Blog & Web Directory on India
    
Advertise    SI Web Directory    Home    About Us     Facebook    Twitter

Does Anyone Remember Nazia Hassan?

 Bollywood, People  7 Responses »
Aug 282008
 
Share

Nazia who, might well be the question posed by youngsters in India today.

Well, Nazia was a young London-based Pakistani pop singer who became an overnight sensation with Feroze Khan’s Qurbani (Zeenat Aman, Feroze Khan, Vinod Khanna) in 1980.

Nazia followed up the Qurbani success with her first LP Disco Deewane (Nazia’s brother Zoheb and Indian composer Biddu collaborated on the project).

You can listen/watch to the title song Disco Deewane via YouTube here:

The Disco Deewane disc went gold on the very first day of its release April 3, 1981, selling 100,000 LPs and Dolby cassettes.

And in less than three weeks Disco Deewane went platinum.

As one Indian magazine wrote then:

In India, such a sales record is without precedent. No album has ever gone gold in less than two months, and platinum in under six.  (Source: India Today, May 1-15, 1981, P.142)

You know, how long it took Bobby to go platinum – eight months.

Besides the title track Disco Deewane, our other favorites from the album are Ao Na, Lekhin Mera Dil and Dil Mera.

India had never seen anything even remotely like this.

The shock-waves of the Disco Deewane success were felt by everyone, including the most haloed of Indian light music personalities. Within a week of the album’s release, Lata Mangeshkar, the jealous mistress of popular music, felt threatened enough to fly to Calcutta for an evening’s concert for which she charged Rs three lakh.  (Source: India Today, May 1-15, 1981, P.143)


Nazia Hassan
(Photo: Nazia Hassan Foundation)

Asked about her sudden celebrity status in India, this is what the Continue reading »

Share
 Posted by at 3:02 pm  Tagged with:

Fox 5 Screws Atlanta Hindu Swami from Tamil Nadu

 Diaspora, General, People  4 Responses »
Aug 072008
 
Share

We’ve never been great fans of Fox, America’s fair and balanced network.

But the video of Fox 5′s recent sting operation at the Hindu Temple of Georgia in Atlanta makes for interesting watching.

You see, it’s all about money. And the commercialization of Hindu temples in America.

Here’s the brief story of the Hindu Temple of Georgia along with a link to the Fox 5 video.

Ever heard of Dr. Commander Selvam?

No, no. He’s not some commando or part of the elite security force guarding Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Just an ex-member of the Indian Home Guards, where he was supposedly the first youngest Area Commander for Home Guards in Chennai City, Tamilnadu, India.

Our Dr. Commander Selvam (original name Annamalai Annamalai), who hails from Tamil Nadu in India, has recently achieved notoriety in the U.S. for some rather unholy actions undertaken for the sake of money.

On the Hindu Temple of Georgia web site,  Dr. Commander Selvam is also referred to as His Holiness Sri Sri “SELVAM SIDDHAR and as:

a divine personality, a great scholar, who is able to relieve problems from neck pains  to all kinds of mental, material stress and conflicts in all walks of our life.Sri Sri Selvam Siddhar is the only living  Siddhar and Swamiji in USA with the Atharva Vedha background.

As even a non-devout Hindu knows, by tradition alcohol is prohibited inside the premises of a Hindu Temple. Not just inside the sanctum sanctorum but anywhere inside the premises of the temple. Be it the common area, kitchen, toilet, the auditorium or anywhere inside the compound.

But thanks to Fox 5 MyFox Atlanta, we know that our divine Dr. Commander has no objection to alcohol, beer or wine being consumed inside the Hindu Temple compound.

When asked by the MyFox Atlanta sting operation whether they could bring alcohol, beer or wine, this is what the divine personality Dr. Commander a.k.a. His Holiness Sri Sri “SELVAM SIDDHAR” had to say:

Except drugs, you can bring anything.

Please click on the below video to see the Fox 5 sting video: Continue reading »

Share
 Posted by at 6:32 pm  Tagged with:

Ailing Motorola Names Sanjay Jha Co-CEO

 Diaspora, People  1 Response »
Aug 042008
 
Share

Struggling communications company Motorola has named Sanjay Jha its co-CEO and CEO of the Mobile Devices business.

