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We don't kiss for the heck of it: Anushka: After playing a simple girl-next-door, Anushka Sharma has gone in for an image makeover in Badmaash Company where she not only wears stylish clothes but also has a kissing scene with Shahid Kapoor.
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Agent Vinod is larger-than-life: Saif: Kurbaan may not have done well at the box office but Saif Ali Khan has no time to look back. The actor is all geared up for his upcoming project Agent Vinod, which he says is an 'ambitious and larger-than-life'.
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Caribbean blues: We’ve crashed out of the T20 World Cup in the Caribbean. The boys must be really feeling blue.
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On a wing and a prayer: The selection committee might have appointed a highly competent executive. But does his experience match with what is required or expected of him? Writes Jitender Bhargava.
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Laws of discretion: An efficient system of checks and balances is essential to monitor intelligence coordination in India, writes Vikram Sood.
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What’s Left of it?: The CPI(M) has decided to cleanse itself of evils. This way lies the road to redemption.
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Rue Britannia for Cameron: The new British PM will have to tackle recession before economic recovery.
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‘LAP may soon open in Mumbai’: After Delhi, National Award Winner Arjun Rampal now plans to open his second nightspot in the city.
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The knowledge bar: Let us draw a clear line between intelligence and knowledge. Intelligence is like a flashlight. If you flash it, it’ll just show you what’s there. Knowledge is like a projector; if you switch it on, it projects its own story.
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Ridley, the revisionist: It’s election day in Britain when we meet. “Have you voted yet?” I ask Ridley Scott. “I’m going to miss it, I guess,” he says. “God, I hope they know what they’re doing — because we don’t really know who they are, these new boys, do we? You used to have to have fought in a war to be president of the United States or prime minister of England.”
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Striking a high note: In the words of the founding father of Zionism, Theodore Herzl, “If you will it, it is no dream”. This year we celebrate Herzl’s 150th birthday, together with 62 years of Israel’s independence, and 18 years of diplomatic relations between Israel and India. Mark Sofer writes.
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Is he in the hood?: Is the poor lady feeling the pressures of office? How else can you explain US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s latest take on Pakistan’s commitment to the hunt for Osama bin Laden?
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A blinkered vision: A caste-based census shouldn't be seen as a political move to secure quotas. We need hard data to know -- and fight -- discrimination, writes Sagarika Ghose.
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‘100% rural coverage in next 2 years’: J S Sarma speaks to HT: Soon after TRAI released its recommendations, its chairman J S Sarma spoke to Hindustan Times.
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No place for parallel courts: Regressive forces are known to take a mile when given an inch. This seems to be the case with the khap panchayats of Haryana who have now taken to issuing ultimatums to MPs and MLAs to support their illegal acts which masquerade as tradition.
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No love brewing over coffee: Anushka: Anushka Sharma denies rumours of a relationship with Badmaash Company co-star Shahid Kapoor. She talks candidly about the much-talked-about contract with Yash Raj banner.
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Art of saying sorry: Minutes before writing this, I was trying hard to coin a reasonable definition of a wise man. Thoughts rushed into my mind, and they were all quite attractive ones, but in their extremities.
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Off the record: With the number of its MPs shrinking in the 15th Lok Sabha, providing accommodation to the party functionaries has become quite a headache for the CPI(M).
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A losing proposition: On the last day of the budget session of Parliament, the government hurriedly introduced the Civil Nuclear Liability Bill amid largescale protests by the Opposition, writes Sitaram Yechury.
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Tripping itself up: You have to say this much for members of the UPA: they are real troopers in the cause of democracy. It has now become clear to them that the BJP is slacking in its role of tripping up the government.
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Old habits die hard: If ever a nation did not deserve the leaders it has got, Nepal would probably be right up there in the rankings. After paralysing the country for the umpteenth time since the peace process began four years ago, the United Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) has called off its strike citing hardships faced by the people.
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Max Group eyes education, hotels: Education and hospitality could well be the next growth hotspots for the Analjit Singh promoted Max group. “We have already decided on medicine but we are open to a wider range of education opportunities,” Max India Chairman Analjit Singh told Hindustan Times in an exclusive interview at his Aurangzeb Road residence in Lutyen’s Delhi.
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My dream man is Rabindranath Tagore: Riya Sen: She was famously linked to Booker Prize winner Salman Rushdie once upon a time. It looks like Riya Sen has a thing for authors as she considers the Bard of Bengal, Rabindranath Tagore, the perfect man for herself.
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Godly mother: The world was proud to celebrate Mother’s Day yesterday. And we were too keen and happy to recount mothers’ contributions towards our health and happiness, writes Sami Rafiq.
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Is ‘Microkia’ the new Wintel?: I don’t fancy the idea of dwelling on the same topic for two weeks in a row, but I have reasonable grounds this week. Thanks to a space crunch, last week, I could not make a prediction, but I am using this week to do so, reports N Madhavan.
