BinBrain.com Success

Saina Nehwal

2010-03-20T11:11:00.000-07:00

It's Saina Nehwal who currently ranks number 5 in the world by Badminton World Federation. Saina is the first Indian woman to reach the singles quarterfinals at the Olympics and the first Indian to win the World Junior Badminton Championships. Saina Nehwal scripted history on June 21 2009, becoming the first Indian to win a Super Series tournament after clinching the Indonesia Open with a stunning victory over higher-ranked Chinese Lin Wang in Jakarta. Her highest career ranking is 5. Saina was born in Hisar, Haryana, India and spent her complete life in city of Hyderabad. Her foray into the world of badminton was influenced by her father Dr. Harvir Singh, a scientist at the Directorate of Oilseeds Research, Hyderabad and her mother Usha Nehwal,both of whom were former badminton champions in Haryana.

Yoga for weight loss

2009-12-15T08:56:00.000-08:00

Yoga for weight loss

Oasis of the Seas

2009-11-16T08:52:00.000-08:00

Oasis of the Seas

http://binbrain.com/blog/2009/10/04/beautiful-birds-from-kerala/

2009-10-04T09:24:00.001-07:00

http://binbrain.com/blog/2009/10/04/beautiful-birds-from-kerala/

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Water found on Moonâs surface !!!

2009-09-24T11:30:00.001-07:00

Water found on Moonâs surface !!!

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Amitabh Bachchan

2009-08-18T08:52:00.000-07:00

Amitabh Bacchan, who more popularly called as "Big B", needs no introduction in India or even abroad. This man holds a charisma that remains unchallenged. More than an actor he has proved himself successful as an entrepreneur, politician, game show host, a singer and voiceover artist. To any Indian he is considered as a role model and they consider him as an example of how a man should be.

Amitabh Bacchan celebrates his birthday on 11th October. He was born in 1942 in Allahabad, as Amitabh Harivansh Srivastav to Dr.Harivansh Rai Bacchan and Teji Bacchan. His father was a well known poet. Bacchan was his pen name. When Amitabh entered the film industry he replaced Srivastav with Bacchan. He married his co-star Jaya Bhaduri of the Guddi fame on 3rd June 1973 and they have two children Shweta and Abhishek. Abhishek was married to the famous actor Aiswarya Rai. Bachhan’s unconventional looks – dark, lean and standing tall at a height of 6’2” - worked against him when it came to acting roles. But his deep voice, a trademark, held him in good stead with offers to work on narration and background commentary.

In 1969, Bachhan made his debut with Saat Hindustani, which won him the National Film Award for Best Newcomer. Bachchan has won numerous major awards in his career, including three National Film Awards and twelve Filmfare Awards. He holds the record for most number of Best Actor nominations at the Filmfare Awards.

Ten Bachhan Films, I like most...

The Last Lear

This film was produced by Planman Motion Pictures. Basing the script on Utpal Dutt's play Aajker Shahjahan, Rituparno Ghosh penned it in 2006. The film was received positively by critics with many saying that Bachchan has given a career best performance. The film is about the story of a Veteran thespian Harish Mishra (Amitabh Bachchan).

Sarkar Raj

Sarkar Raj is a 2008 Indian dramatic thriller film set in the world of politics and crime. It was co-written and directed by Ram Gopal Varma. The movie opens with an assassination attempt against Shankar Nagre (Abhishek Bachchan) being busted by his lieutenant Chander (Ravi Kale). The assassination follows the 'chain of command' theory mentioned in The Godfather (novel). In this film Amitabh Bachchan is casted as a popular and influential political leader, who is called "Sarkar".

Bhoothnath

Bhoothnath is a Bollywood film starring Amitabh Bachchan, Juhi Chawla and Shahrukh Khan. It is directed by Vivek Sharma and produced by Ravi Chopra. The film is an adaptation of the Oscar Wilde short-story The Canterville Ghost. Bhoothnath means Ghost Sir. The story is about the relationship between a deceased old man (Amitabh Bachchan) and a boy named Banku.

Black

Black is a 2005 Indian film in Hindi and Indian English directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali. Black revolves around a blind, deaf and mute girl, and her relationship with her teacher who himself later suffers from Alzheimer's disease. The first half of the film is an adaptation of Helen Keller's autobiography The Story of My Life.

Baghban

Baghban is a 2003 Bollywood film directed by Ravi Chopra. The movie tells the story of Raj Malhotra (Amitabh Bachchan), his wife Pooja (Hema Malini) and their four sons Ajay Sanjay , Rohit, and Karan . Raj and Pooja have provided their children with everything they wanted, often at the cost of Raj and Pooja's own requirements. The Malhotras also have an adopted son Alok (Salman Khan). The story shows how the aged parents endure this separation as well as horrible treatment from their children after all they have done for them in the past.

Kargil Victory

2009-07-26T09:48:00.000-07:00

Today India celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Kargil war victory. 10 years ago on July 26, 1999, officers and jawans of the Indian armed forces successfully reclaimed the Indian land on the icy slopes of Kargil from Pakistani infiltrators. At least 520 Indian soldiers sacrificed their lives during one of the toughest wars fought against Pakistani intruders at Kargil, Drass and Batalik sectors of Jammu & Kashmir state.

The cause of the war was the infiltration of Pakistani soldiers and Kashmiri militants into positions on the Indian side of the Line of Control , which serves as the de facto border between the two states. During and directly after the war, Pakistan blamed the fighting entirely on independent Kashmiri insurgents, but documents left behind by casualties and later statements by Pakistan's Prime Minister and Chief of Army Staff showed involvement of Pakistani paramilitary forces, by General Ashraf Rashid. The Indian Army, later on supported by the Indian Air Force, attacked the Pakistani positions and, with international diplomatic support, eventually forced withdrawal of the Pakistani forces across the LOC.

Some pictures from Kargil.......

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Who equals Pete Sampras ??

2009-06-12T12:37:00.000-07:00

Absolutely no doubt and even proud to say "Roger Federer", as I'm a big fan. Federer is a Swiss professional World No. 1 ranked tennis player, a position he held for a record of 237 consecutive weeks. Federer is considered by many to be the greatest player of all time. Federer holds numerous records in men's singles, including 14 Grand Slam titles- 3 Australian Open, 1 French Open, 5 Wimbledon, 5 US Open-, equalling the all-time record set by Pete Sampras.

Federer was born on August 8, 1981, in Binningen, near Basel, to Swiss national Robert Federer and South Africa-born Lynette Durand. He started playing tennis at the age of six. By the age of fourteen, Federer had learnt to get his serve over the net and he had become Switzerland's top junior (under-18s) player. Then Roger moved on to the main tour. He ended his first year on the tour as the youngest player in the top 100. By 2003, Federer had established a reputation as the most talented player to consistently choke on the big stage - spectacularly so.

