10:42 PM

Eddie Murphy is on stage to present the Jean Hearscholt Humanitarian Award. And the award goes to legendary Jerry Lewis. Nostalgic, huh ?

10: 54 PM

AR Rahman wins two Oscars for India, two more to the Slumdog Millionaire kitty.

AR Rahman wins the best Original Score for Slumdog Millionaire. Proud of you, AR Rahman..What more – He gives a live performance from Slumdog Millionaire….O Saya and Jai Ho along with MIA.

This is probably the best night for A R Rahman.

He is also nominated for the best background score and he wins it hands down. The song is Jai Ho and the lyricist is Gulzar.

Arguably the best night for Slumdog Millionaire, AR Rahman and India.

11:05 PM

Guess what ? Freida Pinto, from Slumdog Millionaire is on stage with Liam Neeson for presenting the best Foreign Film. The Oscar goes to “Departures”

The Japanese director is Berry Berry Appy and Sankoos everyone. Did I say, Freida Pinto was lovely in that Blue dress.

I think this is the first time, an Indian has been called on stage to present an award. I may be wrong, though !

Popularity: 29%

Will Smith comes on stage to present the award for the best action movies. The Academy awards for best action movie goes to Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Eric Barba, Steve Preeg accepted the award. This one is the third one for The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button. I need to watch this movie now.

The award for Sound Editing goes to The Dark Night and the award is accepted by Richard King.

The award for best Sound Mixing goes to Resul Pookutty for Slumdog Millionaire. Resul says history is being handed to him. How true. We are proud of you, Resul Pookutty. India Special salutes you!

Another one..

The award for best Film Editing goes to Dickens for Slumdog Millionaire. What a night this is turning out to be for India. This is the 6^th award for India.

Slumdog Millionaire has definitely put India on the map. I hope the Indian public wakes up and gives the crew a rousing welcome like they did for the cricketers and Olympians.

Three cheers for Slumdog….Hip Hip Hurray! (3 times)

Am I too excited…I hope there is more!

Popularity: 26%

“Yet again the communal clashes in the city has left the streets  burning with the flames of hatred killing thousands of people all over “.

This is Naina Sahay reporting live from Mumbai, Kal Tak. 

Naina was a young, flamboyant journalist who had earned herself a lot of accolades for her brave reporting and blunt comments that supported the truth. Her parents passed away when she was barely the age of 12 in an accident leaving behind a lot of responsibilities and a younger brother to take care of.

As she grew up she started working at a very young age in order to give her brother the best of life she could. She gave him love of a mother, father as well as sister. And in the process earned a living through whatever jobs she could lay her hands on. Naina got introduced to the field of journalism through a friend and since then there was no looking back. 

Naina just kept on climbing the success ladder to earn herself a life she truly deserved. From scratch, today she owns a good house, car and everything. But what Naina truly cared for was Armaan, her younger brother. She could never live without him. A slight fever and the girl who could report under waist deep water during Mumbai floods would go paranoid.

A small wound on Armaan would make her go berserk  and a drop of tear from Armaan’s eyes would just make Naina depressed. Probably that’s the reason why Naina was unmarried because she could not live without her brother and would want to give him her undivided attention.

But then one incident shattered her life.

In the year 1993 communal riots broke out in Mumbai .People were behind each other’s lives. Dead bodies were lying on the roads. Injured unattended and bloody and gory sight’s everywhere. People were scared to get out of their houses yet Naina risked her life to deliver news to people.  So many times the bullets must have just missed her but even through such tensed situation she would remain calm and help the injured on the streets. While doing her duty her finger constantly clicked Armaan’s number at the interval of every half an hour to ensure his safety.  

Suddenly one day Naina heard a cry of help. On drawing closer to the sound she realized there was a man badly injured and was probably taking his last breadth. The man in a hushed voice called Naina closer. Naina hesitantly went closer. The man revealed a sensational news that would rock the nation and he also had photo evidence to back his story. Naina was shocked at the evidence. Before Naina could ask him any questions the man closed his eyes forever.

The man said that the current Chief Minister was involved in the clashes of Hindu and Muslim communities and he had started communal rights in order to degrade his political rivalry. Naina had a very important evidence and also the power to stop the future bombings that were planned to kill the leader of the opposition party which would leave the entire city burning and spoil the situation even more.

Naina hurried to her house and kept the photograph with Armaan. She went to her Head Office to make arrangement for her breaking news. But what Naina wasn’t aware of was the man who followed her to her house.

