relaxation.”

“This is something you cannotdo at home,” says Ayesha Afreen

Unissa, therapist and beautician atSoul. “You can do yoga, bodystretches, cleansing, scrubbing, butnot spa. You need a therapist.”

As much as a nice spa treatmentcan be rejuvenating, a massage atthe wrong hands could be a night-mare. A good, professional therapistis what a client looks for. Rajanunderwent training at the AnandaSpa Institute in Hyderabad. He per-sonally trains his therapists basedon what he learnt and standardoperating procedures.

Turkish Hamam spa is a special-ty of Soul. It is supposed to relaxsore muscles and increase themetabolic rate. Rajan explains thatall ayurvedic massages and treat-ments are done at Soul. Abhyanga isa synchronised whole body massagedone by two therapists in the sameway, same rhythm and pressure.Shirodhara is good for neurologicaldisorders and people with insomnia.

Signature massage, which is a

Soul fusion, and deep tissue massageare the most sought after, saysAyesha. The latter is preferred bypeople after a session at the gym.The Thai massage relieves join pain,improves mobility and blood circula-tion. The chocolate body wrap andcoffee scrub are the first ever inHyderabad, Rajan says, and aid inbalancing the hormonal system.

I was recommended a rose mois-ture massage by the therapists.They said it involves the use of roseand geranium oil to balance hor-mones and relieve emotional stress.The ambience in the dimly lit sparoom was good, with traditionalmusic breaking the silence. Mytherapist was extremely hospitable.Sitting in front of the computer allday, we don’t even realise how manyknots are there in our body tillsomeone points it out. Themasseuse’s hands worked magic,clearly showing her expertise.

Who wouldn’t like to visit a sparegularly? But the cost is whatmakes it a distant dream for manyof us. When asked how frequentlyone should go for a spa therapy,Rajan laughs, saying, “Depends onhow much money you can spend. Wehave treatments ranging from `1,200to `4,000.”

It’s worth saving up and spend-ing, at least once a month, tounwind, detox and relax. Soul was agood, refreshing experience.

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 16, 201211WELLNESS

PICK YOUR

@

Stores Across Twin Cities

[email protected]

DEEPASHRI V

What: Soul Spa Where: Q Mart,

Banjara HillsPrice: Starting from `1,200

A WELCOME BREAK

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 16, 201212ART AND CULTURE

Who in India woulddress up as avideogame charac-ter? Turns out not

many and most of those whodo, do a shoddy job of it. Atleast that’s what Kochi-based advertising executiveUnnikrishnan Balachandranrealised after following cos-play (costume play) at comicand gaming conferences inthe country closely for acouple of years. Now he hastied up with his friendSuhail Peedikkal, who alsohas a keen interest in theart to come up with a cos-play calendar.

Tell us about the project. Unni: The initial idea was tomake India’s first cosplaycalendar, but when we app -roached companies to spon-sor the initiative, they werenot sure we’ll be able to pullit off. So the shoots we havedone till now are just toshow them that we can do it.In most events in India, cos-plays are not done properly

and in one of the events, itturned into this familyaffair instead of being aserious adult-driven event.Once we finish the calendar,we want to build a true cos-play community in India.

How long have you beenworking on it?Unni: We have been workingon this concept since Augustand initially, we were con-centrating on the characterswe should use for the cos-play. Suhail is a professionalphotographer, so he agreedto take care of the shoots.However, we still needed cos-tume designers to designauthentic costumes.

How difficult is it to get adesigner?Unni: Cosplay costumesneed to be designed by peo-ple who pay attention todetail. It cannot be any ran-dom tailor. Since I work inthe advertising industry, Iknew the right people tospeak to and it took abouttwo weeks to design the cos-tumes of the two characterswe have done — Chun Li andBloodrayne.

Interesting selection, butwhy them?Unni: Chun Li is one of the

most prominent and alsoone of the first videogamecharacters in gaming, so shewas an obvious choice.Weselected Bloodrayne becauseshe was the first gamingcharacter to be featured inPlayboy!

Are women in India activelyinterested in cosplay?Unni: There is an increasein interest among both menand women now, but notenough of them step for-

ward and try to do some-thing original. Even for ourcalendar, we were initiallylooking for women whowere actively interested inthe art. Then we realisedthat not all of them werecomfortable with theirimages being used in calen-dars. So we are using profes-sional models in our work.

What after the calendar?Unni: We are planning tobuild a community around itand then organise a CosplayRamp-off. There, people willbe able to post their cosplaywork and compete with eachother. We’re planning to doit in Kerala as of now sinceit has been ignored by gam-ing companies till now.

As of now you’ve revealedonly two characters that’llbe part of the calendar. Wh -en do we get to see the rest?Unni: We will releasethe digital version of thecalendar around New Yearand the actual calendar inFebruary during ComicConDelhi; at least that’s theplan.

What’s the cost of creatingthis calendar and how areyou paying for it as of now?Unni: The combined cost of

12 costumes, models for thesame, post-production andother expenses comes up inexcess of `5 lakh. We’re hop-ing that companies will stepforward and be part of theproject since we are payingfor the project from ourpockets as of now.

Though gaminghas becomemainstream inIndia, the sub-cultureassociated withit, Cosplay, hasn’t pickedup yet. Thisduo fromKerala is tryingto change that.

The museum, a permanent exhibi-tion within a hall of fame of

Swedish pop music, opens inMay next year. It will feature memora-bilia-like stage costumes worn by thesingers, and visitors will also be ableto sing along to ABBA songs along-

side life-size holograms of the group.According to Ulvaeus, there will be no

new performances from the group.

A new museum for ABBA

Taner Ceylan has joined PaulKasmin Gallery, New York, whichwill represent the high-profile,

hyper realist contemporary Turkishartist worldwide. The Manhattangallery has brought Ceylan's latestwork Esma Sultan, 2012 (price around$200,000) from his Lost Painting(2010-12) series to Art Basel MiamiBeach (ABMB) this week.

Hyper realist joins NY gallery

With the Van Gogh Museum inAmsterdam closed for reno-vations until April, the world’s

second-largest collection of the tor-tured Dutch master’s work is steppinginto the limelight. The Kroeller-Mueller museum in the easternNetherlands is not as well-known butis still considered a jewel among con-noisseurs.

Van Gogh dazzles

Nostalgia Central

Semi-abstract, dream-like andnostalgia-inducing; KondaSrinivas’s latest painting

exhibition, ‘Memories Of Ano th erDay’, is all this and much mo re.The artist was born in Krish naRayadu Pedapudi of East God avariregion and started painting whenhe was 18. He was inspired byWestern masters whose works hesaw in Salar Jung Museum. Hewas also influenced by Raja RaviVerma and has done several repro-ductions of his work. Memories Of Another Dayn Where: Iconart Gallery, Road No

12, Banjara Hillsn When: On till December 25

11.30am to 7pm.

AP’s many shades

Feast your eyes on oil paintingsthat reflect the many splen-

dours of Andhra Pradesh.The artist, Gorthy Aruna Kumar,

was born in Kakinada in 1952, andhis paintings are testimony to his

love for the state and its beauties. Aself-taught artist, Gorthy enjoys

painting sculptures, temples, andlandscapes. The exhibition show-

cases his paintings on tribes, tem-ples of Andhra Pradesh, as well as

oil reproductions of Raja RaviVerma’s paintings.

A Feast For The Eyesn Where: Rainbow Art Gallery,

Tourism Plaza, Begumpetn When: December 15 to

December 19, 11am to 7pm

[email protected]

NT BALANARAYANAN

Will it replace theKingfisher calendar?


Climate sceptics are likely to believeevidence of a changing climate in theform of extreme weather events thanthey do scientists. A poll released by

the Associated Press-GfK found risingconcern about climate change amongAmericans, with 80% citing it as a seri-

ous problem, up from 73% in 2009.Worry about climate change were ris-

ing faster among sceptics as well.

Disasters convince scepticsScientists have unmasked a newspecies of primate — a type of slowloris called Nycticebus kayan. N. kayanhas a toxic bite — one of the fewmammals that do. To access its poi-son, a slow loris rubs its hands underglands near its armpits. Then the ani-mal applies the poison to its teeth,and the resulting bite can put a preda-tor into fatal anaphylactic shock.

New slow loris speciesSupport for regulation of hydraulicfracturing has increased in the pastthree months, a sign that the gas-drilling practice is facing public scruti-ny. A Bloomberg National Poll foundthat 66 percent of Americans wantmore government oversight of frack-ing, in which water, chemicals andsand are shot underground to free gastrapped in rock.

Support to regulate fracking

ENVIRONMENT

Imagine a world of near con-stant storms and superstorms,where diseases spread moreeasily, and both floods and

droughts happen more frequent-ly. In this world, India's averagetemperature will rise by about 3.3degrees Celsius by the end of thecentury, and the rest of theworld’s temperature will rise too.Eventually, these changes couldcause a global economic apoca-lypse, and possibly a world-wideepidemic. Life as we know itwould change forever.

Is this a sci-fi thriller?Perhaps the wild imagination ofa kid? Or is it the cold, hard, sci-entific reality of global warming?

Fortunately, this can all bestopped, even if with some strug-gle and investment. I know.Because I have seen how to stopit first hand.

In 2011, my father made abig investment and installedsolar panels in our house. Solarpanels capture the energy ofthe sun and convert it into elec-tricity that can be used for any-thing. Currently, the majority ofsolar panels use silicon to cap-ture this energy, which, unfortu-nately, is not very efficient way ofcapturing it.

I was really excited aboutit, since we were contributing tothe fight against global warmingand saving money, since solarenergy is free. There is a meteron the side of our house thatshows out electric energyinput/output. When it was goingforward, we were using electrici-ty. But then, when we installedsolar panels, the meter startedgoing backwards meaning wewere giving electricity back tothe electricity company; when Isaw this, I felt good.

Shortly thereafter, my fatherinvested his money in a solarwater heater to heat our pool. Asolar water heater, in short,

pumps the water from a pool ortub through a heater which usesthe heat from the surroundingair to heat the water. What aboutthe electricity for the pump andheater? It uses the electricityfrom the solar panels. Now, ourpool is 10 degrees Fahrenheitwarmer year round for free.

And there’s a great side bene-fit. We can turn on lights, runA/C, and heat our pool, and Iknow I’m not contributing toglobal warming. I think that'ssuper cool.

