Hrithik gets personal

The very vivacious Preity Zinta welcomes all as she gets chatty with Duggu a.k.a Hrithik Roshan.

The actor who is most famous for his signature moves and dancing capabilities had lot more than just a conversation with Preity. Both the fellow actors go a long way as Hrithik confides into the Preity little lesser known facts about himself and his journey so far.

Hrithik spoke about various facets of his life; including his debut film, his kids, his wife and numerous people he's thankful to in the industry and otherwise. Speaking on his films he confessed that his first film was as a kid and on the sets he actually fought with the iconic Rajnikanth. He also mentioned that his most embarrassing moment in his life was once when he was at a film set, wrapped in a towel yelling Anil Kapoor's dialogues and at that very moment Madhuri Dixit caught him in the act.
Setting the tempo right, Preity got Hrithik to show off his acting skills as he was made to move to the commands of Preity's remote control. They also got together to pose for a make believe film poster titled 'Zara Hatke' where Hrithik was dressed as a cowboy and Preity was dressed as a cowgirl holding a gun in her hand.

I am slave to vision: Hrithik

Everyone's nostalgic about their first pay and so is our hot hunk Hrithik Roshan.

The reticent Bollywood actor Hrithik Roshan, who usually keeps his personal life under wraps and rarely talks about his childhood, lately revealed all about his growing years and his mad fetish for cars and bikes.
Cherishing his childhood memories Hrithik says, "My first stint in front of camera was for the film called AAP KE DEEWANE for which I received 500 bucks for the one shot. There was a market in Juhu called Sarkari Bhandar in which we used to get these toy cars. So I went there and bought 10 hot wheels cars. My first ever earned money was to buy the Hot Wheels Toy cars. I was about 7-8 years old. I remember playing with those cars and the challenges I used to put against those cars playing on the furniture of my mother's bedroom, I used to create mountains out of the blankets and make the cars jump higher and faster. Somewhere that experience taught me a lot and seeped into my life as an actor."

That Hrithik is a go-getter; headstrong person is we all know. But what we don't is how the actor manages to do everything so gracefully. Well here's the funda of Hrithik's success which the actor discloses himself.
"I am a slave to my vision. If I can see something that I can do then I have to do it myself. And if I can see I also know I can do, I can achieve," says the confident actor.

Indian firms employ

Noting that India's direct investment in the US has grown by an average of 33 percent each year since 2005, a top US official has acknowledged that Indian companies employ tens of thousands of Americans.

In the decade between 2000 and 2010, Indian investment has increased from a negligible $96 million to over $3.3 billion, deputy secretary of state Bill Burns said at the 3rd FICCI-Brookings Dialogue on 'Is there a future of India-US strategic dialogue' here Tuesday.
India-US bilateral economic relationship is anchored in the realisation that their long-term interests are essentially congruent and mutually reinforcing, he said at the event organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry with the Washington think tank.
'Together, we are drawing the best from both of our societies to make better products that compete and win in the global economy,' Burns said noting Tata Steel has a plant in Ohio, while Boeing uses engineers in Bangalore to design 787s whose parts are manufactured across America.
Noting 'the modernisation of India and the lifting up of hundreds of millions of Indians out of poverty necessarily remains the focus of the Indian government', he said India has no more important partner than the US in this endeavour.
'This extraordinary -- and so far extraordinarily successful -- effort requires India to sustain its high rate of economic growth, open markets for its goods and services, and attract the investment needed to realise its vision of inclusive development,' he said.
'There is no more important partner for India in this endeavour than the United States,' Burns said.
Over the past decade, India-US bilateral trade has doubled and then almost doubled again, he said while US total direct investment in India rose 10-fold, from $2.4 billion in 2000 to $27.1 billion in 2010, he noted.

Strong quake hits India

A strong earthquake shook northeastern India and Nepal, killing at least 18 people, damaging buildings and sending lawmakers in Nepal's capital running into the streets.

