Shilpa for President!

So Ms Patil is India’s first woman president. And some newspapers are already touching her feet.

Does this mean that Rashtrapati Bhavan will now be known as Rashtrapatni Bhavan?

But if Ms Patil is to be the nation’s wife, wouldn’t Ms Shetty have been a better choice? I mean, she has a doctorate from Leed’s University, a figure that would make for great photographs – even if she were to stand next to Ms Clinton at the White House – and a perfume to her name. S2 is what that little bottle is called and its creator, a certain Mark Earnshaw says it has “jasmine and musk but also have a fruity scent to it as well, to pay homage to her Indian heritage and appeal to the European market. Packaging for the fragrance is unique - the box iis (sic) quite classic and modern on the outside, but inside it is of leopard print, because, says Earnshaw, there are two sides to Shilpa…cool on the outside but she also has a different and deeper side.”

What does Ms Patil have? Why should I even attend her swearing-in ceremony if she won’t even smell of S2?

And God help us if she decides to launch P2! What would that smell of I wonder?

Pinky

June 18, 2007: Is this why Jaipur is called the Pink City?

Harry'd I am!

Ms Rowling's laughing again... all the way to the bank.

People I know are practising spot-jogging to prepare for the long queues on Saturday morning outside bookstores (one is even throwing in a breakfast offer) so that they can beat their ilk at grabbing her latest book. The last? No way!... watch this space.

These folks are also going to switch off their mobile phones and stay home to read every word of the book so that they can figure out what happens to Master Potter.

I'm wondering if I should go and watch Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - tickets should be easy to get because the mania will have moved from the multiplex to the stores.

And I'm also wondering if I should finally pick up one of Ms Rowling's books and start reading them.

Should I give in to temptation?

But should I start with this, the latest? Or go get the first one?

Will I look sheepish trying to buy the first title when everyone's hankering for the last one?

Decisions...decisions! Life is never simple, is it?

Hierarchy

At an e-commerce seminar last month in Kolkata, it was both hilarious and horrifying to see hierarchy being displayed in the most bizarre manner.

Like all good Indians, we believe in rushing towards the future even as we cling to the tailcoats of a rapidly disappearing past. And nowhere was this more evident than the inauguration of this forum on new-age economy... in true desi paradoxical style.

Why should public-sector corporations be obsequious to ministers? Is it part of their KRAs? Their culture? What?

The inauguration of this seminar took place not with a mouse but with a candle lighting a brass lamp... I kid thee not! And the flame was (literally) lit first by the State's IT Minister and then passed on to a Joint Secretary who, having added his flame, handed over the wax baton to the head of the PSU that was sponsoring the event while the remaining wicks were lit by lesser mortals.

What absolved this minister, though, was his speech. Not quite what one expected but a crisp monologue with a lovely insight.

He pointed out that all villagers ask for electricity, a school, water and a road that connects them to the highway/the city. Wouldn't it be better if we could just give them a broadband connection that would connect them to the world instead?

On that thought... adios.