Roger Federer's game is based around his big forehand, which is one of the best shots in tennis. His game's pretty one-dimensional, really. Without the forehand, he'd be nothing. You could just hit to his right hand side and you'd win every point. I'd like to see him hit a backhand winner from there. So a forehand less Federer would be useless. Though capable of overwhelming most of his opponents, Roger prefers to pick their games apart—sometimes exposing their weaknesses, sometimes finding ways to use their own strengths against them. These cat-and-mouse games used to be his undoing, but he has perfected his craft, and now it his opponents who look helpless at times, not him.

Federer established the Roger Federer Foundation in 2003 to help disadvantaged people and to promote sports to youth. He was appointed a Goodwill Ambassador of UNICEF in 2006. Since then, he has visited South Africa and Tamil Nadu, one of the worst tsunami-affected areas in India. He has also appeared in UNICEF public messages to raise public awareness of AIDS.

The Success Gandhi !!!!!

2009-05-16T10:00:00.000-07:00

Sonia Gandhi is the President of the Indian National Congress and the widow of former Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi. She also serves as the Chairperson of the ruling United Progressive Alliance in the Lok Sabha and the leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party.

16 th May of 2009 is an important day in the history of India and the Indian National Congress. This is the day in which the Congress Party won back to the reign of India for a second term under the mystical leadership of Mrs Sonia Gandhi. It is referred as history because only the first prime minister of India Mr Jawaharlal Nehru could win a consecutive election for a second term in the Indian political history. The full credit of this victory goes to the vibrant leadership of Mrs Gandhi. After the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi the congress party was actually facing the problem of a charismatic leader to lead the party and it was about to vanish from the Indian political stream. It was in this period Mrs Gandhi came out with a bold decision to take the leadership of Congress party as a mission. In the beginning no one thought that the she can bring back the congress party to the driving seat of Indian politics. But she has done it.

Sonia Gandhi born in Lusiana, Italy on 9 December 1946. While studying English at the University of Cambridge, Sonia met Rajiv Gandhi, a mechanical engineering student and son of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The couple married in 1968. In 1980 his brother, Sanjay, died, and Rajiv subsequently entered the political arena. When Indira Gandhi was assassinated in 1984, Rajiv was named prime minister. Though Sonia campaigned for Rajiv, she chose to remain in the background, studying art restoration and working to preserve India’s artistic treasures.

When Rajiv was assassinated in 1991, Sonia was seen by many as the natural heir to the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, and she was offered the leadership of the Congress Party. She rejected the offer and refused to discuss politics publicly. In 1993, however, she visited Rajiv’s former constituency in Amethi, Uttar Pradesh, and was greeted by cheering crowds. She subsequently traveled throughout the country on behalf of trusts and committees devoted to Indian public life.

1998 Gandhi agreed to become president of the then-struggling Congress Party. Her initial efforts were overshadowed by the party’s loss to the Bharatiya Janata Party in the following election. Following a nationwide campaign that targeted struggling farmers and the unemployed, the Congress Party won the 2004 election but failed to secure an absolute majority. The party subsequently formed a new coalition called the United Progressive Alliance (UPA). Gandhi, however, chose not to head the government as prime minister, because her foreign birth had become a politically controversial issue. Instead, she invited the economist Manmohan Singh to serve as prime minister. Her only son, Rahul Gandhi, was also a prominent politician.

IPL a success cricket model !!

2009-05-04T09:09:00.000-07:00

IPL- Indial Premier League is a Twenty20 cricket competition created by the Board of Control for Cricket in India. It is now the most watched domestic Twenty20 competition in the world. The first season of the Indian Premier League commenced on 18 April 2008, and ended on 1 June 2008 with the victory of the Rajasthan Royals against Chennai Super Kings. As the second season of the IPL coincided with Indian general elections, the Indian Government refused to commit security by Indian paramilitary forces. As a result, the BCCI decided to host the second season of the league in South Africa.

Most teams at IPL are in the names of famous Indian cities. Now there are eight teams for the IPL tounament. They are Kings XI Punjab, Chennai Super Kings, Deccan Chargers, Rajasthan Royals, Kolkata Knight Riders, Delhi Daredevils, Bangalore Royal Challengers and Mumbai Indians.

The victory of present IPL Champion was in an exceptional way. In the begining of the tournament no one imagined a chance for the Rajasthan Royals, but they really became the black horses of IPL.

After 44 days of mind-boggling action and a no-holds-barred feud among eight fierce franchisees, Rajasthan Royals pipped Chennai Super Kings by three wickets in the thrilling grand finale to lift the inaugural Indian Premier League.

Chasing Super Kings' modest total of 163 for five, the Royals rode on a brilliant all-round display by Yusuf Pathan, who took three wickets and top-scored with a 39-ball 56 to overhaul the score off the last ball after needing eight from the last over. The winners received the top prize of $1.2 million and a glittering gem-laden trophy while the runners-up won $600,000.

Bollywood Sensation

2009-03-20T07:46:00.000-07:00

Do you know Hrithik Roshan? Definitely 'yes' , if you are an Indian. If you are ignorant about Hrithik, please don't miss to enjoy the following films like Krrish, Dhoom II, Jodha Akbar, Kaho Na Pyar Hai etc. He was a sensation in the Indian film industry when his first film Kaho Na Pyar Hai was released. Lakhs and Lakhs of Indian youth irrespective of language became the deep fans of this handsome actor. But unfortunately after this big success he was a total failure and unlucky figure to Bollywood for the coming three years. Then after three years of agony and failure it was the character of a nineteen year old boy with a ten year old boys mind in the film Koi... Mil Gaya which gave a breakthrough to Hrithik. With the success of this film Hrithik was recognized as a talented actor among the bollywood stars.

Hrithik Roshan is an Indian actor working in Bollywood. He was born in January 10, 1974. His father, film director Rakesh Roshan, is the son of music director Roshan, while his mother, Pinky, is the daughter of veteran producer and director J. Om Prakash. The well-known music director Rajesh Roshan is his uncle. In short he is from a legendary family. Though from a such a blessed family, don't think that he was brought up as an actor very easily with the support all these people. His family never thought that he would become an actor because he was physically very weak and had severe disc problems.

In an interview given to an English magazine Hrithik told " my doctor told me that i could never be an actor - i could never dance, I could never jog, never run, never do any of things that a film actor does. He even advised me to change my career plans." From this period of agony it was his effort and self confidence that helped him to be a successful actor later.

