Postnoon E-Paper for 24 January 2012

Five days into the crackdown onthe City’s private moneylenders,and startling things are comingout. In South Zone alone, 60-70financiers employ hundreds ofroughnecks who abuse poorborrowers every day.

FLAS

H

Hyderabad’s first compact afternoon newspaper

`2TUESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2012 HYDERABAD WWW.POSTNOON.COM WEATHER: CLEAR WITH CLOUDY PERIODS. WINDY AT TIMES; 23°C 32 PAGES

HIGH COURT ANNULS TDP MLC’S ELECTIONAP High Court annulled the election of MLC Narsa Reddy (TDP) fromNizamabad district local authorities’ constituency and declared R VenkatramReddy (Congress) elected by two votes.

BREAST IMPLANT? BREATHE EASYBreast implants are a hot favourite with City women. And even news ofruptured French-made implants don't deter them, as City doctors assert

that they only use reputable brands that are absolutely safe.

CITY SHYLOCKSSHEAR POOR

REPORT ON PG 3

RBI slashedcash reserveratio from 6per cent to5.5 per cent

Repo rate at 8.5per cent andreverse repo rateat 7.5 per centremain unchanged

It ispremature tobegin reduc-ing policyrates

Future rateactions willbe towardslowering theinterest rates

RBI SLASHES CRR, NO RATE CUT FOR NOW

P11

Next policyreview onMarch 15,2012

PONTING, CLARKE STEAL THE SHOW P31

P13

TUESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2012 2Spirit of Twin CitiesPage Two

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 27844973CINEMAS

Lahore on your plateGet a taste of Lahore at theGreat Kabab factory’s Lahorifood festival .

Where: The Great Kabab Factory, Banjara Hills

When: 12 pm onwardsContact: (040) 23302244

Martini ‘n musicEnjoy the winter evenings withgrey goose martinis and croonerKelly dishing out your favouritenumbers.

Where: Taj Krishna, Banjara Hills

When: Every EveningContact: (040) 66662323

Cognac and CigarThe Seasons Bar opens up again asa Cigar and Cognac lounge with awide selection of cognac, rarewhiskies, single malts and cigars.

Where: Taj Krishna, Banjara Hills

When: Ongoing, 7pmContact: (040) 66662323

Visual artAn exhibition cum sale ofpaintings by Hari Srinivas. Theexhibition is on display till January30 2012.

Where: VSL Visual ArtGallery, Plot No 100,AP Text Book Colony,Gun Rock Enclave

When: OngoingContact: 9247175135

NumaishA childhood favourite of everyHyderabadi, The All IndiaIndustrial Exhibition is on.

Where: Exhibition Grounds, Nampally

When: Ongoing

Bapu in coloursA painting exhibition titled, “Bapu-Mohandas KarmChandGandhi” by Siva Kesara Rao.

Where: Marriott hotel & Convention Centre, Tank Bund

When: Ongoing, 11amContact: (040) 27522999

Eat in the darkHave you ever wondered how itfeels to eat in the dark? Comeand experience this. Pay `499 toenjoy a 4-course meal worth`1,000 at Dialogue in the Dark.

Where: Dialogue in the Dark, Inorbit Mall, Hitech City

When: Ongoing, 12.30pmContact: (040) 64603341

Childhood memoryKites are a childhood memory ofcarefree life, of cheery sunnydays .They have become ametaphor of soaring freedom, offlights sky-high, towering abovethe humdrum of life. Artkitesare such an expression of festivi-ty and creative vision.

Where: Iconart, Banjara HillsWhen: OngoingContact: (040) 32411554

Controlled freedomCatch Controlled Freedom, anexhibition of portrait photogra-phy that showcases the works oftwo photographers with con-trasting approaches to capturingpeople — Sucharitha Rao andLakshmi Prabhala.

Where: Alankritha Art Gallery, Kavuri Hills

When: Ongoing, 6.30pmContact: (040) 23113709

LET’S PLAY BALL

Around the city: Your guide to the Twin Cities

PIC: N

SHIV

A K

UM

AR

Remembering AmritaA play based on well known poet-ess Amrita Pritam’s life titled,Amrita will be presented atBhartiya Vidya Bhavan.

Where: Bharitiya Vidya Bhavan, Basheerbagh

When: January 24, 7.30pmContact: (040) 23237825

1001 nightsAn exhibition titled 1001 nightsfeaturing drawings and paintingsby Santosh Kotagiri.

Where: Iconart Gallery,Banjara Hills

When: Ongoing, 11amContact: 98499-68797

One loveOne Love is an International exhibition by artists from aroundthe world who aim at promotinghumanity and love all over theworld.

Where: State Gallery Of Fine Arts ,

When: Ongoing, 11amContact: (040) 32913922

Romancig artAn exhibition titled Romancingthe Reminiscence by MasuramRavikanth.

Where: Daira, Banjara HillsWhen: Ongoing, 11amContact: (040) 66618628

Lunch treatCome eat n feel our lavish lunchbuffet@ `199/-

Where: Equator Lounge, Jubilee Hills, Rd no36

When: 12 to 3:30pmContact: (040) 64566161/2

Anubha K [email protected]

It is that time of the year when theentire Purana Shaher is envelopedby the colour green as Muslims in

the City gear up to celebrate Milad-un-Nabi. Enter Old City and every by-laneis dotted with green flags and decora-tive lights with fliers and posters float-ing around.

The festival is celebrated with reli-gious fervour and gaiety. The day ismarked with processions, public meet-ings and feeding of the poor. However,locals say that with various sects andschools mushrooming in Hyderabad,the way of celebrating has also changed.

Lost traditions“We believe in celebrating the festi-

val in a simple way. The Prophet, wholived a simple life, did not encouragehuge celebrations. However, these days,

more than practising the religion,expressing it has increased. Earlier,Milad-Un-Nabi used to be a low-keyaffair with only small processions beingtaken out. However, with various politi-cal parties pitching in, the festival is nowcelebrated on a grand scale. There usedto be about 50 to 100 people in each pro-cession earlier. But now the number isover 20,000,” said Mohammed AsifKhan, who runs a family business sellingKashmiri apparel in Old City.

Like every year, thousands of peo-ple will participate in the Milad-un-Nabi celebrations this time too.However, society elders believe that asper the Shariat (the body of doctrinesthat regulate the lives of those whopractice Islam), only festivities that donot harm others can be carried out.

Many have a different view about

how Milad-un-Nabi should be cele-brated since the Prophet’s birth anddeath occurred on the same day; peo-ple should neither celebrate normourn on this day.

Celebration of faithEvery year, the celebration begins at

dusk when devotees assemble to offerprayers. Mosques, community halls andother places of worship turn into publicvenues to gather and recall the preach-ings of the Prophet. Importance of theProphet’s birth and his teachings arehighlighted by Aalims (learned persons).

The biggest procession of the daystarts from the Mecca Masjid once themorning prayers are over. After goingaround Old City, it culminates in a hugepublic meeting at the Moghalpura play-ground. Thousands of people partici-pate in the central procession, whilesmaller processions will continuethroughout the day.

Old City gears up for Milad-un-NabiCOMMUNITIES

A boy plays basketball at YMCA in Secunderabad.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2012 3Campaigns, hard news and spirit of Twin CitiesHyper Local

Indira [email protected]

In the City to promote his newmovie Ek Main Aur Ek Tu,actor Imran Khan spoke to

Postnoon on his love for movies,and how he remains unaffectedby stardom.

Asked about his latest movie,Imran says, “It is the story of a guywho is pampered as a child, andwho never has to take any deci-sion in life. How it graduallychanges is the plot of the movie.”

He is upbeat about hischemistry with KareenaKapoor, and believes that she isa great co-actor. “I have alwaysliked Kareena even before Istarted to act, and havingworked with her in this movie, Iknow how effortless and bril-

liant she is,” says Imran. On life as an actor, he remi-

nisces, “I spend most of my life atwork — there are no Saturdays

and Sundays really. So to makemy life interesting, I try to workwith good people, so work is notdrab and boring. And my choiceof movies is primarily based onthat — good co-actors reducemy stress by half. I am, and willalways remain unintimidated bycompetition or another actorsharing screen space with me.”

Mohd [email protected]

Rahim, an auto driver, gets`500 every morning from aknown moneylender in

Charminar area. He needs themoney so he can give half of it tohis family for day’s sustenanceand the remainder to fill fuel andstart work. By evening, he givesback `700, which works fine forhim if the day has been normal.

But when someone in thefamily falls sick or the City hassome problem and business isdull, he is stuck with the loanwhi ch snowballs into big sumeventually. In yet anotherinstance, a push-cart vendor ofthe same area, Saleem Khan,has taken amount `6,000 andpaid `12,000 after a few days.

There are hundreds ofRahims who are in the firmclutches of the private mon-eylenders who make a safekilling because they have mus-cle and political backing to

depend on. Crackdown on illegal financ -

i ers in the core city (South zone)that began on January 19 hasbrought out how the parallelfinancing system thrives. In all,32 financiers have been booked.

Interrogation of the arrestedreveal that they are not justlending money but also indulgein many other crimes like barg-ing into homes and molestingwomen whose husbands orsons have defaulted.

But a question that is onevery lip in town is why theseShylocks thrive and how do theyget freed? The answer, sayworldly-wise men, rests withSecretariat.

A car that was damaged in a collision with an RTC bus at Siddiamber Bazar. PIC: N SHIVA KUMAR

DAMAGED GOODS Shylocks reignover City’s poor

CRIME

Total arrests so far 32Daily collection (estimate) `10 lakhInterest part `4 lakhAgents employed for collection (approximate) 750Books, ledgers seized 200Number of victims unknown

I have always likedKareena evenbefore I started toact

Postnoon News

HYDERABAD: Sunil Reddy, adistant relative of YS JaganMohan Reddy, was questioned bythe CBI in connection with dis-proportionate assets case andlater unconfirmed reports statedthat he was arrested.

Sunil Reddy’s wife Krishnateja told media that the CBI offi-cers took Sunil Reddy from hishouse for questioning and sherushed to Dilkusha Guest Houseto find out if he was arrested.

She said that Sunil had noth-ing to do with the cases of Jaganbut confirmed that he was a dis-tant relative of Jagan.

Meanwhile it was reportedthat Sunil was ‘very close’ to

Jagan and his family as he used tolook after the day-to-day finan-cial transactions and other busi-nesses of the YSR family. He isone of the close associates ofJagan like Vijaya Sai Reddy.

All assets and propertiesowned by Jagan were supervisedby Sunil Reddy. However, the CBIdid not confirm the arrest even bynoon.

Jagan an his associates arebeing investigated by severalagencies over illegal wealthacquired while YS RajashekarReddy was the chief minister.Recently his confidant Vijay SaiReddy too was arrested by theCBI.

Another Jagan aide in CBI netSunil Reddy, a distant relative of Jagan Mohan Reddy, was ques-tioned by the CBI in connection with disproportionate assets case

I have no weekends: Imran

TUESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2012 4Special Report

GAS BOOKING IVRS NO:HP 9666023456Indane 9848824365

BSNL Complaints 198HMWS & SB Complaints 155313

POLICE CONTROL ROOM:Hyderabad 27852435Traffic Control Room 27852482DCP Traffic 23234065, 23243499FPollution Control Board 23887500

ELECTRICITY:General Complaints 155333Breakdown Section 23431178

23431179MUNICIPAL CORPORATION:Commissioner & Spl Officer 23262266

24166666RENC 23225267Engineering 23220418MCH Tankbund 23225397Emergency MCH Circle I&II 24525842MCH Circle III 24736912MCH Circle IV 23326975MCH Circle V 23326976MCH Circle VI MCH Complaints 1100Head Office 23225397

IVRS CUM MANUAL ENQUIRYPHONE NUMBERS(TRAIN & RESERVATION)RAILWAYSRail Nilayam 27833150Railway Information 131Reservations 135Recorded Information 1345Enquiry (IVRS) 1331, 1332, 1333

WATER SUPPLY:Complaint Cell 155313Sewerage Complaint 23307328Hyd. Water Supply 23313163

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

LB Nagar 39879999

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

30417445

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

AIRLINESAirport Director 27903785, 27906001For Air India Flight Information Toll free(from any network) for IC Flights18001801407And for All Flights: 1800227722Air India has revised its flight timings.For more information call (Toll free)18001801407, 1800227722 from BSNL/MTNL 04023430334 from otherlines and mobile Website;www.airindia.in

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

UK Visa OfficeVFS India Pvt Ltd Building, 8-2-542/A,Sunil Chamber, Road No. 7Beside Meridian School, Banjara Hills-34. Working hours are from 8 AM to1 PM And 2 PM to 3PM.

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

Helpline

Readers’ viewsWe invite you to write to us

comments, suggestions, viewpointor just about anything to

[email protected] or #1246, Level 3, Jubilee Casa, Road

No 62, Jubilee Hills,Hyderabad – 500 033

or even by way ofa call on 4067 2222

Osama [email protected]

When you visit a lake,you’d expect to seeclean water andscenic beauty. How -

ever, your expectations will beshattered as soon as you visitYellamma Cheruvu in Kukatpally.

According to a report by theAndhra Pradesh Pollution ControlBoard (APPCB) dated July 20, 2010,the lake contains contaminatedwater. This is the reality of Yellam -ma Cheruvu that is shrinking dueto encroachment and extremewater pollution.

Yellamma Cheruvu, locatednear Husnabad Bus Stop, is adying lake, says Jasveer Jairath,member, Save Our Urban Lakes(SOUL). One of Hyderabad’s topreal-estate developers hasencroached upon the landreclaimed from the lake shrinkingits size, she alleges. “Despite aSupreme Court order to removeall illegal construction near thelake, nothing has been done sofar,” she said.

When Postnoon contactedHyderabad Metropolitan Deve -lop ment Authority (HMDA), asenior official said that he wasn’t aware of this lake as theyonly looked after major lakes in the City.

“Pollution levels are staggeringbecause sewage water is let into it.The water can only be used for irri-gation. We will conduct anotherround of tests in a few weeks todetermine if the pollution levels

have increased,” said Dr P RameshChandra, senior environmentalengineer, APPCB.

Jasveer also points out thatthere is a buffer zone of 30 metresfrom the Full Tank Limit (FTL) andin this zone, nothing can be con-structed. “This has clearly beenviolated,” she adds.

According to a report filed bythe government, construction onSurvey Nos 147, 146, 151 and 152,belonging to the same real-estatedeveloper, was found to haveencroached the lake.

Apparently, the FTL marked bystones, was found hidden bydried-up branches and leaveswhen SOUL conducted a survey ofthe lake. In fact, a letter dated July11, 2011 revealed that the MandalRevenue Office was not able todemarcate the FTL of this lake. Thedebris and sand that was dumpedinto the lake, is well beyond theFTL stones, indicating encroach-ment, points out Jasveer.

Ironically, encroachers haveeven built a temple on the banks ofYellamma Cheruvu. Meanwhile,residents of the surroundingcolonies are crying foul over theincreasing stench emanating fromthe lake. “When I moved here sixyears ago, the lake was relativelyless polluted. Due to develop-ment, the pollution levels haveincreased. The stench is unbear-able in the rainy season,” saysIndrajith Menon, a businessman.

Vishal Rochiramani, a resi-dent, pointed to the algae-infestedwater and said, “This is a clearindication of how polluted this

lake is. Residents choose to let thewaste water flow into the lake. Thelake has been shrinking in sizetoo,” he says.

“I have been living here eversince I was born. Until about 15years ago, I used to swim in the

lake with my friends. It was veryclean and we used to spot plentyof birds. That is a rare sight now.This lake was beautiful and needsto be restored urgently before welose it completely,” says RahulSaraf, a property owner.

