Who Is This Bieber Defeater, This Esperanza Spalding?

Esperanza Spalding. (AP)

Who is this woman who dare defeat tween heartthrob Justin Bieber in musical competition, sending shivers of dread through the hearts of his millions of pre-pubescent female followers?

Why she is Esperanza Spalding.

And it turns out Spalding, who was named Best Newcomer at Sunday's Grammy Awards, has performed for President Barack Obama, with jazz legends like Herbie Hancock, and before thousands of eager Prince fans.

The 26-year-old Portland, Ore., native became the first jazz artist to win the award in a stunner that saw her defeat Mumford & Sons, Florence and the Machine, rapper Drake, and the heavy favorite, teen pop phenom Justin Bieber.

"I feel really lucky that I got to be acknowledged on this stage in front of so many people who hopefully will get to experience my music, and I got there by doing what's really dear to my heart," said Spalding backstage after her win.

You could say Spalding is the jazz world's Bieber: a young sensation who has been a top-seller in the genre, and with amazing hair, usually worn in a huge Afro. Her talents are deep: she's also a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, producer and arranger; was the youngest instructor at the renowned Berklee College of Music; and counts Prince as one of her musical mentors -- not to mention that White House concert.

Her latest album, "Chamber Music Society," blended her classical background with her jazz material. She had hoped for a nomination in the jazz categories and was surprised to be nominated for best new artist instead.

Things were still surreal for her after her big win: "It's already weird that I'm here, sitting in front of you," she told reporters backstage.

Spalding said her Grammy win was just the beginning in what she hoped would be a rich, long career in jazz.

"In the world I come from, this is the beginning of the beginning. I'm 26 ... people (in jazz) are more older than me, and they're still ascending," she said.

Which may be another thing she has in common with Bieber, with whom she hung out backstage after her win.

"He has great hair, and I have great hair!" she joked.

The Sexy Yogini

By Neha Bhayana

Stiles plans to set up more studios in small towns of Middle America where no yoga gurus have ventured before

She does not sit cross-legged, enveloped by fumes of incense. She does not quote from ancient Hindu scriptures or instruct students to chant Om and execute headstands for attainment of moksha. Tara Stiles, dubbed the 'coolest yoga instructor ever' by Vanity Fair magazine, usually walks around or stands at the back of the room. She refers to 'asanas' as 'poses' and her students do 'Triangles' (not Trikasanas) and 'Downward Dogs' (not Svanasanas) to the tune of Blues pianist Terry Butters. If a student can't touch his or her toes, Stiles just shrugs and says, "It's no big deal, just bend your knees". She reminds them that the pose is "good for quads and hamstrings. "

Stiles, a model-turned-yoga instructor, has become the new face of yoga in the United States. Unlike her rivals, she has not branded her type of yoga. Her version is not rigorous and rule-bound like the traditional system taught at ashrams here, and is also unlike the countless spin offs - hip hop yoga, hot yoga and ganja yoga - that have become a rage in the US. "Mine is just authentic yoga, true to itself, and not pretentious, " she told TOI-Crest in a telephone interview from New York.

The 29-year-old has subtracted the spiritual quotient and Sanskrit terms from yoga, picked simple asanas and blended them together to make interesting, fun routines. In short, she has tailored yoga to make it more palatable for the average American and packaged it as "healthy exercise".

A native of rural Illinois, Stiles set up her yoga studio, Strala, in Manhattan in 2008 and has since earned fame and flak in equal measure. A section of traditionalists, who consider yoga a way of life and a spiritual quest, have criticised Stiles for reducing the practice to a 'gym routine'. But Stiles's popularity is rising steadily. Her latest book Slim Calm Sexy was No. 1 on the Amazon list for months;her YouTube videos have got six lakh 'hits';she has collaborated with Deepak Chopra and Jane Fonda for DVDs and IPod applications and proudly counts them as her "students".

The queue for membership at her 3, 500-squarefoot studio is also getting longer. An average of 45 people turn up for each of the 40 classes conducted each week. Stiles plans to set up more yoga studios in "small towns and suburbs of Middle America where no yoga gurus have ventured before".

