Is There A Power Shift In Indian Football?

In the wake of Churchill Brothers’ triumph in the I-League 2008-2009, in this edition of the SpeakOut series, Goal.com's Subhankar Mondal wonders whether Goa is surpassing Kolkata in terms of footballing power…..

In the last five years, Goan clubs have won the Indian national league four times, Kolkata sides have finished in the top three four times. Dempo have won the league thrice in the last five years, Mohun Bagan have been among the top three only twice in as many years. Churchill Brothers finished runners-up last year and won the league this season, East Bengal have been among the top three only twice in the last five years.

Statistics might be the missing link in the three-piece jigsaw that also comprises lies and damn lies, but for once, statistics do not seem to lie. Apparently.

The last time a Kolkata side won the national league was in 2003-2004 when East Bengal, a traditional powerhouse and one of the two sides that contest arguably the biggest derby in Asia, finished four points ahead of Dempo. It was their second successive league triumph and one that perhaps demonstrated that Kolkata is truly the hub of Indian football.

Since then the two Kolkata giants, namely Mohun Bagan and East Bengal, have consistently managed to deceive but have always managed to fail. In 2004-2005 East Bengal finished third, in 2005-2006 they ended up second, in 2006-2007 they were fifth, in 2007-2008 they were eighth and in 2008-2009 coach Subhash Bhowmick managed to steer them away from relegation to sixth in the table.

Mohun Bagan were eighth, third, eighth again (equivalent to third from bottom), fourth and second in 2004-2005,2005-2006,2006-2007,2007-2008 and 2008-2009 respectively.

And it is not only the results that exhibit how far Goa has traveled to become a footballing haven, and a cultured one too, it is also the means. For the past few years, Dempo SC have been playing the most enjoyable football in India and this season it has been Churchill who have been the best team, both in terms of points and in terms of playing well.

No surprise then that it was Churchill who won the league this season, finishing three points ahead of second placed Mohun Bagan, scoring 53 goals in the process. This was their maiden league title.

Churchill's nearest challengers might have been Kolkata giants and former national league winners Mohun Bagan but it was their battling spirit combined with the rub of the green that led them to a record 10 league wins in a row. Bagan's football was scintillating at times, but it was inclined more towards the awkwardly rampaging and often erratic football played by Atletico Madrid of Spain rather than towards the galactic football of Catalunya giants FC Barcelona.

There were so many times that Bagan got of jail, Marcos Pereira’s creativity, Bhaichung Bhutia’s class and Jose Baretto's technique and work ethic compensating for lack of depth in the squad and for an error-strewn defence. It was their team spirit and self-conviction that won them the games and led them to second place in the table.

But while things on the pitch might have altered somewhat, things off it have not, at least not too much. The Kolkata derby still remains the most keenly contested match in Indian football, fans in Kolkata are the most passionate in the country, the rich footballing culture in the City of Joy and in (West) Bengal remains unparalleled and Mohun Bagan remain the country’s most well known club.

But still, there's no denying the fact that the rest of India has eventually caught up with Kolkata; maybe they did that some time back. After Dempo's lackluster 0-0 draw with Chirag United in the I-League at the Barasat Stadium in late March, Dempo coach Armando Colaco blamed their-nothing-to-play-for-situation for their insipid performance
, but remarked how the coach of a foreign side that had played against them was impressed with their football. Which is as much true as flattering, revealing the depth of football in the country.

Dempo reached the semi-finals of the AFC Cup last year and top their group this season too. As for Mohun Bagan, four successive defeats in their group imply that they are out.

Moreover, next season there would be only three teams from Kolkata-Mohun Bagan, East Bengal and Chirag United, as many as Mumbai would have and one fewer than Goa. More than anything, it adds to the diversity of Indian football as the I-League 2009-2010 would have teams from Kerala, Pune and the North East too but maybe the fact that there would be one fewer side from Kolkata in the Indian top flight also demonstrates that the power of football in India is shifting, if it hasn’t already shifted, from the east to the west.

Subhankar Mondal

How to Attract the Tourist

JN Mahanta

Everyone maintains that in the Northeast, tourism industry has vast potential to create employment opportunity and economic bonanza for the region. In the practical sense, any region thriving on tourism earns basically from four counts and these are accommodation, transport, restaurants/eating joints with ethnic flavour, and the shopping spree of the tourists. In all the places of tourist attraction, one finds a number of hotels, restaurants, roadside vendors, souvenir stalls and fleets of transport vehicles.

