24th - 30th december , 2010 info@theasianweekly.net 1 the asian weekly issue: 0026 18th - 24th february, 2011 radio royalty: parveen adam getting it right with stripes raaji bharij aims for the top! t op 5 batsmen to look out for straight talk 24 bol bindaas 26 fashion 33 sports 18 hightea meets fashion a look at the most happening valentines parties, community news and much more out & about 2318th - 24th february, 2011 info@theasianweekly.net 2 the asian weekly pick your copy of the asian weekly at the following venues: chandarana supermarkets; fun and shop diamond plaza and thigiri ridge shopping centre; alkash diamond plaza; apsara diamond plaza; monty’ s sarit centre; lipstix sarit centre; lavis westgate; casual collections diamond plaza; ssd t emple; ram mandir; ambaji t emple; ngara flour mills; fruity fruits, muthithi rd; yogesh hair salon south c; dipan hair dressing salon, n. west; ram mandir no maneno bazaar , mombasa, sterling enterprises limited, kisumu and various other outlets. sales & advertising m: 0710 424 614 e: sales@theasianweekly.net editorial m: 0738 785 955 e: hermina@theasianweekly.net general enquiries m: 0737 053 003 e: info@theasianweekly.net design & layout maninder kaur bharya e: design@theasianweekly.net contributers caine correa sayed mansoor kajal patel kamal t olia pranay gorodia trupti shah gorodia gupz saund sawan shah yogesh bhatia acharya bhatt copyright greenstorm media ltd, p .o. box 18105-00500, nairobi, kenya m: 0737 053 003 asian youth shine at model united nations by caine correa a must for some of ke-nya's finer schools espe-cially those offering the british, french and other european curriculums, is a week-long annual event called the m.u.n.(model united nations). based at the united nations nairobi complex, it involves students as delegates repre-senting the various nations of the world in debating resolu-tions for appealing for un donor assistance to solve that nation's main problems politi-cally, or in human rights, ecol-ogy, economic and defence (security council). following the very same methods of de-corum in debate as the real united nations. this year saw entries from schools beyond kenya's bor-ders; rwanda, tanzania and uganda as well as the inter-national, the french, german and swedish schools. the stan-dard of debating was very high and the asian students most definitely made an impres-sion. in the east african mun executive committee was jay shah - the secretary general, zaneta pereira - co-chair of general assembly 2 among others. the senior chair posts included, harshni malde, kris-han ahmed, shivani karani, benazir premji, vahista shroff and ayman kanji. students from oshwal academy nairobi conference hall krishan ahmed at the podium l-r: sohee hyung, sonia kuguru, jeff koinange, jay shah, mark yoon & zaneta i have a bone to pick with you. i get into trouble every week if i forget bringing home a copy and i only get to read it after she has finished! well done guys. you definetely are doing a splen-did job. god bless... - mehul malde thank you for the excel-lent news magazine that you produce every week, kudos to you all. - anisha shah sarit centre manage-ment office you feature a variety of asians in your paper and this makes it a very interesting read every week. well done. it was great to read and sanjeev and sonu sharma and also the young asian kenyan who was at dadaab refugee camp. you are giving us information that no one else has. - meghji pethraj your valentines special was really interesting. very well covered and it was great to read tips on what single people should do. the article on flowers and their sig-nificance was informative and different. keep up the innovative work. - razia i love your bollywood news. you cover the award cere-monies very well and quality of pictures is excellent. - manpreet18th - 24th february, 2011 info@theasianweekly.net18th - 24th february, 2011 info@theasianweekly.net 4 the asian weekly rya makes a hit with patiala house premiere by sayed mansoor the ramgarhia youth asso-ciation made a wise move by using the premiere of patiala house to raise funds for their community service projects. the premiere was held at the fox theatre sarit centre on friday evening. the event attracted a large crowd and the turnout was extremely impressive. there was a cocktail and the cater-ing was extravagant and left no room for complaints as both vegetarians and non vegetar-ians were catered for . the entire ramgarhia board and a formidable number from the sikh community were at hand to support the initiatives of their youngsters. the entire floor outside the cinema was a mass of humanity as everyone mingled and interacted before the screening. the members or rya ensured everything went smoothly. patiala is a breath of fresh air for akshay kumar’ s career after starring in the horrible flop t ees maar khan. in my opinion, he should stick to roles that cast him in a sikh’ s character since he seems to be the candidate for that and that he will have the sup-port of the entire punjabi population to make whatever movie he stars in a major hit. others in the cast include anushka sharma, rishi kapoor , dimple kapadia, prem chopra, hard kaur among others. the sight to behold in the movie is watching hard kaur singing bhajans. i might have heard a few people choke when they saw that. the movie was a worth watch and fantastic to say the least and the rya were successful in raising substantial funds for their projects. members of the east african ramgarhia board committee members of ramgarhia youth association guests l-r: harnaik singh, vicky singh lohana youth league valentine initiative l-r: bhadresh patel, sachin dawda, kapil sharma, deval suchak, chanrakant patel, pankaj ruparel, nisha ruparel, kiran raithatha, kirti raithatha at mji wa huruma l-r: amritlal shah, hanshabhen ganatra, vanubhai manek, chandrakant patel, nisha ruparel, sachin. chandrakant patel with francis njuguna sayed mansoor the lohana youth league (lyl) gave the residents of the mji wa huruma home, runda a new meaning to the sharing and caring spirit of valentine. the volunteers gathered on sunday to distribute food to the less privileged of our society, specifically the aged and young ones. the home caters for approxi-mately forty aged males and fe-males. it was extremely moving to assist the elderly and the children who live in squalid conditions and to try and give them something to smile about. the sitaram parivar has been undertaking the feeding program for the past twenty five years. although lyl met some of the costs, other sponsors who came on board included dipan chan-darana of chandarana super-market, jeet, akshay and ee-sha jobanputra. the event began with the hindu devotees feeding the cows since cows are con-sidered sacred to the hindu faithful. the volunteers then proceeded to distribute ready packed lunch to the residents of the home followed by the little children who were approximate-ly 1200-1500 who relished the goodies they were given. lyl also donated rations for the home that will last them for approxi-mately three weeks. at noon the exercise came to an end with hanuman chalisa. t o the volun-teers, the whole exercise was an eye opener and a satisfying and humbling experience.18th - 24th february, 2011 info@theasianweekly.net 5 the asian weekly milad-un-nabii by sayed mansoor every year muslims world-wide celebrate the birth of prophet muhammad (p .b.u.h) on the 12th of rabi-ul-awwal which is the third month on the islamic calendar . this year , the date fell on the 16th of february since the islamic calendar follows the lunar system. prophet muhammad (p .b.u.h) was born in mecca in 570 ad. he was orphaned at an early age and brought up under the care of his uncle abu talib. he later worked as a merchant and as well as a shepherd and was first married at the age of 25. at the age of 40 while meditating in a cave on the outskirts of mecca he had his first revelation from allah through the angel ji-bril. henceforth, he started preaching the word of is-lam and that there is only one god and that mankind should surrender to him. when he and his followers were met with hostility from the meccan tribes, he sent some of his followers to ab-yssinia and later on together with a few of his followers fled to madina to avoid per-secution. this event, known as hijra, marks the start of the islamic calendar . in madi-na, after uniting the warring clans, muhammad (p .b.u.h) and his followers marched on and conquered mecca. on the eve of milad-un-nabii, faithful congregated at the pangani mosque after the dusk prayers of maghreb to offer special prayers and sing naaths which is a sufic influence on the early his-tory celebrations. the mood was carnival as the men hummed along to the naaths which seemed to put them in a spiritual trance as they dedicated their prayers to the prophet (p .b.u.h). in other parts of the coun-try, there were maulidis to mark the auspicious day. maulidis are more promi-nent in the coastal region and those who have their roots at the coast contin-ued the tradition. maulidis include prayers which are then followed by a commu-nal feast. in lamu, maulidi festivities include weeklong maulidi dances, donkey rac-es, and qaseedas. the celebrations climax with a large julooz (proces-sion) on the first saturday that follows after milad-un-nabii which starts at sir ali muslim club on park road and ends at the pangani mosque. milad-un-nabi celebration is lamu18th - 24th february, 2011 info@theasianweekly.net 6 the asian weekly desai memorial foundation’s bid to have asian african exhibition the desai memorial foundation re-cently presented a cheque to for the setting up of an asian african exhi-bition at the national museum. the foundation was formed by manilal ambalal desai’ s friends and fellow indians in the year 1929. they in his memory erected a public hall and named it “desai memorial library”. the foundation helps the needy in the field of education by the way of school fees and donation of library books to various school all over ke-nya. they spend five to six million shillings annually in charitable endea-vours. the cheque was presented by chair-man hirji shah to the minister for culture and national heritage wil-liam ole ntimama. professor yash pal ghai on the constitution and albinism dashmesh dinner kituo cha sheria- the centre for legal empowerment, federation of women lawyers (fida) kenya and albinism foundation of east africa on 10th february 2011 had a public lecture on the new constitution and rights of persons with albinism. the objectives of the public lecture were to begin, to raise awareness on is-sues arising for people with albinism in the areas of health and healthcare and meaningful and quality education. the key speakers were professor yash pal ghai (constitutional law-yer), mumbi ngugi (managing trustee albinism foundation of east africa), priscilla nyokabi (executive director , kituo cha sheria), dr prabha choksey and a repre-sentative from the ministry of public health and sanitation. dr choksey who is the trustee of albinism foundation of east africa spoke on the health implications of albinism and revealed some disturb-ing facts about albinism. she also gave recommendations on how the situation can be changed. on his part, professor ghai highlight-ed the clauses in the new constitu-tion related to the right of persons with albinism to health and educa-tion and rights to living with dignity. prof. yash pal ghai the audience dr . prabha choksey cheque being presented to minister ntimama the sikh women society on sat-urday 12th february 2011, at the loresho eye centre hall held dashmesh dinner in honour and celebration of the tenth guru, guru gobind singhji. the event was at-tended by prominent members of the sikh society and the chief guest for the evening was jatinder kaur . the guests were entertained by sing-ers and dancers and were treated to a lavish dinner . officials of the sikh women society18th - 24th february, 2011 info@theasianweekly.net 8 the asian weekly a unique accomplishment for muslim punjabi women in purda yoga lovers celebrate valentines during the year 1950 a pious lady noor fatima sheikh gul started free quranic classes for muslim women at her residence in mombasa on a weekly basis. the response was so good that within a few months her premises be-came too small to accommodate ev-erybody. her group then started look-ing for an alternative to conduct their activities. this problem was solved by rukia t u-fail khan who managed to persuade the administrator of hidaya estate to donate a plot in biashara street, mom-basa which contained an incomplete mosque whose construction came to a halt after the sudden demise of its founder . having acquired the plot noor fati-ma’ s group undertook the responsibil-ity of completing the mosque with a hall for their religious activities. the group registered their society under the name of “tablighe khwateen anju-man” and launched a fund raising drive to meet the construction cost. four punjabi ladies in purdah volun-teered to visit all major towns in ke-nya and uganda to collect donations. this delegation of ladies received a very warm welcome with an extremely positive response. the unprecedented visit of these four ladies in purdah (cur-tain) was brought to the limelight with-in the muslim communities and donations started pouring in from all muslim sects. the fund collection was completed in 1959 and construction of the mosque commenced immediately. the mosque was named hidaya mosque to commemo-rate the donor of the plot. construction of the mosque with a hall for the women was completed in 1960. the mosque became the focal place for women of all sects to conduct their re-ligious activities and propagate islamic teachings. as a majority of the worship-ers are of indian origin, the sermons by qualified imams are conducted in urdu language to date. the mosque stands as a monument to at-test the unparalleled achievement of mus-lim women in purdah. it is a legacy of the true spirit of islamic brotherhood, love and charity. another unique accomplishment attained by punjabi women is “the muslim punjabi women’ s association” in mombasa, which was established in 2001, and is the only muslim punjabi women’ s association of the kind. it was formed by a few el-derly women and with the grace of allah they have had ten great suc-cessful years of serving the punjabi community. these are to name but a few achievements of muslim punjabi women in purdah. hidaya masjid, mombasa dr seema sharma a yoga expert who holds classes at the shree patt-ni brotherhood last week had a pre valentine’ s day party for all her fe-male students. dr sharma has been teaching yoga since 2001 and has a bachelors in ayurvedic medicines and surgery from chandigarh india. she also has degrees in yoga, panch-karma and naturopathy this year they celebrated valentine’ s day at mystic garden. the party was organised by nur jaan and the theme was red and all the ladies in attendance made an effort to wear their best red attire. eighty ladies including previous stu-dents attended the party whose chief guest was east fm presenter parveen adam. at the function, five ladies who have attended regular yoga classes for more than seven to ten years were honoured. fifteen ladies were also honoured who are above the age of 60 and regularly at-tend yoga classes and are now role models for others. while speaking about her senior most yoga students, seema said “it’ s only because of sincere dedication and devotion to yoga that there is permanent happiness over their fac-es and you cannot judge their age from their energy and face. ” she added “all my students are like my own family members. they are very near and dear to me and i have no words to say how thankful i am to them for their love, affection and support. ” chief guest parveen adam (l)18th - 24th february, 2011 info@theasianweekly.net 10 the asian weekly change of guard at eveready east africa source: agencies eveready east africa has announced the impending retirement of its long serv-ing chief executive officer steven smith after a 13 year-stint at the helm of the bat-tery manufacturer . mr smith will officially leave the office on may 31, this year although