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вторник, 30 ноября 2010 г.

Khushwant Singh launches his book The Sunset Club

22:18

Hi Speed

The chilly winter Delhi evening was dominated by two unique individuals. And could there have been a greater contrast between these two personalities? He, the 'dirty old man,' touching an unbelievable grand age of 97 ("If I make a century I will be lucky"), in a wheelchair and a black ski hat, his glass of Scotch beside him.
She, a sober, dignified lady, elegant in pearls and a beautiful blue silk sari, her manner modest and gracious.

Khushwant Singh, writer, and Gursharan Kaur, the prime minister's wife.
"She is a crowd-puller! I discovered she could draw as many people as a star from Hollywood," Singh says, explaining why he always invites Mrs Manmohan Singh to his book launches.

"Sometimes she comes uninvited," he adds, mock grumbling. The witty Sardar explains that he unabashedly uses his Gursharan Kaur connection and often shows off to friends when flowers arrive from the prime minister's home for him.

This time around, Gursharan Kaur is far from a gatecrasher. She is the chief guest. She released Singh's "last book" The Sunset Club at the postmodern-decor Meridien hotel, New Delhi, on Tuesday.

"I have been saying it is my last book and I said that about my last six books. I don't know how long I can carry on... I am now trying to learn how to do nothing," Khushwant Singh, who edited The Illustrated Weekly, Asia's oldest English magazine, in the 1970s, New Delhi magazine and the Hindustan Times in the 1980s, said. Sunset Club is a poignant tale of three crotchety but hugely lively, fantasy-driven eighty-something Delhiites, of varied backgrounds. They meet every evening at dusk in the capital's Lodhi Gardens to share life's experiences and views, be it religion or sex or lust or Ayodhya or Valentine's Day or Varun Gandhi.
The sensitive tale seems to have bittersweet autobiographical strands, reflecting bits and pieces of Singh's life and that of his friends and relatives.
Gursharan Kaur pointed out, "It is typical Khushwant Singh, hilarious, open and scandalous. I enjoyed it (what she has read so far) as I enjoy his columns that are informative, refreshing, honest and very transparent."
"Khushwant Singh tried hard to convert me into an author," the prime minister's wife added, "but who has the time and the will to write? I think his talent is inborn. He cannot put his pen down."
Gursharan Kaur added that there was already a writer in the family, her daughter.
Daman Singh, her second daughter, has written two well-reviewed novels. Her elder daughter Upinder Singh, a professor of history in Delhi, has written several books of history. Amrit Singh, her youngest daughter, is a distinguished New York-based lawyer, who took on George W Bush's administration at a time when her father and the US president were allies and friends.

The prime minister's wife, in her simple, unaffected way, was the true host of the evening, solicitously looking after Singh, even as she spent time with others in the room, chatting, autographing books, posing for cameras. Arrogance? Not a trace of it. Style? Trademark, low-key friendly grace.
At 96, Khushwant Singh is frail, confined to a wheelchair, sensitive to bright light and even more soft-spoken. As far as spirit and spark go, if anything the legend has gotten crustier and sharper.

He recalled drolly how he got into the business of earning money from needling others in print, "I decided upon a three word formula: Inform, amuse and provoke. With provoke, I found that anytime I write something about people, they took me to court!

Among those who attended the event were sculptor Satish Gujral; India's first lady chief justice Leila Seth (whose son Vikram is one of two Indian writers Khushwant Singh admires; the other is Amitav Ghosh); India's Ambassador to Israel and author Navtej Sarna; Pakistani High Commisioner Wajid Shamsul Hasan; journalist Nalini Singh; Le Meridien owner Bubbles Charanjit Singh and Khushwant Singh's daughter Mala Dayal.

The launch of the final book of an author whose tart wit and frank take on Indian life has enthralled Indians for decades was an intensely sentimental occasion.

Editor-in-chief and publisher of Penguin Ravi Singh reminisced about an important Delhi event -- evenings with Khushwant Singh.

For decades the writer -- whose father Sir Sobha Singh was arguably Delhi's biggest builder through the 1930s -- has run an open house at his Sujan Singh Park home where anybody and everybody was welcome to stop by and have a drink, discuss politics, national affairs and just about anything under the sun with him as long as they made an appointment and left within their designated time or they were sweetly told to "bugger off."

Ravi Singh recalled that Khushwant Singh has spent a lifetime cultivating his crusty, malice-to-all, not-a-nice-man dirty old man persona and "a bigger lie we will not hear." The publisher said he has not met a more "generous, sensitive, genuine and principled man... (with) the extraordinary courage to call a spade a spade, no matter what the consequences."

