When 42-year-old Muhammad Ali Jinnah popped the question to teenager Ruttie, little did he know that the only condition put forward by the bride-to-be would be "shaving off his moustache".

And, Jinnah obliged. Not only did he get rid of his thick moustache, but also redid his hair to impress the lady.

Senior journalist Sheela Reddy has revealed many such anecdotes from the eventful life of the founding father of Pakistan.

In her new book, 'Mr and Mrs Jinnah – The Marriage that Shook India', Reddy has narrated the story about Jinnah's unhappy marriage to the Parsi girl, who was younger to him by 24 years.

In an illustrated lecture about the book held here last evening, Reddy curated a series of rare photos of Mr and Mrs Jinnah and their respective families, complemented with interesting tales from their lives.

Accompanying the photo of Ruttie Petit's father, Dinshaw Maneckji Petit, was this humorous story of Jinnah making the best use of his "cross-examining" skills of a barrister while asking his daughter's hand in marriage.

"Jinnah was having a conversation with Ruttie's father, and he happened to ask him about his view on inter-communal marriage. Now, to sound politically correct Dinshaw said, 'this would be a great thing for the integration of the country'.

"Next question was 'I want to marry your daughter'. It is said that he was thrown out of the door, and they both never met again," Reddy said.

The narratives, however, were not limited to the stories mentioned in the book as she went on to talk about the intriguing story behind the making of the tome as well.

Idling her time in Nehru Memorial Library, Reddy stumbled upon a parcel of private letters written by Ruttie to the two daughters of Sarojini Naidu – Padmaja and Leilamani Naidu.

While initially she thought that she had everything that was required to write a book, it was only a matter of time before she realised that there was a long way to go and Pakistan was an important stop in that journey.

"I went to Islamabad and asked for the letters exchanged between Jinnah and Petite and others. In all this, I did not realise I had written my Indian address in the register.

"Smelling something wrong, they asked me to leave and I was debarred from that place. Even then I managed to get the files with the help of my Pakistani friend, but then there was nothing, barring some letters written by Jinnah's daughter to him," she said.

The author's quest ended after she returned to Mumbai on the recommendation of Pakistani scholars who told her, "You are in a wrong place, go to Bombay."

Jinnah spent a major part of his life in Bombay, where he lived until he moved to Pakistan after the Partition.

Singer Liam Payne is planning to list his eight million euros LA estate for rent.

The mansion features five bedrooms, eight bathrooms, an outdoor pool, a mediation teahouse and two huge guest houses, reported OK! magazine.

Payne, 23, and his partner Cheryl, 33, have decided to make the former One Direction star's Surrey mansion the family home, where they will raise their baby boy, who they welcomed together last month.

Situated in the hills of Calabasas, the Kardashian family, who are close friends of Payne and Cheryl are just one of the famous families who live nearby.

Actress Jesscia Chastain says before accepting any role in the film she always makes sure to ask the producers and concerned people about how much her male counterpart is getting paid for the same movie.

In an interview with Variety, the Oscar-nominated actress spoke candidly about how she negotiates her contracts to make sure her wages are on par with her male co-star.

“I'm not taking jobs anymore where I'm getting paid a quarter of what the male co-star is being paid. I'm not allowing that in my life. What I do now, when I'm taking on a film, I always ask about the fairness of the pay.

“I ask what they're offering me in comparison to the guy. I don't care about how much I get paid; I'm in an industry where we're overcompensated for the work we do. But I don't want to be on a set where I'm doing the same work as someone else and they're getting five times what I'm getting,” Chastain said.

The 40-year-actress says she may be losing a lot on money by not accepting some offers but she is glad that she has created a “boundary”, which will educate people in how to treat female actors.

“There was something huge that I recently turned down. For me, it wasn't about the money; it was an old-fashioned problem of the wage gap. I turned it down, and they didn't come back.

“I remember afterwards I was like, “What did I do? Maybe it was a mistake.” But it wasn't, because everyone in the studio system heard what I did. So what you're doing is creating a reputation: Don't bring Jessica something where she's not being fairly compensated compared to the male actor. Even though I lost that film, I've created a boundary.”

Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh's government will soon introduce a legislation for regularisation of illegal colonies and transfer of ownership rights to the occupants. A decision to this affect was taken at a review meeting of the Department of Housing and Urban Development on Tuesday.

Chairing the review meeting, CM directed the setting up of a committee, headed by the chief secretary, to formulate a legislation for regularisation of illegal colonies.

The committee will look into the issue of such colonies built by private promoters, on municipal corporation (MC) land and on land outside MC limits, respectively. 

