So many points, so little time!: Sep 5-12

1. The UPA government is now on a money saving spree. Finance Minister has introduced multiple austerity measures, and one of the first things he did was to ask the Foreign Minister S.M.Krishna and his deputy Shashi Tharoor to vacate the 5 star hotels they are staying in, and move into their state bhavans. But then guess what, both of them were actually paying from their own pockets for the last 3 months of their stay in these hotels! Shashi Tharoor was paying Rs. 40,000 per day and SMK was paying Rs. 1,00,000 per day (yes, per day)! Multiply that by 100, and that is what these ministers have paid from their pockets so far! I think it is high time I petition them for a loan ;-).
   
2. The fight in the AP congress to make Jagan Mohan Reddy is assuming comical proportions. YSR's best friend and confidant, KVP Ramchander Rao was in Delhi almost this whole week. He met Veerappa Moily, and then met Ahmed Patel; and then he had to meet Digvijay Singh; at this point of time, he was advised to meet Pranab Mukherjee also; then he was allowed to meet Sonia Gandhi, after which he met the Prime Minister. Then he met Ahmed Patel and Veerappa Moily together; and then Pranab and Sonia together. And then he met Ahmed Patel alone, and then … phew, I lost track! I heard that Ekta Kapoor is planning to move away from Saas Bahu series and is searching for another dragging storyline. Ekta, the story is unravelling right in front of you, just go and grab it!
   
3. One of the first things the management of Jet Airways did after the pilots took en masse sick leave was to send doctors to their homes! LOL, I mean, seriously it could not think of a better thing to do? Is it only me, or does anyone else think that 4 days is a ridiculously long time to take to solve this kind of a crisis. Especially when not just the passengers were affected, Jet Airways balance books were affected too. Government strikes have ended far more quickly than this one!
   
4. The central government has announced that CBSE X board exams will be scrapped from 2011 onwards. It has also introduced a new grading system to evaluate students, thus signalling the end of the percentage system. A good beginning to the reform process, but this blog's favorite jounralist, Sagarika Ghose is not content with this move. In her new blog, she bombards us with lofty idealistic "out of the box" solutions to overhaul our education system. Apparently we have to create "pedagogic commandos" from our retired work force to take the system to a new level. I have an idea. Sagarika, why don't you retire voluntarily and spearhead this force? Atleast then, we will be spared of your lectures!
   
5. Last week, it was Somdev and Force India that grabbed headlines, and this week it was Pankaj Advani and Vijender Singh. Pankaj won the World Billiards Championship beating long time champion Mike Russell, becoming the second Indian after Geet Sethi to win it. Vijender reached the semi-finals of the world boxing championship. Oops, I forgot, our cricket team was "world number 1" for a full 24 hours, and I don't have to tell you the media's reactions!
   
6. 09/09/09 occurred this week, and it gave two kids their 15 minutes (or should we say, 9 minutes ;-) ) of fame! Apparently, these two kids were born at 9:09am on 09/09/09! News is not yet out on who were born at 9:09pm, so stay tuned: D