Former Pakistan captain Shoaib Malik has declared that his team’s Pool A match against old rivals India in the Champions Trophy will be the ‘match of the tournament’.

Malik told reporters at the National Stadium that no other game in the elite eight-nation contest will be able to match the intensity of the Pakistan-India clash.

“It is easily the most awaited match, both for the crowd and for the players because if you perform well and help your team win you become an instant hero, so players from both teams try to put up their best,” said the experienced all-rounder at the end of a strenuous training session.

Malik and other Pakistani cricketers are currently attending a Champions Trophy preparatory camp in Karachi and are due to leave for South Africa Thursday.

Malik, who was replaced by Younis Khan as Pakistan captain early this year, believes there will be no title favourites in the Champions Trophy to be played September 22-October 5.

“The Champions Trophy is more competitive than the World Cup and no team is favourite to win the title,” he said.

He said Pakistan will try its best to win its maiden Champions Trophy.

Pakistan has never progressed beyond the semifinal stages in the biennial Champions Trophy since its inception in 1998.

It is placed in Group A alongside defending champions Australia, India and the West Indies.

Hosts South Africa, Sri Lanka, England and New Zealand are in Group B.

Malik said his team is first targeting a place in the last four.

“In the first phase a team needs to win at least two matches to progress to the semi-final, so you have to do your best in each match and that’s why this event is regarded as tougher than the World Cup,” said Malik.

{Source: Sify.com}

Irrfan Khan seems to be on a quest of perfectionism. He locked lips with Dia Mirza when the script only said that he should give his co-star a peck on the cheek.

Perhaps he felt that the chemistry between the two characters demanded such measures.

According to sources, the shoot was on in South Africa. In the scene, Dia introduces Irrfan to Fardeen Khan and Irrfan comes forward to kiss Dia on the cheek and make it clear to Fardeen to not enter into his territory.

He does this because he suspects something is going on between Fardeen and Dia. However, everyone was surprised when Irrfan suddenly kissed Dia on the lips.

It was unexpected, not being a part of the script, but she chose not to make an issue out of it at that time and simply called up Sanjay later on.

Dia admits that she was surprised by the kiss gone wrong, but she thinks that Irrfan did it to establish the chemistry between them in the scene.

Nice excuse to get intimate with a hottie dude!

{Source: Hindustan Times}

KARACHI : PCB appointed former captain and batting legend Javed Miandad as batting adviser to the national team following recent heavy defeats to Sri Lanka, an official said Thursday.

The appointment of the 51-year-old came after Pakistan’s humiliating 2-0 defeat in Tests and 3-2 loss in the one-day series in Sri Lanka, results which were blamed on Pakistan’s performance with the bat.

Pakistan finished the tour with a 52-run win in the Twenty20 match against Sri Lanka on Wednesday.

“We have requested Miandad help our team’s batting before next month’s Champions Trophy in South Africa and take care of (the team’s) problems,” Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Ijaz Butt told a press conference.

Needing 97 to win on the fourth day of the first Test in Galle, Pakistan then suffered a dramatic collapse, losing eight wickets to crash to a 50-run defeat.

In the second Test they found themselves in a commanding position of 285-1 only to throw away nine wickets for a paltry 35 runs, handing Sri Lanka a seven-wicket victory.

Miandad is regarded as one of Pakistan’s greatest batsmen, scoring 8832 runs in 124 Tests — still a Pakistan record — and 7381 runs in 233 one-day internationals.

He is also director general of the PCB and sits on the PCB Governing Board.

“We had batting failures and I will be meeting each and every player here on Friday,” said Butt.

“I will then brief the media about the causes of the defeats.”

-Source: AAJ TV-

A husband and his relatives cannot be prosecuted for “cruelty” towards the wife merely because the mother-in-law or other family members had kicked her or for that matter threatened her with divorce, the Supreme Court has held.

Similarly, if a mother-in-law gives constant sermons to the daughter-in-law or allegedly treated her shabbily by giving her used dress suits, it does not invite prosecution under Section 498A of the IPC, a bench of Justices S.B. Sinha and Cyriac Joseph said.

