Tabish Khair, the award-winning Indian author of well-known books such as How to Fight Islamist Terror from the Missionary Position and The Thing About Thugs is now writing a family epic.

Khair, who was in the UAE to speak about his books at the Sharjah International Book Fair, said he has always written a new kind of novel and a family book is something he has not attempted yet.

“It will be far less humourous than How to Fight Islamist Terror from the Missionary Position, and more sweeping,” Khair told PTI.

He is, however, not sure about the final shape of the book.

“Who knows? Novels change as they are written,” he said.

Khair said that the Indian writing in English has definitely carved out a niche for itself over the years.

“There is much variety in it, though some writers might still be taking awesomely holy dips in colonial waters,” he said.

On the rapidly developing technology and its impact on the present generation of writers he said it is too early to tell.

“But I do feel that people read too cursorily and rapidly on screens. Page-reading allows for greater depth and introspection, more nuances,” said Khair.

How to Fight Islamist Terror from the Missionary Position explores the thin line between faith and fanaticism, the absolutes of love and faith in the varied contexts of religion, romance and family through the lives of three main characters, the narrator and his two flat mates.

Khair chooses not to compare the prevailing literary scene in India and Europe.

“I have never belonged to the scene in India or in Europe; I have always written from the margins and in substantial isolation, without the patronage of any big name, coterie or group. As such, I can hardly compare the two.

“Personally, I do not think highly of literary scenes anywhere; some of the best writers do not belong to such scenes,” he said.

Born and educated in Bihar, Khair is the author of various books, including the poetry collections, Where Parallel Lines Meet, Man of Glass, the studies, Babu Fictions: Alienation in Indian English Novels and The Gothic, Post-colonialism and Otherness.

His books have been shortlisted for a number of prizes, including the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, the Man Asian Literary Prize and the Encore Award.

• Part-time farmer Sultan Kösen, from Ankara, Turkey, measures 8ft 1in
• Chandra Dangi, who is just 21.5ins tall, lives in remote Nepalese village
• They are among those marking 60 years of Guinness World Records
• Record for largest gathering of people dressed as penguins was broken

It was a meeting of epic proportions.

The world’s tallest and shortest men met for the first time this morning to commemorate Guinness World Record Day.

Sultan Kösen, who is 8ft 1in. tall, and Chandra Dangi, who measures just 21.5ins., posed for photos outside the Houses of Parliament to mark the book’s 60th anniversary.

Standard & Poor’s issues BB- score, saying social network is growing strongly but spending heavily at the same time

Standard & Poor’s Ratings has assigned Twitter a junk-grade rating while also describing it as having strong growth prospects.

The ratings agency gave the San Francisco-based social networking company a BB- corporate credit rating, which places it firmly in the middle of junk-grade territory. The outlook is described as stable.

Shares of Twitter fell 5.7% to $40.12 in late afternoon trading on Thursday. The stock has lost more than a third of its value in the year to date.

S&P predicted Twitter would see healthy growth in active users and revenue, along with minimal debt leverage. But its very heavy investment in growth meant it might not have positive cash flow for discretionary use until 2016.

Jim Prosser, a spokesman for Twitter, pointed to S&P’s own words as comment: “Twitter will continue to experience very strong growth and not encounter a significant increase in competitive pressure.

The rating is unsolicited, meaning that S&P is basing it solely on publicly available information and that it may not necessarily involve the participation of Twitter.

The action comes a day after Twitter’s first-ever analyst day where it discussed its vision, strategy, finances and other matters.

The cop, identified as Shailendra Shukla, suddenly barged into the cultural function, climbed the stage, loaded his revolver in full public view and put it to the head of the dancer.

NEW DELHI: A police constable allegedly forced a dancer to continuously perform at gunpoint for an hour and showered currency notes worth Rs 30,000 on her at a function in Uttar Pradesh’s Shahjahanpur town.

On Monday night, the cop, identified as Shailendra Shukla, suddenly barged into the cultural function, climbed the stage, loaded his revolver in full public view and put it to the head of the dancer.

