Snapshots

Teach your childrenWhere do you get a better education -- in schools or at work? While educationists and others continue to debate this t...

Teach your children

Where do you get a better education 8212; in schools or at work? While educationists and others continue to debate this the world over, the country8217;s chief vigilance commissioner N. Vittal appears to have the best solution 8212; combine the two! Arguing against social activist Swami Agnivesh8217;s on-going campaign against child labour at a CII seminar in the Capital this week, Vittal said Agnivesh was being too Utopian. It8217;s all very well for Agnivesh to argue against child labour in factories, Vittal said, but at least the children get some money. What would they do if they didn8217;t earn this money? In the event, Vittal8217;s best solution is that children be allowed to work and that at the end of the day, the factory owners make arrangements for them to be taught for, say, a couple of hours. A smarting Agnivesh shot back: Would Mr Vittal send his children to a factory to study?

Suman, Funny Man

Shekhar Suman8217;s ever-popular Movers and Shakers on Sony is proving to be quite a hit withpolitical parties. With poll fever beginning to gather momentum, the BJP8217;s Maharashtra Pradesh Unit has found a unique method to hit out at Kon Hya who8217;s this8230;oops8230;Sonia Gandhi.

The Italian may cry herself hoarse about being 100 per cent Indian. But no one is in a mood to let her forget that she does not belong to this country. That is the main theme of a Marathi video cassette soon to be launched by the BJP which has commenced shooting at Garware College in Pune here. The set is straight out of Movers and Shakers right down to Cherokee and his Rubber Band. And there is local actor Prashant Damle taking digs at Jayalalitha. Only one character is conspicuous by his absence Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee himself, often a favourite target of the original Shekhar Suman.

Song of Innocence

Last week saw Pandit Jasraj sing a different tune altogether. One of naivete. On the occasion of gurupurnima, a group of panditji8217;s disciples got together with VCAN the Internet division of GraphicVision, a Mumbai-based cyber solutions company in Mumbai and decided to gift their guru his very own website. Quite a unique way of saying thank you for all the gruelling hours he puts in with them. Panditji, however, was a picture of bemused innocence. 8220;When they approached me a week before the launch to wind it up, I told them I already had email, so why was this necessary? Then they showed me what a website is, and I cannot believe how far we have come in the world for such a thing to happen,8221; he said. The most fascinating thing about having his own website, Pandit Jasraj feels, is that students all over the world can access his teaching methods without coming to him. 8220;First we had the gramophone, then the radio, then the LP, then the tape-recorder. Just when you think it cannot get any better, you have this,8221; he exclaimed to the motley crew of presspersons gathered around him.

Seeing the Light

8220;I fell in love with Osho8217;s vision, when I visited the Osho Commune a few years ago,8221; saysJasbir Jassi, the Punjabi pop sensation, who quit engineering to study classical music. Jassi performed at the commune during the Osho Full Moon Festival in Pune last week. After reciting some verses from Gurbani, Jassi had everyone on their feet, singing his pop numbers. 8220;Osho8217;s words have helped me when I was going through a difficult phase. Since then I was looking for an opportunity to pay my tribute.8221;

Crabby Baby

As the man who scripted Zanjeer, Javed Akhtar was, perhaps, just the right candidate to try and knock down the walls ageing superstar Amitabh Bachchan seems to have built around himself. And, to his credit, the writer-lyricist gave his unfamiliar job as interviewer for Saira Banu8217;s show Is Duniya Ke Sitare filmed at a studio in Mumbai on Tuesday a serious shot. Unfortunately, his subject was as unyielding as ever. While Bachchan8217;s responses were fairly straightforward on the easier questions oozing modesty at every compliment 8212; he promptly withdrew into his shell at the firstsign of discomfort.

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Akhtar refused to give up either, poking him with queries like: 8220;When the entire industry was at your feet, why couldn8217;t you promote or tap a single talented actor, director or music composer?8221; or 8220;Why didn8217;t you ever try to step out of your image and attempt something different, when you could have done anything at all?8221; In both cases, the Big B failed to deliver convincing answers. Here are his answers to two more probing questions:u Why aren8217;t you working with the best talent in the industry like you did in your heyday?: They aren8217;t working with me, and not the other way round.u Why don8217;t you voice yourself on social and political issues? Don8217;t you think you owe something to the people who have loved and worshipped you?: I am not qualified to comment on every issue, moreover, I don8217;t think it is fair to air my personal views on a public platform.