The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : The long and short of it

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Tuesday, May 20, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

The long and short of it

Staff of the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation and the journalists present at the taking over of charge by new Municipal Commissioner P.S. Pradyumna could not miss noticing the difference between the previous incumbents in the chair and the new one in at least one respect: height. The 6-ft tall Pradyumna was a stark contrast to the previous two Municipal Commissioners – Natarajan Gulzar who held the reins of VMC for three years and Gaurav Uppal who held the additional charge for a month. But, what was more important for the VMC officials and employees than a mere difference in height was to guess as to what kind of a Commissioner Mr. Pradyumna would turn out to be. Would he be as hard a task master as Mr. Gulzar was, or would he be soft towards employees, were some of the questions they discussed among themselves. It would be probably a considerable wait for them to find answers for their questions.

It’s all about PR

The NCL Industries organised a display of their new products here recently, and the press and electronic media was invited to cover it. Nagarjuna Cements’ officials attended the display in full strength to explain the merits of their products and also underscore the necessity to create awareness about them. They took pains to explain as to why a cement company was making so much effort to diversify into new business and register its presence in building materials such as bison panels. A visitor said that it required even greater efforts for a company so popular for its cement product to impress upon the users about its new forays into other building materials, including bison panels and windows.

Unexpected boon

The issue being hotly debated was that of ‘patting’ the outstanding students who achieved top ranks in schools run by the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC). Additional Commissioner (General) G.P. Neelakantham was questioning headmasters and headmistresses of the corporation-run schools if they fulfilled their duty of ‘congratulating’ the top rank-holders. Some sincerely nodded in negative, while the slightly shrewd ones, who had sensed his bad mood, quickly nodded in affirmative. A further crosscheck had the ‘lying’ teachers desperately looking for a cover-up. The unexpected arrival of a few scribes in the chamber proved to be a boon for the red-faced educators who pretended to be going out of their way to acknowledge the achievement of the outstanding pupils in the presence of cameras.

Man in a ‘hurry’

What should an official do when a battery of reporters of the print and electronic media surround him and begin to shoot questions on a subject on which he doesn’t want to speak even a word? Assistant Commissioner of Police (West Zone) L. Vijay Kumar seems to have found in ingenuous way to wriggle out of such situations. The official convened a press conference to announce the arrest of four accused in the case of acid attack on an advocate. As he clearly knew that reporters would ask questions about the progress in the investigation into the case of Ayesha Meera’s murder, especially because the police are questioning the accused Gurvinder Singh alias Laddu who is in their custody right now, Mr. Kumar finished the press conference quickly and tried to leave the hall in a hurry. No less wiser they were, reporters of the electronic media surrounded him with cameras and started shooting questions one after the other. But they soon realised that even after 15 minutes, they could not get a clear answer to any of their questions, as Mr. Kumar managed the session with short and vague replies.

A dream come true

It was dream come true for dozens of weightlifting trainees at CBR Sports Academy at Kethanakonda to interact with a host of international weightlifters, who had brought medals and laurels to the country. The budding trainees were clearly starry eyed as they listened to the success stories of the icons. Hogging the limelight was diminutive Olympian Kunjarani Devi, who exhorted the youngsters to train hard with dedication. With many trainees failing to understand Hindi, coach Rajasekhar donned the role of a translator. Some youngsters recollected how they were inspired to take up weightlifting by just looking at Kunjarani’s photos in newspapers, a la Ekalavya who learnt archery looking at the clay image of Dronacharya. “I still have all the newspapers clippings of these stalwarts, as there were no television channels those days,” said coach Rajasekhar, who made no effort to conceal his excitement.

K. Srimali, G. Ravikiran, P. Sujatha Varma, K.N. Murali Sankar, and J R Shridharan

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Andhra Pradesh