Most recently, about a monthago, we bought an electric car,the Nissan Leaf. An electric car,

specifically the Leaf, runs com-pletely on a rechargeable battery,using no gas. The Leaf was avery good investment for ourfamily. Before we bought it, wespent nearly $500, or nearly`27,000, on gas monthly, becauseof our frequent driving. Now,with the Leaf, we never have tostop for gas, and we spend noth-ing on gas. Also, once again, wedon't have to pay for any electrici-ty to charge the Leaf since weuse the solar panels. I personallyenjoy riding the Leaf because it'sa very smooth car and makes noengine noise beca use it doesn'thave an engine! The Leaf worksvery well for us. It is the mostbeneficial car economically, anddoesn't emit any carbon, con-tributing to the fight againstglobal warming. It makes me feelso good when we're riding thatcar, knowing none of the horriblegases polluting the air come fromour car. It's also really comfy!

After these investments, Ihave come to realise how benefi-cial it really is to get these things

in the current time. It saves ushundreds of US dollars monthly,and we contribute to the fightagainst global warming. And itmakes us feel really good aboutusing all these electrical/gas ser-vices and appliances, since thereis no negative cost. All in all itimproved my family’s life style.That makes me happy.

Do you think this is justa small, specific case wheresome rich Americans wentgreen? Or that this is just a madeup story? If you think so, you’rewrong. Anyone, and everyone,can contribute something to theultimate fight against globalwarming. Turn off your lightswhen you’re not using them. Geta hybrid, or even an electric car.Use less paper (trees help fightglobal warming). Do you wantyour children's or grandchil-dren's future to end horribly?Or do you want to live a money-saving, great life style whereyour children live and thriveand you help the planet heal?Your choice.

Your fight againstglobal warmingstarts from your

home. With solarpanels installed andusing an electic car

Nissan Leaf forcommuting, Oz

Inderbitzin and hisfamily are actively

participating in thefight against the

impending catastrophe. What

about you?

HEALING THE WORLD

“It saves us hundredsof US dollars monthly,and we contribute tothe fight against global warming”.

Oz Inderbitzin

OZ INDERBITZIN

[email protected]

FOR REPRESENTATIVE PURPOSES

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 16, 201214FOOD

Chocolate might not be the healthi-est thing for your waistline - but

research suggests it may protectagainst stroke. A study following more

than 37,000 Swedish men showedthose eating the most chocolate werethe least likely to have a stroke. It fol-lows on from other studies that have

suggested eating chocolate canimprove the health of the heart.

Chocolate protects the brain

MasterChef judges have served up afirst by declaring joint winners in

the final of the latest series. Keri Moss,41, from London and Anton Piotrowski,30, from south Devon, shared the title asMasterChef. Michel Roux Jr and GreggWallace were unable to choose betweenMoss and Piotrowski, whose dishesincluded cocoa-marinated loin of veni-son and confit duck-leg cubes.

Joint winners for MasterChef

Researchers involved in a new studyled by Oxford University have found

that between three million and 3.5 mil-lion years ago, the diet of our very earlyancestors in central Africa is likely tohave consisted mainly of tropical grassesand sedges. An international researchteam extracted information from the fos-silised teeth of three Australopithecusbahrelghazali individuals.

Surviving on tropical plants

So, what’s on the menu?Everything from stylishlydecorated salads to simplyyummy desserts, So does

it all delightfully. The rooftoprestaurant that has been taste-fully designed provides a greatview of the beautiful KBR Parkand takes you far from the usualhustle bustle of the City. Unlikea big Indian chocolate brandthat falsely advertises that onegets lost in a blissful world witheach bite, food at So actuallydoes that to you.

It makes you forget the gen-erally nagging elements of lifeand seduces you into a wholenew world. A world comprisingtheir sumptuous dips platter, thefresh tomato-mazza platter, thebay prawns tempura and their100 per cent chocolate tart.

Sounds delicious, doesn’t it?The menu, bursting with

hundreds of delicious creations,is overwhelming, to say theleast. It’s got, as all good placeshave, a ridiculous amount ofvariety for non-vegetarians,especially those who have aweakness for seafood. Fromentrées like chicken crostini,chef ’s special grilled chickensatay, the recently added crispychicken wings, the satiating

seafood platter to salads such asThai chicken, non-veg Greeksalad to a jaw-dropping range ofdishes for BBQ lovers and pizzalovers, So promises to turn youinto a foodie.

However, So doesn’t ignorethe vegetarian foodies either.With chef ’s special ratatouille tothin-crust pizzas likeMediterranean, greens and azur,they too have been kept in mindwhile creating the menu.

The restaurant also offers anumber of dishes that are idealfor those watching their weight.And, no, just because it’s healthyand suited for the diet-consciousdoesn’t mean it doesn’t tingleone’s tastebuds.

So promises freshness anddelivers the same in all its dish-es. Whether it’s a simple salad ora fancy dessert, there’s no scopefor any faltering. What’s betteris that most of the food on offergoes amazingly well with chilledbeer. And, the ambience, withthe park’s view and greeneryaround the restaurant that givesit a well-designed garden feel,sets the mood perfectly.

The restaurant, open all daysbetween 11am-11pm, is a goodchoice for lunch as well as din-ner. While a lunch at So makesyou appreciate the thought thatwas put into designing therestaurant, a dimly-lit dinner isuplifting. The music’s mellow,almost spa-like, hence non-inter-fering in conversations. Thoughthe open-airiness about the placeaccents its structure, design and

lighting, it might not be the idealplace to visit during summer.But, it’s December, maybe wecan just put aside that smallglitch for now, right?

Even though the restaurantprovides the perfect setting for adate, it works for friends andfamily too. Also, a visit to So isalmost incomplete without dig-ging into their calorie-oozingdesserts. The So special trifle isa must-have, apart from theirchocolate tart.

Someone once said that thereis no sincerer love as the love forfood. A visit to So, located inJubilee Hills, is sure to makeyou say it too. So, what are youwaiting for?

[email protected]

NIDHI BHUSHAN

A lot has been said about this restaurant that

features an impressive choiceof European and

world cuisine — ithas great ambience,

it’s like a getawayfrom the City

located in the heartof it and it doesn’t

drill a hole in one’s pocket.

Postnoon pays avisit to find out if

that’s really ‘so’?

FOOD FOR THE BODYAND THE SOUL!

S BALAKRISHNA

Where: So Road No 92,Jubilee Hills

When: Monday toSaturday: 11am-11pm

Sunday: 8am-11pmAverage meal for two:

`1,600

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 16, 201215FOOD

When the meal is done, the wait-er brings the bill and with it, afeedback form. Diners mostlyare reluctant and wear a look

on their face that says, “Now what?” If thefood is bad, some flatly refuse to obli ge;some vent their spleen in the nastiest ofremarks. If it is good, the remarks wouldbe like, “Very nice,” or “Good”. But wouldthey doodle their satisfaction along withexpressing it in words?

At La Calypso, this happens... often.They have a visitors’ book which theyproudly present to diners after meals.Most of the comments are adorned withdoodles, some simple, some done elabo-rately, taking time. One customer has goneto the extent of giving marks: KCSreekanth Menon gives nine out of 10 forambience, eight for food and eight againfor service.

La Calypso is a hotel erected onpremises that may not be called sprawl-ing. But it’s neatly done, making efficientuse of the space available. There’s a smallgarden where benches and tables are laid,each pair segregated by small trees, whichnot only are green and pretty, but accordprivacy. The restaurant opens to one sideto a balcony with a trellis above, with cutesmall round tables which makes for apleasant tea or coffee time early or late inthe day, or maybe a candle-lit dinner inthe night. The trees ensure that flicker ofthe flame is minimum.

Apologies, we have digressed from thema in object of interest. The food spectr -um at La Calypso comprises Indian, Conti -nental, Chinese and Italian cuisine andwhat I am to tell you now is no exaggera-tion and several satisfied people who havedined here will vouch for me: the food isexcellent.

I started with the Goan rawa fry —prawns with a batter of semolina, deepfried, served with tartar sauce (home-

made, mind you). The form of the firstnugget I ruined attempting to eat it withfork and knife. “Please use your hands,”said Sanjay Ghosh, chief manager ofoperations, who along with FatimaBhinderwala, finance controller, was atlunch with me. “You must have it with thebatter intact.” I did; it was fantastic.

Then came various kebabs and tikkas.All well done, tender and soft, but ofthese, three were outstanding: the Avakaimurg tikka, stuffed tangdi kebab, and themurg reshmi kebab. The first one is chick-en marinated in mango pickle withcashew cream, roasted. The speciality ofthe tangdi kebab here is that it has

minced mutton stuffed in it; needless tosay, the impact is double. And lastly, thereshmi kebab. I have had reshmi kebabseveral times, at several places, but thisone was different because it had a smallstack of something that resembled opticfibre. “What is that?” I asked. “That isResham, sir,” replied Hitesh Variya, thefood executive. The stack of optic fibres ismade from sugar melted to a point whereit turns golden off-white. “This is how it isserved in the north,” said Fatima, who isfrom Rajasthan.

Executive chef Mukesh Rawat, a manof few words (his cooking does the talk-ing), told me to try Poulet La Calypso.Popeyes will love it. It is chicken stuffedwith spinach and mushroom, with cheeseon top, served with a bit of rice.

However, the clincher is the Goan cui-sine. The chicken cafreal — chicken mari-nated in rum, cooked in Goan masala,served with grilled potato and tomato — isslightly on the tangy side, but exquisite.By then, I was about done when Hiteshsaid, “Please try the prawns curry rice.” Iam glad I did, as that was the deal: Prawnscooked in Goan coconut gravy. I had itwith rice and followed it with a phulka.Everything is balanced; the gravy’s nottoo thick, nor too runny, but just perfect.And oh, you get phulkas here, which isvanishing from many eateries elsewherein Hyderabad.

For dessert I had bebinca, made fromjaggery and coconut milk. This Goan deli-cacy goes with ice cream, but I had it neat.

I was feeling pleasantly drowsy, a bitstuffed, to be frank, and so Sanjay suggest-ed that I have some juice made fromkokum, a typical Goan fruit, to, you know,“wake up”. I don’t know what Jeeves gaveWooster, who had had a late night, tobring him about tastes like, but the effectwas similar. I was up and kicking; andglad that I made the 20km ride fromSecunderabad to Old Hafeezpet.

