DesiReflections

Govinda at Award Ceremony Hritik Roshan, Pamela Chopra with HE Ex President Pratibha Patil Hritik Roshan fondly remembering Yash Chopra and sharing attributes of Ms. Pamela Chopra Super Star of yester years Nimmi, Santosh Jain, Neena Jalan sharing dais with HE Pratibha Patil Gopalrama last year's Dada saheb Phalke Awardee currently producing Shri Balaji Mahima with Pradeep Gupta President FMJC Dharmesh Tiwari, Ram Gopal Gupta, Manohar Thakur Urmila Matondkar gave away awards It was sultry afternoon and mission was to cover Dada Saheb Phalke Academy's annual award function at Bhai Das Hall , Vile parle.The Academy is doing these award function since long, but for the first time in its history  person of Ex President of India stature has come to be a part of  award function. Speaking on the occasion, HE Pratibha Patil acknowledged positive contribution of Cinema . She delivered her speech in English but she narrated famous filmi dialogue ...

Mumbai 29th April. Indo American Society was formed in Bombay (now it is called Mumbai) in the year 1959 and instrumental  in strengthening relations between the two great democracies on earth i.e. India and United States of America. The society also run number of professional courses to make people self reliant in right from soft skills to export import management . Today Society organized its Annual Founders Day at IES, Bandra. Speaking on the occasion, Peter Haas, US Counsellor in Mumbai outlined the new areas of cooperation between the two nations.  He  recognized India’s growing role in the world order as well as  in the region. He also said that  America is keen to work with India to enhance that role, to work together on a variety of global problems and issues, and to continue to look for ways to prosper for both the governments.  He also felt that the Indian   companies doing business with America will take a role in this. American com...

Mark Twain once said, a lie can be half way around the world before the truth has got its boots on. Or was it Winston Churchill, or James Callaghan, or Terry Pratchett? The internet is undecided. It seems likely that all of the above were paraphrasing an old proverb – but, depending on where you search and who you ask, you can more-or-less pick your own truth. When it comes to current affairs, the power of digital falsehood can count for a great deal. Earlier this month, a false message posted by hackers to the Twitter account of the Associated Press – which read “Breaking: Two Explosions in the White House and Barack Obama is injured” – temporarily wiped 150 points off the Dow Jones index, and led to an FBI investigation. In the appalled aftermath of the Boston marathon bombings, rumours and conspiracies were almost impossible to avoid, ranging from allegations against an innocent Saudi witness to a digitally manipulated hoax clip from the cartoon series Family Guy. Yet perhaps the mo...

This can only happen in India!  The neighboring country China's army unit sneaked deep into Ladakh and constructed structures. But government has guarded response. If the media would have not reported Government would have ignored it. What a shame, the country's prime minister rubbishing it as a localised event. Foreign Minister is also avoiding any strong reaction to this encroachment.  What is the overall reaction of people, they have a feel that it is the job of armed forces to protect border because huge expenditure on army is made by government from the tax collected. You would have expected that Blood of country's youth should boil on this kind of intrusion, but youth  enjoy opium of IPL, it is engrossed in the IPL matches live on big screens installed  in pubs, restaurants in the length and breadth of nation over a pint of beer or glass of hot spirit, where is the time left to think about nation. A motley crowd of young, not so young people in Lokhandwala ar...

Hotel Hyatt Santacruz was venue of launching a new Marathi news channel Jai Maharashtra last night. Right from Ministers, leaders both from ruling to opposition, bureaucrats, film celebrities lined up to congratulate Sudhakar Shetty of Sahana Group of company, who has launched this channel. Shetty's name has been associated with Vile Parle's Deepa Bar, which used to be hottest night spot of Mumbai till RR Patil cracked down on dance bars. Later,  Shetty converted this bar to Baba Ramdev's Patanjali Ayurveda Medicine Store.  Shetty is also associated with a number of slum rehabilitation projects some of them sparked row. So it was really curious to know that what prompted him to start a news channel that too in Marathi media space. Many people feel that this segment is already cluttered with channels likeZee 24 Taas, IBN Lokmat, ABP Majha, TV 9 Maharashtra. So is there  any necessity for another  Marathi News Channel. Undeterred by the presence of existing ...