In the AP Pollution ControlBoard report dated July 30,2010, Yellamma Cheruvu’s pollution details are:n Ph level – 7.9n Total dissolved solids –

673ppmn Suspended solids – 39ppmn Chemical Oxygen Level

(CLO) – 64ppmn Dissolved Oxygen (DO) –

3.4ppmn Free ammonia – 1.2ppmn Biochemical Oxygen Level

(BOL) – 11ppmn Soluble phosphate – 2ppmn Green algae – present

The permitted levels are:n DO – 4ppmn BOD – less than 3ppmn Phosphorus – less than

1ppmn Ammonia – less than 1ppm

(ppm = milligram per litre)

Lake-lustre affair at Yellamma Cheruvu

WATER FOLLIESYellamma Cheruvu


6 Months`̀ 199/-

1 Year` 349/-

Hyderabad’s first afternoon newspaper

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U Srinivas [email protected]

Hyderabad Metropolitan Develo -pment Authority (HMDA) has lost`216 crore towards interest for a

`500-crore loan. While the HMDA paid this whopping

sum towards interest, the agency wantsthe State government to reimburse thesame.

The HMDA appealed to ChiefMinister N Kiran Kumar Reddy to consid-er its request for reimbursement througha letter written on January 16.

However, it is to be seen if ministerfor finance Anam Ramanaryana Reddywill concede the request for the reim-bursement.

An interesting request has come tothe government to release `716 crore,allocating the same as part of the pro-posed Budget for 2012-13.

The HMDA borrowed `500 crore fromthe Indian Overseas Bank, Himaya -thnagar branch, a principal banker ofHMDA, and `216 crore has been paid asinterest so far.

The amount has been borrowed aspart of the ambitious resource mobilisa-tion drive ordered by the then chief min-ister YS Rajasekhara Reddy in 2008-09.The target fixed for the then vice-chair-

man of Hyderabad Urban DevelopmentAuthority (HUDA) was `3,000 crore.

Ironically for the HMDA, whilemobilisation went haywire, it had to takea drubbing in the form of the `216 croreinterest to the bank. The exact amountpaid towards interest is `215,92,08,426.00.

The letter said: “to meet the targetsfixed by the government towardsresource mobilisation and to tide overthe contingency, the HMDA (HUDA) hasborrowed from the Indian OverseasBank, Himayathnagar. The HMDA wasnot able to repay the loan owing to finan-cial crunch due to the drop in the real-estate demand.”

It also mentioned that the HMDA hadto incur heavy amounts on some on-going projects. “… in view of this, we mayrequest the government for reimburse-ment of the `716 crore including theinterest… the same may be approved bythe Government duly considering theBudget of 2012-13.”

With depleting income and increas-ing debts, the HMDA is in dire straits.

Cash-strapped HMDAloses `216cr as interest

CIVIC `216 croreInterestpaid on`500cr loan

`716 croreBailoutrequest toState

Off-screen action, no tickets

A Saye [email protected]

They never fought on thecelluloid. Though therehas been some implicitbitterness, the two actors

never crossed swords in public.On the other hand, they alwaystried to demonstrate camaraderie.But, politics is altogether a differ-ent ballgame. Megastar Chiran -jeevi, who is still taking baby stepsin politics, proved to be an earlyburnout at least, with regard tosustaining the fledgling politicalparty that he floated.

Whereas, the scion of theNandamuri clan, Balakrishna,doesn’t have the onus of runningthe party, as his astute brother-in-law Nara Chandrababu Naidu isfully in-charge of the situation inthe Telugu Desam Party. Bala -krishna, who remained a starcampaigner for the TDP for

almost three decades, has movedan inch ahead.

The war of words between thetwo stars of the Telugu tinsel townis providing a lot of free entertain-ment to the people who, by now,are adept at delineating betweenthe political amphitheatre and sil-ver screen.

As the week unfolded, the twostars began sparring; packingpunches in their words. It all start-ed when Balakrishna began hispolitical tour to Krishna district.

He directly took a potshot atChiranjeevi, jibing at the latter’soft-quoted ‘social justice’.

Making light of Balakrishna’sremarks, Chiranjeevi likened theNandamuri star to a ‘kid’ and said,“We have been good friends.” ButBalakrishna’s repartee in hisVisakhapatnam tour indeed madethe political combustion in theState hotter in a filmy style;thumping his thighs, Balakrishnachallenged Chiranjeevi. He didnot stop at that. He tried to bring

his late father into the spat andbegan drawing comparisonbetween Chiranjeevi and the leg-endary NTR.

While NTR brought theTelugu Desam to power withinnine months of floating theparty, “‘someone’ sold off hisparty for thousands of crores ofrupees,” he said.

Angered by this, leaders of the‘yet-to-get-disbanded’ Praja Raj -yam Party began spitting fire atBalakrishna. Vijayawada legislatorV Srinivasa Rao and Praja Rajyam’sleader Gowtham recalled the inci-dent of Balakrishna opening fire atproducer Bellamkonda Sureshand another family acquaintanceSatyanarayana Chowdary.

NTR’s widow Lakshmi Par -vathi suddenly surfaced fromnowhere and said Balakrishna’s IQlevels were too low. She went on tosay, but for the timely interventionof the then chief minister YSRajasekhara Reddy, NTR’s sonwould have been behind bars bynow in the firing case.

Balakrishna’s utterances thathe would show his ‘other side’evoked so much of reproach thatthe firing case is now being dis-cussed in public.

Chiranjeevi, on his side, wenthammer and tongs againstChandrababu Naidu too, rubbingthe entire TDP ranks on thewrong side. While he questionedNaidu’s locus standi on talkingabout the welfare of backwardclasses, one section of the TDP isbusy painting the Chiranjeevigroup as a ‘total sell-out’ to theCongress.

As things stand, neither theCongress, nor the serious politicalbrass of the TDP seem to evinceany interest in getting entangledin the task of scraping the greasepaint from the faces of the twonon-leaders.

While some TDP leaders areusing their lung power to throwweight behind Balakrishna, theCongress is maintaining a strate-gic silence over the issue, leavingChiranjeevi to his fate.

The filmy tantrums of Balakrishna and Chiranjeevi, who, it has been proved timeand again, are inconsequential in politics, are entertaining their fans for free

POLITICS


FABRICATION

CLASSIFIEDS

Traffic poses a severe problemin front of schools. Autorick -shaws, cars, school buses,motorcycles, and vans come

from all directions to descend on theschools, choking the roads.

Every morning and evening, thetraffic congestion at schools appearsas if it would explode any moment.This scene is common at most placesin the City. Abids, Chapel Road,Secunderabad, Bowenpally, Mehdi -patnam, Narayanaguda, Mar red -pally; name the area, the problempersists. It is perennial.

However, there is no solution insight for this. At some large schools,the traffic police are deploying vol-unteers to regulate the traffic ontheir own. However, there is no waythis problem can be addressed asalmost every child is dropped andpicked up by private transport, ifnot a school bus.

If both parents of a child areemployed, their travails stretchbeyond the usual. Their dailydrudgery is horrifying indeed. Ex -haus tion sets in for those who do allkinds of feats to wriggle out of thetraffic while dropping their kids atschool and then fetching theirwards back home.

“When I drop my daughter at StFrancis High School, I invariablypass through chaotic traffic. Thewhole problem starts from EastMarred pally and it lasts up toSecunderabad station. Often, wekeep 10–15 minutes as buffer timedue to this problem,” says SridharK, a parent.

It is a Herculean task to commute

during school time, as most of themdon’t have enough parking ormanoeuvring space. Hordes of vehi-cles of different genres swarm theschool entrance gates clogging theroads, causing inconvenience to reg-ular commuters of the roads.

“Due to the heavy traffic duringthe school hours, both while open-ing and closing, we do confront sev-eral problems. Apart from trafficblockage, students also face diffi-culty in crossing the road to reachCity bus stops. If the roads are wide

enough, these problems would notcrop up. Office staff, security guardsand other employees go on to theroad to help manage traffic,” saysVani, who works in the administra-tion wing of Sunflower School.

Not all schools in the vicinity of aparticular locality in the City work atthe same timings. They have differ-ent schedules only with a view toavoid this problem. “We give a 15-minute gap between the timing ofcommencement and closing,” saidMalika, academic co-ordinator,

Pallavi Model School. “It’s a terror. I dread travelling in

the by-lanes when schools end.Himayatnagar is a mess during thesehours. There are more than six scho -ols in the area. It’s a test of patienceeven to walk on these roads,” saysKulpreeth Singh, a resident.

“Everybody is in a hurry and payno heed to security guards. So wesend traffic police to help. There isdiscipline only when we are around,”says Venketeshwarulu J, assistantsub-inspector, Marredpally.

Leaders of TeluguNadu Students

Federation (TNSF)were arrested by thepolice, for layingsiege to the house ofSocial Welfare minis-ter Pita ni Satyanara -yana, against the gov-ernment’s proposalto limit fee reim-bursement only togovernment colleges.The student leadersdemanded that feereimbursement beoffered to every eligi-ble student. Theyraised slogansagainst the govern-ment.

TNSFleaders held

Parents battle traffic near schoolsTraffic woes torture teachers and the taught alike in the City, reports Sudeshna Koka

TDP chief N ChandrababuNaidu has demanded that the

State government immediatelyregularise the services of all con-tract employees working in theElectricity department. A delega-tion of Telugu Nadu ElectricityEmployees’ Union today metNaidu at the TDP headquarters.

Addressing the TNEEU lead-ers, Naidu said that it was wrongon the part of the government torefuse to regularise contractoperators working for the past 15years on pretext that they do notpossess the requisite qualifica-tions. He also demanded that theState government pay to electric-ity employees medicalallowances on par with govern-ment employees. He also saidthat as per GO No 11, the govern-ment should enhance the wagesof contract labour. He allegedthat the government was weak-ening the Electricity departmentby denying it sufficient funds.

‘Regularise contractemployees’ services’THE FACES OF HYDERABAD

Surya Prakash Jain, Photographer, Basheerbagh

U Srinivas

A city is defined bythe people who liveand work in it. Herewe take a look at

the human threadsthat make up our

urban tapestry

PIC: N SHIVA KUMAR

For Surya PrakashJain, photographyruns in his blood.

His grandfatherParasumal Jain was aphotographer for theBritishers and owned aphoto studio calledVictory Lab. The studiowas passed on to SuryaPrakash.

Way back in 1920,Parasmul was a photog-rapher for the Britishersand he set up VictoryLab. Earlier, the studiowas located at Tiru -melgherry under theBritish rule and for thelast 30 years it has beenat Liberty. The photostudio has been runningsuccessfully ever since.

But now Prakash says thefuture of photography andphoto printing businessseems bleak.

The latest technologyand inkjet printing is eatinginto the photo studio busi-ness, according to SuryaPrakash. The printing busi-ness is down by 60 per cent.These days youngsters preferdownloading pictures andprint them on inkjet printers.So where is the business fora printing lab? he questions.These days kids can handlephotography, digital technol-ogy and printing at home.Youngsters and technology isthe future of photography,but the business of printinglabs will go down, he pre-dicted.

TRAFFIC


U [email protected]

The construction of theroad over-bridge (ROB)across the railway linebisecting the main arteri-

al road from KPHB to Hitec Cityat Kukatpally is getting delayedfrom time to time.

While the Railways and theState government are shifting theblame on each other, the projectremains incomplete even afterfive years of commencement.

The project was taken up by the Hyderabad Metropolitan

Deve lop ment Authority (HMDA)in April 2007 and it was to becompleted in 15 months. But thework is still going on and mightcontinue till the end of 2012.

As part of the ‘100 days pro-gramme’ review, Chief Minister NKiran Kumar Reddy pulled up theofficials over the delay. He want-ed a report on the delay; eventhough the latest technology wasbeing used.

The construction of an ROBnear the MMTS railway station at

Kukatpally was taken up at a costof `24.38 crore. The officialsblamed the Railways for frequentdesign changes. The project costwas revised based on the com-posite girder system made by theRailways for `47.79 crore.

The administrative sanctionfor the same was given by theGovernment in May 2011. Later,the Railways changed the drawin -gs of the sub-structure and super-structure and the approval for thesame was given in January 2012.

Now they have decided to dis-card the skew structure and wanta composite structure. The foun-

dations for the structure areunderway. There will surely be anupward revision of cost onceagain. The detailed cost, alongwith new designs and drawingswill have to be sent to the SouthCentral Railway for approval.

An official said that the timetaken for approvals and chang-ing the designs from time totime caused the delay. Govern -ment officials told the chiefminister that 90 per cent of thework related to the StateGovernment was complete,while that of the Railways wouldhave to be taken up.

Anubha K [email protected]

Has one spotted the elusivepelicans or the floricansand the Northern Pintail in

the City? The answer of many willbe a “no”. Then just pack yourbackpack and participate in thedawn-to-dusk Hyderabad BirdRace. This year, BSAP and GreatHyderabad Adventure Club arejointly organising the race underHSBC programme on February 12.

Open to allThe race will be flagged off fromthe Hyderabad Public School,Begumpet at 6am and is open toall, irrespective of their age.There is no entry fee. Each team

comprising four or five persons,will be named after a bird foundin the region and will be led by anexperienced bird enthusiast.They have to spend the entireday searching for as manyspecies of birds as possible.

Team members are supposedto use their own vehicles for trans-portation. If a participant doesn’thave a car he/she can be accom-modated in another participant’scar. Each car will have a captainwho will be familiar with the geog-raphy of Hyderabad and its envi-rons and enough knowledge toidentify different birds.

People who are not familiar

with bird watching and yet wantto be a part of this race may alsoparticipate. The cars will beflagged off at sunrise and have toreport back at sunset.

Each team will be given a log-book containing a list of birdsfound in their region, along withnames of places and possible loca-tions that they can be spotted in.One needs to record every birdthey have spotted and where it hasbeen spotted. These logbooks willbe given to the judges in theevening for their scrutiny.

One can choose any loca-tion, as long as it is in the radiusof about 50–60km. The criterionis that you try and record asmany bird species as possible towin the race.

PrizesIf a winning team comprises ofmore than four members, thenumber of prizes given will still belimited to four.Bird of the Day: Each team canselect one bird from their list ofsightings, which they feel is thehighlight. Dip of the Day: Each teamshould mention one bird, which

they were sure they would seebut did not.

The last date for receiving theentries is 6pm on February 5. Youcan give your names and contactdetails including those of yourteam members to Asif HusainArastu — 9908611496/ [email protected] or Mr Shafaatullah— 9849229552/ [email protected].

Postnoon [email protected]

Prime Minister ManmohanSingh will visit Hyderabad on

February 4 to lay the foundation-stone for the `14,132-croreHyderabad Metro Rail project.Apart from this, he is also sched-uled to launch the Rajiv YuvaKiranalu, the pet project of ChiefMinister Kiran Kumar Reddy.

Arrangements are being madefor the PM’s visit. The CM, alongwith some of his Cabinet col-leagues and senior bureaucrats,visited the Gachibo wli stadiumand reviewed the possibility ofconducting the programme there.He also wanted the HMR founda-tion stone programme to be con-ducted at Hitec City. This placetoo, was inspected.

The PM would be handing theappointment letters to someyouths who have been placed inprivate jobs as part of the RajivYuva Kiranalu programme, saidminister Danam Nagender.

Postnoon [email protected]

With the Congress unwillingto accept the idea of a sepa-

rate state, KCR has finally put upthe idea of going with the BJP firstin the forthcoming bypolls andthen in the 2014 general elections.