Captain Amarinder also directed to initiate the process of allotting free houses for the homeless poor, as promised in the Congress poll manifesto.

CM directed the Town Planning Department to complete work on preparing Master Plans of all the cities in the state by the end of the current financial year.

The meeting further decided on a series of measures, including allotment of project-based no due certificate (NDC) to promoters, in order to ease the real estate business in the state.

The NDC will now be valid for three months, to be taken by the department on the date of application for a particular service rather than on date of delivery of service.

A mobile app has also been launched, with effect from Tuesday, to facilitate the online procurement of property records by the allottees.

The CM directed the department to initiate the process of identification and scrutiny of beneficiaries for free houses under the Mukhya Mantri Awas Yojana (Cm Housing scheme), as promised in the election manifesto.

It was also decided to implement the poll promise of 30 per cent reservation for scheduled castes (SCs) in all future allotments, besides subsidised loans to families for buying middle income group (MIG) housing. The meeting agreed to bring in a new need-based policy for low income group (LIG) housing.

CM directed the department to come up with a detailed plan for the amalgamation of various Real Estate authorities to ensure better service for the citizens.

Among the other key decisions taken at the meeting were single-window clearance for small investors in five major cities, fixing of reasonable reserve prices for plots and sites, review of policy to allow medium sized real estate housing project, inclusion of economically weaker section residential projects in industrial zones in all master plans.

The Punjab Education Department has decided to constitute ‘Book Bank’ in all state-run schools to save precious time and money of the student community.
As per the decision, the students would be asked to submit their old books, which in turn would be provided free of cost to others in need.
Disclosing this in a statement on Tuesday, Education Minister Aruna Chaudhary said that every year the students purchase new books which results in huge amount of paper being used besides wastage of the precious academic time of the students due to time consuming process of printing the books.
Not only this, but the students have to spend a great deal every year to buy new books. This explains the novel initiative of establishing book bank in the schools.
The minister further said that the constitution of the book bank is purely voluntary and is not binding on any student. 
Divulging more, the minister said that the books under book bank initiative would be given free of cost to the students of concerned school.
Disclosing further, Chaudhary said that in the aftermath of the decision by the department, those NGOs have also decided to co-operate in this unique scheme that were running book banks on their own level. She said that this path breaking initiative of the department would also result in preserving the environmental balance because the use of paper for printing new books every year would be lessened to a large extent.

 (16:08) 
, April 18 (IANS) Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's Uttar Pradesh administration on Tuesday transferred 41 Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers, among them six District Magistrates.

Those transferred included Rakesh Kumar Singh I, who has been named the new District Magistrate of Kanpur rural; Narendra Shankar Pandey (DM Jalaun); Narendra Kumar Singh (DM Shahjahanpur) and Vimal Kumar Dubey, who has been posted as District Magistrate of Mirzapur.

Pulkit Khare, who was posted as the Chief Development Officer of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's parliamentary constituency Varanasi, has now been made the Vice Chairman of the Varanasi Development Authority (VDA).

Kanchan Verma, who was District Magistrtate of Mirzapur, has been made the Vice Chairman of the Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA).

Rajan Shukla has been shifted out as Divisional Commissioner (DC) of Allahabad and replaced by Ashish Kumar Goyal. K. Rammohan Rao has been made the new DC of Agra, while Amit Gupta is the DC of Jhansi and Alok Kumar II is the new DC of Chitrakoot. 

Sanjay Agarwal, who enjoyed the plum posting of Additional Chief Secretary at the Power Department has been divested of the additional charge of Chairman Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA).

Prabhat Kumar, the Resident Commissioner of Uttar Pradesh posted in New Delhi, has been named the new Divisional Commissioner of Meerut and has been handed the additional charge of Chairman Greater Noida Authority and the YEIDA. 

Himanshu Kumar has been made the new DC of Devipatan, and Pramanshu is the new Panchayati Raj Secretary.

This is the second major reshuffle of the bureaucracy by the Yogi Adityanath government, which completes one month in office on Wednesday. 

In the first rejig, Adityanath had shifted 20 IAS officials, which included close aides and favourites of former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, including Navneet Sehgal and Anita Singh.

Tainted Indian speedster S Sreesanth has got a shocker from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) with the apex body reiterating that the life ban imposed on him will stay.

Sreesanth received the letter from the BCCI on Sunday after he submitted a review petition seeking the lifting of the life ban in view of his being exonerated by a Delhi court of the match-fixing allegations against him.

In the match-fixing case, he had to cool his heels in Delhi's Tihar jail in 2013. 

The BCCI's letter, from CEO Rahul Johri, states that the Board is very particular in ensuring that discipline is maintained and there is nothing to change their September, 2013 decision of imposing a life ban on the bowler.

