Envelope journalism lacks courage to take on firmsIf any more proof is needed to present the sorry state of affairs that has engulfed the present day media,here is one. The issue was the hardship and environment degradation that the Pipavav port and the adjoining shipyard in the Amreli district,had caused to the neighbouring island of Shial Bet. The other day,a local was narrating the story of the port to a select audience the entire media fraternity from Gujarat. The story went something like this the port destroying the only route connecting Shial Bet to the mainland; about how even pregnant women from the island are made to wait by the port officials in the name of security before they are allowed to get down; about the damage that the dredging around the island had caused to the livelihood of fishermen; and how this has either dried up or salinated the wells and hand-pumps in Shial Bet. And to the writers utter shock,the entire bunch of journalists even in these times of breaking news syndrome unanimously decided to pass on the story to The Indian Express. Some of them casually remarked: Arre! You write it. Its a pro-people and anti-corporate story. Only your paper can publish it. Welcome to the new age of 'envelope journalism'! Addiction brews among AmdavadisAS two more persons (this time staffers of V S Hospital),who consumed the deadly 'chemical' were rushed to the hospital on Wednesday,the city police claimed (off the record) that this time it is hooch,but refused to come on record. When asked,a senior official in the Crime Branch claimed that people in the city are addicted. They have huge addiction for various things,he maintained; and so,its not just methanol,even hooch flows everywhere in the city. The official probably forgot that the DCB is not only investigating the methanol episode and claiming otherwise that people are into methanol addiction,but it is the same DCB,which claimed to have set up special check-points in the city where hooch was once brewed. Seems,this time,the Gujarat Police ran short of names of other solvents,otherwise,propyl alcohol (next in line to methanol) could have easily come to their rescue,and confessions could have been avoided (strictly off the record!). Poor time managementTHE honourable chief guest,the honourable Chief Minister will arrive in the next five minutes, the lady announcer apologetically informed the packed 400-seat auditorium and the hundred or so watching the live telecast along the corridors and lecture halls at AMA. It was 7.35 pm,exactly an hour and 35 minutes past schedule,when the Chief Minister was to inaugurate the AMA's new audio-visual auditorium. At 6.30,the announcer had said "soon". This time,she wasn't too far off-target. The CM arrived 10 minutes later,right before the live telecast turned mute to groans from a by-now-restless audience. After about 15 minutes,by which the AMA president had finished his silent speech,the sound came back just in time to hear the lady announcing again,this time rather ironically,The new auditorium is a state-of-the-art audio-visual auditorium with world-class facilities from around the world. Where fish flows with waterTHE other day,some residents of Dwarka city had quite an unusual experience they had fish delivered to their homes,right through the water pipeline provided by the civic body! It so happened that as the residents of the Ghanshyam Nagar area in Dwarka woke up in the morning and opened the taps,along with the water flowed small fish,dead ones. The residents,struck by bewilderment,later informed the Dwarka Nagar Palika's water works branch about the 'fish supply'. Officials rushed to the area and commenced their investigation. But as of now,the residents curiosity knows no bounds; guess they've to wait till probe is over. Loks get princely treatmentIN the olden days,kings used to hold courts to listen to public grievances and such courts were called the 'King's Court'. Now,under the democratic system,ministers have replaced kings,but the courts aren't termed 'Minister's Court' but only that of the people. Last week,people coming to the district collector's office got nothing short of a royal treatment! Every complainant coming with some or other (long-pending) grievance was offered a chair,so that he or she could wait till his or her turn. Not only that,office peons moved around offering chilled water to them! At the end of the day,the visitors did get a feeling of importance,while the minister might have got the feeling of dispensing justice like a king. Keeping creativity with a differenceCREATIVE abilities of government officials are bound to die young,thanks to the archaic setup of the bureaucracy. But,some people are an exception to this rule,Himanshurai Raval,for example. Raval,serving with a reputed lending agency,writes under the pen name 'Haqeer'. The novel idea of coming out with his Gujarati songs collection Anugoonj came to his mind when he,along with his friends,decided to celebrate Qazi Nazrul Islam's death anniversary (probably the first time in Ahmedabad). The event evoked good response from people,including the likes of Tejender Singh 'Gagan',the director of Doordarshan Kendra. It's only such officials,whose creative sensibilities ensure the zing thing in the government functioning and the idea of reaching out to people,creatively. Future netas need to practise cleanliness,then preach VADODARA: THE issue of cleanliness may be an agenda for the student leaders going to the M S University Students Union (MSUSU) polls,but cleanliness is conspicuously missing from the campus. Both the student bodies the NSUI and the ABVP have cleanliness as an agenda. An Iraqi student at the MSU opined,The teachers and students ought to come together and clean up the mess. Pointing out the cards of the contesting candidates strewn across the MSU Arts Faculty canteen,he said: "The campus is so beautiful. Only if the student leaders could take a little care,it would be even better. If these are the issues that student leaders are contesting the elections for,they should first practice it and make the administration feel sorry so that they can take initiatives to clean up the mess." Clean bowled!IT has been quite some time that the Sir Sayajirao General Hospital (SSGH) got its CCTV cameras in place. Now,with the screen put up at the hospital superintendents office,flashing visuals from various wards,a reporter glaring at the screen the other day noticed something and could not help but pose a question. "The emergency centre and the other wards look unbelievably clean on your TV screen. We go to the wards everyday,but never saw the floors sparkling so much as on the screen!" To this the superintendent,tickling the funny bone,promptly replied: "Well,you see,we are cleaning the TV screen everyday!!!" Fine drive keeps traffic chaos onTHESE days,fine collection seems to be the top most priority of the traffic police. The Chakli Circle happens to be quite a chaotic zone for the commuters coming from Gotri,Jetalpur and Old Padra road. But one fine day,they were happily surprised to see a battalion of traffic officials at the junction,which is crucial as it connects four different areas and hence the heavy traffic. Unfortunately,the initial joy was just a momentary one,for the commuters soon realised that the jawans were there to collect fine for offences like driving without licence,without putting on the seat belts and not having the PUC certificate. So,the chaos continues Bridge to nowhere THE walk-over bridge at the city station area,as conceptualised by the VMC,is giving nightmares to the pedestrians trying to cross the roads. The area has turned out to be a puzzle,especially,with broad roads leading to fast vehicular movement and the traffic police managing the haphazard auto rickshaw drivers. The bottleneck at Kadak Bazaar in particular,is quite a trouble for the elderlies. It is only on a few occasion that a traffic official can be seen regulating the traffic and help give a chance to the pedestrians to cross the road. Contributed by Adam Halliday,Debarati Basu,Gaurav Sharma,Hitarth Pandya,Shubhlaxmi Shukla,Tanvir A Siddiqui and Ujjwala Nayudu.
