Off the record

Ad-blipSo who is Manu Dadlani? For the ignoramuses he is one of the contestants for the post of the president of the Khar gymkhana.No, your...

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So who is Manu Dadlani? For the ignoramuses he is one of the contestants for the post of the president of the Khar gymkhana.No, your diarist isn8217;t a member of the esteemed institute and nor is this a bit of PRgiri for the aforementioned Mr Dadlani. Just a stray observation: The other day as a bullet from Javagal Srinath 8212; in cricketing parlance apparently they call it a bouncer 8212; shattered Lanka De Silva8217;s viser and nearly his jaw, the TV screen went blank to make way for a beatific Siddharth Kak and Renuka Shahane-in their Surabhi grins, exhorting viewers to vote for Manu Dadlani on Dec 7 between 12 noon and 4 pm. Well, I won8217;t. I wanna know what8217;s happening to poor Lanka! But as mentioned earlier, since one is not a member of the Khar Gym, it8217;s doubtful that Dadlaniji gives two hoots for the diarist8217;s vote. Point is that by getting the Kak-Shahane duo to interject at crucial points in the India-Sri Lanka cliff-hanger- that- almost-was, on his behalf Mr Dadlani has ensured that he not only gets the Khar Gym voters8217; attention but the nation8217;s as well. And does it mean that from now till February next year all our cricket matches will be interrupted by PR spiel for politicos?

Train tale

Though the diarist had taken a vow not to bore you with Train me purse kho gaya aur phir mil gaya variety of stories but living in Mumbai it is virtually impossible to ignore the local trains. So here is a story about that Great Lifeline of this Great Megapolis excuse the hyperbole. Promise, it8217;ll be short:

The other day the diarist was travelling with motorman I H Khan on the Ambernath-bound local. Barely had the train slowed down at Thane station when six persons approached Khan saheb and asked him to to open his cabin door. As images of hooligans attacking motormen flashed through no doubt Khan8217;s mind the Group of Six entered and surprise! surprise! proceeded to garland the train8217;s speedometer. Err8230;was this the G-68217;s version of the slow-clap for CR8217;s notorious tardiness?

But it seems they merely wanted to honour Khan saheb as the 8220;charioteer who was carrying the bride-ie the train If you thought it was the chariot8217; sushh!! to the groom-ie Kalyan Station.8221; The baraatis then plied the motorman-by now thoroughly confused with the mixed metaphors-with a shreefal auspicious coconut and Rs 51 as pooja offerings.

Letter-perfect

This item is dedicated to Ramyah! No, that8217;s not the diarist showing appreciation for the buxom beauty. Just saying thanks for some inspiration. Having tried plastic surgery, silicon8230;er8230;enhancement, cosmetic dentistry Bollywood wannabes are now into numerology. Needless to natter, the latest star to join the bandwagon is Ramya who has added an h8217; to her name, hoping to enhance the box office chances of David Dhawan8217;s Bade Miya Chote Miya and Banarasi Babu.

But Ramyah is not the lone hopeful. Her long list of worthy predecessors include Karishma Kapoor, who dropped the h from her name, producer Suresh Groaver who added the extra a to his surname and Partho Ghosh who dropped the h from his name. However, Nirmal aka Aditya Pancholi who morphed to Panscholi, reverted to his original surname a year later after failing to find the spectacular success that was supposed to come with the new name.

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But the person who could teach today8217;s lot a thing or two about name changes is Parikshat Sahni. Starting life as a mundane Ajay Sahni he changed his name to Parikshit. Then realised to his chagrin that the second part of his first name resembled an expletive that is also a bodily function and so changed it to Parikshat. Last heard he still calls himself that.