postnoon e-paper for march 28th 2013

REPORT ON P4

HYDERABAD’S FIRST COMPACT AFTERNOON NEWSPAPER

THURSDAY, MARCH 28, 2013 HYDERABAD WWW.POSTNOON.COM WEATHER: CLEAR WITH CLOUDY PERIODS; 32°C 32 PAGES `3

New Zealand cricketer Jesse Ryder was in a critical condition in hospital on Thursday after being severely beaten as he left a bar in Christchurch, police said. The28-year-old was in an induced coma with a fracturedskull and serious internal injuries, and his familywere at his bedside. The attack came just daysbefore he was to take up an IPL contract.

JESSE RYDERIN COMA

GHMC TARGETSIRONING SHOPS,

BARBERS IN SEARCHFOR RECORD HAUL

Before you launch even a small push cart business, you should look over yourshoulder, for lurking behind you could be a civic official looking for new avenues

of revenue. The GHMC is eager to add to its trade cart more ‘trades’ suchas ironing, barber salons, catering services and many more to earn license fees.

AFTER BARBRAWL

P31

HonouramongthievesHere’s the amusing taleof Mangoor basti nicknamed chor ki bastiwhere people make a living by thievery, andshows exemplary co-existence betweenHindus and Muslims.You’d think chor ki bastiis a cluster of wretchedhovels. Far from it. Theyare pukka houses withall amenities and carsand bikes in garages orparked along the road.Some children even studyin leading Englishschools and some otherswith a ‘flair for thievery’are trained to follow tradition.

P3

city eventsTHURSDAY, MARCH 28, 2013

2

AROUND THE CITY: YOUR GUIDE TO THE TWIN CITIES

French artist B2FaysAlliance Française of Hyderabad,Kalakriti Art Gallery and Park HyattHyderabad present French artistB2Fays. It is an exhibition of paint-ings and multimedia installations. Where: Preview: Park Hyatt

Exhibition continues atKalakriti Art Gallery

When: Preview: March 28,6.30pm onwards

Contact: (040) 6656 4466

Homage to Ganesh PyneThere is an exhibition of mixedmedia and jottings by Ganesh Pyne.The preview will be followed by atalk and presentation at 7pm byPranab Ranjan Ray, art historian andactivist of the ‘60s and ‘70s. Where: Kalakriti Art GalleryWhen: Up to March 28Contact: (040) 6656 4466

Thinking form and contentAn exhibition of art work by GopalNayak.Where: ICONART Gallery,

Road no. 12, Sri Ram Nagar Colony, Banjara Hills

When: Up to March 30 from 11.30 am to 7pm

Contact: 98499 68797

Group painting exhibition An exhibition of paintings by PradoshSwain and Suchismita Sahoo.Where: Aalankritha Art Gallery

When: Preview: March 30,from 6pm to 8pmContinues till April 10,

Contact: www.alankritha.in

Innovating traditionsArtists with interest in sculpturalforms are invited to participate inthis workshop. There will be an inter-active use of techniques betweenNakashi art and contemporary artpractices. Where: ICONART Artist in Residency

Premises, 1672 SBI building,2nd floor, Road no12, Banjara Hills

When: OngoingContact: 98499 68797

Double Easter treatThere is an exquisite seafood barbe-

cue, along with Easter classics atOkra. Specially crafted Easter ham-pers are available at The HyderabadBaking Company.Where: Okra,Hyderabad Marriott

Hotel & Convention CentreWhen: March 31,

12.30pm to 3.30pmContact: (040) 2752 2567

Grand Easter brunch The chefs at Avasa have devised aspecial menu. The brunch will notonly have a great choice of food, butalso loads of entertainment activities. Where: Pi, Avasa Hotel,

MadhapurWhen: March 31,

noon onwardsContact: (040) 6728 2828

Easter goodiesHot cross buns, Easter Bunnies, and

Easter chocolates are part of the spe-cial Easter menu.Where: Novotel Hyderabad

Convention CentreWhen: March 25-31

Daily treatsOrange is the fruit of the month atThe Westin Hyderabad Mindspace.Dishes include orange blossomcheesecake, orange creme brule anddark chocolate orange tart.Where: Daily Treats,

The Westin HyderabadMindspace

When: Up to March 31Contact: (040) 6767 6818

Easter brunchThe multi-cuisine buffet includeswestern barbecue, oriental andHyderabadi specialties, soft beveragesand live stations. There are exciting

activities for children like egg paint-ing, face painting and treasure huntWhere: Celeste,

Taj Falaknuma PalaceWhen: March 31,

12.30pm to 3.30pmContact: (040) 6629 8585

Holi SpecialAam panna, thandai, assorted pako-das and special chat platters aresome of the items on the menu.There will also be tattoo and mehen-di artistes, musician and bangle sell-er at the venue.Where: Kailash Parbat

Road no. 36, Jubilee Hills

When: March 23-31Lunch: noon to 3.30pmSnacks: noon to 11.30pmDinner: 7pm to 11pm

Contact: (040) 2355 8856

It’s Easter!There is a special Easter brunch.Where: : Seasonal Tastes,

The Westin Hyderabad Mindspace

When: March 31,noon to 4pm

Contact: (040) 6767 6888

Easter workshop for childrenA workshop with the executive chefincluding a special Sunday brunchfor children.Where: The Park Hotel, When: March 31,

11am onwardsContact: (040) 2345 6789

GAS BOOKING IVRS NO HP 9666023456Indane 9848824365

BSNL Complaints 198HMWS & SB Complaints 155313

POLICE CONTROL ROOMHyderabad 27852435Traffic Control Room 27852482DCP Traffic 23234065, 23243499FPollution Control Board 23887500

ELECTRICITYGeneral Complaints 155333Breakdown Section 23431178

23431179

MUNICIPAL CORPORATION

Commissioner & Spl Officer 2326226624166666R

ENC 23225267Engineering 23220418MCH Tankbund 23225397Emergency MCH Circle I&II 24525842MCH Circle III 24736912MCH Circle IV 23326975MCH Circle V 23326976MCH Circle VI MCH Complaints 1100Head Office 23225397

IVRS CUM MANUAL ENQUIRYPHONE NUMBERS(TRAIN & RESERVATION)RAILWAYSRail Nilayam 27833169, 27824216Railway Information 131Reservations 135Recorded Information 1345Enquiry (IVRS) 1331, 1332, 1333

WATER SUPPLYComplaint Cell 155313Sewerage Complaint 23307328Hyd. Water Supply 23313163

HOSPITALGeneral Hospital, Sec-bad 27505566Niloufer Hospital, Red Hills 23314095NIMS, Director, Punjagutta 23390933Osmania General Hospital 24600146Railway Hospital, Lalaguda 27001134Apollo, Jubilee Hills 23607777Care Hospital, Banjara Hills 30418888Care Hospital, Nampally 30417777Care Hospital, Musheerabad 30419000Care Hospital, Sec-bad 30416666Kamineni Hospital, LB Nagar 39879999

BLOOD BANKSBlood Bank,Narayanguda 27567892Chiranjeevi Blood Bank 23559555Blood Bank Mediton Goal 23226624Red Cross, Vidyanagar 27633087ADRM Blood Bank 27035588Mythri Charitable Trust 27550238NTR Memorial Trust 30799999Care Banjara Hills 30418296

30417445

AMBULANCESApollo 23548888, 23607777Kamineni 24022222Medwin 23202902, 23204616Smile Line Dental Hospital 23747979Red Cross 27627973Niloufer Hospital 23314095Gandhi 23320332

AIRLINES

Airport Director 27903785, 27906001For Air India Flight Information Toll free(from any network) for IC Flights

18001801407And for All Flights: 1800227722Air India has revised its flight timings.For more information call (Toll free)18001801407, 1800227722 from BSNL/MTNL 04023430334 from otherlines and mobile Website; www.airindia.in

TOURISM OFFICESAP Tourism, Hyd 23262152/53/54Sec-bad 27893100Dept of Tourism 23453110India Tourism 23261360AP Tourism information Centre (24x7) 23450444, 23455999

UK VISA OFFICEVFS India Pvt Ltd Building, 8-2-542/A,Sunil Chamber, Road No. 7

Beside Meridian School, Banjara Hills-34. Working hours are from 8 AM to1 PM And 2 PM to 3PM.

MUSEUMSSalar Jung Museum 24523211AP State Museum 232431300/7641Nizams Museum 24521029

Helpline

Readers’ viewsWe invite you to write to

us comments, suggestions,viewpoint or just about

anything [email protected]

or #1246, Level 3, Jubilee Casa,

Road No 62, Jubilee Hills,Hyderabad – 500 033

or even by way ofa call on 4067 2222

BLACK NIGHT — A SHORT FILMThis is a story of two chess players challenging each others’ game skills.

The movie shows us how the winning pattern changes during thecourse of time and how emotions take over the situation. The screening

is at Lamakaan on March 29, from 7pm.

BangaloreMax 34Min 24

Partly cloudy withchances of storm.

ChennaiMax 34Min 27

Mostly clear.

MumbaiMax 30Min 23

Clear.

New DelhiMax 30Min 20

Chances of rain.

32°CClear with cloudy

periods.

25°CClear with cloudy

periods.

31°CSunny with

cloudy periods.

39°CMostly sunny.

Weather for HyderabadEvening Overnight Morning Afternoon

GREEN CITY? These trees have been planted at Necklace Road in an attempt to attract tourists N SHIVA KUMAR

ART

DINING

MISCELLANEOUS

CRIME

GOVERNANCE

THURSDAY, MARCH 28, 2013

3City YESTERDAY’S QUESTIONARE TRADE LICENSES A MERE MONEY MAKING PLOY?

YES (A)

NO (B)

TODAY’S QUESTIONIS AP GOVT LOSING ITS GRIP ON POWER SITUATION?A) YES B) NO

To vote visit www.postnoon.com

100%

0%

Mohd [email protected]

You’d think chor ki basti is acluster of wretched hov-els. Far from it. They aregood, pucca houses with

all amenities, with cars and bikesin garages or parked along theroad. Some children study in lead-ing English schools and some oth-ers with a ‘flair for thievery’ aretrained to follow tradition.

Mangoor basti is located atAfzalsagar of Habeeb Nagar andthere are around 1,000 housesbelonging to Hindus andMuslims. Many of them havecome from Maharashtra andKarnataka border districts —Nanded, Parbhani, Bijapur,Baswa Kalyan, Bidar, Bhalki.Their fathers had come threedecades ago and settled here.

They lived in hutments, yes.It was MLA and minister DanamNagender and former MLA BKrishna who helped them buildpucca houses and secure ameni-ties. They fall under AsifnagarAssembly constituency. To befair, not all are ‘chors.’ Some ofthem make an honourable livingtoo, people say.

KS Brahmachary, 66, thepatriarch of the basti, sitting onhis cot, told Postnoon about thebasti’s history and the life andliving of the inmates. “We(Hindus and Muslims) don’tquarrel and help each other intimes of need. We are one when itcomes to dealing with the policeor those who dislike us.”

The patriarch said there arenearly 15 gangs of men and twogangs of women. Each gang has

some 25 youngsters. Each mem-ber gets `200 and two bottles ofbeer everyday for their toil. It is asort of socialism where each onedoes what he could and each getsa share, no matter if his produc-tivity was less.

The gang leaders have dividedthe City and demarcated their ter-ritory for operations. Obviously,where there is a crowd, there is thegang — bus stands, railway sta-tions, shopping malls, cinema the-atres, super markets. The names ofthe gang leaders are dropped:Nagaraju, Giridhari, Chakradhari,Laddu, Chintu, Laxman, Wasee,Faheem, Feroze, Imran, Reshma,Salma, Farheen, Sabitha, Kavitha,

Parvathi.What about fear of police?

“Ha, ha,” he laughed. “We live inharmony with everybody. Nofights.” He winks and the sign isself-explanatory.

Among them, Laddu andParvathi do not want their chil-dren to follow them. Their chil-dren are sent to leading schoolsand they want them to becomedoctors, engineers, IT profession-als or executives. But majority ofthe bastiwalas are indifferent totheir children’s education. ‘Whenthere is good money, why wastetime in schools?’ is the argument.Outside some homes, ToyotaQualis, bikes, Ambassadors and

auto rickshaws are seen parked.

TRAINING The talents are spotted early andthey are initially kept withseniors. They always start withpick-pocketing. Girls adept withtheir fingers are sent with seniorsin crowded trains and buses.Every theatre that releases newpictures will invariably havegangs on duty — both men andwomen. Women are also trainedto go to marriage halls and con-duct thefts of gold and silver.Some of them also go to homes,posed as relatives, where peopleare dead and come out with whatthey can manage. “Don’t think

we are happy and jolly,” correct-ed a woman gang leader. “We arenot proud of this because wehave no social status. But moneyis good so we plough along.”

POSTNOON [email protected]

For the bill collectors whowere in the eye of thestorm in the recent years

for delay in recording propertytaxes, hand-held devices con-nected with the GHMC servercame as a jolt: It leads to effi-ciency and transparency.

“As the devices are connect-

ed online, when a bill isreceived by a bill collector, it isimmediately updated,” saidGHMC commissioner MTKrishna Babu. He gave credit tothe entire process for increasedefficiency and felt that therewould be no more discrepanciesin property tax collection.

The device also controls thenumber of receipts by reducingit to two days or `5 lakh service.

After the bill collector handsover the collection to the office,the device will be recharged toprovide scope for another two

days and `5 lakh. “If a bill col-lector does not respond aftertwo days after the device stopsworking, the higher officialswill get to him to know the rea-son”, says an official.

For the higher officials, one ofthe important facets of the deviceis keeping track of the bill collec-tor — how many house hereached out to or how manycommercial spaces he visited.

Earlier, even though theycollected the tax, they failed torecord it in books immediately.Some times, due to technicaldifficulties, the bill collectorssuffered.

There were allegations offake receipt books, and in therecent past, the GHMC was ripewith rumours that bill collectorswere giving hoarding moneyand running interest businesses.

An ideal commune of ‘thieves!’Here’s the amusing tale of Mangoor basti, nicknamed chor ki basti, where people make a living

by thievery, and show exemplary co-existence between Hindus and Muslims

Hand-held devices for ‘transparency’ When a bill isreceived by a collector, it is

updated online.

Honour among thievesn Don’t fight with police;

give them mamools.n Don’t argue with or fight

with gang leaders (ustads)n Help the gang that faces

trouble.n Don’t harm anyone — you

are after goods andmoney, not life

n All women operators willwear purdah compulsorily.It’s a convenience.

n Don’t lie to gang leadersabout the quantum of loot.

The column that teaches everyonesomething new about the way theCity functions.

1 ‘All-round’ education nomore in City?

With institutions encouraging stu-dents to join the rat race with 12hours of study, there’s hardly anytime left for extra-curricular activi-ties.

2 Can the residents of chor kibasti hope to get govt help?

Chor ki basti has many gangs ofthieves who are united in theiroperations. But some want theirchildren to have better standardsof life.

3 Some respite for passengersthis season.

A total of 118 additional specialsummer trains will be run by theSouth Central Railways, in additionto the 164 summer special trainsalready announced.

4 Where did all that moneycome from?

The GHMC has crossed the `25crore mark with its trade licensingcollections in 2012-13.

5A more efficient tax collection system.

The new hand-held devices forproperty tax collection will ensuretransparency and efficiency.

city THURSDAY, MARCH 28, 2013 4

The great City circusLast year we had reported how the

budget session was stormy asexpected, with ample issues like liquor,mining scam, CBI probe and Telanganaproviding to be ammunition for theOpposition. Neither the price rise northe water problem was discussed.Adjournment of the House withouttransacting any business dominatedthe proceedings

MARCH 28, 2012

‘Govt to fill 1.25 lakhvacancies’Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar

Reddy took salute in the passingout parade of 1,256 Trainee SubInspectors and Armed ReservePolice at APPA (Andhra PradeshPolice Academy) this morning. TheCM proudly announced that hisgovernment had filled up 1.25 lakhvacancies so far and is gearing up tofill another 1.25 lakh vacancies.