However, if the mother-in-law takes away the gifts given to the couple at the time of the marriage, it amounts to “breach of trust” as specified under Section 406 IPC, the court said while dealing with an appeal filed by a South Africa-based NRI man and his in-laws in a matrimonial dispute case.

“Allegations that appellant No. 2 (mother-in-law) kicked the respondent (daughter-in-law) with her leg and told her that her mother is a liar may make out some other offences, but not the one punishable under Section 498A.

“Similarly her allegations that the appellant No. 2 poisoned the ears of her son against the respondent; she gave two used lady suits of her daughter to the complainant (daughter-in-law) and has been giving perpetual sermons to the complainant could not be said to be offences punishable under Section 498 A,” it said.

The bench said “even threatening that her son may be divorced for the second time could not bring out the offence under Section 498A.”

-Source: DC-

NEW DELHI: The state-run Coal India Limited is likely to step in to buy the house in Johannesburg, South Africa, where Mahatma Gandhi lived for over a year.

“I had come across reports that the owner was planning to put the house up for sale. As CIL has adequate funds, we intend to purchase the house and build a memorial on it,” Minister of State for Coal Sri Prakash Jaiswal told The Hindu.

An American artist, Nancy Ball, has lived in Gandhiji’s Johannesburg house for 25 years.

The selling price is understood to be more than $3,50,000.

Mr. Jaiswal said he would visit South Africa on August 17 and would have discussions with the house owner and officials to finalise the deal. He said if any other person or Indian organisation wanted to step in and take over the house, CIL would back out but the heritage property would not be allowed to go waste.

“The property in South Africa should be preserved in memory of the Father of Nation and therefore CIL is making an attempt to purchase it,” he added.

Situated at No. 15 Pine Road in the tranquil suburb of Orchards, the thatched-roof rondavel-style house, “The Kraal,” was designed by Gandhiji’s confidant and architect, Hermann Kallenbach.

Gandhiji lived there between 1908 and 1909 while practising as an advocate and fighting racial discrimination in South Africa.

-Source: Hindu-

NEW DELHI: Indian cricketers have failed to find a place in the World Twenty20 squad released by ICC in London on Monday.

The squad consists of four Pakistan, three Sri Lanka, three South Africa and two West Indies players.Member of defending champion Team India, who failed miserably in the T20 world championship, could not find a place in the ICC’s World T20 XI. Whereas, Rumeli Dhar of Indian women’s team has been named in the ICC World Women’s T20 team.

Indian eves outperformed their male counterparts in the tournament by reaching the semi-final before losing to New Zealand by 52 runs.

Younus Khan, who bids adieu to the shortest version of the game, has been made the skipper of the team alongwith his Pakistan team-mates all-rounder Shahid Afridi, wicket-keeper batsman Kamran Akmal and paceman Umar Gul.

Sri Lanka’s Tillakratne Dilshan, player of the tournament, named as an opener alongwith the West Indies Chris Gayle while South Africa Jacques Kallis and AB de Villiers included for the middle-order.

West Indies all-rounder Dwayne Bravo, teenage South Africa paceman Wayne Parnell and Sri Lanka spinner Ajantha Mendis complete the line-up, with Sri Lanka’s Lasith Malinga as the 12th man.

ICC’s World Twenty20 squad (Men):

Jacques Kallis (SA), AB de Villiers (SA), Shahid Afridi (Pak), Kamran Akmal (Pak), Chris Gayle (WI), Tilakratne Dilshan (SL), Mohammed Younus Khan (Pak, Skipper), Dwayne Bravo (WI), Wayne Parnell (SA), Umar Gul (Pak), Ajantha Mendis (SL), Lasith Malinga (SL)

ICC’s World Twenty20 squad (Women):

Shelley Nitschke (Aus), Charlotte Edwards (Eng), Claire Taylor (Eng), Aimee Watkins (NZ), Sarah Taylor (Eng), Suzi Bates (NZ), Lucy Doolan (NZ), Rumeli Dhar (Ind), Laura Marsh (Eng), Holly Colvin (Eng), Sian Ruck (NZ), Eshani Kaushalya (SL)

NEW DELHI: Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni bore the brunt of fan and media anger back home after the defending champions were unceremoniously dumped out of the Twenty20 World Cup on Sunday.

