Cockney Curry

In our local pub, a Sikh friend of mine looked into his pint of beer and philosophised: 8216;8216;Maybe I just need to stick a sign on my turban which says 8216;Nah, mate, wrong kind. Our lot drink8217;.8217;8217;

Straight out of the classroom
PM Tony Blair, who is still intent on pursuing this nebulous concept of 8216;8216;winning Muslim hearts and minds8217;8217;, recently invited key personalities within the the British Muslim community to Downing Street for crisis talks. But apart from the likes of Sir Gulam Noon the ready meals tycoon and Pakistani Labour MP Shahid Malik was someone that the Prime Minister hadn8217;t met before yet who has more insight into the minds of inner-London Muslim youth: the first female Muslim head-teacher of a comprehensive.

The PM should have asked his missus 8212; Cherie had presented the Professional of the Year award to Bushra Nazir a few months ago.

The headmistress of a secondary school, where 90 per cent of the children are of Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Indian origin and two-thirds are Muslim, calls a spade a spade. 8216;8216;If the polls are saying that 32 per cent of British Muslims think that Western society is immoral and should be brought to an end, then I ask myself: if they hate it so much, why do they live here?8217;8217;

But Mrs Nazir remains down to earth. When she got the invite to 10 Downing, she put on her smartest salwar-kameez when she suddenly thought: 8216;8216;Downing Street? I have no idea where it is!8217;8217;

Royal sellout after royal snub?
I was at a party recently at Aura, a central London nightclub, with an ultra chi-chi guestlist, despite the dress code being a James Bond theme. As one of the party8217;s hostesses was a minor European royal 8212; Princess Tamara Czartoryski-Borbon is a second cousin to King Juan Carlos of Spain, work that one out 8212; it was no surprise to find a minor Brit royal there too.

Surprisingly, though Lady Gabriella Windsor was happy to be there in public with her Indian boyfriend, Aatish Taseer, when one of the photographers asked her permission to take a picture of the happy couple instead of doing a paparazzi grab, Lady Ella refused.

But imagine my surprise when in this week8217;s Hello! magazine there is page after page after page of pictures of8230; yes, you guessed it. And apart from the fact that Hello! usually pays its royal stars to appear, it also did a plug for Ella8217;s parents, Prince and Princess Michael of Kent who are trying to sell their home for several million. What price love?

Walk the cause for those who can8217;t
Tony Robinson, the comedian and television presenter, who became known for his role of Baldrick in the comic BBC Blackadder series, is promoting the 11-day trek across Himachal Pradesh to Dharamsala in May next year to raise funds for Help the Aged. But now, would-be trekkers would have to raise 339;2,000 sponsorship. Robinson said: 8216;8216;Trek India is a fantastic opportunity to raise money for Help the Aged whilst seeing some of the world8217;s most extraordinary sights.8217;8217;

The final day of the trek is a visit to Delhi8217;s Mobile Medicare Unit to see where the charity8217;s funds go. Visit http://www.helptheaged.org.uk/events for further information.
Robina Dam is Editor of Shoo Magazine. http://www.shoomagazine.com