By the way….

Once the news got out, plenty of people, giggly teenagers in particular, were buzzing around the place. Standing near the monument, they gazed at the walls, waiting for the hero.

The smarter ones, made themselves comfortable on the grass and munched on peanuts. There was a group with a guitar which kept people entertained for a while with some soulful strumming.

As the clocked ticked, the wait became very tiresome. Even the bunch of balloons, presumably to be used in the film had to be blown up twice. But, nobody was leaving.

Meanwhile, the bhelpuriwallahs set up their stalls. Not only were they selling spicy bhel, but they also took on the role of reliablesources of inside information. “Is there a shooting going on?” asked one obviously ignorant gentleman. The vendor let his imagination run wild. “Lunch is on and there is no possibility of seeing him now. But after lunch he will come out.” The gentleman hung around for an hour before calling it quits.

Producer Dilip Mehta explained: “See, this is Aamir Khan’s first serious role where he is not dancing around trees and kissing girls. Understandably he is a little tense about the role. That is why this is a closed shoot.”

Some days ago, Khan had made a public appearance and met his fans. But since then “he is tired”. Luckily for him, nobody was complaining. His fans continue to live in hope, vendors did brisk business and policemen on duty got a chance to snooze in the sun.

Surf the net at BCL

At the British Council libraries you can now send and receive electronic mail and surf the World Wide Web. Bang in the centre of the British Council library, Delhi, surrounded by racks of books, is arecently-installed a "Cyber Centre". Ten terminals at this centre allow access to the internet. You can send and receive electronic mail, surf the World Wide Web and even create your own home page. Apart from the Rs 50 users have to pay for every half hour they spend on the computers, the service is free of charge.

Gurpreet Singh Kochhar, Info Centre Officer at the Cyber Centre, says that Cyber Centres have also come up in the Calcutta and Bombay British Council libraries. The centre is open to users from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays to Saturdays. Eventually, the cyber facilities will be extended to all the British Council libraries in India and will be part of the regular services offered by the British Council.

Kochhar explains that users can create their personalised mailboxes at the Cyber Centre and thus receive electronic mail directly in their account. He says that though the centre is meant "basically for BCL members" , it is presently open to non-members as well at no extra charge.

Does that meannon-members will be denied access to the service in future? Probably not, for there are many who come to the centre only to surf the net. Mr Kochhar speaks of the possibility of a cyberclub being created. Members of this club would be able to access the service.

Kochhar says the Cyber Centre is using bandwidth aggregator technology which translates into speed of 75 Kbps. This means that it will be more effective than just a leased line.

Sandeep is one of the users of the cyber facilities at the BCL. Delhi. He works at the Taj Mahal Hotel. He comes here to send e-mail and to surf the net. "There are a few places in Delhi from where you can send e-mail, but there the operators do everything. Here, you can do your own thing — its much more fun". Moreover, he says, many of these places are quite expensive. He says that the Maurya also offers surfing facilities, but it is prohibitively expensive.

We asked Kochhar what kind of sites were most popular at the Cyber Centre. He opines that most users go in foreducation related sites and for e-mailing. There is also a large group of people who use the search engines to access sites on various topics.

The Cyber Centre will also allow users to access daily newspapers and periodicals within a few hours of publication. But the best thing about this centre is the friendly staff who are always ready to help those who are not too well-versed in using the internet.

A touch of Fleetwood Mac

Get rocked off your feet with Jeremy Spencer, former Fleetwood Mac, the advertisements read. Naturally, one expected Sirifort Auditorium to be under siege, but it was not. In fact, a security guard was happily handing out passes at the venue. Well, it just reflected that Spencer is not so hot. And this was confirmed when the main sponsors of the show couldn’t get his name right. “It is good to have Jeremy Sprigg with us” was followed by “Jimmy Spencer” and the speakers did not even realise that they were getting it all wrong.

Blissfully ignorant, they handed over themike to Jeremy Spencer and he made everybody’s evening. He was witty, good with his PR and of course, excellent with his guitar. And when he sang the blues he had everybody’s undivided attention.

The only interruptions in the evening were the requests for popular Fleetwood Mac numbers that kept coming up. “Don’t ask for the impossible. This is not Fleetwood, it is only me,” Spencer replied and moved on to the next number.

Once the interruptions were over, the distraction began. One enterprising lady decided to move with the music. She threw her back, let her hair down and glided up and down the aisle. By the time Spencer was on his last number, a group of teenagers joined her with some head banging.

And then, the grand finale. An upcoming singer sang Rehman’s Vande Materam. The auditorium was on its feet. Spencer stood in a corner strumming on his guitar, watching proud Indians singing along.

It’s a woman’s life

With The Cosmopolitan Show, the World Book fair and the Kamasutra parking inDelhi at the same time, young women living alone in the Capital’s hostels have a lot on their minds.

There’s this one about how Arundhati Roy looked gorgeous when she descended at the Book Fair in Pragati Maidan this morning dressed in a sari and cardigan. Later, when one Bengali fan asked her about her pricey bestseller, the lady said, “Buy the paperback.”

Pressed further, she said, “Borrow it from the library.” So the hostelers’ verdict was “She’s so P (as in professional).”

Then there’s also a big buzz about finding new accommodation after the lease term finishes at one hostel. Most of the wardens have many questions and the best answers are in the negative.

One such group was having a great laugh recounting their questioning. It went like this:

Warden: Are you new to Delhi?

Applicant: Yes.

Warden: Do you know where Connaught Place is?

Applicant: No, where is it? I’ve heard a lot about it.

Warden: Do you know Hindi?

Applicant: No. I have to take tutions.

And to think that thisgirl has been living in a CP hostel for the last three years!

— Contributed by Anuradha Nagaraj, Sayantan Dasgupta, Avinash Celestine and Nikhila Natrajan.