Wednesday, October 26, 2011

KEITH BARRY

2011 has been an exciting year to date for Keith. He shot his new Discovery Channel series "Deception with Keith Barry" in LA and it premiered on Discovery USA on May 31st 2011. New episodes premiered on June 1st, June 8th and June 15th. The shows are now starting to air internationally. Also in July 2011, after the huge success of Keith's Asylum live show which closed in May 2011 having done 83 shows in Ireland, his brand new show "8 DEADLY SINS" set a box office record in the Olympia Theatre in July and August 2011. His new national tour of 8 DEADLY SINS starts on Jan 1st 2012 and runs up to Feb 26th.

Back in 2010, the pilot of Keith's TV show “DECEPTION with KEITH BARRY” aired on July 14th in the US on THE DISCOVERY CHANNEL and did so well in the ratings that it was picked up for a series which began production in Oct. Jan 2010 also saw the launch of Keith’s live show “The Asylum” which went on to sell out 35 shows and along with an unprecedented 20-night run at The Olympia in July. This was his most outrageous, controversial and damn right funniest show ever and has been hailed by the critics as his best live work to date.
In 2009, Keith was awarded the prestigious Merlin Award for "Mentalist of the Year 2009" from the International Magicians Society. The Merlin Award is to magic what the Oscars are to movies with past winners of the Merlin Award being David Copperfield and Siegfreid & Roy. 2009 also saw Keith gaining the title “Best Magician in Las Vegas 2009” as voted for by the Las Vegas Review Journal show critics after he finished up an impressive 5 week residency at Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino to rave reviews.

On Dec 29th, 2007 Keith had his first UK Primetime ITV 1 show “Keith Barry – The Escape Live”. Keith has appeared numerous times on The Ellen Show, The Jimmy Kimmel show and Sharon Osbourne and in the US and also on the Paul O’Grady Show in the UK.

Going back to 2006, after just one viewing of his live stageshow in LA, CBS offered Keith his own US TV Special “Keith Barry – Extraordinary”. This was CBS’s first magic special in over 15 years and followed on from the success of Keith’s MTV show “Brainwashed”.

Keith has now starred in over 40 international tv shows and they have been shown in over 110 countries around the world making Keith truly an international name and his star is still rising.

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Anandita Dutta Tamuly : chilly girl



Anandita Dutta Tamuly , is an Assamese woman from Titabor Town inJorhat district of Assam. She is married to Pankaj Tamuly and is mother of a son. She is known for eating and rubbing Bhut Jolokia peppers on her bare eyes. The chilli, native to Assam, is the world's hottest chilli pepper as recognized by the Guinness World Records.

On Thursday night, April 9, 2009, Anandita performed her feat at the district library auditorium, Jorhat before hundreds of people for a Channel 4  programme on global food being anchored by celebrity British chef Gordon Ramsay. She ate 51red-hot-chillies in two minutes and smeared seeds of 25 chillies in her eyes without shedding a tear. According to Diganta Saikia, one of the event coordinators, the Guinness authorities had earlier asked them to authenticate this with a supervised recording of the feat. The coordinators accordingly asked Ramsay to be the adjudicator for Guinness and he agreed to pursue Anandita’s claim as the world’s ‘hottest woman’ by submitting video clippings.

Sudarsan Pattnaik

Sudarsan Pattnaik  was  born in Puri , nearly 70 km from Bhubaneswar the capital city of Orissa. He is the inventor of sand art in India and has learned this form of sand art by himself without any guidance by practice and creative ideas. He started sculpting images on sand since the age of seven. Till now he has designed hundreds of sand sculpture. In the recent years people have started focusing on this art form. Now Sudarshan has many students working under his arm. Among them is Manas Kumar Sahoo who was the semifinalist of India's Got Talent Season 2. He has won many national and international awards for his creative designs and has recorded his name in the World records for sculpting the tallest Santa Claus and most Santa Claus image built on sand. Sudarshan Pattnaik won the People's Choice Prize at the 1st Moscow International Sand Sculpture Championship held in Russia.

Pattnaik created a 15 feet high Hindu God Ganesh to create awareness among the people on the potential dangers of global warming at the International Sand Championship.

The top of the sculpture depicted the melting of glaciers in the Himalayas and in the flowing water Lord Ganesh is traveling on a boat with a sign 'Divine Concern on Global Warming'.

This was to educate people through his art about the effects Global Warming.

Sudarsan Patnaik’s ultimate objective is to create awareness and enthusiasm among the people and make it popular professional art form among the people for which he is traveling various places in the country and demonstrating this art form by holding work shops and training. He established "The Golden Sand Art Institute” which is first of it’s nature in India.

Pattnaik has so far participated in more than 35 international sand sculpture championships across the world and won many awards for the country.

His sand sculpture on Black Taj Mahal earned him accolades all over the world.www.sandindia.com

Ganesh Hegde

Choreographer of the movie RA-ONE. Best-known for his work in the Oscar-nominated film Lagaan and for his musical numbers in Company. Ganesh has choreographed many stage shows, namely Temptations 2004, the Bollywood rock concert which toured America with huge stars such as Shah Rukh Khan, Rani Mukherjee, Preity Zinta, Saif Ali Khan and Arjun Rampal.

Hegde is also known for choreographing of Michael Jackson's concert in India.

He has been associated with the Zee Cine Awards since conception and has been choreographing the Filmfare Awards for the past decade.

Hegde's famous choreographed sequences include It's Magic from Koi Mil Gaya, Dum from Dum and Main Hoon Don from Don - The Chase Begins Again.

Hegde started a trend for the music video type execution in movies with Kambakht Ishq (Pyar Tune Kya Kiya) and Khallas (Company)
Singing

In October 2005 Ganesh released his debut album "G" with the backing and promotion of Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan. He is reported as the first Indian pop act to produce, write, direct and star in his debut music video (for his single Main Deewana). He is also credited with launching the career of Indian model and actress Yana Gupta, for whom he crafted the song Babuji in the film Dum.

Hegde started out performing with Asha Bhonsle on stage shows and she is reported to have convinced him to release his own album. She has sung a duet with him in G.

Hegde has also sung the rap Kaun Banega Crorepati promo song ' Ek Sawaal Ka Sawaal Hai ', for the third season of the show hosted by Shah Rukh Khan .The song is available on a T Series album titled ' Shah Rukh Khan Kar Le Kar Le Koi Dhamaal'.The video was conceptualized and directed by Hegde.
Education

Jiten Thukral and Sumir Tagra - Artist-Communicators

Former art directors from the advertising world, versatile artists Jiten Thukral and Sumir Tagra express themselves in painting, sculptures and installations. Among their creations is the "Apocalyptron", a 15ft-high Godzilla-like monster created out of 2,000 pink plastic bottles, symbolic of rampant consumerism, aptly placed in a shopping mall in Delhi. Their work has eight-figure price tags, is frequently auctioned at Sothebys and has been snapped up by art czar Frank Cohen as well as pop star Elton John, strangely making them the very icons of what they parody. Despite criticism for churning out computer-generated art work, they remain unfazed. "Had we been working as individuals, the curve would have been much slower," says Thukral. Among their early projects was the Punjabi-pejorative titled BoseDK designs and the mind-numbingly everyday products of the fictitious BoseDK mega mall. They spend six months a year jetting to exhibitions from Tokyo to Turin but their time in India is spent closeted in their studio in Gurgaon. "No time for parties," says Tagra. Forthcoming projects include four large museum shows in Paris, Beijing, Washington and Lyon, a move into a purpose-built studio and a feature film.
  The Journey: Two small-town boys, Thukral from Jalandhar and Tagra from Ludhiana, went to the big city to learn fine art at the Delhi College of Art. They worked together at Ogilvy & Mather, before debuting with a solo show at Nature Morte in 2005. Since then, the duo has held over a dozen shows in New York, London, Sydney and Berlin where they often field post-Slumdog Millionairequeries like, "do you have plug points in India?"
The Inspiration: They revel in seemingly everyday ordinariness and kitsch which finds expression in all their projects-from paintings lampooning the rootlessness of Punjabi baroque architecture to rubber slippers and underwear with a "put it on" condom message.
The Mentor: The mundane world with dashes of Stephan Sagmeister's shock, Damien Hirst's formaldehyde art, the scale of Anish Kapoor and Subodh Gupta's exuberance. "We can spend hours marvelling at a plastic toy," says Thukral.





