DailyOh! How Harinder Sikka reached Raazi’s Sehmat, to who will play Sushant Singh Rajput
Guess who got back to work today? Yes today is Monday so you did, but who else? Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain. The return to work came after a full recovery from Covid-19. To begin with, we guess the workload on him will be easier because the spread in Delhi has slowed down. But Jain’s boss Arvind Kejriwal, like all bosses, has said that there is no room for complacency. On his day of rejoining, Jain has asked a valid question. "If there are 1 million patients in the country, will it not be called community spread?" We say yes. The central government says no, not yet.
You can call the spread the spread or call it no spread, but you can’t stop the spread by calling it something else. You also can’t keep sitting at home just because the virus is out there. For all things essential, you got to be on the move. On the move on August 5, the date is subject to change, will be Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He will be in Ayodhya to lay the foundation stone of the Ram Temple. All eyes are on the visit but some eyes are on KP Sharma Oli. After claiming that Ram and the land of Kalapani belong to Nepal, it remains to be seen if Nepal's Prime Minister will also demand the right to lay the foundation stone.
That is way too aspirational. But as per Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, the most aspirational person around is Sachin Pilot. Pilot, 42, wants to be PM by 45. To get to the chair quickly, Congress MLA Girraj Singh claims Pilot offered him Rs 35 crore.
As per Election Commission of India data, which is as per the affidavit filed by Pilot in 2018, Pilot has assets worth only Rs 6 crore. Doesn’t add up? For now it looks like Pilot would be subtracted from Congress sooner rather than later. Pilot also said he was 'saddened, not surprised by baseless allegations'.
Talking of money, who doesn’t want to talk more about money? The only thing better than talking money is making money. The multi-year deal Infosys won from US investor Vanguard could have helped make US $1.5 billion (Rs 11,232 crore). Last week, some said the deal could be below a billion, today some say the deal could be extended to 10 years and rise to US $2 billion. What would that kind of money look like – all in one place? Set your imaginative horses free.
But Supreme Court is appalled that dreaded don Vikas Dubey was free; we mean free to move out of jail on bail. Chief Justice SA Bobde admitted to being “appalled” when he said, “We are appalled to the fact that a person like Vikas Dubey got the bail despite so many cases and he eventually did this [killed eight policemen in an ambush].”
The ‘system’ got a rap from Bobde, but BCCI got a resignation from its general manager Saba Karim. Karim resigned about a week after BCCI CEO Rahul Johri’s resignation was accepted by BCCI. Karim’s 2017 joining of BCCI was presided over by Johri. Did he resign in solidarity then? No clues on that yet.
But there are hints that make it clear the Indian Premier League (IPL) could move to UAE in October-November. The clearance on that is yet to come from the International Cricket Council (ICC), which is also likely to make it clear that the T20 World Cup which was to happen in Australia, has been cancelled because there is no time left to hold so much cricket.
ICC will speak on that and more soon, but Harinder Sikka, who has served the Indian Navy and written Calling Sehmat, has spoken out. Sikka has alleged that Raazi director Meghna Gulzar didn’t give him credit after using his book to make the movie (a 2018 release). Bollywood has turned itself into a political arena which has always been a boxing arena.
We will not tread that path. Not today, we mean. Today we will tread the path Sikka tread to reach spy girl Sehmat’s story. The journey started in 1999 when Sikka reached Kargil to write articles on intelligence failures.
During one of his interactions with Armymen there, Sikka met a man whose mother had been an intelligence officer. He told Sikka that his mother even married a Pakistani army officer to get classified information during the 1971 war.
The Calling Sehmat author says he went to Punjab to meet the woman. How do you trust someone who claims to have been a spy? Sikka says he matched the claims made by the woman and the intelligence records here. Sikka then fictionalised the story because Sehmat was no ordinary woman. She helped prevent Pakistan's plan of sinking INS Viraat. She could still have people wanting to punish her. As you know, even her real name hasn’t been made public. And we thought ye jo public hai, ye sab janti hai.
If her name could have been made public, she would have been a hero. After all, the life of a spy is more difficult than the Life of Pi.
The movie, Raazi, however, did a brilliant job at telling Sehmat’s story. How brilliant? Read this to know.
But watch a lot of videos on social media to know that floods have ravaged many parts of the country and also parts where there were no floods, but areas got flooded. Two hours of rain in Delhi saw two houses washed away, a bus marooned and a man dead. That remained the headline for many hours.
Hidden from media glare, floodwater in Assam and Bihar is currently razing down everything falling in its way, including the tall claims of “everything is under control”. Flood, our Word Of The Day, comes from Old English flōd where it meant “a flowing of water”. Now, you know flood is an overflowing of water but did you know that overflowing of water is crucial for the survival of Assam’s Kaziranga National Park? Yes, the park would cease to exist without it.
Kaziranga has a riverine ecosystem, meaning one situated on a river or existing along a riverbank. The regenerative nature of floods helps replenish water bodies and maintain its landscape.
That landscape includes wetlands and grasslands. Scientists are of the view that this system has been created by floods and survives because of it.
Nature gives and nature takes. With Sushant Singh Rajput gone, we have got a lookalike who has in turn got a film based on the deceased actor’s life. Sachin Tiwari will play Sushant in Shamik Maulik’s film.
Next time someone tells you looks don’t matter, don’t tell them anything because it may not matter to them. You should also tell yourself looks don’t count till your looks can land you a movie role.
That will be all for today. But keep an eye at the sky. Watch the Moon today, if the clouds allow that is, because today is the day astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin became the first men to walk on the Moon.
See you tomorrow.
Also Read: Pushing Pilot out of cockpit