Maradona in India
- Football legend Diego Maradona mesmerized tens of thousands of Kolkatans who poured out to see him and fete him last weekend.
- Some 50,000 wildly cheering soccer buffs were present at the airport to catch a glimpse of Maradona, who touched down in the City of Joy past midnight on his maiden visit to Kolkata.
- In the evening, 80,000 packed the Salt Lake stadium, which is among the world’s largest, to see the icon, who rivetted the crowd with his ball skills.
- At all his programmes, the crowd lustily cheered every step of the Argentina coach, who was accompanied by girlfriend Veronica.
- “I would like to thank people who brought me here. I would like to return here with my family, who have enjoyed a lot. I feel very emotional,” said Maradona, moved by the large turnout.
- His visit came 31 years after the city hosted football king Pele, who turned out at the Eden Gardens for the Cosmos Cup against Mohun Bagan.
- Maradona seemed to soak in the spirit of the carnival-like atmosphere that overshadowed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit.
- The ‘God of Football’ was felicitated by the state government and the organisers Celebrity Mangement Group (CMB) at the stadium during a charity match. Olympians Chuni Goswami, P.K. Banerjee, India captain Bhaichung Bhutia and several state ministers were present at the occasion.
- Maradona was showered with gifts ranging from a golden replica of the stadium, golden boot and golden ball, a diamond studded trophy and also traditional Bengali sweets.
- “Everybody is watching me. I am enjoying it.. It seems India is my home. I will never forget this experience,” Maradona said at the fag end of the felicitation function as hundreds of people gave him a standing ovation.
- Arriving at the ground in a silver-coloured Mercedes, Maradona waved at the crowd, and even climbed the bonet of the vehicle to acknowledge the deafening applause.
- He was introduced to the players of two sides - the External Affairs XI and Chief Minister’s XI - who played an exhibition match that the soccer hero watched in rapt attention and was seen rising from his seat several times in excitement.
- In between, Maradona did some ball juggling, and also unveiled his wax statue brought from Asansol by artist Sushanta Roy.
- Earlier in the day, thousands of fans thronged Maheshtala, in the southern fringes of the city, to watch him lay the foundation stone of the Indian Football School.
- Maradona clapped, threw flying kisses and waved at the crowd, who waited anxiously for 40 minutes as the soccer great was late in leaving the hotel for the venue.
- He was flown in from the hotel in a chopper to a helipad a few kilometeres from the venue at Batanagar and then was carried in a specially designed bus with large fibre-glass windows, to enable people to gave a glimpse of their “god” and for Maradona to see this packed and pulsating city.
- Maradona spent 30 minutes at the complex, which houses the academy. The complex is also named after Maradona.
- Maradona, swathed in admiration, unveiled the foundation stone with a press of a button and then touched it.
- Maradona was showered with gifts -- small silver replica of the Taj Mahal, a sketch of his idol Che Guevara were among the presents handed over to him. Teenage artist Rajasrhee Chatterjee presented him Che’s portrait.
- “I come from a country which is close to Fidel Castro and Che Guevara,” He also gave an imprint of his famous left foot, which will be preserved.
- Maradona’s presence left the crowd in awe.
- “This was a lifetime opportunity for me to see Maradona. He is the world’s best footballer,” Shankar Maitro, a local, said.
- A septuagenarian who came with his grandson to have a glimpse of the footballer, said: “I used to play football but left it long back in 1960, the year this little genius was born. I wanted to see him once in my life.
- I am happy that my wish is fulfilled today,” he said.
- Russia's Kseniya Sukhinova won the Miss World 2008 crown on Saturday in a glittering African-themed pageant where she outshone 108 other international beauties and pledged to "help people."
- "And Miss World 2008 is Russia," announced Julia Morley, head of the Miss World committee that organises the event.
- The second runner up was Gabrielle Walcott of Trinidad and Tobago and the first runner up Parvathay Omanakuttan of India.
- The 21-year-old blue-eyed blonde beauty, who declared shortly before her win was announced that being nervous made her "feel stronger," takes over from Zhang Zi Lin of China to become the 58th Miss World.