Athira Krishna

Athira Krishna is an internationally acclaimed prodigy violinist from India. Athira was born in Trivandrum,Kerala. She has an enviable musical lineage as the grand daughter of the illustrious Vidwan Shri. GopalaPillai, fabulous musician of yesteryears who belonged to the renowned Tanjore tradition of Carnatic Music whose master-disciple lineage traced back to the Sri. Muthuswamy Dikshithar Carnatic trinity of the 18th century, and to Baluswamy Dikshithar, who first introduced the violin to Indian classical music.

D Udaya Kumar: The man who design the rupee symbol


Dharmalingam Udaya Kumar was booked to fly to Guwahati on Thursday morning. On Friday he was to start his new job as assistant professor in the department of design at the Indian Institute of Technology in Guwahati. He was leaving the IIT Mumbai campus where he spent five years earning a PhD in industrial design—the first doctorate to be awarded in the discipline in India.


The calls started pouring in early Thursday morning. He had won a nationwide contest run by the government to design a symbol for the Indian rupee. A symbol he designed, incorporating elements of Devanagari and Roman scripts, had been chosen to represent India's growing economy and its currency. It would be incorporated in Unicode, computer keyboards will have a dedicated key for the symbol and it will come to be seen and recognised around the world. A designer gets to create a currency symbol just once in a nation'




For a man used to painstaking and solitary pursuit of meaning in symbols, typefaces and ancient Tamil manuscripts, the attention must have been unsettling. He didn't take his flight. In the evening, cars came to haul him off to television studios. He would go to Guwahati the next day.


Born in Chennai on 10 October, 1978, Kumar's family hails from Thanjavur. The magnificent temples there must have had something to do with his decision to study architecture, which he pursued at Anna University in Chennai. Subsequently, he did his masters in architecture from IIT, Mumbai. When the industrial design centre in the campus started offering a PhD, Udaya Kumar enrolled, and started work on the evolution of the Tamil script,which dates back to 2nd century AD.


"I want to continue work on Tamil typography. I find our symbols have a very heavy western influence. I will do more work on Indian scripts," he told ET. For the design, he took inspiration from the symbols of such currencies as Korea's won, UK's pound sterling, euro, lira, peso and others. "Thus it has a harmonious identity as far as international currency symbols are concerned and at the same time it has the Indian uniqueness," he said about his winning design. Among the international currencies, he likes the Yen symbol as it best reflects the country. The 31-year-old bachelor worked as a senior designer for two years with speciality magazine publisher Infomedia.

Suresh Ranjan Goduka

With forefathers who migrated to Assam from the erstwhile Rajputana a century ago, this Marwari youth could teach Raj Thackeray a thing or two about cultural assimilation. Among the leading Assamese poets of his generation, he gave up a documentary filmmaking career in Delhi and went back home in 2004 to startJeevan, a monthly Assamese magazine, which seeks to explore the diversity, beauty and infinite possibility of life. "The media here carries only news of oppression, corruption and lack of development," says Goduka, who used own bank balance, his father's savings as well as a loan to fund Jeevan, which now sells 5,000 copies a month. Its perception, awareness and aspiration surveys conducted among the youth, a first in the region, have shattered many myths. This year, he founded the Jeevan Initiative, an NGO, dedicated to youngsters.

Uttam Teron


Seven years before the Right to Education Bill was introduced in Parliament, Uttam Teron, a young man from Pamohi, 20 km from Guwahati, dreamt of 100 per cent literacy for the children of his village. Education was the lowest priority in this Karbi-dominated hamlet and most children, especially girls, helped their parents in the fields. This changed when Teron began the Parijat Academy in 2003 with four students. Today, the school, with a small hostel, provides free education to 502 students of which 256 are girls. "Teron has shown how the efforts of an individual can inspire a big movement," says Shantikam Hazarika, Director, Assam Institute of Management.

The Journey: Born to a train driver father and a homemaker mother who never went to school, Teron invested the Rs. 800 he had earned as a private tutor in constructing a room with a tin roof and bamboo walls. It became his school.

The Mission: Plans to build a hostel which can accommodate 100 students, a full-fledged computer centre, a health clinic, a day-care centre for handicapped children and a weaving centre for girls.





Bhabananda Barbayan (Majuli dancers Monk)



Sri Babananda Barbayan is dancer,choreographer, drummer, teacher and artistic-director. He is also director and research scholar, department of dance, Rabindra Bharati University. The Sattriya, an indian Classical style of drama-drama-music has its origin traced back to the Neo-Vaisnavite movement flourishing in Assam in the 15th-16th century. The great Wise Sri Sankaradeva created it with an evident artistic and futuristic vision, treated the art to supplement the pursuit of Bhakti (love devotion). Bhabananda practice his art since his age of 4, when he is becoming monk. He is actualy recognozed in India as the better artist of Sattriya. His first tour with his group (les moines danseurs de Majuli) in France and Portugal in 2008 has been a succes.

Indrani Medhi




Indrani Medhi is an Associate Researcher in the Technology for Emerging Markets Group at Microsoft Research India in Bangalore. Her research interest is in the area of Ethnographic UI Design and Technology for Socio-Economic Development. Her current work has been in User Interfaces for Illiterate and Semi-Literate Users. She has a Masters degree in Design from Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, USA and Bachelors degree in Architecture from Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur, India. Currently, she is also a 3rd year Ph.D. student at the Industrial Design Centre, Indian Institute of Technology, (IIT Bombay), Mumbai, India. Indrani is a native of Guwahati, Assam, in Northeast India, and has been living in Bangalore since 2005.

Recently Indrani was listed in the MIT Technology Review's TR35 list of "outstanding innovators" under the age of 35; featured in the list of "50 Smartest People in Technology" in 2010 by Fortune magazine; was named a "Global Forum Visionary" by Fortune; won the "Young Indian Leader" award for 2010 from CNN IBN; and featured in the list of 35 "Youth Icon" under 35, by India Today magazine.



Friday, October 21, 2011

Devika Mahadevan

"They build our city but our city has no space for them," says Devika Mahadevan, the 31 year old CEO of Mumbai Mobile Creches. Mobile Creches is an organisation that cares for and educates the children of construction site workers.

Millions of men and women in India work in the construction sector. They shuttle from job to job to earn meager wages a day, while their children are uprooted and left unattended. Many of these children suffer from malnutrition tuberculosis, and accidents that occur on the building sites. Mobile Creches (MMC), led by Devika, creates a healthy community for migrant workers on 25 construction sites, reaching 4,000 children. Believing that care and attention during the early years of a child's life are crucial for their overall growth. Mobile Crèches provides early childhood care and development programme in the form of traditional Indian balwadis - nurseries that provide education, daycare, and nutrition for children.

