Beyond the headlines in Pune

Non-violence is best policy
Non-violence was quite the buzzword during the recent Jan Lokpal Bill movement led by anti-graft crusader, Anna Hazare. Interestingly, it had an echo in the most unlikely places.

Well-known industrialist Abhay Firodia was invited to inaugurate the new auditorium, named after his grandfather, Kundanmal Firodia, at the Deccan Education Society. He waited patiently for a pair of scissors that was needed to cut the ceremonial ribbon. As it could not be arranged, the organisers requested the businessman to just untie the knot on the ribbon, to which Firodia said, “Great, this is a nice, non-violent method to inaugurate an event!”

Religious harmony
One of our lady reporters got a first-hand taste of religious harmony recently. While waiting for the elusive autorickshaw to take her home to Kondhwa from MG Road one evening, she was approached by a teenaged schoolgirl and her younger brother who requested her for a lift. After they boarded an autorickshaw together, the schoolgirl got chatting and enquired about our colleague’s career as a journalist. As Eid was round the corner, the girl even invited our colleague home for the traditional sheer korma. So excited was the girl that she even hastily wrote down her full name and address on our colleague’s palm. Our overwhelmed colleague said, “I was really touched by her innocent trust and indifference towards my religious identity.”

Incommunicado is best
Our government reporter was intrigued by the marked preference among revenue officers for the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) mobile network. A little fact finding resulted in some of the officers spilling the beans. One of them confessed that the telecom major was a preferred choice as its service in urban areas was indifferent, but worked perfectly in rural areas. “This suits us as we are not harassed by people in office hours. Also, due to frequent call drops and bad network, people avoid calling us. We are at peace,” he said.

Identity crisis
One of our colleagues received a fake chat from a friend whose e-mail ID had been hacked. The hacker (under the disguise of the friend) directed our colleague to click on a link to get her password. When our colleague fell for the ploy, the fake chat got transmitted to her frequent mailing list, which included friends from the media, public relations professionals, office colleagues and even the boss. Our colleague immediately sent an apology mail to all concerned. However, one of her friends did not believe her apology. She asked, “How do we know the one who is sending this mail is the real ‘you’?”

Dirty smoker
‘Smoking is injurious to your health’ goes the precautionary notice on all cigarettes packets which, of course, is promptly ignored by nicotine lovers. Waiting for his turn to pay his property tax bill recently, one of our reporter colleagues noticed that a chain smoker seated next to him smoked as many as four cigarettes in just 10 minutes. The smoker also stubbed all the cigarettes under his foot. When our colleague, a non-smoker, asked him to use a bin kept close by for the stubs, the rude smoker just turned round and said, “Why should I use the bin to stub my cigarettes? The whole world is an ashtray for me.”

(Contributed by Ashish Jadhav, Priyanka Naithani, Partha Sarathi Biswas, Bhagyashree Kulthe, Rajesh Rao and compiled by Rahul Chandawarkar)