Talk of the town

Indian polity might have put them on opposite sides of the country's political spectrum, but the Union Minister for External Affairs, Mr. Jaswant Singh, and celebrated artist M. F. Husain seem to have cut through the rhetoric to strike a rapport.

Just last week Mr. Jaswant Singh played host to what effectively became the Delhi premiere of Maqbool Fida Husain's ``Gaja Gamini''. And the Minister was again right beside Husain during the release of the latter's book, ``The Genesis of Gaja Gamini'', the very next evening.

The special screening of ``Gaja Gamini'' provided the Minister an opportunity to render some friendly advice to his one-time colleague in the Upper House of Parliament. Recalling those days gone by, Mr. Singh said: ``Husain sahab excelled in Parliament by never speaking despite attending the House every day. But, he would sketch in Parliament daily.''

Having said this, Mr. Singh went on to do some loud thinking by stating that it was time Husain brought out a book of his sketches in Parliament. Now, it remains to be seen whether Husain returns the complement by accepting the advice.

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With the proceedings of Parliament remaining disrupted over the Opposition demand for the resignations of three Union Ministers and the Prime Minister's statement on the Ram Temple issue, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) MPs had to stage a protest outside the House to raise their demands.

For two consecutive days, the MPs staged a ``sit-in'' seeking Central intervention for procurement of paddy in the State and other related issues. On the second day, the MPs of the TDP refused to get up till a firm commitment was made by the Government they were supporting from the outside.

As the MPs sat at the footsteps of the large bronze statue of Mahatma Gandhi across the main entrance of Parliament House many MPs cutting across party lines and even some Central Ministers came to greet the TDP members.

If the Railway Minister, Ms Mamata Banerjee, made mediatory efforts and also stood with the protesting MPs for a while, the arrival of the Tourism and Culture Minister, Mr Ananth Kumar, caught the attention.

While Mr Kumar was making polite enquiries, some enterprising scribes sought to know what prompted his arrival. With equal ease he disarmed all stating that since the ITDC functioned under his Ministry, he was there to find out whether the MPs who have been on ``Dharna'' required water and refreshments.

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While she is once again making a comeback in films after a brief interlude, it is Internet that remains her main passion. Yes, we are talking about Kajol who gave such superhits like ``Baazigar'', ``Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge'', ``Karan Arjun'' and ``Kuch, Kuch Hota Hai'' before doing the vanishing act from Bollywood.

As Chief Executive Officer of Cine Explore.com, the versatile actress is also looking at the possibility of having a Bollywood auction site. Already, plans are afoot for getting into animation in a big way.

How then does she balance her life as an actress and as a dotcom professional? ``However big the burger is, I believe in having only one bite at a time.''

The web, however, is creating possibilities of having the cake and eating it too. Indeed, it has changed the Devgan couple's whole approach to films and the publicity blitzkreig that goes with it. The premier of ``Raju Chacha'' in Hollywood is certainly an obvious result of a partnership that can only be effected in Internet world, isn't it?.

(Contributed by Anita Joshua, K.V. Prasad and K.Kannan)

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