Talk of the town

Hrithik's magic

When it comes to Hrithik, even the men in khaki cannot resist shaking their legs. Notwithstanding the tight security and the heavy responsibility of protecting the Roshan family, policemen did swing and shake along with the ``prince charming'' of Bollywood this past week in Delhi.

Such was the spell that Hrithik cast on Friday that the plea of the organisers to make people sit on their chairs fell on deaf years. In fact, before the programme could begin the organisers appealed to everyone in the crowd to remain seated and requested security officials to mediate.

``We cannot begin the show unless everyone is seated. This is a security requirement,'' was the repeated announcement over the mike. While the security officials did make an effort to make people sit down, all norms were thrown to the winds when Hrithik appeared on stage.

Even the policemen who joined the crowd in the Hrithik mania forgot all about security. People at the back were seen standing on their chairs, among whom were a few men in uniform. The Hrithik magic was too much to resist and they too could not resist wanting a glimpse of him.

In the end, it seemed that the initial anxiety had worn off what with the policemen dancing in the call of duty and yet, managing to ensure that nothing untoward happened till the end of the show.

Silent victims

Parliament is in session, and on in full swing alongside are the numerous protests and strikes by parties and various organisations eager to get themselves seen and heard.

While these protests have taken their toll on vehicular movement, there is a silent victim also: The trees in the vicinity of the protests or those lining the route taken by demonstrators.

A case in point is the stretch of Rafi Marg between Press Club of India and Yojana Bhavan. Perched atop buses transporting them to a public meeting at Mavalankar Hall, villagers brought in for the Lok Janashakti meeting broke off the branches, expertly shred the twigs and did a ``neem chewing-strong teeth routine'' right away.

Besides the neem trees, what also remain under constant threat are the cars and scooters parked under them which often have to bear the ``weight'' of nature's own toothpaste as the protestors invariably pull down branches; throwing away what they don't want at will. Worse still is the way the vehicles are used as wash- basins.

And with the pavements of Rafi Marg being turned into parking lots of the buses, invariably all the trees wear a shorn look with the carriers ``mowing'' away the branches hanging low; giving the protestors a free takeaway from the Capital.

Mural of hope

To make the younger generation aware of the need to save our environment, Nirula's -- one of the largest restaurant chains in Delhi -- has tried to tap into the children's vision for a better future by making them paint ``hope'' and ``concern''.

It invited young children from Salaam Balak Trust and India Vision Foundation this past week to come to their Defence Colony outlet and paint on a 18 feet by 36 feet wall on the theme of environment.

This mural created by the children communicates their view on world that we would like to live in. Dr. Kiran Bedi of the India Vision Foundation and Mrs. Nair of Salaam Balak Trust were invited to grace the occasion and encourage the little ones.

In today's world filled with corruption, pollution, calamities and pressures of day-to-day living, this mural represents hope. ``We hope that their vision can become a reality if we carefully project and nurture the precious resources that we have,'' said a spokesperson of Nirula's.

To generate awareness among the 55,000 customers who visit the Nirula's family style restaurants daily, it has an environment board in all its restaurants. Various ideas are put on the board on the ways to save the environment. Besides, recycled paper boxes are being used now for take away orders.

Excuses galore

Police personnel occasionally come up with ludicrous excuses for not giving out information. While many usually plead ``not they are authorised to give out information'', others sometime come up with extremely unrealistic reasons for not being able to part with facts.

So was the case this past Sunday at the Tilak Marg police station. A call enquiring about a robbery at Pandara Road threw the duty officer on evening duty in a frenzy.

Knowing full well that such an incident had taken place at Pandara Road in which the locks of a bamboo fencing around a bungalow had been broken open, the duty officer wanted to hold back the information. As such he quickly came up with an excuse for not even providing the basic details on the case -- namely, the time and place.

But when the man opened his mouth after spending some anxious moments thinking of a way out of the quandary, he came up with the a most astounding reason. ``The FIR register has been sent for repair to the cobbler and would be returned after two hours.''

With this the duty officer hung up. Though he managed to evade the query, and in some little way was able to hold back information he thought to be crucial, he probably did the image of the police more harm than good.

For, his answer, if taken to be true, showed the Delhi police in poor light. Was he trying to imply that the FIR register is so badly maintained that it had to be taken to cobbler in its second month of use? And if the reporter was just in jest, the man surely needs to take a few more lessons on `humour in uniform'.

(Contributions from K.Kannan, Bindu Jacob, Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar)

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