Epaper 13 july 2013

CENTRE’S INDECISION WILL HIT PARTY IN LOCAL POLLS

Leading by example

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ctor and activist Amala Akkineni who is involved in more than 16 NGOs including Blue Cross, which she founded, believes that the key to bringing about changes in the City is to be the change itself and inspiring others to follow suit.

Amala talks about her journey, an animal-friendly Hyderabad and much more.

State Congress leaders claim they have lost valuable time — which could have been better used for campaigning in the local body polls — because of the contentious Telangana issue.

PG 11

HAVE TIME, WILL DEMOLISH

The GHMC’s demolition drive is in full swing, with the corporation stating that all dilapidated buildings will be demolished within the next 15 days.

But residents are aghast at the haphazard and dangerous manner in which these demolitions are being carried out.

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Hyderabad’s first compact afternoon newspaper

JULY 13, 2013 HYDERABAD

32 PAGES

ON SATURDAY

WINE SHOP EXCESS SPILLS INTO THE STREET

Pedestrians and local residents are fed up with people who hang around wine shops drinking on the streets. But the authorities seem oblivious to their plight.

REPORT ON PG 4

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PAGE TWO SATURDAY, JULY 13, 2013

SHINE ON

Happily ever after A one-act comedy play on relationships by Manch theatre group.

Where: NTR Auditorium, Nampally When: July 13, 7.30pm Contact: 99899 97763

Newborn handling A workshop for expecting parents.

Where: The Birthplace, Banjara Hills When: July 13, 3 pm to 5 pm

Contact: 80086-24949

Kathak performance Nritya Pravah: A kathak dance performance by Sanjay Joshi will take place.

Where: Ravindra Bharathi, Saifabad When: July 16, 6.30 pm to 8.30 pm Contact: 98493 165256

Students eye the colourful ornaments on sale at Deep Mela that was launched on Friday at HITEX. The exhibition is on till July 14. pm

Mime Explore your expressions in Natvarya-a mime workshop by Indian Mime Academy.

Where: Sutradhar school of acting, Nampally When: Till July 20, 6 pm to 9 pm

pm Contact: 96427 31329

Just for fun

In conversation Open Sourcing Society:Roy Singham will extend a speech on the subject.

Where: Lamakaan, Banjara Hills When: July 13, 7.30 pm Contact: 96427 31329

History of India Viritten will be performed by stand-up comedian Vir Das. Where: N-Convention, Madhapur When: July 27 Contact: 8790432354

Workshop on creative recycling & eco-friendly contributions will be held.

Where: Kaleidoscope, Begumpet Kaleidoscope When: July 13, 3 pm to 7 pm Contact: 98491 84605

State of the Art

Vegetable carving

Contact: 98858 22452

Voyage of exploration, a collection of paintings, drawing and sculptures by students of MFA programme 2013 from Sarojini Naidu School of Art & Communication, University of Hyderabad is on.

Where: Shrishti Art Gallery, Jubilee Hills When: Till July 25 Contact: +91 40 23554485/86

Be quizzed

Barbeque Saturdays

A seminar on adobe photoshop for beginning photographers will be held.

Where: Lamakaan, Banjara Hills When: July 13, 3 pm to 5.30 pm Contact: 96427 3132

KCircle Weekly Quiz With Karthik Muthuraman will be held.

Where: Landmark book store, Somajiguda When: July 13, 4.30 pm to 6.30 pm Contact: kcircle@googlegroups.com

Indulge in flavours from a barbeque every Saturday.

Where: The Square, Novotel When:6.30 pm onwards Contact:: (040) 6682 4422

Lifestyle exhibition

Music theory

Trendz: A two-day wedding & lifestyle expo is being organised.

Where: Taj Krishna, Banjara hills When: July 16&17, 10.30am to 9

Theory of music by Hyderabad Western Music Foundation.

Where: Lamakaan, Banjara Hills When: Till Aug 3, 3 pm to 4.30

Drama time!

Partners: A play in hindi by Rangadhara Theatre Stream will be performed Where: Marathi Granth Sangrahalay, Esamia bazar When: 7.30 pm onwards Contact: (040) 2465 3379

Seminar on photoshop

CINEMAS

Eco-friendly contributions

Learn the nuances of vegetable carving organised by AgriHorticultural Society.

Where: Public Gardens, Nampally When: July 12 to July 14, 11 am to 2 pm Contact: 2329 9779

Brunch on Sundays Enjoy your sundays over classic brunch.

Where: The Square, Novotel When: Every Sunday, 12 noon onwards Contact: (040) 6682 4422

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

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CITY SATURDAY, JULY 13, 2013

Man dies watching Singham

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n auto driver, Vikram Raju, 37, died under suspicious circumstances in a cinema theatre in Kushaiguda on Friday. The victim, a resident of Sainikpuri Colony, was watching Telugu movie Singham. He died in his seat, later an employee of the theater saw his body and informed to the police, but so far cause of death could not be established.

Student commits suicide

Couple commit suicide

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degree student, Mounika, 22, a resident of Lalbagh in Amberpet committed suicide by hanging herself from a fan at home.

Her father Laxmi Narayana and mum Geetha run a kirana shop. They were forcing her to stop her studies, harrassed by them, she took the extreme step,.The Amberpet police are investigating the matter.

IT professional accused of battery and assault The woman complained that the man tried to sexually assault her.

ue to failure in love a B.tech student Sajjan kumar and his lover Sravani committed suicide by dousing themselves in diesel and setting themselves on fire at Ramannapet in Warangal. Sajjan died while Sravani is in the hospital in a critical condition.

They took the extreme step as their parents were opposed to the match since they were distant relatives.

Demolition drive: Bane than boon

The GHMC aims to finish razing all the dilapidated buildings on their list in the next 15 days. But at what cost?

ALEENA ALICE

aleena.t@postnoon.com

T Mohd Shubhan

mohd.s@postnoon.com

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he Karkhana police have registered a case against a male IT professional who allegedly harassed and battered a woman over the past few months and also attempted to sexually assault her.

The complainant and victim is a 42-year-old woman and resident of Allwyn colony in Sector A in Secunderabad, divorced her husband a few years ago and is now living with her daughter. The alleged perpetrator also resides in the same locality, and is alleged to have struck a friendship with the single mother. The victim claims that the accused made sexual advances towards her, which she refused to enter-

tain. She claims it was after her repeated refusals that the accused threatened her that if she did not succumb to his advances he would post ‘nude’ pictures of her on Facebook. She also alleges that he sent “vulgar” SMSes to her.

The victim claims the accused is an alcoholic and drug addict, and often came to her house late at night in an intoxicated state and attempts to sexually assault her. She also alleges that he disrobed in front of her daughter and her, and threatened to beat them up. Her screams for help alerted neighbours who came to her aid and took her to the Karkhana police station where she lodged a complaint against the accused. An investigation is under way.

ill Friday the GHMC has demolished 39 dilapidated buildings including two government schools and a private school in Ramkote.

However, since most of the demolitions are residential properties, the demolitions by the civic authority is not going as smoothly as expected, especially with objections from residents in the surrounding areas. Most of the residents in the area where the demolitions are taking place have been alleging that the civic body is doing haphazard work and causing them more inconvenience. Because of the continuous rains, the residents in these areas complain that the debris of the demolished houses is all on to the roads, and making life difficult.

"I live in a very narrow lane.

On Wednesday two houses were demolished in our lane. Because of the rain the mud from the demolition is all on the road and the road has become slushy. Not only that the authorities have not even bothered to make sure that the stones and other debris

are moved to one corner. Huge rocks are on the road making vehicular traffic difficult,” says Rizwa Qureshi a resident of Moula Ali. In some other low-lying areas which have open drains, residents complain of how the demolition debris is clogging the drains, “Because of the rains, all the debris from the demolition site it flowing into the drains.

Now the drains have clogged and all the water is overflowing. It is the monsoon season, we fear the

outbreak of disease due to such unhygienic conditions,” says B Narsiaiah, a resident of Kushaiguda in Kapra.

The GHMC denied that the demolition was done in a haphazard way. “Instructions were given to the engineers and all the zonal commissioners to make sure that the demolition does not cause any hindrance or inconvenience to the other residents. However, we will, enquire into this matter and, take necessary action,” said an official.

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ith the Hussain Sagar reaching its Full Tank Level of 513.41 mtrs, the GHMC authorities have opened three gates to ensure that there is an outflow of the water. So far the water has come down by 3 feet. Authorities say that the situation is under control, however in case of heavy rains they will have to open all the 10 gates. If this happens several colonies such as Maruthi Nagar,

Arundathi Nagar, Ambedkar Nagar, Aravinda Nagar, Ratna Nagar, Shivanand Nagar, Datta Nagar and areas of Domalguda, Ashok Nagar and Himayath Nagar will be inundated.

The GHMC and the Collector have alerted the residents to be prepared to shift to the nearby rehabilitation centres mostly situated in community halls of the GHMC. In case of any emergency the public can call up the GHMC emergency helpline number: 04023202813.

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CITY SATURDAY, JULY 13, 2013

Roadside drinkers irk citizens

Pedestrians are fed up with people who hang around wine shops and drink right on the road. keep a room next to the wine shop. That is where they drink all the time. Today we have shut it, but will open it again from tomorrow.”

ARUN YELLAMATY

arunyellamaty@postnoon.com

MANY PEOPLE CONTINUE TO BUY LIQUOR FROM WINE SHOPS AND START DRINKING ON THE ROAD.

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ine shops continue to give a tough time to women and general public, especially when they have no other choice but to walk by it. Often, there are drunk people standing at the shop, consuming alcohol and passing unwanted comments.

Many people continue to buy liquor from the wine shops and there itself open the bottles up and start drinking. Capitalising on this trend, there are many vendors selling peanuts and much more near the wine shops.

B Sampurna, a nurse working at a City hospital, says, “It is a horrible experience. When we have to pass by the wine shops in the evening, there are drunk men happily standing in front of the wine shops and consuming alcohol. Few even pass bad and vulgar comments. Why doesn’t anyone do something about it?

There are sometimes traffic cops around this shop, which is in Secunderabad, but they ignore what happens at the wine shop. I wish to avoid this road, but due

to the bus stop ahead, I have to cross this shop.”

A college student, S Sravanya, says, “I stay in Gudimalkapur. The area looks like it was made for heavy drinkers. There is a bar and two

wine shops right next to each other. People are always standing outside the bar and wine shops and drinking alcohol on their bikes. Few people keep standing and even keep eating things found outside the shop at

a ‘bundi’. These men happily party out on the road and there is no one to object.”

When Postnoon checked with a wine shop at Gudimalkapur, the staff said, “We have permission from the government to

There are also a few wine shops and bars that are very close to schools. There are also quite a lot of shops which sell alcohol loose for people who do not have enough money for a whole bottle. These people drink at the shop itself and leave.

Many places in areas such as Amberpet, Gudimalkapur, Mehdipatnam, Secunderabad, Chikadpally and few others have people standing outside wine shops and consuming liquor.

A senior official from the State excise department said, “We have given strict orders to the wine shops not to allow people to drink in front of their shops. If there are still few places that are allowing this, we will hold a special drive to punish them.”

CHALLENGE YOUR BODY That is what Bikram Yoga aims to do. Navin, director of Bikram Yoga in Hyderabad, opens up to Postnoon about the 90 minutes that can change a person’s life.

Fleme Varkey fleme.v@postnoon.com

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little bit of summer heat and you find yourself rushing for the air conditioner. Imagine 90 minutes in a room that has been specifically heated, no way for humidity to escape and yourself contorting your body into shapes you never could imagine it getting into.

Sounds like pain? No, it sounds like fun. That’s what students of Bikram Yoga say worldwide.

Talking about students, celebrities such as Ashton Kutcher, George Clooney, Jennifer Aniston, Andy Murray, Lady Gaga, Madonna, and closer to home Sonam Kapoor and her family all have benefitted greatly from Bikram Yoga. The best part is that prior yoga experience is not necessary. Bikram Yoga is beginner’s yoga.

No headstands, no acrobatics, only 26 natural postures, promises Navin, who has been practicing Bikram Yoga for 12 years now. “For beginners, these are the postures that will get them a fit body. Bikram (founder of this school of Yoga) has care-

fully and painstakingly worked on this sequence to see what suits the people and how it can ease the body’s anomalies and found out which parts of the body need work upon after it takes a beating from the daily grind.” Bikram’s concept of hot yoga started in Japan. He was teaching a group there in winter and they had brought along their heaters to keep themselves warm. That’s when Bikram hit

upon this idea and now as a result special temperature-controlled rooms have become the norm for Bikram Yoga.

The trainers at the Bikram Yoga studio in Banjara Hills are certified and personally trained under Bikram himself. The trainers

undergo intense training to achieve this status. This yoga integrates all aspects of a balanced fitness programme in one workout — cardio, strength and flexibility. The poses systematically warms, stretches and challenges the body. So instead of sweating away for hours in the gym, these 90 minutes can do the trick. The studio has installed a state-of-the-art climate control system in order to make the room oxygenated and properly humidified. They have a humidity system in place which is designed to remove excess humidity when too high or to add moisture when too dry.

Experts agree that the optimal humidity, when considering lung function for protection against colds, flu and other respiratory problems, is around 60 to 70 per cent.

Bikram Yoga employs heat to further the cleaning process. When you sweat, impurities are flushed out of

the body through the skin. A warm body is a flexible body and then you can mould yourself anyway you want. Some people might complain of pain and the rigours of the routine but Navin lays all these doubts to rest. He says, “Everybody has different bodies and a different pain threshold. People have abused their bodies a lot. Throughout the day, we stay bent over our desks and our computers; we need now to bend backwards.

There have been cases where people have actually grown up to 1- 1 1/2 inches, spondylosis has been cured and this is one of the best ways for regimented and focused weight loss. One class, if performed properly, can see you losing more than 1,600 calories.”

At the studio here in Banjara Hills, classes are already taking place. The response has been great so far, so much so that Navin is planning to have regular evening classes from July 16 onwards.

For further information log onto www.bikramyogaindia.com.

The classes are being held at II floor, Guv Vivillash Chambers, Road no 14, Banjara Hills.

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CITY SATURDAY, JULY 13, 2013

Centre’s dilly-dallying will hit party in local polls: leaders State Congress leaders claim they have lost valuable time — which could have been better used for campaigning in the local body polls — because of the contentious Telangana issue.

Our party high command committed a strategic mistake by raking up the Telangana issue after the announcement of the local body poll schedule.

Md INKESHAF AHMED

ahmed.m@postnoon.com HYDERABAD: The stir created by the Congress’s dispensation at the Centre over the decadesold separate Telangana issue proved to be a damp squib after the core committee meeting held in New Delhi concluded without any final decision being taken on the issue. This has left the state’s Congress cadre furious, as a majority of them had stalled campaign work for the local body polls, expecting a decision on the bifurcation of the state.

The dilly-dallying by the party high command also seems to be causing irreparable damage to the party in the state, as leaders here are unable to concentrate on the crucial local body polls, scheduled for later this month.

Party leaders are now fuming at the attitude of the party’s high command. Leaders claim they have lost valuable time — which could have been better used for campaigning in the local body polls — because of the contentious Telangana issue.

“Our party is already facing a lot of opposition from the public owing to many problems. We thought of putting a check on

Senior Congress leader

this anti-incumbency factor by widely campaigning in the local body polls by highlighting our recently-launched populist welfare programmes. But the swift movement of our party high command on the controversial division of Telangana brought us to a standstill and forced us to postpone our proposed campaign. The new announcement

Bandh call evokes good response in Seemaandhra VIJAYAWADA: In response to the bandh call given by Seemandhra JAC, educational institutions, shops, business establishments and cinema theatres remained closed in the Rayalaseema and Andhra regions to protest any move to divide the State.

Schools remained closed in Vijayawada, Guntur, Visakhapatnam, Nellore, Chittoor, Tirupati, Anantapur, Kadapa, Kurnool and other towns. All colleges remained closed under 13 universities in the two regions.