The Mobile Devices business has been a complete disaster for Motorola without any big hits after the Razr phone.

Motorola’s Mobile Devices business reported an operating loss of $346 million on sales of $3.33 billion in Q2. Sales were down 22% over the same period in 2007.

The company has no must-have handsets in the market nor have we heard of any in the pipeline.


Sanjay Jha
Co-CEO, Motorola

Sanjay Jha has a hard task ahead of him in salvaging Motorola’s handset business.

Besides the competition from traditional rivals like Nokia, Samsung, LG Electronics and Sony Ericsson, Jha has to contend with the mindshare and marketshare that Apple is gaining with its iPhone 3G. Also, Motorola has nothing like Apple’s App Store that fuels further appetite for the popular iPhone.

If you consider IDC’s recent mobile phone shipment data, Motorola’s Mobile Devices business is in terrible shape.

           Top Five Mobile Phone Vendors – Shipments & Market Share

                 Q208   Market share   Q207   Market share  Growth
                                           (units in millions)

Nokia                 122m      39.9%    100.8m    38%        21%
Samsung          45.7m    14.9%     37.4m      14.1%     22.2%
Motorola         28.1m      9.2%    35.5m     13.4%     -20.8% 
LG Electronics  27.7m    9.1%     19.1m       7.2%       45%
Sony Ericsson  24.4m    8%        24.9m       9.4%      -2%
Source: IDC

The 45-year-old Jha was previously COO of Qualcomm where he was Continue reading »

Share
 Posted by at 9:02 am

Manu Thapar Joins MySpace

 Diaspora, IT Industry, People  No Responses »
Jul 302008
 
Share

Manu Thapar has joined social networking web site MySpace as Senior VP of Engineering.

At MySpace, Manu is responsible for overseeing the company’s infrastructure, security and high priority projects, as well as creating an offshore development team for MySpace.

Before joining MySpace, Manu served as VP of Engineering for Yahoo, where he was responsible for software infrastructure engineering, operations, test, product and program management teams of more than 250 engineers.

Prior to his Yahoo years, Thapar worked as senior director of engineering at Cisco.

MySpace is part of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire News Corp.

MySpace’s COO is a 26-year-old Stanford mechanical engineering graduate called Amit Kapur.

Share
 Posted by at 9:01 am

Geeta Vemuri Promoted to Partner at Quaker BioVentures

 Diaspora, People  No Responses »
Jul 292008
 
Share

Philadelphia-based life science venture capital firm Quaker BioVentures has promoted Geeta Vemuri to Partner.

Vemuri was earlier a Principal at the firm.


Geeta Vemuri

Before joining Quaker in 2003, Vemuri was an associate at Toucan Capital, responsible for investments in seed and start-up biotech companies. She’s also worked as an associate analyst at Salomon Smith Barney, where she focused on specialty pharmaceuticals, and at First Union Securities, specializing in healthcare.

At the outset of her career, Vemuri was a research scientist at Continue reading »

Share
 Posted by at 2:39 pm

Desi Butcher Vikram Pandit Calls $2.5B Loss Progress

 Business, People  No Responses »
Jul 182008
 
Share

If a $2.5 billion loss is progress (even if it’s half the $5.1b loss of Q1), then our greedy desi butcher and Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit uses a different dictionary from the rest of us.

This morning struggling financial services giant Citigroup announced a loss of $2.5 billion for its second quarter ended June 30, 2008.

And how does our desi butcher see it:

We continue to demonstrate strength in our core franchise. We cut our second quarter losses in half compared to the first quarter….While there is still much to do, we are encouraged by our progress (emphasis added) in delivering on our commitment to the re-engineering efforts.

 
Vikram Pandit
CEO, Citigroup

Since taking over as CEO, Vikram Pandit has been butchering Citi jobs even as he feeds pig-like at the trough.

And yes, Citi has closed the Old Lane hedge fund that got Vikram Pandit his job at Citi following the fund’s mediocre performance.

