Cinema NirvanaAfter an exciting stint in Dr Jabbar Patel's movie on Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, Swami Anand Subhuti, British journalist turned Oshoite has another tryst with the screen. This time it is a television film on Lokmanya Tilak. Swami Subhuti's role is that of Walter Rand, the British official who was assasinated by the Chapekar brothers on Ganeshkhind Road. Though Swami Subhuti is not in Pune, his comments on his role can be ascertained from his piece of writing describing the film shooting in the July issue of Osho Times.He writes, ``There is a faint `pop' in my ears - it's an air gun whose sound will be later magnified into a pistol shot - and that's my cue. Clutching my left shoulder and grimacing in agony, I fall into the lap of my horrified wife. The paint brushes come out, and in seconds there's blood all over the place. As I lie groaning in the coach, my inner critic tells me that it's not a great acting death.But Mr Dhumale (the director) is satisfied. I wipe off the fake blood, change out of costume and gratefully jump into a studio shuttle bus, heading back to the Koregaon Park area.''Wedding greens The armed services are known for doing everything a wee bit differently, and this seems to include even the way they welcome a newly-married couple in their midst. In Pune's College of Military Engineering, the bride is made to perch either on a cycle that has its seat missing or on a cart that has to be pulled by hubby dear.With the officers and their families surrounding the couple, this procession then heads towards the officers institute amidst much revelry and bursting of crackers. On reaching the institute, the couple is seated in the centre where questions are fired at them concerning their first meeting, their mutual attraction towards each other and any other query that could possibly cause them embarrassment or discomfort- which seems to be the main aim of the exercise. What it also leads to is the young and often nervous bride getting to know her new extended family well and feeling at home with them at the end of the session. Life in the army they say is mighty fine.Reservation derailedAs if the serpentine queues at most railway booking counters are not enough to cause distress to potential travellers, confusion was compounded at the Karve Road Railway booking centre. It seemed to have run out of printed forms last week. Thus, instead of the forms, the folks were being handed out plain sheets of paper where they had to fill in the slots that are in a normal form. And since no one could remember all the slots, someone left out the address, another omitted to specify the age and some others didn't sign at the end. Trust the Indian railways to make even a routine chore like filling out a reservation form seem a challenge in life!