For a place to attract tourists, the primary infrastructure will need to be created by the State government. A good connecting road from the nearest airport or railway station cannot be made by an entrepreneur. This has to be done by the government. Likewise, it is the government that will have to provide electricity, water and security — the three most vital aspects for sustainable tourism. The local people (the entrepreneur) cannot provide these most essential requirements on their own.

Assam has vast potential for a mega-sized tourism industry. Lately, the Government of Assam has taken many positive steps to boost tourism in the State. A few examples are Elephant Mahotsav at KNP, incentives for tourism industry in NEIIPP-2007, renovation works in many historical sites, developmental works in Manas sanctuary/KNP/Pobitara etc, and the latest being the State Tourism Policy unveiled on February 25 last.

There are many places, monuments, temples, lakes, and reserve forests which are capable of attracting tourists to the State in a big way. These sites would require attention of the government departments — renovation of the sites as well as good linking roads would be required for drawing tourists. Guwahati being the principal point of entry to the Northeast, Assam may take advantage of this situation to enhance its tourism potential by including all the colourful places of the other States in the tourist’s itinerary.

The other two very important aspects which will contribute immensely to development of tourism industry are publicity and marketing. Hardly anyone outside Assam has heard about Rang Ghar, Kareng Ghar, Talatol Ghar, Hajo-Poa Mecca, Garampani, Dibru-Saikhowa or can imagine the beauty of the sun setting in the mighty Brahmaputra. The itinerary of a tourist from outside Assam or abroad will include only Guwahati-Shillong-Cherrapunji and Guwahati-Kaziranga. Marketing of the tourist spots has never been done in a systematic manner. The Government of Assam has got quite competent departments and agencies for this job. Basically, the job consists of three steps: identification of all the probable tourist spots, preparation of brief colourful write-ups on each site with attractive photographs, and widespread publicity through all available channels. The channels may include travel journals, newspapers, electronic media, tie-up with agencies within the country and abroad, Assam Houses in all the State capitals, and through the State tourism websites.

It may be mentioned here that in every issue of in-flight magazines of all airlines, one finds articles on 10-12 places of tourist attraction within the country as well as abroad. But till date not a single article has featured any place in Assam other than Kaziranga National Park and Kamakhya Temple. The Indian Oil Corporation (Assam Oil Division) had brought out an article on Digboi Refinery on the occasion of its centenary celebration in January, 2002 in Sahara’s in-flight magazine. Steps should be taken to publish authoritative articles on all the identified sites and tourism potential activities (like rafting, angling, trekking, golf, eco-tourism, tea tourism etc) in the national dailies. The government may seek help from experts in the field.

In the recently released State Tourism Policy-2008, plans have been mooted for a systematic approach towards the development of tourism industry in the State. The schemes and action plans have been briefly defined in the policy. In order to implement the policy in letter and spirit, a lot needs to be done, and since the policy covers the period till 2013 only, actions need to be taken on a war footing. The government should immediately come up with a list of places which will be eligible for subsidies offered under the policy, so that potential investors and entrepreneurs may then carry out feasibility surveys for the facilities intended to be developed at these sites. The government should also assure the investors that the subsidies will not be withdrawn before the expiry of the period notified in the policy. Without such an assurance the investors may not be willing to come forward. This is an important factor for the potential investor.

There is no reason why tourism cannot happen as an industry in Assam. What we need is a mix of right vision and planning.

Heat wave seen rebuilding over North and East India

Thiruvananthapuram, April 28 A helpful north-south trough along the east coast persisted on Monday even as India Meteorological Department (IMD) warned of heat wave conditions rebuilding over much of the North and East.

Severe heat wave conditions have developed over parts of Saurashtra and Kutch, and these were expected to last for another next two days as well.

Heat wave conditions also prevailed in some parts of Gangetic West Bengal and Coastal Orissa, and were forecast to evolve over parts of Rajasthan during the next 24 hours.

This will later spread to parts of Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan, the IMD said. By May 2, heat wave conditions would have fully evolved over parts of Northwest, Central and East India.

The west to east trough in the westerlies straddling the plains of North India and running into East and Northeast India persisted. The parent western disturbance lay parked over Jammu and Kashmir.

