Meerabai Not Out - A wrong decision indeed

India – A land of enormous lingos, customs and religions fall invariably become united for 'Cricket'. Perhaps, some could wonder why cricket isn't picked as National Game since passion for this sport goes insatiable amongst millions here. Be a top-charting tycoon or a hapless chap, there are on with more enthuses when there's India in stadium.

Of course, here our Meera of that same sort for who cricket is larger than her life itself. She is so adhered with the sport that she cannot afford to miss the game on her day of engagement. Don't mistake by these vistas, it's a film dedicated to bats 'n' balls. It's a genre of romance all throughout and lacks solidity from-alpha-till-omega.

Well, these days we happen to spot filmmakers brimmed on with new innovative motifs. But appearing on the screen, they're disappointing with ill-timed narration. Naturally, Meera Bhai Not Out is off that sort where a novelty of filmmaker Chandrakanth Kulkarni gets spoilt by Soumik Sen's screenplay.

Meera Achrekar (Meera Bhai), a mathematics teacher at Vishwaprem Vidyalaya, has been a happy single for quite a while now. The great love of her life has been, and will always remain, cricket and Anil Kumble. The meticulous number cruncher is, despite not being the classic eye-candy-teenage-fantasy-fodder, a huge hit in class. And that's because Meera, unlike most teachers of her school, is more fanatical about her religion, cricket than even the school cricket captain! 

Living with her family in their small home in a Mumbai chawl, Meera was initiated into her temple of Wankhede Stadium by her brother, Manoj (Mahesh Manjrekar). Manoj Anant Achrekar played cricket at the Ranji Trophy level. Sadly, middle class making-ends-meet economics got the better of the impressive Maharastrian leggie, and passion had to make way for responsibility. Mahesh is today a cricket cynic. While Meera bunks classes and fights for season tickets to every cricket match that is played at Wankhede Stadium, Mahesh even steers clear off cricket scores! 

While the folk at Bhaktiyog Society have cast aspersions on her craze towards the game, the bigger problem that worries the Achrekar family is Meera's still-single status. Love suddenly blossoms with heart-specialist, Dr Arjun Sachdeva (Eijaz Khan) and Meera realizes that perhaps there is more to life than praying for Team India and Anil Kumble! However, in between this fabulous exchange of text messages, Valentine's Day outings and walks along Chowpatty, she confesses to Arjun that she is already married to cricket! 

So, while the maiden's heart beats for Anil Kumble and India's fortunes, the more important question is: will Meera be able to commit to her non-striker beau and keep her prospective father-in-law at bay?

Meera Bhai is enjoyable in certain parts, but at many intervals there's flimsiness in narration showing up. As mentioned earlier, it's not a flick dedicated to game of cricket but a romance film. Be it the factor of 'Cricket' or 'Romance', everything is unappealing.

What saves Meera Bhai from not getting out duck are the last few minutes of show. Imagine if one can spend couple of hours for experiencing the penultimate sequences. Yup! it's so ridiculous to see that Mandira Bedi on her day of engagement fleets to stadium for cricket match. Even if she's so passionate about it, the better option could've been glimpsing it on TV Box. It's out of the question in reality for a woman would urge herself to watch a match for Indian team, especially Anil Kumble sacrificing her most important occasions.

Don't miss the cricket match between in-laws (Mahesh and Eijaz). It's the only area where auteur is worth winning grand round of applause. Perhaps, it would have been nice if they were spelled still more entertaining.

Mandira does justice to her role and maybe director has tried presenting her with kind of image that many of our Indian women are so. Possibly, not adhered to cricket matches but Saas-Bahu manias.  There is nothing such flaw painted on Mandira's character. Mahesh Manjrekar fails to make it big while Eijaz Khan deserves best credits. Anupam Kher with clichéd performance steals the show and it's merely disappointment from Pratiksha Lonkar. Anil Kumble is fair to middling with his minimal part.

It's dashing down with our hopes with technical aspects. Neither music nor cinematography is so striking. Music Director Sandesh Sandilya seems to have put forth his best efforts on just one number for promos.

On the whole, Meera Bhai Not Out isn't a delightful watch and 'Not Out' on the title maybe a faulty conclusion. Watching this film is alike Sunil Gavaskar scoring 50runs in 50 overs...

http://www.indiaglitz.com/channels/hindi/review/10710.html

'Knighthood' for Shah Rukh Khan

Shah Rukh Khan on Saturday became the first foreign actor to be conferred the title of Datuk, akin to a British knighthood, at a special ceremony in Malaysia.

