The display is connected to the keyboard base via 360-degree rotating hinges.5 hours.44GHz 64-bit Intel Atom x5-Z8350 processor paired along with 2GB of RAM and 32GB of onboard flash storage. What if your budget is limited — extremely limited — to that of a mid-range smartphone? A Bengaluru-based startup going by the name of RDP has offered some devices that cater to the ultra-budget seeker. The dynamic range is pretty average and contrasts are decent.32kg, it’s light enough to throw it in your backpack for the weekend trip. This one is meant for those looking for a device that can handle basic computing when required, albeit with the luxuries of a touchscreen display and a full-blown version of Windows 10.Performance:The ThinBook 1110 is built around a 1. In real-world scenarios, the claimed figure of 6.The ThinBook 1110 has a fan-less design, so it can be reduced in size. The capacitive Windows key at the bottom is useful for summoning the Start menu from any application.

The laptop utilises a 5V adapter for charging the internal battery. For just Rs 13,999, the device offers a Windows 10 tablet with a permanently attached foldable keyboard. When using it as a laptop, the display’s extremely narrow viewing angles are clearly visible, i. When you keep that in mind while using it, the ThinBook 1110 comes across a surprisingly snappy device. However, the keyboard is disabled automatically once you switch to the tablet mode anyways.Battery:RDP has built in an 8000mAh battery, which is claimed to provide a backup of up to 6. The big touchscreen display also puts noticeable weight on the lid, which restricts its amount of lean angle while using it in the laptop mode.However, you need to consider that the ThinBook 1110 is meant to be used as a multimedia device rather than a productivity-focused Windows laptop.5mm headphone jack and a micro SD card slot (one that’s of prime importance).Display:Since this is a convertible, the display has dual roles to play. However, the lower price tag also means a dip on the specifications chart.At 1.5 hours is achievable, provided the laptop experience with a mixed-usage. Since it also functions as a tablet, there are volume rocker keys as well as a power/lock button, like the one you get on a smartphone. The moderately sized trackpad supports Windows Precision Touchpad, which means one can exercise all the trackpad gestures that Windows 10 offers. There are two regular USB ports, a mini HDMI port, a 3. Use a second browser or any other resource-intensive legacy Windows application and you are bound to experience stutters or random freezes Custom Solid Signs — that’s as much as 2GB of RAM can handle.e. Smartphones have revolutionised the way we look and deal with the world around us.5 hours.Switch to the tablet mode and it becomes easier to wade through the Windows interface — thanks to the touchscreen display.

At first glance then, it seems to be an accumulation of yesteryear’s technology to fit in the stringent price bracket. You will need headphones or an external speaker for entertainment. Therefore, installing too many applications or storing movies isn’t a good idea. The ThinBook 1110 is at ease while playing UWP games installed from the Windows Store — Asphalt Xtreme is as fun to play as it is on an Android tablet or an iPad. Is the RDP ThinBook 1110 worth an option?Build, Design:A budget device usually garners lower expectations in the build department. There’s also a slider switch to disable the keyboard while switching to the tablet mode — great for those accidental keystrokes or touchpad gestures. Since that’s bad for business, PC manufacturers often keep coming up with tempting ‘modern computing’ devices that tend to cater to both, i. And thanks to the keyboard, it’s convenient to watch movies in the tablet mode as the keyboard doubles up as a stand. The keyboard is decently sized, with a well-spaced key layout, but lacks a numeric pad.6-inch touchscreen display that renders pictures at a resolution of 1366 x 768. Swiping through folders and using other Windows 10 touch gestures on this device is remarkable. However, when you consider the price of Rs 13,999, one can make do with all the issues and consider it as a better alternative to similarly-priced Android tablets. The tablet part has an all-glass surface (a necessity for a Windows-powered tablet) with an 11. The storage is expandable up to 128GB via a micro SD card. However, if you are using it to go through your movies collection one-at-a-day, then the ThinBook 1110 will just about last you through a week, which is impressive for a Windows 10 device. With mobile computing getting smarter by the day, the PC’s role has now been reduced to limited activities.If you want the conveniences modern computing to be a part of your life, then big names such as Dell and HP will sell you convertibles, but at a premium. However, the speakers sound tinny and are good enough only if you are using the laptop in a small closed room.

There’s an Intel HD Graphics 400GPU taking care of the graphics. It is a good backpack companion that can become your media consumption device while travelling and a simple laptop while writing small documents or emails on the move. With the ThinBook 1110 though, RDP has managed to strike a balance — the ThinBook 1110 doesn’t feel cheap. However, there’s a limit to what smartphones can offer, after which computers finally take over — handling tedious tasks such as typing lengthy documents or editing photos and more. It runs on a 32-bit version of Windows 10 Home.6-inch touchscreen display. The hinges, however, are a tad firm and require considerable efforts for transitioning it from the laptop to tablet mode. the RDP ThinBook 1110 is a good backpack companion that can become your media consumption device while travelling and a simple laptop while writing small documents or emails on the move.Conclusion:Is the RDP ThinBook 1110 worth considering? A lot of the answer to that question depends on your requirements. In the laptop mode, it’s reasonably swift to navigate through files and folders as well as browse the Internet with a maximum of 3-4 tabs opened at once.The ThinBook 1110 offers great value with a convertible form factor and full-blown Windows 10; however, performance seekers stay away. They make a range of ultra-affordable Windows laptops and the most premium of their offerings is the ThinBook 1110. The laptop features an all-plastic chassis, which ensures a lighter weight but brings in certain rough edges here and there. If a highly affordable yet productive Windows 10 laptop is what you’re looking for, then the RDP ThinBook 1110 isn’t an ideal device. However, thanks to the microSD card and USB ports, you can store your extras outside.(source). tablets running the usual PC-OS Windows 10 or a convertible device that offers both the conveniences of a laptop and a modern-day tablet. RDP could have considered 128GB of storage as 32GB isn’t even adequate for smartphones these days.Typing medium-sized documents on this one is fairly comfortable, although, a lot of key ghosting is bound to take place considering smaller confines of the compact keyboard. It’s an 11.To sum up the performance, it’s advisable to consider the ThinBook 1110 as an ultra-budget Windows laptop meant to handle tablet-like tasks such as typing documents, watching movies and casual gaming. binge-watching on YouTube will be fun only in solo, not with a group of three. Browsing through photos and other kinds of files is pretty fun too.e. There is scope for improvements with the device —more inbuilt storage along with more RAM and a slightly better build quality.The limited-inbuilt storage of 32GB also means that the primary partition fills up pretty fast, especially after a seasonal Windows 10 update.When in the tablet mode, Windows 10 is reasonable fluid here as well. While connected to the Internet using multiple applications, the battery life drops considerably to an average of 4. The touch sensitivity is surprisingly good for a device in this price range. Rating: As technology becomes an indispensable part of our lives, the demand for smarter devices associated with us 24x7 has risen