CHEF’S NOTE:n It’s an achari (pickled) flavoured

tasty preparation, can beserved with roti and rice.

n Not so high at caloric value, buthot and spicy.

Contact Us @ - Noor Kitchen, Banjara Hills.

Mobile - 9441282318Residence - 23356947

Like Us @ -http://www.face-book.com/Noorkitchen

Ingredients 1. Long medium-sized fresh brinjal

250 gms2. Whole dhania 2 tbsp 3. Whole jeera 2 tsp4. Aniseed (saunf) 1 tsp5. Ajwain 1/4th tsp6. Kalonji 1/4th tsp7. Fenugreek seeds 1/4th tsp8. Crushed garlic 1 and 1/2 tsp9. Deggi mirch 2 tsp10. Haldi powder 1/2 tsp11. Amchur (dry mango)

powder 1 and 1/2 tsp12. Salt to taste.13. For tempering - One or two bay

leaves and a few black peppers.14. Mustard oil / vegetable oil

50 to 80 ml

Procedure1. Wash and slit the eggplant, keep-

ing the stalks intact.2. Soak them in salt water before

frying.3. Dry roast the whole dhania, aniseed

(saunf), jeera and make powder.4. Add to this chilli powder, haldi,

amchur powder, salt, and little oil; stuff this masala into the eggplant.

5. Heat the mustard oil to smokingpoint, sprinkle some water toremove the smell.

6. In the heated oil, add tej patta,black peppercorns, ajwain, kalonjiand fenugreek seeds.

7. When they pop up and crackle, addcrushed garlic and fry the stuffedegg plants lightly in this oil andpour the remaining masala onto it,sprinkle a few drops of little water;

8. Cover it and cook on slow fire, tilldone.

AmritsariBaingan

Noor’s KitchenNOOR JAFRI

Spicy tangy northernstyle eggplantcurry.

Odysseus had atough time

escaping from thesea goddess

Calypso. But therestaurant at

La Calypso is different. Even ifhe left, he would

want to keepcoming back.

THEYWhere: Old Hafeezpet, Miyapur.

When: 7.30 am to 11am. Meal for two: `500 (approximate)

without alcohol. Prices inclusive of taxes.

DOODLERAJESH RAVINDRAN

[email protected]

WHEN

PEOPLE LIKE IT,

M ANIL KUMAR

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 16, 201218HISTORY

Dec 201996: NeXT, founded by Steve Jobs after he was fired from Apple,merges with Apple Computer, start-ing the path to Mac OS X, theoperating system for Mac.

Dec 211988: Pan Am Flight 103 fromLondon to New York explodes inmidair over Scotland, killing all 243passengers and 16 crew membersaboard, as well as 11 on ground.

Dec 211940: F Scott Fitzgerald, theAmerican author best known for hisnovels The Great Gatsby andTender Is The Night, dies of a massive heart attack. He was 44.

Dec 222010: The repeal of the Don't AskDon't Tell policy, the policy banninghomosexuals serving openly in theUnited States military, is signed intolaw by President Barack Obama.

Dec 231888: Dutch painter Vincent vanGogh, suffering from severedepression, cuts off the lower partof his left ear with a razor whilestaying in Arles, France.

Dec 171903: Orville and Wilbur Wright make the firstsuccessful flight in a self-propelled, heavier-than-air aircraft. The biplane, piloted byOrville, stayed aloft for 12 seconds and covered 120 ft.

Dec 172011: Kim Jong Il, North Korea's reclusive dictator, dies of a heart attack while reportedly travelling on a train in hiscountry. He was succeeded by his son, KimJong Un.

Dec 191998: President of the United States BillClinton is impeached by the House ofRepresentatives on two charges, one of per-jury and one of obstruction of justice. He waslater acquitted by the Senate.

Dec 201963: More than two years after the BerlinWall was constructed by East Germany to pre-vent its citizens from fleeing its communistregime, nearly 4,000 West Berliners are allow -ed to cross into East Berlin to visit relatives.

Dec 18 2010: Governmental protests begin in Tunisia, marking the beginning of the Arab Spring. The revolutionary wave of protests and demonstrations spread through theArab world, overthrowing dictatorial regimes.

MOHAMED ELSAYYED / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 16, 201219SPOTLIGHT

Dancing delightsDRS International School celebrated its 5th Annual Day in a gala way.

Students put up a dance performance and entertained the guests.

Celebration timeBachupally campus of Oakridge celebrated its 4th Founder’s Day

with the theme ‘Internationalism through collaboration’ on Saturdayat the school campus. Sports Icon, Sania Mirza joined in

the celebrations.

MINTING MONEY Organisers of Jamba Cloud Hyderabad 10K announced that the run raised`36.52 lakh for charity at a special funtion organised at Golkonda Hotel on Saturday.

Healthy livingMinister Mukesh Goud inaugurated the Mega

Diabetes & Hypertension Exhibition Health Campat Apollo Clinic, Begumpet.

A treat for kidsLandmark hosted the Amar Chitra Katha —Treasure Hunt Quiz. In total, 6 teams, each com-prising three children took part in the competition.

FASHION FIRST

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N SHIVA KUMAR

The line up for the secondseason of Blenders PrideHyderabad InternationalFashion Week 2012 wasunveiled at Taj Vivanta onSaturday.

CINEMA 20

Nathalia Kaur is finally making herdebut in Telugu cinema. TheBrazilian actress was in news ear-lier this year when RGV intro-duced her in Bollywood in his film

Department. In fact, RGV was so impressedwith her beauty that he decided to cast heras a lead actress in another film with RanaDaggubati. However, RGV moved on to makeThe Attacks of 26/11 and Nathalia Kaurbegan meeting producers in Telugu andTamil. She’ll soon be seen in an item num-ber in Jeevan Reddy’s debut film Dalam. Thefilm stars Naveen Chandra, Kishore and PiaaBajpai in lead roles and it’s set against thebackdrop of Naxalism. The promo of theitem number featuring Nathalia Kauris already doing rounds on theinternet and she has now joinedthe league of other foreignerslike Erina, GabrielaBertante, Scarlet Wilsonand Maryam Zakaria, toname a few, who madetheir onscreen debutin item songsbefore venturinginto acting.Dalam’smusic hasbeen com-posed byJamesAsanthanand thefilm willhit thescreenssoon.

Nathalia Kaurset to sizzle inDalam


Sharvanand,Nithya Menen's

film launchedSharvanand, Nithya Menen-

starrer Yemito Ee Mayawas launched earlier today

in Ramanaidu Studios,Hyderabad. Cheran is directingthis bilingual film andSravanthi Ravi Kishore is pro-ducing the Telugu version.This is the first time thatSharvanand and Nithya Menenare teaming up for a film andthe film is said to be a romanticentertainer. Sneha andSanthanam will be seen inimportant roles and the film’s

Tamil version has been titledas JK Enum NanbaninVaazhkai. In the past, Cheranhad directed Tamil films likePokkisham, Autograph andThavamai Thavamirundhu. GVPrakash is going to score themusic for Yemito Ee Maya andthe film’s principal shooting isexpected to begin in early 2013.Meanwhile, Sharvanand islooking forward to the releaseof his home production KoAntey Koti, which is currentlyin post-production stage.

GV Prakash is going tobe seen in a new avatar.The hot shot music

director, who has quite a fewplum projects to his credit in2013, will soon be making hisacting debut in one of ARMurugadoss' upcoming pro-duction ventures. This unti-tled film is likely to go onfloors in 2013. Apart from this,GV Prakash has alsoannounced that he’s startinghis own production house toencourage new talent.“Launching my film produc-tion company in a week ...Will b introducing a newdirector new cast and crew.Script is superb ... Will b apromising batch of young-sters ... Looking forward(sic),” he posted on Twitter.He's busy composing musicfor Vijay's upcoming film,Jenda Pai Kapiraju, Yemito EeMaya, Raja Rani andSiddharth-Vetrimaran's film.

GV Prakash is on a song


CINEMA 21

FILM IS PRIYANKA’S‘DIFFERENT ONE’NEXT YEAR

Priyanka Chopra, who isknown for her non-conven-tional films like 7 Khoon Maafand Barfi, says that her

upcoming film on boxing championMary Kom will be the different filmnext year.

“I do at least one film which ischallenging for me every year.Mary Kom is that film for next year.If you meet her in person, you willsee she is so sweet... can’t imagineher to be a boxer,” PriyankaChopra said at a press conferenceon Friday.

Talking about her preparationfor the film, the actress said thatthe training is on and she hopesshe can play the role well.

“There is a lot of training goingon for it. I hope I can pull it off,”

she said.With her debut single, In My

City, being praised by her fans,Priyanka does admit that herstrong Bollywood career has sup-ported this success.

“I have done films for so longand my fans have always supportedme. It is easy for me to do conven-tional films, but then I want to trysomething different,” she said.The actress will be seen in fourfilms next year — a remake ofZanjeer, Gunday, the film on MaryKom, and Krrish 3. Will she besinging in any of them? “I have notplanned anything. I am new to allthis,” she said. IANS

Delhi police personnel, who have beenappreciated for their bravery andmeritorious services, will watch

Dabangg 2 with actor Salman Khan beforethe film’s release on December 21, policesaid Friday. According to Delhi policesources, Salman Khan will arrive in Delhion December 18 and would pay tributes topolice martyrs. Salman Khan will watchmovie with “brave policemen” and willmeet the kin of the five policemen whodied during the December 13, 2001,Parliament attack. “The meeting withSalman Khan will be motivational for theforce,” said an officer. Earlier, a specialscreening of Rowdy Rathore was held forDelhi police’s SWAT team with actorAkshay Kumar. IANS

Midnight’s Childrenpassed with no cutsDeepa Mehta’s adaptation

of Midnight’s Children isfinally headed for release

in India after being approvedby the film censor board. Theboard passed the film’s releasewith a ‘A’ rating and the film-maker said that the censorboard had not requested her toedit any of the footage beforethe release.

Mehta tweeted happily:“India here we come — intact.”

Salman Rushdie, whosenovel is the basis of the film,wrote the screenplay. He alsonoted the censor board’sapproval of Midnight’sChildren and commented abouta potential January opening in

India. The movie has alreadybeen screened at several filmfestivals, including in Torontoin September and at India’sInternational Film Festival ofKerala in Dece mber.

