A kaleidoscope of men, matters & moments that make the madness & magic of Mumbai
When Chief Minister becomes press manager
On a lazy Sunday morning, the conference hall of the state guest house at Malabar Hill was filled with reporters along with their respective cameramen and photographers. Everyone waited for Railway Minister and Chief Minister to come and sign the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the State government and the Railways.
While the reporters chatted, the photographers looked for the apt place to get the best shots and the cameramen had to stand in the back of the conference hall waiting so that they don’t obstruct anybody’s vision.
The photographers for the print were seated closer to the dais while the cameramen of the electronic media were standing behind with their cameras fixed in place. As soon as the dignitaries representing their respective governments signed the MoU they were enveloped with the photographer who thronged to get the best shots and inevitably obstructed the cameramen.
The irritated cameramen started making loud noise asking the photographers to back out so that they could take the visuals of the MoU being signed for their organisation. However, the photographers paid no heed and continued to click pictures. Considering that the situation was going out of hands, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis stepped in and asked the photographers to back off as they had taken enough pictures and allowed the cameramen to get their visuals.
Fadnavis went all out and was found giving instructions to the cameramen sitting on the dais called out to a cameraman and said, ‘Ae tu khaali waq zara. (Hey you! Bend down a little). Looking at the Chief Minister’s enthusiasm, the room broke out in laughter.
Food officer turns out to be a laughing stock
India’s favourite instant Maggi noodles have been in a middle of controversy for weeks. However, during the Maggi row, the reporters also got to know how little information the food officials of our city have and also about their careless attitude.
A bunch of reporters were present outside the food official’s office wherein they were waiting for the officers to arrive. They had reached at 12 pm dot according to the decided schedule. However, they were made to wait for an hour since the officer had not reached office since he was out for an important meeting.
After an hour, the officer arrived and they started their meeting. This reporter had asked the officer, “Which brand of Maggi samples have been sent for testing?” In reply to the question, the official said, “Oh madam, I am not sure about the names since I don’t eat noodles at all. But since you have asked, I will check in the list and get back to you.”
The reporter was stunned to get such an answer from the officer and said, “Sir, even we reporters don’t eat all brand noodles. However, we have found out about other brand noodles that are available in the market since it is our job to get the right information out.” The officer just nodded his head and said in a laughing tone, “It seems that you have more information than me and I don’t know what I am doing here in this seat.”
At this, all the reporters in the room started laughing along with the officer at his lack of knowledge and information about the subject on which he should have known well.
Justice is a two way road?
This reporter walked into a police station for some work and asked the Hawaldar sitting by the door, which official she should go and meet to get information. He pointed her in the right direction but there was a large crowd gathered around his table. She was instructed to wait for a few minutes.
The party gathered around the table was heatedly arguing with the officer, accusing him of holding them up in bureaucratic procedure when they had come with an urgent grievance. The officer tried ample of times to explain to them that it was a case of forgery and cheating and it will take time to ascertain the details.
The party still did not yield and started screaming and cornered him. The reporter then noticed that the men belonging to the party were all quite buff and well built. They were too many in number for a single policeman to handle and she started getting scared for the officer sitting behind the table.
The party said, “Don’t teach us procedure, we are familiar with this. In fact we will file a case of negligence against you.” The officer seemed very polite and his explanation made sense to this reporter. It was hard to believe he was deliberately neglecting their case. The officer got up and for the first time looked intimidating. Very calmly he said that he knows the complainant himself to be a local goon. He said, “Should I book you all under this, this and this IPC section?” You’ll be in jail at least 6 months. The party sobered down immediately and left in a few minutes.
The reporter made a mental note to look up what offences those sections corresponded to, but had forgotten the numbers by the time she got to office.
Welcome distraction
This week saw Preity Zinta recording her supplementary statement at the Wankhede Stadium at Marine Lines. Journalists from all newspapers thronged the entrance of the stadium much before the actress was supposed to arrive. The atmosphere was fraught with tension and anticipation. Policemen were in attention, on constant patrol and ready to escort Zinta to the entrance of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) building. Photographers were in position with their huge cameras and tripods, TV reporters were roaming around with their mikes. In an attempt to kill time, everyone was making small talk with each other.
Amidst all this, a sedan exiting the stadium suddenly stopped just before reaching the gate. The driver tried to make it start and move forward and all that the car managed was a feeble attempt at jerking forward. This continued for a couple of minutes.
After a couple of more minutes, the driver of the car finally managed to start it and put it in reverse – completely oblivious of the fact that a police van was standing right behind it, wanting to get out though the gate too. In an attempt to get room to turn towards the gate, the sedan continued going backwards, getting extremely close to the van. At this instant, everyone got out of limbo and collectively shouted to alert the driver of the car.
The sedan almost bumped into the van and at just the right moment, stopped, and proceeded forward. This flicker of excitement created a much-wanted light-hearted moment and made all the reporters, cameramen and policemen laugh at the blunder. The driver of the sedan, too occupied with his driving and still unaware of the situation outside, slowly moved out while the constable driving the van, obviously distressed, muttered angrily to himself and followed the sedan out.
(By Sindhu J Mansukhani)
Tail-Piece
The BJP government after coming into power has celebrated several days of international importance in the country, the recent one being the Yoga Day.
But, for the saffron party the real celebration started from Shobha Dey, then Tawde and now Munde.
Contributed by Iram Siddique, Manasi Tahalani, Eeshanpriya MS
Compiled by Manasi Tahalani
