It was a fools dawnpremature millennium and all that. But the dullspeak called 2000 had some saving spaces, sorry graces.
Bore No.1
Mamata Banerjee
Our Lady of Tantrums did Jayalalitha proud. Petrol hike? Rollback
or Ill quit. Rail accident? I quit. The fiery Trinamul leader who counts painting and music among her hobbies couldve added cribbing to her list. Through the year, mahajot and after, Mamata-di was relentless in her criticism of arch rival Jyoti Basu. Every wrong in Bengal viewed through her bifocals was courtesy the grand old man of the cpm. Imagination on overdrive, she even saw a commie plot in the floods that ravaged West Bengal. When she finally quits the nda and politics, its rumoured shell take up writing. Shes already shown her gift for eloquence (didnt we know?) with such titles as Struggle for Existence and Crocodile Island and a train called Pather Panchali!
Bore No.2
Shekhar Suman
Gift of the gab or high on ham? With Shekhar Suman, you never know. After a string of indifferent flops followed a steamy art flick debut, a soothsayer told the Patna-born actor that he would end up as Indias biggest TV star. That turned out to be fatal. Today, Suman is one of the tellys original bores with his silly rapidfire banter and queer body language in the late-night desi Jay Leno-clone Movers and Shakers show. With afternoon shows now on the air, even housewives are no longer safe. Spare us.
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Law Book for the Jungle
In the year after Kandahar, when everybody and his uncle wanted the nation to stand up to terrorists, who would have looked to a frail 76-year-old Mysorean called Abdul Kareem to show us how? When the Karnataka government decided to release tada detenus to secure the release of filmstar Rajkumar from the clutches of Veerappan, Kareemwhose son Shakeel Ahmed was slain by the moustachioed briganddecided enough was enough. Undeterred by defeat in a lower court, Kareem approached the SC which not only agreed with him but slammed the State for caving in so easily.
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Everywomans Beau Peep
When he has the shirt on, the girls go crazy; when he takes it off, the boys go green. At 6 2 and 180 pounds, the year saw Hrithik Roshan emerge as Bollywoods most wanted, in more ways than one. The treacly Kaho Na Pyaar Hai launched what everybody agrees is the next superstar. Now all India is in love with the nifty actor with dreamy eyes. But success didnt come easy: Hrithik, a self-confessed shy guy in school and college, overcame a stammer and worked hard to build those biceps. Add Elvis sideburns and Lennon-style glasses, and bingo!
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Best
Books:
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Romila Thapar: sage prose
The Agrarian System of Mughal India
Irfan Habib
The 1962 classic, reissued
Interpreter of Maladies
Jhumpa Lahiri
A trip down memory lane, between Bengal and America...
Something Barely Remembered
Susan Vishwanathan
...and between Kerala and Britain
Cultural Pasts
Romila Thapar
Seminal essays on ancient Indian history
Savaging the Civilised: Verrier Elwin, His Tribals and India