Millions of cricket-crazy fans in India woke up Monday to disbelief and dismay after the defending champions were knocked out of the World Twenty20 by England.

The defeat at Lord’s – by just three runs – meant India, who won the inaugural 2007 edition in South Africa, have no chance of progressing further in the tournament.

‘OUT’ read a huge headline in the Indian Express, which described the team’s performance as undignified and said the close margin of defeat did not reflect how poorly the Indians played.

The paper put the blame on India’s batsmen who struggled to cope with an aggressive pace bowling attack.

Surprise winners two years ago, India were installed as one of the favourites to capture the title this time but a three-run loss to England consigned the side to a second straight Super Eights defeat and with no chance of reaching the semi-finals.

Security was beefed around Dhoni’s home in the eastern city of Ranchi on Monday after scores of fans burnt his effigy, shouted slogans and accused the captain of underestimating England in a must-win situation.

‘Dhoni took the match lightly, he adopted a casual attitude,’ Arun Kumar, a young protester, told Reuters in Ranchi.

‘He is fascinated by the glamour world more than cricket,’ Kumar, added, referring to the huge commercial endorsements the 27-year-old national team skipper enjoys.

England bowlers pegged the top order batsmen with incisive short-pitched bowling, successfully borrowing the tactic from West Indies in their earlier Super Eights upset of India.

The Times of India said India had lacked energy and performed poorly in the field.

‘India fielded like novices to complicate their chances,’ it said.

‘Even Sachin Tendulkar’s presence in the Indian dressing room and a packed house, mostly made of Indians, didn’t seem to inspire (captain Mahendra Singh) Dhoni and his boys.’

A scathing report in The Pioneer said ‘tired’ India deserved their fate given their preparations for the tournament.

‘Though Dhoni denied it on all occasions, his boys were wholesomely tired,’ it said.

‘(They were) not merely jetlagged coming from South Africa to India to England but cripplingly fatigued from the game itself.’

Nilesh Mathur, a software engineer, told AFP he had stayed awake late into the night to watch the game.

‘I thought England, who lost even to the Dutch earlier on in the tournament, won’t stand a chance against our champion side,’ he said. ‘But I was proved wrong.’

The Indian media singled out Dhoni, hailed as a natural leader since captaining the team to victory in the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa, as the villain. Dhoni was blamed for shuffling the order and failing to shake off his own subdued batting form when a captain’s innings was badly needed.

His promotion of young all-rounder Ravinder Jadeja to number four instead of the explosive Yuvraj Singh was also seen as a tactical disaster after the 20-year-old failed to force the pace and left his team mates with too much to do in the final overs.

‘Why did Dhoni throw Jadeja to the lions,’ asked one TV channel, while another said: ‘He (Dhoni) could not tonk the ball, got it all wrong with his strategy…, horrible captaining by Dhoni cost us dear.’

Former India pacemen Javagal Srinath and Atul Wassan were guarded in their criticism.

‘This team has been fantastic in the last couple of years,’ Srinath told the CNN-IBN channel. ‘The bouncers they used were right on to the batsmen, Indian batsmen had no answer to those.’

Wassan added: ‘He (Dhoni) did make some mistakes, but won’t just blame the captain, the entire team management is to blame.’

After Kangna and Adhyayan surprised people by hooking up, they went on to make their relationship official with uninhibited public declarations of love. News of their split, after a year of being together, has shocked many, including Kangna, as Adhyayan has initiated the move.

Apparently , erratic schedules and time spent apart in different locations for their films has taken its toll. That Adhyayan’s father, Shekhar Suman, never liked Kangna and went out of his way to say uncomplimentary things about her, must surely have contributed to the split.