Delhi cops to watchDabangg 2 with Salman


CINEMA 22

KATRINA LUCK FOR DHOOM

ESHA DEOL WISHES

Actress Esha Deol, whostarred in the firstinstalment of theaction-thriller fran-chise Dhoom, has

wished Katrina Kaif luck forher lead role in the upcoming

Dhoom 3.Katrina and co-star Aamir

Khan are the new entrants intothe franchise and the new instal-ment will hit theatres in 2013.

“I am sad that I am not apart of the whole franchise. But

I wish Katrina lives up to theexpectations that comes withthe Dhoom tag. I am sure shewill because she is a brilliantactress,” said Esha.

The 31-year-old actress deliv-ered one of the major hits of her

career with the Aditya Choprafilm, where she was seen in astylish avatar and also provedher dancing mettle with film’stitle track Dhoom macha le.

Asked about her plans toreturn to the silver screen,

Esha, who was last seen inmother Hema Malini’s Tell Me OKkhuda, said, “If any decentand respectful offer comes upthen I will be a part of it. Actingis my first love and I am reallylooking forward to it.” PTI

Ekta wantedme to be

‘cool mom’post leap:

Mona Singh

An Ekta Kapoor TV showpost a leap would typical-ly age a mother by adding

a few streaks of white hair, apair of spectacles and a dash ofconservative dressing. But shehas broken her own mould bygiving actress Mona Singh amore contemporary and coollook in Kya Huaa Tera Vaada,which has recently gone aheadby 10 years.

Before the leap, which set injust last week, Mona was seenin traditional suits and saris.Post leap, she is seen in kurtisand pants. It was a consciousdecision by Ekta, says theactress, who plays a single,independent mother of three in

the show.“I asked Ekta about it -

whether she would want me towear saris in sober colours orwhat changes would be madeto the look. But she said, ‘Iwant you to look like today’smothers. They are much cool-er.’ So she wanted to bring inthe change we are all seeingin our mothers and wanted toportray me as a cool mom,”Mona said.

“Of course, she said wecould add in the spectacleswhile my character reads orsomething, but in the overallget up, there isn’t much dra-matic change,” she added.

IANS

I approve myfilms’ final

cut: SalmanKhan

Actor Salman Khan has beendelivering back-to-back hitsin the Hindi film industry.

He says after the failure of his2010 film Veer, he makes sure thefinal cut of any of his films hashis approval.

He feels an actor’s involve-ment in creative processes helpssometimes.

“When I put my foot downsometimes, I hope I am not takingadvantage of my stardom andthat’s a big guilt. Eventually, what

the audience first watches is onlyme in the poster, so I will be heldresponsible for everything,”Salman says.

He goes on to add, “Now I havestarted making it clear right in thebeginning. I make sure that thefinal cut goes with my approval. Iwas not happy with Veer whenthey showed me the film. I cutdown the film to one hour and 55minutes, and eventually theyreleased the film as a two hourand 30 minute-film.” IANS


CINEMA 23


CINEMA 24


CINEMA 25

Is Justin Bieber heading to TV?Never say never! ABC is devel-oping a comedy project that isbased on the pop star’s life

story, sources confirm to E!News.

Bieber and his managerScooter Braunwould executiveproduce the currently untitledproject (may we suggest TheFresh Prince of Canada?), alongwith Entourage’s Matt Wolpertand Ben Nedivi, who are writingthe script.

The show is being describedas a family-centric comedy thatrevolved around a future popstar’s unconventional upbring-ing and his awkward teenageyears.

Originally intendedas a multi-camera come-dy for the 2011 season,the now single-cameraproject is under con-sideration for nextseason and hasreceived a scriptcommitmentfrom the net-work.

Bieber haspreviouslyguest-starredon CSI andhostedMTV’sPunk’d. JUSTIN BIEBER’S

A strip club offersLohan work

The Scores strip club in NewYork has offered to payactress Lindsay Lohan’s stor-

age bill of $16,000, if she works forthem.

Scores has also offered to paythe rent on Lindsay’s BeverleyHills mansion for the next coupleof months in the hope she’ll agreeto their deal, reports tmz.com.

The club wants to hire her astheir online video chat webmaster.

Lohan, 26, currently faces los-ing designer clothes, family heir-looms and “potentially embarrass-

ing” articles stored in her privatelocker after falling behind on pay-ments. Her bank accounts havebeen frozen by the InternalRevenue Service (IRS) overunpaid taxes of $233,904 for 2009and 2010, and she also owes £8,000in rent for her mansion.

After getting her probationrevoked, troubled actress LindsayLohan may now face an auction ofseveral of her personal posses-sions as she has failed to makeher payments to a storage company.

Singer Taylor Swift, who is report-edly dating singer Harry Styles,is head over heels in love withhim, but her friends are wor-

ried she is moving too fast.Swift, 23, has previously

enjoyed short romances withJake Gyllenhaal, John Mayerand Conor Kennedy.

“For now she is totallycaught up in love. It’s howshe is. She doesn’t go at anormal pace in these rela-tionships. It’s zero to 60 inseconds,” femalefirst.co.ukquoted a source as saying.

Earlier this week, thecouple enjoyed a romanticmini break with his parentsin England’s picturesqueLake District and a day outin Bowness-on-Windermerein Cumbria. IANS

STORY NOW A COMEDY

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CHAI TIME 26SUNDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2012

ACROSS1 Agave6 Backyard planting11 Super, in showbiz16 Entered a 10K21 — — in the dark22 Huge blossom23 Rigel's constellation24 Feminine side25 Signified26 Not turn — —27 Steel plow inventor28 Kind deed29 Goes forward31 Tags along33 Go through carefully35 Hairy TV cousin36 Concurs37 Slightly tinted38 Cotton unit39 Sherbets40 Vitamin amt41 Hung in the sun42 Arctic footwear44 Huffs and puffs47 Player's rep48 Spy's communique49 Put on53 Bullfight shouts54 Quaffs55 Arachnid homes56 Powerful current57 AAA service58 Liverpool lockups59 Electrical units60 Sports statistic61 Celeb62 Picket's sign (2 wds)64 Forest browsers65 Metallic sound66 Splinter group67 Place to eavesdrop68 Catherine — -Jones69 Apply gold leaf70 Period of time71 MS polishers72 Extra precaution (2 wds)74 Heifer's mouthful75 — Kaye of Big Bands78 Mojito ingredient79 Equipment80 Decked out84 Nautical position85 Leak86 Budget item87 Hold dear88 ‘Yuck!’89 Long-tailed animals90 Grates upon91 Essential92 Korean auto93 Models' domain95 Standard96 Tie-dye cousin97 Director Joel —98 Aches99 Wine served warm100 Birdie beater101 Vicar's residence102 With suspicion104 Bach opus

105 Dinny's rider106 Break sharply109 ‘Cradle of Love’ singer110 Nouveau —111 Not printed115 New Year in Hanoi116 Sufficient, in verse117 River of forgetfulness118 Lives it up119 In front121 Gentle slopes123 Shorten a skirt, maybe125 ‘Don't Sleep in the

Subway’ artist126 Very upset127 Like a wolf's howl128 Clean the board129 Refrain from130 Unfounded report131 General meaning132 — Domingo

133 Famed statuette

DOWN1 Colorado river2 Tech-support callers3 Pandemonium4 Musical performances5 Waits on6 Gazillions7 Derisive snorts8 Cellular strand9 Mythical beasts10 Peerage member11 Was an omen of12 Mineral deposits13 Word of reproach14 Abandon15 Politico Tip —16 Finn's transport17 Wheel buy (2 wds)18 Municipal

19 Chew the scenery20 Flits30 Depot info32 Kind of student34 Clan problem37 Supermodel Cheryl38 Leafs out39 Say it — so!41 Loose-limbed42 Rowdy crowds43 Silents' Keystone —44 Writer Chaim —45 Solo46 Informative47 Got up48 Big guns in bus50 ‘Separate Tables’ star51 Law52 Pool dimension54 Leaves the dock55 Food supplement

(2 wds)56 Watermelon part58 None too clean59 Speck of dust60 Droop63 Leitmotif64 Skillful65 Boat berth

66 Canada Dry products68 Novelist — Grey69 Annoying insect70 Fresco72 Small or medium

73 Itches74 Squeaking noise75 Pert76 Pond scum77 Conductor Zubin —78 Ridicule80 Rival of Glenn and

Benny81 Jack London venue82 Iroquois speakers83 Colonial diplomat Silas —85 Waterproof fabric86 Steakhouse order87 Deed89 Occupies, as a post90 Knock-knock, eg91 Fuzzy94 Bubble —95 Salt's formula96 Kipling panther97 Brief reports99 More wintry100 Cheats101 Fez's country103 Loved madly104 In good shape105 Not their106 Ramp alternative107 Hindu statesman108 Varsity (hyph)110 Odometer button111 Bit part112 Hayes or Asimov113 Vice —114 Glacial ridge116 Kassel's river117 Explorer — Ericson118 — la vie!120 From — — Z122 Delhi honorific124 Role for Harrison

SUNDAY CROSSWORDPlay & Win

voucher from VENKEY’S VEGRestaurant, Nampally

Please send in your filled-in entries toPostnoon, #1246, Level 3, Jubilee Casa, Road No 62,

Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad – 500033. The winners will beannounced on this page in Sunday’s edition.

Play & Win

PR

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Winners! FOLOWING ARE THE VOUCHER LUCKY WINNERS FOR THIS WEEK: 1. Aarti L 2. Nisar Ahmed 3. Gayatri 4. Illango 5. Kumaresh

CHAI TIME 27SUNDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2012

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TAROT READ

The Devil – Resist thetemptation to berude to someone youdon’t like. Like theysay, fools live toregret their wordsand the wise, theirsilence.

Seven of Cups –You’re in the processof reviewing yourfinances. You makemost of your deci-sions based on theimpact it will have onyour bank balance.

Queen of Cups –You seem vulnerableand those aroundyou feel you mightneed to protectyourself better. Whatyou feel is what youshow on your face.

ARIESInfluence will increase and all your sug-gestions will be accepted by family m -e mbers. Purchase of new vehicle agai -n st exchange of old one likely. Employ -ees may face delay transfer or hike.

CANCER

LIBRAUps and downs likely. You take a con-crete decision about change of reside -nce. You will fulfill all wishes of children.Son is likely to get a career opening.Loans will be returned to you.