Senior TRS leader NayaniNarsimha Reddy, who is a closeconfidant of KCR, said as of nownothing has been decided andthey would discuss it. Ideally, hesaid, all like-minded parties thatare for a separate Telanganashould have a broad understand-ing during the polls. But it is nottrue with YSRC, which is saying it’snot against Telangana.

Railways derailbridge, cost doubles

Race to spot winged beauties

PM to launchmetro works

Will TRS get asaffron band?

PIC: N SHIVA KUMAR

CIVIC

ENVIRONMENT

Well-known theatre artist and activistMohammed Ali Baig celebrated his birthday in the presence of some of the more popular

faces of Hyderabad.

A GRANDCELEBRATION

TUESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2012 8Spotlight

AK KHAN, MOHAMMED ALI BAIG

SAMEERA KHAN, RASHMI SETH

MADHU SWAMYNATHAN

PICS:SRINIVAS SETTY

A date for every thought Actress Kamna Jethmalani announces awinner from the special draw, which wasconducted for the customers of us2ap.comon the eve of their 10th anniversary.

MARYAM, MS SATHYU

ALEKHYA LAKSHMI DEVI RAJ

BEGUM RAZIA BAIG JAYANTI

The 2012 Kalamudra Calendar by Kalamandir was launched by Badmintonplayer Jwala Gutta along with Kalamandir’s CEO Kalyan at PVR at City Central.

Lucky winner

TUESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2012 9India unveiled India‑View

NEW DELHI: Six Harkat-ulJihad-al-Islami terrorists, includ-ing three from Pakistan, whoplotted to abduct cricketersSachin Tendulkar and SauravGanguly in 2002 were on Mondaysentenced to eight-year jail termsby the Delhi High Court. A trialcourt had earlier awarded themlife terms.

A division bench of Justice SRavindra Bhat andJustice SP Gargmodified the orderon sentence andreduced the con-victs’ life term toeight years on theground of paritywith three otherconvicts.

The lower courthad held all the sixmen guilty undervarious anti-terrorand penal provi-sions. The convicts from Pakistanare Tariq Mohammed, ArshadKhan and Ashfaq Ahmed. Thethree Indians are Mufti Israr,Ghulam Qadir Bhatt and GhulamMohd Dar.

Bhatt on Monday soughtacquittal in the case in the highcourt. To this the court asked himto file an affidavit on Tuesday as towhether he accepted the reducedsentence or he wanted to arguefor an outright acquittal.

The court said that the periodfor which Dar remained out on

bail would be declared as part ofthe “undergone” jail term. Darhas spent more than six years injail.

The HuJI terrorists contendedthat the court earlier reduced thejail term of three of their associ-ates, who pleaded guilty earlier,to eight years.

On January 15, 2011, thelower court awarded life impris-

onment to all thesix HuJI terroristsunder the stringentPrevention ofTerrorism Act(POTA) saying thepunishment “mustsend a clear mes-sage that India isnot nor will itbecome a safehaven for terror-ists”.

Apart fromplotting to abduct

the two cricketers, the accusedalso planned to attack BhabhaAtomic Research Centre inMumbai and assassinate thenpresident APJ Abdul Kalam in2002.

The convicts faced trial foroffences of collecting arms withthe intention of waging waragainst the nation and conspir-ing to commit offences againstthe state.

Besides the POTA, theaccused were charged under theArms Act. IANS

Jail terms for six inSachin abduction plot

NEW DELHI: The Congress onMonday took strong exception tothe tone and tenor of letters written by Anna Hazare to PrimeMinister Manmohan Singh andsome other political leaders, saying “no self-appointedpreachers and guardians of polit-ical morals” have a right to lec-ture the entire political class.

Answering queries aboutTeam Anna writing letters to thePM, Rahul Gandhi and presidentsof BJP, Samajwadi Party and the ,BSP, the Congress spokesmansaid it was for individual leadersto answer the letters. IANS

Anna has no rightto lecture politicalclass: Congress

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu ChiefMinister Jayalalithaa on Tuesdayfiled separate complaints in thePrin ci pal Sessions court inChennai against a Tamil bi-weekly and a leading Englishnational daily accusing them ofpublishing ‘derogatory anddefamatory’ comments againsther about her eating habits.

The complaint which hasbeen filed on behalf of the chiefminister by the city public prosecutor against the editor,joint editor and a reporter ofNakkheeran and a reporter andthe editor-in-chief of The Hindu,seeks to punish them under IPCsections 500 (punishment fordefamation) and 501 (printing orengraving matter known to bedefamatory). PTI

Jaya sues daily,bi-weekly fordefamation

N E W D E L H I / M U M B A I :Hours after the Mumbai policeclaimed to have arrested twokey suspects in the July 13, 2011serial blasts that killed 27 people, the Union home min-istry on Monday expressed dismay over the claims, notingthat one of the two held was aninformer for the Delhi Policeand the Intelligence Bureau.

The Anti Terrorism Squad(ATS) of Mumbai police hasalso sought the custody ofanother suspect, held in a separate fake currency case, forthe Mumbai terror attackprobe.

“Naqi Ahmed Vasi AhmedSheikh, 22, and Nadeem AkhtarAshfaque Sheikh, 23, have beenarrested from different areas ofsouth-central Mumbai in con-nection with the case,” ATSchief Rakesh Maria toldreporters in Mumbai.

In New Delhi, home min-

istry officials, unwilling to benamed, countered the ATSclaim, clearly demonstratingthat there had been no coordi-nation among security agencies probing terror cases.

“We are baffled at the arrestof the 22-year-old Naqi AhmedVasi Ahmed Sheikh, who has infact been helping Delhi Policespecial cell and the IntelligenceBureau.

He was the person who pro-vided crucial leads to Waqas andTabrez, the two bombers in the13/7 blast,” the officials said.

“Naqi Ahmed was inMumbai to help track down thetwo bombers. It was a highlysecret operation monitored bythe nation’s security top brassfrom the Capital,” they added.

Claiming to have crackedthe serial blasts in Mumbai inJuly last year, Maria said thethird suspect was alreadybehind bars in Mumbai. IANS

Centre baffled by Mumbaipolice 13/7 arrest claims

THRISSUR: Malayalam writerand orator Sukumar Azhikodepassed away at a private hospi-tal here on Tuesday morning,family sources said. He was 85.

The end came at 6.33am.After being detected with bonecancer, Azhikode was admittedto hospital on December 7, lastyear and his condition haddeteriorated in the past fewdays.

Family sources said hisbody would be taken to hishome here and would be keptfor an hour and then moved tothe Sahitya Academy hall till 4pm.

The body will then be takento his home town in Azhikodein Kannur district and thefuneral will take place onWednesday afternoon at thePayamabalam beach.

Azhikode was a bachelorand he retired as pro-vice

chancellor of CalicutUniversity in 1986.

A multi-faceted personali-ty, Azhikode won 12 awards,including the Sahitya AkademiAward. In January 2007, herefused to accept the PadmaShri conferred on him statingthat such honours are againstthe Constitution.

“The Constitution sayseveryone should be treated asequal. Giving such honours,the State discriminatesbetween people. I see thePadma Shri conferred on me asan opportunity to expose thisdiscrimination.” AFP

NEW DELHI:India on Mondayassumed presi-dency of thebusiness cham-ber of the eight-member SouthAsia Association for RegionalCooperation (Saarc) after a gap of12 years and said it would liber-alise business visa norms to boostcross-border trade and invest-ment in the region.

Vikramjit Singh Sahney, corpo-rate president of Sun Group, tookover the presidency of the SaarcChamber of Commerce and Indu -stry from Bangladesh’s AnnisulHaq for a period of two years.

After taking over , Sahney saidthe chamber would press onmember countries to liberalisebusiness visas, trade and invest-ment norms. “Cost of trading atthe borders in the region is one ofthe highest in the world. Weshould work together to reduceit,” he said. IANS

India assumescharge of Saarcbusiness chamber

Mumbai ATS chief RakeshMaria holds photographs ofthe alleged 13/7 Mumbaiattacks mastermind. AFP

A schoolgirl handles a 7.62mm Dragunov sniper rifle during anArmy Mela and Exhibition at Khasa. The Army Mela, organisedby the Flaming Arrows Brigade, displayed weapons and militaryequipment to civilian visitors. AFP

READY... AIM...

Malayalam writer Azhikode passes away

TUESDAY, JANUARY 24, 201210Around the World Beyond Borders

GLOBE AT A GLANCEVenezuelan prez hasjust one year to liveMADRID: Cancer-stricken VenezuelanPresident Hugo Chavez has between nineand 12 months to live, his doctors said.Doctors have prescribed him a high doseof pain-killers, which account for his recentflurry of political activity. According toreports, Chavez has told doctors he will nolonger subject himself to more aggressivetreatments that would take him away fromhis public duties.

Pakistan to reopen its foreign FIA officesISLAMABAD: Pakistan is likely toreopen its Federal Investigation Agency(FIA) liaison offices, closed down about adecade ago, in 11 countries in a bid tocurb human trafficking and deal withimmigration issues, the Dawn reported.According to an official, the FIA has sub-mitted a proposal to the interior ministryin this regard.

Russian polls favouredruling party: ObservorsMOSCOW: Russia’s parliamentaryelections held in December were “slantedin favour of United Russia, says a report byelection observers from the ParliamentaryAssembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).The report, said that despite the fact thatthe polls were well-administered, theywere “marked by a convergence of thestate and the governing party.”

Nigeria violence tollrises to 185

A pro-life activist stands in frontof pro-choice activists at a vigiloutside the U.S. Supreme Court inWashington, DC. AFP

Commuters walk slowly on an icyroad in Tokyo as it received 4cm ofsnow with traffic being partiallyparalysed AFP

ABUJA: The toll in the killings in Nigeriahas risen to 185, police said in a state-ment. A statement issued by police in Kanostate on Monday night said the deadincluded 150 civilians, 29 police officers,three secret police officers, two immigra-tion officers and one customs officer,Xinhua reported.

BRUSSELS: The E Union’smove to slap an embargo onIranian oil, along with new USmeasures in response toTehran’s suspect nuclear drive,appeared to have an immediateeffect and brought swift con-demnation from Tehran.

The oil ban announced onMonday, along with sanctionsagainst Iran’s central bank andother measures, came as western powers rounded onTehran to return to negotiationsamid concerns it is inching evercloser to building a nuclearbomb.

Iran denies that its nuclearprogramme is for military purposes and furiouslydenounced the unprecedentedEuropean Union measures asthe United States further tightened the noose, announc-ing sanctions against Iran’sstate-owned Bank Tejarat, oneof the few still accessing the

international financial system.US President Barack Obama

lauded the EU move to chokeTehran’s oil exports, amid evi-dence that sanctions are begin-ning to bite.

“I applaud today’s actionsby our partners in the EuropeanUnion,” Obama said.

“These sanctions demon-strate once more the unity ofthe international community

when it comes to the issue ofaddressing the serious threatpresented by Iran’s nuclear pro-gramme.

“We will continue toincrease the pressure unlessIran acts to change course andcomply with its internationalobligations.”

The Iranian currency, therial, tumbled to a record lowagainst the dollar on Monday,after several months of steadydeclines.

According to one of thesenior Treasury officials, theIranian currency has lost morethan 70 percent of its valueagainst the dollar sinceautumn.

Oil prices were also up modestly on Monday after theEU announced its embargo onIran’s crude exports with BrentNorth Sea crude for Marchclimbing 72 cents to $110.58 abarrel in London. AFP

EU targets ‘threats’ ofIran’s nuclear programme

TAMPA: Mitt Romney paint-ed rival Newt Gingrich as aWashington “influence ped-dler” who was unfit to lead thenation Monday at the start ofa bitter Republican presiden-tial debate.

Romney, once consideredthe presumptive nominee,opened the debate in theFlorida primary swinging atGingrich’s record, as he triedto regather a poll lead in theSunshine State that hadappeared unassailable just aweek ago.

“I think this is going tocome down to a question ofleadership,” said Romney, castigating Gingrich’s stints inWashington as a lawmaker andas a lobbyist and throwingthem up as evidence the for-mer speaker of the House ofRepresentatives is unfit to lead.

“In the 15 years after heleft the speakership, the

speaker has been working asan influence peddler inWashington.”

Two new polls showedGingrich overtaking the former Massachusetts gover-nor in Florida, which votesnext on January 31 and couldeither confirm Gingrich’ssurge or reinstate Romney asthe frontrunner.

Gingrich tried to riseabove the particularly person-al attacks, claiming thatRomney had said “at least fourthings that are false.”

“I don’t want to waste anytime on it,” he said, “It is theworst kind of trivial politics.”

“Governor Romney can’ttell the truth,” he said, echo-ing criticism from Democratsabout his opponent’s consis-tency on key issues.

Romney has struggled towin over the Republicans base points. AFP

PARIS: French senators havepassed a bill outlawing thedenial of Armenian genocide in1915, with a seething Turkeyslamming the move and warn-ing of consequences wileArmenia hailed a day “writtenin gold.”

The French Senate onMonday approved, by 127 votesto 86, the measure whichthreatens with jail anyone inFrance who denies that the1915 massacre of Armenians byOttoman Turk forces amountedto genocide.

French President NicolasSarkozy, whose right-wing UMPparty put forward the bill, mustnow sign the bill for it tobecome law.

Turkey furiously denouncedthe move, with Justice MinisterSadullah Ergin telling CNN-

Turk television that it was “agreat injustice and shows a totallack of respect for Turkey.”

“We strongly condemn thisdecision which is... an exampleof irresponsibility,” the Turkishforeign ministry said in a writ-ten statement, adding that thegovernment would not hesitateto swiftly implement retaliatorymeasures.

“Politicising the under-standing of justice and historythrough other people’s past anddamaging freedom of expression in a tactless mannerare first and foremost a loss forFrance,” it added.

Armenia meanwhile praisedthe vote, with Foreign MinisterEdward Nalbandian saying:“This day will be written in goldnot only in the history of friend-ship between the Armenian andFrench peoples, but also in theannals of the history of the protection of human rightsworldwide.”

The vote “will further consolidate the existing mech-anisms of prevention of crimesagainst humanity”, the statement said.

France has already recog-nised the killings as a genocide,but the new bill would go fur-ther, by punishing anyone whodenies this with a year in jailand a fine of 45,000 euros($57,000).

Senators support banon genocide denial

France’s UMP senator SergeDassault attends the FrenchSenate vote session. AFP

EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security PolicyCatherine Ashton at a press conference in Brussels. AFP

Gingrich is an ‘Influencepeddler’: Romney

Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paultake the stage for the Republican Presidential debate. AFP

NSE1kg= `56,000

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GOLD`77.79

POUNDBSE16,913.52 162.93 `50.05

DOLLARTUESDAY, JANUARY 24, 201211Matters of saving and spendingBusiness

Prudhvi Raju [email protected]

HYDERABAD: Andhra Pradeshis the only state in India collectingVAT on textiles. It is jeopardisingtwo lakh textile wholesale traderswho provide direct employment tomore than 20 lakh people.

Almost one crore peopledepend on the textile industry inthe state today. This is also affect-ing 10 lakh retailers with the out-lets and 20 lakh small retailers whoare doing business from home,said HP Davda, vice-president,Secunderabad cloth merchantsassociation.

The State textile dealers underthe aegis of The Andhra PradeshFederation of Textile Associations

have been protesting against thefive per cent levy of value-addedtax (VAT). Traders from differentstates are coming to the Capital tomake the bandh successful. Thefour lakh Andhra Pradesh retailorshave closed their shops in supportof it.