Adhyayan confirmed the split, Yes, we’ve moved on from this relationship . I guess this was how long it was meant to last. At this point, I really want to focus on my career and professional commitments. Sustaining a long-distance relationship of this intensity is a tough task.

Kangna admitted they had moved on, and that she was shocked by Adhyayan’s decision. Adhyayan and I had a talk about our relationship and it was his decision to move on. It came as a shock to me. But I guess he has other priorities now, and many options in terms of people to be with.

It’s an amicable break-up and I wish him the best. According to our source, Kangna who had been shooting for a film in Hyderabad for a long spell, met Adhyayan for dinner recently.

The source said, After a calm and mature discussion , they decided to end their relationship mutually. More than Kangna, Adhyayan was keen on a break-up .

Kangna and Adhyayan now feel that they need to concentrate on their career, rather than on a serious relationship . Lately, work has been keeping them very busy. They feel that the relationship is heading nowhere and so it is best to nip it at the right time, added the source.

Apparently, one of the reasons for the break-up is also that Shekhar Suman wants Adhyayan to marry the daughter of a Mumbai-based prominent wealthy builder.

Rumour had it that Adhyayan’s alleged link-ups with Shahana Goswami and Anjana Sukhani fuelled the breakup . The source brushed it off by saying , There was no truth to the rumours .

The source further revealed, Things were fine between them till some time ago. Kangna had been shooting in Hyderabad , while Adhyayan’s shoots kept him busy.

Kangna will now be busy with three films No Problem, Once Upon A Time In Mumbai and an untitled international project. She will be flying off to Switzerland and South Africa to shoot for the next three months. Adhyayan will be busy promoting Jashan, shooting for Dekh Bhai Dekh and two other films after that.

MUMBAI: Stung by the Indian Premier League (IPL)’s success, fan following and capacity to rake in moolah, IPL commissioner Lalit Modi is now weighing options to make it a biannual event.

Modi was quoted by the Daily Telegraph as saying, “The IPL will be based in India but a second season will help us see if a market exists elsewhere too.”

Modi pointed out that the success of the second IPL has prompted the organisers to explore untapped territories like US and Canada.

“The potential is huge. We have turned the challenges and adversities in moving to South Africa into an opportunity. It is fans who determine if you are successful or not and they have come out in force here. It has shown that the tournament can be in any region, in any country. This opens up many different opportunities for us,” Modi said.

However, the first season of the year will be in India while the other season, a shorter one, may be organized in some other country.

Earlier this year, IPL was in news for many wrong reasons including tussle over satellite rights, shifting of the venue from India to South Africa amid security concerns, and allegations that it was promoting betting.

(Source: indiantelevision.com)

Sanjay Dutt has reportedly decided to bid goodbye to politics and embrace film production instead.

It seems, Sanju baba has had enough of politics and is now concentrating on film business completely. According to reports, the first film of the production house will be directed by David Dhawan featuring Sanjay and Ranbir Kapoor. It will go on the floor early next year.

Says a close friend of Dutt. “Sanjay entered politics against the wishes of those close to him. He wanted to enter politics for the sake of his freedom. His argument was that through politics he would be able to defend himself better against charges of terrorism slapped on him. What could we say after that? He even put his film career on the back burner.”

According to the source, Sanjay’s date diary is occupied for the whole year. After completing his schedule for All the Best in Goa, the actor will leave for South Africa for Anil Kapoor’s No Problem.

JOHANNESBURG: Jacques Kallis must have lost count how many times he has done this for South Africa.On Tuesday at the Bullring, it was Kallis’ turn to do it for Royal Challengers. 135 was a tricky chase on a difficult wicket against Team Delhi and Kallis, opening the batting, had to bring all his experience into play to keep alive the Royal Challengers dream.

He found partners at crucial moments of the game and that helped him anchor the chase at the other end. While Rahul Dravid brought all his maturity into play to chip in with a valuable 38, Ross Taylor (25 off 12 balls) gave Royal Challengers the much-needed momentum. Taylor walked in after Dravid got out, but he didn’t lose any time to put a few into the galleries to bring the pressure down.