his replacement has not been made public yet. the company's chairman moody awori credited smith with introducing more prod-uct lines into the market, a move that has seen the com-pany manufacture and trade in 100 products under the brand names of eveready, en-ergiser and schick. the firm is currently final-ising plans that will see it launch more competitive products into the regional market. on his part, the outgoing ceo thanked the eveready fraternity for the support accorded to him during his tenure and expressed confi-dence that the board will be able to find a competent per-son to steer the company to greater heights. smith’ s tenure will be re-membered as one laden with profit warnings, massive lay-offs and a poorly performing share price. samsung galaxy s ii in kenya source: agencies samsung electronics has in-troduced the samsung gal-axy s ii, a successor to the original galaxy s as it seeks to grow global market share. the 8.49mm, lightweight gal-axy s ii phone will be avail-able on the kenyan market in the coming weeks and runs on the android operating system, the world's fastest-growing mobile operating system. samsung electronics region-al business leader robert ngeru said the next genera-tion smartphone includes ex-clusive access to samsung's four new content and en-tertainment hubs, seamlessly integrated to provide instant access to music, games, e-reading and social network-ing services. incorporating a dual-core application processor and advanced fourth genera-tion (4g) connectivity, the samsung galaxy s ii has the speed and power to provide an unrivalled mobile perfor-mance. at the same time, samsung has also upsized its galaxy tab, unveiling a 10.1-inch (25.7-cm) version aimed at muscling its way deeper into the territory of apple's ipad. the new samsung tablet weighs 599 grams and is just 10.9 millimetres thick. the tablet has dual surround-sound speakers, an 8-mega-pixel rear-facing camera and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera. it includes a 1ghz dual core application proces-sor . government raises fuel prices source: agencies fuel pump prices have gone up by sh2.40 to sh98.08 in nairobi after the energy regulatory commission (erc) adjusted the maxi-mum prices in line with price control regulations. the maximum pump price for diesel has now been capped at sh91.71 up from the retail price of sh88.71 that was being charged in the last one month. "motorists in mombasa will in the next one month be-ginning t uesday buy super petrol at sh94.93, which will be the lowest amount while those residing in mandera will pay the highest rate at sh109.62," a statement from erc indicated. the new prices will be in play for the next 30 days as prescribed under the energy regulations 2010-petroleum pricing. among the issues that have impacted on the interna-tional oil prices include the political instability being ex-perienced in north africa. as a result, pricing of the free on board price for murban crude oil lifted in january 2011 went up by four per cent. “when the impacts of the above changes are incor-porated in the formula for calculating the maximum re-tail pump prices the overall effect is an increase of be-tween ksh0.94 and ksh3per litre, for the products un-der review, from the prices published last month, ” said kaburu mwirichia, director general of the commission. at the same time, the com-mission has appealed to the matatu owners association and its welfare counterpart to be reasonable in reflect-ing any upward adjustment in commuter fares following the increment. t o comments on these sto-ries and others, email us on: info@ theasianweekly. net samsung galaxy s ii chief executive officer smith with moody awoori fuel prices go up.1 1 18th - 24th february, 2011 info@theasianweekly.net the asian weekly source: agencies one of the country’ s major spinners and weavers, sunflag group, is seeking suppliers of cotton lint, an indication that the shortage of the raw mate-rial is beginning to bite the local textile and clothing industry. the industry regulator , cot-ton development authority (coda) however downplayed the problem. “farmers in parts of western province will start harvesting their crop in less than a month, ” coda chief ex-ecutive micah powon is quoted as saying. the country relies on imports from uganda and tanzania. but to underline what the local pro-cessors are facing, the managing director of another firm, na-kuru-based bedi investments, jaswinder bedi, said he is willing to pay sh280 per kilogramme of the cotton lint supplies. “one of my factories remains shut since last year for lack of raw materials. it was expected to open last month in the hope of getting enough materials but that is not the case, ” he said, “a shutdown that has left over 320 of my former employees jobless. ” bedi who is also the chairman of african cotton and t ex-tile industries, said the pricing formula for cotton supplies is discouraging farmers from in-creasing production. source: agencies mumias sugar company is interested in acquir-ing one of the five state-owned millers when the long-awaited privatisation plans finally takes off. “we are observing the process and we shall be looking at which one of them has the technical and management aspects that meet our requirements so that we can acquire it, ” the company’ s managing direc-tor , dr evans kidero, told journalists. the country’ s largest and most profitable sugar pro-ducer had indicated way back in 2009 that it would consider the option of buying one of the five mill-ers. mumias will be bidding once the state puts the companies earmarked for privatisation -nzoia, mi-wani, sony, chemilil and muhoroni - on the market. the privatisation com-mission of kenya has al-ready drafted a sessional paper on dealing with the debts the mills owe the government and the ke-nya sugar board. the paper is due for de-bate in parliament at a later date given that at the moment mps are more concerned with putting into place mechanisms of implementing the new constitution. cotton plant12 the asian weekly 18th - 24th february, 2011 info@theasianweekly.net china overtakes japan as world's second-biggest economy rolls-royce signs 2.2bn emirates service contract india’s reliance com quarterly profit halves source: agencies china's growth has been powering ahead while the wheels have come off japan's economy. japan's economy was worth 5.474 trillion (3.414 trillion) at the end of 2010, figures from t okyo have shown. china's econo-my was closer to 5.8 trillion in the same period. japan has been hit by a drop in exports and consumer demand, while china has en-joyed a manufacturing boom. at its current rate of growth, analysts see china replacing the us as the world's top economy in about a decade. "it's realistic to say that within 10 years china will be roughly the same size as the us economy," said t om miller of gk dragonomics, a beijing-based economic con-sultancy. the us economy is currently almost three times the size of the chinese economy in dollar terms. the uk's econ-omy is estimated to be the world's sixth largest. japan played down the sig-nificance of the shift in the economic league table, and the fact that it has been re-placed as the second-largest economy for the first time in more than four decades. "as an economy, we are not competing for rankings but working to improve citizens' lives," said economics minis-ter kaoru yosano. source: agencies all of emirates' rolls-royce engines will now be cov-ered by long-term service contracts rolls-royce has announced a long-term ser-vice contract with emirates worth 2.2bn. the deal covers rolls' trent engines on 70 airbus aircraft, and follows a similar 1.2bn contract signed with emir-ates in november . all of the airline's rolls-royce pow-ered fleet will now be cov-ered by the t otalcare service package. "we are delighted to sign this contract with emirates," said mark king of rolls-royce civil aerospace. rolls said last week that the mid-air failure of one of its trent 900 engines on a qa-ntas superjumbo in novem-source: agencies india’ s second biggest mobile phone firm reliance com-munications said on monday third-quarter net profit had more than halved, its sixth straight quarterly fall, as in-tense competition hurt the fast-growing sector . reliance communications (rcom), controlled by bil-lionaire anil ambani, said consolidated net profit fell 57 percent to 4.8 billion ru-pees (106 million) for the three months to december , from 11.08 billion rupees a year earlier . revenues fell near three per-cent to 50.04 billion rupees, the company said in a state-ment to the mumbai stock exchange. the earnings however beat market forecasts, as ana-lysts had expected the firm to report a profit of about four billion rupees. rcom, the flagship of the reliance ber last year had led to costs of 56m. its estimate of the cost came as it announced a 76% fall in pre-tax profits for 2010 to 702m, although underlying pre-tax profits, which strip out one-off costs and which the firm said was a better in-dication of its performance, rose slightly to 955m. ada group, is in a cut-throat price war in the world’ s fast-est-growing mobile sector , where tariffs are often less than one us cent a minute. singapore’s casino gamble pays off one year on source: agencies just one year after opening its first casino, singapore has emerged as asia's hottest new gambling capital with a revamped cityscape and bil-lions of dollars pouring into the economy. "singapore has made a dra-matic entry to the casino gaming market," financial consultancy pricewater-housecoopers said in a report estimating the city-state's casino gaming market at 2.8 billion in 2010. the first casino opened in malaysian-controlled resorts world sentosa on febru-ary 14, 2010, with us-based las ve-gas sands follow-ing two months later as the world economy was still clawing itself out of recession. resorts world sentosa also boasts southeast asia's first uni-versal studios theme park, while marina bay sands has become an architectural icon with its three curv-ing towers topped off by a "skypark" shaped like a sleek ocean liner . thanks in large measure to the casino complexes, tour-ist arrivals in singapore last year hit 11.6 million, breaking by far the previous record of 10.3 million set in 2007. pricewaterhousecoopers predicted that singapore would overtake south ko-rea and australia this year to become the second-largest asia-pacific casino market behind traditional leader ma-cau. chinese economy tips japan’ s. casino in singapore. anil ambani13 the asian weekly 18th - 24th february, 2011 info@theasianweekly.net south korea firms win 2.5b order from saudi ipl kochi franchise - in hot water again? inflation in india falls to 8.23% in january source: agencies two south korean builders said they have se-cured a combined 2.5 billion order from a saudi state oil company to build a major gas plant in the kingdom. sk engineering and construction won a 1.9 billion order while samsung engineering se-cured a 600 million contract for the plant, north of jubail, which will be capable of handling 70 million cubic meters of gas per day. the plant will be the biggest of its kind in saudi arabia when it is completed in 2014, the com-panies said. source: agencies indian inflation declined marginally to 8.23% in january from 8.43% in the previous month, as prices of certain commodities like wheat, puls-es and sugar eased, although essential items like onion and other vegetables continue to remain dearer . the headline inflation, based on wholesale pric-es, has remained above 8% mark since january 2010. however , vegetable and fruits continued to re-main expensive. on an annual basis, vegetable prices rose by 65%, and onion prices nearly doubled. also, fruits became costly by 15.01% and egg, meat and fish by 15.09%. prices of fuel and power shot up by 11.41%, with petrol rising 27.37% on a year-on-year ba-sis. however , among manufactured items, sugar prices fell by 15%, while edible oils turned cost-lier by 7.16%. the easing of inflation is expected to come as a morale booster for the government which have been under pressure due to high prices of food items in recent months. it also shows that reserve bank of india's ac-tion of raising rates seven times since march 2010 has started showing some result. source: agenices the kochi franchise of the indian premier league (i.p .l) seem to have a knack for attracting un-savoury controversy and trouble generally. this time it looks omi-nous for rosy blue owner har-shad mehta (who incidentally owns 12% of the kochi fran-chise). he's being investigated by the enforcement directorate in india and similar authorities in antwerp, belgium, for holding secret accounts in overseas tax havens. apparently india's cricket board the bcci has called an urgent meeting to delve into the issue, which it is viewing very se-riously. however neither mehta, who was in dubai when the news broke, nor any of the kochi team co-owners could be contacted. apparently 16 other people have also been named for holding secret bank accounts overseas. now funds transferred by mehta to trusts maintained by rosy blue are prime targets for inves-tigating authorities. now the bcci might not be in a position to query mehta's per-sonal dealings overseas. but if they are truly focused in cleaning up the i.p .l, they'll now certainly be looking in detail at mehta's transactions. especially as the su-preme cricket board has already stated it wanted to get rid of certain i.p .l franchises because the source of funds brought by these franchises into the tourna-ment is suspicious or unknown. indian inflation declines18th - 24th february, 2011 info@theasianweekly.net 14 the asian weekly source: agencies it was one long kiss - one world-breaking embrace for mankind. one determined thai couple locked lips for 46 hours, 24 min-utes and nine seconds to celebrate valentine’ s day in this southern beach resort town, emerging vic-torious and exhausted after a land-mark “kissathon” that organisers claim marked the longest recorded smooch in history. the previous record of just over 32 hours was set in 2009 by a couple in germany, according to guinness world records, whose officials will have to verify the latest milestone for it to become official. the winning pair won a diamond ring worth 1,606 dollars, and a 3,213 dollar cash prize. according to the rules, the love-birds’ lips could not part at any time. they were allowed to drink things like water , coffee, milk or juice - but only through straws while continu-ing to kiss. they also had to remain embraced during bathroom breaks possible every three hours - ac-companied by contest monitors. the harshest rule: no sitting or sleeping. one woman participating with her boyfriend fainted just half an hour after it began sunday. longest kiss in history: 46-hour thai smooch mubarak moves assets from european banks to gulf states source: agencies ousted egyptian president hosni mubarak has report-edly moved his family assets from european banks to in-stitutions in gulf region af-ter swiss authorities took steps to freeze his foreign accounts. according to the state-run iranian channel press tv , the former president is believed to have transferred a for-tune to friendly arab states, including the united arab emirates and saudi arabia. the report came after swiss authorities have announced to freeze his bank accounts. estimates of the former egyptian president’ s fortune vary -- there is a widespread rumour that it worth as much as 70 billion. howev-er , us officials quote his fam-ily’ s wealth between 2 bil-lion and 3 billion, new york times said. within hours of mubarak’ s resignation on friday, “swiss officials ordered all banks in switzerland to search for --- and freeze --- any asset of the former president, his family or close associates, ” it reported. after mubarak’ s fall, there are growing calls for an ac-counting to begin and egyp-tian opposition leaders have vowed to press for a full in-vestigation into his finances. source: agencies indian authorities on monday dropped their plan to arrest rahat fateh ali khan, paki-stani singing icon and bol-lywood's blockbuster voice, after sustained diplomatic pressure from pakistan on