Geeks take note: the ethical hacker is back in the news once again. IT wizard Ankit Fadia, the 23-year-old Internet security guru who first shot to fame seven years ago by writing the bestseller, The Unofficial Guide to Ethical Hacking, has just been chosen India’s MTV Youth Icon for 2008, an honour he now shares with biggies such as Shah Rukh Khan, Rahul Dravid and M.S. Dhoni. One of India’s foremost white-hat hackers (the good guys, that is!), Fadia received the award earlier this week along with six other nominees from different categories, and hoped the award would help him “connect with the youth of India and inspire them to be more aware and alert about cyber security.” Well said, Ankit. Now hack away to glory — ethically, that is.

If you have been to any of violinist L. Subramaniam’s concerts, you would have seen Bindu Seetaa Subramaniam in action. She is his daughter, and has performed in quite a few shows with the violin maestro. Now young Bindu is making her debut with an album of English rock and jazz songs called Surrender. “I knew that it would be a challenge to sing in English, especially in India. But at the same time this is the language I can truly express myself in,” she says. She has even written the lyrics for her own songs in the album, slated to be released next month. Bindu also sings two songs with American rock and folk singer Matthew Santos. “Matthew is a great fan of my father and when I told him about my album, he agreed to record with me,” she says. Daddy knows his stringed instrument — and daughter knows how to pull a few strings.

Our own Happy Singh of Singh is Kinng is on a major high these days. First up, Bollywood superstar Akshay Kumar went on a run bearing a torch from India Gate in Delhi to Old Delhi’s Chandni Chowk (where he spent a number of his growing up years) as part of a promo for his latest film Chandni Chowk to China. Then, to square things up, he landed up in Hong Kong, where he was the toast of a Christmas bash at a do themed ‘From Chandni Chowk to Hong Kong.’ And in the midst of all this was the release of Jumbo — the Hindi dubbing of a Thai animation film about a young elephant in search of his daddy, with Akki voicing the young one’s concerns. Looks like Akki is in jumbo form.

Bollywood’s action heroes have serious competition — and in the comely shape of Celina Jaitley. The glam gal doesn’t just want to sing and dance around trees, she wants to do some real-life stunt actions in cinema. We are told she performed a daring stunt for Shree Ashtavinayak Cine Vision Ltd’s Run Bhola Run. She jumped from a 10-storeyed building and despite the safety nets that were there it was quite a feat. No wonder director Abbas Ali Mugal is all praise for her. He says Celina, who has done some heavy stuff as a member of the NCC in her younger days, refused to use a body double for the act. The difference between the NCC and the shoot, however, was that Celina was in a mini skirt, instead of the usual khaki. And that, clearly, was something. Time she changed her name to Celina Jet Li.

Sunidhi Chauhan is crooning a different tune these days. This queen of item numbers has found Nirvana — at least in music — ever since she sang a Buddhist chant for an upcoming film called Bad Luck Govind. The song, she holds, has given her a dose of optimism. The singer claims that she felt incredibly peaceful while chanting Nam myho renge kyo — even though she had no idea what it meant to begin with. Now that she knows the power of the chant, Chauhan hopes to add an aura of calm to her world. That’s all very well, but what about her listeners? After all, if anybody needs peace and quiet, it’s those listening to her steamy item songs.