Sania Mirza marries Shoiab

Denials and divorces in place, Shoaib Malik finally married tennis star Sania Mirza on Monday in her hometown of Hyderabad.

The wedding was held at 1 pm at the Taj Krishna, a private function with close family members as invitees. "Sania wore a red saree that her mother had worn 25 years ago for her own nikaah. Shoaib wore wearing a black sherwani which was made by Shantanu and Nikhil," said Sania's spokesperson, Rucha Nayak.

However, Hyderabad, and indeed the rest of India may be forgiven for feeling like they now know way more than they ever dared about Mirza's groom who is a Pakistani cricket. Over a series of press conferences and daily television and newspaper interviews, India has confronted Malik, his first wife, Ayesha Siddiqui, also a Hyderabad resident, and the details of their phone-wedding and quickie divorce. Malik reportedly married Siddiqui in 2002 in a telephonic ceremony.

The couple had dated for several months - whether they ever met or not depends on who you find more convincing. Malik claims he was cheated because the photos that were sent to him by his girlfriend were in fact of someone else altogether.

The identity of that woman remains secret, mercifully, in a story that has given over-exposure a whole new meaning. Siddiqui claims that Malik and she did meet, but with unhappy results. He was embarrassed by her weight, she alleges, and was ashamed of her. Either way, Siddiqui timed her revelations to Malik's arrival in Hyderabad earlier this month for his wedding to Mirza, at whose house he is staying.

After a public press conference where Mirza and Malik, like some unique two-headed creature, firmly nodded their denials about his first wedding, Malik divorced Siddiqui, with community elders mediating. His sentiments about the divorce were also in the public domain, with a unique press release that asked everyone to think of him as a younger brother and forgive him. Mirzas's mehendi is scheduled for Tuesday, followed by a sangeet on Wednesday (Malik and she have been rehearsing a dance performance, one wonders what song best describes their current state of mind and relationship), a lavish reception will be held on Thursday.

NDTV grab image

Mizromax opens war on mobile handset prices

Krish Raghav

If the advertisements are to be believed, the G4 Gamolution mobile phone from Micromax made actor Akshay Kumar guffaw uncontrollably and decimate a hotel kitchen in his dogged determination to win a game.

The G4 made me laugh too, though this was more a disbelieving chuckle than buck-toothed cackle. That’s because the G4 is a funny sort of phone—a work of stellar engineering jugaad (improvisation) and shameless appropriation.

Micromax is a Delhi-based company that has quietly, over the last three years, become the third most popular mobile phone manufacturer in the country after Nokia and Samsung. It is popular for its line of “dual-sim” phones (the G4 among them), which allow you to receive calls and messages from two sim cards in the same phone.

The good stuff

Here’s the G4’s main draw. The phone comes with a free Bluetooth dongle that attaches to your PC. Also included is a DVD disc of games that you can install. Set both of these up, press a button on the phone, and it becomes a bona fide Nintendo Wii remote with which you can waggle, shake and jab your way through games of tennis, bowling and…strangely enough, badminton.

Here, things get a little weird. The games themselves are complete, shameless knock-offs of their Nintendo Wii counterparts (right down to the art style, sound effects and menus), and are made by a Beijing-based company called JiaJia Media (www.jiajia.tv).

Here, things get even weirder. The games and controls are excellent. It might be apocryphal to say the phone, with its home-brewed Wii-like software, is better somehow than Nintendo’s console—but after extensive testing, it is easier, and more responsive as a controller, than the plain Wiimote. The G4 handles direction input precisely. Swing to the left, and your shots are placed likewise. If you have a second G4, you can also play two-player.

Apart from this, the phone is a fairly solid device, with a host of nifty features—connect the phone to the computer, and it can use the camera as a webcam. The inbuilt FM radio function can schedule recordings of your favourite shows.

The not-so-good

India has a long history of secretly ripping off Nintendo—an entire generation in the 1990s grew up playing hacked versions of Super Mario Bros from “10,000 in 1” cartridges. But the G4’s shameless appropriation of the Wii is troubling. The game function also fails to connect properly sometimes—a problem accentuated by the poorly written manual (sample instruction: “Append the accouterment of your mobile”). Otherwise, the G4 suffers from a few surprisingly basic problems. The SMS input is hopelessly slow, the camera is poor, and the build quality of the phone is slightly suspect.

Talk plastic

At a price point of Rs5,999, you’re getting a decent phone, a Wii knock-off and a free Bluetooth adapter. It’s reason enough to be laughing like Akshay Kumar all the way from the store.

livemint.com

Essar Steel to sell global bonds, says report

I ndian steelmaker Essar Steel is to make an offering of a benchmark-sized seven-year global bond, not callable for four years, a source close to the deal said.

The proceeds would used to fund existing debt, capital expenditure, acquisitions and general corporate purposes, the source said on Monday.

Essar has appointed UBS AG, BofA Merril Lynch, Deutsche Bank AG and Standard Chartered Bank to handle the sale.

(For more business news on Reuters Money visit http://www.reutersmoney.in)

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