The Importance Of Being Brajesh
The Opposition and the Sangh Parivar launch an attack on the Prime Minister's Office by targeting the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister Brajesh Mishra. The Vajpayee camp finds itself fighting a grim political battle to retain credibility even as the Establishment tries to discredit the Tehelka allegations. An analysis.

Supercrat In His Labyrinth
There are 240 secretaries to the Government, but N. K. Singh is always a cut above-in style, networking, and power. The economic policy wizard gets defensive.

The Ways And Means Of Ranjan
Ranjan Bhattacharya's role as nursemaid to Atal Bihari Vajpayee gives the fun-loving foster son-in-law
the image of one who dabbles in government decisions.

Congress' Coalition Flight Grounded
With sceptic constituents, Congress President Sonia Gandhi's
plan to form an alliance just before the assembly elections in five states, may backfire.

Desperately Seeking loopholes
The Bharatiya Janata Party and Samata Party find discrepancies
in the charges levelled against them by Tehelka. But it's just details.

Nursery Of Hate
The week-long violence in Kanpur has cooled down, but the spectre of the Students Islamic Movement of India still looms large. A look at the reach of India's in-house Taliban.

Vroom Service
The four-stroke motorcycle overtakes middle-class India's greatest icon since the valve radio set, as sales of the doughty old scooter stagnate in spite of a spirited fightback.

George Cross
The FIR against Sonia Gandhi's private secretary is a plain corruption issue says the CBI. But, an embarrassed Congress complains of vendetta.

Nothing Official About It
The payment crisis is temporarily stemmed, but clandestine financing ticks like a time bomb.

METROSCAPE

Ink Well Spilt

The Itch For Kitsch

Last Week's Fete Of Fashion

Ozzies: Out On The Town

Bye Bye Birdie

Scene This?

CM On Call

Pretty Puhleeze

Classic In C

REWARD OF A READING: Budhos with Lal

At a mildly self-congratulatory lit-erary evening hosted by publishing house IndiaInk at Delhi's itc Maurya Sheraton hotel last weekend, New York-based novelist Marina Budhos and Delhi-based ornithologist Ranjit Lal read excerpts from their latest works. Narrated by the professor's nine-year-old daughter, Megan Singh, who, "knew they were jealous of me... because my life with him would be extraordinary," Budhos' The Professor of Light entwines a search for the nature of light-"It's the most essential element in the universe, but its very nature is elusive. It seemed a very rich territory to explore philosophy and identity"-with the ghosts of an immigrant past. The great granddaughter of Indian-origin indentured labourers in Guyana, Budhos' novel is infused with magic realism, making it the antithesis of Lal's cheerful The Life and Times of Altu-Faltu, the intriguing and intrigue-filled love story of royal Rhesus macaque Rani Beti and crude commoner Altu-Faltu. Ascribing his book to a desire to write a soap opera, Lal felt the best way to do so was "to use monkeys as characters, and history to politicise the story". Funny and contemporary.

-Sonia Faleiro

Last Week's Fete Of Fashion...

A clutch of Delhi (and Mumbai) designers uncover another yearly ritual-their Spring/Summer collection

YOU GOT MALE: Menswear clothiers forget that what looks good on shop mannequins need not sizzle on the ramp. The saving grace at Ravi Bajaj's show last week at Taj Mahal hotel were his jodhpurs ... and the setting: a circular tent.

CRYING COLOURS: Suneet Varma's show at Hyatt Regency, Delhi, was about vibrant colours and experimenting with necklines and two-piece saris. So what if the huge flowers on the clothes proved distracting at times.

SPRING A SURPRISE: There was grass on the ramp at Anju Modi's show in Pragati Maidan's Handloom Pavilion in Delhi. (It's the spring collection, get it). But Modi's clothes, made largely from handlooms, got more attention.

WATCH YOUR STEP: Krishna Mehta preferred her Mumbai store for her preview ... only it set the six male models on a collision course. The separates and Diandra Saores with her hairdo were the other buzzwords.

-Contributed by Anna M.M.Vetticad, Anshul Avijit and Natasha Israni

MetroScape
The Itch For Kitsch
When Kitsch Kitsch Hota Hai opened to an overflowing house at Delhi's India Habitat Centre last week, people didn't quite know what to expect.
more...

Looking Glass


Delhi Exhibition: Unbuilt India-Vision 2001

Delhi Music:
Shriram Shankarlal Music Festival, 2001

Delhi: Showroom
Interiors Espania

The 457-acre estate of the Roerichs near Bangalore is in a pathetic condition. But does anyone care, asks INDIA TODAY's Principal Correspondent Stephen David in Despatches.