Vadodara: A couple from France will be the first residents of the country’s first old age home for gays, which is being constructed on the banks of the Narmada in Rajpipla by gay prince Manvendra Singh Gohil.

Mumbai:  It is difficult to believe that a threatened species is being conserved in the heart of the concrete jungle.

Bangalore: The young and the happening are moving to a new love, laced with heavy, thick oak and barley-sugar notes shrouded in soft smoke, with a gentle hint of cool mountain air: the taste of the single malt whisky. Yes, single malt is no more a drink only of the retired or the well-heeled.

Pune:  First it was dried strawberries, now it’s wine. Mahabaleshwar-based All India Strawberry Growers’ Association are leaving no stone unturned to present this delectable fruit in all its variant forms.

Kolkata: This is taking calls to a new level. Two elephants, who were born in a Dooars sanctuary and gifted to Japan’s Okinawa Zoo, are hooked on the mobile phone. When they get restless or stubborn, only the voices of their mahouts – back home in Bengal – calm them.

Panaji: In the wake of rising crime cases involving foreign tourists in Goa, the state government has decided to formulate a multi-agency security cover for its beaches.

Bangalore : Ramgadhwalon, there are plans to turn your ‘village’ into a resort. But some city-based heritage lovers are concerned over the plan to turn Gabbar Singh’s Ramgadh, or Ramanagaram where the memorable blockbuster Sholay was shot, into a resort. They have joined hands to save a slice of Karnataka’s heritage

Mumbai: Delving deep into the sea off tarkarli coast, swimming with dolphins and coming face-to-face with marine life may not be such a distant dreams for tourists from Mumbai and Maharashtra after all. If things go as planned, the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) will launch the state’s first scuba diving facility by April 2011.

Mumbai: The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) – whose fleet has evolved from the red-and-yello ordinary ST buses to hi-tech ones including 88 AC Volvo services – now plans to introduce sleeper air-conditioned (AC) coaches for long-distances routes.

Mumbai: For over one lakh people who use the Mumbai-Pune Express way daily, their mobile calls or internet connectivity is set to improve with in the next four months. With the steady growth of the ‘knowledge corridor’ along the Expressway, the MSRDC is planning to install special fibre optic cables and boosters over a 95-km-stretch.