Election Commission is winner in Punjab polls

Chandigarh: Political parties in Punjab may have to wait for the outcome, but the assembly polls have already produced one sure winner - the Election Commission (EC).

The strict control that EC officials and their teams had over things in the five weeks between the announcement of elections Dec 24 till polling day Jan 30 saw the elections being conducted with discipline.

On the polling day itself, except for one poll-related death in a firing in Ferozepur district, which happened after the election process had officially ended at 5 p.m., and less than a dozen cases of clashes across Punjab, things remained largely violence-free despite the state recording nearly 79 percent - an all-time high - voter turnout from Punjab's over 17.6 million electorate.

Madhuri's wax statue to be unveiled on March 7

Mumbai: The much-awaited wax statue of Bollywood diva Madhuri Dixit will be unveiled at London's Madame Tussauds March 7.

"Madame Tussauds unveiling on March 7, 2012. See you then," tweeted Madhuri, who has moved here from Denver to play a new innings in Bollywood.

Known for her natural acting talent and graceful dancing, the 44-year-old is the latest Indian film star to join the A-list line up at the Madame Tussauds wax museum, which also houses statues of Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai, Hrithik Roshan, Salman Khan and Amitabh Bachchan.

Bent on laptops, spondylitis afflicting youths

New Delhi: Shweta Arya was 29 years old when she first had a back problem. Ignored initially, her pain spread upwards and aggravated to a level where she was not even able to move her neck.

"Employed with an infrastructure consultancy, I used to work on a laptop with a bent neck. The back pain went on increasing and finally my situation was so bad that I could not even move my neck," she said.

Arya is one of the many young people suffering from spondylitis (a form of arthritis that affects your spine), a disease which is affecting more and more people in the lower age bracket.

"My doctor told me that while working on a laptop, the back should be straight and eyes should be on the same level as the computer screen. He said this problem developed due to my bad posture," said Arya.

Delhi Metro through foreign eyes: global system lacking global etiquettes

Hurrying down the steps of a Delhi Metro station, I jump into the first available train. Eyes stare at me. I am not only the lone women in the train car but also the only foreigner.

Like 1.5 million other people in Delhi, I ride on the Metro every day. To get to work, I spend almost 45 minutes on the rail, including switching train lines, before reaching my destination.

The first couple of times I rode the Metro, I thought two things: people are staring at me and why do women not use the Metro. It took me days to realize there were 'women only' compartments at the front of each train. Since starting to use these reserved compartments, I enjoy watching men enter and look around to see only women. They quickly make their way down the train to the general compartments looking as though they mistakenly walked into the wrong washroom.