CAPRICORNLong-awaited important work will getcompleted successfully. Financial assis-tances extended to others that werenot received since long will by yours. T -r avel with regard to a court issue likely.

TAURUSA very favourable day. Your mind willbe clear as all confusion will disappear.Happy events are likely to take placeat home. Clashes between couples willgo. Daughter's pregnancy news likely.

LEOLong-pending wishes and intentionswill materialise. Women feel fresh andactive as their tiredness reduces. Child -ren will understand and support you.Father's health is a cause for concern.

SCORPIOTravel and tensions likely but will beover soon. Blood relatives will extendsupport. Newlyweds can expect theiroffspring soon. Mother's health needsattention. Hike and promotion likely.

AQUARIUSDrastic changes will see considerableimprovement in lifestyle. Peaceful si tua -tion prevails at home. Those who ha veattended an interview will get goodnews. Employees’ work will increase.

GEMINIYou take bold decisions and impleme -nt them without any deviation. Friend -ship with persons in powerful postslikely to benefit you. Children's healthneeds to be taken care of.

VIRGOApprehensions and worries will disap-pear which will let you work briskly.Expected good news will arrive. Wishesof unmarried women will get fulfilled.Sister's marriage will get finalised.

SAGITTARIUSAll long-pending wishes will be fulfilled.Fortune opportunities likely resulting ina strong financial position. Construc -tion works will resume and progresswell. Friends might irritate you.

PISCESTension and worries likely though finan-cially situation is comfortable. Be cordi -al with neighbours and avoid unne c e s -sary arguments. Help from relatives lik -ely. Mother's health a cause for concern.

NON

SEQU

ITUR

POOC

H CA

FE

The Star – It seemslike everything isleading to a dead-end and you havefew options left.Maybe you haven’tchecked out all youroptions yet?

Ace of Swords – Th -o ugh circumstan cesmay not look thatencouraging, practi-cal mindset helpsyou see the situationbetter. You find solu-tions that work well.

Ten of Wands – Yo -u’re anxious, dep re -s sed, stressed outand feel close to aburnout. Take abreak and rejuve-nate yourself. Meetnew people.

Nine of Wands – Yo -u’re comfortable in aworld of your own m -a king. You surrou ndyourself with boo ks,art, music and intelli-gent people whosecompany you enjoy.

Ace of Pentacles –You manage to com-bine creativity and pr -acticality to impro veyour life. Yet, moneymaking remains infocus as you belie veit is the way forward.

Two of Pentacles –Work-life balance isin focus. You need tofind the comfortablemiddle path whereyou’re doing justiceto both work andyour personal life.

Five of Wands –Beware of someonewho might be con-spiring against you atthe workplace. Keepyour eyes and earsopen and don’t trustanyone blindly.

Knight of Wands –You have the youth-ful energy and rawenthusiasm to tryout the new. This isa lucky phase. Makethe most of it anduse your positivity.

The Fool – You’rebeing immature inmanaging somethingimportant, be it rela-tionships or job. Yo -u’re refusing to seecircumstances andrespond accordingly.

STAR POWER SUMAA TEKURtarotreadhyd@gmail. com

THIRUVAIKUMARthiruvaikumar@yahoo. co. in

040-27177230 / 9949870449

Drastic changes and upgrade in statusis certain. Work that upset you due todelay will now get completed andcheer you. Women are advised to becareful while working in the kitchen.

Date 17-12-2012 Date 17-12-2012

Wife: Shall I give that hobo oneof my cakes?Husband: Why, what harm hashe ever done us?

A hobo knocked on the door ofa house and asked for a bite."Go away," said the lady of thehouse, "I never feed hobos.""That's all right, lady," said thehobo, "I'll feed myself."

Hobo traveling thru countrysidestops at widows house anddoes some chores in exchangefor food. She invites him tospend the night as she wouldhave more work for him to do

next day. As they were prepar-ing to get into the only bed sheplaces a pillow in middle. Nextday they were both working inthe yard when the wind blowsher bonnet over a fence. Hobosays, "I'll get it for you mam."She says "Never mind, I will getit myself, if you can't climb overa pillow, there is no way youcan climb over that fence."

One hobo to another. "I thinkI'm going to quit smoking. It'sbecoming too dangerous.""Really?" "Yes. Twice today Ipicked up a cigarette butt andsomeone nearly ran me over."

Hobos sure are fun

Vol: 2, No 150 RNI No: APENG/2011/39337 Published for the proprietors, Scribble Media and Entertainment Pvt Ltd, by V Harshavardhan Reddy, at #1246, Level 3, Jubilee Casa, Road No 62, Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad – 500033 and printed by himat Jagati Publications Ltd, Plot No D-75&E-52, APIE Industrial Estate, Balanagar, Ranga Reddy Dist, Hyderabad – 500037, Editor: Dean Williams – Responsible for selection of news under the PRB Act

All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission of the publisher is prohibited. For feedback, please write to: feedback@postnoon. com and for subscription, please call 040-4067 2222, Fax: 040-4067 2211

As per Hindu panchang

CAPRICORN AQUARIUS PISCES

SAGITTARIUSSCORPIOLIBRA

CANCER

ARIES TAURUS GEMINI

LEO VIRGO


CINEMA 28

Warner Bros.has just

announcedthat The Hobbit earned

an estimated $13 mil-lion from midnight

showings at 3,100 loca-tions on Friday night,giving it a per-theateraverage of $4,193 frommidnight shows alone.

It’s a nice recovery fromthe doldrums of the

past two frames. Whencombined, the last two

wide releases to hit the-aters, Playing for Keeps

and Killing Them Softly,couldn’t earn $13 mil-lion over their entire

opening weekends.Included in The

Hobbit’s midnight fig-ure is $1.6 million that

the film earned from326 IMAX theaters. TheHobbit played substan-tially better than other

effects-driven Decemberreleases like Avatar,

which started with $3.5million in 2009, and I

Am Legend, which start-ed with $1.7 million in

2007.

Actress GwynethPaltrow’s trainer TracyAnderson made herstrip off to motivate

her to work towards a fit figure.The instance happened dur-

ing Paltrow’s first meeting withAnderson.

The Shakespeare in Lovestar has credited the exerciseexpert with helping her shedthe stubborn baby weight shegained while pregnant with sonMoses, reports dailystar.co.uk.

“With my daughter, it hadbeen easier (to lose weight), butthis time, no matter what I did,I felt stuck. I couldn’t shift theweight. But I met Tracy and shewas this force from the second Imet her.

“She pulled my pants off. I’llnever forget it. She was like,‘Oh, my God, wow, I just am sosurprised, because you look sogood in clothes. I wasn’t expect-ing this’,” said Paltrow.

However, Paltrow insistsAnderson’s regimen put thespark back into her marriage torocker Chris Martin.

“It did such wonders for mylife, my confidence, my sex life,everything,” Paltrow toldRedbook magazine. IANS

Paltrow'strainermadeher strip

Mireille Enos and ScottSpeedman have beenset to star alongside

Ryan Reynolds in Queen Of TheNight, a psychological thriller

that Atom Egoyan will directearly next year in Ontario.

Egoyan wrote the story andscripted the film with David

Fraser. Reynolds committed inAugust to play a father who dis-

covers a series of

disturbing clues eightyears after his daughter isabducted, a trail that leadshim to believe the now 17-year-old girl is alive.

Enos will play his wife,who dutifully checks inwith the police each yearon her daughter’s birthday,and realises that disturb-ing memorabilia left at herworkplace is not merelythere to taunt her butcould offer clues to herdaughter’s whereabouts.Enos was drafted for therole by Egoyan after sheplayed a small role inDevil’s Knot, the film hejust completed about thebogus triple murder con-viction of the WestMemphis 3 in Arkansas,despite the lack of anyphysical evidence.

Ryan Reynolds joinedby Mireille Enos

The Hobbitearns $13million atmidnightshowings


CINEMA 29

SAIYYANLove, The biggest word in our dictio-nary. Saiyyan is a song that took usthree minutes to compose. And wethink it is because love is an emotionimplicit to all of us, whether werealise it or not. Everything we do inlife revolves around a simple, some-times unknown fact — that we allwant to be loved.

JEENE DOJeene Do is the result of a strong inspi-ration we share as a band. All of usexperience the struggle between livingand livelihood, of fulfilling certainexpectations and doing things to pleasea collective, although our hearts feeldifferently. We all feel the need to breakfree of our shackles and live life theway it was meant to be lived — free!

DARBARIRaag Darbari is aHindustani Classic thathas been immortalisedby several legends.Darbari is our headyfusion of this Raag alongwith a more modernsound that the currentgenerations can relate to.

AASMAIn the hectic routines ofour daily lives, we forgetto embrace the simplisticbeauty around us. Aasmais the first song we evercomposed together, andholds a deeper meaningto all of us. This was thebeginning of Lagori.

KASHMIR SONGInspired by one of ourfavourite shows in Kashmir,this song probably portraysus best as a band. Ouressence, chemistry, style andenergy are reflected in everynote of this song. This iswhat we felt about Kashmir.This is our Kashmir Song.

Maskedin music

Fusion-rock band Lagori'sguitarist Geeth Vaz, an interesting

combination of an investment bankerand guitarist, turns pensive-poet, tells

us about few ofthe band's

essential tunes...

Lagori plays at 4pm, December 16, at the Bacardi NH7 Festival on the Dewarist Stage

[email protected]

ELIZABETH SOUMYA

The premiere ofTom Cruise’s

new film, JackReacher, has been canceled

out of respect for the vic-tims and families of

Friday’s tragic school shoot-ing in Newtown,

Connecticut.“Due to the terrible

tragedy in NewtownConnecticut, and out of

honour and respect for thefamilies of the victims

whose lives were senseless-ly taken, we are postponing[Saturday’s] Pittsburgh pre-miere of Jack Reacher. Our

hearts go out to all thosewho lost loved ones,”

Paramount Pictures, thestudio behind the new

action film, said in a state-ment to Access Hollywood

late Friday night.Tom plays an ex-mili-

tary investigator, JackReacher, in the film, a

man who is trying toprove the innocence of

a soldier who wasframed for a deadly

shooting.

TOM CRUISE’SJack Reacher premiere

canceled Actor BradleyCooper hasdescribed his

Golden Globe nomi-nation as "surreal".

