When Vajpayee heartily relished South Indian cuisine
Mumbai, Aug 17 : Way back in February 2006, when the former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was conferred the "8th SIES-Sri Chandrasekarendra Saraswathi National Eminence Award" he could not travel to Mumbai owing to certain health issues.
He suggested to Mumbai South Indian Education Society (SIES) President V. Shankar to hold the function at his New Delhi residence, and also made a surprise special request - "to organise the best of South Indian cuisine dishes for the evening".
Since Vajpayee was known to be a connoisseur of good food, the SIES authorities rushed to comply and ordered the choicest of the delicacies from the Saravana Bhavan, Connaught Place, in the capital.
"He relished the food immensely that evening, and seemed to have had a little more than his normal intake," reminisced SIES spokesperson K. A. Viswanathan on Friday.
In fact, Vajpayee later expressed surprise that such delicious South Indian food was available in the heart of New Delhi about which "he was not aware", and wanted to know how many waiters had come from that restaurant to serve for the evening.
"He magnanimously assembled all the eight boys on the lawns for a group photo session with him, followed by individual shots with each of them. Then, he called for Rs 100 currency notes, autographed each of them and presented them to all the excited servers," Viswanathan said.
The boys were thrilled and overjoyed when Vajpayee smiled and decided to have "one more cup of nice South Indian filter coffee" with all of them before they left the venue.
During the formal award ceremony, of the several mementos presented to him, was a portrait of Vajpayee sketched by a Class I student of SIES School.
The late Prime Minister was highly impressed and wanted to know who had done that sketch.
After the SIES authorities informed that it was a young student Nirman Olwe, Vajpayee immediately said he wanted to meet him and asked that the student should be brought along with his parents to New Delhi.
A few weeks later, the boy accompanied by his grandmother who was also a teacher in the same school, his mother and Shankar, went to the capital and Vajpayee warmly received them.
He presented a return memento to the delighted boy who cherishes those memories till today, Viswanathan said.
Now grown up, that little boy from Antop Hill area of central Mumbai, completed his schooling, HSC and is now pursuing engineering studies.
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SGPC writes to Mann, seeks ban on 'Emergency' in Punjab a day before release
Amritsar, Jan 16 (PTI): The SGPC on Thursday wrote to Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, seeking a ban on the release of Kangana Ranaut's movie 'Emergency' saying it "tarnishes" the image of Sikhs and "misrepresents" history.
Actor and BJP MP Ranaut's 'Emergency' is slated to release in cinemas on January 17.
In the letter to Mann, Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee chief Harjinder Singh Dhami expressed strong objection to Ranaut's film.
Dhami said that if the film is released in Punjab, it will spark "outrage and anger" in the Sikh community and therefore it is the responsibility of the government to ban its release in the state.
The SGPC, an apex gurdwara body, had earlier also protested the film.
"It has come to our attention that the movie 'Emergency' produced by BJP MP Kangana Ranaut is going to be released on 17th January 2025 in cinemas in different cities of Punjab and the tickets have also started to be booked," its letter to Mann read.
Dhami said the SGPC had also protested the release of the movie in a letter to the Punjab Chief Secretary on November 14 last year.
"But it is sad that the Punjab government has not taken any step till now. If this film is released on January 17, 2025, then it is natural to create outrage and anger in the Sikh world," the current letter read.
Dhami said the SGPC will submit a letter also to all the deputy commissioners in Punjab, seeking a ban on the film in the state.
The SGPC denounced the "character assassination" of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, the Khalistani militant killed in 1984 in a military operation.
"If this film is released in Punjab, we will be forced to strongly oppose it at the state level," Dhami said.
In August last year, the SGPC sent a legal notice to the producers of the 'Emergency' film, alleging that it "misrepresented" the character and history of Sikhs, and asked them to remove the objectionable scenes depicting "anti-Sikh" sentiments.
In the notice, the producers of the film, including Kangana Ranaut, were asked to remove the trailer released on August 14 from all public and social media platforms and tender a written apology to the Sikh community.
The SGPC objected to film writing separate letters to the Minister of Information and Broadcasting and the Central Board of Film Certification.