TDP MLAs’ fastcontinues for third dayThe indefinite fast launched by

TDP MLAs entered into the thirdday this morning. The condition oftwo MLAs is said to have deteriorat-ed. Scores of party leaders contin-ued to visit the camp site of thestrike at old MLA quarters inHyderguda. A team of doctors havevisited the site and conductedhealth check-ups.

Student ‘ragged,’attempts suicideKrishna Veni, a final year nursing

student at Gandhi Medical col-lage has allegedly attempted sui-cide by consuming sleeping pills.She was admitted in an unconsciousstate to the hospital. The 22-yearold-student from Mahbubnagar issaid to have been a victim of rag-ging by seniors. Chikalguda policeare investigating the case.

Police rescue sexworkers in CityThe Begumpet police have raided

an apartment located at Chikotigarden and rescued two sex work-ers.The police arrested Mary, aged35, and a customer, Basavaraj, andseized mobile phone sand cash. It issaid that the brothel was bringinggirls from other places, far awayfrom the City, with the promise ofgood payments.

LAST YEAR... HERE CIVIC

NEWS BRIEFS

`25crore mark was crossed by the GHMCin collections on trade licensing, withmany questioning the ways in which

the money was collected.

5THINGS WELEARNT TODAY

NUMEROLOGY

These are peoplewho stand with

no recognition intoday’s world thanksto the paid media,which is the rootcause of corrup-tion that’s eatingup the society.

Srikanth K, NASDAC employeeSee page 8

Md [email protected]

Collections on tradelicensing have crossedthe `25 crore mark in2012-13. It was `15

crore last year. But many arequestioning the way the GHMCofficials are collecting tradelicence fees.

“One can easily guess howthey could have reached their tar-get. It’s now common to catch thesmall fries by their scruff andextract money,” says Syed Aslam,owner of a small restaurant.

According to officials, thesaloons, mess and hostels aresome of the newly identified

trades in addition to those earli-er identified. Coffee shops,catering services, jewellery,showrooms, lodges, internetcafes, cinema halls, shoppingmalls, mobile phone shops andsoftware companies were identified last year.

Till the review meeting heldabout two months ago by com-

missioner MT Krishna Babu,there was no enthusiasm shownby health officials. He pointedout that medical officers anddeputy commissioners musttake personal interests for issu-ing trade licenses, as there was alot of scope in the area. He hadwarned the Assistant MedicalOfficers of Health (AMOHs)that penalties would beimposed on them if they fail toreach the target.

But the task, which shouldhave been taken up severalmonths ago, was completedwithin two months. One canguess how it could have beendone. A lot of discrepancies arecropping up, even as the GHMC

is closing its files for the finan-cial year end. “This year, wemade good revenue out of this,”says a senior official from thefinance wing.

Even the much hyped sur-vey on this subject failed toreach its aimed conclusion. Bythe end of 2012, the progress onthe survey, according to an offi-cial, was only two per cent. Nowno one talks about the survey orthe criteria for trade licensing,as there is no clarity on theissue. “If you give the officialstheir cut the trade license feeswould be meager or else youwill end up paying much morethan you are supposed to pay,”says a civic functionary.

GHMC meets tradelicence target, and how!

The task, whichshould have beentaken up severalmonths ago, was completed within twomonths.

Before you launcheven a small pushcart business, you

should look overyour shoulder, for

lurking behindyou could be a

civic official looking for new

avenues of revenue. The

GHMC is eager toadd to its trade

cart more ‘trades’such as ironing,

barber salons,catering services

and many more toearn licence fee.

city THURSDAY, MARCH 28, 2013 5POLITICS

POLITICS


Elementrary educationoffered by the State is in fora huge makeover in com-

ing days if the government plansare implemented.

The State government hasalready begun steps to reformthe existing system hoping tomake it more effective in nurtur-ing young minds. The State gov-ernment strongly feels that theexisting sytems of elementarysystem are not effectively imple-mented in the wake of imple-mentation of RTE Act.

With a view to bring inreforms, the department of ele-mentary education held a meet-ing with MLCs, who have beennominated under Teacher’squota. The meeting chaired by

minister for primary education SSailajanath laid emphasis on sug-gestions from MLCs.

Some of the suggestionsmade by the MLCs include regu-lating admissions, fee in privateschools as per RTE. Speaking toPostnoon MLC BV Mohan Reddysaid that many private schoolswere not implementing RTE andalso avoided SSC syllabus. Headded that there was a need toprevent this by implementingrules and bringing in reforms.

Among the other suggestionsmade by these law makers, themost important are taking theservices of retired governmentteachers by making them a partof school committees in order toeffectively run the school, settingup of 10-15 schools in every man-dal and soliciting of donationsfrom generous donors.

Primary education to berevamped by State govt

VIJAYAWADA: Krishna districtsenior TDP leader VallabhaneniVamsi openly expressed hisanger against party chiefChandrababu Naidu removingfrom Krishna district politics andgiving him a nominal post of thestates executive secretary.

Stating that he was promisedGannavaram seat by Naidu,Vamsi said he would quit politicsif he did not get it. He expresseddiscontent that there was noassurance from the chief on this.He said he would quit politicsaltogether and would not joinany other party. However, it isbeing said that he might join theYSR Congress as he has goodrelations with Jagan.

It may be recalled that Vamsihugging Jagan had become a bigcontroversy earlier. TDP evengave a showcause notice to him.However, he met Naidu andgave a written explanation tohim that it was a chance meetingand he has no plans to leave TDP.

Now it is being said thatVamsdi also would join the YSRCongress like Kodali Nani. Hewas very much hurt that he wasremoved from the post ofVijayawada urban party chief.The post was given to the follow-er of Nani, owner of the KesineniTravels. Now Naidu not only

gave total control of Vijayawadaparty, but also announced his can-didature for the Lok Sabha seat.Nani went into the PRP and cameback to the TDP recently.

Though Devineni Uma is saidto have touted the come back ofNani, it is being said by insidersthat it was all the plan of BalaKrishna. Bala Krishna has beentrying to snub his brother’s sonand hero NTR. As Vamsi is anardent follower of the actor, BalaKrishna removed him from theVijayawada political scene as afirst step against Jr. NTR saidsources.

It is being said Bala Krishnafelt that party in Krishna, nativedistrict of the Nandamuri familyshould be totally in the hands ofpeople hundred percent loyal tothe family and the party. BalaKrishna is still suspecting NTRas most of the partymen who jointhe Jagan bandwagon are his loy-alists. As such, he suspected thateven Vamsi might leave the partysome time or the other. It is inthis contest that he removedVamsi from the scene saysources. Vamsi is totally hurt thatthe party chose not to trust himdespite being loyal to the partyand trusted Kesineni Nani wholeft the party and came back.

NSS

Will join YSRC, says angry VamsiAn angry Vallabhaneni Vamsi reportedly trained his guns at TDP chief Chandrababu Naidufor removing him from the Krishna district polls. He allegedly threatened to quit the party andreports claimed he might join YSRC. Naidu however, rubbishes the reports saying all was well.

Naidu rubbishes claimsTDP chief Chandrababu Naidurubbished the reports that theparty senior leader VallabhaneniVamsi would join the YSRCongress.

When asked about the dis-content expressed by Vamsi overnot being assured of theGannavaram Assembly seat,Naidu questioned if the mediadreamt about Vamsi leaving theparty. He maintained that theparty was treating Vamsi well.When asked about Vamsi’s ousteras the Vijayawada urban unitpresident, Naidu said he wastaken into the State executive,which he said was an elevation.He said when Vamsi was asked tocontest from the Vijayawada LokSabha seat, he had refused.Stating that he knew whodeserved which post, Naidu saidthe party would decide whichseat should be allotted to Vamsi.

It may be mentioned thatVamsi expressed discontent overnot being assured ofGannavaram ticket. TDP’sBalavardana Rao is now repre-senting the Gannavaram seat. Itis learnt that Balavardana Rao isunwilling to leave the seat.

TOUGHENING UP

Students of theIndian KarateAcademy performmartial arts. Withthe recent uproarover women safety,several martial artsinstitutions haveseen an increasednumber of enrol-ments of girls andyoung women.

N SHIVA KUMAR

city THURSDAY, MARCH 28, 2013 6MUSIC

DANGEROUS HYDERABAD

TREACHEROUS BLIND SPOT

This is probably a common sightacross the City. The HMWS&SBor the GHMC will open up

manholes to carry out maintenanceor repair works and then very conveniently leave it open. As astop-gap measure they might placea couple of stones and dried twigsaround it, as if those are warningenough for unsuspecting motoristsor pedestrians.

In this picture you can see onesuch manhole, seemingly fenced bya couple of stones, lying open inLanger House. What makes this evenworse than the other cases is the

fact that this one happens to belocated at a turning, a blind spot formost motorists. Imagine, whatwould happen if someone was driv-ing past at night and missed spot-ting it?

In the past too, there have beenseveral incidents of motorists havingtaken a bad fall due to such openmanholes and of children andpedestrians falling down them. Yet,the civic officials concerned don’tseem to want to pull up their socks.Like in most other cases, they areprobably waiting for an accident tohappen before they do act.

S BALAKRISHNA


The undiscovered music talents ofHyderabad are all set to vie for thetop spot representing the City at

Hard Rock Cafe’s ‘Hard Rock Rising’global band talent hunt. Nine bandsfought their way to the finals, but onlythree bands made it through. Out of thecontesting three, one band will be cho-sen by local music industry experts andone will move onto the great finals ofcontesting with 95 other bands fromacross the world. Fan support and vot-ing will determine the top 25 bands anda panel of celebrities and musicians ofinternational stature will pick the GrandPrize winner.

On Thursday, all the three finalistsfor the Global Auditions will cometogether at Hard Rock Cafe to go out allguns blazing. Hyderabad’s contributionto this global scale “Battle of the Bands”are Eagle Riders, homely lads whosemusic is a mix of genres and quite apopular band within the college circuitand Luminum, a three piece with no

genre classification and believe thattheir ‘music does all the talking.’ Nextcomes Gingerfeet (in pic) from Kolkatta,who describe themselves as a powercombination of three bands fromCalcutta and Gangtok and adhere tofunk and experimental music. Thegrand finale is slated to be held onThursday at Hard Rock Cafe at 9pm.Hard Rock Rising will place the GrandPrize winner on the fast-track to globalstardom as they embark on a WorldTour in six renowned cities arranged byHard Rock International – including aspot on the bill at the Hard Rock Callingfestival in London, with additionaldates at Hard Rock Cafes in cities suchas Sydney, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Chicagoand Honolulu; make an album andmusic video through Hard RockRecords; and receive new music equip-ment and gear valued at $10,000.

Be there at Hard Rock Café onThursday at 9pm to see, what can possi-bly be, the best band from the countrymaking it to the grand finale of HardRock Rising. Entry fee is priced at `500 only.

Gear up for battle of the bandsThree bands will slug it out for top honours and a chance to represent the City at the

global Battle of the Bands tonight at Hard Rock Cafe.

classifieds THURSDAY, MARCH 28, 2013 7

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Imagine your child walking intoa majestic building with poshclassrooms and studying in oneof them for over 12 hours a day.

Well, this is not an imaginary situa-tion. Thousands of students aredoing this every day. With growingcompetition, most parents wanttheir children to become profession-als — especially doctors or engi-neers. And this is the ambition thatmost corporate collages are cashingin on.

There was a time when schoolsand colleges had a big campus wherestudents had time to study as well astake part in extracurricular activities.However, now, colleges, especiallythe corporate junior colleges, arenothing but 2-3 storeyed buildingswhere it is all work and no play.

Under the pretext of coachingfor various competitive entranceexams, students are put under con-stant pressure, and all this so thatlater the colleges can advertiseabout their success rate.

These colleges are so engrossedin achieving top ranks in the exami-nations that students who are study-ing complain that the intermediateportion for the IPE exam is neglect-ed. Thanks to the Board of Inter -mediate, now that there is a percent-age of weightage to be given to theintermediate marks; else, accordingto students, earlier the faculty wouldjust rush through the syllabus onlyto complete the portion.

What is being neglected is the pr -acticals, which the corporate collegestake for granted and neglect until afew weeks before the final practicalexaminations.

“During our practical class weare told to remain in the classroomsand treat it as a study hour. Thoughwe have labs in the college and wantto conduct the experiments, our lec-

turers do not allow us to do so,” saysPremakalyani, a student of Nalandawho just completed her second yearexamination and is awaiting results.

Yet of all this, these studentsfind themselves at a disadvantagewhen it comes to competitiveexams. “We are made to mug up theentire portion. The faculty does notteach us on the basis of questioningand reasoning. When we go for ourhigher education, we feel very infe-rior compared to the students fromother colleges,” says S Meghana, aformer student of a leading corpo-rate college who secured a 90 percent in her intermediate exam.

Another problem the studentscomplain of is that despite theBoard of Intermediate instructing

the junior colleges not to conductany tests or classes on Sun days, afew of them go ahead and ask thestudents to give their weekly test onSundays.

“In case we have a holiday for afestival during the week, the man-agement asks us to co me on Sundayfor the weekly test, failing whichthey warn us of strict action. Manytimes our parents had to approachthe management rega rding thisissue, after which they would can-cel that weekly test,” says a secondyear MPC student.

UNSCIENTIFIC DIVISIONAsk any student who is studying ina corporate college, the worst com-plaint is that they are divided into

sections according to the marksthey secure in their weekly test.This division is not only causingthem mental tension but also makesthem feel embarrassed in front oftheir peers.

“If we do not secure good marksin our weekly exam we are shuffledin different sections. All the brightstudents who secure good marksare put in one particular section andthe best faculty teaches them. Thenext section has students whosecure lesser marks and the stu-dents who score the least are all putin another section,” says Karthik, asecond year BPC student.

Such is the plight of corporatecolleges who, in the name of betterresults, put students under a lot of

pressure.When Postnoon asked a few stu-

dents and former students abouttheir experience of studying in acorporate college, this is what theyhad to say.

But corporate college heads seekto clarify much misconceptionabout the education in corporatecolleges. “Most of the students whocome to corporate colleges comewith an aim to secure a seat in engi-neering or medicine or science andtechnology. Our courses and work-ing style are also oriented towardsthese aims. It is not true that all wehave is work. We have facilities foryoga and meditation and otherstress-busters. Those unwilling forhardwork would not come here,”said a principal of a leading corpo-rate college in Secunderabad.

118 newsummerspecialtrains

To meet the holidayrush, 118 additionalspecial trains will berun by South-Centralrailway betweenApril and July. Thiswould be in additionto164 summer spe-cial trains alreadyannounced, officialssaid.Following are thespecial trains.Secunderabad-Visakhapatnam (26services), Machi lipa -tnam-Secunderabad(16 services), Secun derabad-Mumbai (26 ser-vices), Hyder abad-Renigunta (18 ser-vices), Guntur-Tirupati (18 services)and Aurangabad-Tirupati (14 ser-vices). NSS

ALL WORK AND NO PLAYDRAIN STUDENTS

Corporate college route to secure medical and engineering college admissions comes at a price.

It was my parent’s choice forme to join this college. We aremade to study for over 12hours and not even given abreak of 45 minutes com-pletely throughout those 12hours. The IPE portion isneglected and the facultymostly concentrate on thecoaching for various competi-tive exams.

G Dev, IInd year MPC student,Sri Chitanya College

We were assigned only a certainnumber of experiments duringour second year. During the aca-demic year, we had to sit andstudy in our classrooms insteadof going to the practical lab.However my friends studying inregular intermediate collegeshad the opportunity to attendthe practical classes and benefited because of that.

K. Shiva Suryakanth, ex-student,Guntur Vikas College

I would not suggest anyone tojoin a corporate college,because instead of enjoyinglearning we were made to learnunder constant fear. It was justnot the case in my college. Myfriends in other corporate col-leges had the same experience.They make us feel that engi-neering and medicine are theonly two professional courses.

