Snapshots

Room With A View

Top officials ofthe Ministry of Home Affairs are now coveting a North Block room with a view, with paintings of apsaras on the ceiling. No, they haven8217;t taken a break from the incessant politicking that bedevils the North Block, but are petitioning Home Secretary Kamal Pande to allot them the Ajanta room. The room with what a senior official longingly describes as 8220;divine beauties on the ceiling8221; is currently up for grabs. It was earlier occupied by a former minister for state and then was offered to another senior official who declined saying that he found the ceiling murals too distracting to be able to concentrate on work.

Clowning Around

8220;In theatre, the magical moment is the one where one improvises, and we all wait for it, don8217;t we?8221; says theatre personality Rajat Kapoor, who performed his innovative play, C for Clown, at Pune. Otherwise, Kapoor is more easily identifiable as the overworked, stressed-out high-flying executive in the advertisement for Ayurvedic Concepts, where he is peremptorily told touse a faster computer. His play dwells on a day in the life of a clown, and the actors 8212; Atul Kumar, Vinay Pathak of Channel V fame, Joy Fernandes, Sheeba Chadha and Kapoor himself 8212; clowned it to the hilt, sometimes going a bit overboard.

Kapoor claimed the play was different from the beginning, because they started with a concept and ended with a script. The idea hit him when he was making his award-winning film Hypnothesis, which ended with a snippet on clowns. 8220;We are still growing with the play, we spend time with it. I don8217;t understand how play scripts are written in 10 days and performed on stage after three weeks of rehearsals,8221; wonders Kapoor, whose feature film Private Detective is awaiting release.

Old Ties, New Rivals

T N Seshan and L K Advani may be adversaries in Gandhinagar, but they have been neighbours and acquaintances for years at Delhi8217;s Pandara Road. Seshan recounts this with much relish at interview sessions. 8220;I have nothing against Advani. Our houses were nextto each other, we have broken bread together, our families used to visit each other and there was a shortcut we took to each others8217; houses that passed through the servants8217; quarters,8221; he says. In fact, in December 1991, when the Opposition moved a motion against CEC Seshan in Parliament, Advani came to his house with PV Narasimha Rao8217;s proposal, offering him a governorship and an ambassadorship, which he turned down with characteristic aplomb. The last time the two met was on a Delhi-Chennai flight. 8220;It was time for the flight. I had taken my seat but the door was still left open. Two minutes later, Advani walked in. For two hours and 35 minutes we sat next to each other,8221; recounts the former Chief Election Commissioner. The next meeting was on the election battleground. This time as rivals. But both are refusing to say a word against each other. Old memories die hard?

Rachna Bisht-Rawat in Ahmedabad, Saikat Datta and Shaan Chavan in Pune, Swati Chaturvedi in New Delhi andPawan K Pandita in Jammu