The horror played out on stage as the constable picked up his loaded firearm whenever the dancer showed signs of stopping due to exhaustion.

Shukla was also carrying Rs 100 and Rs 500 currency notes which he continuously rained on her, eyewitnesses said, adding that the constable was drunk and threatened both the dancer and audience at the venue.

“The dancer was so terrified that she initially lost her balance on the stage. But fearing for life, she somehow regained her composure and followed his order,” an eyewitness said.

Superintendent of Police, Shahjahanpur, Ramesh Chandra Sahu suspended Shukla on Tuesday evening and ordered an inquiry against the constable.

“We have suspended him with immediate effect and ordered a departmental inquiry against him. He will be attached with the police line till the inquiry is on,” the SP said.

He added that the probe will look into all the aspects of the episode.

In an apparent attempt to cosy up with Congress, the Shiv Sena has cautioned the Maharashtra BJP government against preparing to win the next trust vote by suspending Congress legislators.

The Devendra Fadnavis government had on Wednesday won a contentious trust vote in the state Assembly amid dramatic protests by the Opposition. Later, five Congress MLAs were suspended for allegedly causing “injury” to Governor C Vidyasagar Rao when they tried to block his entry into the legislature complex.

“Running the government is not a child’s play. Even if you get power in your hand, you cannot suspend MLAs and (by doing this) prepare to win the next trust vote after six months. If you are trying to cheat people by doing this, remember you are digging your own grave,” the Sena said today in an editorial in its mouthpiece ‘Saamana’.

“It has been alleged that some people tried to heckle the Governor following which he got injured. It is surprising that inspite of being injured he could walk in and give a long speech. We could not see any sign of injuries on him that day. Inspite of this, five Congress MLAs were suspended on false charges,” it alleged.

Taking a jibe at its former ally, the Sena said since the Governor is a BJP leader from Telangana, only leaders from that party would be able to gauge the extent of his injury.

The editorial said that though the BJP government managed to win the trust vote in the Assembly, it lost the people’s trust.

“All newspaper headlines are showing that the BJP has won the trust vote, but lost people’s trust. They (the BJP) have lost every moral right to govern now,” it said.

“Whoever fails to follow the constitutional rules will get a severe beating from the people. By trampling upon all the rules and regulations and traditions of the state to claim stake to the government, they have earned the wrath of the people. People have watched the shameful act committed by the BJP,” the Sena added

At recently held press conference at Mumbai Press Club, Managing Trustee of Praja Foundation, Nitai Mehta released its first white paper on Status of Affordable Housing in Mumbai. The white paper contains a complete report of the status of housing as per the population of Mumbai. The report states the following statics of housing as per the population.

11.36 lakh households stay in slums in Mumbai, out of a total of 28 lakh househols

15,274 homeless households

57% households live in one room

8% households do not have one room, but share a room with others

Only 203,624 units of public housing created between 1995-2014

Average cost of 269 sq ft house (at minimum ready recokner rate) is 12 times the median annual income of Mumbaikars, whereas the norm is that it should be less than four times the annual income.

To study the problem and come up with solutions Mehta said “Paraja has brought together a team of experts led by Mr Shirish b Patel, a vastly experienced civil engineer and urban planner, one of the three authors who originally suggested the idea of Navi Mumbai.

Mr K.G Krishnamurthy Managing Director and CEO of HDFC Property fund

Mr Aditya Somani, Chairman of Everest industries and

Mr. Ashok Dattar, Chairman of Mumbai Enviromental Social Network

Along with this team of experts, Praja will be putting forward as series of booklets, papers, notes and possible solutions to the this problem. The first booklet released today discusses basic issues such as housing, , FSI (Floor Space Index ) Crowding and densities. This booklet explains these Concepts to the citizens of Mumbai a user friendly manner.

Milind Mhaske, Project Director, Praja Foundation added, The political –social industry discourse to solve the problem of housing revolves around two extremes: One provide free or hugely subsidized houses and second increase FSI thus increasing supply and rationalizing costs.

