Mayors musings Once,twice and thrice beaten,but Pune Mayor Mohansingh Rajpal is never shy. He continues to freely air his views,sometimes inviting praise but drawing flak and leading to controversies on many occasions. Last week,the Mayor was at it again,saying most of the elected representatives in the civic body fail to understand the civic budget. This led to protests from many corporators. The Mayor had to eat humble pie,withdrawing his comment and saying he never meant what he apparently said. After the political party leaders boycotted the meeting called by the Mayor,Rajpal had to meet them personally and apologise for his comment. Silent Observer wrong name? Even as the census data has shown an increase in female foeticide cases in Maharashtra and other states,several agencies and government machinery are working to curb female infanticide with the help of the Silent Observer. The machine which helps track sonographies,aiming at preventing sex determination of unborn children,can't be called 'silent'. This was the theory of the district health officer (DHO) in a recent press meet on the sidelines of a census meeting. The DHO said One can't be so silent about such a thing,we need to talk and spread the word,'' he said. His argument was that the name was just not right for such an equipment. "The Silent Observer should be ideally called 'active tracker' in the media as it records sonography images and links it to an online portal called Save The Baby Girl. It is mandatory for all the doctors to file the details of each and every pregnancy case that comes to them and traces ultrasound details throughout the duration of the pregnancy. The data stored can be used as evidence in suspicious cases of sex-selective abortion. The Osama confusion Its funny that just one alphabet separates the names,'Osama' and 'Obama'. At a press meet of the Marathi translation of Jean Sasson's Growing up Bin Laden,a journalist repeatedly asked Jean during a telephonic conversation,How is the atmosphere in America? after Osamas death. But the journalist used the name of Obama erroneously resulting in the audience listening in shouting corrections. The journalist was oblivious of his mistake. After repeating the question about three or four times,with the same mistake over and over again,the journalist finally realised he was saying 'Obama' instead of 'Osama' and apologised. When Jean understood the journalist's question,she consoled him saying,It's okay,even I make that mistake all the time. Bus karo,PMPML will be same The other day,a PMPML conductor was making tall claims about the new CNG buses. He was explaining to an elderly passenger how the buses are comfortable and there had been hardly any problems such as breakdowns. Five minutes after he ended his sermon,the bus broke down. The driver shouted: The bus has run out of CNG. The passengers got down and were herded into another bus. But the elderly passenger left only after telling the conductor: Bus karo,PMPML will never improve. The namesake My name is always in news, says Ashok Shankarrao Chavan,an inspector with Pune division of the state highway police who has now been transferred to Aurangabad on promotion as Deputy Superintendent of Police with Crime Investigation Department. He has the same name,surname and even fathers name as former chief minister Ashok Chavan. People always ask me whether I have had any funny experiences in my life because of the name. But let me tell you,everyone just gets surprised and there is no scope for confusion because there is no possibility of my namesake being found at places where I am the police station,patrolling van or a crime scene. (Compiled by Ajay Khape,Nisha Nambiar,Anjali Jhangiani & Manoj More)
