Bad publicity

‘I didn't know this actress Laila Khan until she was murdered. Fame by death!' That tweet, from a certain Prashanth Bhat, was one of many related to the missing starlet whose real name is reportedly Reshma Patel and who disappeared under mysterious circumstances a while ago. Madhavan Narayanan tweeted: ‘Lesson from Laila Khan and Abu Jindal: Terror is also like stock trading. Globalisation and outsourcing is a part of its motif.' Kala Kutta added: ‘At least Surjeet Singh was not and cannot be like Laila Khan, who was an actress in Bollywood but was working for terrorists.' And from Gandalf Vinoth: ‘Veena Malik, Hoshiyar! Please reserve your ticket to Pakistan. We don't want you to be trending here like Laila Khan is.'

Watching the watchmen
Reports of Home Minister P Chidambaram possibly heading the Empowered Group of Ministers on the allocation of telecom spectrum was met with a great deal of incredulity. A certain Ravi, for instance, tweeted: ‘Isn't his son involved in the 2G scam? This country has no hope!' Jiggs added: ‘Congress brazens it out. Chidambaram will head EGoM on spectrum.' Manoj Kumar put things into perspective thus: ‘Rajinikanth said that thieves know thieves!' According to Avinash Bhat, ‘A thief is made chief of police.' And from Gautham1016: ‘Good lord! There goes the monsoon session of Parliament.'

Moral of the story
What do some people need to do? That question was discussed for a while, prompting these among other responses: ‘Stop thinking about everything they do and just do it', ‘learn to take responsibility for their actions instead of making excuses', ‘stop going for people who are already taken', ‘keep calm and play Pokemon', and, of course, ‘think before insulting Justin Bieber.'

The last word
From journalist Barkha Dutt: ‘Pity a country where dissent dies and herds lead the mind. Cheers for Professor Pandian for his stand against censoring cartoons in NCERT textbooks.'

- Lindsay Pereira is Editor, MiD DAY Online (twitter.com/lindsaypereira)