For most of the past week India’s entry into some lists occupied much of our attention. The Global Slavery Index. Delhi as the most polluted city. Indian airlines downgraded. Indian made cars not meeting safety standards. Pretty much the usual stuff.
Other events, and I use the word with caution, like the family feud in DMK, and the “first” Rahul Gandhi interview turned out to be non-starters. But, we watched it desperate in our search for entertainment, a plight you cannot hope to understand until you’ve watched Sponge Bob Square Pants. In Tamil.
There were bigger problems closer home. People of Madras had to pull out their woollies as temperatures plunged to a bitter 20 degree Celsius (that’s about 68 F) mid-week. Worse news followed. The meteorological department has forecast a few more chilly nights.
Meanwhile eight carriages landed here from Brazil, for the city’s Mass Transit system. The fact that the city has (had?) a massive railway coach factory, ICF, or produces tanks for the Army seems to have missed the attention of most everybody.
Almost on the heels of that announcement came a startling headline - Loco pilots demand filling of vacancies (Jan 23 The Hindu): Readers were then assured that there was nobody seeking quotas for crazies. They were just overworked railway locomotive staff.
Silk merchants and shops are also now a troubled lot. With the music season having ended and marriages not much the rule now the supply of silk kurtas has outstripped demand. For the past few years we had been seeing bright colours, and bling-adorned kurtas take over men’s fashion.
With current developments, and reminiscences of the metrosexual, the sericulture industry is now hoping for the Madrasexual to save it.
Much acclaimed Tamil actor Sivaji had been honoured with a statue on the Marina Beach road. Now that has been ruled an obstruction to traffic and a court has ordered it moved. Why is this news? I’m glad you asked. The statue, you see, stops vehicles from going around a roundabout and stops them cutting corners, literally. Talk about cutting the leg to fit the shoe.
The power of the Madras mosquito has also increased manifold. It can now attack you even on the 19th floor, making it worthy of a study by some foundation, at least from an evolutionary viewpoint.
Temple cities and pilgrims will be happy to know that the Madras High Court Bench has requested the feasibility of extracting water from the 22 ‘theertham’ sites at the Ramanathaswamy Temple in Rameswaram and introduce a sprinkling system to maintain hygiene.
The political news you’ve been reading would not have helped you realise that the AAP has set a topi trend: BJP workers now are wearing orange topis with the slogan ‘Modi For PM’. And even in Tamil Nadu Vijaykant, who espouses the Tamil cause, has been using the AAP topi during photo-ops.
On the national front we were mesmerised by a case of Peter robbing Paul who had already robbed Mary. There were many ups and downs in this story, much like the mood of a Rahul Gandhi fan.
A gang in Delhi pulled off a Texas two-step in a Rs 8 crore heist. At first, the two victims claimed no money had been lost. They then became mysterious about how much had been lost. Soon after, the duo fought in the interrogation room and the police had to separate them.
They were then ‘discovered’ to be bookies, with one of them linked to Hansie Cronje. Police have been soft on the two men, providing them a choice of food and beverages, unlike in the US where a diplomat was only given coffee after her arrest.
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