Penguin Books India had organised a film of tributes, some touching, some amusing, from some of the people who know Khushwant Singh best: Editor-writer M J Akbar, his tailor Saimuddin, journalist and editor Nandini Mehta, his long-serving cook Chandan, editor Vinod Mehta, writer Vikram Seth, his typist Lachman Das, his neighbour Reeta Devi Verma, among others.

05:32

Hi Speed

The European Commission has launched an investigation into Google after other search engines complained that the firm had abused its dominant position.

The EC will examine whether the world's largest search engine penalised competing services in its results.

The probe follows complaints by firms including price comparison site Foundem and legal search engine ejustice.fr.

Google denies the allegations but said it would work with the Commission to "address any concerns".

Earlier this year the attorney general of Texas launched a similar investigation following complaints from firms including Foundem.

The objections in both cases are from competitors which allege that Google manipulates its search results.

"The European Commission has decided to open an antitrust investigation into allegations that Google has abused a dominant position in online search," the body said in a statement.

It said the action followed "complaints by search service providers about unfavourable treatment of their services in Google's unpaid and sponsored search results coupled with an alleged preferential placement of Google's own services."

The Commission's investigation does not imply any wrongdoing by Google.

"Since we started, Google we have worked hard to do the right thing by our users and our industry," said the firm in a statement.

"But there's always going to be room for improvement, and so we'll be working with the Commission to address any concerns."

Google offers two types of search result - unpaid results produced by the firm's algorithms that are displayed in the main body of the page and "ads", previously called sponsored links.

The investigation will try to determine whether the firm's method of generating unpaid results adversely affects the ranking of other firms, specifically those providing so-called vertical search services.

These are specialist search providers, and can include sites that offer price comparison, for example.

Foundem alleges that Google's algorithms "remove legitimate sites from [its] natural search results, irrespective of relevance". It also says that the firm promotes its own services over those offered by competitors.

"Google is exploiting its dominance of search in ways that stifle innovation, suppress competition, and erode consumer choice," Foundem said in its complaint filed in February 2010.

But Google argues that there are "compelling reasons" why these sites are "ranked poorly".

For example, it said, Foundem "duplicates 79% of its website content from other sites."

"We have consistently informed webmasters that our algorithms disadvantage duplicate sites," the firm said.

The Commission will also look into allegations that Google manipulated elements of its system that determine the price paid for ads from these sites.

Finally, the investigation will also probe how the company deals with advertising partners.

Advertising is the core of Google's business.

Google is alleged to impose "exclusivity obligations on advertising partners, preventing them from placing certain types of competing ads on their web sites, as well as on computer and software vendors," according to an EC statement.

In addition, the EC said it would also look into "suspected restrictions on the portability of online advertising campaign data to competing online advertising platforms."

Google says it already allows customers "to take their data with them when they switch services" adn that its contracts "have never been exclusive".

Gay Pride Parade Delhi 2010

23:20

Hi Speed

Under Delhi's beautiful November afternoon sun, nearly two thousand young men and women marched on Sunday to mark the city's third Queer Pride parade.
This year's colourful and celebratory parade starting at the end of Barakhamba Road near Connaught Place and ending next to Jantar Mantar -- was the first march after last year's Delhi high court verdict that struck down the antiquated Article 377 of Indian Penal Code.

"I am always reminded of my school days in the 1960s," said 57-year-old artist Sunil Gupta as he observed the marchers gather at Barakhamba Road. Gupta has attended all the three Delhi parades.
"It seemed it would never happen in my lifetime. What's surprising is that the rate of change has accelerated. The first year there were fewer people wearing more masks, and today there are more people in fewer masks," he observed.

There were many masks, but a lot of people wore them more to add colour to their looks, and less to hide their faces. As a lot of people observed, this year's parade, with over 2,000 boisterous marchers, included many youngsters - gays, lesbians, transgenders, but also straight people.
"There is a real change this year," said Gautam Bhan, an activist and one of the organisers of the parade.

"At the first pride parade there were four of us who gave interviews to the media. The numbers of supporting crowds have increased. There are new faces and new people talking to the press and that's fantastic," he said.

In the pride parades of the West, everything appears more orderly, and marchers are represented by ethnic, national, and other political and social groups. But here it was one big party along Delhi's Tolstoy Marg, with many people dancing to the beats of drums. And the cooler weather made it easier for people to break into dance.

