A R Rahman- The Indian Maestro

'Brilliance' would be the word to describe A R Rahman, the renowned Indian music composer who has enthralled one and all ever since his debut as a Music Director in 1992 released 'Roja' which was directed by Mani Ratnam. There has been no looking back ever since for A R Rahman who was born January 6, 1966 in Chennai. His father R.K. Shekhar was himself a successful musician of his times.

A R Rahman has won many accolades both at the national and the international arena. He is a 4-time National Award winner and is having an exciting 2009 so far by bagging the BAFTA, Golden Globe and two Oscars at the 81^st Annual Academy Awards. His 2009 success primarily coming from his excellent musical contribution in Danny Boyle's India based movie 'Slumdog Millionaire'.

We are sharing a list of movies in which Rahman has contributed with excellent music and would request you to take a pick and nominate your favorite film or a song by this maestro musician or nominate any other than you can recollect:

1. Dil Se
   
2. Rangeela
3. Taal
4. Lagaan
5. Saathiya
6. Rang De Basanti
7. Bombay
8. Guru
9. Jodhaa Akbar
10. Slumdog Millionaire
    

Happy Voting!!

I remembered to switch off my lights between 8.30 - 9.30 PM (IST) to participate in world earth day. Hope you must have have also done the same.

Impact and Consequences of Tata Nano

Tata Nano- The World's Cheapest Car

A lot has been written about Tata Nano and what magical transformation it will achieve in the small car segment space by pricing it as the cheapest car in the world. Even we gave it a befitting tribute in our previous blog post the launch in Mumbai. No doubt the car deserves all the accolades it is getting for demonstrating to the world the finest engineering talents on a low-budget project. However, there are a few issues related to the Tata Nano that we thought of sharing with you.


Review by Dream Team:
We would most certainly not discuss the misses inside the car as we have already given a thumbs to the Tata Nano team of engineers for bringing to light a car under the price constraints that they were working under. What we want to discuss here are the future repercussions that the Launch of Tata Nano would have on the Indian road at large.

Tata Nano- Again A Thought

• Traffic Menace- What if the two-wheelers/three-wheelers in a metro city like Delhi or Mumbai get replaced by the worlds cheapest car? Subsequently, what will happen to the already choc-a-bloc traffic situation after the introduction of the Tata Nano on the Indian roads?
  
  
• Economic Upliftment- The Standard of Living is set to rise with the advent of Tata Nano as more and more people from the middle class will switch to the Tata Nano considering that it is a cheap option in comparison to other cars.
  
  
• Impact on Teenagers- The easy availability of Tata Nano in the Indian homes would lead to a lot of teenagers getting pampered and leading to increase in accidents.
  
  
• Exports- The exports will most likely rise in the wake of interests shown by a lot of countries over Tata Nano.
  
  
• Petrol- After the launch of Tata Nano, there will be further pressure on the depleting oil reserves of the world and High expenditure on petrol will lead to higher rates of inflation.
  
  
• Safety- Even though Tata Nano complies to the basic safety standards, the badly placed & uncovered battery right behind the drivers seat has raised some eyebrows amongst the auto experts and they have all criticised this faux pas by Tata Motors.
  

We value your thoughts on this. So keep it flowing Everyone :)

TATA Nano- Launched in Mumbai

Venue: Parsi Gymkhana Club, Mumbai
Date: 23rd March

A Dream - Realised

It was a realisation of a dream of Ratan Tata at the launch of the Tata Nano yesterday in Mumbai. The man was much relaxed after spending sleepless nights on his most prized project which had gone through various ups and downs in the course of its making. Ratan Tata, the Chairman of Tata Group had envisaged way back in 2003 to make a dream car for the common man of India.

“A promise is a promsie”, said Ratan Tata on NewLaunch of Tata Nano.

He kept the promise of keeping the standard version of the car at a price tag of Rs. 100,000/-

There will be other two variants of the Tata Nano, the CX and LX which will be available along with the standard base version.

As all great launches and inventions of all times even the worlds cheapest car, Tata Nano has not escaped criticism from people pointing out the misses inside the car.

What do you have to say?

What Will Be The Indian Rupee Symbol? ~ A Thought

We Thank everybody for the tremendous response to our blog titled: “WANTED: Symbol for the Indian Rupee.”

After going through the valuable comments posted by our readers it seems a given now that India needs a Rupee Symbol as soon as possible. BUT...

The Million Dollar question or in our case Million Rupee question is:

What should be this symbol?

We would like to put our dear readers to a test out here. Please unleash your creativity and give us suggestions as to what this symbol could be.

Draw it out here. Upload it on this blog.

