Well it seems that the way has been cleared for Sarko and Bruni to visit the world famous monument of love… the 17th century Taj Mahal. Bruni had hinted earlier that Indian government was not exactly prepared to host an unwed VVIP (very very important person) couple when Sarko came visiting India recently.
“The 53-year-old French president Nicolas Sarkozy and super-model Carla Bruni, 40, held a low key wedding at the Elysee Palace attended by about 20 relatives and close friends, according to the local mayor who carried out the ceremony. ‘It lasted the usual 20 minutes or so,’ said Francois Lebel, mayor of the eighth arrondissement of Paris. ‘The bride wore white. She was ravishing, as usual. The bridegroom didn’t look bad, either’.
“This is Sarkozy’s third marriage. He ended a stormy 11 year marriage to Cecilia Ciganer-Albeniz in October. While he is the first divorcee to be elected French president, he is the second to get married in office after Gaston Doumerque in 1931.” More here…
(photo courtesy the Reuters)
The Independent has this to say: “Yesterday, the worlds of politics and celebrity met in matrimony as the French President married his girlfriend – but for how long?…” More here…
Swaraaj Chauhan describes his two-decade-long stint as a full-time journalist as eventful, purposeful, and full of joy and excitement. In 1993 he could foresee a different work culture appearing on the horizon, and decided to devote full time to teaching journalism (also, partly, with a desire to give back to the community from where he had enriched himself so much.)
Alongside, he worked for about a year in 1993 for the US State Department’s SPAN magazine, a nearly five-decade-old art and culture monthly magazine promoting US-India relations. It gave him an excellent opportunity to learn about things American, plus the pleasure of playing tennis in the lavish American embassy compound in the heart of New Delhi.
In !995 he joined WWF-India as a full-time media and environment education consultant and worked there for five years travelling a great deal, including to Husum in Germany as a part of the international team to formulate WWF’s Eco-tourism policy.
He taught journalism to honors students in a college affiliated to the University of Delhi, as also at the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication where he lectured on “Development Journalism” to mid-career journalists/Information officers from the SAARC, African, East European and Latin American countries, for eight years.
In 2004 the BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) selected him as a Trainer/Mentor for India under a European Union project. In 2008/09 He completed another European Union-funded project for the BBC WST related to Disaster Management and media coverage in two eastern States in India — West Bengal and Orissa.
Last year, he spent a couple of months in Australia and enjoyed trekking, and also taught for a while at the University of South Australia.
Recently, he was appointed as a Member of the Board of Studies at Chitkara University in Chandigarh, a beautiful city in North India designed by the famous Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier. He also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students there.
He loves trekking, especially in the hills, and never misses an opportunity to play a game of tennis. The Western and Indian classical music are always within his reach for instant relaxation.
And last, but not least, is his firm belief in the power of the positive thought to heal oneself and others.