The 37-year-old isup for Best Actor inthe Musical orComedy category forhis role in SilverLinings Playbook andhe says he couldn'tbelieve it when hisname was read out,especially because it'snot a big budget film.

''It's a small filmand it's a word-of-mouth movie. Thefact that it's gettingthis kind of attention[means] hopefullymore people will gosee it,"contactmusic.comquoted Cooper as say-ing.

''We loved doingit. We care so muchabout the film andit's amazing to berecognised. And thenon a personal level,it's just surreal... Igrew up as the nerdwho would wake upto watch the (Golden

Globe) announce-ments. To hear (pre-senter and Hangoverco-star) Ed Helms saySilver LiningsPlaybook was justincredible," he added.

The stars who arenominated in thesame category areBernie star JackBlack, Hugh Jackmanof Les Miserables,Ewan McGregor forSalmon Fishing in theYemen and BillMurray from HydePark on Hudson.

The 70th annualGolden Globes willtake place in LosAngeles January 13.

IANS

Golden Globenomination feelssurreal: Cooper


SPORTS 30

A division two-daysGemini Friends 222 (Vikas Mohan 63, Pa -rvath Singh 49, Navjot Singh 38, Mahesh5/48) lost to Telangana 223/8 (NarsinghRao 77 n.o., Vikram 34 n.o., Navjot Singh4/92).A 4-11 divison one-dayAdams XI 165 (M. Rohit Yadav 52, ShivKumar 36, K.V.I. Satwik 4/39) lost toRushiraj 167/2 (V Abhinav Kumar 114 n.o.).Brother John of God U-14Chirec Public School Kondapur 175 (Varun3/13) bt Neeraj Public School Ameerpet 131(Nikhil 49, Rishab Baslas 3/18, MayankGupta 3/8).

PB DAV School 215 (B. Chandrasekhar124, Akash Suman 50) lost to Royal HighSchool 218/3 (Aquib 54, Sanjay Reddy 80,Abdul Qayyum 54 n.o.).

Vignan Vidyalaya 178 (K. Umasantosh37, Sameer 4/32) bt Mahboob C HS 69 (G.Harsha 3/10).

Mahesh Vidya Bhavans High School311 (P Shanthan Reddy 90, AshishSrivastav 123 n.o., Akhilesh Yadav 58 n.o.)bt Chirec Public School Kondapur 108(Ruthwik Rarupally 31 n.o., AshishSrivastav 5/17).

League cricketSyed [email protected]

HYDERABAD: The mild wi -n t er morning sun was witne -ss to a relaxed atmosphere atthe Gachibowli Sports Comp -lex on Sunday. In an obviousattempt to cherish memoriesof their experience at thesprawling campus, both for-eign delegates and Indianswere seen posing to photogra-phers. All that changed tocomplete professionalismonce the matches got under-way inside the indoor stadi-um. That the stands weredevoid of spectators did notdeter the players’ fightingspirit even if the near-emptystadium may have done littleto excite them.

The first match of the daybetween China’s Yuling Zhuand the only not-from-Chinaplayer on today’s schedule, G -

ermany’s Petrissa Solia, set t -he tone for the day at the 10thWorld Junior Table Tennis C -hampionships: it was a hard-fought victory for Zhu, farbelying the final score linethat read 4-0.

Zhu won the first girls’semi-final 12-10, 11-8, 11-7 and11-7, to move into the finals tobe played later today. In anot -her fiercely contes ted tie, Chi -na’s Yuting Gu pr evailed overRuochem Gu, al so from Chin -

a, 4-1, with scor es that read11-9, 11-8, 9-11, 11-9, 11-5 in thesecond semi-final to join Zhuin the title bout. A powerfulservice it was that made thedifference for Yutin g Gupaving her way to victory.

China to fight China for honours

1st Race:The Palampet Cup (about)2200 Metres,Cat-III.

A handicap for horses, 3 year olds and upward, rated upto50. 12-40 P.M.

1 Kohinoor Angel 62 (Vatsalya) Ajit Kumar 32 Imaan 58.5 (LaxmanS) Deep Shanker 73 Smrithiman 55.5 (A sharma) AK Pawar 14 Fashionista 55 (KV Srinivas) AM Togralu 65 Novaya Zemlya 53 (N Rao) NRawal 56 See My Style 52.5 (Laxman S) Harinder Singh 47 amber Flame 50.5 (S’narayan) Khurshad Alam 2Selections:1 See My Style 2 Amber Flame 3 Fashionista

2nd Race:The Crown Treasure Palte (Div-II) (about) 1200 Metres,Cat-II.A handicap for horses, 3 year olds and upward, rated upto

75. 1-10 P.M.1 Secret Angel 60 (Laxamn S) PA Culhan 102 Elenor 59.5 (Netto) A Imran Khan 43 Montpelier 59 (D’Silva) S Nayak 14 Prince Paladin 57.5 (S,suddin) MF Alikhan 55 Bribe Madi 56.5 (Srinagesh) Ravinder Singh 96 Compromise 56 (Satheesh) AK Pawar 67 Glorious View 55.5 (S’narayan) PS Chouhan 88 Sweet Candy 55 (Satheesh) B Dileep 79 Elegant Approach 54.5 (Prasad R) P Sai Kumar 210 Cannon Ten 54 (Prasad R) N Rawal 3Selections:1Elenor 2 Montpelier 3 Glorious View

3rd Race:The Dr.S.R.Captain Memorial Cup (about) 1200 Metres,Cat-

II.Terms for horses 3 year olds and upward. 1-40 P.M.

1 Rajkumari 60.6 (Netto) A Imran Khan 42 Indian Epic 60 (Prasad R) S John 63 Lumier Blanche 60 (LaxmanS) PA Culhane 14 Twentyfive Pips 60 (Srinagesh) Christopher 2

5 Odalis 59 (Silvester) Ajit Kuamr 36 Silver Crown 57.5 (S’narayan) Khurshad Alam 77 Oasis Vision 57 (Deshmukh) AM Togrolu 5Selectios:1 Lumier Blanche 2 Rajkumari 3 Oasis Vision

4th Race:The Radhey Shayam Jhunjhunwala memorial Juvenile

Million (about) 1100 Metres. Terms For Maiden horses 2year olds Only (Foaled In 2010) 2-10 P.M.

1 Chocolate Soldier 55 (A Sharma) C.Henrque 22 Golconda Kig 55 (Prasad R) S John 73 Kallu Mama 55 (Deshmukh) P S Chouhan 64 Over Look 53.5 (Satheesh) K Anil 45 Palm Springs 53.5 (D’Silva) Christopher 16 Sincara 53.5 (Netto) A M Togrolu 57 Skylight Express 53.5 (S.Abbas) DK Ashish 3Selections:1 Kallu Mama 2 Palm Springs 3 Golconda King

5th Race:The Crown Treasure Plate (Div-I) (about) 1200 Metres,Cat-II.

A handicap for horses, 43 year olds and upward,ratd upto 75. 2-40 P.M.

1 Ice Lolly 60 (D’Silva) A K Pawar 72 Street Magic 60 (S’narayan) Khurshad Alam 23 Aarohan 59 (Prasad R) P Sai Kumar 34 Rustic Gal 57.5 (Netto) A Imran Khan 95 Vijays Best 57 (Deshmukh) PS Chouhan 106 Sporting Star 56.5 (Satheesh) K Anil 57 CannonLaw 55.5 (Prasad R) N Rawal 68 Hurricane Dancer 55.5 (S.Abbas) DK Ashish 19 Citi Supreme 54.5 (Hassan) M Mark 810 Kohinoor Vikrant 54 (Vatsalya) Ajit Kumar 4Selections:1 Vijays Best 2 Aarohan 3 Street Magic

6th Race:The Classic Style Plate (Div-I) (about) 1000 Metres,Cat-II.

A handicap for horses, 34 year olds andupward,rated upto 75. 3-15 P.M.

1 Kohinoor Supreme 62 (Vatsalya) Ajit Kumar 32 Pavan 61.5 (Z Shaikh) A Imran Khan 53 Naughty Gal 59.5 (Netto) Deep Shanker 74 Valentine 56.5 (Srinivas R) AM Togrolu 85 Vijaysheel 55 (Deshmukh) PS Chouhan 26 PhenomenalSpeed 53 (Prasad R) N Rawal 97 Kohinoor King 52 (Vatsalya) Ravinder Singh 68 Divine Ganges 51 (KV Srinivas) A Ramana 19 AnnArbor 50.5 (D’Silva) AK Pawar 410 Home Town 50.5 (Netto) P Venkat 10Selections:1 Pavan 2 Home Town 3 Vijaysheel

7th Race:The Solitaire Plate (about) 1600Metres, Cat-III.A handicap for horses, 4 year olds an dupward

rated upto 50. 3-45 P.M.1 Bound For Glory 61.5 (Z Shaikh) PS chouhan 12 Lake King 61 (D’Silva) Christopher 83 Spanish Conquest 61 (Deshmukh) AM Togrolu 64 Sheikhs Emperor 60.5 (LaxmanS) Ajit Kumar 115 Moment Of Roses 59.5 (Silvester) C Henrique 76 Ace Star 59 (N Rao) DK Ashish 57 Star Striker 57.5 (Satheesh) K Anil 98 The Challenge 56.5 (Hassan) M Mark 39 Midnight Beauty 54 (Prasad R) N Rawal 210 Lioness Heart 51.5 (Netto) Harinder Singh 1211 Jaz Elle 50 (Z Shaikh) Ravinder Singh 412 Royal Bird 49.5 (Fayaz) AK Pawar 10Selections:1 Bound For Glory 2 Ace Star 3 The Challenge

8th Race:The Starry Scene Plate (about) 1000 Metres,Cat-III.

A handicap for horses 3 year olds and upwardrated upto 50. 4-15 P.M.

1 Kianoosh 60 (LaxmanS) Deep Shanker 82 Classic Emerald 56.5 (D’Silva) AM Togrolu 43 Camacho Speed 55 (Prasad R) P Sai Kumar 14 Laughing Eyes 55 (S,narayan) MF Alikhan 65 Flower Drum 52.5 (Hassan) S Nayak 56 Queens Necklace 51.5 (Netto) PS Chouhan 27 Break Away 50 (Satheesh) AK Pawar 78 Khabza 50 (Hassan) J Vikas 3Selections:1 Queens Necklace 2 Classic Emerald 3 Kianoosh

9th Race:The Classic Style Plate (Div-II)(about) 1000 Metres,Cat-II.

