The world's most attractive woman is...

...apparently a 98-year-old widow in Mexico.

Maria de Jesus Flores is being relentlessly pursued by a man 50 years her junior.

In a legal complaint, Flores said the man tried to kiss her and threatened to kill her if she didn't let him move in. Read full story here.

Have you caught Fever 104 FM yet?

Ya, I know I keep raving about Delhi's 95 FM but another radio channel has been increasingly tugging at my eardrums in recent weeks - Fever 104 FM.

First-time listeners to this four-month-old channel should tune in to Fever Top 20 (Monday - Friday at 8 pm) for starters and then move on to My Request Dot Com and Fever 40 to complete the musical meal.

And why? Well, it may be raining radio channels in Delhi but only these two seem to have caught the pulse of the city's youth. Peppy music, not-so-pesky RJs and fewer ads - that's the magic recipe for conjuring up some loyal listeners. And the guys at Hit 95 and Fever 104 have got it covered.

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Aren't you addicted to Hit 95 FM yet?

You still think your job sucks?

The Devil Wears Prada (the book not the movie) is the best possible gift for all those (including me) who spend their time devising the safest way to kill their bosses and colleagues and escape a prison term at the same time.

Poor Andrea Sachs. The things she had to put up with. I now realise my office is heaven and my boss is a saint. In comparison.

Author Lauren Weisberger now has another member in her ever-growing fan club. Me.

Remarks: A must-read when you have the office blues
Rating: ****

Buy the Book

India wins at the Oscars

Forget Deepa Mehta. This year's Oscars had two winning Indian connections - Ravi Malhotra and Noureen Dewulf - both for West Bank Story which romped home in the Best Live Action short film category.

While the Sacramento-born Malhotra was one of the producers of the 20-minute Oscar-winning flick, Noureen was its lead actress.

West Bank Story is a musical comedy about David, an Israeli soldier, and Fatima, a Palestinian fast food cashier - an unlikely couple who fall in love amidst the animosity of their families' duelling falafel stands in the West Bank.

Noureen, who attended Boston University's School of the Arts, is a familiar face on U.S. television and plays a minor role in the soon-to-be-released Hollywood biggie Ocean's Thirteen.

The New York-based actress (her parents hail from Pune) turns 23 on Wednesday. And don't go by her unusual surname - Noureen speaks Hindi, Gujarati and Urdu and feels she's totally Indian.

As for Malhotra, who wishes Hollywood had more musicals in the Bollywood vein, producing films is old hat. He's moved on to writing and directing his own short films. His new venture Return to Sender has an unusual storyline - that of a "corpse" coming back to life in the back of the hearse on the way to the cemetery. Oscar anyone?

Full list of Oscar nominees and winners

FULL COVERAGE (on this blog)
Shilpa Shetty in Big Brother

Shilpa's dilemma - Chicago or Bombay Dreams

Click here for the Richard Gere - Shilpa Shetty kissing controversy

Shilpa Shetty has been offered the role of Roxie Hart in the West End musical Chicago. But what of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Bombay Dreams? Looks like Shilpa has a tough choice on her hands.

FULL COVERAGE (on this blog)
Shilpa Shetty in Big Brother

The Indibloggies 2006

Yes, the results are out. No, I wasn't shortlisted for the Indian weblog awards. But here are the worthy winners.

Web 2.0 for Dummies like U and Me

Because you and I need to know

BLOG INTERVIEW - Ruchi Narain

Meet Ruchi Narain. The 30-something filmmaker, a protege of renowned director Sudhir Mishra, scooped up critical acclaim for her debut film Kal - Yesterday and Tomorrow. The Shiney Ahuja-Chitrangada Singh thriller picked up the critic's award at the 2005 Osian's Cinefan film festival, New Delhi.

Narain, who also co-wrote Mishra's Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi and Calcutta Mail, then disappeared from the Bollywood scene - ostensibly to take a break from four years of non-stop work since 'Hazaaron..'. But she kept herself busy by dabbling in music videos, ad films and documentaries.

Fans of this young filmmaker need not despair. Ruchi told Toe Knee Unplugged she's hard at work on three feature film scripts - a thriller, a love story and a romantic comedy - and promises it won't be too long a wait coz she's itching to make a feature film.

