“Abar Bachhor Thirish Pore” (Again after 30 years), a tribute concert remembering Mohiner Ghoraguli, the first bangla band formed in the mid-70s has finally pulled a huge number of the crowd at the Nicco Park ground, Kolkata. The land of Rabindranath has never witnessed such a concert before with more than 90+ professional musicians playing on a single stage. It was a combination of orchestra “L-atelier de Musique de Calcutta” conducted  by Abhraham Mazumdar, Brass band “Madras Players” and Electric band “Shohor” which created the undefined magic in the eve of 5^th Jan, the day before XAT08. The four and half hour concert started around 5:30pm and very soon the half of the ground was packed (though the entire ground was too large for any bangla concerts) with countless number of heads. Four giant screens were installed to assist the concert goers those who are far away from the stage. The entire concert was brilliantly executed by Ranjon Ghoshal with many unknown facts being revealed about Mohiner Ghoraguli for the first time. Many renowned vocalists like Pota, Rupam Islam, Anjan Dutta, Sayak, Sayantan, Antara Chaudhury, Rittika Sahney, Bhaskar along with others participated in this noble cause of showing respect to the band. Half of the concert consisted of the unpublished songs of Mohiner Ghoraguli. Songs like Ajana Uranto Bastu, Binita, Benojole Gaan, Chaina Ja Pai, Chaitrer Kafan, Kolkata-kolkata etc. were heard for the first time. And other popular numbers like Telephone, Ghore Pherar Gaan, Prithibi, Akashe Chharano Megher Kachhakachhi, Sudhijon Shono etc. were performed under the arrangement of the orchestra. The tribute concert also witnessed the amazing power of Baul-Jazz. Guest artist Tanmoy Bose jammed with Kartik Das Baul. They blended baul with jazz and the end product was beyond any description. The organisers have cleverly arranged for different memorabilia at a counter nearby selling tshirts, coffee mug and souvenirs. I have got myself a souvenir and found it very informative and it can be a collector’s item ignoring the Levis and Airtel advertisements. Surprisingly two bands of Kolkata, Lakkhichhara and Krosswinds were missed at the concert as they have been in association with Late Gautam Chattopadhyay for many years. This is a kind of concert that more and more Kolkatans need to witness in the near future. A great tribute concert to the greatest bangla band.   

According to TRAI, the usage of SMS has decreased by 11% in the GSM sector and 15% in CDMA sector in India since September 06. these figures are based on the number of sms-es sent by each users per month, though the absolute number of sms have increased but thats due to the increase in the number of subscriber.  And if Indians are texting less, the obviously they are talking less too. Another TRAI report suggests that the talktime usage per user per month has also declined in both the GSM and CDMA segment. The GSM segment has a fall of 2.94% from 476 minutes in June 007 to 462 minutes in September 07. On the other hand, CDMA usage is down to 413 minutes in September 07 from 462 minutes in June 07.

The average revenue per user (ARPU) has hit the lowest point in the last quarter with Rs275 in the GSM segment and Rs173 in the CDMA segment. The Director General of Cellulor Operators Association of India, T V Ramachandran has opined that this fall is due to the increase in the number of low-end users and users in the rural areas. TRAI reflected a decline of 3.5% in ARPU even in the post paid segment. 

Operators have given several reasons for the decrease in usage of sms and talktime. The biggest reason cited by them is that most users (a huge chunk of students/ young professionals) prefer to call than to text. Calling is often cheaper than texting. And specially when you need to communicate fast and need an immideate feedback from the other person, then you are left with only the option of making a call. Another reason is that most of the operators have reduced the free sms and discounted sms services recently with also resulted in the decrease in the usage of sms.  

According to the Halogen Software's third survey among 750 respondents in December 2007, the favourites of HR professionals are listed below in various fields like sports, electronic gadgets, vacations and ways of relaxation etc.  Many HR Professionals love to unwind by spending some quality times with their loved ones, specially animals and often taking them out and giving them treats. But this was actually not the part of the survey.

