Henna (mehndi) - the way of life

Slumdog Millionaire

2009-03-11T20:17:00.000-07:00

Out of this movie many became millionaires but in this whole saga there were
two real Slumdogs. Azharuddin Ismail (10 years) who played younger Salim and
Rubina (9 years) who played younger Latika. These kids were picked from real
slums of Mumbai. They were hired to act in this movie for 150 Rupee (Indian
currency) per day which is equivalent to 3 US $.

After success of the movie and Oscars awards, many controversies aroused around payment or lack of it to these kids.Directors and Producers were impromptu to add that they have decided to set up a special fund that would reward the two children once they finished their education. He would not divulge the amount of the funds. "They will receive a substantial sum of money individually when they complete their education," said the 52-year-old director whose film captured eight Oscars.

It is in rumor that, Azharuddin was paid around Rs.175,000 ($3500) which has been put aside in a bank account. The producers have also put aside another Rs.2.5 ($50,000) which he will get when he turns 18. Also, Ismail and Rubina have been given two flats in good locality of Mumbai by the Chief Minister of state.

Slumdog millionaire kids have been in fairy land when they visited United
States for Oscar award but for their families who do not know fairy tales, it was
something they were not able to realize. Kids are battling between two
lives. Azharuddin received a beat-down from his dad after returning from US for refusing to be put on display like a trophy outside his Mumbai home.

Good thing is, they are getting some more Indian movies to be signed up, the first one is Bollywood film 'Kal Kissne Dekha' by famous producer-director Vasu Bhagnani.

In India Henna (Mehndi) is part of all auspicious occasion. For Rubina
perhaps this was auspicious most to visit a country she had never dreamt of.
She was happily showing her henna clad hands in the plane.

Also in the Oscar party beautiful henna designs where shining with full color in her hands.

For more beautiful henna designs visit our gallery at
Henna Arts.

The most benefit came to grown up Latika, Freida Pinto (24).

She has accepted a role in Woody Allen's new movie. Freida is model turned actress and has appeared in many Indian advertisement.

Apparently in the struggling days she had a website. To find it
Google "frieda pinto bio" and you will see first hit
www.freidapinto.com/bios.html which is no longer there. Before starring in Slumdog Millionaire, Freida anchored the international travel show, Full Circle on Zee International Asia Pacific in English between 2006-08.

Pinto was also featured in several television and print advertisements for products such as Wrigley's Chewing Gum, Škoda, Hutch, Airtel, and DeBeers.

Pinto modeled for ten years and appeared in runway shows and magazine covers. Slumdog millionaire was her debut movie.

Of course she could not hide away from paparazzi and rumors regarding her personal
life which started with her dating with Dev Patel then something like she is
already married. Finally it was established that she was engaged with a guy name Rohan. But recent news is that the engagement is called off now.

If I do not mention A. R. Rehman in this blog, it would be incomplete.

He is master musician. Given a new definition to the Indian film music. He had won umpteen number of awards in India for his music. If you ask any one in India, you will have the same answer that music score in Slumdog Millionaire was not that great.
There are better musical pieces created by Rahman himself. If you have seen movie 'Inside Man' (Danzel Washington), the title song is taken from one of the Indian movie and music was given by Rahman. Rahman already has association with Hollywood movies, 'War of World' is one of the movies with his background music.

As someone who has worked extensively in India and abroad, he admits that there are vast differences between desi music and international, mainly because the philosophies behind the two differ. Music, in any form, fascinates him. “I have no favorites and I don’t hate any kind of music. I can’t understand how anyone else can ‘hate’ or even ‘dislike’ a particular style of music. ‘Hate’ is too strong a word,” says the 42-year-old composer.

Tax filing - Free options and rebate offers

2009-02-12T09:50:00.000-08:00

There are several ways you can get your tax filed for free this year. More options available than previous years to file it free or for less depending on your income status and type of filing. Most of the offerings are free for federal filing but have some charges for State.

A. IRS has various options available but mostly with restricted incomeIf your 2008 adjusted gross income is $56,000 or less, many companies are offering free filing available. huge list available at Free File Alliance in the IRS.gov website.

B. TurboTax - Individual, Business and Home & Business (Sole propriety) Intuit has wide variety of options with varying price range. TurboTax Free Edition is for a simple tax return, for example one that only requires the 1040EZ return with no itemized deductions. For State there is $25.95 extra. Then there are two upgrade levels - 'TurboTax Deluxe' ($29.95) is good if you have a home, made donations and want to itemize deductions. Use 'TurboTax Premier' if you have investment account and rental property ($49.95).

If you have home based business you want to get 'Turbotax Home & Business package' which is $74.95 in the Turbotax web page but Newegg.com has this software just for $59.99 with free shipping. If you have a corporation, partnership, or multi-member LLC and think you can handle it yourself, you can get TurboTax Business for Federal filing free with Federal E-file included.

C. H&R Block TaxCutThe free version of TaxCut is also restricted to those with simple returns. Not quite free, but you can also get TaxCut standard for Federal for $1 with free Federal E-file at Dollar Tree stores. It has no income restrictions and handles itemized deductions. Again, you have to pay $29.99 extra for state returns.

D. TaxAct - Best of all for simple tax returns is TaxAct Free, which offers a free federal return for everyone with no restrictions, with free Federal E-file. State return is $13.95 with E-file included.
The TaxAct “Ultimate” Bundle is $16.95, includes data importing, and the state return. However, there is a returning customer’s offer that gives you 30% off, bringing the total cost to $11.90. The link does not appear to actually discriminate between new and returning customers.
E. State Income Taxes - I live in Texas where I don't have to file tax for personal income but there is web filing available for Sales and Use tax every quarter. Many states also offer their own online income tax filing programs. Federation of Tax Administrators has easy linksfor each state which takes directly to the tax website/links of that state.

Finally, if you have done your homework and know which tax forms you need to fill out, the IRS now lets you fill them out electronically and file them electronically for free. This is not the same as the income-restricted “Free File” above. Via Consumerist. Part of this Blog was inspired by MyMoneyBlog

Henna Designs

2009-01-22T14:24:00.000-08:00

A nice henna design. I love it.

More designs at http://www.hennaarts.com/