Event organisers usually tend to go overboard when it comes to lighting during inaugural and launch functions. All sorts of fancy lighting systems and visual effects add dazzle to the show. While such elaborate arrangements do add a lot of glitter to an event, quite often, things do go wrong.
The other day, at a product launch programme organised at a star hotel in the city, the organisers put up special and fancy lights in the hall. The chief guest was Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao. The moment he walked in, the ‘disco’ lights went on.
The CM was clearly uncomfortable with the fancy lights and was particular about switching them off. The security personnel and his aides made sure the lighting in the hall was brought back to normality. A costly lesson for the organisers and from the Telangana Chief Minister at that!
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The dragon’s mole
Indians seem to be increasingly wary of the ‘dragons’, not just in the waters but also on land. Recently, a global conference on Chinese strategies in the Indian Ocean was held at Osmania University.
The event progressed with one speaker after the other stressing on the imminent danger of “Chinese aggression and domination” and how India should stand up to its neighbour. In the midst of the serious discussion, a man with oriental looks attracted some attention in the hall. He was seen seriously typing something in Chinese in his laptop while listening to the speech.
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Giving him glances, one person whispered that he must be sending information pertaining to the seminar to China. Another disappointedly pointed out that no wonder their spy network was so strong and reminded that such incidents can never happen in China. Well, the situation is such that the popular catch-phrase of yesteryears, Hindi-Chini bhai bhai , should rather be rephrased as Hindi-Chini bye bye .
When revolt fizzled out
The other day, several employees at the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), took to a banner of revolt against its Commissioner Somesh Kumar. For a couple of days, the civic body headquarters reverberated with slogans decrying tough tasks and targets set by the Commissioner. Some unions went to the extent of demanding his immediate transfer.
Proclamations were made on not resuming work till the chief was shown the door. Petitions were also made to the Governor and the government. Then the high-decibel agitation began to fizzle out, with a section of unions holding talks, hailing the Commissioner and bursting crackers at successful talks. Other unions shouted them down, promised to continue their agitation, but a couple of days later, even they sat for talks, called off the strike and then, it was all business as usual!
Reporting by M. Sai Gopal, Rahul Devulapalli, V. Geetanath, T. Lalith Singh
Mail to hyderabaddesk@thehindu.co.in