Gang-googlyed Shastri
The non-Maharashtra cricket lobby is rather thrilled that someone has finally taken on Ravi Shastri, and it had to be Sourav Ganguly. Much like Shastri, Dada is another tough-talker with words coming out like ‘tracer bullets’. Savvy Shastri has been on every BCCI committee, milched the system in all possible ways, that too without Sunil Gavaskar’s legendary status. Shastri, they say, never took up the Indian coach’s job when it was offered to him about 10 years ago, citing prior commitments. Now that it comes with Rs 4 crore salary package, the job has become rather coveted. But what really stunned the selection panel in Kolkata was his casual approach—Skype-ing in for the interview in holiday attire. As if the job was his for asking, one of them blurted.
The High Table
Ifar parties have become customary events during Pranab Mukherjee’s tenure in Rashtrapati Bhavan. But the touch of informality in this year’s event, which could be Mukherjee’s last, stood out. The invitees were not divided into two dining halls, the VVIPs and the common invitees sat at tables laid out in the same ceremonial hall. The high-table, of course, was the one that had President Mukherjee with his ‘important guests’. They were indeed an eclectic group—Vice President Hamid Ansari, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Rajya Sabha’s Leader of the Opposition Gulam Nabi Azad and former and present Delhi CMs, Sheila Diskhit and Arvind Kejriwal. All of them at one table, sharing food and gup-shup. One protocol no one could break was to leave the table before the President, and he got up only after the last course, a cup of aromatic green tea.
‘Priyanka Lao’
Every time Congress lost an election, every time Congress went to elections, the foot-soldiers in the old party crooned ‘Priyanka lao’. Priyanka Vadra hitting the dirt tracks of UP in campaign mode is a speculation as old as Rahul Gandhi taking over the Congress presidentship. But if party insiders are to be believed, all depends on how the Vadra cases pan out. Priyanka may after all step outside Amethi and Rae Bareli to address many more rallies or outdoor public meetings in UP. What has convinced local leaders are the phone calls from Priyanka’s office on block-level caste compositions, male-female voters’ ration and other such sundry details. They think once Rahul is back, they will be greeted with some ‘good news’. Meanwhile, Sonia Gandhi visited Allahabad’s Anand Bhavan for two days. Quite significantly, this was after the BJP national executive meeting in the city.
Star Drops
While the Indian cricket fraternity remained mired in their ego clashes, Afghan cricket star Gulbadin Naib created waves on social media in quite a different way. Not chasing a century or the cricket ball about to hit the boundary, but a little Afghan who refused to take polio drops. Movingly captured by photo-journalist Habib Khan Totakhil, the shot of the hulky cricketer running after a child on a vaccination drive got thousands of shares and hits. By popular vote, it’s become the photo of the week!