The universities also postponed their post graduation counselling and examinations due to the shutdown. Shops and business establishments voluntarily downed their shutters in towns in response to the shutdown call given by Samaikya Andhra JAC. In Anantapur district, bus transport service was badly

SCHOOLS REMAINED CLOSED IN

VIJAYAWADA, GUNTUR, VISAKHAPATNAM, NELLORE, CHITTOOR, TIRUPATI, ANANTAPUR, KADAPA, KURNOOL AND OTHER TOWNS. affected due to the shutdown.

Protestors staged sit-in at RTC depots. More than 800 buses could not come out of the depots due to the protests.

In the temple town of Tirupati, owners of shops and business establishments downed shutters voluntarily.

Students took out rallies and staged road blockades in the town and other parts of NSS Chittoor district.

by the party high command has left us in the lurch, as we have lost valuable campaign time,” said a senior congress MLA. Another senior leader of the party from the state said that the intense drama created by party high command on the T-issue is likely to turn out to be a blessing in disguise for the rival YSR Congress Party and the Telugu

Desam Party in the state for many reasons. “Our party high command committed a strategic mistake by raking up the Telangana issue after the announcement of the local body poll schedule. It should have desisted from doing so, as the socalled confabulations of our party high command on the Tissue will give an undue advan-

tage to our rivals in the local body polls. Both parties are already going strong in their campaigns and this will hugely dent our party’s prospects of winning majority,” he said.

Another issue that is aggravating the problems is the threat of becoming scapegoats if they fail to win a majority for the party in the local body polls. “It is the norm in every political party to make some leaders responsible for the performance of their party in any elections. If the leaders perform well, they will be rewarded with lucrative posts. If they don’t perform well, they will face the axe. We are also facing a similar threat, as we feel our party will not perform well,” said one state Congress leader.

Keshav Rao doubts Congress will serve T HYDERABAD: Stating that there was no bigger fantasy than expecting Congress Core Committee will concede Telangana demand, TRS secretary general Dr K Keshav Rao has said the people of the region will achieve separate State in case Congress party failed in this regard.

Speaking to the media here on Friday, KK lashed out at AICC general secretary incharge of Andhra Pradesh Digvijay Singh for stating that there was a need to amend the Constitution to carve out separate Telangana State. He said the latter was speaking without any knowledge on the issue. He said there was no need for any amendment of Constitution to create separate Telangana State.

The people of the region were aspiring for a separate state for

decades, he said and ridiculed that Digvijay Singh was speaking on amendment of Constitution instead of speaking

on business and bank loans.

KK said Article 371 D does not apply to the Telangana region. The same had happened during creation of Jharkhand State, he said and reminded that 371 D will remain scrapped after creation of a separate State.

Alleging that more than 1,000 youths’ blood touched the Congress party, he exuded confidence that other political party will create separate Telangana state in case the Congress failed to do so.

He also said talking about packages is a foolish thing. He said if the Congress fails to carve out a separate Telangana state, the people will make it happen.

Nobody will accept anything other than 10 districts of Telangana with Hyderabad, he NSS clarified.

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NATION SATURDAY, JULY 13, 2013

Malala award for Meerut girl

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young girl from Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, who has been tackling the problem of child labour has been conferred with the first United Nations Malala Award for educating child labourers. Sultan, 15, will be felicitated as United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education’s Youth Courage Award for Education.

Uproar against Chandy

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Hemant Soren sworn in as 9th Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren was administered oath by Governor Syed Ahmad. Two legislators — Rajendra Prasad Singh of Congress and Annapurna Devi of RJD — also took oath as ministers.

THE 43 LEGISLATORS WHO ARE SUPPORTING JMM TO FORM THE GOVERNMENT COMPRISE 18 FROM THE JMM, 13 CONGRESS, FIVE RJD, SEVEN LEGISLATORS EITHER BELONGING TO SMALLER PARTIES. RANCHI: Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader Hemant Soren, 37, was sworn in Saturday as ninth chief minister of the state. Hemant Soren was administered oath by Governor Syed Ahmad. Two legislators — Rajendra Prasad Singh of Congress and Annapurna Devi of RJD — also took oath as ministers. The swearing in ceremony took place at Birsa Mandap of Raj Bhawan.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led government of Arjun Munda was dethroned after JMM withdrew sup-

port January 8. The present assembly period ends in December 2014 and this will be third government in the current assembly.

Hemant Soren has been given one week by the governor to seek trust vote and he is likely to seek trust vote July 16. According to JMM sources, Hemant Soren will expand the cabinet after seeking the trust vote. Before the swearing-in ceremony Hemant Soren took blessings of his father Shibu Soren and mother Rupi Soren. No central leaders of the Congress attended the swearing in ceremony.

This is first time that the Congress is becoming part of the government in the state. Congress had extended outside support to the Madhu Koda government in 2006 and Shibu Soren government in 2008. Hemant Soren had staked claim to form the government July 9. He had handed a letter of support of 43 legislators to the governor.

The 43 legislators who are supporting JMM to form the government comprise 18 from the JMM, 13 Congress, five RJD, seven legislators either belonging IANS to smaller parties.

Shutdown in Srinagar SRINAGAR: A shutdown called by the separatists and selective restrictions by the authorities marked Martyrs’ Day in Srinagar Saturday, as floral tributes were paid to those who laid down their lives in 1931 protesting autocracy.

Authorities imposed restrictions in five police station areas of Khanyar, Nowhatta, SR Gunj, Rainawari and Safa Kadal in the old city to maintain law and order. Though officially these restrictions were termed “preventive measures”, the restrictions halted life in areas where they were imposed.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, accompanied by Finance Minister Abdur Rahim Rather, Rural

Rape victim battles for life

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he Communist Party of IndiaMarxist (CPM)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) in Kerala continues to stage state-wide protest rallies over a demand for the resignation of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy for his alleged role in a scam involving the manufacture and sale of solar panels. The LDF has sought a judicial probe in the matter.

Development Minister Ali Muhammad Sagar, Lok Sabha member Sharief-udDin Shariq and senior police and civil officers paid floral tributes at the martyrs’ graveyard at Khwaja Bazaar in the old city, where a contingent of state police presented a guard of honour to the chief minister. On July 13, 1931, a large crowd gathered outside the central jail where Abdul Qadeer, a Pathan butler who had raised his voice against the autocratic rule of the Dogra Maharaja, was being tried in-camera.

As the crowd stormed the jail, guards opened fire, killing 28 people.

Those killed in the central jail firing are known as the martyrs of 1931.

he Uttar Pradesh Government has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the alleged gang-rape of a 20-year-old girl in Etawah. The victim is currently battling for life at a Saifai hospital after being set on fire by her attacker. Uttar Pradesh’s Additional Director General of Police Arun Kumar confirmed in Lucknow that a magisterial probe has been ordered.

‘I’m more of a blogger’ NEW DELHI: BJP leader LK Advani, who had last month expressed dissatisfaction over the way party was functioning, remarked Friday that he was more of a blogger these days than a political activist.

Advani’s remarks, made in a lighter vein at a book release function here, came in response to comments of a speaker earlier that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader had scripted growth of his party but was now finding himself left in the middle of a stream. “I certainly like to do a blog. (I am) more of a blogger these days then I am a political activist. Hence, some people say in sympathy that I have been left mid-stream,” Advani said.

The BJP leader regularly posts his views and writings on his blog.

Advani had resigned from key party posts last month, a day after elevation of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as campaign chief of BJP for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. He had relented after the

intervention of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat.

Advani, who released the book A view from the Raisina Hill by journalist PP Balachandran at the Press Club here, said that the year 1989 marked “a turning point” for the BJP. He said the party won 86 seats in 1989 polls compared to two it had won in the IANS 1984 Lok Sabha elections.

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WORLD SATURDAY, JULY 13, 2013

Refugee boat mishap in Oz

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ustralian authorities were scouring remote seas for survivors Saturday after a people-smuggling boat carrying 97 went down, with 88 people rescued so far and the body of a baby found. Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare said the boat first issued a distress call in rough seas north of Christmas Island, between Australia and Indonesia, on Friday morning.

Asiana toll: 1 more death

Malaysian ‘tea party’ busted

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alaysian authorities have seized nearly 50 kilograms (around 100 pounds) of methamphetamine disguised as Chinese tea at Kuala Lumpur’s main airport, police said. Anti-narcotics agents arrested two ethnic Chinese Malaysians at the airport on Wednesday and later intercepted 12.7 kilos of the drug, police said in a statement late Friday.

third girl, reportedly Chinese, died Friday of injuries sustained in the Asiana jet crash in San Francisco, as authorities confirmed that a firetruck ran over one of the other victims. Two female Chinese teenagers died July 6 when the Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crashed while landing at the San Francisco International Airport.

6 die in Paris train crash The accident, in which the train crashed into a station platform on Friday afternoon, is France’s worst rail disaster in 25 years.

Diane Falconer and Julie Chabanas Agence France-Presse

Double trouble for Dreamliner LONDON: A 787 Dreamliner caught fire at London Heathrow on Friday while a “technical issue” forced a second to return to a different British airport, sending stocks in the company plummeting.

The fire on the parked Ethiopian Airlines plane forced Heathrow, the world’s busiest international passenger air hub, to shut down for 90 minutes but caused no injuries. A Boeing spokesman said the US firm had personnel on the ground at the west London airport and was “working to fully understand and address this”. In a separate incident, engineers were inspecting a Florida-bound Thomson Airways Dreamliner which had to return to Manchester Airport in northwest England after takeoff. Boeing had temporarily withdrawn the Dreamliner from service earlier this year after concerns that batteries on board could cause fires.

A Heathrow spokeswoman said the Ethiopian Airlines plane, named Queen of Sheba, was empty when the blaze was reported at around 1530 GMT.

AFP

BRETIGNY-SUR-ORGE: Rescue workers searched for survivors early Saturday, hours after a high-speed train derailed just south of Paris, killing at least six people and injuring 30 more.

The accident, in which the train crashed into a station platform on Friday afternoon, is France’s worst rail disaster in 25 years.

Rescue teams, working under arc-lights, spent the night checking the wreckage of overturned carriages to see if any passengers were still

WITNESSES SAID THE SITE OF THE CRASH RESEMBLED “A WAR ZONE”. trapped inside and if there were any more bodies to be recovered.

Witnesses said the site of the crash resembled “a war zone”. One survivor described walking over a decapitated body to escape an overturned carriage. The train was a regional service heading from Paris to the west-central city of Limoges. It derailed as it passed through the station at Bretigny-sur-Orge, about 25 kilometres (15 miles) south of Paris.

Rescuers work at night on the site of a train accident on Friday at the railway station of Bretigny-sur-Orge, near AFP/LIONEL BONAVENTURE Paris.

Such was the violence of the crash that pieces of ballast were found in the town several hundred metres away.

Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, speaking from the accident site late on Friday, told reporters: “The toll is currently six dead, 30 injured, of whom eight are in a serious condition.”

Four carriages of the train were derailed in the incident -and three of those overturned.

Passenger Marc Cheutin, 57, told AFP he had to “step over a decapitated person” after

the accident to exit the carriage he had been travelling in.

“Shortly after departure, just as I was getting into my book, we felt a first shock that shook the carriage I was in....

Then there was a second shock and the carriage lifted up, then a third and a fourth and the carriage went over on its side,” he said.

A witness who had been waiting for a train at the station, Vianey Kalisa, told AFP: “I saw a lot of wounded people, women and children trapped

inside (the carriages).

“I was shaking like a child.

People were screaming. One man’s face was covered in blood. It was a like a war zone.”

In the immediate aftermath of the accident, dazed survivors, some in blood-stained clothing, stood near mangled train wagons and the crushed remains of a station platform.

Guillaume Pepy, head of the SNCF rail service, told reporters: “We don’t yet know the reasons for this derailment.”

Dutch tourist raped in Oz

Typhoon Soulik hits US to Egyptian Taiwan: 1 dies, 30 hurt army: Free Morsi

SYDNEY: A Dutch tourist was raped more than 60 times and tortured with a meat tenderiser and gas torch during a brutal six-week ordeal in Australia, a court heard. The 21-year-old was allegedly abducted and kept prisoner in a Melbourne hotel in November and December last year, according to reports of Friday’s hearing into the case at Melbourne Magistrates Court. Alfio Anthony Granata, 46, and Jennifer Peaston, 32, face 179 charges each, including detaining the woman against her will, multiple threats to kill her, 62 counts of rape and 85 of assault. The tourist was abducted after meeting the couple at a party at the Rydges Preston hotel where she was allegedly sexually assaulted, beaten, tortured.

TAIPEI: Typhoon Soulik battered Taiwan with torrential rain and powerful winds on Saturday that left one person dead and at least 30 people injured. As daylight dawned, some areas were submerged by flood waters, roofs were ripped from homes, and debris and fallen trees littered the streets. More heavy rain and strong winds are predicted throughout Saturday with the authorities warning of landslides and further flooding.

More than 8,000 people were evacuated from their homes before the typhoon hit, many from southern areas prone to landslides. Soldiers have been deployed to high risk areas and the whole island declared an “alert zone”. In the capital Taipei, a 50-year-old police officer died after being hit by bricks that came loose during the typhoon.

CAIRO: The United States on Friday called on Egypt’s military to free deposed president Mohamed Morsi, as tens of thousands of his supporters vowed to keep fighting for his reinstatement. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the United States agreed with Germany’s earlier appeal for Morsi to be released and was “publicly” making the same request. The deposed Islamist president has been held in a “safe place,” according to Egypt’s interim leaders, and has not been seen in public since his ouster on July 3.

Psaki said Washington wanted “an end to restrictions on Mr Morsi’s whereabouts”, while Germany suggested a trusted institution such as the International Committee of the Red Cross should be granted access.

8

COMMENT SATURDAY, JULY 13, 2013

EDITORIALS FOOD SECURITY impels uncertainty The food security scheme announced by the Centre recently will impose a burden of up to `1,800 crore per annum on the State government.

Earlier it was believed that the populist scheme will decrease the subsidy burden of the State but in reality it will impose an additional financial burden on the State exchequer.

The food security scheme guarantees five kilos of rice, wheat, and coarse cereals per month, per person, at a fixed price of `3, `2 and `1 respectively. The State is currently implementing its own version of the food security programme by providing 20kg rice at `1 per kg under the Mana Biyyam scheme.

An estimated 2.23 crore, white card holders in the State and the compulsion to cover 75 per cent of the rural population and 50 per cent of the urban population under the scheme leaves Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy to count on revenues.

Thankfully, the first quarter of the 2013-14 fiscal has seen strong revenue inflows with Value Added Tax and Excise registering high growth rates.

POOR STATE OF RICH collage of colleges The charm of the abodes of higher education in Hyderabad is fading among students.

Physically also their age-old appeal is lost. These historic structures, which are top college established during the Nizam’s rule need a facelift.

Repairs are due for Nizam College, City College, Osmania University College for Women in Koti and Aliya Junior College in Gun Foundry.

Attention needs to be given to the dilapidated buildings, leakages, falling concrete chips, seeping rainwater and shrubs and foliage jutting out of crumbling structures.

The heritage tag should be used by the colleges to educate archaeological officials on the utilisation of special funds for immediate repairs.

And funds for such work is always made available by philanthropic organisations like the Aga Khan Foundation, which is doing a great job of restoring the Red Fort in Delhi.

The sacred pause Soul Curry SUMAA TEKUR

W

hen was the last time you landed up at someone’s house unannounced and were welcomed, offered tea and hosted like a truly treasured friend? I experienced this extreme hospitality last weekend in Badami, North Karnataka. And the hosts weren’t even known to me.

It was on overcast weekend but the villagers’ smiles brightened up the day. I made a threeday trip to the architectural hotspot of India – the Tri-Star of Badami, Aihole and Pattadakal.

The mute sandstone marvels stand testimony to the glory of our ancient kingdoms. They’re breathtaking. But I was fascinated even more by the people that live around these architectural wonders, going about their business near the temple ruins worried more for their day-today concerns and less for the beauty surrounding them.