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In Rajasthan the chaang or the large single frame drum is the accompaniment for the phaag geet.The Phool Dol festival in Nathdwara too glorifies the Krishna legend. According to one interpretation, the shape and usage of the pichkari too has sexual connotations. Be it Radha’s village Barsana, where the lathamaar Holi is played with gusto by women actually hitting the men, amid singing of traditional songs, who are hard put to defend themselves, or Krishna’s village Nandgaon, whose inhabitants go to Barsana to play Holi with the gopis a la Krishna. And phaag khel is not restricted to a single day in the rural areas but could last as long as two weeks. And who can remain untouched when Birju Maharaj sings and dances Aaj khero shaam sang hori guiyan, can one really remain untouched by the Holi spirit? Or for that matter, Birju Maharaj singing and simultaneously enacting Dekho hori ke khelaiya, kaise ban-ban aaye… rather like the barat of Shiva.com. Dance troupes or palas from all over the Manipur congregate at the Govindji Temple in Imphal for Yaosung and vie with each other to perform raas, sankirtana and cholom.Kathak maestro Birju Maharaj’s father Bindadin Maharaj and uncle Shambhu Maharaj were past masters at enacting Holi related thumris. I also see the way the songs and their picturisation has evolved over the years. The traditional burning of Holika, Prahlad’s aunt is reminiscent of the Vaishnavite tradition as Prahlad was saved by the manifestation of Vishnu as the Narasimha avatar, the bhang and "playing” with the Shivalinga, harks back to the Shavite tradition. Yellow predominates again and it is a sight indeed fit for the Gods!In Gujarat too, the raas performed on Holi is replete with the Krishna theme in both dance and music. Singing and dancing was considered a must for the royals as both part of ritual and culture. On the full moon of Phagun month Krishna and Navneetpriyaji’s silver statues are bedecked in golden yellow flowers — the colours of Phagun and rocked in a flower bedecked swing from which the festival Phool Dol takes its name.Holi or Hori, is intrinsic to the Krishna lore and finds innumerable manifestations in the cultural ethos.In the musical tradition, chaiti and hori idioms have provided the bridge between the little and the great tradition or the folk and the classical, with Hori being akin to the dhrupad genre.In the plastic arts there are any number of Holi scenes depicted in the Pahari, Deccan and Rajasthani miniatures. It almost makes me feel I am in my studio looking at the beautiful rows of jars of colours and as a visual artist, I understand that every day is Holi for us in so many ways: It is because we play with colours all the time. Their progeny too do them proud. A classic case of intertwining of two completely diverse streams.I have taken it upon myself to download songs of Holi from Hindi cinema to play at the neighbourhood party and as I do it, I am amazed at the sheer plethora of Bollywood numbers about the festival. While sahitya or literary aspect has been inextricably woven with the sangeet or music, poetry takes a humourous twist on Holi, with poets regaling audiences and vying to evoke laughter at the plethora of hasya kavi sammelans specially organised on the occasion. Custom Three dimensional letter Signs Manufacturers From the rather shy, enticingly lyrical and understated Holi aayee re Kanhai rang chhalke suna de jara bansuri from Mother India to the overt sexuality of Balam pichkari jo tune mujhe maari in Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani to the relatively brazen Sholay number Holi ke din dil mil jaate hain and of course the immortal Silsila number Rang barse bheege chunar wali to beautiful Holi Khele Raghuveera in Baghban the entire gamut of film music has dictated how popular culture in the urban milieu will perceive and play the festival. Or for that matter even the Tomatina festival from Spain when tomatoes are the mode of mass destruction rather than colour or the Water Fight festival in Thailand and many others that one may not even have heard of. Having experienced the spirit of the playful cowherd in the people and the ambience, it is no exaggeration that Radha and Krishna seem to lurk just out of sight and in that sense Krishna of Vrindavan epitomises the playful element of childhood and adolescence so dear to Indian motherhood. I have often wondered why visual artists don’t make so much of Holi as the performing artistes — the answer stares me in the face as I look at the piles of enticingly vibrant colours on the thelas in Vrindavan. Holi in Bollywood Holi preparations are afoot in my home with niece insisting that we must make gujiyas and I am sarcastically reminding her of our last year’s gujiyas that resembled weapons of Majnu’s destructions — stones thrown at Majnu for falling in love with Laila — and having to buy gujiyas to eat! Water pipe long enough to reach Timbuktu has been acquired and balloons are already filled and kept ready to demolish the unsuspecting. On one hand is the playful Krishna teasing Radha and the gopis spraying tesu water and on the other is the powerful presence of Shiva mixing his bhang. The complex inter-relation between the two is epitomised with the classical being withdrawn and inward looking and the folk having enough gung-ho to sweep off by sheer force of the earthy spirit. Poetry has been intertwined into the performing arts in an inseparable form. Whereas the classical tradition did not reflect life cycles and major festivals, but was more preoccupied with time, seasons and nayika, with the sole exception of "Hori” as it is known in the Braj region, the folk tradition on the contrary found expression for moods and lifestyles.But then all cultures do have such festivals where they let their hair down — they may be called by other names, might happen during different times of the year but have linkages across cultures: For instance I find Halloween so akin to Holi where people paint their faces and appear almost ghoulish is no different from Holi as we must be appearing to the Westerners. Music and dance replete with literary references to Hori abound.In Vrindavan, the festival itself was known as phaag.In the plastic arts there are any number of Holi scenes depicted in the Pahari, Deccan and Rajasthani miniatures. In fact, it is here that the Holi festivities begin with ladoon ki Holi played with Srinathji. Perhaps this is why the first gulal is smeared on the Shivalinga and only after partaking bhang, his prasa