- "I think I can help people and I want to help people and today if I walk away with this crown I will do that," Sukhinova told judges through a translator after being asked why she should be crowned the winner.
- Hailing from Nizhnevartovsk in the north west of Siberia, Sukhinova was dressed in a purple gown, with a decorative neckline and flowing skirt.
- She is a student pursuing an engineering degree from the Tyumen Oil and Gas University.
- Sukhinova becomes the second Miss Russia to win the global event after Julia Kourochkina took the crown in 1992.
- India's Omanakuttan wooed the crowd by greeting them in the Afrikaans language, spoken by many in South Africa. She also referred to heroes such as Mahatma Ghandi and South Africa's first black president Nelson Mandela, who was quoted by Trinidad and Tobago's Walcott as well.
- Contestants, aged 17 to 25, were dressed by South African and Jamaican designers for the final show after a month of galas, rehearsals and even a safari on the tip of the African continent.
- Trading glamour for the bush, the beauties donned T-shirts and sneakers as they gamely tramped into the bush to see lions and giraffes, play African drums, sleep in huts and cook traditional Zulu meals.
- Johannesburg sought to use the event to boost its image as a world class city, despite being known for its high crime rates, while the country also hopes to benefit from the publicity ahead of staging the football World Cup in 2010.
- "I think we have been able to showcase the best of what our country has to offer," said judge Lindiwe Mahlangu, the chief executive of Johannesburg tourism.
- Beauties from 109 countries were whittled down to 15 semi-finalists with India, Russia, Trinidad and Tobago, Angola and South Africa among the five finalists.
- South Africa's Tansey Coetzee had her home crowd on their feet shouting support as her name as a finalist was announced.
- The winner of the event, broadcast live to millions of viewers in 187 countries, has to espouse "beauty with a purpose" with charity being one of the main focuses of the pageant.
- "Over the years the crown that is worn by the winner is a symbol for fundraising. Miss World herself, this year, the winner from China, she's raised over 30 million dollars in her year in office," Morley said.
- "So perhaps from anything else it does a lot of good things for needy children and old people, which I think is important too."
- The 51-year-old competition was originally scheduled for October 4 in Kiev, but was delayed in September over security concerns due to the conflict between neighbours Russia and Georgia.
Aamir Khan @Ghajini
December 24, 2008 18:05 IST
I saw a fantastic Aamir Khan film the other night, one where his obsession with a pretty woman led to him being clubbed on the head with a generic looking rod. The blunt force trauma led to amnesia, or so claimed Khan's character, leading to a wickedly fun plot, rife with both misunderstanding and subterfuge. Awesome stuff, Andaz Apna Apna.
Then, on Monday, I watched Ghajini . And an Andaz Apna Apna this ain't.
Before going into what it is, let us first dispense with the Memento talk.
The film's makers have ludicrously attached a disclaimer that says that because their film's protagonist suffers from a little-known medical disorder called anterograde amnesia, there is a likelihood that their story could feature elements common to other stories and films. Riight. Must be easy to be a specialist in the field then, a doctor who just needs to check the patient for a series of tattoos.
And while Ghajini might feature Aamir Khan going through the exact same condition Guy Pearce does in Memento yet -- despite the tattoos, the polaroids, and the vengeful hero with a penchant for post-its -- this is a pretty original desi picture, yes sir.
For director AR Murugadoss doesn't take that 'story' credit lightly: He's taken the Memento plot, set its non-linearity into chronological order, taken out the actual investigative intrigue and replaced it with a series of convenient coincidences and -- this one's the clincher -- added a full-blown backstory about how the hero met and fell in love with the murder victim, complete with a bunch of songs. It's hard work making good masala, for God's sake.
And Aamir Khan knows it well. It's dubious as to just how much that body needed to be beefed up -- heaven knows Guy Pearce didn't resemble a steroid commercial -- but Khan's dedication is impressive, no question. As Sanjay Singhania, the killing machine dedicated to tracking down his lover's killer, the actor plays a frenzied killing machine, clinical yet with a twisted, macabre fondness for gore. And he does really well.