The by lanes of Badami’s old town are narrow, winding and decrepit. On a lazy Saturday afternoon, I set out with my camera, hoping to capture a slice of rural India. I got some telling photographs. But more importantly, I travelled into the past when time was not a cause for stress – it just

passed by. People here are not desperate to optimise time to the maximum. They’re not concerned if they lost a few hours or even the entire day, to just being. Time gets a different meaning here. Time doesn’t overpower their lives. They, instead, use time as and how they feel fit.

I travelled into a time when people will pause their daily

chores to chat with you. To them, inviting a complete stranger into their house is not an intrusion into their space. In fact, they will gladly share their space. They will prepare tea for you and chat you up like an old friend. If you walked into their house when they’re napping, they will not complain. Their spaces are fluid, too. They are capable of using their homes to

achieve various things. Space, to them, is open, welcoming, not their own. They seem to live by the philosophy that it’s only a temporary stop in this physical avatar. So it doesn’t make any sense to lay claim on this space as though it will be theirs forever. They’re in the constant state of transition, living more in the spiritual plane and less in the physical and mental plane.

There’s no urgency or desperation to acquire, amass or attract the physical comforts of life.

Their contentment was seen on their faces, in their smiles, in the pace with which they went about their daily chores.

It’s said that India lives in the past, present and future all at the same time. In Badami, the past and the future meet on the same lane. The villagers here have an innocence that is not polluted by betrayal, greed or ambition. The doors to their homes are always open. They nap outside, wash vessels and clothes near the doorstep, organise their firewood for cooking out on the lane, etc. At the same time, they will stop to answer the cellphone, be entertained by regional language daily soaps on satellite TV and zoom on the latest two-wheeler into the city for their daily shopping.

Time and space have different meanings here. Travelling from India to Bharat often opens up these stories. Getting back into the urban jungle feels like being back in the future but only physically. It’s a spiritual step back into decadence.

9

COMMENT SATURDAY, JULY 13, 2013

Bulgarians seek overhaul of ‘corrupt’ political system The Inside Story

UP TO 10,000 PROTESTERS HAVE RALLIED IN SOFIA EVERY EVENING SINCE JUNE 14, SHOUTING ‘MAFIA!’ AND ‘RESIGN!’, ANGRILY DEMANDING THAT POLITICIANS SEVER THEIR TIES WITH OLIGARCHS.

DIANA SIMEONOVA

J

VISWAPRASAD RAJU

Urban sketches

Secret lake

ust five months after massive anti-poverty rallies brought down the government, Bulgarians are back on the streets, marching this time for an overhaul of a “corrupt” political system.

Up to 10,000 protesters have rallied in Sofia every evening since June 14, shouting “Mafia!" and “Resign!", angrily demanding that politicians sever their ties with oligarchs.

Analysts say new elections — by mid-2014 at the latest — are the only way out of the crisis, but Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski has repeatedly refused to step down, warning that fresh polls would only destabilise the country and ruin the fragile economy of the European Union’s poorest country.

Oresharski told parliament on Friday he was listening to the protesters, and hoping to convince them to appreciate his efforts to improve the social and economic situation.

These included, according to the prime minister, measures undertaken by his administra-

tion to ease poverty and unemployment and boost economic recovery.

The measures offered higher maternity allowances and oneoff payments for first-graders, more jobs and internships for people under the age of 29 and higher scope of heating aid programmes for the poorest.

But 24-year-old artist Viktoria Katova told AFP at a

rally, “Things can’t get any worse. I’d rather go for 10 snap elections in a row than put up with this corrupt, insolent political class that pretends it does not notice us".

Another protester, physical education teacher Nikolay Staykov, 55, was similarly outraged: “This isn’t democracy.

Bulgaria has been parcelled out to different business circles...

what we have here is a state mafia."

“All the parties are the same... We must wipe all that out and build the political system up from scratch," he said, adding that new elections were “an absolute necessity".

The deep ties between the country’s top businessmen and politicians have been cultivated over the past 24 years of post-

communist transition.

Examples of collusion between the two are rife, with top businessmen often rumoured to be influencing judicial appointments and politicians pushing through legislation that would favour big corporate interests.

A recent Transparency Inter national study showed that 76 per cent of Bulgarians thought all political parties were corrupt.

The latest wave of protests was set off by the June 14 appointment of a 32-year-old media mogul, Delyan Peevski, to the country’s top security agency post.

The government reversed the appointment of the young and inexperienced tycoon, but it was unable to hold back public anger.

AFP

Global edits The Guardian

Abortion reform: changing Ireland

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y comparison with abortion laws in much of northern Europe, the decision taken by the Irish parliament this week is a small step. But in terms of Ireland’s long debate about abortion, it is a big stride. Modern Ireland has agonised over abortion for at least 30 years, ever since the right to life of the unborn was written into the constitution in 1983. In the early hours of yesterday, however, the Dáil voted by 127-31 for the government’s protection of life during pregnancy bill. This is the first time Irish parliamentarians have put a right to abortion on to the statute book. It is a big moment, yet Ireland’s abortion debate is anything but over.

Ireland’s new law is narrowly drafted. It enshrines a woman’s right to a legal abortion if her life is at risk from illness, in a medical emergency, or if there is a risk of suicide. There is no provision for a woman to have a right to an abortion following rape, or if she cannot cope physically or emotionally, or if foetal abnormalities have been detected. Nor may a woman decide for herself whether to have an abortion.

THE ULTRA-CAUTIOUS BILL

HAS CAUSED GREAT CONTROVERSY AND BECOME TO SOME EXTENT A LIGHTNING ROD FOR OTHER DISCONTENTS. One right that is in the bill, however, is the right to go elsewhere to have an abortion. In practice, this mainly means coming to Britain. Figures this week show that almost 4,000 Irish women travelled to England and Wales for an abortion during 2012 – an average of 11 a day. One in five was coming here for the second time.

According to the Irish Family Planning Association, more than 156,000 Irish women have made the journey since 1980. The tightly drawn new bill means that this mass trek will continue. Even after yesterday’s vote, the Irish state is continuing to turn its face away from its own people and its own responsibilities.

The new bill at least tries to look some issues in the eye. It might not have been carried at all had it not been for the traumatic death of the 17-weeks pregnant dentist Savita Halappanavar in Galway last October.

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BUSINESS SATURDAY, JULY 13, 2013

Brazil oil field strikes gold

TTF fair on in the City

Strike paralyses ports

HYDERABAD: The 105th edition of

RIO DE JANEIRO: The Libra deepwa-

BUENOS AIRES: Argentina, one of

India’s biggest travel trade show Travel & Tourism Fair opened on Friday in Hyderabad at the Hitex Exhibition Centre bringing together more than 200 participants from all over the country as well as from nine other countries.

The show will be open for public on Saturday and Sunday. Entry to the exhibition is free. (pic on pg19)

ter oil field that Brazil plans to auction off on October 21 will yield minimum output of 1 million barrels of crude per day, the National Petroleum Agency, or ANP, said on Friday. That production would be equivalent to half of Brazil's current output of 2 million bpd.

The consortium that wins will likely need to drill for about four years.

the world's leading food exporters, saw its main agricultural ports shut down Friday thanks to a dockworkers' strike. The walkout blocked 80 per cent of the exports in the sector that were scheduled for Friday by forcing more than 100 freighters nationwide to postpone their sailing dates, according to media accounts.

US-India CEOs asked to focus on defence trade Arun Kumar

feedback@postnoon.com

WASHINGTON: A top US official on Friday asked Indian and US business leaders to focus on four key areas of FDI, defence trade, nuclear power and people as they work out ways to boost India-US business relationship.

“The full participation of the private sector is indispensible to a sustainable long-term partnership,” Deputy Secretary of State William J Burns said welcoming participants to a meeting of the US-India CEO Forum at the State Department.

The meeting is led by India’s Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, US Deputy National Security Advisor Caroline Atkinson, and US Trade Representative Michael Froman, along with CEO cochairs Ratan Tata and David Cote of Honeywell Indian Finance Minister P Chidambaram and Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma, US Treasury Secretary Jacob J Lew, US Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, and Under Secretary for Economics, Energy, and Agricultural Affairs Robert D Hormats are also participating in addition to the American and Indian CEOs. “That’s why this Forum is so important,” Burns said suggesting “a number of specific

Emirates allows extra baggage to India, Pakistan DUBAI: Emirates has announced an extra baggage allowance of 10kg to India and Bangladesh and an additional 20kg to Pakistan as part of a special promotional campaign.

The ‘Take More This Summer’ campaign will go on till July 31.

The airline is already allowing 30kg in economy class, while

SILVER MEMBERS CAN ENJOY AN EXTRA 12KG, areas where I believe we can achieve near-term progress and deliver a solid return on the investment in our relationship.” “We ought to lower barriers for foreign direct investment,” Burns said suggesting “reforms in FDI and concluding the bilateral investment treaty will be instrumental in taking innovation, economic growth, and job creation to a new level in both countries”.

“Second, we need to continue transforming our defense trade relationship. Third, we must deliver on the promise of the civil-nuclear agreement,” he said as “this will be a visible

A FORUM COMPRISING 10 SELECTED CEOS FROM BOTH COUNTRIES IS MANDATED TO DEVELOP A ROAD MAP FOR INCREASED PARTNERSHIP AND COOPERATION BETWEEN THE TWO COUNTRIES AT A BUSINESS LEVEL. manifestation of our strategic partnership.” Finally, we must keep our countries open to the fundamental driver of this part-

nership - our people,” he said noting “from Silicon Valley to Wall Street, and Cambridge to Washington, Indian Americans and Indian citizens are making a profound impact here”.

Describing “the transformed relations between India and the United States as one of the most significant developments in global politics,” he said.”

Launched in July 2005, the forum comprising 10 selected CEOs from both countries is mandated to develop a road map for increased partnership and cooperation between the two countries at a business IANS level.

GOLD MEMBERS AN EXTRA 16KG AND PLATINUM MEMBERS AN ADDITIONAL 20KG. silver, gold and platinum Emirates skywards members have the opportunity to carry even more.

Silver members can enjoy an extra 12kg, gold members an extra 16kg and platinum members an additional 20kg.

“Despite our baggage allowances being amongst the most generous in the airline industry, people still want more,” said Majid Al Mualla, Emirates’ senior vice-president.

Green homes to attract lower interest rates NEW DELHI: Buyers of certified green and energy-efficient homes will get home loans at lower interest rates, with a memorandum of understanding for this being signed Friday between the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) and National Housing Bank (NHB).

The purpose of this MoU is to jointly enhance and promote the adoption of energy efficient and ‘Green’ homes concept in India.

“Going green is indeed an imperative to ensure a sus-

tainable tomorrow.

I hoped the MoU will go a long way in promoting green homes and facilitate India emerge as one of the global leaders in green buildings,” said Arun Kumar Misra, secretary, ministry of housing and urban poverty alleviation.

The IGBC, a part of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), is involved in promoting the green building movement in India.

The council is represented by all stakeholders of

construction industry comprising of corporate, government and nodal agencies, architects, product manufacturers and institutions.

Arnab Roy, executive director, NHB, hoped that the partnership will have excellent results in further enhancing green and energy efficient homes in the country.

“NHB with support of IGBC would offer the fund to home finance companies willing to transfer the benefit of concession to buyers of green homes,” he said. IANS

11

NEWS SATURDAY, JULY 13, 2013

Leading by example Actor and activist Amala Akkineni who is involved in more than 16 NGOs including Blue Cross which she founded, believes that the key to bringing about changes in the City is to be the change itself and inspiring others to follow suit. Amala talks about her journey, an animal-friendly Hyderabad and much more.

S BALAKRISHNA

told. So the best thing one can do if you want to bring about changes is be an example. There are still a lot of animal fatalities that occur on the highway.

However many a time it is inevitable. The rule to follow on a highway is not to jam your breaks since a bus could run into you from the back which means more casualties. If a dog runs across the road, you either swerve if there is no oncoming traffic or you continue straight. In the bargain many dogs die on the highway. If you do run over it is always good to stop and check if the animal is dead or alive. If it is alive you can bring it to a vet for check-up.

IVERS NN

A

RY

You work with almost 16 NGOs. Which is the one that is closest to your heart?

Hands down, Blue Cross is my most favourite since I founded it.

The story of Blue Cross began 21 years ago when I shifted to Hyderabad. Just like my childhood, I started rescuing animals that were run-over, that were sick and needed help. I took these animals home. That's when I realised that there wasn't a helpline number which one could call if you witness an animal in danger. At the end of the month, my house was more like a zoo.

It was jam-packed with sick birds, a blind mongoose, a bull with a broken hip. One day my husband came back after shooting and he was like may be I should be doing something more organised. So it was really him who put the idea of Blue Cross into my head. He donated my first ambulance and helped me with the start-up.

Dr Vijayakumari who was the vet at the veterinary hospital told me that she will treat the animals if I could take them to her. So we trained a para vet and whenever we got calls from people about a run-over dog or a sick animal, the ambulance would rush to the spot. It was in

2

TE

Do you think people are more aware about animal welfare and animal laws as compared to how it was 21 years back before Blue Cross came into being?

The City in which we started was small and one organisation could take care of the rescue cases. As time has progressed, the City has turned into a metropolis with a lot of migration happening and large amounts of garbage being produced every day. With more garbage, there are more street animals in the City now and the infrastructure of one NGO is no way capable of handling so much. We get around 200 calls a day so I think there is a lot of changes in the mindset of the people here. Meanwhile, there are also many cases of violence towards animals happening in the city. No one learns by being

W

A

IN

Were you an animal person when you were a child?

I did my first rescue when I was around six years of age. And luckily for me unlike mothers of other children, my mum was not against me when I got animals home. There was a corner in the store room where she allowed me to keep the animal and we would take it to the vet nearby for treatment. Later, I went to boarding school where I adopted 14 dogs that were in the campus. Whenever one of these dogs chewed a sandal or got into trouble, my friends would complain to me.

1992 that we started the first rescue service in the City. During this time it was a norm to kill street dogs. Whenever spotted, dogs were rounded up and killed. There was a statewide campaign on educating people and telling them about vaccinations, and neutering. The Municipal commissioner at the time, Rachel Chatterjee agreed to stop the killing provided we get the dogs operated. Overnight we had to find a place and start sterilising the dogs.

There was an abandoned, old, school building which belonged to one of my family members and we used the building to sterilise the dogs. The municipality would give us 500 dogs each month and that is how we started. We were given a two acreland from the government and we have been sterilising and rescuing animals ever since. Last year alone, we rescued 9,389 animals.

E

amyrose.t@postnoon.com

B IG

Amy Rose Thomas

RVI

What is the main problem that the country is facing when it comes to banning wild animals used in cultural and religious purposes like for sacrifices or processions?

In spite of laws being passed, people are hesitant to bring them to practice when the cases in question are religious or cultural. A year back we were involved with a state wide campaign to educate people in Ventagagiri, Nellore where 25,000 animals were killed each year in the name of animal sacrifice. It was during the festival called Poleramma Jatara. It was an old custom so it took over a period of three years of strategic planning to completely stop this practice. Social change comes only through a slow and strategic approach through which a community starts to grow on its own. Overnight we cannot change the mindset. The custom was completely stopped only last year.

Tell us about the other projects you are working on currently.

Pick

I am also working with Teach Aids, which is an education programme started by Priya Sarkar, professor at Stanford university.

I am a trustee on her board. This all began during the period when HIV positive kids were expelled from schools. The Andhra Pradesh State AIDS Control Society had called upon socially conscious citizens to come forward and speak to the public. We realised that people

at the

did not know much about the technicalities of the disease.

