Eavesdropper / Justifying a vendetta?

Ever since Ms J Jayalalitha took over as the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, she has been on a mission some call vendetta and her party workers term a “clean-up drive”. Either way, it consists of replacing bureaucrats with her trusted people and reopening cases against the DMK. The pace of activity has been so scorching that at times the government machinery does not know where to post people who have been removed!

On the day ‘Madam’ was being sworn in, the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) suddenly cut off power supply to the area around the Raj Bhavan for around 15 minutes, until it realised the gravity of its misdemeanour. A senior TNEB official even met the state’s chief secretary to explain the trip up: one of the sources of power to the state had gone out of action and the load had to be shed. But not only did he fail to make an impression, he was told to not even bother to return to his office for he had been replaced, and simply stay at home until further orders!

Clever gene
IN the state-controlled media of Singapore, there are some moments of laughter as well. Last week, for instance, a large advertisement in a large daily in Singapore may have caught the attention of some curious readers. The first line of the ad read something like...”Looking for an athletic-built, very tall woman.” The immediate impression was that an advertising firm must have put out the ad for a model. But no, that was not the case. The next line was: “She should be very intelligent with an outstanding GMAT (Graduate Management Aptitude Test) score.” Well, could it be a matrimonial ad? Or maybe it was a job announcement which required both beauty and brains. Curious?

The last line of the ad spilled the beans. It read: “If interested in being an egg donor, contact so and so...,’’ it said. Incidentally, this good-gene search is not confined to Asia. Similar advertisements are to be found in the college dailies of top US universities where, no doubt, the seekers hope to find the brightest genes in residence!