Consumers in Andhra Pradeshhave to pay Rs110 for a Rs100product by the addition of VAT at

various levels. The consumers whoare living in border areas and peo-ple who are making bulk purchaseare going to other states to buyclothes, he said. The wholesaletraders are purchasing productsfrom various states and levyingfive per cent tax to sell it to retail-ers. The small retailers may skipthe traders to buy these productsdirectly from the manufacturers in

other states to avoid taxes. Thiswill wipe out the whole business oftextile traders.

This tax is breeding corrup-tion. Many traders do businesswith a margin of 2-3 per cent. Theyare trying to escape five per cent ofVAT and forced to take otheroptions when they are caught bydepartment. Some commercial taxdepartment employees are already

exploiting the situation at all theentry points into the State. ThisVAT will not bring in any revenuesto the government but helps to fillthe pockets of corrupt employees,said Davda.

There will be no increase inrevenues to the government bycollection of VAT. It is necessary tonote, when NT Rama Rao hasdecreased VAT on a product from 5per cent to two per cent, the VATcollection has gone up to the gov-ernment. Businesses started pay-ing two per cent taxes directlyrather paying money illegally toescape it, he explained.

Textile is the second highestemployment generator after agri-culture. This is a socially sensitiveindustry that employs unskilled,economically backward and illiter-ate workers. If the governmentdoes not respond to the situationby this month end, textile tradersclose their business and hand overthe keys to respective collectorateoffices. Such a scenario will createunemployment and one coresocially backward people will bedeprived of their livelihood, saidSrinivas, Member of Joint actioncommittee.

He said there is still a hope thatthe State government wouldunderstand the situation andabolish the tax to save the industrylike in other states.

Anti-VAT ire bonds textile traders

ULIPs are not a failure:ZMPostnoon News

HYDERABAD: The keystrength of Life InsuranceCorporation of India (LIC) is thetrust that people repose in it. LICis constantly updating itselfaccording to the needs of cus-tomers to withstand the competi-tion.

The market share had gonedown to 64 per cent due to therigorous competition with privateplayers before two years. The LIChas regained its customer base,holds 73.3 per cent market shareas far as the premium is con-cerned and almost 80 per centmarket share in number of poli-cies, said A K Sahoo, zonal man-ager, South central zone, LICIndia.

Talking about Unit-linkedpolices (ULIPs), He said the ULIPsare not exactly a failure. Theterms and conditions of the unitlinked policies were changed byInsurance Regulatory andDevelopment Authority (IRDA)for transparency and bettermentof the system.

The minimum lock-in periodwas changed to five years fromthree years. The customers usedto buy the unit linked policies toencash and sell the units afterthree years. The companies arelaunching new products accord-ing to the new policy conditions.LIC has applied for the IRDAapproval and would soon launchULIPs. LIC is concentrating inareas of health insurance, chil-dren insurance and pension poli-

cies. There is a challenge to attractthe 27 per cent customer base,which is with the competitors. Itwants to be with every householdand be present in range of seg-ments.

There is negative growth inthe industry due to slowdown inthe economy. The ULIPs werecontributing in a big way toindustry. LIC is striving hard toreplace the loss of ULIPs with thesale of conventional policies, said

Sahoo.LIC has launched Jeevan

Ankur to ensure financial securityto children in the event of expiryof the parent (insurance payee).The plan covers the risk on the lifeof the parent and the named childshall be the nominee under theplan.

The LIC is expecting to get 10per cent of its total sales from thepolicy. It wants to sell 6-7lakhpolicies by March 31, 2012.

LIC is the most trusted brandLife Insurance Corporation (LIC), the coun-

try’s biggest insurer, has emerged as thecountry’s most trusted brand in the Banking,Financial Service and Insurance (BFSI) sector,as per the research conducted by the BrandTrust Report, India study, 2012. LIC wasranked 8th among 17000 brands studied inthe brand and the BFSI category had 70brands listed. LIC leads the State Bank ofIndia (SBI) ranked 2nd in the BFSI sector by56 per cent on the Brand Trust Index, TrustResearch Advisory’s unique metric for mea-suring Brand Trust.

Textile merchants attending a meeting at Indira Park in the City on Monday (inset) HP Davda, vice-president, Secunderabad cloth merchants association

No rate cutfor nowPostnoon News

HYDERABAD: The ReserveBank of India (RBI). Governor DSubbarao on Tuesday said as aresult of the reduction in the CRR,around Rs. 32,000 crore of primaryliquidity will be injected into thebanking system.

Based on the current inflationtrajectory, including considerationof suppressed inflation, it is pre-mature to begin reducing the poli-cy rate. The reduction in the policyrate will be conditioned by signs ofsustainable moderation in infla-tion. However, the persistence oftight liquidity conditions coulddisrupt credit flow and furtherexacerbate growth risks. In thiscontext, the CRR is the most effec-tive instrument for permanent liq-uidity injections over a sustainedperiod of time. The reduction canalso be viewed as a reinforcementof the guidance that future rateactions will be towards loweringthem. The next mid-quarter reviewof Monetary Policy for 2011-12 willbe on March 15, 2012 .

PICS: N SHIVA KUMAR

PIC: N SHIVA KUMAR

TALK BACKSmart farmersThe story on the farmers' plight

was well-covered. This is afact that is really true. Oftenwhen I go to the vegetablemarket I get rotten and sub-standard vegetables andoften the vegetable sellers arerude and behave in an uncouthmanner. While at the roadsidethere, the people are very well-behaved. The produce that is being soldis also fresh and is available at decentprices. But one thing that remains to beseen is that whether these people willbe chased off the highway for settingup their make-shift shops there illegally.

Manish KumarPunjagutta

Overloaded busesThe 'Buses loaded beyond

limit' highlights some veryimportant issues. Every morn-ing when I hire an auto to goto office, I see people struggling to find space inthe buses, But it is even sadder to see school chil-dren who have to catch a

bus to get to school on time. Iwonder why with APSRTC doesn'tincrease the frequency of the buses toavoid this scenario. They have moneyand finances, but choose to keep itwith them.

Aditya PillaiBegumpet

Censor Board hypocrisy This letter comes to you in regards

to your Bollywood story about Kiss andTell. What I fail to understandis that why an action of love isto be the subject of a story?Personally I didn't think that itmade much of a Bollywoodstory, not much that you candedicate a whole page to it. WhatI would like to know is why is thecensor board such a hypocritewhen it comes to censoring scenes.It would have been a good read as towhy we are forcing ourselves to walkon a path that a majority of the Indiansare still so uncomfortable to treadupon. Maria Shinchala

Secunderabad

Gangster’s taleGora Khan’s story is amusing. I

begin to wonder whatmade him become a gang-ster if he is scared of com-ing out of prison now. Iam sure he knew whathe was bringing on him-self by choosing thepath of crime. The courtmust under no circum-stances decide to keep

him in jail for his protection. Aman who knew what he was doingmust reap the consequences of hisaction. That will serve as a lesson toall those who choose crime for acareer. Azam Khan

Nampally

TUESDAY, JANUARY 24, 201212Fair, free and forthrightComment

Henrick Thomme, the Swedishentrepreneur who visited Hyderabadtwo weeks ago had, in a chat with

Postnoon said, he wondered at the insensitiv-ity of the motorists who care not for thepedestrians. When he was told it is not entire-ly the fault of the motorists but the indiffer-ence of the city authorities, he asked with avisitor’s innocence: then why are you notholding the authorities responsible?

How do I tell the good Swede that the peo-ple of Hyderabad hold the world trophy forpassivity? Motorists’ disrespect for walkers isonly symptomatic of a larger malaise, a col-lective psyche that believes the 30 percent ofthe motor owning populace hold the right of100 percent roads.

If anybody challenges it as calumny letthem take a walk of the pride of Hyderabad—Jubilee Hills. Not one of the wide and rela-tively clean roads has a footpath. Not quite,perhaps. There are footpaths earmarked, buthave all been annexed by the house ownerswho use their portion of the footpath in avariety of ways: garden, security cabin,lawns, and even as kennel.

The art is so perfected that one of theappropriated footpath has a swing and gar-den chairs for their kids!

More than 3000 avenues/ areas/ cities inthe world today are declared carfree areas sothat people could walk and shop freely. It alsobrings down heat and carbon footprint whichare eventually going to kill this blue planet.

September 22 is treated as the world car-free day though each city, area or avenue isfree to observe a car day any day.

A few years ago some conscious citizens,stricken by the abject rejection of a funda-mental right of walking, formed a Right 2 Walkforum and it does whatever little it can but thesituation remains as bad as before. Petitionshad been filed before court, appeals submit-ted to the government and demonstrationsheld but all of no avail.A Sure way

While the collective will is notoriously

lazy, the only way to do it is to bulldoze theencroachment without much ado. For this wedon’t have to go to Calgary or Honolulu,world’s first and second cleanest cities. Wehave our own Surat City in Gujarat and itsarchitect IAS officer SR Rao.

When bubonic plague hit the dilapidated,rodent-ridden city in 1994, the CongressGovernment sent SR Rao with a blank cheque— pull down all encroachments, execute therule of law and municipal Acts.

Rao spent sleepless days, feared for his lifebut he did what amazed many foreign urbanplanners—He bulldozed mercilessly all theencroachments of public roads and property.Judiciary was taken into confidence and thework began. In two years Rao made SuratIndia’s second cleanest city!

How did he do that?Therein rests the answer. First he made

the list of the rich encroachers of publicroads, footpaths and properties. He hit themost powerful first, a gun-toting MLA. Thenhe targeted one each of a temple, a churchand a mosque. Everybody was stunned butafter this it was a cakewalk because he hadlittle trouble convincing the small tradersand encroachers. Surat regained its foot-paths, trees, playgrounds, and its poise. Ofcourse, behind Rao was a government thatsaid, go ahead.

And once the work progressed massescame forward to help municipality to pulldown encroachments. Do we have the will?Moral of the story: When patient is sufferingfrom small pox you can’t treat for pimples.

Hard talkPK Surendran

Editorials Regain walking space,Surat shows the way

Readers’ viewsWe invite you to write to us

comments, suggestions, view-point or just about anything to

[email protected] or #1246, Level 3, Jubilee Casa,

Road No 62, Jubilee Hills,Hyderabad – 500 033

or even by way ofa call on 4067 2222

THE CURIOUS CASEof dead accused

One of the key accused inthe `9,000 crore NRHM

scam has committedsuicide at his residence. He shot

himself with his revolver,according to the police.

Interestingly, this is the fourthmajor conspirator ‘dying’. Withtwo CMOs and a DCMO beingmurdered in the jail, it is very

difficult to believe this oneended his life out of depression.

Sadiq Batcha, a key accused inthe 2G scam, too ‘committed

suicide’ a couple of days afterhe told a friend that he wanted

to turn approver. With all thedue respect to God working in

his mysterious ways, the coinci-dences are too good to be true.One fundamental flaw with our

investigating agencies is thatthey rarely keep a close watchon the accused and witnesses

when its not the thick of action.The sleuths need to buck up

before losing more key peopleto machinations of fate.

WHY WE LOVERahul Gandhi

Rahul Gandhi became thelatest to be accordedthe honour of being

thrown at with a shoe. He joinsa long list of VIPs: former US

president George W Bush,Chinese PM Wen Jiabo, home

minister P Chidambaram, OmarAbdullah and Arvind Kejriwal.

Rahul’s attacker was protestingagainst the reopening of court

cases against Baba Ramdev.Rahul was unruffled — he

responded, “Phenko, phenko, ekaur phenko.” He also told thecops not to beat his attacker.There may be many takes on

Rahul as a leader, but there’s nodoubt that he’s a sport.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 24, 201213Holistic view of mind, body and soulH‑Factor

What is commonbetween KatiePrice, PamelaAnderson,

Sushmita Sen, Rakhi Sawantand Minissha Lamba? All ofthese women have had theirassets augmented, flauntedthem and then at some pointhad their implants removed.Hour glass figures with fullbreasts to boast is everywoman’s dream. And in aworld that is obsessed withphysical perfection opting forbreast implants is not asunthinkable as it was earlier.

In fact, City cosmetic sur-geons are kept on their toeswith nearly 10 breast implantprocedures scheduled for eachof them every month. “It isusually women who’ve just hadbabies who come to us forbreast augmentation. We don’tencourage breast implants inwomen below the age of 17 astheir bodies haven’t developedcompletely yet. Nor do weencourage them in womenafter their mid-40s since bythen the breasts may begin tosag,” says Dr Sudhakar Prasad,plastic surgeon at ApolloHospital.

So while breast implantsare a popular choice with

urban women, the recent inci-dent where a French manufac-turer’s implants exploded havecreated quite a flutter amongstwomen with implants world-wide. According to reports, inthis particular incident theimplants were made with sub-standard silicone usually usedto make mattresses. Whileauthorities have dismissedfears of cancer from theimplants, they did state thatthese devices could be proneto rupture and could causecomplications in the womenusing them.

Ever since the news broke,more than 500 French womenhad their implants removed.But since this particular brandof implants are not widely usedin India, the complications andscare here were not as bad. Yet,doctors do from time to timeget queries regarding the safetyof silicone implants.

“Breast implants don’t real-ly explode. They at the mostrupture and the material mayleak. But all said and done it isnot safe,” says Dr N HemanthaKumar, consultant cosmeticsurgeon at KIMS Hospital,adding, “In India we use goodbrands and the risk of suchaccidents is negligible.”

Dr Sudhakar agrees. “TheFrench brand that had themishap is not widely usedhere. Besides, before perform-ing the procedure we educateour patients on what itinvolves, the risks associatedand the care to be taken. Butfor the most part, breastimplants are safe,” he says.

Risks involvedLike all surgeries, breast

augmentation surgery involvessome of its own risks. “Everyprocedure has its associatedrisks, but they are not major.Besides, we explain everythingto our patients beforehand,”says Dr Sudhakar.

Some of the associatedrisks in a breast augmentationsurgery are chances of infec-tion, risk associated to anaes-

thesia (since general anasthe-sia is used), capsular contrac-tion around the implantwhich makes the implantharder and globular.

Most of the newerimplants use silicone gelwhich feels more natural andis a lot safer than salineimplants. Saline implants losevolume over the years andalso risk becoming harder.

Who gets them doneBreast implants are usually

sought by young women intheir 20s and early 30s, espe-cially after childbirth, whenthey lose confidence abouttheir lost shape.

“We sometimes getrequests from minors whosebreasts and body are stilldeveloping. In such cases wediscourage a breast implantand advise them to wait. Inother cases women who evenafter reaching adulthoodremain flat chested opt for thissurgery as remaining flatchested can be rather traumat-ic for them,” says Dr Hemanth.

Ranjani [email protected]

WASHINGTON: A breakthrough inexploiting electromagnetic waveshas potentially opened the way formore advanced medical diagnosis.

This should allow future tera-hertz waves (T-rays) systems to besmaller, more portable, easier tooperate, and much cheaper thancurrent devices, for medical diagnostics.

T-rays are already in use in air-port security scanners, prototypemedical scanning devices and inspectroscopy systems for materialsanalysis.

They can also sense moleculessuch as those present in canceroustumours and living DNA, sinceevery molecule has its unique signa-ture in the THz range, the journalNature Photonics reports.

Or detect explosives or drugs, forgas pollution monitoring or non-destructive testing of semiconduc-tor integrated circuit chips, accord-ing to Agency for Science,Technology and Research (A*STAR),Singapore, and Imperial CollegeLondon.

The researchers say their moreefficient continuous wave T-rays,the technology behind full bodyscanners, could be used to makebetter medical scanning gadgets,similar to the ‘tricorder’ scannerused in Star Trek.

Current T-ray imaging devicesare very expensive and operate atonly a low output power, since cre-ating the waves consumes largeamounts of energy and needs totake place at very low temperatures.

Materials science researchershave made T-rays into a muchstronger directional beam than waspreviously thought possible, atroom-temperature conditions.