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"Come on," I hear him shoot over his shoulder, and we step down into the mangroves. He mentions other problems, like locals leaving offal into the waters to attract crabs, natural scavengers, that would rot and smell. He nods in approval at my wellies as he goes over the low promenade wall. Twenty years ago, when the Chinese ship Zheng Dong washed up on Carter Road and was left there while authorities dithered over what to do with it, the currents on the shore changed, easing the battering of nascent mangrove saplings by the tides. He grins. And there was also the problem of human remains, he says, brought in from the nearby crematorium.—By arrangments with thecitystory. Rehan puts his hands in one and washes his face with the water to make a point. The forest grew up quickly. Rehan is animated, intimate with his knowledge of the tides, the force of the monsoon, the way the power of each wave can be channelled. There’s a small chest with spare gumboots, some tools, a lost teddy bear, a huge buoy, what looks like an anchor… "What are these things?" I ask. Their traditional fishing pools, meant to trap crabs and fish, used to fill up instead with sewage. "Maybe. "It sounds bad now," he admits, "but I fell in love with this pretty little girl who lived in the building next door and I needed to spy on her without my mother finding out." It helps that they grew up and got married. But my mother says, keep walking, the caravan will show up, to follow. Rehan laughs as he shows me a tiny machan, high in a tree, where he sits on days he must wait the tide out. I find it hard to keep him in my line of sight. This included 1690 hectares at the end of Thane Creek, which is now a protected flamingo sanctuary home to 10 mangrove species and over 200 species of birds. When I nod, he grins.He rolls up dragging a home-made looking wheelbarrow behind him."Look at my whale," he says excitedly, and I cannot believe my eyes. There are varying reports about mangrove cover increasing over the last 20 years or being decimated by the builder-politician nexus, but the fact remains that mangroves, like forests, will always be under threat from the minotaur that is "development" in this space-starved city. He playacts moving the massive rocks with the help of the tide, groaning, "Yer granmudder’s aolas" and is unable to hide how pleased he is with the way it is all taking shape. "You built this entire thing on your own?" I ask.In 2005, the Bombay High Court, citing India’s Forest Conservation Act of 1980 and the Coastal Regulation Zone Notification of 1991, ruled to prevent destruction of the mangroves. And with the sewage no longer pooling, the water is clean enough to swim in.For the last few months, regulars on the promenade will have noticed two things.We walk out onto a wide, clean, empty, sandy beach. You spot him now and then, between the winding trunks of the mangroves, putting up signs imploring you to save the mangroves or speaking animatedly with passers-by. It is breathtaking. This construction uses the tides to bring in sand and keep the channels clear so the sewage can flow out.As we walk in, Rehan scoffs at my reticence – the aerial roots of the trees are daunting, I’m still expecting sewage, and in the distance, I see large, brightly coloured things scuttling. On either side of the pipe, mismatched planks have been hewn together to support a sand bank that rises a few feet on the right.  To the left, it is lower. A tree trunk, probably weighing tons, forms a part of the bank."Somewhere between ecologist, prophet, and inventor, perhaps part dryad part naiad, this Bandra boy changed an entire beach with his brain and his bare hands. But never because he’s miscalculated the timing of the waves."I imagined I’d be able to dive off, like this," he says, posing."The mangroves form a deep, visually impenetrable "C", protecting what is the real treasure, Rehan’s piece de resistance."We have been in the groves for nearly two hours, and his enthusiasm is intact. Clear pools of water sparkle. He shows me around.com. The scuttling things turn out to be crabs.Rehan is a proper Bandra boy, and when he came back from the UAE a few years ago, he realised the ocean off Carter Road he used to swim in was inaccessible because of the pooling sewage.He explains how the sand in the beach was being eroded because the eddy of each wave that went over rocks created ditches. "This is where I chill when the tide comes in, and this is where I keep my things because it is higher than the tide. Not only do they regulate temperatures and floodwaters, but mangroves are also usually home to a myriad species of flora and fauna and absorb eight times as much carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than any other ecosystem. Rehan says the mangroves here weren’t always as abundant. He says he only did it because he Wholesale Custom Three dimensional letter Signs wanted to swim. He explains the torque of an eddy that helped move that giant tree right into position. "Whether it’s Jesus, Ram, or Mohammed, or Newton, Einstein, Edison – I look up to ‘doers’. There used to be a subtle temperature drop accompanied by an unmistakable acridity in the air in one particular curve of the corniche for years.Carter Road has fared well though. Rehan takes his signs out of his wheelbarrow and puts them up. The heat and traffic close in. Only because he wanted more time in the ocean. He lights up a clove cigarette and I ask him if his family thinks he’s crazy. His passion for what he is doing is almost overwhelming – his voice arches and, like the ocean, he moves constantly, never still, his arms and face emphasising his words, he crouches, reaches out, walks briskly here and there. But again, it is clean, the forest sucks up the roar of the traffic, and the temperature drops a few degrees. So for the last five years, he has, single-handedly, moved and broken rocks to level the beach. "They’d put some weird talisman stuff up and the idea was to scare people away from the mangroves," he says. More sand has come in, to stay. "That they’d think there was some black magic going on.The area just beyond the wall is surprisingly dry and clean.He is also hilarious. His name is Rehan Merchant. And he’s quite a chap. He shows me the things the tide brings in: rocks, construction debris, and junk (that used to block the ebb, resulting in a stagnant pool of sewage)."The first thing he did invent though, as a teen, was a telescope that looked like a microscope with a singular purpose. So he decided to do something about it. And a man, weathered, eyes twinkling, gum-boots up to his knees has appeared in its stead.We walk back to the promenade. There is much more to be seen and talked about, but it is time to finish for today. Even coastal dwellers, like the Koli fishing community who are native to these shores, have not evolved to keep up with the city. "You from Bandra?" he double-checks. The tide is coming in, and I worry about getting stuck. "Then they’re your grandfadder’s brinjals, men," he retorts in an authentic Bandra patois. Rehan points to a large sewage pipe that has a thin stream of grey water running from it. It has disappeared.Still, every day is a struggle. Rehan said he personally interlinked every pool so now fresh water pours in and out."Growing up, I thought, I’d either be a prophet or an inventor," he says with a smile as he gestures at me to follow him deeper into the mangroves. A heron skips across followed by not fewer than seven chicks. It is a stone whale he has built with literally tons of massive rocks. "Well, the tide helped," he says with a shrug. "You can call it a Chinese conspiracy," Rehan says with a chuckle.The next 20 minutes go by in a blur.

