‘Stranger to History’ still leads bestseller list

Aatish Taseer's book "Stranger to History" continued to dominate the bestseller list in the non-fiction category for the third week while Paulo Coelho was the new author atop the fiction list, with his latest "The Winner Stands Alone". The top 10 in each group are:
Non-fiction

1. "Stranger to History"

Author: Aatish Taseer

Publisher: Picador India

Price: Rs.495.00

2. "A Better India A Better World"

Author: N.R. Narayana Murthy

Publisher: Penguin Allen Lane

Price: Rs.499.00

3. "Dreams from My Father"

Author: Barack Obama

Publisher: Canongate

Price: Rs.395.00

4. "The Audacity of Hope"

Author: Barack Obama

Publisher: Canongate

Price: Rs.250.00

5. "Outliers: The Story of Success"

Author: Malcolm Gladwell

Publisher: Allen Lane

Price: Rs.399.00

6. "Empires of the Indus: The Story of a River"

Author: Alice Albinia

Publisher: John Murray

Price: Rs.375.00

7. "Why I Supported The Emergency: Essays and Profiles"

Author: Khushwant Singh

Publisher: Penguin Viking

Price: Rs.450.00

8. "India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy"

Author: Ramachandra Guha

Publisher: Picador India

Price: Rs.495.00

9. "Imagining India: Ideas for the New Century"

Author: Nandan Nilekani

Publisher: Penguin Allen Lane

Price: Rs.699.00

10. "Curfewed Night"

Author: Basharat Peer

Publisher: Random House

Price: Rs.395.00

Fiction

1. "The Winner Stands Alone"

Author: Paulo Coelho

Publisher: Harper Collins

Price: Rs.325.00

2. "The Associate"

Author: John Grisham

Publisher: Arrow Books

Price: Rs.219.00

3. "Burnt Shadows"

Author: Kamila Shamsie

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Price: Rs.425.00

4. "Gone Tomorrow"

Author: Lee Child

Publisher: Bantam Press

Price: Rs.440.00

5. "In Other Rooms, Other Wonders"

Author: Daniyal Mueenuddin

Publisher: Random House

Price: Rs.395.00

6. "The Story of a Widow"

Author: Musharraf Ali Farooqi

Publisher: Picador India

Price: Rs.495.00

7. "The Girl Who Played with Fire"

Author: Stieg Larsson

Publisher: Quercus

Price: Rs.299.00

8. "The White Tiger"

Author: Aravind Adiga

Publisher: Harper Collins

Price: Rs.395.00

9. "The Women"

Author: T.C. Boyle

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Price: Rs.599.00

10. "Assegai"

Author: Wilbur Smith

Publisher: Macmillan

Price: Rs.795.00

(Source: Bahri Sons, New Delhi, www.booksatbahri.com. All the books listed above are available online)

Taysha Valez: the young billionaire

Taysha Valez is the author of "Young Black Millionairess: How To Start a Million Dollar Business", the owner of H. Couture Beauty LLC and at 27, is a self made billionaire. She is Taysha Smith Valez.

Though there is no article on her in Wikipedia yet, it would be there soon, as this beauty takes the world, as well as the cyber world by storm, with everyone eager to know who Taysha Valez is.

Taysha Valez is famously known for her Socialite Collection line of beauty and skin care and make up products. She has recently launched a new telecommunication company called Tri-my Tay Telecom. In Hawaii, she was recently spotted having lunch and attending business for the new company.

Though Taysha manages to keep away from the spotlight most of the time, she has been linked to a host of big celebrities, including Usher.

Haute.lanta Fashion Week displayed a staggering five million dollars in diamond encrusted beauty products, courtesy Taysha Valez.

The New York mogul has strong inclination for fashion and trends, as can be made out from her rare public appearances. The young billionaire chooses to be fashionably conscious keeping up with the latest trends.

She was recently featured in The Young, Black and Fabulous (theybf.com)

She also owns the by-appointment-only haute vintage departmental store TAYSHA's in New York.

Though the cyber world is going crazy over her, the billionaire beauty chooses to stay away from intense public glare in person, but stays in news through her business.

She is the world's youngest billionaire presently.