After Taylor was dismissed, Kallis had the company of veteran Mark Boucher. They knew it was just a matter of hanging in there. The big shots came at the right time and now Royal Challengers, with 14 points, play a virtual quarterfinal against Team Hyderabad on Thursday for a semis spot.

Earlier, a double blow in the first over by Praveen Kumar had put Delhi in a spot. Virender Sehwag couldn’t keep his flick down while Mithun Manhas gloved at attempted hook to leave the Royal Challengers on a high.

With the pitch having something in it for the pacemen, Gautam Gambhir (27) and AB de Villiers (28) knew there was no point going for big shots. They took their time against Praveen and Kallis to lend a platfrom to Delhi from where they could put up a fight.

But the Royal Challengers looked a determined lot and kept taking the wickets at the right intervals which ensured that Delhi never ran away to a big score. While a dangerous-looking De Villiers missed a cut off Van der Merwe to lose his off bail, Anil Kumble (2-24) brought his experience into play to make life a touch difficult for Team Delhi.

It was left to Dinesh Karthik (31) and Farveez Maharoof (20 n.o.) to keep it going so that the bowlers at least have something to bowl at. Karthik kept looking for the gaps, taking those singles while Maharoof tried to go for the big shot just when the opportunity presented itself. But in the end, it was Kallis who called the shots to take Royal Challengers closer to semis.

Indian-origin anti-apartheid activist Maggie Govender has been inducted into South African President Jacob Zuma’s cabinet, taking the number of people from the community in the government to seven.50-year-old Govender of Durban has been appointed as the Minister of Human Settlement (formerly housing) to the provincial cabinet in the KwaZulu-Natal province.

Govender joins a fellow former activist, Pravin Gordhan, and five other Indian-origin activists who were inducted into to the national cabinet by President Jacob Zuma.

“I am elated that the ANC has shown confidence in me to manage the important portfolio of human settlement,” she told PTI.

Govender, an educationist by profession, is a former official of the Natal Indian Congress, the United Democratic Front and several local anti-apartheid organisations during the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s.

When the ban on ANC was revoked in 1990, she was one of the first Indian-origin activists to formally join the organisation and establish a branch in her home town of Chatsworth in Durban.

“I will work tirelessly to ensure that the lives of all people are improved. This is the vision of the ANC and I am totally committed to this,” she said.

Govender was nominated by the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal as a candidate for the provincial legislature during the just-completed general election on April 22.

Former Test cricketer Ajay Jadeja made a sensational claim on Monday, claiming Indian players were being ill-treated by foreign staff of the beleaguered Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League, currently on in South Africa.

Jadeja hinted that a member of the KKR foreign coaching staff used racial overtones while speaking with an Indian player during the tournament. “You don’t need blogger (to know this),” he said in an apparent reference to the ‘FakeIPLplayer’ blogsite.

“I can assure you that there is definitely a divide and Indian players are (being) treated very badly.” Jadeja told an English news channel in a programme.

“I am an Indian player. I know so many players in the team (Kolkata Knight Riders Team). One player was asked to come off the field and when he came off the field he asked “Why did you want me to come off the field? One of the coaches in KKR says ‘You Indian, you do what I ask you to do’,” he said.

Jadeja insisted his claims were true, saying he had the information “from horse’s mouth” and that the team was a divided house.

“So there is definitely a divide. I know it from the source himself. So the players are not feeling comfortable. There is divide between Indian and foreign player and there is a divide between thought process. I mean Sourav Ganguly has a different thought process and you can see that. So this team is divided. There is no doubt about it,” he added.

The KKR team is dealing with controversies way before the start of the tournament when their coach John Buchanan proposed the multiple-captain theory. They have lost eight of their 10 matches so far. The one match they won was where they triumphed via Duckworth-Lewis method.

There is also a tell-all blog on team’s activities, although the authenticity of the blog is still in doubt.