Ipod ranks first for the gadget loving professionals while the blackberry ranks third in the list. Football remains the all time favourite sports for the HR Professionals. Few of them are also in baseball with Boston Red Cox as their favourite team. Yes, they love to watch movies too and Julia Roberts ranks first in the list of their favourite movie star followed by Danzel Washington, Bratt Pitt, Johhny Depp & Matt Demon.Hawaii is HR's No.1 destination with Italy as the top European destination. Other favourite destinations are Mackinac Island in Michigan, Santorini (Greece), The Galapagos Islands, Okinaka (Japan), Russia and Honduras. BMW is in the first position of cars followed by Audi, Porsche, Ferarri.

Glastonbury's producer Jim Baggot's last show was Led Zepellin's reunions show at O2 and after working with Bruce Springsteen and Nelly Furtardo, he has decided to be the consultant for Sunburn Goa 2007, the first legal electronic dance fest in India organised by PDM which is scheduled to be held over this weekend after the last year's music festival, the Big Chill in Goa. The number of artists performing in Sunburn is around 40 and half of them are Indians or of Indian origins like Jalebi Cartel, Shaii'r and Func, Medival Punditz etc. The space alloted for the party is 20,000 sq.m with a crowd capacity of 7000 people along with turn tables and mixers from Carl Cox, Axwell and Above & Beyond. Biggot said that more importance will be given to lights as the entire fest will be filmed. Tickets are for Rs.2500 (for two days) but likely to go up to Rs.3500 and 1800 tickets have already been booked online and  the organisors are  expecting a further booking of 5000.  The party will continue  from 10 am to 11  pm and the plain-cloth policemen will be present to keep the party clean. Minister of Tourism, Aman Anand is very excited about the whole project and expects that it will attract more tourists towards Goa and increase the revenue of the State.

Enjoy !!!

After too much of hustle bustle at Singur, West Bengal, its the time to enjoy for the small car freak. Tata’s have decieded to unveil its 1 lakh car from its stable, analysts believe that it is going to revolutionise the Indian passenger car market. January 10^th, 2008, the day on which you can say “small is beautiful” at the upcoming Auto-Expo at New Delhi. The prototype is already ready and had been test-driven in the Pune factory.

Tata Motors plans to roll out the “people’s car” by the mid financial year of 2009 for the national market. Beside this ultracheap car, there will be more at display in collaboration with Fiat Spa at the Expo. Tata and Fiat has jointly booked an area 5200 sq.m at the said Expo. As per the German auto consulting firm CSM Worldwide, Tata Motors will be the country’s largest manufacturer of cars and commercial vehicles by 2013 while at present it holds more than 16% of Indian passanger car market. Even though India has a decent number of buyers for Mercedes-Benz and other imported foreign cars, Tata is hopeful that a huge chunk of first time buyers will be their customers.

The factory at Singur, WB is running in a full speed and the engine shop, press shop and paint shop has already been completed.

After the Bombay High Court postponed the hearing a case related to foreign law firms doing business in India, three days after it the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) held a close door meeting in this regard  with the commerce ministry and the lawyers but all went in vain.

Since mid-90s, the foreign law firms have started entering Indian market but they were not allowed to do business here. They were alledged of violating the rules and the Reserve Bank of India was asked to see if they had breached any foreign exchange rule. Seperate notices were sent from the Income Tax Department. Most of the firms left the country but still Ashurst Morris is still continuing with its liaison office. Inspite of discussing about this issue, nothing fruitful was obtained due to lack of interests and participation on behalf of the lawyers. As a result of it the Law Ministry asked the lawyers to move on the working paper of liberalising the sector but they filed an affidavit before the Bombay High Court and also mentioned about the commitement made to the World Trade Organisation. The commerce ministry, however, has not made any commitment to the WTO but it is in favour of gradual opening up.