A handicap for horses 4 year olds and upward,rated upto 75. 4-50 P.M.

1 Garibaldi 61.5 (D’Silva) S Nayak 82 Rio Grande 60.6 (D’Silva) Christopher 13 Fine Racer 58 (Prasad R) S John 104 Key Note 55.5 (Netto) AM Togrolu 45 Rohini Star 54 (Srinivas R) P Venkat 96 Ziglar 53.5 (Vatsalya) Ajit Kumar 67 Rose Queen 52 (A Sharma) C Henrique 58 Queen Of

Habashe 50.5 (Hassan) AK Pawar 29 Sun Bird 50.5 (Netto) Harinder Singh 310 Victorous Sally 50.5 (Kassam) Ravinder Singh 7Selections:1 Garibaldi 2 Fine Racer 3 Rose Queen

Days Best:Kallu Mama

Jckpot Race Nos: 5,6,7,8, and 91stTreble Race Nos: 1,2 and 3

2nd Treble Race Nos: 4,5, and 63rd Treble Race Nos: 7,8 and 9

Tanala pool will operate on all races wherethere are five or more starters.

False Rails are up.

LVR Deshmukh-trained Kallu Mama which was well prepared in the morning trials will be fancied in The Radhey ShyamJhunjhunwala Memorial Juvenile Million, the feature event of Monday afternoon races at Malakpet in the City.

Kallu Mama well prepared

LOS ANGELES: Amir Khan d efeatedpreviously unbeaten American Carlos

Molina in a light-welterweight showdo -wn on Saturday, returning the English -man to the world title scene aft er bac -k-to-back losses. After watching Khan

batter Molina for most of the fig ht, ref-eree Jack Reiss halted the bout follow-ing the 10th round as Molina's corner-

men asked him to end the contest.

Khan stops Molina LOS ANGELES: Leo Santa Cruz won aunanimous 12-round decision over Alb -erto Guevara in a showdown of Mexicanunbeatens on Saturday to retain theInternational Boxing Federation ban-tamweight world title. Judges gaveSanta Cruz the victory by scores of 116-112, 118-110 and 119-109. Santa Cruzimproved to 23-0 with one drawn, drop-ping Guevara to 16-1.

Cruz retains crown BERLIN: World super middleweightchampion Arthur Abraham defendedhis WBO belt on Saturday with aneighth round technical knock-out winover France's Mehdi Bouadla inNuremberg. Abraham, defended hisWorld Boxing Organisation belt for thefirst time since his unanimous victoryover compatriot Robert Stieglitz inAugust.

Abraham defends title

China’s Yuling Zhu (L) plays Petrissa Solia of Germany in the first girls’ semi-final match in the GachibowliIndoor Stadium on Sunday. Yuling Zhu won 4-0 (12-10, 11-8, 11-7, 11-7). SRINIVAS SETTY


SPORTS 31

ISTANBUL: American star Ryan Lochte kept uphis phenomenal form at the world short coursechampionships on Saturday when he set a worldrecord 50.71sec in the men’s 100m individual med-ley semi-finals.

On Friday, the five-time Olympic championbroke the 200m individual medley world record onhis way to winning his fourth gold of the champi-

onships. He was already under world record timeby the end of the butterfly leg and he continued toeat into it over the following three laps.

Australia’s Kenneth To recorded the secondfastest time with 51.47 and George Bovell ofTrinidad and Tobago was third with 51.66.

“I have the 200m backstroke final (before the100m individual medley final) on Sunday so I knewif I wanted any shot at this record, it had to betonight,” said Lochte, who knocked .05sec off theold mark set by Slovenia’s Peter Mankoc in 2009.

“I messed up in a couple of places tonight so Iknow there is some room for improvement.”

In the women’s 200m individual medley, China’sYe Shiwen attacked in the final 25m to win gold asshe touched the wall in 2:04.64 to record a champi-onship record and win her first world short coursegold after having previously won three silver.

Katinka Hosszu of Hungary held on to win sil-ver with 2:04.72 for her fourth medal of the champi-onships, while Great Britain’s Hannah Miley over-came a sluggish first 150m to win bronze with2:07.12 to add to her 400m individual medley gold.

“I’m so happy I came in first today. It feels sogood,” said 16-year-old Ye, who stunned the sport atthe Olympics when she captured gold in the 200mand 400m medleys. AFP

HOBART, AUSTRALIA: SriLankan pair TillakaratneDilshan and Angelo Mathewsshared in a record partnershipas the tourists frustratedAustralia’s bowlers in the firstTest in Hobart on Sunday.

Dilshan, who reached his15th century, and prospective c -aptain Mathews put on 161 runsin almost four hours beforethey were separated with thescore on 248 as Sri Lanka closedin on the follow-on target.

It is the highest partnershipfor Sri Lanka in Australia, ecli -psing Aravinda de Silva and Ra -vi Ratnayeke’s stand of 144 forthe seventh wicket at Brisbanein 1989. Mathews fell shortlybefore tea, leg before wicket toPeter Siddle for 75 off 186 ballsbut Dilshan was unbeaten on132 at the break with wicket-keeper Prasanna Jayawardeneyet to score.

Sri Lanka were 249 for fivein reply to Australia’s 450-5declared.

Australia, down a bowlerwith Ben Hilfenhaus off thefield with a side strain, toiledhard on the third day, with onlyMathews’s wicket to show fortheir efforts.

Swing bowler Hilfenhausleft the field in the openinghour after delivering just twoballs of his 13th over. Team offi-cials said he had a left side

strain and was taken to hospi-tal for scans.

He had figures of 1-30 afterclaiming the wicket of DimuthKarunaratne for 14 on Saturday.

Sri Lanka’s Tillakaratne Dilshan(R) and Angelo Mathews (L) run onthe third day of the first Testagainst Australia on Sunday. AFP

At Porvorim: HP 210/5(Amit Kumar 76 n.o.,Mukesh Sharma 73; ShadabJakati 2/56) vs Goa.At Bhubaneswar: Railways239/4 (Shivakant Shukla109, Parag Madkaikar 70n.o., Aniket Choudhary 2/42)vs Rajasthan.At Gwalior: MP 281/5(Devendra Bundela 92 n.o.,Jalaj Saxena 84; SandeepSharma 3/78) vs Punjab.At Vadodara: TN 191/9(Ambati Rayudu 54, MurtuzaVahora 45 n.o., V. Yomahesh5/25) vs Baroda.At New Delhi: J&K 85 (RamDayal 18 n.o., Suraj Yadav4/35) vs Services 150/6 (RajatPaliwal 66 n.o., Ram Dayal4/45).At Dhanbad: Jharkhand153/6 (Saurabh Tiwary 73n.o., Shiv Gautam 28 n.o.,Syed Sahabuddin 3/31) vsAndhra.At Kolkata: Hyderabad 115(K. Sumanth 25, Ahmed

Qadri 20; Mohammad ShamiAhmed 4/36, Veer PratapSingh 3/31) vs Bengal 79/8(Arindam Das 37 n.o., SudipChatterjee 20; AshishReddy 5/30, Anwar Ahmed 3/30).At Agartala: Kerala 275/5(Rohan Prem 105 n.o.,Abhishek Hegde 36; TimirChandra 3/47) vs Tripura.At Lucknow: UP 227 (ArishAlam 52, Suresh Raina 49,Mukul Dagar 38; MohitSharma 5/47) vs Haryana32/1 (Rahul Dewan 13 n.o.,Ankit Rajpoot 1/15).At Rajkot: Mumbai 306/2(Aditya Tare 122, WasimJaffer 79, Rohit Sharma 72n.o., Saurya Sanandiya 1/56)vs Saurashtra.At New Delhi: Maharashtra192 (Ankit Bawne 58,Shrikant Mundhe 42; SumitNarwal 3/35) vs Delhi 59/3(Vaibhav Rawal 16 n.o.,Mithun Manhas 12 n.o.,Samad Fallah 2/23).

Ryan sets successive record

Ryan Lochte competes in the men’s 100m individualmedley during the FINA World Short Course SwimmingChampionships on Sunday. AFP/MIRA

MALELANE, SOUTH AFRICA:South Africa’s Keith Horne hit asecond successive hole-in-one atthe Alfred Dunhill Championshi -p on Saturday and drove away abrand new BMW for his efforts.

Horne celebrated his achiev -ement at the same par-3 12th ho -le at the Leopard Creek Estate.

“Unbelievable. It was thesame club, but the wind was dif-ferent, so I had to hit a full eight-iron this time,” said Horne.

“It was in all the way — nev -er looked like missing. Went in abit faster this time, so I didn’t getto admire it as much as yesterda -y, but it really got the adrenalinegoing much more.” The prize fora similar feat on the final day w -as to be a BMW car, but after dis-cussions between the sponsors,he was allowed to drive awaywith the vehicle on Saturday.

Horne hitshole-in-one

again

Dilshan, Mathews in record stand

Hilfenhaus injuredHOBART, AUSTRALIA:Australia lost another fastbowler on Sunday with BenHilfenhaus leaving the fieldearly on the third day’s playof the first Test against SriLanka. The Tasmanianbowler departed afterdelivering just two balls ofhis 13th over in the open-ing hour in Hobart. Teamofficials said he had a leftside strain and was taken tohospital for scans.Hilfenhaus had figures of 1-30 after claiming the wicketof Dimuth Karunaratne for14 on Saturday. AFP

Australia 1st innings 450/5 declSri Lanka 1st innings (overnight 87/4)Karunaratne c Wade b Hilfenhaus 14T. Dilshan not out 132K. Sangakkara c Hussey b Siddle 4M. Jayawardene lbw b Watson 12T. Samaraweera c Wade b Lyon 7A. Mathews lbw b Siddle 75P. Jayawardene not out 0Extras (2b, 2lb, 1nb) 5Total (5 wkts) 249Fall of wickets: 1-25, 2-42, 3-70, 4-87, 5-248.Bowling: Starc 18-2-74-0, Hilfenhaus 12.2-3-30-1, Lyon 17-6-43-1, Siddle 22-9-44-2,Watson 18.4-4-45-1, Clarke 2-0-9-0.

SCOREBOARD

Ranji Trophy Round-up

NAGPUR: India managed just29 runs in an hour before declar-ing their first innings at 326/9,which left them four runsbehind England, in a display ofbizarre tactics on the fourth dayof the fourth and final cricketTest here today.