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"With a little probing, another angle cropped up — women of course."The problem was the applause I was getting for my performances," he said shortly.An extract from the chapter Rocky And Rock-steady Friendships from the book Anything But Khamosh: The Shatrughan Sinha Biography by columnist, critic and author Bharathi S. I had matured. It was like a man who knew that popularity was his birthright. At the height of his popularity as a villain, SS had done Heera and Sultan Ahmed had been grateful that despite his escalating stardom, when the film got delayed, he was the only star who didn’t hike his price. To strengthen their position, they would be by Amitabh’s side. But my secretary, Pawanji, said, ‘The set of Shaan is ready and waiting. "During Shaan, I had my first experience of dealing with the death of someone close to me when my father passed away. PradhanPeople say that Amitabh and I made a dynamic pair on screen but if he did not wish to work with me, if he felt that in Naseeb, Shaan, Dostana or Kaala Patthar Shatrughan Sinha bhari pad gaya, it didn’t affect me," he said nonchalantly. Such things can never be hidden in our world."The stand-off spilled over to the sets. I found it all very strange and wondered why this was happening because I never had any complaints against him." Only a few people know that Amitabh Bachchan (along with Mehmood’s brother Anwar Ali with whom he used to stay), Anil Dhawan, Asrani, Subhash Ghai and Shatrughan were all great buddies at one time, and spent several evenings together in Devdoot, the Bandstand apartment.

For me, once my fee was decided, I’d squirm to revise it," he revealed. So I came back to Bombay and was having lunch when Jarnail Singh, my late friend who used to rehabilitate drug addicts, came to tell me that my father was no more Baba passed away on April 10, 1979. SS had a simplistic explanation for what went wrong between Amitabh Bachchan and him when they had so much going between them. I’ve seen him as a friend, we’ve worked together as colleagues, we’ve sailed together in good times and bad, I have good memories also. If I like a performance, I will praise him. We’d be heading from the location towards the same hotel but he’d sit in his car and never say, ‘Let’s go together’. For that reason, though people say she is short-tempered, you’d never hear me say a word against Jaya Bachchan."Subhash Ghai’s sharp assessment of SS — the warmth, the warts and the wars — presented the other side of the story. In showbiz, everybody knew who was visiting whom. Subhash Ghai recalled, "There was a diploma film of his in which he hits a guy and checks his watch to see if it had stopped. I would praise him for his courage in doing a role like Paa, for sitting for hours to get his make-up done, for carrying off such a role.

