The Golden Sparrow on Saturday 08/11/2014

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PUNE, NOVEMBER 8, 2014 | www.goldensparrow.com

TGS LIFE

Pune brands go pan India

PUNE’S PEOPLE WITH A PURPOSE

SPORTS

Pune FC enter Durand Cup final P 16

Carrying the torch in the battle against cancer P2

Nat’l movement to promote marriages of choice gets going ‘Chayan’ promises to offer shelter, legal support and counselling to couples in case of outburst from families

BY YASH DAIV @yash009

City subways are

&DESERTED

DEAD

Prominent social workers from different parts of the country who promote intercaste and inter-religious marriages have decided to establish a national movement called Chayan (Choice).

This was decided at a meeting in the city on November 4-5 during a conference on ‘Right to Choice of Partner in Inter-caste and Interreligious Marriages’.

Activists from the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti (MANS), SM Joshi Socialist Foundation, Rashtriya Seva Dal and Muslim Satyashodhak Mandal along with the voluntary organisation, Dhanak from Delhi, were present at this meet.

the Special Marriage Act, 1954, which is complicated, different in every state and plagued with controversies. “A platform like Chayan can help modify such a law,” he said.

Iqbal suggested that under the national platform one can create a secure place for couples who have mixed marriages. “We can offer them shelter, legal procedures and counselling in case there is an outburst from the families,” he said.

Chayan would ensure the smooth functioning of the legal structure pertaining to marriage.

Deepak Girme, president, MANS said society’s mindset have deep religious roots. Having worked with the late anti-superstition crusader Narendra Dabolkar for 25 years, he said any religious text should be questioned.

Six out of eight subways in the city are in a sad state of neglect and are closed to the public. Some are used as convenient urinating spots or as gambling dens. They are dirty, poorly lit and unsafe. Why can’t city subways be restored and made user-friendly for pedestrians? Also related is the complete avoidance of foot over-bridges by pedestrians. Why waste public exchequer and construct them if they are so very unpopular with the public? See Spotlight on p8-9

Pune’s hottest start-up, 2014 to get top prize today

BY ISHANI BOSE @ishani_bose The Software Exporters Association of Pune’s (SEAP) annual mega event, PuneConnect 2014, that seeks to promote a culture of innovation, creativity and enterprise in the city is set to unfold today at Hotel Westin, Koregaon Park, at 9.30 am.

At this event 2014’s hottest start-up from Pune will be selected from four finalists for the top prize.

The entire galaxy of bodies promoting Start-ups in India is supporting this event and includes the National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM), The Indus Entrepreneurs (Tie, Pune), Software Technologies Parks of India (STPI), Mahratta Chamber Of Commerce Industries & Agriculture (MCCIA), PuneTech, iSpirit, IIM Ahmedabad’s Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship, SME Joinup, Hinjewadi Industries Association (HIA), IACC, and Pune Open Coffee Club.

The four finalists for the top prize are: Scandid- a shopping technology start-up that enables shoppers to compare prices by scanning the product barcodes with one’s mobile phones; Framebench- a cloud based online collaboration, communication and feedback platform; Ecozen Solutions, started in September 2009 to promote awareness against poor energy management practices and elevate the Indian industry to the standards and expectations of a developed nation, and The Green Raddiwala which focuses on providing door-to-door services in collecting raddi or recyclable waste such as plastic, newspapers and the like.

Founded by Sushil Chaudhari and Madhur Khandelwal in 2012, Scandid also helps consumers find latest online and offline deals. The company previously won the regional round of the Seedstars World- a global start-up competition.

2FRAMEBENCH

SCANDID THE FINALISTS ARE...

3 ECOZEN SOLUTIONS Framebench, founded by Rohit Agarwal, is a cloud-based online collaboration, communication and feedback platform. Framebench is a central workplace where one can store and share one’s creative assets. The company can help remote teams and

THE GREEN RADDIWALA clients to review, mark changes required on the assets and even host discussions on them in real time, which automatically gets documented for viewing later. This visual communication workflow allows for crisp & quick feedback.

Ecozen Solutions run by Devendra

Gupta, Prateek Singhal and Vivek Pande was started in 2009 to promote awareness against poor energy management practices and elevate the Indian industry to the standards and expectations of a developed nation.

It is with this view that this designed a pioneering and innovative micro Cold Storage- a solar powered cold storage system, which was primarily designed for the rural segment to serve their needs ideally. This innovative product can be suitably adapted for local conditions across the world.

The fourth finalist, The Green Raddiwala has been established by Nikhil Pagare and Saurav Pasalkar to provide door-to-door services in collecting raddi or recyclable waste such as plastic, newspapers and the like.

Green Raddiwala purchases the recyclable waste from households at market rates and sells it directly to recycling industries. This drastically reduces environmental pollution. ishani.bose@goldensparrow.com (See related reports on p3)

City takes lead over Delhi, Mumbai in the journey of product start-ups TGS NEWS SERVICE @TGSWeeKLY Pune has emerged as the nation’s second-fastest product start-up hub in the country. A close second to Bangalore, Pune has taken a lead over mega-metros like Delhi and Mumbai.

This has been stated in the latest report by iSPIRIT, (Indian Software Product Industry Roundtable), a company mainly focussed towards the product industry.

“Pune is significantly ahead of Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Hyderabad,” the report said while

noting the product start-ups activity in Bangalore at 33% of India, Pune (21 %), Delhi and Mumbai (about 1112% each) and Hyderabad at 9%.

“Pune is definitely No. 2, which is excellent,” said Amit Paranjape, co-founder of Pune-Tech, an online tech portal for the tech and startup community in Pune.

Addressing a recent press conference Paranjape spoke about Pune’s viable ecosystem, which has been developing tremendously to enable entrepreneurs to launch an enterprise.

Others who shared this thought were Gaurav Mehra, past president SEAP and managing director, Saba Softwares; Maneesh Bhandari, director, Pune Division, Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) at IIM Ahmedabad; Ashutosh Parasnis, president of SEAP and managing director of Qlogic; Ramaswamy Narayanan, vice president, SEAP; Vishwas Mahajan, president of TIEPune chapter and Navin Kabra, cofounder of Pune Tech. tgs.feedback@goldensparrow.com

(Left to right) MANS state secretary Milind Deshmukh, president Deepak Girme and Dhanak secretary Asif Iqbal at SM Joshi Hall in Navi Peth on November 4

After several brainstorming sessions that probed into legal, religious and humanitarian aspects of marriage, the group devised the concept of Chayan (choice). These organisations aspire to make Chayan a national movement.

The conference began with an “oath of humanity” to promote the principle of non-discrimination based on caste, religion, language or gender.

Madhav Bhavge, secretary, MANS said Chayan is the need of the hour. “It could be a national level movement which would give shape to the ideas and suggestions that we have expressed,” he said.

Asif Iqbal, secretary, Dhanak, an organisation working for interreligious marriages since 2005, said the public at large was not aware of

“People blindly follow the vedic rituals. A person should be able to justify all his or her activities rather than following a tradition. If we are able to instil this attitude in the masses we will be able to eradicate class politics and in turn the problems of mixed marriages,” he said. Subhash Bhave, secretary, SM Joshi Socialist Foundation emphasised on the need for mass awareness. “People have a tendency to hide their marriages until the legal documents are ready. This attitude must be changed,” he said.

It was suggested during the deliberations that there should be a group of five to ten people in every district who will promote and provide assistance if required, for inter-caste and inter-religious marriages. yashdaiv@gmail.com

CHILDREN’S DAY COMPETITION The 2014 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded jointly to eminent social worker Kailash Satyarthi in recognition of his crusade against child labour. As a tribute to him, we invite the Children of Pune to participate in

The Golden Sparrow’s Children’s Day Competition Children, send us your paintings, poems & essays on

CHILD LABOUR IN INDIA Mention your name, age, standard, school’s name and contact number in your entry.

Last Date for Receiving Entries: Saturday, 22nd November Prize Winning Entries will be announced in this newspaper Entries may be sent to: The Golden Sparrow on Saturday, 1641, Madhav Heritage, Tilak Road, Pune - 411030. Tel: 020-24324332/33

For Details SMS/Contact: Prachi, Tel: 9822619858 or Yash: 9762884007

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 8, 2014

“Follow ‘HinduJewish rituals’, said father” P4

PUNE

“The rich India need own conscience; “The internal and in external ethicstooffind an their organisation to give a little of whattalk they earn.minimum We must learn the must be the same; you cannot about of giving artminimum of living!”wages wages forart poor people before and notthepay —Bindeshwar to your own workers.” Pathak, founder, Sulabh International— Aruna Roy, social activist

Pune’s own solution to internet security P7

Carrying the torch in the Taking the dance route to happiness battle against cancer

‘Live Life Love Life’ spreads awareness about the early detection of cancer among women patients

Choreographer Terence Joseph has been using dance as a medium to spread love and happiness among underprivileged children for four years

BY ANJALI SHETTY @shetty_anjali Dance is a way of life for Terence Joseph, 32, founder Trinity Dancing. Whether it is choreographing a big show, or teaching dance to underprivileged children in remote areas, Joseph is always completely involved.

“I have been involved with dance for 16 years, with teaching and choreography but there is still so much for me to achieve. There is so much untapped talent in the country. More importantly, I can use dance as a means to bring spread so much happiness to so many people,” Joseph says.

Joseph started free dance workshops for deserving students four years ago.

“I used to choreograph annual events for NGOs and

The families of Praful Chandawarkar (centre) and Suraj Repe (right) are regular contributors to Care India Medical Society that promotes cancer education and cancer research in India and has the motif to create mass screening programmes on self-sustaining basis

BY BARNALEE HANDIQUE @barnalee Praful Chandawarkar and Suraj Repe launched ‘Live Life Love Life’, a non-profit organisation, in 2013, in the memory of their spouses Cheeru Chandawarkar and Priya Repe, who lost their lives to cancer.

The organisation also support NGOs and institutions engaged in the fight against cancer.

Chandawarkar said, “The trauma and agony faced both by those suffering from cancer and their families is unnerving.

Many patients cannot afford the exorbitantly expensive treatment. The medicines and chemotherapies are beyond the reach of the common people. Moreover, every chemotherapy session requires hospitalisation for two or three days, and it leaves the patient drained and weak. To keep paying the hospital bills is a big burden.”

“An autorickshaw driver’s wife was suffering from cancer. They had two young children. The man had to tend to his wife and children, so he was unable to drive the autorickshaw and earn his daily income.

We provided him financial help for the children’s school fees, food and household expenses, and his wife’s treatment till she recovered and he was able to return to his

normal way of life,” Chandawarkar said.

Live Life Love Life has tied up with Prashanti Cancer Care Mission and the Care India Medical Foundation.

Prashanti Cancer Care Mission was set up for patients Suraj Repe who quit treatment midway or did not start treatment simply because they could not afford it.

The team headed by Dr Anand Koppiker provides subsidised radiation and c hemot her apy, counselling and support, as well as surgery. In addition, they have undertaken a n Praful initiative Chandawarkar for early

detection and prevention of the disease.

Vishranti Hospital under Care India Medical Foundation provides inpatient care totally free of cost that includes admission, investigations, 24 x 7 nursing, supportive care, diet, and guidance. While Care India Medical Society promotes cancer education and cancer research in India and has the motif to create mass screening programs on self-sustaining basis.

It also provides free cancer diagnostic and therapeutic services to lower sections of the community, military orphans and war widows in India.

Since its inception, the organisation has aided hundreds of cancer patients. It raises funds and the money it raised last year was given to Prashanti Cancer Care Mission for a mammography van and a specialised cleaning and treatment clinic. Since then, more than 2000 women have been screened and 500 patients were treated free of cost. This year Rs 25 lakh has been raised and given to Prashanti Cancer Care Mission and Care India Medical Society Limited. barnalee.handique@ goldensparrow.com

“The joy and excitement seen on the face of children during workshops gives me ultimate reward.”

- TERENCE JOSEPH

other organisations. That was purely business. But dance is an expressive and fulfi lling art form and when I started my workshops, the joy and excitement of the children was the ultimate reward.

That’s when I knew that dance for me is more than just a way to earn money. I started workshops at local schools and during family vacations to Goa, Ratnagiri, Panchgani,” said Joseph.

The underprivileged kids he teaches for free, are really starved for love and affection.

“I travel to Panchgani every fortnight to teach dance to underprivileged kids. They love to let loose. I teach them moves from the latest Bollywood fi lms

Terence Joseph travels to Panchgani every fortnight to teach dance to underprivileged kids. They love to let loose.

and they are thrilled that I am teaching them something they can hold on to forever.” Joseph said.

Kumar Prashant wants to change public attitudes towards recycling and also promote a more humane approach towards animals

BY ANJALI SHETTY @shetty_anjali “The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated,” said Mahatma Gandhi.

Kumar Prashant, who could not agree more with the Mahatma’s sentiments, is also contributing his share to transforming Indian attitudes towards animals, by setting up an organisation called ‘Rebirth’. Kumar is also engaged in recycling with Rebirth co-founder Nivedita Chopra.

“A humanitarian will never do anything irresponsible. With my organisation Rebirth, I aim to change people’s perception towards recycling and animals. A revolution is required to make a difference but one has to start from himself. Only when I have made a difference in my own life can I urge other people to change,” says the 26-year-old.

Prashant has been involved with animal welfare he has sterilised over

Left: Kumar Prashant Top: The newly renovated restaurant in Koregaon Park made from recycled material

137 dogs at BT Kawde Road, NIBM, Sopanbaug and Jeevraksha areas of Pune, and

he has also set up an animal shelter at Undri.

“Today with the changing weather

patterns everyone is more conscious of the need for an environment-friendly way of life. Rebirth is a solution design

RAHUL RAUT

Towards eco-friendly and humane living

“I do not use the word therapy but dance definitely works as a way of bonding and caring. It is also a great medium for expression.

These kids have difficult lives and dance offers them the opportunity to break free from the problems and worries of daily life,” he says.

Joseph wants to spread the joy of dance far and wide.

“Unfortunately, we do not have much help in the city. I wish schools, local mandals and social groups would encourage and promote dance workshops on a regular basis. This is not a business proposition because money is not my motive. I just want to see happy faces.” anjali.shetty@goldensparrow.com

company that is promoting eco-friendly way of life and interiors that make use of reused, recycled and upcycled materials,” Prashant said Rebirth interior design concepts and products have been used by MNC IT firm THought works, that has 29 offices across 12 countries. They IT company wants to revolutionise the IT industry and also bring about positive social change. Swig, the bar and popular live music venue in Koregaon Park, is a case in point. “The eco-friendly bar was our way to give the upcycling trend a boost, to reuse what is already there. We have used all the junk like old windows and doors to create a unique design, and scrap material from cars to decorate, packing material and broken glass for the bar, at Swig. It was challenging as working with recycled/upcycled material takes longer,” Prashant said.

Rebirth aims to blend reused materials to create designs that are both unique and functional for their clients, and thereby showcase an eco-friendly approach that is in keeping with being social responsible and being a relevant part of the changing global scenario. anjali.shetty@goldensparrow.com

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 8, 2014

PUNE

The 200-year-old Patel Dokhma (Tower of Silence) was built by Sorabjee Ratanjee Patel on his land at Gultekdi. He is credited for constructing the fire temple and Parsi community hall, known as the Patel Hall.

-www.poonazoroastrians.org

Signposts

The untold chronicles P5

Gaming is serious business P6

Start-ups ecosystem in focus at mega event today SEAP’s PuneConnect 2014 is a much-awaited event in the exciting world of start-ups

BY ISHANI BOSE @Ishani_bose

Punyabhushan Award for Cyrus Poonawala Punyabhushan Foundation’s 26th Punyabhushan Award will be given to Cyrus Poonawala, chairman, Poonawala Group for his commendable work in the medicine sector.

The function will take place on November 9 at 6:00 pm at Balgandharva Rangmandir. Prakash Javdekar, Sharad Pawar, Narayn Murthy and Raghunath Mashelkar will be present for the occasion.

Paediatrician, Academician awarded The 19th HK Firodia Awards will be given to Dr M K Bhan, Paediatrician and former Secretary, Department of Biotechnology, Government of India and Devang Khakhar, director, IIT, Mumbai. The award will be given for Bhan’s discovery of Rota Virus vaccine and Khakhar’s pioneering research in granular materials and polymer processing. Speaking about the awards Mashelkar said, “It gives me immense pleasure to see the names of the awardees this year. Winners have to go through a lengthy and tedious process of nomination to be finally selected as the winner.” The function will be held on December 5.

TGS Quiz Contest

A

No. 21

nswers to the following 10 questions are embedded in the stories featured in this edition.

Send us the correct answers at contest.tgs@gmail.com and be one of the three lucky winners to receive gift coupons.

1. Which areas does choreographer Terence Joseph spread smiles through his dance classes?

2. What are Kumar Prashant’s beliefs with regards to animals in a nation?

3. Who is Malika Booker’s favourite author?

4. Where did Mihil Ramaiya intern?

5. How many years does QUickheal Technologies complete in 2014?

After three successful editions, Software Exporters Association of Pune’s (SEAP) flagship annual event, PuneConnect 2014 will focus on the start-ups eco-system in Pune and feature selected start-ups from the city and a competition to select the four of the best.

Launched in 2011, this initiative provides a platform to budding entrepreneurs in the software, BPO, manufacturing, engineering and other industries to connect and evolve.

It is supported by NASSCOM, TiE Pune, Software Technologies Parks of India (STPI), Mahratta Chamber Of Commerce Industries & Agriculture (MCCIA), PuneTech, iSpirit, IIM Ahmedabad’s Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship, SME Joinup, Hinjewadi Industries Association (HIA), IACC, and Pune Open Coffee Club.

“When we began, in 2012, we had received just 20 applications. However, this year we have received 115 applications. It was quite a challenge narrowing it down to 45. This year we went through extensive one-on-one interview rounds. Unlike in previous years, this year the companies that applied are far more mature. These people are in their 30s and 40s, and are well equipped with exciting technologies. We have start-ups in almost every sphere- cloud computing, e-commerce, IT, manufacturing and other areas. And these ideas have the potential to be taken straight out to the world,” said Gaurav Mehra, former

(L-R) Gaurav Mehra, former president SEAP and MD Saba Softwares, Maneesh Bhandari-director, Pune Division, CIIE, IIM Ahmadabad, Ashutosh Parasnis-President SEAP and MD Qlogic, Ramaswamy Narayanan-VP SEAP, Vishwas Mahajan-president TiE Pune Chapter, Amit Paranjape and Navin Kabra of Pune Tech

president, SEAP and MD of Saba Software, at a news conference.

The event will also showcase Pune success stories such as Dhruva, Pubmatic, Rolocule, Vaultize among others and former PuneConnect winners such as Sapience, kPoint and Samagra.

PuneConnect’s Vision

Ecozen Framebench

FINAL TEAMS SHORTLISTED Product Overview Changing India’s Recyclable Waste Collection Scenario.

Barcode based shopping comparison app, to lookup online prices, discounts etc for a product.

Small, solar-powered cold-storage unit that individual farmers can use to store produce and sell at the right time.

Framebench is changing the way remote teams collaborate on files and documents

entrepreneurs in the country,” said Maneesh Bhandari, director, Pune Division, CIIE. “We will also make sure that all the attendees have a chance to notice what the community at large has to offer. All our partners will talk about how they have contributed to the awareness .We don’t want start-ups feeling that they are all alone in starting a business. There is plenty of help available. The show will have 65 stalls open throughout the day,” Mehra said. ishani.bose@goldensparrow.com When: Today, 9:30 am onwards Where: The Westin, Koregaon Park Annexe,Mundhwa Road, Ghorpadi

Aundh, Warje and Hadapsar AFMC’s Golden worst affected by dengue: PMC Jubilee celebrations TGS NEWS SERVICE

Kale has sought the assistance of the public health department. The Aundh, Warje and Hadapsar are the health department’s joint director Dr. areas worst affected by dengue as Kanchan Jagtap co-ordinated efforts compared to other parts with PMC’s Chief of the city, according Health Officer Dr to the Pune Municipal Somnath Pardeshi.

Corporation (PMC).