Devika's parents were both journalists from middle class professional backgrounds. Hence she always had an inclination towards literature. She won a scholarship to go the States and major in Sociology and Economics. Her inclination towards languages compelled her to take up Chinese in college. Her thirst to travel and apply what she'd learnt took her to China as an Intern in the UN in Beijing. She worked on womens' issues there. Things fell into place and Devika started her career in Social Service. Following this she acquired a scholarship from her University and chose to work in Zimbabwe, Africa.

Working with slum children here was an eye opening experience for young Devika. She then did her Masters in Social Development from London School of Economics. Longing for her own country brought her back to Bombay and she joined an organization called SPARC which promotes housing and infrastructure rights for the urban poor. After working for 3 years with them she decided she wanted a more significant role in a relatively lesser developed organization. Co-incidentally both her grandmothers worked for Mobile Crèches that was 36 years old. She realized that it lacked proper growth, vision and structure. Hence she joined as the CEO of Mobile crèches with an aim to create a vision, spearhead growth and re-energies the organization.

Devika represents her organisation and manages the funding as well. Extremely passionate about her work, it is a joy to watch her interaction with little children. She has come up with a new mission for Mobile Creches called 'Dus by Dus'. They aim to reach 10,000 children by 2010. Devika doesn't intend stopping until she has covered every child in the country!

Kaushalendra Kumar


From IIM Ahmedabad to selling vegetables in Patna, Kaushalendra has had a rather eventful journey. He launched a project called ‘Samriddhi’ in February 2007. It focuses on mobilizing and organizing the informal and fragmented vegetable sector of Bihar.

He went to IIM Ahmedabad and it is there that he conceptualized and gave shape to this project under the guidance of his teachers. He started the project in 2007 with Rs. 25,000 which was scholarship money that he got for being the best student. Today his business is doing a turnover of Rs. 9 lakhs and he has a 14 staff member office with almost 1000 farmers and 80 vendors associated with him. Samriddhi is a source of employment for over 500 people, thereby feeding as many families.

He has divided the farmers into the “Vegetable Producer Company” and the sellers into the “Vegetable Marketing Company”. The goal of Samriddhi is to create opportunities of profitable and dignified self-employment for the families dependent on Agricultural sector, especially disadvantaged sections (Farmers, farm labourers, agriculture produce vendors and many others), ensuring sustainable livelihoods, enriched environment, improved quality of life and good human values.

Kaushalendra has been working towards professionalizing vegetable street vendors and marginal growers, and empowering them to face the future challenges in the new global economy; thus creating wealth and prosperity from farm gate to food plate. He started off with procurement of only 5 Kgs of vegetables and now dabbles in 800-900 tonnes. The farmers produce the vegetables, then directly send them to Patna after coding and labeling them. Post that they get redistributed at the Patna Centre and sent to various markets , hotels and houses. This ensures that both the producers and the buyers get their due.

Apart from the distribution he has also started Free Home delivery of vegetables. If a client thinks the veggies are not fresh, or are over priced he will take them back. For Kaushalendra gaining the trust of his clients is as important as gaining the trust of farmers and vendors.

Samriddhi has a public private partnership with Agriculture Technology Management Agency (ATMA) Patna. Also recently, Punjab National Bank (PNB) has sanctioned Rs. 50 Lakh to the project.

Kaushalendra envisages to make Bihar the vegetable hub of the nation and to develop brand Bihar in the vegetable sector. He is soon going to open two collection centres, namely in Fatuha and Ekangar Sarai block of Bihar. In the future he wants to extend this to cereals and get into Water purification schemes in Bihar. He wishes to see Bihar on the world map because he feels it has a lot to give to the world.

Manish Malhotra


Fashion designer manish malhotra

Manish Malhotra is the most famous designer in Indian Fashion Industry as well as Film Industry. Manish turned the concept of fashion designing in the Bollywood when he designed the costumes for the beautiful Juhi Chawla for the film “Swarg” at the age of just 25 years. Since then he has never looked back and earned the distinction as the transformer of looks of the characters. The characters dressed up by Manish are powerful enough to express themselves without uttering a single word. In his short tenure in the Bollywood he has designed the costumes for countless celebrities.
Manish is a very practical and realistic person beside so much fame and success. He is a simple person who envisioned a dream and worked very hard to pursue it. Manish belongs to a middle class Punjabi family. He was born in the year 1965. Father of Manish had a strong desire that Manish should join his father’s business but Manish had some other plans, he wanted to create a niche for himself in the creative field. Manish did not receive any professional training but he was having full confidence on his talent.



Manish put in 15 years of real hard work which made Manish Malhotra we all know today. He was among the first designers who asked for the script before starting the designing work for a particular scene. Manish Malhotra, an ardent fashion savvy has made his distinct position in the Hindi film world and he has been successful in earning both name and fame. He knows his job and he is a master of his trade, beside that he has a complete understanding as to what style would go perfect in a particular situation. He is specialized in women dressing styles.

He is truly a master of fashion and has achieved a tremendous appreciation. His work has been honored with various awards. He is continuously delivering quality work for fashion boutique ‘Reverie’ with which he is associated since 1998. There is much more to be expected from this budding star in the near future.

Abhinav Bindra



Abhinav Bindra, is the current World and Olympic Champion in Air Rifle shooting. He is the first ever Indian to win an individual Gold Medal since 1900 – the year our country participated in the Olympic games for the first time. His unparalleled achievements in the shooting arena have made the nation proud and he has been bestowed with honors from a very young age due to his consummate performances on the international stage. He received the Arjuna Award at the young age of 17 and has been the youngest recipient of the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Awards – the highest sporting honor in the country at 18 years. Abhinav has also been decorated with the Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian honor, in 2009 after his historic Gold Medal win at the Beijing Olympics.

He was the first of many thousands of relay runners who will carry the baton for the New Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games, across the globe. The New Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games Queen’s Baton Relay commenced from Buckingham Palace on October 29 with Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II passing the baton in the presence of our Hon’ble President Smt Pratibha Patil.

Recently, he was honored with the two top awards at the first ever SAHARA Indian Sports Awards :
• he was adjudged as “The Sportsman of the Year”
• his gold medal winning feat at the Beijing Olympics was declared as “the Most Memorable Moment of the Year” in Indian Sport


The Government of India has recently invited him to be a part of their initiatives towards national integration, etc.
• He was the first speaker at the event “A Nation In Solidarity”. This was hosted by the Ministry of Home Affairs at the behest of the Hon’ble Home Minister Shri P Chidambaram himself and was held in memory of the victims of terror attacks in India including incidents in Mumbai, Delhi, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, …among others. The event was held at India Gate in New Delhi and was dedicated to the cause of the nation coming together in its fight against terror.

Ankit Fadia


Ankit Fadia was born in Coimbatore on May 24th 1985. He starred in MTV What the Hack!. Fadia graduated from Stanford University and Delhi Public School Society. He has worked as a computer scientist. He has lived in India, and he now has a home in Mumbai.
Fadia was educated at Delhi Public School. He started a website called “HackingTruths”, which he claims was judged as the “second best hacking site in the world by the FBI”. He claims that when he was 14, he trashed the front page of an Indian magazine’s website. He then sent an e-mail to the editor confessing to the hack, suggesting counter measures. At 15, his book on Ethical Hacking made him the youngest author to be published by Macmillan India. He claims that in 2001, he discovered links between the Chinese government and the China Eagle Union, a cracker group responsible for defacing many U.S. web sites. He stated that the “long-term goal of the Chinese government is actually to take over the internet and control all parts of the internet”. However none of these claims have been proved by substantial evidence so far.