Hrithik is married to Sussanne Khan on December 20, 2000, daughter of Sanjay Khan. The couple have two kids,both boys, one by the name of Hrehaan(28 March 2006) and the other named Hridhaan(May 1, 2008). Hrithik was born with two thumbs on his right hand that are partially fused together; this is considered by some to be a lucky sign.

Lets have a glance @ some of Hrithik's blockbusters.

Kaho Na Pyar Hai

Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai is a 2000 Bollywood movie directed by Rakesh Roshan. The movie stars Amisha Patel, Anupam Kher, and Hrithik Roshan in a dual role. This movie was Hrithik Roshan and Amisha Patel's debut and made Hrithik into an overnight superstar in Bollywood.

Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham

Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham is a Bollywood film released in India and countries with large NRI populations on December 14, 2001. It features Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan, Kajol, Hrithik Roshan, Kareena Kapoor and Rani Mukerji in a guest appearance.

Koī...Mil Gaya

Koī...Mil Gaya is a 2003 Bollywood science fiction film, directed by Rakesh Roshan , starring Rekha, Hrithik Roshan and Preity Zinta, and released on August 8, 2003. Koi... Mil Gaya itself is said to have inspired an Indonesian television series Si Yoyo, which also features a miraculous alien visitor.

Krrish

Krrish is a Bollywood science fiction superhero film directed by Rakesh Roshan. Released on June 23, 2006, the film is a sequel to Koi... Mil Gaya and the second part of the Koi... Mil Gaya series. It is considered the first major superhero movie to be produced in Bollywood since Shekhar Kapoor's Mr. India (1987). The movie stars Hrithik Roshan, Priyanka Chopra, Rekha and Naseeruddin Shah, while Preity Zinta also makes a special appearance.

Dhoom 2

Dhoom 2 is the second installment in the Dhoom series. It stars Hrithik Roshan, Aishwarya Rai, Abhishek Bachchan and Bipasha Basu. The movie is a sequel to the 2004 hit, Dhoom. The film was released on November 24, 2006. This movie has been dubbed into Telugu and Tamil; those versions were released on the same day as the Hindi version.

Jodhaa-Akbar

Jodhaa-Akbar is a sixteenth century love story, and an Indian epic film released on February 15, 2008. It is directed and produced by Ashutosh Gowariker, the director of the Academy Award-nominated Lagaan (2001). It stars Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in lead roles.

A Successful Actor.....

2009-03-10T01:43:00.000-07:00

Mammooty is a very famous film actor from Kerala, India. He has won the National Award for the Best Actor three times and state awards five times. Nation has honored him by giving Padma Shri in 1998 . The first feature that everyone notice about Mammootty is that he is very handsome. Though 56 now, he still looks as a man around 35 to 40 years old. He is working hard to keep his body fit and fine. I remember that once he said in an interview given to a television channel “I’m jealous to the youth because they are youth,” He is so much ambitious to be always young and fit.

Personally I’m a fan of Mammooty. In my village people have their own political view only from an age of adolescence, but from very young stage itself a child is becoming a fan of Mammootty or Mohanlal, one yet another great film artist from kerala. No Malayalee is seen in Kerala as not a fan of either Mammootty or Mohanlal, I think.

The most important films that I remember when I speak about Mammootty are, Oru CBI Diary Kuruppu, Mrugaya, New Delhi, Nirakoottu, Dani, Ambedkar, Ponthan Mada etc etc.

Some people always compare Mammoootty with the famous Bollywood actor Amithabh Bacchan and call Mammootty as Bachan of Malayalam. Once Mr M T Vasudevan, a great writer and Film Critic of India, especially Kerala opposed this view and said “I would never say that Mammootty as keala Bacchan , but I will call him only as Mammootty of Malayalam.” No one can never ever become like Mammootty , because he is such a unique character and blessing to Malyalee.

A R Rahman and Resul Pukutty and Slumdog Millionaire in Oscar

2009-02-22T19:51:00.000-08:00

A R Rahman has won Oscars for his music composition in Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire.

Allah Rakkha Rahman ((born January 6, 1967 as A. S. Dileep Kumar in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India), is an Academy Award winning Indian Muslim film composer, record producer and musician. His work has garnered considerable acclaim and a large global fanbase since his film scoring career began in the early 1990s, and has won four National Film Awards,Academy Award, BAFTA Award, Golden Globe and Satellite Award for his work.

Resul Pookutty has won an Oscar for sound mixing in the rags-to-riches award winning film "Slumdog Millionaire".

In the village of Vilakupara, about 50 km from the Kerala capital, everyone is elated at Resul`s success. His elder brother Byju Pookutty told reporters: "Ours is a typical rural village and it was only last month that our village council gave a reception after he won the British awards and people here came to know what he was doing."

"Our father wanted Resul to be a doctor but he could not clear the entrance examination for medicine. Our father was very particular that Resul become a doctor because his brother`s son was one. But Resul`s destiny was different," said Byju, who is 38 and a businessman.

Slumdog Millionaire Makes History

Slumdog Millionaire makes history at Kodak by winning eight Oscar awards . Set and filmed in India, Slumdog Millionaire tells the story of a young man from the slums of Mumbai who appears on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and exceeds people's expectations, arousing the suspicions of the game show host and of law enforcement officials.

Slumdog Millionaire was nominated for ten Academy Awards and won eight, the most of any film that year, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Sound Mixing, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, and Best Original Song. It also won five Critics' Choice Awards, four Golden Globes, and seven BAFTA Awards, including Best Film.

MAHATMA GANDHI

2009-02-10T07:28:00.000-08:00

"Gandhi ( held no political office. Yet he could arouse the conscience of an entire subcontinent! A lean, frail, ‘half-naked fakir’ – armed with a wooden staff and simple dignity of a human being, he fought against the greatest empire, the world has known. It was just the moral grandeur of his soul which enabled him to fight against brute power, in any form, even vanquish it. "Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this in flesh and blood walked upon this earth", said Professor Einstein of him.

On 30 January 1948 on his way to prayers Gandhi was assassinated, killed by three bullets in his abdomen and chest. The young assassin was a fanatical Hindu who among others had been inflamed by Gandhi’s efforts to bring reconciliation between Hindus and Muslims in riot-torn independent India. With those three bullets came the bitter fruit of the murder of an important political leader. India and the world were saddened. Political leaders and ordinary people alike felt a personal loss.

Significance of Gandhi (Some unusual views....)

Does Gandhi still have any political significance? Now, with the passing of years and the opportunity for a more distant perspective, how is Gandhi to be evaluated?

For a Westerner poses special problems in such an evaluation. Often his eccentricities get in the way so that it is difficult to get beyond them, or to take other aspects of his life seriously. Even for religious people in the West, his constant use of religious terminology and theological language in explanation or justification of a social or political act or policy more often confuses than clarifies.