Dr Pardeshi said The state that the team of 120 government’s Public doctors from the Bharat Health Department is Vikas Group, which assisting the PMC with runs the government’s 120 doctors to diagnose emergency ambulance suspected cases and service is assisting in the helping control the diagnosis of suspected spread of the mosquitocases. The doctors team borne disease. will visit the reported According to health patient, diagnose -Vijay Kale officials, in July, the him and if necessary maximum number of hospitalise the patient, patients were reported he said. from Dhankawadi, Ghole Road and PMC’s chief medical officer said Hadapsar areas. After four months, the that although the dengue mosquito focus of dengue has shifted to Aundh, largely breeds in homes, most people Warje and Hadpsar. don’t allow the PMC workers to enter Newly elected MLA Vijay their homes for checkup or to spray

“Housing societies are not cooperating with PMC workers.”

A MUSICAL ENDOWMENT

Dengue affected The number of persons affected with dengue crossed the 3,000 mark during the week. According to Dr. Pardeshi, there is need to remain alert and take precautions against dengue during November.

He said since there is no medicine or vaccine against dengue, reating awareness among citizens was the only option. The number of patients has reached 3,133, he said.

the insecticides. Kale said he too had a similar experience at many housing societies.

Most societies don’t allow PMC workers to enter their premises for spary or fumigation and this could be hazardous for the residents of the society of nearby area. They have appealed to the citizens to cooperate with the civic staff to control dengue. tgs.feedback@goldensparrow.com

TGS NEWS SERVICE @TGSWeekly

8. Where does mixologist Zbigniew Zapert hail from?

9. What is Jaya Jaitly’s exhibition over the weekend titled?

10. Why should one never lend custom-made shoes?

Rajeev Paranjape, celebrated keyboard player (third from left) was given the Vocational Excellence Award by Rotary Club of Pune Hillside on October 31.

(Also seen in the photo) Abhay Jabde, Rotary President, actor Mohan Agashe and Mohan Palesha, district governor were present on the occasion. Speeches made by dignitaries revived Paranjape’s journey from an ordinary automobile engineer to a ‘musical note’s magician’.

A national nursing conference is among the events planned during the three day celebrations which began on Nov 7

BY REUBEN PAUL @ReubenPPaul

A national nursing conference on ‘Challenges and Issues in Nursing Education and Practice’, scientific and interactive sessions between students and alumni have been planned among other events as a part of the Golden Jubilee celebrations of the College of Nursing (CON) of the Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC).

The celebrations will begin on November 7 with the lamp lighting Ceremony of the 49th batch of BSc. Nursing students. AFMC’s director-general and Senior Colonel Commandant, Army Medical Corps, Lt Gen BK Chopra, will be the chief guest for this ceremony which marks the initiation of nursing students

College of Nursing, AFMC

into the tradition of selfless service associated with nursing care.

Established on 10 November 1964, the college has been rated as ‘best college’ under Maharashtra University of Health Sciences.

This college has state of the art infrastructure and the classrooms are equipped with computer with digital screens. reubenpaul94@gmail.com

NAPM reviews crusades across nation Demands greater protection for dalits and adivasis in the state

7. Where were jack-o’-lanterns viewed by Madhura Pangarkar?

Pramila Chirukandan

Company The Green Raddiwala Scandid

The key features of the event will be a panel discussion on Cloud and Mobility —Reasons to Cheer or Fear, with renowned panelists such as Ankur Agarwal, CEO, Clarion Technologies, Suhas Kelkar, Chief Technology Officer, BMC Software Pune, Mukul Kumar, co-founder Pubmatic, K Vishwanathan, vice president Operation and others.

A special ‘Think Pune’ publication by IIM Ahmedabad’s Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) will also be released at the event. “The report will give visibility to Pune startups and ecosystems and also contribute to making Pune the most favourable and ideal destination for budding

PuneConnect’s vision is to try and help young entrepreneurs starting out as much as possible, by making everything available to them. Its basic idea is to provide a platform where in the young entrepreneurs in their early stages would be able to showcase to the Pune community at large, what they have to offer. The start ups can connect to the senior leaders in the multi-national companies, manufacturing companies, mentors, buyers, accelerators, Government and Infrastructure and get the capital needed to run the business with the help of Pune Connect.

6. Who were actor Sadashiv Amrapurkar’s friends from Nagar?

Contest # 20 winners

This year the organisers are making special efforts to streamline and make available resources and programmes such as TiE Nurture, incubators like CIIE and Clarion, Startup Leadership and iSpirit and angel and venture funds like TiE Pune Angels, India Angel Network, Nexus among others.

The National Alliance for People Movement (NAPM) has condemned atrocities against Dalits and Adivasis in the state, demanded punishment for the killers of Hadapsar resident Mohsin Shaikh and has appealed to the government to nab the assailants of late Dr Narendra Dabholkar.

NAPM’s 10th biennial National Convention concluded recently in the city. The convention was attended by prominent social activists including Aruna Roy, Medha Patkar, Dr BD Sharma, Dr Binayak Sen, P Chennaiah, Geetha Ramakrishnan, Sister Celia,

Anand Mazgaonkar and Dr Sandeep Pandey.

Patkar, in her speech alleged that corporations were claiming rights to the state’s natural resources when in reality, it was the people of the country who had the complete right.

Patkar also explained how different people’s movements were taking shape from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, and gave details.

The gathering demanded that the assailants of Dr Narendra Dabholkar who was killed in cold blood must be traced and the murderers of the Muslim youth Mohsin Shaikh, who was attacked in June this year, be punished.

Other demands included restricting the height of the Sardar Sarovar Dam and suspending construction of the Statue of Unity, without statutory clearances.

Other demands included action against illegal land grab by thermal power plants in Eastern MP, protection of RTI activists and enactment of the Whistleblowers Protection Act. The gathering expressed solidarity with the ongoing ‘Standing Struggle’ of Adivasi Gothra Maha Sabha in Kerala Secretariat for the last 120 days demanding land rights and their right to dignified livelihood.

The Convention was attended by over 1000 persons from 18 states and marked 20 years of NAPM against neo-liberal economic policies, religious fundamentalism, patriarchy and casteism. tgs.feedback@goldensparrow.com

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 8, 2014

Make health your top priority P11

Asha Kamat

Pratibha Sengupta

Dnyandeep Nivasi School for the visually challenged (Gharadi, Ratnagiri) director Asha Kamat and headmistress Pratibha Sengupta will be presented with the Late Hemanand Sadanand Chandorkar Award. The function will be held at Bharat Natyamandir on November 9. Cartoonist Mangesh Tendulkar will be the chief guest. A musical programme ‘Yaad mein teri jag jag ke’ in the memory of Late Hemanand Sadanand Chandorkar will be performed by Rameshwari Vaishampayan on the occasion.

Camp for senior citizens at Wai Senior Citizen Live-in Relationship Society will be holding a residential camp for citizens above the age of 45 at Wai from November 19 to 23.

For details, contact Madhav Damle on 8007193397 or 8237031154.

Drawing competition for children on Nov 14 Terre Policy Centre and Indradhanush Environment Centre will organise a drawing competition for children on November 14 at Sarasbaug.

Participants will have to base their art on the theme of ‘celebrating environment’ at any of the Indian festivals. Students from Class I to V can use any medium of colour, while those from Class VI to X have to make poster-collages. For details, contact Mohit Kalani on 9421391578 or Prachi Yadav on 9860901955 or Vinita Apte on 9822091573.

World Diabetes Day talk on November 9 On the occasion of World Diabetes Day (November 9), the Diabetic Association of Indian, Pune branch, has organised a talk on ‘Living a happy life as a diabetic’ by Dr Vijay Panikar of Lilavati Hospital, Mumbai.

The programme will be held at Abasaheb Garware College Hall on November 9. The Pune branch of the association will also be holding a free sugar testing camp at the venue from 9 am.

“Follow ‘Hindu-Jewish rituals’, said father”

BY NAMITA SHIBAD @nshibad For Chaim Telkar, 45, the 150th anniversary celebration of the Ohel David Synagogue, means a lot more than just the number. It is a journey into the past, that throws light on his late father’s roots. Chaim, older brother Ramee (49) and younger sister Chahnna (38), have come down from Israel to Pune, to trace their father’s little known past.

“Our father was an Indian origin Jew. He was born in Pune and moved to Israel in 1956 and that is all we knew of him,” said Chaim, who is the only one of the three siblings who speaks English. Just before he died, their father told the children that he wanted the family to follow “Hindu Jewish rituals”, as Chaim refers to Indian Jewish traditions. “This surprised us, because we knew very little of the Indian part of his life.” Nissim Eliyaho Telkar died on January 15 this year and his ten children set about to fulfi l their father’s wishes.

“We found an Indian Rabbi who was well versed with the Indian Jewish rituals. Our Israeli friends thought some of the customs strange. Like wrapping the body in a pure linen cloth, the whole family taking seven rounds of the body while reciting Jewish prayers in Marathi and keeping a glass full of water beside a lit candle for seven days. Even the thalit (a shawl draped by Jews whilst praying in the Synagogue) is buried with the body.

This is unheard of in Israel. The Israeli Jews regard the thalit as holy and feel burying it is sacrilege,” said Chaim.

After the customary month of mourning, Nissim’s will was read. That was an emotions fi lled experience for Chaim that immediately inspired him to travel to India to find out more about their father’s life here “My dad never talked about his life in India. All we knew was that he came to Israel when he was 25 years old. He married an Iraqi Jew the next year and had ten children. We all spoke Hebrew at home though my mother had learnt to speak Marathi. My father loved to listen to old Hindi fi lm songs and loved Indian style food. The only time he spoke Marathi was when he was with his siblings,” Chaim said.

Chaim’s older brother Ramee and sister Chahnna decided to go along with him to India. The desire to know more about their father overcame all obstacles. Ramee who finds it a struggle to keep up with the mortgage payments for his house, used the money he inherited from his father, to fund the India trip.

“Though our father adapted very well to the Israeli way of life, there was always this wistfulness and a longing for his life in India. Though he never spoke about it at home as kids I noticed how his eyes would light up when he heard Mera Naam Chin Chin Chu or Dost Dost Na Raha, Pyar Pyar Na Raha.

Or when we got home gulab jamun, barfi and pedhas from an Indian store.

Even the punishment he meted out to us as children was so Indian. He would punish us by making us stand for five to ten minutes in a bent position, like what

RAHUL RAUT

Late Hemanand Sadanand Chandorkar Award

“We definitely keep gender diversity in mind, while ensuring that we hire the best people. In our company, 48% of the 800-strong workforce comprises women.”

—Deepinder Goyal, co-founder of Zomato

Israelis Channa, Chaim and Ramee Telkar’s visit to India to search for their father’s past led them to the power of human connect

(L-R) For Channa, Chaim and Ramee Telkar, the occasion was more about taking a trip down memory lane; (inset) Grandpa Shalom Eliyaho Telkar with his children (courtesy: The Teklar family)

you know as “murrga”. When we’d tell our friends about it, they’d be surprised cause no one did that to their kids. Either they are put in a corner, facing a wall or have their privileges, like computer, games, denied. Standing “murrga” was and still is unheard of in Israel.”

February to October, Chaim had been tracking down his father’s life in India. “I hunted the net, spoke to Jews in Israel, Pune and Mumbai. In fact, I studied so much that I could direct the bus driver (who brought the Mumbai Jews to Lal Deval). This despite it being my first visit to India,” he said.

At the Lal Deval the Telkar siblings had another surprise. They found out

that this was the very synagogue their father visited. In Mumbai they dug out the old records at the Jewish cemetery in Worli to find their grandfather’s grave.

“It was all black and covered with dirt and soot. After cleaning it we read the name on the tomb.” Shalom Eliyaho Telkar, their garndfather died in 1948 in Mumbai.

Besides the discovery of their family’s history, the trio found that India was the place to be. Channa says, “I’ve made up my mind to live in India.

When I return, I’m going to convince my husband and kids to migrate here!”

Chaim claims this was meant to be “once in a lifetime trip. But upon

reaching here, hearing the sounds, smells, food, I am sure I will keep returning, next time with my wife.” Ramee wishes he could keep coming and if his finances permit, he surely will.

So what is it about this trip that has mystified them? Chaim said, “I lived in the US for ten years. Life was good, but still I never felt any ‘connection’ to that place or its people. America was just a tool to help me make money.

Even in Israel, thought the Jews are a very closely knit community and clannish, there’s something missing.

Here in India everyone welcomes you

The Ohel David Synagogue completed 150 years recently

BY NAMITA SHIBAD There are just about a 100 Jewish families in Pune, but this small, philanthropic community runs a free medical care facility and an old age home.

On November 2, the Jews of Pune and three busloads of their counterparts from Mumbai congregated at the Lal Deval for the commemoration of 150 years of the Ohel David Synagogue, that is a landmark of Pune.

This chief guest at the ceremony was Governor VS Rao, who was all praise for the Jewish community that had adapted so whole-heartedly to the Indian way of life. “Their contribution to the city by way of the Sassoon Hospital, Nivara Old Age Home and

Letters to the Editor

TGS is interactive

in many other cities should be a lesson to all. I will ask the government to include a chapter in school textbooks on the Jews of India,” he said.

Symbiosis Society founder-director SB Majumdar spoke of how people “should learn from the Jews of India on how to live peacefully in other lands. Not only have they assimilated the Indian ways but have also made significant contribution to society”.

Prominent city industrialist Dr Cyrus Poonawala, Consul General of Israel David Akov and Rabbi Menash Yakof of Brooklyn (also the direct descendant of Sir David Sassoon) were present at this celebration.

Lal Deval was built by Sir David Sassoon in 1864. This synagogue is the largest in Asia (outside Israel).

editor_tgs@goldensparrow.com

Shivaji Market: Hygiene is more important than heritage

Our newspaper is interactive and you are welcome to write in to our various segments: • Letters to the Editor email: editor_tgs@goldensparrow.com; editor_tgs@gmail.com By post: The Editor, The Golden Sparrow on Saturday, 1641 Madhav Heritage, Tilak Road, Pune-411030, (Best letter gets a weekly prize) • Articles for the Relationships page: relationships@goldensparrow.com, relationships.tgs@gmail.com • The Way Forward with Compassion & Hope: wayforward@goldensparrow.com • Want to become an entrepreneur? For mentoring advice, write to our associates: mentoring@pune.tie.org • Get weekly events listed: listings.tgslife@gmail.com

with open arms. People exude love even if they don’t know you. I feel so connected, despite all the flaws (Mumbai stinks so much). And after coming here I now realise what my father was always longing for... it’s this bonding that you can’t find anywhere in the world!”

For the three siblings, a search for their father’s past led them to a discover the magic of human bondage, that all of us share! namita.shibad@gmail.com

A noble symbol of peaceful co-existence of Jews in Pune RAHUL RAUT

Signposts

Abracadabra!

Magic may lurk inside us all P13

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Heritage structures may be about beauty and history but sometimes utility is more important. Do we need to hang on to everything even if it has no place in time? The Shivaji Market in Pune Cantonment is more about being there for a purpose and not just a heritage structure. The ASI needs to take a decision and decide

what is really useful and go ahead.

Citizens need a place to buy fruits, vegetables and meat and hygiene is important. If the structure of the same market is not viable then why not make way for a more useful structure. Why do we need to protect everything that has the name ‘heritage’ attached to it? Th is area has become a nuisance and needs to be redeveloped . Most of us do not even bother about its heritage value because all we need is a decent place for our daily needs.

The Cantonment Board needs to be in touch with the ASI and decide what is better for life. Heritage may seem unique but it is about the past.

Certain structures can be retained but if new structures are more suitable then why are we hanging on to the past. Hygiene is important and considering the population, a new

structure can be built. Land is precious and humans need to be considered.

-Sunil Melwani

Think of common man while holding public meets

It would have been a harrowing experience for anyone who used the stretch between Golibar Maidan and St Mary’s Church Chowk on Solapur Road, on Friday evening (October 31) between 4pm and 7pm. The police department had closed MG Road and East Street for traffic to organise a parade on the occasion of Ekta Daud (Run for Unity) to commemorate the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. Solapur Road had to bear the extra rush, and citizens had to suffer on this stretch that was chock-a-block with buses, private vehicles, autos and

other automobiles. The authorities had organised a run earlier in the day from Khandojibaba Chowk in Deccan to Police Parade Ground at Shivajinagar, and the event did not lead to any traffic jam as it was held in the morning. I support such sports activities, but it should not cause public inconvenience.

-Sudhir Telang

Swacch Bharat movement should be taken seriously

The PM’s ‘Swacch Bharat’ campaign addresses a long felt need. But it runs the risk of getting reduced to a slogan and tokenism if the sweep of brooms in Delhi is not followed through with concerted efforts across the country.

More than anything, a change in public mindset is needed. There is also a need for coordination between centre

and states to make the ‘swacch bharat’ campaign successful.

-Sharada Borkar

Write to Us Letters to the Editor may be emailed to editor_tgs@goldensparrow. com or mailed to Golden Sparrow Publishing Pvt Ltd, 1641 Madhav Heritage, Tilak Road, Pune-411030.

The Best Letter of the Week will receive a special gift from Venus Traders, Pune’s finest stationery departmental.

ED UCATION

NOVEMBER 8, 2014

PUNE

“There is a serious human resource deficit faced by the health sector. The entire medical education system needs to be reviewed,” — Dr Prabhakar Kore, member, Rajya Sabha

Signposts Programme for aspiring journalists US Consulate General, Mumbai, is organising ‘Empowering Youth as Citizen Journalists’, for youngsters in the age group of 14-25, on November 13 and 14. Charu Mathur and Prasad Kulkarni will conduct the event in English, Hindi and Marathi on consecutive days. Register before November 8 by logging in at http:///goo.gl/formsZqBrKYFDQ1 or contact on 022-26724321.

Nobel Laureate Kidland in Pune Noble Laureate and eminent economist Fin Kidland delivered a lecture on ‘Economic Policy and Country’s Progress’, on November 6 at IUCAA at Savitribai Phule Pune University.

Post the lecture, Kidland engaged students and research scholars from various departments of university in a special discussion at the UD Hall.

Ireland education fair at Marriott, Nov 16 ‘Education in Ireland’ is holding an education fair on November 16 at Courtyard by Marriott City Centre Pune. Representatives from top universities like Dublin Business school, National College of Ireland, Trinity College of Dublin, University College of Cork will provide the latest information on courses.

CARE ER

“There is a need to rejuvenate the teaching profession and bring back the respect that this profession once enjoyed. Prime Minister’s initiative to reach out to students on Teachers Day was a step in that direction,” — Smriti Irani, minister, Human Resource Development

The untold

chronicles

RAHUL RAUT

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY

British poet and author Malika Booker held an interactive session with the students of Symbiosis School of Liberal Arts YASH DAIV @yash009

when she was away from her place of birth, and in to her native place.

“I identify my circumstance to the “If there’s a book that you want to read, diaspora, a shift from one country to but it hasn’t been written yet, then you another, both equally dear to me,” she must write it,” said celebrated writer said while speaking to TGS. Toni Morrison. Morrison’s works are Pepperseed, her collection of poems, among the favourites of British poet published in September 2013, are about and writer Malika Booker, who visited her experiences of living in different the city recently, as part countries. “It is a wide of a British Council canvas of poetry which programme in India. allows you to etch your Booker did a reading experience of a lifetime of her poetry at the and explore the rhythms Literature Live festival of language,” said at Mumbai. In Pune, Booker. She also spoke Booker interacted with of the methods she used the students of Symbiosis in crafting her books, School of Liberal Arts while interacting with (SSLA), on Monday. the students of SSLA. Booker firmly Booker believes that believes in Morrison’s every one has talent, philosophy of telling which can be honed and - Malika Booker untold stories, of one’s polished. She elaborated growing up years. Born on techniques of word in London, she later usage in the creation of spent 11 years in Ghana. In 1989, both poetry and prose. “Performance Booker returned to London, and that’s as opposed to a response, defines a when she began writing in earnest. successful work. Anything that incites “Poetry, is a mode of expression for you to write, a sentiment or what me. It has been the foundation of my generates a sentiment within you, creative life,” she says. A lot of Booker’s will give a different impression to the writing is focused on her childhood, work,” she said.