Later I came across Priya Sarkar who wanted to bring out a CD with celebrity voices educating about school children about AIDS. We got her the funding from Nimmagadda Foundation and Anushka, Shabana Azmi, Nagarjuna lent their voices for the same. CDs were distributed to 24,000 government schools in the State.

airport,

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12

TECHNOLOGY SATURDAY, JULY 13, 2013

WEBSITE OF THE WEEK www.wirecutter.com he Wirecutter focuses only on reviews of the best products in a bevy of categories, from Android phones to Bluetooth headsets to humidifiers to computer bags for women.

T

MOBILE GAME REVIEW

APP OF THE WEEK

MAN OF STEEL

FlightTrack

F

ollow the path of thousands of international flights on slick, zoomable maps, with detailed information on departure gates, delays and (heaven forbid) cancellations.

Available on iPhone, iPad, Android and Windows.

Based on the blockbuster movie Man of Steel, this is a 3D-brawler that lets players combat General Zod and his invading Kryptonian forces on both ground and air in a fast-paced mobile adventure.

Indie gaming India-style Unrest, an India-themed game has got the world talking NT BALANARAYAN

balanarayan.nt@postnoon.com

T

here have been plenty of India themed games in the past but all of them were either based on a Bollywood movie or had a religious angle to it. Arvind Raja Yadav from Jaipur however is working on a Rule Playing Game (RPG) called Unrest that is set in a fictional version of ancient India that will run on Windows, Mac and Linux.

Arvind says that he came up with the idea for such a game seven years back when he was in college. “I am a big fan of Prince of Persia and Assassin’s Creed style of games and I always wanted to create a similar game that is set in India,” he says. He has developed two RPG games and a mod of Half Life 2 in the past and says that these helped him understand the various factors

G A M E P L A Y T

Gamers will be able to interact with a lot of people in the city and villages around it presented in the game.

The moral decisions you make through it will be the core of the gameplay and you could expect a bit of swordplay too.

he game is set in a city torn by civil strife and presents it through four people from different castes who are caught in a struggle for freedom, food, safety, and power. Unlike traditional RPGs which involves a lot of fighting, this game is more conversation oriented.

that go into developing a game.

Unrest follows the life of ordinary people who are struggling for safety, freedom, food for their children, and a chance at peace. For developing the game, he used India at the time of Ashoka and Gupta empire as a reference and added elements from other eras to suit the story.

He recently successfully raised money for the game via

Kickstarter.com and is currently working on the game with four others who are based out of different parts of the world.

When they started the Kickstarter campaign they had set a low goal of $3,000 but they ended up raising more than $30,000 by the end of it.

So how did this game come into being? “Though I wanted to work on such a game for

long time it was only recently that I started working on it entirely. I worked on the engine and mechanics for the past eight months and hired a writer so we could flesh out the

idea. When I used to create mods for Half Life 2 I had become friends with an artists who lives in Europe and others too joined the team similarly.

The concept has changed a lot from what I had initially as wanted to create a game that was good and something that a small team like ours could pull off in such a short period of time,” Arvind says.

Arvind says that most other developers here feel that such an idea is risky as a gamers won’t be able to empathise with it. He feels differently about the issue and hopes to ship the game by February 2014. “After the Kickstarter we had promised some extra content in the game and that is the only thing that can delay us,” he says.

For more information on the game, check out pyrodactyl.com.

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ANIMAL KINGDOM SATURDAY, JULY 13, 2013

PET NEWS Mammals choose

Slap Fish to Death

T

hresher sharks slap fish to death, according to a new study that adds sharks to the list of ocean predators that can kill with just a slap.

For this latest study, published in PLoS ONE, Simon Oliver.

he study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, confirms a long-held theory that animals can influence the sex of their young in response to environmental conditions and other factors.

IMPORTANT NUMBERS

Cat dung parasite

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T

e careful next time you change the kitty litter — cat poop can carry a nefarious parasite that may be much more widespread than thought, researchers say. Cat dung carries the parasite Toxoplasma gondii.

CATS AND DOGS The Animal Care Clinic 040-2335 2474 Pet’s World Dog Clinic 98856 46259 Blue Cross of Hyderabad 040-3298 9858, 23544355/ 5523 Vet-N-Pet 040-6553 9535, 93463 05890 Bluplus Pet Clinic 040-2712 1739, 2716 2636 Sri Sai Pet Clinic

040-2779 7458, 9848645350 Claws & Paws 98662 82772 All Creatures Animals Clinic 040-2773 0885 BIRDS Govt Veterinary Hospital 040-2331 9656, 2753 5755 Bird Watcher’s Society 040-2355 6166 Friends of Birds9391048315 SNAKES Friends of Snakes 8374233366

LONG WAIT FOR JUSTICE

In the 1990s the Supreme Court banned use of wild animals in circuses. However, elephants were not included because the government did not have the necessary facilities for their relocation.

I

t was the sheer size of this beautiful animal that worked against it when the law was passed to release the animals in captivity into the wild. While other animals like bears, monkeys, lions and panthers were rescued from captivity to be released, elephants were left behind since the government did not have the infrastructure to relocate these animals. At the time, there were more than 5,000 elephants that were in captivity.

It was during the 1990s that the Supreme Court banned the use of wild animals in circuses, citing widespread neglect of these animals. However, even now, more than a decade later after the ban, elephants are omnipresent in circuses, processions in the country.

Elephants today, survive in the harshest, most wretched conditions, plagued by foot sores and dehydration.

These working elephants have no permanent resting place and are often made to work continuously for 12-14 hours each day. When not working the elephants are chained so tightly they barely have space to move, kept in place by spikes that cut into them.

“We are aiming at a complete ban on the use of elephants in any form of begging, performance or procession. The first step however,

is to rescue the begging elephants. The campaign is trying to convince the government to set up centres for the same. States like Karnataka, Maharashtra have the facility for these rescued animals. “In most cases, it is a poor family who would have inherited the animal and they rent it out for weddings and functions, and live on the money that the animal brings in. These animals also die very young living with these homes. The animal which when living in

WHEN NOT WORKING THE ELEPHANTS ARE CHAINED SO TIGHTLY THEY BARELY HAVE SPACE TO MOVE, KEPT IN PLACE BY SPIKES THAT CUT THEM. the wild lives upto 100 years, dies as soon as they touch 25,” Amala Akkineni, founder of Blue Cross says.

The dearth in facilities is the main problem that the government is facing. Even after relocating one cannot easily handle an elephant since it doesn’t usually listen to anyone but its mahout. An elephant gets attached to its mahout and can usually be handled only by him.

“Kerala has the expertise while other states like

AMY ROSE THOMAS

amyrose.t@postnoon.com Karnataka, Maharashtra have the facility. The pressure is on the government to get the infrastructure, the know-how, the training camps and facility ready for starting the rescue operation of the elephants. Once the plan is in place, you can work towards it. When Menaka Gandhi had come into power, she ensured that all big five were out from the circus. These animals included tigers, leopards, lions, bear and monkeys were taken away from the circus and put into rehabilitation centres,” Amala says.

Hopefully, elephants will not have to wait for longer.

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BOOKS SATURDAY, JULY 13, 2013

SHORT READS Title: Hyperbole and a Half Author: Allie Brosh Publisher: Touchstone; Original edition The author of popular blog Hyperbole and a Half has a book out! Filled with her insane illustrations, endearing characters and hilarious prose, Allie Brosh scores a winner with this insane little book. Fans and others will love this.

Title: Fin & Lady Author: Cathleen Schine Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Fin is left orphaned at 11 and this means he’s going to be sent off to live with his glamourous big sister, Lady. From a tiny little farm town to the big city smack in the swinging ‘60s, Fin and Lady find that they need each other more than they know.

Title: Hidden Order Author: Brad Thor Publisher: Atria/Emily Bestler Books; First Edition edition Secret agencies are back in vogue, thanks to the NSA scam. Hidden Order explores what happens when the heads of the most secretive organisation in the US go missing, and what has to be done to ensure the safety of the country.

Title: Letters from Skye Author: Jessica Brockmole Publisher: Random House Publishing Group In an age of instant email comes this heartwarming tale of letters bringing two lovers together. A girl from the remote island of Skye strikes up a correspondence with a young ambulance driver in America, but war intervenes.

SPACE ENCOUNTERS

There is murder, intrigue, mystery, biological warfares, plagues, strange worlds and a lot of cats.

George RR Martin’s Tuf Voyaging promises an adventurous ride.

FLEME VARKEY

fleme.v@postnoon.com

G

eorge RR Martin is best known for his high fantasy epic, A Song of Ice and Fire. An endlessly inventive writer he has written in several genres. One of his earlier works, Tuf Voyaging, is a science fiction series of novellas that has recently been rereleased.

We meet Haviland Tuf, one of the characters, in Dreamsongs: A Retrospective (2003), a careerspanning collection of George RR Martin's short fiction. Tuf makes for a fascinating individual. But before we go into the details, let’s stop right here and let me inform, if you are not into space travel, alien worlds and cats, Tuf Voyaging will be a bit of a chore. Seven stories dominate the book, the first of which is about the Plague Star. It focuses on a group of adventurers, researchers who have set on an expedition in search of a long-lost seedship from the Old Earth Ecological Corps.

Haviland Tuf is a small-time trader who agrees to a contract

A lot of adventure, a major historical cover-up and the fate of the world hanging in the balance — Steve Berry delivers all these and much more.

Jyotsna Nambiar jyotsna.n@postnoon.com

W

hen Dan Brown says it is “My kind of thriller”, you already know what to expect of Steve Berry's The King's Deception. A lot of adventure, a major historical cover-up and the fate of the world hang-

Name Tuf Voyaging Author George RR Martin Pages 435 Publisher Hachette India taking these passengers to the location of the ship.

The power that the ship and its contents have is soon demonstrated when the group of six people end up betraying each other. There is murder, intrigue, mystery, double-crossers and drama all packed into a space of

Running down history lane ing in the balance — Berry delivers all these and much more.

The focus is now on London, and it is the English monarchy that comes under the scanner.

The Scottish government's decision to allow Abdelbaset alMegrahi, convicted for the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 that killed 270, to go free on humanitarian grounds has the US in a tizzy. The US tries to get Britain to stop Scotland from doing so, but fails. Thwarted, it starts digging into the country's history for some ancient time-bomb.

Former Justice Department agent Cotton Malone, his son

and a troubled English teenager get caught up in the whole mess.

It's a spy game pure and simple, and there's no knowing who is on which side. Various shadowy government departments flit through, an ancient secret society surfaces and people are

Name The King's Deception Author Steve Berry Pages 409 Publisher Hachette India

some 80 pages. But it’s worth it as it makes the book unputdownable as one goes in search of the conclusion to this power game on board the ancient seedship.

Some want fame, or knowledge; others, money and power.

Double-crossing and betrayals follow.

The seedship, we discover as the rest of the crew does is unmanned and has within its hold, biological weaponry and that the possible reason for the deserted ship is the fact that one of the experiments might have gone wrong. The ship finally lands in Tuf ’s lands and he begins his journey across space in his new found profession as an Ecological Engineer. Through his researches on the Ark, he manages to solve life-threatening problems on the worlds he encounters. Power corrupts, but Tuf remains innocent. Most of the worlds where he goes to the Ark is the subject of envy.

Tuf gives ecological solutions to the problems facing Earth. But the only solution he can’t offer is for man’s greed.

Martin is a master at dialogue and interaction. The way his characters speak, their motives and their humour all ring true.

Read it for a thoroughly entertaining affair in space.

assassinated all the time.

The highlight of the book is English history, written in lucid and anecdotal style. Sure Berry is no Hilary Mantel, but the book is a nice mix of different genres. Al-Megrahi's release and the furore it caused is an actual event, and Berry ties it neatly into his conspiracy theories. Of course, like every other longkept secret, exposing the truth could have far-reaching effects.

Berry tries to blend historical fact and his own fertile fiction, and appears to succeed.

The long-buried secret, however, does not have the explosive power that he intended. His characters are thriller staples; a cautious ex-agent, a triggerhappy policewoman, a megalomaniac killer and a many faced spy chief. As a thriller, it works.

15

BOOKS SATURDAY, JULY 13, 2013

Beginning of the end

What does it take for a top honcho to commit the biggest fraud in corporate America? Anita Raghavan’s thoroughly researched novel The Billionaire’s Apprentice takes us on a journey into the lives of two such people.

Hemanth Kumar

hemanth.k@postnoon.com

I

t’s not an easy task to be the head of a company like Goldman Sachs, where anything you say might have an adverse impact on stock markets and sometimes even the financial stability of a country, but Indian born Rajat Gupta carried that responsibility for several years. Another such highly revered figure was Sri Lankan American Raj Rajaratnam, the founder of Galleon Group, a New York-based hedge fund management firm.

For the longest time, the duo was seen as a symbol for the South Asian community which has always lived under the shadow of Americans and Europeans calling the shots in the highest echelons of corporate America.

This incredible power gave way to greed and after a point, the two began manipulating the information they had to commit one of the biggest frauds of our generation. A lot has been written about how the two commit-

ted the crimes and Anita Raghavan’s thoroughly researched novel, The Billionaire’s Apprentice, puts plenty of things in perspective.

In the book, she traces the rise of Rajat Gupta, a graduate from IIT and Harvard Business School, who climbed up the ladder in several top companies like Goldman Sachs and ultimately perished in the late 2000s.

Insider trading is another major aspect which has been covered extensively in the book and Anita Raghavan narrates the modus operandi of Raj Rajaratnam and his accomplice Rajat Gupta. In one instance, in September, 2008, Rajat Gupta makes a 30-second phone call to Rajaratnam, telling him to buy

Name The Billionaire’s Apprentice Author Anita Raghavan Pages 512 Publisher Hachette India

as many shares of Goldman Sachs as possible, after Warren Buffet decides to invest $5 billion in the bank. Rajaratnam made a handsome profit based on Rajat’s phone call and that’s just tip of the iceberg.

In the middle of all this, a team of FBI agents, federal prosecutors and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) officials, who have already got a whiff of insider trading scam, prepare to nail the two using wiretapping and recording conversations. Anita Raghavan avers, based on police records, that Raj Rajaratnam has been on the radar for insider trading since late 90s, when he was suspected to have sales data from his mole in Intel corporation,

but lack of evidence prevented the FBI to file a chargesheet against him. But it wasn’t the case anymore a decade later. The evidence against both Rajaratnam and Rajat Gupta was overwhelming.

The book also takes us behind the doors of hedge fund companies, which earn obscene amount of money and the lifestyle of the employees is at times too good to be true. Ethics take a backseat, but the bigger question here is how much is enough when it comes to money?

It almost seems like ‘enough’ is a term which doesn’t exist in the duo’s dictionary. If you have closely followed the rise and fall of Rajat Gupta, this book is a must read.

WHAT’S SELLING Walden’s best in fiction

Walden’s best in non-fiction

New York Times’ best in fiction

New York Times’ best in non-fiction

n Empire Of The Moghul Serpent's Tooth by Aex Rutherford

n Power Of Habit

by Charles Duhigg

n Inferno by Dan Brown

n Lean in, by Sheryl Sandberg with Nell Scovell

n Hit by David Baldacci

n Dongri To Dubai

by S Hussain Zaidi

n Best Kept Secret

by Jeffrey Archer

n Faster by Ankit Fadia

n Fifty Shades Of Grey by EL James

n Follow Every Rainbow by Rashmi Bansal

n Salvation Of A Saint by Keigo Higashino

n Romancing The Balance Sheet by Anil Lamba

n Second Honeymoon by James Patterson and Howard Roughan

n Happy, Happy, Happy by Phil Robertson with Mark Schlabach

n And the mountains echoed by Khaled Hosseini

n Let’s explore diabetes with owls

by David Sedaris

n The ocean at the end of the lane

by Neil Gaiman

n Dad is Fat by Jim Gaffigan

n Bad Monkey, by Carl Hiaasen

n Eleven Rings by Phil Jackson and Hugh Delehanty

18

WOMEN SATURDAY, JULY 13, 2013

FOR THE CLOSET Label by Ritu Kumar : Presents an eclectic range of bags for their Autumn Winter’13 Collection.

