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The Hindu :

From chewing gum to cellphones, corporates are clambering on the IPL bandwagon

As the IPL fever hits a new high, so are the endorsements and tie-ups with the premier T20 cricket championship.

Several corporates have jumped on to IPL bandwagon to promote their products and interests in an innovative manner and among the leading bunch is Idea Cellular, which at the beginning of the game in April in South Africa, announced a tie-up with Mumbai Indians.Complete access

It offered access to fans to call their favourite stars and on their specially installed 10 digit number.

This was backed by massive ad campaign in print and electronic media, which brought the fans in droves.

Idea Cellular marketing head Pradeep Shrivastava, says “We were overwhelmed by the response to our initiative of connecting the fans with their cricket heroes. The players received staggering number of calls with Sachin Tendulkar topping the list with 7.5 lakh calls and smses, followed by other like Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan”.

Towards the end of the event in South Africa, the company would make arrangements to enable the players respond to a select number of calls from their fans.

Wrigley’s Orbit, the official chewing gum partner of all IPL teams, has announced opportunities for its consumers and cricket lovers to win free tickets to IPL matches in South Africa.

To participate, one can visit Orbit’s cricket website ( www.orbitcricketmania.com) or SMS Orbit to 58888 and answer simple questions on cricket with two runs being scored for each correct answer.

What is more, participants do not lose their scores even if they log out prematurely.Seamless

The robust backend system ensures seamless integration whereby a person can play the game today and leave after answering just five questions.

When the person re-enters at a later date, question number six – the last unanswered question – pops up so that the person can resume play without any interruption.

Best of…More

The Hindu : y>Stamp collecting is far from dead. Rather, it is reinventing itself, thanks to online catalogues and e-auctions, writes K. Jeshi

Photo: M. PeriasamyStamping ground While the internet has put the skids on snail mail, it is an incredible resource for philatelists

American president Franklin D Roosevelt was a stamp buff. Prince Rainier III of Monaco, who served as the longest reigning monarch, added stamps to the royal collection during his reign. Now, it is French president Nicolas Sarkozy who has revealed his passion for philately. The hobby of the kings, associated with royals from England’s King George V and King Farouk of Egypt to King Carol II of Romania, rose to become one of world’s popular past times.

Now, it is the brave new electronic age, and communication is all about email, twittering and texting. Young people may have never written a letter, let alone use a stamp to mail it. Yet, the Internet seems to have popularised the hobby. Thousands of philatelic transactions take place everyday on eBay and other Internet auction sites. Collectors from around the world meet online regularly, discuss and exchange stamps. J. Jose Gilbert, a Guinness record holder for the largest collection of stamps from most countries (192) will vouch for it.

“I was running short of stamps of Georgia, Puerto Rico and Montenegro for my record. I sourced them through my online network of over 40 stamp lovers in the U.K. France, Israel and the U.S.,” he says. Now, he has added stamps of Bouvet Island of Norway, Clipperton of France and the U.S stamps such as Wake Island, Midway Island and Baker Island to his collection. To update his knowledge, he frequents websites such as ( www.askphilately.com),www.rpsl.org.uk (the Royal Philatelic Society, London) and that of American philatelic society. His passion has also put life in focus for this bio-technology student. “When I was searching for stamps on renewable…More

The Hindu :

Sun worshipper, yogi Josi Valliserry practises bio-dynamic agriculture in Tokyo

Photo:Vipin ChandranGOOD EARTH Josi Vallisserry with Mizuka

Josi Vallisserry makes heads turn with his dreadlocks. He sometimes sports a colourful turban or a floral bandana. Rings in his ear and a casual shirt with jodhpuri style trousers complete the look. To him visual identity is unimportant. He is on a self-proclaimed spiritual path and practises a lifestyle he says is conducive to all human beings. A sun worshipper, a buhto dancer (avant-garde Japanese dance form), a yogi, Josi is a farmer based in Tokyo and his farming instincts take root in the natural habitat of Kuttanad where he was born and raised. At 61, Josi returns, much like the legendary native, to Kerala propagating organic, bio-dynamic farming, something that he is successfully doing back in Japan.

It is the Kuttanad of his childhood that has shaped his singular lifestyle. He recounts how the punter rowing him to school would stop in the middle of the river and ask them to quench their hunger by drinking water from the river.

“It is not possible now? You cannot take in the polluted water,” says Josi adding that the complete natural water life of the region was disrupted by the first Allappuzha-Changanasserry road that divided it into two.

The waterways were halted. Then the green revolution brought in the idea of two crops a year with the soil being over taxed. Spray guns showering pesticide supplanted the hand-held baskets to wean worms off the paddy. Catfish and ducks were all symbiotic to the existing natural environ, but everything changed destroying the natural lifestyle, where the birds, animals and human beings subsisted in a symbiotic manner. “That is permaculture, now propagated by an Australian,” Josi says. It was there in the Kuttanad of his youth but vanished as he grew.Cooperative feudalism

Another influence that impacted him was the “co-operative…More

The Hindu :

Is there anything gender specific about colour?

PHOTO: REUTERSColour preferences Breaking stereotypes

I quizzed 50 women on their favourite colour. Actually, no colour emerged a clear favourite. And, guess what? The colour that got a marginal lead was not red or pink, but green. On the other hand, most men I spoke to stuck to a narrower range of colours, with blue, white, grey and black making up the bulk of the vote pool.

Now this may not be a scientific sample pool, but it does set the ball rolling. Is there anything gender specific about colour? And, are advertisers misguided in thinking that reds and pinks grab the attention of women? And, do we reveal ourselves by what colours we hold dear? May be, but the findings threw up lot of surprises about favourite colours.