“Poetry is an expression, the foundation of my creative life”

Malika believes in telling untold stories. Her travels have given her the opportunities to experience different cultures first-hand and also access to obscure literature

“I feel that Indian and Caribbean literature pushes the envelope. Certain Indian literature comprises stories that haven’t been told. It is a rebuttal of the exotic accounts of the country written by the westerners,” said Booker.

The first wave of Indian writers captured the nuances of a developing nation. There were literary groups whose discussions and debates developed into movements. Booker started her ‘Malika’s Kitchen’ for a similar reason.

“The Kitchen is a writer’s collective.

It is a platform for writers to develop their craft and discuss their strategies,” she said.

THE HOMELAND EXCURSION

SMEF’s Brick Group of Institutes took its students on a 10-day tour to Delhi, Agra, Fatehpur Sikri and Jaipur, on November 4.

The tour is designed to enable students to take up global challenges. The study group will visit the heritage cities to observe and report on old and new monuments and trace the evolution of architecture in the country.

Pursuing My Career

‘I want to be a data analyser’

Mihil Ramaiya’s fascination with computers led him to study Information Technology (TIBCO). The corporate atmosphere was appealing. The timings were flexible, we could work from home, but we had to meet our deadlines.

I was given the task of researching development in data science. It was a business analytical project which involved clustering.

For instance, in a retail store there are people who shop for various things every day. I was asked to find the number of patrons who picked up ready-made food and form a cluster. Based on the cluster, it is easier for the sellers to target the specific customer through different advertisements on e-commerce websites.

In those two months, I interacted with many like-minded people who made my internship into an enriching experience.

After I complete my B Tech course, I want to work as a data analyser for a few years and then pursue my master’s degree from a foreign university. (as told to Barnalee Handique)

RAHUL RAUT

Computers have always fascinated me. When I was in Class XI, I received the first lesson in Java programming. It interested me immensely.

I started developing programmes at home. It was interesting to see the real world, analyse it in the virtual world and then give the results.

Two years later I joined the BTech course at College of Engineering, Pune (COEP), where I opted for the four-year course with Information Technology as my special subject.

The classes opened a new world to me. I found subjects like networking, programming and database very stimulating as they involved a lot of analysis. Whenever I came up with an idea, my professors always encouraged me to pursue it and guided me in my projects. I have participated in every active programming contest at college.

As my college curriculum progressed, I realised that C Language is the foundation to other computer languages. I made the most out of the language taught during the second year of the course along with the principals of programming language course. Eight different languages were taught to me in six months.

During the same year, I interned for two months at The Information Bus Company

The initiative started with group discussions which Malika hosted at her place every Friday. Visitors who attended these discussions continued with the Kitchen in their own cities and countries, giving more upcoming writers a valid platform.

On the possibility of starting Kitchen in Pune, Booker said, “I would certainly love to meet authors in the city.

Writing has enabled me to travel and read inaccessible literature. Exploring a new place and meeting new people has given me a better perspective on life.” yashdaiv@gmail.com

Malika’s writing tips • You have to keep writing and invent strategies for yourself • Study your favourite poet or author. Line breaks, pauses and sentence structures are learned through imitation • Music can spark your creativity • While writing about someone, use things they wear or use it for inspiration • Travel offers opportunity to develop your ideas

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 8, 2014

Before the existence of Gmail by Google, ‘G-Mail’ was the name of a free email service offered by Garfield’s website for their fans.

— www.sotruefacts.com

League of our own

PM Modi needs more Parrikars P 10

P 15

Gaming is serious business RAHUL RAUT

Akshay Paul, a gaming enthusiast, speaks about the thrills and obsessions of gaming as a hobby and a business opportunity

“Gamers inhabit a world, far removed from their current realities.”

RITU GOYAL HARISH @ritugh

Did you know that globally there exists a community of 1.2 billion men and women who are known simply as ‘gamers’? Did you know that the world’s largest sporting event – The International – with USD 10 million prize pool money is a gaming event?

By his own admission, 28-year-old Akshay Paul is a gamer first and a marketing professional later. “I still play for 4-5 hours a day” reveals this young man who is a marketing manager in a company that creates mobile games.

He was barely 14 when he first got hooked to playing a Pub game where multiple players join in for a game “Which is skill based entirely. In those days it used to cost 10 dirhams an hour”, recalls Paul who spent about 10 years in Dubai as a child.

Gaming is big business worldwide. Not only are billions of men and women hooked to playing games, some spend every waking minute on their consoles or computers. “A

5 Interesting Gamer Facts

 59% Americans play video games  USD 21.53 billion was spent on video games, hardware and accessories worldwide in 2013  The average gamer is 31 years old and has been playing for 14 years  48% of all gamers are women  44% gamers play games on their smartphones and 33% on their wireless device Source: videogamevoters.org

Akshay Paul(28) prefers to call himself a gamer first and a marketing professional later

game like League of Legends has 80 million active users” he says.

“Gamers inhabit a world which is far removed from their current realities. No one uses their real names; most people have aliases, which is also an alter ego. People play to explore new worlds of fantasy and mythology, to go where you’ve never been to” he adds. The experience of being someone else is what gamers thrive on.

“As a passion gaming is healthy because it helps you connect with like minded people world over” says Paul. He also cautions that “it also has the potential of becoming a disease. I know people who spend all their time in a gaming café, flunk classes etc.

Games are responsible for the failure of many careers.”

When he was a student way back in 2005 Paul admits to playing Defense of the Ancients (DotA) for 18 hours a day!

Yet, he knew that he couldn’t afford to have a lackadaisical attitude to a career. He completed his MBA in Marketing from Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, and in the two jobs he has held, his passion for gaming and his professional qualification were in perfect harmony.

According to www.statista.com, the value of the Indian gaming industry in 2007 was 4 million rupees that grew to 15.3 billion rupees in 2012. The projected compound

annual growth rate is 16.2% for this industry in India!

Paul believes that gamers who have genuine passion can find fruitful employment in the fast mushrooming gaming studios around the country as game designers, testers etc. “This is a profession where people come by choice. Gaming studios have a creative, vibrant and casual atmosphere. There is a lot of energy, work is fun and satisfaction levels are high” he adds.

“Money for freshers is not very good but once you’ve established your creativity, respect is high and money starts coming in” he concludes. ritugoyalharish@gmail.com

Google launches alliance to promote Indian languages Ensuring greater reach of internet in the country, Google announced alliance with industry partners to form the Indian Language Internet Alliance (ILIA), a group committed to promote the growth of Indiclanguage content online.

This will facilitate India to reach the coveted 500 million internet users mark by 2017, Google India vice president and managing director Rajan Anandan said here.

Google also launched a website called www.hindiweb.com, a platform for Hindi speaking internet users to discover the best Hindi content across websites, apps, videos and blogs.

India now has over 200 million internet users and to reach the desired 500-million mark, Hindi language tools will help a lot.

Anandan said the success will be based on four pillars - access, discovering ability, content and innovations.

Google has tied up with 15 partners to take the Indian language mission forward, but later on the number of partners will increase.

The search engine giant will also look into other languages like Tamil, Marathi, and Bengali, said Amit Singhal, senior vice president.

“Our mission at Google is to ensure the world’s information is universally accessible, and this includes the millions of users in

India who are about to come online for the first time. Hindi Voice Search will be just one of the many steps Google is taking to empower the Indian language users and advertisers to take advantage of the web’s huge economic and social potential,” he said.

“This alliance will help the country reach the 300 million internet users target by 2017. Internet is mostly in English,” Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar said.

IANS

“I did not clip her wings” Ziauddin Yousafzai, father of the world’s youngest Nobel laureate, Malala Yousafzai , spoke at a TED conference about the way women are treated in a patriarchal society and about his mentorship that made Malala one of the youngest and greatest icon of women and childrens’ rights today TED is a global platform where people from different fields come together and speak for 18 minutes or less about their respective disciplines. It was started in 1984 by a non-profit organisation called Sapling Foundation, under the slogan — Ideas worth sharing. Initially it organised conferences where matters related to technology, design and entertainment merged, but today it includes varied topics such as business, photography, art, science and the like.

BY ISHANI BOSE @ishani_bose In October 2012, a Talibani gunman shot Ziauddin Yousafzai’s daughter Malala, just after she boarded a bus on its way to her school. The Taliban had prohibited all girls living in Swat, Pakistan, (where Malala lived with her family), from attending school.

But Yousafzai, an educator and dedicated activist for women’s rights, refused to ban Malala from school. When a BBC journalist asked Yousafzai if any of his students were willing to tell their story to the world at large, many backed out. But Youzafzai encouraged his daughter to account her life story in a book.

At the TED Global conference organised earlier this year, Yousafzai spoke about his daughter and the honour that she has brought him. “In many patriarchal and tribal societies, fathers are usually known by their sons, but I’m one of the few fathers who is known by his daughter, and I am proud of it,” he said.

Yousafzai said that human history has been testimony to the fact that in patriarchal societies, the birth of a girl child has seldom been welcomed or celebrated. “At the age of five, when everyone goes to school, girls are expected to stay at home and help their mothers, not step out of the house without a male escort after she turns thirteen, and becomes the so-called honour of her father, brothers and family, and if she transgresses the code of that so-called honour, she could even be killed,” he said, adding that a good girl is expected to be very quiet, humble and submissive.

“The ideal girl is expected to be very quiet and accept the decisions of her parents and elders, even if it is against her will. If she

is married to a man she doesn’t like or to an old man, she has to accept it, because she does not want to be called disobedient. And in the end of it all she is wedded, bedded, and becomes a mother of children who teaches her daughters the same lesson of obedience and her sons the same lesson of honour. This vicious cycle goes on, goes on,” he said.

But Yousafzai brought Malala up differently because he realised that the only way he could put an end to this endless cycle is through education. “Long before she was born, I thought about her name, and was fascinated with a heroic legendary freedom fighter in Afghanistan. Her name was Malalai of Maiwand, and I named my daughter after her. When she was four and a half years old, I got her admitted in my school.

Admission in a school m e a n s

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that she has entered the world of dreams and aspirations where she can explore her potential for her future life,” he said.

At the age of 10, Malala stood, for the right of education.

She wrote a diary for the BBC blog; volunteered herself for the New York Times documentaries, and spoke from every platform she could. “Her voice was the most powerful. It spread like a crescendo all around the world. And that was the reason the Taliban could not tolerate her campaign, and shot her in the head at point blank range,” Yousafzai recounted.

He ends by saying that it is his daughter who has taught him to be resilient in the darkest of times and that despite being an icon for women and childrens’ rights, she is like any other teenager. “People often ask me what was so special in my mentorship that Malala turned out to be so bold and courageous.

To that I say, don’t ask me what I did. Ask me what I did not do. I did not clip her wings, that’s all,” he said. ishani.bose@goldensparrow.com

TECH GURU

BY SORAB GHASWALLA This is an interactive column. Like today, every week, we will be replying to technology and Internet related queries sent in by readers. You may email your questions with the subject line ‘Tech Guru query’ to tgstechguru@gmail.com

Get a powerful power bank

I am out of juice is a remark oft heard these days. Health aficionados may be pardoned for thinking this is some new fad but when someone passes such a remark, he/ she is usually referring to the draining out of a device battery.

So what do you do when your mobile battery has “run out of juice”, especially when you are nowhere near a plug point? You may curse the manufacturer or simply plug your phone into a power bank.

It is not uncommon to find youngsters these days carrying a card-sized device along with their mobiles.

That’s a power bank for you. Think of it as an extra battery cum external charger.

Like any other gizmo, a power bank has its own pros and cons and dos and donts, which is the subject of my column today. So before you set out to acquire one, you need to ask yourself the question -How do I know which one is the right power bank for me?

Straight off the bat, there are two types of power banks: the 18650 and Li-polymer. Without getting into the tech specs here, my advice would be to go for the latter, though it is slightly more expensive. The next thing: look for branded power banks rather than generic ones. That’s because most of the branded ones sell in ‘Real Capacity’ while the rest sell in ‘Marking Capacity’. And Real Capacity is what you need to understand before buying a power bank, not Marking Capacity. So no point in buying a power bank that shows a Marking Capacity of 30000 mAH or 50000 milli Ampere Hour (mAH is the unit to measure the capacity of the power bank).

That’s because higher numbers do not necessarily mean a more powerful power bank. Many of us tend to believe that the more the mAH, the more formidable the charger is. That’s wrong. A rough calculation will show that a branded power bank with 12000 mAH Real Capacity will do the same job, more or less, like that of a generic charger that boasts of 3000050000 mAH. There are two things you need to factor in before buying a power bank: Your device battery size and its charger specification.

You can find the first written on your device packaging or in the device guide under ‘battery section’.

For the charger specification, you need to check its output voltage and output current. This you will find written on the adapter that comes along with your device.

Remember these points before buying: Rule 1) The power bank you want to buy should be at least, if not more, the same size as your device battery to ensure at least one full charge. Rule 2) The output voltage of the power bank should have output voltage and output current equal or higher than your device’s charger.

That’s it.

If you follow my basic instructions, you will end up buying a reasonably good power bank, which is in tune with your device.

T h e s e days you are spoilt for choice while buying a power bank. There’s one (entry-level) by Eveready, the UM 22 for smartphones which is available for about Rs 899 (http:// bit.ly/1A31I8n). You can also get entry-level, Sony USB Portable Charger 2800 mAh CP-V3 for about Rs 1171 (http://bit.ly/13yj9PB) or if you want more “juice”, the mid-capacity Sony Power Bank 5000Mah CP-V5/LC, which costs approx. Rs 2290/ (http://bit.ly/10hOXX3).

(Sorab Ghaswalla is a former old-world journalist who now wears many hats, entrepreneur, Internet consultant, online marketer, new media and technology journalist, and the editor/publisher of four sites of his own, all related to the Internet, smartphones, start-ups and the Internet of things. You may find him at www.newagecontentservices.com) (Disclaimer: The Tech Guru column is more in the nature of a reader-initiated, advisory feature. Readers are urged to check or confirm for themselves the features of all hardware/software mentioned here before making a purchase.

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY PUNE

“During my graduation days in Delhi, I came across several people who wanted to lose weight and look beautiful. This made me realise that there is a market for my business proposition.”

— Sankha Acharya , Fame Per Second co-founder

“Start-ups realise that while funding will be one-time capital, an enterprise customer will pay multiple times over the life cycle of a solution that they choose to buy.”

— Sanjay Mehta, angel investor in Indian Angel Network

Pune's own solution to internet security

Signposts Seminar on food quality Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA) will organise a seminar on ‘Importance of food safety certification in quality improvement’ on November 13. The programme will take place at 4:00 pm at Navalmal Friodia Seminar Hall, MCCIA Trade Tower, SB Road. There will be discussions about producing food that meets the specifications of legal food safety regulations prescribed under ‘food safety standard act ‘.

Jyoti Nalse, lead auditor, TUV India, will talk about International Food Standard (IFS) and various food certifications like Food Safety System Certification (FSSC-22000), Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP), Food Safety Management System (FSMS) and hygiene audit. For members and non-members the fee is Rs 500. For more details contact Sasidharan PV on 020-25709123.

Workshop on mobile testing

Technical assistance from Japan RSB Transmissions signed a technical assistance agreement on November 4 with Jidosha Buhin Kogyo (JBK), Japan, to manufacture and sell state-of-art propeller shaft for heavy vehicles. SK Behera, vice chairman and managing director, RSB Transmission, after signing the agreement, said, “This collaboration will give a technological edge to make inroads into markets”.

BY ANJALI SHETTY @shetty_anjali In the wave of liberalisation in 1990, Kailash Katkar was running a bootstrapped, one-room computer repair station called CAT Computer Services at Rasta Peth. His younger brother, Sanjay, a fresh post-grad at that time, had made a dissertation on computer viruses that had piqued a lot of interest. “He used our repair station as a research base wherein he’d work on computers infected with viruses.

We decided to take his passion a step further and create a product that would resolve virus issues.

Th is was backed by the thought of creating an Indian antivirus product of inter nat iona l sta nda rds,” said Kailash.

Developing a product is one thing and selling it successfully is altogether another aspect. The Katkars are passionate about the product they built and thought that a good product can sell itself. “But we were probably wrong. Initially we faced stiff competition and piracy issues,” said Kailash.

Quick Heal Technologies Pvt Ltd is a technology sensitive domain. “It is very challenging to keep up with the pace of good malware detections in creating Internet Security products.

The attack vector as well as volumes have multiplied since the malicious programs now-a-days propagate in zero time. The approach that ‘providing basic security is enough’ has become obsolete. Restricting ourselves to just one platform or device was unthinkable but veering into multiple devices and across platforms r e q u i r e d expertise and in f rast r uct u re.

There was a simultaneous pressure as the infrastr uct ure cost mounted.

Th is actually prompted us to come up with a range of products for the price sensitive category.

Now, we are one of the major players in that range,” added Kailash.

On the initial investment, he said, “When we started this venture we ran it just like a family where a lot of thought usually goes into planning the family expenses and executing them.

In 2010, the venture capital company, Sequoia Capital saw a lot of potential in us and readily invested Rs 60 crore.

Th is investment came after a period of

Kailash Katkar (above) and Sanjay Katkar (below) started Quick Heal from a computer repair shop. They completed 21 years in 2014 and have 31 branches in India and a global client base of over 8 million users

approaching several banks for loans for software and market development.”

Quick Heal has completed 21 years and has a customer base of over 8 million across the globe. Sanjay said, “Customer centricity is the focal point of our business. If IT security solutions are too difficult and complex to use then the entire point of reaching out to the customer and making technology usable becomes null and void. Th is has made us rethink on how we deliver products, how we sell them; provide support and advice, the channels that we should use, etc.”

They have more than 1100 employees across 31 branches in

India. On expansion plans, Kailash said, “As far as technology is concerned, we are introducing cloudbased security services, customised security for targeted attacks, Mobile Device Management, and Data Leak Protection (DLP). In case of commercial aspects, we are targeting markets like North America, Africa, Japan, Middle East, South East Asia, South Korea, Europe, Oceania and industries like banking and financial services, education, manufacturing, technology.”

RAHUL RAUT

MCCIA will organise a workshop on ‘Practitioner’s approach to mobile testing’ on November 14 from 9:30 am onwards at Shankar Conference Room, MCCIA Trade Tower, SB Road. Topics like deploying the mobile software quality, application architecture, challenges of mobile testing and solutions along with best testing practices in the industry will be discussed. Rama Bedarkar, a practicing agile coach will give theoretical and practical demonstrations on mobile testing. The fee for non-members is Rs 2500 and for members it is Rs 3000. For admission contact Madhura Chipade on 020-25709123.

Quick Heal Technologies Pvt Ltd completed 21 years this year and has managed to maintain a standard practice and service

RAHUL RAUT

NOVEMBER 8, 2014

anjali.shetty@ goldensparrow.com

Quick Heal’s USP: Innovation and focussed development What sets Quick Heal apart in the market?

We ensure that our products are readily available and our staff are approachable whenever required.

We ensure a smooth supply chain.

Quick Heal stands out from the rest for its unique and dedicated technical support units that are separate for retail and enterprise. The different types of multilingual support available for our customers include email, chat, telephonic, remote and local.

The research and development Lab of Quick Heal explores new and emerging trends in the IT security industry. This is to create innovative solutions that can handle the ever-changing threat

landscape. Our threat research and response team receives and analyses over one Lakh unique malware daily.

Our strong channel network ensures the easy availability of Quick Heal products. We have a wide coverage of channel network of over 15000+ partners backed by channel partner enablement, training, and marketing programs.

How do you deal with competition?

Quick Heal’s focused development of

security solutions based on the needs of Indian consumers has made it stand out among most of the competing MNCs. We have always focused on the quality of the product and benchmarked the range with the products from international market by getting international certifications. At the same time, we tuned the product features more towards the demands of Indian consumers. Also with the structured customer support approach with branches across India, we developed a reputation for best after sales support for our product. Quick Heal is also known for its most easy to use IT security solutions that have all the features of an international AV product.

START-UP MENTOR

Qualities of a successful Holiday packages with a difference The concept of nothepla holidays is to take travellers to offbeat destinations entrepreneur Vishwas Mahajan

I am an engineering student in third year. I would like to opt out of our college’s campus placement and try to have my start-up. Should I do it? How should I go about this?