Ankit Fadia is an independent computer security consultant, and an author of several books on computer security as well as an officially cited Attrition.org Charalatan. In 2001, he became the youngest author for Macmillan India in their 110 years of history, with his book The Unofficial Guide to Ethical Hacking. He runs a program on computer security for corporates in alliance with ReliaceInfo.He has delivered several lectures on computer security.
Ankit Fadia has been honored with numerous awards, including the IT Leader Award 2005 and the Indo-American Society Young Achiever Award 2005. In 2002, the Limca Book of Records declared him among the “People of The Year”. Ankit Fadia has also sponsored the “Ankit Fadia Information Security Award”, which is given annually by The Singapore Management University, to an outstanding student in the Information Security and Trust Course under the Bachelor of Science (Information System Management) degree programme.

Sunita Narain

Sunita Narain is an Indian environmentalist and political activist as well as a major proponent of the Green concept of sustainable development. Narain has been with the India-based Centre for Science and Environment since 1982. She is currently the director of the Centre and the director of the Society for Environmental Communications and publisher of the fortnightly magazine, Down To Earth. In her years at the Centre, she has worked hard at analysing and studying the relationship between environment and development and at creating public consciousness about the need for sustainable development. Over the years, she has also developed the management and financial support systems needed for the institution, which has over 100 staff members and a dynamic program profile. She is currently in charge of the Centre's management and plays an active role in a number of research projects and public campaigns. Her research interests are wide-ranging - from global democracy, with a special focus on climate change, to the need for local democracy, within which she has worked both on forest-related resource management and water-related issues. She began her career by writing and researching for the State of India's Environment reports and then went on to study issues related to forest management. For this project she traveled across the country to understand people's management of natural resources and in 1989 co-authored the publication Towards Green Villages advocating local participatory democracy as the key to sustainable development. In the early 1990s she got involved with global environmental issues and she continues to work on these as researcher and advocate. In 1991 she co-authored the publication Global Warming in an Unequal World: A case of environmental colonialism and in 1992 Towards a Green World: Should environmental management be built on legal conventions or human rights? Since the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, she has worked on a number of articles and papers on issues related to flexibility mechanisms and the need for equity and entitlements in climate negotiations. In 2000, she co-edited the publication Green Politics: Global Environmental Negotiations[1], which looks at the emerging ecological globalisation framework and puts forward an agenda for the South on global negotiations. In 1997, pushing the concern for water harvesting, she co-edited the book Dying Wisdom: Rise, Fall and Potential of India's Water Harvesting Systems[2]. Since then, she has worked on a number of articles on the policy interventions needed for ecoregeneration of India’s rural environment and poverty reduction. In 1999, she co-edited the State of India’s Environment, The Citizens' Fifth Report and in 2001, Making Water Everybody’s Business: the practice and policy of water harvesting[3]. Narain remains an active participant, both nationally and internationally, in civil society. She serves on the boards of various organisations and on governmental committees and has spoken at many forums across the world on issues of her concern and expertise. In 2005, she was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India

Gerry Martin

India's first adventurer on National Geographic channel (remember Croc Chronicles or Snake Wranglers?), wildlife expert and herpetologist Gerald ‘Gerry’ Martin has been wild at heart since the time he was a kid. He grew up in a farmhouse, surrounded by animals and nature and at 17 started assisting the legendary Romulus Whitaker at the Madras Crocodile Bank. In fact, he was the bank’s youngest curator. From watching 31 baby cobras hatch in his room during a project to looking for crocodiles on camera, Martin has done it all. Today he shares his love for adventure with children and educates them about nature and animals through camps and workshops. He tells MetroMela how parents can get city kids away from the TV and closer to nature and even shares some of his favorite outdoor destinations.

   Gerry Martin started his career under the guidance of Romulus Whitaker at the Madras Crocodile Bank Trust in 1995. Although not academically qualified, he was eager to assist various scientists in their research and learned on the job! He has, over the last decade and a half, worked in educational reform, television and eco-tourism. Today, he runs The Gerry Martin Project – a company that focuses on enabling environmental and wildlife research and conservation. The Gerry Martin Project works closely with The Agumbe Rainforest research Station, The Madras Crocodile Bank Trust and the Andaman and Nicobar Environmental Team to create platforms for research and conservation.

Ranvijay Singh

Ranvijay Singh was born on 16th March 1983 to a family that has been in the Indian Army. His schooling was spread over nine different schools. He graduated with a degree in Commerce from Hansraj College, New Delhi.

He aspired to be a basketball player as a kid but decided to join the Indian Army like six generations of his family.

A penchant for bikes made him join Roadies, a reality show on MTV. He became the first winner of Roadies and his popularity and appeal prompted MTV to sign him up as a VJ on their channel. He now hosts Roadies and Splitsvilla, among other shows, and has a huge fan following.

He is a columnist for a news daily and is moving towards acting.

Ranvijay was dating MTV VJ Anusha Dandekar.

Ranvijay Loves….

Comics – Wolverine tops the list followed by Batman.

Bikes – He owns a Suzuki GSX 600, a Kawasaki Ninja, a 225 CC modified Hero Honda Karizma, a 50 CC Pocket bike and a Royal Enfield Bullet.

Ranvijay Singh’s Movies
Ranvijay Singh started acting with Mumbai Cutting (2009). He will be appearing in Vipul Shah’s London Dreams (2009) with stars like Asin, Ajay Devgan and Salman Khan. In Ekant, he will share screen space with Mahesh Manjrekar.

Baichung Bhutia

Baichung Bhutia was born on December 15, 1976 in Tinkitam, Sikkim, India.He is an Indian football player. He is considered to be the torchbearer of Indian football in the international arena. He is currently the captain of Indian team and plays for Mohun Bagan Club.

He started his education in St. Xaviers School, Pakyong, East Sikkim and won a eventually Scholarship SAI to attend the Tashi Namgyal Academy in Gangtok. He went on to play for several school and local clubs in his home state of Sikkim. A stellar performance at the 1992 Subroto Cup brought him to the notice of the football establishment. Former India goalkeeper Bhaskar Ganguly spotted his talent and helped him make a move to Calcutta football.

In 1993, at the age of sixteen, he left school to join the professional East Bengal Club in Calcutta. In 1995, he moved to JCT Mills, Phagwara, which went on to win the India National Football League that year. Bhutia was the top scorer in the league, and was chosen to play in the Nehru Cup. He was named "1996 Indian Player of the Year" and has won numerous other awards since then.

In 1997 he returned to East Bengal, and became team captain in the 1998-99 season. Baichung Bhutia has the unique distinction of scoring the only hatrick in the Derby Clashes between East Bengal and Mohun Bagan, when he registered the same in East Bengal's 4-1 triumph in 1997 Federation Cup Semi Final. In 1999 he travelled overseas to play for Bury F.C. after unsuccessful trials with both Fulham F.C. [1]and Aston Villa F.C.[2]with the move improving his conditioning and strategy. In 2002 he returned to India and played for the Mohun Bagan AC for a year before returning again to the East Bengal Club, helping them to win the Asean Cup (Association of South East Asian Nations) Club Championship. He signed up to play for Perak, the Malaysian championship club, from August to October 2003 and returning to East Bengal for the regular season. He continued to play for East Bengal till the end of 2005-2006 season. In 2006, he joined Mohun Bagan AC and has remained with them since then. He has recently renewed his contract for a further two years from 2008 to 2010 with the Mohun Bagan. He played in the Goal 4 Africa match held in the Allianz Arena, Munich on 12 July 2008 for the Edu team led by Clarence Seedorf and scored twice.He scored twice in the AFC Challenge Cup against Turkmenistan. He was also selected as the most valuable player of the tournament.

