Stamps, Paintings, Films Mark Tagore’s 150th Birth Anniversary
Over the weekend India and Bangladesh will celebrate the 150th birth anniversary of poet and Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, who was born May 7, 1861.
The writer and painter who gave both India and Bangladesh their national anthems—“Jana Gana Mana” and “Amar Shonar Bangla”—and who traveled widely, making friends from Europe to Argentina, is still seen as towering cultural icon today. He was the first person who was not from the West to win the prestigious Nobel Prize for Literature for his prolific body of work. According to Judith Plotz, a George Washington University professor who moderated an event in the Nobel laureate’s honor at the Asia Society in March, Tagore wrote 12 novels, 3,000 poems and and over 2,000 songs.
He was also a huge source of inspiration for another icon from Bengal—film-maker Satyajit Ray.
The celebrations this weekend cap a year of commemoration that kicked off last May. Many of the events are aimed at bringing the poet closer to younger people, many of whom are not very familiar with his works.
Tuk Tuk Kumar, an official at the Ministry of Culture, said in an email that the celebratory events for Tagore’s birth anniversary had kicked off last year in May with a special train called the Sanskriti Express that displayed his works.
In Bangladesh, the British Council has also held months of events in Tagore’s honor, culminating in a fashion show on Tuesday.
Indian Vice-President Hamid Ansari arrived in Bangladesh Thursday to take part in celebrations there, while the events in India begin Saturday.
As with the celebratory events of many popular political and cultural leaders, Tagore’s birth anniversary will also see the release of a commemorative postage stamp by India’s telecom minister, Kapil Sibal, while ruling Congress Party chief will release a volume of his paintings.
Films inspired by some of Tagore’s most popular works will be screened free at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi National Center for Arts from Saturday to Monday. The 1957 movie “Kabuliwalla” by director Tapan Sinha (The Afghan Vendor), adapted from a much loved short story of a street vendor who strikes up a friendship with a neighborhood kid, and Satyajit Ray’s 1961 classic “Teen Kanya” (Three Daughters), based on three Tagore short stories, are some of the films on their schedule.
- DVD on Tagore Stories
- Satyajit Ray’s film ‘Teen Kanya’ was based on Tagore’s three short stories.
New Delhi’s Sahitya Akademi is hosting a seminar on his work on Saturday and a poetry event on Sunday, where around 30 eminent poets will recite translations of his work into India’s many languages.
India’s National Film Development Corporation, together with the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting have put together a DVD collection of films based on Tagore’s work for 399 rupees ($9) that will be launched at the commemorative function in Delhi Saturday. These have undergone both picture and sound restoration, an official at the film corporation said. It features classics like the 1984 film “Ghare Baire” (Home and the World)” and “Khudito Pashan” (Hungry Stones).
A special feature in the DVD, which will go on sale from May 9, is the rare silent film “Natir Puja,” a compilation of footage from a film that Tagore worked on towards the end of his life. This partial, but restored film was a dance drama and forms a “landmark in Indian cinema being the only film where Tagore was directly involved in production,” a film corporation official said.
The celebrations don’t end there.
An exhibition of over 100 Tagore works will be held in New Delhi in June, and then in Berlin, said Ms. Kumar, of the Ministry of Culture, adding that discussions are on with museums in the U.K. and Rome as well.
India and Bangladesh are also working on introducing the Rabi Thirth, a travel circuit covering his birthplace Jorasankho Thakurbari and Shantiniketan, where he lived, wrote and founded a school that eventually became a university, in West Bengal, and places in Bangladesh, like Shilaidaha, Kushtia, Shahzadpur and Patesar that he used to frequently visit.
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| SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ, USA: According to In-Stat, a market research firm, by 2011, cellular/Wi-Fi handsets will surpass mobile PCs as the large category of Wi-Fi devices.
Victoria Fodale, In-Stat analyst. said: “More than 294 million CE devices with Wi-Fi were shipped in 2007 and the compound annual growth rate for CE Wi-Fi devices through 2012 will be 26 percent.” Because of its large installed base in mobile PCs and home networks, flexibility, and mature ecosystem, Wi-Fi is a valued, “Swiss army knife” technology for the consumer electronic (CE) market. “Digital TV will be the second largest category of CE stationary devices shipping with Wi-Fi. The sheer volume of digital TV shipments will make it a strong market, despite a relatively low Wi-Fi attach rate,” Victoria added. This research is part of In-Stat’s Wireless LAN service. This service examines new applications for WLAN in business, home, and public sector. Included are forecasts, market perspectives, and segmentation (by technology and application) for WLAN chipsets and end-products. Source: WebWire |
Hollywood’s Top-Earning Actresses
Enlarge Photo Hollywood’s Top-Earning Actresses
Thu, Aug 14 05:30 PM
Lacey Rose, Forbes.com
Maintaining leading-lady status in Hollywood requires more than starring roles.
The résumés of Tinseltown’s A-list actresses feature offerings from movie and television work to endorsement and fashion deals. Along with the host of gigs come blockbuster paychecks. Proof: Hollywood’s 10 top-earning–and ever-active–actresses collectively banked $244.5 million between June 1, 2007 and June 1, 2008.
In Pictures: Hollywood’s 10 Top-Earning Actresses
In Pictures: 11 Celebrity Dream Photos
In Pictures: Forbes Celebrity 100 Drop-Offs
The Celebrity 100 (Page 15: #14 Cameron Diaz)
In Pictures: Sports Of The Stars
Topping the list is tabloid staple Cameron Diaz, who raked in $50 million during the 12-month period, thanks in large part to her lucrative reoccurring role as princess-turned-ogre in DreamWorks’ Shrek franchise.
