Monday, April 18, 2011

The Tribune-Chatterati-April.18th.2011

"From ‘Peepli Live’ to ‘Anna Live’"

Now that the World Cup hysteria is over and the Assembly elections campaign is also over, the cocktail circle in the Capital is busy discussing Hazare ki hazar Khwahishein. Anna Hazare's topic rules the Delhi's elite circles whether it is a wedding reception or a small dinner party. Sharad Pawar had to give into pressure and resign from the GOM on corruption. Controversies and criticisms are a part of Pawar's life, but Anna's potshots at the Maratha leader have got Pawar's PR managers working overtime. From the NCP members and his friends in the political circles or industry are all out to criticize the UPA high command giving in to Anna Hazare. Delhites think the lawyers turned politicians still treat the TV studios and the evening drawing rooms as court rooms and this is across party lines.
The Maharashtra leaders are surprised as to how Anna became a mega star in Delhi. The likes of Vilasrao Deshmukh and Sushil Kumar Shinde have successfully handled the veteran activist in their state without making him into the Mahatma Gandhi of today.
Youngsters are busy on Twitter to make Anna into a hero wearing Anna Hazare caps, T-shirts and even on-line games. Nehru caps are a fashionable thing now with Anna's face on it. Wipe out corruption is their message while the nitty-gritty of the Lokpal Bill is not what they really understand. So, from 'Peepli Live' to 'Anna Live'.
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"Bhagidari Mela"

Delhi is a place where melas, exhibitions, art shows are organized every day. But for the busy city people, it is not an interesting prospect to attend a Bhagidari Mela when a cricket match is on and most of them are glued to their TV sets. But this time at Pragati Maidan, there were interested parents with their children who were buying chips and cookies made and sold by the Tihar inmates.
The horticulture department had set a stall of their own to teach the locals to have a kitchen garden in flower pots which was a sellout because hardly anyone in Delhi today has a garden. There was a skit which had the crowd roaring in appreciation from over 2,000 visitors. It is very unlike a sarkari affair but still got thousands of people lining up for a free health check-up and queues waited patiently to try out the vehicle stimulator put up by the transport department. Most city kids have never seen plants and most teenagers will have to wait for a long time to get their own car. So, a fun day with new learning inputs.
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"Blogs stuck in a time warp"

In today's world of Internet-savvy leaders worldwide, our own senior leaders' blogs are stuck in a time warp. Shashi Tharoor's Twitter got him into so much trouble that he had to in the end face embarrassing situations. Sushma Swaraj and Omar Abdullah use their Blackberry regularly to make a point. Advani once came across as a tech-savvy, but now seems to have given it up. Rahul Gandhi unlike Obama, it seems, does not believe in this technology. Mamata Banerjee used the Obama way and swayed West Bengal with messages on the Net day and night asking for support.
Jayalalitha has also made full use of her Net-savvy managers. The younger lots like Priya Dutt, Jai Panda and Supriya Suley somehow do not believe in this new technology, though students use this technique regularly in their university elections.

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