Stop for no man
Animals may be truly apolitical. You may say this after the recent chaos at a political event in Madurai. The BJP had organised a function to welcome BJP state president Annamalai during his state-wide padayatra. The welcome party also included a jallikattu bull (maybe to associate the party with a traditional event in the region). However, the bull, which was supposed to welcome the party leader, went berserk and raced away from the crowd and venue. Some say it panicked and ran away after seeing the large crowd, but we’ll never know for sure. All we know is that jallikattu bulls are trained to sprint once the doors to the vadivasal are opened and be subjugated by no man.
Humorous edits
Emphasising the importance of reviewing text after using machine tools for translation, an official from the school education department shared a ‘humourous’ incident while translating a medical book. A doctor who was part of the team used Google Translate to translate humoral immunity in Tamil as ‘nagaichuvai noyi edhirpu sakthi’ which means ‘immunity from humour’. The department officials had to go through the entire book to make sure no such mistake was present.
Nothing to hide
Uppanar Canal is also known as the ‘mini Cooum’ of Puducherry as it is always filled with sewage. On Saturday, the Puducherry government was trolled as ‘Gujarat model’ of development when it put up screens to hide the dirty canal from public view as the President is set to visit the union territory on Monday. The trolling exercise succeeded as the government removed the screens on Saturday night, after pictures and videos of these screens went viral on social media
In a curry
The state finance department seems to be in a ‘curry’ over-allocating funds for the birth centenary celebrations of former chief minister M Karunanidhi. It is a classical example of the proverb ‘too many cooks spoil the broth’ as the government has set up 12 committees, each headed by a minister, to focus on specific aspects of Karunanidhi’s personality - him as a journalist, writer, artist, etc. The finance department is having a tough time swallowing the budget requirements from each committee - ranging from Rs 3 to Rs 4 crore each. Apart from struggling to arrange funds, some officials lament their routine work is affected by these extra duties.
Understanding the common man
At the CPI public meeting held in Rajapalayam last week, many party members, especially those who came with their family to the event, began to leave the venue when the meeting went beyond 8.30 pm. CPI state secretary R Mutharasan, who was to deliver his speech at the end, was quick to read the mood and interpreted it in a lighter vein. Addressing the gathering, he said that leaving the event can’t be interpreted as a wrong deed, as they might be feeling tired since they may travel a long way to attend the event and have to reach home on time as they have to get back to work and school on Monday morning.