Rakshabandhan 2013

Many people are confused about whether Rakshabandhan is to be celebrated on August 20 or 21 this year. According to the Hindu scriptures, the festival of Rakshabandhan falls on the full moon day of the Shravan month of Hindu Iunisolar calendar.

The full moon is on August 20 this year and thus, the festival should be celebrated on this day as per customs. However, this year the Bhadra Nakshatra astrological alignment coincides with the Rakshabandhan day (August 20). Bhadra Nakshatra starts from 9:36 in the morning and continues till 8:33 in the night.

As per the Hindu scriptures, Bhadra Nakshatra is highly inauspicious and thus one should not indulge in any task during this period. “Since Bhadra Nakshatra falls on August 20, the auspicious time to celebrate Rakshabandhan is between 5am and 7:30 am on Wednesday August 21 during the Dhanishtha Nakshatra which is auspicious for celebrating Rakshabandhan.

Sisters should, therefore tie rakhi on Wednesday,” said Acharya Mukesh Chandra Balodi. Contrary to this Pandit ML Tiwari says that according to the Panchang, the festival can also be celebrated from 7.30 in the morning on August 20 till 8:30 am the next day.

The official holiday for the festival is on August 21 in Dehradun while in Delhi the official holiday has been declared on August 20. This confusion has caused problems for many people.

“My cousins live in Delhi where the holiday is on August 20. Every year they used to come over to Doon to meet me but unfortunately the dates are conflicting this time and they would not be able to come here this time,” said Sakshi Kandari, a confused sister from Dehradun.

'Chennai Express,' With the Bollywood Star Shah Rukh Khan

Chennai Express review: A typical sambar-and-sandalwood creation

Dammit! No out-takes!! Is this really a Rohit Shetty film? Every film of the Gol Maal director has so far ended with out-takes giving us entertaining glimpses from during the making of the film. Here those trademark Shetty out-takes are replaced by a Honey Singh track which celebrates Rajnikanth and the lungi.

The rest of the film resembles those typical sambar-and-sandalwood creations by K. Raghvendra Rao, and worse still, Raj Kanwar's Dhai Akshar Prem Ke where Aishwarya to escape her parental wrath at her elopement, introduces to her family a man she has just met as her soul-mate.
Of course, there are the flying cars exploding in the air to make sure we know that all said and drummed, this is a Rohit Shetty presentation.
Packaged with pickled precision, peppered with just the right doses of naughty jokes and precocious pranks that go well with Shah Rukh's 40-year-old brat's act, Chennai Express is the kind of non-toxic comic entertainer where the most damaging double-entendres you'd get is a Tamil word that sounds like Angelina Jolie's name.
Come again?
That brings me to another major hurdle in the heap of hilarity that Shetty builds so meticulously in the first-half.
The generous outflow of Tamil that seems initially engaging (more so, since Shah Rukh shares our non-comprehension of the rapidfire Tamilian cloudburst that accompanies Deepika's quicksilver character) begins to come in the way as the narration grows older and runs out of energy.
But then there is the sprightly Deepika as the runaway Tamilian girl who piles on to the North Indian mithaiwala stranger to escape marrying the boorish fiancee back home in her village in Tamil Nadu.

We've seen Kareena Kapoor do the chirpy runaway train traveller in Jab We Met. Deepika brings a special filtered-coffee flavour to her chirpy character. Even that broad hammy accent grows on us.
Yes, we like! Here she is is the only Rohit Shetty team member (and I use the term 'team' since Shetty generously credits the direction to himself and his team) who seems to have a firm grip over her rudderless dithering character.
Deepika plays Meena Amma with flavourful flourish. She is specially delightful in three key sequences, two of them comic and the other unexpectedly sombre.
In the sequence where her character turns into a sleeping, kicking and convulsive zombie, she's unbelievably goofy. It's not just Shah Rukh who gets a kick out of that scene.
Would Rohit Shetty please do a full-fledged out-and-out comedy with Deepika? That, Chennai Express is not. It is a half-hearted but laugh-hearted effort that makes the fatal error of taking itself too seriously.
Towards the end when the utterly shammed climactic fight ensues, we even have a long speech by Shah Rukh on the social status of the girl child.
Not now, please!
As we squirm at the attempt to turn comedy into a serious business we look back at the rest of the film with some amount of warmth and affection.
Some of the long shots of the train winding through green acres is breathtaking. And Shah Rukh's first meeting with Deepika's father over a bridge over a fast-flowing river is shot with amazing brio.
There's a wonderfully-shot sequence where Shah Rukh has to carry Deepika to a temple over hundreds of steps. Deepika here goes from amusement and mockery to a sense of belonging and pride in her man's arms. It's a moment built with care and love.
But then, such tender affection really has no place in this comedy of cultural dispossession where the Punjabi boy Rahul gets embroiled in Tamil girl Meena's family affairs and comes out... well not quite wiser. But filled with self-mocking laughter.
Shah Rukh pokes a whole lot of good-natured fun at his now-aging lover-boy persona. There are tongue-in-cheek references to Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge and several other Shah Rukh Khan films and songs including the introductory South Indian lines from the "Jiya jale" song in "Dil Se".

