Director Venky duped, loses `63k
…and gets trolled in the bargain!
Director Venky Kudumula has fallen prey to cybercrime — he was duped to the tune of `63,000. A couple of days back, Venky got a call from someone who introduced himself as Naveen Kumar, a representative of the Directorate of Film Festivals Corporation.
He told Venky that his Bheeshma released last year had been nominated in six award categories, and that he needed to pay Rs 10,600 per award as processing fee. After Venky transferred Rs 63,000, subsequent conservations with Naveen made him suspicious. He eventually realised that he had been duped, and filed a complaint with the cybercrime police station However, instead of sympathising with Venky, Netizens have been trolling the director for being greedy for awards for a film like Bheeshma. They have also pointed out that if money needed to be transferred, it should have been done by the producer.
Voice Season 20 started with a lot of buzz around it, although not all positive. The season started with a popular judge of the show, Gwen Stefani, missing from the show. Instead, she was replaced by our very own Priyanka Chopra-Jonas’s husband Nick Jonas, who sat beside long-time judges John Legend, Kelly Clarkson and Blake Sheldon.
However, going by what is trending on Twitter, it doesn’t look like fans are happy about it. In fact, many have been demanding that the show brings back the No Doubt singer.
One of the Twitter users and fans of the show tweeted tagging Blake Sheldon, Gwen’s fiancé who is also one of the judges in the show, writing, “Where is Gwen?”
One fan was happy to have Nick on the judge’s chair for the second time (he was a judge for The Voice Season 18 too), but they still wished Gwen was back. “I like Nick but I already miss Gwen,” wrote the fan.
However, there were others who were miffed that Gwen was replaced by Nick. “We’re going to miss Ms Gwen, especially when the alternative is Nick,” wrote one. It waits to be seen if The Voice team will comply with these requests. After all, they cannot afford to lose audiences in their twentieth season, can they?
We have all seen magicians who offer a deck of cards to a volunteer. The person takes a card, any card. At the end of the trick the magician will name that card. There are many variations on this theme.
At the bridge table, it may be a matter of deciding not which card to pick, but which suit to pick. Sometimes this happens in the bidding and sometimes in the play. Today's deal is an example of the latter.
South was in six spades. West led the club king. Declarer won with his ace and cashed his top trumps, learning that West began with queenthird. How should South have continued?
That South hand, with all those aces and kings and a good five-card suit, was easily worth a two-notrump opening. (The Kaplan-Rubens method rates that hand at 21.35 points.) North used Stayman, then bid what he hoped his partner could make.
With an unavoidable trump loser, declarer had to discard both of his low clubs before West could ruff in and collect the club queen.
The original declarer immediately tried to take his three diamond winners. However, West ruffed the last and cashed his club winner. Was South unlucky, or did he misplay?
Suppose West does not ruff the third diamond. What does declarer do then?
Right, he plays on hearts, hoping West has at least three. So it is correct to play that suit first, just in case West has four or more hearts. Then South sluffs one club and throws the other on the third diamond. West ruffs in just too late to defeat the slam.