“Chinese decorative lights draw Kolkattans to markets - Newstrack India” plus 4 more

Chinese decorative lights draw Kolkattans to markets - Newstrack India
Veteran cricket journalist Rajan Bala dies in Bangalore - Newstrack India
The Almanac - Oct. 9 - Post Chronicle
Veteran cricket writer Rajan Bala passes away - Deccan Herald
The almanac - United Press International

Chinese decorative lights draw Kolkattans to markets - Newstrack India

Posted: 09 Oct 2009 05:57 AM PDT

Kolkata, Oct. 9 (ANI): With Diwali, the festival of lights, round the corner, Chinese manufactured decorative lights have flooded markets in Kolkata.

Scores of people, who usually visit local markets to buy earthen lamps for decorative purposes on this festive occasion, are drawn to the imported Chinese lights.

Most of them find these lights inexpensive apart from being available in wide variety of designs.

"Chinese lights are less costly compared to the locally available Indian lights. We purchase it just before Diwali or just 15 days before Diwali," said K.C. Das, a shopper.

Shopkeepers feel there is a good response from customers who, they say, are captivated at seeing a wide variety.

"There is a good sale of Chinese lights during Diwali. The sale is so good that we run short of goods. Customers throng markets in search of new and different Chinese lights," said Salam, a shop owner.

Diwali or Deepavali is one of the most important of Hindu festivals. It's a five-day festival, celebrated across India on Kartik Amavasya or, the new moon day, in Kartik month as per Hindu almanac.

Legend has it that Lord Rama entered Ayodhya on this day after 14 years in self-exile. People of Ayodhya lit lamps to welcome Lord Rama's return, and hence Diwali is observed.

Deepavali is also celebrated as Naraka Chaturdashi, the day when Lord Krishna killed Narakasura, the demon of darkness.

The celebrations commence with a purifying oil bath and the lighting of lamps, symbolic of the spiritual light pervading this earth and the destruction of darkness and ignorance. By Ajitha Menon (ANI)

Veteran cricket journalist Rajan Bala dies in Bangalore - Newstrack India

Posted: 09 Oct 2009 05:21 AM PDT

Bangalore, Oct.9 (ANI): Eminent sports journalist Natarajan Balasubramaniam, more popularly known in the sports fraternity as Rajan Bala, died this morning in a Bangalore hospital. He was 63.

One of the finest and a much revered cricket writer in this country, Rajan was the former Sports Editor of Deccan Herald and served in a similar position in the Statesman and several other publications across the country.

He had suffered a stroke and been put on dialysis for some time. He suffered a heart attack and was rushed to hospital less than a fortnight ago, where he slipped into coma. He never regained consciousness and passed away on Friday morning.

Rajan was a cricket writer for over four decades and also authored half a dozen books on cricket, including the biographies of B S Chandrasekhar and Sachin Tendulkar.

In the last few years he had worked as a columnist.

He was also the Indian correspondent of the Wisden Cricketer and Wisden Almanac for many years.

Rajan was an icon for the younger generation of writers of the willow game in the 1970s who followed his despatches from various parts of the cricket world with great interest.

Though he wrote primarily on cricket, Rajan had an indepth knowledge of Indian football, having grown up in Kolkata, and tennis.

Rajan was also a good club level cricketer who used to bat higher up the order and bowl off spin.

Former Indian off spinner Erapalli Prasanna said: "In the passing away of Rajan Bala, I lost a very close associate, a person with whom I could discuss cricket in length. It's a personal loss to me. I felt that among all the cricket journalists, he was the best because he had a tremendous knowledge of the game." (ANI)

The Almanac - Oct. 9 - Post Chronicle

Posted: 09 Oct 2009 04:38 AM PDT

This is Friday, Oct. 9, the 282nd day of 2009 with 83 to follow.

The moon is waning. The morning star is Mercury, Venus, Mars and Saturn. The evening stars are Neptune, Jupiter and Uranus.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Libra. They include French composer Camille Saint-Saens in 1835; Charles Rudolph Walgreen, drug store chain founder, in 1873; American evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson in 1890; Civil War historian Bruce Catton in 1899; convicted Watergate burglar, novelist and lecturer E. Howard Hunt Jr. in 1918; Beatles star John Lennon in 1940; singer-songwriter Jackson Browne in 1948 (age 61); writer/actor Robert Wuhl in 1951 (age 58); and actors Scott Bakula in 1954 (age 55) and Zachery Ty Bryan ("Home Improvement") in 1981 (age 28).

