Teacher
arrested for writing love letter to
student
BANGALORE, Jan 11: A teacher, who
allegedly wrote a love letter to his
ninth standard student in Haralalusandra
villager near here, was thrashed by
villagers and has ended up behind bars.
The
teacher had been offering greeting cards
to the girl. Two days back, he gave her a
love letter following which the
frightened girl informed her parents.
The
girl’s parents along with the
villagers then beat him up and handed him
over to police
The Block
Education Officer has ordered his
suspension.
Police
produced him before a court, which
remanded him to judicial custody. (PTI)
Meghalaya
has only 45% adult franchise
SHILLONG, Jan 11: Only 45 per cent
of Meghalaya’s population can vote
in the next Assembly elections slated
this year.
As per the
final electoral rolls published
yesterday, of the 26 lakh population, the
state has only 12.31 lakh voters,
including 6,25,579 females and 6,04,647
males.
Chief
Electoral Officer Prasant Naik told
newsmen here that the publication of the
draft electoral rolls clearly indicated
that the electorate constituted only 45
per cent of the total population.
"Details
are being worked out to show the break-up
of voters in all 60 constituencies of the
state," he said.
He said as
soon as the date is announced, a
notification would be sent within 21 days
and the code of conduct would come into
effect. Candidates would be given 13 days
to campaign in their respective
constituencies.
Mr Naik
also said the term of the seventh
Meghalaya Assembly expires on March 10
and the Election Commission was likely to
announce the poll date anytime.
"Once
the election date is announced, the Code
of Conduct will be in force," he
said, adding official notification of the
elections would be made within 21 days of
announcement of the poll date. (UNI)
Sir
Edmund Hillary - The mountaineering
legend
NEW DELHI, Jan 11: Sir Edmund Hillary,
who became a mountaineering legend by
conquering for the first time the
world’s highest summit Mount
Everest, devoted his life for the
betterment of Nepal’s Sherpas who
live on the slopes of the Himalayas.
A school
mountain trip in 1935 made the fragile
looking boy to decide that it was his
calling in life to scale peaks even as he
made his living as a beekeeper.
He climbed
mountains in New Zealand, then in the
Alps, and finally in the Himalayas where
he climbed 11 different peaks of over
20,000 feet. Hillary’s exploits as a
member of the Everest reconnaissance
expedition in 1951 drew the attention of
Sir John Hunt, leader of an expedition
trying to make an assault on Everest.
As the
expedition reached the South Peak on May,
all but two climbers were forced to turn
back due to exhaustion. Hillary and
Nepalese climber Tenzing Norgay were the
only members who made to the summit
29,028 feet above sea level on May 29,
1953.
The duo
spent only 15 minutes at the summit.
Hillary took Tenzing’s photos.
Hillary left a cross that he had been
given as an offering to the peak.
Sir Edmund
later recalled "We did not know if
it was humanly possible to reach the
top."
Though the
pair initially reported the ascent as one
made in unison, it was only after the
Sherpa’s death in 1986 that Sir
Edmund revealed that he had been about 10
feet ahead at the final ridge.
The news
of the ascent reached Britain on the day
of the Queen’s coronation and as
Hillary was a New Zealander and as a
result a citizen of the Commonwealth,
Britishers celebrated his win.
Sir Edmund
was knighted for his efforts.
During the
next two decades, the adventurer climbed
ten other peaks in Himalayas and also
reached the South Pole as part of the
Commonwealth Trans-Antartic expedition.
He also led a jetboat expedition from the
mouth of the Ganges river to its source
in 1977.
However,
he devoted a great part of his life
working for the uplift of the Sherpa
people he had met during his various
expeditions.
During his
two year stint as New Zealand’s High
Commissioner to India, he founded the
Himalayan Trust in 1964 which helped in
setting up clinics, hospitals and
schools. It also helped in the
construction of two airstrips.
The
explorer took great pride in his
contribution to Nepalese people. "My
most worthwhile things have been the
building of schools and clinics. That has
given me far more satisfaction than a
footprint on a mountain," he had
said.
Recognising
his contribution to Nepal, the Himalayan
nation’s Government conferred
honorary citizenship upon Hillary on the
occasion of the 50th anniversary of
the first successful ascent of Everest.
His
native New Zealand also honoured him and
various schools, organisations around New
Zealand and abroad are named after him.
In
India, a primary wing house at St
Paul’s School Darjeeling is name
after him.
Sir
Edmund was known for his shyness - so
much so that he proposed his would be
wife Louise Mary Rose through his
mother-in law in September, 1953.
Sir
Hillary always fought shy of his
celebrity status and on the 50th
anniversary of his achievement he turned
down an invitation from the Queen and
instead travelled to Kathmandu to be with
his Sherpa friends.
The
conqueror’s personal life was
overshadowed with a tragedy when his wife
and daughter were killed in a plane crash
in 1975. Though he remained shattered for
a long time, he ultimately found solace
in Nepal’s pristine beauty and
people.
Sir
Hillary was very concerned about the
environmental degradation in the
Himalayan region and the indifferent
attitude of some of the mountaineers.
He
was highly critical about New Zealander
Mark Inglis and 40 other climbers, who in
various groups, left British climber
David Sharp to die in May 2006. (PTI)
I
am disappointed with the ban on my film:
Nikhil
NEW DELHI, Jan 11: Disappointed with
the ban imposed on his film, ‘My
name is Anthony Gonsalves’ in Bihar
and Jharkhand, debutant actor Nikhil
Dwivedi says it is very unfortunate that
his first film has been banned and that
too in states which are close to the
place where he belongs, i,e Uttar
Pradesh.
"I
feel very disappointed. It is very
unfortunate that my films have been
banned in Bihar and Jharkhand. We all
have worked very hard on this film and
being from Allahabad, I would have really
wanted the film to be screened in these
states. But what can we do, we have to go
by the decision of the community that has
banned it," he says quite
helplessly.
Nikhil who
plays the character of a struggling actor
in the film says the film is a sort of
autobiography for him. He was in the
capital yesterday to promote the film.
"In
the film I play a struggling actor who
doesn’t have great looks but want to
make it big in the tinsel town, so it is
very similar to what I am in real life,
so it is a sort of autobiography,"
he says.
So, how
much importance he gives to looks when it
comes to acting?
"I
dont think looks are at all important for
good acting. It is a chemistry betwen the
actor and the audience, so nobody knows
the truth. If only looks had been
important then all models and
good-looking guys would have been great
actors," he says.
Nikhil,
who shared his screen presence some great
actors like Anupam Kher, Mithun
Chakraborty, Pawan Malhotra etc says he
has learned more as a human being from
them, although he never needed to take
any acting tips from them.
"I
learned a lot from them as a human being
apart from an actor. Something which I
have realised during shooting that they
all are very selfless human being,"
he says.
Although
Nikhil is still awaiting the verdict of
the audience on his debut film, the actor
already has some films already in hand
and some offers too.
"I am
doing a film which is a remake of Sunny
Deol’s Arjun, then there is
multi-starrer comedy and there are couple
of other films whose scripts are being
discussed."
So how is
it working in Arjun? "It is never
easy to live upto the expectations of a
film which has already been made before.
So our main responsibility is not to
destroy the original film and then be at
par if not better it,"he says. (PTI)
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