the external affairs ministry. the decision not to arrest the singer was influenced by the fresh peace process between india and pakistan which started only a week ago. rahat and his nephew maroof ali were freed after 24 hours of questioning by investiga-tors from the directorate of revenue intelligence (dri), but their passports have been retained. rahat and ma-roof were caught carrying over 142,600 (rs 64 lakh) at the indira gandhi inter-national airport on sunday night. both the customs act and fema have provisions for arrest that could certainly have been invoked against an indian caught in the same cir-cumstance as rahat. but with pakistan seeking to turn his detention into a test case of india's desire for revival of dialogue, rahat and others detained with him may get away by paying penalty pro-vided for under the relevant laws. the pakistan government got into overdrive on monday morning with foreign secre-tary salman bashir calling in sharat sabharwal, indian high commissioner in islamabad, asking for the immediate re-lease of the singer . within the indian foreign policy establishment, the general feeling was that the high profile singer could be questioned without having to be kept in detention. at risk would be the pm's lat-est effort to mend fences with pakistan, because ra-hat is not only one of bolly-wood's most popular singers, in many ways, he is also the voice of all the attempts to foster india-pakistan peace. laksana tinarat, left, kisses her husband ekachai during a world’ s longest continuous kiss compe-tition in pattaya, thailand. ousted egyptian president hosni mubarak. rahat ali khan18th - 24th february, 2011 info@theasianweekly.net 15 the asian weekly obama admin proposes 3.1 billion for pakistan source: agencies us president barack obama has proposed to congress a 3.1 billion in financial as-sistance to pakistan for the year 2012. this is part of the administration's ongoing ef-fort towards its continued funding for operations and assistance in key regions of the world -- iraq, afghanistan and pakistan. of this as many as 1.9 bil-lion in assistance has been proposed to promote a se-cure, stable, democratic and prosperous pakistan with a focus on energy, economic growth, agriculture, the deliv-ery of health and education services, and strengthening the government of paki-stan's capacity to govern ef-fectively and accountably. in addition to 1.9 billion, obama has also proposed 1.2 billion to pakistan under the overseas contingency operations (oco) budget. this includes 1.1 billion for the pakistan counter-insurgency capability fund (pccf) to provide critical equipment and training for pakistani security forces, in-creasing the ability of the pakistani government to combat insurgents inside that country and eliminating the insurgent's capacity to conduct cross-border op-erations in afghanistan that jeopardize us lives and the mission there. clinton expresses us support for iran protesters china openly backs north korea succession plan source; agencies us secretary of state hill-ary clinton has expressed her firm support for the thousands of opposition sup-porters who protested in iran's capital on monday. mrs clinton said they deserved to have "the same rights that they saw being played out in source; agencies a top chinese official has backed ailing north korean leader kim jong-il’ s plans to hand power to his son, the north’ s state media said on t uesday, hailing the “success-ful solution” to allow contin-ued socialist rule. meng jianzhu, china’ s public egypt" and that iran had to "open up" its political system. one person was report-edly shot dead in the violent clashes between protesters and security forces in central t ehran. dozens were de-tained, and opposition lead-ers were placed under house arrest. in their first major show security minister , congratu-lated kim’ s youngest son jong-un on his appointment as vice-chairman of the cen-tral military commission last year , “hailing the successful solution of the issue of suc-cession to the korean revo-lution, ” kcna news agency reported. experts said the term “suc-of dissent december 2009, when eight people were killed, thousands of opposi-tion supporters gathered at t ehran's azadi square on monday in solidarity with the popular uprisings in t uni-sia and egypt. they chanted: "death to dictators". cession” did not refer di-rectly to family rule, but was a commonly used expression referring to a continuation of the north’ s current political system. the remarks can be inter-preted as a sign of accep-tance on the part of china’ s political elite with regards to north korea’ s succession.18th - 24th february, 2011 info@theasianweekly.net 16 the asian weekly 25 firefighters dispatched to save a plastic swan source: agencies a team of 25 firefight-ers were recently dis-patched to rescue a stranded swan from a frozen pond… only to discover it was plastic. the 999 call had come in when a passer-by in straubing, germany saw the bird and assumed it was trapped in frozen ice. attending firefighters say they then had to search for ages to find the ‘bird’ and get to the middle of the lake where there was dangerously thin ice. and it was only then that discovered the bird was actually made of plastic and had been left there by fishermen to scare away other birds. lucking on the bright side, officers said that no-one was hurt in the wasted rescue mission and that they were glad to have got a bit of train-ing in. silvio berlusconi faces ruby sex charge trial in april source: agencies italian pm silvio berlusconi has been indicted to stand trial on charges of paying for sex with an under-age prosti-tute and abuse of power . examining judge cristina di censo said the process would start on 6 april, after prosecutors in milan asked for an immediate trial. mr berlusconi denies paying for sex with karima el mah-roug when she was 17. he also rejects claims that he abused his power by seek-ing her release when she was detained in another case. he has called the accusations "groundless" and dismissed the case as a farce. mr berlusconi does, however , acknowledge that he called the police while she was be-ing held on suspicion of theft. he said he was doing a favour for the then-egyptian leader , hosni mubarak, because mr berlusconi was told the girl was mr mubarak's grand-daughter . ms mahroug, widely known as ruby and now aged 18, has denied sleeping with the prime minister but has said she received 9,400 from him as a gift after one of his parties. mr berlusconi denies paying for sex with karima el mahroug when she was 17 tunisia migrants: italy puts europe on alert source: agencies italy has warned that an influx of t unisian migrants arriving on its shores could have dev-astating consequences for all european nations. interior minister roberto maroni said migrants who have landed on the island of lampedusa threaten the institutional and social struc-tures of europe. italy is ask-ing the eu for about 84m to tackle the influx. in another development, a boat was intercepted off sic-ily carrying about 30 people believed to be from egypt. italian police said the boat was intercepted overnight off the coast near ragusa. meanwhile, in t unisia, the au-thorities have lifted a night-time curfew. but the interior ministry said the state of emergency, which has been in place since president zine al-abidine ben ali went into exile last month, will contin-ue "until further notice". indian-american doctor gets 15-year jail source: agencies an indian-american doctor has been sentenced to 15 years in prison and ordered to forfeit 43 million after he pleaded guilty to health care fraud and conspiracy. the kemah, t exas-based doctor arun sharma's wife kiran sharma, also a doctor , has also pleaded guilty to the same charges and will be sentenced feb 23, according to houston chronicle. she is currently being held at the federal detention centre in houston. after his sentencing t uesday by us district judge david hittner , arun sharma was re-manded back in the custody of the us marshals, accord-ing to a statement from the us attorney's office. prosecutors alleged that the husband-wife doctor team conspired from 1998 to 2009 to fraudulently bill medicare, medicaid and private health care providers for joint in-jections that never were per-formed. at the same time, they were running a "pill mill" in which they prescribed controlled substances to nearly every patient they saw, they said. the number of patients that the sharmas saw quickly es-calated from an average of 50 a day to as high as 279 per day, authorities said. italian pm silvio berlusconi and ruby interior minister roberto maroni18th - 24th february, 2011 info@theasianweekly.net 17 the asian weekly food prices at dangerous levels, says world bank source: agencies the world bank says food prices are at “dangerous lev-els” and have pushed 44 mil-lion more people into pov-erty since last june. according to the latest edi-tion of its food price watch, prices rose by 15% in the four months between oc-tober 2010 and january this year . food price inflation is felt disproportionately by the poor , who spend over half their income on food. the world bank’ s presi-dent, robert zoellick, said in a statement: “global food prices are rising to danger-ous levels and threaten tens of millions of poor people around the world. ” he also said that rising food prices were an aggravating factor of the unrest in the middle east, although not its primary cause. rapid food price inflation in 2008 sparked riots in a num-ber of countries. at that time, the world bank estimated 125 million people were in extreme poverty. bahrainis demand regime change after two killed thousands of bahrainis dem-onstrated in the capital ma-nama on t uesday demanding regime change in the gulf kingdom like that in egypt and t unisia after two pro-testers were killed in clashes with police. the protests in a country, which saw deadly unrest in the 1990s between the majority-shiite population and the sunni ruling family, prompted formula one boss bernie ecclestone to voice concern about next month's grand prix which opens the new formula one season. "this is your only and last chance to change the re-gime," read a banner car-ried by protesters who de-scended on manama's pearl roundabout, shortly after the funeral of one of the two shiite demonstrators. the banners and slogans of the bahraini protesters echoed those of the dem-onstrators in cairo's tahrir square whose 18 straight days of protest triggered the dramatic end on friday of hosni mubarak's 30-year rule. cyber activists outraged by the killing of the two protesters had called for the manama demon-stration on face-book. mps from bahrain's main shiite opposition bloc walked out of parliament. protesters ap-peared to have turned a deaf ear to king ha-mad, who ad-dressed the nation on t ues-day expressing sorrow for the deaths and announcing a ministerial investigation. some protesters erected a tent, saying their sit-in will continue until their demands are met.18th - 24th february, 2011 info@theasianweekly.net 18 the asian weekly ten to four' mountain bike race the oshwal volleyball invitational source: agencies the exhilarating down-hill race takes riders from 10,000 feet down to 4,000 feet through some of the most spectacular landscapes in africa and over a wide variety of terrain and veg-etation. participants journey through breathtaking wildlife areas, forests and moorland under the watchful eye of safari rangers and helicop-ters that protect them from inquisitive inhabitants such as elephants, monkeys and gazelle. the event has be-come very popular and now attracts over two hundred participants from all over the world. the race is on to save mount kenya from the devastat-ing effects of deforestation, climate change and wildlife poaching which has drasti-cally changed its ecology in recent years. on february 20th, 2010, the bill woodley mount kenya t rust will hold the ‘!0 to 4’ mountain bike challenge to raise funds for local tree planting, wildlife protection and community initiatives which attempt to safeguard the mountain’ s fu-ture. the team sukuma twende juniors who participated consisted of 11 year old mikhil anuj shah, 15 year old rushab anuj shah and diva hitesh shah. they all cycled approximately 39 kilometres for the cause. by caine correa last week the asian weekly reported on the preliminary rounds of an exciting tradi-tional style volleyball tourna-ment at the oshwal sports complex on wambugu road. of the 23 asian teams in contention the quarter finals saw cutchi red beat club-house. similarly aga khan veterans were eliminated by aga khan youth. ghan-shyam claimed victory over nairobi muslims and cutchi green sent patel brother-hood packing. eventually at the finals ghanshyam were left facing cutchi green and a very exciting final it turned out to be! cutchi greens taking the first game, ghamshyam equalizing in the second to set up an engrossing decider . 37 minutes into this thriller saw both teams drawn at 5 points each, just 3 minutes of play in hand. ghanshyam serving looked set to win only to fluff the serve. they fought back though to re-gain the right to serve. then before a marvelling crowd of cheering spectators they made no further mistakes winning the decider 6-5. the award ceremony was graced by bharat jayantilal shah the chairman of the oshwal community, his vice chairman rashmi shah, bharat velji shah of the oc sports complex and friends of the late jayu pethraj shah in whose honour the tourna-ment was held. diva hitesh shah of osh-wal academy junior high at the race on sunday 13th february 2011 rooney’s rocket settles der-by , gunners shell wolves and wigan hold liverpool by caine correa wayne rooney's wonder-goal settled the manchester derby, west ham produced an olympic fightback at west brom and wigan halted liv-erpool's winning streak. ar-senal also got to put their bad memories of their st james park shocker behind them, by pushing wolves to the bottom of the premier league table. england international wayne rooney had had a generally bad season. saturday after-noon though he showed his class with a stunning over-head kick of breath-taking technique, athleticism and power 12 minutes from time. it culminated a well-deserved 2-1 win for man united against crosstown ri-vals man city. the enthralling derby always in the balance with nani's astute finish be-fore the break, cancelled by david silva's rather lucky lev-eller , before rooney's stun-ning decider . robin van persie was the hero for the gunners scor-ing a brace to tally 10 goals in his last seven games. as arsenal cleared away their recent misery at newcastle with a 2-0 win over wolver-hampton their holland inter-national van persie handed arsenal the ideal start with a volley past wolves keeper wayne hennessey in the 16th minute. then he made it 2-0 early in the second half after a lightening break to seal the game. liverpool' s 4-game winning streak came to an end as wigan's steve gohouri final-ly found a way past the reds goal custodian jose reina at anfield. drawing level with and holding liverpool who’ s raul meireles had scored the opener . meanwhile in other premier-ship news, it was fernando t orres' second time in for chelsea who have paid a bank-busting 50 million quid for him. it was also a second time flop for the ex-liver-pool striker . given the nod over chelsea veteran didier drogba, fernando spent a woeful 71 minutes in be-fore being substituted again, late valentine night. chelsea, who played out a goalless draw to fulham, dropped to 12 points off leaders man-chester united and 2 behind spurs in fourth. chelsea's 23 million quid de-fender david luiz played a far better game despite giv-ing away a last-minute penal-ty. luis felled fulham striker clint dempsey whose spot kick was saved by petr cech. winners of the tournament - ghanshyam runner-ups of the tournament - cutchi the organizing committee with the silver wear wayne rooney18th - 24th february, 2011 info@theasianweekly.net 19 the asian weekly date kenya time match details venue feb 19 feb 20 feb 20 feb 21 feb 22 feb 23 feb 24 feb 25 feb 25 feb 26 feb 27 feb 28 feb 28 1200 hrs 0930 hrs 1200 hrs 1200 hrs 1200 hrs 1200 hrs 1200 