The Week India – June 30, 2019

20 THE WEEK • JUNE 30, 2019

APERITIF

PARTY SNACKS

KHAN’S FANGIRL

Australian High

Commissioner to

India Harinder Sidhu

is a huge Bollywood

fan. Once, after fielding

queries on diplomacy and

international relations at

an interaction, she actually

thanked the gathering for

asking her about Indian cinema,

a subject she was proficient in.

Shah Rukh Khan is her favourite,

and she once nearly skipped her

parents’ anniversary party to watch the

shooting of Chak De! India. She finally

got to meet her matinee idol last year.

“And I felt so empty after that,” she said.

“Because when one has achieved one’s life’s

ambition, what else is there to look for?”

His next movie, perhaps?

SOLIH’S GOOGLY

As World Cup fever grips India

and the rest of the cricket world,

the Maldives, too, is emerging as

a cricket-crazy country. Maldives

President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih

is a cricket buff, even though the

island nation is nowhere on the

cricket map. When Prime Minister

Narendra Modi recently visited

Male, he gifted Solih a cricket bat

signed by Team India. Delighted,

Solih made a request that left Modi

stumped. He wanted Modi to ask

all Indian Premier League fran-

chises to have one Maldivian play-

er in their side. But Modi could not

oblige Solih, as the IPL is serious

business in India and Maldivian

cricket still has a long way to go.

SQUEEZING IN

The CPI(M) is facing a major housing problem. After

the Lok Sabha elections, its number of MPs has gone

down from 12 to 6, jeopardising the party’s old practice

of housing the offices of its affiliate organisations and

newspapers, and even members of the Polit Bureau,

at the government residences allotted to MPs. When

he was a Rajya Sabha member, CPI(M) general

secretary Sitaram Yechury had set aside his official

accommodation for party use. Now, with the number

of party MPs having dwindled, the six MPs have to

apportion space for those rendered homeless.

ILLUSTRATION

JOB P.K