Divided in 6 different styles - The Embellished Group, The Cravat Group, The Ikat Group, The Mosaic Group, The Eyelet Group and The Floral Tanka GroupThese are availbale at Ritu Kumar, 476, Milestone,Road no 10,Banjara Hills.

Shoppers Stop: Delightfully low prices up to 51% off sale only at Shoppers Stop! Starting July 13, 2013 enjoy up to 51% off on the best international and Indian brands across categories at Shoppers Stop, HomeStop and Mothercare outlets. The up to 51% off sale is also at www.shoppersstop.com.

Handloom Bazaar: A resource for female entrepreneurs by female entrepreneurs through education, encouragement and networking opportunities.Lamakaan hosts a Handloom Bazaar for Sale and exhibit the Fabric of Freedom. The bazaar will also include talks from time to time, display of weaving skills, and also will encourage children to learn these skills.

Not that horny?

All About Eve

JYOTSNA N

A Members of WOW having a gala time on a recent trip to Ladakh

An organised wandering

Women who have put off travelling for a lack of companions have the world to look forward to, thanks to Women on Wanderlust, a travelling club.

KANCHAN AGARWAL

kanchan.a@postnoon.com

S

umitra Senapati kindled her passion for travelling, built a career as a travel writer, and eventually extended her passion into Women on Wanderlust, a travelling club for women. “I have been travelling like a nomad, through the years and finally, when the time was right, I decided to put my energy and passion together to start a club that would allow other women to experience the sheer thrill and magic of travel.

Travel is actually magical; it’s all about friendship and souls connecting. It’s not a race to see or do more. It’s about learning to live life, understanding humanity and having a rocking time while doing it,” she con-

cisely puts it.

Women on Wanderlust (WOW) organises about 75 group tours to over 50 destinations around the world. Sumitra Senapati saw that women were more passionate than willing to travel as they liked because either it didn’t feel safe enough or there was a family that couldn’t demand enough of them or there was simply no companion. Eight summers ago, WOW came into picture, promising just the support, comfort and convenience that women travellers were looking for.

If you want to travel, just go ahead. It is just as easy as any online transaction. Write to WOW, fill in a form, choose a trip, pay the amount, pack your bags, and leave. WOW goes anywhere and everywhere from Kashmir to Italy. There are no bounds. Sumitra herself fondly remembers her time in South America, New Zealand, Alaska, Members of WOW, in Turkey

Sumitra Senapati on a trip to Greece Ladakh, Tanzania, Egypt and Japan. “The list is just too long!,” she says. She has kayaked the South China Sea, snorkelled through Great Barrier Reef and Red Sea, sailed the waters of Seychelles and Maldives, rafted the Zanskar in Ladakh, self-driven through New Zealand, cruised the Mediterranean, camped out in the African bush, and really, the list goes on.

If you are single travellers, or are with your girlfriends, you don’t have to worry about the itinerary, accommodation or even, how to get there. WOW is not a travel agency, only a club and it does all it can to ensure a great experience. “The itineraries are high on experience, besides organising each and every detail in advance, so that the group runs smoothly.

We even do the flight tickets , the forex, the visa, insurance—

just about everything that is required for the trip”, explains Sumitra. WOW, is a single window contact which even delivers services at your doorstep, wherever necessary.

Women from all over India and overseas have come to be a part of this free-spirited club.

“When we started, even though the response was instant, we could not spread the good word as quickly since we did not have a large advertising budget”. It took them three years to reach the desired scale of reach through word of mouth and media exposure. As of now, WOW has an online following of about 1.25 lacs, and is fast growing.

One cannot help but be curious of what travelling means to Sumitra. “To me, it means freedom, and knowledge, besides the pleasure of trying, and testing so many experiences”.

new book wants to break the oldest myth of them all — women aren’t as obsessed with sex as men are.

And seeing how popular Fifty Shades of Grey and its ilk were with women, author Daniel Bergner might just be on to something.

One chapter of his book, called rather unimaginatively What Do Women Want, is being cited in every review of his book. Turns out there was a study showing how women are turned on by practically anything — including a video of bonobos (a kind of chimp) mating.

But what was found more interesting was how women reported their arousal. While the measured reading matched the reported reading of men, women, more often than not, refused to acknowledge that they were aroused. So while women might be as horny as men, they don’t want anybody to know this.

When you think of it, it makes perfect sense that women are as interested in sex as men are. Talk all you like about the maternal instinct, but the desire to mate is much more primal. If women felt no desire, humans as a species may have died out altogether.

But decades of conditioning have promoted this denial.

While women are as interested in sex as men are, women aren’t allowed to voice this. To admit such lust would be to admit you have no control over yourself, that you are in some way ‘loose’. To admit such longing would be to expose yourself to men who could have their way and say, “She asked for it.”

Women are put in such a perilous situation that they are forced to suppress their sexuality. Forced to keep their feelings under control. While men can joke about how horny they are, women rarely make such statements.

Because no matter how far we’ve come, we’ve still been conditioned to think that horny is not an adjective for a woman. A ‘good woman’, that is.

19

SPOTLIGHT SATURDAY, JULY 13, 2013

1

Action on the runway

2

Graduating students of Hamstech put up a brilliant show as they showcased their creations at N-Convention. Bollywood actor Sohail Khan was spotted at the do.

3

4

1 Sohail Khan 2 Omkar, Ashwin 3 Anukant Dubey wife of

MP Nishikant Dubey.

4 Ramesh Patel, Maya

Travellers galore The 105th edition TTF (Travel & Tourism Fair) opened with much fanfare at HITEX Exhibition Centre on Friday bringing together more than 200 participants from across the country.

Movie magic Farhan Akhtar fans assembled at Cine Max for the screening of Bagh Milkha Bagh. The screening was organised by Bisket Srikanth.

20

RELATIONSHIPS SATURDAY, JULY 13, 2013

I AM ALL EARS

I

am 24. I have been in a relationship for the past three years. My boyfriend just left me two months ago and now I am feeling all lonely and depressed.Whenever I go out people think I am already hunting for a new partner. But all I crave for is friendship at this time. Please help.

Dear lonely kid, Break-ups can be very hard at first but it is possible to recover from them and rebuild a happy life.Friendships are a numbers game. Lots of people like yourself are looking for new friends.

Some, of course, are not, which speaks about them, not about you. Therefore it makes sense to initiate conversations with as many as possible to maximise your chances. There is nothing wrong in wanting to have a special someone.

I

f you see your partner flirt with someone else, you may feel hurt, angry, and jealous.

The last thing you might expect is to start thinking of yourself more like your rival. New research suggests just that: that jealousy can prompt people to change how they view themselves relative to competitors for their partners' attention. Previous research has shown that individuals often will change their self-views to be more similar to someone to whom they want to get closer.

Friends with money

It’s impossible to spend time with your friends without spending, especially after school life is over. But, what does one do when the price to meet them is a bit too high and harsh on the pocket, Postnoon finds out.

NIDHI BHUSHAN

nidhi.b@postnoon.com

N

ine years ago, Nisha graduated from her school in Delhi. After completing two years of college in the capital city, she moved to an engineering college in Karnataka. On her own, Nisha was forced to live on a tight monthly budget for the first time in her life. Though not easy at first, it helped her value money a little more than she did earlier.

Nisha started working immediately after graduation. Now used to living on a budget in Hyderabad, she is doing just fine. The problem comes when she goes home for holidays. Not so used to taking her dad’s money anymore, Nisha can’t afford her “high-society” school friends any longer.

“Most of my school friends are still living with their parents, who are filthy rich. The kind of hangouts they have are unaffordable for me. It didn’t seem so much of a problem earlier because I could take money from my dad, but now that I’m working, I don’t want to splurge on unnecessary things like cold coffee,” says Nisha Gulati.

Spending `1,000 during a movie outing has become a norm these days. While most of us want to spend time with our friends, we just have to pay through our noses to do so. “Unless we meet at a friend’s place, there’s no way of hanging out without spending money. Plus, most of my friends like eating at fancy places where the tax is too high and one dish costs a minimum of `350. The problem is that though most of them are working, they

don’t realise the money value because they have no expenditure as such since they aren’t on their own.

For instance, they don’t have to pay rent because they are living with their folks; so spending `5,000 on a weekly basis on recreational activities isn’t a big deal for them. For me, it spoils the whole month’s budgeting,” explains Nisha, who has stopped telling her school friends when she’s in town now. “I’d rather keep that information from them than say no for meeting.

There’ll be too many questions to answer.”

All of us remember that FRIENDS episode when Phoebe, Rachel and Joey fill their tummies with salads and soups because they can’t afford to pay for the

smoked duck or lobster, while their ‘rich’ friends Chandler, Ross and Monica feast at a fancy restaurant to celebrate Monica’s work promotion. Despite making a conscious effort to eat so little so as to pay little, trouble comes when Phoebe, Rachel and Joey are asked to split the whole bill evenly among the six of them, sorry five of them (Monica is asked not to pay as it’s her day).

“This is a regular issue while going out with friends,” says Naman Mavandia. “I’m a vegetarian who doesn’t drink while most of my friends drink and feast on non-veg dishes.

I have insisted many times that people should be allowed to pay for what they’ve eaten and drank

instead of splitting the entire bill evenly. However, people don’t listen. I usually end up paying `1,200 even if I’ve eaten food worth `400 because my friends would order cocktails along with their meals.”

So, how does one approach this sensitive issue when friends turn a blind eye. “I had to spell it out for my friends one day. I explained my side to them and said that at least the alcohol bill should be split among only those who drink. Why should I be paying for someone else’s drink every time? They understood and now, things are better,” says Naman.

While a little communication helped Naman save his friendship, it doesn’t always work out that way. “I

used to be very open about how much I can and can’t afford. I didn’t think it was anything to be ashamed of.

But, my friends didn’t feel the same way, I guess.

Initially, they pretended to understand my side of things and slowly phased me out of the circle altogether. I noticed that they had started treating me in a certain lowly manner just because I couldn’t afford their lifestyles. It hurt initially, but I think it was an eye-opener in many ways,” says Kanika Gupta, who had to break up with her insensitive friends completely.

Next time, your friends expect you to splurge when you don’t want to, explain them your side — if they understand, well and good; if they don’t, it’s their loss.

21

CINEMA SATURDAY, JULY 13, 2013 ALSO IN THEATERS

THE CHARM OF YOUNG A

Bangaru Kodi Petta to release in August

LOVE

part from Sahasam, Rahul Ravidran, Niti Taylor starrer Pelli Pusthakam is the other Telugu film which is out in theatres this weekend. Directed by Ramakrishna Machakanti, the film revolves around two young people who get married quite early in their lives and how they deal with it. It is Rahul Ravindran’s first film in almost 11 months and Niti Taylor was last seen in films like Mem Vayasuku Vaccham.

Rahul plays a happy-go- lucky guy who returns to India after completing his graduation and immediately, his family decides that he should get married, without taking his opinion into consideration. Thereafter, the story is about how the young couple slowly fall in love with each other. Sekhar Chandra has scored the music and Radhakrishna has written the story and screenplay for this film.

N

avdeep, Swati starrer Bangaru Kodi Petta is gearing for release in August.

The film has been directed by Raj Pippalla and Sunita Tati has produced it under the Guru films banner. The film has three stories which have a common connection and Raj Pippalla says, “We desire a lot of things in life and

AN EPIC JOURNEY

S

ahasam, starring Gopichand, Taapsee and Shakti Kapoor, is an action adventure film which follows the life of one common man who goes on an epic journey to reclaim his ancestral property.

Directed by Chandrasekhar Yeleti, the film is clearly a cut above the rest when it comes to narrating a story which doesn’t meander too much and in the process, we are taken for a thrilling ride which spans from bylanes of Hyderabad to Peshawar.

Gopichand stars as Gautham, a security guard, who dreams of becoming rich. He tries all the tricks in the book including astrology, lottery to find the elusive luck, but all his attempts go in vain. One fine day, he comes across a book written by his late grandfather, who used to be a diamond merchant in pre-independence era. After reading the book, Gopichand decides to reclaim his ancestral property and to achieve his goal, he joins Srinidhi (Taapsee), a

devout young girl, who believes that the world is going to end soon because of our sins. The rest of the story is about what Gautham and Srinidhi go through to find the treasure.

The end is hardly ever important in an action adventure film which dabbles with a treasure hunt. You know that they’ll find the treasure in the end no matter what happens and it all boils down to how well the story is narrated till that happens. This is precisely where Chandrasekhar Yeleti gets it right. The motive behind why each of the characters do what they do in the film is established quite well and kudos to the entire technical team whose role cannot be ignored in a film like this.

The streets of Hyderabad magically transform to Peshawar, the azure skies and barren, rugged peaks of Ladakh are passed off as stunning landscapes in Pakistan and Chandrasekhar Yeleti pays great attention to detail in his film. Of course, there are plenty of cinematic liberties and the grand finale is a little underwhelming, but that hardly takes away all the good work done by the team till that point. The background score by Sri is another high point of the film.

Gopichand is incredible as a security guard and it’s a tailor-made role for him, whereas Taapsee does a good job as a devout young girl. Sahasam is the kind of film which doesn’t have too many surprises, but this is precisely where Chandrasekhar Yeleti and his team mesmerises you with their craft. The film is far from perfect, but rarely does a film comes by which sticks to what it wants to say.

HEMANTH KUMAR

hemanth.k@postnoon.com Movie:Sahasam Cast: Gopichand, Taapsee, Shakti Kapoor Directed by: : Chandrasekhar Yeleti Rating:

sometimes, we end up with lots of things to achieve them without realising that you hold the key for all those things. Bangaru Kodi Petta is based on that theme.” Mahesh Shankar has scored the music. Action choreographers Ram-Laxman and Santosh Shobhan have done important roles.

Gopichand, Taapsee starrer Sahasam is a thrilling adventure which is very well narrated.

22

CINEMA SATURDAY, JULY 13, 2013

ALIA BHATT to walk for Azva at IBFW

B

Run to watch this marvel H istory is created in several ways. One of them is cinema. And if Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s Bhaag Milkha Bhaag seems like a near-flawless homage to the flying spirit of India’s greatest runner, it is partly because the story, so nimbly woven into a pastiche of drama, emotion, humour and pathos by Prasoon Joshi, is in no hurry to keep pace with the onscreen Milkha’s breathless sprint.

The story of super-sprinter Milkha Singh unfolds in this exceptional biopic at its own volition.

There’s no effort here “to tell a story”, to create an impression or to whip up a dramatic storm to captivate audiences. The synergy in the storytelling seems subliminal.

Still, we the audience, fed week after week on mediocrity masquerading as cinema, are riveted to the story of Milkha Singh for over three hours of playing time.

How come? Well, to begin with it is Milkha Singh’s own powerful life as India’s superstar sportsperson that sweeps us into the biopic. A victim of India’s brutal partition, Milkha’s story was waiting to be told. And thankfully, no one before Mehra saw cinematic potential in his story. If Milkha’s story had to be told, the storyteller had to be a master craftsman, and one who doesn’t waste space in self-congratulatory flourishes.

With immense help from Prasoon Joshi, Mehra harnesses Milkha’s lifestory into an experience that is pure cinema and yet undiluted and uncompromised by the mandatory, often silly, illogical and idiotic semantics of mainstream commercial cinema.

The absolutely seamless editing by P Bharathi is impressive. The film is very stylishly cut, but not at the cost of losing the simplicity and the innate asceticism of the sportsman-hero.

And yes, there are songs composed by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, but they are so effortlessly woven into Milkha’s saga that we don’t see them as “song breaks”.

This is as good a time as any to tell you that Farhan Akhtar does the Bhangra as well as any Punjabi.

Actually, he doesn’t dance. He just flows with the rhythm.

I don’t know how fast Milka ran, but Farhan’s Milkha doesn’t fake it for even a second. When he runs, he really runs. When he stumbles and takes a fall, we flinch and wince in our seats.

Farhan’s body language and emotions and expression as Milkha is pitch-perfect. Farhan doesn’t ‘play’ Milkha.

