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The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the life imprisonment of P. Rajagopal, the owner of south Indian hotel chain <keyword id="188781" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Saravana-Bhavan">Saravana Bhavan</keyword>, for murdering an employee in October 2001 so as to marry his wife. A bench headed by Justice N.V. Ramana gave Rajagopal time till July 7 to surrender. The ruling comes on the Madras High Court order upholding his life imprisonment. The High Court had enhanced the 10-year sentence given by a trial court. When contacted, Rajagopal's son P.R. Shivakumar told IANS: "I just got an SMS about the verdict. I have to get more details." The hugely popular hotel chain has outlets within and outside India and is now managed by Shivakumar. The South Indian restaurant chain, Saravana Bhavan has 33 outposts in India and 47 around the world. <a target="_blank" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._Rajagopal_%28businessman%29">P. Rajagopal</a>, was sentenced to life in prison in India in 2009 on charges of murdering his employee, Prince Shantakumar, so as to marry his wife. However, India's highest court had granted him a bail in May 2009, when the lawyer of the accused claimed that Rajagopal needed to go through medical treatment for paralysis, reported One India News. He served just 11 months of that sentence. With IANS

Owner Of A Wildly Popular Restaurant Chain Gets Life Term In Murder Case

Former President, top scientist, <keyword id="100256" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bharat-Ratna">Bharat Ratna</keyword>, these are just some of the titles that come before the name of Dr AJP Abdul <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=kalam">Kalam</a>, who passed away on Monday while delivering lecture at <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=iim">IIM </a>Shillong. 
 
Born on October 15, 1931 in a family of a boat owner in Tamil Nadu’s Rameshwaram, Kalam survived all hardship to grow big in life. He distributed newspaper at one to time to support his family and education. 
 After pursuing graduation in Physics from Madras University, AJP <keyword id="5141" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Abdul-Kalam">Abdul Kalam</keyword> decide to take up Aerospace Engineering as he then desired to become a fighter pilot. But the destiny had some bigger plans for him. Traversing through his career journey at the <keyword id="6355142" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="DRDO">DRDO</keyword>, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=isro">ISRO</a>, Chief Scientific Advisor to the <keyword id="71" type="POSITION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Prime-Minister">Prime Minister</keyword> in 1992, the <keyword id="858029" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Pokhran-nuclear-test">Pokhran nuclear test</keyword>, he was ultimately elected as India’s 11th President in 2002. 
 
And what Kalam will always be remembered for is, a President who brought people to the Rashtrapati Bhawan and this is what made him the ‘People’s President'. 
 
Once the 83-year-old had said, “It is very easy to defeat someone, but it is very hard to win someone.” And certainly it’s his inspiring words through which he rules over a million hearts. 
 
Abhishek Sharma, a software developed, shared on Quora, “Once, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam rejected the suggestion to put broken glass on the wall of a building that needed protection. Why? Because broken glass would be harmful for birds! This happened when Dr Kalam was with the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=drdo">DRDO </a>and his team was discussing options to secure the perimeter of a building that needed protection. Dr Kalam reportedly said, “If we do that, birds will not be able to perch on the wall.” 
 
The other instance is when Quora user Naman Narain drew a sketch of Dr Kalam and sent it to the President. To his surprise, the President sent him a thank you card, with a short handwritten message and personalised with his signature. 
 
At a convocation ceremony of IIT (BHU) Varanasi, Dr Kalam was the Chief Guest. There were five chairs on the stage, the centre one being for him, the other four designated for the top university officials. Noticing his chair being bigger in size than the others, Dr Kalam refused to sit on it and offered the Vice Chancellor to sit in stead. Immediately, another chair was made available for the ‘People’s president.’ 
 Another action that displays down-to-earth demeanour of Dr Kalam is that during his first visit to <keyword id="165422" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Trivandrum">Trivandrum</keyword> as the then President, he was entitled to invite anyone as the “Presidential Guests” to Kerala’s <keyword id="138" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Raj-Bhavan">Raj Bhavan</keyword>. And as Dr Kalam had spent a significant time as a scientist in Trivandrum, he invited a road-side cobbler – who was quite close to him during his time in Kerela; and so was the owner of the small hotel where Dr Kalam would often have his meals. Can you ever imagine any other politician or a celebrity of his stature inviting a cobbler and a small business owner as his/her most prestigious guests? 
 <keyword id="6359039" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Sourav-Ganguly">Sourav Ganguly</keyword>, who received the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=padma+shri">Padma Shri</a> from Dr Kalam in 2004, recalls instances of the Indian <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=cricket">Cricket </a>team's interactions with the former President after finishing runners-up in the 2003 <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=world+cup">World Cup</a> in South Africa. "I remember he wished the team. I remember <keyword id="6364325" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Anil-Kumble">Anil Kumble</keyword> asked him about his subject. He knew little about cricket and we tried to explain to him how 11 men move around a cricket ball. But whenever we met him we realised that his world and thinking was different. He has become the President of India but his thought process is different from the others," said Ganguly, regarding India’s missile man as a visionary. 
(Image: economisty.com) 


