Snapshots

Foreign HandIt's been only a few days since the firebrand Congress leader and backbone of its shouting brigade' S. S. Ahluwalia joined t...

Foreign Hand

It8217;s been only a few days since the firebrand Congress leader and backbone of its shouting brigade8217; S. S. Ahluwalia joined the BJP and he is already at the job he knows best 8212; provoking his opponents. At a recent interaction with newspersons in Jammu, Ahluwalia created quite a stir by linking Congress president Sonia Gandhi8217;s name with the ISI. 8220;She is playing into the hands of the Pakistani agency through her statements on Kargil,8221; he said. 8220;But are you saying that Sonia is an ISI agent,8221; came a pointed question. 8220;This is for you to guess,8221; said Ahluwalia. More than the Congress with whom Ahlwalia has had a 28-year association, it was Sonia who was the target of his attack. 8220;I wrote her letters in Hindi and English on various issues, including Kargil, but she did not reply. However, as soon as I wrote a letter in Italian, she sent George for talks,8221; said the new Sardar leader of the BJP.

Political Makeovers

A facial? Strange are the demands of an election campaign.As the BJP candidate from Pune Lok Sabha constituency tries to break into a traditional Congress bastion, riding on a Vajpayee wave8217;, a facial comes handy. Pradeep Rawat, all ready to meet the media, is caught between briefings and orders for a facial by friend and campaign manager, Vikas Matkhari. 8220;Appearance does matter Pradeep,8221; advises Mathkari, 8220;a pleasant appearance will help.8221; Rawat counters: 8220;Not really, I am quite happy with what I have,8221; pointing to the grin on the sticker of his mugshot pasted on the car. But a quick dash to a beauty parlour, minutes spent in pruning up, changes into a fresh kurta pyjama and the man is ready to hit the trail again.

Waiting In The Rain

Twenty-seven years on, Rajesh Khanna was probably forced to sing a remixed version of the famous song from Aradhana 8220;meri party ki president kab aayegi tu8221;. The former super-star had to wait for over half-an-hour outside a small aircraft with an umbrella in hand at the Pune airport on Wednesday. It waspouring, but Kakaji did not budge. Such was his loyalty, respect and commitment towards his sapnon ki PM. And then she arrived via some secret route into the airport with her guards. Did we hear 8220;Come on bhabhi, let8217;s go party?8221; No, we did not.

Sensation in Germany

For connoisseurs of Indian films 8212; particularly those of Mrinal Sen 8212; in Germany, there is good news here. A retrospective of 12 of the maestro8217;s films will be shown at three German cities, Berlin, Frankfurt and Hamburg for 15 days beginning September 12. The show will be organised by a Berlin-based concern, Friends of the German Cinemathique, in collaboration with ICCSR. For the event, the septuagenarian film-maker along with actress wife Gita Sen will be in Germany for about a fortnight. During the retrospective a documentary film made on the celebrated film-maker will also be shown.

Made in India

After visiting the Indica manufacturing facility at Pimpri near Pune, a journo asked V. M. Raval, Telco8217;sExecutive Director, what was so indigenous about the company8217;s small car. 8220;If the car was designed in Italy, the technology for the engine was validated from France and the plant was bought from Australia, then what is so indigenous about the Indica,8221; the scribe questioned. Raval simply looked the other way and gave an even simpler answer, 8220;anything that is made in India is indigenous8221;. Are Hyundai, Daewoo, Mercedes, Coke, Pepsi et al listening?

Swati Prasad in New Delhi, Sabyasachi Bandopadhyay in Calcutta, Shehnaz Husein and Saikat Datta in Pune, Prafulla Marpakwar in Mumbai, Prashant Sood in Jammu