Komal Malhotra, ex student,Nalanda

I fear the whole concept ofdividing students into differentsections based on our perfor-mance in the weekly test. Thissystem should be removedfrom all corporate colleges.Because of this there is a lot ofpressure on the students mind.Sometimes fearing of beingshuffled to another section wescore badly in the test.

Avinash V, IInd year student,Narayana Junior College

QUOTES

Crucial elements like syllabus for intermediateexam and practicalclasses are ignored bycorporate colleges, complain students.

FOR REPRESENTATIONAL PURPOSE ONLY

city THURSDAY, MARCH 28, 2013 8COMMUNITY RADIO

RAHUL [email protected]

For many an NRI livingabroad, patriotism isnot just a primrose to beworn in breast pockets.While the great green

pastures on the other side of theworld may seem a cosy escape, itis not be so for everybody. MeetNRI Samay, a group of dedicatedindividuals working towards thebetterment of India’s societythrough an online communityradio discussion and communi-cation on the many troubles thatplague the country today.

As co-founder SrikanthKocherlakota, an employee inNASDAC and originally fromVijaywada, puts it, “NRI Samaystarted as a culmination of goodforces, which through a sustain-able model for community radiowanted to give a continuousstream of simple, motivatingplans for the country’s betterment.”

The radio started officially onSeptember 24, 2011 with a priorhistory of activism in Americaitself at the time of India’sheightened civil society activity.“The 2G scam had just fallenthrough and we were numbeddown by the sheer size of thescams that were coming out. So,me and my friend and co-founder Srihari Atluri decided towalk for our cause, and rallysupport and drum up awarenessabout our country’s corruptionissues. We ended up carrying outour Dandi March, a 240 milewalk from San Diego – OrangeCounty, Los Angeles – Bay Area,San Francisco in California, USA,from March 12 to 26.” The result,as Srikanth puts it, caught theeye of the entire world watchingthem. “Other bare beginningswere to fight for NRI votingrights and putting the bill intomotion by personally calling upand insisting each an every MPfrom our Parliament to activelyconsider our demand,” saysSrikanth.

NRI Samay is a small butdedicated group comprising ofSravani, Tejaswini, SnehaSugmani, Brahmani Bogpudi,Usha Turgavelli, Kumar Shastryand Rohit, Vasistha, SrikanthNaidu. The number of womenon the team reflects a consciousdecision to include them in thegroup, Srikanth says.

HOW NRI SAMAY FUNCTIONS Inspired by grassroot activistsworking in remote areas of the

country, NRI Samay works as anonline radio community with acontinuous data material streamof over 150 interviews ofactivists, politicians, writers,journalists and scientists. “Whenpeople like Kalyan Akkipeddi,an activist who has designed a‘proto village’ near Lepakshi vil-lage in AP in 1395 days, whoseidea was to provide all livingcomforts for people in the ruralside, that includes a homedesigned to sustain any environ-mental, social or financialcalamity all in `11,000, I realisedthat these were the people theworld needed to know about,”Srikanth says. Their list of inspir-ing figures also include PushpaBesnet from Nepal, which start-ed out as a campaign on rehabili-tating and educating jailedwomen and children jailed inNepal, Veena Lakshmi whofights against gun violence, RaviKuchimanchi an activist whoworked on water distributionissues. Incidentally, the movieSwades was based on RaviKuchimanchi.

“These are people who standwith no recognition in today’sworld thanks to the paid media,which is one root cause of cor-ruption eating up the society. Werealised that these people wereas important as any historic fig-ure and there was an urgent needfor an alternative communica-tions system outside the media”Srikanth says.

Things got into motion whenSrikanth, along with Srihari andVenkat Dabbara, two softwareprogram writers and one IT man-ager, wrote the program codes

for the online radio setup. VenkatDabbara, came out with anAndroid app for this radio. “NRISamay started spreading withthe help of social media. Whenwe realised we were sitting on anetwork, where in every personpresent on a social forum wasnot just an individual but also anetwork behind them, our web-site took its own steady routethrough social networks,”Srikanth says.

RESPONSE RECEIVEDThe online community radio, hasgarnered immense support fromboth Indian and American popu-lation. Their webcount, videoviewership and radio listenersstrength is well poised to crossthe 1 lakh mark.

“For instance, last week’sinterview of Shakuntala Devi,the forgotten mathematiciangenius’ show, recorded 1,500people on YouTube alone in thelast one week,” Srikanth says.Their key statistics in the last 30days show over 3,794 videoviews for any show, over 52,677Youtube views. NRI Samay’s lis-tenership and the duration ofminutes heard in the last 30 daysare an estimated minutes 15,634minutes and 90,253 minutesheard since inception. “The high-est number of views for anyshow we recieved so far were4,048 on YouTube. It was a showon an NRI woman whose hus-band had left her in an airport.The show was basically aboutwhat women can do in such situ-ations where the husband orfamily abandons them abroad,”Srikanth says.

FUNDING AND FUTURE PLAN “As and when people talk aboutrevenue, you get stuck. Eitheryou had to rely on someone ormove around asking people formoney from one to source toanother which would eventuallyconsume all the time we had forour cause. Since we were peoplein technical domain, we wrotethe project this way- that it couldsurvive any meltdown and runfree from financial control. NRISamay runs on volunteerism anda little bit of money, which weourselves are able to pool in.Right now our radio station isrunning out of our pockets at thispoint in time but this mightchange in the future,” saysSrikanth. All details of the funds

received and spent are put up ontheir website with constantupdates, ensuring that the trans-parency they preach is always inpracticed.

Although they are not actual-ly a community radio stationwith a radio broadcasting setup,running an internet radio is alsoquite a task. And since this isrunning in the hands of experi-enced computer programmers,their setup is minimal, powerfuland effective.

“We use a combination ofaudio mixers, laptops of goodconfiguration and phones asmike to record our interviewsand the internet as our source oftransmission. With a database of150 interviews, each interview isconducted after a thoroughcheck on what the activist hasdone and a profile is made ofhim/ her, we group together andpour our questions onto aGoogle doc created. Anybody isfree to conduct the interviewwithin our community. Thanksto the Anna Hazare movement, ithas become easier to reach out toactivists who have come underan umbrella with their works,”Srikanth says.

THE PLAN AHEAD With the media, print or visual,being highly localised and con-tent becoming decentralised,NRI Samay hopes to designmodels for a broader communitydevelopment through internetbecoming a radio, ultimately.“We are building a communitycalled NRI Samay contributorswhich relies not on paid newscontributors but people workingincredibly remote areas and con-tibute news about issues andactivism which can be compiledfor transmission across the worldthrough internet. Citizen journal-ists is another community of 35people across India, a dedicatedactivist network bringing issuesinto the global foray.”

As the interview comes to aclose, Srikanth says, “The storiesof people like Poulomi Basu, anactivist working on womenpatrolling borders in India, is justone example of how rarely weknow about these things eatinginto our society.”

It is clear from the passion inhis voice, that the radio stationhas only one dream — the dreamof helping the next generationrealise that there were alwayssome incredible people whoworked right at the heart of thenightmares our country wasgoing through.

NRI radio airs woes of homeAs a harbinger of new media in the emergence, NRIs in the US work steadily through online community

radio. They bring news from far and wide of India and prove to be catalysts of social change.

Inspired by grassrootactivists working inremote areas of thecountry, NRI Samayworks as an onlineradio community witha data stream.

Mantra of subtle blitzkriegAdvertisers are betting on innovative methods and increased focus on new media to sustain growth.

focusTHURSDAY, MARCH 28, 2013

9CRACKDOWN OF FAKE GREENSDue to increasing false claims by advertisers about product sustainability, the US Federal TradeCommission established updated Green Guides in 2012 against deceptive environmental marketing. Theguidelines discourage the use of general and unsubstantiated terms such as "eco-friendly" and includestrong guidelines for use of terms such as "biodegradable" and "recyclable."

ADVERTISING


Giving the lie to thegeneral cry of slidingad in media, the glob-al trend shows a

rebound in advertisementspending in 2012. Only, the tra-ditional media like print, televi-sion, radio will have to sharethe cake with new subtle meth-ods of ads like promotionalmaterial on blogs, productplacement, and interactiveadvertising on social media,reports Worldwatch Institute.

Global expenditures onadvertising grew 3.3 percent in2012 to $497.3 billion, a gradualrebound since the sudden 9.6percent drop in 2009 as a resultof the global economic down-turn. Spending has respondedto shifts in popular media withInternet advertising the fastest-growing sector in 2012, nowaccounting for 18 per cent of thetotal, according to WorldwatchInstitute's Vital Signs service.

US advertising expendi-tures grew by 4.3 per cent in2012 and are still nearly a thirdof the global total. The AsiaPacific region accounted for thefastest growth, however, withad spending there increasing by7.9 per cent in 2012 (excludingJapan, which grew by 3.1 percent). Expenditures fell by 2.2per cent in Western Europe, theonly region to see a decline,largely due to the ongoing

Eurozone crisis.The growth in spending on

Internet ads has been driven bythe expansion of social mediaand online video advertising.Mobile and social media nowaccount for more than half of alladvertising revenue in theUnited States, for example, hav-ing increased by more than 30per cent in both 2011 and 2012.

"As consumers grow overex-posed to advertising, traditionalforms such as television com-mercials, print advertising, andbillboards are becoming lesseffective," said ShakuntalaMakhijani, the study's author."As a result, advertisers are turn-ing to more subtle techniques,such as promotional material onblogs, product placement, andinteractive advertising on socialmedia such as Facebook andTwitter. The distinction betweenadvertising and media content istherefore increasingly blurred."

The impacts of advertisingand consumerism on all aspectsof society and culture are welldocumented. Advertising tar-geted at children is particularlypenetrating and influential,defining their identity as con-sumers from an early age andinterfering with normal child-hood development.

Evidence has shown thatchildren are experiencing incr -eased physical, emotional, andsocial harm as a result of con-sumerism through advertising.

US consumer advocates

continue to call for limits on theextent and influence of adver-tising, especially in environ-ments such as health clinics andpublic spaces as well as adver-tising specifically targeted atchildren. In particular, advertis-ing in public schools has gainedforce in recent years and hasinfiltrated nearly all aspects ofstudent life.

Advertisers have alsofocused more resources recent-ly on "green" advertising aimedat attracting consumers withclaims of improved environ-mental impact by tapping intogrowing public interest in sus-tainability and the environme -nt. The number of new produc -ts marketed with environment -al claims each year in the Unit -ed States grew from around 100in 2004 to over 1,500 in 2009.

Due to increasing false clai -ms by advertisers about prod-uct sustainability, the US Fede -ral Trade Commission estab-lished updated Green Guides in2012 that will allow the agencyto take enforcement actionagainst deceptive environmen-tal marketing. The guidelinesdiscourage the use of generaland unsubstantiated terms suchas "eco-friendly" and includestrong guidelines for use ofterms such as "biodegradable"and "recyclable."

While regulatory controlson false advertising such as theGreen Guides are a positivedevelopment, true sustainabili-

ty will ultimately require lessmaterial consumption and the -re fore stronger overall limits onadvertising to stem its globalgrowth and increasing presencein everyday life.

(Compiled by P KSurendran)

Television: Projected tocommand half of theentertainment pie by2015 as it is estimatedto grow at a robust14.5% cumulatively overthe next five years, froman estimated `306.5 bil-lion in 2010 to `602.5billion by 2015. Film: Projected to growat a CAGR of 9.3% overthe next five years,reaching `136.5 billionin 2015 from the present`87.5 billion in 2010. Print media: Projectedto grow by 9.6% overthe period 2011-15,reaching Rs. 282 billionin 2015 from the presentRs. 178.7 billion in 2010. Radio: Projected to growat a CAGR of 19.2% over2011-15, reaching `26billion in 2015 from`10.8 billion in 2010. Music: Projected to growat a CAGR of 17.6% over2011-15, reaching `21.4billion in 2015 from `9.5billion in 2010. Internet advertising:Projected to grow by25.5% over the next fiveyears and reach `24 bil-lion in 2015 from `7.7billion in 2010.

Outlook for India n Newspaper advertising

has declined significantly,dropping from nearly athird of all expendituresin 2002 to less than afifth in 2012.

n The expansion of televi-sion's share of globaladvertising has levelledoff after decades ofgrowth: it rose from 36per cent to 40 per cent ofadvertising expendituresbetween 2000 and 2012.

n Global product place-ment expenditures areincreasing rapidly, reach-ing $8.2 billion in 2012,with the United Statesaccounting for more thanhalf of the market world-wide.

n Retail companies accountfor nearly one fifth oftotal advertising spend-ing, followed closely bythe automobile industryin the United States.

n New media grows at 15-18 per cent.

Highlights

PricewaterCoopers

BusinessTHURSDAY, MARCH 28, 2013

10American Airlines, US Airways merger approvedA US bankruptcy court judge approved Wednesday the merger ofAmerican Airlines and US Airways, which will create the country’s largestairline, the two companies said. But the judge left undecided the $19.9million payout planned for AMR chief executive Tom Horton.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP

BSE 18,615.2688.04

NSEPOUND `82.30DOLLAR `54.37

SILVER `54,300 for 1kg24CGOLD `29,800 for 10g

5,619.1022.50

PRUDHVI RAJU [email protected]

Often many doubtwhether there is somemantra to be success-ful in business?

Experts say that there is no sin-gle formula or formulae.However, there are definitelysome valuable inputs that canhelp small businesses to get intonext level says these experts.

“Business should be differ-ent not just for the sake of it. Itshould be built on underlyingvalue addition and innovation.This will make enterprises tostand out and gain competitiveadvantage,” says CKRanganathan, chairman andMD, CavinKare,

On importance of teams, heasserts, “Individuals orentrepreneurs should first buildteams. Many times, we see theleaders are powerful and theteams around them are not.Team is crucial for implement-ing the idea. The environmentand chemistry between teammembers in executing the ideais also play a key role for thegrowth of business.

“How to build this effectiveteam is another challenge for asmall business. They should dif-ferentiate among the competi-tors to attract talent. Forinstance, businesses have to paysalary on time. Some of themdon’t pay on time (end of themonth) and postpone it to thefirst or second week of the fol-lowing month undermining thevalue of the employee.”

“Businesses can also pay 20per cent more salary than thecompetitors. Even, if theemployee wants to switch thecompany, he will not get a simi-lar kind of pay package else-where. Growth of employee interms of skills and knowledgeneed to be taken care in the pro-cess. These small changes can

make big difference in attractingquality human resource andretain them,” he says.

Busting the tax myth forbusiness survival, he says,“Many small companies remainsmall because they don’t paytax. There is an assumption thattax is a major component thattakes away business profits andevading it is crucial for survival.On the contrary, a business can

grow only if they pay tax. Forinstance, let’s assume a businesshas `100 white money, it can getanother `200 from the bank andre-invest `300 in the businessand make `90 as profits. Evenafter paying interest of `30, thebusiness can retain profits of`60. However, a business thattries to evade tax can only invest`100 and make a profit of `30.”

Businesses can only turninto institutions by not cuttingcorners and being ethical intheir values says Arun Ananth,CEO of Kasturi and Sons.

Phanindra Sama, founderand CEO of Redbus, stressesthat business can ignore corrup-tion and still be successful. Herecalls, “In the initial days ofbuilding Redbus, we thought of

bringing government bus oper-ators on board and approachedAPSRTC and KSRTC. The man-agers expected bribes to take itfurther.

“However, after discussionwith our mentors, we thought ofmaking our existing businessstrong rather than bringingthese government bus operatorson board. After six years, fourgovernment bus operatorsthemselves approached andpartnered with us to sell ticketson our platform without usspending a single penny in woo-ing them.”

The story is based on questionand answer session with panelistsat CII Southern annual regionalmeeting and conference that recent-ly held in the City.