The homage which most pay to him by calling him “Mahatma” - the great-souled one - usually becomes a kind of vaccination against taking him seriously. As a Mahatma, he can be revered while being placed in that special category of saints, prophets and holy men whose lives and actions are believed to be largely irrelevant to ordinary men.

“I claim”, he once wrote, “to be no more than an average man with less than average ability”. Indeed, in important respects this was probably true.

He was not pleased at the homage given him, although he cherished the affection of people where it was genuine. “My Mahatmaship is worthless”, he once wrote “I have become literally sick of the adoration of the unthinking multitude.” “I lay no claim to superhuman powers. I want none. I wear the same corruptible flesh that the weakest of my fellow-beings wears, and am, therefore, as liable to err as any.”

There are further difficulties in evaluating Gandhi. These include widespread misrepresentations of Gandhi and his political opinions. For example, it is widely claimed that Gandhi approved of Indian military action in Kashmir, that he would have approved of the Indian invasion of Goa, and even that he would have supported the present nuclear weapons program.

Gandhi's thinking, as constantly developing, and early in his career he did give certain qualified support to war. But at the end of his life this had altered. But this did not mean he favoured passivity. Thus, while believing the Allies to be the better side in the Second World War, he did not support the war. Similarly in Kashmir, while believing the Pakistanis to be the aggressors, and while believing that India must act, he did not favour military action.

As we shall note later in more detail, it was Gandhi's primary contribution, not only to argue for, but to develop practically non-violent means of struggle in politics for those situations in which war and other types of political violence were usually used. His work here was pioneering, and sometimes inadequate, but it was sufficient to put him outside the traditional categories. Gandhi was neither a conscientious objector nor a supporter of violence in politics. He was an experimenter in the development of “war without violence”.

A final confusion handicaps our attempt to evaluate Gandhi. His politics are sometimes assumed to be identical with those of the independent Indian Government under Nehru. Although Nehru has long had a very deep regard for Gandhi, and although Gandhi cooperated with the Indian National Congress in the long struggle for independence, the policies which Gandhi favoured are not necessarily those of the Congress government today.

Gandhi had opposed partition into Pakistan and India. Congress leaders had accepted it. His plea for non-violent resistance in Kashmir with non-violent assistance from India was ignored. Gandhi had dreamt that a free India would be able to defend her freedom without military means. Yet in the provisional government before independence, and in the fully independent government, military expenditure and influence increased, while Gandhi warned of the danger of military rule and of India’s possible future threat to world peace. Her freedom could be defended non-violently, Gandhi insisted, just as by non-violent means the great British Empire had been forced to withdraw.

A. R. Rahman a Music Millionaire

2009-01-28T08:53:00.000-08:00

A R Rahman is the first Indian to get three Oscar nominations for his works in British-Indian movie Slumdog Millionaire which also got the nod in seven other categories, including best film and best director. Rahman was nominated for best original score while both Jai Ho and O Saya were shortlisted for the best original song. The film also won nominations in cinematography, sound mixing, sound editing and film editing.

Music maestro A R Rahman created history by becoming the first Indian to win Golden Globe award for his music score for 'Slumdog Millionaire' at the prestigious award ceremony on Monday. Rahman's song 'Jai Ho,' penned by lyricist Gulzar, has won the coveted prize of Best Original Music Score at the Golden Globes. The film which depicts the story of a Mumbai underdog's rags-to-riches run, is on a winning spree and has so far bagged three Golden Globe awards – Best Original Music

'Slumdog' is based on a novel by Indian diplomat Vikas Swarup and stars Bollywood actors Anil Kapoor and Irrfan Khan in lead among others. The film has been shot at various locations in Mumbai, including the railway Victoria Terminus, which was targeted by terrorists on November 26, last year. Boyle's feel-good film depicts the moving story of a slum dweller Jamaal, who goes on to win USD 20 million on Indian reality show 'Who Wants to Be A Millionaire?' in a bid to win his love back.

A R Rahman ........

Born A.S. Dileep Kumar on January 6th, 1966, in Madras, India, Allah Rakha Rahman was exposed to music from the time he was a child, entered in classical piano studies by his parents at the age of four. At 16, he quit school and was following in his father's footsteps ,K.A. Sekhar a successful film musician, working full-time as a session musician on soundtracks under the popular South Indian composer Illaiyaraja. In 1989 Rahman planted the first seeds of his film career. That year, he began acquiring the equipment and organizing the sound library for his Panchathan Record Inn. When Sharada Trilok's ad for Leo Coffee (for which Rahman penned the music) won her an award, she introduced the young composer to her cousin, Mani Ratnam. Impressed with his work, the director signed Rahman to compose the music for K. Balachander's 1992 film Roja.

Rahman's score, a colorful, uncluttered combination of pop, rock, reggae, and his country's traditional music, reshaped the genre, winning him three awards for Best Music Director. Roja became the equivalent of an Indian crossover success. Originally filmed in South Indian Tamil, it was re-dubbed in Hindi, the language of North India's famous film center "Bollywood." His star on the rise, Rahman proceeded to compose music for six films in 1993 and nine in 1994 including the score for Ratnam's Bombay (1995), the story of a Hindu/Muslim marriage in a time of heated relations between the two cultures.

Rahman's score displayed a characteristic (and appropriate) disregard for the confines of culture, be they Eastern or Western, once again mixing traditional and modern elements. Bombay was hugely successful and the movie's theme was featured on Talvin Singh's Soundz of the Asian Underground compilation. Rahman became the first Indian artist to sign with Sony Music, negotiating a three-year contract in 1997. His premier release for the label, Vande Mataram , was a tribute to India, commemorating 50 years of the country's independence. The album reached record stores in 28 countries on August 15th of that year. Rahman finally seemed poised on the brink of the international success he desired. Performances were booked in Europe, Canada, and the United States during the final years of the century and a session was arranged with singer David Byrne . Andrew Lloyd Webber chose Rahman to compose the music for his Bombay Dreams, a musical based on the "Bollywood" film industry.

Chess = Viswanathan Anand

2009-01-12T02:10:00.000-08:00

Viswanathan Anand (born 11 December 1969) is an Indian chess grandmaster and the current World Chess Champion.Anand won the FIDE World Chess Championship in 2000, at a time when the world title was split. He became the undisputed World Champion in 2007 and defended his title against Vladimir Kramnik in 2008. Anand is one of four players in history to break the 2800 mark on the FIDE rating list. He was at the top of the world rankings five out of six times, from April 2007 to July 2008.