Yesterday anchors from major TV Channels and eminent film journalists gathered at Time and Again Restaurant at Lokhandwala, Mumbai. It was a curtain raiser press conference to 144th Dada Saheb Phalke Jayanti scheduled on 30th April 2013.  Mala Sinha  It is a well known fact that Dada Saheb Phalke was one of the pioneer in the field of film making in India, his first full length film Raja Harishchandra brought India on world film map.  He is credited with  production of  95 movies and 26 short films in his career spanning 19 years, till 1937, including his most noted works:  Mohini Bhasmasur  (1913),  Satyavan Savitri  (1914),  Lanka Dahan  (1917),  Shri Krishna Janma  (1918) and  Kaliya Mardan  (1919).  Now, when the film industry is well  established, also celebrating 100 glorious years , the Dada Saheb Phalke Academy is to be given full credit to institutionalise his memory by honoring people ...

अरब जगत ने दुनिया को कई विचारकों और नई खोज़ से नवाज़ा है. शराब और कॉफी की खोज भी अरब में ही हुई है. दुनिया की सबसे बेहतरीन कॉफी बीज भी अरेबिका के नाम से मशहूर है.   आपको यह जानकर हैरानी हो सकती है कि कॉफी का सफ़र इस्लामी अध्यात्मिकता और रहस्यवाद से शुरू होता है जिसकी वजह से इसे सदियों तक संजोया गया और अब यह बड़े कॉफी हाउसों की शान बढ़ा रही है. आप जैसे ही कॉफी के बारे में सोचते हैं आपके ख़्यालों में इटैलियन एस्प्रेसो, फ्रेंच कैफे और लाते या अमरीकी डबल ग्राइंड लाते आता है जिसमें दालचीनी की ख़ुशबू होती है. आपने स्कूल में यह ज़रूर पढ़ा होगा कि कॉफी पीने वालों का पहला राष्ट्र अमरीका ही था क्योंकि किंग जॉर्ज ने चाय पर उत्पाद कर लगा दिया था. आज आप हर अंतरराष्ट्रीय एयरपोर्ट पर कई शानदार कॉफी चेन मसलन स्टारबक्स, कैफे नीरो और कॉस्टा ग्रेस के आउटलेट देख सकते हैं और अब नैस्कैफे जैसा ब्रांड तो वैश्वीकरण का प्रतीक बन गया है. कहां मिलती है कॉफी कॉफी का उत्पादन गर्म इला़क़ों जैसे लैटिन अमरीका, सब सहारा अफ्रीका, वियतनाम और इंडोनेशिया में होता है. यूरोप में कॉफी, तंबाकू और च...

IMPACT magazine from the exchange4media stable is all set to announce the inaugural IMPACT M-School Rankings powered by Ipsos. In association with Ipsos, IMPACT will conduct the survey of around India’s top 300 M-Schools. The M-School ranking programme is targeted towards facilitating and guiding aspiring students for future career prospects, facilitating visibility of M-Schools amongst media companies across the spectrum to enable employment for their students and to become a good ranking benchmark for the M-School industry by taking pole position with the inaugural foray. Elaborating on the initiative, Sunil Lulla, MD & CEO, Times Television Network and Board Member of the News Broadcasters Association stated, “I am delighted that the exchange4mdia Group and Impact have undertaken the task of putting together the roster of the Best M-Schools. With the stupendous growth of Media and Entertainment and the foreseeable growth over the next 10 years, Media and Entertainment ...

I am sure that most of us know  Ravindranath Tagore as a poet, composer, educationist .  Born in Calcutta in 1861, Tagore was perhaps the most important literary figure of Bengali literature; he was indeed the first non-European to win the esteemed Noble Prize in Literature. An ambassador for India and its culture, his international influence and popularity was considerable and could arguably be compared to that of Gandhi, who himself referred to  poet as ‘Mahatma’ – the great soul. But very few know that he was painter par excellence. In fact, when  I saw today nearly 250 paintings  done by him, I was amazed to see the variety, depth and details .  After great efforts, in 150 birth centenary year  of Tagore,  National Gallery of Modern Arts Mumbai arranged  an exhibition “The Last Harvest”  showcasing his rare paintings from today.   These paintings are curated by Professor Raman Siva Kumar of V...