GENERAL NEWS – JUNE 2009

Monday, June 01st 2009
Writer Kamala Das passes away
Noted Poet and writer Kamala Surayya aka Kamala Das passed away at a city hospital in Pune early on Sunday after a prolonged illness. She was 75 and is survived by three sons, M Nalapat, Chinnen Das and Jayasurya Das. Kamala Das aka Madhavikutty's was known for her non-conformist and unabashed ways of story telling. Her work had its first brush with literary fame with her autobiographical piece 'My Story' in 1973. Her large body of published works include poems, short stories and novels in Malayalam and English. She has been the recipient of awards like the Asian Poetry prize and the Sahitya Academy Award. Born into a conservative Hindu Nair family she embraced Islam in 1999.

Monday, June 08th 2009
Google, Paypal mentor Rajeev Motwani dies
Rajeev Motwani the Stanford University professor who mentored the silicon valley companies like Google and Paypal died in a freak drowning accident on Friday. However there has been no official word about the cause of his death. Mr. Motwani, 47 is survived by his wife and two daughters. A graduate from IIT Kanpur and University of California(Berkeley) this computer scientist mentored and guided Sergei Brin and Larry Page founders of Google who were his students at Stanford.

Tuesday, June 09th 2009
Playwright Tanvir passes away
Renowned Hindi playwright and dramatist Habib Tanvir passed away after prolonged illness in Bhopal on Monday. He is survived by two daughters. He is Known for bringing folk forms of performing art into contemporary plays. He founded the Naya Theatre and is known to have worked with the Chhattisgarhi tribals in Bhopal. A student of theatre from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, London Tanvir wrote plays which had a socialist tilt. He used the indigenous performance form of "nacha"to create plays like "Charandas Chor", "Kamdeo ka apna basant ritu ka sapna" and "Agra bazaar".

Saturday, June 13th 2009
ISRO to launch Oceansat-2 in July-August
The Indian Space Research Organization(ISRO) is all set to launch its latest satellite called Oceansat-2. The satellite would help India focus better on cyclones which rush through the coast. It would also help boost the capability to predict advancing monsoons. The indigenously built satellite will be launched using PSLV. Oceansat-2 is the second satellite from ISRO in the IRS series for ocean research. 

Friday, June 26th 2009
King of pop dies
Michael Jackson also known as the "king of pop music" died of a cardiac arrest at the age of fifty at his home in Los Angeles on Thursday afternoon. Michael Jackson was supposed to have staged a series of comeback concerts starting July 13 in the UK. Michael Jackson began his career as a child artist in his family group the Jackson 5 and he then achieved global fame with smash hits like "Thriller" and "Bad". 

Sunday, June 28th 2009
India wins Gold Film Lion at Cannes 
Adding yet another feather in the cap for the Indian advertising fraternity is the first Gold film lion award at Cannes won by the foot tapping "Naaka Mukka" ad for the Times of India. The ad-campaign won the gold lion in the film category. It was conceptualized and created by JWT for the times of India's. The film titled "A day in the life of Chennai"won JWT its third Gold Lion and took India's tally to 25 medals this year.