Mumbai Diary page: Monday Musings

Going bananas
Recently, the Bollywood film industry received the Golden Kela Awards for all the super flops of the year. We hear that Ajay Devgn and Sonakshi Sinha won Golden Kelas for the second consecutive year in the Worst Actor Male and Female category, while Himmatwala won the award for the Worst Film and Sanjay Leela Bhansali for Worst Director.

Anant Singh (left) at the Golden Kela awards. The trophy he says is shaped after scouring the markets for a perfect specimen of the fruit

The list goes on.. but if you are curious to know who is behind the sixth edition of these Golden Kelas, it is one Anant Singh who says the Kelas Awards is like an award night, except almost no one is ever present to collect the awards! They are attended by friends, family and people who Anant says, he can convince to waste a Saturday afternoon listening to jokes about Bollywood.

He adds that they give these awards as a public service telling people to not fall into the trap of mediocrity polished with a marketing sheen. The awards he adds, are chosen by something called the Golden Kela Kommittee. (The K in committee is his, not ours). Meanwhile, there is even something called the Baawra Ho Gaya Hai Ke Award which went to the earnest Aamir Khan for Dhoom 3, this time.

Ballot goes New Age
Love in the time of cholera, and voting in the time of google. While social media's role these Indian elections has been phenomenal, candidates are now answering queries through something called google hangout.

Satish Jain

Aam Aadmi Party, may have come late to the election party, but arrived they have with AAP candidate from Mumbai (N) Satish Jain, who hung out with prospective voters through google hangout yesterday.

Those interested were feverishly clicking on Sunday morning joining him live at https://myapp.in/hangout while for others, who may think 9 am is simply criminal on a Sunday, they were allowed to post their queries in advance at www.tinyurl.com/northmumbai.

Said Jain about the new age way to garner votes, "It is critical to reach out to the youth, especially the first time voters, and familiarise them with the Aam Aadmi Party's message of eliminating corruption for a better India.

Also, this is an excellent platform to interact with those voters who want to know their candidate but do not want to be burdened on a holiday. They can interact with me from the comfort of their houses by merely logging in to the live session."

With a candidate from another party, watching the T20 live in his constituency, after his padyatra, we say that campaigning and wooing the electorate is taking on a whole new spin altogether. Yeah! to the new way. Meanwhile, these new fangled ways to get some ballot box office hits, makes some giggle, while others google.

Health Highlights
Today, April 7, 2014 is World Health Day and the theme for the Day is: Small bite, big threat. Health honchos say that the accent is on preventing vector-borne diseases; as mosquitoes, flies, ticks and bugs may be a threat to your health.

The mosquitoes bit must surely resonate with Mumbai, given that the city is so prone to malaria. So, today of all days, is the time to get wise about vector. And not crack jokes that if Marquez was a Mumbaikar, his classic would have read: Love in the Time of Malaria.

Smile stone
On an ink-black night, this silver slice reminds us there is a God in this world and sometimes He reminds us of His existence in celestial ways. Pic/Rajeet Jadhav