‘Life risk acche’
When the going gets tough, the West Bengal Police stop in its tracks. The fact was highlighted during the second phase of panchayat polls in Basanti, South 24 Parganas district, which saw four deaths. Nearly 50 policemen were seen standing near Amjhora, with sounds of bombs echoing in the neighbouring villages. Suddenly news came that three bodies lay in a nearby village. The men in uniform, however, stood silently on the road. The man in charge of the contingent was Humayun Kabir, famous for arresting Hathkata Dilip, a notorious ganglord from Salt Lake. Kabir, who was urging his force to move forward to recover the bodies, got little response. “Sir, life risk ache”(going there is risky), one of the jawans whispered. Ultimately the jawans ventured into the village, but not until two hours passed by and that too with displeasure writ large on their faces.
SRK’s soundbytes
It was a huge disappointment for the scribes at the Writers’ Building, who were waiting for a soundbyte of actor Shahrukh Khan who came with fellow actor Juhi Chawla to meet Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. The hordes of reporters who had been waiting since 11 in the morning on Sunday started calling SRK as soon as he emerged out of the room. Khan even stopped and seemed to be ready to speak to the press, however, Kolkata police commissioner Gautam Mohan Chakrabarti came in the way and whisked the star away.
Naughty at 40
The US Consul General in the city Henry V Jardine was left blushing at a joke cracked by industrialist Sanjay Budhia. The occasion was a media interaction session organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce to mark the end of the tenure of the consul. “There is a saying that one gets naughty at 40. The Consul General has just turned 40,” pat came Budhia’s one liner at the end of his speech. The audience had a good laugh and Jardine too sportingly chuckled along.
TV rules the toppers
An amusing scenario emerges in Kolkata the moment the Madhyamik, Higher Secondary, or for that matter any of the board results are declared. Scores of TV channels land up at the homes of the toppers and moments later the young achievers are “hijacked” to the studios for “live” interviews.
This triggers a fury among the photographers of the print media, as they have to queue up at the studios of the TV channels to take photographs of the students.
The TV channels, more often than not, act tough and refuse to let their “prize catch” pose for other photographers.
Penalty for ‘first’
Despite being the first board to declare the examination results, the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Examination has to face criticism from teachers’ organisations over publication of results during panchayat election on May 20 this year.
The council released the results of nearly 4,46,000 students in just 40 days. Since the results came out before the Joint Entrance Examination this week, various universities have decided to wait and even after the publication of results, the students will get admission forms of various courses only from May 28.
Pakora replaces muri
The usual menu of muri and telebhaja that follows Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee’s press meet turned non-vegetarian on May 22, the day panchayat election results were declared.
The scribes had a pleasant surprise when they were treated by Mamata with chicken-pakora and other palate-tickling non-veg items from a nearby restaurant. They were too elated to savour the food as Mamata was busy savouring the results of the panchayat elections that gave her two Zilla Parishads and a slew of Panchayat Samities.