World’s ‘best’ national anthem

World’s ‘best’ national anthem
The buzz on the Internet is that Jana Gana Mana, the Indian national anthem, has been declared as the world’s best national anthem by Unesco. With the speed that these things travel, one email multiplies into thousands and then before you know it, rumour becomes fact. Although one of the sites clarifies that this is an unauthenticated piece of news doing the rounds, newspaper inboxes are flooded with ‘proud to be Indian’ emails. It’s evident that national pride is running high in these terror-struck times. And this has given ordinary citizens a thing to revel in. Obviously, they express great joy at India’s having the world’s best national anthem. The Unesco site, however, is completely silent on the matter.

Royal failure
Tough times are facing not only big financial institutions but also legendary brands and iconic companies. Hardy Amies, dressmakers to Royalty in Britain and costumier to the rich and famous, is in danger of shutting down because its biggest investor has no money and is finding it difficult to raise any in this climate. In his heyday, Sir Hardy Amies made suits for 1966 World Cup-winning England football team and costumes for Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey. He firm always had connections with the young and fashionable and designed for Winston Churchill, among others. The Savile Row boutique was set up by Hardy Amies, a dashing soldier,  in 1946 and from 1952, he began designing for the Queen.