He was taught to play chess by his mother. In his own words, "I started when I was six. My mother taught me how to play. In fact, my mother used to do a lot for my chess. We moved to the Philippines shortly afterward. I joined the club in India and we moved to the Philippines for a year. And there they had a TV program that was on in the afternoon, one to two or something like that, when I was in school. So she would write down all the games that they showed and the puzzles, and in the evening we solved them together. Of course my mother and her family used to play some chess, and she used to play her younger brother, so she had some background in chess, but she never went to a club or anything like that. So we solved all these puzzles and sent in our answers together. And they gave the prize of a book to the winner. And over the course of many months, I won so many prizes. At one point they just said take all the books you want, but don't send in any more entries."

Anand’s mother says that he has always had a photographic memory. She recalls how as a child of two he would pick up his favourite records and remember the songs in each to play on his father’s radiogram. He was a brilliant student throughout, and is a B.Com with honours from Loyola College in Chennai.

Anand was six years old when he first visited the Tal Chess Club in Chennai. Manuel Aaron, India’s first International Master would regularly play there and would hold classes for the members, basing his lessons on the tactics of the Soviet Grandmasters. Aaron says, Anand would regularly interrupt him and suggest alternative moves. “I looked upon him as a big nuisance because he wouldn’t allow me to complete my lectures.” Anand beat the legendary Aaron when he was only 13.

He has won the Arjuna Award and the Padma Shri, perhaps the youngest to do so. He has also been conferred with the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award. Anand, who lives with his wife Aruna in Spain’s Collado Mediano, is known as the ‘lightning kid’ on the Chess circuit. The standard time allotted to a Chess game is 120 minutes for 40 moves. He makes those moves in just half an hour! This nerve-wracking speed puts a lot of pressure on his opponents. Soviet Grandmaster Tukmanov once said of his lightning fast game, “ People play that fast in Coffee Shops!” He likes action films and loves Rock music.

INDIA IS PROUD OF PARVATHY

2008-12-14T05:26:00.000-08:00

India's Parvathy Omanakuttan finished as the first runner up in the Miss World Beauty contest 2008 at Johannesburg and Russia's Ksenya Sukhinova was crowned Miss World after beating scores of international beauties Second runner up was Gabriel Walcott of Trinidad and Tobago.

Parvathy Omanakuttan represented India in the 58th Miss World Final which was held at Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa on December 13, and was crowned at the Miss World Grand Finale as the first runner up. She was also the second runner up of Miss World Top Model contest held on 3 December 2008. She was one among the top 10 Finalists of Miss World 2008 Beach Beauty contest She was crowned "Pantaloons Femina Miss India World 2008" in Mumbai on 5 April 2008.

Miss World is the original and most popular beauty pageant in the world. Each year young women from every country compete in front of over a billion television viewers. Judges determine which contestant has the winning combination of beauty, glamour, poise and intelligence - all the ingredients needed to be crowned as Miss World.

21-year-old Parvathy, who hails from Kottayam in Kerala, narrowly missed out on joining five Indian glamour queens Reita Faria (1966), Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan (1994), Diana Hayden(1997), Yukta Mookhey (1999) and Priyanka Chopra (2000) who had won the title.

Parvathy Omanakuttan was born on 13th July 1987, is 5 ' 8.5" tall and has "vital" measurements of 32-27-36. She is originally from Changanacherry-Kottayam, Kerala and now lives in Mumbai, Her hobbies include: Listening to music, dancing, glass painting, reading, playing basketball and badminton.

At the Grand Finale, Parvathy does a graceful 'namastey' to the crowd that cheers. This is showcasing India and its culture to the world in the best manner possible. As to the reply to the question - "What being in South Africa meant to her ?", she replied confidently that it was like home to her. She drew comparison to the fact the people of South Africa was extremely hospitable like the Indians and also that both the nations have given such respected leaders like Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi who have influenced the lives of millions. Also she added that both the nations shared such a wonderful diverse culture that made them both similar.

Jackie Chan

2008-12-13T09:26:00.000-08:00

Jackie Chan is one of my favorite universal actor. He is blessed with some rare talents to entertain people. Though his films are categorized as action films , they are least violent and more funny.

Jackie Chan was born in Victoria Peak, Hong Kong to Charles and Lee-Lee Chan, on 7 April 1954. He is an actor, action choreographer, film director, producer, martial artist, comedian, screenwriter, entrepreneur, singer and stunt performer from Hong Kong. Chan is one of the best-known names worldwide in the areas of kung fu and action films.

In his films, he is known for his acrobatic fighting style, comic timing, use of improvised weapons and innovative stunts. Jackie Chan has been acting since the 1970s and has appeared in over 100 films. Chan has received stars on the Hong Kong Avenue of Stars and the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

In the early 1970s Chan commenced his movie career and interestingly he appeared in very minor roles in two films starring then rising martial arts superstar Bruce Lee, Jing wu men (1972) aka "Fist of Fury" aka "The Chinese Connection" and the Warner Bros. production Enter the Dragon (1973). Not long after Lee's untimely death, Chan was often cast in films cashing in on the success of Bruce Lee by utilizing words like "fist", "fury" or "dragon" in their US release titles.

Over the next few years, Jackie worked as a stunt man, but when the Hong Kong movie industry began to fail, he was forced to go to Australia to live with his parents. He worked in a restaurant and on a construction site. It was there that he got the name "Jackie." A worker named Jack had trouble pronouncing "Kong-sang" and started calling Jackie "little Jack." That soon became “Jackie” and the name stuck. The construction work was difficult and boring.

His salvation came in the form of a telegram from a man named Willie Chan. Willie Chan worked in the Hong Kong movie industry and was looking for someone to star in a new movie being made by Lo Wei, a famous Hong Kong producer/director. Soon Jackie was on his way back to Hong Kong to star in "New Fist of Fury." It was 1976 and Jackie Chan was 21 years old. To this day Jackie is quick to point out that he owes his success to Willie.

However, the movies that Jackie made for Lo Wei were not very successful. The problem was that Jackie's talents were not being used properly. It was only when Jackie was able to contribute his own ideas that he became a star. He brought humor to martial arts movies; his first success was "Snake in Eagle's Shadow." This was followed by "Drunken Master" and Jackie's first ever directing job, "Fearless Hyena." All were big hits. Jackie was becoming a huge success in Asia.

Unfortunately, it would be many years before the same could be said of his popularity in America. After a series of lukewarm receptions in the U.S., mostly due to miscasting, Jackie left the States and focused his attention on making movies in Hong Kong. It would be 10 years before he returned to make Rumble in the Bronx, the movie that introduced Jackie to American audiences and secured him a place in their hearts and their box office. Rumble was followed by the Rush Hour and Shanghai Noon series which put Jackie on the Hollywood A List.

