The World We Live In!

its 3:37 AM in night, about three hours ago, I just did a search on Google for "Sanmarg", and i could not believe my eyes when I saw a web page link of Sanmarg! Its like a dream come true for me! Stop press!! You must be thinking what Sanmarg is, right ? Well, its a Hindi language newspaper published from Calcutta (now Kolkata), and I grow up reading that everyday! It was a small organization and the newspaper is just 12 pages all daily. So, you may call it a local newspaper, but it has more than 800,000 readership in Eastern India. There are few other newspapers available in Calcutta, like Janasatta, a national Hindi daily from Indian Express group, and Vishwamitra, another local daily. But only Sanmarg knows what Calcutta wants to read in Hindi newspaper. Now, just imagine how I feel with getting an online edition of my newspaper! But this is not all, they are online, but with a difference. Instead of putting up news and articles on their site, they put up exact...

original url of the article :  http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/163682/1/.html 3 arrested for illegal distribution of copyright songs on Internet By Pearl Forss, Channel NewsAsia SINGAPORE : For the first time, three men have been arrested for the illegal distribution of copyright songs on the Internet. The Intellectual Property Rights Branch of CID (Criminal Investigation Department) acted on information received from the Recording Industry Association of Singapore. The three suspects, aged between 16 and 22, were found to have illegally distributed songs in digital format on an Internet Relay Chat channel. They configured a computer programme to send broadcast messages to IRC chatters, inviting them to download songs from their computers. Persons found guilty of illegally distributing copyright materials are liable to a fine not exceeding $10,000 per article, and a maximum fine of $100,000. They can also face a jail term of up to five yea...

When gulli-danda and kanche (marbles) were more popular than cricket ...When we always had friends to play aais-paais (I Spy), chhepan-chhepai and pitthoo anytime ...When we desperately waited for 'yeh jo hai jindagi'.. When chitrahaar, vikram-baitaal, dada daadi ki kahaniyaan were so fulfilling ... When there was just one tv in every five houses and When bisleris were not sold in the trains and we were worrying if papas will get back into the train in time or not when they were getting down at stations to fill up the water bottle ... When we were going to bed by 9.00pm sharp except for the 'yeh jo hai jindagi' day ... When Holis & Diwalis meant mostly hand-made pakwaans and sweets and moms seeking our help while preparing them... When Maths teachers were not worried of our mummys and papas while slapping/beating us ... When we were exchanging comics and stamps and chacha-chaudaris and billus were our heroes ... When we were in nanihaal...

Today, Singapore, Aug 3, 2005 Police have arrested five people for peddling pirated materials on the Internet. The four men and a woman, aged between 23 and 41, were rounded up at their homes. Officers from the Intellectual Property Rights Branch seized 1,600 optical discs along with computers and electronic gadgets. The group is said to have conducted their illegal businesses at a particular online auction site popular with surfers. To avoid detection, they used electronic bank transfers to facilitate payment. They bought the pirated movie optical discs from overseas and mailed them to the buyers. Police said the suspects made a profit averaging $100 to $400 a month. — 938Live Source for the above news is Today Newspaper in Singapore. I stopped downloading any movies from Internet long back. I did download few music & movies last year. But movie quality were really bad and most of the time it was not full movie, so, I stopped it because it wasn't worth spendi...

My fascination with comics is a bit more than you could stand! And don't tell me I didn't warn you. Now I present a Comic Hero, which was another first of India. Yes, you guessed it right from the title of this post, SUPREMO! Published by Star Comics, an unknown publishers now in India, but back than (in 80s), they were HOT! Star Comics published India's first ever 3-D comics. The 3-D Comics craze died after a few issues, but these were in high demand back then. I am still in possession  of few issues of those 3-D comics with me. Someday, I will scan one of them, just to keep a piece of history. Now, back to Supremo! Yes, it was a comic about costumed hero, with a falcon who talks to him. And he is someone else when not in Supremo disguise. You can ask, what’s new about it? This seems like any other costumed hero, but beholds, the personality he is when not Supremo is the catch. It was a comic featuring our very own Superstar, Amitabh Bachchan. Yes, Amitabh played hims...

Bahadur first appeared in 1978. Written by "Abeed Surti"and later on continued "Jagjit Uppal". It was illustrated by "Govind Brahmania"who usually also illustrated the Indrajal comics covers at that time. First published in 1978 and was named "Laal Inter Bari" (The red brick house) where Bahadur (son of the notorious dacoit Vairab Singh) made his first appearance. Phantom comics were also published in the Illustrated Weekly, until the publication discontinued. In Bengali it was published daily in Anandabazar Patrika (along with Mandrake on Sundays) and also in the then weekly "Desh" magazine. Abid Surty also written a couple of non-Bahadur Indrajal-comics based on real stories. One was about "Sultana" the dacoit who was also called "India's robin hood". Bahadur's father was one of the most dreaded dacoits of Chambal named Vairab Singh Sukhia's son Deena was brutally killed by Shaitan Si...

I live in Singapore, and getting hindi magazines here are rare. You won't find any on stores. The only option is to ask someone who is going to India to get few for you. So, I decided to search on Internet for online editions of the mags available in India. To my surprise, there are none available! There are so many hindi magazines available on stand in India, but there are no online edition for any of them! I do not know why! But still, I manage to chart down a list of websites which publish magazines in Hindi, exclusive on Internet. I am yet to find any site which publish Detective or Thriller stories in Hindi, if anyone knows, pls do let me know. All I was able to find is Shahitya (Literature) in Hindi. So, the stories are entertaining, but not like the Novels we get on stall in India. Here is the list of all the hindi Magazines or should I say e-zines in Hindi: Abhivyakti - Classic Hindi Magazine Arts, Culture, and Philosophy of India Anyatha - A Literary effort by Frie...

I post the below part as a comment, to reply of another, which asked about how Bahadur 2040 could be imagined. As I am a little over beer at the moment, my imagination ran wild and I came up with a theme for Bahadur in 2040, or maybe the current avatar of Bahadur. 2040 Bahadur, hmm, son of a terrorist, who has been rehabilitated, and now work along with Police, on a small town of India, which is a satellite town, having all the latest tech and fashion available. He uses physical and mental abilities as well as lots of gizmos to catch the bad guys. He runs a centre which train common people to combat terrorism and prepare them on how to react during emergencies. Bela, his girlfriend, is a victim of terrorism, whose parents died during a terrorist attack, and she is all alone in this world, of course except Bahadur. Later on, there could be one story which oepns up the secret that it was Bahadur's father who killed Bela's parents. Hey guys, it’s Friday night, and with some b...

[The below article is posted by someone else on a different forum, but I put it here, as this is a great information about Bahadur, and need to be spread across. Although there are few corrections needed, which I did not do in the article, but mentioning it here – Bahadur was created by Abid Surti, in 1976, and later taken over by Jagjit Uppal, not as it is mentioned below that Jagjit Uppal was the creator of Bahadur. Also, Indian Comics is not limited to Bahadur and Mahabali Shaaka, as mentioned below, as we all know about Chacha Chowdhury, Amar Chitra Katha and a lot more, but I will have to write a full article on History of Indian Comics someday. Please note that the below is not my write-up, but reproduced from net, as Bahadur deserved a place on net.] Mention Indian action comics and this conjures up the images of gaudily drawn adventures of jungle lords like Mahabali Shaaka, a cross between Tarzan and Phantom, and hugely successful in circulation, or superhero spinoffs lik...