Paes ready to join Bhupathi for Beijing Olympics

Leading tennis player Leander Paes is ready to team up with Mahesh Bhupathi to bid for a doubles medal at next year's Beijing Olympics.
The duo have had a stormy relationship and criticised each other following their successful defence of the Asian Games doubles title last December.
"The obvious choice is for Mahesh and myself to play. I am looking forward to that," multiple grand slam winner Paes told reporters on Wednesday.
Bhupathi, who is recovering from a back surgery, has already expressed his interest in a reunion.
The pair, nicknamed "Indian Express", who won three men's doubles grand slam titles together, split on the tour after a high of reaching the final of all grand slams in 1999, winning two of them.

Beijing is considered the final chance for the two to claim Olympic glory after they lost the bronze medal playoff at Athens in 2004. Paes, 34, said he would partner Australian Paul Hanley in the new ATP season.

Diwali in jail was saddest moment of my life: Dutt

Sanjay Dutt, in his first one-to-one interview after being released from Pune's Yerwada Jail has spoken out candidly about his experience in jail. Spending Diwali in jail, he says, was one of the saddest moments of his life.
“Diwali was a really sad moment of my life, that I couldn't be with the family and I was locked up and I could see crackers bursting. I prayed and I meditated. I thought of Dad and I thought of Mom,” Dutt recounted.
“Freedom is something everyone takes for granted. But it’s something which you can't buy, as much of money as you may have. So it’s great to be free,” he said.
On being in jail, he said it’s not a good place to be in, but if one looks at the positive side, that’s the only connection with God that is direct.
“When I first went there, you know you don’t feel hungry and they sat there and said 'You got to eat', and I said 'Is it because I am an actor?' They said, 'No, we do it with all the prisoners, everybody is the same here.' It really made me feel good,” he said.
“There is a good part and there is a bad part. The bad part is that you have to be locked up at a certain hour, so I mean you are locked up at 6 whether it is Diwali or Independence day - that time you are locked up at 3 in the afternoon till the next day. I mean I used to wonder 'It’s Independence Day, why have you locked us up, I'm an Indian you know’,” Dutt said.

Weekend wine fiesta in Pune for Rs 250

With Christmas round the corner, the coming weekend will see wine lovers across Maharashtra getting together in Pune for a one-of-a-kind festival.
Being organised by the Pune Gourmet Club at Koregaon Park, the wine tasting fiesta will be a standalone event.
"Wine tasting festivals are always a part of an agri-fest or some other festival, so we thought it would be a good idea to have an exclusive wine tasting event," says B Shankarnarayanan, an organiser.
More than 40 types of wines from Indian wineries like Chateau Indage, Vindura and ND Wines will be available for tasting.
According to Shankarnarayanan, the fest will give wine lovers an opportunity to taste even the smaller and the rarer brands for a one-time cost of Rs 250.
"In many places, for Rs 150 you get to taste only six wines, so one only tastes the best brands, and the other smaller bands lose out on the opportunity. So this time we thought by fixing the price and not the number of wines, the smaller players too will have a good opportunity," says Shankarnarayanan.
More than 10 wineries from different parts of the country have already registered. Wine expert Marie Juhasoo from Sula Wines will participate and offer her comments on various wines. Chef Parag Kanhere from Nasik will have a live cookery show with Indian wine.
Food stalls with delicious gourmet recipes paired with free exotic wines will be part of the festival. The event has no sponsors - it's purely the voluntary effort of 200-odd members of this club who are fond of good food and some tangy wine.

Sania bows, apologises for ad shoot at mosque

Tennis star Sania Mirza bowed before public sentiment on Thursday and tendered an 'unequivocal' apology for shooting a commercial at the historic Mecca Mosque in Hyderabad and hurting religious sentiments.
Sania's public apology came barely hours after a case had been registered against the tennis star and the advertising agency, charging them with trespassing on the Mecca Masjid.
The tennis star later sent an e-mail to Hyderabad's Police Commissioner, apologising for the ad shoot "with a deep sense of remorse".
Sania also sent a letter to the Imam of the Masjid, saying: "I would like to apologise to all my brothers and sisters and respected elders who are anguished by my unwittingly entering a portion of the land belonging to Mecca Masjid."
"While I am fully aware that a woman must not enter the sanctity of the mosque, I was unaware that even entering the outside gates of a mosque was seriously objectionable, specially without permission, which I was assured by the agency they possessed."

tender my apology to all my brothers and sisters for hurting their sentiments," she said.
She, however, maintained that the commercial was aimed at promoting the heritage monument of Charminar, which is a symbol of Hyderabad.
Sania and the ad agency had upset local groups by shooting for an ad at the mosque without taking the requisite permission from the authorities concerned. The shoot evoked strong protest from the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen.
Mosque employees had alleged that the attitude of some of the members of the shooting unit was objectionable. They were reportedly wearing shoes when they entered the mosque and pushed away a watchman who tried to stop them.
The complaint was filed by the District Minority Welfare Officer Kareemullah, who said: "Sania has hurt the religious sentiments of people visiting the mosque."
Assistant Commissioner of Police (Charminar), B Reddenna, however, said it was a "petty case" involving unauthorised entry and photography. He, however, insisted that "the law will take its course in the matter."
The superintendent of the mosque, Khaja Nayeemuddin, had earlier claimed that he had no information about the shooting and that the advertisement had already been shot before he or other custodians could reach the mosque.
Reddanna says that the unit had obtained permission to shoot in and around Charminar, but not inside the Mecca Masjid.
The ad shoot has also evoked strong protest from the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM), a powerful Muslim political party in the Muslim-majority old Hyderabad city. The MIM also objected to Sania Mirza's participation in it.

