Doctoring the query

Congress leaders hosted a series of lunches this month for the Delhi media, but the jury is still out as to who threw the best party. Sachin Pilot, who follows the tradition of his late father Rajesh Pilot in hosting a farmer8217;s lunch, had perhaps the most exclusive guest list with several senior editors present. However, Pilot8217;s rustic fare 8212; dessert was a guava with a bit of jaggery 8212; was overshadowed by Veerappa Moily and Jaipal Reddy, who had hired professional caterers and offered a huge spread of South Indian delicacies, including spicy prawn and fish curries. Moily, as head of the future challenges committee, scored a social coup with Rahul Gandhi showing up at his party. But there was such a scramble to speak to Gandhi that the garden party turned virtually into a press conference with guests pushing and jostling. Reddy may not have had such a high-profile guest at his do, but the general consensus was that he offered much better vegetarian fare, including neer dosa and pesarattu.

Kapil Sibal had hired two buses to transport journalists to his beautifully landscaped farm in Chhatarpur. Some guests complained about the distance and the lack of hard liquid refreshment, but there was an array of old Delhi chaat dishes to compensate. Meanwhile, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram broke with tradition and hosted a pre-budget lunch for financial journalists at his residence on pongal.

Timed to click

A Swiss manufacturer has conceived and patented a panchang wristwatch which does not just tell you the auspicious dates according to the Hindu calendar but also calculates for you the inauspicious rahu kaal period on a particular day. Since timing is a key element in the lives of our politicians, businessmen and the superstitious, some of our desi astrologers could lose customers to the watch.

Incidentally, the concept of the watch was the brainwave of Chitra Subramaniam, best known as the intrepid investigative journalist who broke the Bofors story. Subramaniam says that journalism and Bofors are now behind her and she has launched a new career in business.

Feeling left out

In the middle of each page of the 2008 Lok Sabha calendar, there is a small picture of President Pratibha Patil, Vice-President Hamid Ansari and Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee. Some Opposition MPs quibble that until now the calendar was not personality-based, and if photographs of these three were to be included, then why not pictures of the Leader of the House and the Leader of the Opposition as well? They feel that the three personalities have been selected simply because they belong to the Congress-Left alliance. Neither former president Abdul Kalam nor then vice-president Bhairon Singh Shekhawat figured in the Lok Sabha calendar during their five years in office.

Commissioning his own plan

Following a Delhi High Court order, the Delhi Municipal Corporation commissioned a redevelopment plan for the historic Jama Masjid precinct in November 2005. The courts, the Delhi Urban Arts Commission and the Delhi government, were all involved in the proposed model, which was finally conceptualised by a leading private architect. Eminent historians, urban planners, economists and residents were consulted. The whole plan was submitted in two volumes in September last year, but the process of implementation has not yet begun. A municipal deputy commissioner seems to feel that he has the power to veto the view of expert town planners and formulate an alternative proposal of his own, despite his lack of professional expertise.

Perhaps commercial exploitation of the area outweighs aesthetic and historic considerations for the MCD babus.

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