"But along with fight master Shetty who is no more, it was changed to Amitabh beating the hell out of me, beating me constantly until Shashi Kapoor separated us."By the time Kaala Patthar happened, there was barely any semblance of the friendship that once was.. so many films that I gave up without a backward glance because of Amitabh Bachchan. He’d shown signs of it at FTII itself."According to SS, tweaking a scene was not a new trait in Amitabh. My best friend had died but I didn’t shed a tear. But when the camel morphed into a saleable box-office draw, Sultan Ahmed brazenly signed Amitabh Bachchan to topline Ganga Ki Saugandh — a film he had promised SS Unfortunately, things did go amiss between Amitabh Bachchan and SS. "There were so many films that I dropped out of and returned the signing amount. For instance, I wouldn’t praise his acting in Paa. I went home to Patna, I cried a lot.. There was a film called Patthar Ke Log — one of Prakash Mehra’s — written by Salim-Javed. It had happened even during Dostana.". I had recommended him to Late Sultan Ahmed," SS said. "It is true that I also recommended Amitabh for films."At FTII, there was a staircase near the sound department. Even when my mother died on April 22, 2002, I didn’t cry as much as I did that day When Sanjeev Kumar died, I was standing for nine hours by his gate. "Maybe they didn’t like something about me and they said something to Amitabh Bachchan, or maybe they said things about me because I knew a lot about them.. One day, I was standing there when I looked up and saw a guy coming down the Wholesale Custom Color letter Signs stairs, a tall guy with a very dominating voice talking to the students This guy walked up to me and said, ‘Subhash Ghaisaab, hum Shatrughan Sinha hain aur hame khushi hai ki aap hame marg darshan denge film industry mein kaise pravesh karna hai,’" Ghai laughed. "Once, Amitabh had wanted the scene done in a particular way and Raj Khosla, the director, didn’t oblige him. ‘I don’t think I’ve cried as much as I did at my father’s funeral. On the other hand I thought he was superb in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Black.’

It was a scene with Raakhee, where there’s firing on a bridge. Besides, my clashes with Amitabh have always been issue-based. On this point I had to put my foot down and protest that this was not what had been narrated to me I had to argue this out and shooting was stopped for three to four hours which irked Amitabh. " What all of them did see was a strange confidence that none of them ever possessed."He didn’t question it but even in his grief he had noted that Amitabh had not paid him a condolence visit when his father had passed on during the shooting of Shaan. Maybe it was his unique style of improvisation that fetched him notice The rest of us were a bit insecure and slightly naive... Being a senior, I used to give them tips on how to conduct themselves in the film world," Ghai mentally visited the fabulous days on the campus.. It still seems like yesterday."People say that Zeenat Aman or Rekha also contributed a little to the rift," SS dropped their names slowly. That’s why he didn’t want me in some of his films. The media would immediately know if Reena was in my make-up room. But I don’t indulge in empty flattery; I’m not in awe of him. He became instantly popular because of that shot. "Amitabh could see the response I was getting. I was in Delhi and that particular day I was really keen to go to Patna to see him, he had been ailing.. "I would often go to Poona to meet my beloved Rehana and I used to go to the Institute to meet the junior students who were very insecure about what would happen to them in the film industry. "There was a fight sequence in Kaala Patthar which I had been told would be an equal fight," SS explained. She would come during Dostana also but not once would he bring her out and introduce her to any of us. His confidence made us laugh, it made us suspicious, aur achcha bhi lagta tha. During Kaala Patthar, a heroine who was known to be very friendly with him, would visit him.But that doesn’t mean I don’t respect his personality. Rajji couldn’t believe that he could be talked to in such a manner by an actor.During Heera, Sultan Ahmed would ask SS, "Where are you roaming around with this camel " referring to his buddy, Amitabh. "On the sets of Kaala Patthar, the chair next to Amitabh would not be offered to me, nor would his umbrella be ever trained to cover any of us. "The other actors tend to follow the maxim, ‘Different times, different rates’.. Amitabh had hit out so belligerently, almost abusively, that a senior like Raj Khosla was reduced to tears. But it didn’t require a great actor; it required a great personality which he could impart to the role

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The Indian government has not publicly disclosed what weapons were used in the strike.Another senior government official told reporters on the same day that about 300 militants had been killed. "If the strike had been successful, given the information we have about what kind of munitions were used, I would expect to see signs that the buildings had been damaged," Lewis added.India’s Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said on the Galvanized stainless steel letter Signs day of the strike that "a very large number of Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists, trainers, senior commanders, and groups of jihadis who were being trained for Fidayeen action were eliminated" in the attack.

The images cast further doubt on statements made over the last eight days by the Indian government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the raids, early on Feb. "There has been no damage to any infrastructure or human life as a result of Indian incursion," Major General Asif Ghafoor, the director general of the Pakistan military’s press wing, in a statement to Reuters."At a time when our army is engaged in crushing terrorism, inside the country and outside, there are some people within the country who are trying to break their morale, which is cheering our enemy," Modi said at an election rally on Sunday.

But the images from Planet Labs, which show details as small as 72 cm (28 inches), offer a clearer look at the structures the Indian government said it attacked.Modi has accused the opposition Congress party, and other opponents such as Banerjee, of helping India’s enemies by demanding evidence of the attacks.The image is virtually unchanged from an April 2018 satellite photo of the facility."We want to know how many people actually died," said Mamata Banerjee, the firebrand chief minister of West Bengal state, in a video published by her All India Trinamool Congress party in a tweet on Feb.He said there weren’t any human casualties: "No one died.Lewis and Dave Schmerler, a senior research associate at the James Martin Centre for Nonproliferation studies who also analyses satellite images, said weapons that large would have caused obvious damage to the structures visible in the picture."Bomb CratersIn two visits to the Balakot area in Pakistan by Reuters reporters last Tuesday and Thursday, and extensive interviews with people in the surrounding area, there was no evidence found of a destroyed camp or of anyone being killed. 14. 26.Political FireIndia must hold a general election by May, and pollsters say Modi and his Hindu nationalist party stand to benefit from his aggressive response to a suicide bomb attack that killed 40 Indian paramilitary police in the disputed Kashmir region on Feb.New Delhi: High-resolution satellite images reviewed by Reuters show that a religious school run by Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) in northeastern Pakistan appears to be still standing days after India claimed its warplanes had hit the Islamist group’s training camp on the site and killed a large number of militants.."Pakistan has disputed India’s account, saying the operation was a failure that saw Indian jets, under pressure from Pakistani planes, drop their bombs on a largely empty hillside. On Tuesday, a defence official said the aircraft used the 2,000-lb Israeli-made SPICE 2000 glide bomb in the strike. There are no discernible holes in the roofs of buildings, no signs of scorching, blown-out walls, displaced trees around the madrasa or other signs of an aerial attack. Only some pine trees died, they were cut down.