Jackie's lifelong devotion to fitness has served him well as he continues to do stunt work and action sequences in his films. In recent years, Jackie's focus has shifted and he is trying new genres of film – fantasy, drama, romance – and is spending more and more time on his charity work. He takes his work as Ambassador for UNICEF/UNAIDS very seriously and spends all his spare time working tirelessly for children, the elderly, and those in need.

He continues to make films in Hong Kong, including the blockbuster drama New Police Story in 2004. Jackie has been married to Lin Feng-Jiao since 1982 and has a son, actor-singer Jaycee Chan. To learn more about Jackie you can read his biography, I Am Jackie Chan.

Doyen of the modern cricketing world

2008-11-14T07:16:00.000-08:00

A little after 2 30pm on October 17, the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium in Mohali was engulfed in fireworks as a country of a billion and more people celebrated yet another record by Sachin Tendulkar, arguably the best batsman in the modern era.

When Tendulkar glided a Peter Siddle delivery and ran three runs on the first day of the second Test match between India and Australia in Mohali, he overtook West Indian batting legend Brian Lara to become the highest run scorer in the history of Test matches. As soon as Tendulkar took the third run, the spectators at Mohali stood as one to applaud the ‘Liitle Master’ as the Australian players then took the opportunity to congratulate India’s finest batsman.

Tendulkar had taken quite a while to overtake Lara, and the relief was evident on his face as he looked up to the skies and took a moment to savour the historic feat before he got back to the business of focussing on the match to rescue India after the home team lost three quick wickets before the tea session on the first day. The most interesting aspect of Tendulkar’s innings in Mohali on October 17 was the ease with which he played his shots after getting the record.

Tendulkar, who scored 88 in India’s first innings total of 469 all out at Mohali, also became the first batsman to score 12,000 runs in Test cricket, and also featured in a crucial partnership with Sourav Ganguly which went a long way to help his team reach the total and put pressure on Australia. In fact, it would not be an exaggeration to say that Tendulkar after he got the record to the time he was dismissed took everyone, including himself back in time, as he played some trademark shots with the confidence of old. And, though he was unable to score his 40th Test century, Tendulkar’s form certainly augurs well for India, but is bad news for the Aussies as well as the other international teams.

Tendulkar has now got all the major batting records in international cricket – most runs in Test and one-day cricket as well as the most number of centuries in those two formats of the game. Apart from the number of runs he has scored, Tendulkar has been a colossus in the international cricketing arena as he has optimised his inherent talent to win the respect of not only fans and cricketing experts, but also his peers. It is not easy to shoulder the burden of the expectations of a billion plus people, but Tendulkar has done that admirably more often than not in the last 19 years.

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar , born April 24, 1973 in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, is an Indian cricketer widely regarded as one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket. In 2002, Wisden ranked him the second greatest Test batsman of all time next only to Sir Donald Bradman, and the second greatest one-day international batsman of all time next only to Sir Viv Richards.

September 2007, Shane Warne, the world-record breaking Australian leg spinner, rated Sachin Tendulkar as the greatest player he has played with or against. Sachin Tendulkar was the only player of the current generation to be included in Bradman's Eleven, the dream team of Sir Donald Bradman, published in his biography . He is sometimes referred to as the Little Master or the Master Blaster.

OBAMA The new face of America

2008-11-05T07:35:00.000-08:00

Democrat Barack Hussein Obama has been elected the first African-American president of the United States in a contest that shattered racial barriers.

With polls now closed, the 47-year-old first-term senator from Illinois has captured the key states of Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Colorado and California. Those wins, combined with a slew of other states, have given him 338 electoral votes so far, more than enough to defeat Republican rival John McCain.

Obama is the first African American, to be elected as President of the United States, was also the first African American to be nominated for President by a major U.S. political party. A graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, he became the first African American to serve as president of the Harvard Law Review. Obama worked as a community organizer and practiced as a civil rights attorney before serving three terms in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004.

Barack Obama was born August 4, 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Barack Hussein Obama Sr. and Ann Dunham. His parents met in 1960 while attending the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where his father was a foreign student. The couple married February 2, 1961; they separated when Obama was two years old and subsequently divorced in 1964.

Obama met his wife, Michelle Robinson, in June 1989 when he was employed as a summer associate at the Chicago law firm of Sidley Austin. Assigned for three months as Obama's adviser at the firm, Robinson joined him at group social functions, but declined his initial offers to date. They began dating later that summer, became engaged in 1991, and were married on October 3, 1992. The couple's first daughter, Malia Ann, was born in 1998, followed by a second daughter, Natasha ("Sasha"), in 2001.

An Elephant's Tale

2008-10-26T23:46:00.000-07:00

Jumbo is undoubtedly the best-known Elephant that ever lived. The giant elephant's name has spawned the common word "jumbo" as meaning large in size. In 1861 he was captured as a baby in Ethiopia. At that time he was only 3 1/2 feet tall.

Jumbo was shipped to Paris where he remained in the Zoological Gardens for three years. He was then transferred to the London Zoological Gardens, and was used for a riding animal, countless numbers of children riding on his back. He became very popular with the boys and girls of England. He was in London seventeen years, growing all the time, until he was so big that P.T. Barnum, American circus man, became interested. He paid $10,000 for the great creature, and brought him to the United States in 1882. As you can imagine, the children of England were filled with sorrow when their friend sailed away. When Barnum had offered to buy Jumbo, 100,000 school children wrote to Queen Victoria begging her not to sell him.

Barnum had paid $10,000 for Jumbo the elephant. He spent another $20,000 for the logistical nightmare of getting his new pet to America. If anyone doubted the showman's brilliance, it was only for a moment: In his first ten days with the circus menagerie, Jumbo brought in $30,000; during the first year, he earned $1.5 million.

In the United States and Canada, Jumbo was placed on exhibition, and he became very famous.The defining moment of Jumbo the elephant's life was his untimely death at the age of 24. On September 15, 1885, as the traveling circus was loading the menagerie onto trains in St. Thomas, Ontario, the tragedy occurred. A portion of the fence that ran along the railyard tracks had been removed, allowing the parading animals to descend a small hill and board the cars. Jumbo and the baby clown elephant, Tom Thumb, were ambling toward their "Palace Car" when an unscheduled express freight train roared toward the entourage. Seeing that Jumbo and Tom Thumb were in danger, Scotty , trainer, scrambled down the adjacent embankment and shouted a warning.

St. Thomas is where Jumbo died. So they put a big statue up to him there. It's big. The statue is in a small roadside park in the town. It's open all the time. There's a big plaque that talks about Jumbo. St. Thomas is just south of London Ontario.

In Barnum's vivid rendering of the tale--told numerous times with equally numerous embellishments--Jumbo sacrificed his own life to save the baby elephant. Jumbo swung around, wrapped his long trunk around Tom Thumb, and hurled him 20 yards away, with a force that cost the calf a broken hind leg, but saved his life. With no hope of his own salvation, Jumbo took the locomotive head on, trumpeting the ensuing onslaught.