The north-south trough from Jharkhand to Kerala now runs from Orissa to Kerala through south Chhattisgarh, Telangana, interior Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The cyclonic circulation over Kerala had weakened.

This trough will continue to set up some weather from the north down to the south. Isolated rain or thunderstorm has been forecast over coastal West Bengal, Orissa and the Northeastern States.
THUNDERSTORM

Isolated rain or thunderstorm is likely over south Konkan, Goa and south madhya Maharashtra during the next two days.

Isolated thundershowers are likely over Kerala, Tamil Nadu, coastal and south interior Karnataka, Lakshadweep and Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

In its update, the IMD said that during the past 24 hours ending Monday morning, maximum temperatures have risen by 1 to 2 deg Celsius over the plains of Northwest India.
Mercury rise

Current meteorological analysis and interpretation of numerical weather prediction models indicated further rise by 2 to 4 deg Celsius in maximum temperatures over parts of Northwest, Central and adjoining East India during the next four days.

This is in agreement with international model outlooks that showed a huge seasonal anticyclone (high-pressure area with warming and subsiding air) pushing west from Northwest India.

Vidarbha and adjoining north interior Andhra Pradesh are bracing to witness some record heating during this phase. Parts of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and West Bengal also would see runaway mercury blazing a trail.

Bob Dylan Exclusive Interview: Reveals His Favorite Songwriters,

Thoughts On His Own Cult Figure Status

In anticipation of the release of his 33rd album, Together Through Life, Bob Dylan sat down with rock critic and MTV producer Bill Flanagan for a rare and unusually candid conversation. The first three portions of their meeting can be read at bobdylan.com


In the fifth installment, published below, Dylan reveals his favorite songwriters, discusses whether he's a cult figure, and gives his thoughts on trading on nostalgia and if he's a mainstream artist (to view a slide show of Dylan's favorite's, click here).


Bill Flanagan: Going back to that song you wrote for the movie that you mentioned earlier, "Life is Hard," has the formality of an old Rudy Vallee or Nelson Eddy ballad right down to the middle eight ("Ever since the day..."). Do you figure that if you start a song in that style, you stick with the rules right down the line?


Bob Dylan: Sure, I try to stick to the rules. Sometimes I might shift paradigms within the same song, but then that structure also has its own rules. And I combine them both, see what works and what doesn't. My range is limited. Some formulas are too complex and I don't want anything to do with them.

BF: "Forgetful Heart" - how do you decide to put an Appalachian banjo on a minor key blues? Is it something you think of ahead of time or does it come up in the session?
BD: I think it probably came up at the studio. A banjo wouldn't be out of character though. There is a minor key modality to "Forgetful Heart." It's like Little Maggie or Darling Cory, so there is no reason a banjo shouldn't fit or sound right.

BF: You wrote a lot of these songs with Robert Hunter. How does that process work?
BD: There isn't any process to speak of. You just do it. You drive the car. Sometimes you get out from behind the wheel and let someone else step on the gas.
BF: You must have known Hunter a long time. Do you remember where you first met?
BD: It was either back in '62 or '63 when I played in the Bay area. I might have met him in Palo Alto or Berkley or Oakland. I played all those places then and I could have met Hunter around that time. I know he was around.
BF: Didn't Hunter play in a bluegrass band with Jerry Garcia?
BD: Yeah, it was either that or a jug band.
BF: Have you ever thought about composing anything with those Nashville songwriters?
BD: I've never thought about that.
BF: Neil Diamond did an album years ago where he co-wrote with different Nashville songwriters.
BD: Yeah, that might have worked for him. I don't think it would work for me.
BF: You don't think it would work for you?
BD: No. I'm okay without it. I'm not exactly obsessed with writing songs. I go back a ways with Hunter. We're from the same old school so it makes it's own kind of sense.
BF: Do you listen to a lot of songs?
BD: Yeah - sometimes.
BF: Who are some of your favorite songwriters?
BD: Buffett I guess. Lightfoot. Warren Zevon. Randy. John Prine. Guy Clark. Those kinds of writers.
BF: What songs do you like of Buffett's?
BD: "Death of an Unpopular Poet." There's another one called "He Went to Paris."
BF: You and Lightfoot go way back.
BD: Oh yeah. Gordo's been around as long as me.
BF: What are your favorite songs of his?
BD: "Shadows," "Sundown," "If You Could Read My Mind." I can't think of any I don't like.
BF: Did you know Zevon?
BD: Not very well.
BF: What did you like about him?
BD: "Lawyers, Guns and Money." "Boom Boom Mancini." Down hard stuff. "Join me in L.A." sort of straddles the line between heartfelt and primeval. His musical patterns are all over the place, probably because he's classically trained. There might be three separate songs within a Zevon song, but they're all effortlessly connected. Zevon was a musician's musician, a tortured one. "Desperado Under the Eaves." It's all in there.
BF: Randy Newman?
BD: Yeah, Randy. What can you say? I like his early songs, "Sail Away," "Burn Down the Cornfield," "Louisiana," where he kept it simple. Bordello songs. I think of him as the Crown Prince, the heir apparent to Jelly Roll Morton. His style is deceiving. He's so laid back that you kind of forget he's saying important things. Randy's sort of tied to a different era like I am.
BF: How about John Prine?
BD: Prine's stuff is pure Proustian existentialism. Midwestern mindtrips to the nth degree. And he writes beautiful songs. I remember when Kris Kristofferson first brought him on the scene. All that stuff about "Sam Stone" the soldier junky daddy and "Donald and Lydia," where people make love from ten miles away. Nobody but Prine could write like that. If I had to pick one song of his, it might be "Lake Marie." I don't remember what album that's on.

