Photo journalists rushed to Bangalore’s M. Chinnaswamy stadium, where Vijay Mallya’s RCB cricket team was playing, on hearing that Kingfisher Airlines’ pilots would stage a protest against non-payment of salaries. But the pilots were nowhere to be found.

The mystery was solved when a friendly cop informed the frustrated photographers that journalists belonging to an English newspaper had whisked the pilots away to another place for an exclusive.

A new turn

Chennai’s autorickshaw drivers recently held a demonstration for a very unusual reason — to demand that they be allowed to U-turn at the head of a subway that becomes choked during peak hours.

Posters put up in the area stated they had been demanding this for over a year and had even organised a signature campaign!

Will others warm up to the idea? Said a resident, who took note of the autorickshaw campaign: “There is a one-way near my house that is pretty inconvenient, maybe the residents should organise a demonstration.”

His father’s son

Will Rahul Gandhi ever grow out of his father’s shadow? Before he turned up to make his eagerly awaited “coming out” speech to India Inc, the compere at the function announced the imminent arrival of Rajiv Gandhi.

After the speech, which seemed to evoke his father’s ideas, S. Gopalakrishnan, the new CII President, also made a slip — thanking the father instead of son.

Whistle ‘podu’ for Captain Cool

The Chennai Super Kings team just loves its captain Dhoni. Last year, the IPL team came out with the ‘Raise your hands’ campaign to promote itself. But bowing to popular demand from Captain Cool, it has switched back to the ‘Whistle podu ’ anthem for IPL-6.

At a promotional event, when a reporter asked why the switch back, the franchise owners said, “Dhoni likes whistle podu . So we will stick to it.” And Dhoni added, with his characteristic grin, “You can always raise one hand and whistle with the other.”

Power-full AP

Will Andhra Pradesh turn into a power surplus State? One industrialist seemed confident of this, suggesting that the State doesn’t have to do a thing differently to achieve this goal.

If the current crisis continues for some more time, there won’t be any industry left in the State, he felt. And bereft of large consumers, the State will become power surplus, he predicted.

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