Tony jaa


A Muay Thai master whose formidable martial arts skills have dazzled action lovers in such films as Ong_Bak and Tom_Yum_Goong (aka The_Protector), Tony Jaa was first inspired to take up fighting when, at the age of 15, he first saw director Panna_Rittikrai's classic action film Born to Fight. A breathtaking martial arts masterpiece that proved to Jaa there were indeed opportunities for a young action star in Thailand, Born to Fight would inspire the impressionable viewer to begin training harder than ever before. Nicknamed Tony Jaa by Ong_Bak director Prachya_Pinkaew (the "T" in Tony stands for Thailand, and the "Jaa" is the actor's Thai nickname), the talented martial artist is better known in his native Thailand by the name Jaa Panom.


A native of the rural Surin province which is located some 200 kilometers northeast of Bangkok, Jaa took a cue from his Muay Thai-boxer father and began training at the age of ten. It was shortly thereafter that a Jackie_Chanmovie prompted young Jaa to begin a rigorous training regiment that would instill him with the deadly dexterity of his cinematic idol, with a subsequent, junior-high-school viewing of Born to Fight offering a vivid vision of a future in film. Granted permission by his father to seek out Rittikrai and ask permission to become the filmmaker's student, Jaa traveled to the nearby Khon Kaen province to meet the man who could make all of his dreams come true. It was over the course of the next three years that Jaa truly immersed himself in the film industry, rapidly rising through the ranks from water boy to best boy while constantly practicing martial arts during his down time. When Jaa graduated from senior high and Rittikrai recommended that the rising star refine his skills at the University of Physical Education in Sarakam Province; a stint studying Taekwondo, Bushido, Ju-Jitsu, gymnastics, and stick- and sword- fighting at the school provided just the kind of well-rounded education needed to expand his skills and take his career to the next level. Weekend training sessions withRithikrai soon convinced the veteran and star that his young protégé had the skills to truly shine on the big screen, with an invitation to join Rithikrai's skilled stunt team offering Jaa the irresistible opportunity to finally merge the artistry of film with the beauty of martial arts.

Hina Rabbani Khar



Born on 1977 in Multan, Hina Rabbani Khar is the daughter of Ghulam Noor Rabbani Khar and niece of Ghulam Mustafa Khar who are good politicians. Hina Rabbani is a popular Pakistani member of parliament, affiliated with the PPP. In 2003 to 2007, Hina Rabbani Khar served as the State Minister for Economic Affairs and Statistics as National Assembly member of PML-Q.

Education and Career:


In 1999, Hina done B.Sc Economics from Lahore University of Management Sciences and went on to earn a M.Sc. in Management from the University of Massachusetts in 2001. She was named to the World Economic Forum’s list of young global leaders in 2008. Hina Rabbani was elected as a member of National Assembly with a ticket from PPP from the constituency of Muzaffargarh, Punjab.

Saina Nehwal

What does it take to make a badminton star like Saina Nehwal? Ask her father Harvir Singh.

If Saina battles it out on the badminton court against the world’s best players, it has been no less a battle for her father to let her do the same.

Rarely a middle-class family can think of spending half of the monthly income on an eight-year-old child’s training without knowing if the gamble would pay off.

But Harvir Singh, a Scientist with the Directorate of Oilseeds Research Hyderabad, opted to go by the advice of PSS Nani Prasad Rao, the then badminton coach of the Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh (SAAP), who saw immense potential in the girl.

“I met Nani Prasad Rao in December, 1998, at Lal Bahadur Stadium in Hyderabad. Saina was standing with a badminton racket on the court and he asked her to play. After watching her game, he said,‘She has the potential and if you want to train her, bring her to me as a summer trainee,” Harvir said.

The tough journey had started. Saina had to be taken to the stadium every day early in the morning and the distance from the house was 20 km.

“It was a challenge for both of us because I had to wake up early so that we could reach the stadium by 6 am. The training session used to last for about two hours.

After attending the training session, Saina had to attend school. This way I had to drive my scooter around 50 km daily as Saina, apart from attending rigorous practice sessions, had to concentrate on studies,” her father explained.

The impact of this tough routine began to show in the first week as Saina would often fall asleep on the back seat.

Sensing the danger, Saina’s mother started accompanying them on the two-wheeler. This continued for three months.

Ultimately, the family had to arrange a house near the stadium in 1999. This time the distance was about 7 km from the stadium.

But the travelling ordeal did not end here as Saina was asked to attend evening training sessions as well.

“With an extra training session, the travelling expenditure rose to Rs 150 per day. Added to this was the cost of training. Shuttles, racket, shoes, guttings and what not had to be purchased regularly. I spent around Rs 12,000 every month to keep her going those days,” Harvir said.

But how did the family manage such high-cost training? Saina’s father revealed that he had to sacrifice his savings.

“I started withdrawing money from my provident fund. Sometimes it was Rs 30,000 and other times it was nearly Rs 1 lakh. It happened more than five times when I had to shell out money from my PF savings due to Saina’s various requirements,” said Harvir.

He stated that the tight-rope walk continued till 2002 until Yonex Sunrise sports offered to sponsor Saina’s kit.

“It came as a big relief. Fortunately, she got BPCL support late in 2004. Ultimately, she was spotted by Mittal Sports Trust in December, 2005.

“But I had never disclosed to Saina my financial difficulties fearing that she might get disturbed knowing that her father was left with no savings for the future,” he said.

When asked if they got any help from the sports authorities, the answer said it all.

“Till 2003, she was getting Rs 600 per month from the Sports Authority of India (SAI). It was raised to Rs 2,500 in June, 2003. You can understand how I could have managed,” Harvir said.

Apart from the training cost, hefty telephone bills put extra financial burden on the family when Saina started touring foreign countries for events.

The byte-crazy media played a part too. Wherever she went, be it the Philippines or South Korea, her phone kept ringing.

“A major part of the prize money that Saina got from big competitions like the Philippines Open and World Junior Championship was utilised in paying her mobile bills, which were between Rs 40,000 and Rs 50,000 in the touring months,” he said.

But was the prize money enough when she began her career? “Saina was given just Rs 300 as prize money after winning the under-10 state level competition, held in Tirupati in 1999. The period between 1999-2004 was very trying for the family as we did not get any sponsor for her,” Harvir said.

It was not only the financial burden but the risk of lagging behind on the educational front which added to the pressure.

Saina had to skip examinations twice. She did not take her first year intermediate exams because of the Melbourne Commonwealth Games and later in May, she could not write supplementary exams as she was in the Philippines.

At present she is studying in the second year at Saint Ann’s College, Mehdipatnam Hyderabad. Ironically, the family, despite her big success at the international level, has not been able to celebrate much.

David Blaine (king of street magic)

David Blaine was born April 4, 1973 in Brooklyn New York. He was raised in New Jersey by his single mother Patrice Maureen White. She was a school teacher, however, she took on as many as three jobs just to provide for her and little David.

At age four he saw a street magician perform in a subway; Blaine, fascinated with the magicians card tricks, decided to purchase his first trick, The Pencil Through the Card. David would practice magic with tarot cards given to him by his grandmother who was a gypsy.

Since he did not have the money to go to a magic shop, he spent countless hours in libraries researching magic. There he would read every book he could get his hands on and continued fiddling with his tarot cards.

At age five, he learned what his dream was; after showing a neighbor an effect with the tarot cards, he saw for the first time the impact magic can have emotionally on people. He immediately told his mom he wanted to be a showman and she strongly encouraged him in everyway.