Shah Rukh Khan is back in Mumbai, coughing and wheezing, he’s got a congestion – it’s not what you’re thinking!

He returned to vote, now he’s shooting for Karan Johar, getting kids Aryan and Suhana ready for school, while watching his IPL team Knight Riders take a beating in South Africa over television like you and me.

Tuesday night, it was like that again, with the Bollywood Badshah’s knights losing poorly to Delhi in Durban and thereby becoming the first of the eight teams to bite the dust in the race to the semis. Shah Rukh, however, was not in mourning. “What can I say,” he laughed, “we’ve had a string of losses, but we haven’t lost motivation, what we’ve got to do is see where we take the team from here. Some of the matches were close and almost broke our hearts. But the others were complete losses. We had nothing to prove. So I told the boys, go out and have fun!”

He’s aware that the Knight Riders, despite being written off as the worst-performing team in the IPL, is the most valued brand of the T20 tournament. The Economic Times pegged its brand value at $42.1 million, followed closely by Mumbai Indians at $41.6 million and Team Rajasthan at $39.5 million. “Personally, that doesn’t make me happy,” Shah Rukh regretted. “What is a brand? I, as an actor, am a brand… and that puts pressure on myself to perform better and make sure my films do well. Brand is all about giving quality content.

Our cricket content has to improve if it is to be deserving of the top brand spot. That didn’t happen last year. So we tried harder. It didn’t happen this year. Now we need to build the brand up again from scratch on content… rather than other social aspects. I’m happy, of course, that the business is doing well, we have the maximum sponsors and are making money. But the money needs to be put where the product is.”

The team’s hopes have perished this IPL as well, but he isn’t ready to look at the next season as yet. “I believe when you’re down, you shouldn’t take decisions; and when you’re up, you shouldn’t either. Just step back and relook at the situation. That’s what I’m doing,” said the actor. Did his absence in South Africa affect the morale of the team? “Not really,” replied Shah Rukh. “I had decided at the start to be with them for 15 days. The boys are depressed, they can’t do more, and my being around only makes it worse for them. My presence in the dressing room makes them break down. I’m fond of all of them and they like me. But my goodness comes in the way of losses. The defeat gets highlighted because I own the team. They feel worse because they think Shah Rukh Khan has been let down and is hurt… though I don’t show it. Whereas when I’m away, they’re able to go out and play cricket normally.”

Does he have a Chak De! message for his disheartened team? “They are all professional players, they play cricket the whole year, and win or lose… they just get on with the next game. I can’t tell them how to play. But I hang around them. Some players are cynical in defeat. Others raring to go. I meet the two up, sit and chat with them, tell them not to be disturbed. We have lost as a team, we don’t have what it takes to win, and we can’t go on depending on hope. I really can’t find fault with anyone. The idea is we go up and come down together. If I jump up and cheer when somebody hits a six then I must also be prepared to go down with them when they fail. The important thing in sports is that it teaches you how to lose, but not to become a loser. Sports always gives you the chance to come back. It’s a great leveller. The whole success in my life is because I think like a sportsman. There’s always another chance. But I wish I didn’t have to learn this lesson so fast!”

Morning my sizzling shashliks! How goes it with you this morning? It’s going thanda thanda cool cool for me. I’m chilling out in the air-conditioned confines of my boudoir.. far away from the unwanted madness in South Africa. I’ve switched off my mobile so Vyjjy can’t reach me, to plead me to join him there. Anyway, enough about moi.. because there are plenty of hot and happening things in tinsel town that I want to tell you about.

For starters, things have become rather garma-garam between Shiney Ahuja and Soha Ali Khan in the recent days. Before you get any ideas, let me tell you that the two had a tiff recently. And I thought they got along quite well while working together on Khoya Khoya Chand. So what if the film got lost from the theatres before it could find any audience?

