Marriage announcement very soon: Saif Ali

Wedding bells may not be that far away for actors Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor as the two are contemplating marriage sooner than the three-four-year target they had set earlier.

"Oh yes, much sooner. In fact, people may be hearing an announcement from us very soon. If I had my way, I'd marry her today right here in London where she's joined me," Saif told media over phone.

"Yes, I'm ready to make it legal any time. In any case, aren't we supposed to have gone through a secret Muslim marriage?" he says sarcastically about certain media reports.

Saif was married to Amrita Singh and after 13 years of marriage and two children, the couple separated in 2004. After he divorced Amrita, he dated Italian model Rosa Catalano, but broke up with her in 2007.

The romance between Saif and Kareena took off on the sets of "Tashan". And Saif has never sounded so fiercely committed.

"If I'm sounding that way, it's because that's how I feel. With due respects to all the other relationships in life, after my marriage to Amrita and my two kids, this is the most important relationship I've had." Saif can barely contain his anxiety and eagerness to do the right thing.

"Of course, I'm anxious. You must understand this is the most important part of my life... so much so that at times I find even my career taking a backseat to my relationship. I've to guard against that. I must quickly learn to separate the professional from the personal."

Saif admits it would take his children Sarah and Ibrahim a while to get used to the changes in their dad's life.
"I'm not going to pretend that my children, Kareena and I have become one big family. They're intelligent kids with a mind of their own. Sarah is in fact 13 and a lady herself. It would be quite a while before they are fully comfortable with the change in my life.

"They haven't spent that much time with Kareena to know her as well as I do. But the good thing is everyone close to me realises that this relationship is for keeps, that I've never been more serious. Now it's entirely up to me and Kareena to take the relationship to the next level."

Saif is upset with reports that he has lately been crowding his ladylove with his attentions. "Of course, I want to be with her as much as I can. My regret is we can't be together more often. We are uncannily similar people and I've only now begun to understand why I need to be with her constantly. She complements me, as I hope I complement her. So of course, I try to be where she is."

He dislikes people intruding into his personal life and says: "I understand people want to put our relationship under a microscope. They want to know about our relationship. But there's only so much that they can know or perceive. What Kareena and I feel for each other, only the two of us know."

World happier, Denmark happiest

Washington: Denmark, with its democracy, social equality and peaceful atmosphere, is the happiest country in the world, researchers said on Monday.

Zimbabwe, torn by political and social strife, is the least happy, while the world's richest nation, the United States, ranks 16th.

Overall, the world is getting happier, according to the US government-funded World Values Survey, done regularly by a global network of social scientists.

It found increased happiness from 1981 to 2007 in 45 of 52 countries analyzed. "I strongly suspect that there is a strong correlation between peace and happiness," said Ronald Inglehart, a political scientist at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research, who directed the study.

And, said Ingelhart, there is a strong correlation between happiness and democracy. "Denmark is the happiest country in the world in our ratings," Inglehart said in an audio statement released by the National Science Foundation, which paid for the analysis.

"Denmark is prosperous -- not the richest country in the world but it is prosperous." Puerto Rico and Colombia also rank highly, along with Northern Ireland, Iceland, Switzerland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Canada and Sweden.

"Though by no means the happiest country in the world, from a global perspective the United States looks pretty good," Inglehart said. "The country is not only prosperous; it ranks relatively high in gender equality, tolerance of ethnic and social diversity and has high levels of political freedom."

The survey, first done in 1981, has kept to two simple questions: "Taking all things together, would you say you are very happy, rather happy, not very happy, not at all happy?" And, "All things considered, how satisfied are you with your life as a whole these days?" Writing in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science, Ingelhart's team said they have surveyed 350,000 people.

"Ultimately, the most important determinant of happiness is the extent to which people have free choice in how to live their lives," Inglehart said.

Take a bow, Japanese voted world's best tourists

Singapore: Going on holiday soon? It would help if you became more like the Japanese, who were voted by hoteliers as the world's best tourists in a global travel survey released this month.

The survey, by online travel company Expedia.com, asked more than 4,000 hoteliers from across the globe to list their best overall travellers. It also rated the travellers on categories that included manners, willingness to learn the local language and sample the cuisine, tidiness, generosity and stylishness.

The Japanese won top prize for being overall best tourists. Germans and Britons tied for second place, followed by the Canadians and Swiss. American tourists came in at number 11 overall.

"Hoteliers are the experts when it comes to interacting with tourists," said Expedia.com travel expert Karyn Thale in a media release. "So as the busy summer travel season approaches and vacationers prepare for their own travel experiences, we thought it would be fun to present some of their common perceptions regarding tourists from all around the world."