In his teens, he began to develop an interest in acting. He traveled to Manhattan everyday to attend acting school. He did a few commercials and small appearances on soap operas. At sixteen, Blaine levitated for his doctor who immediately took him in for examination.When David was 21, his mother died of ovarian cancer at the age of 48. It was then that he devoted his life to magic.In his early twenty's, David was your regular street magician who got gigs at rich parties.

Because of his talent and mysterious persona, he was able to draw up connections to ABC. After seeing a tape of his magic, the producers requested an interview and began planning a special.

His first TV special, "David Blaine: Street Magic" was born and marked the beginning of a new era in magic for television. The special was not about grand illusions and theatrical lighting, but rather intimate miracles being performed in the streets before real people - a concept that had never been done before on TV. The show was an instant success and David was an overnight celebrity.

He has performed magic for many celebrities, such as Al Pacino, Jack Nicholson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mike Tyson and President Clinton. David has also made guest appearances on nearly every major talk show of that decade including Oprah, Conan O'Brien, Rosie, Carson Daily, and Howard Stern. Even Comedy Central's SouthPark has an episode featuring him.

Influenced by his idol, Harry Houdini, David Blaine decided to became an endurance artist. His first stunt, getting buried alive for seven days, had the approval of Houdini's granddaughter. He did the stunt to promote his second special, "David Blaine: Magic Man".

Since then, David has been frozen alive, immobilized while standing on a poll over a hundred feet from the ground, viewed hanging from a crane over the River Thames bridge in London and hanging upside down above New York's Central Park for 60 hours.

Most of his stunts usually involve enduring long periods of time without food, drink or sleep. David continues to push the envelope with each stunt.

Bear Grylls



Real Name – Edward Michael Bear Grylls
Date of Birth – 7 June 1974
Birth Place – Isle of Wight, England, UK
Height – 5′ 10¾” (1.80 m)
Spouse – Shara
Children – 3

Records of Bear Grylls

1. Bear Grylls has climbed in Everest and he had returned alive. He has entered in “The Guinness Book of Records” on 26 May 1998. Bare was in 23 year old only.
2. He has broken one record in 2005 by arranging one party on 24,500 feet high at table suspended beneath the warm air balloon.

Career of Bear Grylls
Bear Grylls has started served in SAS (British Special Air Services) from 1994 to 1998. Bare is black belt in Karate. He is very much experienced in climbing mountain. He started Man Vs Wild program at 2006.

Bear Grylls Motivational Speaker
Bear Grylls is also a great motivational speaker. He motivates people towards nature and life. He speaks, how to live life in extreme bad conditions, and then Bare has come in one program of United Kingdom called Man Vs Wild.

Bear gives huge ideas that how to survive your life even in unhappy condition. For this, he spend one week in the unknown and ruler places and let you know the living methods in un-living places.

Man Vs Wild
Man Vs Wild is the program show of Discovery Channel. Man Vs Wild has started at November 10, 2006. Man Vs Wild is being produced by British television production company Diverse Bristol. Bear Grylls shows that how to live in ruler places and extreme unknown places. Bear shows ultimate survival of a man in the show.

Bear is really very brave man. He is also having huge knowledge about the nature, natural foods, forests, animals and living methods. He himself creates the bad situation to let you understand that if you ever met with these accidents then how to come out with that. He makes you believe of nature and natural things. He always says that “A person can live any where in the world, if he or she is having courage to living”. For living your life, only courage is required.

He is continuing with Man Vs Wild. Every Tuesday, his program is been shown in discovery channel. He is telling more and more about survival things in forest. Today is 30 June 2009; I am finishing Biography of Bare Grylls by saying that “Courage is essential for living and surviving”.

Justin Bieber


Birthday: March 1, 1994
Birthplace: Stratford, Ontario, Canada

Listen to 16-year-old singing phenomenon Justin Bieber and you’ll realize he is light years ahead of other pop singers his age. Justin's first release, My World, went platinum and gave him the highest debut by a new artist. Justin was also the first artist to chart seven songs from a debut on Billboard's Hot 100!


It's hard to imagine Justin Bieber without his legion of screaming fans, but Justin had a humble start. After posting dozens of homemade videos on YouTube in 2007, putting his unique spin on songs from artists like Usher, Ne-Yo and Stevie Wonder, Justin racked up over 10,000,000 views on his own.

Arnab Goswami

Arnab Goswami  is an Indian journalist, and the Editor-in-Chief of the Indian news channel Times Now.
Arnab is one of the most respected journalist and an Icon in the media world. His incisive questions and no holds barred interviewing style have made him an icon for viewers. The prime time news show that he anchors has become a 'must watch' amongst English speaking audiences all over India and other neighboring countries.

Arnab began his career in TV Broadcast News with NDTV 24x7 where he did reporting for “News Tonight” a programme telecast on DD Metro. Later as the News Editor, Arnab was part of NDTV’s core team during the transition from programme producer to the 24-hour mode in 1998. He hosted the popular ‘Newshour’ show every weeknight. Newshour was seen as the agenda setting show on the channel and was the longest running news analysis shown on any channel (1998-2003). Newshour won a special mention for its news coverage at the 2003 Asian Television Awards. Among others, it featured the first full length interview with Sonia Gandhi, the government’s first televised account of the IC 814 hijack, full post budget shows with former Finance Ministers, live coverage from Agra during the Indo-Pak summit, reporting from China after the Pokhran tests and from Kathmandu post the royal family massacre riots. As a Senior Editor with NDTV 24x7, he was responsible for the overall editorial content of the channel. He hosted one of the channel’s top rated news analysis show ‘Newsnight’, which won an award for the Best News Anchor of Asia 2004 in the 2004 Asian Television Awards

Snehal Bhatt (Cobra Girl of India)



Snehal Bhatt the Indian Cobra girl. Snehal Bhatt has lead one women crusade to rescue the most dangerous snake Cobra, Pythons, Vipers. She is a social worker who workers 24 hours to rescue these snakes. Snehal Bhatt helps save people and snakes from each other. In a rare tribute, the National Geographic Channel has made a stunning film on this amazing animal activist who stays far away from the arclights preferring to do real work that has little time for publicity.

Bhatt and her volunteers have rescued thousands of snakes and released them in areas far from human habitation. Snehal also needs the villagers’ help in stopping her archenemies, the snake charmers, whose custom of destroying the venom glands ultimately kills the snake.

Snehal’s compassion for animals is matched by her anger at those who abuse them. ” I get very angry whenever I see a snake charmer. It’s like there’s a bomb inside me which is going to blow anytime. I don’t see him as a person at all. I just see how many snakes he’s killed. It’s a kind of thing I’ve developed from seeing these poor animals die daily.

In 1993, she founded the Gujarat Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals [GSPCA]. Aided by a group of volunteers, she runs this society from her home in Vadodara and is on call seven days a week, 24 hours a day.

Snehal Bhatt is an idol for every women. She Empowering Women aims to inspire women with the courage to break free. For those who think women cant do it Snehal Bhatt is the answer for all the men. She challanges and faces all the circumstances alone know the whole world follow’s her. She also filmed in a small documentary on her social work by National Geographic channel.

Zubeen Garg was born in 18 Novemeber, 1972 in Jorhat. His father Mohini Borthakur was a magistrate and his mother late Ily Borthakur was a house wife. He was named after great bollywood music composer Zubin Mehta. His father is a famous poet and lyricist and he used to write with the 'Kapil Thakur'. His mother was also very talented dancer and singer. In his childhood, his family used to travel various parts of Assam for his father's job. The whole family was very talented culturally and even both of his sisters Jonki and Palme.

