Archive for » January, 2010 «
I am luvin it …..
I love those McDonald ads where they show snacks at affordable rates from the times of our fathers.
There are some other things as well from mere pitaji ka zamana. I remember a good sher which my late father often recited and I have loved it for ever…...
Deeye nein sarr par aag rakh karr kasam khaee hai Bakhuda,maine nahin jalaya iss parwaaney ko.
Fannah honney ke baad,parwaaney ki mayyiat bhi nahi uththtee.
Gunehgaar-ey-muhabbat ka yahi anjaam hota hai. Karrey koi,bharrey koi,nigaahein zulm karti hain
Aur dill badnaam hota hai !
A rough translation of above for those who are not so proficient in Urdu and Hindi:( By Shernaz Wadia )
The earthen lamp has just confessed
With a burning flame atop its head:
“Oh God, I would like to clearly state
I am not responsible for the charred moth’s fate!”
There’s none at all, to cremate the one such doom awarded ~
Prisoners of passionate love always, are so rewarded.
Someone else often pays for the faults of another,
The eyes are guilty – the heart with blame they smother!
Mukesh Ambani, who heads India’s most valuable company Reliance Industries the world by the prestigious Harvard Business Review.Ambani, the only Indian to feature among top 50 CEOs, is in the same league as Steve Jobs of Apple, Yun Jong-Yong of SamsLimited (RIL), has been ranked among top five best-performing CEOs in ung Electronics, Russian energy firm Gazprom’s Alexey Miller and John Chambers of Cisco Systems.He is also ranked number two among the top 10 emerging market CEOs with Miller at the top.K.V. Kamath of ICICI Bank is the other Indian in the list of Top 10 Emerging Market CEOs. He is ranked at number 9.HBR said it ranked CEOs of large public traded companies in a study conducted over 2000 CEOs worldwide. The entire group represented 48 nationalities and companies based in 33 countries.It put Ambani in the list of “up-through-the-ranks leaders” along with the Samsung boss.”Among the up-through-the-ranks leaders on our list are Yun Jong-Yong, who joined Samsung straight out of college and worked there 30 years before becoming CEO, and Mukesh Ambani, who joined RIL in 1981, when it was still a textile company run by his father. “These CEOs may not all be household names, but here’s an objective look at who delivered the top results over the long term,” HBR said, ranking Steve Jobs as the top CEO in the world.Jobs, it said, delivered a whopping 3,188 per cent industry-adjusted return (34 per cent compounded annually) after he rejoined Apple as CEO in 1997, when the company was in dire strait.From that time until the end of September 2009, Apple’s market value increased by USD 150 billion.He was followed by Yun Jong-Yong, who ran South Korea’s Samsung Electronics from 1996 to 2008. “Yun is an example of a leader who has stayed out of the limelight. During his tenure he capably transformed Samsung from a maker of memory chips and me-too products into an innovator selling digital products such as leading-edge cell phones.”Miller was number 3 followed by Chambers.HBR said none of the top three CEOs had an MBA. Ambani and Chambers were the only two on the top five to hold degrees in business administration.”CEOs who were promoted from inside the company tended to have stronger performance than those brought in from the outside,” said HBR.Several CEOs that were “most respected” according to other reviews were nowhere in HBR’s top 50. These include Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase, Satoru Iwata of Nintendo, Sam Palmisano of IBM and Rex Tillerson of Exxon Mobil.Many other celebrity CEOs also failed to make the cut.They include Carlos Ghosn of Renault-Nissan, Sergio Marchionne of Fiat, John March of Morgan Stanley, Jeffrey Immelt of General Electric, Daniel Vasella of Novartis and Robert Iger of Walt Disney.”Some of these well-known CEOs have not necessarily done poorly; they are just not among the top performers in the world according to the total shareholder return they have delivered so far,” HBR said.The likes of Jack Welch, Warren Buffett, Larry Ellison and Bill Gates do not find mention in the list as HBR considered CEOs who assumed the job no earlier than January 1995 and no later than December 2007.“On an average the top 50 CEOs increased the wealth of their shareholders by USD 48.2 billion,” it said. They delivered a total shareholder return of 997 per cent during their time in office. That translates into a spectacular annual return of 32 per cent.
