Vinod Mehta's book Lucknow Boy, releasing on November 9, reveals interesting details not just about the celebrated editor but also about recent Indian history.

The Hindustan Times has published excerpts from the book, and one bit reveals that former prime minister A B Vajpayee lived it up, and was not shy about his friendships with women. Mehta writes of the BJP's top leader: "Vajpayee was no saint. He liked to drink moderately and eat non-vegetarian food less moderately. Being a bachelor and a political star (Henry Kissinger: power is the ultimate aphrodisiac), he was never short of female company. "

The editor of the Outlook group, who also worked with Debonair, Sunday Observer, and for a brief while with the Times of India, is outspoken about his colleagues Arun Shourie and Dileep Padgaonkar, and records why he can't respect them.

The book records how the Radia tapes scandal broke. Mehta writes: "The first thing that struck all of us was the crystal-clear quality of the

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The Essential Billy Joel - CD coverBilly Joel once spat, "Have you listened to the radio lately? Have you heard the canned, frozen and processed product being dished up to the world as American popular music today?"

Today he might as well clench his fists and ask, "Have you listened to Justin Bieber?"

When he was Bieber's age, William Martin Joel boxed welterweight and broke his nose in a bout. Though he started taking piano lessons at five, Joel pursued a full-time career in music only after watching The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964. The next year, aged 16, he began recording.

With the Long Island band The Hassles, the boy from the Bronx cut two commercially doomed albums. In 1970 he formed Attila, an organ-and-drums rock outfit with Hassles drummer Jon Small and, through a creatively trying time where he carried on with Small's wife Elizabeth Weber (whom he later married), recorded an album that sank on impact.

There was only so much battering even a young pugilist from a broken home could take. Joel bailed

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The Great Indian Octoberfest, Bangalore's answer to the German beer carnival Oktoberfest, honors Indian Standard Time by taking place in November. Scheduling apart, it promises an extravaganza of entertainment. The festival has served as a platform for many artists and rock bands. In past years Indian Ocean, Thermal And A Quarter and Motherjane have performed. This year, the festival has an official anthem, "Come On Over", performed by Delhi band Eka (exclusive preview on Yahoo! India).

 Theme songs are in. After A R Rahman's anthem rescued the beleaguered Commonwealth Games last year, Bollywood's composer triumvirate Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy bowled over 2011 ICC World Cup fans in January. Daler Mehndi shook a leg (and both arms) for the Indian Grand Prix. An Art of Living volunteer penned a theme song for Anna Hazare's nation-stirring campaign.

So why shouldn't a festival in

Read More »from Eka’s theme song for Bangalore’s beerfest

For all practical purposes, Mamata has lost this battle she sprang on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The government is not going to roll back the hike in fuel prices, as she had demanded.

When the government increased the price of petrol by Rs 1.82, the Bengal chief minister threatened to withdraw support for the UPA. She was the champion of the common citizen again, taking up a cause the other allies of the coalition had ignored. If there was one party that looked serious about bringing down fuel prices, it was the Trinamool Congress. The CPM, the long-entrenched party she defeated to come to power, was sceptical, but media observers were convinced she would wrangle at least a partial rollback of the petrol price hike.

In earlier instances, the centre has taken such threats seriously, since the Trinamool Congress, with 18 MPs, is a major partner of the central coalition. (The other major alliance partner, the DMK, is discredited and weak, with two of its top leaders lodged in Tihar

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HumDrum
A band called HumDrum is presenting Kannada poetry to new audiences, but refuses to be dubbed a 'rock' group.

"We don't want to be doing dark, angry songs," says lead singer MD Pallavi. "I know there is pressure to fit into some category, but 'classical poetry presented contemporarily' is what we started out with."

Pallavi is well-known on the bhavageete circuit, and also sings film songs in Kannada. (The bhavageete form has largely been defined as 'sugama sangeeta' since the 1980s). Her foray into the band style isn't new either: she has performed with guitarists Amit Heri and Konarak Reddy, whose music is steeped in Western influences. She resists the term 'rock' because it brings expectations her band has no intentions of meeting.

The band was formed when, with husband Arun, Pallavi roped in three other musicians, who together arrived at the name of HumDrum. The emphasis on 'drum' is justified: Arun is a drummer whose virtuosity has won him admirers both among Carnatic musicians

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Welcome to AV.
Think of it as a audio visual junction or the ANTI-VIRAL. Yahoo has tonnes of video goodies which  come together in this  weekhatam digest! Visually rich stuff that doesn't pander to hopefully just about anything.

Keeping it light , first up, the NO KIDDING AWARD of the week has to go to the teen(y increasingly weeny pop stars).Pop is  Bieber —ofying some more? Watch if you don't get  what I'm saying.

Next, what is Dam 999 and why is it in the'Oscar'  library?
A first from India,  for a yet to be released film, I believe.
While the name sounds like a super angry thing which  would lose it at Dam 1000 quite pronto, trailer tells us it's a pretty serious matter.

Dam 999 goes to Oscar library.

Here is another one for the record books, this time about the American who made it into Russia , dancing!

And if you haven't had a funny swipe session recently, dig in the claws here.This is well and truly news YOU can abuse.

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The latest incident of eve teasing in a city like Mumbai makes me wonder if all the candle light vigils and the "fight against the system" are just hogwash. A sham to make you feel like you're part of a movement. Does that not make the "voice of India" selfish? How about if we fight the goons in our society before corruption?

It's easy to take a day off work and shout slogans against corruption because that doesn't put your life in danger. But why did not one person come to Keenan and Reuben's rescue? The two boys may have lived if someone in the "audience" had at least dialed an ambulance. Is a person's life less important than "corruption"?

Last week, one of my colleagues faced a similar situation. He was out for dinner with a friend when a few men started eve teasing her. When he objected, they picked a fight with him. Fortunately for Akshay, cops were close by. Otherwise, who knows, Akshay may have received more injuries than the cuts on his face.

Laws against eve teasing should be

Read More »from Are Reuben and Keenan’s deaths for nothing?

For Thailand, 2011 has been a year of hell and high water. Those who believe climate change is the misbegotten brainchild of a bunch of paranoid environmentalists must now be flushing down their words with barrels of flotsam-choked river water. Bangkok, a city that climatologists have warned for years to be sinking, appears to be yielding to the river — and the rumors.

As Bangkok river swells, people flee to higher ground

An area the size of Kuwait has been underwater. Over four hundred people have reportedly died since the massive post-monsoon flooding began in late July. The primary culprit, ironically, is the river that is also Thailand's lifeline. Floods are no strangers to the Chao Phraya or Mae Nam, which runs a course of 372 kilometers through the country before entering Bangkok and emptying into the Gulf of Thailand. But the second spell of floods this calendar year has left the northern and western parts of the city waterlogged and its

Read More »from Thailand’s Great Flood awaits Noah