Jumbo's skeleton was donated to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The elephant's heart was sold to Cornell University. Jumbo's hide was stuffed and traveled with Barnum's circus for a number of years. In 1889, Barnum donated the stuffed Jumbo to Tufts University, where it was displayed until destroyed by a fire in 1975. Jumbo's tail, which survived the fire, is kept in the University archives. The great elephant's ashes are kept in a 14-ounce Peter Pan Crunchy Peanut Butter jar in the office of the Tufts athletic director. A statue of "Jumbo" was purchased from an amusement park and placed on the Tufts campus after the fire, however this statue erroneously depicts an Asian elephant, not an African elephant. In honour of Barnum's donation of the elephant's hide and more than $50,000, Jumbo became the university's mascot, and remains such to this day.

India's Tennis Sensation - Sania Mirza

2008-10-21T08:04:00.000-07:00

Sania Mirza (born November 15, 1986) is an Indian tennis player. Mirza is the highest ranked female tennis player ever from India, with a career high ranking of 27 in singles and 18 in doubles. . She holds the distinction of being the first Indian woman to be seeded in a Grand Slam tennis tournament.

Mirza was born to a sports journalist Imran Mirza and Nasima in Mumbai. She was brought up in Hyderabad. Mirza he began playing tennis at the age of six, turning professional in 2003. She was trained by her father, as well as her other family members and was sponsored by the industrialist GV Krishna Reddy. She went to Nasr school in Hyderabad.

Career

Mirza won the 2003 Wimbledon Championships Girls' Doubles title, teaming up with Alisa Kleybanova of Russia.Earlier in 2005, she had become the first Indian woman to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam tournament at the 2005 U.S. Open, defeating Mashona Washington, Maria Elena Camerin and Marion Bartoli. In 2004, she finished runner up at the Asian Tennis Championship.

In 2005, Mirza reached the third round of the Australian Open, losing to eventual champion Serena Williams. On February 12, 2005, she became the first Indian woman to win a WTA singles title, defeating Alyona Bondarenko of Ukraine in the Hyderabad Open Finals. As of September 2006, Mirza has notched up three top 10 wins; against Svetlana Kuznetsova, Nadia Petrova and Martina Hingis. At the 2006 Doha Asian Games, Mirza won the silver in the women's singles category and the gold in the mixed doubles partnering Leander Paes. She was also part of the Indian women's team that won the silver in the team event.

Mirza had the best results of her career during the 2007 summer hardcourt season, finishing eighth in the 2007 U.S. Open Series standings. She reached the final of the Bank of the West Classic and won the doubles event with Shahar Pe'er, and reached the quarterfinals of the Tier 1 Acura Classic.

At the 2007 U.S. Open, she reached the third round before losing to Anna Chakvetadze for the third time in recent weeks. She fared much better in the doubles, reaching the quarterfinals in mixed with her partner Mahesh Bhupathi and the quarterfinals in the women's doubles with Bethanie Mattek, including an impressive win over number two seeds Lisa Raymond and Samantha Stosur.

She represented India at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, in the women's singles and doubles events.

Success Points

The 5ft. 7in sexy looking Sania Mirza is having a large fan following ind India. She was awarded the Arjuna award in tennis for the year 2004. She has defeated two top 10 players, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Nadia Petrova too. Sania won the Wimbledon Championships Girls' Doubles title in 2003, teaming up with Alisa Kleybanova of Russia.

Through a wild card entry to the 2005 Australian Open and created history by becoming the first Indian woman to enter the third round of a Grand Slam tournament. She lost in the 3rd round to Serena Williams. She became the first Indian woman to win a WTA singles title defeating Alyona Bondarenko of Ukraine in the Hyderabad Open Finals on February 12, 2005.

Sexy Sania Mirza has jumped 13 places to be ranked 53rd in the women's singles international tennis rankings released recently. Sania Mirza, who will open her Australian Open campaign against Ukranian Olva Savchuk, made it to the semi-finals of the recently concluded Moorilla Open International tournament in Hobart.

En route to her semi-final, where she lost to Russian Anna Chakvetadze, she defeated world no. 29 Maria Kirilenko of Russia, Romina Oprandi of Italy and her doubles partner Alicia Molik of Australia.The semi-final appearance helped Sania garner 431 points to once again get closer to the top-50 on the ranking ladder.

Sania Mirza Included in Top Ten Beauties

Chineese official Xinhua News Agency has included Sania Mirza among the world's all -time Top Tennis Beauties. She is 10th in the list by Xinhua News Agency. Other famous players were Maria Sharapova and former tennis player Gabriela Sabatini. Sania Mirza, currently ranked 66 in the world, was shown wearing a traditional Indian dress as well as donning a skimpy tennis attire. This photo is shot during a Grand Slam Championship.

The Top Ten list is as follows:

Gabriela Sabatini,
Chris Evert,
Steffi Graf,
Anna Kournikova,
Martina Hingis,
Daniela Hantuchova,
Mary Pierce,
Maria Sharapova,
Justine Henin-Hardenne
and Sania Mirza.

Michael Phelps

2008-08-22T23:51:00.000-07:00

Michael Fred Phelps, born June 30, 1985, is an American swimmer. He is a 14-time Olympic gold medalist and he currently holds seven world records in swimming. Phelps holds the record for the most gold medals won at a single Olympics with the eight golds he won at the 2008 Olympic Games. With this record, he surpassed Mark Spitz, who was also a swimmer and had held the previous gold medal total with the seven that he won at the 1972 Olympic Games.

Overall, Phelps has won 16 Olympic medals: six gold and two bronze at Athens in 2004, and eight gold at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Out of his eight gold medals from Beijing, five were won in individual events, tying the record for individual gold medals at a single Games originally set by Eric Heiden in the 1980 Winter Olympics and equaled by Vitaly Scherbo at the 1992 Summer Games. Phelps ranks second in total career Olympic medals, after Soviet gymnast Larissa Latynina, who won a total of 18 medals (nine gold) spanning three Olympic Games.

Physique and lifestyle

Five physical attributes particularly suit Phelps to swimming: his long, thin torso (low drag in the water), arms which span 6 feet 7 inches (201 cm) (long, powerful, propulsive "paddles") disproportionate to his height of 6 feet 4 inches (193 cm), relatively short legs (lower drag, and perhaps the speed enhancement of a hydrofoil), coupled to size 14 feet (providing the effect of flippers) by hypermobile ankles he can extend beyond the pointe of a ballet dancer, enabling him to whip his feet (as if they were fins, for maximum thrust through [if not over] the water).

