Ambimama - India

Recently there has been lot of complaints from Customers that currency notes from ATM are sometimes counterfeit. - From both private and nationalized banks.

And Bankers do not oblige or agree with the customers. Some nationalized banks give replacement for the counterfeit.

But the Reserve Bank of India firmly says there cannot be any counterfeits from the ATM as all notes are supplied from the RBI’s currency chest and screened before delivering to ATMs.

Even Canara bank Divisional Manager said that they have not come across such cases and Banks are very careful in handling currency notes. Banks deliver only ATM qualified notes applying stringent screening and sorting.

Now the other other side of the fact is that Intelligent agencies have warned the Banks of fake currency entering through ATMs.

Sure I believe the Banks, only in this case.

But they charge, super charge for defaults and sometimes makes clerical errors and customers have to fight to get back their dues.

Government officials do not have respect for the common man. This includes Public transport buses run by the State, Railways by the Central Government and Banks to mention a few.

The bus drivers may instantly go on a strike and stop the buses in the middle of the road causing traffic jams if their demands are not met or if irritated travellers verbally fight with the driver or conductor. Just a spark and Chennai comes to a halt. They are not answerable to the Traffic Police if they jump Red signals and there is no insurance paid as the law protects them. We the common people are made fools. We have to create an awareness campaign to teach the erring drivers.

Now, Railways strike. The signaling system in a station (Gummudipoondi Oh! What a difficult name to pronounce) has failed to work for several months and the Railway authorities did not correct.

So the EMU (Electro Motive Unit – Local trains in Chennai) used to skip the signals and proceed. Suddenly the Railway authorities suspended the driver for violating the signal. This is sure an internal matter of Railways to be resolved.

But the EMU drivers Union to show their anger suddenly stopped all the trains in the middle and at peak hours. This made the Public walk for several kilometers and reach their offices. The came Railway officials after several hours and revoked the suspension and made the trains run again. Even long distance trains were affected due to this.

So it is always public which suffers! When will the bureaucracy end? And what is Lallo doing? Even his MBA lectures have proved to be a scam. God save the tolerant public of India!

NEW DELHI: With hardly a week to go for a precious letter written by Mahatma Gandhi days before his assassination under the auctioner’s hammer, government has stepped in with efforts to acquire it but Christie’s on Wednesday said it will go ahead with the sale.

Eminent Gandhians and those belonging to the Mahatma’s family have also got into the fray and have asked the government to acquire the letter, which is to be auctioned by Christie’s on July three in London.

The rare letter written by Gandhi, 19 days before his assassination, for his paper Harijan on January 11, 1948 had pleaded for tolerance towards Muslims. This will be among the handwritten treasures from a private collection to be auctioned by Christie’s on July three.

The collection includes 570 lots of handwritten manuscripts by many notable figures of European history from the 13th to 20 centuries, including Napoleon, Winston Churchill, Charles Dickens and Oscar Wilde.

After the Gandhians Basant Kumar Birla and Satya Paul wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the PMO asked the Ministry of Culture to take steps to acquire the letter.

The Ministry of External Affairs was brought into the picture and sources said the Indian High Commission was being asked to negotiate the acquisition of the letter.

A spokesman of the Christie’s, which had sometime back estimated that the letter would fetch 9,000 to 12,000 pounds, on Wednesday said Gandhiji’s letter is part of the auction items on July 3 and “anybody can bid for it”.

“The letter is of public importance and anybody can bid for it,” he said but refused to give an estimate of its likely bid.

Courtesy - PTI

NEW DELHI: The Periya Thalaivar (the Big Boss) of Tamil cinema Rajnikant has created a record of sorts, his phenomenal popularity spilling out from the southern belt and sweeping the capital if the number of theaters screening his latest blockbuster is any indication.

Boss means Bachelor Of Social Service

Sivaji-The Boss which was released in only two multiplexes in Delhi and one in Gurgaon last week is now being screened in more than 12 halls across the capital.