His anterograde condition kicks in every fifteen minutes, which means he has to now restart investigation, scribble refreshed notes, and get back on track. And he's very well-versed in habit; at a point when he's suspicious despite having no self-scribbled clue to guide him, he analyses breathing patterns. It's a role that requires much consternation -- and Khan is truly wonderful when his character is bewildered -- as well as much over-the-top, frothing at the mouth rage.
That would have been it for his job description had this been a standard, well-produced action movie, but there is a hardcore filmi romance smack bang in the middle of it all -- one that has possibly a few minutes more screentime than the action section. And while Khan can still pour out the smitten-schoolboy charm at 43, the entire romantic part of the film is so depressingly obvious that it doesn't work at all, and only serves in slowing down the momentum of what would be an entertaining action film.
A large part of this blame must be assigned to the leading lady. Granted, Asin is straddled with a character that begs the suffix -ine to be tagged onto her name, but a strong performance could certainly have salvaged this half of the film. Her Kalpana is one of those do-gooder heroines soaking in earnestness and sympathy, the kind of character that went out of style back when Juhi Chawla was a heroine, and it needed much verve to actually make this work. She doesn't deliver -- her chirpiness is most painful -- and resultantly this rather stereotyped he's-rich-she-doesn't-know romance always seems underwhelming.
Even with the romance getting in the way, Murugadoss' version of the amnesiac killer could have been a very compelling watch. There are times when they take huge departures from the original film, and the what-if possibilities are most intriguing. Until, you discover, that nothing is done about them. In a chilling scene, the villain's goons strap Khan down and, after painting over his meticulously graffiti'd walls and his investigative charts, take out a tattoo gun and crudely rub out all his tattoos, the clues he's investigated for so long.
This sets you up beautifully for a sequence where Khan discovers this, one where he wakes up to realise that all his investigations have been in vain. Does he even know he was investigating in the first place? And how does he feel waking up to see a body covered in hideously scratched out tattoos? It's a trauma the character begs to be dealt with, but alas... the moment is ignored, possibly in favour of giving more time to the half-hour climax. Sigh.
This is a violent film, but there is no call for that besides shock. The gore seems gratituous -- there is a tap scene bordering on the laughable -- and while Khan leaps into his adversaries with an alarming intensity, somehow its hard to stomach a film where he stands in the middle of an alley and fells seven-with-one-blow. It is the kind of cinema we thought we'd seen the back of, and even if there's nothing wrong with escapist mainstream masala, both audiences and Aamir seem a little less used to it.
Pradeep Rawat plays the titular villain with undisguised glee making up for thespian skills, and Jiah Khan , glimpsed here after Nishabd , is actually quite decent in a character better written than that of the heroine. Unfortunately, the only time she does look super-hot (in white, in the Lattoo song) is the one song where the director keeps cutting away to the action, darn it. The songs are completely extraneous narrative killers, but Rahman's turned in a marvellous soundtrack and we'll lap them up uncomplainingly.
Watch Ghajini, though. Watch it for Aamir Khan, because I don't think I've seen him having this much fun as an actor in a very long time -- and that's always great to see. Not that I mean it's as good as Teelu, of course.
The film itself is impressive in bits, with some terrific sequences, but the romance takes away its thunder. It is a breezy watch that could have been a really crackling one, and while there really is timepass fun to be had, the overwhelming feeling is one of regret.
For what can you say about a film on memory loss that turns out forgettable?
'Santa Suit' killer's
LOS ANGELES — After a Christmas Eve slaying in suburban Covina that left nine people dead, surviving family members on Sunday were grappling with how to best care for the victims' children.
At least 13 young people were orphaned after the shooting and two others lost a parent, according to a family attorney.
"We have to help them," said Jose Castillo, a relative who came out to the crime scene on Sunday to pay his respects.
The shooting on Christmas Eve was at the Ortega family home approximately 25 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. The ex-husband of one of the Ortegas came to their annual party dressed as Santa Claus and armed with four semiautomatic weapons and an incendiary device.
