M. F. Husain, the Picasso of India, died

M. F. Husain(Maqbool Fida Husain), the legendary Indian painter, popularly known as 'Picasso of India', died on 8-06-2011 at the age of 95. He died at the Royal Brompton Hospital, London, where he was admitted.

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Hussain was once a member of Rajya Sabha and had been awarded with nation's second highest award Padma Vibhushan. At the recent Bonham's auctions his paintings fetched the highest sum for any Indian artist, i.e, Rs 2.32 crore!!! He was living in self-exile since 2006 following a series of legal cases and death threats against him over his paintings depicting Hindu goddesses in nude. He accepted Qatari citizenship in 2010.
Hussain was born in Pandharpur in Maharashtra on September 17, 1915. In 1955, he was awarded the prestigious Padma Shree. In 1967, he made his first film, Through the Eyes of a Painter. It was shown at the Berlin Film Festival and won a Golden Bear.
Husain was a special invitee along with Pablo Picasso at the Sao Paulo Biennial in 1971. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1973 and was nominated to the Rajya Sabha in 1986. He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan in 1991.

A painting by Husain

He also produced and directed a few movies, including Gaja Gamini with his favourite Madhuri Dixit who was the subject of a series of his paintings which he signed as Fida.
Husain's autobiography was being made into a movie tentatively titled The Making of the Painter, starring Shreyas Talpade as the young Husain.

YouTube to Show One Blockbuster Movie Every Month!

YouTube has launched 'YouTube Box Office', an exclusive online channel, which will showcase a blockbuster movie free of cost every month. The service will begin with Yash Raj Films 'Band Baaja Baaraat’. The interesting thing is that only Indian users can access the channel and will be blocked for users in other countries. Intel is the exclusive presenting sponsor for the channel.
In short, the YouTube Box Office channel provides the consumers an opportunity to view premium, high quality movies on their PCs without spending a penny. These Bollywood movies come in full HD (1080p) and from anywhere – you don’t need a credit card, movies never expire as well. What all you need is a decent Internet connection and a browser with Flash player.
The Box Office channel is sponsored by Intel and, unlike any other video on YouTube, these movies include 15-second video ads that play after every 10 minutes of the movie. Thus, a 2-hour long movie (Indian films are often longer) can easily have 10-12 ad breaks and you cannot skip, pause or hide these ads. Good for advertisers and the viewers won’t necessarily mind these short ads.
YouTube said that to bring more of such premium content, it will collaborate with its partners in India on a revenue share basis.

Arjun Vajpayee Conqered Mt Lhotse!

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Arjun Vajpayee has become a climbing sensation, really. This 17-year-old schoolboy from New Delhi, the youngest Indian to conquer Mt Everest, created a new record by becoming the youngest in the world to ascent Mt Lhotse, the fourth highest peak in the world! After an aborted attempt last week due to bad weather, Arjun Vajpayee, finally put his feet on the 8,516 m summit. The importance lies in the fact that Mt Lhotse had never been climbed solo by any Indian. He has just finished his Class XII board exams!
Arjun, who becomes the youngest climber in the world to conquer the technically difficult Lhotse, had set a mountaineering record last year when he climbed Mt Everest, which is 332m higher than Lhotse, at the age of 16 and became the youngest Indian to accomplish the feat.

Mt Lhotse was first conquered by Swiss Ernst Reiss and Fritz Luchsinger in 1956, three years after Mt Everest was tamed for the first time by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa. Only the Indian Army ascended Mt Lhotse from the sub continent. It was in 2003, a joint India-Nepal Army Expedition led by Col Ashok Abbey from the Indian side saw the first Indian ascent of the mountain that has claimed over 20 lives.

Arjun with his parents

Now Arjun is seeking to go on an expedition to the South Pole. Besides the Poles, Arjun has a second dream to chase. He wants to follow in the footsteps of his hero, the legendary Italian climber Reinhold Messner, who became the first mountaineer to climb all the 14 peaks worldwide towering over 8,000m. Two of these peaks - Nanga Parbat and K2 - are in Pakistan as well.