{Hint: We feel it has to be a symbol that captures the true ethos and colors of India}

We also wondered post the release of the Rupee symbol, what would happen to:

A. All the Indian currencies in the market, will it be a Total Recall of every penny in the country or a just a large scale minting effort for new ones?

and

B. How would the IT world cope up with the new symbol on the zillion softwares and Personal Computers that are already existing minus the new symbol? Ever wondered: How would you type it?

In the end we conclude with an observation that it might not be as easy as it sounded with the announcement of this competition.

There would surely be a few hiccups along the way...

The Propaganda of Indian Election Begins

The upcoming elections in India, which is scheduled to be held in the month of April May 2009 is very important in the context of the development and stability of the country. We already have a party which has completed its full term of 5 years, and has indeed done a lot what could be called as an all round development. Now, with the news of fresh elections gathering up, every party is pitching the candidates not only to win the seats in the Lok Sabha, but also help it win the mandate too.

With the election's nearing, the Third Front element is also becoming stronger and stronger, since the exit polls showing a hung parliament as no single party winning the majority.

We have on one side Mayawati putting pressure on the leaders of the Third Front to declare her as their leader and the future Prime Minister, and on the other hand, we have the BJP which is declaring that it is them who would be coming out with a Majority. The Congress Party who already bought the famous Jaya Ho song of Slumdog Millionaire fame is riding high on the success of all-round development which the party has made an important part in its manifesto of these general elections.

Moreover, media is also actively participating to encourage the people to cast their vote, as we can see Aamir Khan coming out with the Times of India initiative called Lead India 09 which tells us not to vote for the criminals but to vote for the right people and that each one of us should cast their vote.

But according to us, the ball as always is in the court of the common man now, to decide and elect what is right and wrong for the future of this country, and would surely take the correct decision in making the the right choice this time too.

WANTED: Symbol for the Indian Rupee.

We are sure none of us never took notice of this amiss: India is minus a currency symbol.

Whether this was purely a fact missed by everyone or a conscious decision to not have a currency symbol till date. Whatever the reasons, steps have now been taken to proceed towards having a currency symbol of our own. The Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance India has thrown open a competition to the public for the design of the symbol for the Indian Rupee.

All the major currencies in the world like the Japanese Yen, U.S. Dollar, GB Pound, Euro etc. are represented through beautifully designed symbols and it is only a matter of time now that India will also turn up with one of its own. We thought of shaking up the creative bent in you by sharing this write-up on this bit of news which was not given due recognition by the media at large.

So what are you waiting for? Here is the motivation for you: A whopping Rs. 2,50,000/- in prize money announced by the Government for any one who comes up with a design by April 15, 2009.

For the detailed circular dated 26-Feb-2009, please visit http://finmin.nic.in/the_ministry/dept_eco_affairs/currency_coinage/cc_index.html

Happy Designing . . .

Sehwag Spectacle at Hamilton

After the two defeats at the hands of New Zealand in the Twenty20 series, India has bounced back with a spectacular show in the ODI-Series, wrapping it up 3-0 with one more match to go on Saturday.

India won the 4th One Day International at Hamilton on Wednesday. The kiwis managed to put up a good score after winning the toss and electing to bat. They piled up 270 runs in 47 overs and wouldn't have thought of India's walk in the park victory. Sachin's absence in the match would have surely comforted the kiwis before the start of the match and a total of 270 runs on the board was indeed a good follow-up score considering that India were minus the services of the little master. But never would they have imagined a sound thumping like the one they got at the hands of Sehwag and Gambhir.

Sehwag and Gambhir were unbeaten at 125 and 63 before the rain intervened and cut short the match. Duckworth Lewis system was put to use to give India its victory as they were 84 runs ahead of the at par score at the time the match was stopped because of rain.

Virender Sehwag's dazzling batting was a treat for all the cricket fans and most definitely the highlight of the match. He blasted off to his century in just 60 balls and thereby becoming the fastest Indian century maker in the process beating Azharuddin's record of 62 ball century. Sehwag remained unbeaten at 125 off just 74 balls, hitting 14 boundaries and 6 sixes to achieve this score.

This win gave India a resounding 3-0 lead in the 5 match ODI series. With the final match still to go at Auckland on Saturday, this series win in New Zealand after 33 years will surely lift up India's morale ahead of the Test match series.

International Women's Day

International Women's Day is on Sunday, 8^th of March. For the Woman of Substance. For the Woman you Love. For the Woman who is no less to a Man.

We Celebrate Womanhood

Come to think of it. "What would the world be without them?"

It sure would be Mayhem. This thought can not even be dreamt of and this day was kept especially to celebrate Womanhood in all its forms. The tradition continues...