The ex-husband, later identified by police as Bruce Jeffrey Pardo, left after family members were dead and the house was fully ablaze. Sixteen others at the holiday party survived by hiding under furniture, jumping out second-story windows and off the roof. Pardo later killed himself.
Castillo, the relative who visited Sunday, and his wife, Rocio, knew the Ortega family well.
"We would always eat together, typical Mexican food," said 42-year-old Rocio Castillo as she stood outside the now-bulldozed, two-story Covina house.
Jose Castillo's brother was first married to Sylvia Pardo, one of the Ortega children who died Christmas Eve, and fathered two of her three children before he was killed in a car crash in Arizona about 20 years ago.
Rocio and Jose Castillo had remained close with Sylvia and their niece and nephew, Selina and Sal Castillo, who escaped the mayhem on Christmas Eve.
Their former stepfather, Pardo, had just finalized his divorce with Sylvia about a week before the shootings.
Now parentless, the Castillos wondered how best to care for Selina and Sal, and said family members were trying to work out who would be the young people's guardians, who would help support them, and where they would stay.
"There is feeling of total helplessness. ... It has emotionally affected a lot of people in Covina," said Mayor Pro Tem Walt Allen III, a retired 32-year police officer who oversaw the California Department of Corrections and served as a state narcotics agent and SWAT officer.
"Whenever you have an incident as horrific as this, the first thought is the kids left behind," he said.
He said mental health professionals are being brought in to help not only the family but also neighbors and members of the community of less than 50,000 people.
"Covina is hometown America. We're like a Midwest town. We're a child-and-family oriented community. It chills me what occurred," Allen said. "This is devastating and the most horrific crime in the history of Covina."
Bruce Pardo's mother, 72-year-old Nancy Windsor, said over the weekend that she spoke with Sal Castillo on the phone and wanted to establish a fund for him and the rest of her former daughter-in-law's family.
"Anything that our family realized from Bruce's vehicle, from the money on him, whenever that's released, everything is going to my grandchildren. I want it for my grandchildren," Windsor said.
Jack Bodger, president of the company where Sylvia Pardo worked in El Monte, said the company was also in the process of setting up a trust for her three children.
"She's been with us about five years at the company, and she was a really good employee. She was a very kind person, and always considerate of others, and had just a very good work ethic," Bodger said in a telephone interview Sunday.
Scott Nord, an attorney for the family, said relatives "are going to need financial help ... because this is going to be a massive, massive funeral cost."
Police also continued their investigation over the weekend and found another of Pardo's vehicles.
The gray 1999 Toyota RAV 4 was found late Saturday in Glendale, .
Covina Police Lt. Pat Buchanan said investigators were concerned the vehicle rented by Bruce Jeffrey Pardo last week could have been rigged in a similar fashion to another rental car that blew up Thursday as Sheriff's bomb experts were investigating it.
Police found no evidence of explosives or a triggering device in the RAV 4, but recovered a canister of gasoline, water bottles, camping supplies, wrapped Christmas presents, two computers, and a map of Mexico.
Allen said it appeared as though Pardo "had been planning this a long time."
"This didn't occur overnight," Allen said. "With domestic violence incidents you just don't see them coming until it's too late," he said.
Staff writers Hector Becerra and Tami Abdollah contributed to this report.
ISRAEL ATTACK ON GAZA
In response to continued rocket attacks from Hamas out of Gaza, Isreali forces struck back today. Israel used 60 aircraft to hit 50 targets in Gaza. Reports are of at least 155 Palestinians killed. Hamas responded with some rocket fire into Israel, killing at least one Israeli. Hamas leadership has vowed to "never surrender" while Israel has stated that they will meet calm with calm.
Hamas had stepped up rocket attacks into Israel in recent weeks, sometimes firing over a hundred rockets a day, indiscriminately into population centers. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert appealed to the people of Gaza to pressure leaders to halt the attacks. Olmert has been warning for days that Isreal would have to respond if the attacks continued. This is not likely to be a one-day event. A temporary lull in rocket attacks is not what Israel is seeking. Expect a well-orchestrated, focused initiative aimed at crippling the leadership of Hamas in Gaza.