The actor occupies Milkha’s mind, body and soul. There are episodes in this astonishingly, well-structured biopic where Farhan’s oneness with Milkha equals Ben Kingsley’s empathy with Mahatma Gandhi in Gandhi.

This isn’t just a film about a sportsperson who brought untold glory to our country. Bhaag Milkha Bhaag is the story of an individual’s journey from nullity to pinnacles of success in a world where politics and violence are constant reminders of how little an individual’s aspirations matter in the larger, often murkier scheme.

In 1947, when India became two nations, we see little Milkha (Jabtej Singh) run for his life to escape the savage butchery that snatches away almost his entire family. Only his dear sister, played wonderfully by Divya Dutta, remains. As we see it, Milkha never stopped running since the partition trauma.The ‘run’ as a metaphor of life’s expedient circumstances, runs through the narrative.

Happily, the screen time is as much taken up with Milkha’s recordbreaking achievements on the field, as it is with vignettes from his personal life. There is a robust heartwarming

Movie: Bhaag Milkha Bhaag Cast: Farhan Akhtar, Sonam Kapoor, Rebecca Breeds, Divya Dutta, Prakash Raj and Pavan Malhotra Writer: Prasoon Joshi Director : Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra Rating :

romance between Milkha and the vessel-friendly ‘kudi’ Biro (Sonam Kapoor). The writer and director invest inexpressible warmth in the protagonist’s courtship scenes. We’ve seen this kind of love blossom on Punjab’s soil before. But it still feels special and unique.

Farhan does the rest. And he gets tremendous support from other actors, specially Divya Dutta, who is incomparably sincere in her role.

Pavan Malhotra as Milkha’s coach is as usual, first-rate. Unlike other period films in recent times which have conveniently and lazily resorted to antiques, artefacts and vintage songs, the 1950s in Bhaag Milkha Bhaag simply and effortlessly emerges from the character and his milieu.

Binod Pradhan’s camera glides across Milkha’s inner and outer world, and telling it like it is. There’s a complex design to the seeming simplicity of this saga of a simple Sikh who would guzzle two cans of ghee on challenge and run to the winning post on feet mauled by jealous rivals.

The beautiful irony of Milkha Singh’s life that this consummate biopic captures so ably, is that he really didn’t aspire to anything. He ran simply because he had to.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Bhaag Milkha Bhaag is the kind of cinema that doesn’t tempt us to share the protagonist’s life with any false hopes. We the audience are driven into a desperate urge to share Milkha’s life not only because he ran fast, but because he wasn’t afraid to stumble, falter and fall.

Ironically, this film on Milkha rarely slips up, if ever.

At one point, in an under-punctuated flashback, we hear Milkha confide in his sweetheart that he would like the government to declare a national holiday in his honour.

IANS

ollywood actress Alia Bhatt will sashay down the India Bridal Fashion Week (IBFW) ramp for jewellery brand Azva

by World Gold Council.

The forthcoming six-day fashion extravaganza will start July 23 at The Grand Hotel in south Delhi. Alia, 20, will walk on the ramp on the event’s last day.

The brand’s collection revolves around the theme of wedding.

Vipin Sharma, director-jewellery, World Gold Council (India) Private Limited, said, “The designs are stylised in a contemporary way and is meant for young and beautiful girls like Alia.”

Alia, daughter of veteran filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt, recently wrapped the shoot of Imtiaz Ali’s Highway, in which she is paired with Randeep Hooda. The film will release December 13.

Another project in her kitty is Abhishek Varman’s 2 States, in which she will share IANS screen space with Arjun Kapoor.

KIRAN RAO to pledge her organs

T

aking inspiration from Anand Gandhi’s film Ship of Theseus, filmmaker Kiran Rao, who is presenting it to the audience, will take a pledge to donate her organs.

The Dhobi Ghat director believes there is a “great merit” in saving a life.

“I have thought about organ donation.

This film has given me a chance to think about organ donation deeply. Earlier, I thought we can only donate our eyes, but the fact that each and every organ of our body can be used to save somebody’s life, I got to know about this from the film,” said Kiran at a press conference to promote the film Thursday.

“I would like to go for organ donation. In fact, this week only all of us, who want to donate their organs but have not taken the pledge, will go and do it. I definitely believe there is a great merit in donating one’s organ and seeing life continue beyond you,” she added. Kiran along with UTV Motion Pictures is presenting Ship of Theseus, slated to release July 19 in five cities — Mumbai, Pune, IANS Delhi, Bangalore and Kolkata.

CINEMA SATURDAY, JULY 13, 2013

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CINEMA SATURDAY, JULY 13, 2013

24

25

CINEMA SATURDAY, JULY 13, 2013

‘Pacific Rim’

numbs you sporadically

P

acific Rim is a futuristic science fiction film that deals with the man versus nature conflict. The plot works on the premise - “To fight monsters, we created monsters”.

It’s a story layered with hints of a potentially rich but underdeveloped science fiction mythology, full of satirical and hypothetical touches that are ultimately overdosed with gladiatorstyle fighting sequences between the monsters and metallic robots that represent the film’s raison d’etre.

The film grabs your attention at the start with a voiceover prologue that fills in the back story of this epic war between man and Kaiju — gigantic monsters.

These monsters surface from the core of the earth when the tectonic plates

shift and create havoc by destroying cities in a matter of minutes.

The film begins in 2020 Alaska, seven years after the first Kaiju attack when the people of Earth that formed the Pan Pacific Defense Corps (PPDC), commissioned the ‘Jaegers’, a 25storied tall robots to ward off the Kaiju attacks. This unique robot is operated by two humans, one to operate the torso and the other to operate the lower section of the robot’s body. It works on the ‘Drift’ concept, where the minds of the two pilots need to synchronise.

Two Beckett brothers Raleigh (Charlie Hunnam) and Yancy (Diego Klattenhoff) initially team up to co-pilot the Jaeger which engages a Kaiju off the coast of Alaska. Their

Movie: Pacific Rim Cast: Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day, Ron Perlman, Rob Kazinsky, Max Martini, Clifton Collins Jr., Burn Gorman, Larry Joe Campbell, Diego Klattenhoff and Brad William Henke Directed by: Guillermo del Toro mission is unsuccessful due to Raleigh’s cockiness which led to the tragedy.

What follows is PPDC commander Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba) strategising how to overcome the problem. He teams up Raleigh with a Japanese copilot Mako Mori (Rinko

Kikuchi) and recruits Geizler and Gottlieb (Charlie Day and Burn Gorman), a pair of monsterobsessed scientists.

While every character is quirky with a back story and engaging, none of them ever really come to life, resulting in a strange disconnect between the characters and the audiences.

The plot scripted by Travis Beacham and Guillermo del Toro, though not convoluted, has a list of cliches. It lacks the element of lightness. To top it all, the dialogues are dull, making the act staid. All the actors are underused with equally robotic expressions, except for Ron Perlman, who with a snazzy outfit, as the shadowy Kaiju parts dealer, breathes some life to his performance.

Technically, Pacific Rim is an outstanding achievement from the director and his ace special effects team.

To create the creatures of such magnitude and for the craftsmanship of bringing it to life, is no mean feat.

The cinematography by Guillermo Navarro seamlessly merges with the animated computer generated images. The smooth quick edits by John Gilroy and Peter Amundson conspire to create a dynamic visual rhythm.

The only thing that is overpowering is Ramin Djawadi’s mounting background score. Pacific Rim is Guillermo del Toro’s loudest movie and to be honest, the din numbs your senses, forcing your mind to shut sporadically. Watch it only if you are a metallic fan.

Rihanna arrives three Parenthood can hours late for concert be healing, says S Ryan Reynolds A inger Rihanna showed up more than three hours late for her show in Monte Carlo, Monaco.

The 25-year-old singer continues to test her fans’ patience. Her fans had paid at least $782 for tickets to the show, which included dinner, and was originally scheduled to start at 8.30pm, according to information on ticketing websites. The audience grew restless as the show was nowhere near beginning for several hours, reports radaronline.com.

“Still no news of Rihanna. She got lost in 2 square kms,” read a tweet under the Twitter handle of @MorganeK. His message referred to the area of the tiny nation.

Finally, around 11.30 pm, a tweet from the Monte Carlo Beach Society read that Rihanna was on her way, and about ten minutes later, she finally showed up.

ctor Ryan Reynolds, who is yet to get a taste of fatherhood, says being a parent can be like healing therapy for people.

He also believes it can help them sort out issues of their childhood.

Reynolds secretly married actress Blake Lively last year, and he is excited about the prospects of becoming a father one day.

“I think you do a lot of personal healing when you’re parenting a child. I mean, it’s a difficult job.

We all know it’s one of the hardest jobs in the world,”

accesshollywood.com quoted Reynolds as saying.

“So, I think you could kind of help heal some of the past stuff from your childhood as well as, you know, that’s the gift that keeps on giving, having children.

That’s an amazing experience,” he added.

26

CHAI TIME SATURDAY, JULY 13, 2013

SUDOKU

THOUGHT OF THE DAY A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.

– GK Chesterton

KAKURO

How to play kakuro

SCRIBBLING PAD

Kakuro is a popular game similar to sudoku in some ways. But is also suitably different. The key question: ‘How do you play kakuro?’, well here are the rules of kakuro. The answer: The kakuro grid, unlike in sudoku, can be of any size. It has rows and columns, and dark cells like in a crossword. And, just like in a crossword, some of the dark cells will contain numbers. Some cells will contain two numbers.

However, in a crossword the numbers reference clues. In a kakuro, the numbers are all you get! They denote the total of the digits in the row or column referenced by the number.

Within each collection of cells — called a run — any of the numbers 1 to 9 may be used but, like sudoku, each number may only be used once.

Let’s have an example to explain this concept more clearly: In the image above, which shows a section of a kakuro puzzle, you will see the numbers ‘26’ and ‘14’ in the top row. Look at the 14.

This means that the total of the three cells underneath must sum to 14. Therefore 9, 4, 1 could be the answer, or perhaps 7, 4, 3 and so on...

So, how do you work out the actual combination? Well, this is done through elimination and cross-referencing. For instance, as you work out the answers for other kakuro clues, this will naturally limit the valid combinations, and hence the answer for this particular run.

Note the second cell in row two — it contains two numbers, 30 and 11. The 30 refers to the vertical run underneath the number 30 and the 11 refers to the two cells to the right, horizontally, of the number 11.

QUICK CROSSWORD ACROSS 1 Fashion with care 6 Like geriatric patients 10 Big concert equipment 14 Anjou divider 15 Christmas trio 16 Certain Celt 17 Seasoned salt 19 Tutor in ‘The King and I’ 20 Bygone Spanish coin 21 New socialite, for short 23 Connecticut's ‘Charter’ tree 24 ‘Surf and Turf’ legs 27 Insignificant amount 29 Behavior 33 8,000 pounds, for four 34 Iridescent gems 35 ‘Dirty’ Cajun dish 37 Desperate guess 40 Giver of three wishes 41 Word with ‘much’ or ‘late’ 42 Cake helping 43 First name in Bond portrayers 44 Give an endorsement to 45 News articles 46 Quickie correspondence 48 Legendary Greek hero 50 Indian cotton fabric 52 Professionally correct 53 Longbow wood 54 ‘Addams Family’ Cousin 56 Absolutely useless 61 Cut, as the fat 63 Shadowy male figure 66 Sound system of yesteryear 67 From the same tree?

68 A sister of Clio 69 It's lower than dirt 70 Customer service call 71 Semicircular roofs DOWN 1 Burst of thunder 2 Kimono cousin

3 Needs a doc 4 For the taking 5 Important court action 6 Org for doctors 7 Leg, in slang 8 Kin of ‘By Jove!’

9 Kitchen add-on 10 Turkish military title 11 Certain superhero's nickname 12 For punishment 13 Relieve, as a thirst 18 Get by working 22 Term of endearment, for a frat boy 25 Heart's bloodline 26 Sweet roll 28 As found 29 Feet, or four-footed friends 30 Fencer's blade 31 Happy couple exiting a

chapel 32 ‘Father Knows Best’ actress Donahue 36 Converted from coal via distillation 38 Wile E Coyote's preferred brand 39 Porgy's love 42 Imagined in one's mind 44 Wedding VIP 47 ___ chi 49 Far from scarce 50 Cousins of legends 51 Mountain bird nest 55 Moppet 57 New kid on the block

58 Muslim leader 59 Like a fashionable arrival 60 First grandkid of Adam 62 Not pre- or -post64 ‘The ___ Million Dollar Man’ 65 Detonation maker PREVIOUS PUZZLE ANSWER

27

CHAI TIME SATURDAY, JULY 13, 2013

Aries

Taurus

Gemini

Cancer

Six of Pentacles

Strength

Eight of Swords

The Sun

W

W

W

ork – Whether you like it or not, you will be thrown into a situation where team work is must. You have to hone your social skills.

Romance – Marriage is on the cards for singles. A sudden and unexpected encounter will bring you what you need right now.

Health – Do not show off your toned-up body too much. Modeling it away will put excess pressure on you to maintain it.

Money – Some form of loss is indicated. A regular source of income may be nipped at the bud. Do not worry though. You can manage just fine.

Tarot message – You will be meeting some interesting people at a social gathering. Spend time getting to know people. Don’t judge.

ork – You are entering a very profitable phase in career. You need to keep an open mind. Do not get carried away by what other people say.

Romance – View your relationship differently.

Just because it is one way for another person doesn’t mean it has to be that way for you, too.

Health – Time to wake up and smell the coffee.

You have to change your tack to get better results.

Money – Try different things in investments. By hoarding money or keeping it all in one place, you may be losing out on something better. Tarot message – Loosen up.

Laugh a lot, play a little.

Think of all the wonderful things that people have done for you in the past.

ork – You may be quite stunned with the attitude of a superior at work. You thought this person was your friend, but he/she is really not.

Romance – You may be inspired to try some new tricks in romance by reading romantic novels. Not a bad idea. But keep expectations in check. Health – You will be appreciated for your efforts to maintain health and do what’s necessary to keep your body beautiful. Money – You will get an opportunity to make some extra money, although this may mean cutting down on entertainment time during the weekends. Tarot message – This is the time to do more and think less. You have the ability to take your ideas forward.

ork – Time to reclaim your space.

You have been out of action from a particular category. You will get the opportunity to get back in now. Romance – You will be treated like royalty.

Your significant other is pulling out all the stops to make you feel special.

Health – you may be too enthusiastic and want to jump into an exercise routine. But check with your doctor if it’s fine to pursue it now. Money – You may be fussing too much about money being spent on unnecessary things. What may seem unnecessary may actually be unavoidable. Tarot message – You need to get rid of the negative thought about a person and move on. Your life is much brighter, better.

W

Leo

Virgo

Three of Cups

Seven of Pentacles

W

W

ork – Just making it once will not make you a winner at the work place. You need to repeat the success, and you can do this with help from others. Romance – Focus on adding an extra touch of love and togetherness to all your dates. Be careful of the tone you use while speaking to a potential date. Health – It would help to maintain a diary of your eating and exercise habits so you can keep track of your health.

Money – This works for some people – keep a race with yourself to save more money by a particular date. This will motivate you to cut down unnecessary spending.

Tarot message –You’re on the ladder of success.

To keep going on it, you need support.

ork – You have a spring in your step.

Your colleagues are noticing the bounce and will approach you with many questions.

Romance – Not everyone can gel well with another.

Most people have to work very hard at it.

Coordinate your plans with your partner.

Health – Those who have been regularly going to the gym for the past six months or more need to up the ante. Challenge yourself, your body.

Money – Businessmen will need to promote their brands better. You need to spend much more on marketing and advertising. Tarot message – This is not the best period to start on new projects. But do plan and let the idea run in your head for a few more days.

SUMAA TEKUR tarotreadhyd@gmail.com

Libra

Scorpio

The Star

The Chariot

W

ork – You are on the fast lane and this is a tricky place to be.

While it may be tempting to speed up even more, it’s not the best idea.