Shah Rukh responded by announcing that he would shoot an entire film, tentatively titled 'Happy New Year', in Malaysia next year.

 

"There is a film I am planning some time in August and September and will send a team down to look around," The Star Online quoted him as saying.

 

He would also help develop the Malaysian movie industry that has had directors like Phani Mazumdar and Ritwik Ghatak making films.

 

On how he felt about his Datukship, the actor said that it was an honour not only for him but also for all actors from India.

 

"I am very happy that I have found a big space in the hearts of people here," he added.

 

Resplendent in a black baju Melayu, samping and songkok, the traditional Malaysian attire, he received the state award from Melaka Yang Dipertua Negeri Tun Mohd Khalil Yaakob, the royal constitutional head of the state.

 

The 43-year-old actor held the estimated 1,000 guests at the investiture spellbound as he received the Darjah Mulia Seri Melaka (DMSM), conferred on him in conjunction with the 70th birthday of the royal chief on October 11.

 

Shah Rukh was tied down by a busy work schedule and could not fly in from Mumbai to receive the award in October or on the later date, Nov 29.

 

He arrived at the venue, Dewan Seri Negeri, at 10.55 a.m. and kept smiling and waving to his fans as he was escorted into the hall, Bernama, the official Malaysian news agency reported.

 

The actor was the focus of attention of the local and foreign photographers as well as guests who clicked away on their camera phones from their seats in the hall.

 

At the end of the investiture, the guests took the opportunity to have photographs taken with Shah Rukh.

 

He has received over 40 awards in the entertainment and film industry including, the Screen Award, Zee Cine Award, NDTV Award and International Indian Film Award.

 

He had acted in the Hindi film, 'One 2 Ka 4', that has scenes shot in Malaysia, including at the A Famosa Resort in Alor Gajah.

 

At a joint news conference with the chief minister, Shah Rukh Khan repeatedly thanked Khalil and the Melaka state government for the award bestowed on him.


http://entertainment.in.msn.com/bollywood/article.aspx?cp-documentid=1718167

XpressVu™ DUAL TUNER PCI EXPRESS DVB-S/S2 CARD

                                    The XpressVu Dual Tuner PCIe card is the latest in innovative
solutions from Cerona Networks. The XpressVu can receive and decode DVB Linear video or DVB IP broadcasts and deliver those streams via a high-speed Ethernet connection. PCI-Express is a radically new implementation of the PCI computer bus that uses existing PCI programming concepts and communications standards, but is based on a much faster serial communications system. The result is superior performance with twice the capability and reliability.

The XpressVu PCIe Card enables operators to deliver highvalue content using their existing bandwidth and infrastructure. Whether "turbo charging" an existing VSAT network or eliminating Internet bottlenecks, the XpressVu is ideally suited to applications such as:

. Streaming audio and video . Retail Kiosks . Distance Learning . Web caching . Digital Signage . IPTV . High-speed Internet delivery . Content Distribution . Corporate LAN/WAN interconnection . IP Multicasting

The XpressVu is a single PCIe card with two integrated tuners
each capable of up to 80 Mbps of data as either independent
links from one or two separate satellites. Use one tuner in DVB-S and the other in DVB-S2; or in a combination of multiple transponders and modes. The XpressVu PCIe Card is the ultimate in flexibility for any satellite network.

The XpressVu is based on Cerona's DVB-S2 broadband router
module architecture, which offers up to 80Mbps in a fully routed
implementation, and is backward compatible with existing
DVB-S networks. The XpressVu delivers tremendous cost savings during network upgrades to DVB-S2.

WEB MANAGABLE

One of the hallmarks of Cerona's products is the ease in which
network administrators can manage and configure the systems.
SNMP manageable, the XpressVu also provides a Web Daemon
for easy Internet Web browser-based network management.

http://www.cerona.com/technology-xpress-card.html?gclid=CJrAhpe1sJcCFQbPbwodF2Aaig

Life Insurance of India has new Aastha “Jeevan Aastha”

Life Insurance of India (LIC) has introduced a new single premium plan called "Jeevan Aastha" today.  This plan is open only for 45 days. I would suggest this plan for those who prefer Bank Deposit (FD).  Jeevan Aastha is as good as Bank deposit plus Insurance. You need to pay only ONE time premium.
Jeevan Aastha ( Plan No. 195)

Features and details:

1. Availability: 08-12-2008 to 21-01-2009
2. One time payment plan
3. Guaranteed Returns + Loyalty Additions.
4. High Risk Cover
5. convenient Terms (5 Yrs and 10 Yrs)
6. Tax Rebate and Tax Free maturity

Maturity Benefits: Maturity Sum Assured along with Guaranteed Addition and Loyalty Addition, if any, Shall be payable. ( Maturity Sum Assured shall be 1/6th of Basic Sum Assured)

Death Benefit:
During the first policy year: Basic Sum Assured with Guaranteed Addition
After 1st policy year excluding last policy year: 1/3rd of Basic Sum Assured with Guaranteed Addition
During last policy year: 1/3rd of the S.A. Guaranteed Addition and Loyalty Addition, if any.

Guaranteed Addition:
Rs. 100 per thousand of Maturity Sum Assured per year for a policy of 10 years term.
Rs. 90 per thousand of Maturity Sum Assured per year for a policy of 5 years term.

Eligibility Conditions and Restrictions:
a:) Minimum Entry Age: 13 Years completed
b:) Maximum Entry Age: 60 Years ( Nearest birthday)
c:) Minimum Basic Sum Assured: Rs. 1,50,000/-
d:) Maximum Basic Sum Assured: No Limit
j:) Large Sum Assured Rebate: Available
e:) Policy Term: 5 or 10 years
f:) Mode of premium payment: Single Premium
g:) Loans: Available after 1 year
h:) Back dating interest: Allowed @ rate of 10% (for dating back in excess of one month)

Again, this policy is good for 45 days only. Make your decision fast. For more details visit your nearest LIC branch or call your LIC advisor.

http://www.mylicindia.com/life-insurance-of-india-has-new-aastha-jeevan-aastha/

LIC's new plan : JEEVAN AASTHA

LIC"S JEEVAN AASTHA
Guaranteed Returns. One time investment.{5 or 10 years}.For 5 years Guaranteed additions Rs.90/1000 sum assured. ENCASHABLE after one year.Investments and Returns are tax free. Loan facility/Encashable after one year.Age 13 to 60 years. Limited period offer.

Contact for more details. 9941270190/044-22425886


http://www.chennaiclassic.com/1_Chennai/posts/6_Financial_Services/40_Insurance/207936_insurance.html?view=showad&adid=207936&cityid=1

State Election Result for Delhi

!

http://cribb.in/state-election-result.htm

Mumbai Attack: Top LeT man played vital role in training

Investigations into the November 26 terror attack on Mumbai have further established the role of the top leadership of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT)

in the grisly crime.

According to sources, arrested terrorist Ajmal has told them in detail about the direct involvement of Zakiur Rahman, alias Chachu, in the assault on Mumbai. Zakiur, one of the senior-most Amirs of Lashkar, has so far been known for keeping a distance from the cells that the terrorist outfit routinely sends to cause mayhem in India. In this instance, Chachu - called so because of his seniority - was at hand to see off the group when Ajmal and his fellow jihadis set out from Karachi's Azizabad to strike at Mumbai.

Top ATS sources said Zakiur's personal involvement denotes the importance that Lashkar attached to the latest of a series of terror offensives against Mumbai.

Sources disclosed that a joint intelligence committee on November 19 had sent a message to the Coast Guard and other authorities concerned saying that they had intercepted a telephonic conversation wherein the caller had said, '' Hum pahunch rehe hain (we are reaching)''. The suspicious call was decoded and an alert was sent to all authorities.

According to police, they found a Pakistan-based mobile number in the satphone seized from Ismail who was killed in an encounter near Girgaum on the night of the blasts. The city crime branch probing the terror attack case called up on that number where the receiver asked in Urdu, '' Who is speaking?'' the officer replied, '' Allah ka banda.''

Hearing this, the receiver hung up the phone. In another find which will further tie Lashkar to the crime, the satphone, which contains several international numbers, has a mobile number on which Fahim Ansari (35), an LeT operative, had made several calls before he was arrested in February by the UP Special Task Force (STF).

Ansari was part of the Lashkar cell which attacked the CRPF camp in Rampur in UP on January 1. His interrogation revealed a Lashkar plot to attack Mumbai. Ansari was also accused of doing a recce of more than 12 places in Mumbai for two months. They included Hotel Taj Mahal, Hilton Tower, the police commissioner's office, the state police headquarters and Churchgate station. Following Ansari's revelations, the anti-terrorism squad (ATS), which later arrested Ansari, had then said that an organised and well planned strategy was being adopted by the LeT to target the country's financial capital.