We at Business Insider have created this unique platform for anyone who wants to pay homage to this the beloved Former President, APJ Abdul Kalam- the great leader, teacher, scientist and amongst many other things a visionary par excellence, even as he embarks upon his last journey. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/social/48249034.cms">Click here to pay your respects</a>.

This is how Dr APJ Abdul Kalam touched lives of #AamAadmi

<ul><li>Former PM Rajiv Gandhi said, “Do not design this office for me but design it for the Prime Minister of India.” </li><li>All working women are constantly challenged because we live parallel lives.</li></ul>I have been asked to speak about my journey as an entrepreneur and a design professional. Let me begin by saying that when I began work as an interior designer and furniture manufacturer in 1971, there were no words such as “entrepreneur” or “branding” or things like Instagram and various other forms of social media that exist today. I became a designer because of family influences and growing in a city like Lucknow which is imbued with tehzeeb and nazakat. I do not think I could have been a designer if I had had parents other than those I was blessed with. They were interested in reading and the acquisition of knowledge. My father believed that books would always remain the central element of civilisation. For us knowledge came from immersive reading, and we were voracious readers. We were always interested in places and peoples. We delighted in reading the atlas and dictionaries. In the last 50 years there have been so many places which were our dream destinations, and which one has now visited……… and many places like Machu Picchu that one has not! Perhaps it is still not too late. Because of our father’s immense love for travel and discovery we saw so much of India. The first heritage site that I ever visited was at the age of nine. That was Mahabalipuram in Tamil Nadu and the Temple of the Tooth and the Botanical Gardens in Kandy in Ceylon. All of these were early influences and have influenced my design sensibilities. I have a very contemporary mindset but one that is also deeply grounded in our own heritage. This is because one has had the good fortune of travelling through the length and breadth of India. Much as one has enjoyed the cultures of other countries, I have a deep and constant curiosity about our own country. All this informs the way I work. As far as design education is concerned, I became a designer by accident – serendipitously so! The study of literature and Hindustani classical music enriched my mindscape. I do not have formal training in design but grew up surrounded by design…….. with my father visiting many auction houses and kabadiwalas in Lucknow. It fills me with quiet pride that, as a woman without any formal training in design, I became the first designer in India, man or woman, to be conferred the <keyword id="25105" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="padma-shri" source="Orion">Padma Shri</keyword> in 1992. I was reasonably young to be bestowed this honour and I thought at that time that it would open the floodgates to many more interior designers. I have also had the distinction of being the first architect or designer from India to be invited to give an illustrated talk in 2003, at the National Building Museum in Washington DC. This museum is the most visited museum of architecture in the world. Its atrium is the venue of the first presidential ball after a new president has been sworn in. In 2014, I was appointed Chairperson of the Board School of Planning and Architecture in Bhopal, a National Institute of Excellence. That was also a first! But, if you ask me whether I was working towards breaking these glass ceilings, then the answer would be an emphatic no! These happened along the way, as a natural progression in a career in which one had put in much hard work. In my profession one is as good as one’s last project. That gets one more work and not because they like your face. No client is going to spend millions of dollars commissioning you to design their hotel if they do not believe in your talent and your ability to deliver. <div type="image" title="05 South Drawing Room, Rashtrapati Bhawan, New Delhi" msid="98578011" hostid="261" sizebytes="111308" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;South Drawing Room, Rashtrapati Bhawan&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> From 1985 to 1989, I worked on the restoration and conservation of the Rashtrapati Bhavan and in 1988 to 1989 on Hyderabad House. That was the first time that HH was closed for nine months because it was not just the interior decoration that was attended to but also all the interior architecture and services like air conditioning. I designed both the decrepit courtyards in a Lutyensesque style and restored the gardens in Hyderabad House. As far as British buildings in New Delhi are concerned, I had the great privilege of working in the Prime Minister’s Office and Secretariat in South Block. And am happy to note that it has remained unchanged through the tenures of the last nine Prime Ministers. The primary reason for this was the brief from the former PM, Rajiv Gandhi…… “do not design this Office for me but design it for the Prime Minister of India”. I followed this brief and worked on the building as these I firmly believe belong to the nation. His second brief was that he wanted his executive chair to be the same height as his visitors’ chairs. These are all very telling traits of character. I also designed the official residence of the Prime Minister along with restoring the two buildings that comprise the Indira Gandhi Memorial Museum. In New Delhi one has also designed the interiors of the British