"All these self-tributes work better than what Puri Jagganath did with the Bachchan persona Buddha... Hoga Tera Baap."

Rohit Shetty is more in command of his canvas here than in his last comedy Bol Bachchan. But the self-deprecatory laughter is still not good enough. Somewhere you feel the one-line plot (okay, if not one then two-line plot) is stretched into an unwelcome second-half where nothing really happens. Even the humour tracks stops short beyond a point.
But there is some genuine steam and spark in the early part of Chennai Express.
Towards the beginning of the train journey when Deepika and Shah Rukh play a kind of antakshari of Hindi film songs to put the goons off her trail, Deepika completely overshadows her kingly co-star, who should be okay with being upstaged by his female co-star.
After all he has given Deepika priority over his own name in the credit titles. And Deepika takes the lead very seriously. She has never looked better and never been funnier on screen without even trying too hard.
But then the plot and the situations let her down. The antakshari-speak that was amusing in the beginning recurs during a stale fight sequence in the second-half.
We are no longer laughing. Not when Shah Rukh's purported big chase sequences end in embarrassing deadends. Not when an item song with incoherent words and even more misguided logistics pops up like a joke whose punchline has gone missing.
Through all of this, Shah Rukh Khan braves it with a delicious sense of self-mockery bordering almost on a masochistic absence of heroic pride.
Yes, he likes it when the joke is on him. But that happens once too often here.

So it's finally here. The film that all Shah Rukh Khan fans (which covers half the hemisphere) have been waiting for. The good news first. Chennai Express is a pleasant and likable film in parts. The bad news is, it does nothing for Shah Rukh Khan's imdomitable star power except to tell us he can still play a 40-year Rahul without faltering.

Muslims in Australia celebrate the end of Ramadan with Eid festival

Muslims across Australia have filled mosques and public spaces to mark the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

The festival of Eid al-Fitr traditionally occurs with the first sighting of the new moon and brings to a close the end of a month of fasting from sunrise to sunset.

Heavy rain failed to dampen the spirit of those flowing into the Lakemba mosque in Sydney's south-west from early morning for Eid prayers.

Roads around the mosque were blocked off to allow the congregation to fill the area.

Families and children left the service with pockets filled with sweets, as is Eid custom.

Muslim families are also known to visit relatives in hospital and pay their respects to loved ones who have passed away as part of Eid celebrations

Rarbie Ziad, 22, attended the prayers and said that for him Eid was all about spending time with family.

"After this it's going to be family, so we're going to go see our family, from there we'll go to the cemetery, just visit all our past members, from there come back and have a big lunch."

Crazy dance in Indian wedding !!

guy dancing like a cock on hollywood song in a wedding..............He actually got crazy while dancing..

New Year eve at London Eye..............Best Live Scenes Ever !!!

Here I am presenting you the stunning scenes of new year eve, 31t december 2012, at London eye, England. This video is captured by myself while standing in between millions of people........They all are dancing, singing and waiting for that historic moment.

Please share this video if you really like it............

Exclusive Live Scene of Spain Train Crash 2013 (78 people died in accide...

Virat Kohli driving Audi R8 with Chris Gayle on Delhi Roads (HD)

Virat kohli driving his brand new Audi R8 with his best friend chris gayle in delhi