Love is in the air, not visible anywhere on the airwaves for sure, but hopefully it’s lingering somewhere in the air.

With elections coming up in several states and campaigning on in full force, all we see and hear are people from political parties spewing venom out at each other. It’s funny listening to them and I often wonder if they actually believe that we the people take them seriously. I mean, where are they the rest of the five years when those ruling parties are supposedly up to no good? Don’t they feel the need to inform us about the misdeeds as and when they happen? Why do they sleep for five years and then only wake up at election time? All this electioneering and campaigning, it’s a bunch of hogwash. Can’t wait for it all to be over.

Other than that absence of love, there was the whole fiasco surrounding what was otherwise supposed to be just another peaceful (Jaipur) Literature Festival. So much unnecessary noise created about Salman Rushdie and about his almost prehistoric manuscript “Satanic Verses”. The only thing that came out of this whole episode was the fundamentalist looking more foolish than usual, the state government looking incompetent as ever and renewed & increased sales of Rushdie’s old book.

Keeping that entire hullabaloo aside, the Jaipur Lit Fest seemed like an exciting place to be. So many great authors and artists at one place must have been quite an enlightening experience. It was interesting to see & listen to the Queen of American Television Oprah Winfrey too. I feel like I should have been there… Next year, for sure.

On the Team Anna front, all has been quiet for a while now… except for the occasional shoe being hurled here and there. Anna Hazare has written letters to the heads of many political parties asking them to have a re-look at the proposed Lok Pal Bill Draft, better than bitter dialogue exchanges and debates. His team is out visiting (and campaigning of sorts) in all states going to poll, let’s see what comes out of all this.

And finally, before I sign off, just to let you know that The 11th Kelvinator GR8! Women Achievers Awards 2012 will be taking place in Mumbai on February15th 2012. We’ll be celebrating Indian women and womanhood in all it’s glory… Watch out for the sensational telecast around International Women’s Day on the 4th of March only on Sony TV. Further, The 2nd Petrochem GR8! Women Awards - Middle East ceremony, honouring women achievers from the Middle East countries such as Oman, Kuwait, UAE, Morocco, Lebanon and Turkey to name a few, will be held again this March in Dubai. We’re all thrilled about going global and you can live the excitement vicariously through the pages of this magazine. Look out for it.

On that happy note… I bid you adieu for now.�

See you same time, same place, next month…�

Until then, happy Reading!

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ANU RANJAN

anu@indiantelevisionacademy.com

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