"The high-resolution images don’t show any evidence of bomb damage," he said.The Indian government has not produced evidence that a camp was destroyed or that any militants were killed in the raid."Mohammad Saddique from Jaba Basic Health Unit and Zia Ul Haq, senior medical officer at Tehsil Headquarters Hospital in Balakot said they had seen no casualties.A warhead of that size is meant to destroy hardened targets such as concrete shelters. On Sunday the president of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Amit Shah, put the number killed at more than 250. Fidayeen is a term used to describe Islamist militants on suicide missions.

That has prompted some opposition politicians to push for more details. "We don’t want a war for political reasons, to win an election," she said.India’s foreign and defence ministries did not reply to emailed questions sent in the past few days seeking comment on what is shown in the satellite images and whether they undermine its official statements on the airstrikes. 26, had hit all the intended targets at the madrasa site near Jaba village and the town of Balakot in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. "Where did the bombs fall? Did they actually fall in the right place?"Banerjee, who is seen as a potential prime ministerial candidate, said that she stood behind the Indian Armed Forces, but that they should be given a chance to speak the truth.On the wooded slopes above Jaba, they pointed to four craters and some splintered pine trees, but noted little other impact from the blasts that jolted them awake about 3 am on Feb. "This has been vindicated by both domestic and international media after visiting the site. A crow also died.Missed the target?Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Project at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, who has 15 years’ experience in analysing satellite images of weapons sites and systems, confirmed that the high-resolution satellite picture showed the structures in question.Until now, no high-resolution satellite images were publicly available."It shook everything," said Abdur Rasheed, a van driver who works in the area.The images produced by Planet Labs Inc, a San Francisco-based private satellite operator, show at least six buildings on the madrasa site on March 4, six days after the airstrike.Villagers said there had been a series of huge explosions but the bombs appeared to have landed among trees. Lewis viewed three other high-resolution Planet Labs pictures of the site taken within hours of the image provided to Reuters. "I just don’t see that here.Government sources told Reuters last week that 12 Mirage 2000 jets carrying 1,000 kg (2,200 lbs) bombs carried out the attack

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Here dullness is omnipresent — it’s there in the tedious heist, in the acting, in the characters that actors are supposed to pose as, in the film’s pace and especially in the desi-fication of the heist which acquires a revenge-for-daddy’s-death goal to be attempted by do-gooder but duffer chors..

It was about what Mr Kashyap can get away with and that indulgence is really annoying. A tall order!6. He likes to hop from one country to another — Afghanistan, Russia, Riga, Somalia, Pakistan — to bash up the bad guys and try to locate a deadly bomb which is meant for India. was expecting us to get excited about Mithun and Ranjeeta being back together on screen after decades.

Usually I have really low expectations of Vikram Bhatt, and yet he managed to shock me with this punar janam-revenge torture. That the film is directed by Aanandbalraj (one word), the guy who played Debu in the Anil Kapoor-Madhuri Dixit starrer Ram Lakhan, and whose only memorable line in the film was, "India is great" is warning enough. They tried to weave some nonsensical story about an undercover cop using a porn star to get to a don with putrid dialogues that included the words sitaron and maang. Others kill all future prospects in one go.. Perhaps looking for a place to hide and wait for this calamity to pass. It’s an imbecility. The original story was heart-warming — about an ageing man who loses his beloved wife to alzheimer’s everyday. DepartmentThe experience of watching Department is akin to being dragged by one ankle through the mucky and nauseating innards of Ram Gopal Varma. Agent VinodAgent Vinod is a film about a vaulting spy on a mission to save Bharat Mata, except that this son of India is an idiot. It takes a special kind of fuzzy love for oneself to make a film that is meant only to delight and impress the director and the Gangs of Anurag Kashyap. So they signed her and created a story around her two titties and two titty-crazy men. It’s just a camera following several idiots doing their special idiotic things around Veena Malik and a suitcase full of money. It’s like a mid-life crisis, like going back to an old lover for some self-love. 4. and some of the worst actors in the history of B-grade cinema.

That Kashyap is a master filmmaker is apparent in some almost casual strokes of brilliance in GoW. It was anti-climatic... But only some, like Sridevi, do it sensibly. His Godfather-goes-to-Dhanbad saga has some good performances, interesting characters and scenes, but nothing makes up for the fact that Gangs of Wasseypur is not operatic, it’s soporific. Director Ashu Trikha has copied the Hollywood film scene by scene, ventriloquising lines and expressions, thus crushing any soul or sense the film may have had. 3. That’s a stretch, even for Bollywood. 5. But that’s not the point of this film. And it doesn't help that throughout the film, the camera skitters about, trying to creep up someone’s pyjama, jeans, lungi. In this cop-goonda absurdity which is very loosely based on Infernal Affairs, women suck on kulfi and prance around in panties while men are either shooting or getting shot. Zindagi Tere NaamZindagi Tere Naam is not inspired by The Notebook. That this nonsense was directed by Gaddaar Sriram Raghavan was doubly depressing.7. But Mr Bhandarkar has the uncanny ability to turn whatever he touches tacky, including his incessant moralising. GoW 1& 2 was never about its story or its telling. 8.. It matched mine.