Through her achievements, Taysha Valez is an inspiration to all, irrespective of color and race.

Source : http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/books/taysha-valez-the-young-billionaire_100197620.html

Barnala releases Urdu version of ‘My Other Two Daughters’

After receiving a good response for "My Other Two Daughters", a biographical novel, Surjit Singh Barnala, Governor of Tamil Nadu and former chief minister of Punjab, has come up with the Urdu version of his book Monday.
This heart-wrenching tale of two girls was first released in 2007.

A.R. Kidwai, Governor of Haryana, released its Urdu edition "Meri Aur Do Betian" here Monday evening.

Apart from his own daughter Amrit, Barnala shared a strong emotional bond with two more women and treated them like his own daughters.

"Meri Aur Do Betian" talks about the journey of these two girls and it has been translated into Urdu by Chennai based Mukhtyar Badri.

Talking about his book, Barnala said: "My book is divided into two parts and each part talks about two different girls, whom I met at different places and how gradually they became an important part of my life."

"In 1949, I went to Kashmir for the first time and met a girl named Naseem, who was suffering from TB (tuberculosis). She was very close to me and called me 'chhotte abbi' (father)," said Barnala.

"The entire family of Naseem was suffering from TB. I arranged medicines and good doctors but could not save her. First of all, her mother died followed by her father. Then one day I got a letter from Naseem in which she had written, 'Mere chhotte abbi ko akhiri salaam' (My last regards to my father)," recalled Barnala.

Barnala did not have any photograph of Naseem. However, when he was lodged in the Patiala jail in 1976, during the Emergency, he painted a sketch of Naseem.

"Luckily, I managed to bring her on the canvas very beautifully. This photograph is also there on the cover page of the book," pointed out Barnala.

The second part of the book talks about Kiranjot, an American girl who embraced Sikhism.

"I met Kiranjot at Darbar Sahib (Golden temple in Amritsar in Punjab). She was carrying ashes of her fiance in a vessel over her head and wanted to immerse them at Kiratpur Sahib," recalled Barnala.

He added: "She expressed her desire to call me papa as her own father died in a road accident. After some reluctance, I gave this permission to her. She went back to the US and married an American but she remained in touch with me through letters."

"One day her letter comes that said that she was suffering from cancer. I brought her to Chennai and started her treatment at a leading cancer hospital there. She stayed with me at Raj Bhawan, but she could not survive. According to her will, her last rites were performed by following both Hindu and Sikh rituals," said Barnala.

Source : http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/books/barnala-releases-urdu-version-of-my-other-two-daughters_100176306.html

Over 10,000 clear IIT entrance exam, Faridabad’s Nitin Jain tops (Lead)

New Delhi, May 25 (IANS) As many as 10,035 candidates cleared the Joint Entrance Examination-2009 (JEE-2009) for admission to 15 Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) with 17-year-old Nitin Jain from Faridabad topping the list, it was announced Monday.
The 10,035 candidates - 1,048 girls and 8,987 boys - have been declared successful to seek admission for 8,295 seats in the IITs at Bhubaneswar, Mumbai, Delhi, Gandhinagar, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Madras, Mandi (Himachal Pradesh), Patna, Punjab, Rajasthan, Roorkee, IT-Banaras Hindu University and ISMU Dhanbad, said a statement released here by IIT-Delhi.

"I was expecting a positive result in IIT-JEE but never thought about securing the top rank. All the credit goes to my teachers and specially to my family that supported me a lot at every crucial step," an elated Jain told IANS.

Jain, a student of Modern Vidya Niketan, Faridabad, cleared his class 12 exam with 95 percent marks this year.

Kritika Singh from IIT-Kanpur zone, with an All India ranking of 56, topped among girl candidates. Seven candidates, of the 176 who appeared for the JEE examination at the sole overseas centre in Dubai, also cleared the exam.

Under relaxed norms, 1,930 candidates from reserved category and 138 students with physical disabilities got through the entrance examination.

The counselling of successful candidates for allocation of seats will be held June 9-16. The course allocations will be declared June 24.

At least 384,977 students - 286,949 boys and 98,028 girls - appeared in JEE-2009 on April 12. The number was 24 percent higher than previous year.