EADS shareholders approved sweep-ing reforms on Wednesday that weak-en the influence of European govern-ments and allow the aerospace giantto pursue its global ambitions unfet-tered. The extraordinary meeting inAmsterdam overwhelmingly adopted15 proposed amendments in a majoreasing of state clout in the powerfulgroup that also controls Airbus.They notably dissolved a complicatedshareholders pact that gave EADS’sthree founding states — France,Germany and Spain — veto rights onstrategic decisions and rights to nom-inate board members. Germany inOctober used the right to block a planto merge EADS with British defencecompany BAE Systems in a move thatwould have created a global defenceand aerospace giant to rival Boeing.The amendments also allow share-holders German automaker Daimlerand the French conglomerateLagardere, to sell their stakes, with thevolume of EADS shares that tradefreely rising above 70 per cent frombelow 50 per cent in December. In thenew ownership pact, national govern-ments remain important shareholders,but their ability to influence companystrategy decisions is more limited.Germany is to takeover the 12 percent stake in EADS from Daimler, andFrance is to cut its holding to 12 percent, with Spain at 4 per cent.

EADS REFORMS

Cyprus confirmed banks wouldreopen on Thursday after a nearlytwo-week lockdown in the bailed-outcountry, but only under draconiancapital controls unprecedented in theeurozone. Finance Minister MichalisSarris issued a decree Wednesday fortemporary limits on daily withdrawalsto 300 euros to prevent the “collapseof credit institutions". Other measuresinclude banning the cashing ofcheques and ordering those travellingabroad not to take more than 1,000euros out of the country. Five ship-ping containers reportedly filled withbillions of euros were delivered to thecentral bank in Nicosia lateWednesday.

NUMEROLOGY

$500 mnis what Twitter is set to earn in ad

revenue this year and is projected tomake $1 billion next year.

ROAD TO SUCCESSIndustry leaders share what they perceive as crucial

factors that go into making a successful business venture.

Team building, incen-tives for employees,paying taxes anduncompromisingethics help to reaprich dividends.

CYPRUS BANKS OPEN

nationTHURSDAY, MARCH 28, 2013

11

Amid speculation that SamajwadiParty might withdraw support tothe UPA, Union minister VNarayanasamy said the coalitionenjoys absolute majority inParliament and would remain inoffice for its full five-year term. SPand BSP had already given theirletters of support to the UPA andthe government has "thereforeabsolute majority to remain inoffice for its full five year term,"he said. He also said DMK, at itsexecutive committee meeting,declared it would not let commu-nal parties to come to power.

A daily wage labourer was arrest-ed today on the charge of rapinga 14-year-old girl in the district,police said. The man had alleged-ly lured the girl to an isolatedplace here and raped her onMonday night, police said. Acting on a complaint by thegirl's parents, the 20-year-oldman was arrested. He has beenbooked under various sections ofIPC including 376 (rape).

3 FOUND MURDERED AT BUS STANDThree persons were found murdered at the bus stand in Karamadai, about35 km from Coimbatore, today. All the bodies bore identical injuries inflicted by some sharp weapons on the face and throat, police said. Policesuspect it to be the handiwork of a psychopath and investigations were on.

DIPLOMACY

MUMBAI BLASTS VERDICT

NUMEROLOGY

‘NO THREAT TO UPA’

MINOR RAPED

20airports will be developed in the

next five years, according toAirport Authority of India plans.

PICK YOUR

@

Stores Across Twin Cities

DURBAN: In the first-high levelcontact after the new Chineseleadership took over, PrimeMinister Manmohan Singh metPresident Xi Jinping and raisedthe issue of Beijing's proposal toconstruct three dams across theBrahmaputra river on its side.

Singh called on President Xi,who took over as President ear-lier this month as part ofdecadal change of power struc-ture in China, on the sidelines ofthe BRICS Summit which thetwo leaders attended here.

This is the first face-to-facemeeting between the two lead-ers at the highest level after therecent change in power struc-ture in China.

"Water was discussed," offi-cial sources said tersely after a25-minute meeting late lastnight after the summit withoutgetting into specifics.

The Prime Minister is under-stood to have conveyed toPresident Xi concerns in Indiaover the Chinese proposal toconstruct three dams acrossBrahmaputra.

India has said the proposalwould affect water flow to Indiawhile China says it was just run-of-the mill project that wouldnot hold water.

The entire expanse of thebilateral relationship was dis-

cussed and the meeting wasvery positive, the sources said.

All aspects of the relation-ship were discussed but theSouth China Sea issue was notnot discussed, the sources said.

Asked whether border andtrade issues were discussed, thesources maintained that allaspects of bilateral relations

came up for discussion.The sources said during an

informal discussion at the sum-mit earlier in the day, PresidentXi told Singh that he was awarethat the Prime Minister hadgood relations with his prede-cessor Hu Jintao and PremierWen Jiabao and he would like tocarry forward that.

At the meeting, the PrimeMinister invited President Xi tovisit India to which he said heaccepted it and would make thevisit at an appropriate time.

Similarly, the Presidentextended an invitation to Singhto visit China and he reciprocat-ed it in a similar vein.

PTI

MUMBAI: Actor Sanjay Dutt,who has been convictedunder the Arms Act for hisrole in the 1993 Mumbaibombings, said Thursday thathe would surrender when thetime comes and would not beseeking pardon.

Speaking out for the firsttime since the Supreme Courtruling last week, Sanjayappealed to the media for pri-vacy and said: "...When I amnot going for pardon, there isno debate."

An emotional Sanjay, whobroke down while addressingthe media, said he had thehighest respect for the court."This a very, very tough time,"

he said. "Just let me be inpeace till I go in."

He said he would be com-pleting his work commit-ments.

He was accompanied atthe press conference by hissister and Congress MP PriyaDutt. IANS

Not going for pardon,says emotional Sanjay

PM raises Brahmaputraissue in meeting with Xi

NEWS BRIEFSNaxals kill tribal youthGADCHIROLI: A tribal youth was allegedlyaxed to death outside his house in Laheri vil-lage by Naxalites on suspicion that he was apolice informer, police said today. Police saidsuspected Maoist insurgents called out BanduDurga Pungati, 27, outside his house last after-noon and attacked him with an axe before slit-ting his throat with a sharp-edged weapon. "Pungati was murdered as the ultras suspectedthat he was a police informer", police said,adding that a case was registered againstunidentified persons.

BSP leader's wife, son quizzed NEW DELHI: Delhi Police Wednesday saidthey have detained eight people and ques-tioned around 20 others in connection with themurder of billionaire realtor and BSP leaderDeepak Bhardwaj. Those quizzed include hiswife and younger son. Bhardwaj's wife wasquestioned because police wanted to know ifshe had a grudge against her husband sinceshe was living separately in Dwarka withyounger son Nitish for several months, a policeofficer close to the probe told IANS.

WorldTHURSDAY, MARCH 28, 2013

12‘BANE’ MAY PLEAD GUILTY TO AVOID DEATHJames Holmes, the suspected gunman in the horrific Aurora theatre massacre, could plead guilty inexchange for escaping the death penalty, lawyers said ahead of a crucial hearing next week. The 25-year-old is due in court Monday for a hearing at which prosecutors are expected to say whether theywill seek the death penalty for the mass shooting, which left 12 people dead in July.

LOOK WHO CHECKED INA sea lion pup startled guests afterwaddling from a California beachinto a nearby luxury hotel, where itpitched up at the patio bar.Shane Pappas, manager of the PantaiInn in La Jolla, said he was alertedwhen staff found the malnourishedanimal. “I got an email saying that wehad a sea lion pup lounging on ourpatio," he said. He checked surveil-lance cameras, “and sure enough shewaddled her way up to the patio,"Pappas said, speaking after expertsfrom San Diego’s nearby SeaWorldpark came to rescue the 27.5-poundfemale creature.

Alaa Abdel Fattah, a prominentEgyptian dissident against theruling Islamists, will stand trial forallegedly participating in a Mayattack on a presidential candi-date’s headquarters. He was jailedduring the previous regime of theHosni Mubarak, said he hadreceived a letter telling him heand 12 others, were to go on trial.He along with his sister and fel-low dissident Mona Seif, has beenaccused over an attack on AhmedShafiq’s offices.

‘TRY ME!’

NUMEROLOGY

£2millionThe life story of Malala Yousafzai, 15-year Pakistani girl who was shot bythe Taliban, will be published laterthis year, in a deal reported to be

worth around £2m. I am Malala willbe published in the autumn, the

Guardian reported.

Today’s main focusis to reduce vio-

lence. Today wewill focus on build-ing mutual trustand good relations.

Paradorn PattanatabutThai National Security

Council chief. Thailand is to talk with a

rebel group from itsinsurgency-wrackedsouth Thursday as a

blast claimed 3 lives

Judge in Sarkozy probereceives ‘bullet’ mailBORDEAUX: The judge whocharged former president NicolasSarkozy with taking financial advan-tage of France’s richest woman hasreceived a bullet and a death threatin the post, say lawyers. Jean-MichelGentil, the most prominent of threejudges investigating the case,received the threatening letter withblank cartridges on Wednesday.

Pope to stamp personaltouch on Easter feteVATICAN CITY: Pope Franciswill stamp his personal touch onEaster celebrations starting bywashing the feet of young prisonerson Thursday as he stresses theimportance of reaching out to thosein need. The Holy Thursday masswill kick off symbolic ceremonieswhich commemorate Jesus Christ’scrucifixion and resurrection.

Time running out forItaly leftist BersaniROME: Time was running out forItaly’s leftist leader Pier Luigi Bersanion Thursday as he wound up daysof bitter talks with rival partiesaimed at mustering the necessarysupport to form a government. Theformer Communist will report tomembers of his Democratic Party(PD) after intense political consulta-tions.

Congo gets a week toact against ‘rape’ troopsUNITED NATIONS: The UNgave Democratic Republic of Congoa final one week deadline to takeaction against two army battalionsaccused of carrying out at least 126rapes. Peacekeeping chief HerveLasous delivered the ultimatum at ameeting with DR Congo ForeignMinister Raymond Tshibanda onWednesday.

NEWS BRIEFS

UNITED NATIONS: The 193UN members pored over the last“take it or leave it” draft aheadof a crunch decision Thursdaywhether to agree the first evertreaty to regulate the conven-tional arms trade.

The president of the negoti-ating conference, Australiandiplomat Peter Woolcott, onWednesday gave UN membersthe final draft hammered out innine days of marathon talks.

“I will not consider furtheramendments. It is take it or leaveit," Woolcott told the conferenceas he presented the draft that isbeing given particularly closescrutiny by the major arms pro-ducing nations.

It was not immediately clearwhether any country wouldblock the required consensusrequired to agree a treaty onThursday or disassociate them-selves from Woolcott’s proposedtext.

While diplomats expressedcautious optimism, if there is notan agreement by midnightThursday, seven years of effortsto agree on the first treaty onweapons ranging from side pis-tols to combat aircraft and war-ships will collapse.

Changes made since the startof the talks have made “signifi-cant improvements," saidBritain’s chief negotiator JoanneAdamson.

Adamson highlighted “anew article on preventing diver-sion of arms and (a) strength-ened section on exports whichare prohibited."

“It is not everything that wewanted, but it will be the firsttreaty on an industry that causesmuch suffering and there arebenchmarks," said a EuropeanUN ambassador, speaking oncondition of anonymity.

The treaty calls for nationalchecks on arms sales on theinternational market that somegroups estimate at being worth$80 billion a year.

The United States, Russia,Germany, France, China andBritain were the top six arms-

selling nations in 2012, theStockholm International PeaceResearch Institute said on theday the treaty talks started.

The treaty would aim toforce countries to assess whetherthe sale of a weapon or compo-nent could be used for genocide,war crimes or by terrorists ororganized crime gangs.

Non-government lobbyinggroups and many countries aredisappointed that ammunitionis not subject to the full controlsapplied to weapons. But the

United States had made it clearit would not accept ammunitioncontrols.

China and Russia also hadconcerns about the reporting ofarms sales and whetherweapons given as part of coop-eration accords would be included.

The latest version of draftonly encourages countries tomake public efforts made to con-trol arms sales. Any annualreport on arms sales can be edit-ed to keep confidentiality.

UN ARMS TREATY

‘Take it or leave it’The 193 UN members pored over the last ‘take it or leave it’ draft ahead ofa crunch decision Thursday on the first ever treaty to regulate the conven-

tional arms trade. The president of the negotiating conference said hewould not consider further amendments.

THE GOALSn The treaty calls for

national checks on armssales on the internationalmarket that some groupsestimate at being worth$80 billion a year.

n The treaty would aim to forcecountries to assess whether thesale of a weapon or compo-nent could be used for geno-cide, war crimes or by terroristsor organized crime gangs.

It is not every-thing that wewanted, but it will

be the first treaty onan industry that caus-es much suffer-ing and thereare benchmarks

A UN ambassador

n The United Statesn Russian Germanyn Francen China n Britain

THE TOP GUNS

Google will manufacture ProjectGlass, its futuristic digital eyewear,in Silicon Valley, in a high-profileexample of the return of electronicsmanufacturing to the US. Google isworking with Hon Hai PrecisionIndustry, the Taiwanese contractmanufacturer better known asFoxconn, to assemble the sci-fiheadset at a facility in Santa Clara,California, according to peoplefamiliar with the company’s plans.The decision to manufacture inCalifornia will boost PresidentBarack Obama’s drive to ensure“the next revolution in manufactur-ing is ‘Made in America’”.


A recent white paper released bythe International DataCorporation on behalf ofMicrosoft revealed that roughly33 per cent of all software iscounterfeit. The paper furtherhighlights the fact that issuesrelated to counterfeit softwarelike identity theft, repair and datarecovery cost $22 billion world-wide. Enterprises dealing withcounterfeit software are projectedto spend $114 billion this yearand if that weren’t enough, con-sumers will waste 1.5 billionhours fooling with it. One of themain concerns with counterfeitsoftware is that a large portion ofit – 78 per cent to be exact – con-tains some type of malware.

Made in USA

It’s all pirated

Researchers at the University ofSouthampton have producedoptical fibers that can transferdata at 99.7 per cent of the uni-verse’s speed limit: The speed oflight. The researchers have usedthese new optical fibers to trans-fer data at 73.7 terabits per sec-ond — roughly 10 terabytes persecond, and some 1,000 timesfaster than today’s state-of-the-art 40-gigabit fiber optic links,and at much lower latency. Thespeed of light in a vacuum is299,792,458 meters per second,or 186,282 miles per second. Inany other medium, though, it’sgenerally a lot slower. In normaloptical fibers (silica glass), lighttravels a full 31 per cent slower.

Phew that’s fast!

Technology 13ELEVATORS

2

5

THE LARGEST ELEVATOR

THE UMEDA HANKYUBUILDING ELEVATORS, JAPAN

n Building contains five 105m2 elevators

n Each can carry 80 passengers

n Each can carry amaximum load of 5 tons

n The building con-tains a total of 25mitsubishi elevators

THE HIGHEST & FASTEST ELEVATORTHE BURJ DUBAI THE WORLD'S TALLEST MANMADE STRUCTURE

n The highest elevator rise (504 metre)n World's fastest elevator (64 km/h)n Building with the most floors (163)n World's highest nightclub (144th floor)1

FAST AND THECURIOUSElevators are something we don't pay enoughattention to always, but there are some thatdemand attention from you. Here are some.

4THE BUSIEST ELEVATORSLOS ANGELES INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

n The world's busiest origin and destination airportn Served 61.8 million passengers in 2011n Otis installed 40 energy efficient elevators to cater

for the 30 airlines operating at the terminal

TALLEST OUTDOOR ELEVATORTHE BAILONG ELEVATOR IN CHINA

n The world's highest outdoor liftn Carries passengers 1,070ft in 60

secondsn Cost an estimated £12m to build

3 THE DEEPEST ELEVATORTHE MPONENG GOLD MINE ELEVATOR,SOUTH AFRICA

n Extends 3,037m undergroundn 4,000 workers carried to and from the

mine dailyn 3-story elevator cages carry up to 120

miners

ZZZZZ.....