Zubeen Garg started learning music from his childhood. He first learned Tabla and then assamese folk songs. Slowly he showed his talent in variousinstruments like mandolin, guitar, dhol, etc. He completed his formal education from Jorhat.

Zubeen Garg's debut assamese album 'Anamika' was released in 1992. It was a great hit assam and was start of a new era in Assamese music. This new voice had a special touch with modern age music in the songs. His music had influence of both western rock music and assamese folk music. Zubeen's songs took no time to get place in people's heart.

Zubeen's subesequent albums 'Asha' and 'Maya' were highly appreciated in Assam. He immediately reached the zenith of popularism. His every new album started providing his fans new tastes of music. Album like 'Mukti' had patriotic influences in it's music and lyrics. 'Meghor Boron', 'Xobdo', 'Rang' are albums that were well blended with folk, romantic, tragic music. Songs like 'Xunore Xojuwa' were influnced by both 'Bihu' and patriotism. Album 'Dilruba' was influenced by sufi music.

The album 'Paakhi' was dedicated to his late mother and had great emotional music. Another album 'Xixu'(Shihu), was decicated to his sister Jonki's sudden death who had been his singing copmanion for years. Lyrics of many Zubeen's songs are written by his father Kapil Thakur.

In late 90s, Zubeen went to mumbai to make his position in bollywood. As usual it was not a smooth path in bollywood. After a few hindi albums like 'Chandini Raat','Yuhi Kabhi', 'Shraddhanjali', he finally got the biggest break in Bollywood in the film 'Gangster'. The song 'Ya Ali' was one of the most popular hit of 2006. The song brought him the best playback singer Global Indian Film Awards(GIFA) in 2006. His next hindi album 'Zindagi' was released in 2007 which was highly appreciated.

Luis Lionel Andrés Messi




Birth day: June 24, 1987
Birthplace: Rosario, Argentina
Nationality: Argentinian
Other nationality: Spanish
EU passport: Yes
Height: 169 cm
Weight: 67 kg
Club: FC Barcelona
Position: Forward
Debut: 17 November 2003


Lionel Andrés Messi (born June 24, 1987 in Rosario) is an Argentine football (soccer) player.

Lionel Messi started playing football at a very early age in his hometown's Newell's Old Boys. From the age of 11, he suffered from a hormone deficiency and as Lionel's parents were unable to pay for the treatment in Argentina, they decided to move to Barcelona, Spain.

In the 2003-2004 season, when he was still only 16, Messi made his first team debut in a friendly with Porto that marked the opening of the new Dragao stadium. The following championship-winning season, Messi made his first appearance in an official match on October 16, 2004, in Barcelona's derby win against Espanyol at the Olympic Stadium (0-1).

With several first team players seriously injured, the services of several reserve team players were called upon, and Messi became a regular feature of Barça squads. On May 1, 2005, he became the youngest player ever to score a league goal for FC Barcelona - against Albacete when Messi was only 17 years, 10 months and 7 days old.

He was offered the chance to play for the Spain national football team, but declined, prefering to wait for the opportunity to play for the country of his birth. In June 2004 he got his chance, playing in a U-20 friendly match against Paraguay.
Lionel Messi wearing FC Barcelona's colorsIn June 2005 he starred for the Argentina U-20 team that won the Football World Youth Championship played in The Netherlands.Messi picked up the Golden Boot as top scorer with 6 goals, and the Golden Ball for the best player of the tournament. Despite his youth, Lionel has already drawn comparisons with Diego Maradona, arguably the best football player of all time.

On September 25, 2005 Messi obtained a Spanish citizenship and was finally able to make his debut in this season's Spanish First Division. He had previously been unable to play because FC Barcelona had filled up all of their quota of non-EU players.

Messi's first outing in the UEFA Champions League at the Nou Camp was on Sept 28 against Italian club Udinese. He impressed with some great passing and a seemingly telepathic relationship with Ronaldinho that earned him a standing ovation from the 70,000-odd Nou Camp faithful. On December of that year, the Italian newspaper Tuttosport awarded him the Golden Boy 2005 title for the best under-21 player in Europe, over Wayne Rooney and Lukas Podolski

Omar Abdullah



HE is a Indian Kashmiri politician and the scion of Kashmir's 'first family', the Abdullah family who became the 11th and the youngest Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir after forming a government in coalition with the Congress party, on January 5, 2009.

Prior to this he was a member of 14th Lok Sabha, representing Srinagar constituency of Jammu and Kashmir, India. He was a Union Minister of State for External affairs in Atal Bihari Vajpayee's NDA government, from July 23, 2001 to December 23, 2002, when he resigned from the post in protest against the violence in Gujarat in 2002.

He is the grandson of Sher-e-Kashmir, Sheikh Abdullah, who formed Kashmir�s first political party the Muslim Conference in 1932, which was later rechristen as National Conference. He remained the Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir 1948-1953, and also Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir two times, 1975 and 1977. After his death in 1982, his son Farooq Abdullah dominated the political arena for many years and remained the Chief Ministers of Jammu and Kashmir thrice in 1982, 1986 and 1996. Farooq�s son Omar joined politics in 1998, as a Lok Sabha member, a feat he repeated in subsequent three elections and also remained a Union minister; he took on the mantle of National Conference from his father in 2002, though he lost his own seat of Ganderbal during the 2002 state assembly elections, and so did his party, the political mandate; four year later, he fought once again from the very seat and won in the 2008 Kashmir Elections.


Omar Abdullah born 10 March 1970, is the son of Farooq Abdullah and grandson of Sheikh Abdullah, both have remained Chief Ministers of Jammu and Kashmir.His mother Mollie, a British Christian, and a Nurse by profession, was not in favor of him joining politics. Early on he studied at the Burn Hall School Srinagar. He later studied at the exclusive institution The Lawrence School, Sanawar. He is an alumnus of prestigious Sydenham College, Mumbai.After that he joined University of Strathclyde, Scotland, where he did his B.Com. and MBA.

He married Payal Singh, daughter of an Army officer, Kran Ram Singh from Delhi on September 1, 1994, and the couple had two sons, Zahir and Zamir hence . His sister Sarah Abdullah is married to Rajesh Pilot's son Sachin Pilot.

In 1998, he was elected to 12th Lok Sabha. In 1998-99, he was Member, Committee on Transport and Tourism and Member, Consultative Committee, Ministry of Tourism. He was the youngest Minister at the age of 29. In 1999, he was re-elected to 13th Lok Sabha (2nd term).[14] On October 13, 1999 he took oath as Union Minister of State, Commerce and Industry. On July 22, 2001, he became the youngest Union Minister, when he was made Union Minister of State for External affairs, a post he resigned from on December 23, 2002, as protest to the 2002 Gujarat violence.

On June 23, 2002, he became the President of National Conference replacing his father Farooq Abdullah.he was re-elected as party's President for a second term in 2006.

In March 2006, much to the disapproval of the centre, Omar Abdullah had a one-on-one meeting with Pakistan President, Pervez Musharaf in Islamabad. This was the first meeting of its kind between a main-stream politician from Jammu & Kashmir and the Pakistani government thereby re-enforcing Omar's growing commitment to the solution of the Jammu & Kashmir cause - no matter what the stakes might be; Omar received a rousing reception by thousands of Kashmiris upon his return from there.

On July 9, 2007, Omar escaped a bid on his life when suspected militants threw two rifle grenades targeted at him. The incident happened when Omar was interacting with party workers at a party leader's house.

