I was in Helsinki, Finland for almost a year; I was introduced to a cocktail called ‘villevalatone’, which I was told was the local name for the cocktail called Cosmopolitan – popularized by the teleseries Sex and the City. It is a good-looking drink and it tasted good too. But I go for the ‘kick’ I get out of my drinks, not so much for the taste and flavor.
I was reminded of villevalatone on seeing a series of exposes of sex rackets in the city. From call girls who charge from 5k to 15k down to those available for less than a thousand bucks. I think the government should issue licenses to sex workers and collect tax, if they feel like it – and let commercial sex thrive, in the city and the country. Other countries where sex is legalized are doing fine – for example Singapore and the Netherlands. I see no reason for the government to clamp down on so-called sex rackets. Illegal sex is the creation of the government and its dilapidated laws: it is time to change them.
Once commercial sex is legalized, there will be no more illegal sex.
Long ago, when I was editing management reports at Tata Consultancy Services in Delhi (Gurgaon, to be exact), I was looking at a report prepared for the ministry of textiles; the main (and only) message of that report was that handlooms have a unique advantage over machine made fabrics: there are only a hundred samples of a particular design and fabric. The report exhorted the government to seize the opportunity and promote the uniqueness, rather than set the handloom trade in competition with machine-made fabrics.
When I told the guy who prepared the report that there is a lot of repetition of this message in the report, that he was overdoing it, he laughed and said: “I am glad you said this. There is no overdoing. This is the only message I want to send across to the powers that be in the ministry. Thank you.
Recently, Akkineni Nageswara Rao (ANR) went to an APCO showroom and purchased clothes from there. He is a frugal man. He sure must have liked the price tags at APCO. Let me digress.
The Chiran Palace park, now called KBR park, was once free for all. Some ten years ago, they started charging 5 or 10 rupees from people who wanted to walk in the park. ANR, being the frugal person that he is, stopped going there, according to his cousin – the late Akkineni Vekataratnam – because of the entrance fee. He (ANR) told the folks around him that he would rather walk four rounds around his house for his morning walk, than pay Rs 10/- as entrance fee at KBR park.
We need more folks like ANR around us, who know the value of money.
Government support for handloom workers
A month ago, the AP state government declared that they will give the contract for supplying school uniforms for Gurukul (residential) students across the states. Some big garment manufacturers tried to hijack the deal: now, it appears, APCO will handle only half the business. That is sad. The government should rethink and give the entire project to APCO: but, who is listening? The multinational sons of bachelors are grabbing everything they can – will they let the handloom industry alone? I doubt it.
Dara Singh of the Steins affair
The Supreme Court condemned Dara Singh for the murder of Graham Steins and his family in Odisha in 1999. The court, in its wisdom, refused to sentence him to death. Well, the highest court in the country knows what it is doing: I am glad that at least after 11 years, some kind of justice is meted out…
Soap advertisements, old and new
I cannot write on this topic without mentioning names; I need clearance from my editor. But suffice it to say that an ITC soap has a cool ad, which shows the difference between old and new films; old and new ads. Oh hell, I am talking about the Vivel ad. It is well made.
Bottomline beat – Agar Tum Mil Jao…
Agar tum mil jao, zamana chod denge hum
[If I get you, I will give up the world...]
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