CommentTHURSDAY, MARCH 28, 2013

14HIGH-FLYING THOUGHTSFor every rise there’s a fall: for every crest there’s a trough. This not onlyapplies to sport, but life in general. Ask the Aussies. Once how they lordedover every other team that played cricket and look at them now: in squab-bles and a mere shadow of what they were.

I’m on vacation! When onvacation it is written in theGeneva Convention thatthe person on vacation isentitled to at least eight

hours of uninterrupted sleep.So why the hell is it that I ambeing woken up at the ungodlyhour of 6.30 am? I’ll tell youwhy, ‘cause I’m a doctor andsomewhere in the GenevaConvention law about “Personson Vacation” there was a foot-note that excluded doctors fromthe ‘uninterrupted sleep’ clause.

If you have never experi-enced what it feels like to be oncall as a doctor, let me give you ascenario to try. Print out twopages of complex mathematicalproblems. Go to bed at 1am andset your alarm for 3am (that’sright, two hours of sleep).When your alarm goes off,quickly wake up and start solv-ing those math problems. Oh,you have 15 minutes to solvethose problems and if you getone wrong the patient could die!

So I went to bed last night atabout 1am as I was preoccupiedreading medical journals ( I wasactually watching ‘Two and aHalf Men’ ). In deep sleep I hearthe message tone on my phonego off. I check to find a message

from my sister stating she andher husband are sick. I couldbarely keep my eyes open,worse yet try to write a coherentmedical message. I attemptedto ask the appropriate questionsover text, but thanks to my blur-ry vision and auto-correct , themessage they got was, “My goatran for mayor.” After struggling

for couple of minutes I decidedto call them via FaceTime. Theonline consultation lasted about30 minutes, but felt much longerthan that. It felt like 40 minutes.After that was done I tried to getback to sleep but my phonebuzzed again. This time I got aspam email asking me if I wasinterested in Viagra. I could

barely keep my eyes open, Ireally don’t think I have theenergy to deal with Viagra or itseffects right now.

Realizing it was futile to tryto get back to bed, I went to get acup of coffee. Usually I drinkcoffee at work and have becomeaccustomed to one brand of cof-fee. Since being home I havehad to drink a different brandand the only time I rememberthat I need to purchase the one Ilike is when I’m making my cof-fee. Phone rings: “Hey cous,what’s up?” my cousins asks.Since I hadn’t taken the Viagrathere was one thing that wasn’tup. Turns out his kid was on theverge of having an asthmaattack and he wanted to knowwhat medication to give him.

Now you see what I meanby waking up to do math prob-lems.

There are very few profes-sions where people have norespect for your sleep. Police,firefighters and pole dancers areamongst the few who get calledin at all hours to attend to anemergency. Then there are otherprofessions like bankers, for-tune tellers and chefs who get tosleep peaceful at night, as theirrights are covered by theGeneva Convention.

My sister is an accountant, Iswear one day I’m going to callher up at 3am and ask her to bal-ance my check book or conducta forensic audit.

Feel the cold?

It’s spring time in Europe. Well, it ought to be. But it is still winter. People there fear that they arebeing punished. Even in these times of advanced science, nobody can be blamed for falling for

such thoughts of karma. It is karma indeed that has caused four consecutive winters that froze life inthose parts… karma that is giving it back to us for our hand in causing and exacerbating global

warming. It won’t be long before the expression “feel the heat” changes to “feel the cold” in Europe.If it is life-freezing winters there, in Asia and Australia it is the opposite. Wildfires played havoc

Down Under, threatening to wipe out huge tracts of life, human and vegetation and experts havewarned that such conditions could be the norm in the years to follow. In God’s own country (we

must find out the chap who coined it: he must come up with another moniker that’s becoming ofthe Kerala now, for various reasons), people are ravaged by the blazing sun and the constant chanton their lips is, “When will it rain?” Rivers that flowed with pomp even in summers look emaciated

and emasculated, because rains don’t keep their date. And what are we doing? Nothing.

Tiger’s a sport

The ladies may not like it. Theywill in all likelihood disagree,

but whatever Tiger Woods may ormay not be, he is definitely a sport.When Rory McIlroy texted him tocongratulate him on his becomingthe World No 1 again, that toousurping him, this was Tiger’s reply:"Get your finger out and win thisweek" at Houston Open. He mayhave played games, but let there beno doubt about his gamesmanship.

EDITORIALS

READERS’ VIEWSWe invite you to write to us comments, suggestions, viewpoint or just about anything to [email protected] or#1246, Level 3, Jubilee Casa, Road No 62, Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad – 500 033 or even by way of a call on 4067 2222. Editor: Dean Williams

If a littledreaming is

dangerous, thecure for it is not todream less but todream more, todream all thetime.

Marcel Proust French novelist

BUT... SERIOUSLYAjay Hotchandani

Sleep deprived mathderivatives

Myanmarmedia to write

historyAfter embracing the Internet

age and filing breakingnews on Twitter and

Facebook, Myanmar's long-muz-zled reporters are gearing up for

another revolution — daily news-papers. New freedoms have

swept through Myanmar's presssince a reformist regime took

power two years ago, but archaicrules meant private titles could

only publish once a week.That is set to change from

April 1, when 16 weekly newsjournals will be allowed to

become dailies. "People are reallyexcited about having daily news-papers. But I'm worried whether

their hopes will be met 100 per-cent when the papers are in the

market," said Nyein Nyein Naing,editor of 7Day News, one of

Myanmar's most popular journals. Each morning an arrayof readers, from civil servants to

rickshaw drivers, gather at street-side news stands to devour the

newly uncensored news cull-edfrom the various weeklies.

It is a novel experience for apopulation hungry for informa-

tion after decades of rule by arepressive junta that neutered the

country's media."I think when daily papers

come out, they will be more capa-ble to lead and educate the peo-

ple," lawyer Htay Win told AFP ina teashop in a bustling suburb of

the largest city Yangon. Newsreporting in Myanmar is already a

far cry from during the junta era,when sensitive news was often

delivered through whisperedrumour. In November 2010, whenAung San Suu Kyi was freed fromhouse arrest following controver-

sial elections, sales of the FirstEleven Sports Journal were halted

by the authorities for two weeksbecause a message about her

release was embedded in a front-page football headline. AFP

CHILL DOWN YOUR SPINE

tELEVISIONTHURSDAY, MARCH 28, 2013

HAPPY ENDING CAST IN HIMYMCasey Wilson (Penny!) and Key and Peele's Keegan-Michael Key will

appear in the last episode of HIMYM's eighth season, airing in onemonth. 15

PADMINI [email protected]

Not just anotherpolice procedural: Ifyou've liked TheKilling, you're going

to dig this. Detective RobinGriffin (Elizabeth Moss) hasreturned home to visit herdying mother when she iscalled in to investigate the dis-appearance of Tui Mittcham(Jaqueline Joe), the pregnant12-year-old daughter of localdrug lord Tsui Mittcham (PeterMullan). Time is running outand there are few clues. All themen in her family, and thecommunity as a whole, are sus-pects. Though it's hard to say atthis point, how the story willpan out, the show is tightlystrung and is thick with sus-pense.

Performances: Havingshown her worth as a womanwho learns how to hold her

own in a man's world,Elizabeth Moss reinventsPeggy from Mad Men to takeover as detective Robin, who'sthe lone female champion in atestosterone-fuelled arena.Haunted by her demons, butunwilling to back down, pur-suing Tui but running awayfrom her mother's illness; Mossmakes it easy for us to buy intoRobin as a fascinating enigma.Supporting her in the role ofSergeant detective Al Parker isDavid Wenham (Faramir!)who bats in a solid JaneCampion who gave us The

Piano and most recently BrightStar, sets the pace perfectly andhas us eating out of her hands.

The Setting: With longsweeping shots of lush goldenwoods, vast obsidian lakes,sprawling meadows andforested mountains, the ruralcountryside in New Zealandserves as the backdrop forCampion's series and it'sbreathtaking despite the omi-nous overtones and the sinistershadows. Hinting at the sym-bolic significance of the land-scape, the lead characterMittcham explains, “ This landhas great history. Adam andEve... Garden of Eden...Coming of the serpent. It'sParadise.”

The Subtext: Family, com-munity, culture, misogyny, sex-ism, violence, abuse... we cango on. If you didn't guess italready, Top of the Lake isdepressingly serious. Not justin its subject but also its treat-

ment. The dialogue is tense, theatmosphere is almost alwaysintense, the characters barelyever crack a smile leaving theaudience edgy. But if you arewilling to live with that, thethemes are cerebral.

The end is near: The show'sin parts, slow and dreary andsometimes outrightly bizarre.There'll be sudden cues into thelives of strange women whoare chimp lovers and sexaddicts meditating in contain-ers. But's let's admit it. Afterliving through eight and halfseasons of listening to a dadtalk to his children about hemet their mother, the idea of asuspense being revealed in oneseason, seven parts, to be pre-cise cannot be appreciatedenough.

So bottom line? Even as it isdark and disturbing, Top of theLake is a strangely compellingdrama that sucks you indespite your best efforts.

LAKESIDE VIEWEven as Top of the Lake is dark and disturbing, the seven-part mini-series is a

strangely compelling drama that sucks you in despite your best efforts.

Elizabeth Moss rein-vents Peggy fromMad Men to take overas detective Robin,who's the lone femalechampion in a testos-terone-fuelled arena.

DID YOU KNOW...

Friendsstars Matt LeBlanc and Lisa Kudrowwill reunite on Web Therapy. Matt

will play the role of an online gam-bling addict who is counselled byFiona Wallice (Kudrow), reports

Entertainment Weekly. Additionalguest stars for Web Therapy's newseason include Sara Gilbert, AlanCumming, Meg Ryan, Jesse Tyler

Ferguson and Megan Mullally.

Script stolenThe script of Breaking Bad finalseason was stolen from star BryanCranston's car. Cranston calledpolice in Albuquerque, N.M.,where the show films, on March 1to report that someone had bro-ken into his car and stolen severalitems, including an iPad and ascript from the AMC series.Cranston and his castmates arefilming the show's final episodes,which are set to air in the summer.A man named Xavier McAfee wasarrested over the weekend andcharged with the theft, althoughthe script hasn't been recovered.

Keith Urban hasvowed never to

"humiliate"American Idol

contestants. Thesinger continued:

"We're artistestalking to a youngartiste on camera

in front of millionsof people, tryingto give construc-tive criticism in away that doesn'thumiliate them.”Nicki Minaj said

last month that itwas her responsi-bility to be tough

on contestants.

Lindsay Lohanwas well-pre-pared and"incredibly nice"while shootingher AngerManagementguest appear-ance, accordingto a source. TheLiz & Dick starbooked the rolein February, foran episode whereshe will play her-self as one of DrCharlieGoodson's(Charlie Sheen)patients.

BREAKING BAD

TRENDING...


18KARAOKE TIME It's a day not just for the pretty ladies but also for the bold voices! It'skaraoke time so get ready to enjoy a peppy night with KJ Anand at 10Downing Street.spotlight

LET’S PLAY HOLI

Taj Deccan on Wednesday was awash with people as they gathered to celebrate the festival of colours. There was laughter, colours and a whole lot of

fun as people let their guard down and enjoyed smearing colour on familyand friends.

CAMP OF COLOURS

Chief Minister KiranKumar Reddy

celebrated Holi at thecamp office on

Wednesday. Also seenenjoying the festivalwere MLAs Danam

Nagender andSudheer Reddy and

the ex Mayor B KarthikReddy.

MUSICAL NIGHTThe audio launch of Gunde Jaari Gallanthayyinde was held at

Taj Banjara on Wednesday. The cast of the movie was present atthe do.

S BALAKRISHNA

N SHIVA KUMAR

N SHIVA KUMAR

RANGEELA RE!

CONTRACEPTIVE PILLS KILL 20 IN FRANCEThe use of contraceptive pills cause some 2,500 accidents and 20 deaths every

year in France. This is the finding of the National Agency for the Safety of Drugsand Health Products (ANSM), reports Xinhua. Contraceptive pills are tied toblood clots, and 1,751 accidents.health


19

DON’T DRINK THAT!ENERGY DRINKS

myCignaThe all-new myCignaMobile app gives you asimple way to person-alise, organise andaccess your importanthealth information on

the go. Dependents can now search fora doctor, dentist, pharmacy or healthcare facility from Cigna’s national net-work and compare quality-of-care ratings.

OnychomycosisOnychomycosis is a fungal infection ofthe finger or toenail. There are numberof different types of fungal infection thatcan cause this problem. Our nails helpus to manipulate objects, aid our senseof touch and protect the tissues at theend of our fingers and toes.Onychomycosis alters the look of nails,making them very unsightly, andrequires treatment. A thickened nail maylimit usual activities.

Our body is capable ofproducing aspirinFindings from the Journalof Agriculture and FoodChemistry indicate thatstudy participants who

received benzoic acid, a natural substancein fruits and vegetables, could make theirown salicylic acid, the key componentthat gives aspirin its anti-inflammatoryand pain-relieving properties.

Victor ChangVictor Peter Chang was a ChineseAustralian cardiac surgeon and a pio-neer of modern heart transplantation.He trained in England and the UnitedStates as a surgeon before returning toAustralia. In St Vincent’s Hospital, hehelped establish the National CardiacTransplant Unit, the country’s leadingcentre for heart and lung transplants.He pioneered the development of anartificial heart valve.

NEWS BRIEFSAPP-LY YOURSELF HOUSECALL DID YOU KNOW? PIONEERS

Latest studies suggest thatenergy drinks could be doingmuch more than just makingyou feel re-energised. Theycould send your blood pres-sure soaring and even resultin cardiac arrests. So do youstill want to drain that can?

According to a reportin the ChicagoTribune, a doctorsees a large number

of young patients rushinginto his emergency room, con-vinced that they are going todie. They usually presentwith symptoms like palpita-tions, tremors, shortness ofbreath and anxiety — thingsyou would normally associatewith an elderly patient. Butdo you know the reason whythis happens? Energy drinks.In almost all of these cases, DrDavid Zich found that theyoungsters had glugged downmore than a couple of cans ofenergy drinks. Not surpris-ingly, the consumption ofsuch highly concentratedstimulants does result in suchsymptoms.

According to a report pub-lished in medicaldaily.com,which quoted a research pre-sented by the reputedAmerican Heart Association,energy drinks’ side effects caninclude a disturbed heartrhythm and higher bloodpressure. The website goes onto say that the link betweenenergy drink consumptionand heart irregularities is wellestablished — a teenage girldied of cardiac arrest afterdrinking an energy drink lastyear, and the FDA linked a

particular energy drink to 13deaths since 2008, mostlyfrom heart attacks. More than20,000 people were taken toemergency rooms for prob-lems related to energy drinks’side effects.

According to Dr HollyBenjamin, a paediatric sportsmedicine specialist quoted inthe Chicago Tribune, “Energydrinks have no place in the diet of children or adolescents.”

The main reason energydrinks are tied to the risk ofheart ailment and anxiety isbecause it contains two stimu-lants in concentrated mea-sures to give you that burst ofenergy — sugar and caffeine.A typical energy drink con-tains at least 80 mg of caf-feine, which is equivalent toone cup of coffee. While onecan of the energy drink mightnot do one much harm, imag-ine the lethal effects if some-one drinks more than a coupleof cans, which according toexperts is what most peopledo these days.

Caffeiene boosts heart rateand blood pressure. Butwhatcaffeine also does is cause theheart to release calcium,which may affect the heartbeat. Excessive consumptionof these drinks may also dis-rupt the normal balance offluids and salts in the body.

So the next time you reachout for one, do stop to thinkwhat you’re putting yourheart through.

RANJANI [email protected]

health THURSDAY, MARCH 28, 2013 20

WASHINGTON: The numberof Americans who have survivedcancer is on the rise and isexpected to reach 18 million peo-ple in the next decade, accordingto a report released Wednesday.

That would be a 30 per centincrease over the latest figures inJanuary 2012, which showed 13.7million people in the UnitedStates had survived some formof cancer, according to theAmerican Association for CancerResearch.

The forecasted increase ismainly due to the aging popula-tion, with two thirds of cancersurvivors expected to be 65 orolder by 2020, said the study.

