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Today, 2 September, is the birthday of late Ishmeet Singh, the winner of music reality show Amul Star Voice of India in 2007.  His family, friends and fans must be praying for his soul to rest in peace but he will have many birthday wishes if he had been alive for his 20th birthday on Tuesday.

Ishmeet, drowned on July 29 in a swimming pool in Maldives where he had gone to perform is remembered as a “wonderful”, “down-to-earth” and “sincere” person by the Indian music industry.

Bhangra pop king Daler Mehndi expressed confidence that had Ishmeet stayed on he would have definitely carved a niche for himself in the competitive Bollywood industry.

“It was very difficult to overcome the sadness of Ishmeet’s death. At such a young age, he earned so much name and fame. He became a singing sensation. Despite his Punjabi background, he used to sing any song easily without the Punjabi accent,” Mehndi said.

Expressing grief that he could not attend the cremation ceremony, Mehndi added: “He was a very down-to-earth and simple person. He died very young. I am sure that had he not passed away so early, he would have built a strong foothold in Bollywood as he had a different voice and a versatile style of singing.”

His co-participants today remembered him on his birthday and expressed their grief on his absence.

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal presented a cheque of Rs 1.1 million, a citation and a shawl to Ishmeet’s parents as a mark of honor at a state-level function to mark the country’s 62nd Independence Day.

Badal has announced the opening of an international level music academy in Ludhiana in his memory. Ishmeet’s only attempt at playback singing of forthcoming Punjabi movie Sat Sri Akal was released in Chandigarh recently.

His untimely demise was a matter shock and sorrow for the whole nation along with his home state, Punjab and his family. He was a source of inspiration for a horde of young and aspiring singers. His loss was irreparable for the all music lovers.

Although he is not with us but he will be alive with his voice in everybody’s heart. May god give peace to his soul!

Tags: Amul Star Voice of India, Bhangra, Birth Day, ishmeet singh, Pop, voice of india

The versatile bollywood hero-cum-producer-cum-director Ajay Devgan turned 39 today on April 2 and its time to celebrate his birth day.

Ajay got an early birthday gift Tuesday when his entire family landed up on the sets of Zee TV’s reality show “Rock N’ Roll”, which he is hosting with wife Kajol and mother-in-law Tanuja. The family arrived to cut a cake with him.

His parents Veeru and Veena Devgan, sisters Neelam and Kavita and his nephew Aman were part of the entourage.

“I was pleasantly surprised, considering my parents never go on television. It was one of the most beautiful gifts I’ve ever received,” said Ajay.

The super hero has proved his talent in acting who started his career as an action hero in the 1991 hit film “Phool Aur Kaante”. He won the Filmfare award for best debutant actor for his first film.

Early in his career Ajay showed his stunts in films like “Jigar” (1992), “Divya Shakti” (1992), “Vijaypath”(1994), “Hulchul” (1995) and others that one could only expect from the son of well-known action director Veeru Devgan.

In 1999 and 2000 he produced “Hindustan Ki Kasam” and “Raju Chacha” and after a successful acting career of 16 long years, he jumped into the feild of direction from this year through his movie “U, Me Aur Hum”. It is the story which he really believes and was plotting in mind for a long time. Ajay is confident about the movie will give a good response at the box office going to release this month on April 11.

“I had this story idea in my mind for a long time and then I sat and wrote it down. Later when I gradually developed the screenplay, I felt that unless I directed the film myself, it would not be presented the way I want it to be,” Ajay told.

Ajay had worked with internationally acclaimed filmmaker Shekhar Kapur as an assistant director.

In 1999, Ajay married his co-star and friend Kajol and they have a four-year-old daughter named Nyasa. The couple will be seen together after a long time in “U, Me Aur Hum”.

Known for his action roles Ajay surprised the audience with his comic performances in “Ishq” (1997), “Golmaal - Fun Unlimited” (2006) and his ability to emote in “Pyaar Toh Hona Hi Tha” (1998) and “Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam” (1999).

His powerful acting in “Zakhm” (1998), “The Legend of Bhagat Singh” (2002), “Company” (2002), “GangaaJal” (2003), “Yuva” (2004), “Raincoat” (2004), “Omkara” (2006) and others won him critical acclaim.

This year, he doled out a power-packed performance in Santoshi’s “Halla Bol” and Rohit Shetty-directed comedy flick “Sunday”.

Director Rajkumar Santoshi, who has made some of his best films with Ajay, praised for the actor saying,“One of his strengths is that he can get under the skin of any well-written role and make it his own. He has sharp, expressive eyes. And he appears to be very natural in all the challenging characters he has played so far.”

Ajay has won two National Awards - the first one for Mahesh Bhatt-directed “Zakhm” and the other for Santoshi’s “The Legend of Bhagat Singh”.

Wish the first time director and the super hero of Bollywood today!!

Tags: Ajay Devgan, Birth Day, Kajol

People born on 29th February are celebrating today their birthday after 4 long years. They have to wait four times more than other people to blow their birthday candles. As 29 February comes every fourth year and the year is said to be a leap year. But unlike other common people they could be 60 while celebrating their 15th real birthday only. Isn’t it sounds cool!

Generally every year that is divisible by four is a leap year but if those years can be divided by 100, it will NOT be a leap year, unless the year is divisible by 400.

The year 2008 is a leap year. The month began with Friday and ending today again on Friday. With this effect February has five Fridays in this year. The most recent year in which February comprised five Fridays was in 1980, and the next occurrence will be in 2036.

There are many old-age traditions and superstitions associated with this date.

It is supposed that Leap Year has been the traditional time that women can propose marriage.

According to English law, February 29th had no legal status. Folks assumed that traditions would also have no status on that day. It was also reasoned that since the leap year day existed to fix a problem in the calendar, it could also be used to fix an old and unjust custom that only let men propose marriage.

In Greece, it is believed that getting married in a leap year brings bad luck for the couple. Thus, mainly in the middle of the past century, couples avoided setting a marriage date in a leap year.

Earth takes a mean length of approximately 365.25 days to complete its revolution around sun and this completes a year on earth. Hence on fourth revolution it gives a length of 366 days in a year and the year is known as leap year. Leap years consist of 366 days as compared to 365 days in other common years. A leap year contains one or more extra day in month of February in order to keep the calendar year synchronized with the astronomical or seasonal year. Instead of the usual 28 days, February would have 29 days in a leap year.

Seasons and astronomical events do not repeat at an exact number of full days, so a calendar which had the same number of days in each year would over time drift with respect to the event it was supposed to track. By occasionally inserting an additional day or month into the year, the drift can be corrected. A year which is not a leap year is called a common year.

There are some well-known people who born on this special day coming once in four years. They include the dawg himself Randy Jackson (of American Idol fame), former Indian prime minister Morarji Desai, rapper Ja Rule, American singer Dinah Shore, and American serial killer Aileen Wuornos (Charlize Theron played her in Monster).

Tags: Birth Day, Influence, Leap Year