Paribartan (change) is the buzzword of the Opposition campaign in the forthcoming Assembly election in West Bengal. Strikingly, there appears to be a change in the campaign strategy of all concerned, at least in Kolkata. The city walls are yet to sport as much poll graffiti as it used in the past. On the contrary, there is great focus on using the Web space — primarily through the social networking sites such as Facebook and FM radio.

While the ruling CPI(M) had made the first move in this direction, the Opposition, spearheaded by the Ms Mamata Bannerjee-led Trinamool Congress, has bounced back in equal measure. Most remarkable are the series of catchy jingles played on almost all the FM channels, urging voters to vote for ‘change'.

www. Humble Tim

Tim Berners-Lee, who invented the World Wide Web, stole the show at the 20th WWW Conference here last week. His presence was electrifying. The media-shy Web scientist was all attention for presentations and discussing relevant issues with young researchers.

When reporters finally could catch him at the press conference on Day 4, a reporter thanked him for inventing the Web.

The unassuming man he is, just gave a shrug. But, he hastened to say, “you are most welcome to use it freely, any time you want to access it”.

Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright…

The Environment Minister, Mr Jairam Ramesh, whose passion (read concern) for the environment and strong views have attracted the displeasure of big industry players and some of his party leaders, was at the receiving end of some light-hearted banter recently.

At the release of the Tiger Estimate, the Congress leader and party colleague Salman Khurshid took a dig at him: What's common between a tiger and Jairam Ramesh? he asked, and quipped, “both are ferocious and near extinction”. Like for the tiger “We (Congress party) use camera trapping and pug mark analysis to keep track of Ramesh”, he added.

Now, that's what is called a sugar-coated bullet!

A stitch in time

Shoppers beware, even a cause comes at a cost! Recently, two women guiltlessly piled clothes at a charity exhibition. The proceeds went to charity, remember? But at the billing counter, they were quizzed whether they bought ‘stitched' or ‘unstitched' merchandise.

While the ‘unstitched' fabric passed the tax test, the ‘stitched' garment came under Pranabda's excise net for branded readymade garments. Needless to say, they grudgingly forked out the extra money. One could also hear them mutter, “Maybe we should get our clothes tailored by the darzi next time.”

Tears for onion futures

Commodity exchanges in the country say that futures help contain volatility in prices of agricultural produce. So, why not onion futures? A top official of a commodity exchange said the bourses were wary of launching onion futures because they could be blamed in case of surge in prices. “You know, even in the US, onion futures are banned?” he said. Very true.

The US has banned onion futures through Onion Futures Act passed in August 1958. It came into effect after two onion traders, Sam Seigel and Vincent Kosuga, cornered onion futures market in 1955 on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

Goodies for ‘good work'

The Andhra Pradesh Assembly's Budget session ended on a stormy note with more adjournments, barely any discussion and hitting a new low, when a Minister beat up an Opposition legislator in the House.

While hardly any serious matter of public concern was discussed, the legislators had a lot to cheer on the last day. For the high decibel performance, each of them was rewarded with goodies to the tune of Rs one lakh.

These included an iPhone-cum-tablet, a laptop, printer, a strolley, a wrist watch and two boxes of forest produce. Is it reward in the form of ‘goodies' for their so-called good work, wondered a seasoned political analyst.

Plain-speaking CMD

Whether it is peculiar to UCO Bank or common elsewhere, it was the boldness of the bank Chairman and Managing Director, Arun Kaul, that came through loud and clear.

Addressing a gathering of the bank's employees in Chennai last week, Kaul openly rued a rather basic problem: “My people just don't read our circulars.”

Kaul, who took over as the CMD in September 2010, made another telling observation: “Our branches are not clean”.

Strict advice from big brother!

Bureaucrats are seldom forthcoming on sharing official information with reporters. But they are more than eloquent and direct when they get onto a podium, especially in front of a mixed audience with many foreigners.

A senior South Block mandarin was uncommonly immodest at a recent gathering of bankers and finance professionals from India and abroad. In his anxiety to discipline the experts to stick to the allotted time of five minutes, he held out a warning that he might have to catch them by their coat-tails if they exceeded !

A stunned audience later split into peals of laughter.

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