The hosts, replying to thevisitors’ first innings score of330 and resuming at theovernight 297 for 8, lost onemore wicket — that of no. 10batsman Ojha for 3 — beforeapplying closure to theirinnings.

Ojha, who had replacedPiyush Chawla after the latterwas dismissed in the last overlast evening, played on to leftarm spinner Monty Panesar at

the score of 317.Ravichandran Ashwin

remained unbeaten on 29, byadding 22 runs to his overnightscore, off 65 balls and last manIshant Sharma remained unbeat-en on 2 after a 12-minute vigil.

In the remaining time tolunch, England made 17 for noloss in 13 overs, to improve theiroverall advantage over the hometeam by 21 runs on a track thatdid not appear to hold any devils.

At lunch, visiting skipperAlastair Cook (1 off 46 balls) andNick Compton (14 off 33 balls)were the unbeaten men at thecrease after 49 minutes of bat-ting.

India, trailing the visitors 1-2in the series, would have to bowl

out England cheaply in the sec-ond innings in order to entertainvisions of winning the game andsquaring the rubber.

England, on the other hand,can play for a draw by defendingstoutly against the home team’sbowling attack that lacked pene-tration in the first innings on aslow wicket of low bounce.

Ojha and Ashwin hadresumed this morning asEngland set out a well-spreadout field for the former to takeeasy singles and give the striketo the lesser recognised bats-man.

Ashwin did not take the baitand tried to farm the strike bytaking singles off the fifth ball ofeach over against both Anderson

and Swann, who opened thebowling.

It was dull and drab for theSunday crowd after the drama ofyesterday when Virat Kohli (103)and Mahendra Singh Dhoni (99)put on the grand 198-run part-nership to stage the Indian fight-back from the second day’s scoreof 87 for 4 before the home teamlost four wickets in the lasthour’s play.

India added three more runsto the overnight 297 for 8 toreach the 300 mark in the fourthover of the day when Ojha per-ished to Panesar.

It was the left-arm spinner’sfirst and, what proved to be theonly wicket of the innings in atotal stint of 52 overs for 81 runs.

Close finish expected SCOREBOARD England 1st Inn 330India 1st Inn (Overnight 297/8)R Ashwin not out 29PP Chawla b Swann 1PP Ojha b Panesar 3I Sharma not out 2Extras (b 5, lb 7) 12Total (9 wickets) 326 decBowling: JM Anderson 32-5-81-4,TT Bresnan 26-5-69-0, MSPanesar 52-15-81-1, GP Swann31-10-76-3, IJL Trott 1-0-2-0, JE Root 1-0-5-0Englan 2nd InnAN Cook not out 1NRD Compton not out 14Extras (lb 1, nb 1) 2Total (0 wickets) 17Bowling O M R WJM Anderson32 5 81 4TT Bresnan 26 5 69 0MS Panesar 52 15 81 1


SPORTS 32

Justin Davis

MILAN: Miroslav Klose (pic)struck a superb late winner asLazio beat Inter Milan 1-0 at t -he Olympic Stadium on Satur -day to indirectly boost Juvent -us’s hopes of extending theirlead before Christmas.

Inter started their 17th ma -tch of the campaign only fourpoints behind champions Juveat the top of Serie A, ho weverAndrea Stramaccioni’s menwere dominated throughoutand missed several chanc es

late on. Stramaccioni’s angershowed as he walked off thepitch following a fifth defeat ofthe campaign which means Ju -ventus can now extend theirlead over Inter to seven pointsif they beat Atalanta in Turinon Sunday.

“We absolutely did not des -erve to lose,” insisted Stramac -cioni, despite admitting Laziohad dominated the openinghalf. “But it was a good goalfrom Klose. The result is whatit is, and we accept it.”

Lazio had beaten Inter onl -

y twice in their last 15 leaguegames although one of thosewins was last time out at theOlympic Stadium in March.

And with Lazio unbeatenat home since a shock 1-0 reve -rse to Genoa at the end of Oct -ober — combined with Inter’spoor away form of late — Vla -dimir Petkovic had every rea-son to believe his team couldproduce a result. The Bosniancoa ch said: “Tonight the teamgav e it 100 percent, in fact weonly really suffered for 10 or 15mi nutes in the second half.

Now, we have to try and givethe sa me commitment on ourtravels as well.”

Inter threatened first, Fed -erico Marchetti diving quicklyto smother the ball as DiegoMilito pounced on a chest-do -wn following Yuto Nagatomo’slooping cross from the right.

But the visitors createdfew chances in an opening halfin which Cristian Ledesma sa -w a powerful shot from distan -ce go just wide, while StefanoMauri just failed to muster ashot from inside the area.

Klose strike beats Inter

John West

LONDON: Arsenal bossArsene Wenger has spentthe past few days launch-ing attacks of his own, b -ut on Monday night he w -ill discover if his playerscan do the same on thepitch at Reading.

The trip to rock-bot-tom Reading is Arsenal’sfirst fixture sin ce theywere beaten in a LeagueCup quarter-final penaltyshoot-out by Bra dfordCity of League Two lastTuesday. That unleas hedan avalanche of criticismtowards the Emira tesStadium, with much of itdirected at Wenger, whohas not led Arsenal to amajor trophy in sev enseasons.

Wengercomes outfighting

Tim Hanlon

MADRID: Malaga movedclear in fourth place in LaLiga on Saturday with a 2-0 win over 10-man Sevillawho were left to rue a firs -t half of wasted chances.

It was Malaga’s firstaway win since Septemberand it appeared far fromlikely as Sevilla dominat-ed th e first 45 minutes butfail ed to make the most ofop portunities.

Martin Demi chelisheaded Malaga into thelead and then EliseuPereira sealed the winwith a penalty.

MalagathrashSevilla

Graham Chase

MANCHESTER, UK: Robin van Persie (pic),Tom Cleverley and Wayne Rooney all scoredas Manchester United beat Sunderland 3-1 onSaturday to re-assert their six-point lead inthe Premier League.

The home team coasted into a two-goaladvantage with less than 20 minutes gonethanks to goals from van Persie andCleverley.

Rooney made it three just before the hourto bring up nine goals in four PremierLeague matches from his partnership withvan Persie, as the hosts re-established theirsix-point cushion over Manchester City.

United were also boosted by the return ofcaptain Nemanja Vidic as a substitute afterthree months out with a knee injury.

But Fraizer Campbell’s late header meantthey have still only kept four clean sheets intheir 25 matches this season.

United manager Alex Ferguson had beenkeen to play down any talk of revengeagainst Sunderland, whose supporters hadcelebrated United losing the league on goaldifference on the final day of last season.

But United were clearly in the mood to

get the job done quickly and with just over aminute gone, visiting goalkeeper SimonMignolet had to be sharp to cut out a PhilJones cross after Antonio Valencia’s cleverpass.

Michael Carrick then opened up theSunderland defence, only for Ashley Young’sdrive to be deflected over.

Young also had another strike pushedover the bar by Mignolet from the WayneRooney corner that followed.

An even better chance fell for PatriceEvra when Steven Fletcher headed Rooney’scorner to the edge of the area and the Frenchdefender stuck his shot just over the bar.

LIVERPOOL, UK: Christian Be -nteke (pic) scored twice and ma -de another goal as Aston Villachecked Liverpool’s recent resu -rgence with a 3-1 win at Anfieldin the Premier League on Satur -day. Liverpool were bidding for afourth consecutive win in all co -mpetitions but failed to converta string of first-half chances andwere punished when goals fromBenteke and Andreas Weimannput Villa 2-0 up at half-time.

Benteke struck again earlyin the second half and althoughSteven Gerrard pulled one back,it was too late to prevent PaulLambert’s side — the youngestVilla team ever to start aPremier League game — from

extending their unbeaten run tofive league games.

Victory eased Villa’s relega-tion fears by carrying them upto 14th place, four days afterthey beat Norwich City 4-1 toreach the League Cup semi-finals, while Liverpool slippedtwo places to 12th. Liverpoolmanager Brendan Rodgers hadtalked up his side’s chances of atop-four finish in the build-up tothe match and they certainlybegan the game with ambition.

Villa goalkeeper Brad Guzanhad to be alert after visitingdefender Eric Lichaj divertedStewart Downing’s low crosstowards his own goal, whileGerrard could only shoot

straight at Guzan from justinside the penalty area.

Downing and Joe Allen firednarrowly wide for the hosts,before Nathan Baker had to pro-duce a last-ditch challenge tothwart Jonjo Shelvey.

Luis Suarez returned to theLiverpool line-up after suspens -ion and he spurned a fine chancein the 27th minute, placing atame half-volley within Guzan’sreach from Shelvey’s lay-off.

The hosts were punished fortheir wastefulness two minuteslater, when Benteke gatheredpossession in the inside-leftchannel before arrowing a lowdrive into the bottom-left cornerfrom 25 yards. AFP

United sink SunderlandFellaini apologises for Shawcross headbutt STOKE, UK: Marouane Fellaini onSaturday apologised for headbuttingStoke City’s Ryan Shawcross in the 1-1Premier League draw at the BritanniaStadium.

The Belgian midfielder clashed withShawcross on the hour mark as theplayers jostled for position at a corner,but the incident went unnoticed by ref-eree Mark Halsey and his assistants.

“I apologise completely to RyanShawcross, my team mates and to ourfans at the game,” said the Belgianmidfielder.

“There was a lot of pushing andpulling going on inside the Stokepenalty area and I didn’t feel I was get-ting any protection from the officials.

EPL results on SaturdayLiverpool 1 (Gerrard 87) Aston Villa 3

(Benteke 29, 51, Weimann 40)Man Utd 3 (Van Persie 16, Cleverley 19,Rooney 59) Sunderland 1 (Campbell 72)

Newcastle 1 (Ba 51) Man City 3(Aguero 10, Garcia 39, Y Toure 78)

Norwich 2 (Pilkington 15, Hoolahan 64)Wigan 1 (Maloney 51)

QPR 2 (Taarabt 52, 68) Fulham 1 (Petric88)

Stoke 1 (Jones 52) Everton 1(Shawcross 36-og)

Today’s fixturesTottenham v Swansea (1330GMT), West

Brom v West Ham (1600GMT)

Villa curb Liverpool revival

postnoon e-paper for 16 december 2012

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