Ram hates smoking

It’s David vs Goliath as Rajasthan take on Mumbai’s might

Kolkata: They have shown remarkable fighting spirit despite the demoralising spot-fixing scandal and the Rajasthan Royals will now look to upstage the mighty Mumbai Indians in the second qualifier here tomorrow to book, what would be, a dream final berth in the Pepsi IPL. On paper, Mumbai Indians may appear stronger but Rajasthan will be [...]

21 lawmakers back Chandigarh-born as top US judge

Washington: Ahead of an expected Senate vote on the nomination of Chandigarh-born Indian-American legal luminary Srikanth ‘Sri’ Srinivasan to a top US court, 21 lawmakers have penned their support for him. Srinivasan, 46, currently principal deputy solicitor general of the US last week won unanimous approval from the Senate Judiciary Committee for his nomination as [...]

It was like bereavement: Dravid on spot-fixing

New Delhi: Rajasthan Royals skipper Rahul Dravid says dealing with the turmoil caused by the spot-fixing scandal, which has left his team’s reputation in tatters, has turned out to be as tough as handling “bereavement in some ways”. “I would not lie it was a very tough phase for us. It was a blow to [...]

Reporter’s diary: Waste not flowers

A flower is most beautiful when it is in the garden, like a deer or a lamb seen in its natural habitat. If this wisdom is known to the mayor and the GHMC, they would not have wasted several hundred lovely flowers at the function declaring the GHMC’s plan to open 14 biodiversity parks on [...]

Reporter’s diary: Bravo, Naidu

TDP leader Chandrababu Nai­du is a visionary. Few will dou­bt this considering what he did to give Hyderabad a modern face, and many of his welfare schemes are now implemented (of course, renamed after Rajiv Gandhi or Indira Gandhi). But many could not understand his logic of asking for a ban of `500 and `1,000 [...]

Reporter’s diary: Who’s this footloose at CCS?

For some time now, staff in the powerful central crime station are being cowed down by a sada home guard who is said to be close to a senior IPS officer. CCS staff whisper that he is the eyes and ears of the officer and therefore gets a free run. Recently, when three ruffians who [...]

Reporter’s diary: Jubilee Hills show

Talking of thick skinned civic officials, one could take a look at the picture above. Here the building contractors of the rich and the mighty make insulting gestures at law and the GHMC. It seems to say, “Right to walk? Forsooth! Building rules? My Right Foot!”

Reporter’s diary: GHMC, practice what you preach

So the GHMC preaches about how cleanliness is next to godliness and has all sorts of clean and green quotes in every other corner of its office and parks. But if you walk into the head office, you’ll wonder what stops the staff from practicing what they preach. The entire office is permeated with the [...]