The quake, with a preliminary magnitude of 6.9, struck at 6:10 p.m. Sunday local time. The epicenter was in Sikkim state near the border with Nepal, and shaking was felt across northern and eastern India, including in the capital of New Delhi. It triggered at least two aftershocks of magnitude 6.1 and 5.3, Indian seismology official R.S. Dattatreyan said. He warned more aftershocks were possible.
At least five people in Sikkim were killed and more than 50 were injured, according to the state's top official, Chief Secretary Karma Gyatso. The north Indian state of West Bengal reported four deaths, and Bihar state reported two. Nepal's government said five people died and dozens were hurt there, including two men and a child who were killed when a brick wall toppled outside the British Embassy in Nepal's capital, Katmandu.
The full extent of damage was not immediately known because the region is sparsely populated with many people living in remote areas now cut off by mudslides triggered by the quake, state police Chief Jasbir Singh told The Associated Press.
TV stations reported buildings buckled, sidewalks cracked and two major roads collapsed in Sikkim's state capital of Gangtok, 42 miles (68 kilometers) southeast of the quake's epicenter near the border with Nepal. The Indo-Tibetan Border Police said two of its buildings had collapsed in Gangtok.
Small army columns fanned out across the city of some 50,000 overnight to search for anyone pinned under fallen debris.
"We have sounded a high alert. Police are on the streets in Gangtok and other major towns," he said.
Electricity and some phone service was interrupted in the area.
Power lines snapped in the West Bengal cities of Darjeeling and Kalimpong, which "are now in total darkness," state Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said, according to Press Trust of India.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh offered to send troops to help, and summoned the National Disaster Management Authority for an emergency meeting. The air force sent five planes to help with rescue efforts.
The region has been hit by major earthquakes in the past, including in 1950 and 1897.
In neighboring Nepal and Bangladesh, the quake Sunday night sent residents rushing out of their homes, offices and shopping centers.
In Katmandu, members of parliament who were debating the national budget ran out of the assembly hall into a parking area. They returned 15 minutes later and resumed their session.
The quake was also felt as far as the Indian capital, with New Delhi residents also rushing out of shaking buildings, and in the Chinese-ruled Himalayan region of Tibet. According to China's official Xinhua News Agency, the quake caused three houses in Tibet to collapse, injured one person and suspended a border county's telecommunications services.

solutions to euro-zone

Expressing concern on the simmering economic turmoil in global markets, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday hoped that the upcoming G-20 Summit of world leaders will offer feasible solutions to end the euro-zone crisis.

"I am expecting, at the margin of the World Bank meeting, the problem of the euro-zone crisis, high sovereign debt and also other related issues will be discussed," Mukherjee told mediapersons on the sidelines of a function marking the foundation day of a bank here.
"I am confident that when we meet again in Paris at the G-20 Finance Ministers conference to make recommendations for the leaders in the summit which will be held in early November, it would be possible for the world leaders to work out the solutions which can dissolve the crisis," he added.
Mukherjee had in an earlier statement warned that unlike during the immediate aftermath of the financial crisis of 2008, global policy coordination would be difficult now as most countries are at different stages of the economic cycle at present.
Finance Ministers of the BRICS countries-Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa-will take a call on supporting the euro zone at a meeting in Washington later this month.
The meetings are scheduled from September 23-25 at Washington.
Mukherjee would head the Indian delegation comprising Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor, D. Subbarao, apart from senior officials of the finance ministry.
The objective of the meet is to discuss the steps that they need to taken with an aim to effectively overcome the imminent global economic slowdown.

Italian Restaurateur

His passion for cooking drove Italian Canadian Enzo Renda to create the first Eggspectation outlet in Montreal in 1993 to prove that eggs were more than just a breakfast food. He brought the concept to New Delhi five years ago and has been so encouraged by the response because, as he says, 'India is changing by the minute', that he has now branched out to introducing fine Italian dining at a golf resort in Greater Noida.

