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The Hindu : y>

Presidency School, NandiniLayout celebrated Founder’sDay recently; the day itsfounder Abdul Hameed died in aroad accident in 1980. An all-faith prayer was conducted bythe teachers of the school andawards were distributed tostudents.

Suhail Nissar Ahmed andSathya Narayan, members ofboard of management were present.Mr. Ahmedsaid that afterthe unexpected death of thefounder, the responsibility ofthe fledgling institution passedon to the young shoulders of hisnephew Nissar Ahmed, who wasin his twenties. The dynamismof Nissar Ahmed has taken theinstitution to great heights. Hehoped that the PresidencyGroup will strive further to fulfillthe vision of its founder.

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The Hindu : YOGARAJ S. MUDALGI

Dedication to karate and the determination to win have taken Kshitij places.

Consistent wins: Karate Champ.

Sport in India is breaking new frontiers each day and Indian sportsmen are proving their mettle in the international arena. Kshitij Kashyap, a 14 year old Karate champ from Bangalore, came fourth in the Kata competition event and reached the second round in Kumite competition for the age group of 14 to 15 years at the 9th Shotokon Karate World Championships held at Tokyo in August.

The championship had participants from 68 countries in all, and 48 participants competed in the 14 to 15 years age group.Black belt

The Indian contingent had 13 members and was funded partly by the Government of Karnataka. Kshitij, a Std. X student at the Jyoti Kendriya Vidyalaya has been training in Karate since the age of seven and by 11 got his black belt under the training of Sensei (Japanese for ‘master’) Arvind Merhotra, from whom he draws inspiration. “He has taught us the sport with a lot of dedication and takes complete care of us when we go for championships. Many students who train under him have won many prizes at various levels.” said Kshitij of his Sensei. “Kshitij has won several gold and silver medals at national events consistently since 2002,” said his father, B.S.Srinivas. Not restricting his interest to just Karate, Kshitij represents his school in many other games such as volleyball, football, cricket and athletics.

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The Hindu : y>

Tough guys Max Martini, Dennis Haysbert and Scott Foley from The Unit

The thriller drama series ‘The Unit’, from the stable of award-winning writer David Mamet returns to Star World on Tuesday at 10 p.m. for another action-packed season.

Led by Jonas Blane, “The Unit” revolves around an elite Special Forces team and their top secret missions. The programme features both the domestic lives of the team members and their missions abroad; in addition to the effect their careers have on their personal lives.

In the third season, after returning home from a successful mission, the team is catapulted into the firing line. On official stand-down from duty pending an investigation, Jonas and his men fall under suspicion of criminal actions.

When the situation escalates to physical assault, the men are forced to use their skills to protect themselves and their families as they race to uncover conspiracy behind the attacks. Tune in to Star World at 10 p.m. tonight to find out what happens next.

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The Hindu : y>

Treasure house Lakshmi Rai inaugurated the outlet

Josco launched its second jewellery outlet in Jayanagar recently. The showroom, inaugurated by actor Lakshmi Rai, offers jewellery in gold, diamonds and platinum from all over the world, says Tony Jose, MD and CEO of the company.

As an inaugural offer, there will be Rs. 100 off per gram of gold on the gold rate and a 20 per cent off on the making charges. All purchases come with gifts. Josco is also offering wholesale rate in gold for wedding purchases. Besides this, there is also an exchange offer in gold ornaments and Rs. 4,000 off on all diamonds jewellery with a 100 per cent buy back guarantee.

The offer is valid till September 24. The showroom can be contacted on 41219993/41219994.

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The Hindu :

Prakash Raj talks about his Kanchivaram experience

Warp and weft The film that focuses on weavers in Kancheepuram

Prakash Raj and being versatile go together. He can play the bad guy and get beaten up mercilessly (who can forget his ‘Chellam’ act in “Ghilli”?), make you laugh (like he did in “Mozhi”) and also be a concerned father (think “Santhosh Subramaniam” and “Abhiyum Naanum”).

Yet, the actor concedes he had to go through an “unlearning” process to prepare himself for his role in “Kanchivaram”. “In fact, even as Priyadarshan narrated the story, I knew it was special. I felt the film was bound to fetch a few awards. I am elated to win the National Award for Best Actor. What makes me happier is the film bagging the Swarna Kamal,” says the actor, who was so moved by the story that he worked without remuneration.

The film that focuses on weavers in Kancheepuram fetched the Swarna Kamal for a Tamil film after 18 years, and Prakash Raj recalls how it posed challenges for him as an actor. “At the heart of it was a human story, and to do justice to it, I had to unlearn certain traits and mannerisms that I had acquired while acting. The film changed a lot of things for me as an actor,” he explains.

