Last week, though, it was the turn of the Islamic scholar to turn controversial. Alas, his other old friend, Union Commerce Minister Ramkrishna Hegde, to whom he was playing host, was not attentive enough to utter a disclaimer.

When a reporter asked the minister why the coalition government at the Centre chose to field an inexperienced G M C Balayogi as Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Dr Zakaria thought it was his prerogative to answer the query. ``Don't you know, ever since the time of Mrs Indira Gandhi, all Dalits are forgiven even if they commit a thousand crimes,'' came Dr Zakaria's retort.

Rather than jumping to his friend's rescue, Hegde was seen contentedly puffing on a cigarette.

Be Our Guest...

It is high time city mayors are spared the ordeal of sitting through functions over which they preside as chief guests. Especially functions where the speakers prefer jargon to English.

Mayor of the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation, Sheela Gunjale, was subject to suchtorture recently, at a seminar organised the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa. The speakers, all of them judges of the Bombay High Court, (including the Aurangabad, Nagpur and Goa benches) spoke on various complex issues pertaining to legal practice -- how students should be trained to be good practising advocates and how to conduct themselves in court. Of course, all of them spoke in English and often drew applause from the audience. But for Ms Gunjale, who belongs to the Shiv Sena, it was Greek and Hebrew all the way.

Though knowledge of English is definitely not a prerequisite to qualify as mayor, the lady really should have been spared the agony. All she did during the seminar, seated alongside the honourable judges on the dais, was wrap and unwrap the tip of her pallau around her fingers. What turned out to be an edifying three hours for the audience seemed like eternity for Ms Gunjale. But it must be said, the lady held her poise remarkably and betrayed no hint of nervousness like formermayor, Manmohan Singh Oberoi.

When the gent was asked to preside over a condolence meeting for veteran journalist, Anant Bhalerao, Mr Oberoi, while accepting the proposal to preside, had declared: ``I am indeed very happy to preside over this meeting.''

I-Day's Foot Soldiers

When you decide to have your shoes polished at Gulmandi - the heart of Aurangabad's business centre - be warned, you are asking for trouble. There are so many shoeshine boys beckoning, it is difficult to select one. No wonder the grubby kids have to think up ingenious ways to feed their bellies.

And with most of them, aged between 10 and 13, rushing off to night school after a hard day's work, the competition is indeed fierce. Thinking up new strategies is not easy but the boys enjoy every bit of it. Like `tattling' on competitors to wean away customers, saying ``This guy didn't attend school yesterday'' or, ``That chappie has begun troubling his parents''.

So, last week, when the Telecom Department decided to give phoneusers tintinitus with the Vande Mataram recording, shoeshine boys here were heard chanting: ``Kal pandhra August hai, palis karo sahib.''

On August 15, national pride acquired a grubby little blot left by Gulmandi's brigade of foot soldiers.