Cadres of political parties are often at their best during election campaigns. One party worker, who was riding pillion on a motorbike, following the campaign trail of a candidate in north Chennai, was enthusiastically waving his party symbol for all to see. He preferred not to stop with the gesture. He told residents standing at their doorsteps to vote for the party. When he saw children, he told them to tell their parents to vote for the candidate. But on seeing a young child, he went a step further and told him, “Be stubborn and tell your parents to vote for our party.” Enthusiasm definitely knows no bounds!
Last week, when a group of women techies at a function were asked what they did on International Women’s Day, most of them were amused. One of them said, “I went to the spa, because I work there!” Another participant said her company had asked her to blog about Women’s Day and hence, she had to stay up an hour late. In the interactive session that followed, a woman asked the host if there was any ‘Men’s Day’ marked in the calendar, to which he replied, rather unwillingly. “Yes, November 19 is International Men's Day but it is also World Toilet Day. Maybe, that is why it’s not really talked about.”
At a recent day-long event in the city, one of the speakers kept talking despite the audience intervening with applause several times, in an attempt to get him to finish. As it was close to lunch time, the audience was also getting restless and the moderator too tried to intervene and cut short his talk. However, the person ensured that he made his point and only then, handed over the mike.
“One’s mother tongue is the reflection of one’s own culture and so, everyone should learn his/her mother tongue,” advised a judge at a Japanese Speech Contest held recently. The judge, while appreciating students for learning Japanese, also wanted them to be proficient in their mother tongue. He said he’d shared information about his country’s culture with friends abroad through his mother tongue.
Suburban train travel can throw up interesting experiences. Recently, as an electric train pulled into Guindy railway station past 10 p.m., there was commotion in a compartment. Some commuters got down to catch a glimpse of the action.
A senior citizen, not in his senses, was creating a ruckus and was whisked away by policemen.
Meanwhile, the train started and left the station, leaving the commuters who got down, stranded.
A senior leader with a party recently walked into the room of a police officer at the Commissionerate.
Much to the surprise of this journalist who was inside, and was meeting him for the first time, the politician greeted him saying, “How are you? It’s been a long time since we met.” He even enquired about his family and friends.
The puzzled journalist simply nodded and later narrated the incident to his colleagues who merely said, “He is a politician, what do you expect?”
(Reporting by Serena Josephine M., Vasudha Venugopal, Deepa H. Ramakrishnan, R. Srikanth, K. Manikandan and
Petlee Peter)