hrs 0700 hrs 1200 hrs 1200 hrs 1200 hrs 0700 hrs 1200 hrs mirpur chennai hambantota ahmedabad nagpur hambantota delhi mirpur nagpur colombo kolkata nagpur delhi grp b : bangladesh vs india, 1st odi grp a : new zealand vs kenya, 2nd odi grp a : sri lanka vs canada, 3rd odi grp a : australia vs zimbabwe, 4th odi grp b : england vs netherlands, 5th odi grp a : pakistan vs kenya, 6th odi grp b : south africa vs w est indies, 7th odi grp b : bangladesh vs ireland, 8th odi grp a : australia vs new zealand, 9th odi grp a : pakistan vs sri lanka, 10th odi grp b : india vs england, 11th odi grp a : canada vs zimbabwe, 12th odi grp b : west indies vs netherlands, 13th odi icc cricket world cup 2011 timetable february 19th - march 26th 2011 cricket world cup facts 1. the women’ s world cup of cricket has been played nine times since 1973, with the next tournament set for 2013. australia has five titles, britain has three and new zealand has one 2. the longest match played in the cricket history was between england and south africa in 1939, played for 14 days straight in durban, south africa. even then, the match wasn’t over . england needed 42 more runs to win, and had five wickets in hand, but the team’ s boat was due to sail home the next day, and so the game was called. the match was officially declared a tie. by caine correa last saturday afternoon your intrepid asian week-ly sports correspondent spent time at a sports event with a difference. it had no cheering or applause rais-ing the roof, no unneces-sary noise whatsoever! however walking around the deadly silent hall watch-ing little children pit their mind skills against one an-other , i couldn’t help but be impressed by some of the chess moves at the oshwal primary school venue. the tournament was run on the swiss system of pairing with 6 rounds per player . the rate of play was amazingly fast with an al-lotment of just 30 minutes to finish a game. 51 par-ticipants from different age groups were participating. the under 8 age group category saw darshan shah win (6 points) followed by arnav kachre. in the under 8 girls category, gayathri ragunathan won. under 10 boys saw hardiv karania share similar points with pendyala ritvik. under 10 girls, sharaufa kishan took the winner’ s 6 points. the under 12 boys was a bat-tle royale and kais mussa shaved a narrow victory over riya shah to win the category. the under 12 girls saw sita shah and riya shah share honours. the under 14 boys was won by gowtham vigneshwar , with saloni karania taking the girl’ s category. the queen of the under 16s was sanjana deshpande with allan chege her con-temporary in that boys’ age group. the under 18 boys saw victor karani emerge the victor . the tournament was ably conducted by steve ouma, chairman of the chess kenya youth committee. the kenya national youth championship is slated for the weekend of 26th/27th february. the ruwenzori cup chess championship cricket-sri lanka’s dilshan and samaraweera destroy windies source: agencies tillakaratne dilshan, kumar sangakkara and thilan samaraweera stroked impressive half centuries to propel sri lanka to a four-wicket victory over west in-dies in a world cup warm-up match on t uesday. dilshan belted 62 off 50 balls, including five fours and three sixes, while samaraweera also punished the west indian bowlers by flay-ing the ball to all cor-ners of the ground as he notched up 55 off 56 balls. captain sangakkara top scored with a more sedate 71 off 89 balls, including three fours and a six, as sri lanka chased down the target to win with 15 balls to spare. the tourists were all out for 281. after opener devon smith was bowled for a duck by lasith malinga in the first over , chris gayle (58) and darren bravo (54) steadied the innings with an 85-run part-nership for the second wicket. gayle was particu-lary agressive and made the most of his dropped chance on 27. he smashed 58 off just 38 balls, with eight fours and a six, before muttiah murali-tharan finally bowled him. however , gayle's effort turned out to be in vain as west indies failed to build on his contribution by los-ing regular wickets. malinga and rangana herath were the pick of the bowlers with three wickets apiece.18th - 24th february, 2011 info@theasianweekly.net 20 the asian weekly 2011 icc cricket world cup: top 5 batsmen to look out for 1 sachin tendulkar (india): this genius is an automatic qualification in this list. after 21 long years in interna-tional cricket the only thing missing from his resume is a world cup win. since 2010 he has played only four odi's and scored 235 runs which included the historic double century. but his records in the biggest tournament are mind bog-gling, this time around he will be playing in his sixth world cup and this mas-ter batsman has already amassed 1796 runs from 36 world cup matches at a staggering average of 57.93 with four centuries and 13 half centuries at a strike rate of 88.21. on the asian soil he averages 46.96 with 11,413 runs from 276 matches (35 centuries). he is the highest run getter in the world cups and was the man of the series in the last edition of the tournament. with the form he is in, this master batsman can tear apart any attack and win it for his country. all hopes will be on this genius to deliver and he is surely a batsman to watch out for this world cup! 2 hashim amla: (south africa) though he has not been a part of any world cups till date, his staggering form in the odi's has helped him make the list of top 5. his technique and his calm-ness in the middle sets him apart from most of the rest. he was the highest run get-ter in the odi's in 2010 and in last 20 matches he has amassed 1308 runs includ-ing six centuries. what's more dangerous is that he averages 62.42 from 10 matches in the asian subcontinent. the south af-rican fans will be hoping that this man delivers at the top of the order and help them remove the chokers tag that has been haunting the south african cricket team for years! 3 kumar sangakkara: (sri lanka) the captain of the lankan cricket team has been lead-ing from the front with his consistent performances all these years. his ability to rotate strike and hitting big shots when it matters sets him apart from the other batsmen. this elegant left-hander has been follow-ing the footsteps of greats like arjuna ranatunga and asanka gurusinha. the most impressive thing about him is that he has not let the burden of cap-taincy affect his form as he has scored 1216 runs in 35 matches as a captain at an average of 39.22 which is better than his overall ca-reer average. last year he averaged 48.40 from 17 matches scoring 726 runs. he has scored 9 out of his 19 centuries in the asian subcontinent and in world cup he aver-ages 30.94 from 21 matches scoring 526 runs, but with the kind of temperament this player possesses and his current form, this average is certainly going to get better in the coming world cup! 4 eoin morgan (england) the present era has dawned with several promising youngsters coming onto the scene and one of the names among them is eoin mor-gan. this left-hander from england has a really cool and steady head capable of handling pressure, a clever cricketing brain and has ev-ery stroke in his armoury. there is one thing that sep-arates him from other crick-eters and that is the innova-tion he brings to the game. his paddle shots and his reverse sweeps are a treat to watch for any cricket fan. his innovative reverse sweep to a fast bowler is something which is simply unthinkable of! he has been termed as a fin-isher , a character most im-portant in one-day interna-tional cricket and has been performing consistently as he averaged 53.15 from 17 matches scoring 691 runs with three centuries and two half-centuries last year . his performances on the asian shores are all the more impressive as he aver-ages 46 from six matches. england has been devoid of a finisher after the retire-ments of neil fairbrother and graham thorpe. this cricketer has the talent to imitate what these legends had done for their country for years and win the world cup for england this time around! 5 virat kohli (india): this young sensation has set the cricketing stage on fire recently with his spec-tacular performances with the bat. he was the sec-ond highest run getter last season with 995 runs from 25 matches at an average of 47.38 and this year he has already amassed 193 runs from five matches at an average of 48.25. he averages 45.03 on the asian soil and all of his cen-turies have been scored in the asian territory. he will make his world cup debut this time around but will carry with him great experiences of under-19 world cup as he was the second indian u-19 captain to win the tournament. off-late this 22-year old has matured a lot and has devel-oped the ability to convert his fifties into hundreds. confident and aggressive are the two main adjectives that define this young talent. possession of all these quali-ties at such a tender age and his ability to deliver in crunch situations helps him enter the top five batsmen to look out for in world cup 2011. sachin tendulkar hashim amla kumar sangakkara eoin morgan virat kohli18th - 24th february, 2011 info@theasianweekly.net 21 the asian weekly email: weeklyrant@theasian weekly.net listening to someone else’ s rants is refreshing if noth-ing else, and this week i was lucky to come across some serious whining by a kenyan masi (aunty) on yout ube. in it this poor masi complains endlessly about today’ s gen-eration and how they have lost the values of the past. it got me thinking... have we really lost it with our faster paced lifestyle, or is it sim-ply a case that it is more an evolving of times? take the case of the extend-ed family. in the past, they used to be considered the norm within asian communi-ties, but now they appear to be a thing of the past. before you would find parents, chil-dren, grandparents, uncles and aunts all crammed un-der a single roof. more com-mon now is the family unit of husband, wife and two kids, with the grandparents living separately, and no one really giving a hoot where the aunts and uncles are liv-ing. ‘thank goodness!’ i hear the younger generation cry, whilst the elder population laments about times past and how nice it used to be living together . let us take a step back and look at it in a (relatively) impartial manner . families of previous generations got together often out of ne-cessity more than anything else. people arrived to this country often with noth-ing more than the clothes on their back, and so would automatically look to any relation to help with food and shelter . my grandfather often shared his own suit with his cousin when visit-ing customers or the bank, as they could not afford two. life then was often a case of pure survival, and safety in numbers was the best way of getting through it unscathed. i can also imagine that lack of money often led to appre-ciation of the simpler things in life... a walk to get some ice cream on a sunday after-noon, or a visit to the public beach were extremely cheap modes of entertainment, and i know most of the younger population groan when they hear their elders talking about those times. things have changed though. families grow larger with ev-ery generation that passes, meaning that space becomes a more pressing concern. as generations grow wealthier , and the needs for consum-er goods grow, the older generation naturally do not understand this need. why have a 60 inch flat screen tv when the 30 year old black and white still works fine? along with this comes the relentless force of working in a family business as well as living with the entire ex-tended family. businesses need to evolve as times change but all too often i see the lack of understanding on the path of the elderly busi-nessman who refuses to give way to his son, or even listen to his son’ s ideas. and then of course, there is the son’ s wife, who continually pesters the worn out son about why his brother’ s wife got a new t oyota prado and all she got was a vitz. it isn’t surprising then that the son will consider mov-ing house and jobs in order to stop him going insane. that way he and his wife can live their own lives whilst at the same time maintaining a good relationship with their elders. t oo often however , it is a case of the elders feel-ing neglected and sooner or later , neither party is on talk-ing terms with each other . this isn’t bollywood, ladies and gents; this is real life that i’m talking about! the younger generation has much to learn from their el-ders, in terms of appreciating the simple things in life, and family values. but the elder generations must also adapt and understand the need for younger generations to prove themselves in this world, as well as give them the space so that they can enjoy themselves before old age creeps in. if this compro-mise doesn’t take place, then asian families will continue to see rifts created within themselves and people mov-ing out at the first available opportunity. bridging the generation gap email: gupz@theasianweekly.net so by now the post valentine’ s syndrome must have kicked in and you’ re wondering how you’ re going to spend the rest of the days left until payday! if you celebrated in style, good on you because being kenyan means going out and having a great time no matter what. my party scene was somewhat similar last weekend. misty love it’ s saturday night and it’ s the val-entine’ s weekend, what do you do if you’ re solo? many of you came to misty ginger in westland’ s to shake a leg and mingle with friends as i teamed up with a couple of local deejays to set the dance floor ablaze. the night started early and the drinks flowed, i realised i was seeing many whom i have never spotted or interacted with before. although the dancing didn’t start until midnight, revellers grooved to popular tracks until the wee hours of the morning. rain dance sunday took me in to the united nations headquarters in gigiri for a wedding reception. as i prepared myself for the entertainment ahead, it began pouring heavily and i was concerned about the guest comfort factor (gcf). truth be told, nothing was going to dampen anyone’ s forti-tude here. vishal shah, his lovely lady and his family put together a grand bash for guests who’d arrived from all around the world. it’ s one of the very few parties i’ve performed at, that had more guests from abroad than from around town. the night started with champagne on arrival, bitings at your convenience, a syn-chronised first dance by the couple, rib shattering stand up comedy by shabbir ansari and of course dancing the night away. love in karen finally it’ s valentine’ s day and i was off to perform at the tamambo karen blixen coffee gardens where a fine dining experience had been organised for the very special few who were lucky enough to make their book-ing. gentlemen came looking sharp in their suits walking hand in hand with their ladies who were dressed to kill. although a more chilled out and mature audience, once the red wine went down, everyone’ s feet got happy. one two ka three! cue gentlemen: for valentine’ s day celebrations always remember to plan ahead and book in advance to avoid disappointment. it would also be a good idea to try a new restaurant or club every now and then. now that you have enough time to plan for next valentine’ s, here’ s wishing you a great weekend! lighting moods at karen blixen22 18th - 24th february, 2011 info@theasianweekly.net the asian weekly by sayed mansoor the sikh union was the perfect venue for valentine’ s night. from the moment one stepped in to the club park-ing, the red lighting was a clear indicator of the mood for the night. the cool cloudy night was not to be a damper for this event. at the reception, guests were directed to their re-spective tables but not be-fore being handed a glass of bubbly, a bouquet of roses and a gift pack that consisted of chocolates and candles. the guests then had their photos taken before be-ing ushered to the grounds where tents were set up to cater for the guests. the set up was awe inspiring. the seating arrangement was lav-ish and the décor was simply fantastic. the theme of the night was red and little red lights jotted the