India joins in the celebrations of Women's Day on 8^th March. Indian Woman have never been pushovers in any field and have proven themselves in every arena.

Indian Women Achievers~ Did you know?

• 1966- Captain Durga Banerjee became the first Indian woman pilot of the Indian Airlines.
• 1970- Kamaljit Sandhu became the first Indian woman to win a Gold in the Asian Games.
• 1972- Kiran Bedi became the first female recruit to join the Indian Police Service.
• 1989- Justice Fathima Beevi became the first woman judge of the Supreme Court of India.
• 1997- Kalpana Chawla became the first Indian woman to go into Space.
• 2004- Punita Arora became the first woman in the Indian Army to don the highest rank of a Lieutenant General.
• 2007- Pratibha Devisingh Patil became the first woman President of India.

The list continues......... and this settles the debate once and for all: Woman are no less in any field.

We wish all the Ladies a Happy Women's Day.

Happy Holi

Come Wednesday and there will be excitement and passion all over India with the Festival of Colors, Holi.

It is one festival that crosses all the man-made boundaries of caste, religion and culture and unites the people of India into a common thread of brotherhood. People come together on this day to play Holi with water and colors and greet each other by smearing colors on their faces. If you have color with you or not (you borrow), if you know the person or not (you follow). The Nike philosophy of "Just Do It" applies on this day. Holi simply unites people and promotes social harmony amongst all sections of the society.

To catch the best Holi celebrations one must witness the same in the state of Uttar Pradesh. In fact the celebrations have already begun in Brajbhoomi as we write. It is said that men from Nandagaon (Village of Lord Krishna) raid Barsana (Radha’s village) to raise a flag on the Radhika ji temple. The catch being that women from Barsana greet the men with a beating using long wooden sticks and colored water whereas the men have to be well padded as they cannot retaliate. Their only self-defense is water guns which they use at the ladies in order to distract them. This distinctive style of Holi celebrations is popularly known as 'Lathmaar Holi'.

True Colors of India wishes you all ~ Happy Holi

May God gift you all the colors of life,
colors of joy, colors of happiness,
colors of friendship,
colors of love and all other colors u want 2 paint in ur life.
Happy Holi.

Its Wroom Wroommmm Time on the Indian Roads...

Two power-packed premium sports bike from Honda have finally been launched in India.

HONDA CBR 1000RR and HONDA CB 1000R...

These sports bike would surely be a hit amongst the Indian youth for their sheer style factor.

HONDA CBR 1000RR (a.k.a. Fireblade)- Is priced at Rs. 12.5 Lakhs (Ex-Showroom) and is a killer of a sports bike with dazzling features which is set to be a winner on the Indian roads. The Combined Anti-Lock Brake System (ABS) is a welcome addition on a sports bike and will be a crowd puller as even the most experienced riders would find the Combined ABS system a handy feature in difficult riding conditions.

HONDA CB 1000R- With its compact and eye catching naked frame design, the looks of the new HONDA CB 1000R has impressed one and all. With its dynamic designing, a slim tail hood and mass forward position riding, this bike has been fine tuned for a breathtaking performance. This supe rbike is priced at Rs. 9.5 Lakhs (Ex-Showroom) and like its sibling the HONDA CBR 1000RR it is also available through select HONDA showrooms initially only in the four metros.

So for all the bike lovers, this is the time to hit it on with these HONDA marvels.

CHEER UP !!! Auto Sector...

It seems the bad days for the Indian Auto Sector are over.


Sounds MUSIC to your ears?


It's Today's News Byte: Sales of two-wheelers and cars have picked up in the month of February. We could see it coming, largely because of the Public Sector Banks opening up in extending loans and also the reduction in excise duty by 4% in the month of December. Another plausible explanation for a jump in the sales of automobiles in India seems to be the as a result of lower interests rate which are attracting those customers who were earlier reluctant to go for a vehicle purchase because of the high financing cost.


With the exception of Bajaj Auto every other prominent two-wheeler player in the market posted double digit growth figures in the month of February with Hero Honda recording a phenomenal 24% growth in sales taking it to 3.29 lakh motorcycles and scooters.


The month of February seemed to be a good month for the Indian Auto Industry and it seems that things are going to improve from here on since people who were holding it back because of expectations from the Union Budget are now going to most certainly go ahead with their decisions in the wake of the Post-Budget UPA Farewell Bonanza of a 2% cut in Excise Duty.


We just hope that it carries this way, not just for one sector but for all the other important sectors of the economy as well. This is one good news in the wake of the on-going global economic meltdown.


Check out your Dream Buy on http://www.surfindia.com/automobile/


So what are you waiting for? Go! Get it.