Google celebrates Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s birthday with doodle

Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 10: Eminent Carnatic vocalist and playback singer K J Yesudas, who has enthralled music aficionados across the world with his profound and mellifluous voice for the last six decades, turned 80 on Friday.

People from various walks of life, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and luminaries of music and film world besides socio-cultural personalities, wished the legendary singer, popularly called as 'gana gandharvan' (the celestial singer) by his fans, on his birthday.

Regional newspapers came out with special pages and television channels with exclusive programmes as a tribute to the singer, who has recorded over 80,000 songs in various genres in almost all languages of India including about 25,000 film songs, Carnatic bhajans and devotional songs.

Besides Indian languages like Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Kannada, Bengali, Odia, his voice gave life to songs in Arabic, English, Latin, and Russian during a career spanning over six decades.

Yesudas, whom the country had honoured with Padma Vibhushan in 2017, is the recipient of eight national awards, 25 Kerala state awards, five state awards of Tamil Nadu and four of Andhra Pradesh.

"On the special occasion of his 80th birthday, greetings to the versatile K J Yesudas Ji. His melodious music and soulful renditions have made him popular across all age groups. He has made valuable contributions to Indian culture. Wishing him a long and healthy life," Modi tweeted.

The Left veteran also shared a photo of the veteran singer along with the tweet.

Meanwhile, Yesudas this morning visited the Mookambika Temple at Kollur in Udupi district of Karnataka along with his family, a practice he has been following for the last four decades.

Draped in the traditional Kerala style kasavu mundu and shawl, 'dasettan', as he is known among his hardcore fans cutting across ages, Yesudas offered prayers along with his wife Prabha and sons and performed special poojas at the Goddess Saraswathi temple.

Hundreds of music buffs gathered at the shrine to wish the octogenarian singer.

Considered as one of the best playback singers in the country, Yesudas had begun his music career in the tinsel town with the Malayalam song "Jathi bhedam matha dwesham" in the year 1961 and sang in Tamil, Telugu and Kannada films among other languages.

Yesudas's foray into Bollywood saw him recording various memorable hits, including "Jab Deep Jale Aana" and "Gori Tera Gaon Bada Pyara".

Feb 2: After creating a buzz with her recent low-key marriage, actor and model Pamela Anderson recently broke off her marriage with famous movie mogul Jon Peters, after just 12 days the wedding, reported Fox News.

The couple got married on January 20 in Malibu, California in a private marriage ceremony.

The Hollywood Reporter broke the news of the couple's split on Saturday stating that the pair has decided to "uncouple."

"I have been moved by the warm reception to Jon and my union. We would be very grateful for your support as we take some time apart to reevaluate what we want from life and from one another," Fox News quoted Anderson saying.

"Life is a journey and love is a process. With that universal truth in mind, we have mutually decided to put off the formalization of our marriage certificate and put our faith in the process, "she added.

Fox News further quoted a source close to Anderson as saying, "She's known Jon forever, but she never lived with him, contrary to some reports. And until you live with someone... Well, let's just say Pamela asked for a break. She is heading back to her compound in Ladysmith, Canada, to be with her family."

According to Fox News, the couple did not have any official marriage license.

Mumbai, Feb 27: Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan on Wednesday said it's with constant education that a country, a family can move forward as there is never an end to learning.

In December last year, when the actor visited the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne, the La Trobe University announced the 'Shah Rukh Khan La Trobe University PhD Scholarship'. At the event to announce therecipient of the scholarship here on Wednesday, Shah Rukh said it was his honour to lend his name or be attached to the scholarship.

"I am a big believer in education. I truly believe that the way forward for any country, any family, city, state is by educating itself more and more.

"There is never an end to education. I've come to realise the more I know, I figure out, the less I understand. It's very important to keep educating ourselves for the rest of our lives.

"I've always believed education in India and elsewhere in the world, is the most important step forward for any nation," he said.

The scholarship aims to provides an opportunity for an aspiring female researcher from India to undertake research.

The 54-year-old superstar said what also will help taking the world move ahead is educating women.

"Related to the fact, is of course, education of women, empowering women, to look after themselves to look after their families...

"If you are able to empower them with education, the world goes even further forward," the actor added.