Research co-author StefanMaier, a visiting scientist at A*STARand professor of physics at ImperialCollege, said: “T-rays promise torevolutionise medical scanning tomake it faster and more convenient,potentially relieving patients fromthe inconvenience of complicateddiagnostic procedures and the stressof waiting for accurate results.”

Electro-magneticwaves nowfor scanning

Size matters

Cost of an implant`30,000 to `40,000

Cost of the surgery`1 lakh to `1.5 lakh

TUESDAY, JANUARY 24, 201214Holistic view of mind, body and soulH‑Factor

Postnoon News

Nearly 18 to 29 per cent of ourpopulation is prey to asthma– a chronic inflammatory

disease of the airways that cancause shortness of breath andwheezing. While no single cause hasbeen pinpointed for the incidenceof asthma, it is thought to be hered-itary with a few trigger factors.Although there have been no stud-ies conducted, there is said to be anincrease in the incidence of asthma.

“Factors like increase in stress,changing lifestyle habits, dietarypatterns and increase in pollutioncan be blamed for the increase inthe incidence of asthma,” says DrMohd Samiuddin, consultant pul-monologist at Global Hospitals. Headds that factors like viral fevers,upper respiratory allergies, smoke,indoor pollution like kitchen fumes,incense sticks and aerosol sprayscan also be responsible for asthma.

A common question that arises,says Dr Samiuddin, is whether thereis any difference between allergiesand asthma. “But the two are inter-linked. A person with allergies is at ahigher risk of getting asthma,” hesays. And while asthma can’t becured, it can be controlled, he says.“The incidence of attacks can becontrolled with medication and byavoiding precipitating factors. Thereare several tablets, injectibles andinhalers available to control asthma.These should be taken under a doc-tor’s guidance. These medicines areagain available in two types – pre-ventors and relievers.”

Breathing exercises and healthyliving can help, curb the incidenceof asthma, says Dr Samiuddin.“Often people think that inhalersare a last resort. In fact, inhalers areused as first line of treatment. Theseare safe and can be given for alonger time and have minimal sideeffects,” he explains.

Another crucial factor is when apregnant woman has asthma. “It isextremely important for a pregnantwoman to try and avoid attacks ashormone changes can play a rolehere. Inhalers are the best preven-tors here and are safe. If asthma isnot controlled during pregnancythen it could lead to an abortion,low birth weight, pre-term deliveryor growth retardation,” he says.

Stress cancause asthma

BREATHE EASY

TEARDROPPROTEIN

HAS JAWS TO CHEW UPHARMFUL BACTERIA

WASHINGTON:Lysozymes, antisepticproteins in our teardrops,have jaws that latch onand chomp through rowsof cell walls of harmfulbugs like someone hun-grily devouring an ear ofcorn.

“Those jaws chewapart the walls of thebacteria that are trying toget into your eyes andinfect them,” said molec-

ular biologist and chem-istry professor at

University ofCalifornia IrvineGregory Weiss, whoco-led the projectwith associate pro-fessor of physics andastronomy Philip

Collins.The research could

prove critical to long-term work aimed at diag-

nosing cancers and otherillnesses in their veryearly stages, the journalScience reports.

The researchersdecoded the protein’sbehaviour by buildingone of the world’s small-est transistors — 25 timessmaller than similar cir-cuitry in laptop comput-ers or smartphones.

Individual lysozymeswere glued to the livewire and their eatingactivities were moni-tored, according to aUniversity of Californiastatement.

“Our circuits aremolecule-sized micro-phones,” Collins said.“It’s just like a stetho-scope listening to yourheart, except we’re listen-ing to a single moleculeof protein.”

It took years for theuniversity scientists toassemble the transistorand attach single-molecule teardrop pro-teins. The scientists hopethe same novel technolo-gy can be used to detectcancerous molecules. Itcould take a decade tofigure out but would bewell worth it, said Weiss,who lost his father tolung cancer.

“If we can detect sin-gle molecules associatedwith cancer, then thatmeans we’d be able todetect it very, very early,”Weiss said. “That wouldbe very exciting becausewe know that if we treatcancer early, it will bemuch more successful,patients will be curedmuch faster, and costswill be much less.” IANS

Dr Mohd Samiuddinconsultant pulmonologist at

Global Hospitals

TUESDAY, JANUARY 24, 201215Rhythm Nation

1.Chikni Chameli Agneepath 2.Hosanna Ek Deewana Tha

3.Jhoom Jhoomta humainPlayers

4.O SaiyannAgneepath5.Ek Main aur ekk tuEk main aur ekk tu6.AromaleEk deewana tha7.Chal karna shuru tuEk deewana tha8.Zara dil ko thaam loDon 29.Dil yeh bekaraar kyuhaiPlayers10.Sharminda HoonEk deewana tha

1.Turn Me On (feat. NickiMinaj)David Guetta & Nicki Minaj

2.Set Fire to the RainADELE

3.What Doesn’t Kill You(Stronger) Kelly Clarkson

4.Good FeelingFlo Rida5.We Found Love (feat.Calvin Harris)Rihanna6.Sexy and I Know ItLMFAO7.DominoJessie J8.At LastEtta James9.International Love(feat. Chris Brown)Pitbull10.It Will RainBruno Mars

1. 21Adele

2. Give us rest

David Crowder*band3. El Camino

The Black Keys4. Take Care

Drake5. Fallen Empires

Snow Patrol6. TM:103: HustlerzAmbition

Young Jeezy 7. Talk that talk

Rihanna8. Mylo Xyloto

Coldplay9. Here and Now

Nickelback10. NOW 40Various Artists

Bollywood Top 10 iTUNES Top 10 Billboard Top 10

Indira [email protected]

Blues are the root, therest is the fruit, saidWillie Dickson, the

famous American Bluesmusician. If there is oneform of music that just can-not be faked, it is the Blues.This is the belief of TipritiKharbangar and RudyWilliams of Soulmate —India’s first ever revivedBlues Band. Postnooncaught up with them tounderstand how Etta James,the quintessential queen ofBlues was their inspiration,and what it means to be partof a once faded genre ofmusic.

Tipriti Kharbangar is in a

melancholic state of mindwhen she tells us, “I sawsome of my friends posts onFacebook on the death ofEtta James. She is my hero –she always has been, and ithurts to know she is nomore.” Tipriti’s journey as aBlues singer started adecade ago when she metRudy Williams, the singerand songwriter for the band.She recalls, “Rudy gave mesome songs to listen to, afew of which were sung byEtta James. Her deep andintense voice was so amaz-ing, and I knew I wanted tobecome a Blues singermyself.”

Cut to 10 years back,there were no takers for thisgenre of music. Soulmate

put an end to speculationson its survival and it is soonset to enter its 10th year.“We feel honoured to be theones to keep the genre alive.Interestingly, during ourrecent performance inBengaluru, I wanted to singone of Etta’s songs — I justwant to make love to you —perhaps, it was my way ofpaying tribute to her,” saysTipriti.

Rudy’s love for musicbegan at an early age. Hesays, “My first exposure tomusic was with The Beatles.In the 80s and the 90s, Iplayed with other bands,and gradually realised thatthe base for all forms ofmusic stemmed from theBlues. That’s when I decided

to re-school myself, unlearnall that I learnt, and startfrom the beginning.”

On Etta James, Rudy sayspensively, “There was aamazing power in her voice— what she went through inher life was a sort of motiva-tion to all us.” Rudy believesthat the band’s love for Bluesstems from their personalexperiences. He reminisces,“Personally, we had a lot ofblues in our lives like Ettadid. Which is probably whythere is a lot of emotion inwhat we do. Purists and crit-ics aside, today Soulmatetakes pride in inspiringyoung musicians and pro-moting Blues in the country.As the saying goes, ‘Theshow must go on’.

The death of thematriarch of

Blues, Etta James,has left a huge

void in the musicindustry.

Soulmate, thecountry’s mostpopular Bluesband tells us

what Etta Jamesmeant to them A TRIBUTE TO THE

QUEEN OF BLUES

Taniya [email protected]

If you are not a part of mainstreamBollywood music, then it only makes senseto make your presence felt through the dig-

ital medium and singer Gary Lawyer onlyknows it too well. Recently in association withartistaloud.com, Gary released his songs digi-tally. Talking about his decision, Gary says,“Digital is pretty much the way to go now. Theworld is slowly turing digital and anyone andeveryone can access the music.”

Quiz Gary as to how he feels on being apioneer and he is quick to clarify, “I have notbeen at it as long as people think I have been.It’s just that I have always been in the newsbut it’s nothing contrived. Whatever I havedone, it has always been from the heart and itwasn’t any marketing gimmick for me. It feelsnice to be appreciated like that though it isnot right to call me a pioneer.

But Gary rues that the conditions in Indiaare not conducive for the growth of Westernmusic here and he believes that the countryneeds to get pro digital. The musician alsofeels that only by bringing international bandsinto the country, can the music scenariochange and western music be popularised. Hefeels that competition is good as long as it ishealthy since the goal is to promote talent. “Iam not being negative for the sake of beingnegative, I am being factual. Even if I make avideo today, I will have only one channel play-ing it and if I am lucky then they will play itonce a day which is criminal and unfair. Sothese days, a lot of bands are resorting to digi-tal releases,” says Gary expressing his displea-sure. Gary signs off by saying, “India can alsochange if Indian artists get a chance abroadand get recognition which is highly improba-ble not impossible.”

I have alwaysbeen in the news

TUESDAY, JANUARY 24, 201218Because you are what you wearF‑Folio

Shiba [email protected]

It is one accessory that has been associated with men for a long time.While women have a lot of statement

pieces which can be worn as accessories, formen a wristwatch speaks volumes aboutwho he is.

You could be a great decision maker, butputting a finger on the watch that is apt foryou can be quite a challenge. Fashiondesigner Ramzi D'Costa says, “I love watchesand I can’t imagine myself without anappropriate watch, ever! Watches with blingare the best. I think the stone-studdedwatches are classic, they make quite animpression.” He goes onto say, “However it isimportant that you don’t crossover to femi-ninity and I also think that the bulkier awatch is, the manlier it gets. Also, bulkywatches, with metal and stones are the besta man can wear.”

Leather watches are the most popular choice with all ages. Fashiondesigner Aliya Baig tells us why.“Whether it’s for a high-school boy, abusinessman or a corporate employee,leather straps can be used by all.

Leather straps seem to have a formal yetrugged stylishness that gives it the

appeal. The trick to make your

leather watch look cool is to pair sport dialswith leather straps, it’s a great combinationand can be worn at anytime with any attire,”says Aliya.

Stop watches, chronographs, tachome-ters, calculators, alarms– Yes, you guessed itright, we are talking about sports watches! Amust-have for every man, RJ Prakriti tells usmore, “I think sport watches are one of thebest kinds. Some of the best ones are thestainless steel, leather and rubber straps.The waterproof watches and the 'shine inthe dark' are features that are great forsports watch lovers and add that extra ele-ment of sportiness to it!” She adds, “Most ofthe men I know have a sporty streak in themand I think it is a great declaration of theirstyle.”

For all those who find a classy option andfind it difficult to make a choice between thezillions of styles and designs — lucidity isyour answer! On that, socialite KunalMathur, a watch aficionado with a collectionof over 600 watches says, “The safest andclassiest way out, is to wear clear dials (astud will enhance it) with plain yet shinyleather straps in white or black. Also, onesimple straight metallic band strap will giveyou the aristocratic look.”

So dear men, remember watches are anextension of your sex appeal, so go

ahead and flaunt your time piece!

Watch what you wear

The power of accessorising still lies undiscoveredby most men. No matter what style dilemma you

are in, there is always an accessory at hand. Our star of the week is the wristwatch

MENONLY

Hemanth [email protected]

Not everyone can be aslucky as Abburi Ravi.How many writers canboast about having

Trivikram Srinivas as their guru?Or getting a chance to work withdirectors like K Raghavendra Rao,VV Vinayak before the release oftheir first film? “It’s true that Iwouldn’t have been in the indus-try if I hadn’t received supportfrom Trivikram Srinivas andother big directors. They taughtme everything I know about writ-ing,” Ravi says. After completingBSc in Biology, he went on to doan MBA in marketing fromNagarjuna University. The yearwas 1996 and soon he startedfreelancing as a copywriter forseveral ad campaigns includingJanmabhoomi, TDP’s electioncampaign, Lok Satta and DrReddy’s among other things. “Myonly qualification was that I wasadept in Telugu,” he says with asmile.

Soon he got bored of what hewas doing and one fine day, hischildhood friend TrivikramSrinivas asked him to join histeam as an assistant director.“Trivikram was making NuvveNuvve back then and he con-vinced me to hang around onthe sets to learn about filmmak-ing. I used to love watchingfilms, but I had no idea abouthow the film industry worked.Since I was a copywriter, I nar-rated a few concepts to Trivikramand he was the first one to tellme that I have a knack for writ-ing dialogues,” Ravi confesses.He’s extremely touchy while talk-ing about Trivikram Srinivas. “I

hate it when people compare meto him. It’s difficult to reach thestandard he has set in writing,”he claims. After working onNuvve Nuvve, he decided to stickto writing and within a shortperiod of time, he ended upworking with K Raghavendra Raoand VV Vinayak before getting acall from Dil Raju forBommarillu. That was histurning point as a writer. Inthe last few years, he hasworked in films likeAnnavaram, Don, BhaleDongalu, Classmates,Koncham IshtamKoncham Kashtam,Kick, Mr.Perfect andPanjaa to name a few.

He made such agood name for himself

in a short time that whenShankar was planning to remake3 Idiots in Telugu, he chose Ravias the dialogue writer. “That

came as a big surprise and it wasone of the toughest jobs I hadever taken up. 3 Idiots was a fan-tastic film and when a maverickdirector like Shankar is directingthe remake, I had to raise mystandards as well,” Ravi says. Hereveals that he saw all the 109scenes in the original film 109times and completed writing thedialogues within a month, muchto the surprise of Shankar.“Finally, when I narrated thescenes to Shankar, he applaudedand told me that he would writethe dialogues for the Tamil ver-sion based on what I had written.It’s a huge compliment for me,”he gushes.

Currently, Ravi is workingon Ram Charan Tej’s upcomingfilm Yevadu. Ask him aboutwhat he prefers not to includein his writing and he replies, “Idon’t like indulging in nonsenseor write dialogues which mayconvey a wrong meaning.Vulgarity in dialogues is a bigno-no for me.” So what’s thesecret of being a successfulwriter? “You have to under-stand life, society, charactersand deliver what the director

wants because ultimately itis his vision which is

important. You have towork really hard to

prove yourselfevery minute.And I havealways believedthat more thanmoney, it’s howsincere you areat your workwhich isimportant inthis field,” hesays.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 24, 201219The glamour behind the glitzMagic Screen

Abburi Ravihas come along way as adialogue writer in theTelugu filmindustry. Heopens upabout hisjourney intofilms andworking withsome of thebiggest actorsand directorsin an exclu-sive chat

WRITERCONFESSIONS OF A

T-TOWN TWEETIES

@sneha_ullalMy horoscope for today- Robsome rich guys, share theirmoney with the poor. Killsome criminals, Smile atstrangers, Bite my dogsnoses...heeeee

@Actor_SiddharthThaman’s uber fresh sound-track for #Love Failure and#KSY is the start of a newmode for him.You're going tofall in love for sure:) cheers!

@taapseeIt is so funny dat 90 percent ofmy BBM updates n manytweets I c r all bout Mondayblues. Wondering what bluesshould actors have.