roofs of the tents and added to the ambi-ance of the venue. the entire set up and the subtle light-ing was perfect to match the romantic night. the guests made an effort to make their way down to the venue de-spite the maddening nairobi-after-rainfall traffic. on the menu were scrump-tious dishes and guests had a well stocked bar at their disposal. the multi-course catering was done by pride inn. there was a dance floor set up in the middle of the tents and guests enjoyed soft music streaming from the entertainment tent as a live band crooned soft jazz mu-sic. also present to entertain the guests were amar and sodi and a collection of local comedians. every guest at the sikh union said they had the best valen-tine, so kudos to the organis-ers. sikh union paints the town red nairobi gymkhana pre-val party giants celebrate grand valentines the nairobi gymkhana showed their love for their members by throwing them a pre valentine party. the members and guests were treated to a lovely dinner by the poolside with entertain-ment being provided by dj deshal. the event which was free of charge for the members and their guests attracted a good crowd turnout. the atmo-sphere was cool and relaxed as the members sipped on their drinks, powered up on good food to hit the floor and dance the night away. the set up was by the poolside and the seating was comfort-able with plenty of privacy for guests. the sound setup was fantas-tic and entire families took to the floor to dance to the latest bollywood hits being churned out. both young and old had a fantastic time on the dance floor . the event ef-fectively got rid of the notion of commercializing the valen-tine’ s spirit since not even a dime was spent by the mem-bers on for the get together and instead the club bore the cost of throwing the party. the giants group of nai-robi on the 12th of february 2011, organised a fund raiser valentines dinner and dance at the pride inn where the décor was all red, black and white. all the guests who attended in large numbers were wel-comed with cocktails and all the ladies were presented with red roses. the evening was initiated by the convener of the program giant vanita chohan by wel-coming all guests and was followed by the diya lighting by the senior members, gi-ant shobhna kantaria, giant dr . ashwin madhiwala , giant jayanti patel, and giant sabahad ahad. giant lawrence kibare re-cited the prayers and there a minute of silence for the late kirit dave who was a past member of the giants group of nairobi. three new members with their spouses were installed in the group and welcomed on board by the chairlady giant sabahad. giant dr .cowper enter-tained the audience with his wit and humor and also raised funds for the wheel chair bank by auctioning an item donated by a well wish-er .vicky serenaded guests with his melodious voice. l-r: mani grewal, t eji grewal, shaney bhatti, shilu bhatti l-r: robinder mudher , baljit virdi, amritpal bhogal l-r: anoop sandhu & nixy guests entertainment mr . and mrs. kalsi guests at the pride inn dj deshal giant lawrence kibare (l)23 18th - 24th february, 2011 info@theasianweekly.net the asian weekly high tea & fashion come together as a first of its kind, the worlds of high fashion and high tea came together on saturday, february 12th at the zen gar-den, to create an afternoon of refined elegance simultane-ously driving their “love with a cause” campaign. the zen garden was an in-timate setting for the first high t ea society event which saw upwardly mobile women and men indulged in fashion, shopping and socializing while sampling a variety of minia-ture savoury delicacies, sweet temptations and sipping on el-egant wines and spirits. the ambience was far from quiet which is usually the case in a high t ea function. instead the zen was buzzing with ac-tivity (of course sophisticat-edly upheld). when high t ea meets high fashion, it was but natural to see the elite come out in large numbers. the ladies dressed in stylish heels, colourful classy hats, designer sunglasses and flirty summer dresses whilst their male counterparts looked equally dashing dressed in polished shoes, smart shirts with splashes of colognes. if there was a doubt in any-one’ s mind –let it be discarded as the crowd present set the pace for this seasons classiest fashion event. across the tents were mini fashion stalls that stood out for anyone who was keen on updating themselves on the latest fashion trends. the high t ea was also a ground very at-tractive for opportunities of business networking. whilst old acquaintances met, new ones were made too. the function which begun as early as 2.00pm saw an eclec-tic mix of kenya’ s cosmopoli-tan elite gather in support for women and babies in need of freedom from post delivery hospital bills and from acquir-ing infections. high t ea is positively a quint-essential english tradition ruled by different teas and intricately decorated china. for the better half of the af-ternoon, the crowd socialized, ate and laughed. the opening act for the en-tertainment was the contem-porary dance troupe - the kenya performing arts group. it was an open bar for those whose palates were thirsty and an array of mouth water-ing delicacies were featured such as vegetarian spring rolls, mini pizzas, spinach and feta parcels, calamari rings, mari-nated chicken and beef skew-ers and samosas. a high tea is incomplete with-out something to entice any-one with a sweet tooth. the menu featured designer in-spired cora croissants, coco chic coffee slices, almond glams, fit flop fudge cakes, cheesecake factory and much more. the emcee for the afternoon was x fm’ s fareed kimani who kept the crowd amused with his witty comments. whilst the food and drinks poured in abundance the vin-tage runway fashion show was taking place. in between all the socializing, eating and fashion show several gift prizes were dished out to winners of the raffles with the best prize be-ing a trip to rome. of those who showcased were nike kondakis, miraya’ s boutiques fashion designer shashi mediratta, next 2skin’ s hina shah, aj couture by azra and jamil walji and deepa dosaja. the high t ea was an after-noon of elegance infused with charm. all in all, a great day un-der the sun! cecilia lee patel & hina patel the lavish food display. naran patel & ravi patel natasha jamal on the ramp sadhna thakrar amit patel & smita radia niloofer hirjee, sapna chandaria & shreya karia sonia dhanjal, munni channa & aisha cocker18th - 24th february, 2011 info@theasianweekly.net the asian weekly 24 radio royalty parveen adam parveen adam has been the voice on east fm for the past thirteen years every mid-morning and her ratings have remained un-matched since day one, making her radio royalty. what makes her tick and how does she maintain to keep her listeners glued.... she reveals all to the asian weekly! give us a brief background? i was born in nairobi and was educated at pangani high school and kenyatta university. i studied his-tory and english literature. i embarked on getting a bachelors in psychology at london university as an ex-ternal student but i never managed to complete it. i hope to finish it one day. after completing my educa-tion, i was teaching second-ary school students for eight years. the school wanted to send single teachers to teach outside nairobi and i did not want to leave the city so i resigned and then pursued a diploma in french language at alliance fran-caise. radio was my next endeavour . i am happily married with two daughters who are both doing medicine. for how many years have you been on radio? i have been on radio for six-teen years. how did your journey in ra-dio begin? i heard that kbc needed an english to hindi transla-tor and i went for auditions and was employed on the same day. i loved it, i used to translate and read the news live! i decided to join radio as i had given up teaching and was learning french but i wanted a permanent job. this was an avenue for me to discover something new about myself. how did east fm happen? i saw an advert in the news-paper about a new asian radio station, i went for audition and raj singh au-ditioned me. i joined four months after the launch. i was given the 10am-1pm slot. what was your first show like? i was terribly frightened. i was thrown in the deep end and needed to fill time and find content. i went from three minutes of reading news to three hours of pre-senting. i was just playing songs and hardly speaking. the only taking i did was rattling off shairis (poetry). it was terrible. after a few shows, i remem-ber my brother called me and fired me. he said what is this? what are you saying? it’ s so boring. his remarks made me sit and think. i thought and thought and that was my turning point. i realised i need to relax and be pleasant on air and need to figure out what the listener wants. i needed to familiarise with the music and above all i needed to be myself. i was too formal for radio as i had been reading news in a stiff and rigid man-ner . i think after two years i had let go of all my inhibi-tions. you have been doing the same show (10am-1pm) for the last thirteen years. are you not bored of it? i plan for a day, not a month or a year . every single day i plan for a new program, i look for new content of value, things people want to know and don’t know and i want people to be involved and give their views. it is a platform for public opinion. you can’t just listen to mu-sic; you need to get general knowledge, broaden your horizon and find out about other communities and what is important to them. initially people were reluc-tant to talk about personal problems, now they are will-ing to open up. as long as people are inter-ested and enthusiastic it will remain a vibrant show. how do you motivate your-self? it’ s my passion. i love search-ing; struggling to find new intellectual content. this way i learn as well as i too need to research and then talk about a subject. how do you keep your lis-teners glued? i test their intelligence and knowledge and they want to be tested. east fm came at a time when people wanted to be heard. your interviewing skills are un-matched on any kenyan radio station. it is evident that you put in a lot of re-search in your interviews. how do you manage to do that? i read every piece of infor-mation that they send me and also from other sourc-es. i only interview when i am comfortable with the subject. i enjoy reading the times, newsweek and readers di-gest so all that knowledge is there. i have the reservoir; i just need to know when to use it. i research so much as i want to know if i can match that level of intelligence, can i fit in the interviewee’ s field. i strive to ask questions that i know no one has asked. being a teacher , i know what kind of queries would elicit a response in which the in-terviewee is interested and wants to divulge that infor-mation. how do you feel radio and media in general has evolved in kenya? it has changed so much. the things we never read about are openly discussed in me-dia. taboo topics that re-mained taboo are now dis-cussed. the more open the media is, the better as this will broaden people’ s hori-zons and increased access to information. have you ever thought of quitting radio? n! i would love to carry on as long as i can. i know of a bbc personality who was 92 and was still sending a feature. they say one should quit ra-dio while at the top. do you believe in this theory? when i look at actresses i say yes, but as the voice doesn’t age, i feel in radio one can last longer . lata mangeshkar never quit. if you were not in radio, what would you be doing? there was a time i wanted to do a p .h.d, so if i wasn’t in radio i would have prob-ably been an english litera-ture lecturer . what was your teaching ex-perience like? it was a boy’ s school and the boys loved me. during all my free periods, i would play badminton with them and i18th - 24th february, 2011 info@theasianweekly.net the asian weekly 25 got on so well with them. my teaching style was differ-ent. i was very friendly with them and i would listen to their problems. i was more of a friend then a teacher . you are also actively in-volved in the community, what do you do? i run two organisations; young women’ s islamic so-ciety and muslim women’ s association. i am also a member of the pangani mosque association. we have religious cultural func-tions and we also do welfare work for the poor of our community. have you ever delved into theatre or acting? we do comedy shows for the community and i take part in them. i believe if we had proper training, we could do it on a big scale. what are your hopes for the future? i would love for my daugh-ters to open up a hospital as i hear tales of misdiagnosis and people are always run-ning to india for treatment. our medical fraternity has the ability and talent so people should utilise it. as far as my hopes are con-cerned i would love to build a home for needy women... that is my dream....inshallah! what is the best piece of advice you can give to somebody who is thinking of radio as a career? so many young people are in radio but i think very few succeed. i wouldn’t advise radio as a fulltime career but one should have a de-gree as this will make you a better broadcaster when u have worked in another profession and you have gained knowledge and ma-tured. this way the listener benefits. the advantage of radio is... you can reach out to thou-sands people and thousands of people can reach other . it can influence people views and minds. it can change people. for example it can give people in depression a source of comfort. the disadvantage of radio is....when listeners think they can influence your con-tent and programme. when people demand that you do what they want. they think they can change your schedule and format. they think they are proprietors and you are an employee..... listeners sometimes make unrealistic demands. the biggest misconception about radio is.... presenters are what they appear to be on radio.....pre-senters are all human and also make mistakes. what you hear and how you per-ceive the person behind the mike may not necessarily be true. you are known for your fashion sense. for every outfit you have matching shoes. what is your fashion mantra? i love to dress up and match what i wear . i love accesso-ries. i think this is the fun part of being a presenter as you never know who you will meet and need to en-sure you always look pre-sentable! what do you think of to-day’s youth? i think they want too much freedom and want to be free of family ties. they also expect too much sacrifice from parents. what is your advice to youth? they should follow their culture. we are moving away from our culture and the mode of dressing up stuns me! don’t ape the west so much. there is so much beauty in our ethnic wear , why are the youth ashamed of wearing it? i also think re-spect for elders has eroded so much. i see youth making fun of elders and that is un-acceptable. who inspires you? former british mp george galloway is my hero! he has become a voice for palestin-ians and has endangered himself for the rights of palestinians. he has always fought for minorities and i look upto him. i also admire larry king and geo tv anchor hamid mir . tell us something about parveen adam that no one knows? i am an oversensitive and emotional person. i can cry at the drop of a hat. a listener is....a friend. parveen adam is.....a people person. parveen is thankful to...her mother . a woman of today is...inde-pendent, smart and well in-formed. the best radio presenter is... fareed khimani the worst radio presenter is....there is more than one! parveen adam with her daughters parveen adam at a valentines celebration function parveen adam with singer asha bhosle18th - 24th february, 2011 info@theasianweekly.net the asian weekly 26 raaji bharij aims for the top! raaji singh bharij, the young speed demon who is giving the old guns in the rallying circuit a run for their money goes bindaas... tell us about what you do by profes-sion. i am a financial controller at royal african safaris. having recently won the award for upcoming driver with kmsf, what tactics have you got planned to take the podium by storm?