The survey ranked American tourists as the most generous, followed by Canadians and Russians, while the French, British and Dutch were the most "fiscally conservative". Britons, Italians and Americans were considered noisy, while the French and Germans were among the messiest hotel guests. Americans were bottom of the list when it came to fashion sense, with Italians and French voted tops

Expedia.com advised travellers to make an effort to be more tidy and considerate to make the most of their holiday. "Always remember that quality standards vary from country to country, so don't be shocked if some experiences may be different than you pictured," it added. Here is the list of top 10 overall travellers according to the survey: 1. Japanese 2. British/Germans 3. Canadians 4. Swiss 5. Dutch 6. Australians/Swedes 7. Belgians 8. Norwegians 9. Austrians/Danes/Finnish 10. New Zealanders

Blame $146 oil on speculators, US House told

Analysts have for some time now been arguing about how big a factor speculation has been in driving international oil prices sky high.

Finally, thanks to a US congressional investigation, there are figures that seem to confirm that it has indeed played a significant role. Conventional arguments put the voracious oil appetite of China and India as the main reason for the spike in prices.

Crude oil prices have gone up a staggering eight times in the past 10 years — from about $18 a barrel at the beginning of 1998 to $146 a barrel on Thursday. In the past one and a half years, prices zoomed by over 133%. Coming close on the heels of record-breaking food grain prices, this has sent shock waves around the world. The knives are out as big oil corporations, governments, oil exporting countries and investment bankers blame each other for this situation.

The US, as the largest consumer of oil — 24% of world output — has been burning midnight oil trying to find out the reasons behind this ruinous price rise. Over 40 meetings of various committees and sub-committees of the US Congress have been held in the past 11 months to investigate the inflamed oil market.

And the truth is slowly seeping out. In a hearing of the obscure Sub-Committee on Oversight and Investigations, held last week, it emerged that one of the main reasons propelling ever-higher commodity prices is the gigantic flow of speculative funds into the futures trading market.

This has been alleged many times earlier, but figures pinning it down have come out for the first time. Investments by pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and endowment funds in commodity futures increased from $13 billion at the end of 2003 to $260 billion in March 2008.

That's a 20-fold growth in less than five years. These figures have been calculated by Michael Masters, a fund management expert who testified before the sub-committee. His calculations are based on figures from US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a regulatory body, and reports of various fund managers.

These funds have been buying up futures of 25 commodities. These include food items like coffee, cocoa, wheat, soyabean, sugar and cattle/hog; energy commodities like crude oil, petrol and natural gas; and metals — both base and precious.

SP may press Congress for FM's removal

Samajwadi Party's support for the beleaguered Manmohan Singh government will not come cheap. The party, which virtually holds the key to the government's survival given the imminent withdrawal of Left's support, is likely to come up with an expensive wish list. ( Watch )

As the party readies itself for the rescue act, there are clear indications that it may demand changes in the portfolios of Finance Minister P Chidamabram and Petroleum Minister Murli Deora, as well as the scalps of RBI Governor Y V Reddy and India's Ambassador to the US Ronen Sen. As reported by TOI, it will also demand that the Women's Reservation Bill be shelved. will also demand that the Women's Reservation Bill be shelved.

The laundry list was drawn up here after a meeting of SP's parliamentary board, convened to complete the formality of authorizing party boss Mulayam Singh Yadav and his associate Amar Singh to wrap the "deal over the deal".

Sources familiar with the thinking in the party said that the removal of Chidambaram, Deora and Reddy was necessary to buffer the party against the "incumbency liability" UPA has acquired on account of inflation. The party's grouse against Ronen Sen is that the envoy allegedly tried to prevent former US president Bill Clinton from visiting UP at the invitation of Mulayam Singh.

Sources said that the removal of the "troika" responsible for "mismanagement of the economy" would help the party deal better with the criticism that its turnaround on the deal was opportunistic.

They said the Congress should act on SP's "suggestions" given its vulnerability on the price front, which both BJP and the Left would seek to exploit.

Congress's response to the tough conditions was along expected lines. Party spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi shrugged off the suggestion that SP may seek to drive a hard bargain.

"It is amusing and presumptuous to suggest that the Indian Cabinet is decided outside the government of India, and without the PM's knowledge. Not only is it unfair to Congress, but also less than fair to Samajwadi Party."

Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party and Congress stepped up their efforts for an early conclusion of their pact on the nuclear deal, with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh swiftly complying with SP's demand for a public statement to allay the apprehensions on the controversial India-US agreement.

The demand for a public statement was voiced by SP leaders Amar Singh and Ramgopal Yadav soon after an anxious government sent the national security adviser, M K Narayanan, to brief them on the deal. The PMO's statement and the NSA's briefing are part of the script to make SP's change of stance on the India-US pact sound credible and informed rather than based on political expediency.

Now, brain drain from UK to India

LONDON: Professionals and graduates from elite British universities are making a beeline for India, thanks to its booming economy, closer trade relations between the two countries and numerous job opportunities there.

Thousands of people face the prospect of losing their jobs due to the current credit crunch and a downturn in the British economy. A steep rise in the cost of living in recent months has further prompted professionals to look beyond borders.

Fresh MBA graduates from the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School have taken the initiative to organise a recruitment fair in Mumbai on July 30 and 31. They have already received an enthusiastic response from potential recruiters.

