NCPA Mumbai Chairman Khushroo N Suntook tells Priyanka Sharma about his collection of rare vocal recordings â€” in shellac 78s, vinyl and LP recordsOn his many visits to Moscow over the decades, Khushroo N Suntook made it a point to stop by at Melodiya â€” the famous record label and store which houses an extensive collection of classical music records in different formats â€” and peruse the merchandise. â€œRussia witnessed a golden age of music in the 1990s,â€ remembers Suntook. The 77-year-old chairman of National Centre for the Performing Arts, Mumbai, has travelled across more than 60 Russian towns to scout for rare records of opera recitals and attended numerous opera festivals across the world. The result is his collection of vintage records â€” over 9,000 shellacs and 7,000 vinyl vocal recordings, stacked in neat rows at the NCPA library.Opera stars, reminisces Suntook, were comparable to the greatest Hollywood and Bollywood stars of today, before

Symphony of many sounds

Business Standard

Faith may draw millions to the Maha Kumbh, but itâ€™s not just religion that profits from the gathering. Devjyot Ghoshal captures the business of life at the sacred confluence

Saints & salesmen

Ajai Shukla gives the inside story of the controversial AW-101 helicopter deal and finds that corruption is endemic to overseas defence deals in IndiaOn November 4, 1977, Prime Minister Morarji Desai was flying from Delhi to Jorhat in an Indian Air Force Russian-built Tupolev-124 jet, when the ultimate emergency happened: an aircraft with the PM on board lost power, descending dangerously close to the ground and threatening to plough into the Brahmaputra plain. The pilot, Wing Commander Clarence Dâ€™Lima, and four other crewmembers nursed the aircraft along, struggling to keep it airborne as they lined up for the approach to Jorhat airfield. They almost made it; just short of the airfield, the aircraft hit some trees and smacked onto the ground heavily. Tragically, all five crewmembers died while making that landing but, because of their skill, Desai walked out of the aircraft unhurt.This is the world of IAF Headquarters Communication Squadron, which oper

A choppy deal

With a strong performance from its protagonists, Zero Dark Thirty offers a rickety yet gripping view of the mission to kill Osama bin LadenZero Dark Thirty, Kathryn Bigelowâ€™s long-anticipated release after her Oscar-winning effort, The bazaars, in 2008, is worth the wait. The war film sidesteps commentary and skilfully follows the disappointments and breakthroughs in the decade-long pursuit of Osama bin Laden by intelligence officials and US navy SEALs.Bigelow, the first woman to win an Academy Award for direction, teams up once again with war journalist and screenwriter Mark Boal in this production.The film takes you straight to the moment in time without digressing into background stories or elaborate character sketches. The CIA team is posted in Pakistan, where Maya (Jessica Chastain), a young agent, is sent to work with tough investigator Dan (Jason Clarke). Together, they question detainees at â€œblack sitesâ€ (sec

Those final, dark hours

Most of us donâ€™t watch movies like Martians freshly arrived on earth, with our minds conveniently turned into blank slates. Our past viewing experiences constantly inform the current one. For instance, if an actor has a distinct screen persona, it might affect the way we look at him even when he plays a different sort of role. And filmmakers sometimes make clever use of this familiarity. Consider the witty casting of Robert De Niro as the father â€“ over-protective of his little girl, keeping an eagle eye on the nervous bumbler who is courting her â€“ in the comedy Meet the Parents. The escalating hysteria of that film depends largely on our knowledge of the dangerous or psychotic characters De Niro played in his pomp, in films ranging from Mean Streets to The Untouchables. Think back to those iconic roles as violent, explosive men and you see why Greg Focker, the unfortunately named hero of Meet the Parents, is so fearful around his girlfriendâ€™s dad.Last week, a small

Familiarity breeds affection

The couple that walks into the gallery has been â€œcollectingâ€ art â€” though â€œbuyingâ€ might be the appropriate term in their case â€” for some years now, unmindful of spending a lakh or two on paintings that they like. Their picks are naÃ¯ve, not yet jaded by signature scavenging, even though they are a concession to popular (er, â€œkitschâ€) taste.

