Did SRK copy J.K. Rowling’s 2008 Harvard commencement speech? After Shah Rukh Khan gave a much 
heralded speech at the All India Management Association last month, blogger Agratha Dinakaran was struck with a sense of déjà vu. “When I finally came to the third page where Shahrukh Khan was concluding his speech, I was certain that I had read some bits of this somewhere,” writes Dinakaran. After doing several side by side comparisons, she concludes that the speech borrowed heavily from novelist J.K. Rowling’s much-heralded 2008 Harvard commencement speech “The Fringe Benefits of Failure and the Importance of Imagination.” Head over to Dinakaran’s blog to read the evidence yourself.
In response, Khan’s chief digital strategist Shailaja wrote a blog post of her own, attacking “bloggers and journalists who have no talent.” She adds that Khan says upfront that it’s a “recycled” speech and also (rather dubiously) notes that “famous quotes especially if they are recycled from earler speeches are sometimes not quoted.” (MeLaNGe, Firstpost)
Virtually Visit India’s landmarks through Google Street View. The Indian Ministry of Culture and the Archeological Survey of India has teamed up with Google to bring over 100 monuments to Google Street View. The Taj Mahal, the Ajanta and Ellora caves, and Qutab Minar are all among the locations featured. “Google hopes to help make more of India’s heritage accessible to people around the world, and to help preserve India’s unique history for generations to come,” the company said in a statement to Mashable. (Mashable)
India gets its first gay radio station. Q Radio, India’s first gay radio station, has been broadcasting out of Bangalore since September. The online station is the brainchild of Anil Srivatsa, the head of Radiowalla.in. In addition to playing songs by LGBT artists, the station also airs talk shows and segments about gay rights issues. (Wall Street Journal)
Tiya Sircar returns to TV. The Internship’s Tiya Sircar is part of the cast of the new Lifetime show Witches of East End, which debuted yesterday. Sircar plays Amy Matthews, making this the second time she’s played an Amy/Aimee in recent years. She portrayed Aimee Bradley on The Vampire Diaries back in 2010. (@tiyasircar)
Get ready for Season 6 of Pakistan’s Coke Studio. The hit music show just released a trailer for its upcoming season. Artists that will be featured in the new season include Atif Aslam, Ali Azmat, and Zeb and Haniya. (Note: If you are currently in Pakistan and can’t access YouTube, you can watch the trailer on Vimeo here). Be sure to check out the video profiles of the artists as well. (Dawn)
Lakshmi Gandhi is a co-founder and editor of The Aerogram. Follow her on Twitter at @LakshmiGandhi or email her at editors@theaerogram.com. Find The Aerogram on Twitter at @theaerogram.