The New York Times reports that Citi has shed 14,000 jobs this year.

Citi has acknowledged sending home 11,000 employees in the first half of this year in so-called reengineering efforts.

Share
 Posted by at 11:13 am

Former HP Executive Atul Malhotra Screwed

 IT Industry, People  No Responses »
Jul 142008
 
Share

Former HP executive Atul Malhotra has pleaded guilty to stealing trade secrets, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Malhotra, a former VP of imaging and printing services at HP, is said to have shared IBM trade secrets after joining HP from IBM in May 2006.

Malhotra faces a maximum of 10 years in prison, a fine of $250,000 and a three-year term of supervised release.

Sentencing in the case is set for October 29, 2008.

Share
 Posted by at 12:34 am

Do Amma’s Hugs Make a Difference?

 General, People  No Responses »
Jul 102008
 
Share

Today’s New York Times has an interesting piece on Amma a.k.a. Mātā AmritanandamayÄ« Devi  and originally as Sudhamani.

Amma, who hails from the South Indian state of Kerala, is also known as the Hugging Saint, a reference to this oddball’s penchant for hugging people.

According to the NYT story, the 54-year-old Amma hugged over 8,000 people on Tuesday and Wednesday in New York City.

If you think hugging 8,000 people in two days is a big deal, in India Amma is said to hug up to 50,000 people in a 20-hour session.

Amma’s followers told the Times that the lady has hugged 27 million people. Well, that’s certainly one for the Guiness Book.

Call us cynical – but do hugs really make a difference?

Can hugs change the world?

Is Amma a case of obsessive compulsive disorder Continue reading »

Share
 Posted by at 11:48 pm

Desi Butcher Vikram Pandit’s Hedge Fund Screwed

 Business, Diaspora, People  No Responses »
Jun 122008
 
Share

What a shame.

Desi butcher and Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit, who’s been butchering Citi jobs even while feeding like a greedy pig at the trough, has to suffer the ignominy of seeing his hedge fund Old Lane shut down following a mediocre performance.


Vikram Pandit

Here’s what the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) reports on the front page today:

Citigroup Inc. is closing a hedge fund co-founded by Chief Executive Vikram Pandit, 11 months after Citigroup bought the fund’s management company for more than $800 million.

Old Lane Partners has been dogged by mediocre returns and the loss of top managers. Citigroup plans to shut it and buy what is left of its assets, according to people familiar with the matter.

Mr. Pandit personally reaped at least $165 million when Citigroup bought Old Lane in July 2007, following its founding the previous year. At the time, many large banks and brokerages saw hedge funds as a lucrative new business. Citigroup was also willing to pay a premium to land Mr. Pandit, who quickly moved up the ladder and became chief executive in December. 

From what we can gather, Old Lane has not been a complete Continue reading »

Share
 Posted by at 8:16 am

Sameer Mishra Wins Spelling Bee

 Diaspora, People  No Responses »
May 312008
 
Share

Statistic of the Day – Desis in Spelling Bee 2009

15 Desis Make it to Spelling Bee Semifinals

Desis Fare Well in Spelling Bee 2009 Early Rounds 

Indian-American Sameer Mishra has won the 2008 Spelling Bee competition.

Sameer Mishra is a 13-year-old, 8th grade student at the West Lafayette Junior/Senior High School in West Lafayette, Indiana.

The word that earned Sameer the coveted championship was “guerdon,” a noun meaning a reward.

As the Bee Champion, Sameer Mishra took home $35,000 in cash, a $2,500 savings bond and other prizes.

There were at least four Indian-Americans in the top 12 of the competition.


Sameer Mishra: Bee Champion
(Photo courtesy: Spelling Bee)

The second place in the 2008 Spelling Bee went to 12-year-old Sidharth Chand, a 7th-grade student of the Detroit Country Day Middle School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

Kavya Shivashankar tied for the 4th place and Jahnavi Iyer Continue reading »

Share
 Posted by at 4:54 am
Page 10 of 15« First...78910111213...Last »
© 2012 SearchIndia.com   Privacy Policy Suffusion theme by Sayontan Sinha