Talk of the town

THERE IS this big chance that scenes of pensive and brooding heroes smoking cigarettes in sorrow and solitude might vanish from the silver and small screen.

A pledge to `banish' promo shots of tobacco products on the screen was taken at Cancer Institute on Cancer Survivor's Day by some of the Tamil tinsel world's `movers and shakers'.

Leading a band of stars, Revathy Menon, said there was cure for the disease, if patients came to the doctor's doorstep early. She recalled the loss of a friend at Dehradun, during her school days, due to the disease and success stories of two of her friends, who had doggedly combated the disease and were leading normal lives now. Actor S.Ve.Sekar said, ``One said goodnight with the hope of getting up the next morning, or else it would have been good-bye''. He assured that cancer would be picturised as a curable disease in his next movie.

Director S.P.Muthuraman, Deepa Venkat and a few others said it was news to them that cancer was curable and guaranteed propagation of the message.

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IF ACADEMIC buzz is to be believed, the days of the present elected management council of Pachaiyappa's Trust is numbered.

The present rulers are taking reports of last year's elections being rigged, seriously. They feel, the present Trust Board has too many `Opposition political party members' for comfort.

Pachaiyappa's Trust has vast holdings running to several crores of rupees, in the form of at least half a dozen colleges Statewide, a handful of schools, choultries and land.

Some history: Advocate General Norton, during pre- Independence days devised a means to manage the huge trust. The management went into various hands and at one point of time, a DMK leader went to court. After two decades of litigations, the Supreme Court directed the Trust be handed to an elected team. It took nearly two years for conducting the polls by a High Court administrator.

Finally, polling was held last August. But during the votes counting, two contestants, Prof. Maa Selvaraasan and Prof. Dorai, gave written complaints to the election officer alleging that the votes were snatched away by DMK men. These complaints were brushed away and the matter went to court on appeal. Among the members now are Mr.Misa Ganesan, DMK's `Thondar Ani' leader.

Now, it looks like a Bill is to be passed in the Assembly or an application filed before the High Court under Civil Procedure Code, to pave the way for a government take-over of the Trust.

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AMID THE bustle of the metropolis, a religious rite took place over the week-end at Triplicane. So, what's new? This one was to invoke the Lord's blessings for ``the all-round welfare and happiness'' of Chief Minister, Ms. Jayalalithaa.

Organised by T.E. Raghava Simhan, a local scribe, the ``Aindhrakha Yagam'' evokes ancient traditions, when citizens used to organise such rites for ``helping a king and his army to regain lost energy after a battle triumph and for the continued success of the reign''.

The latest event revives the similar symbolism of her election triumph, says the organiser. The highlights of the event were the chanting of vedic hymns and Divya Prabhandham, Vishnusahasramanam by 53 scholars and pundits, lights of puja of 53 traditional lamps by a 53-strong women's team and recitation of a similar number of prayer songs, all held at Gangaikondan Mandapam. Incidentally, Ms. Jayalalithaa has turned 53.

Also proposed are monthly Sudarsana homam events at Madurantakam's Sri Ramar temple. Mr. Simhan says ''Ms. Jayalalithaa's career has been on the upswing since she visited the temple in the early 80s``.

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THE CITY police chief Mr. K. Muthukaruppan is mighty pleased with the choice of JCs for one more reason: they hail from vastly different religious backgrounds. George, Jaffer and Babu evoke memories of the filmi trio, Amar, Akbar and Antony.

The City Police Commissioner says that this arrangement, though not by design, overtly reassures both the force and the people. The `dream team' would ensure that city residents would have the best policing in recent times.

The officers have also been chosen to bring solutions to long pending problems in traffic, crime prevention and maintaining law and order.

However, the question in the minds of many people is if these officials would be able to change the attitude of the police personnel at the station level. It is an open fact that complainants face a hostile police at the stations.

By S. Shanker, K. Ramachandran and S. Shivakumar

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