- we have finally managed to get a sponsorship!! it is ba-sically a performance con-tract and we need to prove ourselves further before it is confirmed as a full time sponsorship - we look for-ward to working very hard this year , to drive fast, be reliable and score points. since i now know the car well and have gained some experience we shall be starting every rally with the aim to be in the top three. describe the machine that you drive. i drive a 2003 subaru im-preza n10. we race in the group n category, which is the main class in the kenya national rally champion-ship. she has been rallying a long time, but since all the owners have taken very good care of her , she is a very strong and reliable car- which is important when you are trying to compete with newer cars!! did you modify it yourself or did pro-cure a rally ready car? the subaru was rally pre-pared in australia, and then shipped here where it was rallied for three or four sea-sons. we purchased it in ear-ly 2009. whilst the build was done in australia, we prepare the car at my father’ s work-shop for each rally. do you plan on up-grading to another car anytime soon?- buying a car is one thing, you also need to buy the spares to rally competitively- and at the end of the day the pack-age is a substantial amount of money but we pray that with a solid performance this year we can further convince sponsors to help us get an upto date car . what challenges do you face in convinc-ing your sponsors? the biggest hurdle is get-ting recognized and proving yourself. you have to show that you can perform against the ‘big boys’ given the op-portunity. is it more difficult to rally once you at-tain a family life or do you think that it doesn’t really mat-ter? i think it depends on the family! there are two sides to it: one is safety, and the other financial commit-ments. safety to me is clear cut, my opinion is that it’ s safer to be in a rally car do-ing 200kph on a closed road with helmets, fireproofs and a roll cages than it is to be doing 100kph on mombasa road. in regards to commitments: that is where it gets diffi-cult. you can love rallying to death- but at the end of the day if the financial con-straints mean you can’t meet the commitment you have to your family then if definitely becomes harder , so hard that a lot of people quit as your family must come first. which rally that you have taken part in, would you con-sider your best? the 2009 safari rally was my best rally in regards to achievement. it was my first knrc rally ever , and my first time driving a group n car competitively. i ended up beating top young drivers in east africa and one from southern africa; winning over 60% of the stages and even beating and matching times with top local and in-ternational drivers. what advice would you give to young-sters who think that speed is cool? in my opinion what young-sters (not that i am old yet!!!) need to understand is that yes, speed is cool- but only in controlled and safe cir-cumstances- otherwise it is the equivalent of playing rus-sian roulette not only with your life, but with others. if you have the urge and ‘need for speed’, try to attend one of the new rally schools and events that are coming up, or sell your car and buy a buggy and race in the autocross- do something, but don't race on the roads- no one cares if you got home in 20 minutes, they just care that you got there. do you think that it is a wise idea for a man to let his wife become his navigator in a rally? if you want to fight yes, it’ s a brilliant idea- if you want a loving healthy relationship…. no, not such a good idea! who inspired you to take up rallying? my father , papu bharij who rallied in the 80’ s- there was nothing i loved more than watching them all get ready for a rally, disappear for a weekend and come back with a trophy. what is your motto? it is to go flat out! your parting shot? i am really looking forward to rallying this year . i must thank wladoil, bfgoodrich, freem and oz racing for giving us the chance to prove our worth. we are positive that being part of a team, and access to the best tires, fuel, rims and oils will improve our perfor-mance!! if you were doing a stage in a rally, and you needed to pee really badly, what would you do? 1. let it go. 2. pull over and relieve yourself. 3. use a bottle. if ‘let it go’ means i would ignore it and continue- that’ s what i would do- once you are in a stage with your foot down, you think about very little else. name one rally-ing legend that you would love to meet. carlos sainz. i have met him on several occasions but i would love to meet him again. for me he was and is the ultimate rally driver . describe the fol-lowing people in one word. 21. salman khan- who? 22. joginder singh- works! 23. robert mugabe- hin-drance 24. dan brown- brilliant!!18th - 24th february, 2011 info@theasianweekly.net the asian weekly 28 coronary heart disease coronary heart disease, also known as chd, is the most common of all the heart-related problems. it’ s caused by your arteries getting smaller which leads to your heart not getting enough blood supply. heart attack a heart attack is also ex-tremely common, which is usually due to wrong food. another victim of heart at-tacks is the elderly. as you get older , your body gets weaker and it’ s as if your heart has to work double time just to keep up with you anymore. high blood pressure high blood pressure, also known as hypertension, is a common thing that effects the maximum population. ischemic heart disease ischemic heart disease is the opposite of hypertension, in that it is the reduced flow of blood to the heart. the main symptom involved with ischemic heart disease is the concurrent feeling of chest pain, especially pain in the left side of the chest. heart rhythm disorders heart rhythm disorders, also known as heart murmurs, are irregularities in the sound that the heart makes when listened to by a doctor via the means of a stethoscope. sometimes heart murmurs are harmless and are just weird sounds that the heart makes. other times, however , heart murmurs can be ex-tremely serious and need to be checked out more thor-oughly for a deeper analysis. tachycardia tachycardia is a very serious matter in which the heart is racing at an extremely high pace. you may be able to di-agnose tachycardia yourself if you have shortness of breath, find yourself dizzy for no reason, or you just get that feeling where you can sense your own heartbeat without even checking your pulse and you know it’ s extra high. rheumatic heart disease rheumatic heart disease is a problem associated with heart damage from rheu-matic flu. it can be diagnosed by a fever and/or rash along with chest pains or heart-burn. this is usually due to a problem with the valves in your heart not being able to close properly which leads to blood spilling out into the wrong parts of the heart. in extreme cases, rheumatic heart disease can lead to heart failure. pulmonary heart disease pulmonary heart disease is caused by an abnormal pres-sure on the lungs due to an improper flow of blood to that region. a diagnosis can be reached if you notice you frequently have shortness of breath, chest pain or faint on occasion. key guidelines of the cardiac diet the cardiac diet is focused on lowering cholesterol, re-ducing fat and sodium. follow-ing are some of the cardiac diet’ s nutritional guidelines to keep in mind when on the diet: • reduce cholesterol • reduce fat • in addition, try to con-sume mono-unsaturated fats which are found in nuts, olive oil, avocados, etc instead of saturated fat which is usually found in fast food and processed food. • increase your daily fiber • reduce your daily salt in-take as always, before starting the cardiac diet (or any other type of diet program), con-sult with your doctor first t he health benefits of cheese include relief from hypertension, and osteoporosis. it also helps in maintaining bone health, gaining weight gain and dental care. other benefits of cheese include the following: dental care: cheese is very-very high in calcium content, the first and fore-most thing you need for strong teeth. moreover , it is very low in lactose content. the older the cheese, the lower is the lactose con-tent. this also is beneficial for the teeth as any form of sugar (glucose, maltose or lactose) in food stuff harms teeth. bone health: apart from having very high calcium content, cheese is also rich in vitamin-b, which is very good for children, women (particularly pregnant and lactat-ing) and elderly people (well, for adults too), for formation and strengthening of bones and car-tilages. the vitamin-b here aids proper absorption and distribu-tion of calcium. weight gain: cheese is an ex-cellent food for gaining weight. they are full of proteins, fats, calcium, vitamins and minerals. you have proteins for muscles, fats for fats, calcium for heavier and stronger bones and vitamins and minerals for better metabo-lism. you just need to eat a lot of them, do your exercises and sleep tight. ps: cheese is not recommended for hypertensive people.18th - 24th february, 2011 info@theasianweekly.net 29 the asian weekly herbs for you: olives gymbasics t o get relief from cough and cold take three to four nagervel (betle leaves) leaves and make its decoc-tion (extract). consume warm with a little honey added to it. do this twice a day for few days to get rid of recurrent episodes of cold and cough. aero cake ingredients: • 5 -6 nestle aero light chocolate candy bars • 1 (250 ml) box heavy cream • 2 cadbury’ s flake chocolate candy bars • kg sponge cake directions: 1. break the aero light chocolate into smaller bars. 2. melt the aero light chocolate with the cream in medium-high heat and re-move the mixture until it completely melts. 3. cut the sponge cake into slices and place it flat on serving dish until you form on the bottom of the dish a layer of pound cake. 4. pour the mixture on top of the layer of cake. 5. crush the flake and add on top of the mixture. 6. keep in the fridge for 1 hour to cool. olives the leaves are used medici-nally for their hypotensive qualities. the oil is a nourish-ing demulcent and laxative. externally it relieves, the ef-fects of stings or burns, and is a good vehicle for liniments. with alcohol it is a good hair-tonic. as a lubricant it is valu-able in skin, muscular , joint, kidney and chest complaints, or abdominal chill, typhoid and scarlet fevers, plague and dropsies. delicate babies ab-sorb its nourishing proper-ties well through the skin. use your rest intervals between gym workout exercises also to write down in your workout schedule log the weight and quantity of reps you managed to perform. compare the cur-rent numbers with the previous ones and get ready to overload them. don’t be sad if your present weights are rather light; think about how good it is that you are sticking to this system and understanding your progress. with such persistence you’ll be able to catch up with local fitness gym favorites who got used to work with heavy weights but haven’t changed them for years and leave them far behind in short time. in comparison with them your gym workout achievements will be constantly increasing. still, it’ s very important that you never lose your self-confidence. betle leaves18th - 24th february, 2011 info@theasianweekly.net 30 the asian weekly part 2 examples of giving away your power by kamal tolia sujata was struggling with depression and low self es-teem. she could not concen-trate on the simplest tasks like cleaning the house and shopping. she had no disci-pline – getting up late, not doing anything the whole day, no self control. her mother managed her house, super-vised the house help, did the shopping, even cooked for her . initially, her mother’ s in-tention was to help, but over a period of time, the situa-tion made her feel superior to sujata who she thought couldn’t do anything. she be-gan to dominate her , telling her what to do, criticizing her , sometimes even treating her with contempt. without re-alizing, sujata had given away her power to her mother . in a joint family, allowing oth-ers to pull your strings is a common occurrence. al-though smart and talented, praful, the youngest of three brothers, was never taken seriously in his childhood. he was considered the baby of the family. what he wore, said or did was always de-cided for him by his parents or brothers. this domination continued in his teens and adulthood. now, married and a father of two, praful finds it very difficult to oppose his ‘elders’ in all matters per-taining to their joint business, house or in decisions con-cerning his wife and children. no wonder there is tension between him and his wife. praful’ s brothers and parents have total control over his life. another example in a joint family results from constant compromising. it is often the daughter in law who is called to compromise in many situ-ations. she may have to com-promise her job, her career , her hobbies, her needs to serve the interests of the rest of the household. this compromising may go on in-definitely, until a time comes when the daughter in law has lost all ambition, and comes to believe she is not of much good anyway. she has lost her real self. she looks the same as before, but isn’t. she is only a shadow of her original vibrant self. she has lost all sense of self worth and becomes a mere puppet whose strings are available for anyone who cares to pull them. then there is the example of old parents living with their children. since the parents may be retired and not bring-ing any income, the children think their parents feelings and needs are not important. parents are told what they can and can’t do and cook, and other such rules. they are dominated in ways they never dreamed of by their children eg. be the unpaid house help and cook, clean, wash, laundry and do other chores. because they do not contribute to the family in-come, but do contribute to the expenses, the children feel it is ‘all right’ for them to treat their parents in this demeaning way. such parents are very low in self esteem. they suffer silently, curs-ing their fate, unable to take back their power from their children. next week: understanding giving away power taking your power back soulreflections@theasianweekly.net ever wondered what you dreamt last night... the interpretation of dreams dictionary remains a very valuable tool in helping us all to discover the truth about ourselves. the hidden meaning of dreams not only gives a-z new perspective but it talks about famous people whose dreams influenced them, it explains how to keep a diary when dreaming, talks about lucid dreams, problem solv-ing, past lives, the future and waking dreams. when recording your dream try to include as much detail as possible. answer the ques-tions. who, what, where, when & how? for example, who was in the dream, what activity were you or others engaged in, where were you, was it day or night and how did you feel? another thing that you should keep note of is how you felt when you woke up and what was your most dominant emotion? some-times you may not remem-ber a dream at all but some-thing happens a couple of days or weeks later in the real world that triggers your memory and you end up re-membering the dream. you must note down what event or experience triggered you to remember it because it may provide clues about the dream's significance. dreams meaning are events in your life be-ing revealed to you in your dreams? could you be missing out on important information that your subconscious mind is trying to tell you in your dreams? down through history, many events have been revealed in dreams and lucid dreams. this is influence that dreams have over our life. they can shape and mold our future in all sorts of ways, and by har-nessing that power we end up changing our lives for the better . meaning of dreams it is in a similar way dream life and incidents may fall upon the mind. a woman may dream of receiving a let-ter , and in the same connec-tion see muddy water , or an arid landscape. closely fol-lowing, in waking life, she is astonished to receive a letter in about the same manner of her dream, but the muddy water and the arid landscape are missing. this is a