Articles

An Indophile And Bollywood Fan When you meet the Mexican ambassador to India, H.E. Pedro Gonzalez, he greets you with a namaste which makes you hastily withdraw your out-stretched hand. He speaks fluent Hindi but can’t fathom why “people always reply in English when I talk to them in Hindi.” Interestingly, he always knew he was destined to be a diplomat. “My nick-name in school was ambassador, since I was always solving disputes between my friends,” he tells us. And in 1968, when he passed out of the School of Political Science and International Law in Mexico City, [...]

The Truth Has Dawned On Him: Life Is Rather Tough Brijesh Gupta is barely out of college, and has only been working for six months, but has come to one conclusion which might take some people years to reach. “The world is one tough place to live in,” he sighs, continuing, “there is so much competition and it’s hard to survive.” aWe are sure there are many who would agree. And when did he come to his profound conclusion? “After I started working, I realised the harsh realities of life,” says this 22-year-old.And what work does he do? [...]

For them, each day is valentine's day It is 11 in the morning and singers Roop Kumar and Sonalee Rathod have just crawled out of bed at Claridges. They blame the lethargy on their schedule in Delhi, where they are dashing from one studio to another giving interviews to promote their latest album Mohabbat Ho Gayee (Venus). After a cup of tea and a Disprin each, they are ready to roll. “I feel visibility is very important and a music video is a non-film singers’ only chance to be noticed,” says Sonalee, who is dressed in a [...]

United's Golfing Plans Take Off No, it isn’t an All Fools Day joke. United Airlines is very serious when it says that it’s revving up for take-off (for the second time in India) on Sunday. As Michael J. Purchon, United's General Manager (India), put it: “We are very excited about the first flight which will take off on that day. And, of course, we're working very hard to make it a success.” But it isn’t only the inaugural flight that is keeping the GM busy. “We are also planning an official launch party at the DLF Golf [...]

Ansal Plaza Gets A Mag The unmistakable air of festivity Ansal Plaza wears even on weekdays must have something to do with the glitzy shops and fab eating joints out there. But it needed something more for that extra dash of pep and it happened to be Window Shopping, a slickly produced monthly magazine whose launch was sponsored by HT Estates. Edited by Sheetal Ansal, daughter-in-law of Sushil and Kusum Ansal, the magazine will keep shoppers informed of all that has happened and what they can look forward to. The mag got a spirited launch, thanks to [...]

It All Ads Up While Alanis Morrisette belts out Thank You India in the background, the camera pans on Azharuddin, who spots a couple of kids playing cricket on the road and joins them. Azhar is about to start batting, when he suddenly looks up and spots Wasim Akram at the bowling end. The ad ends with Azhar and Akram in a hunky-dory hug. Shot in Calcutta, this advertisement for Reebok is about the cricket scenario between India and Pakistan and how cricket is a great leveller The commercial was taken off-air post-Kargil, but will be back on-air [...]

Bollywood Bowled Him Over He went to Mumbai with stars in his eyes, but came back a disappointed man. Nevertheless, this missed-the-tinsel-town-bus Delhiite, Shiv Kumar, remains a happy and an otherwise successful man today. “The amount of struggle one goes through in Mumbai is really bad,” he says. Shiv came back to Delhi in 1991 and opened a shop "in Kalkaji which sells mobile phones and pagers and manufactures mineral water called Shiv Ganga. But he still can’t forget his experiences in Mumbai. “That city made me a much stronger person, I had many interesting experiences and [...]

Reducing the carbon footprint Green initiatives will keep Abu Dhabi eco-friendly The harsh desert climate of the Gulf region necessitates high energy consumption for cooling and water production, leading to environmental issues. To counteract this, a number of ecological initiatives are currently under way in the UAE in general, and Abu Dhabi in particular, to minimise environmental damage. The time for the country to turn green has finally arrived. Al Basama Al Beeiya is the UAE’s national initiative to measure and understand the country’s ecological footprint. The four core partners in the Al [...]