The first pride parade in Delhi had about 800 marchers. Last year's parade, held a few days before the high court judgment, had nearly 1,500 marchers. The number was far higher this year.

Gay and lesbian pride parades around the world are held in the month of June -- marking the anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall Inn riots in New York City.
But after last year's Delhi parade, held on a very hot afternoon in June, the organisers decided to shift the march to November, said activist and organiser Mohnish Kabir Malhotra.

Apart from the masks and the colourful costumes, the marchers carried a number of placards. Some read: 'Closets are for Clothes', 'Queer Right are Human Right', 'No Need for Homophobia, Lesbian Suicides, Forced Marriages', 'Jab Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kaya', and 'Out of the Closets and Into the Streets'.
And perhaps the most touching placards were carried by the mother and grandmother of a young gay man.

The mother's placard read: 'God Blessed Me with 2 Sons. 1 of Dem is Gay and I Love Both of Dem Equally!' The grandmother's placard read: 'I Am Proud to Say My Grandson is Gay!'.

There were many foreigners among the marchers -- including a white couple with a biological son and what appeared to be a South Asian adopted daughter. An African American man wore a T-shirt that read in Hindi: 'Aadmi Hoon, Aadmi Say Pyaar Karta Hoon (I am a man, I love a man)'.
Many marchers holding a giant rainbow coloured flag were heard shouting: 'Hum Sab Ka Yeh Naara Hai, Homo Hoona Pyaara Hai'!.

The rainbow colours, an internationally recognised symbol of gay and lesbian identity, were also seen on the scarves, smaller flags and also a few umbrellas carried by the marchers.

Along the way there were many passersby, car and bus drivers who watched the parade with a smile and did not seem to mind that the event was causing a massive traffic jam on Sunday afternoon. Delhi policemen and women also watched the parade, often with smiles on their faces.

"The cops have been really nice," said Rahul Sharma, one of the organisers.

Unlike in the West, there were no counter protests against the march. "The few passersby seem curious," Gupta said as he walked in the parade.

"Actually, this part of Delhi is very quiet on a Sunday so you will have to be dedicated to come to protest. But that kind of opposition in an organised manner happens in the US a lot, because of the lobbying groups," he said.

"One thing is that India doesn't have is homophobia, because Indians do not discuss sex," he added.
"Even the casual homophobia doesn't happen here. If more such parades happen, then a few years down the line, there might be protests," said Gupta.

Nivea anti-wrinkle cream advertisement banned

10:10

Hi Speed

A commercial for a Nivea anti-wrinkle cream that gave the impression it helped women to feel more beautiful than when they were ten years younger has been banned.

The Advertising Standards Authority(ASA) warned the cinema advertisement was misleading.

The commercial showed a woman moisturising her face in front of a mirror, with a voiceover stating 'Nivea Visage Anti-Wrinkle Q10 Plus helps reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles'.

A group of her friends then greeted her with a birthday cake, and the voiceover continued: 'So it's no surprise that 37per cent of women feel more attractive now than they did ten years ago.'

However, a viewer complained the advertisement did not make clear whether the 37per cent claim was referring to women in general or just those who had used the cream.

Manufacturers Beiersdorf said that the claim had been taken from a survey conducted on attitudes and philosophies to life, adding that the 12,267 responses came from subscribers to the Nivea e-mail newsletter.

It said most of these women would probably be Nivea users, however it admitted it could not be certain how many.

In fact the statistic about 37per cent of women feeling more attractive than when they were younger was actually a response to a general attitudes survey and not linked to using Nivea products at all.

The watchdog banned the ad, saying: 'The ASA considered that the claim would be understood by consumers to mean that 37per cent of women interviewed felt more attractive because they used the advertised product.

However, we understood from the survey that respondents had been asked whether they agreed with the statement 'I feel more attractive today than I did ten years ago' in general terms, rather than in relation to the advertised product or its effects.

'We considered that the ad presented the relationship between the advertised product and the survey results in a way that was ambiguous, and could be confusing for consumers, and we therefore concluded that the ad was misleading.

'The ad must not appear again in its current form.'

Beiersdorf said: 'Nivea Visage conducted a survey on attitudes and philosophies to life via subscribers to the NIVEA newsletter and asked whether the female respondents felt more attractive now than they did ten years ago.

'We conduct these surveys to demonstrate an emotional connection between looking after your skin and they way it makes you feel.

'We believe good skincare enables a better emotional status, so when 37per cent of women replied that they felt more attractive now, we used the data as it was such a positive message.'