@devakatta“Only the small secrets need tobe protected. The big ones arekept secret by public increduli-ty.” - Marshall McCluhan

@AlwayscharanShooting the last day of Racha

opening song near Buddhastatue. Prem Raksith is chore-ographing.

@shriyasmilingPromoting Gali Gali Chorhai tomorrow !Anna Hazare,Some one I admire andappreciate is watching themovie in his village!

@RanaDaggubatiFilm no.6 "Krishnam VandaeJagathgurm" #KVJ shootbegins post noon today. Neverso prepared, Never sotensed!!

@mamtamohanThe movie which taught me tomilk a goat.. Nhaanum EnteFamilyum is now releasing onFeb 3rd :) Just landed back inCochin.


Contrary to the rumoursabout Priyanka

Chopra and Ileana’scold war on the sets of Anurag

Basu’s Barfee, Ileana has revealedthat she’s quite fond of PriyankaChopra. “I tease her a lot on the

sets. We call her ‘firebrand’,” Ileanasaid. The film marks the debut of

Ileana in Bollywood and she’s play-ing the role of a translator. “Barfee

is an emotionally charged film.There were scenes where I ended

up crying a lot,” she said. The actoris currently awaiting the release of

Shankar’s Snehitudu which is allset to release in Andhra Pradesh on

January 26. The film is the officialremake of 3 Idiots; however, Ileanahas claimed that she didn’t imitate

Kareena Kapoor in the film. Lastyear, both her films Shakti and

Nenu Naa Rakshashi failed to clickand a lot depends on how

Snehitudu and her upcoming filmwith Allu Arjun perform at the box

office if she has to regain hernumero uno status in Tollywood.

Krishnam VandeJagadgurumbeginsRana Daggubati is back from Macau and

it’s business as usual for the actor whowon the Best Newcomer Award at Zee

Cine Awards for his performance in DumMaro Dum. His next Telugu film KrishnamVande Jagadgurum began its regular shoot-ing yesterday afternoon in Hyderabad. Krishis directing the film and it’s the first time he’scollaborating with Rana. A new actress willbe cast opposite Rana in this film. KrishnamVande Jagadgurum is an action revengedrama and Rana is reportedly playing therole of a theatre artiste in the film. Y RajeevReddy and Saibaba Jagarlamudi are produc-ing the film. MM Keeravani is composing themusic and VS Gunasekhar is the cinematog-rapher. Meanwhile, the post production ofRana, Genelia starrer Naa Ishtam is alreadyunder progress and the film will hit thescreens early this summer.

Kamal Haasan is all set to direct and play the lead role in abilingual film titled Amar Hain. The film dabbles with thetheme of the legitimisation of corruption in India. Back in

1996, he had acted in Shankar’s Indian, which was also dubbed inTelugu as Bharateeyudu which was about an old man taking oncorruption. After more than 15 years, Kamal Haasan seems to havefound enough source material to make a film about legitimisationof corruption and global crime in the present era. After complet-ing the shooting of Vishwaroopam, Kamal Haasan is going tobegin working on Amar Hain which will be simultaneously madein Tamil and Hindi.

KAMAL HAASANto direct a film on corruption

I teasePriyankaChopra a

lot : Ileana


Isha [email protected]

Experiments and remakes, theseare the two rather obvious pat-terns that Bollywood has been

following since time immemorial.2012, a year of remakes will havepeople looking at the recreation ofsome of the old classics. Bollywoodhas tried to recreate the magic bybringing some great movies back tocelluloid with a little more masala,only to see them go down in ashes. Ifone were to see Sanjay LeelaBhansali's Devdas, then it is proba-bly the only movie that managed tocharm movie-goers. Other remakeshardly managed to create a stir. Theupcoming remakes that are beingtalked about is Golmaal, ChasmeBuddoor, Satte pe Satta and manymore. We only hope that 2012, whichis touted to be the year of remakesbreaks the jinx of the flops. Here'slooking at the movies that bombed atthe box office.

RGV KiAag:

One of thebiggest dis-

asters inBollywood, thismovie broke allthe records inbeing the worstremake or forthat matter eventhe worst movieever. Even beforethe film hit thescreens, the pro-mos had majorflop written allover it. Bignames likeAmitabhBachchan whoacted in the orig-inal and AjayDevgn could notsave this remakeof the superhitfilm Sholay.

Umrao Jaan:

The Rekha starrer, Umrao Jaan received accoladesfor its music and Rekha’s acting but the remake

hardly did any justice to the original. Despite thebeautiful Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan in themovie, it failed to rake in the moolah at the box officeand was a drag.

Victoria No.203:

It won’t be surprising if many have not even heard of thismovie. The remake of the 1971 original Victoria No.203,

starring Navin Nischol and Saira Banu met with the samefate as RGV ki Aag. The only difference was that this one didnot receive as much criticism as RGV ki Aag for the simplereason that it sank even before anyone could notice it.

Don and Don2:

Unlike the other remakes this one man-aged to still hold on. Although, many

felt that it did not match the original interms of the earthy appeal that it showed.It was liked by a certain section for thesame reason that it had style and goodmusic and of course the most saleable fac-tor, King Khan. The sequels did not garneras much popularity as the first one and infact received some scathing reviews.

With the remake of Agneepath hoping to make it big thisThursday, we look at a few remakes in the past which failed toset the box office on fire

FLOP FORMULA

Karzzzz:

Despite all the efforts by our nasal crooner HimeshReshammiya from extreme publicity to the

numerologically correct extra Zs, the movie was atotal turn off. This remake of the 80s super hit Karzwhich had Rishi Kapoor and Tina Munim did notreach anywhere close to the original.

Neil to sing forShortcut RomeoNeil Nitin Mukesh’s musi-

cal legacy doesn’t seemto leave him anytime

soon. The actor is set to singonce again for the big screen forhis new film Shortcut Romeo.

“Recording a song today! ForShortcut Romeo. Music by thegreat Himesh Reshammiya. Willgive you details once it’s donelater in the evening,” Neil wroteon his Twitter page.

Shortcut Romeo is aromantic thriller directed andproduced by Susi Ganeshan. It

is the remake of theGaneshan’s 2006 Tamil filmThiruttu Payale. The film alsofeatures Puja Gupta andAmeesha Patel. While Puja willbe playing Neil’s love interest,Ameesha would be seen in anegative role.

This is not the first time thatNeil has turned a actor-singer.He has previously sung the titletrack of his film Aa Dekhen Zaraand later gave his voice foranother song in MadhurBhandarkar’s Jail. IANS

Stylish actress Sonam Kapoor is fear-ful of being called a fashion icon forthe youth as she feels the tag comeswith a lot of responsibilities. “It’s

only been four years since I have been inthe industry, and if in such a short timesomeone calls you iconic, it is scary andoverwhelming,” the 26-year-old actresssaid at a derby event. However, she feels itis more important to prove herself as agood citizen first. “As long as I am aresponsible adult, a responsible citizenand a good Indian, that is the most impor-tant thing,” said Sonam.

Sonam turned up at the derby eventclad in a coral red sari paired with silverjewellery. While most women doll up indresses and a hat at a derby, Sonam decid-ed to go unconventional.

“Everyone wears a predictable dressand hat and comes to the derby. I saidwhy don’t I do it the old Indian stylewhere they used to wear cottonand chiffon saris. That’s why Iwore silver and coral,” saidthe actor, who wasrecently seen in Players.

Sonam is currentlybusy shooting forRakeysh OmprakashMehra’s Bhaag MilkhaBhaag and RajkumarSantoshi’s untitled film.

IANS

SO

NA

M

Amy and I? keepguessing: PrateikActor Prateik refuses

to divulge whetherthe rumours that he isdating his Ek thaDeewana co-star AmyJackson are true or not.

“Whether it is true orfalse, I think it is for meand Amy to know andfor the whole world tokeep guessing,” the 25-year-old said at a promo-tional shoot of the Gautham Menon-directedfilm, releasing on February 17.

Prateik and British model Amy are beingspotted together a lot thanks to the movie’s pro-motion, adding fuel to the fire about their rela-tionship status. However, the only subjectPrateik preferred to talk about was his characterin the film. “I am playing the character of a mid-dle class, 25-year-old Maharashtrian boy whowants to become a film director. Then Amy’scharacter enters his life and he falls in love atfirst sight and then he wants both the things. Hewants to become a film director and get his loveas well,” said Prateik, who was last seen in MyFriend Pinto. The son of actor Raj Babbar and

late actress Smita Patil, Prateikmade his Bollywood debut

with Jaane Tu...Ya JaaneNa in 2008.

IANS

wary of ‘youthstyle icon’ tag

B-TOWN TWEETIES

@sonamakapoor Packing for paris. Why can't Ihave a small button whichdoes it automatically!

@RGVzoominAn idiot is incapable of recog-nizing genius cos then hewon't remain idiot nd geniuswil nt recognize idiots cos he'sbusy dng better things.

@realprietyzinta Hi guys, howz it going? Backfrom another Gruelling sessionat the Gym thanx to @yasmin-bodyimage ! No pain, no Gain:-) Ting!!!!

@imarshadwarsi Seeing my state at shoot today,my director of Hai Rabba....Amrit Sagar gave me 2 days offto recover... Have 2 days to getback in shape.

@FarOutAkhtar Meanwhile my work life is inreboot mode. Back to prepstage. The only thing constantin our work is going back tothe starting line.

@rampalarjunThe whole cast and crew canstart chilling the bubbly itsanother feather in the cap of@kjohar25 and Dharma, welldone guys. chikni chameli.

@iamsrk Filmfare prep on. Late nightscoffees discussion & then seethe jokes being taken asgospel truth by media. Will vever get a sense of humour?

@SrBachchan T 632 -'Shoot at birds' a filmterminology... wonderful backwaters and migratory birdsfrom the cold NorthernHemisphere ...such a revela-tion.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2012 22The glamour behind the glitzMagic Screen

TUESDAY, JANUARY 24, 201223Magic Screen

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Diane Kruger linedup to play TheSeeker in The Host

According to areport by anewspaper,

Diane Kruger is innegotiations to jointhe movie adaptationof Stephenie TwilightMeyer’s non-Twilightnovel The Host. She’llplay The Seeker, amember of ‘the souls’who have invadedEarth and taken con-trol of the planet’sinhabiting humans.She’s none-too-happythat rebel humanMelanie (SaoirseRonan) is provingresistant to the influ-ence of her assignedparasitic ‘soul’. Krugerjoins Ronan, WilliamHurt and Max Irons inthe movie, which willbe written and direct-ed by Andrew Niccol(Gattaca — yay! InTime — not somuch...) Former modelKruger has thus farstruck a nice balancebetween European fareand Hollywood block-busters. She playsMarie Antoinette inFarewell, My Queen,which is scheduled toopen the Berlin FilmFestival in February.The Host will open on29 March 2013.

Rapper Jay-Z has shut down his 40/40 club.Theclub was shut down following a slew of

health-code violations just a day after itsrelaunch, reports a gossip column. It is said thathealth inspectors found perishable food at dan-gerously warm temperatures inside the walk-inrefrigerator and discovered ‘hot’ food left out onthe counter. A worker was also seen mixing salsawith his bare hands. “If you have a walk-in placewith food like this, you put a hell of a lot of peo-ple at risk,” a source said. IANS

Actress Julianne Moore is spreading lovethis Valentine’s Day — by helping to cre-ate a collection of greeting cards for

charity.The 51-year-old is collaborating with

authors of the book Freckleface Strawberry, anda number of writers and illustrators to release a30-card set dedicated to those in love, reports a website.

“They’re a great choice for your kids to give to theirschool mates or anyone... because they represent the love ofreading. I personally chose each author and illustrator of thecards and I think you’ll love them,” said Moore.

The cards will be priced at $25, and all proceeds from thesales will benefit the Save the Children charity. IANS

Julianne MooredesignsValentine’scards

Jay-Z’s club shuts down


Witherspoon and Ryan areMargaret and Walter Keane

Reese Witherspoon andRyan Reynolds will staras Margaret and WalterKeane, the 1960s artists

who gained worldwide fame fortheir paintings of watercoloredgothic waifs, in Scott Alexanderand Larry Karaszewski’s BigEyes. Lynette Howell and JamiePatricof will produce throughElectric City Entertainment,with Tim Burton producing viaTim Burton Prods. Karaszewskiand Alexander previouslyworked with Burton on EdWood. The film is expected tobegin production in the spring.Alexander and Karaszewski’sscreenplay details the strangeworld of the Keanes, in whichMargaret did the paintings inobscurity while Walter took thecredit and the fame.

Tracy Morgan was rushed to a Park City hos-pital on Sunday night after collapsing out-

side a charity event, TheWrap has confirmed.The 30 Rock star, who media reports said wasacting inebriated at the Creative CoalitionSpotlight Awards, collapsed just after the cere-mony and was taken to Park City Medical Center.But Morgan’s publicist Lewis Kay toldTheWrap: “From a combination of exhaus-tion and altitude, Tracy is seeking medi-cal attention,” adding, “ Any reports ofTracy consuming alcohol are 100 percent false.” A spokeswoman for the hos-pital would not release any furtherinformation about the comedian buttold other outlets that no drugs or alco-hol were found in his system. Morganwas being honoured for best actor andcomedian.

Tracy Morgan collapses atSundance, rushed to hospital

Kate took Underworldto get rid of nice

girl tagKate Beckinsale took on her tough role in thehit Underworld franchise after she startedto get typecast for ‘delicate’ and ‘fragile’roles by Hollywood executives. The British

beauty has played vampire warrior Selene since2003, and the fourth installment, Underworld:Awakening, topped the US box office over the week-end (20-22 January 12). The star now reveals thatproducers’ opinion of her as a good girl pushed herto tackle such a sinister part. She says, “I’d hadsome feedback from casting directors kind of say-ing, ‘We don’t know if we really want to see her forthis part, ‘cause it’s a cop, and she’s really verydelicate and British and fragile.’ “And Ithought, ‘I’ve got to do somethingabout that. I’ve got to play some-thing that has a little bit more edgeto it’. I love this character (Selene). Ireally am proud of the fact that I’vegotten to play this kind of rather iconic,empowered, empowering woman.”

TUESDAY, JANUARY 24, 201226Chai Time

How to Play KakuroKakuro is a popular game similar to sudoku in some ways. But is alsosuitably different. The key question: “How do you play Kakuro?”, wellhere are the rules of kakuro. The answer: The kakuro grid, unlike insudoku, can be of any size. It has rows and columns, and dark cells likein a crossword. And, just like in a crossword, some of the dark cells willcontain 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 therow or column referenced by the number.

Within each collection of cells - called a run - any of the numbers 1to 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. Thismeans 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 donethrough elimination and cross-referencing. For instance, as you work outthe answers for other kakuro clues, this will naturally limit the valid com-binations, and hence the answer for this particular run.

Note the second cell in row two - it contains two numbers, 30 and11. The 30 refers to the vertical run underneath the number 30 and the11 refers to the two cells to the right, horizontally, of the number 11.

