First Befikre, now Meri Pyaari Bindu… India’s most illustrious film producers Yash Raj Films seem to have lost their sheen.A lot was hanging on Yash Raj’s new Meri Pyari Bindu. And to think that Aditya Chopra, the scion of the exceptional banner was till recently Bollywood’s most adventurous talent provider! Sadly, that spark seems to have gone out of the Yash Raj Films. This is the lowest ever opening for Yash Raj film. The last really outstanding film produced by Adi Chopra was debutant director Sharat Katariya’s Dum Laga Ke Haisha.Followed Fan in 2016, featuring ‘King’ Khan Shah Rukh who has given the maximum number of hits for the Yash Raj banner with its helmer Yash Chopra and then his son Aditya Chopra. Now this year, he will likely return Yash Raj to form with Tiger Zinda Hai.However, Akshay Roy, who makes his debut with Meri Pyari Bindu, would be remembered in the illustrious history of Yash Raj films for having delivered the slowest earner for the banner.

But there is more to this fall from grace that Yash Raj has witnessed.. And that, even the staunchest supporters of the banner would agree, is quite a climb down for the once-thriving banner. Apart from Salman, Yash Raj only has a Dhoom spoof called Bank Chor coming up for release.Befikre was as embarrassing a makeover for Aditya as Main Prem Ki Deewani Hoon for Sooraj Barjatya. The banner’s debutant directors Maneesh Sharma, Sharat Katariya, Ali Abbas Zafar, Kabir Khan — have always gone on to create history in and outside the Yash Raj window.Last year Aditya Chopra returned to direction for the first time since Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, with Befikre, a smutty, raunchy, horny Parisian lust-tale featuring Aditya Chopra’s prized discovery Ranveer Singh with Vani Kapoor.

Last year, he rescued the banner from going into the dread zone with Sultan. Thereafter came the big-budgeted detective dud Byomkesh Bakshi, which nearly wiped out director Dibakar Bannerjee’s career. Fan, directed by Maneesh China pvc Sliding Windows Sharma (who gave the Yash Raj banner that sleeper hit Band Baaja Baaraat in 2010) was another major disappointment from Yash Raj and one of the lowest earners in Shah Rukh Khan’s career.75 crore on Friday. Where have all the talented actors and directors gone? It seems Yash Raj now has only Salman Khan to salvage its reputation from further doom.You can blame it on Baahubali. The film opened at approximately Rs 1

Running your eyes over the neatly arranged bookcases, filled to the brim, you will always find a soul or two lost in reading and little tots with parents in tow. Marathe Marg, Prabhadevi, Mumbai 400 025. Or walk upstairs and enjoy the artwork of the little ones.” Walk in and you would agree.Kitab Khana, Somaiya Bhavan, 45/47 Mahatma Gandhi Road, Fort, Mumbai 400 001. If you’re the kind who desires a cup of coffee to go with your books, there is the Food for Thought Café on the ground level. It exudes an old-world charm that draws you in each time you walk past it. I would have been lonely, I think, and empty, needing something for which I did not have the words.N. There are Kahani Tree recommendations to help you along, but you can always reach out to founder Sangeeta Bhansali.Kahani Tree, Industry Manor, 2nd Floor, A. On my latest visit, I picked up The Rabbit Back Literature Society by Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen, who the Pushkin Press says is Finland’s best kept literary secret. Shanbhag.Strand Book Stall, Dhannur, Sir P. Suess, Roald Dahl, and other beloved international names in the inner section. It’s still not that common to find contemporary children’s tales in Indian voices, but at Kahani Tree you will find them in various languages – English, Hindi, bilingual and more. I’m yet to find out, but it comes highly recommended by Chandok. Road, Fort, Mumbai 400 001. Many of the books, in fact, are for reference only, to be read at the library itself. But then as Chandok says, “an exceptional bookstore stocks books that customers don’t yet know they want to read. For World Book Day 2017, the space was brimming with lovely, colourful post-it notes across the aisles with short book reviews they asked their patrons to write.M.

But with such a rich array of Aluminium Casement Window Factory names for company, there’s nothing to complain about. 28, Raghuvanshi Mills Compound, Senapati Bapat Marg, Lower Parel (w), Mumbai 400 013. Phone: 022 6634 9946TrilogyTrilogy, a library/bookstore in Raghuvanshi Mills is a lovely place to hang out or run into fellow bibliophiles. You also have, of course, Dr. Go over and let this gentleman surprise and delight you with names you can’t pronounce correctly.”I couldn’t describe bookstores or their lure better than that. Phone: 080805 90590Kahani TreeA unique little bookstore in Prabhadevi, this one is exclusively for the kids. You will come back richer, in a way, but with a much lighter wallet. You will find two for sure: Ahalya and Meethil Momaya, whose labour of love this is. No wonder then that this cramped, erratic, no-frills bookstore is still favoured and revered.. There is no clear pattern to discern at Strand; different genres and authors jostle for the same space. But I can describe a few of the repositories that have shaped my life.Strand Book StallThis age-old bookstore in the packed Fort area will always be a living epitome of T. It’s home to the classics and regional literature – available in Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi and Urdu – where you will be left to your own devices for as long as you want.

