Quatrain LXXXXII -- MEDIA DONS THE EMPEROR’S NEW CLOTHES

Media bigwigs have dropped their cloak
And boast of their intimacy to this fixer ‘bloke’
‘My friend’, ‘my close friend’, ‘Mahajanji, get well soon’*
Shivani’s** dead, but there's others who sing her mercenary tune

*
-- Get well soon, Mr Mahajan -- KARAN THAPAR
http://hindustantimes.com/news/181_1686715,00300002.htm
-- ‘Pramod, get out of the ICU. Let’s go home’ -- By Malavika Sangghvi (Editor - DNA)
http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1026356
-- My Friend, Mr Mahajan -- Rajdeep Sardessai's blog
http://www.ibnlive.com/blogs/rajdeepsardesai/1/8986/my-friend-mr-mahajan.html
-- The Pramod Mahajan I know -- Neeta Kolhatkar - special correspondent DNA
http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1025559
-- thehoot.org (fourth observation)
http://www.thehoot.org/story.asp?storyid=Web5917630252Hoot72646%20PM2084&pn=1

** Shivani Bhatnagar, an Indian Express journalist who was murdered in her New Delhi home in 1999. The controversy that followed her murder, roped into the spotlight Pramod Mahajan, who managed to skip the shit and IPS officer R K Sharma, who landed in it.

Quatrain LXXXXI -- DESH AUR DHANDA

In the Arcelor-Mittal* fight
The Indian state shouldered Mittal's might
'I am proud to be Indian', is a fine patriotic docket**
Especially, with the trade & commerce ministry in your pocket

**I am proud to be Indian: L N Mittal
http://in.rediff.com/money/2006/apr/28mittal.htm
*Why is Kamal Nath dragging the nation into a European steel battle?
http://outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20060227&fname=Col+Prem+(F)&sid=1
*Should India be involved in Mittal's Arcelor bid?
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1428966.cms
*PM takes up Mittal's Arcelor bid with Chirac
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2006/02/21/stories/2006022103340100.htm

Quatrain LXXXX -- INK SMUDGE

Some names need 'special' care
Labels stuck on larders bare
Yet, Kaavya*... with a name like this
Must've been tough, being a plagiarist**

* A classical style of Sanskrit poetry/'Kaavya Vishwanathan' author of "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life"
** I'm no copycat, Harvard writer cries to Katie
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/story/412419p-348782c.html
KaavyaGate -- The Independent's continuing coverage of the Kaavya Viswanathan scandal.
http://harvardindependent.com/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleID=9940
Kaavya Viswanathan takes a break from Harvard
http://in.rediff.com/news/2006/apr/27ajp.htm

Quatrain LXXXIX -- WHEN A CONDOM WON'T HELP

Pravin Mahajan has put to test
BJP rath yatra's quest
'Bharat suraksha'* is populist fodder
Advaniji, first put your house in order

*Advani cuts short his 'Bharat suraksha' yatra to call on Pramod Mahajan after the latter's kin shot him thrice. Instead of exorcising the ghosts by tramping across the countryside, the Bharatiya Janata Party should perhaps consider securing the ghosts within their new found affluent homes and selves.
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2006/20060423/main1.htm

Quatrain LXXXVIII -- AGAR MARA DALAL, TO PHENKO GULAL - III

Raktbeej* was difficult to kill
At every stab, a thousands demons spilled
But here, an army of samaritans wilfully bleed**
To wish a dying ogre godspeed

* A mythological demon, who was tough to slay because every drop of blood which spilled from his body birthed
another demon.
** Pramod Mahajan shot at by brother, in critical condition
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1499849.cms

Quatrain LXXXVIII -- HOME TRUTHS

Pravin Mahajan has put to test
The core of Advani’s rath quest
‘Bharat suraksha’ is mere populist rouse
Advaniji, first secure your house

Quatrain LXXXVII -- GHULAM?

Aamir conscience must have spilled
After kissing a Coca Cola chilled
For even as he hollers the Narmada cry
Coca Cola has already bled the Plachimada* dry

* Aati Kya Plachimada?
http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20060501&fname=Narmada+(F)&sid=5
NGOs challenge Coca-Cola at shareholders meeting
http://southasia.oneworld.net/article/view/131278/1/
Enter: Aamir the activist
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1060415/asp/frontpage/story_6102578.asp

Quatrain LXXXVI -- MEDIA AND HER MAN

The voluble mistress
Is in palpable distress
If Mahajan's dead
It's one less, to warm her bed*

* Very few politicians handled the media with the sort of elan Pramod Mahajan posseses. Amar Singh may bluster and bluff his way with editors and media house proprietors, but Mahajan's a class apart. How he weaved his way out of the Shivani Bhatnagar scandal was an exercise in media manipulation. Even the Reliance shares issue was so deftly tackled by him.