Ansari had also disclosed that LeT was planning a severe terror strike in Mumbai and that he had been asked to look for two safe houses, one for himself and the other to store weapons.

Crime branch chief Rakesh Maria had said the militants were to return after taking hostages with them. It is also learnt that the GPS on Kuber, the boat which was used by the 10 terrorists, had a set time of 11.30 pm (Friday) in the clock.

Police said that a resident of Motilal Nagar in Goregaon, Ansari had spent six months at a training camp in Pakistan's Muzaffarabad after he went missing from Dubai where he was employed in a printing press.

 

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/PoliticsNation/Top_LeT_man_played_vital_role_in_training/articleshow/3783711.cms

Mumbai attacks to hit tourist arrivals in India

Tourist arrivals in India are set to take a knock following the deadly attacks in Mumbai last week, which have triggered travel

warnings from the United States to Australia on visiting the country. Vijay Thakur, president of the Indian Association of Tour Operators, said on Monday he expected a 10-15 percent fall in arrivals in the tourist season that runs from October to April.

The attacks by Islamist militants on India's financial hub, which killed nearly 200 people last week, many of them in Mumbai's two luxury hotels

will scare visitors away at least for some time, he said. "This incident is very unfortunate," Thakur said. "Because of the global crisis, there is some decline already."

A global financial crisis had taken a toll on foreign tourist traffic, with arrivals in October up just 1.8 per cent from a year earlier compared with double-digit growth in the last five years. Much of the poor growth was due to rapidly slowing economies in the United States and Britain, whose citizens made up a large portion of the 5 million tourists in India in 2007.

"After the news about the terrorist attack there was a steep decline in bookings from Russian tourists with many cancellations to Goa," an official of the Association of Russian Tour Operators said. One Briton of Indian origin, who did not want to be identified, said she was waiting for further news on the safety of Mumbai and other parts of India before coming over to see family and friends.

"The English media is making you think war is not impossible," she said in an email. The United State, Britain and Canada have cautioned their nationals against visiting India, while Singapore and Australia have asked their nationals to review plans after the attacks, and Thakur said there would be cancellations.

"Looking at the future bookings and the trends, our members feel it is not very encouraging," he said. At least two conferences were rescheduled after the attacks. A private equity meet in Mumbai, scheduled for December 4 and 5, was moved to February, while global consultancy KPMG indefinitely deferred a Dec. 2 conference in New Delhi.

Between January and October, 4.3 million foreigners toured India, 9.4 per cent more than the same period last year, according to tourism ministry data. Tourism contributes more than 6 per cent to India's GDP of $1 trillion, and employs 53 million people directly or indirectly. In 2007, foreign tourists spent $10.7 billion in India.

 

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/PoliticsNation/Mumbai_attacks_to_hit_tourist_arrivals_in_India/articleshow/3779887.cms

5 terrorists still missing

TODAYS BREAKING NEWS

 

 

Mumbai police to Times Now: 5 terrorists went back to Pakistan | Central agencies differ with Mumbai police over number of terrorists

Captured terrorist says he has no regrets about Mumbai mayhem

Captured terrorist A A Qasab has told his interrogators that he had no regrets about carrying out his mission of mayhem in Mumbai this week,

in which the death toll so far is 195 and the injury toll 295.

On Saturday evening, he told Mumbai Police that the terrorist group that reportedly came out of Karachi via the sea route undertook the terrorist mission to avenge the death of Palestinians, and therefore, one of the main targets identified by them was Nariman House, which housed a Jewish synagogue visited by Israelis.

The landmark Taj Mahal Palace Hotel was also targeted by the Faridkot resident and his fellow terrorists with the objective of attracting the maximum global attention, as the venue had frequent foreign visitors and guests. The terrorists also had plans to enter the Times of India building, but changed it after Qasab was fired upon by the police.

Qasab, the lone terrorist in police custody till the second week of December, said: "We wanted to blow up the Taj," and added that the terror mission was planned at least four months ago.

He said that a detailed recce was undertaken four months ago by another group, which included taking satellite pictures of the hotels and various locations and preparation of detailed maps.

The terrorists, he told his interrogators, booked rooms in the Taj where they kept their ammunition. They booked room 630 for four days using fake identity cards from Mauritius. Posing as Malaysian students, they had many visitors.

The police are now trying to locate these visitors.