In related Middle East news, the major media is portraying a situation that could become very explosive just as Barack Obama takes his oath of office. But, before you start preparing for the Apocalypse, let me throw some cold water on that notion. The Israeli/Palestinian conflict will likely get hot for weeks, maybe months, but Hamas is no match for the Israeli military. Hamas' major sponsor is Iran. Although Iran's president, Ahmadinijad, would love to stoke the flames, he has problems at home. Iran's economy is in a shambles and Ahmadinijad's popularity is falling off a cliff. He doesn't have the political capital domestically to engage in a regional free-for-all.
The other situation the media points to is the tension between Pakistan and India in the aftermath of the Mumbai attack. While there are radical groups within both Pakistan and India who would like to see open warfare, the governments of those countries are not looking for a fight. Both recognize that whatever differences they have, they have a common enemy; the radical groups that want to promote warfare. The rhetoric gets heated at times because neither country's leaders want to appear weak in the eyes of the public, but the notion that one government or the other is suddenly going to blow a gasket and launch a nuke is Hollywood fantasy.
The one thing that could cause a major blow-up in global violence is if the current economic slowdown turns out to be of historic proportions. A deep recession is something we can work through. A prolonged period of despair, leaving billions of people with little or nothing to lose is the most dangerous prospect facing world leaders today. Promoting peace means creating and maintaining an environment in which individuals can prosper through their own work, imagination and ambition. If you want people to defend the status quo, you have to give them something to lose.
Kashmir's Election
Kashmir's first election since a wave of deadly protest against Indian rule swept through the disputed region has resulted in a deadlocked legislature, officials said Sunday, sparking a scramble to form a new coalition government.
The National Conference party emerged as the single largest party, winning 28 of 87 seats in the state assembly, according to the state electoral office. Its archrival Peoples Democratic Party followed with 21 seats, while the Congress party won 17 seats.
All three parties have pro-India stances.
With no party gaining a majority of 44 seats, the new government will have to be an alliance of two or more parties.
Omar Abdullah, the National Conference leader, said his party would likely approach Congress officials to discuss forming an alliance.
Separatists had urged residents to protest and boycott the vote, saying the election would only strengthen India's hold on the Himalayan region. Anti-India sentiment runs deep in Kashmir, where most people favor either independence or a merger with Pakistan. Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan and claimed by both.
But instead, voting was largely peaceful, with a higher-than-expected turnout of more than 60 percent, though there were scattered anti-India protests throughout.
On Sunday, hundreds of demonstrators in Srinagar, Indian Kashmir's main city, protested against Indian rule and chanted, "We want freedom."
A police officer said protesters were throwing rocks, and troops fired warning shots and tear gas to disperse them. At least five protesters and three soldiers were injured, the officer said on condition of anonymity in keeping with department policy.
The elections, which began Nov. 17 and ended Wednesday, were held in seven phases. The staggered balloting allowed the government to deploy thousands of security forces in each area in a bid to prevent the deadly violence sparked by elections in 2002 and thwart separatist attempts to enforce the boycott.
Also picking up seats in the election was the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, which won 11 seats, the state electoral office said. The party won only one seat in the previous election.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh were among several senior Congress leaders to visit Kashmir during the campaign season.
"It is not important who wins but what is important is that people of Kashmir have expressed full faith in democracy and our neighbor (Pakistan) should learn from this," Gandhi said Sunday. "It's a victory for democracy."
The Congress party, which leads the governing coalition currently in power in New Delhi, ruled Jammu-Kashmir state in an alliance with the People's Democratic Party until August when the chief minister resigned following weeks of deadly anti-India protests that left more than 50 people dead.
The federal government stepped in to fill the vacuum and announced plans to hold the phased election.
Separatist groups have been fighting since 1989 to end Indian rule. The uprising and a subsequent Indian crackdown have killed about 68,000 people, most of them civilians.
HAPPY CHRISTMAS