Quatrain LXXXV -- AGAR MARA DALAL TO PHENKO GULAL - II

After chewing off your monies like cud
Now, Pramod Mahajan needs your blood*
And if at all, you feel inclined to help him
Ask him for some of the Reliance shares he skimmed**

Pramod Mahajan's condition 'critical', put on ventilator
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1500023.cms

Reliance Info hits House -- Nirupam query on shares
www.telegraphindia.com/1050316/asp/frontpage/story_4499111.asp

Quatrain LXXXIV -- AGAR MARA DALAL, TO PHENKO GULAL

Pramod Mahajan shouldn’t worry
In power, Mahajanji stoked pots of corporate curry
And for the ‘Hindu’ there’s always the after-life option
Perhaps even rebirth as Mukesh Ambani’s* grandson

* Perhaps the most refined face of today’s broker-politician Pramod Mahajan is on his deathbed. The last sentence is pun, but one sincerely believes, if Dhirubhai Ambani had lived on, he would have seriously contemplated considering Pramod Mahajan as his third son for all the help rendered by him in furthering the family’s business interests in double quick time.

INFREQUENT

Sorry people.. forgot to mention - travelling for another 2-3 days.
Difficult to post till then.

Quatrain LXXXIII -- NACH MERI BULBUL

Dance is no longer bar
They 'healed' it first and then scraped the scar
After a 'right to living' was robbed*
To grant it back, someone somewhere's gotten a blowjob

*Congress stabs Patil, welcomes dance bar order
http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1024278

Manjit Sethi gets 90 days in jail for ‘inciting anarchy’ (MUST READ)
http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=177798

Quatrain LXXXII -- TROPHY JOURNALISM

Imitating Pulitzer's glory
Indian Express drummed up its Ramnath Goenka award story*
The trophy was a large brass nib, topped with chrome
And in proper bania spirit, the booty was first shared at home

* Undoubtedly, The Indian Express is the finest ‘national’ newspaper published in these times, despite its modest circulation. Its failing… constant tom-tomming and breast beating of it achievements (at times suspects) that it noisily indulges in. The Ramnath Goenka awards is further confirmation of such dubiousness. Out of the 16 awards for ‘excellence in journalism’ which were up for grabs, two awards went to journalists attached to The Indian Express and five other trophies were bagged by journos from NDTV 24X7, a channel which has a strategic alliance with The Indian Express. (Why Shekhar Gupta walks all over NDTV 24X7, is one sample illustration). If, from the announced 16 categories, one deducts three categories -- dealing with freelance and regional reportage that these two media establishment cannot lay claim to) -- then effectively the combine of NDTV 24X7 and The Indian Express literally account for 7 out of 13 available awards for 'excellence in journalism' all over the country.
Interestingly, no TV channel/newspaper, which is a rival to The Indian Express of NDTV 24X7 have won the Ramnath Goenka awards in its maiden year.
http://www.expressindia.com/rngf/awards/index.html

Quatrain LXXXI -- DIS'COUNT'

It’s so easy to count the dead
Amidst calm rows of mute head after head
Then, is it to save the extra yard of shroud
That Mulayam has devised a head-count fraud?

* Are the Meerut fire casualties being fudged? Read link http://in.rediff.com/news/2006/apr/11meerut3.htm

Quatrain LXXX -- 'BRAND INDIA'... SEARING HOT

Meerut's bonfire* is an exercise in symbolism
No doubt, India as a brand commands exposition
With its global stock soaring in flight
'Brand India' is burning bright

* 50 killed at a trade fair in Meerut organised by the Brand India Consumer's forum and sponsored by Dainik Jagran. http://www/rediff.com/news/2006/apr/10onk.htm

Quatrain LXXIX -- MADAM… YOUR SLIP IS GLOWING

Vis a vis the revelations of your fact-finding commission*
Ms Nandita Haksar, with your kind permission
I take this opportunity to humbly mention, that
Some of your facts are characteristic of ‘pseudo-secularist’ innovation

*According to ‘Broken Peace’ – a fact-finding report on the first communal riot in Goa’s modern history has predictably stuck to the staple pseudo-secular riot formula i.e.
‘The Militant Hindu’ + ‘Rapacious Intent’ + ‘Innocent babe in the woods Muslim’ = Slaughter.
The fact-finding committee led by Nandita Haksar was spurred into action by the radical All India Milli Council, an outfit with reported links with the militant All India Jihad Committee. In common rational parlance, this is as equivalent and as shady as Praveen Togadia of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) requesting advocate Arun Jaitely to probe into harassment of Hindu’s during the Mumbai riots.

Quatrain LXXVIII -- EMPOWERING INEQUALITY

Now, even if you score better
Perhaps, it won't even matter
Either money should do the trick
Or getting borned of a rich 21st century Dalit prick

Quatrain LXXVII -- THE KNIFE ISN’T OUT YET, BUT IS THAT THE BLADE GLINTING?