How to compose music on your computer

New Delhi: Can't carry a tune if your life depended on it? Well, you can still groove, with a little help from technology. Making music on your computer is now easy. You don't need to play any musical instruments to do it, just some snazzy software.
If you want a really easy way to make music without knowing how to play a musical instrument, here's Fruity Loops software.
The software is basically a collection of loop sounds and instruments, which can be manipulated with absolute ease. It's a great software to learn the basics of music production. And it's so easy anyone can use it. Just click on the sound you want and press play.
When it comes to video editing, it can't get any easier than window's movie maker. Put in a video clip and the software allows you to make whatever cuts you want.
The on board effects in this software look really cool. And you just have to drag and drop to apply even beginners can use this to produce professional looking clips.
To record vocals, use any good mike and you can use the software on windows to record voice. So now you can make your own song and video without any professional know how whatsoever.

Love chatting? Your online suitor could be a comp

Internet chatroom romantics beware: your next chat may be with a clinical computer, not a passionate person, trying to win your personal data and not your heart, an online security firm says.
A Russian website called CyberLover.ru is advertising a software tool that, it says, can simulate flirtatious chatroom exchanges. It boasts that it can chat up as many as 10 women at the same time and persuade them to hand over phone numbers.
An Australian anti-virus software firm, PC Tools, has warned that the software could be abused by identity fraudsters trying to harvest people's personal details online. The Russian site denied it was intended for identity fraud.
The program, so far available only in Russian, will go on sale around February 15, just after St Valentine's Day, said the CyberLover.ru website.
"Not a single girl has yet realized that she was communicating with a program!" it said, adding that the program could also simulate virtual sex online.
"It's happened - a program to tempt girls over the internet!" said the site. "Within half an hour the CyberLover program will introduce you to ... girls, exchange photos and perhaps even a contact phone number," it states.
Chatrooms have developed into a popular social networking section of the internet, where people can converse anonymously by keyboard on any topic, from flirting to fishing.
CyberLover's website explains that the settings on its program can be changed to attract men, persuade people to visit a website or encourage them to top up mobile telephone credit, and that all the data collected will be stored.
CAN FOOL USERS
A spokesman for PC Tools said the program had a "terrifyingly well-organized" interaction that could fool users into giving up personal details and could easily be converted to work in other languages.
"As a tool that can be used by hackers to conduct identity fraud, CyberLover demonstrates an unprecedented level of social engineering," Sergei Shevchenko, Senior Malware Analyst at PC Tools, said in a statement.
"It employs highly intelligent and customized dialogue to target users of social networking systems."
He said the program "can monitor Internet browser activity, automatically recognize and fill in the fields in the web pages, generate keystrokes and mouse clicks, and post messages, URLs, files and photos."
"It can do exactly what users normally do when they are online, only in an automated pre-programmed way."
The CyberLover.ru site denied the program did anything wrong, saying it only gathered information that chatroom users themselves were volunteering.
"The program can find no more information than the user is prepared to provide," one of the site's employees, who gave his name only as Alexander, said in an emailed reply to Reuters questions.
"It maintains a dialogue with a person, but is not engaged in hacking or any other such schemes, I think this should be obvious," he said.
If you have someone who is ready to hand over secret information to the person they are chatting to after having known them for all of five minutes, then in that case a leak of information is possible."

B'day Boss: Everybody loves Rajini

Chennai: Over 175 days and still going strong, the success of Rajinikant's latest release Sivaji demonstrates the superstar's power over cinegoers in Tamil Nadu. And that’s not all, it's celebration time once again for Rajinikant fans as the superstar turns 58 on Wednesday.
But, besides being a star and a mentor, people close to the cine icon say that what makes Rajinikant truly unassuming is his simple nature.
“It’s the way he behaves with people on the sets. He is punctual and honest. There's something so special about the man which cannot be described easily,” actress Nayanthara says.
While Rajinikant’s daughter Aiswarya says that he is a great friend and much more than a father. “We could sit and have a conversation with him like I can have with any of my friends.”
Agreeing with Aiswarya, his other daughter Soundarya also says that the superstar is a “great dad”.
“On his special day I would like to wish him a very happy birthday. We will be spending a good time together. It's going to be a close family evening, so I am looking forward to it,” she says.
Reverentially referred to as thalaivar in Tamil, it's not just family, his co-stars, too, are completely in awe of the actor.
“For all that he has achieved in the last so many years, he's so humble and so nice to people and you can see that in his behavior. He's the same with everybody, he doesn't differentiate nor is there any hierarchy in his life,” actor Ajith Kumar says.
In a career spanning over three decades Rajinikant has acted in over 150 films. Having started as a bus conductor in the State Transport Corporation in Bangalore, Rajini's rise to stardom is a lot like the legendary rags-to-riches stories.
Today, Rajinikant remains one of the highest paid actors in Asia and his latest blockbuster has just re-affirmed his position at the box-office.
Rajini will be seen next in Tamil cinema's first big budget animation film Sultan: The Warrior which is being directed by his daughter Soundarya. At 58, there is still no stopping his mega performer as he conquers greater heights.