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Leaders
Amitabh Bachchan vs Shah Rukh Khan: The Bollywood Fight of the Century
The Jalsa corner
Main character
Amitabh Bachchan, (“The Big B”) 64, actor, TV presenter, poet, one-time Member of Parliament and potential candidate for presidency.
Supporting Cast:
The "A" List (Part 1 of 2)
Ten Asians making the news in America
From shore to shining shore, America is made up of successive generations of immigrants. But it has always found it difficult to accommodate those who came via the Pacific instead of the Atlantic.
Day 62, December 31, 2008
YES, MORE ACCOLADES
Day 60, December 29, 2008
THE THINKING MAN'S SOLDIER
Outward bound
Newly discovered sources point to a golden age of Japanese seafaring during which the Marco Polo of Japan lived.
Before the arrival of Commodore Matthew Perry’s "black" ships on the shores of Edo in 1853, Japan was a country known for its notorious isolation from the outer world. All overseas trade was restricted, and most Japanese ports were closed to foreign ships. Such isolation, however, was not always the case, as newly discovered sources point to a golden age of Japanese seafaring during the early 17th century.
Blind man's bluff
A 79-year-old woman triumphs over a revisionist historian's assault.
"We remember the suffering of the individual women who were subjected to sexual violence by the Japanese military, lament the victims of wartime sexual violence throughout the world, pray for a peaceful world without war." These words are inscribed in 12 languages on a cenotaph unveiled on Japan's Okinawa island.
India's poor little rich prince
The waxing and waning of the Nizam of Hyderabad reflects the waves of change that have swept the sub-continent since India's independence.
It starts off with the whiff of an Indian fable, turns into a cautionary tale on the crosswinds of post-colonialism, then veers into a modern soap opera involving politics, eccentric royals, squabbling relatives, international lawyers and the world of high finance.
Rudd in Beijing
To be honest, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s Mandarin isn’t all that great. But try telling that to the students of Beijing University.
Rudd, 50, made his first trip to China in early April as Australia's head of state. Rudd is an old Beijing hand, having stayed in the Chinese capital for three years in the late 1980s. Not many Chinese, in Beijing or otherwise, had noticed the smiling official from the Australian embassy then. The fact that he could speak fluent Mandarin – in a city where many foreigners are Chinese experts – aroused little interest.
Meet Asia's dynamic First Ladies
In 2003, Taiwan's former First Lady was named one of Time magazine's Asian Heroes. Now she could face jail time. Her Thai counterpart is doing no better, having been sentenced to three years for tax evasion, without her other half. Between a graft indictment and a divorce-of-convenience, Asia's First Wives have shown that they are no mere tai tais or ladies of leisure.
They are not Laura Bush, forever smiling, forever supportive, a silent ornament next to her bumbling husband, George. Neither are they Hillary Rodham Clinton, outspoken, aggressive, a scene-stealer, as much a liability as an asset to the charismatic Bill. They are constrained by culture and tradition to be subservient to their men.
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Another Point
An imaginary factual blog of General David Petraeus, Commander, United States Central Command