Also, don’t miss out on the place mats and wonderful maps they stock.I wonder who I would have been, without those shelves, without those people and those places, without books. But it’s this very chaos that helps one stumble onto something special.The last time I visited a bookstore (which was just last week), I sat down to read Neil Gaiman’s The View from the Cheap Seats: incidentally, a chapter wherein he talks about his favourite bookstores.Trilogy, 1st floor, Building No. Find out and let me know?Granth Book Store, 30/A, HM House, Juhu Tara Road, Mumbai 400 049. The moment you walk in, you’re surrounded by Indian authors and stories that go beyond traditional mythology. It’s again a highly curated enterprise, with the library staking more claim to the space than the bookstore. Phone: 022 2266 1994/022 2266 1719Kitab KhanaWith high ceilings, wooden columns, and a creaky albeit gorgeous staircase, Kitab Khana is a city favourite. It’s these little things that stick. If they’re too expensive, you can always browse through these beauties, gazing out the window, with a cup of coffee in hand. Phone: 022 2430 6780Granth Book StoreA stone’s throw from Juhu beach is Granth with its excellent hardbound collection: the kind you would want to take back home, put at the centre of your bookcase, and hand down to your next of kin. He loved books and was kind enough to offer additional discounts to students, even giving away books free of cost, with a simple promise that he be paid back when the reader’s means allowed. Actually, I’m not sure if you can lay your hands on the chalk

Prashant, one of the five suspended students, said the V-C had no moral right to resume duties and conduct an executive committee meeting as a China glass curtain wall Manufacturers case with regard to Vemula’s suicide was still pending against him. Podile was scheduled to hold a press conference on Tuesday morning but it was cancelled following the violence.  
At the behest of central government, he occupied the V-C seat despite the fact that the whole University resisted against it,” he said.One of the protesting students said, “Our primary demand is that the V-C should not come.A battery of high-profile leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and Arvind Kejriwal had visited HCU at the height of protests. Podile and three others in connection with the suicide. A large number of police personnel were deployed near the V-C’s lodge as tension prevailed on the campus.  
Podile, who is in the eye of a storm over Vemula’s suicide on January 17, had proceeded on leave on January 24 as the agitating students demanded his resignation and held vigorous protests seeking “justice” for Vemula. Raising slogans against the V-C, agitating students barged into his residence (V-C’s lodge), broke window panes, smashed doors and television among other items, protesting against his resumption of duty..” The protesting students demanded that the V-C be immediately arrested.. D.Prof.“At the behest of (Union minister) Venkaiah Naidu, he (V-C) came to UoH (University of Hyderabad, also called HCU).Based on a complaint by a section of students, the Cyberabad police had registered a case against Union minister Bandaru Dattatreya, Prof. Its almost over two months since the incident but no action has been initiated.Prof.  
He (Podile) is one of the culprits.We lost Rohith Vemula.University of Hyderabad V-C Appa Rao Podile, who went on leave at the height of an agitation over the suicide of research scholar Rohith Vemula, on Tuesday resumed charge amid protests from a section of students, who ransacked his official residence leading to tension on the campus.

Other than this, measures like extension of duration of stay to 60 China pvc single hung Manufacturers days under eTV, instead of 30 days, extending eTV facility for medical tourists are also needed, it added.According to the survey, initiatives like development of tourism infrastructure on PPP basis and by channelising corporate social responsibility (CSR) spends into India’s heritage development can also help in promoting the important sector, it further added.
Other steps required to boost the sector are rapid immigration clearances for medical tourists, enhanced basic infrastructure for them at airports, streamlining the medical visa process and extending eTV to tourists, it added.The survey said there is a “need to promote medical tourism in the ‘Brand India Campaign’ instead of the current fragmented approach where individual hospitals have been promoting themselves as hospital destinations,” it said.  
The survey also suggested that “tax issues like the place of provision clause in service tax resulting in tourism services not being treated as export of service and being taxed and need for lower GST for tourism-related services as in many OECD countries” are required to be addressed to boost the sector. “There is a need for improvement in the e-tourist visa (eTV) and ordinary visa which include extension of the eTV window to 180 days instead of the current 30 days before the tour, need for multiple entry eTV instead of the existing single-entry eTV,” the survey said.
.Initiative such as need for a national cruise strategy, making railways more tourist friendly with cleanliness and hygiene and considering global parameters while deciding coastal regulation zone (CRZ) norms and organising India tourism fairs in Indian embassies abroad are needed to promote the sector in India.In a bid to further boost tourism sector, the Economic Survey has suggested improvements in e-tourist visa, lower goods and services tax (GST) for related services and promotion of medical tourism, among others.

In his left hand he carries a naked sword, flourishing it in the air as if rending the sky to bring rain. The ragini Malhar is draped in white and sits on a bed of jasmine, holding a do-tara.  