The foreign law firms are eager to enter the Rs.60 crore Indian legal market and waiting for the right opportunity. With the flow of foreign investment in Indian market, they have set up Indian practice desk and have been hiring Indian law graduates and establishing ties with Indian law firms. Couple of the interested UK based such law firm are Baker & McKenzie and Clifford Chance. Even the Indian law firms like Kaden Boris is very much interested in going for partnership with the foreign counterpart as soon as the entry of foreign law firms are allowed in India. Foreign law firms have an enviable client base and are educating their clients on Indian legal issues and encouraging them to get their works done in India. All these foreign firms have well equipped lawyers to deal with Indian issues across India. Though most of these lawyers are from Indian communities of Britain or East Africa but now they are also directly recruiting law graduates from Indian law schools.

Due to these the Indian law firms are under heavy pressure. Under the Indian Partnership can, an Indian firms cannot have more than 20 partners while most of the foreign firms have more partners than that. And also the Indian firms are not allowed to advertise or have a website while the foreign firms do not have to face any such hindrances. It is very clear now that everything depends on the decision of the Government. Let’s wait and watch.

Austin Dating

It is not how much you earn but how much more you make than the other guy. A study by Bernd Weber of the University of Bonn said that no matter how wealthy you are, money is most rewarding if you have relatively poor friends, peers and colleagues. Though economist Christian Elger and Armin Falk of the same university claims that the comparision with other peoples' reward should not be considered as an economic motivation.

Two recent surveys by Tower Perrin & Hewitt Associates show that India has almost reached the top in the segment of salary hikes in the Asian market. Indian employees have got an average salary hike of 14% in 2007 and it is expected to reach 15% by next year while China has just 8% salary hike in this year. Sri Lanka tops the chart with 15.3%. India's higest paid executive ranking has been compared by the Business India.

   1. Mukesh Ambani (Reliance Industries) - Rs.30.45 p.a.
   2. P.R.R.Rahja (Madras Cements) - Rs.24.79 p.a.
   3. Kalanithi Maran ( Sun TV) - Rs.23.26 p.a.
   4. Kavery Maran (Sun TV) - Rs.23.26 p.a.
   5. Sunil Bharti Mittal (Bharti Airtel) - 14.96 p.a.
   6. K.Anji Reddy (Dr.Reddy's Lab) - Rs.14.40 p.a.
   7. Brijmohan Lall Munjal ( Hero Honda) - Rs14.00 p.a.
   8. Pawan Munjal (Hero Honda) - Rs.13.89 p.a.
   9. Toshiaka Nakagawa (Hero Honda) - Rs.13.44 p.a.
  10. Takao Eguchi(Hero Honda) - Rs.13.32 p.a.

It is said that the money some people are getting is definitely mouth watering.

*The list does not include the local heads of foreign banks.

Make sure you know about your own rights while you borrow an amount of money from any so called sophisticated banks. They are always ready to give you loan at your doorstep, but once you become a defaulter, you will be harassed, threatened, abused and what not by their Recovery Agents (read goons). Don't be puzzled or frightened, you just need to know some basic rights of yours.

Rights of a borrower 

• The Recovery Agent(s)'s details (including phone number) must be given to the borrower.
• The Recovery Agents are only allowed to call the borrower from the notified number.
  
• Banks must inform borrower of grievance redress system.
• The bank must inform the borrower of reposession clause, if any, while signing the deal.
• The clause should be properly mentioned in the recovery procedure.

Responsibilities of the banks

• Banks have to approach to Lok Adalats for recovery of amount below Rs.10 lakhs
• Due diligence must for engaging recovery agents.
• No agents should be allowed to behave in an uncivilised manner.
• The recovery agents have to be trained professionally for a minimum period of 100 hours before they are employed by the banks.

The Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) has clearly stated in their website to contact them over email (three different email ids were provided) incase a candidate does not receive his/her admit card via ordinary post before 7days of the exam so that they can apply online and get an e-admit card and use it in the exam. But this service is terrible, inspite of requesting them twice for a duplicate e-admit card, they have failed to send any. There was not even any kind of confirmation or notification on their behalf. If they are not willing to handle requests of duplicate e-admit cards over email, then God knows whats the use of having such service. 

Converse, the American shoe company was founded in early 1900 in Massachusetts, US by Marquis M. Converse, who was a former manager at a footware manufacturing firm. The company was intially started with the name of Boston Rubber Shoe Company which manufactured shoes for men, women and children. The company came into limelight when All Star-Converse basketball team was introduced in 1917.  Converse are traditionally basketball shoes.

Post World War II, Converse started to diversify their production and concentrated on apparel, boots, rubber protective suits etc apart from shoes. In the 70's Converse faced tough competition from Nike, Reebok, Adidas etc and soon they lost the little of "Official shoes of the National Basketball Association". In 2001, Converse filed for bankruptcy and the production in US had stopped. In 2003, Nike purchased the company for $305 million. Now the production of converse takes place in South East Asian countries like Vietnam, China & Indonesia.  

Based on the true story by Mariane Pearl, the widow of Wall Street Journal Reporter Daniel Pearl who was kidnapped and beheaded in Pakistan, "A MIGHTY HEART" is a movie worth watching. If you like documentaries and movies based on true stories/incidents, then its a must-see. The movie potrays how Daniel went to interview an Islamic Fundamentalist Cleric and never returned. His wife Mariane (brilliantly played by Angelina Jolie) searched for him along with Pakistani police, US Embassy Personnel and FBI agents. Later he was found dead. Mariane was pregnant at that time and later delivered a baby boy named Adam. The videotape of his murder was later sent to the reporters and investigating authories. The murder was a protest of the inhuman treatment faced by the prisoners in Gauntanamo Bay, Cuba, as claimed by the terrorist organisation who kidnapped and slayed Daniel. The story was based in Karachi though parts of the movie were shot in Pune as it shares geographical resemblence with Karachi. The way crowded streets, local flavour were put into the movie, specially the close shots are worth remembering.

My Rating 6.5/10 

We are Indians, we can not do this. We will not do this and at any cost we will not allow this.  Finally the Jamnabai Narsee School under the Narsee Monjee Educational Trust’s has officially issued a warning against any public display of affection. The School Authority has decided to show ‘zero torelance’ to PDA and claimed that they have parents’ mutual consent in this matter. The Rule Book of the said School does not prescribe any punishment relating to PDA but the Pricipal, J. Vas said that under no circumstances police or any outsider will be allowed to interfere in this matter.

Trustee of another School, Vibgyor High said that no form of physical contacts like handshake or hugging between the opposite sex will be allowed. He claims that episodes like Richard Gere – Shilpa Shetty is creating a tremendous impact on the young minds.

There has been mixed reactions from the parents. Some of them welcomed this step openheartedly while some are dead against it.

Its been a trend of ours to hide things under the carpter. We like to hide the ‘reality’ under the carpet or else we blame the western culture. What the schools need most these days is Sex Education rather than a ban on PDA. What the school can do if some of their students get involved in PDA just outside the school ? Rather than trying to make the young minds understand about the pros and cons of physical relationship/ contact (not only sex), the school authority is trying to ban PDA and wash their hands off from their responsibilites. BAN ONLY INCREASES CUROSITY.

Any Indian Laws for the matter of fact have not defined what is a public display of affection so there is no scope of awarding punishment.  The term itself is vague and also relative. Though often couples are charged under section 268 of Indian Penal Code, it is just another way of the cops to extort money from the couple. Under this section any person can be held for creating public nuisance though it has failed to define what a ‘public nuisance’ actually is. The school authorities must quit there moralistic point of view and should eye on a more realistic angle.