KAKUROACROSS1 Grp. that includes Iran

and Iraq5 "... to thine own ___ be

true"9 Demolishes, as a building14 Topological shapes15 Colored part of the eye16 A-list group17 Egyptian goddess of fer-

tility18 Bit of fishing gear19 Backyard border20 Nixon delivered it in

195223 Awful dancer24 Jug part25 Crowd that needs con-

trolling28 Pomeranian barks31 Sale enticement36 Longfellow's bell town38 Fiddler's place?40 Chalet overhangs41 Moving form44 "Siddhartha'' author45 Add to the faculty46 Art deco illustrator47 Welles and Bean49 Javelin paths51 Job-application datum

(Abbr.)52 And so on, for short54 ___ de Janeiro, Brazil56 Rebuke from a wife to

her husband64 Child of Japanese immi-

grants65 Sticky semiliquid66 Beat a path67 Type of training68 Start to freeze?69 "Great Caesar's ghost!''70 "The agony of de feet"71 Take five72 "I changed my mind"

on a computer

DOWN1 Applying to ears2 Luxuriously fashionable3 One of the Great Lakes4 Kid who rode Diablo

5 Like guns that shootevery time?

6 "Be it ___ so humble"7 Wine dregs8 "F" on a quiz9 Acted as arbiter10 Away from the bluster11 "From A to ___" (multi-

vitamin ad line)12 Apply acid artistically13 "Didn't I tell you?"21 Mary ___ (cosmetics

name)22 Avoid a bogey25 Hardly a sissy26 Catchall category27 Military muckamucks29 Winnie-the-___30 Director Coppola32 Expose33 Alleges as fact34 Items often passed

35 German birthplace ofBig Bertha

37 "___ many words"39 Klinger portrayer on

"M*A*S*H''42 Science of heredity43 Dilapidated48 Grand Central, e.g.

(Abbr.)50 "___ 'im,

Fido!"53 Practical

joker'sexploder

55 Aquatic crit-ter

56 "Adios"57 1984

SummerGames boy-cotter

58 Horse's

restraint59 Second to ___ (tops)60 A whole bunch61 Cajole62 Area between the

shoulders63 Caribbean taro64 Peacock network

SCRI

BBLI

NG P

AD

SUDOKU

An expert is one

who knows more

and more about

less and less until

he knows abso-

lutely everything

about nothing.

THOUGHT OFTHE DAY

Take a shot at the brain game while sipping your cuppa

QUICK CROSSWORD

PREVIOUS PUZZLE ANSWER

– Anonymous

27Chai TimeC

OM

ICS

Fred

Bas

set

Ston

e so

up

TAROT READ

The Magician – Useintuition to make im ‑portant decisions, es ‑pecially if it invol vesmoving cities or anybig, physical moving.Trust that your heartwill guide you.

Eight of Pentacles –You need to upgradeyour skills. Whatyou know now maynot be enough foryou to grow any fur‑ther in your chosencareer path.

The Moon – Youʼremoody. But donʼt letit impact your repu‑tation in a profes‑sional environment.Take the day off if itwill allow you to cooloff.

ARIES TAURUS GEMINIARIESEmployees will be cheerful as they areappreciated and recognised by superiors.Promotion is certain along with a payhike. Businessmen will see incre asedprofits. Plan fresh financial investments.

CANCER

LIBRAYou will be very affectionate towardsparents and family members will feelhappy. Income will be good so that youwill not fail in making any payment. Butavoid giving guarantee to anyone.

CAPRICORNYour name will get importance as youtake bold decisions, which give good re ‑sults. Family will be happy and in a pea ‑ce ful atmosphere. Parents will behealthy; hence, no medical expenses.

TAURUSBold decisions will give desired results.Employees may find it difficult tocomplete work as per plans. However,they will be favoured with elevationand increase in emoluments.

LEOYou will spend good time with friends andrelatives and feel cheerful. Problems in an ‑cestral property get resolved by mutual di ‑s cussions. Expected loan will come through,which you will implement in new business.

SCORPIOHappy events to take place at home. Busi ‑nessmen are advised to keep control of tra ‑nsactions with themselves. Avoid en trust ‑ing them to anyone. Be within limits withblood relations; avoid discussing all issues.

AQUARIUSSome have bright chances to change re ‑s i dence. Expected bank loans will comethrough and business will be expand asper plans. Family members will respectyour advise and suggestions.

GEMINIAvoid arguments with anyone. Employeeswill get favour from superiors. However, de ‑mands may not be fulfilled. Colleagues too,may not support as expected. Businessmenwill see profits multiply and be happy.

VIRGOTake care of your health. Employees willperform with perfection and elevationsare possible, which might be a surprise.Businessmen will see a good trend andincome will be as per their expectations.

SAGITTARIUSHand loans given to friends and rela‑tives long back will come and surpriseyou. Avoid giving commitment to any‑one. Employees need to work hard.Colleagues will extend their support.

PISCESEnemies might gain an upper hand, butyou will manage the situation easily.Petty issues with elder brothers or sis‑ters will rise and disappear. Parentsʼsupport will work as a morale booster.

For B

ette

r or f

or W

orse

Ink

pen

Page of Wands – Somegood news is on theway. You may not ha vebeen expecting it, andit, therefore, com es asa pleasant surprise.Keep an open mind.

Eight of Swords – Arelationship mayhave run its courseand you need to takethe tough call ofbreaking it off. Thereis no point holdingon to something.

The Fool – Youʼre inthe mood to plungeinto a new situationwithout fully know‑ing what youʼre get‑ting into. How aboutdoing someresearch?

CANCER LEO VIRGO

Page of Pentacles –Yo ur focus is onmaking money rightnow, and that may beforcing you to putthe ot her interests ofyour life on hold.Plan better.

Seven of Swords –You donʼt know thewhole story and,therefore, your logicmay be flawed.Someone is deliber‑ately keeping crucialinformation from you.

Page of Cups – Youʼrefeeling vulnerable –like a child in a newschool. Take it inyour stride, makenew friends and bean observer. Donʼtreact to anything.

LIBRA SCORPIO SAGITTARIUS

Three of Swords –Heartbreak or loss isindicated. This issomething that youcould not have avoid‑ed. Pick up the piecesand move on. Donʼtlook back.

Two of Pentacles –Youʼre having a toughtime doing the jug‑gling act. Work andhome are demandingyour equal attentionand you are having tostretch yourself.

Five of Swords – Th ‑ere is some conflictindicated. It may beinner conflict, wherechoices and decisionsare becoming harderto make, or conflictwith another person.

CAPRICORN AQUARIUS PISCES

STAR POWER SUMAA [email protected]

[email protected]

040-27177230 / 9177596118

SOLUTIONS

Sudu

ko

Scrabble

Num

ber g

ame

Boggle

COLON HYPHEN COMMA PERIOD

Health looks fine. You will involve in reli‑gious activities. Employees might face hur‑dles that might delay their works comple‑tion. Also, as work load will increase, theyhave to struggle hard. Avoid arguments.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2012Your tomorrow today̶Star Power and Tarot

Date 25-1-2012

Vol: 1, No. 191 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 himat 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: [email protected] and for subscription, please call 040-40672222, Fax: 040-40672211

As per Hindu panchang

TUESDAY, JANUARY 24, 201228Telly sitcoms, news and movie listingsChai Time

1400 Naadi Aadajanme1430 Pavitra1500 Movie1800 Sri Shanidevuni Mahimalu1830 Vasantha Kokila1900 Chinnari Pelli Kuturu1930 Anna Chellelu2000 Missamma 2030 Edureetha2100 Bhale Chancele2200 CID2300 Challenge 0700 Silver Screen0730 Just For Fun0800 Ayurvedam0830 Chaganti Arunachala

Mahatyam0900 Bhale Chancele

1400 Kannavaari Kalalu1430 Maavichiguru1500 Jeevitha Chakram1530 Movie 1800 Jai Shri Krishna1830 Shraavani Subramaniam1900 Mandhara1930 Auto Bharthi2000 No. 23, Mahalakshmi

Nivasam2030 Mogali Rekulu2100 Aparanji2130 Devatha2200 Mamathala Kovela2230 Anveshana2300 Gemini Vaarthalu0800 Gemini Talkies0830 Movie 1130 Aha Emi Ruchi1200 Jeevitha Chakram1230 Maa Inti Aada Paduchu1300 Chittemmaa 1330 Gorintaku

1400 Abhishekam1430 Aadade Aadharam1500 Antahpuram1530 Aakasa Ganga1600 Prema Mandiram1630 Jagadeeswari1700 Super1800 Devimahathyam1830 Puttadi Bomma1900 Kumkuma Rekha1930 Manasu Mamata2000 Chandra Mukhi2030 Bharyamani2100 Etv News2130 Ali 3692245 Movie 0800 Jeevana Jyothi0830 Tollywood Time0900 Movie 1130 Abhiruchi1230 Star Mahila

1400 Ardhangi 1430 Movie1800 Veera Naari Jhansi Laxmi

Bhai1830 Kalavari Kodallu1900 Chinna Kodalu1930 Pasupukunkuma2000 Muddu Bidda2030 Radha Kalyanam2100 Kanyadanam2130 Comedy Club2230 Shree2300 Bindas2330 Latest Superhit Songs0800 Gopuram0830 Bhakti Samacharam0900 Sri Raghavendra Vybhavam0930 Ayurveda Jeevana

Vignanam 1000 Zee 70 Mm A.C1200 Mee Inti Vanta

‘Criss Angel Mindfreak’at 2300 Hrs on AXN

1415 CSI - Crime SceneInvestigation

1510 The Real Housewives OfNew York City

1605 The Voice1800 Reaper 1900 Breaking The Magician's

Code - Magic's BiggestSecrets Finally Revealed

2000 The Challenger Muaythai2100 Minute To Win It 2200 Wipeout 22300 Criss Angel Mindfreak 0900 Sky Teleshopping0930 Criss Angel Mindfreak 0955 Infomercial/5 Min1000 Criss Angel Mindfreak 1025 Infomercial/5 Min1030 The Challenger Muaythai1130 Sports Crash1225 The Voice

‘Haar Jeet’ at 2230 Hrs onIMAGINE1400 Haar Jeet 1500 Baba Aisa Varr Dhoondo 1600 Haar Jeet 1700 Dharampatni 1730 Sawaare Sabke Sapne –

Preeto 1800 Beendh Banuga Ghodi

Chadhunga 1830 Baba Aisa Varr Dhoondo 1900 Haar Jeet 1930 Mahima Shani Dev Ki 2000 Dwarkadheesh - Bhagwan

Shri Krishn2030 Sawaare Sabke Sapne –

Preeto2100 Beendh Banuga Ghodi

Chadhunga2130 Dharampatni 2200 Baba Aisa Varr Dhoondo 2230 Haar Jeet2300 Dharampatni

‘Bade Achhe Lagte Hai’ at2230 Hrs on SONY

1400 Saas Bina Sasuraal1430 Bade Achhe Lagte Hai1500 Kuch Toh Log Kahenge1600 CID1800 Saas Bina Sasuraal1830 Bade Achhe Lagte Hai1900 Crime Patrol - Dastak2000 Kuch Toh Log Kahenge2045 Dekha Ek Khwaab2130 Parvarrish - Kuchh Khatti

Kuchh Meethi2200 Saas Bina Sasuraal2230 Bade Achhe Lagte Hai2300 Kuch Toh Log Kahenge0730 Sky Star Advertising0900 Adaalat1000 CID1200 Kuch Toh Log Kahenge1245 Dekha Ek Khwaab1330 Parvarrish - Kuchh Khatti

Kuchh Meethi

‘[V] Humse Hai Life’ at1930 Hrs on CHANNEL [V]

1400 [V] My Big Decision1430 [V] D3 Dil Dosti Dance1500 [V] Humse Hai Life1530 [V] Trailers1555 [V] Fresh Songs1600 [V] Zabardast Hits1800 [V] Fresh Songs1830 [V] Humse Hai Life1900 [V] D3 Dil Dosti Dance1930 [V] Humse Hai Life2000 [V] Steal Ur Girlfriend2100 [V] Vignettes2130 [V] Trailers2155 [V] Fresh Songs2200 [V] Love Net2300 [V] Humse Hai Life2330 [V] D3 Dil Dosti Dance2355 [V] Fresh Songs0700 [V] Trailers0730 [V] Zabardast Hits0800 [V] Mind Blasting

Mornings1100 [V] Fresh Songs

‘Business Tonight’ at 2100Hrs only on ET NOW1400 The F And O Show1430 Closing Trades1530 Tomorrow's Trades1600 Business Day1730 Markets Tomorrow1800 Rush Hour1830 Brand Equity Special1900 Global Business Report1930 Business Express2000 Business First2030 Markets Tomorrow2100 Business Tonight2200 Top 10 At102230 Leaders Of Tomorrow2300 Starting Up0900 First Trades1000 Hot Stocks1100 Buy Now Sell Now - The

Stock Game1130 Buy Now Sell Now1200 Market Sense1300 Business Day1330 Markets Now

‘The Game’ at 1930 Hrsonly on TIMES NOW

1300 News Now At11330 News Now1800 6 Pm1830 Live Report1900 Primetime1930 The Game2000 News Now At 82030 Live Report2100 The Newshour2200 The Newshour - Plus2230 E Now2300 News Now At 110800 The Morning News0900 News Now1200 Live Report1230 News Now

‘Style Strip’ at 2000 Hrson ZOOM

1400 Movie1730 Star Bonanza1800 Letz Go!1900 Planet Bollywood News1930 Link'd2000 Style Strip2030 Letz Go!2100 Zabar 102130 Link'd2200 B - Tonite2230 Let's Design 4 2300 Bollywood Bonanza0700 Fresh Mornings0800 Red Carpet0805 Fresh Mornings1100 Zoom Box1200 Garma Garam1300 Planet Bollywood News1330 Page 3

‘In Plain Sight’ at 2100 Hrson ZEE CAFE

1400 Outsourced1430 $H*! My Dad Says1500 In Plain Sight1600 Parenthood1700 Outsourced1730 $H*! My Dad Says1800 E News 1900 The Tonight Show With Jay

Leno 2000 Outsourced2030 America's Funniest Home

Videos2100 In Plain Sight2200 Parenthood 2300 Outsourced2330 Keeping Up With The

Kardashians0800 In Plain Sight0900 Parenthood1000 Outsourced1030 America's Funniest Home

Videos1100 In Plain Sight1200 Parenthood

‘The Simpsons’ at 2030Hrs on STAR WORLD1400 Supernatural 1500 Combat Hospital 1600 The Big Bang Theory 1630 The Simpsons 1700 The Shield 1800 Supernatural 1900 Love2 Hate U 2000 Two And A Half Men 2030 The Simpsons 2100 Supernatural 2200 The Shield 2300 The Big Bang Theory 2330 Two And A Half Men 0700 The Shield 0800 Las Vegas 0900 Combat Hospital 1000 The Shield 1100 Love2 Hate U 1200 Two And A Half Men 1230 The Simpsons 1300 The Big Bang Theory 1330 Friends

‘Na Aana Is Des Laado’ at2300 Hrs on COLORS

1400 Parichay 1430 Balika Vadhu 1500 Na Bole Tum Na Maine

Kuch Kaha 1530 Uttaran 1600 Phulwa 1630 Parichay 1700 Sasural Simar Ka 1730 Na Bole Tum Na Maine

Kuch Kaha 1800 Uttaran 1830 Balika Vadhu 1900 Hawan 1930 Sasural Simar Ka 2000 Balika Vadhu 2030 Veer Shivaji 2100 Phulwa 2130 Parichay 2200 Uttaran 2230 Na Bole Tum Na Maine

Kuch Kaha 2300 Na Aana Is Des Laado 2330 Balika Vadhu

‘E T S T W’ at 2000 Hrs onDISCOVERY CHANNEL1400 Dino World1600 Swords1700 Discovery Showcase1800 Wild Discovery1900 Man Woman Wild2000 Events That Shook The

World2100 Man Vs Wild2200 Swords2300 Desire & Pleasure

Decoded1000 Man Vs Wild1100 Dinosaur Revolution1200 I Should'nt Be Alive1300 Wild Discovery

‘Chidiya Ghar’ at 2100 Hrson SAB

1400 Taarak Mehta Ka OoltaChashma

1430 R.K. Laxman Ki Duniya1500 Lapataganj 1530 FIR1600 Chidiya Ghar1630 Gutar Gu1700 Taarak Mehta Ka Oolta

Chashma1830 R.K. Laxman Ki Duniya1900 Chidiya Ghar1930 Lapataganj2000 Chintu Chinky Aur Ek Badi

Si Love Story2030 Taarak Mehta Ka Oolta

Chashma2100 Chidiya Ghar2130 R.K. Laxman Ki Duniya2200 Lapataganj2230 FIR2300 Taarak Mehta Ka Oolta

Chashma2330 Chidiya Ghar0900 Taarak Mehta Ka Oolta

Chashma0945 Ring Wrong Ring1030 Gutar Gu1100 Chidiya Ghar

MOVIES OF THE DAY AND OTHER HIGHLIGHTS

‘Pratigya’ at 2230 Hrs onSTAR PLUS1400 Sapnon Se Bharey Naina1500 Survivor India - Highlight1530 Diya Aur Bati Hum1600 Ek Hazaaron Mein Meri

Behnaa Hai1630 Sasuraal Genda Phool1700 Saath Nibhaana Saathiya1730 Iss Pyaar Ko Kya Naam

Doon1800 Survivor India - Highlight1830 Ruk Jana Nahin1900 Saath Nibhaana Saathiya1930 Sasuraal Genda Phool2000 Iss Pyaar Ko Kya Naam

Doon2030 Ek Hazaaron Mein Meri

Behnaa Hai2100 Diya Aur Bati Hum2130 Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai2200 Navya2230 Mann Ki Awaaz… Pratigya2300 Maryaada ... Lekin Kab Tak?