“How to ensure that thesepatients lead not only long lives,but healthy and productive lives,will be a vital challenge to all ofus," said Julia Rowland, directorof the Office of CancerSurvivorship at the NationalCancer Institute, part of theNational Institutes of Health.

The AACR’s report showsthat women with breast canceraccount for 22 per cent of sur-vivors, while men with prostatecancer make up 20 per cent.

However, those with lungcancer make up a slim three per-cent of all US survivors.

“For patients with prostatecancer, we have a nearly 100 per-cent five-year survival rate, andbreast cancer has made tremen-dous strides as well, with five-year survival rising from 75 per-cent in 1975 to almost 89 percentin 2012," said Rowland.

A report by the US Centersfor Disease Control andPrevention released in Januaryshowed that fewer people weredying from cancer in the UnitedStates, continuing a trend thatbegan in the early 1990s.

Cancer kills more than 1,500people a day in the United States— a total of 301,820 men and275,370 women in 2012, accord-ing to the latest estimates by theAmerican Cancer Society. AFP

Number ofUS cancersurvivors ison the rise

REPORT

Scientists pinpoint genecoding errors for cancerPARIS: The biggest-ever trawlof the human genome for can-cer-causing DNA errors has net-ted more than 80 tiny mutations,a finding that could help peopleat high risk, researchers saidWednesday.

The results, which doublethe number of known geneticalterations linked to breast,ovarian and prostate cancer,were unveiled in a dozen scien-tific papers published in jour-nals in Europe and the UnitedStates.

The three hormone-relatedcancers are diagnosed in over2.5 million people every yearand kill one in three patients,said a Nature press statement.

Teams from more than 100research institutes in Europe,Asia, Australia and the UnitedStates said the work should inthe future help doctors to calcu-late an individual’s cancer risklong before any symptomsemerge.

People with high-suscepti-bility mutations could be coun-selled against lifestyle choicesthat further increase their risk,given regular screening anddrug treatment, or even preven-tative surgery.

“We have examined 200,000areas of the genome in 250,000individuals. There is no (other)study of cancer of this size," PerHall, coordinator of theCollaborative OncologicalGene-environment Study(COGS), told AFP of theresearch.

The studies compared theDNA of more than 100,000patients with breast, ovarianand prostate cancer to that of anequal number of healthy indi-viduals. Most were of Europeanancestry.

DNA, the blueprint for life,comprises four basic chemicalscalled A (adenine) C (cytosine), T(thymine) and G (guanine)strung together in different com-binations along a double helix.

Researchers noted where theA, C, T, G combinations of can-cer patients differed significant-ly from those of healthy people.

They were looking for a tiny“spelling mistake” in the code,called a single nucleotide poly-morphism or SNP that can causeproblems in gene function.

For breast cancer, theresearchers found 49 SNPs,“which is more than double thenumber previously found", saidSweden’s Karolinska Institutet,which took part in the giant

study.“In the case of prostate can-

cer, researchers have discoveredanother 26 deviations, whichmeans that a total number of 78SNPs may be linked to the dis-ease."

For ovarian cancer, eightnew SNPs were found.

Everyone has inherited alter-ations in their DNA, butwhether these mutations aredangerous or not is determinedby where on the code they lie.

And carrying a mutationdoes not necessarily mean a per-son will develop cancer, a diseasethat may have multiple causes.

The researchers said furtherstudy is needed to allow scien-tists to translate these DNA tell-

tales into tests for predictingcancer risk. A more distant goalis using the knowledge for better treatments.

“Since there are many otherfactors that influence the risk ofthese cancers (mainly lifestylefactors), future tests have to takemore risk factors than just genesinto consideration," said Hall.

“It will take a couple of yearsbefore we have the necessarymodels enabling us, with highaccuracy, to predict the individ-ual risk of these cancers."

The findings were publishedin Nature Genetics and NatureCommunications, PLOS Genetics,the American Journal of HumanGenetics and Human MolecularGenetics. AFP

BREAKTHROUGH

DISEASE

GENEVA: A 73-year-old manfrom the United Arab Emirates(UAE) has died in Germanyfrom infection of a novel diseasecoronavirus, the World HealthOrganization (WHO) said.

WHO said in its latest dis-ease outbreak update that theman was transferred from a hos-

pital in Abu Dhabi to MunichMarch 19. Germany’s RobertKoch Institute informed WHOof the new confirmed case.

WHO also said that theBritish patient in the family clus-ter reported on February 11 withtravel history to Pakistan andSaudi Arabia prior to his illness

has died. To date, WHO hasbeen informed of a global totalof 17 confirmed cases of humaninfection with the novel coron-avirus, including 11 deaths.

WHO continued to encour-age all member states to contin-ue their surveillance for severeacute respiratory infections and

to carefully review any unusualpatterns.

It said it was currently work-ing with international expertsand countries where cases havebeen reported to assess the situa-tion and review recommenda-tions for surveillance and monitoring. IANS

UAE man dies from novel disease

Researchers said the work should, in the future, help doctors calculate an individual’s cancer risk long before any symptoms emerge.

EntertainmentTHURSDAY, MARCH 28, 2013

21

Disha gets busy

Disha Pandey, who waslast seen in Race, has

bagged two more films inTelugu. She’s paired oppo-site Prince in an untitledfilm to be directed bySuresh P Kumar. Sethu andRicha Panai are the otherlead actors in this film. “Iam also in talks for anotherfilm in Telugu, apart from aHindi film," Disha reveals.

GJG’s audio launched

The audio of Gunde JaariGallanthayindhe starring

Nithin, Nithya Menen and IshaTalwar was launched in style, lastnight in Hyderabad. Vijay Kumarhas directed the film and AnupRubens has scored the music. Thefilm’s shooting is nearly completeand it’s all set to hit the screenson April 19.

Trisha signs a newendorsement deal

After endorsing products likeColgate, Vivel, Fanta and

Fairever, Trisha is all set toendorse an American ice-creambrand which will soon enter theIndian market. “Happy 2announce Ill b d brand ambas-sador fr my most fav ice creambrand. Soon 2 b launched inIndia..Will kip u posted. til tenSsshhhhhhh (sic),” Trisha postedon Twitter.

CINE BYTESBACK IN ACTION

I’m very impulsive about films:

VENKATESH

Venkatesh is slowly moving into a new zone in his career.He is no longer the actor we saw a decade ago.

Although he has been choosy about the kind of films hetakes up from time to time, he confesses that he’s quite

impulsive. “I am very impulsive when it comes todeciding what films to do. I don’t think much about the director’s

track record and I am not the kind of person who thinks muchabout the past or future either. I believe in living in the pre-

sent,” he says. His upcoming film Shadow will mark his returnto an action-packed role after a long time. Ask him whatimpressed him so much about the film, he says, “When

Meher Ramesh approached me, I could see his sincer-ity and conviction in trying to present me in a differ-

ent avatar and I had been wanting to do a massaction film for quite sometime. Luckily, we found

a good team and the project kickstarted withinno time. No matter how much I plan about the

kind of films I aspire to do, few things happen inno time. Besides, there’s no point thinking too

much about things which aren’t permanent. Hitsand flops are a part of a film industry, but what’s

more important is commitment and disciplinetowards your job.” Talking about Shadow, he

clarifies that he isn’t playing a don’s role con-trary to the rumours which have been doing

rounds for quite sometime. “Shadow is arevenge drama with plenty of action, senti-ment and comedy. After a long time, I havedone some risky stunts in this film and weare all quite happy with the output. More

importantly, I believe people have likedmy look in this film and the feedback I

have got so far is quite encouraging.Thaman’s music is an added advan-

tage and among the songs, I liked theway the title track and Naughty

Girl were shot,” Venkateshsaid. Taapsee is his co-star

in the film andSrikanth has done

an importantrole. The film

is likely tohit the

screenson April

11.

fashionTHURSDAY, MARCH 28, 2013

A RAY OF HOPE FOR TEXTILE INDUSTRYNATIONAL TEXTILE Corporation Limited signed an MoU with Ministry of Textiles, Government of India on March 18. Zohra

Chatterji, IAS, Secretary - Ministry of Textiles and K Ramachandran Pillai, Chairman cum Managing Director, National TextileCorporation Limited, signed the Memorandum of Understanding between Ministry of Textiles and NTC Limited.

Regulars in the Indianfashion scene would

not be strangers to thehigh level of innovative

and enduringlythoughtful additions,season after season at

Lakmé Fashion Week.

AGREATSTYLEFILE

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22&23BIPASHA LAUNCHES TOMMY HILFIGER’S SPRING SUMMER COLLECTIONTOMMY HILFIGER recently launched their Spring Summer 2013 collection with Bipasha Basu at their store in Bangalore. The Spring/Summercollection for 2013 - the Prep Passport is inspired by a whirlwind world tour. The collection returns home with three distinct adventures toshare. Each one is unique but all of them celebrate the beauty of clean lines, riotous colour, rich textures and special finishes.

LAKMÉ FASHION WEEKis organised twice everyyear. LFW Summer/Reso rt

2013 was held from March 22 toMarch 26 at Grand Hyatt Hotel,Mumbai. The first day of LFWSummer/ Resort 2013 sawdesigners like Amalraj Sengu p ta,Debarun Mukherjee, SuhaniPittie, Anupama Dayal and Ar -pan Vohra showcase their colle -ctions. “Lights, Camera, Fash -ion,” announced Arpan Vohraand the ramp came alive with avisual spectacle of colours asseen through the spectrum oflights. Visions in pink, white,black, beige and dull metallicgold glided down under the arclights. The wonderful fashion eraof the ‘60s was recreated as laceand gold were designed intocorset style silhouettes for dress-es and jumpsuits. Amalrajlaunched his hand stitchedbespoke line called Tailor with acollection called The Tribe. Agreat fashion collection forstylish men and wom en.Debarun declared his collectionessentially as Be You . He pre-sented his unique collection formen and women. Bringing in amelangé of summer hues ontothe ramp, Deba run let his cre-ativity loose by selecting koracotton and viscose wovenstriped fabrics and then addedtribal inspired block prints. Suh -ani Pittie meanwhile brou ghtearthy glamour to her jewelleryline at LFW. Her collection calledDances with the Earth revealedraw ancient beauty that celebrat-ed the particular form of pagan-ism seen amongst tribes of cen-

turies gone by. Suhani’s jew-ellery revealed a spiritual andsoul searching aspect, whichhad an arresting impact onthe ramp.

The highlights of thefashion week includedmaster couturier TarunTahiliani, who show-cased his collection thatboasted of designerweaves in tribal and jun-gle influences withauthentic chikankari andkantha embroidery.International Designer NaeemKhan debuted his collection inIndia at LFW which includedcustom-made pieces of luxuryfashion, especially for this fash-ion fest.

Namrata Joshipura was theGrand Finale designer at LFWSummer/Resort this year, reiter-ating Lakmé Fashion Week’spledge to provide a platform forIndia’s finest talent. The showmarked Joshipura’s first-evershowcase at LFW. Bollywoodactress Kareena Kapoor lookedher best as she walked the rampfor designer Namrata Joshipuraon Tuesday during the grandfinale. The actress looked spec-tacular in an orangish-pink shirtand long blingy palazzos with apink semi formal jacket. Theshow followed a theme of ‘Poptints’ which are a range of lipand nail paints by Lakme.

LFW also showcaseddesigns by Manish Malhotra,Vikram Phadnis, SwapnilShinde, Rocky S, Arjun Khanna,Shantanu and Nikhil amongothers.

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Entertainment THURSDAY, MARCH 28, 2013 24

ACROSS1 Inflatable floatable5 Rose oil10 Wood-carver’s tool14 Emerald Isle15 Put off, at a meeting16 Lecherous look17 Wedding party member19 Ruler in Rimsky-Korsakov operas20 IOU component21 “In the headlights” animal22 Messages via modem24 Author Fleming25 Collect-all-the-cards game26 Small finch28 “Tattooed lady” of song30 Got up from one’s chair32 Possessive for sharers33 Stage attire for Madonna35 ___ it good (is well-off)36 Having many irons in the fire37 They have no height requirement40 Boss Hogg’s deputy42 Bug killer banned by the EPA43 Word often repeated before

“again”44 Piglet’s mom45 Sneaker bottom47 English test segment, perhaps51 It’s closed by the epiglottis53 Cockpit approx.55 Santa ___, Calif.56 Gets outta Dodge57 Grad58 Rocky crag59 Civil rights hero Parks60 Like some refrigerators and freezers63 Varieties or types64 Thrill to death65 They could use some refinement66 “___ From Muskogee” (Merle

Haggard tune)

67 Wabbit hunter68 Bird’s digs

DOWN1 Heat again, as water2 Ventilation shaft3 Crony4 Williams, the “Splendid Splinter”5 Serving on a sub, say6 Lion handlers, in a circus7 Ski lift component8 Baba of folklore9 Add more silt to banks10 It may have a cross to bear11 Wanting (with “of”)12 Gung ho13 Goof up18 Kingly name, in Britain23 Ready to be committed26 Fly high27 Humorously ironic29 Egret relative31 Eighth Greek letter34 Letter opener36 Ottoman Empire dignitaries37 Stanley in “A Streetcar Named

Desire”38 Brainstorm39 Extremely attractive40 Founded (Abbr.)41 Virginia port city45 Common article46 Get rid of, electronically48 Biting writing49 Positive electrodes50 Most dexterous52 Put a stop to54 Potato, for one57 First man59 “City the sea-o”61 Down with a bug62 Boy child

KAKURO QUICK CROSSWORD

SUDOKU

Chai TimeTHURSDAY, MARCH 28, 2013

26THOUGHT OF THE DAYThis is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need forcomplicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple;the philosophy is kindness. Dalai Lama

SCRIBBLING PAD

PREVIOUS PUZZLE ANSWER

How to play kakuroKakuro is a popular game similar to sudoku insome ways. But is also suitably different. The keyquestion: ‘How do you play kakuro?’, well hereare the rules of kakuro. The answer: The kakurogrid, unlike in sudoku, can be of any size. It hasrows and columns, and dark cells like in a cross-word. And, just like in a crossword, some of thedark cells will contain numbers. Some cells willcontain two numbers.

However, in a crossword the numbersreference clues. In a kakuro, the numbers are allyou get! They denote the total of the digits in therow or column referenced by the number.

Within each collection of cells — calleda run — any of the numbers 1 to 9 may be usedbut, like sudoku, each number may only be usedonce.

Let’s have an example to explain this conceptmore clearly:

In the image above, which shows a section ofa kakuro puzzle, you will see the numbers ‘26’and ‘14’ in the top row. Look at the 14. Thismeans that the total of the three cells under-neath must sum to 14. Therefore 9, 4, 1 could bethe answer, or perhaps 7, 4, 3 and so on...

So, how do you work out the actual combi-nation? Well, this is done through eliminationand cross-referencing. For instance, as you workout the answers for other kakuro clues, this willnaturally limit the valid combinations, and hencethe answer for this particular run.

Note the second cell in row two — it con-tains two numbers, 30 and 11. The 30 refers tothe vertical run underneath the number 30 andthe 11 refers to the two cells to the right, hori-zontally, of the number 11.

TAROT READ

Chai Time THURSDAY, MARCH 28, 2013 27

STAR POWER

STRIP TEASE

Vol: 2, No 251 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 – 500033and printed by him at 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

Thiruvaikumar

Sumaa Tekur

thiruvaikumar@yahoo. co. in, 040-27177230 / 9177596118

tarotreadhyd@gmail. com

for 29-3-2013 As per Hindu panchang

for 29-3-2013

ARIESA cheerful atmosphere will prevail at home. Friendship cir-cle will expand and you willbenefit. You will gain in all theimportant works that areundertaken. Businessmen arelikely to do well with their newand innovative plans.

ARIES: Ten of Swords –Don’t heed to advice unless you trustthis person completely. He/she maybe meaning well for you. But yourdecisions are your own.

