Left on own

Ninety-year-old Vijay Mulay,winner of the award for best writing at the 58th National Film Awards,was stranded on the stage for quite sometime.

Ninety-year-old Vijay Mulay,winner of the award for best writing at the 58th National Film Awards,was stranded on the stage for quite sometime after receiving her citation and plaque. There was nobody to help her get down from the stage. As she stood waiting for a helping hand,the organisers went ahead giving awards to the other winners. It was after some time before someone realised Mulays trauma. Some people on the stage and a few from the audience rushed to get the lady down and escorted her back to the seat.

Skeletons In The Cupboard

Gruesome as it may sound,Trinamool Congress MPs are planning to host a picture exhibition of human skeletons recovered from a pit near the ancestral home of former CPM minister Sushanta Ghosh in West Midnapore. Ghosh was arrested last month in connection with the recovery of the skeletons,two of which belonged to missing Trinamool Congress supporters,according to results of a DNA test. A party insider said the exhibition,to be held in Delhi,was being organised to draw the Centres attention to Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjees oft repeated charge over the last several years on how the Marxists had systematically killed her supporters.

Short Staffed

When the government decided to hand over the investigations of the latest bomb blast outside the Delhi High Court to the National Investigation Agency NIA,the assignment almost automatically fell on the shoulders of DIG Mukesh Singh. A Jammu and Kashmir cadre officer,Singh is the only DIG who was available for the job. The other two DIGs Satwant Atwal Trivedi and R P Meena are out of action. While Trivedi is reported to be undergoing training,Meena is on long leave.

Technologically Challenged

A packet from the Indian Embassy in North Korea that landed at the Ministry of External Affairs this week was illustrative of how the communist country is still operating on outdated technology. The packet contained a write-up on India-North Korea relations,in both print and electronic versions. The trouble was that the electronic version came in the form of a floppy disk. There are no computers in the South Block now which are equipped with a floppy drive. Typists therefore had to work overtime to make additional print copies of the lengthy document.

Role Change

While it may be her sole claim to fame,but it looks like Smriti Irani,in her new avtar,wants to leave behind her Tulsi role in the Saas bhi kabhi8230; serial. She got worked up when the compere at a BJP function,part of an anti-corruption mass campaign in the Capital,introduced her as a TV actress,Rajya Sabha member and BJP leader. Just call me a BJP leader,she insisted. Goes to show that she has taken her new role of a politician far more seriously than others would imagine.

Crash Landing

CAGs report on Air India severely criticising former civil aviation minister Praful Patel for allowing foreign carriers enhanced capacity to and from the country has left these airlines in a tizzy especially those which were named in the report. On Friday,most of them made a beeline for the ministry officials,demanding to know the status of the bilateral agreements as CAG has recommended a rollback.