Often typecast as the blonde ditz, Diaz also hit the big screen opposite Tinseltown goofball Ashton Kutcher in Twentieth Century Fox’s spring comedy, What Happens in Vegas. Up next: a silver-screen adaptation of Jodi Picoult’s best-selling novel My Sister’s Keeper and a fourth installment of Shrek.
Keira Knightley places No. 2 on the list, with annual earnings of $32 million.
In a single year, the British-born actress impressively–and successfully– vacillated between a splashy franchise flick (Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End) and a dramatic literary romance (Focus Features’ Atonement).
Off-screen, the Oscar-nominated beauty is cashing in with a series of racy ads for Chanel’s Coco Mademoiselle perfume.
Third on the list is Hollywood sweetheart Jennifer Aniston. The former Friends star collected $27 million over the course of the year.
In addition to lining the tabloids with the reported particulars of her personal life, Aniston has kept busy filming a slew of films, including the family comedy Marley & Me and the dating ensemble He’s Just Not That Into You.
Aniston also collects income from the syndication of Friends and a lucrative endorsement deal with Glacéau’s Smartwater. Though she’s lent her famous face overseas to brands like Heineken and L’Oreal, the Smartwater deal marked the actress’ first stateside endorsement.
Tied for fourth place on the list: Reese Witherspoon and Gwyneth Paltrow. Each banked $25 million during the year.
Witherspoon will star opposite funnyman Vince Vaughn in New Line’s big-budget comedy Four Christmases this winter. Additionally, she’ll serve as a producer on the holiday flick.
Off set, the blonde mother of two landed a three-year contract worth an estimated $30 million to pitch Avon cosmetics as the brand’s first “global ambassador.”
After a series of indie flicks and some time off to play mom, Paltrow scored big with her leading lady role opposite Robert Downey Jr. in the summer blockbuster Iron Man. To date, the movie has generated a whopping $568 million at the worldwide box office, according to tracker Box Office Mojo.
Another moneymaker for the 35-year-old star: a multi-year contract to serve as spokeswoman for cosmetics giant Estée Lauder.
“Years ago, endorsing a product was considered something a movie actress shouldn’t do,” Paltrow told USA Today, “but now having a contract is almost like a status symbol.” The paycheck isn’t bad either.
–With reporting by Dorothy Pomerantz, Even Hessel and Peter C. BellerDaniel Craig hates stripping for sex scenes in front of strangers!
Fri, Sep 19 03:05 PM
Washington, Sept 19 (ANI): Daniel Craig hated stripping off for sex scenes in new James Bond flick, because he was surrounded by strangers.
The Brit hunk had to bare all for several steamy scenes in the eagerly anticipated ‘Quantum Of Solace’.
However, Craig admits that it was hard to feel all loved up because there was a group of unfamiliar people watching his every move.
“You can never feel comfortable. You’re still in a sex scene where there are 10 people in the room who you don’t really know that well,” Contactmusic quoted him, as saying.
“So you’re not exactly feeling sexy. Unless you get a kick out of that! Some people do, but I don’t,” he added. (ANI)
Intel to Release 6-core Dunnington soon
Techtree News Staff, Sep 12, 2008 1551 hrs IST
Last of the Penryn
At the VMWorld Conference in Las Vegas, Intel will possibly release a six-core Xeon 7400 processor codenamed Dunnington. Aimed at the blade/server segment, this six-core chip is manufactured on the tick 45nm process, and will be the last chip in the Penryn lineup.
Dunnington has each core sharing 3MB of L2 cache with access to 16MB of L3 cache. Frequently used instructions can be stored in these large memory caches to reduce bottlenecks. The Thermal Design Power rating is approximately 130W, and the chip supports 1066 MegaTransfers per second interconnectivity and new SSE4 instruction sets.
At Intel Developer Forum last month, Pat Gelsinger, senior vice president and co-general manager of Intel’s Digital Enterprise Group announced that Intel servers had broken multiple world performance awards. The Dunnington chip will precede Nehalem chips which will come in two, four and eight cores with integrated graphics.
Source: TG Daily
Cracking iphone
By Mark Kaelin
Apple iPod Touch
Battery
To see what this particular iPod Touch looked like before we cracked it open, check out our TechRepublic First Look at the iPod Touch Photo Gallery.
on my pabung
Firing attack protested
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, September 02: Strongly condemning the act of firing at the Thangmeiband Thingel Leikai residence of Assistant Engineer in Tribal Welfare Department Haobam Subashchandra at about 7.30 pm yesterday, a protest sitting was staged today at Thangmeiband Thingel Leikai.
At the venue of the protest demonstration which was jointly organised by Youth Development Organisation, Thangmeiband Thingel Leikai and Apunba Leikai Meira Paibi Lup.
Thangmeiband Thingel Leikai, placards which read as “We hate sounds of guns”.
“We want peace”, “Act according to aspirations of people”, “Don’t turn weapons to public”, “Let’s give up gun culture”, “Don’t undertake firing attacks in civilian inhabited areas” etc.
According to the wife of Subashchandra, two unidentified youths came to their house yesterday and said that Subashchandra did not come to the place they asked for.
Asking their activities appeared to be jokes, the two youths opened fire at the house.
At the time of firing, Subashchandra was not at home, she said.
One 65 year old woman who lives next door to Subashchandra conveyed that most of her grandchildren did not take their meals on hearing sounds of the firing.
Saying that they also stopped reading after the firing, the woman appealed to all concerned to refrain from any activity that may intimidate common people, specially small children.