Congress’ chronic instinct of self-preservation
Strategically irrigates this volatile orchard of Reservation
It’s true… all that history we learnt in school
To run a country, first divide it and then rule

* Minister for Human Resource Development Arjun Singh is perhaps the most misguided Arjun, since his namesake from the Mahabharat. The latter was perhaps a shade better… At least one could see his arrows coming. http://www.ibnlive.com/article.php?id=7870&section_id=3

Quatrain -- LXXVI -- PRANAB PICKS UP WHERE GEORGE LEFT

All hell has seems to have broken loose
By the time Pranab apparently woke up from his snooze
And ordered an investigation into the war-room leak*
After carefully washing his hands off, so to speak

*http://www.ibnlive.com/article.php?id=7853&section_id=3

Quatrain -- LXXV -- NBA? NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION

Medha Patkar shouldn’t have flirted with death now*
Right now, the media has a lot of fodder to chow
There's Advani’s idealistic dreams, Sonia’s cerebral incantations
Lara walking the ramp and possibly, hopes of more wardrobe malfunctions

*http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1667926,0008.htm

Quatrain LXXIV -- THE LIVES AND TIMES OF CD AMAR AND SEEDIER PRABHU IN INDIA TODAY* -- II

They are born dalals first and human beings next
Their folks even named them considering this particular context
With the SP, BJP ascent, their brokering phenomenally grew
So goes the legend of two dalals, Immortal Amar and Lord Prabhu

* Guesses anyone? I realise that’s a rather unwieldy title, but had to cram in a lot of leads. You guys seen a programme called 'SEEDY BAAT' anytime? That should tackle one of these chappies.

Quatrain LXXIII -- THE LIVES AND TIMES OF CD AMAR AND SEEDIER PRABHU IN INDIA TODAY* -- I

One as the Immortal and the other as the Lord
These veteran power brokers strike a familiar chord
Their names symbolic of the professional powers they exert
Amar and Prabhu broker for both, the Bicycle and Lotus in concert**

* Guesses anyone? I realise that’s a rather unwieldy title, but had to cram in a lot of leads. You guys seen a programme called 'SEEDY BAAT' anytime? That should tackle one of these chappies
** Bicycle - Samajwadi party
** Lotus -- Bharatiya Janata party.

Quatrain LXXII -- FOURTH ESTATE GAYI TEL LENE

And you thought the father of Indian football was spent
After a decade of rendering the sport impotent
Now Dasmunshi badgers another toothless crone*
Hacks her into submission bone by bone

* Deputy Director General (News) Doordarshan Amitabh Chakravarthy was removed from his post for interviewing US President George Bush, before the file – concerning departmental permissions for the the high-profile interview – could be endorsed by his superiors in Doordarshan. Amitabh’s strange dismissal caps the bizarre feats in Information and Broadcasting minister Priyaranjan Dasmunshi’s short tenure, in which his impish ‘anti-journalism’ noises in the very recent past, have even succeeded in overshadowing his caricature. Priyaranjan Dasmunshi is also the President of the All India Football Federation (AIFF) for the last 12 years. Pls read link for more... http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1664747,001302100000.htm

Quatrain LXXI -- DEAL YA NO DEAL

After claims of inking history
The Indo-US deal* becomes a mystery
Will someone read between all that rhetoric
Unfortunately for the French, Waterloo was also historic

* Was George Bush all about pumpkins, secret service and a missed dessert? Pls read link... http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1021671&catid=19

Quatrain LXX -- W'RATH'

BJP’s yatra will soon rumble
To fortify a party nearing crumble
And to whip up nationalistic wrath
From aboard a modified Toyota rath

Quatrain LXIX -- AMANGAL

For Aamir, media is an unrelenting slut
A lapdog, unethical, money-hungry smut
In that dark alley, he’s groped her enough in heat
Only, once home he wants her tethered in the street

* The ‘reclusive’ Khan in a rare conversation with Tehelka’s voluptuously cerebral interviewer Shoma Chaudhury blasted the media for all that it actually is. At least a large section of the media is a lapdog, unethical, unethical, trivial, with a ‘media baron-short term approach-destroying society’ and the like. Only, perhaps someone like Aamir Khan should think before he makes such a charge. The slut, that she is, guys like Aamir and others have also not been averse to using the media to suit their purposes and ends. Aamir Khan who now accuses the media of indulging in the trivial, should go back a few years at the time ‘Dil Chahta Hai’ was launched. Remember the deluge. Aamir Khan’s new hairstyle, that small perky goatee splashed all over print and television. Did he object to such abusive media coverage then? Was it not trivial too? So, what does one of the major protagonists of media’s degeneracy in India, Dilip Cherian, have to say about DCH?

-- Spin rules. Speaking of how to create hype, Delhi-based PR honcho Dilip Cherian, whose Buzz is the first company in the organised space for film PR, has much to say: "For Dil Chahta Hai, we generated 82 media articles on the hairstyles, the fuzz on Aamir's chin and the stylists. This kind of space was simply unavailable earlier." He
adds, "PR agencies are here to get louder, creating a surround-sound environment. Soon, you will see the colour orange and think not of the BJP but of a phone company." --

Generating media articles? Engineering news? Whipping up hype? And Aamir Khan complains about sensationalism and trivial? Oh! Not to forget, the Mangal Pandey moustache blitzkrieg!!!