'We will introduce our guests to authentic food from all the regions of Italy,' Renda said of La Brezza that is set to open its doors at the high-end Jaypee Greens Golf & Spa Resort at Greater Noida.
La Brezza, along with its Enoteca Bar, has been conceptualized as a traditional family style Italian restaurant with a modern edge. The restaurant has 80 covers with an area of 5,282 sq. ft. spread on two floors, including the kitchen.
Aiming to establish a harmonious relationship between the resort and the restaurant, table setting has been kept casual and classy with sociable atmosphere. Intangible pleasures as flavors, senses and emotions are directly reflected through the most selective menu personally created by Renda.
'Actually, there is a little touch of my mother's recipes in most of the items on the menu,' Renda explained.
The bar menu is distinct and unique to some of Italy's famous wine bars. Nestled in the stairwell against the backdrop of a two-storey high wine display, the bar offers a wide selection of wines and a large variety of appetisers and some items from the main menu.
So, how will authenticity be ensured?
'Well, we'll be importing all our ingredients from Italy, from mozzarella cheese to tomatoes to what have you. The meats we will source locally but thanks to the herbs we will use, the flavour profile will be authentic,' Renda asserted.
The chefs, however, will be Indian and will function under the watchful eye of Renda who will increase his visits to India to three a year once La Brezza opens before the inaugural Indian Grand Prix at Greater Noida in October.
Chef Gomes, who oversees Eggspectation at the Jaypee Vasant Continental, will be in overall charge of La Brezza and will be assisted by two other chefs from the same hotel.
'They know the way I think. They know how I cook. They follow my instructions to the T. They have a passion for cooking,' Renda declared of the trio.
What then brought him to India?
'India is English China, without the controls. The growth is evident all around.
'India is changing by the minute, and my instinct of seven years ago is showing results sooner than expected,' Renda told IANS in an interview.
Admitting that Indian laws are difficult, he also noted that change is under way and reforms were on the way.
Noting that salaries are increasing by 20 to 30 percent Renda was confident of seeing a greater number of Indians trying out outlets like his. 'The future lies where the middle class increases, a move that triggers all the way to the richer population.'
At the same time, he conceded that food was not the easiest of businesses, and India does not make it any the easier.
'We spent a lot of the time in the initial years convincing people we worked with here,' Renda said, adding they are far more receptive now.
'Indian brands are getting into niches, and will need to compete with western brands, for which they will need western consulting,' he said.
Eggspectation's three outlets in the National Capital Region -- the other two are at Japyee Siddharth (Rajendra Place in west Delhi) and Japyee Greens Golf and Spa Resort at Greater Noida -- contribute 10 percent of the chain's revenues, with the 16 restaurants in Canada and the US contributing the rest.

India Gold Snaps

Gold snapped a three-day gaining streak on Monday following similar trend globally. A strong rupee also made the dollar-quoted yellow metal cheaper, triggering a slight pick-up in physical demand ahead of key festivals.

* At 1:14 p.m., the most-active gold for October delivery on the Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) was trading 1.95 percent lower at 27,099 rupees per 10 grams
* Global spot gold fell more than 1 percent, reversing a rally of 3.2 percent in the previous session, as investors, faced with uncertainties over the U.S. Federal Reserve's stimulus plans, decided to take some money off the table.
* The rupee strengthened, supported by a sharp rise in local shares, Asian peers and gains in the euro, with corporate dollar sales, possibly from a large domestic engineering conglomerate, also aiding.
* The rupee plays an important role in determining the landed cost of the yellow metal, which is quoted in dollars.
* A price dip attracted physical buying from traders, who were on the sidelines.
* "Demand has improved in the last few days," said a dealer with a private-run bullion importing bank in Mumbai, adding premiums are steady at $1.1/1.4 over London prices.
* India's wedding and festival season demand will gain pace and peak in October before tapering off in December.