While Naina was in the office preparing for the prime event the man entered her house. Armaan heard the noise and went in the front room. The man attacked Armaan, Armaan resisted and tried to fight back but the man just removed a gun and shot down six bullets into Armaan. Armaan’s knees gave away, he fell down and instantly his life was snatched by the cruelty of the world. The man ransacked the entire house and found the photograph and ran away with it.

Naina with her boss returned to her house. Her feet trembled, beads of sweat trickled down her forehead, she collapsed the darkness was’nt only for the moment but for the rest of her life.  Seeing the pool of blood which Armaan was in, disturbed the mental state of Naina.

The news was’nt deliverd but the death of Armaan resulted in the suicide of the courageous self of what Naina used to be. Yet again the politics of our country silenced the truth. She lost her mental balance, she lost her voice and what was left was a silent suicide which was never recorded..

Statistics have shown thousands of people suicide due to different reasons but have we ever thought of the loss of individuality that people suffer at the hands of our ignorance…It is high time we follow the philosophy of LIVE AND LET LIVE… It is high time we understand that we are not divided on the basis of religion, caste, creed or sex but we all belong to a much higher sect that is Humanity.

We all have 2 eyes 2 hands 1 nose 2 feet, so why the heck are we fighting for our so called differences. Let’s all join in this human chain of understanding and love so that we make India, a better place to live in.

Popularity: 31%

This time they are after shaking up the Internet and broadband market of India. Reliance Infocomm has forged an alliance with 5 hardware vendors to offer free laptops with Internet to their customers.The companies, which have entered into this agreement, are Acer, Asustek, HCL, Infosystems and Lenovo.
What we are referring to here is the brand new offer that Anil Reliance Infocomm wants to bring to table for India. 

Image Courtesy: Engadget.com

These devices are expected to have Intel’ ‘Atom’ processor. While it is still not very clear whether these would be a laptops or custom net books, it is very clear that they are soon hitting the market. Acer however seems to have confirmed that it providing net books for this deal.

Reliance believes that with only 12 Million Internet subscribers there is huge potential to take Internet penetration to next level. It is very likely that Reliance would create the sensation that it created in mobile market as this whole deal is priced at Rs. 1500 a month with a contract of 2 years.

While Reliance is doing this, certainly rest of the players in the market will shift gears to do something similar and hopefully consumers will stand to benefit from this.

Very eager to see whole country going Internet savvy! Go Reliance Go!

Popularity: 20%

We continue to see the world the way we are.  How else do we explain our inability to see the best in others and share it to bring out the best in everyone? Lucky are the few who can do that today. For the rest of us, here is something to ponder on…

Here is another simple exercise that I encourage you to try. If you are primarily right handed, use your left hand (or vice-versa). If you are ambidextrous, use your foot. Try writing from A through Z and 0 through 9 using both hands. See the difference? Now tell me how long have you been writing – since you were 4? 5? or even 10 years old. Plenty years of experience right? So why do you have so much difference - after all, except for your hand, everything else is the same – same brains, same heart, same eyes, same paper and the same pen.

You can now start the plethora of excuses or you can just sit back and open your mind for a few minutes.

So now, let’s come back to the sloppy and shoddy part of the world. The idiot who was slow at the traffic signal, the stupid kid next door who makes a dime all day, your avoidable neighbor who troubles you with all stupid questions, the inefficient supermarket clerk at the counter who delays your exit by 10 minutes, maybe your dumb sibling who really isn’t so gifted. It really doesn’t take long.

Now, for those of us who think we are oozing with brilliance – Did you ever wonder that there could always be someone who is much better than you, at your own game?

And the same sloppy and shoddy lot - perhaps there would be at least one thing that they can do better than you.

Case in point, my friends – It’s a big world – it needs everyone.

If it wasn’t for them, you would be bogged down with things that you cannot do ever so effectively. So much that you would sooner or later become one of them. I am not asking you to accept inefficiency. All I am asking you is to be considerate towards others. All sciences say have the right man and the right machine at the right job. Truth is there just aren’t enough right men at the right jobs – Want to think again? Right jobs for the right men!

If you think you are amongst the 5% most brilliant people earning for the other 95% in this country, in this world -Remember, you are the exception. Not them!

It’s just a perspective – try it the next time and let me know. I would love to hear from you!

Popularity: 13%