Romance – You need to share your feelings with your loved one more openly. No point just sitting there and hoping they will somehow understand.

Health – You are creative and you’re talented enough to understand your body better. Do things intuitively to manage your health. Money – You have to show more commitment to saving money, or spending for the right things at the right places. Tarot message – You get a visitor and this person opens your eyes to all things new and wonderful.

ork – You have some very great ideas in your mind but lack the confidence to share them.

You end up muttering some gibberish during meetings. Romance – Your romantic life may be costing you a lot of money.

Maybe you should find more innovative and fun ways to spend on dates.

Health – Your concerns about a particular health problem is growing. Do not continue to follow a routine if it is not giving you the results you expect.

Money – You need to have a chat with your employer and cut for yourself a better deal. May as well get paid well. Tarot message – You seem like you’re floating from one idea to the next. Stay with one thought at a time.

W

Sagittarius Queen of Cups

W

ork –Job lists are very important. IT will give you the lay of the land for important projects and know how much is on your plate. Romance – You may be slipping in the popularity charts with the opposite sex due to some reason. Talk to your friends and figure out how you need to maintain yourself. Health – You’re doing well to maintain your health. Just some minor corrections may be needed to optimise the effort you’re putting in.

Money – There is no point lying to yourself about your monetary needs. You feel the need for more.

Work hard to earn it.

Tarot message – You may be asked to be part of a committee to contribute.

Do that with diligence.

Capricorn

Date 14-7-2013

Aquarius

The Fool

The World

W

W

ork – Something that you need to know will be found in a book you randomly pick up to read. Synchronicity will bring you what you need.

Romance – If there is an emotional matter between you and your better half, it needs to be resolved immediately. Not talking about it, only aggravates the situation. Health – Steer clear of anything that will have an adverse effect on your health. Keep a low profile and don’t get too adventurous. Money – You need to negotiate better in a business deal and command a better price for your products/services. Tarot message – Do not hide behind the veil of ignorance. If you know something, speak out about it.

ork – There are too man y opportunities coming your way. This is the luckiest time and you need to make the most of this. Romance – Sometimes, saying a simple sorry and meaning it will make a relationship healthy and beautiful.

Your ego needs to be kept in check. Health – Channel your energy to more meaningful things.

Work out, eat right and spend time giving back to society. Money – There is some chaos in money matters for the next few days.

Clear all your accounts and keep track of spending. Tarot message – You build a comfortable nest for yourself and your family. You don’t feel like stepping out of this comfort zone.

Pisces Six of Swords

W

ork – An addictive behaviour of yours could be coming in the way of your progress. Identify that and alter your daily routine to increase productivity. Romance – You have the tendency to flit from one emotion to the next. This is not good for stability. Stay with one emotion. Health – Do not take whatever your doctor says all too literally.

Yes, you need to make changes to your lifestyle but do it your own creative way.

Money – Make a clear distinction between essential spending and entertainment spending. This will make you be a better saver.

Tarot message – You need to find stability. Familiarity and routine will help you achieve that. Do not get bored of doing the same job every day.

Vol: 2, No 358 RNI No: APENG/2011/39337 Published for the proprietors, Scribble Media and Entertainment Pvt Ltd, by V Harshavardhan Reddy, at #1246, Level 3, Jubilee Casa, Road No 62, Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad – 500033 and printed by 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 040-40672222, Fax: 040-40672211

28

THE SATURDAY QUIZ SATURDAY, JULY 13, 2013

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE

IN THE NEWS

than 180 were injured when Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crashed on the runway at which International Airport.

7. Venezuela, Bolivia and _____, the Latin American countries offering to take in Edward J Snowden, the fugitive former intelligence contractor, belong to a bloc of governments

engaged in a constant war of words with the United States.

8. Mohamed ElBaradei, a leading candidate to serve as Egypt's interim prime minister, formerly headed which international organisation?

9. Mohamed Morsi held what job before being elected president last year?

Answers

telegram after last weekend?

4. What was the score in the final set of the Men's Final at this year's Wimbledon Championships?

5. Relatives of which critically ill black president, feuded publicly about where he will be buried?

6. Two people died and more

1. Trent Bridge 2. Dante Gabriel Rossetti 3.

India 4. A. Murray 6 N. Djokovic 4 5.Nelson Mandela 6. San Fransisco 7. Nicaragua 8.

International Atomic Energy Agency 9.

Professor

1. Where did the first Test match of the Ashes series take place?

2. A painting of Janey Morris, wife of William Morris, portrayed as Proserpine goes under the hammer in Sotheby's in November. Who painted her?

3. In which country will people no longer be able to send a

TEST YOURSELF

IDENTIFY THESE LOGOS

CURRENT AFFAIRS 1

1 2 3 4 5 6

2

Officials from Britain rejected the idea of having who mediate the dispute with Argentina over the Falkland Islands?

In which movies do you see these characters?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Gru Donkey

Which country became the 28th in the European Union on July 1, 2013?

Miss Moneypenny

What is the capital of Saudi Arabia?

Jessica Rabbit

Agent Smith

Who won the recent Presidential election in Iran ?

Norman Bates

A 12ft statue of which of Jane Austen's characters can be found in the Serpentine lake in London's Hyde Park?

The Man with no name

3

4

Which Royal Opera House production will become its first to transfer to the West End this autumn?

Legolas Jack Dawson Horton

1. Pope Francis 2. Croatia 3. Riyadh 4. Hassan Rouhani 5. Mr Darcy 6.The Wind in the Willows

Answers

4

Recently which islands in India were declared as the World Biosphere Reserve by the UNESCO?

PICTURE PUZZLE 75 with Santosh Ghule Silhouetted in the backdrop of the spread on the table is the eater; who is it?

Answer for 74:

India's first commercial fast breeder reactor is being developed at which place?

WHO AM I? I am an athlete who won quite a few honours for India in the track events. I was the Army at first. Now a Bollywood director has made a biopic on my life.

Farhan Akhtar is playing me.

Eleven.

Niyamgiri Hills in Odisha is famous for which ore?

Answer : Milkha Singh

2 3

Answers: 1. Hello Kitty 2.What’s App 3.Chanel 4. CAT

As per the latest Fortune list which company has emerged as the country's most admired firm?

Answers:

1

1.Despicable Me 2.Shrek series 3.James Bond 4. Who framed Roger Rabbit?

5. Matrix series 6.Psycho 7.The Good, The Bad and The Ugly 8. The Lord of the Rings 9.Leonardo Di Caprio 10. Horton Hears a Who

KNOW YOUR COUNTRY

1.TCS 2.Bauxite 3.Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu 4. Nicobar Islands

Answers

29

SPORTS SATURDAY, JULY 13, 2013

Arthur to take legal action

S

acked Australian coach Mickey Arthur has hired a legal firm and is seeking compensation after Cricket Australia (CA) tore up his contract last month, a report said Saturday. The South African, the first foreign-born coach of the Australian team, was sacked just 16 days before the start of the Ashes series in England.

Maria splits with coach

3 Thais make BO history

M

T

aria Sharapova has split with her coach Thomas Hogstedt on Friday, two weeks after she crashed out of the second round at Wimbledon. Hogstedt, 49, had worked with the former world number one since 2010 and had also helped her complete a career Grand Slam with victory at the 2012 French Open.

hree Thailand-born golfers will compete in British Open at Muirfield for the first time in the event's history. Thongchai Jaidee will be contesting golf's oldest major for the sixth time, and a fifth in succession, and will be joined by Thaworn Wirachant, competing in his second British Open, and Kiradeck Aphibarnrat, who will be teeing up in a very first Major.

'Cav' wins 13th stage Britain's Mark Cavendish won a drama-filled 13th stage as former twotime winner Alberto Contador narrowed his deficit to Chris Froome.

Britain's Mark Cavendish celebrates as he crosses the finish line at the end of the 173 km thirteenth stage of the 100th edition of the Tour de France cycling race on Friday between Tours and Saint-Amand-Montrond, central France.

AFP/PASCAL GUYOT

Justin Davis

PARIS: Britain's Mark Cavendish won a drama-filled 13th stage of the Tour de France on Friday as former twotime winner Alberto Contador narrowed his deficit to yellow jersey holder Chris Froome.

Omega-Pharma sprinter Cavendish, taking his second win of the 100th edition of the race and 25th of his career, dominated a two-up sprint with Slovakian Peter Sagan. The British champion had been near the front of the peloton when Contador's Saxo team turned the screw on Team Sky

Sky defiant as Alberto sniffs yellow jersey SAINT-AMAND-MONTROND: Sky chief Dave Brailsford remained defiant Friday as Chris Froome's grip on the Tour de France yellow jersey was loosened in dramatic fashion by Spanish rival Alberto Contador.

Held over flat 173 kilometres between Tours and Saint-Amand-Montrond, stage 13 held no apparent difficulties and was expected to be contested by the sprinters in a bunch finish.

The fierce crosswinds blowing across the plains of central France, however, contrived to make this stage one of the most dramatic of the 100th edition so far. When Contador's Saxo team glimpsed an opportunity just over 31 km from the finish, they attacked the main peloton

with three riders from Omega-Pharma, two from Cannondale, two from Belkin and one from Astana.

Sky failed to respond, allowing the group to forge ahead and eventually come over the finish line 1min 09sec ahead. Thanks to Saxo's efforts, Contador — who in 2009 fell victim to a similar move on the way to La Grande Motte — moved up one place to third overall and is now 2:45 behind Froome and 17secs behind Dutchman Bauke Mollema of Belkin.

"It just shows that, on the Tour, things can happen every day," said Contador, who won the race in 2007 and 2009 but was stripped of his 2010 title following a positive AFP test for clenbuterol.

and caused a split in the pack 31 kilometres from the finish. It left a group of 14 frontrunners to build a lead on the main bunch that grew to 1min 08sec by the finish, but with few sprinters of Cavendish's class among the group the Isle of Man rider won with relative ease.

"In the end it was just Sagan and myself, I was really happy to beat him," said Cavendish, who was beaten at the line on Thursday when German rival Marcel Kittle claimed his third win of the race. The lead group's turn of pace soon left Froome behind and the Sky team of the Kenyan-born Briton failed to respond for the second time in the race as they fought in vain to close the gap.

One by one Sky dropped off the pace, leaving Froome isolated and requiring the help of other teams to aid in the chase. At the finish, Contador moved up to third overall and, having been 3:54 down overnight, is now only 2:45 behind Froome, with Dutchman Bauke Mollema in second at 2:28.

Froome, who saw his Sky team collapse on Sunday, a day after he took the stage eight win and yellow jersey, admitted he will have to pay special attention for the rest of the race. AFP

Rogers returns to haunt Sky SAINT-AMAND-MONTROND: Australia's Michael Rogers was singled out for special praise on the Tour de France 13th stage Friday as he helped loosen Chris Froome's grip on the yellow jersey.

Froome, who has been in the race lead since winning a dramatic eighth stage to the summit of Ax-Trois-Domaines in the Pyrenees, started the day with a 3min 54sec lead on key rival Alberto Contador.

By the end of what appeared to be an innocuous-looking 173 km ride over flat terrain from Tours to Saint-Amand-Montrond in the heart of France, former two-time champion Contador had closed his gap to 2:45.

Although the Spaniard was the man to benefit, Rogers was one of six Saxo team riders who, having used the crosswinds to their advantage, were instrumental in creating a gap which left Team Sky and Froome trailing in over 1:09 behind. Nicolas Roche, the son of cycling legend Stephen, said Saxo's turn of pace had been unplanned: "I asked Michael (Rogers), he asked Alberto and then he asked (Daniele) Bennati.

"It was a case of us nodding our heads at each other before saying, 'Go Benna' (Bennati).

When Bennati went, there was no holding us back. Bennati did the first attacking kilometre like a motorbike, and the group shattered," said Contador.

Rogers' contribution, as a former multiple champion of the world time trial title, was not lost on the boss of his former team, Dave AFP Brailsford.

Unlucky Valverde sees dream go up in smoke Andy Scott

SAINT-AMAND-MONTROND: While Alberto Contador celebrated closing the gap on overall Tour de France leader Chris Froome during Friday's 13th stage, the hopes of his fellow Spaniard Alejandro Valverde were left in tatters after a disastrous afternoon.

Valverde began the day in second place in the general classification and, despite being 3min 25sec behind Froome, the mood in the Movistar team camp was upbeat in Tours on Friday morning.

But, as crosswinds wreaked havoc upon the peloton during the flat 173km ride to SaintAmand-Montrond, the 33-year-old Valverde saw his chances of gaining any time on Froome destroyed when a falling rider inadvertently broke the back

wheel of his bike in the feeding zone halfway through the stage.

The setback saw the former Tour of Spain winner drop behind the main peloton and then continue to lose ground as Belkin and Europcar upped the pace. He

eventually came home a stunning 9min 54sec behind Contador in the leading group and 8min 45sec adrift of Froome, ending any chance he had of winning the sport's biggest race, and shattering his AFP podium aspirations too.

Spain's Alejandro Valverde (C) rides during the 173 km thirteenth stage of the 100th edition of the Tour de France cycling race on Saturday between AFP/JEFF PACHOUD. Tours and Saint-Amand-Montrond, central France.

30

SPORTS SATURDAY, JULY 13, 2013

Patrick Reed shares lead with Johnson, Glover

SILVIS: Defending champion Zach Johnson had five birdies in a five-under 66 to maintain a share of the lead alongside Lucas Glover and Patrick Reed on Friday at the USPGA John Deere Classic.

Reed, a USPGA Tour rookie, had an eagle and seven birdies and just one bogey in an eightunder 63, while former US Open champion Glover had nine birdies in a nine-under 62.

They topped the leaderboard on 12-under 130, one stroke in front of Australian Matt Jones who carded a 65 for 131.

Jerry Kelly and Troy Matteson both shot 64 to jump to 10-under 132. They were joined in fifth place by Canadian David Hearn (66), Kevin Streelman (66) and Daniel Summerhays (67).

Colombian Camilo Villegas, who shared the overnight lead with Johnson, struggled to a 73 to fall into a tie for 36th.

Glover, the 2009 US Open

Matthew impresses at Waterloo WATERLOO: Scotland’s Catriona Matthew had an eagle and five birdies in a seven-under par 64 to seize sole possession of the Manulife Financial Classic LPGA lead after Friday’s second round.

Matthew, ranked 13th in the world, had a 36-hole total of 15under 127 for a three-stroke lead

CATRIONA MATTHEW HAD AN EAGLE AND FIVE BIRDIES IN A SEVENUNDER PAR 64 TO SEIZE SOLE POSSESSION. over American Angela Stanford, who started the day tied with Matthew for the lead.

Stanford carded five birdies with one bogey in her fourunder 67 which put her on 12under 130. World number one Park In-Bee, who won her third major title of 2013 at the US Women’s Open a fortnight ago, celebrated her 25th birthday by shooting a four-under 67 that left her five shots off the lead.

Matthew kick-started her round with an eagle at the Grey Silo course’s par-five fifth, where she rolled in a 25-foot putt.

She added a birdie at the next hole and nabbed another birdie at the eighth to make the AFP turn in 12-under.

ZACH JOHNSON HAD

FIVE BIRDIES IN A FIVEUNDER 66 TO MAINTAIN A SHARE OF THE LEAD ALONGSIDE LUCAS GLOVER AND PATRICK REED.

Patrick Reed hits a shot from the fairway during the second round of the John Deere Classic held at TPC Deere Run on Friday in Silvis, Illinois.

AFP/MICHAEL COHEN

champion, launched his round by rolling in a seven-foot birdie putt at the 10th hole. He tapped in for birdie at 12.

Back-to-back birdies at 16 and 17 put him at seven-under for the tournament, and he made five more birdies coming in.

“I’ve been struggling. I was ecstatic to shoot three-under yesterday,” said Glover, who hadn’t broken par in back-to-back rounds since May. “You can imagine how I feel today.”

Johnson got up and down for

birdie at the par-five second and holed a birdie putt from off the green at the eighth.

