When the latest 007 flick Quantum of Solace exploded on the world’s screens last year, its desert climax highlighted the fact that South America is not all steaming jungles and snowcapped peaks. The continent is also the site of the most arid place on earth — the stunning Atacama Desert in northern Chile. The area is a fitting locale for part of the film’s plot, which involves the sinister Quantum organization in an attempt to…
Posts published in “Day: January 9, 2009”
Todd Rundgren’s new album was inspired by touring and his thoughts on militarism. Not just his songwriting and recording methods, though those, too, are unorthodox. It’s the whole music business-pop star arrangement, which is based on musicians determined to hit the Top 40 and then doing it again and again — with occasional artistic detours — that he’s subverted. He likes it that way. He describes the creation of his music as “very plastic,” in…
New Delhi: Put the celebrations on hold. Australia are still world number one after winning the Sydney test. But the shield of invincibility surrounding Ricky Ponting’s men has been shattered beyond repair and it has opened up a close race for the top sport in test cricket with South Africa and India in hot pursuit. A candidate for profiles in courage, Graeme Smith led from the front as South Africa almost upset the world order.…
New Delhi: Satyam chairman Ramalinga Raju’s letter incriminating himself of fraud and tainting the auditors with negligence or worse has been enough for Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to spring into action, but the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) says it cannot direct the auditors to explain themselves on the basis of that letter. But the institute’s chairman of the disciplinary committee is collecting facts like the time of fraud to…
Recently I met my friend Pradeep, who works with a finance company in a senior position. After the initial chit chat, I asked him how he managed to look so fresh and cheerful. He laughed and said, “Every weekend I die, and am reborn on Monday.” Seeing my puzzled look, he laughed, “I don’t mean literally, it’s just that on Saturday, I forget myself, my worries, my work, my targets and deadlines, and I indulge…