"Kalmadi and co. wine, dine and dance !"
Despite all the flak and as the games panel starts to fry small fish, Suresh Kalmadi and his team are partying hard. Suresh Kalmadi recently hosted a cocktail dinner party for the visiting British Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Jeremy Hunt and the UK track legend Sebastian Coe in Delhi. This was supposed to be a private affair at the hotel Hyatt with the organizing committee members and some friends. The guests for the evening were having a jolly good time and were quite excited about how the mega sporting event is just 60 days away. It’s very difficult when everyone is gunning for you and you still are in a jovial mood through the evening. While Suresh Kalmadi and his wife Meera were dancing on Hindi Classical songs it was Farooq Abdullah as usual who danced through the evening keeping everyone on their feet. Jagdish Tytler seemed quite amused by all this and sat chatting with Ramesh Sharma and Umagajpati Raju. Surprisingly the two main visiting guests of the evening were missing from the party scene and were hurdled in a room having dinner quietly with Olympic Chief Randhir Singh in the same hotel. The others present were dancer Shovana Narayan, Member of Parliament K.P.S. Deo along with some designers and Page3. Well it’s good to see that the organizing committee of common wealth games may be in a soup but their spirits are still up and about.
"Big sharks frying the small fish"
Delhi is embarrassed about the Common Wealth Games now that the can of worms closed and putrid, has finally been opened. But as is usual, with all such rape and pillage of the public ex-chequer is concerned the big sharks are frying the small fish to try and cover up the scam worth thousands of crores. Unusually, the story has dominated the front pages of papers and hogged T.V. headlines consistently for over two weeks; a record of sorts. Suresh Kalmadi and company are most definitely on the run now; with their own senior most congress colleagues, embarrassed into actually attacking them in public. Despite being reined in by the party both Sports minister Gill and Mani Shanker Aiyer have not spared attacking the boss of the CWG. Of course there are other culprits too but for the moment the main target remains the organizing committee which has spent money from the public exchequer in a manner that cannot even be described as merely irresponsible. Surely the price is paid for toilet paper and garbage bags will exceed any international measures of public profligacy. Now it remains for the culprits to try and save their skins by making a plea to save the games. Their point, India’s prestige is at stake. It’s certainly may be, but with the scale of loot this time there is certainly more at stake than national pride. We have become a laughing stock of the world and disgraced internationally.
"Love life of Tharoor"
The love life of politicians rarely dominates the ‘official’ Delhi scene. It’s whispered about and whimpered around. But rarely is it in defined public view as in the case of Sunanda-Sashi serial. Played out between Delhi’s elite drawing rooms and even massive ‘Shani’ temple’s around the country, the frenzy is building. Even though the wedding will take place on Kerala day faraway in Kerala Delhi’s political chattering classes are amazed at how voluntarily visible this courtship has been. Tharoor’s presence in parliament and Delhi during this session has ensured more than embassy crowd gets to gossip about the Sunanda factor- soon to be an official part of Delhi’s social scene. Though neither is a newbie to marriage having been around the block a couple of times, the intensity of PDA “public display of affection” has left even blasé Delhites gasping for air. Tharoor’s ambition, once he has made Sunanda his bride are seriously Kerala centric. Which explains the choice of wedding dates and venue. But this also means that he will spend more time traversing the state then Delhi may be deprived of its current source of eye candy.
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