Convict Queen
Though AIADMK leader Jayalalitha was debarred from contesting the elections on grounds of her conviction in a corruption case, she was sworn in as chief minister of Tamil Nadu. Will her aggressive game plan work? And should popular mandate overrule judicial verdicts?

Great Call Of China
Indian entrepreneurs are eagerly joining the swiftly growing queue to set up shop in China.
The land once considered forbidden has suddenly become
the hottest destination for Indian businessmen.

Looking East
Atal Bihari Vajpayee's visit to Malaysia may have achieved little on Quattrochi's extradition and India's greater ties with ASEAN, but it showed there is more to their bilateral relations than these two issues.

Mother's Day
Stalinist methods played a vital role in the humiliating finale of M. Karunanidhi's dynastic ambition.

Readying For Nukes For the first time after India became a nuclear power, the Army stages a nuclear war game to check preparedness.

EYECATCHERS

Woman's Way

Tamil actress Revathi has been consistently getting applause for her popular persona-the fierce feminist, the priggish housewife, the coddling mother. But now the actress has decided to assume a different role, that of a director ... and with an all-women crew. The film in English, Mitr-My Friend, which has been shot in the US, includes singer Bhavatharini, lyricist Thamarai, cinematographer Fowzia Fathima and scriptwriter Priya Venkateshwaran. But Thamarai dispels any feminist connotation in the crew line-up: "I don't think it was started as a film by women alone. It just happened. Anyway, it was more fun working this way."

Press And Pull

Khan outside the ED

The over-brawny actor Salman Khan always finds reason to flex his trouble-causing muscles. Last time, he used his sinewy shoulder as a resting pad for the gun that downed a black buck. This time it's a skirmish with a bunch of heckling hacks. As the actor emerged in Mumbai's Directorate of Enforcement after questioning (for an income-tax case), he was, according to his father Salim Khan, met with abuses like "Dawood's man" and pushed around. The actor reportedly turned violent. Says photographer Mohan Bane of Tarun Bharat: "I was hit on the forehead and punched ... no one made any personal remarks." But Salim refuses to accept this: "My son is just a victim here. He would not have acted without provocation." Is it really just bad press?

Singer Has His Day

Dayton in Ohio, a town in the us solemnly famous for its Bosnian peace accord, had a three-hour concert by 42-year-old playback singer Kumar Shanu which was attended by a rapturous mayor apart from 7,000 other fans. So impressed was this civic head with Shanu's crooning that he not only presented him with a citation but also did something which is unprecedented in the annals of Bollywood in Ohio-declared every March 31 a "Kumar Shanu Day". "I'm really happy to have earned a unique distinction," says Shanu, "though I admit I was very surprised by it." So are we.

Model's Mission

She's appeared in the Pepsi ad (the girl who transmutes Cyrus Broacha into a passionate man), marched in every consequential fashion show this season and even got a morale-boosting film offer. Ambitious Delhi girl Udita Goswami, 18, just out of the clutches of her Class XII board exams, is the most charismatic model to emerge from this part of the country since Indrani Dasgupta last year. "The Miss India contest is next, but I want to wait till I'm mature enough," says Goswami, now planning to do an honours in psychology to increase her maturity quotient. By the way this picture has her in contacts ... her real eyes are "hazel brown", which she assures us, look equally good.

—Compiled by Anshul Avijit

MetroScape

Delhi Cinema:
"Flicks Down Under"

Mumbai Restaurant:
Karma

Kolkata Restaurant:
Teej

The Madhya Pradesh governor orders a CBI inquiry into a land allotment by the chief minister to the Nai Duniya group, kicking off a constitutional crisis. INDIA TODAY Special Correspondent Neeraj Mishra reports in
Conflict Of Interest.