GEMINI: Three ofPentacles – Take up a training courseor learn a new skill. You may feel it’snot required right now. Tomorrow,you never know.

LEO: Queen of Pentacles –You have a spiritual approach to allthings material. However dichoto-mous this may sound, it’s true andit’s putting you in a bit of quandary.

LIBRA: Six of Pentacles –A senior person in your office willhelp get you a better deal at thework place. A recent hike or promo-tion may be.

TAURUS: Six of Cups –Get your college buddies togetherfor a game of Scrabble of Pictionary.Re-live the old days and take com-fort those good memories.

CANCER: Queen of Swords– You may be feeling a little lonely,especially if those around you aremoving on, on the relationship front.Get into the game, or stay out.

VIRGO: Eight of Cups –You’re working very hard on a pro-ject without knowing where it’sheaded or what the outcome will be.Keep working and keep the faith.

SCORPIO: Queen of Cups– You wear your heart on your sleeveand that may be a problem if you’rein a job that involves managing peo-ple. Not everyone wants the truth.

CAPRICORN: Ten of Cups– Despite wanting a breather, onejob after another demands attention.Housewives have a rough timecatching up with all the cleaning.

SAGITTARIUS: King ofCups – Don’t get emotional about aperson or situation or begin to blameyourself if something’s not working.Not everything can be under control.

AQUARIUS: Four ofSwords – You’re settling down in arelationship and everything’s going asperexpectation. You’re very comfort-able with your partner. Take it slow.

PISCES: Six of Wands –Finances are looking great. Aninvestment is giving returns nowand you feel more confident thanever about your decisions.

TAURUSFavorable verdict is on thecards in court case. Politicianswill be in limeligh. As moneyinflow is looking good, you willbe financially comfortable.Major portion your long pend-ing debts will get clearedwhich make you feel relaxed.

GEMINIYour self-confidence level andcourage will be at their highestlevels which will make you toproceed with a determinationin all the works undertaken.Worries and expenses are likelyto make you upset. Be alert andactive and get rid of them.

CANCERYou will handle the issues welland earn praise from all. Youwill feel relieved as moneyfrom all the expected sourceswill come by. Your stock in thesociety is set to pile up. Fulfillwishes of your children andkeep them cheerful.

LEOYour opinions will be wellreceived and you will gainupper hand in all the issues.Held up house construction willresume and progress well. Youwill receive bouquets for solv-ing issues by finding their rootcause and stop them.

VIRGOHousing plan will get approvaland work will start soon andprogress well. Your swiftactions will take you forward.Those who were criticising andopposed to you will keep quietnow. Success in all the works isyour ultimate achievement.

LIBRAThere are possibilities of adeficit financial situation butyou will manage it well.Chances of a sudden financialfortune. You will not go againstthe truth. Parents’ health maybe a cause for concern, takecare.

SCORPIOYour influence graph is set raisesteadily. You will get introduction of top industrialists. Unexpectedfinancial opportunity is likely.You will focus in solving thedebt issues and achieve successtoo.

SAGITTARIUSFinancially a strong position islikely. VIPs friendship with youwill bring good luck and help insolving the critical issues. Youare that kind of a person whowill never repent a decision butcontinue to stick to it. Oncecommitted you will stand by it.

CAPRICORNRenovation of your house willgo well without any hurdles.Ancestral property is likely tobe received earlier thanexpected. You will understandvery well the intentions of people surrounding you andact accordingly.

AQUARIUSGovernment works will endfavorably and faster. Supportlikely from your close friendsand well wishers. You will faceproblems with confidence andsolve them. You will help thosein trouble and share their difficulties.

PISCESBlood relatives will help andsupport you. Minor misunder-standing is likely with familymembers. Your new and innovative plans will be implemented well and yielddesired results. Financial position is above satisfactory.

AGNES

NON SEQUITUR

PEARLS BEFORE SWINE

POOCH CAFE

BoggleIRAN INDIA ITALY ISRAEL ICELAND IRELAND

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PREVIOUS SOLUTIONS


David Dhawan proudof son Varun

Filmmaker David Dhawansays he is proud of his

son Varun Dhawan and it’snow payback time with hisentry into Bollywood. “It’spayback time, I would say,with Varun’s entry intoshowbiz. After working sohard in the industry, I amglad the industry hasaccepted my son. I amextremely proud of Varun,”Dhawan said. IANS

‘Ghanchakkar’ trailer tobe released digitally

Filmmaker Rajkumar Gupta’sGhanchakkar will have its trail-

er launched digitally today. “Yes, itis true that we have deviated fromthe traditional trailer launch routeof having an event and decidedon launching Ghanchakkar trailerdigitally,” said Shikha Kapur, exec-utive director, marketing, studios,Disney UTV. “The trailer will beattached with Himmatwala, whichhas a really wide release.” IANS

I'd never remake my dad'sfilms: Rohan Sippy

Filmmaker Rohan Sippy, son ofrenowned producer-director

Ramesh Sippy, doesn't want toremake any of his father's films.Ramesh Sippy is known for hismemorable films Sholay, SeetaAur Geeta and Shakti. “I wouldalways like to do original films. Iwould never remake my dad'sfilms, only then one would under-stand the difference between us,"said Rohan, who has directed fourfilms, including forthcomingmovie Nautanki Saala. IANS

CINE BYTESMUMBAI CALLING

“The south Indian film industry is more tradi-tional. This reflects in their work.The cultural differences, lan-guage and approach are

completely different, while Bollywoodis more open and caters to a wideraudience,” Asin told IANS in a tele-phonic interview from Mumbai.

There is another key difference,she added. Down south “people areready to accept you the way you are.They appreciate and value simplicity.You don’t have to wear make-up or bein your glamorous image when you makepublic appearances”.

“Whereas in Bollywood, it’s about creating astar image, a style quotient that you have to carrythroughout. You have to be in the glamorousimage all the time,” said the actress who madea big name for herself in Tamil and Telugufilms before she moved to Hindi cinema.

Asin, who debuted opposite Aamir Khanin the 2008 hit Ghajini, said Bollywood gives achance to women in varied spheres. “On thesets, I see a lot of young women technicians,women camerapersons, hairdressers, make-upartists, dress designers, stage designers andtechnicians... It’s not the same in the south,”she said.

The 27-year-old however feels the barrierbetween the two industries is slowly diminishing.Bollywood filmmakers have taken inspiration fromTamil and Telugu films and remade them in Hindi.Yuva, Singham, Rowdy Rathore and Wanted are someexamples. She is glad “the trend is growing at a fastpace”.

“The main purpose is to entertain viewers andthat is undoubtedly being done. I also like the factthat a lot of young writers and directors are comingin with fresh, original scripts,” she added.

Aamir, Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar... Asin hasromanced some of the top-notch actors of Hindi cin-ema on the big screen in the last five years and saysteaming up with big names helps in growth.

She says she feels “blessed” that Hindi moviebuffs had accepted her. “It’s not easy.”

“Those who migrate from Tollywood orKollywood or freshers do not really get to work withA-listers. Working with them helps in growth. I amlucky. I worked with Aamir Khan and AR Rahmanin my first film Ghajini. But I have also put in a lot ofhard work to be where I am today,” she said.

Before entering Hindi films, she was already astar in the south Indian film industry and featuredin films like Chakram, Varalaru and Dasavathaaram.

Apart from movies, the 27-year-old keeps her-self busy with endorsements, but her wish listincludes more Bollywood projects.

Asked what kind of roles she was eyeing,Asin said: “I would like to do well-written freshcharacters. So far, I have played a fun-lovinggirl-next-door. Now I would like to try some-thing different, something more challengingand exciting.”

Ready, Housefull 2 and Bol Bachchan aresome of her recent Hindi releases.

Many film stars are dabbling intelevision but the small screen is notfor Asin. “I haven’t thought about it.It’s good that film personalitiesare appearing on TV as hosts orjudges but I am not readyfor it. I won’t do it,” shesaid. IANS

The southern film industry is far moretraditional than Bollywood, which catersto a wider audience and gives opportuni-

ties to women in technical fields, saysactress Asin Thottumkal after a five-

year stint in Hindi films.

sports 29NBA


CHICAGO: The Chicago Bullsended the Miami Heat’s epic 27-game NBA winning streak onWednesday with a 101-97 tri-umph over the reigning leaguechampions. The Heat’s streakwas the second-best winning runin major North American profes-sional sport, trailing only the 33-game NBA winning streak of the1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers. TheHeat hadn’t lost since February 1at Indiana.

Chicago’s Luol Deng scored28 points, including 12 in thefourth quarter, and made fourthree-pointers.

Carlos Boozer added 21points and 17 rebounds for aBulls team playing withoutinjured All-Star center JoakimNoah of France, as well asguards Richard Hamilton and

Marco Belinelli -- and with starguard Derrick Rose yet to play agame this season since he isrecovering from a knee injury.

“We didn’t play perfect, butwe fought hard the wholegame,” Bulls guard Kirk Hinrichsaid. Jimmy Butler added 17points for the Bulls, who limitedthe Heat’s formidable offense to44.4 percent, shooting from thefield in the second half.

Heat superstar LeBron Jamesscored 32 points on 11-of-17shooting with seven rebounds.

Dwyane Wade returned froma two-game absence to score 18points and grab seven rebounds,while Chris Bosh scored 21points in the setback.

As they had more than onceduring the streak, the Heat fellbehind by double digits, trailing

by as many as 13 in the first half.They were behind 55-46 at

halftime, but once again foundanother gear after the interval.

James scored four points ondunks to open the third quarteras for the eighth time in thestreak the Heat launched a rallyfrom a double-digit deficit.

The Heat took the lead for thefirst time, 59-58, with 4:30 left inthe third quarter on ShaneBattier’s three-pointer.

Butler’s dunk on an alley-ooppass from Deng saw the Bullsrebuild their lead to 64-61 with2:25 left in the third, Butler risingover Miami’s Chris Bosh to grabthe pass. The Heat respondedwith another three-pointer byBattier, and had knotted thescore at 69-69 in the openingminute of the fourth quarter. AFP

ALEXANDER FEDORETS Agence France-Presse

MOSCOW: Any dreams Russiahad of dominating its homeWinter Olympic Games in Sochinext year have been dealt a harshreality check by the mediocreperformances of the country’sathletes this season.

With most of the main wintercompetitions now finished forthe year, Russia risks only com-ing fifth in the Olympics medalstable if its performances at thisyear’s world championships arerepeated at Sochi 2014.

The failure to win any worldchampionship gold in biathlon --a hugely popular televised sportin Russia — has caused particu-lar concern.

Russia captured only onegold at the world figure skatingchampionships, in the pairs dis-cipline -- the latest sign that theera of its total dominance of thesport has ended.

According to a tally by lead-ing sports daily Sovetsky Sport,Norway are undisputed leadersof this winter season with 17world championship golds,while the United States are sec-ond with 11.

Germany collected nine andRussia and Canada seven apiece,with the world championships inice hockey and men’s curling stillto come. AFP

KINGSTON: Usain Bolt, thetwo-time reigning Olympicchampion at 100 and 200meters, will run at the JamaicaInternational Invitational ath-letics meet on May 4, organiz-ers announced on Wednesday.

Yohan Blake and US sprintstar Allyson Felix (right) willalso compete in the meeting,but meet director DonaldQuarrie, a former Olympic 200champion, said there will beno showdown between Boltand Blake in the same event atKingston.

“Bolt has been confirmed,but his coach, Glen Mills, willdecide on the event he willrun at a later date,” Quarriesaid. Blake, second to Bolt inboth sprints at the LondonOlympics, is also undecided

about his event.“Bolt and Blake will run,

but not in the same event,”Quarrie said. “Hopefully nextweek we should know theevent.”

Felix, the Olympic 200mchampion, will compete in themeet for the first time and shewill have a showdown withJamaica’s Veronica Campbell-Brown in the women’s 100,Quarrie said.

Felix, a three-time worldchampion in the 200, first ranin Kingston at the 2002 worldjunior championships.

Two-time Olympic 100mwomen’s champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce will run the200, the event in which she fin-ished second at the LondonOlympics. AFP

RIO DE JANEIRO: Brazil’spreparations for the WorldCup and Olympic Games haverun into further trouble afterthe authorities indefinitelyclosed a Rio de Janeiro stadiumbecause of roof problems, thecity’s mayor announced.

The Joao Havelange stadi-um, home to the Botafogo foot-ball club and due to host thetrack and field competition

during the 2016 Games, will beshut down until the matter isresolved, mayor Eduardo Paessaid. “The stadium will remainclosed indefinitely,” he said. “Ifit takes a year, then it will beclosed for a year.”

“Today, we cannot say wh -en it may reopen. We are goingto look into what solution canbe found,” said ArmandoQeiroga, a top official of

RIOURBE, the city’s urbanplanning firm. “We need toknow the solution before deter-mining how long the (repair)work will take,” he told a pressconference, insisting that thiswas an “isolated incident”.

After being informed of theproblems by the companyworking on the structure, Paessaid he asked if they represent-ed a risk for fans. AFPK

HYDERABAD: The HyderabadChess Academy will be organis-ing the Hyderabad district chessunder-7 boys and girls State levelselection on Sunday.

All the participating playersshould have been born on orafter 1 January 2006.

The top two players in eachcategory will be selected to repre-sent Hyderabad in the upcomingunder-7 State level tournament.

Bulls halt Heat win streakThe Chicago Bulls ended the Miami Heat’s epic 27-game NBA winning streak with a 101-97 triumph overthem. The Heat’s streak was the second-best winning run in major North American professional sport.

Carlos Boozer #5 celebrates with Taj Gibson #22 and Daequan Cook #14 ofthe Chicago Bulls during the game against the Miami Heat on Wednesday atthe United Center in Chicago, Illinois. AFP/NBAE NATHANIEL S. BUTLER

Bolt, Felix to run in Kingston JAMAICA INTERNATIONAL INVITATIONAL ATHLETICS MEET

BRAZIL 2016

WINTER GAMES

Russia’sdreams hitreality check

CHESSSelections forState on SundayStadium shuts over roof trouble

sports 30MIAMI MASTERS

HOUSTON OPEN PREVIEW

BACK FROM A BREAK


HOUSTON, TEXAS: RoryMcIlroy is more concernedwith playing well in his finaltuneup event ahead of nextmonth’s Masters rather thanreclaiming the world No.1 spot.

Tiger Woods recaptured thetop ranking for the first timesince October of 2010 by takinghis third US PGA triumph ofthe year on Monday at BayHill, adding the Arnold PalmerInvitational to wins at TorreyPines and Doral.

McIlroy, who has struggledin the early going this year ashe adjusts to new clubs, wouldtake back the top ranking witha victory in this week’s $6.2million Houston Open at par-72 Redstone Golf Club, which

starts Thursday.“It’s always nice to say that

you’re on top of the world andtop of the rankings, but if youplay the golf that you want toand win the tournaments thatyou want to, then that takescare of itself,” McIlroy said.

“Getting into contention isthe main goal, try to have achance to win on Sunday. We’llgo from there.”

The Northern Irish prodigy,who won last year’s PGAChampionship and the 2011 USOpen, shared eighth at Doraland skipped Bay Hill as he pre-pares for the fast and undulat-ing greens of AugustaNational, and for Woods at hisbest.

“I didn’t think I could gointo the Masters under theradar,” McIlroy said. “I can sortof go in a little bit underneathhim, so in a way it’s not a badthing. “It’s great for golf tohave him playing well andhopefully I can just try andkeep up with him.”

McIlroy and Woods tradedmotivating e-mails over Woodsretaking the top ranking.McIlroy texted him “Welldone” and Woods sent a clearmessage he wants to seeMcIlroy playing his best at theMasters in two weeks as well.

“He said everything wasgood there — told me to get myfinger out of my ass and winthis week,” McIlroy said. AFP

TUNIS: Double Olympic championOussama Mellouli has taken to the wateragain after a long break following theLondon Games with his eye on competingin the 1500m and 10km at this summer’sWorld Championships in Barcelona.

