Islam And Remarries

A 39-year-old woman living in Dubai was allegedly deserted by her husband who converted to Islam and married another woman.
Vibha Suri, who now lives in the United Arab Emirates city, got to know in January this year that her husband Vikram Suri had married one Wassima Khan in October 2007, only after a letter from the Indian Consulate in Egypt reached her parents in Lucknow informing them about their son-in-law's second matrimony.
Vikram remarried in Egypt after converting to Islam.
"It has been a year now that my trauma and grief started. Vikram had violated our marriage by committing bigamy after he converted to Islam," Vibha said over phone from Dubai.
Vibha is now fighting a legal battle at the Delhi High Court as she accuses Vikram of restricting her children from travelling outside Dubai and violating an MoU that was finalised between them in February.
"Vikram used Shariat laws in UAE courts to restrict my children's travel outside the country. The MoU was agreed on issues relating to transferring of past financial assets and Vikram's moving out of our house in Dubai," she said.
Vikram, however, contested her claims. "Vibha threatened me of taking my kids away and now that I have transferred financial assets of more than Rs 11 crore in her name, she is trying to defame me," Vikram said over phone from Dubai.
She should have moved the Dubai courts regarding the travel ban but she chose to do it in Delhi in order to delay the matter, he alleged. Concerned over her daughters' uneasy state of mind, Vibha rues that she received no help from women's rights organisations and other government agencies.
"My daughters are trapped here in Dubai, I just want to take them to my parents in India," Vibha said.
Vibha and Vikram Suri got married in Lucknow on March 11, 1996. After Vikram landed a job in Dubai, the couple moved out of the country with Vibha also working in a company there.
"My elder daughter was born in 2000 and the younger one in May 2004. I suspected his affairs and was devastated to know about his conversion to Islam and his marriage thereafter," Vibha said.
Though Vikram admitted that he embraced Islam, he did not specify the reasons for doing so.
He also claimed that he had not been able to meet his children for the stipulated six days in a month that was agreed upon in the MoU.
Vibha moved the Delhi High Court in July this year and got an injunction ordering Vikram not to use any other courts to resolve the matter.
"I agree that our relationship after the marriage was not smooth but I never thought that I would have to come across this harsh reality of my life in such a manner," Vibha said as she wishes that the issue comes to an end soon.

Stimulus Plan

The U.S. Senate Finance Committee approved a $157 billion economic stimulus package on Wednesday that offers smaller tax rebates to more people than a plan passed by the U.S. House of Representatives.
The committee approved the bill as the full Senate prepared to begin debate as early as Thursday on competing versions of an economic stimulus plan lawmakers hope will encourage consumer and business spending to help stave off an election-year recession.
President George W. Bush wants the Senate to accept the $146 billion package passed Tuesday by the House. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has been pushing his fellow Republicans to reject the Senate Finance Committee bill and support the House version to avoid delays on issuing the rebate checks.
The Finance Committee bill, approved on a vote of 14-7, would provide a flat $500 tax rebate to individuals and $1,000 for couples, plus $300 per child. The rebates also would go to about 20 million low-income retirees on Social Security who would not receive checks under the $146 billion House stimulus bill.
"I've worked hard with my colleagues to improve on the House stimulus proposal and move a bill quickly," Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat, said. "Congress should seize with both hands this chance to make 20 million American seniors a part of our economic stimulus efforts today, and get our country growing again."
The House bill calls for rebates of up to $600 for individuals and $1,200 for married couples, plus $300 per child. The rebates would begin phasing out for individuals with more than $75,000 in taxable income and married couples with more than $150,000.
The Finance Committee bill would give a flat $500 rebate to individuals, $1,000 for couples, plus $300 per child to all tax filers reporting at least $3,000 of income, including Social Security and disability benefits.
The House bill provides for a $300 rebate for low-income workers, $600 for families who reported at least $3,000 in income in 2007 and paid no income taxes. Those families would also get the $300 child benefit.
The Finance Committee bill would also make more higher-income people eligible by doubling the income when phase-out begins to $150,000 for individuals and $300,000 for married couples.
A downturn in the housing market, a subprime mortgage crisis, tightening credit markets and rising oil prices have lawmakers and some economists worried that the U.S. economy could slip into a recession.
Economic growth slowed abruptly to 0.6 percent in the fourth quarter last year, following a surge of 4.9 percent in the third quarter, the U.S. government said on Wednesday.
The Finance Committee added a number of measures not included in the House bill, including nearly $6 billion in tax benefits for renewal energy resources. The bill would extend unemployment benefits beyond the 26 weeks offered by most states. Bush and many of his fellow Republicans oppose extending unemployment benefits.
The committee also agreed to an amendment that temporarily raises by $10 billion the amount of tax-exempt mortgage revenue bonds that states can offer to help fund low-income housing and low interest mortgages to help some homeowners facing foreclosure refinance their loans.
Like the House bill, the Finance Committee measure includes business incentives for new purchases. But it goes further by allowing companies to write off more of their losses against previous tax years.
The committee bill would cost the federal treasury about $157 billion this year and nearly $36 billion next year, but last minute additions to the bill could change that number.