Why would she want to tap smaller markets? "I want to take yoga to the masses, " says Stiles. Her desire reminds one of Baba Ramdev. Having made pranayam (a yogic breathing technique) a part of life in chawls and sky-scrapers, the saffron-clad man has already accomplished what she has set out to do.

Their methods are also similar: Ramdev sticks to simple asanas and preaches no religion. Stiles has not heard of her Indian counterpart. And, their personalities could not be more different. While Ramdev sports a long, black beard and is a sanyasi, Stiles likes to sport tank tops and shorts, got married last year and stresses the importance of a good sex life. Her new book features 'partner poses' designed to turn up the heat in the bedroom. Yoga's usage as an aphrodisiac may be debatable. But even her critics do not contest that her brand of yoga is connecting with Americans like never before.

At Strala, across rectangular mats spread on the floor, a fireman and a FedEx truck driver stretch beside young actresses, bankers, socialites and university students. One of the secrets to her popularity could be the affordable price tag for her yoga. Strala classes cost $10 each - around three times cheaper than other yoga studios in New York. "I didn't want people to have to budget for yoga. "

Stiles has been practising yoga since she was five. At 18, Stiles, a five-feet-nine inch tall beauty with a lean frame and long tresses, was noticed by the Ford Modelling Agency and assignments followed. She pouted for many print advertisements but "did not get wrapped up in it", in her own words. She felt more alive during the yoga classes she was attending in her free time.

In 2006, Ford asked her to make yoga videos for YouTube. This led to two DVDs that turned her into a yoga diva. She has not looked back since.

Her own experiences as a yoga student made Stiles vow to be different from the India-returned, incenselighting, self-styled gurus who had been teaching yoga in the West since the 1970s. "I discovered that many yoga studios in New York make people feel terrible. The instructors are maniacs who talk down to students and behave like they have some kind of power. Some pretend to be enlightened priests from India and even feign an Indian accent. "
That is why you find Stiles peppering her conversations with local slang and even calling a few complicated asanas "crappy poses" during interviews. "If I recite the names of the poses in Sanskrit, it immediately becomes a barrier and intimidates those who don't know the language, " she said.

Her no-frills yoga may have worked commercially, but it has attracted sneers from purists. Jennilyn Carson, an American blogger known as Yogadork, rued "the way yoga is whittled down to a disposable diet fad to tackle the epidemic of bra fat" in her 2010 book, Slim Calm Sexy. The book's advertisements had claimed that one can get a "yoga-slim body in just 15 minutes a day". Carson mockingly calling it the "Incredible, Edible, Yoga: bite sized munchkins of a practice formed from the whole of the yoga donut. "

Stiles is not amused. "I am not saying people should do yoga for only 15 minutes. But life is a string of 15 minutes. I hope that if people enjoy those 15 minutes they will do more. " Can one also become sexy with yoga? "When you are connected to yourself, you become more aware of your feelings. It does not have to be about lingerie and champagne. Yoga is a great way to connect to yourself and feel sexy, " she said.

One would expect Stiles to cash in on her fame like Bikram Choudhary who owns a string of Bentleys and Rolls Royces. But she surprises again. " Yoga is my way of contributing to society. So many people are on prescription drugs and the health of 20-somethings is deteriorating. I want to give people the tool to lead a healthy life, " she says, leaving one wondering whether her altruism is genuine or another marketing gimmick.

LG Optimus 3D Smartphone Is The First Of Its Kind

Barcelona, Spain : LG Electronics is showing off the first phone with a color 3-D screen and a 3-D camera.

The South Korean electronics company's Optimus 3D drew large crowds eager to give it a test run on Monday at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

The screen produces the illusion of depth without the need for special glasses, and includes a pair of five-megapixel lenses for taking 3D photos and video.

The phone must be held at the proper distance and angle in order for the viewer to perceive depth. It runs on Google Inc.'s Android 2.2 operating system.