And just like the intensity of the downpour almost like an arc, there is a distinct bearing on the placement of the ragas’ singing schedule.From the major form of Megh are derived the six raginis of Malhari, Sorathi, Sawani, Kaushiki and Gandhari. The viraha songs of the women who await the arrival of their beloved touch a new depth of poignancy as they are sung in monsoon in Rajasthan, eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.It is said that Vritra, the cloud-dwelling demon of drought-held-back rains once and Indra had to use his arsenal of thunder and bolts of lightening to defeat him in battle and push him out of his cloud-built tower. The logic is that it is not merely the ragas, but the swaras that dance to the rain.The poignant smell of the earth as the first raindrops fall is something that has inspired the romantic in all of us. It is no wonder then that Indra, the lord of the heavens, is also the thunder god and paeans are sung to him in the Vedas, for his role in bringing rains is perhaps the most proactive. No surprise that the ittar-maker or gandhi then created that incomparable aroma of the first monsoon showers on a parched earth and called it Mitti or earth! In the Baramasa miniature paintings from Rajasthan, the monsoon pictures have women on perched on swings, white cranes flying across a dark sky, peacocks with the plumes fanned out, parakeets and blooming lotuses with the musicians singing the Malhar or ragas of the rains.The optimism of the koels who have been singing their melancholic yet seductive songs in an attempt to inveigle the clouds has finally paid off…and the skies open in a veritable deluge of sparkling drops that touch the earth and the magic unfolds…the papiha calls out to its mate to be united with its beloved as the earth rips open in a celebration of rejuvenation and reaffirmation… 

The monsoon in India comes laden with a myriad moods and connotations, romance and viraha (or separation), poetry and puddles, fertility and floods, art and affection woven in the colours of the rainbow in a joyous abandon. The word monsoon comes from the Arabic word mausim, meaning weather. At a recent Kathak recital when Pandit Ram Mohan performed, I couldn’t help but recall another performance of his where he epitomised the dark God Krishna in the rains.  Everything speaks of rain without the painting actually depicting a shower! For it is said that rains had to be depicted with “ropes of pearls”! Some of the most evocative paintings from the Bundi, Bikaner and Jodhpur school of miniatures depict the moods of monsoon with Krishna and Radha enjoying the dark clouds and women on swings on mango trees and more such romantic imagery all sans a speck of rain!The two ragas of this season are Megh and Malhar.Every time this season comes around, I feel like the nayaika of a Raagmala painting, for my heart sings with joy as the dark clouds envelop the sky, their bosom heaving with incandescent rain, the silver streaks of lightening flashing to illuminate the jubilation of a burgeoning earth… Today being Haryali Teej, I can’t help point out that in India, more than spring, it is monsoon that is the season that is looked forward to with great anticipation. I find that my own paintings take on hues of the rain clouds and the amazing colours of the dusk as the sun paints the monsoon skies pink, tangerine, purple and red and the clouds dance with delighted abandon. At the onset, Dhulia Malhar is sung — as the dust or dhul still blows in gusts, the semi-dry harshness is interspersed with startling intermissions of welcoming raindrops.com.Of course the kajris and jhoolas in the so-called light classical genre have Aluminium Casement Window Manufacturers been immortalised by Girija Devi and have the power to haunt as the incessant rain beats against the window panes. It is a time when the sky is heavily overcast and rolls of thunder growl threateningly and its gripping aura suggests a somber depth. When the custom of visualising these forms became an accepted practice, Megh was represented as a dark, handsome man with a formidable appearance.  

A particularly evocative one likens the bridegroom’s sehra woven from the fragrant jasmine flowers of the season and the lightening akin to the silver and gold zari of the cummerbund wound around his waist, the thunder reverberations from the gallop of his white steed…Dr Alka Raghuvanshi is an art writer, curator and artist and can be contacted on alkaraghuvanshi@yahoo. The various forms of Malhars include the more popular Mian ki Malhar named after Tansen, Gaud Malhar, Surdasi Malhar, Ramdasi Malhar to the rarely heard Jayant Malhar, Nat Malhar and Kedar Malhar. Not merely shade differences of the tonal mood of the season, but actually different symbols and pictorial illustrations of the monsoon, Megh is of a dark and serious mood.  

Kalidas’s lyrical poem Meghdootam – the messenger cloud – when a divine Yaksha is separated from his Yakshini by the gods, his pining messages of love are carried by monsoon clouds, is arguably the classic example of monsoon related poetry. Strangely enough, the origin of the word for torrential rain is in a desert that doesn’t even know the beautiful and sensual pleasure of a monsoon downpour! Origin notwithstanding, the monsoon has had a literally cascading impact on Indian literature, art, dance, music and architecture, where the monsoon months are clubbed together as Chaturmasa – the four months of Asharh, Shravan, Bhadra and Ashvin. Megh has the distinction of being accepted in all the four major matas or groups of raga classification.