Take pink, for instance. It is supposed to be a feminine, delicate colour, and a hot favourite among women. But only two of the women I spoke to were hooked to pink. As for green and blue, well, they come in different shades — bottle green, ocean green, copper sulphate blue…

Younger women mention these tricky shades more than the older women, perhaps, due to more exposure. Surprisingly, no one mentioned orange, brown, or grey, though many said they liked orange on their walls.

“Many women choose the colour they choose, not because they like it most, but because it makes them look their best”, says designer Nalina Venkat. The flattering colour, perhaps, goes on to become a favourite. There are others who go in for practicality. Some women I know love pastel shades but stick to dark hues, for maintenance’s sake.” Many women also listed black among their favourite colours. One of them went on to say: “I feel gaudy and self-conscious in any other colour”.

Colours have their effects too — blue is said to be calming, red perks…More

The Hindu :

She is happy with the roles she chose and says films are just a temporary aspect of life

Photo: S.S. KumarSitting pretty Positivity drives Tamannah

You won’t believe it – I just bought a laptop a month ago and opened a Hotmail account,” giggles Tamannah, who has been working, round-the- clock for six years and featured in 13 films. Her last four films — “Konchem Ishtam Konchem Kastam”, “Ananda Thandavam”, “Kalasaala”, “Veedokkade” have released in succession and each one had something to boast about. Dressed in a pink sari, the actor with her father, sits in the last row, watching the preview of her latest film and eagerly waits for the audience’ reaction. The film apparently did big business in Tamil Nadu, that is the reason why the film was dubbed and released as “Veedokkade”. As it was an AVM’s film which came right after “Sivaji”, the actress says she was lucky to have been offered the role and grabbed it without a thought.

The actress played a complex character Madhumita in “Ananda Thandavam” which drew a mixed response. She explains to why her role drew flak and defends her decision, “The immature and confused behaviour, is a streak that every girl goes through at different points of time in life. I’m okay with it if people are bugged with the role, but it made an impact right?”

The pretty lady lost an opportunity to work with Mahesh and Trivikram for “Varudu”. Tamannah explains in films one has no control over certain things. She was approached by the production house and found that her dates were not working out. “It’s a long life, I may get another opportunity to work with them as they are a fabulous team and their reach is far,” she says.

There were rumours about her rejecting “Pista” with Vijay, as she was keen on doing meaningful roles after the release…More

The Hindu : y>

Diva Heidi Klum

Emmy-nominated competition reality series “Project Runway” returns to Discovery Travel & Living with a new crop of 15 aspiring designers. Hosted by supermodel Heidi Klum, Season 4 of the series brings designers who compete to showcase their talent at New York’s Fashion Week. Heidi heads a panel of industry luminaries, including top women’s and menswear designer Michael Kors and fashion expert Nina Garcia. The challenges include designing for World Wrestling Entertainment divas, a garment for fashion icon Sarah Jessica Parker and an outfit from unconventional material picked from Hershey store. In the first menswear challenge, the contestants are asked to design a three-piece suite for football player Tiki Barber. The series will air every Sunday at 10 p.m.

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The Hindu : y>

Celebrating her Golden Anniversary this year, Barbie has many activites lined up this summer. The celebrations began with the rocking Barbie Doll’d-Up! Fashion Show at Lakme Fashion Week. Now, Barbie presents five of her most popular movies onPogo. The Pogo groovy movies will be telecast on Saturdays at 6 p.m.

Pogo will also air a special contest on “Barbie as Rapunzel”, where viewers can watch and win the latest amazing addition to the Barbie range – Barbie as Rapunzel Cut n’ Style dolls and fantastic salon playsets.

“Barbie as a Rapunzel” will be aired on May 9 and “Barbie as the Princess of the Pauper” will be aired on May 16 at 6 p.m on Pogo.

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The Hindu :

The Boost Cricket Cup provides a platform for youngsters to showcase their skills

winners all The future superstars of cricket

What began a dozen odd years ago has blossomed into a full fledged launch-pad for young cricketers. It was Kellogg’s Inter School cricket before Parle G took over the sponsorship of the junior talent and today GlaxoSmithKline through its very popular Boost has taken over the reins. Robin Uthappa, Ishant Sharma, Rohit Sharma, K.P. Appanna, Shikar Dhawan are some of the names that come to mind of cricketers who have come through these inter school tournaments.

Junior cricket has come a long way largely due to the efforts of Procam International, who has conceptualised the programme to cater to 10 cities.

Bangalore has taken the lead and besides the Boost Challenge Cup, is also playing host to a Sri Lankan school team in a three-match series.

The growth thanks to the structured planning has been vitally important and this is where the grand old man of Indian basketball, P.N. Shankaran, has played a lead role. With his undying energy levels Shankaran, with Procam International began with nearly 100 schools at the national level. Today the Bangalore leg alone has about 111 schools.

In the beginning there was Bangalore and Mumbai and in the subsequent years another four centres were included with Parle G’s entry into the fold. The national level series saw the six winners from each centre vying for the Parle Champions trophy.

“This would not have been possible but for the support extended by the State Cricket Associations in each centre,” said Shankaran.

Inter-school players now have the opportunity to play international matches at International venues.

Today the Boost Cricket Cup is spread across 10 centers Karnataka, Mumbai, Delhi, Punjab, Rajasthan, Baroda, Jharkhand, Hyderabad, Chennai and Tamil Nadu Districts with almost 680 schools participating.

The contest begins with the Intra-City Challenge, which is open to all the schools…More