LG Electronics Inc. said the 3D phone will be sold in the spring, but it didn't announce a deal with a U.S. carrier.

Porn MMS breeds 'hostel-ity' at JNU

By Vatsala Shrangi

Following protests administration forced to withdraw a recent order that barred girls from entering boys' hostel after 10.30pm

The porn clip that surfaced at Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has forced the administration to undertake some drastic measures.

Some of them are not finding favour with the students.

House out of order: JNU administration had issued a circular banning the
entry of girls into the boys' hostel after 10.30pm following the MMS episode
in the varsity campus.

Student associations in the varsity held a protest on Monday in front of the Administrative Block condemning an official circular by the JNU administration on banning the entry of girls to boys' hostel after 10.30pm following the MMS episode.

A two-and-a-half-hour demonstration had a huge gathering of students from All India Students Association (AISA), Students Federation of India (SFI) and Youth for Equality (YFE) shouting slogans like 'Moral policing down down', 'JNU mei khap panchayat nahi chalega' etc.

Student leaders demanded the immediate withdrawal of the circular issued by Chief Proctor's office.

According to the JNU Hostel Rule Book which never came into effect, claim the students, the circular enforced three basic rules to be implemented. They are:

1. No non-residents (JNU) allowed inside the hostel after 10.30 pm.
2. Girls not allowed in boys' hostel after 10.30 pm
3. Boys not allowed in girls' hostel at any time (Apart from public meetings)

A delegation of the protesting students went to the Chief Proctor's office where they had a long series of negotiations with the Proctor and the Registrar for retracting the implementation of the orders mentioned in the circular. 

"If these rules were never in effect, why implement them now just after the MMS clip scandal? This is a barbaric way of dealing with an issue. We won't let this happen," said Vismay Bose, vice-president, AISA. The administration had to finally take back the orders.

"There was a lot of pressure on us. We had to apply the rules after this MMS thing happened. The students, however, are not in favour of it and say they won't follow the rules, in which case we have to withdraw the circular," said a senior administration official.

Shown the door
After expelling two of its students and rusticating another for their involvement in making a pornographic MMS, Jawaharlal Nehru University on Saturday told them to leave the campus terming their reply to the show cause notice unsatisfactory.

The students were issued notices asking why they should not be punished for their act after the proctoral inquiry report was submitted to the Vice-Chancellor on Friday.

According to Chief Proctor of JNU, HB Bohidar, two of the three students replied.

The boy in the MMS clip, Janardan Kumar of School of Languages, was missing from Tapti Hostel room.

Mumbai Densest City in Asia

Mumbai: As many as 27,000 people live per square km in Mumbai, making the metro one of the densest cities in Asia, as per the Asian Green City Index.

The Asian Green City Index, commissioned by German firm Siemens, analysed the environmental sustainability of 22 major cities in Asia with respect to environmental and climate protection. The unique research project came up with interesting findings, including the fact that Singapore is Asia's greenest metropolis. Singapore stands out in particular for its ambitious environmental targets and its efficient approach to achieving them. However, in other Asian cities as well, environmental awareness and climate protection guidelines are playing an increasingly important role.

According to the findings, of the 22 cities, Mumbai is the densest city in the Index with 27,000 people per square km -- more than 27 times more tightly packed than Wuhan, which has less than 1,000 people per square km.

Three other Indian cities -- Delhi, Kolkata and Bangalore -- have also been featured in the report (see box). "India has witnessed a tremendous economic boom in the last decade, so much so that infrastructure development in terms of roads, water management is yet to keep pace with the needs of the cities -- thus affecting the 'environment friendliness' or 'green levels' within the cities. However, I am happy to see that the governments have taken various initiatives and measures to identify and overcome these issues by making government buildings green, use of energy efficient transport infrastructure and promoting the use of alternative fuels such as CNG to prevent further ecological damage," said Armin Bruck, MD, Siemens Ltd.

The Asian Green City Index examines the environmental performance of 22 major Asian cities in eight categories: energy and CO2; land use and buildings; transport; waste; water; sanitation; air quality; and environmental governance.