On this date in history:

In 1934, King Alexander of Yugoslavia was assassinated by a Croatian terrorist during a state visit to France.

In 1974, Oskar Schindler, the German businessman credited with saving 1,200 Jews from the Holocaust, died at the age of 66.

In 1975, Andrei Sakharov, father of the Soviet hydrogen bomb, became the first Soviet citizen to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

In 1983, James Watt, facing U.S. Senate condemnation for a racially insensitive remark, resigned as U.S. President Ronald Reagan's interior secretary.

In 1986, the U.S. Senate convicted imprisoned U.S. District Judge Harry Claiborne of tax cheating, making him the fifth U.S. judge to be impeached and removed from office.

In 1989, the Soviet news agency Tass, under Mikhail Gorbachev's policy of increasing openness in society, reported a flying saucer visit to the Soviet Union.

In 1992, NASA announced that the unmanned Pioneer spacecraft was apparently lost after orbiting Venus for 14 years.

In 1995, an Amtrak passenger train derailed in a remote area of Arizona southwest of Phoenix, killing one person and injuring about 100 others in apparent track sabotage.

In 1997, Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi resigned after Communist members of Parliament withdrew their support for his coalition government.

In 2001, the Pentagon reported the destruction of seven terrorist training camps in Afghanistan and, claiming control of the skies over Afghanistan, launched heavy airstrikes against Taliban garrisons and troop encampments.

In 2002, the Washington-area sniper claimed a seventh victim with the slaying of a man at a gas station near Manassas, Va.

Also in 2002, as stock prices continued to fluctuate wildly, the Dow Jones industrials closed at 7,286.27, a five-year low.

In 2004, the death toll in the double bombings in the central Pakistani city of Multan reached 40 with 100 others injured. The explosions caught a crowd of Sunni Muslims leaving an anniversary gathering.

Also in 2004, John Howard won a fourth term as Australian prime minister. Meanwhile, in Afghanistan's first democratic presidential election, nearly all the candidates, concerned over reported irregularities, boycotted the process even as voters went to the polls.

In 2005, as the 7.6-magnitude earthquake death toll soared near the reported 40,000 mark in Pakistan, a massive relief effort was under way in Pakistan, India and Afghanistan. India reported 650 dead and Afghanistan four.

In 2006, North Korea announced it had successfully conducted an underground nuclear test, prompting a flurry of diplomatic reaction in Washington and around the world.

Also in 2006, the U.N. Security Council approved South Korean Foreign Secretary Ban Ki-moon as the next secretary-general to succeed Kofi Annan at the end of the year.

In 2007, the Dow Jones industrial average closed at a record high of 14,164.53 points.

In 2008, in the most active day in New York Stock Exchange history, investors sold off stocks in a panic. The Dow Jones industrial average plummeted 679 points -- 7.3 percent -- falling more than 300 points in the last hour to close at less than 9,000 for the first time in five years.

Also in 2008, the U.S. Treasury Department said it was considering a plan of buying bank shares to restore confidence in lending.

A thought for the day: in "The Taming of the Shrew," William Shakespeare wrote: "And do as adversaries do in law. Strive mightily but eat and drink as friends." (c) UPI

Veteran cricket writer Rajan Bala passes away - Deccan Herald

Posted: 09 Oct 2009 02:15 AM PDT

One of the finest and most revered cricket writers in this country, Rajan was the former Sports Editor of Deccan Herald and served in a similar position in several publications across the country.
He had suffered a stroke and been on dialysis for some time. He suffered a heart attack and was rushed to hospital less than a fortnight ago, where he slipped into coma. He never regained consciousness and passed away Friday morning.
Rajan who was a cricket writer for over four decades, also authored half a dozen bookson cricket including biographies of B S Chandrasekhar and Sachin Tendulkar. In the last few years he worked as a columnist.

His latest book on cricket "Time Well Spent" was to have been originally launched in Bangalore tomorrow. His last published book was "The Covers Are Off - A Socio-Historical Study of Indian Cricket : 1932-2003".
He was also the Indian correspondent of the Wisden Cricketer and Wisden Almanac for many years.
Rajan was an icon for the younger generation of writers of the willow game in the 1970s who followed his despatches from various parts of the cricket world with great interest.
Though he wrote primarily on cricket, Rajan had in-depth knowledge of Indian football, having grown up in Kolkata, and tennis.
Rajan was also a good club-level cricketer who used to bat higher up the order and bowl off spin.

The almanac - United Press International

Posted: 09 Oct 2009 12:27 AM PDT