Koel isn't just acting as Biblio editor Ira Pande's daughter (and theatre actress Jacqueline Garewal's grand-daughter), but is also the serial's producer. And no, it wasn't Daddy's brainchild. ``Quite the other way round, actually,'' grins Koel. ``It was I who convinced him. He doesn't always take to anything that's not news.'' The serial, which revolves around three generations of women, isn't just about pretty faces. It tackles serious issues: from dowry to arranged marriages, from short hair to night-outs. ``It's the kind of stuff I talk to my mother about at home,'' explains Koel.

For the sometime photographer, anchor and advertising apprentice, this is an entirely new experience. ``But Ira and I have a natural chemistry, so it was pretty OK,'' she says. Pretty OK for Papa and Mama (Rekha) Purie, too, who presided proudly over their daughter's coming of age.

Going international, through photo-journalism
Subhash Sapru does what most journalists do; comment on the socio-politico-religious milieu of the country. But with a difference, not only in the chosen medium but in the reach also. For Subhash speaks through his camera and his works have fetched quite a few honours from the photographic societies abroad. And in India, Subhash has been a constant winner at all the Print Circuits ever since he began his amateur photography three years back. Only yesterday he got the gladdening news from Indore that his entry has bagged a medal at the on-going Print Circuit.

Right now Subhash's works on Kurukshetra are on display at the Pro Colour Lab in Sector 35. The pictures were taken on the day of the Solar Eclipse and the essence of life around Brahmasarovar comes alive through his depictions in colour. The display is aptly titled, `In Quest of Salvation', for it says a lot about life in the Holy Town, both the pseudo and the real spirituality you may find there. Though the photographs fall in the dull and flat category, Subhash's innovative mind has given one masterpiece in them, the well-composed frame of a loin-cloth-clad-man bending on to the ripples of the Sarovar.

Nevertheless this Public Relations Officer with the Haryana Government has many similar masterpieces to his credit. One has only to look at last year's India Print Circuit catalogue to see why he got three medals. For he had captured the gory details of the bomb blast at Ambala railway station in such exactness that one needed no reports to go with it. It was a prime example of photo-journalism. And it is his wonderfully-frozen India Gate after sunset that opens the India Photo Gallery at Seek India.Com on Internet. Subhash is the only photo-artist from India to have been featured in the Oklahoma International Exhibition of Photography continuously for the last two years. In fact his work is on display in Oklahoma right now. So why photo-journalism, Subhash? ``Though I did my journalism course, I landed up in PR. So, you can say it is an act of compensating the lost chance. Further I feel there is a wider scope in this both for the camera and the photographer due to the vast exposure to the myriad facts oflife around us. Pictorial works can be more or less crafted in the dark room.'' Now that recognition has come his way within such a short span, he feels he made a mistake in starting late. Better late than never, Subhash.

Jolly Bad Guys
When top Bollywood baddies get together, what happens. A fist-fight? No, a laugh riot. Don't believe us? Well, you should've been a fly on the Stetsons (there were many in attendance) at the promo party for Rajkumar Ghayal Santoshi's November release, China Gate. Six of them, led by Amrish `Mogambo' Puri, and including Naseeruddin Shah, Danny Denzongpa, Tinnu Anand, Anjan Srivastava, and Biju Khhote, who are all part of Santoshi's new venture -- a Western modelled after Force Of Ten and Magnificent Seven -- took turns to regale the presswallahs with their wisecracks.

``Why isn't Mamta Kulkarni here?'' someone asked Puri. ``With so many of us baddies around, how can the poor heroine be here?'' he replied. Later, when the shutterbugs wanted the entire cast also consisting of Jagdeep, Om Puri, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, plus newcomers Sameer Soni and Mukesh Tiwari, another NSD alumnus who plays the big villain to pose together, Puri asked for Mamta's poster. ``Bhai, it'll keep our spirits up,'' he joked.

Though China Gate, which Santoshi boasts must be the most expensive Hindi film ever made with a budget of over Rs 20 crore, is packed with powerhouse performances, what's a Hindi film without songs? Santoshi, though, has kept it to just one. No, Mamta Kulkarni doesn't repeat her Ghatak number here. It's Urmila Matondkar doing the needful.

Merrier than expected
Low sales, lacklustre preparations, low enthusiasm -- were the words used to write the epitaph of this Diwali, even before it was actually celebrated. A downward spiralling economy coupled with the incessant rains that lashed the city right in time for Diwali had everyone's hopes down. But just in time for Diwali, the Sun God smiled on the mortal beings of the City, and the zing was back in the air.

Crowded roads, rush at almost all well-known shopping points in the city and people zipping around on their two and four-wheelers carrying brightly coloured gift packs, made up for the previous weeks' depressing sales -- to quite an extent.

What was even more interesting was the fact that apart from the regular fare of mithai and dry fruits, gifts packs of assorted items, and household goods did roaring business. It was quite a sight to see a Diwali gift pack made out of tetra pack drinks and another one from Coke cans. Novel ideas, one would say.

Also, table linen, satiny cushion covers, casseroles, small water containers and crockery made for the most favoured and reasonably priced gifts this Divali, which incidentally also happened to be the right time for shopping, with almost all well-known stores putting up their goods on discounts or attractive schemes.

Definitely, it was an out and out buyers' Divali, with the shopkeepers trying their best to lure the customers and keep them happy.