HOW OTHERS FARED

KOLKATA benefits from a relatively low level of water consumption. At 138 litres per person per day, this is one of the best rates among the 22 cities, and better than the average of 278 litres.

DELHI has an extraordinarily low per capita waste generation figure of 147 kg per year. "Delhi's 'traditional culture of careful consumption', which economic growth has not yet eroded, helps explain. The city's advanced policies, including one of the more robust strategies to reduce, re-use and recycle waste, also demonstrate how much can be achieved with limited resources"

BANGALORE has some of the lowest levels of CO2 emissions per capita -- this is partially reflected in the fact that 30 per cent of the city's energy consumed comes from renewable energy and 61 per cent of the electricity is generated from renewable sources.

Source: The Indian Express

Assam Chooses Laptops As Pre-Election Freebies For Journalists

By Samudra Gupta Kashyap

Guwahati, Feb 15 : Just ahead of the Assembly elections, this is an idea that Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi hopes will click with journalists in the state. In a day or two, the Assam government will hand out a shiny new laptop to every journalist who has completed 10 years in the profession — provided he or she accepts the present.

Announcing the gift on January 1 this year, Gogoi had denied it was a pre-election lolly to journalists. “This does not have anything to do with elections,” he had said.

“We had made a promise for welfare of journalists in our election manifesto five years ago, and laptops will be given in recognition of the services of journalists to their society and profession,” he said.

Gogoi had also announced a 3 per cent subsidy on housing loans taken by journalists.

The government is currently in the process of drawing up the list of beneficiaries — including both reporters and editors — in consultation with the managements of newspapers.

It is understood the list includes some 600 names — and the laptops, given the imminent announcement of elections and the simultaneous triggering of the code of conduct, are expected to be passed on very soon.

Distributing computers has been somewhat of a habit with the Gogoi government. In 2005, it launched a scheme of gifting computers to every student who had secured a first division in the high school leaving certificate exam, the state high madrassa examination and the state Sanskrit board finals.

Over 70,000 desktops have been distributed. Since 2010, the students have been given laptops.

Amend Constitution, Give Us Special Status: ULFA

New Delhi: After 30 years of violent insurgency in Assam, eight top leaders of the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) have started historic peace talks with the Indian government last week.

The leaders came to New Delhi to start the peace process. ULFA's de facto spokesperson and foreign secretary Sashadhar Chowdhury, in an exclusive interview to CNN-IBN, makes his demands clear - Assam to get special status like Kashmir and no Bodoland.

The peace talks have now started but there are reasons to believe that there will be no meaningful talks till the upcoming assembly polls are held in Assam. Also, the ULFA leader denied links to Pakistan's ISI and Bangladesh's military intelligence, DGFI and the Chinese government.

Excerpts from the interview:

Sumon K Chakrabarti: No sovereignty will be there in your demands and you've agreed to talk to the Indian Government without any pre-conditions. People are asking if there are no pre-conditions then what do you expect out of these talks?

Sashadhar Chowdhury: ULFA will seek for a paradigm shift in the social, political and economic system of Assam for the dignity, honour and pride of the people of Assam.

Sumon K Chakrabarti: What kind of paradigm shift are you talking about?

Sashadhar Chowdhury: The Indian Constitution has to be overhauled vis-a-vis Assam. There are so many demands that will be put up though agendas. But that will take 2-3 months. But basic demand will be to overhaul the constitution because that is the sovereign instrument with which a country is governed.

Sumon K Chakrabarti: What is it that you will give to the people of Assam?

Sashadhar Chowdhury: What we will give (after peace talks) to people of Assam will ensure that no one goes back to the jungle again, take up arms again, start a fresh insurgency.

Sumon K Chakrabarti: So clearly you have two major points on your agenda. You want a change in the constitution of India and you don't want the Assamese youth to take guns in their hands and go back to the jungles to fight another insurgency.

Sashadhar Chowdhury: We will ensure that we Assamese should come to Delhi on our own terms, not like how we have come or how our people have been coming since 1947.

