Vandals Of History Afghanistan's Taliban regime remains undeterred from its hard-line agenda of destroying historically valuable Buddhist idols. A look at the present regime and its slide to orthodox fundamentalism at a time when a drought has ravaged its economy and people.

Taking On the Family
Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Laloo Yadav is once again facing a tough fight for survival--this time prompted by a near revolt in the RJD fuelled by rumours of a dynastic takeover. Ranjan Yadav has emerged as a potential rival to Rabri Devi, enjoying the support of both the party rebels and the NDA allies.

Chennai Confusion
The upshot of the great Tamil circus: Jayalalitha needs Moopanar, but not the Congress.

Creepy Acquisition
With Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha determined to bring corporate payslips comprehensively into the taxman's dragnet, the salaried class is having a few palpitations. For them, it means that a long era of tax-free emoluments is coming to an end.

"Indians lack unity"
Two of cricket's finest brains met for a rare conversation:Bishen Singh Bedi takes on the role of interviewer for Aaj Tak, seeking to get into the mind of Australian captain Stephen Waugh.

Revenge Of the Bears The sudden fall in share-prices points to yet another rigging controversy, and raises questions about the efficacy and credibility of SEBI as a regulator.

METROSCAPE

Triple Act

Two Become One

Role Play

Crafts and the Man

Literati Lady

Polo Stars

Me City ' Eld A Play

Looking Glass

COOL COMPANY: (From left) Grewal, Sircar, Kohli and Gary S

You might not have seen them, but you've probably seen their work-unless you've been shipwrecked on a desert island. Shubha Mudgal's Mann ke manjeere music video, the Josh machine ads featuring Shankar Mahadevan's racy Aao josh mein, and the currently on-air Pepsi commercials with Harsha Bhogle, Saurav Ganguly and Zaheer Abbas all show up on the CV of the Delhi-based foursome Red Ice. So, who are these guys? They're Sujit Sircar, Robby Grewal, Sameer Kohli and Gary S. Sircar, a multi-camera specialist dabbling in direction (he's conceptualised Siddharth Basu's Quiz Time and the first six episodes of Kaun Banega Crorepati), was spending lazy afternoons drinking chai at Mandi House when he met Gary, who's worked with TV 18, who knew Kohli who knew Grewal. "We're just regular guys with similar interests," says Grewal. Just that these "regular guys" click so well that they are now one-and-a-half-years plus 60-plus-commercials-old and counting. Project-in-the-making: a commercial Hindi film on the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. Their goal: to put Delhi on the filmmaking map, because, says Sircar, "filmmaking here is not an industry yet. It's more people-oriented, so it allows you to break all the rules of an organised industry". Oh, and their work philosophy: "chill, chill, chill". That's in case you're still wondering about the "ice".

-Methil Renuka

TWO BECOME ONE: "Resonant Echoes" saw four martial arts exponents from Manipur's Meitei community perform their traditional dance, Thag'ta, in tandem with Astad Deboo's body language, at Mumbai's HSBC hall on Sunday. " (The confluence) respects the creation on its own merit," says Deboo. The quintet perform in Delhi on March 11.

-Himanshi Dhawan

MetroScape
Triple Act
What I would love to do more than anything else in the world is to write another play," says Gurcharan Das. "But I don't know if I have the courage." He should have dollops of it, going by the audience reaction to his 9 Jakhoo Hill--performed to mark the release of Three English Plays by Das --at Delhi's India Habitat Centre
last week.
more...

Looking Glass

Delhi and Mumbai: Adventure One Sport

Mumbai: Smooth Bar

Delhi: Good Earth Showroom

Polo, like many other events, is bringing about the resurgence of the almost forgotten royals. A chance, writes INDIA TODAY's Principal Correspondent Anshul Avijit, to say Maharaja again with an unctuous post-modernist gusto in Despatches.

"The only obvious competition is in bhangra," say the Pakistani duo of the music group, Strings, in conversation with INDIA TODAY's Sonia Faleiro in
Interviews.