Without digressing any more, I’ll get to their ‘hot’ scene. I’m told that for some unknown reason, Shiney and Soha weren’t friendly when they started shooting for debutant director Abhijeet Chowdhury’s Accident in Goa.
Seems Shiney was being his usual self, giving suggestions for the improvement of the scene from his perspective. And that didn’t go very well with Soha, who’d rather listen to the director than her co-actor. Although initially she didn’t voice her displeasure.. she couldn’t take it after a point.

Bas, aur kya? The Royal Bengal Tigress that she is, she made no effort to hide her temper. She’s believed to have told Shiney point blank that he was interfering too much and that’s not the way she works.

Apparently, he didn’t take Soha’s remarks in the right spirit.. and their disagreement soon turned into a war of words.

Fortunately, the nirmata and nirdeshak intervened..called it a day to try and calm down boiling tempers, before things worsened between the two. According to my source, Soha was overheard telling her confidante that if the filmmakers had not intervened, then she ‘would have..’ in a very threatening tone.

O my my.. if my khabru’s narration is any indication, I’m glad Ms Khan kept her anger in check. But I must also call Shiney to ask him what exactly happened, since I know him to be such an easy going person.

Tick talk
Now Rapchik Rajni wants me to hear this tiddy-bitty on Bipasha Basu. Seems she – Bipasha, not Rajni my sweets – got along so well with director and fellow Bengali, Sudipto Bhattacharya even before they started shooting for Pankh, that she would talk to him in Bengali.

So much so, that when they began filming, they continued conversing in their matra bhasha.. much to the surprise of the whole unit. Unable to comprehend what the two were discussing, the unitwallas would always be at a total loss of words each time the director and the actress got chatting.

And if that wasn’t enough, Sudipto even brought Bengali food from home.. to share with Bips, who as we know, is quite a foodie. Hmm, badhiya Bengali bonding hai.

Plan B
Kya zamana aa gaya hai, sighs Madhu my Mottu Maid, as she saunters in with my café latte. Without even waiting for me to ask, she tells me that Gul Panag had to step in to replace Hema Malini as a judge at the International Dance Day event at Tequila Lounge a couple of days ago.

Mots had gone there for a dekko of her current eye candy, Prateik Babbar, when the news of Hemaji’s absence perked her ears up.

I’m told she – Hemaji, not Mottu sillies – had gone out of the city for some rally of her political party and was to fly back in time to attend the function as the chief guest.

But unfortunately for her, she missed the flight and the next one couldn’t help her reach before midnight. And by then, the function would have been over and done with.

So one of the organisers suggested Gul’s name.. and thanks to his friendly relations with the actress, he convinced her to save their day and get into Hemaji’s kursi. Does it look like I care?

Pick-Pocket
Ooof! The kind of pranks some of our movie town folks play, makes me feel like quite a devil when I was a school-going bachchi.

Seems Sayali Bhagat wanted to play some prank on her Paying Guests co-actor Shreyas Talpade at Subhash Ghai’s pad on Friday night.

I’m told she flicked his cell phone, but it didn’t take him long to find it.Talpade dialed his number from biwi Deepti’s mobile and caught Sayali trying to hide his phone. And Celina Jaitly, who was enjoying this, remarked that she would have hidden it in her denim pocket, but her “shorts itne chhote hain, to pockets aur bhi chhote hain.” Funny, huh?

Bold and the beautiful
If I hear any more such childish pranks, I’ll S-C-R-E-A-M. Hmmph! Now, Mottu is telling me that Kangana Ranaut is cribbing non-stop about reports saying that she’s doing some bold scenes in Ek Niranjan, the Jaganath Puri-directed Telugu film she’s shooting in Hyderabad.

According to Mots, Kangy told her that she’s playing a guitar teacher in this love story set against the backdrop of the hero’s search for his parents.

So apart from clarifying that there’s no bold scene in the movie, Kangy also insists she would never do any such scene in her life.. and that is one boundary she won’t ever cross.

Now that only remains to be seen after this film releases. And provided the censors don’t ask for it to be edited out of the final print. Not that we’ll miss much anyway. After all, such is life dearies.

