The Pawn Prodigy

Marathon kid Budhiya is a wonderball that anyone even remotely associated with him or his sport wants to play with. His latest accusations of torture against his coach and godfather Biranchi Das notwithstanding, the five-year-old child has probably witnessed more politics in his early life than many seasoned politicians in this country.
Today, while his parents and child welfare activists are up in arms against the coach who allegedly tortured him, Budhia had no one to look up to and seek help from when he was still running short distances. None of these people came to help this unprecedented Indian talent when the shackles of poverty had chained his abilities. It was Das who recognised the sporting prodigy in this child and honed his skill. However, he too probably, after Budhia’s success, used him as ladder for his own economic prosperity. And now, joining this force of economic parasites are, probably, his parents. Das has alleged that his parents are accusing him of torture because he refused to make them a house.
No one knows whether the statements that Budhia gave to the police were given of his own free will or under duress — a medical examination of the boy has revealed that his injury marks are six-nine months old and not acquired due to torture. However, in this entire saga the one thing that comes out starkly clear is that a childhood has been lost somewhere in the personal ambitions of grown ups.

Bond's Fetish

For some strange reason, which even Ian Fleming may not be aware of, the Indian scribes seem to think that James Bond has a fetish for women who hit headlines internationally. Months after International tabloids screamed “Shilpa Shetty wins Big Brother”, Indian dailies have started carrying fliers on Shetty’s prospects as the next Bond girl. Only last year, papers carried similar stories on Aishwarya who had acquired international fame through insipid british films and some smart PR work (Canne’s Film Festival included). The reports were denied by Aishwarya later.
The Big Brother organisers had wanted to rope in Hrithik Roshan before settling for Shilpa Shetty. I wonder if hrithik would landed in Bond’s lap, had he won the show. Brokeback Mountein - II?