The 2007 Masters champion drained a 13-footer for birdie at 12 and an 18-footer at 14 for another birdie. He regained a share of the lead when he got up and down for birdie at the parfive 17th.

“Today was a hard 66.

Yesterday was a much easier 64,” Johnson admitted. “I didn’t drive it very well, but the positive side is I know I can play here if I don’t drive it. My short game was tremendous. I putted great, and I chipped it even better.” Reed was in the first group out off the 10th tee on Friday and had birdies at 11 and 13 before a bogey at 14.

The 22-year-old rebounded with a 16-foot birdie putt at the 16th, then chipped in for eagle at 17. After seizing the clubhouse lead, he praised his wife and AFP caddie, Justine.

Isner, Hewitt book semi-final date NEWPORT: Two-time defend-

of Fame.

“I said the other day that this match would come down to a few points here and there, and those few points were in the tiebreak,” Isner said of a contest in which neither player dropped serve.

“I felt like I got a lot of good returns back and he came up with some good volleys. I made some good shots when I needed to,” Isner said.

Isner next faces Hewitt, the Aussie veteran out to avenge

ing champion John Isner (right) and last year’s runnerup Lleyton Hewitt booked a semi-final showdown at the ATP Hall of Fame Tennis Championships on Friday.

Isner defeated Croatian Ivo Karlovic in a match in which the two towering players combined for 37 aces.

America’s Isner fired 23 of those en route to a 7-6, (7/3), 7-6 (7/3) victory on the grass courts at the International Tennis Hall

his defeat in last year’s final.

Hewitt, the fourth seed, defeated Czech qualifier Jan Hernych 6-7 (3/7), 6-4, 6-2 in exactly two hours.

Hewitt has won three of four career encounters with Isner, including an upset at the Indian Wells hardcourt Masters in March.

In Saturday’s other semifinal, 35-year-old American Michael Russell will face 2007 Newport runner-up Nicolas AFP Mahut of France.

Franchitti claims pole for Toronto opener TORONTO: Scotland’s Dario Franchitti captured pole position for Saturday’s first race in an IndyCar weekend doubleheader. Franchitti lapped the 1.75-mile (2.82km), 11-turn street circuit in 59.6756 seconds for his third pole of the season and the 32nd of his career.

Franchitti notched his fast time after he was involved in an accident during practice earlier in the day.

“I made it difficult this morning,” Franchitti said. “I made a mistake in turn five, taking the right side off the car. The guys had to work and repair the car.” Franchitti won the first IndyCar race at Toronto in 2009 and won here again two years later.

Last year he started on pole and led the first five laps, but after a fueling issue finished 17th.

Dario Franchitti of Scotland, driver of the #10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Honda poses with the Verizon P1 Pole Award following qualifying for the IZOD INDYCAR Series Honda Indy Toronto on Friday in Toronto, Canada. AFP/CHRIS TROTMAN

France’s Sebastien Bourdais put his Dragon Racing car on the front row with a lap of 59.7701sec.

Bourdais won four championships and claimed 31 poles in the old Champ Car open-

wheel racing series, but this will be his first front row start in IndyCar, which absorbed Champ Car in 2008.

Australia’s Will Power qualified third and Brazil’s Tony Kanaan took the fourth

spot. Series leader Helio Castroneves of Brazil qualified eighth. Ryan Hunter-Reay, the winner here last year who trails Castroneves by 23 points in the season standings, was AFP seventh-quickest.

URN

SATURDAY, JULY 13, 2013

IT

31

ASHES 2013

THE REPORT

MAN TO WATCH

Ian Bell's 95 guided England into a strong position while Oz were left fuming by the fact that Stuart Broad was still at the crease.

SCRORE BOARD England 1st innings 215 all out Australia 1st Innings 280 all out England 2nd Innings (overnight: 80-2) A Cook c Clarke b Agar 50 J Root c Haddin b Starc 5 J Trott lbw b Starc 0 K Pietersen b Pattinson 64 I Bell not out 95 J Bairstow c Haddin b Agar 15 M Prior c Cowan b Siddle 31 S Broad not out 47 Extras (b2, lb13, w1, nb3) 19 Total (6 wkts, 133 overs) 326 Bowling O M R W Pattinson 28 7 89 1 Starc 27 7 66 2 Agar 35 9 82 2 Siddle 28 10 63 1 Watson 15 11 11 0

England's Ian Bell bats during the third day of the first Ashes Test against Australia at Trent Bridge in Nottingham, England, on Friday.

AFP/ANDREW YATES

GRAEME SWANN

Bell rings loud as Oz fret over Broad

Julian GUYER

NOTTINGHAM: Ian Bell's masterful 95 not out guided England into a strong position at stumps on the third day of the first Ashes Test on Friday as Australia were left fuming by the fact Stuart Broad was still at the crease.

England at the close were 326 for six in their second innings, a lead of 261 runs, with Broad 47 not out, having so far helped Bell add an unbroken 108 for the seventh wicket.

Broad, however, had a massive slice of luck when given not out on 37 by experienced Pakistani umpire Aleem Dar after Australia appealed for a catch by captain Michael Clarke at first slip off teenage debutant spinner Ashton Agar.

Broad stood his ground and, with Australia having used up their two permitted reviews in the innings, the tourists ultimately had to accept the verdict

ENGLAND AT THE CLOSE WERE 326/6 IN THEIR SECOND INNINGS, A LEAD OF 261 RUNS, WITH BROAD 47 NOT OUT, HAVING HELPED BELL ADD AN UNBROKEN 108 FOR THE 7TH WICKET. even though television replays showed a thick edge that had first come off the gloves of wicketkeeper Brad Haddin.

Australia coach Darren Lehmann's reaction was plain to see and on the field tempers frayed when fast bowler James Pattinson continued appealing after Sri Lankan umpire Kumar Dharmasena had rejected an lbw appeal against Bell, on 94.

Dharmasena spoke to Pattinson, presumably telling him to calm down, and replays showed Bell had indeed got a

5 THINGS WE LEARNT ON DAY 3

1. THE UNEVEN BOUNCE BEGINS

We predicted Kevin Pietersen would star on Day 3, but the uneven bounce got him in the end. The pitch is breaking up pretty fast and if the batsmen are unsure whether to play forward or back it could be their undoing.

2. ASHTON AGAR NEEDS WARNEY

Ashton Agar has all the makings of a decent left-arm spinner. But he lack variation. He needs to be taught a few more special deliveries if he’s going to trouble some world-class batsmen. His seam position is truly baffling.

3. BELL PROVES GRIT AIN’T DEAD

While all the talk surrounded Agar’s amazing 98 and some flashy strokeplay from Matt Prior, Ian Bell proved that class and grit are still essential to Test cricket. Arguably the finest knock of the Test so far.

big inside edge.

That Ashes-holders England were well-placed could be seen from the fact that no side has scored more in the fourth innings to win a Trent Bridge Test than England's 284 for six against New Zealand in 2004.

This innings, which saw him pass 6,000 runs in his 89th Test, was an especially important one for Bell.

A criticism of the 31-yearold Warwickshire right-hander is that he has all too rarely scored runs when England most needed them.

England dearly wanted the stylish Bell to go to his 18th Test hundred with this innings.

By the close Bell, in at 121 for four, had almost done just that, having batted for nearly five-and-a-half hours while hitting 12 fours.

England resumed Friday on 80 for two, with captain Alastair Cook 37 not out and Kevin Pietersen 35 not out. AFP

4. CLARKE AND CO’S REVIEW BLUES

The review system is meant to weed out errant umpiring decisions, but Clarke seemed to think they were endless and were eventually caught out when they found themselves with no reviews left during the Broad incident.

5. BROAD DID THE RIGHT THING

Much is being said about Stuart Broad’s decision not to walk after he was caught behind. He knicked the ball, that’s for sure, but with the umpire ruling him not out he did the right thing by refusing to budge.

With England already 261 in the lead it looks like an uphill task for the Aussies. The wicket is crumbling like a good puff pastry and we predict Graeme Swann will be a whole lotta trouble for the struggling Aussie batsmen. Ashton Agar proved last night that if you gave the ball enough air, the pitch will do the rest. We’d talk about Stuart Broad, but meh!

NUMEROLOGY

95

Was Ian Bell’s score at stumps on day three of the Ashes Test at Trent Bridge. An innings full of grit and determination, reminiscent of Athers in South Africa.

POSTNOON PREDICTS The one thing Trent Bridge guarantees is a nightmare for batsmen in the fourth innings of a Test match. If England can get over 300, it will be almost impossible for Australia to chase down the target. Graeme Swann will be a key player in the England attack, as there’s more rough on the pitch than in an Essex pub. The bounce will be uneven and the spinner will get a grip. Line and length will be key for the English bowlers. Finn’s awful form with the ball and Broad’s injury may hamper the English, but day four should see England comfortably on their way to victory.

Some people saying, you rely on the umpire. No you don't, you rely on honesty.

Disappointed by the Poms today, if you're out — you walk Adam Gilchrist former Aussie keeper

32

SPORTS SATURDAY, JULY 13, 2013

I’m better than ever: Jose Jose Mourinho has warned that he is returning to Chelsea as a much better manager as he bids to win back the Premier League trophy.

Talek HARRIS

and emulate his achievement at both Porto and Inter of winning the Champions League for the first time with the Blues.

Mourinho’s visit to Thailand nearly began in embarrassing fashion when, after performing a Thai bow for waiting media, he tripped on the steps to the press conference dais and almost crashed onto the stage.

But he quickly recovered his poise to speak about his enthusiasm for young signings Marco van Ginkel — “one of the best prospects in European football”

BANGKOK: Jose Mourinho (right) has warned that he is returning to Chelsea as a much better manager as he bids to win back the Premier League trophy and secure an elusive Champions League title with the London club.

Mourinho, looking greyer and weightier than English fans will remember, said his experiences at Inter Milan and Real Madrid would put him in good stead in his second stint.

“I think some white hairs in my case is a good sign because it means that I’m better now than before,” he told journalists in Bangkok, where he will begin his new era with a pre-season friendly on Wednesday.

“I think I’m better now because my job is the kind of job where experience means a lot,” explained the Portuguese.

“Especially like in my case after my period with Chelsea I went around Europe, I had two years in Italy, three years in Spain, so I have more football culture than before.

“I have more experience than before so I think I’m in a better condition now than before. Because I think my job is

about that, it’s about learning experiences.”

Mourinho, 50, is a good bet to return the Premier League trophy to Chelsea after winning back-to-back titles as well as two League Cups and the FA Cup during his first stint from 2004 to 2007.

At Inter Milan, he achieved the Italian treble of the Champions League, Serie A and the Coppa Italia in 2010 during another trophy-laden spell, and he also won La Liga during a more mixed time with Real Madrid.

Now Mourinho is hoping to build a lasting legacy at Chelsea

MOURINHO, LOOKING GREYER AND WEIGHTIER, SAID HIS EXPERIENCES AT INTER MILAN AND REAL MADRID WOULD PUT HIM IN GOOD STEAD. — and Andre Schurrle, as well as veteran goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer.

Mourinho, who brashly announced himself as “the Special One” when he first arrived at Chelsea but now prefers “the Happy One”, admitted he would not be smiling

Khan agrees to buy Fulham LONDON: Pakistan-bo-

KHAN, WHO OWNS A NFL TEAM, HAS BEEN IN TALKS WITH FULHAM OWNER MOHAMED AL FAYED FOR SEVERAL DAYS. “Mr Al Fayed is giving me the privilege and responsibility of serving as the next custodian of Fulham Football Club,” Khan told the club’s website. “I am extremely honoured to accept and want to thank him, on behalf of everyone who loves Fulham, for 16 years of exceptional service to the Club. He rescued the club in its hour of need and

Boggle

has led it to a sustained place within the Premier League.

“Fulham is the perfect club at the perfect time for me. I want to be clear, I do not view myself so much as the owner of Fulham, but a custodian of the club on behalf of its fans. “My priority is to ensure the club and Craven Cottage each have a viable and sustainable Premier League future that fans of present and future generations can be proud of. “We will manage the club’s financial and operational affairs with prudence and care, with youth development and community programs as fundamentally important elements of AFP Fulham’s future.”

CLAM SNAIL SCALLOP MUSSEL OYSTER

Suduko

Scrabble

SOLUTIONS

Number game

rn billionaire Shahid Khan agreed a deal to buy English Premier League club Fulham on Friday.

Khan, who owns NFL team Jacksonville Jaguars, has been in talks with Fulham owner Mohamed Al Fayed for several days and they have struck an agreement that will put the west London team under new ownership for the first time in 16 years.

The transaction, reported to have cost Khan around £150 million, has been approved by the Premier League and the tycoon assumes 100 per cent ownership of the club, with a press conference scheduled on Saturday to officially introduce the new Cottagers supremo.

when the team loses for the first time.

“Until the first defeat I’m very happy. When the first defeat comes I’m the same,” he said.

“I’m very sad when my team doesn’t win. But it’s up to them to help me and to support me and try to get a good result every match for our club.”

The first loss is unlikely to come on Wednesday, when Chelsea take on the Singha AllStars XI in Bangkok, a city plastered with giant images of their stars and where fans have turned out in force to greet them.

But goalkeeper Petr Cech dismissed notions that Chelsea held the edge over English champions Manchester United and Manchester City, who also have new managers, owing to their familiarity with Mourinho.

“I think all the teams you mentioned have great teams, they have kept their players together, they improved by buying some players,” he said, in answer to a question.

“Although they have new managers the teams are the same, so they can have a new motivation under the new manager and they can be more dangerous. It’s difficult to predict.”

Claros helps Honduras advance MIAMI: Jorge Claros scored in injury-time to lift Honduras to a 1-0 victory over El Salvador on Friday and into the quarter-finals of the CONCACAF Gold Cup football tournament.

Claros scored in the second minute of injury time, snagging a pass from Edder Delgado in the penalty area and belting it past Salvadoran keeper Dagoberto Portillo. With their second win in two matches Honduras tops the Group B standings with six points.

They became the second team to secure a quarter-final spot, after Group A leaders Panama on Thursday.

In the first match of the Group B double-header, Jean Eudes Maurice scored twice to lead Haiti to a 2-0 upset victory over Trinidad and Tobago.

The win, after a loss to Honduras in their tournament opener, kept Haiti in the hunt for a quarter-final berth.

Haiti used their speed to good advantage to pressure the Trinidad goal, and Maurice opened the scoring in the 16th with a shot that beat Trinidad keeper Jan AFP Michael Williams.

Rooney’s ours, Moyes tells Mourinho

Talek Harris

BANGKOK: Manchester United boss David Moyes testily repeated that Wayne Rooney is not for sale Friday after he abruptly quit their Asian tour and Chelsea’s Jose Mourinho voiced his admiration for the unsettled star.

Moyes was careful not to be dragged into a row with Mourinho but he showed signs of impatience as he underlined his position that Rooney, who flew home with a hamstring injury just hours after arriving in Bangkok, would not be sold.

“Unless I was speaking Double

Dutch, I think we’ve said Wayne Rooney is not for sale,” Moyes told a packed press conference in the Thai capital, where he will make his debut as manager on Saturday.

He added: “It’s hard to keep repeating myself but I will do — Wayne’s a Manchester United player and will remain that.”

Moyes, Rooney’s former boss at Everton, said the England striker would be out for two to three weeks but will be fit for the start of the season on August 17. “It’s a blow that we’ve lost him because he’s been training well and looked very good,” said Moyes.

“But unfortunately he just felt something in his hamstring, we doublechecked it and he has a slight grade one injury there that’ll probably keep him out for two to three weeks... I don’t foresee any problem with Wayne starting the season.”

Rooney’s sudden departure did not ease speculation about his future which has been swirling since former United manager Alex Ferguson said the striker had asked for a transfer.

The 27-year-old has denied asking to leave the club but he has not confirmed his intentions either. Britain’s Daily Mail has reported that Chelsea are preparing a 60-million-pound ($90-milAFP lion) bid.