He has also said that he and his associate Ismail Khan were the ones who shot Mumbai Anti-Terrorism Squad Chief Hemant Karkare, and top cops Vijay Salaskar and Ashok Kamthe. Salaskar was the first to be killed followed by Kamthe and Karkare.

Qasab also revealed names and addresses of at least five locals in the city who helped in facilitating the terror operation. These people are said to have provided shelter, escorted them around and passed information on police stations and check posts, besides prominent landmarks.

Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Rakesh Maria said: "We suspect there could be local assistants, but it is subject to verification. It will be very premature to comment on this at this stage as our investigations are going on. "All the (identity) cards are in different names and of different banks. Now, we are at least trying to figure out how they procured credit cards from various banks.''''

Meanwhile, the Internet Protocol address of the Deccan Mujahideen, the group that sent an e-mail claiming responsibility, has been traced to outside India and police are now saying that the involvement of Dawood Ibrahim, the mastermind of the 1993 serial attacks in the city cannot be ruled out.

Maria also told reporters here last evening that the police believe there could be another two or more terrorists still in the city.

 

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/PoliticsNation/Captured_terrorist_says_he_has_no_regrets_about_Mumbai_mayhem/articleshow/3778396.cms

We wanted to hit CST at peak hour: Kasab

Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab (21), the terrorist arrested by Mumbai Police, has told his interrogators that their plan was to get off the dinghy near the fishing village at Badhwar Park, Cuffe Parade, at dusk and strike all targets except Nariman House between 7 pm and 8 pm. However, the landing was delayed and they reached at 8.45 pm.

''They knew that the crowds at CST would be thickest at 7.30 pm and their bullets would cause the greatest harm,'' said an officer on condition of anonymity. Kasab told interrogators that Cama hospital and Metro cinema were not in their plan which was to take hostages at CST and return to base by hijacking a boat off the Gateway of India.

The duo opened fire at platform no 13 of CST station, which caters to outstation trains, around 9.45 pm. Then, they walked towards the concourse of the local train station. By then, the commuters had dispersed. Afraid that they would be spotted and shot, they exited the station from the foot overbridge on the Northern end, walked past the Times of India building and went towards Cama Hospital.

According to Kasab, this was not in the plan. At Cama hospital, they encountered a police team led by additional commissioner Sadanand Date. When cornered , they lobbed grenades, injuring Date and two constables, and fled towards Rang Bhavan, where they killed five more policemen , including ATS chief Hemant Karkare.

Their landing was delayed because it took them some time to locate a trawler to hijack off the coast of Porbandar.
 

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/PoliticsNation/We_wanted_to_hit_CST_at_peak_hour_Kasab/articleshow/3782518.cms

Terror mail routed through Pakistan's Lahore

Indian agencies tracing the source of the email

sent by an outfit calling itself Deccan Mujahideen to a TV channel claiming responsibility for the terror attacks on Mumbai have found that the text was routed through Lahore in Pakistan before travelling to different locations through anonymous "remailer" service.

Though other locations are yet to be traced, the experts — who took help of different foreign agencies — found that the terrorists used a Russian server to avail the remailer service which is the most secure and least traceable way to send emails.

An official said the text document sent by the hitherto unknown Deccan Mujahideen was generated using voice-recognition software which allows dictated text to be typed in Devnagri script.

Contrary to the normal Internet service which can easily trace the origin of an email through IP address

of a particular computer, the remailer service not only deletes IP address but also all details including the sources from where someone might have requested for the secret service.

"There are a number of software available for the remailer service that lets one send anonymous email easily through a web interface. Some others make it really easy to send email messages

that can only be viewed for a certain time and one can remain anonymous to boot," an official said.

In the wake of terror attacks on earlier occasions, Indian Mujahideen — a splinter group of the banned SIMI — had sent as many as five emails written in English. While the first two, after serial blasts in UP courts and Jaipur, were sent from cyber cafes in Delhi and Sahibabad respectively, the remaining ones had been sent using Wi-Fi system from Mumbai after serial blasts in Ahmedabad and Delhi.

"Origin of all these emails were traced within hours through the IP addresses. But this time, the terrorists made the task of the cops tough due to use of remailer service," the official said.

Investigators believe that the terror masterminds might have done this knowing the fate of earlier emails -- yet another pointer of their being associated at some level even though the earlier strikes had been carried out by locals in the name of IM.

 

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/PoliticsNation/Terror_mail_routed_through_Pakistans_Lahore/articleshow/3782530.cms