Why Sending Toons via Mail is Dangerous

In Bengal, you may land in jail
If caught sending toons via mail.
There's a buzz and a rumour,
That our leaders lack humour --
They'll book you for cyber-crime - #fail
              ~***~

India Today 15/04/2012: The arrest of professor Ambikesh Mahapatra for having forwarded a cartoon about West Bengal CM Mamata Bannerjee has legal experts concerned about the use of Internet laws by the government to suppress free speech.Get the story here

Of Army Tales & a Court Ban

A birth date that led to a row,
Has snowballed into trouble, and how!
At first, came the muck,
About bribes for a truck,
Then 'news' of troops closing in - Wow!

There's also the letter which stated,
Our weapons were bloody outdated.
With supplies unsteady,
We weren't battle-ready;
That a war, now, would sure be ill-fated.

The media, sure enough, ran
These juicy tales daily, their plan
To get us all spooked,
Till they were rebuked,
By the Court, which then issued a ban.

NDTV 12/04/2012: The Allahabad High Court on Tuesday restrained the electronic and print media from publishing and broadcasting any news reports on the movement of two army units towards Delhi in January, as reported in a section of the media. Get the story here

Get more on the age row story here and here

An item girl, a reality show and personal sacrifice

"The outcome was a gross fabrication."
Miss Sawant complained in frustration.
"The rigging was a blow;
And to think, for this show,
I gave up my breast implantation!"



HT 25/12/07: Bollywood Item girl Rakhi Sawant today filed a criminal complaint against Star Plus channel alleging them of cheating after she lost in the finals of reality show Nach Baliye 3. Get the story here. Also, read about her sacrifice here. Surely, you can feel her pain now?

Tears behind the laughter

We laughed at the fun things he said
And he made us feel light in the head
None thought that any
Thing troubled Jeni
Then one day, he shot himself dead!

Reuters 13/03/07: Jeni's family confirms comic killed himself. Stand-up comedian and actor Richard Jeni, a regular on late-night U.S. television, killed himself but was not despondent about his career despite suffering from mental illness, his family said on Tuesday. Jeni, 49, was found at his West Hollywood home on Saturday morning after a woman identifying herself as his girlfriend called authorities to report: "My boyfriend just shot himself in the face." Read on

Just married!

Flashing their guests a big smile
Liz - Nayar walked down the aisle
Then came a groovy
Cute romantic movie
Of the couple, done in Bollywood style!

DNA India 04/03/07: Elizabeth Hurley and Arun Nayar regaled their wedding guests with a Bollywood-style movie of themselves on Saturday during a day-long celebration at a grand 15th century castle in Gloucestershire. Read on

Newsworthy

There was a time in the past
When the morning newspaper amassed
News of import
Be it business or sport
Well my dear, those days have passed!

Now in the morn when you waken
You'll find that the headlines are taken
By celebrity tales
(It hikes up the sales)
Enough to leave you stirred and/or shaken

Has B junior already wed Ash?
Will Shilpa really get all that cash?
Will SRK be
Lucky for KBC?
These are stuff making a splash!

Water, water everywhere

Hellish, the lives that they led
Women whose husbands were dead
Draped all in white
With no hope in sight
Their's was a tale left unsaid.

Then one day a lady did choose
To put on film these widows' blues
Work she began
On 'Water' per plan
The news spread and all hell broke loose

How dare she expose our muck?
Said the moral police - soon they struck
They disrupted shoot
Gave Deepa the boot
But they underestimated her pluck.

For she simply refused to derail
And went on to complete her tale
An Oscar nomination
Has earned her ovation
And the moral police? They've turned tail!


'Water' to make a splash in theatres across India

Uttara Choudhury

Saturday, January 27, 2007
Link

Big Brother in big trouble?

Should a show, under Channel 4's banner,
Allow people to be handled in such manner?
As our Shipa incurs
Some cheap 'racist slurs'
'Big Brother', is now under scanner.

BBC News 16/01/07: Broadcasting regulator Ofcom has received more than 3,500 complaints of alleged racism in Celebrity Big Brother against Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty. Read the rest here