In a front page illustrated article profiling Phelps on the eve of the 2008 Summer Olympics, The Baltimore Sun described the hometown swimmer as "a solitary man" with a "rigid focus" at the pool prior to a race, but afterwards "a man incredibly invested in the success of the people he cares about". Bowman told a Sun interviewer, "He's unbelievably kind-hearted", recounting Phelps's interaction with young children after practices.

According to an article in The Guardian, Phelps eats around 12,000 kcal each day, or about five times more than the average adult male.
Throughout the 2008 Olympics, Phelps was questioned by the press if perhaps his feats were "too good to be true", a reference to unsupported rumors that Phelps may be taking performance enhancing drugs. In response, Phelps noted that he had signed up for Project Believe, a project by the United States Anti-Doping Agency in which U.S. Olympians can volunteer to be tested in excess of the World Anti-Doping Agency guidelines.

Ever Individual Gold Medal !!!!!!!

2008-08-11T06:26:00.000-07:00

Abhinav Bindra gave India its first gold medal at the Beijing Olympics when he won the 10 metres air rifle event on Monday morning. The 25-year-old Indian shooting ace, who qualified in fourth place for the final, finished with an overall score of (596+104.5) 700.5 in a thrilling finale which went right down to the last shot.

Bindra's historic feat makes him India's first individual gold medallist, bettering the silver medal feat of double trap shooter Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore in Athens 2004. India's last gold medal at an Olympics came in 1980 when the hockey team emerged triumphant in Moscow. This is the first ever gold medal for India in the history Olympics.

Abhinav Bindra comes from an affluent Sikh family, belonging to the Punjabi Khatri clan. His parents are Dr A S Bindra and Babli Bindra. He studied at the Doon School, Dehradun till 10th standard and then left for St. Stephens school, Chandigarh to pursue shooting. Abhinav Bindra potential talent was first spotted by his first coach Lt. Col. J.S. Dhillon. Abhinav Bindra was the youngest Indian participant at the 2000 Olympic Games. He scored 590 placing him 11th in the qualification round, and did not qualify for the finals (only the top 8 compete in the finals).

John Paul II

2008-07-19T07:34:00.000-07:00

John Paul II ( Karol Józef Wojtyła) reigned as the 264th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church and Sovereign of the State of the Vatican City from 16 October 1978, until his death, almost 27 years later. His was the second-longest pontificate after Pius IX's 32-year reign. He has been the only Polish pope, and was the first non-Italian pope since the Dutch Adrian VI in the 1520s.

John Paul II was Pope during a period in which the Catholic Church's influence declined in developed countries but expanded in the Third World. During his reign, the pope traveled extensively, visiting over 100 countries, more than any of his predecessors. He remains one of the most-traveled world leaders in history. He was fluent in numerous languages: his native Polish and also Italian, French, German, English, Spanish, Croatian, Portuguese, Russian and Latin. As part of his special emphasis on the universal call to holiness, he canonized a great number of people.

He beatified 1,340 people , more people than any previous pope. The Vatican asserts he canonized more people than the combined tally of his predecessors during the last five centuries, and from a far greater variety of cultures. Whether he had canonized more saints than all previous popes put together, as is sometimes also claimed, is difficult to prove, as the records of many early canonizations are incomplete, missing, or inaccurate. However, it is known that his abolition of the office of Promotor Fidei ("Promoter of the Faith") streamlined the process.

Karol Józef Wojtyła was born on 18 May 1920 in the Polish town of Wadowice and was the youngest of three children of Karol Wojtyła and Emilia Kaczorowska. His mother died on April 13, 1929, when he was just nine years old, and his father supported him so that he could study. His brother, who worked as a doctor, died when Wojtyła was twelve. He lost everyone in his family - a sister, brother, mother, and father - before he became a priest. His youth was marked by extensive contacts with the then thriving Jewish community of Wadowice. He played sports during his youth, and was particularly interested in football (soccer) as a goalkeeper.

In 1942 he entered the underground seminary run by the Archbishop of Kraków, Cardinal Adam Stefan Sapieha. Karol Wojtyła was ordained a priest on 1 November 1946, by Cardinal Sapieha. Not long after, he was sent to study theology at the Pontifical Athenaeum of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome, Italy, commonly known as the Angelicum, where he earned a licentiate and later a doctorate in sacred theology. This doctorate, the first of two, was based on the Latin dissertation Doctrina de fide apud S. Ioannem a Cruce (The Doctrine of Faith According to Saint John of the Cross). Even though his doctoral work was unanimously approved in June 1948, he was denied the degree because he could not afford to print the text of his dissertation (an Angelicum rule). In December of that year, a revised text of his dissertation was approved by the theological faculty of Jagiellonian University in Kraków, and Wojtyła was finally awarded the degree.

On 4 July 1958 Pope Pius XII named him titular bishop of Ombi and auxiliary to Archbishop Baziak, apostolic administrator of the Archdiocese of Kraków. He was consecrated to the Episcopate by Arcbishop Baziak on September 28, 1958. At 38 Karol Wojtyła was the youngest bishop in Poland. Pope John Paul II recounts in his book Rise, Let us be on our Way how he entered a room a full of priests, after news had been received of his appointment as auxiliary Bishop, when Archbishop Baziak called out "Habemus papam" ("We have a Pope"). Baziak died in June 1962 and on July 16 Karol Wojtyła was elected as Vicar Capitular, or temporary administrator, of the Archdiocese until an Archbishop could be appointed.

In August 1978 following Paul's death, he voted in the Papal conclave that elected Pope John Paul I, who at 65 was considered young by papal standards. However, John Paul I was in poor health and he died after only 33 days as pope, thereby precipitating another conclave.

Voting in the second conclave was divided between two particularly strong candidates: Giuseppe Siri, the Archbishop of Genoa; and Giovanni Benelli, the Archbishop of Florence and a close associate of Pope John Paul I. In early ballots, Benelli came within nine votes of victory. However, Wojtyła secured election as a compromise candidate, in part through the support of Franz Cardinal König and others who had previously supported Cardinal Siri.

He became the 264th Pope according to the chronological List of popes. At only 58 years of age, he was the youngest pope elected since Pope Pius IX in 1846. Like his immediate predecessor, Pope John Paul II dispensed with the traditional Papal coronation and instead received ecclesiastical investiture with the simplified Papal inauguration on 22 October 1978. During his inauguration, when the cardinals were to kneel before him to take their vows and kiss his ring, he stood up as the Polish prelate Stefan Cardinal Wyszynski knelt down, stopped him from kissing the ring and hugged him (SABC2 "The Greatest souls" documentary 2005). As Bishop of Rome he took possession of his Cathedral Church, the Basilica of St. John Lateran, on 12 November 1978.

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