For Priyadarshan, “Kanchivaram” was a departure from the comic capers he directs for Bollywood. The film also had on board art director Sabu Cyril, who has, incidentally, bagged the National Award for Best Art Direction for “Om Shanti Om”.

“The film’s success is a result of the great team we had,” says Prakash Raj. “I thanked Priyan when he offered me the role. In fact, I need to thank all the directors who have chiselled me well enough to be able to perform such a role. I don’t think I could have done “Kanchivaram” a…More

The Hindu : y>The drama-documentary-animation hybrid, Age of Stupid, will be screened today

Palador, an integrated media enterprise that spans production, content acquisition, programming and distribution in the areas of film, publishing and internet, presents the film “Age of The Stupid”.

There will be a global premiere of “Age of the Stupid” on September 22, on the eve of the UN General Assembly’s climate session. “The Age of Stupid” will be launched internationally at the biggest and greenest live film event with A-list celebrities who will walk the green carpet to a solar powered cinema tent in downtown New York. This will be linked by satellite to 700 cinemas in 50 plus countries.

The venues where you can watch the film in the city are — Centre for Education & Documentation (Domlur 2nd Stage contact: 253533974) at 4.30 p.m., Suchitra Film Society (Banashankari -26711785) at 6.30 p.m., Kyra Theatre (Indiranagar-43419999) at 8 p.m. On September 23 you can watch the same at Alliance Francaise at 9 p.m. and at the same venue on September 25 and 26 at 3 p.m.

“The Age of Stupid” is the new cinema documentary from the Director of “McLibel” and the Producer of the Oscar-winning film “One Day in September”. This enormously ambitious drama-documentary-animation hybrid stars Oscar-nominated Pete Postlethwaite as an old man living in the devastated world of 2055, watching ‘archive’ footage from 2008 and asking: why didn’t we stop climate change while we had the chance?

In the world depicted in the film, the inhabitants are suffering the results of all the cumulative emissions that we have already put into the atmosphere (between the start of the industrial revolution in1850 and today, 2009), plus additional emissions which will have been added over the future decades during which, according to the conceit of the film, humanity continued with its business-as-usual fossil fuel use and did not make dramatic emission reductions. This conceit is, again,…More

The Hindu : y>Parikrama turns 18 this year. The rock band who have opened for Iron Maiden seven times till date, tell ALLAN MOSES R. it feels great toturn adult

Photo: V. Sreenivasa murthypower ballads Parikrama believes in issue-based music

A psychedelic explosion of musical sounds and lights flare up on stage. A kaleidoscope of mind-blowing lyrics and orchestration with the fusion of some traditional and western instruments is what Parikrama was all about at a recent performance at Bangalore’s Hard Rock Café.

The crowd sang along as they delivered some of their all-time favourites such as “Vapourise”, “But it rained”, “Open skies”, “Am I dreaming” among others. Screechy lyrics, spectacular rifts and some good old rock and roll poured out of the elevated stage as Parikrama gave yet another breath-taking performance.

Parikrama comprises Nitin Malik singing the lead vocals, Subir Malik playing the keyboard and synthesiser, Sonam Sherpa picking the lead guitar, Saurabh Choudhary strumming the rhythm guitar, Chintan Kalra plucking the bass guitar and doing the backing vocals and Srijan Mahajan on the drums. They are accompanied by Imran Khan on the violin and Shambhunath Bhattacharya playing the tabla and percussion.

All through the last 18 years, experimentation forms the crux of Parikrama’s music. They have fused their music with every imaginable instrument and are currently applying the violin and tabla in their repertoire of sounds. They describe themselves as a blues based rock band with nuances of metal.

Excited about turning 18 this year, Parikrama’s founder member and keyboardist, Subir Malik says, “It feels great finally becoming adults this year! To celebrate this special occasion, we had over 50 musicians from different genres jamming up at the Hard Rock Café in New Delhi for a three and a half hour programme of out-of-the-world music.”

Talking about the band’s name, Subir says: “We wanted to adopt an Indian Hindi name when we kicked off in 1991. Our vocalist, Nitin…More

The Hindu : y>Prabha Muthukrishnan talks of the lack of civic sense among city dwellers

I am mortified by the lackadaisical attitude, most people have towards environmental pollution and cleanliness. Bangalore was once a clean and beautiful city. It has slowly deteriorated into a dusty and dirty city. People spit, throw garbage and makethe place unclean, in many cases taking public property for granted.

