Polscape, Polscape Magazine Outlook India

Mirror Image

By Sorit

MORE...

“He didn’t come clean in the manner I expected...(but) I’m sitting here because it’s confirmed.”

—US talk show host Oprah Winfrey on cyclist hero Lance Armstrong who finally confesses to doping. The interview airs this week.

MORE...

The Dent In The Chair

Napoleon, the DMK man in the Union cabinet, is clearly not a man out to conquer the world. All the ex-filmstar from Tamil Nadu (who holds the low-key MoS for social justice portfolio) wanted was a chair at a function in Rashtrapati Bhavan. He was allotted one too, as it was for disabled people who come under the purview of his ministry. Unfortunately, he left his chair for a minute and by the time he returned, the Prez’s son, motormouth MP Abhijit Mukherjee, was plonked on it. And he was quite abrupt about not giving the minister back his kursi. So minister Napoleon had to do without a chair. Thankfully, the gentleman that he is, he didn’t create a scene. Alas, the same cannot be said for our ‘dented and painted’ First Son.

Sing Along

A.R. Rahman, the music maestro, was in Hyderabad recently to promote the Mani Ratnam film, Kadal. At a time when hate speeches headline the news, Rahman uses his music as a platform for peace. (Remember his famous Oscar line, “All my life, I had a choice between love and hate. I chose love.”) Once he was through with the promotional tour, Rahman took off to his favourite destination, the famous Pedda dargah in Kadapa. As part of the Urs celebrations, he even put together a qawwali performance there, for an audience of about 1,000 people. Thankfully, except for a couple of ministers, there weren’t too many netas blocking the view. So local fans were an ecstatic lot.

Who’s The Big Cat Now?

Now it’s common knowledge that MNS chief Raj Thackeray tries his utmost to copy late uncle Bal Thackeray’s style, be it in mannerisms or dress (note Balasaheb’s earlier pictures before the shawl, rudraksha and giant tiger in background phase took over). Even the party symbol of his MNS, an engine, was actually one of the symbols the Shiv Sena tried out in its formative days. So it was hardly surprising that just two months after the Sena supremo’s demise, the MNS seems to have decided that it was time to take the party rivalry to the next level. Last weekend, posters started popping up of Raj Thackeray with the face of a roaring lion as backdrop, a carbon copy of the roaring tiger which Balasaheb was partial to. When asked about the new tactics, MNS officials were tight-lipped, refusing to comment. But it’s clear that Raj has decided his roar is a lot better than Uddhav’s. Or is it?

The Big Dip

January 14 being Makar Sankranti day, the Congress was on fast-mode at the party HQ in Delhi. So the usual offer to the hacks— tea and snacks—was missing. In fact, even water was “unavailable”. The BJP, in contrast, was having its ‘Makar Sankranti Utsav’ at its official base around the corner. A joke doing the rounds: perhaps there was no tea because the Congress peons had all gone to take a dip at the Kumbh.

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
		1	2	3	4	5
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24	25	26
27	28	29	30	31

Post a Comment
You are not logged in, please log in or register
If you wish your letter to be considered for publication in the print magazine, we request you to use a proper name, with full postal address - you could still maintain your anonymity, but please desist from using unpublishable sobriquets and handles

Comments Policy

We at Outlookindia.com welcome feedback and your comments, including scathing criticism

But:

1. Scathing, passionate, even angry critiques are welcome, but please do not indulge in abuse and invective. Our Primary concern is to keep the debate civil. We urge our users to try and express their disagreements without being disagreeable. Personal attacks are not welcome. No ad hominem please.

2. Please do not post the same message again and again in the same or different threads

3. Please keep your responses confined to the subject matter of the article you are responding to. Please note that our comments section is not a general free-for-all but for feedback to articles/blogs posted on the site

4. Our endeavour is to keep these forums unmoderated and unexpurgated. But if any of the above three conditions are violated, we reserve the right to delete any comment that we deem objectionable and also to withdraw posting privileges from the abuser. Please also note that hate-speech is punishable by law and in extreme circumstances, we may be forced to take legal action by tracing the IP addresses of the poster.

5. If someone is being abusive or personal, or generally being a troll or a flame-baiter, please do not descend to their level. The best response to such posters is to ignore them and send us a message at Mail AT outlookindia DOT com with the subject header COMPLAINT

6. Please do not copy and paste copyrighted material. If you do think that an article elsewhere has relevance to the point you wish to make, please only quote what is considered fair-use and provide a link to the article under question.

7. There is no particular outlookindia.com line on any subject. The views expressed in our opinion section are those of the author concerned and not that of all of outlookindia.com or all its authors.

8. Please also note that you are solely responsible for the comments posted by you on the site. The comments could be deleted or edited entirely at our discretion if we find them objectionable. However, the mere fact of their existence on our site does not mean that we necessarily approve of their contents. In short, the onus of responsibility for the comments remains solely with the authors thereof. Outlookindia.com or any of its group publications, may, however, retains the right to publish any of these comments, with or without editing, in any medium whatsoever. It is therefore in your own interest to be careful before posting.

9.Outlookindia.com is not responsible in any manner whatsoever for how any search engine -- such as Google, Bing etc -- caches or displays these comments. Please note that you are solely responsible for posting these comments and it is a privilege being granted to our registered users which can be withdrawn in case of abuse. To reiterate:

a. Comments once posted can only be deleted at the discretion of outlookindia.com
b. The comments reflect the views of the authors and not of outlookindia.com
c. outlookindia.com is not responsible in any manner whatsoever for the way search engines cache or display these comments
d. Please therefore take due caution before you post any comments as your words could potentially be used against you

10. We have an online thread for our comments policy:
http://blog.outlookindia.com/default.aspx?ddm=10&pid=1669&eid=5

You are welcome to post your suggestions here or in case you have a specific issue, to directly email us at Mail AT outlookindia DOT com with the subject header COMPLAINT