Delhi Underground

Top secret

While the Bharatiya Janata Party has made public the list of its star campaigners and the dates on which they will campaign for various candidates in the capital,the rally venues have been kept under the wraps. Asked why,Delhi unit chief Vijay Goel said,“We do not want the Congress to book the venues where we plan to hold our rallies. If we announce the dates early,they will grab our space.”

Generation gap

To mark 100 years of Crossword puzzle,the Central Board of Secondary Examination (CBSE) conducted the first round of All-India Crossword Championship in the first week of November. The response it received from students,though,was far from heartening. It seems they were not as excited to decode complicated puzzled as the Board had anticipated. “I don’t understand. We used to love solving those puzzles. We thought kids still enjoyed it,but clearly,we were wrong,” a top CBSE official said.

Damage control

Having drawn flak for “academic reforms” introduced over the last three years,the Delhi University administration seems to be using every opportunity to garner support for its measures. Recently,its website carried clippings of newspaper reports which showed the university in good stead. A few days ago when Vive-Chancellor Dinesh Singh completed three years of his term,the university administration uploaded a list of “achievements under the stewardship of Professor Dinesh Singh” on the website. Implementation of the semester system and the four-year programme,“administrative alertness” and “developing infrastructure” were among the achievements that figured on the list.

Work pressure

One morning,a district head was spotted walking up and down a park,looking visibly tensed. He seemed to be muttering under his breath,as if rehearsing lines or mugging answers just before an important examination. It was found that the police officer was actually preparing a detailed diary of all developments in the district,which was to be submitted to seniors. Another officer was heard overheard saying,“The work load has increased for district heads after a series of corruption cases against policemen were reported. There is a lot of pressure now.”

Free advice

A senior judge of the Delhi High Court,which is often witness to long,rambling arguments made by lawyers,expressed his displeasure with one such “floating” argument after a lawyer failed to clarify his stand even after being given a chance to amend his written plea. “I will give you this free legal advice. Write down clearly,‘This is my stand’ and then argue on that…” the judge told the lawyer.

Metro madness

After the launch of the Gurgaon Rapid Metro,staff at ticket counters seemed to be rather confused. Some of the station in-charges were found to have no knowledge of the stations on the line,while others were found handing out tokens for Delhi Metro stops. The Rapid Metro staff claimed they were simply suffering from lack of practice. However,two days later,the Delhi Metro staff found themselves similarly confused. Many of them refused to give out tokens for Phase-III stations only to realise that the Rapid Metro charged a flat fare for all its stations.