- Paresh Panchal Before we go any further, I need to ask you some questions. Are you sure that you want to be an Entrepreneur? Because being an entrepreneur isn’t the same as being a business person, or an administrator or an executive. It’s a desire not just to run an enterprise or business but create.

Whether you are creating value for a customer or going into a social venture, entrepreneurs are never content with the status quo. They change, they improve and they innovate.

First and possibly the most important thing you need is the Entrepreneurial mindset.

You need to have a passion for change and ability to take action.

There is always some risk involved when starting a new venture but you can mitigate those risks by following a systematic approach.

The important thing is how to come up with your big idea or your innovative opportunity. What do you

This feature is a collaboration between The Golden Sparrow on Saturday and The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), the world’s largest non-profit network of entrepreneurs. For additional questions about your entrepreneurial challenges, write to mentoring@pune.tie.org

need for your venture? Money, good team, timing? All these things are definitely important but the single most important thing you need for getting started is your big idea. Without your idea you don’t have a starting point.

It actually turns out that this is not as daunting as it might seem at fi rst.

There is actually a systematic way of finding innovating opportunities and many of the best ideas will come from the things you know best.

It turns out the entrepreneur needs two characteristics to be successful. The ability to take action and relentless pursuit of change.

If you are not comfortable to take action under uncertain environment then entrepreneurial success becomes very difficult.

Why is this the case? Even with the best ideas in the world taking action is risky business. Any time you are facing rapid change, there is the risk of failure. You might lose money, you might lose your reputation, and you might lose your friends. No matter how carefully you plan, you can’t eliminate the risk. If you are the type of person who doesn’t like surprises then you’ll find being an entrepreneur

very difficult.

Taking advantage of rapid change can be amazingly rewarding. But along the path, you’ll find failure. In order to take action on your big idea you have to look at failure in the eye and overcome it. You learn from failure to ultimately find success.

Entrepreneurs are attracted to change. Because wherever there is rapid change there is an opportunity.

Entrepreneurs love changes because it creates opportunities. These two characteristics- passion for change and the ability to take action are the core of being a successful entrepreneur. You can have any type of personality, but if you have these two traits you have the potential of being a successful entrepreneur.

Entrepreneurship is not an accident it’s a deliberate process that requires work, careful listening and 100% commitment.

So, please introspect and assess yourself. And then embark on your journey. All the best.

Vishwas Mahajan, president of TiE Pune Chapter, answers real life questions of entrepreneurs.

BY BARNALEE HANDIQUE @barnalee

For Sanaya Ghandy, travel is an intrinsic part of her life. She loves to explore new places with close friends.

The idea to name her travel fi rm came when she noticed that her friends used to carry loads of theplas and khakaras, the snacks eaten by Gujaratis and Marwaris, during these trips instead of sampling the exotic local cuisines.

“I decided to call my company ‘No Thepla Holidays’,” said Sanaya.

Sanaya works with the event management fi rm Jaws Events and her sister Ayesha and friend Arjun Malhotra are her partners in the venture. Arjun left his banking job to join Sanaya and her sister quit her job with

ANIRUDDHA RAJANDEKAR

RESQ , an animal rescue organisation, to devote her time in developing the company.

No Thepla Holidays was launched in March 2014 with no initial investment and the fi rm organises event-based holidays.

The concept is to offer holiday packages to off beat destinations. It is flashpacking for people who want the fun and energy of a backpacking holiday and are willing to spend extra to have the experience.

Sanaya said, “The trips need to be organised meticulously. Before embarking on any trip we do a recce of the destination. The comfort, safety and security of travellers are of prime importance. To make these foreign trips successful, we partner with the peoples abroad. The last trip we had organised was for 13 days and in two legs covering Paris and Spain.

In Paris, we joined the Fete de La Musique street festival and the basking festival.

We also participated in the champagne cruise in Seine. In Spain, we participated in the San Vino festival that is similar to the La Tomatina festival, but here wine is used instead of tomatoes.”

“The festival is organised outside a village where

truckloads of wine arrive. The entire city is shut down and about 4,000 participants throw wine on each other.

There is food, music and dancing, and the festival goes on from dawn to dusk,” she said.

The company takes care of tickets and internal travel arrangements.

“Usually we book hostels and mixed dorms. Th is is done so that the travellers can experience and participate in the local customs, interact with the native people and taste the local cuisine. One has to pay to participate in the events, as they are expensive,” she said.

One has to buy own food and the company provides each traveller with a list of hotels. These hotels are low budget to medium and it costs 10 to 20 Euros for a proper meal.

The trips organised by the fi rm received positive response. The company is attracting clients only by promotion through word of mouth and social media. barnalee.handique@goldensparrow.com GET IN TOUCH No Thepla Holidays B-7, Ashoka, Opposite Atur Park, Naylor Road, Off Mangaldas Road, Pune Email: info@notheplaholidays.com Phone: 8412946076 www.notheplaholidays.com barnalee.handique@goldensparrow.com

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 8, 2014

PUNE

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 8, 2014

PUNE

PICS BY ANIRUDDHA RAJANDEKAR & RAHUL RAUT

City Subways are

MODERN COLLEGE (JM Road)

Cost: Rs 2.0 crores, sponsored by Bhosale Builders

SHANIWAR WADA Sponsored by The Bank of Maharashtra

SNDT FOB

Locked & closed to pedestrians

( Karve Road )

Opened: Oct 29, 1983

Cost: Rs 20 lakh, steel structure

ZILLA PARISHAD CHOWK

VANAZ CIRCLE

Opened: 1999

(Paud Road)

( Bundgarden police station)

Not used by public

Cost: Rs 2.10 crores

Cost: Rs 3.5 crores

Opened: December 2012

Opened: 2008

How many crores down the drain?

Six out of eight subways in the city are in a sad state of neglect and are closed to the public. Some are used as convenient urinating spots or as gambling dens. They are dirty, poorly lit and unsafe. Why can’t city subways be restored and made user-friendly for pedestrians?

Also related is the complete avoidance of foot over-bridges by pedestrians. Why waste public exchequer and construct them if they are so very unpopular with the public? Spotlight explores

DAHANUKAR CIRCLE ( Karve Road)

Cost: Rs 3.0 crores

CHANDANNAGAR

Opened: January 2013

(Ahmednagar Road)

MAYUR COLONY FOB (Kothrud)

Cost: Rs 6.61 crores

Cost: Rs 2.25 cr, has two elevators, stainless steel structure.

Opened: 2012

Opened: 2013

Best

Not used by public

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Sarang Awad

Subways, FoBs not used because...

CITIZEN’S SPEAK

‘I appeal to people to use footpaths, subways and FoBs’

BY GITESH SHELKE @gitesh_shelke The city traffic police have put in lot of efforts to bring down pedestrian casualty in the city. But sadly, the figure is still high even as the number is decreasing every year. We have been requesting the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) to improve the road and traffic conditions in the city. The police are striving to have encroachment-free footpaths and chowks. Pedestrians should use the road infrastructure available instead of risking their life while crossing the roads.

I appeal to citizens to use footpaths, zebra crossings, footover bridges and subways.

PEDESTRIAN DEATHS IN PUNE 2012 – 123 2013 – 119 2014 (Till October 31) – 100

I can understand the difficulties faced by senior citizens and disabled persons, but others can use these facilities. People should use zebra crossings.

The police have fined 6,704 motorists for halting on zebra crossings, and 75,000 motorists for jumping the red light, in October 2014. gitesh.shelke@goldensparrow.com

‘We will follow Pune station model’

BY ASHOK BHAT @ashok_bhat The responsibility of subway maintenance in the city lies with the traffic planner department.

Bonala Additional city engineer (traffic management and projects) Shrinivas Bonala said, “Construction of a subway is easier than its maintenance.

The Pune railway station subway has maximum traffic of pedestrians. As citizens regularly visit the shops in the subway and Zilla Parishad (ZP) square subway, safety is not an issue at these spots.”

The PMC has handed over the maintenance, including electricity bill, of the subway to the society comprising members who run the shops. CCTVs have also been installed by the society.

“We are planning to use this success model in other subways also, and will soon build 8-10 shops at the Bhosale subway on Jungli Maharaj Road.

The new subway on Satara Road near Saibaba Temple has a few shops.

Opening shops at subways will help address a lot of problems,” he said. ashok.bhat21@gmail.com

Bhushan Astulkar

Sonal Pathak

The first thing is that it takes great effort to climb a FoB. I prefer crossing the road by halting traffic by gestures. In addition, the subways and bridges are full of anti-socials during evenings and late afternoons. It is creepy and scary as I don’t want to be mugged. Another option could be replication of Hyderabad’s escalators at Banjara Hills for pedestrian crossing.

There are footover bridges and subways in our area.

However, hardly anyone uses them. I have seen elderly persons or youngsters crossing the road beneath them. It is sad.

Other alternatives must be provided to pedestrians, but citizens must use whatever facilities available, at this point of time, to avoid deaths on the road.

NGO SPEAK

‘Subways, FoBs’ are constructed under political pressure’

BY ASHOK BHAT @ashok_bhat Parisar, an NGO working for traffic and other public issues, has opposed subways and footover bridges (FoBs) constructed in the city. They claim that the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has not implemented the provisions in The Persons with Disabilities Act, 1995, and the norms of Indian Road Congress (IRC) while building subways and FOBs. Parisar programme director Ranjit Gadgil said, “PMC constructs subways or FOBs under political pressure. We have forwarded a memorandum to the municipal commissioner stating our protest.”

According to Gadgil, following the IRC guidelines ensures convenient road level crossing for pedestrians and subway or FoB should be considered as the last

option. Though PMC constructs subway or FOB by following IRC norms, these pathways should be disabled friendly with provision for ramp/lift, handrails and guiding tiles.

“We have pointed out to the PMC the poor use of existing subways and FoBs. There is no standard method of building these structures. The survey for any proposed subway or FoB is carried out by interested contractors and the project gets approved by the authorities. Sometimes, the project leads to the doing away with footpaths and cycle tracks. The PMC has already approved three pedestrian subways for Rs 8.8 crore on Karve Road (Karishma Chowk) and Paud Road (Anandnagar Chowk and PMT bus stand) and is planning yet another on Ganeshkhind Road (near Central Mall),” he said.

ashok.bhat21@gmail.com

Gitesh Shelke and Ashok Bhat walk on the best and worst subways and FoBs in the city

‘These pathways are constructed without planning’ Prashant Inamdar, President of Pedestrians First

BY GITESH SHELKE @gitesh_shelke The authorities have neglected pedestrians and their safety at large.

The civic administration has built subways and FoBs at high cost, but these are not needed.

Majority of the subways and FoBs constructed in the city are unused due to several reasons.

Firstly, they have been constructed without any planning and without considering the interest and convenience of pedestrians. The other economical options available to facilitate movement of pedestrians have been deliberately neglected by the civic body and the authorities.

The option of safe pedestrian refuge and zebra crossing has been neglected.

The FoBs have 40-50 steps on either sides. One cannot expect senior citizens or disabled persons to climb up and climb down these many steps. The subway at Deccan (Garware subway) has just five steps and the Pune railway station subway has a ramp.

Such construction is useful and

facilitates pedestrian movement.

However, many subways are in a shabby condition. They remained littered while at some places these have become gambling dens. How can pedestrians use such subways?

The civic body has provided facility of elevators at the two FoBs located on Karve Road, but despite this they are not used properly.

Fluctuating power supply and absence of lift assistance is the cause behind non use of these FoBs. Instead of spending crores on a project of subway or FoB, the civic body can use cheap solution such as making pedestrian refuge systems.

At signals, allow pedestrian signals, paint zebra crossings and construct a safe refuge in the middle of the road which will allow pedestrians to cross the road safely.

In European countries, the concept of subways and FoBs have became dated and new solutions are being planned and one of them is provision of safe refuge.

rest

amongst the

Allow pedestrian signals, paint zebra crossings and construct a safe refuge in the middle of the road for pedestrians

gitesh.shelke@goldensparrow.com

PUNE RAILWAY STATION

GARWARE JUNCTION

( Karve Road)

Cost: Rs 3.16 crores

( Deccan)

Modern College is locked.

One of the oldest subways Opened: October 2008 in the city is located in front of the heritage structure of Shaniwarwada. The sad part of the subway is that it is known only to locals, who use it frequently. Tourists risk their life by crossing Bajirao road or Shivaji road.

A public notice can solve this issue and save the pathway from being used by beggars.

During peak hour traffic, an elderly woman, in her 80s, was crossing the Karve Road at Mayur Colony section waving her hand to the motorists. It was with great risk that the woman managed to cross safely with some two-wheeler riders closely passing by. The elderly lady did not use the FoB located a few feet away, a safe way to cross the road and the junction. The elderly citizens of the the road just above the subway instead area have complained that they cannot of using it. It is properly illuminated but climb the stairs of the FoB. The Pune people do not use it. The subway located Municipal Corporation (PMC) has even on Karve Road is hardly used by people installed elevators at the FoB, but no one and the pathway smells of urine. uses them.

The subway located at Paud road Similarly, another FoB is located on near Vanaz circle is not used by the Karve Road near Kothrud fire brigade pedestrians as it is not properly lit. but it is also neglected by pedestrians, The subway located on JM Road near who prefer to cross the busy junction.

Cost: PMC does not have details Opened: 1980

People did not use the FoB at Satara road (one which was relocated from the Sassoon General Hospital to Dhankavdi). This structure has been dismantled for flyover construction. The FoB on Alandi Road (two are located on the BRTS route and one on the busy Vishrantwadi junction) remains unused.

Both stretches (Alandi Road and Ahmednagar Road) have been widened by the civic authorities and it has become increasingly difficult for pedestrians to cross to the other side.

The FoBs have been provided for safety, but citizens prefer to ignore them.

The FoB in front of SNDT College on Karve Road is used by pedestrians despite it having many steps. But some people risk their life by crossing the road under the bridge.

The oldest subway at Shaniwarwada is known only to locals

BY GITESH SHELKE & ASHOK BHAT @gitesh_shelke & @ashok_bhat The subways at Pune railway station, Zilla Parishad and Garware Junction (Deccan Gymkhana) are maintained well by the PMC. The Deccan Gymkhana subway was opened in 1980

and is triangular. The pathway is welllit, open at the centre, and constructed in such a way that pedestrians don’t have to walk on the road for crossing. The subway is ideal for heavy traffic in the area. Many pedestrians use this subway which is maintained well by the civic body. The subway located in front of the old building of Zilla Parishad (ZP) at

Bolai Chowk is also frequently used. The signs help pedestrians to walk through without difficulty. But the opening towards Sassoon Hospital is filthy and many drug addicts and beggars have made it their home.

The subway located at Chandannagar on Ahmednagar Road is also not in use. People prefer to cross

gitesh.shelke@goldensparrow.com ashok.bhat21@gmail.com

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 8, 2014

Reading Dylan Thomas at 100 P 13

PUNE

“The Government has taken up the cause. However, the working strength of judges has not kept pace with the increased sanctioned strength.”

— Ravi Shankar Prasad (seeking proactive measures approach in filling up vacancies from chief Justices)

PM Modi needs more Parrikars It would also be a good idea for Modi to use this opportunity to strengthen his ministry by weeding out the non-performers

BY R JAGANNATHAN From all accounts, it appears that Narendra Modi is going to expand his cabinet, and possibly reshuffle it substantially as well. One name mentioned by all media reports today (6 November) is that of Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar as our next Defence Minister.

If that happens, it would certainly be a good call, for defence clearly needs an able and clean minister, and few people come with Parrikar’s reputation for competence and transparency. Defence is clearly one portfolio too many for Modi’s multi-purpose handyman, Arun Jaitley. However, it would also be a good idea for Modi to use this opportunity to strengthen his ministry by weeding out the non-performers and take his agenda of creating a leaner and more focused cabinet to the next level.

He needs more super-ministries and more super-performers. He needs more Parrikars and fewer Radha Mohan Singhs. Modi’s first crack at cabinet formation was a mixed affair with some known high-profi le performers, and many non-entities who were there only for collateral reasons like not being part of dynasties or because Modi chose to pick them for their loyalty.

However, in round two, Modi needs to be bolder and less inclined to pick non-entities or retain non-performers.

He should rejig his ministries based on competence alone because politically he has established himself as numero uno and has no reason to worry about rival power centres any more.

Among the big names, Arun Jaitley in finance, Sushma Swaraj in external affairs, Nitin Gadkari in road transport and highways, Rajnath Singh at home,

Venkaiah Naidu in urban development and parliamentary affairs, and Ravi Shankar Prasad in law and justice more or less select themselves for reasons of competence and/or political balance.

Harsh Vardhan in health and Smriti Irani in HRD are borderline cases, and hence may be given another chance.

Among the junior ministers, Piyush Goyal in power and coal, and Nirmala Sitharaman in commerce and industry have shown energetic performance, even though the results of their exertions are yet to show.

Ram Vilas Paswan has not exactly distinguished himself at the food ministry, nor has Ashok Gajapati Raju at civil aviation, Anant Geete at heavy industry or Harsimrat Kaur in food processing, but they will be fi xtures as they are representatives of alliance parties in the NDA. The surprising omissions in the first round were two ultra competent individuals – Arun Shourie and Suresh Prabhu. While Prabhu, who is from the Shiv Sena, cannot get a larger responsibility unless the BJP-Sena equation improves or he quits the Sena, Shourie’s case of exclusion is not apparent. However, for the large part, Modi’s cabinet reshuffle would be worthwhile if he now opts for the next big reform by cutting down the number of ministries and hives off public sector companies from the ministerial ambit.

India has simply too many ministries working at cross-purposes and policy-making cannot be optimum till these are rationalised. As I have noted before (read here), we need more super ministries, and smaller sector ministries under them, for better policy formulation and coordination. For example, when you have a ministry

Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar

of industry, why do you need separate ministries for steel, textiles, chemicals and fertilisers, heavy industries, food processing, small and micro industry, tourism, etc. Are these not part of

“industry”? You need one broad policy that takes care of all kinds of industry - not separate policies for separate industries. (We are already seven ministries too many here)

ensure social justice and empowerment, another one for women and children, for minorities, and for tribals? Next, we will have one for people with disabilities.

Why does corporate law need a separate ministry? Can’t law and justice do it?

Or can’t the industry ministry handle corporate issues? (Five ministries can go out of the window here). The information and broadcasting ministry can easily be abolished – and Prasar Bharati (which runs Doordarshan and All India Radio) can be a public broadcaster with some degree of autonomy. Given the wide choice of news channels, the slant of government-owned media hardly matters. (One more gone). And what, on earth, do we need so many tiny ministries about whom we know almost nothing: the ministry of earth sciences, overseas Indians, culture, youth affairs and sports, drinking water, and so on? Quite clearly, ministries have proliferated just to give the surfeit of politicians a job to do – where they mostly feather their nests. This is not to suggest that sports, or culture, for that matter, are not important – just that they can be done departmentally under a more. One question remains: what will happen to so many ministerial aspirants from various parties, including the BJP’s own cohorts, if we have only super-ministries at the centre?

Answer: they will still be ministers, but with a smaller sectoral charge. A big Transport Ministry will need two railway ministers of state, a minister for road transport, another for shipping, etc. The super transport ministry will need more ministers. So, the jobs aren’t being abolished. Only the levels at which these jobs remain are changing.

(By special arrangement with Firstpost.com)

Similarly, why would one need separate ministries for various kinds of energy: petroleum, coal, power, nuclear, new and renewable energy? Wouldn’t it make more sense to have one omnibus ministry of energy to ensure that all energy policies are coordinated and headed in the same direction? When one kind of energy can be substituted for another, does it make sense to have one policy on gas pricing, another on coal, yet another on solar energy, and still another on diesel or LPG? (That’s four ministries more that are redundant.) Do we need one ministry of transport, with railways, civil aviation, shipping and roadways or multiple ministries each trying to do their own thing? Does the freight rate charged on railway cargo not impact road transport, or air cargo?

(Three more ministries can be wrapped up under transport) When we have a ministry of law and justice, do we need separate ones to

GOA TO GET NEW CM TODAY: PARRIKAR Goa’s new chief minister is likely to be announced on Saturday, with Manohar Parrikar, tipped to be India’s defence minister, all set to quit.

Parrikar said Friday that he would be putting in his papers Saturday.

