Vikas and mom

Vikas Singh was still in Peshawar jail, the globe-trotting, bicyclist-next-door turned into a celebrity for a few quicksilver days, when the campaign for his release was launched by his parents in Lucknow. Soon enough, he was within grasp of freedom, the Pakistanis having decided it was not worth the trouble to keep someone like him on their hands.

But guess what was the first thought that came to Vikas’ mother’s mind, just like any old Indian mama, when she heard her son was finally going to be free: marriage! As she told government officials plugging away for her son’s safe journey home, ‘‘At last, I will be able to get him married when he returns home. He didn’t agree the last time around, fourteen years ago.’’

Clearly, though, Vikas had different things on his mind. Once in India, he was already planning his next journey on his ramshackle cart abroad.

Musharraf & media

GENERAL Musharraf has asked to meet 10-12 editors of various newspapers and magazines during his trip to India. Given the fact that there’s not likely to be a press conference in Agra, the Pakistani high commission here has arranged the meeting for the morning of July 16 in the Amar Vilas hotel where the Pakistani delegation is camping. On July 14 comes the teaser: tea with intellectuals at 4.30 pm at the Pakistani High Commission, before high tea with the plebeian crowd — and perhaps, the Hurriyat — an hour later.

Like everything else with Pakistan, newspaper journalists working in each other’s countries are also bound by the reciprocity rule — there are two journalists from India and two from Pakistan in Islamabad and New Delhi, respectively. But in the last week or so, the Pakistanis have opened the floodgates and allowed in substantial numbers of Indian journalists into the country, and vice-versa. Clearly, journos are now wishing that summits become a regular affair between India and Pakistan.

Wah Taj!

HERE’S why the Indian establishment decided that the Pakistanis should be housed in the Amar Vilas hotel in Agra: every room in the hotel has a view of the Taj Mahal, including the loos. Musharraf’s ‘Kohinoor’ suit is said to be especially beautiful, with an all-glass toilet sort of built on the balcony that affords a spectacular view of the 17th century monument.

New Delhi felt that since the Taj wasn’t going anywhere in a hurry, that one billion Indians could anytime always, enjoy their private and public views, they may as well let their select guests from across the border feast to their hearts content.

Mudgal on song

THE ab ke sawan woman, classical singer Shubha Mudgal, is said to be the main performer in the evening soiree put together for General Musharraf on July 15 in Agra. Mudgal has often been panned in the media for abandoning her ‘‘classical roots’’, but of course she knows, first-hand, about the painful betrayals, the side-step, the longing, the false promises, the smiling compromise that are littered like sharp glass on the route to stardom. Her music, with her own distinctive stamp all over it, is sure to enthrall the General and his comrades.

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