Council Building and Library. In my career this has been a landmark project because this is the largest of their 80 institutes worldwide. It was inaugurated in 1992 by HRH the Prince of Wales. When we were presented to him, he had a very interesting conversation with me regarding the buildings on either side of the British Council. He certainly has a keen eye for architecture. <div type="image" title="03 National Assembly Building in Thimpu, Bhutan" msid="98578068" hostid="261" sizebytes="195996" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;National Assembly Building, Bhutan&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> Another landmark building for me in 1989 was the <keyword id="1142396" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="parliament-building" source="Orion">Parliament Building</keyword> in Bhutan called the National Assembly Building. For me, this was a completely new area of research. In those days so little was known of the art and architecture of Bhutan and neither were any books available. Immersive travelling through Bhutan, to familiarise myself with its architecture and its arts and crafts became essential. His Majesty’s office appointed as my guide, Dasho Khandu who was a living encyclopaedia on Bhutanese art and architecture. These have been amazing projects of learning for me. I like to deeply research new places and new cultures. So maybe, at the end of the day, I think this profession chose me and one is fortunate as this process of working suits my mindset. In a long design career of 50 years, I had a break in 1998. I had simply fallen off a ladder in the house and had fractured two of my cerebral vertebrae. That is when I decided I would stop designing hotels which I had done for the past almost 30 years. At that point I thought I would just design residences in and around India and not travel out to Egypt, Bhutan, England, Timbuktu, etc. But life had other plans! I went on to design a large residence in Sri Lanka and was commissioned to design a boutique hotel in the old city of Lahore. Sadly, that project was eventually abandoned. When I was in Lahore for their Literary Festival at the end of February this year when I saw this building standing as is, it made me quite nostalgic. Lahore is a beautiful city and the people are very hospitable. Along this design journey many institutions have asked me to come to give illustrated lectures. For the ‘Millennium Book on Delhi’, I was one of the eight contributors who wrote an extended essay on ‘The Planning of New Delhi’. <keyword id="118548" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="oxford-university-press" source="Orion">Oxford University Press</keyword>, the publishers of the book have a world-wide reach. That is how the Kennedy School of Government in Harvard University heard of this unknown Indian and invited me to give an illustrated talk. Thus began a parallel career in being a speaker. Since Harvard one has given many lectures in many universities and institutions in the US, the UK and in South East Asia on design, architecture, conservation, literature, on ‘Mughal Jewellery as a Statement of Empire’, world heritage cultural sites in India and on social entrepreneurship. One has always believed that women such as oneself are privileged because we are educated. Never mind that we belong to the working classes! We must, with humility and gratitude, help those that are less fortunate. One has been deeply associated with ‘Satyagyan Foundation’ which was an affiliate of ‘World Literacy Canada’. Based in Varanasi, we have worked in about 400 slum areas and have altogether made 23,000 women literate. One has also been associated with ‘Save a Mother’ which was started by the amazing Dr Shiban Gunju. He has reduced the mortality rate of pregnant women by 93%. One was the founding member and last chairperson of ‘Umang’, an NGO that worked for the betterment of street children. These have been my interests and each has been a milestone. Another milestone was co-authoring ‘The Lucknow Cookbook’ with my mother. It is now in its tenth print run and has been declared a classic by Aleph, the publishers. More recently I produced and edited the large formatted book, ‘Kala - Essays on Contemporary Design Aesthetics’ which was launched in Dubai in 2019 by Sheikh Nahan and in October 2022. It had its first proper launches in Milan and London by Artize of the Jaquar Group. In November 2022, it was launched in New York and most recently in February 2023 at the ‘Lahore Literary Festival’. Every stage in life has its own milestones particularly if one is also a wife, a mother and a grandmother. All working women are constantly challenged because we live parallel lives. For me every project, whether large or small, has been a challenge. It has all added to my body of work and to my learning curve. I have never thought of myself as a woman doing all these things……. I think one creates one’s own benchmark and this is the way one has moved forward. I am still working and writing more books as our daughter, the award-winning architect <keyword id="8435490" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="kohelika-kohli" source="Orion">Kohelika Kohli</keyword>, has taken over the business of running K2India. She has just launched her new brand of furniture called KOKO by K2India. One feels justifiably proud that one must have done something right. One gave them the tools of a fine education and took them travelling to broaden their minds. And then left them to follow their own passions. (The writer is an award winning architect and an author)

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Owner Of A Wildly Popular Restaurant Chain Gets Life Term In Murder Case

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