Kamal Couture In Political Puddle
What better way to make the lotus a part of people’s lives than emblazoning it on their saris. Perhaps, that’s the motivation behind West Bengal BJP mahila morcha chief Agnimitra Paul’s designs that she asked female party workers to buy. They, however, are unimpressed with her attempt to be ‘vocal for local’. “This is politics, not a fashion show,” declared a worker. Obviously, this has nothing to do with the fact that Paul is a fashion designer. After all, she has been one for 23 years and does not need to resort to “cheap tricks” to sell her designs, she says. Whether the trick is as cheap as the sari, priced at Rs 280 apiece, remains open to speculation.
Bum Seeks Boar
A sunny day by the Devil’s Lake in Berlin heralded a surprise for sunbathers—an unforgettable comic sketch involving a man chasing boars. In this episode of man versus wild, the man was stark naked and the ruckus was immortalised on camera. Luckily for the naturalist, he managed to retrieve his bag with his laptop that the boars were running away with. As he returned triumphant, the crowd clapped and congratulated him. The boars had managed to feast on a pizza before they set their snouts on the luscious smells emanating from the man’s…err, laptop.
Eye Spy…Gandhi
When a pair of spectacles turned up in East Bristol Auctions’ letterbox, little did they know the surprise they were in for. “The vendor had presumed them to be of no value and asked me to dispose them,” says auctioneer Andy Stowe. But soon enough, came an online bid of £6,000. The reason? The vendor’s father claimed they were a gift to his uncle when he was working in South Africa between 1910 and 1930 and the glasses could have probably belonged to Gandhi. Stowe surmises that Gandhi didn’t wear glasses until the late 1910s and if it did belong to him, it could be one of his earliest pairs. Hard to prove, perhaps, but the round-rimmed glasses are likely to fetch up to £15,000.
Hell hath no fury like... A husband scorned
Marriages might be made in heaven, but for a Delhi-based couple, they turned out to be hell on earth. Nisha, a Badarpur resident, filed a complaint that a man had broken into her house with a knife and stolen her cell phone. The criminal, she said, was her husband, who supposedly wanted to teach her a lesson for leaving him. When the police apprehended him, he not only confessed to the crime, but also revealed that he was part of a gang that stole mobile phones in buses and later sold them in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. We don’t know what lessons he taught his wife, but the next time you are travelling in a Delhi bus, say a little prayer to Nisha for making the ride a tad bit safer.
Saini The Starfish
Watching the idiot box can be good for you, lifesaving too. Ask Ravi Saini, a 10-year-old boy vacationing in Scarborough beach in northern England, whom it miraculously rescued. When Saini went into the water and found himself swept with the currents, he followed the advice he had gleaned from the BBC documentary Saving Lives At Sea. Instead of panicking and thrashing, he floated on his back with his arms and legs spread out like a starfish. He was able to ride the waves in that position for more than an hour, when rescuers finally found him!
Brevis
Illustrations: Saahil, Text by Alka Gupta and Syed Saad Ahmed
