News

The Hindu : y>

Shining on Pink Floyd

Reliance BIG TV has announced the premiere of the British Rock legend Pink Floyd’s “Pulse”. The company has signed a four-week content agreement with Sony Music to showcase Floyd’s “Pulse” on its PPV service.

The concert will be on Reliance BIG TV from August 28 onwards. Those wishing to view this concert can view it on PPV for Rs. 50.

The album is directed by veteran music video and concert director David Mallet. Shot on video during Pink Floyd’s two-week stint at London’s Earls Court Exhibition Centre in October 1994, this 145-minute performance (from Floyd’s “Division Bell” tour) is a sonic marvel to behold.

This is followed by four tracks from “The Division Bell” tour, two from 1987’s “A Momentary Lapse of Reason”, and “Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)” from 1979’s magnum to name a few.

Reliance BIG TV recently showcased the late pop legend Michael Jackson with the premiere of MJ’s Live in “Bucharest: The Dangerous Tour” on its PPV service which was the first non-film premiere on the DTH platform in India.

<FONT …More

The Hindu : y>Bangalore needs to buck up on rainwater harvesting, says MARIANNE DE NAZARETH

Photo: Murali Kumar K.FLOODED ROADS Where does all the excess water go?

The rains are upon us and suddenly there seems to be water everywhere. But like the ancient mariner lamented, there is “water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink”. It runs down the roads, it races along storm water drains, it floods low-lying areas and we Bangaloreans are lucky to get copious quantities of it. Yet we let it run off into the gutters and go to waste, while crying ourselves hoarse that the supply of Corporation water is insufficient.

Many localities have to depend on buying tankers of bore-well water to live. Have we ever thought of what will happen once those bore-wells and the ground water table dries up? AtCommunity effort needed

Talk to Jeff D’Lemos, a rainwater harvesting specialist in the city and he says, “The geology of Bangalore’s soil is clay on top, soft rock lower, medium rock below that and granite at the bottom. Therefore one cannot just dig shallow holes to allow the rain to collect and expect that to replenish the water table; the clay soil prevents that. So, there are three options to harvest rain water — guide it through pipes to fill an underground sump, or direct the water to recharge a bore-well, and the third option is the water is channelised to fill an open well or man-made lake.”

Shoaib, the proprietor of the Only Place restaurant on Museum Road realised the enormity of the problem way back in 2003. “My entire property is much lower than the road level so not only do I get the rain that falls in my compound, but also the run off from the road. This water is pumped into a large open well that I have and is used for all…More

The Hindu :

Former opening bat, media personality, entrepreneur and chairman of India’s cricket selection board — Kris Srikkanth is all this and more

PHOTO: R.RAGUIN THE HOT SEAT Krishnamachari Srikkanth

Interacting with Kris Srikkanth cannot fail to evoke memories of watching him bat. His personality is an uncanny reflection of the manner he played the game. There is an infectious and spontaneous enthusiasm that reminds you of his time at the crease. And yes, if anything, he talks even faster than he scored his thousands of entertaining runs.

Today his role as chairman of the cricket selection board and his business interests leave him little time for other things, especially his media career (which had to be put on hold because of his commitment to the Indian cricket board), but he is not regretting a moment of it.

“It’s been quite enjoyable,” he says about his role as chief selector. The Indian team has had a fantastic run of success since he took over in last September. The team won test series against Australia and England in India, and a series abroad (New Zealand), the first Indian team to do so since Pataudi’s tour in 1967-1968. It also won the one-dayers against England, Sri Lanka, Australia, West Indies and New Zealand.

Quite a remarkable streak of success, and some of the credit must definitely go to Srikkanth. Life has been good to this straightforward and easy-going man. “God has been very kind,” he says with his disarming smile. “I’ve captained India, waspart of the victorious World Cup team of 1983, have enjoyed success as a media personality and now this (selection board),” he reflects. Not to mention his high-profile role as brand ambassador for the Chennai Super Kings in the IPL. “I’ve thoroughly enjoyed being brand ambassador, building up support for the team,” he says.

Srikkanth has a reputation for being outspoken(“I’m a plain-speaking guy,” he says ).He…More

The Hindu :

Much has been said about it. But how does one handle the male ego?

photo: K.R. DeepakDon’t sweep it UNDER THE CARPET The best way to deal with a bloated ego is to prick it

Difficult to decipher and frequently the cause for friction and misunderstanding —what’s with the male ego?

Says Shantha Manikantan, counselling psychologist: “We see men with exaggerated judgment of their capabilities and importance, everywhere — at home, work, or in a social situation. Most people assume the male ego is an issue of superiority. But, it can also stem from a complex that alternates between superiority and inferiority, resulting in the desire to impress others.”Over-hyped?

According to Vijay Nagaswami, author, psychiatrist and relationship consultant: “The male ego has probably been over-hyped just a bit. In our patriarchal society, unwarranted attention given to the male child has made it an issue in relationships even in the 21st Century.”

Shekar Seshadri, professor, Unit of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, NIMHANS, Bangalore, says: “Boys are conditioned to believe that power resides in them. Also, they are expected to protect family honour and control girls and women. Which is what gives them an ego boost.”