So, how has Ruchi spent her 'off' year?

"I directed the Indian Idol II video, a couple of ad films (one with John Abraham). But frankly, more exciting for me was to produce two wildlife documentaries directed by my sister Ashima."

The documentary 'In The Pink' (about flamingoes in Mumbai) was bought by Discovery, earning both sisters a shot at another documentary, this time 'The Last Dance' (about dancing bears). A different kind of world, eh?

"For me, this was a whole new world. Quite invigorating to see another 'kind' of life after being immersed in one's own films and imagination for so long."

Surprisingly, Ruchi is not writing mentor Sudhir Mishra's latest flick Khoya Khoya Chand which stars Shiney Ahuja (once again!) and Soha Ali Khan. But she's associated with the film as its Second Unit Director. And notice how Ruchi goes ga-ga over Soha's work.

"Soha is an absolutely brilliant, natural and sophisticated actor. She will floor everyone with this film not just with her acting ... she looks beautiful."

Since Khoya Khoya Chand is a love story in the backdrop of the Hindi film industry in the 1950-60s, Ruchi shot reel premieres for the film, including one set in Delhi's famous Regal cinema.

But even the magic of cinema fails when it comes to Ruchi's first love. The young director had the most fun shooting action scenes involving horses.

"Because in between takes, I'd jump onto one of the horses and take off for a quick ride"

Other Exclusive Interviews on this blog
Playwright Mahesh Dattani

Blast from the Past - Tony Tattle

What is so inscrutable about the name Tony? Why do people invariably roll their eyes in disbelief when I introduce myself. Is your real name Antony, they ask. No, it's not! It's plain and simple Tony. Nothing more, nothing less.

Haven't they ever heard of British PM Tony Blair, cricketer Tony Greig, television character Tony Soprano and the like. What about the Tony awards, eh?

For God's sake, even the new White House Press Secretary is a certain Tony Snow. Our desi Jassi was the brainchild of television producer Tony Singh. Not to mention the innumerable other Tony Singhs wandering around in the wheat fields of Punjab. And don't you dare forget that the gun used in the Jessica Lall murder case was found in the house of a certain Tony in Chandigarh.

Granted that Christians are a minority in India but I have never heard of anyone getting flabbergasted by the presence of a Michael or a George in the workplace. Then why this fixation with Tony.

And it's not even a rare moniker. In school, there was another Tony in the same class and teachers usually got flummoxed when both Tonys responded to their bidding.

But somehow when I moved on to college and the workplace, people didn't take too kindly to my name. They would inevitably cup their ears to make sure they heard it right. Tony? It was almost as if they felt they could deal better with a Sony, Ronny or even a Dony.

Their next question - what does Tony mean? In the great Indian tradition, every name has to mean something and I am usually ashamed to admit mine doesn't stand for anything. But I never fail to point out that in the English lexicon, tony as an adjective stands for someone stylish, fashionable or elegant.

Not that I am claiming anything by that but Tony is certainly a better appellation than my dad's name John which has various unpleasant connotations - a toilet, a prostitute's customer and an elongated piece of underwear.

Now that you have patiently listened to or rather read my harangue, let me clarify that Tony is indeed derived from the name Anthony or Antony. And that my parents named me after my maternal grandfather.

Why maternal? Well, it seems that to do his bit for India's population crisis, my dad wanted to limit the number of his offspring to ONE. When I was born, Dad gave Mom the privilege of naming me after her father.

But three years later, when my obnoxious brother appeared on the planet, Dad gave the new born babe the moniker Jose to honour my paternal grandfather Joseph.

I sometimes wonder what would have happened if Dad had stuck to hierarchy when it came to naming unsuspecting babies after their grandfathers. I would have been named Jose and my brother would be Tony instead.

Nah! I like Tony much better. Jose is such a common name in South India. In fact, if you throw a stone in Kerala, you can be pretty certain about it landing on a person named Jose, or someone having a friend or a sibling named Jose. Now just don't start throwing stones at me.

(This blog post first published May 16, 2006)