The Tunisian became the first man inOlympic history to win gold medals inboth pool and open-water races when hewon the 10km swimming marathon inLondon after having topped the 1500mfreestyle podium in Beijing four years pre-viously. The first African man to win agold medal in an Olympic swimmingevent, Mellouli told AFP he was now rar-ing to go after having a time-out following

his success in London.“I want to compete at the World

Championships,” the 29-year-old said ofthe July 19-August 4 event. “It will be 10years since my first medal, in the worldchamps (also) in Barcelona in 2003.

“I want to compete in both the open-water event and the 1500m.” Mellouliadmitted he had backtracked on post-Olympic thoughts of calling it a day.

“After London, I said I was ready totake my leave,” he said. “But I re-evaluat-ed my situation and I fixed for myself newgoals with this new passion that is open-water swimming.

“At my age and after the career I’ve

had, it’s cool to have that sort of stimulus.”Mellouli, who has trained since 2002 in

Los Angeles where he is studying for aMasters in sports management, spent twomonths in his homeland after London butinsisted he was not completely out ofshape. “I’ve kept fit but I’ve not beentraining intensively,” he said. “Fourmonths out from the worlds, I’ll see how itpans out and afterwards will seriouslystart on the Olympic cycle.”

Mellouli’s participation in theBarcelona worlds will also offer theTunisian a chance to further banish thememory of the 18-month ban he receivedin 2007 for a doping offence. AFP

Mellouli back in pool, eyes worlds

Olympic champion Oussama Mellouli swimsduring a training session in the northernTunis suburb of La Marsa on March 22. AFP

MariaSharapova ofRussia plays a

shot against SaraErrani of Italy at theCrandon Park TennisCenter on Wednesday

in Key Biscayne,Florida.

AFP/MIKE EHRMANN

Title quest on track for MariaMaria kept her quest for a first Miami title on track with a deserving win.

MIAMI: Maria Sharapova kept her questfor a first Miami title on trackWednesday with a hard-fought 7-5, 7-5quarter-final triumph over Italy’s SaraErrani. “With all the tournaments I haveplayed, this one I have been so success-ful at but yet I haven’t won it,” saidSharapova, a four-time finalist at theMiami WTA and ATP Masters hardcourttournament but never the winner. “I’vebeen so close to winning,” she said. “Iwould love to win this. I’ve been comingto this tournament since I was a littlekid. It would mean a lot to win it.”Sharapova will battle for a place in thefinal against 22nd-seeded Serbian JelenaJankovic. Former world No. 1 Jankovicdefeated Italian Roberta Vinci 6-4, 6-7(6/8), 6-3. The other women’s semi-final

was set on Tuesday, with world No. 1and top seed Serena Williams advancingto take on defending champion andfourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska ofPoland. Third-seeded Spaniard DavidFerrer led the way into the men’s semisas he rallied for a 4-6, 6-3, 6-0 victoryover unseeded Austrian JurgenMelzer. Ferrer, winner of twotitles already this year atAuckland and BuenosAires, steadied after anerratic first set andeventually cruisedthrough the third toimprove to 7-2against theAustrianleft-hander.

Haas in last fourMIAMI: Giant-killer TommyHaas followed up his triumphover world No. 1 NovakDjokovic with a 6-3, 6-1 quar-ter-final victory against France’sGilles Simon at the Miami ATPMasters on Wednesday.

Haas, at 34 the oldest play-er ranked in the top 50 in theworld, had shocked Djokovic instraight sets in the fourthround on Tuesday.

The 15th seeded Germanshowed no sign of a letdownagainst 11th-seeded Simon,and advanced to a semi-finalclash with third-seededSpaniard David Ferrer.

Rory into Masters than ranksAUSTRALIAN OPENEvent set forRoyal Sydney SYDNEY: This year’s Au -stralian Open will be heldat The Royal Sydney GolfClub in November, GolfAustralia said Thursday.

The tournament, co-sanctioned by the PGATour of Australasia andOneAsia, moves to RoyalSydney, which has beenhome to the tournament 13times before, after threeyears at The Lakes course,also in Sydney.

Earlier this month, six-time Australian Open cha -mpion Jack Nicklaus confi -rmed the tournament wo -uld move to The AustralianGolf Club, also in Sydney,in 2014. This year’s eventtakes pace from November28 to December 1. AFP

sports 31BAR BRAWL

INDIAN PREMIER LEAGUE


WELLINGTON: TroubledNew Zealand cricketer JesseRyder was in a critical condi-tion in hospital Thursday afteran “extremely vicious” attackas he left a bar in Christchurch,police said. The 28-year-oldwas in an induced coma with afractured skull and seriousinternal injuries, and his familywere at his bedside.

The attack in the SouthIsland city came just daysbefore the talented batsmanwas to take up a lucrativeIndian Premier League (IPL)contract. Ryder has a history ofdisciplinary lapses and alcohol-related incidents, but althoughhe had been drinking before theearly morning assault policesaid alcohol was not a factor.

Detective senior sergeantBrian Archer said there was abrief altercation involvingRyder and “two or three” peo-ple when he stepped outsidethe bar. Ryder then crossed theroad to a nearby fast-food out-let where he was attacked byone of the people from the ini-tial confrontation.

“The hospital advise he is ina critical condition. He is in aninduced coma as a result of suf-fering multiple injuries,”Archer said. Prime MinisterJohn Key, who led messages ofsupport for Ryder, said theattack appeared “somewhatunprovoked, so there must besomething behind that and theassault seems extremelyvicious”.

“Obviously we wish him aspeedy recovery,” he added. Awitness, identified only asAdam, told Fairfax Media Rydertried to fight back as four men“absolutely smashed him”. Hesaid he was not sure if the attac -kers were known to Ryder but

said they “damn knew who hewas”. Police were viewingclosed-circuit television cover-age of the brutal attack andArcher said they were follow-ing “positive lines of enquiry”.

The incident occurred whileRyder was having a night outwith his Wellington team-mates after earlier losing a sea-

son-ending one-day match toCanterbury. The batsman is ona self-imposed break frominternational cricket to address“personal issues” following aseries of incidents.

New Zealand CricketPlayers’ Association chief exec-utive Heath Mills said Ryderwas known to have resumeddrinking in recent weeks. “Itwill be an ongoing struggle forJesse and we need to do all wecan to help him,” Mills said.

“What I will say is Jesse washaving a few drinks with histeam-mates at the conclusion ofhis season. The actual assaultwas not an alcohol-fuelled inci-dent.” Ryder, who last playedfor New Zealand a year ago,was due to fly to India thisweekend to compete for theDelhi Daredevils.

Last year, Ryder, who has aTest average of 40.93 and ahighest Test score of 201, tookhis manager and a psychologistwith him to India when heplayed for the Pune Warriors.

This file March 29, 2011 file photo shows New Zealand batsman JesseRyder eyeing the ball as he plays a shot during a training session at theR. Premadasa Cricket Stadium in Colombo. Jesse Ryder has been rushedto hospital with a fractured skull following a bar brawl, police and mediasaid on Thursday. The attack came just days before Ryder was to take upa lucrative IPL contract. AFP/LAKRUWAN WANNIARACHCHI

IPL rejigs fixtureNEW DELHI: The IndianPremier League on Wednesday.re-jigged the fixtures of thehigh-profile tournament, makingchanges in the dates and timingsof some of the matches, includ-ing the ones to be held inBangalore on May 4 and 6, whichwere rescheduled owing to theAssembly elections in Karnataka.

The match between RoyalChallengers Bangalore and KingsXI Punjab, earlier scheduled tobe held in Bangalore on May 4,will now be played on May 14,while RCB’s home game againstSunrisers Hyderabad, which wasslated for May 6, has beenadvanced to April 9.

Kings XI Punjab’s matchagainst Delhi Daredevils, earlierscheduled for April 23 in Mohali,has been shifted to Dharamsalaon May 16, while KXIP’s May 16fixture against Royal ChallengersBangalore at Dharamsala willnow be held in Mohali on May 6.

Delhi Daredevils’ homematch against KXIP, earlierscheduled for May 13 here, hasbeen rescheduled for April 23.The following changes havebeen made to the IPL schedule:KXIP vs DD – shifted from April23 (8:00 pm, Mohali) to May 16(8:00 pm, Dharamsala)SH vs DD – stays on May 4 butmoves from 4:00 pm to 8:00 pmin HyderabadRCB vs KXIP – shifted from May4 (8:00 pm, Bengaluru) to May 14(4:00 pm, Bengaluru)RCB vs SH – shifted from May 6(8:00 pm, Bengaluru) to April 9(4:00 pm, Bengaluru)DD vs KXIP – shifted from May13 (4:00 pm, Delhi) to April 23(8:00 pm, Delhi)KKR vs PWI – shifted from May14 (8:00 pm, Ranchi) to May 15(4:00 pm, Ranchi)KXIP vs RCB – shifted from May16 (4:00 pm, Dharamsala) to May6 (8:00 pm, Mohali)CSK vs DD – shifted from May16 (8:00 pm, Chennai) to May 14(8:00 pm, Chennai)RCB vs CSK – shifted from May19 (4:00 pm, Bengaluru) to May18 (8:00 pm, Bengaluru)PWI vs DD – shifted from May18 (8:00 pm, Pune) to May 19(4:00 pm, Pune).

BANGALORE: Royal Challen -gers Bangalore pace spearheadZaheer Khan, who is set to playin the IPL after recovering froman injury, trained at the NationalCricket Academy here under thewatchful eyes of coach RayJennings. Zaheer bowled at thenets, and according to his team-mate Jaydev Unadkat, lookedgood as he was getting the ballto swing both ways.

Zaheer had sustained a calfinjury during Mumbai’s RanjiTrophy game against Gujarat

last December. He was droppedfrom the Indian Test squadagainst England.

“Zaheer looked good as hewas getting the ball to swingboth ways as he normally doesand it was good bowling in tan-dem with him at the nets. Ilearnt a lot by just seeing himbowl from close quarters,”Unadkat told reporters after thetraining session.

Unadkat said he has beenworking on the basics ofremaining fit throughout the

season so as to improve hispace. “I am hitting 135 kmhmark at present,” he said.

Unadkat said he has beenworking on variations for theIPL. “We have been working onpace and slower ones (to putthem in use),” he said.

He said he has been workingon increasing his pace.

“I have been working quite abit on it during off-season aswell. I am really looking in goodrhythm for now,” the left-armfast bowler said. PTI

Zaheer in RCB training session at NCAHarmanpreet to lead sideMumbai: The All-IndiaWomen’s Selection Committeehas picked the Indian team forthe T20 International series andODI series against Bangladesh,to be played in April 2013.

Squad: Harmanpreet Kaur(Captain), Poonam Raut (VC),M.D. Thirushkamini, SmritiMandhana, Anagha Deshpande,Sneha Dipti, Mona Meshram, N.Niranjana, Archana Das, Poo -nam Yadav, Ritu Dhruv, Swaga -tika Rath, Shubhalaxmi Sharma,Sushma Varma, Ekta Bisht.

SNIPPETS

Ryder in critical state

Jesse Ryder was in acritical condition inhospital after beingseverely beaten as heleft a bar in the SouthIsland city ofChristchurch.

sportsTHURSDAY, MARCH 28, 2013

PEDRO OUT FOR 10 DAYS DUE TO LEG INJURY Barcelona winger Pedro Rodriguez will be out of action for 10 days afterpulling a muscle in his leg during Tuesday’s 1-0 World Cup qualifying vic-tory in France, his club said. Pedro scored the winning goal before beingsubstituted for club team-mate Cesc Fabregas in the 76th minute.

LIGUE 1

WORLD CUP QUALIFIERS REVIEW

LONDON: England captain StevenGerrard insists Wayne Rooney’s ability tokeep his fiery temper under control is cru-cial to his side’s bid to qualify for theWorld Cup.

Rooney scored for the fourth succes-sive qualifier, the first England player toachieve that feat since David Beckham 10years ago, as Roy Hodgson’s team held onfor a 1-1 draw against Montenegro onTuesday. The Manchester United for-ward’s first-half header wasn’t enough tosecure what would have been a valuablevictory over the group leaders as

Montenegro hit back to equalise throughDejan Damjanovic in the second half.

But Gerrard felt Rooney, who had beensent off on his last appearance inMontenegro 17 months ago, was instru-mental in England’s best momentsbecause he was able to cope well with thehostile atmosphere in Podgorica.

And, with England’s bid to reach the2014 World Cup in Brazil still in the bal-ance, the Liverpool midfielder hopesRooney can continue to play with suchmaturity.

“Wayne is a fantastic player and a

great goalscorer. If the lads in the team cancreate the service for Wayne, we know hewill score goals,” Gerrard said,

“He also deserves credit for thatgoalscoring record. Hopefully he will getmore goals and fire us to the World Cup.

“I also thought his behaviour wasmagnificent. He had been on the agendain the Press all week with people wonder-ing how he was going to behave. I thoughthe handled himself magnificently.”

Rooney’s goal was his 35th for hiscountry and he is now only five behindfourth-placed Michael Owen.

Gerrard felt Rooney was instrumental in England’s best moments in the draw against Montenegro.

Gerrard praises Rooney’s ‘control’

EPL

THE HAGUE: Robin vanPersie has been a revela-tion at Manchester Unitedthis season and now theDutch international for-ward says he would liketo finish his career at theRed Devils. The 29-year-old joined United fromArsenal at this season buthas already become a firmfans’ favourite at OldTrafford.

With 19 PremierLeague goals this season— second only toLiverpool’s Luis Suarez —Van Persie has beeninstrumental in firingUnited to a 15-point leadat the league summit.

But with the likes ofRyan Giggs, 39, and PaulScholes, 38, as team-mates, Van Persie has hiseyes on a long stay. VanPersie told Dutch maga-zine VoetbalInternational: “For thenext few years I will be atManchester United — andmaybe longer. Unitedcould be my last club.”

RVP plansto endcareer atMan UtdHe joined Unitedfrom Arsenal at thebeginning of thisseason and hasalready become afirm fan favourite.

PSG face tricky match aheadof Barcelona showdown

The Ligue 1 leaders face the Catalans at the Parc des Princes on Tuesday inthe first-leg of a tie that has generated huge excitement in the French capital.ANDY SCOTT Agence France-Presse

PARIS: All thoughts may cur-rently be on next week’sChampions League quarter-finaltie with Barcelona, but ParisSaint-Germain must first negoti-ate a potentially tricky Ligue 1encounter with Montpellier onFriday.

The Ligue 1 leaders face theCatalans at the Parc des Princeson Tuesday in the first-leg of atie that has generated hugeexcitement in the French capital,and their meeting with thereigning champions has beenbrought forward to aid theirEuropean preparations.

Midfielder ClementChantome admits that focusingon their domestic obligationshas not been easy with so muchattention on the club’s firstChampions League quarter-finalin 18 years.

“Everyone is talking aboutit,” said Chantome.

“Even us players have neverreceived so many calls asking usfor tickets. You get the impres-sion that, outside the club, peo-ple are forgetting about theleague.

“I won’t lie, we are all think-ing about it. But the most impor-

tant thing is Montpellier.”The quick turnaround after

the international break poses aproblem for coach CarloAncelotti, with several membersof his squad having been inaction with their countries onTuesday.

The Italian is likely to restsome of his star names, includ-ing Ezequiel Lavezzi, who wasonly expected back at the clubon Thursday after Argentina’sWorld Cup qualifier in Bolivia.

However, ZlatanIbrahimovic was allowed to missSweden’s friendly in Slovakia onTuesday, and the Swede couldtherefore start againstMontpellier before also featur-ing against Barcelona after hav-ing a suspension for that gamerescinded.

In addition, midfieldersMarco Verratti and Thiago Mottaare fit again after injuries.

PSG’s league form immedi-ately prior to the internationalbreak was far from perfect, witheight points dropped from theirlast five games, but they stillcome into this weekend fivepoints clear of Lyon at the top.

“We are in a good position,with a five-point lead and quitea favourable goal difference,”said the 25-year-old Chantome.

32

postnoon e-paper for march 28th 2013

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