On July 22, 2008, Omar gave a passionate speech during the 2008 Lok Sabha vote of confidence , which was praised by almost all quarters, and even won him fans on the net. He was also seen briefly, playing himself in director, Apoorva Lakhia�s film, Mission Istanbul (2008), based on international terrorism.

After the 2008 Kashmir Elections, the National Conference won the maximum number of seats, and formed a coalition government with Congress party, and Omar was sworn in as the 11th Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir on January 5, 2009 at the General Zoravar Singh Stadium in the University of Jammu, Jammu, raising hope amongst the people of Jammu and Kashmir who have been reeling under insurgency and violence since 1989 .As during the Election Campaign ,National Conference has accepted that Kashmir is yet to be resolved and Election is for governance whileas Separatists APHC (All Parties Hurriyat Conference) are for resolution of Kashmir Issue.Omar has promised to facilitate the talks between government of India and Pro-Freedom APHC leaders.

Humpy Koneru

Humpy Koneru (Telugu : కోనేరు హంపీ) (born 31 March 1987 in Gudivada, Andhra Pradesh) is a chess grandmaster from India. Her October 2007 FIDE Elo rating was 2606, placing her at number two in the world for women (behind Judit Polgar), breaking the record of 2577 set by Susan Polgar for the second-highest ranked female player in Chess history and becoming the second female player ever, after Judit Polgar, to cross the 2600 elo mark.[1] [2] Humpy was originally named Hampi (after the ancient city) by her parents but her father later changed it to Humpy, a more Russian-sounding name. She writes her family name (Koneru) before her given name[citation needed], as is the convention with Telugu speaking people. Humpy held the record from 2002 to 2008 for the youngest woman ever to become a grandmaster (not merely a Woman Grandmaster), which she achieved in 15 years, 1 month, 27 days, beating Judit Polgar's previous record by 3 months.[3] However she later lost this record to Hou Yifan. In 2001 she won the World Junior Girls Chess Championship. In 2006 she participated in the Women's World Chess Championship, but was eliminated in the second round.[4] In the Women's World Chess Championship 2008 she made it to the semi-finals, but was beaten by Hou Yifan.

Amrapali Ambegaokar

Amrapali Ambegaokar left her position as Principal Dancer in Cirque Du Soleil in over 730 shows over 2 years so that she could pursue her secret childhood dream of acting with the purpose of expanding her artistic career from the stage to the challenge of Film and TV. With recurring roles on Grey's Anatomy in 18 episodes and Guest starring roles on Heroes and credits on Desperate Housewives, Alias, Boston Legal, ER and films Gone Hollywood, Naach by Ram Gopal Varma, Extra Ordinary Barry and American Blend (as an actor, choreographer, dancer, vocalist), Amrapali has definitely expanded herself as an artist as she continues to achieve her dreams.

Amrapali Ambegaokar is known as a young International Master of Kathak (North Indian Classical) Dance and is "by far one of the best Kathak Dancers around." (Victoria Looseleaf - Los Angeles Times) and "a joyous monument to multiculturalism." (Lewis Segal - Los Angeles Times). "The strongest technical skills and performance personalities ...with the always remarkable Kathak performer, Amrapali Ambegaokar" and "Amrapali's acting is subtle and nuanced"- Los Angeles Times. Amrapali performed as a guest on season 5 of Fox's So You Think You Can Dance and also won the coveted Solo Silver Medal in the International hit show NBC's Superstars of Dance produced by Mastermind Producer and Director Nigel Lithgoe (American Idol, and So You Think You Can Dance) with a solo appearance on NBC's Today Show.

Having won numerous awards and accolades since childhood, Amrapali was famously the Principal Dancer of Cirque Du Soleil's Dralion in over 730 shows in 14 US cities. With performances on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and several major television appearances, Amrapali has been the Principal dancer of Anjani Dance Theater with highlights including The Hollywood Bowl, Ravinia Festival Chicago, World Music Institute NY, United Nations D.C., National Geographic Society and hundreds more since age 13 and is the disciple of Master and NEA Lifetime Achievement awardee Anjani Ambegaokar since age 3.

With a BA Honors from UCLA's World Arts and Cultures/Dance department, Amrapali's special honors also include The Music Center SpotlightAward, Celebrity Queen Azalea of the 62nd Azalea Festival as well as the U.S. National judge for Sony TV's Boogie Woogie Dance competition, Celebrity judge for the Miss Asian America Pageant and more. Amrapali is a pageant title holder as Miss Asian America Talent, Miss Asian California, Miss India North America Princess, Miss India North America Talent, and Miss India USA Talent. Since her early teens, Amrapali has graced the covers of The Los Angeles Times, Dance Magazine, Show Magazine, Parade Magazine, 002 Magazine, Celebrity Magazine, India Currents Magazine and so many others.

Amrapali was also invited to perform as a soloist for Dance Moves II held by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (The Emmys) Annual concert celebrating dance and choreography in film and TV. Amrapali also performed as a duet with Grammy award winning composer and Master Trumpeter Mark Isham in a Kathak/Jazz collaborative duet for the Celebrity Centre International's 40th Anniversary Gala ending off in a finale' with Legendaries Chakka Khan, Chick Corea, and Stanley Clarke.

Amrapali's choreography credits include live stage, pageants, film and television, music videos and commercials. Amrapali is recognized for her traditional work as well breaking boundaries by infusing Kathak with Flamenco, Hip Hop, Bollywood, Folk and modern styles. Amrapali feels blessed to be one of the leading artists today of Indo-American heritage flourishing in numerous artistic mediums Internationally and continues to serve as a true torchbearer of the arts.

Anoushka Shankar




Anoushka Shankar is a rising young star of the Indian sitar. She is a student, and daughter of the legendary Ravi Shankar.

She was born in London in 1982, and spent her early years shuttling back and forth between London and New Delhi. She gave her debut performance in New Delhi at the tender age of 13. Later, she moved to Encinitas, CA, where she graduated from High School with honours in 1999.

Although she is still very young, Anouskha has an impressive performing and recording career. She regularly accompanies her father in performances; this she has been doing for quite a few years. In 1998, she released her first solo album, "Anourag". Two years later, she released the Grammy nominated "Live at Carnegie Hall". Her stage career is very extensive, for she has performed in most of the world's major venues.

Anoushka Shankar's career is not limited to music. In 2002 she published a book entitled "Bapi, The Love of My Live"; this is a pictorial biography which pays special tribute to her father, Ravi Shankar. She has also acted in films; in 2003 she acted in the film "Dance Like a Man", where she plays a young Bharat Natyam dancer.

Anoushka Shankar's career continues to unfold, and we can expect to see many things from her in years to come.

Kumar Ram Narain Karthikeyan


Kumar Ram Narain Karthikeyan was born on January 14th, 1977 into an illustrious family renowned as much for its endeavours in education, enterprising businesses and philanthropic passion as it is on the racing circuit. Narain was quick to inherit the racing genes from his father Shri.G.R.Karthikeyan who was a former Indian National rally champion, winning the South India rally seven times.
Recognising his son’s love for the sport, Narain’s father had him enrolled into the prestigious Elf-Winfield School in France to undergo professional training. Since then, there has been no looking back for Narain.
Placing India on the world map of motorsport and called ‘The Fastest Indian in the World’ by Autosport (the world’s premier automotive racing magazine), Narain Karthikeyan continues to bring laurels to the country...
Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh has congratulated Narain Karthikeyan for winning the Feature Race in A1GP. Applauding Karthikeyan's victory, Dr. Singh said "He is a true representative of India's young spirit and he has set an example for the entire motorsports fraternity of India to follow."