Message man

If it's December, it's got to be, er, no, not Christmas, but actor Salman Khan's birthday. His fans are already in a celebratory mood, with his birthday month trending on Twitter. But Khan, clearly, has other things on his mind than December 27, when he turns 50. At the just concluded International Film Festival for Persons with Disabilities, held in New Delhi, he apologised to his fans for not being able to attend the screening of Bajrangi Bhaijaan, his hit film about a deaf and mute girl, but lent his voice to the cause. "Cinema is inclusive and everyone should be part of it," he said to thunderous applause. Now if only his fans on Twitter could follow their leader.

New page

Calendars can tell a story. For long years, the most famous of them all - the Pirelli Calendar - showcased sexy women in no clothes. Next year it will pay homage to women achievers of age - including Yoko Ono. Meanwhile, back home, a calendar is being readied which will zero in on queer people. The men behind the calendar - lawyer and queer rights activist Kaushik Gupta and doctor-sympathiser Archan Mukherjee - say that the calendar has photographs that express desire in different ways. "This is an attempt to do away with hetero normative, traditional views about sexual practices influenced by Victorian morality," Gupta says. The calendars are available on their Facebook page Colours of Love. Let the New Year be gay!

Poet's place

Calcutta will meet Jaipur at the next literature festival in the Rajasthan capital, as a new prize will be announced in the name of the late poet Kanhaiyalal Sethia. The poet, born in 1919, was a Calcuttan who wrote in his native Rajasthani language. It is said that when he was 20, he moved Rabindranath Tagore to tears with a poem that he'd written. His most famous work - Dharti Dhora Ri - describing the desert sand and its hues, was later adopted as Rajasthan's state anthem. The poem also inspired Gautam Ghose to film a documentary called Land of Sand Dunes. The Kanhaiyalal Sethia Prize for poetry, with a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh, will be announced at the Jaipur Literature Festival, 2016. And the pink city will merge with blue.

DJ way

She always knew how to spin music - but now Kary Arora gives music a spin. A DJ since 1997, Arora has been writing her songs, setting them to music and singing them. She did hit remixes such as Do Lafzon Ki Hai and Babuji Dheerey Chalna in 2011, and sang for Ram Gopal Varma's Satya in 1998. Now, after a gap of a couple of years, she is back with the single Tinko ke Sahare in the film Angry Indian Goddesses, released this week. Arora hopes that she will be a regular in the Bollywood playback circuit now with this hit song. And her legion of fans - after all, her looks are as appealing as her musical gifts - are singing hosannas.

Helping hand

You have a voice coach, an acting coach, a sports coach - and so on - so why shouldn't there be a life coach? Life coaches are people who help you travel through life. Vidhi Singh Vaide is one of them. Her clients range from ambassadors to heads of multinationals and young couples. Vaide, now out with a book called Truth Behind the Rainbow, points out that she became a life coach after she met with an accident and was bedridden for months. "It was the most difficult time of my life. At first I was very depressed, but I started looking inside and questioning myself and tried to find motivation to stay positive," she says. She believes that people can change "negative situations" if instead of looking for solutions outside, they look within. We hold the answers, Vaide says.