So is having an ego bad? Meena Jain, psychologist and psychotherapist, observes: “A healthy ego is very important to one’s self-esteem, as opposed to an inflated ego that can destroy relationships.” adds Shantha: “What matters is how one manages the ego. Over manifestation suggests that you consider yourself a cut above the rest. This becomes a tool to belittle others, and the outcome is not always pleasant.”

For all their strength (real and supposed!), why are male egos fragile?Boosting self-esteem

Says Dr. Nagaswami: “Any ego that derives itself from the perceived superiority of one gender over the other is bound to be incomplete and fragile. The mere fact of being born a male cannot be the primary parameter to derive one’s sense…More

The Hindu :

Prathima Hegde is flying high after her conclusive win at the National Tenpin Bowling Championship

PHOTO: MURALI KUMAR K.KNOCKING THEM DOWN Prathima Hegde on a roll

Prathima Hegde, the intrepid bowling ace from Bangalore, who was a national runner-up twice, finally shrugged off the bridesmaid tag to take the crown at the National tenpin bowling championship which concluded at Gurgaon last Sunday. The triumph atGurgaon delighted Prathima immensely. “I am extremely happy with the result,” Prathima said. The victory was all the more satsifying, because in my earlier finals in 2007 and 2008, I lost narrowly, by 16 and ten pins. The final at Gurgaon I won by a good margin.”

The tournament did not actually start well for Prathima. In the play-offs, she lost first match to Maharashtra’s Jharna Badlani 180-192, but then kept her cool and played steady games, winning the next four games of the playoffs (227-164 against Anuradha, 206-180 against Namratha, 234-152 against Swapna, and 178-166 against Sabeena and scoring 155 in the final roll off to finish convincingly in the first position.

“Unlike the previous years, where there were lot of ups and downs, at Gurgaon, I just kept improving and with a 300 pin cushion over Sabeena, I was very confident of taking the title and that’s what happened.”

Prathima attributes her success to the intensive training that she had in Malaysia from January through March this year. “It did help me to fine tune my technique. Playing 30 games, over a period five days is indeed a taxing affair and that too under different oiling conditions. One day, it is short oil the other day it is long, so the variations are challenging and one has to master rolling in such conditions.”

It all started for Prathima in 2003, when she attended a roving coaching programme conducted by Syrian and Malaysian experts. “I had a flair for it and…More

The Hindu :

Musicians will have control over their songs, how they want to sell it and what they want to sell, courtesy Rebeat, a new digital software introduced recently in the country

Until last week, getting a record deal with a music label and putting their music out on shelves around the world seemed like a distant dream for many rock bands and up and coming musicians.

Even those who had record deals never got more than 20 per cent royalty.

And the few who got their cut were never sure of the numbers.

They blindly had to trust that the record label would be truthful about sales.

Worse, they were at the mercy of the label and music stores that could any day decide to take the music off the shelves.

But all that may soon be a thing of the past.

Pro Music, Egmore, is the official distributor of a software that will help bands and musicians put their music for sale over 300 digital stores, including iTunes, Nokia, Amazon, AOL, etc. on the Internet.

This single-window software, Rebeat, brought to India by Sudeep Audio, can be bought at Pro Music for a one-time fee of Rs.7,000.

And soon, you are all set to upload your music, sign the contract and launch your album.

“Once you buy the software, you just need to pay for creating product bar codes and other incidentals and this roughly works out to about Rs.1, 500 per album,” says Aditya Mehta, Partner of Sudeep Audio.

“For every sale in any of the 300 stores around the world, the band/artiste gets 85 per cent royalty.”

The world’s largest digital distributors of music, Austria-based Rebeat, has signed up with 1,200 music labels worldwide and has about three-five lakh songs in its catalogue.

“Finally, musicians will have control over their songs, how they want to sell it and what they want to sell. The trend of buying music is moving from…More

The Hindu :

Preeti Jhangiani dons the hat of a lecturer in an acting academy

NEW ROLES Preeti Jhangiani is now coaching wannabe actors

One swallow does not a summer make. Living up to the unfortunate adage is Preeti Jhangiani, once associated with the famed Yash Raj banner and now struggling to stay afloat. Many years ago when she starred in “Mohabbatein” with the likesof Amitabh Bacchhan, Shah Rukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai she seemed destined for the bigger things of life. Not to be.Destiny’s part

She blames it all on destiny as she fields questions from the media in Delhi, where she’s honing the skills of wannabe actors as a guest lecturer of the Gurukul Acting Academy.

Married to actor Parvin Dabas, she still is doing some films. She may not be able to pick and choose but she is hopeful that a couple of her forthcoming films will turn the tide in her favour. “Everybody asks me about ‘Mohabbatein’ but I have moved on. Destiny plays a major part in our life. It’s sheer bad luck that I did not get the right roles under the right banners but I am not going to give up. Even the star kids have to struggle — the only benefit they have is the launch film. Today I am doing a couple of films — ‘As The River Flows’ and then ‘Mona’.” In “As The River Flows”, Preeti will be seen with Sanjay Suri. “The film is about the crisis in Assam, it is about the public caught in the crossfire between the Government and the terrorists. I am playing the role of a newspaper editor,” reveals Preeti.

With two films in her kitty and some good offers, Preeti advises all youngsters to put academics ahead of a career in films. “Do not leave your studies because they are the basics. Complete them and come to Bollywood, and…More