After four years as Senior Reporter at Eastern Eye, Aditi Khanna has left the newspaper to go freelance. She will do some shifts on national newspapers as well as the BBC, telling AIM she was looking to develop more skills in online media.
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by Kieran Yates
Freelance Journalist

Nitin Swahney is one of the most prolific Indian composers, musicians and producers alive today.

But Monday’s performance at London’s Barbican Centre however, was something new even to me.
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A young PR agency founded by a 26-year entrepreneur was yesterday named ‘Newcomer Company of the Year’ at Asian Voice newspaper’s annual Public & Political Life Awards.
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The Financial Times newspaper’s US economic editor, Krishna Guha, is leaving to join the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
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The Scotland based comedy Fags, Mags & Bags has returned to Radio 4 for the third time after picking up awards for its quirky humour and good writing (episode below).

The series is written by and stars Sanjeev Kohli, as newsagent and confectioner Ramesh Majhu.
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Author and writer Anjana Gosai was named Beauty Journalist of the Year at the annual Beauty Journalism awards last week.

The 32 year old writer from north London said: “To be recognised amongst my peers, including beauty editors whose work I have admired for years and to have my work commended by top people in the industry makes me feel very humbled.”

She won the award for an article on skin lightening written for fashion mag Asiana. She has also written for a range of national newspapers and magazine.

Anjana’s first book, The Ultimate Guide to Beauty, was published last year.

by Poorna Shetty
Freelance Writer

Call me nostalgic, but there’s something about the process of producing a magazine that I’ll always love.

When I was editor of Asiana, it was a combination of frantic scrabbling during deadline week while the printers yelled on the phone for pages, culminating in the moment that made it all worth it – the first delivery of magazines smelling of freshly-minted paper containing all our hard work.

Going freelance was a choice not a byword for voluntary redundancy, and since then I’ve managed to travel the world and write for The Guardian, The Sunday Times Travel and The Daily Telegraph. Working in your pyjamas with all of the money and none of the office politics – no regrets.
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He may have been unsuccessful in winning the Ealing and Southall seat from Virendra Sharma, but Tony Lit is not giving up on his political aspirations.

The former managing director of Sunrise Radio, now its Sales Director, has been short-listed and is now among six candidates fighting to be the Conservative Party’s official candidate neighbouring Hayes. The announcement was made late last week.

Others running against him include Gurmaj Dhillon, a former Treasury official who has advised the Tories on police reform; Lindsey Hall, Westminster councillor and Naman Purewal – Deputy Chairman of Feltham and Heston Conservatives.

The London-based Commonwealth Journalists Association (CJA) issued a statement yesterday stating it “appalled” at the Sri Lankan government’s continued persecution of journalists “for committing the ’sin’ of criticizing the ruling party”.

The organisation was also “deeply concerned” at the disappearance of the Sri Lankan journalist Prageeth Ekneligoda.

There has been growing concern and coverage of events in Sri Lanka, where police raided the offices of opposition candidates last week, seizing equipment and arresting staff.
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by Jaspreet Pandohar
Freelance writer

In the current economic climate it may seem a tad risky to start a new business. When that venture happens to be within the unpredictable entertainment industry it’s probably even more of a perilous idea.

But that’s exactly what two daring young Londoners have done by creating a new UK-based film distribution company.

This month will see two new releases by them: The Pool and Made In Pakistan (more details at the end).

A US-India co-production directed by filmmaker Chris Smith, The Pool stars legendary Indian actor Nana Patekar and is a tale of a boy’s obsession with a glittering swimming pool and how it changes four lives in India.
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An enterprising local reporter has offered a date with herself to raise money for Haiti.

Royal Borough’s chief reporter Inderdeep Bains agreed to being the top prize for the charity drive, with the proviso that male readers donate a minimum of £20 each.
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The Mail on Sunday’s parent company has had to pay out substantial libel damages to the Muslim Council of Britain’s Inayat Bunglawala over terrorism related allegations.

Associated Newspapers accepted that Mr Bunglawala did not support al-Qaida after making the claim last year.
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Former magazine editor turned socialite Farah Damji was sentenced to 15 months in prison by Blackfriars Crown Court on Friday morning.

She was remanded in custody on Thursday after a series of postponements which kept pushing back the date of the sentencing.

Damji was due to be in court as far back as July last year.
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The former magazine editor Farah Damji will be sentenced at Blackfriars Crown Court on Wednesday 20th January, AIM magazine can reveal.

A sentencing was originally scheduled for 6th January.
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Gurinder Chadha’s upcoming film It’s a Wonderful Afterlife will premiere at the Sundance Film Festival later this month.

The director made the announcement this week.

But the film will screen outside of the competition during the festival, which takes place in Park City, USA from 21st January until 31st January.

She said: “I am delighted to premiere my film at Sundance having had such a long and happy relationship with the festival.”
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On the first day of the year BBC soap Eastenders aired its first Asian wedding in full spectacular style.
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Every year hundreds of interesting and quirky books slip under our radar thanks to information overload. In this series, we highlight books published this year you may have missed that are worth a second look.

How much do we know about what really goes on behind the scenes at our local supermarket?

This forms the subject of journalist Tazeen Ahmed’s fascinating debut book The Checkout Girl, published this summer.
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Every year hundreds of interesting and quirky books slip under our radar thanks to information overload. In this series, we highlight books published this year you may have missed that are worth a second look.

Scottish doctor and author Suhayl Saadi published his third book this year, a fictional ‘magical realism’ story titled Joseph’s Box.
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Every year hundreds of interesting and quirky books slip under our radar thanks to information overload. In this series, we highlight books published this year you may have missed that are worth a second look.

Former journalist Puneet Bhandal published the first and second in a series of Bollywood themed fiction series.
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Author, poet and film-maker Nikesh Shukla has a short story collection in podcast form: titled Wham! Bam! Stories, Man!

Shukla says he was inspired by the oral tradition of griots and felt the podcast format was good instant and current way of bringing his voice to the world.
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Upcoming singer Gunjan, signed with Scottish producers Tigerstyle, is releasing her debut single this week.
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The new edition of the long-running fashion quarterly Asian Woman magazine hit newsstands this week. And this time it sported a different name in the editor’s page.

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Food writer and stylist Ravinder Bhogal’s debut book ‘Cook in Boots’ has won the Gourmand World Cookbook Award for the UK’s Best First Cookbook.

She will challenge for the title of the World’s Best First Cookbook at the Paris Cookbook Fair on 11 February, 2010.

Ravinder said: “I am so delighted to have won this award as I am fully aware of how many excellent debut cookbooks were published this year.”
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The Independent on Sunday diary column reports:

She’s back: Farah Damji, the serial mistress, jailbird and perennial trouble-maker, once hailed London’s most dangerous woman, is holding a reading of her “explosive” autobiography on Wednesday [16th Dec].

Try Me came out in July but Damji was arrested on fraud charges soon after and has been busy defending herself in court ever since.

The book is chock-full of scandal, chronicling her claims to have had affairs with two high-profile figures – one an executive from The Guardian, the other a well-known travel writer – and even includes intimate email and text exchanges. Tom Cain, Gavin James Bower and Darcus Howe are lined up to read extracts at The Lamb on Holborn’s Lamb’s Conduit Street. Should be a big night out for the libel lawyers.

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