NEW DELHI

A High Court ruling in September 2009 made it possible for Hindus to adopt two children of the same sex. This is not allowed under the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act (HAMA) but Justice Chandrachud held that the Juvenile Justice Act, 2000, with a more secular approach towards the adoption of children in need of care and protection, prevailed over the 54-year-old HAMA.
Today, after Justice V M Kanade allowed Sen’s adoption petition, Sen said, “Adoption is about reverence, it’s not charity. More and more people should come forward to adopt. We believe in ties of the heart, not just those of blood. I will adopt as many children as I can raise.”
Alisah had been declared free for adoption by the Bal Vikas Shishu Welfare Trust at Malad on November 11.
This is the full article of Marjorie Hershey:
The Beauty of Adoption
If you were to form an opinion about adoption based on media coverage, you’d probably conclude that it was a mess. Babies snatched from ambivalent birth mothers. Crying toddlers ripped from their families by birth parents who changed their minds. Teenagers searching for their “real” parents and discarding their adoptive families like out-of-style clothes.
Those are the media images. They have little to do with the reality experienced by most adoptive families. Nevertheless, the media’s focus on “problems” posed by adoption encourages a very distorted view of a vital and wonderful institution. If you were part of an adoptive family, this is some of what you might hear:
“Do you have any REAL (or natural, or biological) children?” News flash: children who come into their families through adoption are real, natural, AND biological. As Miss Manners points out, they are not polyester. Language makes a difference. What should we call little people who become part of a family because of adoption? Simple. We should call them that family’s children.
“Who are their ‘real’ parents?” Say, what? We are the people who were sleep-deprived during their infancy. We are the people who paid for their braces. We are the people who cry with them when things don’t go well. We are the people who live through their teenage years. If that isn’t “real” parenthood, what would you call it?
“You are so kind to have adopted a child.” You give us too much credit. Adoption is not charity. People adopt children because they want to have children, and adoption is one of the ways that children come into a family. We are not the United Way. An act of charity, no matter how commendable, normally takes place occasionally and at a distance. Parenting a child is up-close and personal. Our commitment to our children, like any other parents’, is total. It does not depend on sympathy, pity, or a desire to feel good.
“I couldn’t love an adopted child as much as one of my own.” Many people seem to believe that a genetic tie is necessary for a happy family. If that were so, presumably you would love your husband or wife much less than you love your brother or sister. After all, you have a direct genetic link to your siblings; you don’t, I hope, to your spouse.
This belief seems to underlie much of the media treatment of particular families. In reports of child abuse, for example, reporters seem to find it necessary to indicate if the perpetrator or the victim was adopted. Do they feel they’re helping to explain the tragedy? Is it that people with direct genetic ties would not ever hurt one another? Carefully-done studies show that adopted children, especially those adopted very young, are just as well-adapted, healthy, and smart as are non-adopted children. But some children become available for adoption because they were abused or neglected by their birth families, and even years of loving care may not cure the anger that was thus sown.
“I want a child who looks like me.” Look at a newspaper photo of a Little League team. Without looking at the legend, guess which child is the son or daughter of each coach. Chances are, you’ll be wrong at least half the time. “Looking like” is a matter of perception and expectation at least as much as physical reality. I couldn’t count the number of times I’ve been told that my tall, blond, blue-eyed oldest daughter looks like me. I’m small, brown-eyed, and brunette. Trust me, we don’t look like twins. But we are mother and daughter; people expect us to resemble one another, and so they find the ways in which we do. Unless one of us grows another nose, they will continue to find the resemblances between us. “I don’t want the possibility of a birth parent taking back the child.” Fortunately, that possibility is slim, especially when adoptions are handled by licensed agencies. Granted, it may happen much later. With the Geraldo-ization of American life, we are inundated with romanticized stories of tearful meetings of children with their birth mothers.