Salim Kumar Wins National Award

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Malayalam film ‘Adaminte Makan Abu’ directed by Salim Ahmed won the 58th National Award for Best Feature Film. The 58th National Film Awards for the year 2010 were announced.
Vetrimaran won the Best Director for Tamil film ‘Aadukalam’. ‘Do Dooni Chaar’ directed by Habib Faisal was declared the Best Hindi Film. Abhinav Kashyap’s ‘Dabangg’ won the award for Popular film providing wholesome entertainment.

Salim Kumar in the film

LIST OF AWARDS
BEST FEATURE FILM:
Adaminte Makan Abu
INDIRA GANDHI AWARD FOR BEST DEBUT FILM OF A DIRECTOR:
Baboo Band Baaja (Marathi)
NARGIS DUTT AWARD FOR BEST FEATURE FILM ON NATIONAL INTEGRATION:
Moner Manush (Bengali)
BEST HINDI FILM:
Do Dooni Chaar
AWARD FOR BEST POPULAR FILM PROVIDING WHOLESOME ENTERTAINMENT:
Dabangg
BEST FILM ON SOCIAL ISSUES:
Champions (Marathi)
BEST FILM ON ENVIRONMENT CONSERVATION/PRESERVATION :
Bettada Jeeva (Kannada)
BEST CHILDREN’S FILM:
Hejjegalu (Kannada)
BEST DIRECTION:
Aadukalam (Tamil)
Director: Vetrimaran
BEST ACTOR
Dhanush for Aadukalam (Tamil)
Salim Kumar for Adaminte Makan Abu (Malayalam)
BEST ACTRESS
Mitalee Jagtap Varadkar for Baboo Band Baaja (Marathi)
Saranya Ponvannan for Thenmerkku Paruvakkatru (Tamil)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:
J. Thambi Ramaiah for Mynaa (Tamil)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:
Sukumari for Namma Gramam (Tamil)
BEST CHILD ARTIST:
Harsh Mayar for I Am Kalam(Hindi)
Shantanu Ranganekar &  Machindra Gadkar for Champions (Marathi)
Vivek Chabukswar for Baboo Band Baaja (Marathi)
BEST MUSIC DIRECTOR:
Vishal Bhardwaj for Ishqiya
BEST MALE PLAYBACK SINGER:
Suresh Wadkar for Mee Sindhutai Sapkal (Marathi)
BEST FEMALE PLAYBACK SINGER:
Rekha Bhardwaj for Ishqiya (Hindi)
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY:
Madhu Ambat for Adaminte Makan Abu (Malayalam)
BEST SCREENPLAY:
(Original) :
Vetrimaran for Aadukalam (Tamil)
(Adapted) :
Anant Mahadevan & Sanjay Pawar for Mee Sindhutai Sapkal (Marathi)
Dialogues :
Sanjay Pawar
BEST EDITING  :
T.E. Kishore for Aadukalam (Tamil)

Sri Lankan Premier League following IPL

Indian Premier League is going to have a replica in another cricket country in Asia, Sri Lanka. The news is that as many as 12 Indian cricketers, including Munaf Patel and Ravichandran Ashwin, are expected to feature in the first edition of the Sri Lankan Premier League (SLPL). SLPL is scheduled to commence from July 19, 2011.

The Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has ensured the services of several  prominent overseas cricketers, including Chris Gayle and Kieron Pollard, who are currently engaged in the Indian Premier League (IPL), as per the latest report. SLPL is also expected to feature Daniel Vettori, the captain of Royal Challengers.

Among the other Indian players on the SLPL, Praveen Kumar, who was recently selected for the Indian team for the West Indies tour, also is there. The other Indian players who figure in the list  include Dinesh Karthik, Irfan Pathan, Manish Pandey, Manoj Tiwary, Paul Valthaty, Ravindra Jadeja, Saurabh Tiwary, Umesh Yadav and Vinay Kumar.