Popular Matrimony

Sriram Raghavan's second film Johnny Gaddar has won encouraging reviews from critics. And he is the first amongst five filmmakers whose second films took time, but hold promise.
Filmmakers whose first films have received critical and commercial success, have a knack of paying tributes in their films to their cinematic influences is something that sets them apart.
Sriram's Johnny Gaddar starts with a salute to Alfred Hitchcock and James Hadley Chase.
His first film Ek Hasina Thi made three years back, is still held high in the list of Bollywood thrillers. This time, Sriram has gone the whole hog with an unusual plot narration and dollops of noir.
"Its a tribute to black and white films like the Asphalt Jungle and Hitchcock's work which was black and white and was all noir. But there are also some other tributes in the film to Indian films," says Raghavan.
Following soon with his own experiment is maverick filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, whose film No Smoking is making buzz with it's surreal look. His first released film that won rave reviews and established his flair for realism. But No Smoking is based on a story that was loosely narrated to him by his mentor Ram Gopal Varma eight years ago. It's also Anurag's attempt at less serious cinema.
"The film is about bad relationships, a dysfunctional families, about mother's not getting along with sons and husband and wife not getting along. The story pertains also to smoking as a bad habit. So I have marked it with tributes that I have grown up in cinema its up to the viewer to unravel these many tributes,” says Kashyap.
And in stark contrast to these two filmmakers is Farah Khan. Her second film Om Shanti Om is perhaps the most talked about forthcoming release. Om Shanti Om, in her own words, is a movie buff's tribute to the 70s Hindi movies.
With her debut Main Hoon Na being a super hit, her second attempt is reported to have earned her huge money, followed by even bigger expectations.
"I have tried not to repeat anything from Main Hoon Na because it would get very boring for the audience to see the same film. I would have liked to follow my heart but this time I have varied the film consciously. It's very different in the sense, it's scale is much larger,” says Farah Khan.
The 70s influence is visible in another second timer Pradip Sircar's Laga Chunari Mein Daag.
Sircar's exotic style won audiences with his debut film Parineeta. This time, with Varanasi and Mumbai being the setting of a small town girl's slide into flesh trade, the film is reminiscent of the 1977 Aaina which was a big hit then.
And last but not the least is Imtiaz Ali, who is ready with his second romantic comedy Jab We Met. His first Socha Na Tha is a refreshing take on love stories worked well. Two years later, his journey based love story with Kareena and Shahid Kapoor is catching attention too.
Having packed in effort and cinematic likes of their own, these second time filmmakers don't just have hopes of box office success riding high, their success might just trigger off some innovation in popular cinema that is here to stay.