‘Real’ acting by a politician
People might not be faulted for believing that politicians are very good actors when they deliver election time promises that forever remain unfulfilled, but recently BJP’s prime ministerial candidate L K Advani witnessed one of the ilk actually do some real acting.

The “actor” in this case is veteran lawyer-politician Ram Jethmalani, and his canvas is a new “Singlish” (Sindhi-English) film called “The Awakening”, which tells the story of a US-raised young Sindhi girl’s journey to her roots.
A special screening was organised for the BJP leader, who is a Sindhi, at the Delhi’s Films Division Auditorium recently, and if sources are to be believed, he was quite enamoured by the theme, though it is not known what he thinks about Jethmalani’s acting capabilities.

The film’s director Dharambir Kumar was commended by Advani for being able to make his point of making the Sindhis proud about the Mohenjodaro and Harrapa civilisations. Kumar says that his film is a wake-up call to all races, and not only the Sindhis, to reconnect with their roots and take pride in their lineage which can be traced back to great beginnings. Jethmalani was also present at the screening, taking visible pride over his first big screen appearance which has come soon after he appeared in a music video. And he has some interesting companions too, if one takes into account recent “filmy ventures” by politicians — while Congress’ Salman Khursheed had made a guest appearance in a Hindi film sometime back, Samajwadi Party’s Amar Singh is acting in an under-production Bengali film being directed by national award winning filmmaker Ashok Vishwanathan.
Utpal Borpujari

Officials stuck in MTNL web
Don’t waste your calls telephoning Karnataka Bhavan officials after 5.30 pm on their mobiles.

Not that they switch off the mobiles, but their MTNL cell phones don’t function in the evening in Delhi.

The Karnataka Bhavan secured ‘group connections’ for its employees from the public sector MTNL a few months ago after it found steep bills from the private sector mobiles. The Bhavan managed  to save money but lost out on remaining connected thanks to the state-run player.

It has been over the last few weeks that the Bhavan officials are facing the  problem. Any number of complaints — even threat that connections would be withdrawn — have not worked with the MTNL officials giving lame excuses.

As a result, you will get computerised voice messages that phones have been switched off or that the subscriber is out of reach, if you call them after 5.30 pm till late night.
B S Arun