The roads, streets, public transport facilities, bus stops and other communal utilities are available for the public use, but they should not be made dirty and desecrated by the people. Public property should be considered and maintained as one’s very own property. When we take great care of our houses, why can’t we treat roads and other public utilities with the same respect? The lackadaisical attitude often repulses most visitors and foreign nationals.

I live in a well off neighbourhood where people live in beautiful houses, wear designer clothes and zoom around in fancy cars.

They often visit a supermarket in front of my house and love to eat chocolates and ice-cream but lack the basic civic sense to throw the wrappers into a dustbin and instead throw them on the street.

I have planted three trees in front of my house. People passing by are often lured by the shade the trees provide. Yet, on most occasions, they dirty the entire place and leave behind empty plastic cups, paper etc. Some also treat it as a public urinal. This story remains the same be it public toilets, picnic spots, bus stops, under passes, subways or railway stations. It is not very difficult to keep the public areas clean.

The authorities may consider imposing fines on people who deface public places. We must remember that Bangalore is our city. Let us keep it clean and beautiful.

Do you have anything to say? About the state of the world, the city, your angst? Pen it stylishly and you…More

The Hindu :

Cool brands and cooler designs. Now, you can’t write off the pen, which can make a statement about your style and status

Photo: Mohd YousufSpecial price for special pens People don’t mind splurging on them

At the sprawling Landmark store at Spencer Plaza, in Chennai, T.N. Sudarshan is glued to a showcase that displays luxury pens. With nose pressed against the glass, he excitedly points out to his friend: “I have that pen; I’ll buy the other one… the one next to it; can you see it?”

Pens have come a long way from being mere writing instruments to objects of status and style. “I buy pens for the pleasure of writing. When I am in one of those moods to write something, I use my special pens,” says Sudarshan, a pen enthusiast. His current favourite is a Sheaffer he bought inParis; it set him back by Rs. 25,000. Like him, there are many others who would rather spend their savings on pens than buy otheraccessories.

Be it the ever popular Mont Blanc with its unmistakable white star logo, Parker or Reynolds, the market throws up a satisfactory range of luxury pens. You can choose from those good old brands that left you with ink-stained fingers back in school or cough up a few extra thousands for that swanky pen that increases your snob value when it merely peeps out of your shirt pocket.

The most expensive piece in Chennai right now is the Mont Blanc Skeleton A380 Limited Edition. In solid white gold with diamonds and a handcrafted nib, this pen costs a whopping Rs. 10,05,000.“As the name suggests, it’s limited to 380 pieces across the globe,”says Sonal Arora, Boutique Manager of the Mont Blanc boutique at Park Sheraton.

“A lot of people opt for luxury pens. They know what they want, and are passionate about brands. In fact, some clients are so particular that…More

The Hindu :

This fortnight at seventymm.com

Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)

Cast: Ken Watanabe, Shido Nakamura, Tsuyosi Ihara, Hiroshi Watanabe, Takeshi Yamaguchi, Tim Moore, Nae Yuuki, Lucas Elliott, Evan Ellingson, Sonny Saito, Dennis Y. Takeda, Jonathan Oliver Sessler

Director: Clint Eastwood

Screenwriter: Iris Yamashita

Composer: Kyle Eastwood, Michael Stevens

Cinematographer: Tom Stern

Watching the masterfully-crafted “Letters from Iwo Jima” one can only marvel at Clint Eastwood’s drive and conviction. Into his seventies, the master director, like wine, is just getting better with age, turning in one masterpiece after another.

The ultimate genre buster, Eastwood turns his eye to the war film. When he set out to make “Flags of Our Fathers” based on the iconic Pulitzer-winning picture of US soldiers planting the flag on Iwo Jima, Eastwood realised that he would be telling only half the story. So he set out to tell the other side — the story of the defence of Iwo Jima by the Japanese.

The Japanese-language film was shot back-to-back with “Flag of Our Fathers” and when viewed with “Flag…” gives a complete picture of the desperate fighting that took place on the barren volcanic island in 1945.

As Eastwood says in the making-of feature, while researching “Flag of our Fathers”, he became interested in the defenders particularly Lt. General Tadamichi Kuribayashi who led the defence. The approach of the two nations to war itself was radically different. While the Americans hoped they would return, the Japanese were told they would not return alive. They were expected to die protecting the island.

The film pieces together a story from the thousands of letters found on the island decades later. The letters speak of the hopes, aspirations and fears of the soldiers (some mere boys).

The movie tells the story of defence of Iwo Jima through some of the key players. There is Kuribayashi, who with his travels in America knows something of the American way of life. He…More