The Shield Storyline - When Monicaputs Vic on the trail of anescaped fugitive inFarmington, he must contin-ue to prove his worth whileplaying it straight.

‘The Shield ’ at 2200 Hrs on STARWORLD

Storyline - Naitik gets anx-ious to know that Aksharahas been admitted to thehospital and can dleiveranytime now.

‘Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai’ at2130 Hrs on STAR PLUS

Yeh Rishta KyaKehlata Hai

‘Mythbusters’ at 2130 Hrson DISCOVERY SCIENCE

‘The Defenders’ at 2300Hrs on BIG CBS PRIME1430 Jerry Springer1530 Big Wheels1600 Survivor 1700 Bellator1800 Galileo Extreme1900 Defenders2000 Entertainment Tonight2030 Galileo Extreme2100 Survivor 2200 Jerry Springer2300 Defenders0700 Big Wheels0730 Aspire0800 Galileo Extreme0900 Survivor 1000 Bellator1100 Jerry Springer1200 Big Wheels1230 How To Be A Gentleman1300 Galileo Extreme1330 Defenders

1430 Storm Chasers1530 Discovery Science Classics1630 Superweapons Of The

Ancient World1730 Weapon Masters1830 Best Of Discovery Science1930 Machines2000 Oddities2030 Ultimate Cars2100 Deconstructed2130 Mythbusters2230 Futureweapons2330 Industrial Revelations1030 Superweapons Of The

Ancient World1130 Storm Chasers1230 Best Of Discovery Science1330 Machines

1310 The Fugitive 1540 Tekken1725 Cobra1900 Music And Lyrics 2100 Scooby-Doo2245 Get Smart 0755 Friends 0825 Good Morning, Miami 0855 Friends 0925 Cats & Dogs1105 The Island 1340 Scooby-Doo

1425 Death Race 21625 Constantine 1900 Ace Ventura - When Nature

Calls2100 The Mask 2315 Paranormal Activity 2

‘Hitler Didi’ at 2000 Hrs onZEE TV

1400 Hitler Didi1500 Afsar Bitiya1530 Yahaaan Main Ghar Ghar

Kheli1600 Pavitra Rishta1630 Shobha Somnath Ki1730 Ram Milaye Jodi1800 Hitler Didi1830 Mrs. Kaushik Ki Paanch

Bahuein1900 Afsar Bitiya1930 Choti Bahu 22000 Hitler Didi2030 Yahaaan Main Ghar Ghar

Kheli2100 Pavitra Rishta2130 Ram Milaye Jodi2200 Mrs. Kaushik Ki Paanch

Bahuein2230 Bhagonwali2300 Afsar Bitiya

‘The Mask’ at 2100 Hrs on HBO

TUESDAY, JANUARY 24, 201229The games people playPlaying Field

MELBOURNE: Ivan Lendl hasdenied money was behind hissurprise decision to coach AndyMurray after fellow great JimCourier suggested there were“mercenary” reasons for themove, a report said on Tuesday.

The eight-time grand slamwinner has returned to full-timetennis after playing for the lasttime in 1994 and has been ever-present in Murray’s box duringthe Australian Open’s earlyrounds.

But he was hit by a broadsidefrom Courier, a commentator forAustralian TV, who said the Czechhad financial incentives for hismove.

“There is a reason and it is alittle bit more mercenary,”Courier told Channel Seven,according to Britain’s DailyTelegraph.

“He hasn’t been allowed tomake any money from tennis forthe past 15 years because hecashed in disability insurance.That is the reason Ivan is backplaying. There are all sorts ofcomplexities there.”

But Lendl called Courier’scomments “ridiculous”, accord-ing to the Telegraph.

“That’s ridiculous,” he wasquoted as saying. “Jim shouldn’tbe saying stuff like that. First of

all, it’s wrong and he doesn’t havethe proper information. End ofstory.”

Both Lendl and Murray havebeen positive about their part-nership, which only began at thestart of this year.

“When you just get that littlebit of extra help from someonethat’s been there and done itmany, many times, it helps,”Murray said on Monday, afterreaching the quarter-finals.

Coach Lendl deniesmercenary motive

MELBOURNE: Belarus’sVictoria Azarenka recovered froman error-strewn first set tobecame the first woman into theAustralian Open semi-finals withvictory over Poland’s AgnieszkaRadwanska on Tuesday.

Both players were brokenfour times in a low-quality open-er, and Azarenka capitulated 0-7in the tiebreak. But she bouncedback to win convincingly 6-7(0/7), 6-0, 6-2 in two hours insoaring heat on centre court.

Azarenka is into her secondgrand slam semi-final, afterreaching the same stage atWimbledon last year, and willnow play either defending cham-pion Kim Clijsters or world num-ber one Caroline Wozniacki.

“We can’t play each otherwithout it going to three sets, wehave to push each other to thelimit,” said Azarenka, who hasnow played six three-setters withRadwanska in their 10 meetings.

In a bewildering first set, nei-ther player appeared comfortableon serve and breaks came thickand fast despite both landing a

high percentage of first serves, 73percent for Azarenka and 76 per-cent for Radwanska.

But after sharing eight servicebreaks Radwanska was able to liftwhen it counted and she racedthrough the tiebreak withoutdropping a point.

However, Azarenka respond-ed well and at last began to holdserve with authority, whileRadwanska continued to strug-gle. The Pole handed over threemore breaks of serve in the 26-minute second set as Azarenkadrew level.

The Belarusian now began tofind her range with her powerfulground strokes and she won theopening game of the third set,before Radwanska at last stoppedthe rot by holding her serve forjust the third time in the match.

But Azarenka’s superior fire-power was telling and sheturned the screws by holding hernext serve to love and thenbreaking Radwanska to open a3-1 lead, only to immediatelysurrender the break with a ner-vous service game.

Azarenka in semis

MELBOURNE: Novak Djokovic saidmental toughness at key moments

sets tennis’s “Big Four” apart after hesubdued battling veteran Lleyton

Hewitt to keep his Australian Opentitle defence on track.

The Serbian world number onejoined second seed Rafael Nadal, four-

time winner Roger Federer and AndyMurray in the quarter-finals after

putting out Australia’s last hope in athrilling contest on Rod Laver Arena.

It is the first time since 1983 thatthe top five men’s seeds have all

reached the quarter-finals.But Djokovic was tested by the

grizzled Hewitt, who looked down andout at two sets down and 0-3 in thethird before he fought back to seize

the third set.However, the Serb recovered his

poise to wrap it up in the early hoursof Tuesday, Afterwards he said staying

calm at difficult moments was whatmade the big four so dominant.

“And just being able to overcomethat pressure with that mental

strength, you know, your skills andphysical ability as well.”

Djokovic, who next faces fifth seedDavid Ferrer of Spain, said standards

in tennis had improved “tremendous-ly” in recent decades.

Mentality is thekey: Joker

There is a reason; itis a little bit moremercenary. That‘s thereason Ivan is backplaying. There are allsorts of complexities

Jim CourierFormer tennis great

January 16 – January 29

TUESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2012

INDIA VS AUSTRALIA 30

n Luck was on India’s side as Australia won the tossand decided to bat first. This was a relief as the Indianbatsmen were left to bask in the sun instead of facingthe heat of the first session of the Test.

n India’s bowlers started off well for a change on agood batting wicket. The line and length was good.The only culprit was Umesh Yadav, who was ham-mered for his lack of length and direction.

n Stand-in captain Virendra Sehwag had the one greatinspiration of the day. Ravichandran Ashwin came onin the fourth over of the day and dried up the runs. Thewickets began to fall and India had snapped three bylunch to give them a good chance to control thematch.n After lunch, India surrendered the initiative throughsome inexplicable decisions by Sehwag. There weresome bizarre field placements and the choice ofbowlers was baffling. The game began to drift.

n Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke once again piledthe agony with brilliant centuries. Both batted aggres-sively to rescue Australia and seize the advantage.India’s bowling wilted and a replay of the earlier Testswas witnessed.

Indians loseadvantage

Twelfth ManBabu Kalyanpur

Zaheer Khan gets a physiotherapy session before the start of the fourthand last test of the Border-Gavaskar series at Adelaide.

Ed Cowan faces a rising ball. Cowan wasanother of Aswhin’s victims. He wascaught by VVS Laxman.

Australian captain Micheal Clarke plays a defensive shot. Clarke wenton to score a century.

Ravi Ashwin (C) is congratulated by teamates after bowling Shaun Marsh onDay 1 of the fourth cricket Test match against India.

Shaun Marsh starts to walk offthe pitch after he is bowled.

GOOD START, BUT...

TUESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2012

INDIA VS AUSTRALIA 31

36,643 Day’sattendance 3.93 Australia

net run rate BATTING: PONTING BATTING: M CLARKE

Ricky Ponting passed 13,000Test runs Tuesday as heshared a big partnershipwith Michael Clarke to put

Australia in a strong position onthe opening day of the fourth Testagainst India.

Ponting, the third all-timehighest Test runscorer behindIndians Sachin Tendulkar (15,432)and Rahul Dravid (13,262), battedthroughout the middle sessionwith Clarke to rescue the homeside after the loss of three morning

wickets. When Postnoon was goingto press, Australia were 323 forthree after winning the toss withPonting unbeaten on 134 andClarke on 131.

India, looking to restore somepride after drubbings in the firstthree Tests, were thwarted by thepair on a flat batting strip.

Clarke, who scored an unbeat-en 329 in the Sydney Test earlierthis month, had a life on 50 whenDravid put down a low chance offIshant Sharma.

Adelaide Oval is a happy hunt-ing ground for former skipperPonting, who has scored five of his40 Test hundreds there including aknock of 242.

The tourists claimed the wick-ets of David Warner (8) and ShaunMarsh (3) cheaply in the opening10 overs and Ed Cowan (30) near-ing lunch.

Warner, who smashed a 69-ball century on the way to a swash-buckling 180 in the third Perth Testwin, lasted only 23 balls before he

was trapped leg before wicket byZaheer Khan.

He was followed by the imper-illed Marsh, who again fell cheap-ly, lasting only 12 balls when hewas bowled by a straighteneddelivery from off-spinner RaviAshwin. Stand-in skipper VirenderSehwag was proactive with hisbowling changes in the morningsession, wheeling in Ashwin in thefourth over of the innings and wasrewarded with Marsh's wicket inAshwin's fourth over.

IT’S THOSE TWO AGAIN Australia 1st innings EJM Cowan c Laxman b Ashwin 30DA Warner lbw b Khan 8SE Marsh b Ashwin 3RT Ponting not out 134MJ Clarke not out 131Extras: (lb 11, w 6) 17Total (3 Wick; 80 overs) 323Fall of wickets: 1-26, 2-31, 3-84 BOWLING: Z Khan 14-1-47-1U Yadav 12-0-87-0R Ashwin 20-4-59-2I Sharma 16-4-43-0V Sehwag 10-0-35-0V Kohli 1-0-3-0

SCOREBOARD

Aussies Ricky Ponting and Micheal Clarke in action against India in the fourth and last Test of the Border-Gavaskar series.

DAY’S PERFORMERS

TUESDAY, JANUARY 24, 201232The games people playPlaying Field

MADRID: Real Madrid defend-er Sergio Ramos, who is at thecentre of a reported bust-upbetween players and coach JoseMourinho, has denied there isnow a rift in the dressing roomahead of the El Clasico thisWednesday at the Nou Campwhich will decide who will gothrough to the semi-finals of theKing’s Cup.

Despite Real’s blistering formin the league which has seenthem score a record 67 goals atthe halfway stage of the seasonand has helped earn them a five-

point lead over reigning champi-ons Barcelona, all is not well atthe club and that is partlybecause they have been out-classed by their bitter rivals intheir two meetings so far.

Mourinho is now in his sec-ond season at the Bernabeu andhas still not found a way to beatBarcelona — with the one excep-tion the Cup final last year.

He has reverted to defensiveand ruthless tactics in a desper-ate bid which have not onlyfailed but also are not good forthe image of the club. It wasreported on Sunday by a Spanishsports daily that there was anargument after the 2-1 first legdefeat in the cup by Barca lastWednesday and this reignited onFriday at a training session.

Ramos denies rift rumours

Mario Balotelli with SergioAgüero in their match againstSpurs which they won 3-2.

Baloteli faces4-match banLONDON: Manchester City's con-troversial Italian striker MarioBalotelli could be suspended forfour matches after he was chargedon Monday with violent conduct bythe Football Association (FA).

The 21-year-old Italian interna-tional has been charged over imagesappearing to show that he deliber-ately stamped on England midfield-er Scott Parker's head duringSunday's 3-2 Premier League winover the London side. The incidentinfuriated Spurs manager HarryRedknapp, even more so as refereeHoward Webb waved play on with-out sanctioning Balotelli and thestriker was to add insult to injury

when he converted a penalty in timeadded-on to secure the points anddeal a serious blow to Spurs own titlehopes. Webb, though, has subse-quently told the FA that had he seenthe incident he would have sent himoff.

Balotelli has until 1800GMT onWednesday to reply to it. Should heaccept it he will begin his four matchban immediately and missWednesday's League Cup secondleg semi-final clash away atLiverpool, who hold a 1-0 advantageafter the first leg.

If he appeals he will be able toplay in the game and argue his caselater this week.

Clippers decideto rest PaulLOS ANGELES: The Los AngelesClippers won't take any chanceswith All-Star guard Chris Paul, evenif it means his hamstring injury willforce him to miss Wednesday'smatch-up against the cross-townrival Lakers.

Paul sat out his fifth straightgame on Sunday as the Clippersdefeated Toronto.

Coach Vinny Del Negro said Paulhad worked out on Saturday but thatthe "smart, prudent thing to do"would be to take it slowly.

"There's a protocol that guyshave to go through, in terms ofinjuries and things," Del Negro said."We went through that in terms ofhis workout and conditioning. Hefelt good. It's just that I think wehave to be smart about the process."

Del Negro said the team woulddecide after Tuesday's practicewhether Paul was ready to return tocompetition. "Chris is ready to play.He wants to be out there," Del Negrosaid. "But he also knows that he has-n't had this injury before and hewants to be smart about it as well.

Postnoon E-Paper for 24 January 2012

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