Apart from Britons and British-Asians seeking employment abroad, professionals leaving the country include many among the recently arrived highly skilled migrants from Poland, Nigeria and Australia.

The Institute of Public Policy Research says that they may have better job prospects back home, where they can also avoid Britain’s spiralling cost of living.

Private hospitals in India often recruit doctors working in the National Health Service (NHS). These include Indian doctors who came to the UK some years ago and are now choosing to return home for better working conditions.

A recent survey revealed that British graduates were prepared to fill nearly 200,000 jobs in Indian call centres by 2009. Several Indian and British call centres recruit British graduates from regions that have large Asian population. Their accent helps them interact with British customers while working in call centres in India.

For British Asians, working in Indian call centres has a double attraction they get a job that helps them connect with their roots.

A Scottish history graduate recently made news by quitting his job in Sky Television with an annual salary of 21,000 pounds to work in an Indian call centre.

Officials at Oxford’s Saïd Business School said that the recruitment event in Mumbai will offer Indian recruiters a unique opportunity to meet outstanding postgraduate student talent under one roof.

Bollywood’s flop show

In an industry which equates success with commercial gain, it is quite strange that the first half of the year has had more than a handful of films winning critical acclaim, and only a few making the cash registers ring at the box office. On the one hand, there have been films such as Black & White, Subhash Ghai’s attempt to get serious with a crossover film about a guy forced to take to arms post-Gujarat 2002. Or for that matter, the more recent Aamir which again talked of the tendency to taint the Muslim community with the same brush: here the victim was the accused too. On more or less the same lines, a little earlier came Samar Khan’s Shaurya, an Indian adaptation of A Few Good Men that got the critics raving. Much like Mithya.

Unfortunately, despite good reviews and favourable word-of-mouth publicity none of these films can actually be considered a blockbuster, a term reserved for otherwise masala entertainers such as Race and Jannat. The former had a prolonged skin show, the latter capitalised on the cricket fever in the country during the IPL. Both reaped dividends at the box office, as indeed did Jodhaa-Akbar that performed creditably in some pockets, and only average in many others. Similar was the fate of Sarkar Raj, people across the country dismissed the film but it collected more in Maharashtra and the South than Sarkar. More like the snakes and ladders that we witness every year? Yes, but more snakes than ladders at the box office so far. The year has had more than its share of duds, films which were technically poor, moth-eaten, and commercially disastrous. Here is a recap of the flop show:

U, ME AUR HUM

Ajay Devgan joined hands with wife Kajol to spring a tale about an Alzheimer’s patient. The audiences forgot to queue up at the turnstiles, and the Devgan couple was left ruminating ‘you, me aur hum’.

HALLA BOL

The year got off to a traditional inauspicious start with Raj Kumar Santoshi’s loose take on Safdar Hashmi biting the dust at the box office. Not even the presence of Ajay Devgan could get an initial opening and the masses failed to understand what all the fuss about Halla Bol was.

JIMMY

Mithun Chakraborty’s son Mimoh made his debut with this belated release. He tried everything which made Papa Dear a darling of the masses. The only problem was nobody was watching. And the cliché-ridden film went back unseen, unsung.

BOMBAY TO BANGKOK

Nagesh Kukunoor’s attempt to go ribald went kaput. This story of a chef from Bombay to Bangkok went nowhere. And Kukunoor, hopefully, realised his limitations.

TASHAN

Yash Raj Films’ date with mortality, Tashan, proved that resources are no guarantee of quality cinema as director Vijay Krishna Acharya goofed up big time with a star cast that included Akshay Kumar, Saif Ali Khan, Anil Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor. Easily the biggest disappointment this year.

RAMA RAMA KYA HAI DRAMAAA

This confused comedy failed to raise any laughs at the box office, only proving that there is only so much comedians like Rajpal Yadav can do. And actresses like Neha Dhupia can only dish out certain kind of appeal. With all its numerology-inspired name, this was a drama even Rama could not save.

MEMSAHAB

The very fact that the film finds a mention here is probably more than it deserves. Starring Yuktaa Mookhey trying desperately to prove that height is no deterrent in commercial cinema, the film was replete with the stereotypes we thought we had left behind. And to think this utter disaster was based on the anti-Sikh riots of Delhi! Noble intent, ignoble content.

WOODSTOCK VILLA

Anupam and Kirron Kher’s son Sikander made his debut with this tautly made film. The only problem was there was not much support for the debutant, and at a little less than 90 minutes, some traditional cinemagoers felt cheated. Too small, too quick. Sikander’s second outing with Summer 2007 was similarly more talked about than seen.

FORGOT THEM

Ah! There were others, films which were released at the box office, and as immediately got a release from it. Names such as Mr Black Mr White, One Two Three, Sirf, Pranali, Don Muthuswamy, Haal-e-Dil, Hastey-Hastey, Thodi Life Thoda Magic… come to mind. Then there were others such as Bhram, Dasavatar, Krazzy-4, Mere Baap Pehle Aap…. Yawn.