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Rabindranath Tagore was truly a rare talent: Amit Chaudhuri in Nothing but a poet (May 7), reminded us how Tagore was truly an unparalleled talent. However, the great poet’s talents were not just restricted to verse but extended to short stories, novels, plays, music and art.
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The Congress must grasp the nettle: Invoking the Congress president’s name, the government managed to get the [women’s reservation] Bill passed with the help of the Left parties and the BJP in the Rajya Sabha but ended up without some of its supporters, writes Pankaj Vohra.
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The Indian way is littered with inefficiency management & culture: To expect that every citizen would have all the information possible in a country as illiterate and with so little access as India is irrational, writes Gautam Chikermane.
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‘MoU will be the guiding factor for re-negotiation’: As Mukesh and Anil Ambani prepare themselves for re-negotiations on the contentious gas supply pact after the Supreme Court verdict, Anupama Airy spoke to Reliance Power Ltd (RPL) CEO J.P. Chalasani.
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What a cover-up!: Belgium is planning to ban the burqa to ‘liberate’ women. But coercion seldom results in change, writes Namita Bhandare.
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‘Nothing but a poet’: On the Mount Rushmore of Indian nationalist iconography, we can expect to see, as we pass by in an aeroplane, Gandhi’s and Nehru’s faces carved into the stone. The third face is a blur — but the myopic likeness is of course Ambedkar’s. The fourth visage just may be Tagore’s, writes Amit Chaudhuri.
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Parliamentary mores: Ah, the strings attached to hierarchy. Make that purse strings. It stands to reason that the boss brings home a larger slice of the bacon than his or her subordinate.
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The truth, the whole truth...: The Supreme Court’s ruling that non-voluntary narco-analysis and brain-mapping tests violate the Constitution was an observation that was as obvious as it was necessary.
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Search for the meaning of life: A man needs to have a meaning in life in order to be productive and happy. This fact was impressed upon me while rereading after several years the modern classic, Man’s Search for Meaning, by Viktor E Frankl.
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Meet Obama Singh: Last weekend US President Barack Obama made a funny speech at the White House correspondents’ dinner, full of jokes and jabs at his fellow politicians, journalists and himself. What if our prime minister made a similar speech, asks Manas Chakravarty.
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Anushka wants to play modern Indian woman: She may be new to the industry but model-turned-actress Anushka Sharma is looking forward to play modern, defining roles in her upcoming films.
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Salman believed in me: Katrina: Katrina Kaif, who usually remains tight-lipped about her relationship with actor Salman Khan, says the star always guided her and genuinely believed she would join the big league in Bollywood one day.
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Throwback to Mandal era?: Parliament’s budget session ended on Friday amid accolades for the UPA regime that until a few weeks ago seemed tottering on the brink over the women’s reservation bill.
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Total recall: It’s been reported: Lalit Modi and his psychedelic creation called the IPL is still lurking menacingly in the shadows. After having caused a grievous blow to Indian cricket, it is now being revealed that Modi had even greater plans, which would have given him and his corporate masters control of world cricket as well, says Pradeep Magzine.
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Strategically speaking: Conventional wisdom has it the Bore-celona circuit, home of this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix is one of the least likely to provide riveting on-track action. Steve Slater writes.
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‘Allocation and gas price will be decided by govt’: Petroleum Minister Murli Deora, who faced flak for intervening in the gas dispute between the Ambani brothers, welcomed the SC verdict on Friday. Excerpts from his interview to HT.
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Missing the real McCoy: It’s so ironic that news of Ajmal Kasab’s death sentence for the butchery in Mumbai was crowded off the world’s front pages by Faisal Shahzad’s damp squibs in a smoking SUV in New York City, Pratik Kanjilal writes.
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No gassing around: Anil Ambani. Murli Deora. Mukesh Ambani. Three men, who have hogged the headlines over the past five years were on Friday respectively crestfallen, satisfied and invisible, writes Gautam Chikermane.
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Now for cool calculations: Three questions arise from Friday’s Supreme Court verdict on the dispute between the Brothers Ambani over a gas supply contract.
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Allow them some space to breathe: Afghanistan has always been a prisoner of its geography and history and this imponderable has blocked its emergence as a sovereign nation with a will of its own, writes H K Dua.
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Greek tragedy: if it had been India, it would have hurt more: Here’s the standard version of the Greek story which has currently sent the world’s investment markets into the corner. The country’s government has lived beyond its means for years and has racked up a huge debt that is beyond its power to repay, Dhirendra Kumar.
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No dearth of salesmen: How do you win friends and influence a superpower? The answer traditionally in Washington is: hire a lobbyist.
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Under their influence: India’s top lobbyists - They are not just cloak’n’dagger operators and shady ‘fixers’. They are also people invested with the power to connect and convince, push and pull for policies that government and corporates will implement
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A false ring to it: Resist the urge to lie on the telephone. A new Israeli software could nail you.
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Down the slope, again: Global economic recovery is threatened by the indecisiveness of the 16 eurozone States.
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