BF: A lot of the acts from your generation seem to be trading on nostalgia. They play the same songs the same way for the last 30 years. Why haven't you ever done that?
BD: I couldn't if I tried. Those guys you are talking about all had conspicuous hits. They started out anti-establishment and now they are in charge of the world. Celebratory songs. Music for the grand dinner party. Mainstream stuff that played into the culture on a pervasive level. My stuff is different from those guys. It's more desperate. Daltrey, Townshend, McCartney, the Beach Boys, Elton, Billy Joel. They made perfect records, so they have to play them perfectly ... exactly the way people remember them. My records were never perfect. So there is no point in trying to duplicate them. Anyway, I'm no mainstream artist.
BF: Then what kind of artist are you?
BD: I'm not sure, Byronesque maybe. Look, when I started out, mainstream culture was Sinatra, Perry Como, Andy Williams, Sound of Music. There was no fitting into it then and of course, there's no fitting into it now. Some of my songs have crossed over but they were all done by other singers.
BF: Have you ever tried to fit in?
BD: Well, no, not really. I'm coming out of the folk music tradition and that's the vernacular and archetypal aesthetic that I've experienced. Those are the dynamics of it. I couldn't have written songs for the Brill Building if I tried. Whatever passes for pop music, I couldn't do it then and I can't do it now.
BF: Does that mean you create outsider art? Do you think of yourself as a cult figure?
BD: A cult figure, that's got religious connotations. It sounds cliquish and clannish. People have different emotional levels. Especially when you're young. Back then I guess most of my influences could be thought of as eccentric. Mass media had no overwhelming reach so I was drawn to the traveling performers passing through. The side show performers - bluegrass singers, the black cowboy with chaps and a lariat doing rope tricks. Miss Europe, Quasimodo, the Bearded Lady, the half-man half-woman, the deformed and the bent, Atlas the Dwarf, the fire-eaters, the teachers and preachers, the blues singers. I remember it like it was yesterday. I got close to some of these people. I learned about dignity from them. Freedom too. Civil rights, human rights. How to stay within yourself. Most others were into the rides like the tilt-a-whirl and the rollercoaster. To me that was the nightmare. All the giddiness. The artificiality of it. The sledge hammer of life. It didn't make sense or seem real. The stuff off the main road was where force of reality was. At least it struck me that way. When I left home those feelings didn't change.
BF: But you've sold over a hundred million records.
BD: Yeah I know. It's a mystery to me too.

