JULY 14, 2019 • THE WEEK 15THE DAME AND THE NAMES
Former Lok Sabha speaker P.A. Sangma
was a huge fan of Agatha Christie.
He so admired the dame of detective
novels that he named his daughters
Agatha and Christie. Agatha, 38, is now
a seasoned politician and Lok Sabha
member, while Christie is an architect
settled abroad. The twist in the tale
is that Christie is the elder sister, and
that she was initially given a traditional
name. It was only after Agatha was
christened that Sangma decided to call
his elder daughter Christie.CLEAN AND GREEN
Good habits begin at home. The
Union health ministry, which has
not been able to persuade people
from giving up foods that are rich in
trans-fats, wants officials to munch
on only healthy snacks. Union
Health Minister Harsh Vardhan
recently asked the ministry’s canteen
to replace biscuits with roasted
gram, dates, almonds and walnuts.
Vardhan, who also helms the
environment ministry, has ordered a
ban on plastic water bottles as well.
Rashtrapati Bhavan was the first to
stop using plastic bottles last year,
having replaced them with reusable
glass bottles. The ministry of external
affairs has now followed suit.PLAYING DOWN THE PROBLEM
Even as heavy rains swamped most of Mumbai,
Mayor Vishwanath Mahadeshwar declared
that the city was not waterlogged yet. Perhaps,
the Shiv Sena leader had not been to Bandra
East, where his party boss Uddhav Thackeray
lives. The entire Kalanagar area, which houses
Thackeray’s Matoshree bungalow, was in knee-
deep water because the nearby nullah had not
been cleaned. The work hurriedly began after
Thackeray himself called the mayor, but the
rains flushed the effort down the drain.
ON A CALMER PITCH
Tahir Qadiry, charge d’affaires of Afghanistan
in India, was glued to the television on June
- He and Manpreet Vohra, former Indian
ambassador to Afghanistan, spent the evening
watching Afghanistan take on India at the ICC
World Cup in England. “One team won the
match; the other won hearts,” said Qadiry after
the match, referring to how the Afghans gave
the Indians a run for their money.
Qadiry is glad that he is increasingly being
asked about the Afghan team’s performance in
the World Cup. “I am so happy,” he said. “They
don’t talk about drugs or terrorism.”