Many years ago, it was considered shameful to admit that you were adopted. Now, given the tendency of the culture to lurch from extreme to extreme, it has become almost expected that adopted children will search for their birth parents. At some point, we will build up enough experience with birth parents who would rather not be “found” and with adopted children who discover that their birth parents have as many warts as their adoptive parents, that the situation will come into better balance.
“Adoption is expensive.” Is it ever. That’s a shame, though I understand why it’s so. Just as families do not grow their own babies for free—hospitals and doctors do send bills for their services, no matter what—licensed social workers and various other safeguards, to make sure that these precious little lives are protected, cost money.
The legislation passed by Congress and signed by President Clinton to provide tax breaks for adoption was much needed and should be made permanent. One function of the tax code is to encourage behavior that helps society. Adoption, like the tax break for homeowners, clearly does that.
It’s not easy to convince some people of the beauty of adoption. There are some who go so far as to object to all adoptions, on the ground that adoption “breaks up families.” (Don’t ask me; I don’t understand it either.) To all of them, let me say:
Adoption is not a problem. Adoption is a solution. There are people all over this country who would like to be parents, and who would be fine parents, but who are not able to grow babies. There are children all over this world who no longer have parents, or whose parents are unable to care for them. When these two get together, it is not a trauma. It is not a minefield. There’s a word for it. It’s called a family.
Copyright Marjorie Hershey
Marjorie Hershey is the mom of three daughters, ages 9, 15, and 19. She is a Girl Scout leader and involved in other community activities. As professor of political science at Indiana University, Marjorie specializes in American politics, political parties and interest groups. She can be reached at
Nude Painter
Dr Mallick had posted following senryus in Muse on 11th Jan 2009.
nude painter…
falls short of paints
to robe her
nude painter…
sans internal eyes he looks for
skin beauty
nude painter…
he collects sea weeds
gems lie deeper
I had liked them and responded with a few ideas of mine on the same theme as under :
Dear Mallick ji ,a good posting on nude painter. Here are a few of my attempts, subject to your expert scrutiny and corrections, since I am a novice in senryus and nude paintings both :
1. nude painter
shuts windows of studio
to prevent peeping toms
2. nude painter
joins nudist club
to get inspired
3. nude painter
lacks models
paints own nude
4. nude painter
visits art gallery
absent mindedly in buff
As per my request,Mallickji has edited my pieces and the final versions of first three were posted on Muse under responses on 12th Jan 2010 as under :
1. nude painter…
to prevent peeping toms
shuts studio door
2. nude painter…
joins nudist club
for inspiration
3. nude painter..
in absense of models
sketches self-portrait
I thank Dr Mallick for improving my ideas.The last one about the painter visiting the art gallery in buff was censored for obvious reasons though I loved the situation.Each to his/her own !!
I was posted in Bank’s office at Chandigarh for some years in early nineties. Our officer’s association had arranged a family get together on 2nd May 92 in which Mr.Sandeep Joshi, a well known cartoonist with The Tribune had been invited as a Chief Guest. An exhibition of some of his cartoons was also arranged in the hall where the function was held. I had the good fortune of interviewing Mr. Joshi and I had asked him some funny questions to which he had replied in a lighter vein. While he was fielding the questions, he had quietly drawn my caricature and had presented it to me at the end of the function, much to my delight. I confess that it bears a close resemblance to my profile, with a dash of his cartoonists license showing me as an enlightened guy (Ahem):
- Broca
I have preserved that valuable gift of Mr. Joshi till date and am sharing now with the readers of this blog. By the way, one of my questions was, “Why are there no lady cartoonists in India?”. I do not recall what his reply was and am searching for the answer till date. If any of you can really enlighten me, I shall be pleased.
Shah Rukh Khan on the moon…
Author: Jatinder Pal Singh Broca Jan 30TIMES OF INDIA
Srinivas Laxman, 25 January 2010
MUMBAI: Bollywood has finally made it to the moon. It is making its presence felt 4 lakh km away on the lunar surface in an area close to where the first men on the men, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, landed on July 20, 1969.
