Slumdog Millionaire makes a sweep at the Oscars

"Slumdog Millionaire", the rags-to-riches story of a Mumbai slum dweller, had a golden run at the Oscars on Monday sweeping eight awards with two going to music maestro A R Rahman, the first Indian to achieve the historic feat.

43-year-old Rahman bagged Oscars for Original Score in the film, named the best at the 81st Academy Awards, and along with veteran lyricist Gulzar also won the Best Song award for the foot-tapping number 'Jai ho'.

Following is the list of winners at the 81st Academy Awards:

Best Picture: "Slumdog Millionaire"

Best Director: Danny Boyle ("Slumdog Millionaire")

Best Actor: Sean Penn ("Milk")

Best Actress: Kate Winslet ("The Reader")

Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger (posthumously for "The Dark Knight")

Best Supporting Actress: Penelope Cruz ("Vicky Cristina Barcelona")

Best Foreign Film: "Departures" (Japan)

Best Adapted Screenplay: Simon Beaufoy ("Slumdog Millionaire")

Best Original Screenplay: Dustin Lance Black ("Milk")

Best Animated Feature Film: "WALL-E"

Best Art Direction: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"

Best Cinematography: Anthony Dod Mantle ("Slumdog Millionaire")

Best Sound Mixing: Resul Pookutty with Ian Tapp and Richard Pryke ("Slumdog Millionaire")

Best Sound Editing: "The Dark Knight"

Best Original Score: A R Rahman ("Slumdog Millionaire")

Best Original Song: 'Jai ho' ("Slumdog Millionaire", music by A R Rahman and lyrics by Gulzar)

Best Costume: Michael O'Connor ("The Duchess")

Best Documentary Feature: "Man on Wire"

Best Documentary (short subject): "Smile Pinki"

Best Film Editing: "Slumdog Millionaire"

Best Makeup: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"

Best Animated Short Film: "La Maison en Petits Cubes"

Best Live Action Short Film: "Spielzeugland" (Toyland)

Best Visual Effects: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"

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Saraswati Samman 2008 conferred to Assamese writer Lakshmi Nandan Bora

Noted Assamese writer Lakshmi Nandan Bora will be honoured with the prestigious Saraswati Samman for 2008 this year i.e. in 2009 for his novel 'Kayakalpa'.

The award, instituted by the K K Birla Foundation in 1991, is given every year for an outstanding literary work in any Indian language mentioned in the schedule VIII of the Constitution and published during the past 10 years.

The award carries a cash prize of Rs five lakh.

Bora, who won the Sahitya Akademi award for his 1986 novel 'Patal Bhairavi', is considered as one of the foremost men of letters in Assam today.

'Kayakalpa' was chosen for the award after consideration of works published in 22 Indian languages by a selection committee headed by former Chief Justice of India G B Patnaik.

Past Recipients:

* 1991 - Harivanshrai 'Bachchan' for his autobiography in four volumes
* 1992 - Ramakant Rath
* 1993 - Vijay Tendulkar
* 1994 - Harbhajan Singh
* 1995 - Balamani Amma for poetry collection Nivedyam
* 1996 - Shamsur Rahman Faruqi for She`r-e Shor-Angez
* 1997 - Manubhai Pancholi
* 1998 - Shankha Ghosh for his anthology Gandharba Kabitaguccha
* 1999 - Indira Parthasarathy
* 2000 - Manoj Das for his novel Amrita Phala (The Nectar Fruit)
* 2001 - Dalip Kaur Tiwana for her novel Katha Kaho Urvashi
* 2002 - Mahesh Elkunchwar for his play Yugant
* 2003 - Govind Chandra Pande for his collection of 163 Sanskrit poems entitled Bhagirathi
* 2004 - Sunil Gangopadhyay for his novel Pratham Alo
* 2005 - K. Ayyappa Panicker for his collection of poems Ayyappa Panikarude Kritikal
* 2006 - Jagannath Prasad Das for his collection of poems Parikrama written in Oriya
* 2007 - Naiyer Masud for his collection of short stories Taoos Chaman Ki Myna (The Myna from Peacock Garden) written in Urdu
* 2008 - Lakshmi Nandan Bora for his novel Kayakalpa written in Assamese

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Bharat Ratna conferred to Bhimsen Joshi

Eminent exponent of Hindustani classical music Pandit Bhimsen Joshi was officially conferred the "Bharat Ratna' on 10th February, 2009 at his residence in Pune by a President's emissary.