The letter also mentions that the decision to impose the life ban was taken by a committee that had as members BCCI Vice President TC Mathew — who was Kerala Cricket Association President — and KCA secretary T.N. Ananthanarayanan.

After Sreesanth approached the Kerala High Court in March this year with a petition seeking the lifting of the ban imposed by the BCCI, following a Delhi court exonerating him in the spot-fixing case, the court asked him to file a review petition before the BCCI.

In 2015, the now 34-year-old pacer along with two other players was exonerated by the Delhi court in the case registered by the Delhi Police which invoked the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).

On account of the life ban, the pacer cannot play even league cricket nor get access even for practice to any of the cricket grounds where the BCCI or the state cricket associations have a stake.

The BCCI Disciplinary Committee headed by present Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had slapped a life ban on Sreesanth.

Sreesanth is just the second Keralite to represent the country and in his brief career he has played in 27 Tests taking 87 wickets, and picked up 75 scalps from 53 One-day Internationals (ODIs) and seven wickets from 10 Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is).

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will on Wednesday leave for a five-day visit to the US to attend the Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, an official said.

Jaitley will also take part in a G-20 meeting on the financial sector, as well as interact with American investors, he added.

The Minister will leave on Wednesday evening and arrive in Washington early morning on April 20, a Finance Ministry statement said here.

Jaitley's delegation includes, among others, Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) Arvind Subramanian, Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Urjit Patel, it said. 

On April 21, Jaitley, along with the RBI Governor and Economic Affairs Secretary, will participate in the G-20 meeting on financial sector development and regulations and other issues, the statement added. 

As per their Washington itinerary, Jaitley, Patel and Das will, on the same afternoon, attend a meeting of the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC) on Global Development and Prospects.

"In the evening (April 21), the Finance Minister along with Secretary Economic Affairs will hold a meeting with the CEOs," the Ministry said. 

On April 22, following two IMFC sessions, Jaitley will meet US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, it added. 

Later that day, Jaitley is slated to meet Bangladesh Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, as well as with World Bank President Jim Yong Kim. 

After the first leg of his tour, Jaitley will, on April 23, reach New York, where he will interact with the Council for Foreign Relations, followed by a meeting with institutional investors.

Thereafter, he will meet long-term investors on April 24, the Indian Finance Ministry said. 

"The Finance Minister is supposed to meet the editorial board of the New York Times before leaving for Moscow in the evening on April 24," it added. 

Jaitley, who has additional charge of the Defence portfolio, will hold bilateral discussions in Moscow to boost India-Russia military ties.
 

Pop star Lady Gaga, who won hearts with her headlining performance at Coachella over the weekend, is now preparing to film portions of her upcoming movie A Star Is Born at the festival venue.

The movie is a contemporary reimagining of the perennial big screen tale about a budding starlet (Gaga) who breaks into the entertainment world under the wing of a troubled industry vet (Bradley Cooper) at Empire Polo Club, where the Indio, California music and arts event takes place, reported Entertainment Weekly.

Cooper, who is also making his directorial debut with the Warner Bros. feature, will join Gaga to film scenes that take place during a country-themed concert.

Attendees are asked to wear denim, boots, and Stetson hats as they cheer for the actors while cameras roll. Proceeds from audience members $10 entrance fee will be donated in full to Gagas Born This Way Foundation, which she launched with her mother in 2011 to combat bullying and promote mental health awareness.

The trailer launch of Raabta has grabbed the headlines yet again but this time it is because of the newsmaker herself.
 
During the question answer session at trailer launch of Sushant Singh Rajput- Kriti Sanon starrer Raabta, a senior journalist Bharti Pradhan asked the cast to comment on the issue of Kulbhushan Jadhav.
 
Both the actors politely refused to comment on the issue as they said they are not completely aware about the incident to make statement on it. To which, the journalist retaliated that it’s a national issue and therefore being a public figure they should know about.
 
Sushant, who had managed hard to maintain his composure, shot back at the journalist by saying that nowhere it is written that a public figure should know about everything. He also added that if he asks her questions in the name of national interest, she won’t be able to answer them either.
 
However, the journalist kept repeating her point and the discussion ended on a bitter note.

Raabta helmed by director Dinesh Vijain, is slated to release on 9 June.

Haryana Cabinet which met under the chairmanship of the Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Tuesday accorded approval to the Bill for setting up a state university at Gurugram. The Bill will be introduced in the ensuing session of Vidhan Sabha.

The main campus of the state university will be at Kankarola village, located at a distance of about 15 km from Gurugram. The university will impart instructions, training and research in multi- disciplinary fields for campus teaching.

