Coke Tales
The arrest and interrogation of a peddler in Delhi reveal that at glitzy parties in faraway farmhouses, money and power go on high with the kick of cocaine. It's the haute drug for the stylish people in black. A peep into the world of the cocaine-users.

Invisible Dialogue
Vajpayee has promised a solution by March next year. But who is he talking to? Nobody knows.

Gunning For Arun
Jaswant Singh's special adviser is again at the centre of a controversy. This one though is not of his own making.

New Metro Hotspots
Establishments combining a rash of activities have taken over from the one-dimensional discos in urban India.

METROSCAPE

Island Of Music

Islands of miscellaneous sound and dance marked the opening of music channel Southern Spice last week at Chennai's Park Sheraton. Daksha Seth's Dance Company, Andrea and Steffani foot-tapping to pop by Sunitha Sarathy and debutante band Girl Friends pumping regional hits were seen in different spaces across the hotel. And at midnight, the party still looked young ... by Chennai standards. "Why not? After all, it is a 24-hour channel," reasoned Usman Fayaz, ceo of Martin Lottery Agencies that owns the channel.

Southern Spice promises a trendy mix of the four southern languages with the latest of filmy masala besides Phonoetastic (dial a song), Loaded ("no VJs or PJs; just you and your music") and Hot, Hotter, Hottest ("skin to skin is no sin, so get your body grooving to the most stimulating videos"). Anything else? Yup, some live draw of lotteries "for better transparency" in the business.

—Arun Ram

PHOTO FINISH: Ignore the adversity for a moment. Focus instead on the work. Brothers Sriharsha and Siddhartha Sankar Shukla of Orissa did just that to overcome their hearing impairment and become painters. This week in Delhi they held an exhibition of oil paintings on India and Indonesia. The canvases, based on American lenswoman Lindsay Hebberd's photographs, showed people from both countries going about the business of living with a sense of equanimity that was reflected in the faces of the artists. Hebberd met the Shuklas through disabilities' action group Very Special Arts India. She's so impressed that she's promised to take any unsold paintings back to the US to sell there. Says the boys' mother Kalyani Mohapatra: "I didn't want my sons to ever feel that because they can't hear they have to be dependent on others." They've learnt the lesson well.

Moved By The Cross

I've told the photographers not to shoot the blood," joked the German ambassador Heimo Richter as he pinned the Order of Merit of the State of Lower Saxony on Rajeev Sethi's chest. He displayed the sizeable pin behind an enamelled cross. And watched by a clutch of celebs-including Madhavrao Scindia and Vinod Khanna-the pinning proceeded without bloodshed.

Sethi, who won the honour for his theme pavilion Basic Needs at the Expo 2000 in Hanover, went on to recount how apprehensive he was initially. "I had this desire to poll everyone I met for a response," said Sethi. "Then one day, one cabbie came up and said he was moved by my work and wanted to drive me back to the airport. That human recognition was as great as any." Can't get more basic than that.

—Samrat Chowdhury

MetroScape

Looking Glass

Delhi Restaurant:
Kootub Restaurant

Delhi Dance Festival: Abhinaya Sudha

Delhi Restro-bar:
Buzz, Get It Here

Bangalore Exhibitions: Cinnamon