Bhutan has four queens, and it has every right to have four queens. It was only when I read a recent issue of the Kuensel that I was alerted to the possibility of genuine mystification for the properly unsensitised. For, here is the lead story at the top, which starts off with, "Her Majesty the Queen, Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck, became the Honorary President of Sherubtse College". Then, the second story of the week starts off with, "Addressing the 5th International Conference on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific as a keynote speaker, Her Majesty the Queen Ashi Sangay Choden Wangchuck made a strong plea to governments, communities and civil society to…" Given thus that there are two other Her Majesties not covered in that particular edition of Kuensel, Chhetria Patrakar is merely taking this opportunity to alert South Asia´s unknowing and unprepared to the Bhutanese situation. In the meantime, let me also share what I have heard from the ASEAN grapevine, that Her Majesty Ashi Sangay Choden wowed all those gathered at the Kuala Lumpur AIDS conference in late October, including Dr. Mahathir, with her graciousness and eloquence. Great going, queen!
Dilip D´souza is unhappy with Time magazine, he writes in from "Bombay" (Time´s spelling, not mine). They have done an India Executive Search and come up with his name as a plausible candidate to join the magazine´s "global network of professional subscribers". What does D´Souza get in the bargain? As free gifts, a photo frame The TIME Photo Frame and Clock Set and a clock set, "uglier pieces of home decor (than) which would be hard to imagine". He is also properly miffed that Time thinks it can get away with promising him "free home delivery" for having subscribed.
I have not see a film by Tanuja Chandra, one of the youngest Hindi film directors around (Dushman and Sangharsh). In an article in Graphiti, the magazine supplement of the Calcutta Telegraph, Ms Chandra gives me one quote which makes me a fan of hers for life, for here is an Indian who inadvertently reveals that she has not been bought over by the Kargil hoopla created by vacuous (mostly Delhi-based) media. She has apparently been prowling the lower stalls in the movie theatres to see what it is that the "masses" desire on the celluloid screen, what touches them and what does not. So, when the studiously- and the intellectually-oriented criticise the surfeit of blood, gore and violence on screen, and when the Dress Circle "yelps", as the Graphiti writer puts it, this is how the young filmmaker responds: "These are the same lot of people who screamed kill-kill-kill at Kargil but are taken aback with violence on screen." Hats off to you, Tanuja for saying so much with that one-liner!
Only the Grand Lama (check Jamyang Norbu´s recent book on Sherlock Holmes before you accuse me of wrong address) is allowed to tweak an 89-year-old´s nose and get away with it. That is what His Holiness Tenzing Gyatso did on 19 November when he affectionately greeted Elizabeth Brunner, a Hungarianborn painter who was receiving the Katha Chudamani Award. Once again, this one personal and expressive gesture indicates why the Grand Lama is really grand —it is his humanity, and a proper understanding of the real and the unreal. True karunamaya, is he.
Can´t say that the country which ´sabotaged´ the SAARC summit is helping regional matters any by maintaining a studied silence on the matter of Bangladesh´s former foreign secretary Farouk Sobhan´s bid to become the secretary-general of the Commonwealth. Sobhan´s competition is New Zealand´s former foreign minister Donald McKinnon, and India´s support would be critical for the race. So why would India cold-shoulder Sobhan? Has the suave and well-connected Bangladeshi, always pleasant to those who matter, inadvertently stepped on Indian toes somewhere along the line as foreign secretary, before that as Dhaka´s high commissioner to New Delhi, and before that as Dhaka´s permanent representative to the United Nations in New York? Can´t think of any reason why India would not want to push for an amenable South Asian to the post, particularly with the South Asian ranks at the roundtable being severely depleted with the ouster of post-coup Pakistan. In these matters diplomatique, as often happens, it will be probably some long-forgotten personal slight which rears its ugly head to ruin the chances of the worthy. Perhaps Sobhan had actually accidentally stepped on Brajesh Mishra´s toes, when the present Superboss of South Block was a UN functionary?