Below the line

Insider/Outsider

At the launch of P Chidambaram’s book, Standing Guard , a collection of columns on a year spent in the Opposition, Sanjaya Baru asked the former finance and home minister what his book was like. PC shot back: Not as interesting as yours, Sanjaya.

Former J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah said his dad, Farooq, had been threatening to write a book for many years. He cautioned that if you are in active politics you should not write a book as you cannot afford to burn any bridges. And if you must write, put it away under lock and key and have it published after your death, he said, adding that there was no such thing as an honest memoir by a serving politician. Now, that’s straight from the heart.

Smriti for UP?

She might have delivered an eloquent defence of her actions as HRD minister in the JNU and Rohith Vemula cases, but the buzz gaining currency within the BJP is that Smriti Irani is likely to move out of the Cabinet.

According to sources, Irani, who has been nursing Amethi assiduously even after losing the election there, is being considered as a chief ministerial candidate for Uttar Pradesh, which will go to the polls next year. Given her fiery showing lately, she could be a match for Mayawati or Akhilesh is the feeling.

Sunset fadeout

Perhaps no other community in the world has been affected so much by the death of one individual. With GG Salem’s demise, at 89, the population of the legendary Jewish community in Jew Town in Kochi’s ancient Mattancherry area has shrunk by one-sixth. The community, which is the collective guardian of Mattancherry’s iconic Paradeshi Synagogue, now has just five members. Jews arrived on Kerala’s shores two millennia back and settled around the ancient port of Muziris, near Kodungalloor. In the 14th century they relocated to Mattancherry, and in the 16th century, built the Paradeshi Synagogue. A symbol of Kerala’s religious harmony, the Jewish community is fast fading into the sunset.

Bully for you!

The audience was amused by the reference made by Deepak Parekh, the chairman of HDFC, to Dilip Piramal who is chairman of the Indian Merchants’ Chamber and VIP Industries. Parekh said, “Now on a lighter note, were it not for the persuasion, persistence and pestering, (if I may add) by my good friend Dilip, I may not have been here today. Dilip is currently the President of IMC, but for me, he will always be the little kid. His older brother and I were friends and that is how I know Dilip since he was a 10-year-old. Now before he gets a chance to say it, I should confess, we used to bully him quite a bit. Then of course, the tables turned and he started bullying us, with his then sizable presence. I have always marvelled at how Dilip has got himself back into shape — I don’t know how many kilos he’s shed and I admire at how disciplined and fit he has become. Thank you, Dilip, for inviting me and I’m so glad you bullied me into doing this talk today! With this, I think we have now settled our bullying scores.”

Tata and tea

With Starbucks, the joint venture between Tata Global Beverages and Starbucks in India, poised to bring its retail store, Teavana, to India, Ratan Tata, chairman emeritus of the Tata Group, may end up competing against it. He recently invested recently Tea Box, a startup that plans to invest in offline tea stores soon.

On the right road

Ask Rajiv Bajaj, vice-chairman and managing director of Bajaj Capital, whether people confuse him with his namesake in Bajaj Auto (managing director), and he laughs, saying: “We are two separate corporate groups. They put people on the road to their destination and we put people on the path to achieve financial goals.”

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