There is a huge scope and public demand and the new university will open new vistas, horizons and opportunities of higher education for the students of the region in particular, and the state, in general.

It has also been decided to transfer 373 kanals and 19 marla of land belonging to Gram Panchayat Kankarola to the proposed university at Gurugram on lease basis.

There is need to double the number of educational institutional at all levels by 2020 to accommodate the unprecedented growth of students in higher education, and also to achieve 30 per cent gross enrollment ratio.

Actor David Harbour has hinted about the arc of his character police chief Jim Hopper in the second season of Stranger Things.

The 42-year-old actor spoke about the upcoming installment of the science fiction-horror web series, reported The Independent.

Harbour described the first episode of forthcoming season as “fun and dark and complex” and added how his character has developed since the first season, while doing an Ask Me Anything on Mogul. In this bout, Hopper's character will now battle both his inner and outer demons.

He said, “He saved will and has found a renewed interest in life. So his arc for season two in my mind becomes more about butting up against the places where his hero fantasy can't take him.

“The places where that hero complex may force him to make the wrong decisions. It's a satisfying, completely different journey in season two.”

Stranger Things season two airs on Netflix at Halloween later this year.

Actress Sunny Leone says she would like to come up with a high-end hip street line that everyone would want to wear.

Sunny has been signed on as the brand ambassador for the online jewellery portal — jewelsouk.com. Its commercial, directed by Siddharth Anand, launched on Tuesday.

Asked if she would like to invest in a jewellery brand, Sunny said "Not something I have thought of much and not sure." 

What about her own jewellery line?

"If I did want to start something, I would want to start more of a high-end hip street line that everyone would want to wear," said the Jism 2 actress.

Talking about her first jewellery piece, she reminisced: "My parents gave me an emerald ring that I begged for. I don't have it anymore. I lost it because… like they knew I was too young to have something like that. I was a tomboy growing up and they knew that I was too reckless to keep it properly." 

But she says her favourite jewellery piece is her wedding band.

"It is actually worth next to nothing as far as money goes. But it's my most precious piece of jewellery because it symbolises something we want in life. A partner to share your journey with and money can't buy you that," said the wife of Daniel Weber. 

Her latest purchase?

"A David Yurman small index finger ring. I want one more for that finger," she said.

The country will get a normal monsoon this year, benefiting agriculture, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) announced on Tuesday.

"As per present estimation, the distribution of rainfall is likely to follow the climatological factors… we assess normal rainfall at 96 percent (plus/minus 5 per cent)," IMD Director General KJ Ramesh said at press conference here.

The date of the monsoon's onset into Kerala will be announced in late May, he added.

Unidentified gunmen, suspected to be Kuki tribal militants, opened fire at oil tankers on Tuesday morning in Manipur's Kangpokpi district. The attack caused no casualty, the police said.

Some trucks and tankers coming from Assam towards Imphal were ambushed by the militants using automatic rifles. The personnel of CRPF escorting the convoy opened fire in retaliation. The exchange of fire took place at 5.45 a.m. along the National Highway No. 37, about 60 km from here, the police said.

Two tankers carrying petrol and diesel were hit by the militants' bullets.

Police units were rushed to the spot after the information about the ambush was received. However, the militants managed to escape.

The police officials suspect that it could be an extortion threat to the oil transporters.

"If the fuel had exploded on bullet impact there would have been casualties. We strongly condemn the attack," T. Kipgen, a resident said. Later, the trucks and oil tankers resumed journey towards Imphal.

"A few jeep-loads of CRPF personnel cannot ensure safety to over 600 vehicles along the mountain highway. We had welcomed the government's plan to deploy Indian Reserve Battalion (IRB) and police commandos along the vulnerable spots of the two national highways," Laishram Chinglien, a driver, said.

"However, the All Naga Students' Association Manipur (ANSAM) has strongly objected to it and the government cannot say or do anything," he added.

Officials said that the government plan has been staved off. In the past, police commandos and IRB personnel had to be recalled from Ukhrul and some other tribal dominated districts.

ANSAM and other Naga groups say that they object to the government plan to "militarise the lands of the Nagas".

The United Naga Council (UNC) had imposed an economic blockade for more than four months along the two highways which are the lifelines of Manipur.

The UNC was protesting the creation of seven new districts on the "lands of the Nagas" without consulting the stakeholders.

Chief Minister N. Biren Singh held a meeting with his cabinet colleagues on Tuesday morning to review the situation.

Official sources said that security along the highways would be beefed up, without which the drivers may refuse to ply. The IRB personnel and police commandos may be deployed shortly.