India voters turn out heavily despite rebel violence

  by Neeraja Ganesh
    NEW DELHI, April 16 -- Despite violence from extreme left-wing rebels on the first day of Indian elections Thursday, Indian voters turned out heavily at the polling stations in the first phase of the general elections.
    Primary estimates said the turnout rate in the polling on the first day of the marathon polling is above 50 percent.
    "Voting took place amid huge presence of paramilitary forces," said Jayasudha, a Hyderabad resident in south-central Indian state Andhra Pradesh, who cast her vote Thursday.
    "Early morning, you could see paramilitary forces escort election officials to polling booths with all equipment necessary. Never before have I seen such heavy force deployment for polls," she told Xinhua on the phone.
    At a different polling booth, another Hyderabad resident, Papayamma J. Rao said many people braved extreme heat to cast their vote.
    "It was overwhelming to see enthusiasm among people who were out to vote, braving long queues and heat," she said.
    Some media reports estimated a 60 percent voter turnout in Andhra Pradesh, the second most populous state of India after Tamil Nadu.
    Speaking from west Indian state Maharashtra, a local resident Bharat Hande cited an isolated case of minor violence in Bhandara constituency of Nagpur area.
    "After some minor hiccups, voting continued without any major obstacle in Nagpur," he said.
    "Men carried their aged parents on their backs, and voter-turnout was reasonably good," another voter, Ram Dev, of central Indian state Uttar Pradesh said in northern India.
    In the restive northeast state of Assam, voting went on without problem and turnout rate stood at around 65 percent, said officials.
    New Delhi student Zo Khiangte, who spoke to her mother in Karbi, Assam, told Xinhua that people queued up to vote in Assam, while security forces kept vigil at booths, she said.
    In the northeast Mizoram, Nagaland and Meghalaya states, turnout rate also reached from 60 to 70 percent, while the Manipurstate bordering Myanmar had a 40 to 50 percent turnout rate, according to primary estimates by official.
    Meanwhile, in violence-shaken Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Bihar, about 50 percent of the voters turned to cast their franchise despite relentless attacks by the Naxal insurgency rebels who killed at least 18 people during the day, including seven paramilitary troopers and one policemen.

23,000 villages ‘vulnerable’ in first phase voting

New Delhi, April 14 : As many as 23,000 villages that go to polls in the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections Thursday have been identified as “vulnerable” from a security point of view, the Election Commission said Tuesday.

The poll panel has made adequate security arrangements to ensure free and fair elections, Deputy Election Commissioner R. Balakrishnan said.


Campaigning for the first phase of Lok Sabha elections came to an end Tuesday in 15 states and two union territories.

A total of 1,715 candidates, including 122 women, are in the fray for the 124 seats in the first of the five-phase election. According to the Election Commission, as many as 14.31 crore people are eligible to vote in the first round of voting.

At least 900,000 officials would oversee the arrangements for the Thursday voting.

Balakrishnan said the commission had taken inputs from the candidates to deal with security threats related to the polls.

Elections to 154 and 70 assembly constituencies in Andhra Pradesh and Orissa, respectively, will also be held Thursday.

Timing of the voting varies in different locations.

Polling will take place between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m. in the areas identified as Maoist affected, Balakrishnan said.
In some locations in the northeast, the voting will be held between 7 a.m. and 4 p.m. In other constituencies, the elections will be held between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m.

The states going to the polls are: Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.
The two union territories are Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep.

Indian Elections 2009: Concerns of The Common People

The run up to Indian general elections sure looks like a spicy Bollywood movie. Big actors from major political parties and their activists are busy hurling allegations at each other while the common people stand befuddled, waiting for someone to listen to their concerns.

Indian politicians are at the receiving end not only from their opponents but also from the public-online and on the streets.

Sameer Shaikh, is concerned about the way main opposition party-Bharatiya Janta Party(BJP) operates during elections. In his blog he writes about the three “nitis” or principles of the Hindu nationalist party, saying they use religion to divide people, push cash to win support and use racism to foment suspicion.

“Raam = When elections come they talk about Raam, the God who spread love. And Here under the name of the GOD several politicians are using it to get in power…. this has being BJP's triumph card to gain votes…. Be it LK Advani saying that Ram Mandir is what they wanted to always do or be it Varun Gandhi whose controversial speech has put him in jail and he is now held under the NSA (Threat to nation act).”

Congress, the party in Government, is also being criticized, especially the Gandhi family scion-Rahul Gandhi. Offstumped, which describes itself as focused on bringing a right of center reality check to Indian Politics, news media reporting and opinion through Blogs in English and Hindi writes about Gandhi’s “phony love for the poor.”

“The reality for these mostly poor and largely Muslim victims of the CPI-Mafioso’s tyranny of Nandigram was that Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi let them down when they needed them the most by looking the other away at Buddhadeb’s Taliban Act.
As Rahul Gandhi goes about tom-tomming his phony love of the poor it is imperative to refresh everyone’s memory of those poor he let down badly in Nandigram by never fighting for their dignity.”

