A PRIVATE VISIT: Benazir Bhutto.

Days after the Government of India finalised its lobbyist in Washington, the Pakistanis too have signed and sealed a deal with a new lobbying firm. The outfit they have tried is Hooper, Hooper and Gould, a completely new entity which is not among the nearly dozen or so firms Pakistan has used over the past few years. Obviously, it is a choice of the Nawaz Sharif Government and their man in Washington, Riaz Khokhar, who was their envoy in New Delhi till recently. The buzz is that the Pakistanis are paying nearly $400,000 per year to the firm.

In addition to the lobbying outfit, the Pakis are also hiring former Congressman Charlie Wilson from October when the mandatory lay-off period for retiring law-makers expires. Wilson, a colourful figure in the US House till his retirement last year, has been a long-time Islamabad supporter.

Popularly known as `Good Time' Charlie, he made several trips to Pakistan, particularly during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. One picture he sported in his office on the Hill showed him handling a Stinger missile with beaming Mujaheddin fighters around him.

Meanwhile, the former Paki lobbyist Mark Siegel, who raised a stink by blowing the whistle on Congressman Dan Burton and his fund-raising methods, was spotted in New York with former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, now on a private visit to the US. Siegel's fortunes have ebbed and flowed with Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party, having represented her in Washington each time she was in power. Judging by the ardour with which he hung out with her in New York, he apparently hopes he will make a third comeback.

Kingdom of hackdom

While in New York, the South Asian Journalists Association (SAJA) had its annual bash in the Big Apple last weekend. It is generally known that South Asians are well-represented in the familiar professional lines in the US like medicine, engineering and frontier technology. But hand one to the hacks too. The party packed nearly 100 journos from all over the country. Unbeknowest to hackdom back home, Indian journos have spread far and wide to publications ranging from the well known Wall Street Journal and Forbes to the lesser known MSBC and Scientific American to the even lesser known Poughkeepsie Journal and Hartford Courant. May the tribe spread.

SAJA made a modest beginning in terms of awards, handing out two of them for the first time. A $500 prize for outstanding Reporting on South Asia went to Jon Krakauer of Outside magazine for his story, ``Into Thin Air: The Story on Everest'', a report on the deaths on Mount Everest last year. The second $500 prize for the outstanding story by a South Asian Journalist went to Shankar Vedanta of The Philadelphia Inquirer for his story ``Rx for AIDS: Advances Largely Bypass the Third World'' -- a report chronicling the advances made in AIDS care and how poor countries could miss the benefits. SAJA incidentally is run almost single-handedly by Sreenath Sreenivasan, an assistant professor who teaches at the Columbia School of Journalism.

Kasparov's Indian connection

Still in New York, it turns out that Garry Kasparov has an Indian connection (besides opening with King's Indian and playing Vishy Anand, that is). Kasparov's technical adviser and close friend Frederic A. Friedel who is a permanent part of his entourage, was born in India and shares an abiding love for the country. Frankel, in fact, claims to be ``perhaps 1/8th Indian'' (he says his grandmother was an Anglo-Indian whose last name was Gonsalves) and he spent three years in Bangalore where his father -- a German -- settled down. He still comes down to India once every three years to visit his brother, a software engineer who has also made Bangalore his home.

Colonising the mind

Colonising land may be a thing of the past but colonialism of the mind carries on relentless. A recent story in the New York Times spoke of how English books by American and British authors were topping best-seller lists, not just in Europe, but also other third world English-proficient countries. The best-seller list in Germany last week would have made Goethe and Schiller turn in their graves: The top five were The Partner by John Grisham; The Dark Room by Minette Walters; Hannas Tochter by Marianne Frederickson (the only German book); Vendetta by Donna Leon and Airframe by Michael Crichton. India's fate was worse. All of the top five were Western English novels: The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje; The Tailor of Panama by John le Carre; Invasion by Robin Cook; The Third Twin by Ken Follett; and The Last Don by Mario Puzo.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.