Congress MLA Ginsuahau Zou and 14 councillors from the party have joined the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Manipur.

Welcoming them at the BJP office on Monday evening, Chief Minister N. Biren Singh said some more Congress MLAs would join the ruling party soon.

Ginsuahau represents Singhat constituency in the state assembly. The Congress councillors are members of the Autonomous District Council in Chandel. 

Another Congress MLA, T. Shyamkumar, had joined the BJP after the latter took power in the state. Shyamkumar was sworn in as a cabinet minister.

The BJP won 21 of the 60 seats in the house but formed a government with the help of smaller parties. The Congress had bagged 28 seats.

Hindu hardliner and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Yogi Adityanath, who was sworn in as the new Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister on March 19, completes one month in the chief minister's office (CMO) on Wednesday (19 April).

The 21st chief minister of UP and the fourth from the BJP, Adityanath had after taking charge said that he would follow Prime Minister Narendra Modi's slogan 'sab ka saath, sab ka vikas' and ensure all round development of the country's most populous state. Here is a report card of the fire brand chief minister on what steps he has taken in one-month's time:

Crackdown on illegal slaughterhouses, meat shops: A day after he took charge as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, illegal slaughterhouses were on March 20 sealed by the Nagar Nigam authorities in Allahabad and other places across the state.

The ban on legal as well as illegal slaughterhouses was one of the main agendas of the BJP manifesto in the recently concluded elections. Clearing his stand over the action against slaughterhouses, Adityanath said that the Uttar Pradesh government was acting only against illegal abattoirs.

Formation of anti-Romeo squads in Uttar Pradesh: Two days after assuming CM's office, Adityanath on March 22 directed setting up of ‘anti-Romeo squads’ across the state to ensure women's safety.

The UP police ordered to form ‘anti-Romeo squads’ near colleges, malls and parks in a bid to curb eve-teasing and ensure safety of college-going girls. The police chiefs of all 11 districts have been asked to constitute squads to be deployed at eve-teasing prone locations.

Ban on tobacco in schools, colleges, government buildings: To give the building walls a clean look, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on March 22 ordered ban on the use of pan and tobacco products in schools, colleges, hospitals and other government offices. He also banned the use of plastic in government offices.

Crackdown on VIP culture in UP: With an effort to bring down noise pollution in the state and to stop the VIP culture, Adityanath urged all his ministerial colleagues to shun siren and hooters and red beacons atop vehicles.

Mission clean Ganga: The 44-year-old five-term MP from Gorakhpur on April 8 met Union Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Conservation Minister Uma Bharti and assured her of all help to clean up the river Ganga.

Biometric attendance in all offices: To keep a track on government employees who don't reach office in time and to improve the work culture on government offices across the state, the UP chief minister on March 22 ordered biometric attendance for all government employees. He also instructed to install CCTVs in office rooms so that employees who play truant could be brought to books.

Ministers asked to give asset details: Just after assuming office on March 19, the 44-year-old chief minister asked all his ministers to give details of their income, movable and immovable assets within 15 days to send a strong message that corruption will not be tolerated. He asserted that his government will work for all sections of the society without any discrimination.

Pothole free roads in UP: To give the roads a new look in the state, the new UP chief minister on March 25 asked the Public Works Department (PWD) to make the roads pothole free by June 15. He asked the officials to make plans so that people in rural areas get better facilities.

Crackdown on food mafia: To keep a strict vigil on food grain and ration mafias in the state, the UP chief minister asked superintendents of police and district magistrates to take tough against the mafias through sustained campaigns. He instructed the officials to ensure that all deserving people are issued the ration cards.

Farm loans worth Rs.36,359 crore waived: Giving a relief to small and marginal farmers in the state, the Uttar Pradesh government led by Yogi Adityanath in its cabinet meeting on April 4 cleared a Rs.36,359-crore proposal allowing waiver of loans for farmers in the state. The initiative would benefit about 21 million farmers. About 92.5% of the state’s farmers fall in the small and marginal categories.

One male and one female at reception of every police station: With an effort to increase the strength of women police personnel in the state, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has directed one female and one male police personnel to be present at the reception of each police station across the state.

Grant doubled for Kailash Mansarovar Yatra: To promote religious activities in the state and to bring a relief to pilgrims, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on March 25 announced to double the financial grant for pilgrims of the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra from Rs.50,000 to Rs.1,00,000. Yogi also mentioned that the state authorities will get a Mansarovar Bhawan constructed someplace close to Delhi or another state for the advantage of the pilgrims. The average cost of the Yatra per person is estimated to be around Rs.1.5 lakh to Rs.2 lakh.