Say Hello to Another
Scam
The raging corporate war over the introduction of limited mobility telephone services has turned political, with the Prime Minister's Office being charged with subverting the regulatory system and favouring a few business houses. An INDIA TODAY investigation looks at the conflict between the sanctimonious claims and the grim reality.

Ballot Boxwallahs
The approaching assembly elections have brought to life five states which are set to witness a stiff fight and whose results can have a big impact on all major parties. A profile of the prime contenders who could tilt the balance either way.

Fall From Grace
Despite a triple-digit growth in net profits of Infosys Technologies and Satyam Computers, the stock prices of the two companies have plunged. Is it the gloomy forecast for software companies that's hammering down the prices?

Unnatural Alliance
The CNG controversy has taken a new turn, with doubts being raised about the propriety of the Delhi Government's selection of Nugas as the sole supplier of the conversion kit.

The Doon Boom
The city that houses Doon School is now playing host to a whole array of new education barons--with big money and even bigger ambitions.

METROSCAPE

Rave And Roll

It wasn't that Bamboo Forest, Anjuna or Disco Valley, Vagator got transplanted to a dusty suburb in south Delhi last weekend. There were no flavoured breezes, no oceanic rustling, no spongy gravel. But thank god for at least one transportable Goan trademark-American-born DJ Goa Gil, and his version of a powerful psychedelic alchemy, Goa Trance.

It's by now a well established sub-sect of Trance. It's got a bit of New Wave, a bit of sharp Acid and resonant Gothic, some clunky Industrial and Detroit Rock, a kind of electronic disco. Goa Gil, a lover of simplicity, cut across the euphonious jargon calling it, "The Goa State of Mind".

That night at Executive Club in Chattarpur, a few hundred enthusiasts were invited by Delhi-based DJ Amit Seth's Sidh Shanti Foundation to embrace musical mood-elevation. They also watched surreal images on a projected screen, grinned like broken-eyed demons in the UV light and concurrently stomped the night out on the 4/4, 140 beats-per-minute blast. Goa Gil, who's got the CV of an axiomatic hippie-cum-DJ (reached India in 1969; learnt yoga in the Himalayas; began full moon parties in Goa ; yanked the beach-country away from Talking Heads and Yello; made a few LPs), hopes that trance-dance will take people closer to nature.

-Anshul Avijit

In One Word? Yes!

The four-day dance-theatre festival "Yes, The Spirit of Triumph" was an amalgam of the arts and talent: Shiamak Davar choreographed the dance sequences, Raghuvendra Rathore designed the dancers' clothes and ad-man Shivjeet Khullar scripted the razzmatazz. Organised by Bombay Times and produced by Meera Jain, wife of Times Of India Vice-Chairman Samir Jain, at Mumbai's Jamshed Bhabha Hall, Yes witnessed a megawatt turnout by members of the glam frat including Sharon Prabhakar, Alyque Padamsee and Smita Thackeray, and film folks Sonali Bendre, Raveena Tandon and Anil Kapoor. What got their and our attention? Meera Jain's surprise saunter down the runway impersonating The Goddess of Love from the masquerade scene in The Phantom of the Opera.

-Himanshi Dhawan

THE ZEN OF ART: "Nudging the fun back into art" with promises of gallery hopping on the Art Bus, Sunday brunch with your favourite artist and an on-call reference service for between Rs 3,000 and Rs 10,000 is ArtWorks' The Art Club. Its launch at A.D Singh and Sagarika's stylish Olive Bar in Mumbai last week with a slide-presentation on contemporary Indian art by collector Nitin Bhayana was a splash of cocktails and glamour with guests like Christie's representative Mallika Sagar and RPG CEO Harsh Goenka. "I want to make art more fun," said Anupa Mehta, CEO, ArtWorks. The launch wasn't a bad start.

-Himanshi Dhawan

MetroScape

Wealth Of Art
April 8 saw an unabashed get together of Mumbai's Who's Who when the annual Harmony Show, well known as "Tina Ambani's baby", celebrated its sixth showing at the Nehru Centre.
more...

Looking Glass

Bangalore Hotel:
Park.hotel

Mumbai Store:
Regent Watch and Jewellery Boutique

A war of words is on at the Jammu border where India is trying to build a fence to stop infiltration, much to Pakistan's dislike, reports
INDIA TODAY's Special Correspondent Ramesh Vinayak in Despatches.