Speaking to reporters ahead of a crucial meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s legislative wing, Parrikar said: “The new chief minister will be sworn in Saturday afternoon.”

BJP sources said Parrikar may be inducted into the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh. Parrikar said he would submit his resignation after the meeting of the BJP’s parliamen-

tary board, which is expected put the final seal on his elevation to the union cabinet. The contenders for the chief ministerial post are Speaker Rajendra Arlekar, Health Minister Laxmikant Parsenkar and Deputy Chief Minister Francis D’Souza. Arlekar has solid Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) credentials and also enjoys the confidence of Parrikar. One potential blip on his record, however, is a petition by a lawyer activist pending in a trial court accusing the speaker of allegedly amassing disproportionate assets.

Parsenkar has been a state chief of the BJP on two occasions and

like Arlekar has traditionally enjoyed the confidence of the chief minister.

On Wednesday, both Arlekar and Parsenkar said they were not actively gunning for the top slot.

D’Souza, on the other hand who has avoided the media, has in the past been a rallying point for dissenting legislators within the BJP, especially the Catholic legislators within the party. He is also one of BJP’s oldest minority faces. While his inconsistent health is a matter of concern, his appointment as chief minister could help the party appease the state’s 26 percent Catholic population.

IANS

IN THE Sena wants berths in NEWS Union cabinet Nagaland artistes perform folk dance Catch up with developments in Pune as the week comes to a close

Office (PMO) to discuss the cabinet expansion, Sena leaders could not confirm the development. The reports said that the PMO had asked the Sena to recommend one name for inclusion in the Council of Ministers. BJP sources said that former Union Environment Minister Suresh Prabhu was likely to be included in the cabinet but the Sena is looking for an extra berth. Prabhu, a former Sena strongman is said to be close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “The Sena has been in touch with leaders in Delhi and the talks are positive so far,” said a senior BJP leader.

Despite having 18 MPs, Anant Geete is the only Union Minister from the Sena. The BJP is hoping that by including two of its MPs in the Union Council of Ministers, it would be able to pressurise the Sena to soften its stand on the state cabinet and could even ask the party to vote in its favour on 12 November. “We have done whatever possible from our end. We agreed to all of BJP’s terms and went to Delhi to speak to their leaders. But they must remember that we are not at their mercy. We are the second largest party in Maharashtra. If there is no positive response from the BJP before the trust vote, we have no option but to declare our leader in the assembly.”

Another Sena leader said that the party wanted a gracious entry into the government on time. “We can’t keep waiting for the BJP. The ball is in their court.They need to decide on whether to take our support or not,” he added.

IANS

Reliance to donate Rs 1 crore to Parivartan Reliance Foundation, of a partner Satyamev Jayate, the television talk show hosted by Aamir Khan, has pledged to provide f inancial a s sist a nce of Rs 1 crore to NGO Parivartan. Parivartan is run by late Dr Narendra Dabholkar’s son Hamid Dabholkar. The NGO works with the state-run Regional Mental Health Hospital in Yerawada and has adopted, rehabilitated patients from the hospital and helped them join the mainstream life. “It’s heartening that such a step has been taken on a national platform as it is a neglected issue and hardly anyone wants to get associated with the cause of mental health and patients suffering from mental ailments,” said Dr Hamid Dabholkar.

Parivartan has an office in Satara from

RAHUL RAUT

Mumbai: With the BJP making it clear that Shiv Sena MLAs would not be sworn into the Maharashtra cabinet before the trust vote, the Sena now wants two berths in the Union Cabinet during the reshuffle that is likely on Sunday. Apart from that the Sena also wants the induction of three of its MLAs in the state cabinet before the trust vote.

Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray held a meeting of senior party leaders on Thursday evening where the party reiterated that it wanted at least three of its MLAs sworn in as ministers before Sunday or else it would vote against the BJP government during the trust vote scheduled for 12 November.

“We have called a meeting of party leaders on Sunday evening.

Uddhvaji will take a final call taking into consideration the present political scenario. The decision will be announced in the next two days,” Shiv Sena spokesperson Neelam Gorhe said after the meeting. However, senior party leaders said that they were also keen on getting a cabinet berth. “We are part of the NDA and we must be given place in the Union Cabinet. But the party will not give up its demand for swearing in of its MLAs in the Maharashtra cabinet either. We are firm on our demand of a 2:1 share in the state government. We are not going to compromise on that at all,” said a senior Sena leader requesting anonymity.

While the reports said that Thackeray got calls from senior BJP leaders and the Prime Minister’s

Artistes from Nagaland performed folk dance to celebrate the birth centenary of Padma Bhushan Rani Gaidinliu, a prominent freedom fighter from the Northeastern states, in the city on Thursday. The colourful function was organised by the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, Pune, in Sadashiv Peth. The theme of the dance was honey bee.

Ashram president Dilip Mehta, activist Jagdambh Mallah, Nagaland artiste Jemy Tadgen and others were present.

Mallah, an activist from Nagaland who had worked closely with Gaidinliu, said that NSCN (Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland) and NSCN (IM) have brought disrepute to the state.

“The people of Northeastern states are nationalists and want to be an integral part of the nation,” he said.

Artistes from Nagaland performed folk dance to celebrate the birth centenary of Padma Bhushan Rani Gaidinliu on Thursday in Sadashiv Peth

where it runs the programme of Janman Swastha. Janman Swasth attempts to develop community centric healthcare programmes in association with several organisations.

tive in wildlife and nature conservation for fi fty years. He has been engaged in implementing various environmental education programmes for schools, colleges and public.

Royal Bank of Scotland honours Dr Erach Bharucha

RK Laxman celebrates 94th birthday

The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), a subsidiary of the RBS Group, honoured Dr Erach Bharucha with the RBS ‘Earth Hero Award 2014’ for his achievements in nature and environment conservation. He is one of the seven individuals/ institutions from the field of wildlife and conservation chosen by an independent jury for award.

The jury panel, comprising active wildlife enthusiasts, environmentalists and conservationists, reviewed nominations received from across the country.

Bharati Vidyapeeth Institute of Environment Education and Research (Pune) director Dr Bharucha, a surgeon by profession, has been ac-

Renowned cartoonist RK Laxman celebrated his 94th birthday at his residence amongst Puneites who came to wish him on November 6. The function was attended by many cartoon enthusiasts and neighbours, who also appreciated his work pinned on the garage walls of his apartment. Cartoons ranging from caricatures made on political figures to political situations drawn by Laxman took the visitors on a nostalgic trip. Laxman, best known for his creation ‘The Common Man’, before leaving his guests, drew the character once more! The 94-year-old drew it within two minutes.

Dr KH Sancheti to get ‘Manoos’ award

Rangat Sangat Pratisthan will facilitate Padma Vibhushan Dr KH Sancheti with ‘Manoos’ award, in the memory of famous fi lm actor the late Shahu Modak, who was also Sancheti’s friend. City police commissioner Satish Mathur will present the award to Dr Sancheti at a function organised at Balgandharva Rangmandir on November 13. Modak has acted in many fi lms but his role of Ganpat Hawaldar in ‘Manoos’ is remembered widely and appreciated.

The function will be attended by Modak’s wife Pratibha.

Double crown for Revati Pune’s Revati Devasthale won double crown in the 2nd Junior State-level selection trials held at Nanded recently. In the under-19 category, second seeded Revati edged out Nagpur’s Vaishnvi Bhale 21-16, 18-21, 21-15.

Earlier, in the doubles’ final, Revati paired with Karishma Wadkar to beat Mrunmayee Savoji and Vaishnvi Bhale 21-12, 15-6. In the under-17 boys’ segment, Pune’s Arya Bhivpathaki stunned top seed Sai Dinesh Reddy of Mumbai Suburb 21-17, 21-19 in the final. In the under-17 girl’s age group, Pune’s Poorva Barve won doubles’ title along with Riya Arolkar. The pair defeated Radha Mundhe and Shriya Bhagwat 21-8, 21-11 in the final.

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 8, 2014

PUNE

“Modi himself talked about how hand washing is important and I was like, ‘ Yay hand-washing is important and the Prime Minister also says so.”

— Kajol, actress

“The long-term burden of illness and diminished well-being affects patients, their families, health systems and economies and is forecast to accelerate.”

— John Beard, director, dept of ageing & life course, WHO

Make health your top priority

The Way Forward With Compassion & Hope

Dr Ashwini Joshi recommends a proper diet and regular physical activity for a diabetes-free life and are doing the needful in creating awareness. Preventing diabetes is a most important issue, especially in the Dr Ashwini Joshi believes that 18-35 age group,” Dr Joshi says. prevention of diseases is necessary Given the working hours in the to ensure a healthy life. The more IT sector, a regular exercise schedule attention you pay to your body, the is difficult or impossible to keep. Dr greater the benefits, the consultant Joshi recommends at least an hour of physician feels. exercise. “If you do not go to a gym, “Of late, a non-infective problem just go for a jog or run. Use good like Type 2 diabetics occurs as early quality running shoes. You should as 25, while earlier it run at least 4km a day. If would occur in those this is not possible on past 40 years of age. work days, do it at the The current lifestyles weekend.” and eating habits A proper diet is are to be blamed for indispensable for this change and rise healthy living, with in diabetes cases,” a 150 per cent rise in said Dr Joshi, who diabetes and cardiac underlines the problems. “It is a hazards of a sedentary misconception lifestyle and being that you will overweight, regularly have heart - DR ASHWINI JOSHI at her medical camps problems at IT companies. only later in With MBBS, life. A lipid DNB and MNAMS l a d e n (Medicine) qualifications, Dr Joshi diet will deposit fats in says the young generation ignores our blood vessels, cause health check-ups, so diseases like blockages of the arteries. diabetes remain undiagnosed, while Make the sugar levels are causing damage to and dysfunction in vital body organs.

“Some companies and employers however, are aware of the need for healthy lifestyle among their employees

sure that you eat healthy, exercise regularly and make your health your fi rst priority,” Dr Joshi says. anjali.shetty@ goldensparrow.com

ANIRUDDHA RAJANDEKAR

BY ANJALI SHETTY @shetty_anjali

“It is a misconception that you will have heart problems only later in life.”

What you should do • Avoid the lift and use the stairway at work or at home • Have small meals at regular intervals • Avoid junk food and aerated drinks, and eat fresh vegetables and fruits instead • Drink two litres of water/ liquids a day • Consume fibrous food like salads and fruits

‘Drug addiction is a disease, not a moral failing’ Indian society is yet to come to terms with the issue of drug addiction. Addicts need society’s sympathy and support to lead normal lives, says Ritu Goyal Harish

BY RITU GOYAL HARISH @ritugh Ali Mirza was 21 when he was introduced to drugs. His addiction continued for almost seven years.

His parents sent Ali to several rehab Mukta Puntambekar houses, paid for counselling by experts, but he always relapsed into addiction. They gave up one day and cut all ties with Ali. That was Ali’s wake-up call.

“I am fortunate that my parents disowned me because it was only then that I realised that I was really alone.

There was no one to care or cover for me. I had to take responsibility for the damage I had caused to myself and my family,” Ali says.

For the fi rst time Ali was determined to shake free of his addiction and remain clean and pick up the pieces of his life. “I managed to remain drug-free and in time I got myslef a steady job” Ali said.

Eventually even his parents came around and took him back into the family fold, realising that Ali had

turned over qa new leaf, but two years had passed by before the reunion.

Now, seven years later, Ali is happily married and his wife has been told about his turbulent past. “At work I don’t want to give others the room for assumptions nor do I wish to get sympathy” Ali says.

A n u p Shrivastava was a drug addict for 20 years before he quit and took control of his life.

He has now been clean for six years. He like Mirza, is wary of revealing his past. The problem lies in society’s misconceptions about drug addiction. “It is a disease like diabetes and not a moral failing,” Anup says.

Mukta Puntambekar, Project Director of Muktangan, a prominent de-addiction centre in the city, feels the same. “People feel that addicts do it purposely. They don’t understand that the person is a body and mind dependent on the

addiction and is a victim. When he leaves addiction we should support him,” she says.

A reformed drug addict, social worker Indrajit Deshmukh echoes these views. “The World Health Organisation has declared that addiction is a disease but people in India, including psychiatrists and counsellors, do not understand this,” he says.

After he hit rock bottom, Deshmukh was sent into rehab for a year, after which he has remained c lea n. He now runs a NGO called Santulan, founded in 2011, to rehabilitate destitute addicts.

Deshmukh wants society to understand that drug abusers can redeem themselves and lead normal lives. “The community must get involved to help users. Perceptions need to undergo a change,” he says. *Some names changed to protect privacy ritugoyalharish@gmail.com

Have you crossed the 5 stages of love?

LONDON: Researchers have identified five stages of love, which would decide whether you would be able to cement the relationship or leave midway.

Each stage can be relived and recaptured among couples, who face different life challenges together, said a latest survey by the UK dating website eHarmony.

The five stages are: butterfl ies, building, assimilation, honesty and stability. The first stage increases libido and it also is a time when people almost forget to eat.

“Productivity is not great at this stage as people’s minds constantly wander. Interestingly, people tend to get pimples in the early stages of a relationship,” psychologist Linda Papadopoulos was quoted as saying.

In stage two, the body releases neurochemicals, triggering rushes of intense pleasure. It results in a feeling of ‘happy anxiety’.

“Love moves slightly further to the point where you are building your relationship,” Papadopoulos added.

As you reach the third stage, the question whether the relationship is right or wrong comes to the fore. Stage four witnesses the first rise in stress levels. Once the couple has crossed the first four stages, the last and final stage brings increased levels of trust and intimacy - leading to a stable relationship, MailOnline reported.

The survey found that 50 per cent of respondents reached this stage while 23 per cent reported feeling happier as a result.

IANS

Be human and belong to the highest religion

BY C RAVINDRANATH

I

t has become a fashion these days to talk about ‘sarvadharma samabhava’ or the equality of all religions. We say, “All religions are the same. No religion tells us to lie, steal or do bad things.” If so, why is it that when my son or daughter wishes to marry a person from another religion, I vehemently oppose it? Where does the equality go at such moments?

I was born in a Hindu Brahmin family but eschewed all religions from my teens. My wife was brought up as a Christian. She believes in her religion.

She reads the Bible. She goes to church. She prays every night before going to bed. I do none of these. Yet, we have been happily married for nearly 40 years.

I have no doubt at all that we shall continue to do so in the years left.

To me, religion is personal preference. To follow a particular religion or not is the individual’s prerogative.

By mutual understanding, we decided not to brainwash our children into thinking they were Hindus, Christians or whatever. We brought them up as human beings in the conviction that to be good humans, it was not mandatory to espouse any religion.

When she was nine, my daughter arrived from school with a glum face. It took a bit of persuasion to get her to open up. Her teacher had asked each student in her class which religion they belonged to.

They in turn had stated they were Parsi, Hindu, Catholic, Bohri... and so on. “When my turn came,” my daughter sobbed, “I said I was a

human being. Everybody laughed.

What did I do wrong?”

This was a tough one but my wife quickly came to my rescue. She asked, “Tell me, how many children are there in your class?” “Fiftynine,” my daughter answered.

Gathering the child close to her, my wife told her, “Don’t you think it is a bit strange that in a class of 59 students, there’s only one human being?” This was enough for my daughter. She never raised the topic again.

Both my daughters chose their partners and are well-settled in life. My elder daughter recently confided to me that though she initially felt odd and “out of place” without a religion, she was very happy later that she had not been indoctrinated and labelled.

She continues to be happy as a human being.

If all religions are the same or equal, why do we need to convert people from one religion to another?

Historically, is it not a fact that religious bigotry has been the cause of more bloodshed and violence in this world than anything else?

Why do we need such a divisive, disruptive entity in our lives?

I have but smattering knowledge of a few religions, from what I have read, heard and seen.

I confess I don’t really understand why we should let religion play such an important role in our lives. I’m amazed at people’s observance of khap panchayat edicts and fatwas.

Can someone please enlighten me?

(The writer is a multi-faceted personality who believes in responding with compassion and hope to the difficult situations in life.)

Is a problem bothering you and you are unable to decide what to do? Write in to us at wayforward@goldensparrow.com for advice and suggestions from C Ravindranath

TH E EDIT PAGE I was worth about over a million dollars when I was twenty-three and over ten million dollars when I was twenty-four, and over a hundred million dollars when I was twenty-five and it wasn’t that important because I never did it for the money.

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 8, 2014

PUNE

Editor’s pick ��IV�S ARE �UT �N ��A�K ��N�Y ���UE

- Steve Jobs , founder, Apple Inc.

Celebrating the spirit of entrepreneurship It is indeed an occasion for celebration with reports that Pune has taken a lead over megametros such as Mumbai and Delhi and IT city Hyderabad when it comes to product start-ups launched in the country.

The Indian Software Product Industry Roundtable (iSPIRIT) recently announced that Bangalore is the only city ahead of Pune in this category. What this suggests is that the soil for innovation and creativity is fertile in our city and an ecosystem conducive for start-ups is taking deep roots.

The city’s profi le, in the process, is being enhanced with an added dimension.

What is helping promote this culture of entrepreneurship is the heady mix of education, IT, industry and the presence of the youth in large numbers in all these sectors. At the heart of the matter is the changing Indian mindset wherein people of all agegroups, especially the young, are no longer daunted by the challenge of entrepreneurshp.

We are living in an age driven

by Information & Communication Tecnology (ICT) and the Knowledge Economy where creative ideas can be transformed into successful businesses without the infusion of high capital. A family history in business, which used to be a prerequisite for setting out on your own, is also no longer necessary.

One can start afresh and step into the world of innovation and entrepreneurship. The risk-takers who persevere and succeed stand driven

by a vision in which they are creating wealth for themselves and their nation, generating jobs and helping boost the economy.

What led to the success of start-ups in Pune; what lies in the future and what needs to be done to ignite and nurture the spirit of entrepreneurship in the city would be discussed threadbare during the PuneConnect event today at Hotel Westin.

Recognising the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship in Pune, The Golden Sparrow on Saturday took the lead in dedicating an entire page to report on start-ups in the city.

Young people want guidance to become successful entrepreneurs and this stands reflected in the latest weekly column, Start-up Mentor

by Vishwas Mahajan, president, TiE (Pune chapter) in this edition.

Replying to a question from a young student, Mahajan is found guiding him on what it means to become an entrepreneur in a world that is full of uncertainities.

Organised by the Software Exporters Association of Pune’s (SEAP), this is the fourth, annual PuneConnect event which provides a forum for start-ups in the city and helps them interact with each other and fi nd buyers and investors. It’s also an occasion to take stock on the progress made and deliberate on the steps necessary for the future.

Th is mega-meet deserves Pune’s fullest support and we wish it a big success. @TGSWeekly editor_tgs@goldensparrow.com

PMC must maintain pedestrian subways It is a matter of distress that at a time when crossing roads is extremely difficult in Pune, the few pedestrian subways that exist in various parts of the city lie in a state of utter neglect.

A survey by this newspaper has revealed that most pedestrian subways in the city are of no use to the public because they have been either kept closed or are in such shabby conditions that they are unfit for use.

Often dark and dingy, the subways are rarely cleaned and almost always without security guards due to which people, especially women, don’t feel safe using them.

In one particular case, one part of a subway was being used as a urinal in the absence of a public toilet in the neighbourhood. Th is is unpardonable to say the least.

If subways are not being used because of the state in which they are, foot over-bridges (FoB) have also become dead investments because people fi nd it convenient to cross the road rather than take the trouble of climbing up and down a FoB. One can understand the reluctance of the elderly to use FoBs, but when

no one uses them, it is primarily the failure of the traffic planning department of the PMC and the traffic police more than anyone else.

The police and the PMC need to ensure that the FoBs are used in places where they are erected rather than allow the pedestrians to cross the road in speeding traffic, thus risking accidents. All it requires is being strict with pedestrians who insist on crossing the road even where an FoB has been provided.

In the case of subways, it is the responsibility of the PMC to ensure that they are in working condition, kept clean and provided with security guards at either ends to ensure pedestrian safety. Th is cost of maintenance should be factored into the cost of the project itself and a situation must never be allowed to emerge in which a subway turns into a dead investment.

Ward offices must be held responsible for the maintenance of subways. The ultimate responsibility of course, is that of the municipal commissioner. It fi nally reflects on how efficient is this officer in getting his staff to do its duty diligently.