The International Lunar Geographic Society, a New York-based organization devoted to the study of the moon, has declared that a lunar crater in the moon’s Sea of Tranquillity has been christened after Shah Rukh Khan. This has been approved by the International Astronomical Union, which has a final say with regard to the naming of craters on the moon. The crater has been given the honorary designation as the Crater S R Khan on the occasion of Mr Khan’s 44th birthday’’ on November 2, 2009, the society said.
According to the society, the crater was named following a deluge of petitions from Shah Rukh’s admirers from India and around the world. Incidentally, one of his dedicated admirers has already presented him with a piece of the moon by buying him land there.
With a crater named after him, Shah Rukh now joins the ranks of eminent personalities like Nobel laureate C V Raman, father of the Indian space programme Vikram Sarabhai, father of the Indian nuclear programme Homi Bhabha and other luminaries like Meghnad Saha after whom craters have been named.
The decision has triggered a mixed response within the scientific community, with the father of the Indian moon mission Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan supporting it, but president of the National Space Society, Suresh Naik, describing it as ``shocking’‘. In another vein, a young schoolgirl commented, ``I think another crater on the moon should be named after Amitabh Bachchan, since he is also a great actor.’’
Secretary of the Indian chapter of the Moon Society, Pradeep Mohandas, shared Kasturirangan’s view. ``I think it is not a bad idea since it reflects the thinking of the new generation of young Indians,’’ he said.
Kasturirangan told TOI on Sunday from New Delhi that Shah Rukh is extremely popular and a symbol of national pride.
``I do see a rationale behind this decision. He is a kind of ambassador for India and this reflects the way India views him,’’ he said.
Shah Rukh’s link with the space programme goes back to May 2001, when the last man who stood on the surface of the moon, Eugene A Cernan, during a visit to Mumbai invited the actor to Nasa’s Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas. The actor sat in a model of the lunar vehicle which was brought over by Cernan. Shah Rukh acted in `Swades’, the bulk of which was shot in Nasa’s Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.
The S R Khan Crater is part of the Arago crater group, named for Francois Jean Dominique Arago, a Catalan-French mathematician, physicist, astronomer and politician who lived from 1786 to 1853. It is the largest of the main Arago crater’s four satellite craters and rests in the Sea of Tranquillity, directly south of the main crater.
Actor Shah Rukh Khan isn’t only reigning the Earth. He seems to have made a place for himself on the moon as well, what with a Lunar crater being named after him. The International Lunar Geographic Society recently announced that a crater in the ‘Sea of Tranquility’ will be named after Bollywood star, Shah Rukh Khan.
“It’s absolutely thrilling and humbling at the same time,” said an elated Shah Rukh Khan about the honour.
The actor, who has reigned Bollywood since the last twenty years, says that this honour is more for India, and that he is glad that India makes its presence on the global map once again! “I am in a small way doing good service for my country. The fact that my name is chosen is because the world is looking at India and I happen to be a part of this wonderful land of opportunity,” he said.
It was decided and the society and the International Astronomical Union that the crater on the moon will be called Crater S R Khan, and the same was decided upon on SRK’s 44th birthday. While both SRK and his fans are thrilled by this decision, some experts and scientists haven’t taken too kindly to his honour being bestowed upon an actor. Some feel that the honour should in fact have been bestowed upon a scientist, or an expert in the field.
However, unperturbed by negative responses, SRK is on top of the world, literally speaking. “I came to Mumbai with stars in my eyes and Allah has granted me all and more. I am so happy that through the opportunity given to me by my fans, audience and the media platforms that I work with… So thanks to all those who suggested my name and to everyone who has made films with me. My kids are very excited and I know my parents would have been very proud. I’m already telling Karan to launch the next film called My Name Is Chand.”
Shah Rukh Khan now joins the league of Leonardo da Vinci, Christopher Columbus, Sir Isaac Newton, Julius Caesar and Jules Verne…. And is literally over the moon!
Jealous husbands oppose naming of lunar crater after SRK
SRK on the MOON!
A crater on the Moon is named after Bollywood King Shah Rukh Khan, which turned out to be a big scam!