Sumon K Chakrabarti: But then Mr Chowdhury there are so many other ethnic groups, insurgent groups in Assam who are fighting for their own independent ethnic land. You might be the largest insurgent groups but then there are the Bodos who are saying that peace in Assam cannot be achieved just by talking to the ULFA.

Sashadhar Chowdhury: Ethnic reconciliation in Assam and the problems arising out of it can be tackled by an overhaul of the constitution of India. This can be a panacea of social and economical problems.

Sumon K Chakrabarti: Clearly you're saying you don't want the Bodoland. You want the Bodos, the Assamese and other ethnic groups to stay together in Assam?

Sashadhar Chowdhury: We don't want a separate Bodoland. We have a history of living together for 5000 years. We have to stay together. Every ethnic group should stay together in Assam with own equal rights, and preservation of their own socio cultural ethics and language.

Sumon K Chakrabarti: So when can expect substantial talks to begin?

Sashadhar Chowdhury: Substantial peace talks with New Delhi will only begin after the upcoming Assembly elections in Assam.

Sumon K Chakrabarti: In the neighbouring Nagaland we have seen that the talks with the NSCN-IM (National Socialist Council of Nagaland, Isak-Muivah faction) have been going on for a long time and yet there is no solution to the Nagaland problem. Would you keep a timeframe to solve the problem of Assam?

Sashadhar Chowdhury: We want a fixed timeframe. We have told Home Minister P Chidambaram that we need a specific timeframe to reach a solution.

Sumon K Chakrabarti: What happens to Paresh Barua, ULFA's Commander-in-chief? He was the man who called the shots for such a long time and all of you were under his command. He has rejected the talks. What's his status within ULFA right now? Will you take any action against him?

Sashadhar Chowdhury: It is a mandate of the general council of ULFA which is a supreme body. It's a clear mandate with an overwhelming majority that we should talk to the Government of India without any pre-conditions and get a solution to this conflict through political means. So ULFA is bound to talk. We have sent all our resolutions to him (Paresh Barua). It will take some days to reach his camp. Everything will depend on his official remark. Till now, someone else is reacting on his behalf.

Sumon K Chakrabarti: His spokesperson is saying that the talks should be rejected. So will ULFA chairman Mr Arabinda Rajkhowa be given the powers to take a decision on Paresh Barua?

Sashadhar Chowdhury: When Paresh Barua's official remark reaches our Chairman (Arabinda Rajkhowa), he will take a decision on him. I am not the appropriate person to comment on this.

Sumon K Chakrabarti: One final question, you have stayed all these years in foreign countries like Bangladesh, Bhutan and Myanmar? Which are the foreign intelligence agencies which supported your cause? Who trained you? Was it Pakistan or China or both?

Sashadhar Chowdhury: No foreign agency trained us. We were trained by the Nagas and Kachins and we also trained ourselves.

Hope For Peace: ULFA Leaders to Meet PM

New Delhi, Feb 14 : A delegation of the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) will meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for a courtesy call on Monday evening, days after they initiated talks with the central government to end 30 long years of insurgency in Assam.

An eight-member ULFA team, headed by its chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa, will meet Manmohan Singh at his 7 Race Course Road official residence, an official said.

The meeting, which the official said would be "a kind of introductory" exercise, follows the first round of formal peace talks between ULFA and government representatives last week, held more than three decades after the outfit was formed in 1979.

The team also met Home Minister P Chidambaram and Home Secretary GK Pillai last week.

The two sides have decided to form a seven-member core group, under Home Secretary GK Pillai, to take the peace process forward.

The group will discuss the designated camps, surrender policy, deposit of arms and other issues for maintaining peace in the state.

It will have the joint secretary (northeast) as its coordinator and will comprise three ULFA members and two representatives each of the state and central governments.

ULFA, one of the biggest rebel outfits in the tea and oil-rich region of Assam, has fought for an independent homeland for ethnic Assamese since 1979.

At least 10,000 people, mostly civilians, have died in Assam in the fight between government forces and various rebel groups.