A cautious optimism

The Aeroflot festival format has been changed. It starts with a Swiss Rapid qualifier (15 minutes+10 sec increment), which puts 32-players into second stage.

Chess (#1032)

J R D Tata (1904-1993) received his pilotâ€™s licence in February 1929, and set up Indiaâ€™s first airline, Tata Airlines, in 1932. Tata piloted its inaugural flight from Karachi to Mumbai (then known as Bombay). In 1946, it was renamed Air-India. Two years later, Tata set up Air-India International in collaboration with the government. Five years later, in keeping with the socialist fervour of the times, the government decided to nationalise the aviation business. Tata suggested that the government should consolidate the airlines into two ventures: one for domestic aviation (Indian Airlines) and the other for flying overseas (Air-India). The government asked Tata to become the chairman of Air-India. He continued to hold this post till 1978 when his services were terminated by Morarji Desai, the prime minister. In the early 1980s, Indira Gandhi, who had come back to power, reinstated Tata.Tata, it so happens, was an avid writer of letters. Some of these were published in 20

The original flight plan

The young men who opened fire at Columbine High School, at the movie theatre in Colorado, and in other massacres had this in common: they were video gamers who seemed to be acting out some dark digital fantasy. It was as if all that exposure to computerised violence gave them the idea to go on a rampage â€” or at least fuelled their urges. But did it really?Social scientists have been studying and debating the effects of media violence on behaviour since the 1950s, and video games in particular since the 1980s. The issue is especially relevant today, because the games are more realistic and bloodier than ever, and because most boys play them at some point. Girls play at lower rates and are significantly less likely to play violent games. A burst of new research has begun to clarify what can and cannot be said about the effects of violent gaming. Playing the games can and does stir hostile urges and mildly aggressive behaviour in the short term.Yet it is not at a

Digital warriors

Agencies

What led to IOCâ€™s proposal to exclude wrestling from Olympics 2020 and does this mean the end of the road for the sport?

Wrestle mania

A lavishly produced history of Indian business captures the spirit of Indian entrepreneurs and their ability to survive a challenging environmentIn the realm of luxurious pictorial books for the coffee table, the focus has been on Indiaâ€™s architectural heritage, varied crafts and, perhaps, â€œmomentsâ€ from daily Indian life. The CEOâ€™s coffee table has necessarily been adorned by such tomes, which though extravagant, bestow little understanding of their own domain. Now comes a lavish addition to the rare business pictorials collection, An Illustrated History of Indian Enterprise, brought out by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) and Oxford University Press.An industry association has special interest in bringing out a publication in the business history genre. Apart from outlining facts of interest to industry members and the general readership, such an initiative also presents a positive image of business. This is par

India Inc on the coffee table

Bora hopes that Elrhino will help prevent poaching of elephants and rhinos in Assam and also provide employment to villagersAssam, a state known for its rich biodiversity, is home to two endangered species â€” the Asian elephant and the one-horned rhino. When Mahesh Bora, a mining engineer with Coal India, was wondering what to do after retirement, he decided to set up a factory to make animal poo paper. Not only would it be a challenge, it would also help to prevent the poaching of elephants and rhinos in the state in addition to ensuring employment for villagers. Elrhino, as his paper-making unit is called, uses rhino and elephant dung as raw material.â€œThe diet of elephants is all vegetarian,â€ says Bora. â€œSo the excrement is essentially raw cellulose, the basic ingredient for making paper.â€ The dung is mixed with waste products like hosiery rags to make paper. Bora has a post-graduate diploma in ecology and says he has always been interested in

