Although ebay once hosted someone who wanted to sell "one slightly used human soul," the company's founder Pierre Omidyar, who still serves as its chairman, is known for his social conscience. Omidyar's philanthropy comes with a demand for precision delivery: show me it will make a difference.

A school in Coimbatore is among the beneficiaries. In an India connection that predates ebay's June 2004 acquisition of Baazee.com, the school was rewarded with a modest $ 5000 to build a new toilet block after it proved that girls were dropping out of school when they began menstruating because there were no bathrooms.

On Saturday, ebay reacted angrily to the arrest of its country manager Avnish Bajaj, calling it "completely unwarranted." Acknowledging that the listing of the DPS (Delhi Public School) smut clip violated Baazee.com's policies and user agreement, it said in a statement that the video clip itself was not shown on the site and the offending item was removed from the site once it was discovered.

Moreover, Bajaj had voluntarily travelled to New Delhi to further cooperate with the police. The information provided by Baazee had allowed the police to locate and arrest the seller. "It is unfortunate that local law enforcement has chosen to misdirect its energies towards Mr. Bajaj," the statement said.

While the US administration made its mandatory inquiries because of Bajaj's US citizenship, the arrest stirred interest in the cyber community, with some online denizens arguing that the Indian law enforcement just did not understand the business where anyone with an account hawked items in good faith. The items could be removed only when it was reported they had violated the rules.

Ebay has been in the news for hosting some dodgy sales, but typically it withdraws items of questionable taste or origin when it is brought to its notice, and none of its executives have had to see the inside of a clink in the US on this account. On Saturday, the site threw up more than 1000 items under a search for "porn," all of which are available to any Indian with a credit card and a mailing address.

Bajaj's connection to ebay run deep. Like the student who peddled the smut clip on Baazee, Bajaj too is an IITian. A B.Tech in Computer Science from IIT Kanpur, he went to the University of Wisconsin in Madison for his M.S and earned an MBA from the Harvard Business School. He worked a while with Apple before moving to Goldman Sachs in their high technology practice, where he dealt with clients such as Yahoo, Priceline and eBay.

In 2000, Bajaj and his colleague Suvir Sujan left their jobs in the US and returned to India to start Baazee.com. Despite the spectacular collapse of e-commerce ventures across the world, they hung in, and were rewarded for their efforts when ebay, in an effort to gain a toehold in India, acquired them for $ 50 million in June this year.

Now, as the NRI returnee's e-Swades dream turns into a Tihar Jail nightmare, some of his peers in the US who declined to be named questioned a legal system that is merciless in clapping him in jail when criminals with more serious charges are bailed out. India, one of them maintained, had still to come to terms with its arrival in the information age amid rules that were still unclear. "If they want to clean up smut, they should start with Palika Bazar," he said.

Purr-fect: If looks could kill, Lisa Ray, watchmaker Rado's brand ambassador, would be a threat to peace. As it happens, the lady describes herself as a Sufi at heart. More than 10 years after this half Bengali, half Polish girl swept into the limelight with a series of ads and the famous video of the late Sufi maestro, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Ray remains a bit of enigma shrouded in a little mystery. "I have clear definitions - work, play. I never confuse the two and I don't let the world know about my private life. That's the way I want it. If that's enigmatic, it suits me," she laughs.

Ray was the proverbial Indian dream woman of the 90s - picture perfect milk and cream complexion, striking cat eyes and an hourglass figure to die for. Bollywood, Hollywood (film) made her a huge star in Canada, where she grew up.

"I was used to being recognised in India, but suddenly everyone knew me in Canada. These were the people I had grown up with, so it was a little surprising," she says. She has just finished Deepa Mehta's Water, which is why she is sporting short hair. Talking about her latest hairstyle, she says, "I have to grow them back, for sure." Lisa Ray has also finished a Canadian movie named Seeking Fear.

The grey-green eyed beauty says nothing can ever cut her down to size. The green-grey eyed beauty, talking on Indian films, says, "The Bollywood stuff is really not very challenging. But I've now got the right agent in Hollywood and there is some very interesting work I'm looking at. "I'm Sufi in spirit. Till something great comes, I'm happy wandering around."

Lisa Ray was in New Delhi recently to showcase the Rado watch collection. Rado, part of the Swatch group, the world's largest watch manufacturing conglomerate, started its operations in India in early 1998, and is now in the process of expanding and strengthening its distribution network across the country. She also poses with Rado Watches President Roland Streule at a showcase of the Rado watch collection. Lisa Ray poses for the media during a press conference for the promotion of Rado watches in Kolkata.

Spice Girls' dare bare act

WASHINGTON, Dec 15: 'Baby Spice' Emma Bunton has revealed that the pop band Spice Girls, which was a phenomenal success in mid and late nineties, had once shocked a group of tourists in a Los Angeles hotel during a playful late night stripping act. Bunton said that all the spice girls always provoked each other to do funny things, and they had once dared to walk almost naked in a hotel corridor.

"Mel C dared us to streak down the hallway with nothing to cover ourselves, but tiny washcloths. We had to run down the corridor, touch the far wall, turn and run back," Rate the Music quoted Bunton as saying. "We almost made it when the elevator doors opened on our floor. There were people in the elevator, but nobody got out. They must have been in shock," she added.

Singles rest on women's lap - made of foam!

Japanese men who want to rest their weary heads this Christmas season are finding comfort in the lap of a woman - made of foam. The torso-less "lap pillow" stands upright like a small cushion and resembles a woman's legs in a miniskirt. "Single men find this soothing," said Mitsuo Takahashi of the seven-employee manufacturer Trane KK.

"From the time people were kids, people have laid their heads on their mothers' laps to get their ears cleaned," he said. "This is made to be quite close to the real thing." So far the company has shipped about 3,000 of the sets of laps, which are retailing for 9,429 yen (90 dollars) including tax, Takahashi said. The healing goods are also selling well as gag gifts for New Year's parties, he said.

Potion that puts you in the mood for love

SINGAPORE, Dec 15: Fragrances aimed at getting Singaporeans in the mood for love will soon be sold abroad, after being used by the government in a campaign aimed at boosting the city-state's declining birth rate. His and hers "Romancing Singapore Eau de Parfum" will soon be exported to Asia, North America and Europe, said Jan Chan, marketing manager for the company that handles the scents, Cosmetical Asia Pte. Ltd.

The perfumes - a floral essence for her and a musky scent for him - were created by chemistry students from Singapore Polytechnic prep school to coincide with the island country's "Romancing Singapore" campaign in February this year. The campaign was a government effort to help citizens find love and boost the country's record-low birth rate.

The perfumes are being marketed globally because of their "overwhelming popularity," Singapore Polytechnic said in a statement. "14,000 bottles of the perfumes handed out at various Romancing Singapore events were snapped up and an additional 3,000 limited edition bottles were sold out in record time," it said, without elaborating. The perfumes will be sold in 50-milliliter bottles at 49 Singapore dollars (US$29.70; euro23.7) locally from Friday.