“Vote, Vote, Vote,” the actresses of Tinseltown preached all over the airwaves. However clearly, they do not practice what they preach at all. Remember the Kuch Nahin Ho Sakta Video produced by Karan Johar? The likes of Kareena Kapoor, Deepika Padukone, Asin and Priyanka Chopra collectively lashed out the people of India claiming that they need to take their social responsibilities seriously and more importantly, that citizens should exercise their innate right to vote. So one would expect to have seen all of the beauties out on polling day casting a ballot and getting inked, right? Negative. None of the four actresses turned up to vote on voting day. Their excuses? Take a look.

Kareena Kapoor was busy shooting in New York with boyfriend Saif Ali Khan, who incidentally also didn’t vote, for Rensil D’Silva’s last schedule for (working title) Jihaad. Her spokesperson went on to say defend her claiming she was out of the country, “How could she fly out for the polls?” As a rebuttal, Aamir Khan, who was on holiday with his family and Shah Rukh Khan, who was out in South Africa supporting his cricket team the Kolkatta Knight Riders, both flew back to cast their ballots. Dedication? We think so.

Priyanka Chopra was busy preparing for the bash she was hosting for new friend and Hollywood star Gerard Butler. Ironically, her party landed her in a bit of trouble as the music was blasting too loud for the likes of her neighbors and she was fined. Her clarification for not showing up at the polls? “A change in residence and voting centre.” She is said to be “disappointed.”

Asin claimed her voting centre is not Mumbai but Kerala. However, reports suggest she was too busy with her movie assignments to vote. The same goes for Deepika Padukone who did not find time out of her busy schedule.

Just a note to the actresses, if you can’t practice what you preach…its better you don’t preach it.

Bollywood actress Shamita Shetty’s hotel room in South Africa was ransacked by baboons.
Shamita, who is accompanying her sister, actress Shilpa in South Africa, was on a safari in Singita Game Reserves with Shilpa and her beau Raj Kundra and some “close friends and family in toe”.”…It’s been a great weekend. Shamita loved every bit of it till she went to her room and discovered her room was ransacked by the Baboons… apparently they knew where the mini bar is and we were warned when we checked in to keep all doors locked when we leave the room…Obviously someone didn’t listen,” Shilpa posted on her blog www.shilpashettylive.com/blog on Sunday.

The incident took place at the Singita Lebombo Lodge, where Shilpa and others were taking a break from the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL). Shilpa along with Kundra owns IPL team Rajasthan Royals.

CENTURION: Deccan Chargers surrendered the last perfect Indian Premier League record this season after a six-wicket loss to Delhi Daredevils Thursday.

The result left the teams sharing first place in the Twenty20 extravaganza with four victories each from five matches and the Adam Gilchrist-led Chargers ahead on net run rate.

It was a tense, low-scoring affair on a lovely autumn day at Centurion Park and as the game slipped from Deccan, Australian Gilchrist and West Indian Fidel Edwards were angered by several umpiring decisions.

Deccan are a transformed team after finishing bottom of the eight-team standings last season, but batsman-cum-wicketkeeper Gilchrist conceded his outfit fell about 20 runs short when compiling 148-9 in 20 overs.

Australian Dirk Nannes played a key role in keeping Chargers in check, snatching the wickets of Gilchrist (8) and South African Herschelle Gibbs (0) and conceding just 16 runs in four overs of bounce, pace and swing.

West Indian Dwayne Smith was the only Deccan batsmen to get on top of the Daredevils attack, hitting 48 off 28 balls, including two sixes and five fours.

Skipper Virender Sehwag, who opted to open after having five stitches inserted in a fielding-induced finger injury, got the Delhi innings off to a good start with a boundary-laced 20 before his fourth-over departure.

Local boy AB de Villiers failed for once, making just five before joining his captain in the pavilion and the exit of opener Gautam Gambhir left Daredevils 49-3 seven overs into their response.

Although the runs came slowly, Delhi did not lose another wicket until the 18th over and Sri Lankan Tim Dilshan smashed the winning runs with eight balls to spare and finished unbeaten on 52 and top scorer.