This required Ms Leone to do more than just pant and ride men, and the men to more than just graze. Gangs of WasseypurThe world is divided between people who loved Gangs of Wasseypur 1&2 and those who hated it. Huh 10. Obviously upset that he had a mother of two for a heroine, his film sulks, throughout, in 3D. In various get-ups, one janam after another, it doesn’t drop the sulking.9. Dangerous IshqqFormer female film stars, when they get bored playing ghar-ghar, decide to return to the celluloid.. Daal Mein Kuch. After part 1, I sat twiddling my thumbs on the fence, wondering, waiting But when part 2 arrived, after a gap of seven weeks, my boredom tipped me on the side of haters. Gary Gary’s 2003 The Italian Job, is strictly for the dim-witted. The gaps in this one long chase to get to a bomb are filled by such poppycock that I can only quote what someone on Twitter said very succinctly: "Agent Vinod should be called Travel Agent Vinod".He managed to get Bollywood’s Custom Brass Letters Signs Manufacturers most glamorous star and Kareena looked really good. The Bhatts should have kept the film raunchy, semi-pornographic even. They didn’t. Mein kahan jaaon " Bhaad mein, I’d say. But here we go into flashback, to Chandigarh, where we meet young, annoying lovers. Jism 2Jism 2 is the story of the opportunistic Bhatts — father Mahesh and daughter Pooja — who saw money in the bank the moment they spotted angel-face desi porn star Sunny Leone on Bigg Boss. PlayersAbbas-Mastan’s retelling of F. Karisma Kapoor, apart from being entombed in a foolish fancy-dress fantasy with kilos of makeup, scarves and jackets, skulks through this film with one expression: harried. The other warning is what Ms Malik repeatedly says in this film: "Uff! Ek taraf bhoot, doosri taraf goonde log. The highlight of the film was a chase that involved three adorable Mini Coopers trying to dodge hovering helicopters. All the action, all the gore, the abuses, jokes and caricature characters stand apart and alone, making little sense. Everyone does it.Daal Mein Kuch Kaala Hai! cannot be called a film. This thing doesn’t have a single coherent thought, forget a full story. Zindagi

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Since the FCC announced just before Thanksgiving that it was planning to gut the rules, there have been about 750,000 calls to Congress made through Battle for the Net, a website run by groups that advocate for net neutrality. The discussion sprawled into the next day."The liberal organization MoveOn is urging Americans to speak up for net neutrality. Big-time Hollywood producer Shonda Rhimes tweeted a link to a story about saving net-neutrality on her lifestyle website."Access to a free and fair internet is necessary for a functioning democracy," said Lauren Gruber, a writer for a branding agency who joined the New York protest. One man was charged in November with threatening to kill US Rep.

By contrast, there were fewer than 30,000 calls in the first two weeks of November. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and his staff have called out ugly and racist tweets and death threats. Having celebrities speak out can help spark people’s interest, she said.Critics of the rules say that they hurt investment in internet infrastructure and represent too much government involvement in business. More Hollywood celebrities have been joining the cry against the agency’s direction."Most people don’t follow what federal agencies like the FCC are doing, even though decisions can have a lot of impact on people’s lives, said Beth Leech, the political science professor at Rutgers University. Phone and cable companies say the rules aren’t necessary because they already support an open internet, and have lobbied hard for their repeal. They included questions about what net neutrality was, links to explanations and statements of support."Long live cute dog videos on YouTube! China wholesale Acrylic letter signsRIPinternet., a longtime net neutrality supporter, said on a call with reporters. "It’s the rarity that gives them some of their power..com, hundreds of thousands of comments came from one address in Russia and many comments were duplicates." Some Democrats are hoping that any rollback of net neutrality rules will become a campaign rallying cry in 2018 and beyond."There will be a political price to pay for those who are on the wrong side of this issue because net neutrality’s time as a campaign issue has arrived," Sen.Net-neutrality rules bar cable and phone companies from favouring certain websites and apps — such as their own services — and give the FCC more oversight over privacy and the activities of telecom companies. Share what you loved about The Internet," actor Mark Ruffalo tweeted as he urged people to push Congress to intervene.But the commenting system has been messy. While libertarian and conservative think tanks and telecom trade groups have spoken up against net neutrality, everyday people have been vocal in protesting the rules’ repeal.

John Katko and his family if the New York Republican didn’t support net neutrality. Now it’s hit the mainstream. If the net-neutrality rules are repealed, she said, "it’s just another showcase of oligarchy upon America."Net neutrality has the potential to motivate young and progressive voters to turn out," said Tyler Law, spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which works to get Democrats elected to the House.Celebrity complaints and street protests aren’t likely to stop the agency’s vote on Thursday, but activists hope the growing outcry will push Congress to intervene and will show support for stricter regulation down the road. Supporters worry that repealing them would hurt start-ups and other companies that couldn’t afford to pay a broadband company for faster access to customers. While Congress doesn’t need to approve FCC decisions, # it can overrule the agency by passing a law.Some net-neutrality supporters have become intensely personal in their advocacy. Next week, the Federal Communications Commission plans to vote on gutting Obama-era rules meant to stop broadband companies such as Comcast, AT&T and Verizon from exercising more control over what people watch and see on the internet.