mixed dream and is due to more than one cause. the first part is literal in its fulfillment, and belongs to the spiritual class the other part of the dream is subjective, and therefore allegorical in meaning of dreams. t ogether with the letter , it was a forewarning of misfortune. the subconscious memory may be the direct cause of certain meaning of dreams. when the mind is centered on certain things, the sleeper goes over his life again and again in phantom fashion. he lives over the experiences of his daily life. very often the ego enlightens the sleeper of some material thing for his own benefit, which he may use advanta-geously in his waking state, but as he generally looks at the phenomena as a halluci-nation of the brain, he allows many a golden opportunity to slip through his fingers be-cause the materialist's brain cannot grasp things of the spirit. t o be contd…..31 18th - 24th february, 2011 info@theasianweekly.net the asian weekly numerology - showing way of life, part 6 moon : karkata nakshatra : aslesha sun rise : 6:58 - 18:12 yamakandam : 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm moon : simha nakshatra : purvaphal sun rise : 6:57 - 18:13 yamakandam : 1:30 pm - 3:00 pm moon : kanya nakshatra : uttarphal sun rise : 6:56 - 18:14 yamakandam : 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm tithi : purnima (15) yog / karan : sobhana / vishti rahu kalam : 11:11:00 am - 12:35:00 pm paksha : purnima tithi : pratipad (1) yog / karan : sukarma / kaulava rahu kalam : 9:46:00 am - 11:11:00 am paksha : krishana tithi : dvitiya (2) yog / karan : dhriti / gara rahu kalam : 4:50:00 pm - 6:14:00 pm paksha : krishana moon : kanya nakshatra : hastha sun rise : 6:55 - 18:14 yamakandam : 10:30 am - 12:00 pm tithi : chaturthi (4) yog / karan : sula / balava rahu kalam : 8:20:00 am - 9:45:00 am paksha : krishana moon : tula nakshatra : svati sun rise : 6:53 - 18:16 yamakandam : 7:30 am - 9:00 am moon : tula nakshatra : chitra sun rise : 6:54 - 18:15 yamakandam : 9:00 am - 10:30 am tithi : panchami (5) yog / karan : ganda / taitil rahu kalam : 3:25:00 pm - 4:50:00 pm paksha : krishana tithi : sashthi (6) yog / karan : vriddhi / vanija rahu kalam : 12:35:00 pm - 2:00:00 pm paksha : krishana moon : tula nakshatra : visakha sun rise : 6:53 - 18:16 yamakandam : 6:00 am - 7:30 am tithi : saptami (7) yog / karan : dhruv / bava rahu kalam : 2:00:00 pm - 3:26:00 pm paksha : krishana panchang chal laabh amrut kaal shubh rog udveg chal rog kaal laabh udveg shubh amrut chal rog kaal shubh rog udveg chal laabh amrut kaal laabh udveg shubh amrut chal rog kaal laabh udveg chal laabh amrut kaal shubh rog udveg shubh amrut chal rog kaal laabh udveg shubh amrut kaal shubh rog udveg chal laabh amrut chal rog kaal laabh udveg shubh amrut chal rog udveg chal laabh amrut kaal shubh rog kaal laabh udveg shubh amrut chal rog kaal laabh amrut kaal shubh rog udveg chal laabh udveg shubh amrut chal rog kaal laabh udveg shubh rog udveg chal laabh amrut kaal shubh amrut chal rog kaal laabh udveg shubh amrut timings of all chogodia’ s are counted at a difference of 1 hour 30 mins from time of sunrise. 18th 19th 20th 21st 22nd 23rd 24th 6:42 am 6:42am 6:42 am 6:42 am 6:42 am 6:42 am 6:42 am febraury feng shui tip north area of the house or the office is associated with the career . the best way to energize this area is to place a small aquarium with fish in the northern area of the living room. friday, february 18, 2011 at 05:30:00 am ist saturday, february 19, 2011 at 05:30:00 am ist sunday, february 20, 2011 at 05:30:00 am ist wednesday, february 23, 2011 at 05:30:00 am ist thursday, february 24, 2011 at 05:30:00 am ist t uesday, february 22, 2011 at 05:30:00 am ist monday, february 21, 2011 at 05:30:00 am ist aries: success is definite in ventures involving creative abilities. however , you may loose focus as the week pro-gresses. taurus: you need to be more practical during this week. be-cause you are emotional, you get tensed even with minor difficulties. you are advised to try and be practical. gemini: you need to think about yourself this week. you generally tend to think of oth-ers and now it is the time to put yourself first. try and spend some time with family and friends to keep yourself busy. cancer: recognition and rep-utation are on the way home. you may have troubles with your business rivals. your cau-tious mind will have an edge over your opponents plans. leo: even if you are working, you may be in a mood to re-lax. friends and family may de-mand your attention. it would be best to take life as it comes. virgo: public relations and your partner will top your pri-ority list. your life partner may demand your entire attention and you may try to move away from any commitments. de-veloping social contacts is also on the cards for you. libra: you may rely on your past experience to brighten future prospects. you may hear some unpleasant words. barring that, you will have a charming and enchanting week. your understanding na-ture will get due appreciation. scorpio: your ego may play a spoilsport in everything you do. this may give birth to bit-ter feelings. keep a check on your hot temper . sagittarius: if you are look-ing for a change in job, you may receive an offer from a foreign company. you may have problems with those who have fault finding tendencies. capricorn: this is a week to maintain your old relation-ships. you will take out your list of old friends and will also try to contact them. these re-lationships will prove fruitful and long lasting. aquarius: planetary posi-tions are not so conducive to fulfil your desires. unless you have a blessing in disguise, the week is not so encouraging for beginning of any new project and not even for finishing off current projects successfully! pisces: you will become highly emotional about matters close to your heart. this may make others around you feel better but you should actually see to it that practicalities of matters are not ignored. to get your daily horoscope, yearly reports on business and finance reading, job and finance reading, love and relationship, personal life reports and also yearly horoscopes. prepared by acharya malav bhatt email to astro@theasianweekly.net. 18th february - 24th february 2011 by yogesh bhatia, email: ybhatia@theasianweekly.net continued from last week.. d is the numeri-cal equivalent of 4 and represents balance. it is very powerful and is the letter associated with business. a d person can be stubborn. e is the second vowel in the alphabet and is the numerical equivalent of 5. an e per-son is warm hearted, loving and compassionate. the e person can however some-times be unreliable. f is the numerical equivalent of 6 and represents love. this is a warm-hearted, compas-sionate, and easy going per-son. when it is the first con-sonant in a name it carries the vibration of a nurturer . negatively, f people can be prone to self-pity. g is the numerical equivalent of 7 and represents mysti-cism and religious experienc-es. this letter is imaginative, creative, and helpful. when it is the first consonant in a name, the bearer will tend to be a loner . g’ s tend not to be good listeners. h is the numerical equivalent of 8 and represents creativity and power . this letter has a great deal of business talent. negatively, it can be self absorbed and greedy. i is the third vowel of the alphabet and is the numerical equivalent of 9. it represents law and as a general rule is sensi-tive, compassionate and humane. on the negative side people with this first letter can be ill-tempered. indications as per first alphabet of the name18th - 24th february, 2011 info@theasianweekly.net 32 the asian weekly bay of islands- the edge of the world bay of islands the bay of islands has been termed “the edge of the world”, dolphins leaping through the crystal bow wave with the beauty and spectacu-lar scenery, near the remote northernmost tip of new zealand. this is the place for bird enthusiasts to see the blue penguins as well as grey warblers, tui, pukeko, and the endangered new zealand dotterel. sounding out from the 10th to the 12th, every year where you can hear jazz and blues in the clubs and streets of russell, paihia and even in the magnificent setting of haruru falls. but if jazz “ain’t your thing”, you can always take time out to explore the rare beauty that is the island of urupukapuka, and stroll beneath the vibrant scarlet pohutakawa trees. or go horse riding on the numerous lush trails that wind their way across the span of the bay. marvel too at the ancient giant kauri trees of the waipou forest, especially the extraor-dinary 2,000 year-old, 167 ft high tane mahuta, with its amazing 45ft trunk circumference! then trek out to cape brett lighthouse, power-boat through the majestic hole in the rock, go for a cruise on a tall ship, sky dive, boogie board on the sand dunes, visit glow-worm caves and mountain bike to your heart’ s content - all in a subtropical wonderland with an average sum-mer temperature of 24 degrees and year-round friendly locals. the bay of islands is the busiest, quietest place you’ll ever come to, and it lies under the bluest skies in the world. it really is a place so special and rich to the senses that you need to come and experience it for yourself. giant kauri tree tane mahuta dolphins at the bay of islands maori carvings waitangi falls at waitangi you can enjoy a superb round of golf on the 18-hole course in the national re-serve, taking in the same spectacular elevated views of the pacific that zane revelled in. the course was created in 1945 and remains a great draw for golfers near and far who like to finish a game on a spectacular sunset. then there are the many fine restaurants in the bay where you’ll find the best gourmet cooking and warmest hospitality. some of the friendliest bars in nz too! enjoy great seafood right on the waterfront in the elegant township of russell or enjoy music at the duke of marlborough, an original whaling pub that today hosts some of new zealand’ s biggest music acts. the bay even has something for the jazz en-thusiast. the three-day august jazz festival,18th - 24th february, 2011 info@theasianweekly.net 33 the asian weekly s tripes can look fabulous or horrible, everything depends on how you wear them. when paired with the right pieces, stripes can re-ally enhance your figure and keep you looking up-to-date. the key to wearing stripes is to always wear just one print matched with a solid. it depends on your taste and personal style. but simple stripes have always been the most elegant and it’ s easy to match them with other items. black and white stripes are classic and fashionable. who can wear s tripes? everybody can wear stripes. all depends on the style cho-sen and the mood of a person. if you feel light-hearted and easy, choose colorful and wide stripes. if you prefer urban style, opt for elegant thin stripes. they will always look good. know how to wear s tripes to f lat t er your f igure : horizontal stripes are good for boy-ish figures as they create curves due to the depth they give. and verti-cal stripes make you look slimmer because they give an elongated look to your body. horizontal stripes are to stay away from if you are curvy, have a big bust, or are chunky around the middle. be espe-cially careful with tops which cling around your bust and waist. opt for darker colours, they have a slimming effect. if you just cannot do without horizontal stripes, wear them loose. follow a go 1-size-up rule, to stop them clinging too tightly and having a widening effect. t o create a longer and leaner look, opt for vertically striped skirts or trousers and a solid-coloured top or t -shirt. diago-nal stripes will do the same. t oo many stripes are not good. a single piece is stylish, head-to-toe is not. darker stripes are better if you want to hide your problem areas. colour-ful stripes will look nice on young girls and ageing on those who are the wrong side of 35. t o hide a big bust, wear a dark top and a stripy skirt. in case you wish to hide heavy bottom do quite a reverse thing – opt for a dark bot-tom while wearing a stripy top. the effect will be great. s tripe accesori es try a bangle if you want to wear stripes in a different, more el-egant way. a great way to get height and still look casually chic and comfort-able, wedges give you the look of being taller without the pain. a striped belt is a preppy throw-back. pair with a classic white jean and you’ re good to go. the skinnier the lines, the more delicate the vibe. a striped head-band provides a whimsical and unexpected adornment. this blue-and-white striped bi-kini plays up curves—the vertical stripes on the band help break up the horizontal action, so you're not widening the body.18th - 24th february, 2011 info@theasianweekly.net 34 the asian weekly mukti mohan the new big screen item girl sourabhee to feature in guinness world records - ab india todega. it's always a proud moment for a small screen dancer when he/she showcases her talent on the big screen!! and mukti mohan who came to the limelight with the re-ality show on star plus, zara nachke dikha is waiting for this big opportunity. the talented dancer who added another feather to her cap by winning sony's come-dy ka jadoo is now all set to take a b-town ride with her scintillating dance number .. sources say, "sahib biwi aur gangster recently com-pleted its 40 day schedule in gujarat, where mukti was called to execute the dance number . the song is sung by renowned singer rekha bha-radwaj.and is similar to the priyanka chopra number in the movie saat khoon maaf – darling. ” let's see whether mukti can replicate the magic of a 'munni badnaam' or a 'shei-la ka jawaani' with her hot dance number!! remember sourabhee deb-barama who went on to be-come the first female indian winner of sony's indian idol? after creating history in the fourth season of the show, the girl from tripura is all set to get into the record books once again! according to sources, "sour-abhee has attained the unique feat of singing a song 'upside down'. she apparently broke the record of a singer from new zealand who had sung a song upside down for about 3 minutes and 25 sec-onds. sourabhee managed to sing it in the same fashion for an excess of 4 minutes". guinness world records – ab india t odega will be hosted by the charming pre-ity zinta and the heart throb shabbir ahluwalia. preity will host the show from the stu-dio while shabbir will be the on-ground host. star plus’ ‘tere liye’ in trouble star plus’ daily drama series t ere liye’ s future could be in doubt if ratings do not im-prove in the coming weeks. according to reports, the channel has given the pro-duction house -balaji t ele-films, a number of weeks to enhance the show’ s content and ratings. the channel was never in fa-vour of the huge drama that was played with the ritesh-taani track. however , the production house was ada-mant in going ahead with the track, and the result is before one and all!! the track gar-nered a negative response from viewers, and the ratings which were on a high saw a sudden fall. in addition to this, ekta kapoor was insist-ing on replacing nikhil arya. she had even short listed few popular names, of which one was angad hasija of bidaai fame. but the channel saw to it that this replacement did not happen, as they were very happy with nikhil arya. it remains to be seen if the drama will show signs of improvement as it has been given until the conclusion of the indian premier league. zeb khan committed to rishton se badi pratha recently, a producer from bangkok recognized zeb khan’ s work in colors' rish-ton se badi pratha and offered him a double role in her short film that was being made on drug peddlers. zeb was asked to play the role of a cop as well as the drug peddler , wherein both happened to be twins. how-ever , zeb khan who is pres-ently committed to the col-ors show apparently denied the offer . when contacted, zeb says, "my ambition is to get into films one day. it is true that i was offered a dual role in a short film, and the roles were very challenging. however , i have always been committed to the work in hand, and i am presently enjoying my stint in rishton se badi pratha. mukti mohan zeb