NEW DELHI, Jan. 27: Parminder Singh Saini, a terrorist owing allegiance to Babbar Khalsa outfit, was on Wednesday brought to India following his deportation by the Canadian authorities. He was wanted in a 1984 hijacking case.

New Delhi, Jan. 27: “A writer’s primary role is to hold a mirror to the society,” said author Anita Nair, at an interactive reading session of her latest novel, Lessons in Forgetting, published by HarperCollins, at the Park hotel in New Delhi on Wednesday. The evening also saw Kishwar Desai and Pakistani author Hussain M. Naqvi read from their novels, Witness the Night and Home Boy, respectively.

New Delhi, Jan. 25: With intelligence inputs warning of threats posed by LeT and other militant groups, 70,000 strong gun totting force drawn from the Central agencies and the Delhi police took charge of the city with barricades being put along all critical enter and exit points o thwart any attempt to disrupt the Republic Day celebrations on Tuesday.

Home minister P. Chidambaram held a high-level meeting to review the security preparedness. The meeting was attended by newly-appointed National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon. The others who attended the meeting were home secretary G.K. Pillai, special secretary (internal security) U.K. Bansal, Delhi police commissioner Y.S. Dadwal and chiefs on intelligence agencies.

Mr Dadwal is believed to have assured the home minister that the security apparatus is well in place to counter any terror threat. The police officials said a massive troop deployment has been made along all the routes leading to Rajpath, where President Pratibha Patel will unfurl the tricolour.

Anti-aircraft guns have been stationed in certain crucial areas. The vigil has also been increased in "sensitive locations".

AGE CORRESPONDENT

CHENNAI : THE CHOICE is truly overwhelming. Nowhere is the spirit of freedom better exemplified than in the freedom of "spirit". A youngster walking into a tavern in today’s pub culture has access to a selection of wine, hard liquor and beer that is emblematic of the freedom India has nurtured in its 60 years as a sovereign republic. In that time, sweeping changes have come about, mostly in the two decades of liberalisation.

A mind boggling range of imported liquor from wine from French, Californian and Australian grapes as well as of home-grown variety of ever expanding vineyards, besides beer of every variety, from the almost offensive extra strong stuff to the light and the new Blue, means the days of motor oil that was passed off as India-Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) are gone forever.

India is no stranger to intoxicating drinks. Epics portraying gods sipping ambrosia (soha or sura) are known to even predate Dionysus, the Greek god of wine. Drinking may not have been central to normal social life in British India, not for the natives anyway. It is in free India that its denizens learnt to appreciate the aesthetics of alcoholic beverages.

There was a time when an adult approaching senior citizenship had to declare himself an incurable alcoholic in front of a doctor to get a permit in states that boasted of prohibition. India was then fast breeding its Al Capones and Bugs Morans who, of course, switched later to bringing in cases of foreign liquor to keep their bootlegging business booming.

It’s a different world now. For the makers of the luxurious bubbly of champagne and sparkling wines through those who distil white liquor considered smart by GenNext to the Scotsmen who continue to age in wooden vats and serve in bottles the ancient Indian favourite, Scotch whiskey, down to those who delicately brew beer to suit all tastes, overtone’s destination is modern India. The country that has thrown open its portals to Bacchus.

The switch from Black Knight whiskey drinkers looking for a solid kick to the sophisticated young Indian now embracing the wine-drinking culture that tries to blend spicy Indian cuisine with the delicate bouquet and the subtle body of wine is more pronounced now. A nation that was not supposed to have known the difference between wine and grape juice till recently, has taken to the status of a connoisseur, with even a monthly wine journal to spread the yearning for a Mediterranean lifestyle.

The cynical saying that all bottled Indian hard liquor is the same as they have a rectified spirit base rather than grain, fruit or vegetables is also passé. The distilling industry has had to emulate international practices to cope with global competition for the Indian taste in spirit, wine and beer.

"I still believe that even today people drink just to get a kick but the difference between then and now is that today we have a better understanding about what is in our glass and we’re able to appreciate it even more," said founder-director of Wine Academy of India, Chennai chapter, Chinmaya Arjun Raja. That such a body exists is proof of how far the freedom to drink has reached.

R. MOHAN

Relatives of school student Aditya Jain (inset) grieve after his death in an accident involving a Blueline bus at Shastri Park in Delhi on Monday. PHOTOS: PTI

Nov. 3: After several delayed promises by their builders at Vidyavihar, several persons led a morcha to the Ghatkopar police station and forced the police to file a complaint on Monday.In 2004, Gammon Neelkanth Realty Constructions started the booking of their project Neelkanth Kingdom Phase II comprising seven buildings with a township of its own at Vidyavihar.

Nov. 12: Nicholas Roerich, the Master, and his multifarious contributions in the fields of painting, philosophy, science, writing and travelling have been chronicled and talked about on every possible forum. But his contribution as a protector of cultural properties may not be as well-known as his other feats, felt the participants on the first day of the international seminar "Nicholas Roerich: His Legacy and Quest". The two-day seminar got underway at the Jamia Millia Islamia here on Thursday.

Nov. 12: Delhi BJP has called a city bandh on Friday to protest against price rise. The traders associated with the BJP will also walk from Red Fort to Town Hall half naked in protest. The city unit of the BJP has requested the traders, industrialists, parents, students, workers and workmen of unorganised sectors to support the bandh.

Nov. 12: Cash-strapped Delhi government is expecting to get Rs 1,000 crores from the Centre for the Commonwealth Games preparations. The government recently submitted its demand for more funds to complete the ongoing projects related to the mega event next year. "We have been told that the Centre will soon grant Rs 1,000 crores for Games. The funds will be in grant unlike the loan of over Rs 900 crores given to the Games Organising Committee," stated a senior official.

Nov. 12: The Delhi government will soon introduce common tickets for DTC buses and the Metro and the trial will start this month itself, said Delhi transport minister Arvinder Singh Lovely during the inaugural function."The system trials for common ticket will start on November 24. It will be introduced in a few areas in the capital initially," the minister said at the inauguration of Metro’s Noida section.