Vol-1* lssue No.: 21 Printed and Published by: PRI – Media Services Private Limited CIN: U22222MH2012PTC232006 on behalf of Golden Sparrow Publishing Pvt. Ltd. CIN:U22200PN2014PTC151382 Printed at Diligent Media Corporation Ltd., Plot No. EL-201, TTC Industrial Area, MIDC, Mahape, Navi Mumbai.

Published at Golden Sparrow Publishing Pvt. Ltd. 1641, Madhav Heritage, Tilak Road, Pune-411 030, Tel: 020-2432 4332/33.

Editor: Abhay Vaidya (Responsible for the selection of news under the PRB Act, 1867)

Cartoon by: Sandeep Adhwaryu, The Sunday Guardian

After foreign equity, realty industry needs funds

BY VINOD BEHL The government’s recent policy initiative to ease foreign equity norms in construction by reducing the minimum capital requirement from $10 million to $5 million and built-up area from 50,000 sq mts to 20,000 sq mts may well provide a lifeline for fund-starved, debt-ridden property developers. Yet, more reforms to boost credit flow are needed to provide a long-term solution to the funding crisis faced by the realty industry.

This development should be seen in the context that availability of funds at a good price has been a big challenge for the real estate sector, especially as banks and other financial institutions have restricted the flow and borrowing from other sources have been expensive.

But with the new move, the cost of funds is likely to become more competitive. It will boost investor sentiment and increase investment flow by specially providing a window to those foreign developers who earlier could not invest due to higher investment cap.

It will also be a boon for small- and medium-size developers to access foreign capital, as these developers holding small land parcels were not eligible for such inflows earlier.

It will also make things easier for those developers who are constrained by the non-availability of bigger land parcels and high cost of land within the

city limits. The relaxation in area and capital norms will provide a fillip to small office, residential and shopping centre projects -- much in demand in Tier-II and Tier-III cities. The exemption of the projects which commit 30 percent of their total cost to affordable housing will give further boost to this segment with highest demand.

Also, the government has done away with the condition of mandatory 50 per cent development in five years from the date of approval and permitted investors to exit on the completion of a project, or after three years from the date of final investment, subject to development of trunk infrastructure.

This is quite an attractive proposition for both current and future investors.

The latest foreign equity reform has further improved the investor sentiment, which has been on the upswing after the installation of corporate-friendly stable government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi that has taken a number of reform initiatives.

It is clearly evident from the foreign investment inflows, which has already jumped 34 percent to $7.23 billion, up from $5.3 billion in 2013-14. Private

equity funding that rose from $670 million in 2013 to $855 million in 2014, during the January-September period, is also an indicator of this. According to an Assocham survey, there is also a onethird rise in enquiries from non-resident Indians for investment in Indian real estate.

Global investors are increasingly looking at property investment in India due to global economic improvement and better transparency and investment climate in India. They also find better investible assets especially in commercial real estate.

Now, especially with India opening up the real estate investment trust (REITs) market, this interest has further grown. According to a KPMG study, of the estimated 350 million sq ft of Grade-A office space, valued at around $65-70 billion across major urban centres, about 80-100 million sq ft, valued at $1520 billion, will be REIT-friendly over the next three years. They are also looking at an immense opportunity thrown up by the Indian government’s decision to develop 100 smart cities which need annual funding of Rs.35,000 crore.

Notwithstanding all this interest of

Global investors are increasingly looking at property investment in India

Deep faith helps overcome fear ANIL K. RAJVANSHI

where tremendous concentration and conviction is required. It is Bhakti Yoga The mystic Ramkrishna Paramhans was in its ultimate form. very fond of telling the following story.

Most people have faith either in A padre went to an island to preach. He themselves, in a chosen religion, science went to a hut of an illiterate villager and or anything else. Faith provides the ego heard him shouting and being angry sense I, an anchor. Hence it allows the with somebody. The villager saw the rest of the mind to become free to focus learned priest and came out and told the on the work at hand. Thus the brain’s padre that he is trying to bathe and put energy is not frittered away in trying his Gopal to sleep but being a naughty to unravel the knots of doubts. If there child he does not listen and hence his is no faith then we tend to question anger. The Padre wanted to see the child everything, which results in waste of and was aghast to find that it was an idol energy and precious memory space of of Lord Krishna. He scolded the villager, brain. It also results in short attention saying that God is formless, span and does not allow us to infinite and beyond such childish focus on any thought for longer playthings. The illiterate villager time. Faith provides stability and thought the learned priest may be security to I, helps it to move right and started taking lessons forward, and hence provides from him. After a couple of purpose and meaning to our months the priest thought that lives. Somehow it also has a his disciple has learned enough mechanism to reduce the fear to follow the right path and sense and deep faith can remove hence left the island by boat. He This is the essence THINK itof completely. must not have gone far when he Bhakti Yoga where the deep was amazed to see the illiterate faith in God gives a tremendous villager coming running after him and feeling of security. Deep faith also has shouting him to stop the boat. When the been the basis of extraordinary efforts disciple reached the boat he was crying by great leaders of the world who have and told the padre that he had forgotten moved in unknown areas fearlessly and the name of the formless God and hence discovered great truths. Since the fear could not recite the name and pray. The sense can be removed it is also possible priest was speechless and finally asked that deep faith may help fight depression the disciple how he could come running and may provide general feeling of well on water. The disciple replied “After being. you left I became very agitated because Faith is always blind. It cannot be I forgot the name of the God and so rationalized. Different people have started crying. My Gopal told me to go different faiths. However one should not and ask you his name”! try to change other person’s faith. Doing Deep faith has produced miracles it is like shaking the foundation of the all through the history of mankind and core belief, since it takes a long time to in all religions. It is like a deep thought develop deep faith. As long as that faith

does not lead to violence or harm others in any way, it should be left alone. If it helps someone achieve something in life it is worthwhile for him or her to have the faith.

Nevertheless some of the most heinous crimes in the history of mankind have been committed in the name of faith. Whether it is religion, or ism or way of life - the result is the same since one group or people try to impose their faith or belief on others. Almost all the major conflicts world over are because of this imposition. This imposition of faith comes from our arrogance to control everything in the world. We should try to control ourselves, our actions and become better human beings. Once each individual becomes a better human being then it will have a multiplier effect on others who come in contact with such evolved beings. This will help make the world a better place to live.

Faith is also a great enabling force.

Major efforts of mankind have been driven by faith - whether in making great masterpieces like Pyramids, Taj Mahal, great temples, churches etc. or even sending the man to the Moon. This force should be harnessed for betterment of mankind and making this world a better place to live. Hence faith should not be based on any religion or creed but should be pan humanistic and based on the belief that we can help this world by making ourselves better human beings and not by controlling others. © Anil K Rajvanshi The writer is director, Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute, Phaltan, Maharashtra. He may be reached at anilrajvanshi@gmail.com

foreign investors in Indian real estate, the big question is if the foreign equity alone is the answer to massive funding requirement? Considering the current shortage of 19 million homes -- and to achieve the goal of housing for all by 2022 -- one needs close to Rs.16.5 trillion ($275 billion) per year for the next eight years, whereas currently housing development is getting less than Rs.8 trillion ($135 billion) of annual investment.

The challenge becomes all the more enormous as the real estate sector has been facing a crisis on household savings, equity funding and bank credit -- the three main sources of real estate funding.

One is hopeful the government, which is reviewing foreign investment policies for limited liability partnerships, will soon lift curbs and provide automatic access to foreign investors via these entities in sectors like real estate where 100 per cent foreign equity is permitted. The newer emerging investment vehicle of commercial mortgage-based securities also holds promise. By proposing to bring in amended Land Acquisition Act and Real Estate Regulatory Bill in the upcoming winter session of Parliament, the government will be further making the investment environment conducive for investors.

(Vinod Behl is editor of Realty Plus, a leading real estate monthly. The views expressed are personal.)

IANS

Limericks of the week

BY C RAVINDRANATH

Betting, among other things Now plagues the super kings It’s sad that the sport Has gone to the court But this is what money brings!

The son-in-law supreme Can skim off the cream Without fear He is here To pursue his own dream!

Their horns the parties lock And each other they mock But to some Delhi’s become The nation’s laughing stock!

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 8, 2014

PUNE

With selections from The New York Times

“It’s not me who opened the Wall. It’s the East German citizens who gathered that evening” — Harald Jäger (Former East German Officer at the Berlin Wall)

Dudu or Trezeguet?

Biggest headache for FC Pune City manager P 15

Abracadabra! Magic may lurk inside us all DAVID PLUNKERT/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Our minds subconsciously associate an image with an object.

When something happens to the image, we experience a gut-level intuition that the object has changed as well

BY C NATHAN DEWALL How many words does it take to know you’re talking to an adult? In “Peter Pan,” JM Barrie needed just five: “Do you believe in fairies?”

Such belief requires magical thinking. Children suspend disbelief.

They trust that events happen with no physical explanation, and they equate an image of something with its existence. Magical thinking was Peter Pan’s key to eternal youth.

The ghouls and goblins that haunt All Hallows’ Eve also require people to take a leap of faith. Zombies wreak terror because children believe that the once-dead can reappear. At haunted houses, children dip their hands in buckets of cold noodles and spaghetti sauce. Even if you tell them what they touched, they know they felt guts.

And children surmise that with the right Halloween makeup, costume and demeanor, they can frighten even the most skeptical adult.

We do grow up. We get jobs. We have children of our own. Along the way, we lose our tendencies toward magical thinking.

Or at least we think we do. Several streams of research in psychology, neuroscience and philosophy are converging on an uncomfortable truth: We’re more susceptible to magical thinking than we’d like to admit.

Consider the quandary facing college students in a clever demonstration of magical thinking. An experimenter hands you several darts and instructs you to throw them at different pictures. Some depict likable objects (for example, a baby), others are neutral (for example, a face-shaped circle). Would your performance differ if you lobbed darts at a baby?

It would. Performance plummeted when people threw the darts at the baby. Laura A King, the psychologist

at the University of Missouri who led this investigation, notes that research participants have a “baseless concern that a picture of an object shares an essential relationship with the object itself.”

Paul Rozin, a psychology professor at the University of Pennsylvania, argues that these studies demonstrate the magical law of similarity. Our minds subconsciously associate an image with an object. When something happens to the image, we experience a gut-level intuition that the object has changed as well.

Put yourself in the place of those poor college students. What would it feel like to take aim at the baby, seeking to impale it through its bright blue eye?

We can skewer a picture of a baby face.

We can stab a voodoo doll. Even as our conscious minds know we caused no harm, our primitive reaction thinks we tempted fate.

How can well-educated people - those who ought to know better struggle to throw a dart at a piece of paper? Some philosophers argue that magical thinking is, in some ways, adaptive.

Tamar Gendler, a philosopher at Yale University, has coined the term “aliefs” to refer to innate and habitual reactions that may be at odds with our conscious beliefs - as when pictures of vipers, snarling dogs or crashing airplanes make our hearts race.

Aliefs motivate us to take or withhold action. You might enjoy sweets, but would you eat a chocolate bar shaped like feces? Rozin and his colleagues showed that college students would not, though they knew it would not harm them. Our conscious beliefs tell us to shape up, use our wits and act rationally. But our subconscious aliefs set off deeply ingrained reactions that protect us from disease. The alief often wins.

Several streams of research in psychology, neuroscience and philosophy are converging on an uncomfortable truth: Humans are more susceptible to magical thinking than they’d like to admit

We may have evolved to be this way - and that is not always a bad thing. We enter the world with innate knowledge that helped our evolutionary ancestors survive and reproduce. Babies know mother from stranger, scalding heat

from soothing warmth. When we grow up, our minds cling to that knowledge and, without our awareness, use it to try to make sense of the world.

Can magical beliefs offer a window into the aggressive mind? My

colleagues and I examined this idea in recent research published in the journal Aggressive Behavior. In one illustrative study, 529 married Americans were shown a picture of a doll and were told that it represented their spouse.

They could insert as many pins into the doll as they wished, from zero to 51.

Participants also reported how often they had perpetrated intimate partner violence, which included psychological aggression and physical assault.

Voodoo dolls can measure whether your romantic partner is “hangry” that dangerous combination of hunger and anger. If we let our blood sugar drop, it becomes harder to put the brakes on our aggressive urges. In a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, we showed that on days when their blood sugar dropped, married people stabbed the voodoo doll with more pins.

Do people take the voodoo doll seriously? If they don’t, their responses should not relate to actual violent behavior. But they do. The more pins people used to stab the voodoo doll, the more psychological and physical aggression they perpetrated.

Stabbing a voodoo doll can also satisfy the desire for vengeance, another study found. When German students imagined an upsetting situation, they began to see the world through blood-colored glasses, increasing their tendency to ruminate on aggressionrelated thoughts. Stabbing a voodoo doll that represented the provocateur returned their glasses to their normal hue. By quenching their aggressive appetite, magical beliefs enabled provoked students to satisfy their aggressive goal without harming anyone.

Yes, children believe in magic because they don’t know any better.

Peter Pan never grew up because he embraced magical beliefs. But such beliefs make for more than happy Halloweeners and children’s books.

They give a glimpse into how the mind makes sense of the world.

We can’t overcome magical thinking. It is part of our evolved psychology. Our minds may fool us into thinking we are immune to magical thoughts. But we are only fooling ourselves. That’s the neatest trick of all. © 2014 New York Times News Service

Even ogres can learn to cry Reading Dylan Thomas at 100 Icelandic strongman Hafthor Julius Bjornsson has learned to express feelings and emotions for ‘Game of Thrones’ and wants to become an actor

BY SAM BORDEN

ANDREW TESTA/THE NEW YORK TIMES

BY KATRIN BENNHOLD LAUGHARNE, WALES: Down the footpath from his writing shed, along the curve of the water and up the hill, you see what the poet Dylan Thomas once saw: tall birds on the “heron priested shore,” a “sea wet church the size of a snail” atop the ridge, the castle ruin to your left still “brown as owls.”

“Poem in October,” in which Thomas reflects on his 30th birthday, unfolds verse after verse as you walk through the landscape that made him, and that he remade in turn, culminating with a final clifftop exclaim: “O may my heart’s truth still be sung on this high hill in a year’s turning.”

Thomas died young, at 39, after boasting that he had downed 18 straight whiskeys (“I believe that’s the record”) in New York in 1953.

In October, he would have turned 100. His small country, long ill at ease with its hardliving, hard-loving son who wrote in English, The bedroom of poet Dylan Thomas, who died at 39 in New York, in Swansea, Wales. The country not in Welsh, and caricatured his roots as much has long been ill at ease with its hard-living, hard-loving son who wrote in English, not in Welsh, and caricatured his roots as much as he claimed them as he claimed them, is celebrating perhaps its greatest poet.

Thomas has been Clarke said. lessons by his father as a boy, Thomas was long called the James Joyce of Many here say considered too English for the Welsh and too Wales and compared to Thomas’ poetry has been Welsh for the English. (“He belongs to the his own hero, John Keats. denied the recognition it English,” the Welsh nationalist Saunders Lewis He wrote some of the most deserves on teaching plans scoffed.) recognizable verse of the and in academic circles.

Refocusing public attention on his work 20th century: “Do not go The colorful stories of his has been one of the aims of the centenary, said gentle into that good night/ drinking and womanizing Hannah Ellis, president of the Dylan Thomas Rage, rage against the dying - some true, some invented Society of Great Britain and a patron of this of the light.” (often by himself) - might year’s events. (The other being, no doubt, to Gillian Clarke, the have contributed to a make him the tourist attraction that Joyce national poet of Wales James Dean-like notoriety has long been in Ireland. Thomas’ melancholy who grew up in this part of in the United States, where portrait now appears on everything from west Wales, traces her own he counts two former whiskey bottles to aprons.) poetic awakening to the presidents, Bill Clinton It is a personal quest for Ellis, 36, who day she first heard Thomas and Jimmy Carter, among shares the poet’s short build and unruly locks. read on the BBC, his voice A painting by Gordon Stuart of Dylan his fans. (Carter was The daughter of Thomas’ daughter Aeronwy, she done not long before the summoning her 15-year-old Thomas, instrumental in winning discovered her grandfather’s work only five years poet’s death self to “the sloeblack, slow, Thomas a memorial stone, ago when she lost a baby and her mother, and black, crowblack fishboatbelatedly, in Poets’ Corner then had a son. She found comfort in Thomas’ bobbing sea” that she too knew so well. “He in Westminster Abbey, in 1982.) “timeless wisdom” about life and death and birth takes from and gives back to the landscape and But that reputation appalled many in Wales, and God, she said. Ellis, a schoolteacher, wants the language, until the place speaks the poetry as did Thomas’ flawless English accent. Denied his work to be taught more widely and creatively. © 2014 New York Times News Service as much as the poetry voices the landscape,” the Welsh language and sent to elocution ANDREW TESTA/THE NEW YORK TIMES

REYKJAVIK, ICELAND: The Mountain is crying, and it looks like a thunderstorm, a shaking of colossal shoulders and a soaking of tears. Hafthor Julius Bjornsson, known to most as Thor and to anyone who watches “Game of Thrones” as the Mountain, is acting, or at least trying to show that he resembles a skilled thespian as much as he does a refrigerator.

At 206 cm and about 180 kilograms, Bjornsson, 25, knows this will always be a stretch. But during his recent audition for the role of a villain in a James Bond film, Bjornsson had to do more than just be the ogre he is on “Game of Thrones.” He had to change emotions quickly, to show he could switch easily from tough to sympathetic, from sinister to stunned.

So on a recent afternoon, he agrees to a quick demonstration. Show me happy. Show me sad. Show me tender.

Show me I’m-about-to-rip-your-headoff. Bjornsson laughs, particularly when he makes his brief attempt at waterworks, but the lines on his face really do bend into genuine smiles and frowns. He is not, it seems, actually made of steel.

Still, he knows his acting skills are far from perfect. As an Icelandic strongman best known for lifting cars or tugging trucks or throwing barrels, Bjornsson had no particular inclination toward movies or TV. He didn’t even reply to the first email he received from a “Game of Thrones” producer because he thought the message was a joke.

But when the producers finally reached him and said they were seriously looking for another person to play the role of the Mountain (Bjornsson is the third behemoth to do so), he was intrigued. His role is not

heavy with dialogue. Swordplay is important, though. Doing the scene “felt strange for me,” Bjornsson, generally a peaceful sort, says. As an actor, though, he quickly realized he needed to be more dispassionate.

On the move About five years ago, Bjornsson became a professional, competing in events like the World’s Strongest Man. A year ago, he made his debut on “Game of Thrones” and became an overnight star. To keep his weight up, Bjornsson generally eats every two hours, often consuming 10,000 calories in a day. He enjoys spinach - which he often eats raw - as well as chicken, beef, salmon and sweet potatoes. Then there is his weightlifting routine.

The allure of strength Bjornsson has won numerous Icelandic and continental competitions and finished second at this year’s World’s Strongest Man, losing by a half-point to a Lithuanian. That loss eats at Bjornsson because strength is currency in Iceland. Children hear the saga of Grettir the Strong, a tale believed to date to around the 14th century that describes a famous Icelandic outlaw who does some good (he kills a notorious ghost), but also wreaks havoc through violence. Gudmundur Saemundsson, a lecturer in sports and culture at the University of Iceland, says that “the thing about Grettir is that he does not know his own strength.” Yes, the Mountain wants to be an actor. But he also wants what every boy on this island does.

To be even bigger. © 2014 New York Times

A century after his birth, the poet and writer lives on...

MONEY MATT ER S “Reform is the art of the possible. There is a lot that has to be done. I am quite satisfied with the beginning we have made but it’s a long journey.”

—Arun Jaitley, finance minister

Modi ranked 15th on Forbes power list

Renewable energy firm gets more fund The government on Wednesday approved the rise of capital share in Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) from the existing level of Rs 1,000 crore to Rs 6,000 crore. According to a statement released after a cabinet meeting, the funding will be infused, as and when required, based on level of operations.

During the 12th Five Year Plan, the government has targeted 30,000 MW from various renewable energy projects, of which IREDA aims to finance projects of an aggregate capacity of 4,800 MW.

