The Indian Ambassador to China, S. Jaishankar's initiative to organise a business meet on Information Technology — without keeping the Commerce Ministry in the loop — has not gone down well with its officials. Since the objective of the meet is to boost exports from India to China, they feel that they could have given some valuable inputs had they been informed about it by the Indian Embassy in China.

Ganesha overrides Telangana

While the Telangana issue has over the months threatened to distance people from the regions of coastal Andhra/Rayalaseema and Telangana, the Ganesha festival has come as a welcome departure.

The giant laddu in the palm of the tallest Ganesha at Khairatabad in Hyderabad has been prepared by an entrepreneur from Tapeswaram in East Godavari district of coastal Andhra.

The laddu weighing 2,400 kg has been made with 1,000 kg sugar, 360 kg ghee and 150 kg of dry fruits and elaichi in Tapeswaram where making sweets is a cottage industry.

Hopefully, Lord Ganesha, who is believed to remove all obstacles and help people, would take care of the interests of people of both regions.

Say it with baingan bharta

One thought the only form of protest the country would see henceforth would be fasts. But, no, the green lobby wants to cook up a storm of protest and stir up a cauldron of controversy in a novel way — by preparing a humungous dish of baingan bharta . The grilled and mashed brinjal dish is the Greenpeace way of protesting against the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (BRA-I) Bill.

Fancy dress protests

Protests appear to have come of age. Earlier people came out on the streets dressed in their usual attire. At the most you would find the hard core activist sporting a kurta and jhola . But not any more.

If the Anna Hazare supporters turned out in tri-colour tee shirts and the Gandhi topi, those against genetically modified Bt Brinjal turn up in the fancy dress of a Brinjal. The Bhagat Singh supporters wear bright yellow turbans and those against cruelty to animals, garlands and headgear of vegetables. It's obvious why protests need such a strong visual element — the 24X 7 TV channels are only waiting to lap them all up. Especially if they make for visually interesting footage.

Louts Valley?

There is simply no let-up in the flurry of property-related SMSs that arrive with irritating regularity. A colleague recently got one which exhorted buys in ‘Louts Valley'. It was for Lotus Valley.

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