khan t ere liye star cast18th - 24th february, 2011 info@theasianweekly.net 35 the asian weekly inbrief ajay devgn happy valentine’s day. do we need to single out one day to celebrate love? anupam kher amazing performance by drake along with rihanna at the grammy. was happy to meet him during break-away.:0) bipasha basu i cant b answerable 2 media nymore abt my personal life becoz no matter hw open u r ,there is no respect evr. kangna ranuat recently refused to kiss singer mika singh, who is infamous for his kiss with rakhi sawant. buzz is that kangna and madhavan were shooting a high-tempo punjabi song for tanu weds manu with singer mika singh. though the director wanted a kiss between kangna and mika, the actress shot down the proposal with thinly concealed disgust, saying, ‘i am not rakhi sawant to do something like this’. neil nitin mukesh turned out to be the knight in shining armour for drowning damsels in distress while out on an ad shoot in pattaya, thai-land. as the shot went underway, one of the girls lost her balance, causing a jet ski to topple. the actor got trapped under the watercraft for a while and the other two models were flung into the sea. he assumed that the models had already started mak-ing their way to the res-cue boat but realised that both were not in sight. he swam back and playing the part of a real-life hero, he brought both women safely to the rescue boat. akshay kumar's dashing on-stage stunt at the balaji global indian film and tv honours on satur-day night was almost ruined by what the actor and producer ekta kapoor believe was out-and-out sabotage. says an insider , "it was an act spe-cially choreographed by milan luthria unveiling akki's look for ekta's once upon a time in mum-baai 2. the actor would make an entry in a very stylish way, perform an action scene and leave soon after . the two had even rehearsed a day before at the venue itself. on the awards night, akshay's act began with an audio-visual set to music. when the actor came onstage, the music stopped. ” the khiladi figured out the prob-lem, strolled onto the stage and completed his act as if nothing had happened. later , at ekta's request, akki sport-ingly performed again this time to the proper music. according to the source, "when ekta made enqui-ries, she was told it was a 'technical glitch' but she feels that it couldn't be possible. akshay and ekta feel the music was deliberately stopped and a producer who akki had a falling out with is being suspected. sunidhi chauhan records duet with enrique iglesias sunidhi chauhan will be part of an international album titled euphoria where she will share tracks with the likes of usher , akon and nicole from pussycat dolls. sunidhi has crooned a love duet entitled 'i can feel you' with none other than international singing sensation enrique iglesias for the al-bum. apparently, sunidhi was chosen to sing for this global album alongside the in-ternational artists as her voice was perceived to have an international feel to it. shamir tandon says "i've composed sunidhi's song with enrique. we are not like those wanna-go-west indian musi-cians who just talk about collaborations. talk doesn't mean anything. i am proud to say i'm one of the first bollywood musicians to have composed for enrique iglesias. having successfully and legiti-mately collaborated in the past with the boy band blue for 'one love' in rakht and having composed a duet for bret lee with asha bhosleji, i can comfortably say i've gone from talk to actually doing it." the album euphoria containing sundhi's duet with enrique iglesias releases in march. katrina to romance salman, again why bipasha hates abhsihek? katrina kaif has bagged two big yash raj films projects opposite the two khans of bollywood. she'll be seen romancing salman khan in kabir khan's film. katrina will also star opposite srk in yash chopra's direction. it will be interesting to see salman and katrina back to-gether given the past they share. the film will be direct-ed by kabir khan for yash raj films. it's a performance oriented role in the league of new york," a source said. her other project with yash raj banner is opposite king khan. srk- katrina starrer will be directed by yash cho-pra himself. this will catch much attention, as they have never been paired together . the film with shah rukh will be a romantic one and will go on floor by the end of this year . the salman- kat starrer is an action-thriller-romance. earlier , salman opted out of chak de india as yrf refused to pay his asking price. how-ever , now they have started paying megabucks to the a-list actors like aamir khan for dhoom 3. even salman is getting his asking price this time. abhishek bachchan is no longer in the good books of bipasha basu. it's learnt that abhi's pranks haven't im-pressed bipasha much and on the contrary she has not taken too kindly to it. abhishek is famous for play-ing pranks on the sets. so, recently when the actor was shooting for the upcoming film players along with bipa-sha basu, abhishek passed a comment that was not taken too kindly by the actress. according to reliable sourc-es, "abhishek was up to his usual tricks and he cracked a joke about bips and john abraham. and bipasha didn't take kindly to it. and she let her irritation known." though the misunderstand-ing might have stemmed from a casual friendly re-mark, things are yet to cool down between the two..... joke tha bipasha...gussa ho toh tere jaisa! akshay kumar sunidhi chauhan salman & katrina bipasha basu18th - 24th february, 2011 info@theasianweekly.net 36 the asian weekly fox cinemaguide fox cineplex sarit centre, westlands contact tel: 3753025/6 or 0720 366208 / 0734 969308 or manager - 0733 968243 for advance bookings screen 1 green hornet (u/16) 11.30am, 2.00pm (fri, mon, thurs), 2.00pm (tue), 11.30am (wed) little fockers 4.30pm, 6.40pm (fri, mon, tue, thurs), 6.00pm (wed) saat khoon maaf 9.00pm (fri), 2.30pm, 9.00pm (sat), 11.00am, 5.30pm, 8.40pm (sun), 8.40pm (mon), 11.00am (tues), 2.30pm, 8.40pm (wed) patiala house 11.00am, 5.30pm (sat), 2.30pm (sun), 8.40pm (tue, thurs) screen 2 burlesque- (u/16) 11.25am, 2.00pm, 4.20pm, 6.30pm (fri, mon, thurs) 11.25am, 2.00pm (sat), 4.10pm (sun), 2.00pm, 4.20pm, 6.30pm (tue), 11.25am, 2.00pm, 4.20pm, 6.30pm, 8.40pm (wed) patiala house 9.00pm (fri, sat), 6.00pm, 9.00pm (sun) little fockers (tba) 4.20pm, 6.30pm (sat, thurs), 11.25am, 2.00pm (sun), 8.40pm (mon, thurs), 11.25am, 8.40pm (tue) fox 20th century - cbd (mama ngina street) contact tel: 249672 or manager - 0734 450442 for advance bookings screen 1 little fockers (tba) 11.50am, 5.40pm, 8.00pm (fri, tue ) 11.50am, 2.30pm, 5.40pm, 8.00pm (sat, sun, mon, wed, thurs) screen 2 mechanic- (adults) 11.40am, 2.30pm, 5.30pm, 8.10pm (fri, sat, sun, mon, tue, wed, thurs) fox capital msa rd (uchumi) contact: tel no. 2017101, 0736703063, 0724882417 for advance bookings screen 1 faster (u/16) 2.30pm (fri, mon, tue), 11.40am (sat), 6.10pm (thurs) green hornet (u/16) 2.30pm (sat, wed), 11.30am (sun), 6.00pm (tue), 6.10pm (thurs) patiala house (tba) 8.40pm (fri, mon, tue), 5.30pm, 9.00pm (sat) 2.30pm, 5.30pm, 9.00pm (sun) , 2.30pm, 8.40pm (thurs) faster (u/16) 6.00pm (mon, wed) screen 2 burlesque (u/16) 2.50pm, 5.50pm, 8.30pm (fri, mon, tue, wed, thurs), 11.30am, 2.50pm, 5.50pm, 8.30pm (sat), 11.40am, 2.50pm, 5.50pm, 8.30pm (sun) nyali cinemax cinemaguide screen 1 red 6.45pm (fri) saat khoon maaf 9.15pm (fri, wed) 6.15pm, 9.30pm (sat) 2.15pm, 5.45pm, 9.15pm (sun) 9.00pm (mon) tangled – in 3d 2.00pm (sat) red 4.00pm (sat), 6.45pm (tues) dhobi ghat 10.30am (sun) the town 6.45pm (mon), 9.15pm (tue) little fockers 6.45pm (wed) 6.45pm, 9.00pm (thurs) screen 2 little fockers 6.45pm (fri, mon), 7.00pm (sun) patiala house 9.00pm (fri, tue), 9.15pm (sat) 10.45am, 2.00pm, 9.15pm (sun), 6.15pm (wed) the town 2.00pm (sat) bulesque 4.30pm (sat), 9.00pm (mon) 9.15pm (wed), 6.45pm (thurs) gullivers travels in 3d 5.00pm (sun) the tourist 6.45pm (tue) saat khoon maaf 9.15pm (thurs) friday 18th february to thursday 24th february village market 020 7122128 / 020 3594815 / 0721 329690 screen 1 “gulliver’s travels” (ge) [2d] (fri to thu) 10.45 am, 12.45 pm, 2.45 pm, 4.45 pm, 6.45 pm, 8.45 pm screen 2 “due date” (fri to thu) 10.00 am, 12.05 pm, 2.10 pm, 4.15 pm, 6.20 pm, 8.25 pm screen 3 “the tourist” (fri to thu) 11.00 am, 1.15 pm, 3.30 pm, 5.45 pm, 8.00 pm screen 4 “faster” (fri to thu) 10.30 am, 12.35 pm, 2.40 pm, 4.45 pm, 6.50 pm, 8.55 pm westgate 020 3594817 screen i “patiala house” (fri to thu) 10.30 am, 1.05 pm, 3.40 pm, 6.15 pm, 8.50 pm screen 2 “red” (fri to thu) 11.00 am, 1.25 pm, 3.50 pm, 6.15 pm, 8.40 pm screen 3 “green hornet” [2d] (fri to thu) 10.15 am, 12.45 pm, 3.15 pm, 5.45 pm, 8.15 pm (sat) 12.45 pm, 3.15 pm, 5.45 pm, 8.15 pm (sun to thu) 10.15 am, 12.45 pm, 3.15 pm, 5.45 pm, 8.15 pm “ted x cinema nairobi” (sat) 10.30 am screen 4 ““burlesque” (u16) (fri to thu) 10.45 am, 1.15 pm, 3.45 pm, 6.15 pm, 8.45 pm screen 5 “faster” (fri to sun) & (t ue to thu) 11.30 am, 1.40 pm, 3.50 pm, 6.00 pm, 8.10 pm (mon) 11.30 am, 1.40 pm, 3.50 pm screen 6 “tron: legacy” (pg) [2d] (fri to sun) 10.00 am, 12.40 pm, 3.20 pm, 6.00 pm, 8.30 pm (mon to thu) 10.00 am, 12.40 pm, 3.20 pm junction 020 3594814/1 screen i “tangled” (ge) [2d] (fri to thu) 11.00 am, 1.15 pm, 3.30 pm, 5.45 pm, 8.00 pm screen 2 “burlesque” (u16) (fri to thu) 10.45 am, 1.15 pm, 3.45 pm, 6.15 pm, 8.45 pm screen 3 “red” (fri to thu) 11.15 am, 1.40 pm, 4.05 pm, 6.30 pm, 8.55 pm screen 4 “green hornet” [2d] (fri to thu) 10.30 am, 1.00 pm, 3.30 pm, 6.00 pm, 8.30 pm megacity - (t ue & wed) cinema closed screen 2 “the chronicles of narnia: the voyage of the dawn trader” (ge) [2d] (sat to mon) 10.45 am, 1.10 pm, 3.35 pm “tron: legacy” (pg) [2d] (sat to mon) 6.00 pm, 8.40 pm “the chronicles of narnia: the voyage of the dawn trader” (ge) [2d] (thu, fri) 10.45 am, 1.10 pm, 3.35 pm “tron: legacy” (pg) [2d] (thu, fri) 6.00 pm, 8.40 pm screen 2 “tangled” (ge) [2d] (sat to mon) 11.30 am, 1.45 pm, 4.00 pm “dhobi ghat” (sat to mon) 6.15 pm, 8.30 pm “tangled” (ge) [2d] (thu, fri) 11.30 am, 1.45 pm, 4.00 pm “dhobi ghat” (thu, fri) 6.15 pm, 8.30 pm prestige 020 3594814/1 screen i “the tourist” (fri to thu) 11.00 am, 1.20 pm, 3.40 pm, 6.00 pm, 8.20 pm screen 2 “tron: legacy” (pg) [2d] (fri to thu) 10.30 am, 1.05 pm, 3.40 pm “dhobi ghat” (fri to thu) 6.15 pm, 8.30 pm silverbird cinemaguide french film estival - (french with english subtitles) [**free entry**] “je l’aimais”: (mon) 6.00 pm, (thu) 8.30 pm, “l’arnacoeur”: (mon) 8.30 pm, “tournée”: (t ue) 6.00 pm (wed) 8.30 pm, “london driver” (t ue) 8.30 pm, “welcome” (wed) 6.00 pm, “le refuge” (thu) 6.00 pm18th - 24th february, 2011 info@theasianweekly.net 37 the asian weekly movie review patiala house movie preview tanu weds manu directed by: nikhil advani starring: akshay kumar , anushka shar-ma, rishi kapoor and dimple kapadia while we’ve seen many films based on cricket (lagaan, vic-tory, iqbal), patiala house is different as it’ s primarily a fa-ther-son conflict, having crick-et as it’ s backdrop. 34-year-old parghat singh kahlon aka gattu (akshay ku-mar) had given up his dreams due to his authoritarian father gurtej kahlon (rishi kapoor), 17 years ago. despite be-ing an excellent fast bowler , he wasn’t allowed to play for the english as their family was subjected to racist attacks many years back. gurutej turned very aggressive post the incident and used to raise his hand or voice at the drop of a hat. gattu, on the other hand, has been living a mediocre life, working in a southhall corner store for years now. the younger generation of his family blames him for set-ting the wrong example. still not over with his love for the game, gattu discreetly prac-tices bowling when no one is around. his neighbour friend simran (anushka sharma) and her kid brother (z) are deter-mined to get gattu’ s life back on track. will he get his life back is what forms the rest of the story. nikhil advani keeps the narra-tive to the point, avoiding all the redundancies in the first half. the characters and their conflicts are well established. post the interval, the nikhil goes a bit wayward in his di-rection. the entire plan and more so its execution is just too convenient. the cricket scenes, though not bad, don’t arouse the excitement that lagaan immaculately did. the plot is no doubt predict-able. you roughly know what will happen in the end. what still makes the movie work is the cast, most prominently anushka sharma. playing a girl who is a powerhouse of energy, endlessly chattering away, anushka is impressively confident and convincing in her performance. if not for her , patiala house would have been a dull and dreary yawn-fest. akshay kumar is well re-strained as a 34-year-old man resigned to his fate and merely going through the motions of his daily chores. rishi kapoor does a creditable job as the revolting patriarch, towering over the actors around him. on the whole, patiala house is a compelling watch, more for its drama and histrionics than anything else. directed by: aanand rai starring: r. madhavan, kangana ranaut, jimmy shergill, deepak dobriyal and swara bhaskar story: tanu weds manu is a fun filled movie with the basic storyline of a foreign re-turned indian guy desper-ately looking for a young decent and sober indian girl to marry and take with him abroad. marriages are made in heaven! though the road to heaven might be a little complicated. meet manu (madhavan), a straight forward doc-tor from london. manu is intelligent and from a re-spectable family; the per-fect groom which every parent wants for their daughter . family pressure leads him to kanpur to meet tanu the quintes-sential small town girl who has studied in delhi. tanu (kangana ranaut ) is a smart, intelligent girl who will do everything that her parents will dis-approve. with a mind of her own and a love for rebellion, tanu is dead against an arranged mar-riage. but destiny holds some-thing totally different for these dramatically diverse personalities. their paths keep crossing time and again and weave this won-derful story through the indian heartland.18th - 24th february, 2011 info@theasianweekly.net 38 the asian weekly a. chasm (5) a. decorate (5) a. valuable pos-session (5) a. tropical fruit (7) c. auto (3) c. stringed instrument (5) e. consumed (5) f . characteristic (7) f . escapee (9) g. venetian boat (7) g. lubricating oil (6) l. correspon-dence (7) m. mogul (7) n. recess (5) o. gems (5) o. nocturnal bird (3) r. lecturers (7) r. amend (6) s. sorrow (7) s. more secure (5) s. despised (7) s. alike (7) s. dreamlike (7) t . large spider (9) t . heading (5) u. handy (6) w. marine mam-mal (6) y . vessel (5) a kakuro consists of a playing area of filled and empty cells similar to a crossword puzzle. some black cells contain a di-agonal slash from top left to bottom right with numbers in them, called “the clues”. a number in the top right corner relates to an “across” clue and one in the bottom left a “down” clue. the object of a kakuro is to insert digits from 1-9 into the white cells to total the clue associated with it. how-ever no digit can be duplicat-ed in an entry. for example the total 6 you could have 1 & 5, 2 & 4 but not 3 & 3. sound simple? be warned it gets hard and is as addictive as sudoku. archie by fernando ruiz and craig boldman sudoku challenge word puzzle valentines adore, appeal, arrow, attraction, beau, beguiled, beloved, bewitched, bow, boyfriend, captivated, card, caring, charm, cherish, crush, cupid, dearest , desire, devotion, dote, emotion, enchanted, enraptured, eros, gift , girlfriend, greeting, infatuation, kisses, love, loyalty , passion, romance, smitten, sweetheart , treasure, truelove, valentine, yearning. email full name & contact details. to: info@theasianweekly.net ferd’nand by henrik rehr frank and earnest by bob thaves win a gift hamper courtesy of kenroid limited. fill the sudoku the first letter of each answer is written next to its clue in alphabetical order . one letter has already been entered. can you find the words then fit them correctly into the grid?18th - 24th february, 2011 info@theasianweekly.net 39 the asian weekly18th - 24th february, 2011 info@theasianweekly.net 40 the asian weekly valentines in nairobi