Island Chic’s Babble

Now is the chance to make the world know how naturally beautiful the islands of the Maldives are. According to the Maldives Tourism Promotion Board (MTPB), the Maldives archipelago has been nominated for the New 7 Wonders of Nature campaign. This campaign is a process in which seven natural wonders of the world are chosen by people through a global poll which will be declared in the year 2011.

The campaign is which is being organized by the Swiss based New7Wonders Foundation has 261 qualified national and multinational nominees who are now competing to make it to the top 77.

Please join the Maldives’ efforts to make its beauty known to the world as one of the Natural Wonders of the World by voting for the Maldives in this campaign. You can cast your vote on http://www.visitmaldives.com/ or http://www.new7wonders.com/. Voting continues from January 7th until July 7th 2009.

You can also become a fan of New7Wonders on Facebook or follow it on Twitter!

Slumdog Millionaire is the story of Jamal Malik, an 18 year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai, whose life is about to change with the answer to just one question on the Indian version of the television show “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?”

As millions of people await the big moment, Jamal is only a question away from winning a whopping 20 million rupees! However suspicions due to the slim chances of a street kid’s ability to answer all the questions correctly against all odds, police arrest Jamal for questioning.

He was put through physical torture which forced him to prove his innocence by telling story of his life’s journey & how the various events and vicious encounters in his life lead him to learn the things he did. Through his story, Jamal reveals how he could do better than the others on the show who were brighter, better educated and with more opportunities to learn.

Being orphaned at an early age, Jamal grew up with a brother, Salim who was his only family. Shoved into poverty and a life of constant struggle against life’s hardships, Jamal found inspiration and motivation through his passion and love for his childhood friend from the slums, a girl named Latika.

The later stages of his adulthood were mostly shaped by his feelings for the girl, which ultimately lead to his presence on the show. How did he do it? Is it possible that he knew all the answers? Was he cheating? Or was it just meant to be?

It is a movie that will titillate your inner receptiveness towards the hundreds of poverty stricken kids on the streets and make you wonder what their stories could possibly be? I know that I will never look at a blind child beggar singing to make a few rupees on the side streets of India, the same way I did before. As I watched the movie, I cried for all the times I ignored the little children who came and annoyed me during the 5 years I lived in India. Though I did help them many times, I know I could have done a lot more to help them, in ways that would hardly make a difference to the kind of life I lead.

In that sense, Slumdog Millionaire not only shows insight into how life teaches you the things you know, but also touches the idea of the indifference that most of us feel towards the hardships we witness in front of our eyes, which doesn’t affect us personally…

All in all, Slumdog millionaire was a brilliant movie and it deserves all the hype it’s getting!

Photo: http://www.zimbio.com

However, if you know where to look it is possible to enjoy an amazing yet affordable vacation in the Maldives.

I wanted to share some reasonable travel packages advertised by www.maldivesholidayoffers.com. With a 7 nights package for only US$681 per person, this could perhaps be among the cheapest available travel packages to the Maldives, though I could be wrong.

Hope this would help someone enjoy their dream vacation!

Photo: http://www.maldivesholidayoffers.com/

Though I haven’t seen the movie yet, I am highly excited! The sound tracks were awesome and the movie’s success at the Critics’ Choice Awards together with the Golden Globe Awards proves that it will be a worth watch!

Here’s a list of the winners of the major categories at the Golden Globe. You can find the official nominations/winners list here.

BEST MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA
Slumdog Millionaire

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA
Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA
Kate Winslet, Revolutionary Road

BEST MOTION PICTURE – MUSICAL OR COMEDY
Vicky Cristina Barcelona

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE – MUSICAL OR COMEDY
Colin Farrell, In Bruges

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MOTION PICTURE – MUSICAL OR COMEDY
Sally Hawkins, Happy-Go-Lucky

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A MOTION PICTURE
Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A MOTION PICTURE
Kate Winslet, The Reader

BEST DIRECTOR – MOTION PICTURE
Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire

BEST SCREENPLAY – MOTION PICTURE
Slumdog Millionaire

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
WALL-E

BEST ORIGINAL SONG – MOTION PICTURE
”The Wrestler,” The Wrestler (Bruce Springsteen)

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE – MOTION PICTURE
Slumdog Millionaire

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Waltz With Bashir (Israel)

Photo by: NY Times

Here are ten things that I was grateful for in 2008.

1) My faith in God, who has always helped me get through my worst. There were times when I wondered about His love and in the end I find that even the bad things happen for a reason. We just got to take it as it comes and savour the moments.

2) My parents who love me unconditionally, have ALWAYS supported me and given me everything they could possibly give a daughter

3) The good health and wellbeing of myself, my parents and my siblings

4) A good beginning of 2008 with a joyous new year with very special friends

5) The wonderful friends I made during my time in Singapore, including some very close ones with whom I shared some really great times with. Also the many lovely friends from all over the world that I am blessed with.

6) My enjoyable travels in South East Asia with really fun travel mates – KL, Langkawi & Tuba, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Myanmar, and Thailand hold amazing memories now.

7) A truly memorable learning experience in the LKY School of Public Policy

A great job with a great boss right after the School

9) Being able to climb the Great Wall, witness the Olympics Opening Ceremony and many of the events that unfolded in Beijing

10) For the presence of a wonderful man in my life through times easy and hard for a good six years.

I hope 2009 is a great year for all of us.

Newsweek’s article “The Story of Power” lists the following 50 as the world’s most powerful people/families/groups/entities.

It is definitely a fascinating list. Starting from the enigmatic president elect who will now take over the helm of the largest economy in the world to affect the course of the world to the brains behind many revolutionary historical and ecnomic changes in the world to entertainers, politicians and executives, it is definitely a list worth having a look.

1: Barack Obama
2: Hu Jintao
3: Nicolas Sarkozy
4-5-6: Economic Triumvirate
7: Gordon Brown
8: Angela Merkel
9: Vladimir Putin
10: Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud
11: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
12: Kim Jong Il
13-14: The Clintons
15: Timothy Geithner
16: Gen. David Petraeus
17: Sonia Gandhi
18: Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
19: Warren Buffett
20: Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani
21: Nuri al-Maliki
22-23: The Philanthropists
24: Nancy Pelosi
25: Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan
26: Mike Duke
27: Rahm Emanuel
28: Eric Schmidt
29: Jamie Dimon
30-31: Friends of Barack
32: Dominique Strauss-Kahn
33: Rex Tillerson
34: Steve Jobs
35: John Lasseter
36: Michael Bloomberg
37: Pope Benedict XVI
38: Katsuaki Watanabe
39: Rupert Murdoch
40: Jeff Bezos
41: Shahrukh Khan
42: Osama bin Laden
43: Hassan Nasrallah
44: Dr. Margaret Chan
45: Carlos Slim Helú
46: The Dalai Lama
47: Oprah Winfrey
48: Amr Khaled
49: E. A. Adeboye
50: Jim Rogers