Citygritty 8212; Pune

Too good to be trueA letter arrives with a Nigerian stamp on it. That's strange! Does it offer a bonanza inside? You bet it does. This conf...

Too good to be true
A letter arrives with a Nigerian stamp on it. That8217;s strange! Does it offer a bonanza inside? You bet it does. This confidential8217; letter was written by a Nigerian lady from Lagos to an Indian national in Pune. The former, a certain Fortune Wase Mohammed, had apparently lost her husband. On his demise, her attorney told her that he had a secret account of 18 million under a fictitious name and in order to operate it, she needed to transfer it into a foreign bank account.

The writer requested the recipient to furnish the name and address of his bank and his account number, fax and telephone numbers. Naturally, the person who responds will gain tremendously from any transaction, and how! He will receive 20 per cent of the amount 8211; which amounts to approximately 3.5 million. A telephone number of the attorney is given as the contact number. The recipient8217;s first and final reaction to this letter the third one was one of disbelief.

It seems a lot of people in the city have also received such unbelievably good tidings. Unbelievable because they just did not believe in all the wonderful news! Not that easy to hunt a fortune, y8217;know!

A model personality
Model-turned-choreographer Shyamoli Varma is back with her personality development workshops, the seventh of its kind to be held in the city. The 21-day course that teaches exercise and body alignment, modelling, how to handle job interviews, voice modulation, attitude and head-to-toe grooming is slated to be kicked off by next week, once Shyamoli has her quota of eight to 10 students.

According to the former supermodel, who has been conducting such workshops in Mumbai too, it takes a little time for such courses to pick up in Pune, since people here are a little more reserved and shy than their Mumbai counterparts. However, given the popularity of her earlier workshops, her personal experience in the world of modelling and, of course, the present generation8217;s leanings towards glamour, it8217;s probably just a matter of time before her workshop takes off in full swing at the Freemason8217;s Hall in the next few days, the Rs 12,000 fee not with standing.

Crystal clear
Where were the people? Down and out at Crystal Ball for the Limca Timepass. The music was good read loud, with all the current favourites and the beer flowed as it does in any pub worth its name, but all this was minus the all-important crowd.

Discussions were abound on the absence of the junta 8211; whether it was the World Cup football matches that did the party in or was it the Pune crowd that just let the organisers down? Whatever the cause, we shall never know, but the weird and wacky ideas did make their presence felt 8211; a T-shirt was used as a surrogate mistletoe to reward the most eligible couple! All in all, it was a good time, but it could have done with some more people.