DailyOh! What Rhea wants of SC, to how far Laal Singh Chaddha will go from Forrest Gump

The dead don’t talk. And those alive won’t stop talking about the dead if the dead died under ‘mysterious’ circumstances. You see the mystery can always be added to the death posthumously.

Why are we talking about the dead and their freedom of speech today, five days ahead of Independence Day? Because those alive are misusing their freedom of speech to talk about why the dead died.

Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut is the latest to don the Sherlock Holmes' hat and opine on what left Sushant disturbed. According to him, it was Sushant’s father KK Singh’s second marriage. The family says there was no second marriage, only the first; and that a defamation suit will be filed against Raut.

Raut also wants that investigators probe why Ankita Lokhande left Sushant. What does Rhea Chakraborty want? An end to ‘unfair media trial’. Who will investigate the case then – Mumbai Police or CBI? We will know when the Supreme Court passes an order on the matter.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) meanwhile is investigating one aspect of the case which is the money transactions between Rhea Chakraborty and Sushant. Is it a crime for partners to share money? Last we checked, it wasn’t; but ED is probing if the money from Sushant’s account was laundered after being transferred to Rhea. Both Rhea and her brother Showik Chakraborty are being questioned in the case.

There will be more questioning for Rhea if the Supreme Court transfers the probe to CBI. But there will be no mercy for Prashant Bhushan in the SC. The apex court has refused to accept the advocate’s regret in a contempt case over his remarks in a 2009 interview in which Bhushan said that eight of the previous 16 Chief Justices were corrupt. Journalist Tarun Tejpal is a co-accused in the case and the SC has said ‘no sorry, no thank you’ till the case is heard.

To the coronavirus. It has reached former Indian President Pranab Mukherjee. ‘Citizn Mukherjee’ came to know he was Covid-19 positive when he reached hospital for a different procedure, got tested for the novel virus and found he had it.

On a visit to the hospital for a separate procedure, I have tested positive for COVID19 today. I request the people who came in contact with me in the last week, to please self isolate and get tested for COVID-19. #CitizenMukherjee

— Pranab Mukherjee (@CitiznMukherjee) August 10, 2020

A man from West Bengal, which happens to be Citizen Mukherjee’s home state, meanwhile, alleged that he was asked to pay Rs 51,000 after he told hospital authorities that he wanted to see his dead father, who died because of Covid-19. When the family said the amount was too high, the authorities reportedly said “31,000 taka die dao”. "Give us Rs 31,000." The family then went to the police.

Hospital authorities didn’t listen to the police also, and cremated the body without letting the family catch a glimpse of it.

But the end of the virus is in sight. Whose sight? Bill Gates. Gates has said the pandemic could end in the rich world by 2021 and the rest of the world by 2022.

Till that happens and you can freely travel the world, we will be taking you on virtual tours of the world. Today let’s head to Andaman and Nicobar Islands where Prime Minister Narendra Modi was headed this morning via videoconferencing. Why? To launch a submarine Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) connecting Chennai and Port Blair in Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Working towards the progress of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. pic.twitter.com/pVF65lfZEh

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 10, 2020

A submarine communications cable is a cable laid on the seabed between land-based stations to carry telecommunication signals across stretches of ocean and sea. The cable lying under sea is expected to lift the local economy because data is Daata (giver) in the modern world. But what is submarine?

To begin with, it is the Word Of The Day. The word submarine is composed of two words, sub and marine. Sub is a prefix of Latin origin that means 'below' or 'under', while marine originates from the Latin 'marinus'. Marinus means ‘belonging or related to the sea’. The word was first used somewhere around 1648.

The first submarine cable for transmitting telegraph signals is reported to have been in 1850 between England and France. 

It’s not just data which is travelling. Others too are out and about the globe for work. Actor Aamir Khan is in Turkey shooting for Laal Singh Chaddha. The movie is set to release on Christmas 2021. Kareena Kapoor Khan too will be seen in the movie.

Now, Laal Singh Chaddha is a character inspired by 1994 Tom Hanks-starrer movie Forrest Gump. The movie was in turn inspired by Winston Groom’s 1986 novel Forrest Gump.

But the character played by Hanks was in many ways different from Groom’s Forrest.

In the book, Forrest ends up going into space, smoking weed, confronting cannibals, running for the United States Senate with a campaign slogan “I Got to Pee”, and playing in a chess tournament. Forrest in the movie, of course, becomes a rich businessman and doesn’t get to go to space.

Forrest in the book stands 6'6" tall and that is why Groom wanted that John Goodman and not Tom Hanks should play the role.

So it looks like Laal Singh Chaddha could be closer to Gump in the movie than the Gump in the book.

And guess who got closer to Priyanka and Rahul Gandhi today? Sachin Pilot. Pilot reportedly met the two leaders to sort out differences he has with the party. The development comes on a day Congress said interim party president Sonia Gandhi would continue to be interim party president, but a full-time president would be found soon.

The Rajasthan Assembly session is set to convene on August 14 and it is good for the party if the differences are resolved by then. So will Ashok Gehlot be happy accepting ‘nikamma nakara’ Pilot? Gehlot in the past few days has softened his stance towards Pilot, saying rebels can approach party high command and if the high command embraces them, he will embrace them too. What exactly Shah Faesal is going to embrace is anyone’s guess, but no one can answer. IAS officer-turned-politician Shah Faesal has stepped down as the president of Jammu and Kashmir People's Movement. Reports suggest he could turn to administration again after taking to poiltics.

Guess who wants to embrace Indian Premier League? Patanjali. Baba Ramdev is considering bidding for the IPL title sponsorship slot vacated by Chinese smartphone maker Vivo.

Talking of China, let’s talk of Hong Kong where pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai was arrested today and led in handcuffs through his newspaper office. This came after police raided Lai’s office building as part of a sweeping crackdown on dissent since China imposed a security law on the city. The challenge to hunt for positive news concerning China is still on.

And don’t look for news on WhatsApp to meet the challenge. Use it for friendly and professional chats or calls if you are one of the crores of people who can’t complete a call over their phone networks.

But WhatsApp could soon make it possible for you to sync your chat history across multiple platforms. Yes, WhatsApp understands the trouble you go through while switching from one device to the other. Now, do not complain “mujhe koi nahi samajhta”.

But if you want an understanding of Hindustani classical music, you need to watch Naseeruddin Shah starrer Bandish Bandits. The 10-part series is available on Amazon Prime and along with soulful music, offers a glimpse into Rajasthan's lanes and bylanes.

That will be all for today. But there will be more tomorrow.

Stay safe.

Also Read: Toxic Bihari families? Easy to generalise Bihar and Biharis