City Scape 8212; Chandigarh

First and lastWas it the electronic voting machine which did the trick in Faridkot? Perhaps so, going by the post poll gossip. The secret...

First and last
Was it the electronic voting machine which did the trick in Faridkot? Perhaps so, going by the post poll gossip. The secret of the last person on the ballot paper in this case, on the EVM is now unfolding.

The last candidate, an unknown person, polled about 14,000 votes and the person above him also had a few hundred votes in his kitty. It was Sukhbir who was number one on the machine, followed by Jagmeet Singh Brar of the Congress, now described as a giant killer. During the poll campaign, the Akalis told people to press the first button. They were right. The supporters of Jagmeet made the same pitch for the second button. Then some polling officials had a bright idea: reverse the machine. The last button becomes the number one button. Perhaps the village voter did not bother to check what symbol was beside what button. Many pressed the button which would have been the last. Sukhbir lost the election by about 5,000 votes.

Not so innocent
A colleague had a unique experience last week. When he called up a prominent Punjab politician, the big-shot8217;s granddaughter picked up the phone. By her voice she must have been seven or eight years old but with a highly precocious command of rough language.

Finding it difficult to talk to the child, the reporter asked her to pass on the phone to a senior family member. quot;I have an elder sister, but she too is like me,quot; the kid retorted before passing on the phone to her servant. Just when the harassed servant was about to complete his first sentence, the kid grabbed the phone. quot;The servant you are talking too is an ullu ka 8230;,quot; she said, before handing the phone back to the poor servant. For the record, the servant was the most decent among them all who talked to the scribe that day.

Groves of Academe
A senior senate member gave a senior UT Administration official a hard time at the Panjab University convocation on Sunday. Both were seated on the stage as chief guest I.K. Gujral addressed the convocation. The Senate member began to cough loud and long. The officer gave him one of those looks but the gentleman ignored the glance and continued coughing. The officer then tried one last time by turning her neck with a jerk in his direction8230; probably to embarrass him 8230; but in vain. He loudly coughed again without the slightest hint of embarrassment on his side and continued hacking throughout the convocation.

quot;The Panjab University confers upon Professor Ashok Vijh the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa8230;quot; intoned the Vice-Chancellor. Prof Vijh was sitting near the dias but appeared not to have heard his name as he kept sitting. He might have continued to sit, lost in his own thoughts, had the V-C not reached out and patted him on the back. But that wasn8217;t all: The professor couldn8217;t take the degree because his robe got twisted around his left arm. The attendants had to take off Vijh8217;s robe, untangle the sleeves and then put it back on him before he could take his degree. The whole procedure gave the audience a good chuckle.

Police blotter
The UT police have rewarded city resident, Deepak Kohli, for giving them quot;valuablequot; information that led to the recovery of stolen goods. In addition to Rs 2,000, UT SSP C.S.R. Reddy presented Kohli with a citation and said that he deserved the award both for the assistance to the city police and his future encouragement.

Another police award has gone to Head Constable Kanwal Pal. The honest cop found a purse containing Rs 12,000 and saw to it that it got back to the owner. The department is giving him a Class-I commendation certificate and Rs 500 in cash.

At the workshop on quot;Community-Police Interface: Agenda 21quot; organised last week, Senior Superintendent of Police Headquarters Ajay Kashyap was conspicuous, thanks to his cellular phone. Seated right in the middle of the speakers, he would get a trrring, receive it, say quot;hello 8230; hold onquot; and then walk out of the hall. This happened at least 10 times.

Bharat darshan
While Markfed has been in the news because of its financial crisis, the company decided to send its directors on an all-expenses-paid trip. The trip is titled a quot;study tourquot; and the directors get to visit many places where they are officially supposed to study business prospects.

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Markfed officials seek to justify the trip stating that this would help the organisation coordinate with other companies and get more business, but a perusal of the itinerary suggests that the trip will take the travellers all over India, and it is not just one director who goes to scout for business but all at the same time. Some directors have reportedly decided not to go, but the trip is certainly on. The official justification is that other organisations too go on study trips and that they too receive such delegations from other places.

A final thank-you
Doctors not only treat patients physically but leave strong impressions on their psyche as well. Take the case of a patient in the PGI8217;s Kidney Ward. This 25-year-old woman committed suicide by slitting her wrists but she left a suicide note in which she specifically thanked her doctor for all his efforts to cure her. She said she was taking the extreme step as quot;I can no longer bear the painquot;.

Armadillo territory
The Sodhi family of Panchkula8217;s Sector 2 woke up and found themselves host to a large scaly armadillo last week. The rare creature has made itself at home by digging a burrow in a corner of the garden. Sodhi says it comes out now and then 8212; to the consternation of the family dog. quot;He 8212; or she, as the case may be 8212; is welcome to stay 8230; it does no harm,quot; Sodhi declares, quot;but I do wish it would stay out long enough for me to get a photo.quot;

Lucky 13?
Chandigarh8217;s P. Khurrana, the pandit who predicted this year8217;s mid-term poll, now foresees significant changes at the national level. Atal Behari Vajpayee was sworn in as Prime Minister on October 13 at 10.30 a.m. when the shukla paksh Moon entered Scorpio. quot;This could mean changes at the national level and personal life of Vajpayee,quot; says Khurrana. quot;Mercury and Moon in the seventh house of the alliance may weaken the NDA; I see power-hungry leaders and differences of ideology.quot;

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Atal Behari Vajpayee took oath as the 13th Prime Minister of the 13th Lok Sabha on October 13th. Vajpayee became Prime Minister first time for 13 days, then for 13 months. Currently his age is 76 76=13. It all adds up to a super four.

Stop spot
A traffic blinker and a stop-sign stand where the V-3 road from Sector 44 intersects the Air Force Gate-to-Maloya road. A picture of the intersection accompanies this week8217;s edition of Cityscape. The signs are fine, except that the stop sign has been placed right in front of the blinker and that too upside-down. The photographer, who pointed out this little problem, requests the Traffic Police to spare some time from challaning to fix the signs properly.