Art transcends borders, but artists must have boundaries. That was the message from Baijayant Panda, who recently crossed over from BJD to BJP. Panda asked Bollywood personalities to come clean on their alleged links with Pakistan’s spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). But Panda won’t name names. Unfair game? We agree.
Panda may have tried to play safe by not giving out the names, but storyteller Al iskandar decided not to. In a series of tweets, he said US-based Kashmiri Tony Ashai has links with Shah Rukh Khan.
Thread:- ????Look who is talking the man @tonyashai (Aka Aziz Ashai) who himself is sitting in the cozy rooms of California and provoking Kashmiri Youth to Pick-up Stones and Guns while his own Son Bilal Ashai recently graduated from Los Angeles @USC with Masters Degree.1/n ???? pic.twitter.com/WB8wcQ5IeL
— Al iskandar (@TheSkandar) July 21, 2020
To which, Tony hit back with threats to sue people: "This conspiracy theory that Indian media is peddling about me being an ISI agent is baseless. These journalists either put out a proof or apologize unconditionally. Short of that you will be sued individually in US Courts and will have to prove it there."
This conspiracy theory that Indian media is peddling about me being an ISI agent is baseless. These journalists either put out a proof or apologize unconditionally. Short of that you will be sued individually in US Courts and will have to prove it there.
— Tony Ashai (@tonyashai) July 23, 2020
Brace yourself for some non-film and yet entertaining revelations from Bollywood.
If you want an escape, SpiceJet could be your saviour. Budget airline SpiceJet today said it has been designated as the ‘Indian scheduled carrier’ to operate flights to the United States. The airline will be the first Indian budget carrier to operate services to the US. When do the services start? We will tell you that when SpiceJet says something about that.
Guess who else is flying high? Women officers in the Indian Army. The Ministry of Defence has issued a formal sanction letter to grant permanent commission to women officers in the Indian Army. That happened today.
The Ministry of Defence has issued a formal sanction letter to grant permanent commission to women officers in the Indian Army. (Photo: Facebook)
But Sachin Pilot and 18 other Rajasthan Congress MLAs will have their fates decided tomorrow when the High Court rules on their disqualification. The Supreme Court said assembly Speaker CP Joshi can’t decide on disqualification of the rebels till the top court makes a decision on the issue. When does SC make a decision? On Monday – July 27. So what is the Rajasthan HC to decide tomorrow? HC will deliver its ruling on the plea by the dissident MLAs against the disqualification notices served by the Speaker. HC can decide what it wants to decide but what it decides will be subject to the outcome of the hearing in the SC, on Monday. Did that send you in a tizzy? Breathe deep.
From Supreme Court, let’s take you to what happened at a special CBI court today. BJP veteran Murli Manohar Joshi recorded his statement in the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition case. Another BJP veteran, LK Advani, will record his statement tomorrow in the same court. Well, he is supposed to. But then, there are many a slip between the cup and the lip. How else could the court still be recording statements 28 years after the incident? But construction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya will start on August 5 with PM Narendra Modi laying the foundation stone. Both BJP veterans, who by then would be free from recording statements, may also mark their presence.
With or without Lord Ram’s blessing, WhatsApp is trying to strengthen rural financial services. It has joined hands with Indian banks, including ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank, for the same. WhatsApp also has plans to provide financial services including the insurance and pensions to the low-wage workers. Don’t trust WhatsApp news, but trust WhatsApp to get banking to your doorstep. But beware of frauds.
Also be compassionate towards those who need it the most. Now, everyone needs compassion but some need it more than others. American media personality Kim Kardashian West has sought compassion for US Presidential aspirant (till a few days ago) and husband Kanye West. West has been of late posting and deleting tweets. In one such tweet, West accused his wife and mother-in-law of trying to lock him up, and suggested he is seeking divorce.
Kim says West is suffering from bipolar disorder, calling on the media and public to show "compassion and empathy" over the rapper's recent erratic behaviour. We couldn’t have agreed more.
But West’s alleged bipolarity reminded us of American mathematician and Noble laureate John Nash. A Beautiful Mind (2001) based on Nash’s life won the Oscar.
Now most people who suffer from bipolarity take to medication but Nash said it was ageing which helped him improve. The first symptoms of schizophrenia in Nash appeared when he was in his 30s. By then Nash had made groundbreaking contributions to the field of mathematics, including the math of decision-making. He went in and out of hospitals over the next two decades. And then in his 50s, he began to recover. Nash tried his brain like a mathematical problem. And probably that’s why overcame it.
Many say bipolarity is a chemical locha. In the mid-1990s, Nash said, “I emerged from irrational thinking, ultimately, without medicine other than the natural hormonal changes of ageing." He died in a car crash in 2015, but many continue to battle bipolarity, including, we are told, Kanye West.
Bipolar, our Word Of The Day, means two poles. It is fine when the two poles exist in two directions, like the North Pole in South Pole where but in south. Problem starts when both exist in the same brain. A person suffering from the disorder experiences polar opposites of mania and depression.
The term first appeared in the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) in 1980.
Before being called bipolar disorder, the disorder was called manic-depressive illness or manic depression because it caused unusual shifts in mood, energy, activity levels, concentration, and the ability to carry out everyday chores.
There are no easy answers to why people suffer from it. It is sometimes genetic and sometimes not. But at all times all people, including West, suffering through it need our empathy.
Nash, we said, could solve it because he could solve maths. The other person who could solve maths with enviable ease was Rani Hindustani. You should totally listen to this to know what we mean because “England ki rani koi bhi ho, duniya ki rani, Rani Hindustani”.
That will be all for today. We will be back tomorrow and tomorrow at 7.30 pm, you will be able to see Sushant Singh Rajput’s last movie Dil Bechara. It's premiering on Disney+Hotstar.
Stay safe.