Makes paper from animal poo

Indian cricket has added ballast to its pace attack with two new finds - Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Shami Ahmed. But will they be able to live up to expectations, asks Aabhas SharmaAt the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad four years ago, very few people were present to see a 19-year-old bowler dismiss Sachin Tendulkar for the first â€” and only â€” time for a duck in a Ranji Trophy match. The bowler went on to take five wickets in the first innings and scored 80 runs in the second innings of the match, the 2008-09 Ranji Trophy final, which his team (Uttar Pradesh) eventually lost by 243 runs.Four years later, Bhuvneshwar Kumar finds himself in the same team as Tendulkar and probably will line up alongside him when India takes on Australia in the first Test starting on February 22 in Chennai.Kumar is a Gurjar and was born in December 1990 in Kanpur. His family comes from a small village in UPâ€™s Bulandshahr district and had little con

Princes of swing

There is a misalignment between the shape and range of popular music and what the Grammys choose to honourImagine, if you will, the Grammy Awards of 2045. The winners will be a diverse lot: young pop-rappers who sound like suburban Wiz Khalifas; dance-music producers using the dubstep drop ironically; all manner of Taylor Swift revivalists; pop-R&B-hip-hop hybridisers who sample Drake, maybe Mumford & Sons.And what a mistake all that will be.Thatâ€™s because the voters will by and large be the artists, producers, engineers and more of today â€” which means that there will be representatives from rock, and also teen-pop, hip-hop, dance music and so on (provided that the current generation of Grammy voters doesnâ€™t exclude them with voter fraud measures).And think of the complaints future generations of critics will lodge: the Grammys favour familiar modes! Youthful innovation is not being rewarded! Complaining about the Grammys is perenni

Sounds familiar?

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, everything from killer drones to small variants that soldiers can carry in their backpacks, are finding a lot of uses â€” both military and civilian. Indulekha Aravind looks into the different types of UAVs being made and the people behind themBack then, it was a giant leap of faith. Nimish Sharma used to dabble in aircraft design with a couple of friends while doing his graduation in aerospace engineering at IIT Kanpur. â€œWe formed an aeromodelling club and were the first students in IIT to build and fly a model aircraft,â€ says 28-year-old Sharma. But this was not just about fiddling around with model aircraft and getting them airborne. When it was time to graduate, Sharma and six of his friends abandoned mainstream (read lucrative) career options and set up Aurora Integrated Systems, one of the first private ventures in India to manufacture unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, indigenously.Sitting in their workshop-cum-office

Our spy in the skies

I am looking for a small car within a budget of Rs 3.5 lakh. I have an average daily commute of 50 km per day, and my requirements are low maintenance and good mileage. I am currently considering the Hyundai Eon, Maruti Suzuki Alto 800 and Alto LXi. Any idea when the Suzuki Cervo will be launched in India? Please help me decide which car to buy.Balu Pandit, via emailThough both the Altos will be low on maintenance and give you good mileage, it is the Eon which is the better overall car. If your budget allows you to acquire the Eon, do go for it as it is a more complete car. It is stylish, the quality is very good inside-outside for the price it is asking, it is fuel efficient while maintenance costs are competitive too. The Eon is also more comfortable for passengers as well as the driver. In other words, for its price-tag, it is a no-compromise car.Premium needI would

Small star

The third edition of the Cartier Concours dâ€™Elegance showcased some prized Indian jewels

A vintage year

Same question

<I>I plan to buy a C-segment car and my budget is around Rs 6 lakh. I will be driving the car for less than 10 km a day. Performance and ride is most important to me, followed by pick-up, handling,

Time-tested

Nandi Hills has become the favourite shopping mall of Bengaluru by 2010, because of its central location. Hyderabuda, the twin city of Bengaluru, is now separated from it only by a huge theme park,

Bangalored!

To Endeavour

- Find Specials News, Features, Analysis and more at Business Standard. Full coverage of Goafest 2014

Page 951 - Supplements