Following is the list of Bharat Ratna awardees since its institution in 1954:

1) Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1954)
2) Chakravarti Rajagopalachari (1954)
3) C V Raman (1954)
4) Bhagwan Das (1955)
5) Mokshagundam Visvesvarayya (1955)
6) Jawaharlal Nehru (1955)
7) Govind Ballabh Pant (1957)
8) Dhondo Keshav Karve (1958)
9) Dr B C Roy (1961)
10) Purushottam Das Tandon (1961)
11) Dr Rajendra Prasad (1962)
12) Dr Zakir Hussain (1963)
13) Pandurang Vaman Kane (1963)
14) Lal Bahadur Shastri (1966)
15) Indira Gandhi (1971)
16) V V Giri (1975)
17) K Kamaraj (1976)
18) Mother Teresa (1980)
19) Acharya Vinoba Bhave (1983)
20) Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (1987)
21) M G Ramachandran (1988)
22) B R Ambedkar (1990)
23) Nelson Mandela (1990)
24) Rajiv Gandhi (1991)
25) Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel (1991)
26) Morarji Desai (1991)
27) Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (1992)
28) J R D Tata (1992)
29) Satyajit Ray (1992)
30) A P J Abdul Kalam (1997)
31) Gulzarilal Nanda (1997)
32) Aruna Asaf Ali (1997)
33) M S Subbulakshmi (1998)
34) Chidambaram Subramaniam (1998)
35) Jayaprakash Narayan (1998)
36) Pandit Ravi Shankar (1999)
37) Amartya Sen (1999)
38) Gopinath Bordoloi (1999)
39) Lata Mangeshkar (2001)
40) Ustad Bismillah Khan (2001)
41) Pandit Bhimsen Joshi (2008)

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Mawsynram vs Waialeale

Mawsynram, 9 km from Sohra, more famous by its erstwhile name Cherrapunjee, is the wettest place on earth. Over the last few years, it received an average rainfall of 467.4 inches of rain. Both these places are in Meghalaya. Now, Mawsynram’s position is under challenge from a mountain in Hawaii.

Sohra, which receives 450 inches of rain annually, is not even the second-wettest place on earth.
It has been upstaged by Mount Waialelale on the Hawaii Islands, which gets 460 inches of rain every year. The US has been pushing Mt Waialeale for quite some time now. It rains almost every day, albeit lightly, on that 5,148 ft mount owing to marine conditions. But the fact is, Sohra and Mawsynram record more rainfall during the monsoon and while the rainfall area on Mt Waialeale is 5 sq km, Sohra-Mawsynram is over 200 sq km.

Meteorologists agree that Sohra has been recording less rainfall in recent years- 11,414.6 mm or 449.4 inches in 2008 compared to 14,790.8 mm or 582.31 inches in 2004. Ditto with Mawsynram, where rainfall records are maintained periodically. There isn’t much deviation in the average annual rainfall but the spread is less. Deforestation has turned much of the Sohra area into a rocky, barren expanse, and this could eventually dent Mawsynram’s record. Along with local organisations, green measures are being promoted in the area. The Khasi Students’ Union, too, is pulling its weight to help Sohra regain its rainier-than-Mt Waialeale record.

Ecologists are blaming it on global warming and on local factors like deforestation and limestone quarrying. But they aren’t ready to concede “defeat” yet.

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