Communalism is in minds of many Indian voters. The issue highlighted by November 2008 attacks in Mumbai and violence against Christian tribals in state of Orissa.
Charakan, a doctor, writes about how communalism is being exploited to reach political goals:

“Religion, region and to some extent caste come to the rescue of the rich. So the Ram mandir, Maratha pride and Islamism are invented to prevent unity of the poor. The poor Muslim laborer is lynched by a mob for ‘preventing' the building of Ram Mandir. The poor train passengers are killed by Islamist bombs as a revenge. The Bihari coolie is be-headed by poor and unemployed Marathi youth for Maratha pride. The rich laugh all the way to the bank.”

Caste politics, a mainstay of Indian elections, has troubled the people for long. Many blame political parties-from right, center, left and even those who claim to exclusively champion the lower caste population for abusing the heinous practice for political mileage.
Vikram Garg, a PhD student from Mumbai delves into the caste politics in India from an academic standpoint. In his post titled “Is Mayawati bringing the change India’s Dalits (people of lower caste) need?”, he discusses research carried out by University of Washington and Edinburgh in village of Nangal in state of Uttar Pradesh with 48% dalit population.
He says that despite all efforts made to empower the dalits, their situation still remains dire.

“Simply claiming Dalit self-respect is a legitimate but incomplete goal. In fact for most of the Dalits in Nangal the notion of respect and improving access to resources are deeply linked. Without the right access, anger is brewing in a cynical and increasingly desperate peasantry. This anger could explode anytime and India could be in for a few very bloody decades.”

India shining for shoe-shiners

Two stories from Mumbai, showing us the changing face of India:

1. A boot-polisher working at a Mumbai train station, is contesting this month’s parliamentary elections. Declaring assets worth about Rs 6 lakhs and a railway engine as his election logo, Ramsingh Shiras says he wants to become a member of India’s parliament for at least one time in a lifetime.

Surely a small goal for many of the incumbents running for seats this year, some of them have already had the privilege to be parliamentarians several times over. But an improbable goal for Ramsingh Shiras, who is hardly a shoo-in in the elections. He’s competing with two lifelong politicians - one of them an incumbent who inherited his father’s seat, and the other a 30-year veteran of local politics.

That’s a pity. And Ramsingh Shiras may not get the chance to polish the dirty, dusty image of today’s parliamentarians. If you happen to be by the Kalyan railway station during the next few weeks, take some time to walk by his space on the planet and speak to him about his vision document. And if you are one of the other two candidates, just be aware that this shoe-polisher would love to be in your shoes.

2. A Mumbai cobbler is aiming big with the smallest car. Maruti Bhandare, a suburban shoe-mender, made a one and half lakh rupees deposit at a local car dealership, booking India’s newest and smallest car - the Nano. Maruti made the giant leap from cobbling to car-ownership on the auspicious occasion of the birth anniversary of Lord Hanuman - the monkey God who is also known as ‘Maruti’, incidentally the name shared by India’s first wonder car in the 1980s.

A cobbler owning a car may not mean much in the west, but is still a novelty on this side of the planet. What’s more amazing is that Maruti hasn’t sought any financing to make this dream a reality. He is paying hard-earned sweaty cash for his new car.

Immediately after his birth, Lord Hanuman is said to have made a giant leap, lunging at the Sun God. It has taken Maruti Bhandare 42 years of his life and 2 years of hard work to lunge at the Nano, which unfortunately, isn’t a solar-powered car yet, but will still be a lifetime dream coming true for a cobbler who is showing the courage to dream bigger than the size of his shoes.

Two stories from Mumbai, showing us how India’s shoes are getting bigger.

Mizoram observes Good Friday

Aizawl , Apr 10 : Christian-dominated Mizoram state today observed Good Friday, the crucifixion of Jesus Christ with religious solemnity and fervour as mass, prayers and worship services were organised in almost all the churches.

Members of the Catholic Church took out 'Kraws Kawngzawh' procession of the cross in Aizawl city in which hundreds of processionists, led by a priest carrying a wooden cross, chanted verses from the Bible and sang hymns.

Last night, Catholic priests performed mass in all the churches to commemorate the sufferings of Jesus Christ and the last supper.

Presbyterian Church, Baptist Church and other denominations organised prayer services where preachers delivered sermons on the death of Christ to save the world from sin.