Financial revival of 23 DCCBs approved The financial revival of 23 unlicenced district central cooperative banks (DCCBs) in four states, including Maharashtra, was approved by the Centre on Wednesday. According to a cabinet statement, of the 23 banks, 16 are located in Uttar Pradesh, three in Jammu and Kashmir, three in Maharashtra and one in West Bengal.

NOVEMBER 8, 2014

“I believe India is the largest country in the world without any kind of mass tourism. It has a reputation with legacy hotels, but lacks critical mass of foreign tourists.”

—Simon Cooper, president Asia Pacific, Marriott Hotels

Everybody suggests which stocks to buy. What to avoid is equally important. Here is how to identify stocks that you should avoid

BY R BALAKRISHNAN

I have been writing about various factors to consider while picking stocks. This column is about how to reject stocks while choosing. The first and most important requirement is that the money you invest in stocks should be the money you can afford to totally ignore for at least 10, if not 20, years. Ideally, this is money that you plan to leave behind for your children in the form of stocks (barring unforeseen circumstances).

Also, do not get into stocks, if you are the type who will look at prices every day and worry about the value of your portfolio. Clearly, you should not be in the stock market at all, in that case, your desire notwithstanding.

I hold the ROE (return on equity) to be the most important criterion. I would like it be steady to improving. Generally, my attempt is to focus more on cash flows rather than mere earnings. For instance, in any industry, you can avoid providing for bad debts and show earnings.

However, the cash flow picture would be terrible. I give high weightage to management competence and integrity.

I also like to see companies that have the potential to grow at more than the pace at which the economy grows. For instance, if we expect industry to grow at 10% and inflation to be 5%, then the company has to grow at more than 15%.

Financial analysis is simple; but it needs time and effort. I usually like to sit with at least three years’ annual reports. Unfortunately, over time, I have witnessed annual reports becoming more opaque. Less and less of financial information is shared with investors.

Finally, after making an investment, if you realise you have made a mistake, get

Let me begin by listing what to avoid. Since I am more of a pessimist, l will start with the characteristics I dislike. I rule out companies with these characteristics:

1

10

No dividend: A genuinely profitable company should pay out dividends. If the company does not pay dividends, in spite of showing profits year after year, something is amiss.

Suspect management integrity: This is the most subjective feature and, in most cases, it would turn out to be a question of degree rather than principle. I have hardly come across any company which will pass total muster on this score.

2

Low tax or no tax outgo: If the profit is real, the company ought to be paying taxes; it simply cannot avoid taxes.

11

Super-normal profitability: In most cases, this happens at a nascent stage, just around the time a company goes public and is planning further fund raising. If the whole industry is making 10% of sales as profit and someone is making 25%, I am instinctively sceptical. This is certainly a red flag.

3

High debt: In a good year, a debt-laden business will earn higher than the interest cost, but it could be in trouble in a bad year. If the company passes muster on all other criteria, maybe I will probe further; but, in general, high leverage is a red flag.

4

Family-managed: Indian firms are generally family-owned and are passed down from father to son, like heirlooms; corporate governance be damned. Typically, in the third generation, the number of claimants increase leading to poor management and siphoning of funds.

Choose wisely

5

6

Change of auditors: Investigate such cases thoroughly. If not satisfied with the reasons, avoid the company.

7

Advertises even though not consumer-facing: Companies that advertise even if they are not in consumer-facing usually do so for non-business reasons.

16

rid of it immediately, without bothering about the price. Do not sell unless you really need the money or have a better use for the money in terms of returns. If

BY YOGESH SAPKALE

Price range: Rs 1,000 to Rs 5,000 Features available (depending on brand): Single/double SIM, FM, Camera, Torch Basic phone Model

Price*

Unique Selling Point (USP)

handsets costing less than Rs10,000, costing between Rs10,001 to Rs20,000 and those above Rs20,000 onwards, respectively. However, you will invariably find that these offers are only on specific handsets, not the one you wish to buy.

Don’t get lured by the flip cover offer. Two things to remember: the price shown in ads is always on the higher side and the same flip cover can be bought 60-70 per cent cheaper from a small shop

you hold an investment for more than a decade or so, then the dividend income generally is quite substantial compared to your original cost.

or even from roadside stalls. One of my friends was so happy to have bought flip cover at Rs1,100 against the standard quoted price of Rs2,500. However, the same cover is available for as cheap as Rs300 in smaller shops.

Here are some guidelines that would help you to make a decision.

Note that most smartphones come with touch screens, hence not specifically mentioned it in features, only screen size is written. The meaning of terms used are: DC- Dual Core/ QC-Quad core processor; 2.2Ghz QC, 2GB, 16GB = 2.2Ghz quad core processor, 2GB RAM, 16GB internal memory; MP = megapixel or one million pixels; Full HD R = Full HD Recording.

Disclaimer: *All amounts mentioned above are estimated street prices and subject to change as per market conditions and location. @moneylife.in

Price Range: Rs 5,001 to Rs 10,000 Features available: Touch screen, Single/Dual SIM (dual standby), email, better camera, wide screens Smartphone

Samsung Guru 1200 Rs1,050 8-hrs talk time, Torch Nokia 105

Rs1,165

12-hrs talk time, Torch, 3.5mm audio jack

Model

Price*

Karbonn K101

Rs950

Dual SIM, Mobile Tracker, Torch

Karbonn A11+

Rs5,299 Dual SIM, Android 4, 4.7” screen, 3.2MP

Nokia C5-05

Rs6,199

Symbian 9.4, 3.2” screen, 2MP, Multimedia

Byond Phablet PIII

Rs7,425

6” screen, 8MP, Dual SIM, Android 4.1.1

Nokia Lumia 510

Rs7,599

Win 7.5 OS, 4” screen, 5MP, Multimedia

Sony Xperia E

Rs6,999 3.5” screen, 3.2MP, Multimedia, Android 4.1

Micromax Bolt X088 Rs1029 Dual SIM, Email, Music, Video, FM (recording) iBall Aasaan

Rs2,724 Best for senior citizens, but pricey Feature phone

Model

Price*

Unique Selling Point (USP)

Samsung Metro E2202 Rs2,290 Dual SIM, Email, Music, Video, FM Nokia 114

Rs2,599 Dual SIM, Email, Music, Video, FM (recording)

Karbonn K75

Rs2,640 Dual SIM, 3.5” touch screen, Music, Video, FM Smartphone

Model

Price*

Unique Selling Point (USP)

Unique Selling Point (USP)

BlackBerry Curve 8530 Rs8,490 CDMA, 3G, 2MP, QWERTY, 2.5” screen, BB5 OS Nokia Lumia 520

Rs8,149

Karbonn S5 Titanium

Rs9,850 5” qHD IPS, 8MP, 1.2GHz QC, 1GB RAM

Samsung Trend S7392

Rs7,999 4” Touch screen, Android JB, 3MP, Wi-Fi

Samsung Galaxy Star Rs4,599 Dual SIM, Android, Touch screen, Multimedia

4” IPS screen, 5MP, Win 8 OS, HD recording

Feature phone

Nokia Asha 501

Rs4,649 Dual SIM, 3.2MP, Touch screen, Multimedia

Model

Price*

Unique Selling Point (USP)

Nokia Asha 210

Rs4,699 Dual SIM, QWERTY keypad, Multimedia, Email

Nokia 301

Rs5,399

Dual SIM, 3.2MP, Email, Series 40 OS

Samsung Primo S5610

Rs5,500

5MP, Email, Multimedia

Karbonn Smart A2+ Rs4,650 Dual SIM, Android, 4” Touch screen, Wi-Fi

Consolidated accounts: In today’s funny accounting world, I am also wary of the term ‘consolidated accounts’, when it includes profit shares of entities that are not 100% owned by the company. And the companies do not even show the accounts of the subsidiaries on their websites!

9

A little adjustment in the budget and preferences will help you get the best deal at every shopping opportunity

what is the point in wanting to buy a phone with a 13-megapixel camera with full HD recording features? Moreover, pictures taken with a 5MP or 8MP camera are also pretty good, especially for causal photography and keepsakes.

Now, let me tell you something about free offers. These are mostly misleading.

A very big player in electronics market offers freebies worth Rs1,000, Rs2,000 and Rs3,000 on the purchase of mobile

14

8

Promoter has unlisted companies in the same business: Companies where the promoter has several other unlisted companies which siphon profits. Most Indian promoters do this.

A ‘Me-Too’ company: The company I choose should be clearly number-one, or number-two, in its business.

Only when you pick companies that are in new segments (so-called ‘sunrise’ industries, like bio-technology, etc) can you look at small players. There is no point looking at a small player in the textiles business or FMCG business.

Avoid over-regulated industries: Given the circumstances, it will not be possible to dismantle controls on industries such as fertilisers, oil, etc. In general, government interference (like in banks), generally, makes an investment less attractive; the event of government getting out completely from any company would make it more attractive.

15

Professionals acting like fiefs: A company that is managed by so-called professionals, who treat it like a fiefdom, engage in random diversifications and award huge stock options.

12

13

Equity dilution: Companies, which show profits year after year, but do not pay dividends and yet keep raising equity regularly, will not enhance value.

How to buy the best mobile phone?

So you have finally decided to gift yourself a brand new mobile. However, with so many offers and thousands of handset models to choose from, you are finding it difficult to zero in on something within your budget that still gives you all the latest features possible. Well, you are at the right place to make your decision.

Buying mobile, especially a smartphone, requires a focus on two important things: your budget and the features you consider a ‘must-have’ in your new mobile. I have used and tested numerous mobiles from all major handset makers, as well as the Chinese manufacturers and I can say with some confidence that if you are willing to make little compromise on price or features you can often get the best deal.

For example, if you do not use the camera feature of your mobile very often, then

PUNE

Sixteen features of stocks to avoid

Signpost

Prime minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday joined the world’s most powerful people ranking 15th on the Forbes list with Russian president Vladimir Putin once again beating US president Barack Obama to the top spot. “India’s newest rock star doesn’t hail from Bollywood. He is the newly elected prime minister who sailed into office in May with a landslide victory, ushering the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) into power after decades of control by the Gandhi dynasty,” said the US business magazine of Modi.

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY

Geographies matter: I am also allergic to companies from certain geographies. I start with suspicion when companies are from Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Kolkata. This is a personal trait based on my experience and I am not apologetic about it. After all, it is my money. At worst, I may miss an investment opportunity.

Promoter holding: Where the promoter is still in control and he reduces his holdings to below 30%. This, again, is a personal bias and I observe this rule quite strictly.

What I have mentioned above is based my experience. While I do my homework, it is marketplace that decides the price. I keep money handy.

I like to buy when the price is right and not simply because money is burning a hole in my pocket. NEVER borrow, to invest. @moneylife.in

Price Range: Rs 10,001 to Rs 15,000 Features available: Touch screen, Single/Dual SIM (dual standby), email, better camera, good quality screens, Decent RAM Model XOLO X910 Nokia Lumia 610 Nokia Lumia 710 MM Canvas Doodle A111 HTC A620E 8S Samsung Core I8262 Blackberry Curve 9320

Price* Rs10,400 Rs11,199 Rs10,999 Rs10,299 Rs14,799 Rs13,240 Rs13,299

Unique Selling Point (USP) 4.3” qHD IPS, 5MP, 1.6Ghz Intel, 1GB RAM 3.7” screen, 5MP, Win 7.5 OS, micro SIM 3.7” screen, 5MP, Win 7.5 OS, 1.4GHz, 512MB 5.3” screen, 8MP-2MP, 1.2Ghz QC, 512MB 5MP, Win 8 OS, 4” SLCD, 1GHz DC, Gorilla glass 4.3” LCD, 5MP, 1.2Ghz DC, 1GB Ram, 8GB 3.2MP, BB 7.1 OS, QWERTY, 2.44” screen, 3G

Price Range: Rs 15,001 to Rs 20,000 Features available: Touch screen, Single/Dual SIM (dual standby), email, better camera, good quality screens, Decent RAM, Dual and Quad core processor Model HTC Desire XC Nokia Lumia 720 Samsung Grand Quattro MM Canvas4 A210 Sam Glxy Grand Duos MM Canvas Turbo A250

Price* Rs18,299 Rs17,499 Rs15,900 Rs17,499 Rs18,130 Rs19,999

Unique Selling Point (USP) 5MP, 4” LCD, 1Ghz DC, GSM+CDMA, 768MB 4.3”, 6.7MP, 1GHz DC, Win8 OS, Gorilla glass 4.7”, 5MP, 1.2Ghz QC, 1GB RAM, Dual SIM 5” LCD, 13-5MP, 1.2Ghz QC, 1GB RAM, 16GB 8MP, 5”, Dual SIM, 1.2Ghz DC, 1GB RAM, 8GB 5” Full HD, 13MP, 1.5Ghz QC, 2GB RAM, 16GB

Price Range: Rs 20,001 to Rs 30,000 Features available: Touch screen, Super AMOLED or HD display, Single/Dual SIM (dual standby), email, very good camera, 1GB+ RAM, Quad core processor Model Blackberry Q5 Apple iPhone 4 (8GB) Samsung Glxy Mega 5.8 Nokia Lumia 920 Nexus 4 Samsung Galaxy S3 Samsung Glxy S4 Zoom Nokia Lumia 925 Blackberry Z10 HTC One X S720E

Price* Rs24,199 Rs22,900 Rs22,900 Rs23,999 Rs26,290 Rs24,899 Rs26,999 Rs28,999 Rs27,500 Rs28,999

Unique Selling Point (USP) 3.1”, QWERTY, BB10.1, 1.2Ghz, 2GB RAM, 8GB 5MP, 3.5” DVGA, MS Office, Retina display 5.8” qHD, 1.4Ghz DC, 8MP, 1.5GB RAM, 8GB 4.5”, 1.5Ghz DC, 8.7MP, Win8 OS, 1GB RAM 1.5Ghz QC, 2GB, 16GB, 8MP, Google core 1.4Ghz QC, 1GB, 16GB, 4.8”, 8MP-1.9MP 16MP, 4.3”, Full HD, 1.5Ghz QC, 1.5GB, 8GB 1.5Ghz DC, 1GB, 16GB, 8.7MP, 4.5”, Win8 OS BB10 OS, 8MP, 4.2”, 1.5Ghz, 2GB, 16GB 4.7”, 8MP, 1.5Ghz, 1GB, 32GB, Full HD R

Price Range: Above Rs30,001 Features available: Touch screen, Super AMOLED or Full HD display, Single/Dual SIM (dual standby), email, very good camera, 1GB+ RAM, Quad core processor Model Samsung Galaxy Note 2 Sony Xperia Z Samsung Galaxy S4 Sony Xperia Z ultra Apple iPhone 5C (16GB) HTC One Samsung Galaxy Note3 Apple iPhone 5S (16GB) Nokia Lumia 1020

Price* Rs31,500 Rs34,990 Rs40,690 Rs41,600 Rs41,900 Rs48,999 Rs46,899 Rs53,500 Rs46,499

Unique Selling Point (USP) 1.6Ghz QC, 2GB, 16GB, 8MP, 5.55”, S-Pen 5” Full HD, 1.5Ghz QC, 2GB RAM, 16GB, 13MP 5”, 1.6Ghz QC+1.2Ghz QC, Full HD, 13MP 2.2Ghz QC, 2GB, 16GB, 6.4”, Full HD, 8MP iOS7, 4”, 8MP, Full HD, 16GB 4.7”, Dual SIM, 1.7Ghz QC, Ultrapixel Cam 5.7”, 13MP, 1.9Ghz QC+1.3Ghz QC, 3GB, 32GB iOS7, 4”, 8MP, Full HD, 16GB, Retina display 41MP, 4.5” Full HD, Win8 OS, 2GB, 1.5Ghz DC

NOVEMBER 8, 2014

PUNE

SPORTS “I think a World Cup triumph completes the career of a cricketer, and the testament to this are the reactions of Tendulkar when he lifted the World Cup in 2011. ” — Pakistani fast bowling legend Wasim Akram

“ The start of my season was hampered by injuries. I had to take necessary precautions to prevent aggravating my injuries. That stopped me from giving my best.”

— Ace triple jumper Renjith Maheshwary Despite the favourable conditions, most Pune teams have performed poorly or below par in leagues; Will FC Pune City change the scenario?

Stuart Watkiss as head coach PUNE: The Kalyani Group announced the appointment of Stuart Watkiss as the head coach for the group’s football club which will participate in the 2014-15 season of the I-League slated to begin on January 17, 2015.

Watkiss, who holds the UEFA A and B coaching licenses, will join the club from Grimsby Town, a team playing in the Conference Premier division in the United Kingdom. The 48-year-old has more than 450 appearances to his name with clubs like Crewe Alexandra and Mansfield Town among others.

SPORTZPICS

Signposts

BY ASHISH PHADNIS @phadnis_ashish

PUNE: Pune city has rapidly evolved into a sports hub in recent years, local teams featuring in almost every national and state-level league, be it cricket, badminton, football, volleyball and kabaddi. The signs are positive, with corporate groups investing in Pune teams.

With a world-class training facility in the shape of the stadium at Balewadi, large pool of talented local players along with a sprinkling of international stars to add to the glamour, Pune teams were expected to dominate the leagues. But things hasn’t worked out that way yet.

Despite the favourable conditions, most Pune teams have performed poorly or below par, except for the Pune Marathas, who won the inaugural Elite Football League of India (EFLI), a professional American football league, in 2012.

The biggest disappointment for city’s sports enthusiasts was the lacklustre performance of Pune Wariors India in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Owned by Sahara Adventure Sports Limited, the team joined the league in 2011, but fared poorly in three seasons, before pulling out in 2013. The team finished second-last in their inaugural season, with just four wins and nine losses.

Despite signing on international players like Marlon Samuels, Luke Wright, Steve Smith, Tamim Iqbal, James Hopes and Michael Clarke, Pune Warriors couldn’t improve on their performance and finished last in 2012.

In 2013, Sri Lankan all-rounder Angelo Mathews took charge from Sourav Ganguly and Yuvraj Singh joined the team after recovering from cancer.

But, the team remained at the bottom, finishing second-last with just four wins.

Besides the IPL, the Pro Kabaddi League proved to be a huge success in its first edition. With its rich history in

Iyer bags tennis title PUNE: Aditya Iyer emerged winner in the boys under-18 category of Om Dalvi Memorial Century Sports Trophy Talent Series tennis tournament held at PYC Hindu Gymkhana recently. Iyer registered a 6-2, 6-4 win over Sarang Phadnis. A standard X student of Laurel Springs School, Aditya practices at Deccan Gymkhana with Kedar Shah.

He recently won the U-16 Champion Series title in Hyderabad.

Rohit Motwani to lead Maharashtra PUNE: Rohit Motwani will lead Maharashtra in the West Zone One Day league cricket to be held at Ahmedabad from November 9. The team: R Motwani, Harshad Khadiwale, Vijay Zol, Kedar Jadhav, Ankeet Bawane, Nikhil Naik, Sangram Atitkar, Rahul Tripathi, Swapnil Gugale, Nikhil Paradkar, Samad Fallah, Domnic Muthuswami, Anupam Sanklecha, Sajin Sureshnath, Akshay Darekar and Shamsuzama Kazi.

FC Pune City players celebrating a goal

PINCHHITTER MALAY DESAI

K

hub jamega rang jab mil baithenge teen yaar’ was a popular punch line for an alcohol brand when advertising wasn’t surrogate. At Sachin Tendulkar’s book launch last Wednesday night, he was joined by his ‘teen yaars’, Sourav, VVS and Rahul and there was indeed much colour. While you may have seen the obvious bytes and pictures on social and ‘breaking news’ media, let me narrate what may have slipped through.

The passage way to the ballroom at ITC Maratha, a posh hotel near Mumbai’s airport, had picture exhibits of the life and times of the man – on his wedding day, with Yuvraj, in his school days, et al. Once past a scrutinising security guard at the entrance, I entered the venue, neat with minimum frills and a simple, low stage with the cover as the backdrop.

If there was one man who could have strung together the eveningwith careful listening, spontaneous humour minus undue formalities, it was Harsha Bhogale and he did so. The best bits in his commentary were when he pauses for impact and to keep the limelight on the action or the hero, and his compering too was similar. At one point, when the ‘big four’ took stage, he even joked to get off as he ‘didn’t belong there’. Surely he did, for we forget that he’s been among the closest observers of Indian cricket, quite literally, from the mid 90s.

