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Journalism of Courage
Deadly Error
If mix-ups could kill, there would have been many dead. Air Marshal Vinod Patney8217;s friends and relatives were a rather troubled lot when on opening The Times Of India on Independence Day they found posthumous attached to his name. An item on the PTI wire echoed the news.
Venomous Violation
Electoral code violations happen all the time. Defacements, excess convoys, unwanted banners, monitor lizards8230;.monitor lizards! Yep. One in Pune made it among the complaints registered with the Pune police as a poll code violation.
This particular reptile, alleged ShantilalSuratwala, city president of the Nationalist Congress Party, had been displayed at a rally held by the likes of L. K. Advani and Gopinath Munde. Also known as the ghorpad, the lizard forms an integral part of Maratha valour as legend goes that Shivaji8217;s sardar, Tanaji Malasure, conquered Sinhagad after climbing the cliff with the help of a ghorpad. Today the lizard has been declared a scheduled species under the Wildlife Act Protection 1972. Political and historical observers are not sure wether this intrepid lizard will create history or not. Its whereabouts are not known.
Unkind Cut
Sanjay Leela Bhansali, director of this season8217;s hit Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam and a man known to be fiercely possessive about his work, was in for a bit of a shock recently. Despite persistent demands from distributors and theatre owners, Bhansali had been adamant about not slicing any part of his three-hour-20-minute songathon. So imagine his horror when he received a call from one of his assistants who hadgone to catch a late-night show at Chandan, a theatre in suburban Mumbai, saying that the film was being shown minus two songs and a couple of scenes.
Frantic calls were made to the theatre owner who swore that he had not tampered with the film. Bhansali played Sherlock Holmes and indeed discovered elementary facts: that actually it was the projectionist who had played the editor. It seems that due to the extraordinary length of the film, the poor man missed his last local train home each day. Fed up of spending endless nights on the platform, this projectionist decided to end his misery by lopping off 20 minutes.
Home Run
Who expects a best-selling biographer of eight industrial tycoons in the Business Maharajahs to sing the swadeshi tune? Gita Piramal sure surprised the management students she addressed in Pune recently when she was categorical that 8220;only swadeshi technology can save the nation8217;s economy from doom8221;.
The outspoken freelance journalist, who claims that 8220; You can never betoo rich or too thin,8221; told the press that she believes that the 8220;depression is already over8221;. Announcing the release of her latest fun8217; book on business quotations next month, when she was asked to comment on our politicians, she quipped: 8220;You get the leaders you deserve.8221;
Filmi Seshan
From quoting from the Gita to mouthing lyrics from the latest blockbusters from Bollywood, T. N. Seshan is doing this all as he goes around dusty villages of Gandhinagar seeking votes. 8220;You will ask, and rightly so, why has the tiger of South India come to Gujarat seeking votes,8221; he told the gathering. 8220;Did Vasudev not carry Krishna from Mathura Vrindavan to Dwarka?
Well, I have come here looking for my Dwarka,8221; he said, to resounding applause. The speech was rounded off with 8220;Dulhaniya kon le jate hain?8221; 8220;Dilwale8221;, shouted the villagers. 8220;Aur vote koun le jate hain?8221; 8220;Seshan,8221; he answered this one himself. 8220;The truth is hum dil de chuke sanam tumko,8221; he said,cajoling the villagers to vote for him. When they replied in the affirmative, he said: 8220;Jo vada kiya wo nibhana padega8221;. Broken Hindi, but words that nevertheless brought the house down.