Under the free housing schemes MAHDA has provided free housing to slum dwellers to a certain extent. Unfortunately these schemes are badly flawed with high corruption. Real News of India had reported about such housing scheme where slum dwellers are kept in shifting for a period of more than 7 years without a trace of being handed over their permanent houses. The present condition that they are living is below human standards at Golibar, Bandra East.

The other solution as suggested by the experts is new settlements moving out of the main and proper areas of the city. This can be very possible and successful if the government expands the network of trains and buses to new settlement areas. The public could purchase land space at a much lesser price than compared to the high unaffordable prices in Urban Mumbai.

It is to be seen what measures the new BJP led government would take up to solve this acute problem of housing.

Mumbai:  Megastar Amitabh Bachchan says daughters are special and help to bind a family together.

The father of Shweta Nanda is all praise for daughters.

“Daughters are special very special. They become the soul of the home. They are the reason for the warmth that embraces us all,” he shared on his official blog srbachchan.tumblr.com, Tuesday.

“They conduct, command, secure, analyse, dictate, rule, govern and spread that tender thread which binds an entire family together.”

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“They are reason. They are consult. They are opinion. They are guidance. They are supreme,” he added.

The 72-year-old then shared his photographs with actress Deepika Padukone with whom he is filming “Piku” in Kolkata.

New Delhi: In a first for Indian hockey, the national federation today decided to have the ‘Hockey India Annual Awards’ wherein the top players in the men’s and women’s categories will walk away with a prize money of Rs 25 lakh each.

Hockey India will be identifying and rewarding the most promising and potent players from the current as well as upcoming teams.

Speaking on the announcement, Hockey India secretary General Md. Mushtaque Ahmad said, “It is huge leap that we at Hockey India are preparing for. These awards are not only focused towards the welfare of the players but will ultimately help in boosting the morale of the players and motivating them to perform even better.

“The Hockey India family as an organisation takes pride in announcing the Hockey India Annual Awards for the Players and shall strive to take more such steps for the enhancement of the sport as well the players.”

HI has decided to name the individual trophies after HI President Dr Narinder Batra’s son Dhruv, who passed away recently.

“The Hockey India Executive Board and the Indian hockey community recognise and acknowledge the major contribution that Dr. Narinder Batra in particular and his family have made to Indian hockey. Dr Batra was also recently honored internationally by being awarded the FIH Presidents award at the FIH Congress on 1 November 2014 for his role in the development and growth of hockey in India over the recent years,” he said.

“In remembrance of the late Mr. Dhruv Batra who expired on 29 October 2014, during the FIH Congress, the son of President, Dr Narinder Batra, the Board thought it was fitting to name the ‘Player of the Year? awards in the category of men and women to the remarkable young man that was Mr. Dhruv Batra,” Ahmad added.

Each award will consist of a trophy, certificate and cash award. The decision to announce the awards was taken in the 26th Meeting of the Hockey India Executive Board here.

The 26th Meeting of the Hockey India Executive Board was Chaired by Hockey India Senior Vice President, Ms Mariamma Koshy and attended by Executive Board Members including Md.

Mushtaque Ahmad (Secretary General), Rajinder Singh (Treasurer), Tapan Das, Anandeshwar Pandey, Rajeev Mehta, Hitesh Sindwani, Asha Thakur, Asunta Lakra and Dr. R.P Singh.

List of Awards:

Dhruv Batra Player of the Year (Men) – Rs 25,00,000

Dhruv Batra Player of the Year (Women) – Rs 25,00,000

Upcoming Player of the Year (Men U-21) – Rs 10,00,000

Upcoming Player of the Year (Women U-21)- Rs.10,00,000

Goalkeeper of the Year – Rs.5,00,000

Defender of the Year – Rs.5,00,000

Midfielder of the Year – Rs.5,00,000

Forward of the Year – Rs.5,00,000

Award for Invaluable Contribution (For coaches and support staff) – Rs.5,00,000

President Award for Outstanding Achievement – Rs.5,00,000.