Also on stage, in another segment, were Tendulkar senior, Ajit, and Sachin’s wife Anjali. While Ajit was unpretentious in his heavy Maharashtrian accent (a co-scribe joked that Sachin used to sound like that when he started off!) and Anjali was candid (‘He was cute’,

‘I was chasing a kid, he was just 18,’) and played much the better half through the evening. While discussing their dating days, she mentioned how Sachin said, ‘How can a girl come to my house?’ Referring to her being the ‘girlfriend’, Bhogale was quick to quip, ‘Imagine Virat Kohli saying that!’

While many supporters of Sachin took stage, starting from coach Achrekar to his first Mumbai captain Vengsarkar, Vasu Paranjpe, Sunny Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri, the absence of many others was palpable.

Buddy Vinod Kambli, for one, didn’t feature even in the conversations on stage, Anil Kumble didn’t make it and Tendulkar junior, Arjun wasn’t to be seen either. I’m yet to begin reading the book (more in the next column), but from those who’ve quick-sifted through the 480-page tome, I have heard that there’s no mention of Kambli. There’s only one way to find out.

Importantly, Tendulkar mingled with the guests long after the launch was over, posing and chatting until the hearts of many were full with disbelief. He now has the afterglow of a man who has all the time for new priorities, just like he had before his back foot punches.

By the time you read this, many of you might have your hands on Playing It My Way, which is the most pre-ordered book in India already.

There are two ways of reading it: either you look for and lament about what’s evidently left out of the book (match-fixing, team politics, Azharuddin et al) or you sit back and relive the journey of that bright curlyhaired lad from Shardashram who changed cricket forever.

What’s your way?

kabaddi, the Puneri Paltan was expected to finish in the top three. However, despite the leadership of experienced Vazir Singh and the guidance of top

It is too early to predict if FC Pune City can lay their hands on the trophy.

However, if they succeed, it will be a major encouragement Indian coach Ramphal Kaushik, the team showed a lack of finesse and grit and finished last with just two wins in 14 games. In the Indian Volleyball League which lasted for just one season, in 2011, Pune’s Maratha Warriors did well in the initial stages, but finished last with seven

PUNE TEAMS Pune Warriors India (Indian Premier League) Pune FC (I-League Football) FC Pune City (Indian Super League) Maratha Warriors (Indian Volleyball League) Pune Pistons (Indian Badminton League) Puneri Paltan (Pro Kabaddi League) Pune Strykers (World Series Hockey) Pune Marathas (Elite Football League of India)

wins and 13 losses. The only consolation was that the team’s T Aziz was adjudged as the best blocker.

Pune Pistons bought by Dabar India, did well in the group stages of the Indian Badminton League. Thanks to the fine performance by Germany’s Juliane Schenk, Ashwini Ponnappa and Anup Sridhar, the team finished third, with three wins. However, they failed to perform against Indian ace Saina Nehwal’s Hyderabad Hot Shots, and went down 0-3 in the semi-finals.

The only satisfactory performances were from Pune Strykers in the World Series Hockey. Strykers were the runners-up of the inaugural edition of World Series Hockey. They lost to Shere-Punjab by 2-5 in the final. The team’s penalty corner expert Gurpreet Singh emerged as the top scorer for the team with 12 goals.

Apart from these league-format tournament, one team from Pune has performed impressively. Pune’s first ever I-league team Pune FC, founded in 2007, managed to gain a promotion in 2009. In their first season, the club managed to finish in a very surprising third place, before having their best ever season in 2012–13, finishing in second place.

Now all hopes rest with the Rajesh Wadhawan Group owned FC Pune City. The team, buoyed by their second win at home, is gearing up for upcoming matches in the Indian Super League (ISL). Though, the team has notched just two wins in five encounters, a recent victory over mighty NorthEast United FC, is sure to have boosted their confidence.

Currently, FC Pune City is in fourth spot and with nine matches to go, it is too early to predict if it can lay their hands on the trophy. However, if they succeed, it will be a major encouragement for other corporate groups, seeking to promote sports through the popular leagues. ashish.phadnis@goldensparrow.com

Dudu or Trezeguet? Biggest headache for FC Pune City manager SPORTZPICS

Sach a warm evening @MalayD

League of our own

Colomba has resisted playing them together since their opening 0-5 loss in ISL

SPORTZPICS

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY

BY PULASTA DHAR

Dudu

David Trezeguet and Dudu have started together just once — in FC Pune City’s 0-5 loss to Mumbai City FC. Promptly, and rightly, manager Franco Colomba changed things around for the next match against FC Goa — strengthening his midfield and asking them to pour forward to support the then lacklustre Trezeguet. It worked. In the next three matches, Trezeguet scored twice and his team won six out of a possible nine points at home — fair return for a team which looked very meek in their first two games.

On Monday night, Colomba started with Trezeguet and Ivan Bolado up front, leaving Dudu, a crowd favourite in India, on the bench again. With 25 minutes to go, he brought on the powerful Nigerian for Trezeguet — and it was a game-changing move.

After knocking on the door for 65 minutes without any result, Colomba decided to take his marquee player off. It was a bold move, but everyone could see that Trezeguet was labouring.

The moment Dudu came on, the NorthEast United defence were taken aback with his pressing, his power and his desire to fight for every ball. His first touch was a header between two defenders to John Goossens, who forced a save from TP Rehenesh. Moments later he was involved in the build-up again as Goossens shot straight at Joan Capdevila on the line.

And a few minutes later he found himself with his back to goal, pivoted in a quick motion defying his size and smacked the crossbar with a mighty shot that rebounded for Goossens to head in. Mission accomplished — NorthEast get hit by a sucker punch in the 88th minute and Dudu shows what he can do in the Indian Super League.

In their next match, FC Pune take on Atletico de Kolkata.

The table-toppers have been ruthless in their approach so far.

The match is at Salt Lake stadium — and Dudu, who has 99 goals in Indian football, has played there enough times to know the atmosphere, the conditions and most importantly — the feel of the ground. Trezeguet’s finishing capabilities in comparison to Dudu are light years ahead. He has lifted the World Cup. He is a Juventus legend. But he is eight years older than his teammate and is playing in such harsh conditions in games in such quick succession for the first time in his career.

In Pune’s first two losses, it was apparent that Trezeguet wasn’t getting involved in the game as much as he should. To be fair to him though, he didn’t receive any service. This is a player used to playing with the likes of Pavel Nedved and Alessandro del Piero — he’s not your modern day tracking-back-all-roundattacker. He is old school and relies on positioning himself at the right time in the right place rather than getting involved in build-ups. But for Pune to succeed, Trezeguet needed to come back, get in the game, not stay up in isolation.

David Trezeguet

He corrected that in the coming matches — he was there to collect the long ball, shift play to either flank and gloriously finished two chances against Goa and Kerala Blasters. Even in the win against NorthEast, you could see him drop deep — as close to the half-line as possible and scream at his defence for needlessly playing him in when they could have built play from out wide.

But the tough question had to be asked. Is Pune City a better team on the pitch without Trezeguet?

“You cannot say that. These are two very different players — one a poacher who relies on instinct and movement and the other who relies on his pace and power. Trezeguet is a very good offensive playmaker who can play with his back to goal and Dudu is someone who will run at defences. So it’s a case of two very different type of players — not who is better than the other,” Colomba said.

Throw in Dutchman John Goossens and the dangerous Israel Gurung and it’s clear Colomba has a selection headache in attack. Dropping his marquee player won’t be easy and there’s no guarantee Dudu would have the same impact from the off.

Both strikers add a different set of values to the team — and Colomba has resisted playing them together since their opening loss.

If he continues to resist that option, the evidence is out there — speed and agility and stamina have won games in the ISL — and maybe, just maybe, that is why Dudu may get the nod ahead of Trezeguet when it comes to playing in Kolkata.

- Firstpost

SPORTS “ The tour to Australia in the lead up to the World Cup will be a good opportunity to hone our skills and we will be fully prepared for cricket’s ultimate prize.”

— India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni

Chess tourney for visually impaired PUNE: The Lions Club, Pune will organise a chess competition for the visually impaired at Swayamvar Mangal Karyalaya, Satara Road on November 8 and 9. Six Lions Clubs in Pune will jointly coordinate in organising the event, as well as provide residence for the participants. Around 70 participants from all over the state including Nagpur, Latur, Mumbai and Nashik will compete in this tournament.

The winner of the tournament will receive Rs 7000 while runner up and third placed will get Rs 6000 and Rs 5000 respectively.

T20 cricket league from today PUNE: The inaugural Dajikaka Gadgil Developers Cup Corporate Champions League T20 cricket will be held at the Varroc Vengsarkar Academy in Thergaon from today. Sixteen leading Software Industries from Pune and vicinity will compete in the weekend league that will culminate in the final on December 28. The teams have been divided into four pools of four teams each with the top two from each pool, following round-robin matches, will make it to the quarterfinals. The participating teams include KPIT, Wipro, TCS, Barclays, IBM, Sungard, Amdocs and Syntel.

Training course for badminton umpires PUNE: PDMBA will conduct training course for badminton umpires at PDMBA sports complex, Shivajinagar from Sunday (November 9).

International and national umpires will conduct the course and those who wish to work as umpires in district, state and national tournaments can contact Aniruddha Joshi (9890671662), Hemant Khadilkar (9881252918) or PDMBA office (020-25539172).

BY ASHISH MAGOTRA

When Viswanathan Anand settles down in front of Magnus Carlsen and a chess board at Sochi on November 7, a part of him will heave a huge sigh of relief. It may not show on his face, it may not even show in his play but he’ll allow himself a few satisfying seconds of selfish pride -his amazing comeback journey over the last year already counts as a win and now, he has a chance for revenge.

The laptops are shut for now. The preparation camps are over. The chess pieces have been packed away. Now all India’s Super GM needs to do is beat Norwegian whiz Carlsen and regain the world crown.

It sounds simple enough -- writing the words down that is -- but as we saw during the 2013 World Championship match between Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen, things don’t always go according to plan when the Norwegian is involved.

“Chennai is a closed chapter. Lesson learnt and book closed. Sochi is a new match... a new challenge,” Anand told Firstpost as he embarked on another world championship challenge -- one that no expected him to be capable of.

It is clear that he has elected to banish those memories forever, a match in which Anand never got out of the starting blocks. They sparred in the initial rounds -- Carlsen looked to stretch the games for as long as possible and Anand appearing to just vaguely float away, going where the current would take him.

Then, Carlsen attacked and Anand had no answer. After that, much to the disappointment of all those watching, it became a one-sided battle pretty quickly.

The match was an anomaly, the likes of which the chess world had not seen before. It was expected to be a battle between experience and youth; between generations. But by the time it was over -- Anand seemed to be a broken chess

TGS NEWS SERVICE @TGSWeekly PUNE: Pune FC qualified for a historic final in the prestigious Durand Cup with a stunning 2-1 win over home side Sporting Clube de Goa in the semifinals at the Raia Sports Complex in Raia.

The win was Pune FC’s third in-a-row and helped them qualify for their first ever final in Asia’s oldest football competition in seven years since inception.

They will now face another Goan-side Salgaocar FC in the big final today (Saturday).

The semifinal match was fi lled with drama all throughout. A volleyed goal, a long range strike, a free kick, a controversial penalty and a penalty save all made up for an exciting game of football.

Striker Bineesh Balan (19th minute) opened scoring for Pune FC before Sporting striker Boima Karpeh equalised (23rd) moments later.

However, playmaker Ryuji Sueoka’s strike in the 62nd minute, turned out to be the winner for Pune FC. Contributing to the win was also keeper Amrinder Singh, who saved a penalty kick in the final ten minutes of the game.

Going into the clash, Pune FC coach Karim Bencherifa made three changes handing starts to keeper Amrinder Singh, defender Srikanth

Ramu and medio Lalrempuia Fanai.

Both sides began the game on the offensive and created a few half chances early on in the opening quarter. After a period domination, Pune FC finally took the lead in the 19th minute.

Just as Pune FC relaxed a bit, striker Karpeh made them pay. A misunderstanding between defenders Srikanth Ramu and Saam Ranjan Singh allowed the ex-Pune FC striker to capitalise and he made no mistake in scoring from range to restore parity.

Both sides kept on pressing in the final stages of the first half, but fell short in the final third as the half ended 1-1.

The second half began with Sporting pushing ahead continuously. Having soaked pressure early on in the second half, Pune FC settled down and started creating chances.

In the final half hour, the game turned physical with a lot of tackles flying from both sides. However, Pune FC continued to push ahead and went close on a couple of occasions.

Into the final ten minutes, Sporting were handed a lifeline by the referee who controversially pointed to the spot after Karpeh went down too easily to Luciano Sabrosa’s challenge inside the box. However, Anthony Wolfe’s attempt from the penalty spot was brilliantly saved by keeper Amrinder who dived to his left and impressed further by holding on to the loose ball.

Thereafter, Pune FC kept their calm in the closing stages of the game and held on for a famous win. tgs.feedback@goldensparrow.com

PUNE

“Good Luck Vishy! Conveying my best wishes to our pride, Viswanathan Anand, for the World Chess Championship in Sochi.”

— Prime minister Narendra Modi

‘It’s either him or me in Sochi,’ says Vishy

Pune FC enter Durand Cup final Historic feat for the citybased club, in the Asia’s oldest football competition

NOVEMBER 8, 2014

IANS

Signposts

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY

Viswanathan Anand (L) and Magnus Carlsen during the World Championship round held in Chennai last year

player. His ideas and innovations had winning with a round to spare in the sixcome up short. His preparation had been game round robin event. shown up to be woefully inadequate.

On the other hand, Carlsen doesn’t “It was un-nerving in a sense made seem as invincible as he once was. If me question myself; made me question anything, he seemed a little distracted. my chess. But then I came to the Fabiano Caruana has drawn closer, realisation that worry Veselin Topalov has hit never helps you. The 2800 again. Perhaps, more you think about it, his level isn’t as high the more you get pulled as it was a year back. down in the muck. It’s Perhaps, it’s dropped a like quick sand – the little. And to some, that more you struggle, the is good news for Vishy. faster you sink,” Anand But Anand reckons had told Firstpost in an that these results -interview later. while they give him a lot And then, just of confidence -- count like that, he revived for little in a World himself with some Championship match. stunning chess. He “I was happy to be won the Candidates back in championship without losing a single mode almost months game (the only GM not after Chennai. So I - V Anand to lose a game at the enjoyed training and event) and clinched the preparing for Sochi. It title with a round to spare. In the lead doesn’t matter if you are challenger or a up to the return match against Carlsen, champion. It’s either him or me in Sochi.

Anand also placed a decisive first at the So i’m happy to take my chances,” he category 21 Bilbao Masters (September), said. “I was happy to do well in Khanty

“It was unnerving in a sense and made me question myself; made me question my chess.”

and fairly satisfied with my chess. So I can say I feel positive.”

“In a match, you appear in a different avatar. What you did before isn’t on trial... only the 12 games you play. So I’m not really giving too much importance to his play (earlier in the year),” he further added.

But Carlsen’s downtime -- whether planned or not -- has given Anand a few clues on how to go about beating the Norwegian. And the biggest clue, in a sense, is how Caruana fights Carlsen’s ‘strong end game’ with incredible preparation. While Anand’s thoughts on the matter were a little cryptic, it is clear he has something up his sleeve.

“Ask me after Sochi. Fabiano and I play for the same German league, so we have met a few times,” said Anand.

And that brings us to the venue.

Sochi is a far cry from Chennai. Carlsen had a problem with it, Anand didn’t seem to care. Some have even attributed Carlsen’s middling year to issues he had with the venue. But in a sense, Anand too would be glad not to be playing in India.

The pressure of playing at home last year round was immense. Every little move

After winning the Candidates Masters flawlessly, what India’s Super GM needs to do is beat Norwegian whiz Magnus Carlsen and regain the world crown SCHEDULE Game 1 - November 8 (Sat) Game 2 - November 9 (Sun) Rest day - November 10 (Mon) Game 3 - November 11 (Tue) Game 4 - November 12 (Wed) Rest day - November 13 (Thu) Game 5 - November 14 (Fri) Game 6 - November 15 (Sat) Rest day - November 16 (Sun) Game 7 - November 17 (Mon) Game 8 - November 18 (Tue) Rest day - November 19 (Wed) Game 9 - November 20 (Thu) Game 10 - November 21 (Fri) Rest day - November 22 (Sat) Game 11 - November 23 (Sun) Rest Day - November 24 (Mon) Game 12 - November 25 (Tue) Rest day - November 26 (Wed) Tie-break games - Nov 27 (Thu) was followed by millions and criticised.

It was probably the most attention he has ever been at the center of. This will be very different.

“Well, I played badly in Chennai and I didn’t need anyone to tell me I was playing badly so I didn’t really care too much of what was being said,” said Anand. “Funnily enough, I didn’t even know it (arguments over the Sochi venue) was happening. I got to know much later that there was some issue when I was at Bilbao. So I wasn’t aware about what the issue really was.”

“Before each championship, I have always done a lot of physical training and 2013 was no different but I guess it was talked about more. I have been keeping a strict physical regimen. You never really switch off,” said Anand. “There are times, you’ve been at a safari and looking at a lion and you think ‘Of course, bh4 is the key move’ and then you look back at the lions and then enjoy it. You are always have like two cores running.”

– Firstpost

‘We need more tournaments like such leagues’ Eight international and 40 national riders will be seen in action in CEAT Supercross League in Nashik from today

BY ASHISH PHADNIS @phadnis_ashish PUNE: Former national motocross champion Yogesh Barguje is representing San Racing team in the CEAT Pune Invitational Supercross League. The rider who is making a comeback to supercross event after a gap of one year, spoke about the leagues, challenges and recent performances.

Excerpts..

ABOUT THE SUPERCROSS LEAGUE We all are very excited about this league. This is totally different from the regular events. For the first time the riders are participating as a franchisebased groups. The corporate groups have shown enthusiasm in buying the teams and riders. This will definitely help the budding riders in India and will prove beneficial for the future of motocross in India. However, I feel there should be more such events. This year, the organisers have transformed the event into a three-city league – Nashik, Pune and Kolhapur. But, as a rider, we would like to see more legs next year. If we could get at least 5-6 leges, then will be able to get more tournament practice and fair chance to prove ourselves.

ABOUT THE TEAMS The team owners have chosen the team wisely and there is no weak or strong team. All the teams are well balanced and it will be thriller when these best teams will clash against each other.

Every team has got a best international

Vishal Barguje is all set for his return to Supercross event

rider in the MX1 category. Even in the MX2 segment, the riders like Jignesh Patel, Ganesh Lokhande and Jatin Jain will give a tough fight.

ABOUT COMEBACK TO SUPERCROSS Yes, I am coming back to supercross after a gap of almost a year, that too in the MX2 category. I have always participated in Indian category (MX3) in my entire career, but this is for the first time I will be testing the waters in a foreign category. I will by trying my hand on Honda CR250 and I am quite excited about it. I underwent few rigorous practice sessions and looking forward for the first leg in Nashik. This is the venue, where I finished runnerup in the MRF National competition last year.

ABOUT PRACTICE SCHEDULE Normally we start brushing up once the racing calendar is out. But this time, it was a different schedule, as I am participating in a foreign category.

I spent practicing on a track built in Kirkitwadi, near Sinhagad fort. The speciality of this track is, it’s been constructed by the riders in Pune. One of the former riders offered the piece of land, we all chipped in to built a nice practice track, without taking any help from the association.

ABOUT INTERNATIONAL RIDERS The participation of international riders has made this league very interesting. For the first time we would be participating along with the top

riders in the world. In our team San Racing, we have got Sri Lankan rider Ishan Dasanayake. He is three times national champion and it would be a fun to interact with them. Frankly speaking, we are way behind in terms of infrastructure and other facilities these riders get. I believe the events like this league will help us to close down the gap.

ABOUT RECENT PERFORMANCE After finishing second in Nashik last year, I was placed third in Indian class and was second in private class in Pune.

Later in April, I again finished third in Chennai and unfortunately bike failure in Coimbatore threw me out of contention in national championship. ashish.phadnis@goldensparrow.com