The list, which in all features 33 overseas players so far, also includes the names of David Warner,  Albie Morkel, Herschelle Gibbs, Kevin O'Brien and Pakistan players like Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Akhtar, Umar Akmal, and Tamim Iqbal.

Goddess Lakshmi Swimsuits and Protests

The latest ‘real buzz’ is a bikini! As you think bikinis are always hot nuts to crack. Now it is an  Australian swimwear company, whose depiction of image of Goddess Lakshmi on swimwear attracted protests form aorund the world. The company’s name is Lisa Blue Swimwear. Lisa Blue website said that it represents the girl who “is not afraid to share her beauty with the world”. Oh, what a great concept! They can easily convey even bigger ideas if they find someone to stand nude?!
Demonstrations, marches... all have taken place in India as well. Over the weekend, demonstrators in Amritsar burned the Australian flag in protest, waving photographs of the offensive swimsuit and demanding that all of the garments be recalled.

Anyways, the company at last decided to cancell the production of swimwear with Lakshmi’s picture on it. In an “Important Press Release” posted in their website they said “…image of Goddess Lakshmi will not appear on any piece of Lisa Blue swimwear…” It is true that trivialization of religious convictions, symbols and concepts of anybody was not good and it was hurtful to devout. Businesses should display some ethical values also and not just always be focused on mercantile greed.
But what about our great tradition which created Kamsutra? Is gods are all against nudity? What is there so offensive against a dress piece with a picture?
Ohhhhh... questions, questions...meaningless questions... don’t ask too may questions...You have to live...
 and live peacefully.

Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Dorjee Khandu has been killed

At last the tensed quest is coming to an end. The ministry of external affairs confirmed on May 4, 2011 that Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Dorjee Khandu has been killed in a chopper crash. The chopper crashed between Kyela and Lobothang near Tawang district.
See more about Dorjee Khandu

Three bodies were sighted along with wreckage of an aircraft at a place on the path the helicopter carrying Dorjee Khandu and four others had taken. "They have sighted three bodies. This sighting has been made from a height. They have not been able to go down to the place where the aircraft is (lying) crashed. The message has been given to the nearest Army post which is sending a team," S. M. Krishna had told reporters. There were about 3,500 personnel deployed in the search operations.
On May 4th morning, search operation for missing helicopter carrying Khandu focussed on in three areas along Indo-Bhutan border.  "Based on inputs received from the ISRO satellite and the Sukhoi-30 aircraft, as well as information provided by some local people, the search operations are now going inNagar GG, District Tawang; immediate south of Sela Pass known as Eagle's Nest Reserve Forest and district Phangrong in Bhutan", said home ministry joint secretary Sambhu Singh. The Government of Bhutan has also deployed search teams on its side of the border.
The Pawan Hans AS350 B-3 helicopter carrying the chief minister took off from Tawang at 9.50 am on April 30. The last radio contact with the ground was about 20 minutes after take off as it flew over the Sela Pass along the Chinese border perched at an altitude of 13,700 feet.

Osama Bin Laden was Killed!?

"Justice has been done," said the American president Obama.  This is when he declared the death of Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the September 11, 2001, terror attacks that killed thousands of Americans. "Tonight, I can report to the American people and to the world that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al-Qaida, and a terrorist who's responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women and children," Obama said in a surprise late night White House address.
The world's most wanted man had been killed in a Pakistani compound in an operation on May 1,2011.
The development comes just months before the tenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Centers and Pentagon, orchestrated by bin Laden's al-Qaida organization, that killed more than 3,000 people. The attacks set off a chain of events that led the United States into wars in Afghanistan, and then Iraq, and America's entire intelligence apparatus was overhauled to counter the threat of more terror attacks at home.
Al-Qaida organization was also blamed for the 1998 bombings of two US embassies in Africa that killed 231 people and the 2000 attack on the USS Cole that killed 17 American sailors in Yemen, as well as countless other plots.
Is this the end of Laden and his terrorist operations? Let's hope for the best.

SSLC New Text Books Released!

The Revised Text Books of SSLC (CLass X Kerala  State syllabus) are here.
Pls Click on the following Link to download the pdf formats of the text Books

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