The FCC’s commenting system has logged 23 million comments, compared with roughly 4 million for the last blockbuster issue — when the agency approved the net-neutrality rules in 2015."Protests that draw average people out into the streets across the country are relatively rare," she said. Pai also said activists came to his home to post signs that referenced his children.Net neutrality also has triggered discussions all over social media, even in groups that typically don’t discuss tech policy.Net neutrality is a simple concept but a dense and often technical issue normally discussed in tech and telecom circles.Meanwhile, net-neutrality supporters protested outside 700 Verizon stores Thursday, said Tim Karr, senior director of strategy for Free Press, an advocacy group involved in Battle for the Net. The FCC says millions of comments used temporary email accounts from fakemailgenerator. Democratic senators have called for a delay in next Thursday’s vote, while Democratic FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel urged backers to "make a ruckus. In midtown Manhattan, some 350 people came to chant slogans and wave signs. Republican campaign officials didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. An August study by a data firm backed by the telecom industry found that 60 percent of the comments made this year supported keeping the 2015 rules.Net neutrality has been a hot button before; thanks to assists from Silicon Valley and TV host John Oliver speaking out about what they see as threats to the internet. In one Facebook group about leggings seller LuLaRoe, one woman’s lament about the repeal triggered more than 270 responses. Ed Markey, D-Mass

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"We feel that Lockwood must have had Rudyard stay here and write so we call it the ‘Kipling Bungalow’," explains Mishra, who wants the Maharashtra state government to restore it without delay. "The bungalow is in very bad condition and needs desperate help," the college’s principal, Rajiv Mishra, said.Heritage campaigners lament the demise of such buildings, blaming red tape and claiming politicians and developers are more concerned with constructing sparkly new luxury towers than preserving Mumbai’s architectural history. creating the death of a historic building," renowned architect Abha Narain Lambah, who specialises in conservation, said. (Photo: AFP)Hidden behind a blanket of trees at the back of a university in Mumbai lies the dilapidated, but once grand, former home of writer Rudyard Kipling.Maharashtra culture and education minister Vinod Tawde failed to respond to repeated requests for comment on the issue.

AFP contacted a number of officials at the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, regarding the Watson’s Hotel and the Harris building, but none were available for comment.The three-storey mansion, part of a public school, was out of use for three years until renovation began in June, and presently stands gutted, surrounded by bamboo scaffolding. School of Art in Mumbai.A short walk away, work has already begun on the former Mumbai residence of batsman and acclaimed cricket administrator George Harris, who was governor of the city from 1890-1895.The building has been caught in a tug-of-war between the college and the Illuminated sign Suppliers government for years over what its restoration should look like, but Mishra hopes renovations will finally start in around six months.He says officials plan to turn the building into a gallery exhibiting students’ work and that of decorated artists, and have issued a tender for the contract.The stately home hosted critical talks between Jinnah and India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru on partition of the subcontinent, but today its downtrodden appearance belies its historical significance.Today the crumbling structure houses a medley of dark cubby-hole offices.In arty Kala Ghoda district, a 147-year-old mansion, formerly the resplendent Watson’s Hotel, frequented and written about by Mark Twain, is a ramshackle shadow of its former glory.Lambah doesn’t believe the buildings owe their dilapidation to any sort of colonial antipathy, citing well-maintained British-era relics like the Bombay High Court and the former Victoria Terminus train station.

A few kilometres away in plush Malabar Hill sits the previously imposing residence of Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan and its first governor-general.A Mumbai inter-schools cricket tournament called the Harris Shield is testament to his legacy, but his former home was allowed to come close to collapse before long overdue maintenance work started.According to legend, the hotel went into decline after Indian industrialist Jamsetji Tata built Mumbai’s iconic Taj Mahal Palace because he was denied entry to Watson’s, which had a "Europeans-only" policy. The "Kipling Bungalow", as locals affectionately call it, is one of several mansions in the teeming Indian city, once associated with famous residents but now in ruin.Harris captained England and during his tenure on the subcontinent "did much to lay down foundations for the expansion of the game in India", according to Cricinfo website.Now called Esplanade Mansion, it shows no signs of being restored despite ten years having passed since it was placed on a global list of endangered monuments by the New York-based World Monuments Fund."The Kipling Bungalow is just a very sad reflection of bureaucratic hurdles.Fallen branches, discarded chairs and even empty whisky bottles surround the 19th-century building, while bird droppings mar a bust of Kipling, author of such beloved novels as The Jungle Book and Kim. A lack of funds and arguments between tenants and city authorities have been cited as contributing to its descent into ruin. Jinnah’s house has been embroiled in a long-running legal dispute over ownership between his daughter, India and Pakistan."It was basically falling apart and became too dangerous to be inside," the school’s principal, Mohan Bhogade, said.Watson’s, completed in 1869, is believed to be India’s oldest caste-iron building and was the hotel of choice for colonialists and visiting dignitaries during the British Raj.

It lies empty in thick forest behind a padlocked gate."We feel cheated that such a beautiful monument has been neglected," he adds, pointing to a rotting wooden post, precariously supporting the historic property in south Mumbai.Built in 1882, 17 years after Rudyard was born, the house was home to Lockwood Kipling and subsequent deans until the early 2000s, by which time it had sunk into such disrepair that it was rendered uninhabitable.The gothic building housed school classrooms until four years ago, when pupils were moved out because the crumbling structure had become too weak and hazardous.The wood and stone structure, its green paint peeling, is situated on the grounds of an art school, whose first principal was John Lockwood Kipling, Rudyard’s father.."The idea of heritage has just evaporated," says Naresh Fernandes, author of "City Adrift: A Short Biography of Bombay. "It’s just sheer neglect and bureaucracy," she says.Students gather under the porch of the Kipling Bunglow — the birthplace of author Rudyard Kipling — inside the campus of the J.Nearby stands the former colonial home of Lord Harris, an ex-governor of then-named Bombay, widely credited with making cricket the most popular sport in India..J

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