Shalu Sabharwal, vice president, sales and marketing, PVR Cinemas says “It is the huge demand from the audience that prompted us to release Sivaji in more halls. The film is really good. I watched the film and liked it very much.”

Produced at a whopping 90 crores, Sivaji, the most expensive Indian film was in news for quite some time and analysts point out that the coverage given to the film by the North Indian media has played a pivotal role in its huge success here.

Cutting across language barrier North Indians too are coming in large numbers to catch the action. Even though the film is being screened without subtitles the non-Tamilian audience is not missing much.

Some scenes of the film were shot in Chhattarpur and R K Puram areas. “I remember Rajanikant fans flocking in from different parts of the capital during the film’s shooting here,” says M Natesan, general secretary of the Tamil Youth Cultural Association, a wing of Delhi Tamil Sangam.

“Almost all of the 11 lakh Tamilians in Delhi have watched the film in the first week itself” he adds.

The antics of style mannan, king of style, Rajanikant seems to have gone down well with the North audience. “Rajanikant is a phenomenon. There is a sizeable chunk of fan following for the star in North India too” says PVR’s Shalu.

Moreover the lacklustre performance of the much anticipated film Jhoom Baraabar Jhoom has added to the success of Sivaji, she adds.

The story of Sivaji-The Boss revolves around Sivaji (Rajani), an NRI computer wizard, who comes back to his homeland with a dream to set up free educational and medical institutions.

He has to confront the vile ways of a scheming politician, Adhiseshan (Suman) who creates all sorts of problems for him and even manages to turn Sivaji into a pauper. How Sivaji rises from the ashes and metes out his revenge is all what the film is about.

Vinod Babu, MD, Inox, Chennai says “The combination of Rajanikant, director Shankar and A R Rahman had made Sivaji-The Boss the most anticipated film of the year. And it has lived up to the hype.”

The film has been released in 20 theatres including multiplexes in Chennai alone. It has registered the biggest ever opening for any Tamil film.

“It is still very early to say whether Sivaji will surpass the record of Rajani’s prior release Chandramukhi which is still running successfully after 800 days of its release” Babu says.

“Sivaji has registered 80 percent collection in the very first week of its release” says Ashish Saxena, COO, films division, PVR Cinemas. “Owing to its good show we have increased the number of screens and number of shows in the northern region” he adds.

The overwhelming response to the film is also viewed as an opening up of the North Indian viewers to the films from South. “If films like Sivaji comes we will certainly consider releasing it in Delhi” says Shalu.

“Sivaji has come as a great recognition to the iconic star whose fan following cannot be matched by any other actor in the world.

This film has compelled the sceptical audience of North India to stand up and take notice of this star, Rajanikant, and give him his due that was long eluding him” says Natesan.

Courtesy - PTI

Oscar winning director Steven Spielberg is still making money from Star Wars, 30 years after he won a bet with his friend and director George Lucas.

Lucas was sure that his first film Star Wars would flop in 1977 and so he had a bet with Spielberg for a percentage of his film Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

Lucas thought Spielberg’s film would land a bigger success story.

Contactmusic.com reported Spielberg as recalling: “George came back from Star Wars a nervous wreck. He didn’t feel Star Wars came up to the vision he initially had. He felt he had just made this little kids movie.

“He came to Alabama where I was shooting Close Encounters on this humongous set and hung out with me for a couple of days. He said: ‘Oh my God, your movie is going to be so much more successful than Star Wars. This is gonna be the biggest hit of all time.’

“He said, ‘You want to trade some points? I’ll give you two and a half per cent of Star Wars if you give me two and a half per cent of Close Encounters. I said, ‘Sure, I’ll gamble with that, great.’ And I think I came out on top of that bet.

“Close Encounters made so much money and rescued Columbia from bankruptcy. It was the most money I ever made, but it was a meagre success story.

Star Wars was a phenomenon and I was the happy beneficiary of a couple of points from that movie … I am still seeing money on today.
Curtesy - IANS