Khatola Tribune

For practical news you can use, you know which paper to turn to.

Gotta problem in getting a visa? Take heart because there are many like you. But no, they ain’t heading to the visa office, the queue is instead in front of a stump of a 100-year-old banyan tree in Mupkal village ? about 45 km from Nizamabad in Telangana.

Hundreds of visa seekers have been thronging this ‘visa temple’ since those whose wishes were granted spread the good word around. This latest ‘temple’ is the second one of its kind in the state ? the honour of being the first goes to the ‘visa god’ at Chilkur Balaji temple in Himayatsagar on the outskirts of Hyderabad where thousands of devotees have been coming for the past few years.

Banyan tree with visa power- The Times of India

From the land of lassi and parantha, this tasty morsel:

In a little-known Punjab village, 72-year-old Mehnga Singh, who just returned from his field, casually places his spade in the corner of the local community polytechnic and removes his shoes. After washing his hands, he heads for a computer to check e-mail from his son in Dubai. His grandson is in the neighbouring swimming pool and his wife in an all-women gym.

This is Palahi, the village that gives Punjab’s other 12,500-plus villages a complex. Three kilometres off National Highway 1 near Phagwara, this 3,000-strong population village has a twinning IT arrangement with Cambridge University and has ensured that every resident has an e-mail address.

Gurdip Singh’s month-old baby, the village’s youngest resident, is the only one who does not have an e-mail address yet. “Actually, we still have to name him,” says Gurdip. “That’s not a very good excuse,” chides Gurmit Singh, engineer-turned-principal of the polytechnic.

Here everyone has an email ID- The Times of India

He drew the flag on (gasp!!!) paper! Thanks to vigilant neighbours, Nation’s Honour is saved.

Bawali’s grandsons pestered him for getting national flags on Independence Day. The labourer drew the tricolour on papers, which the kids took out.

However, some local residents, alleging that the sketch was wrongly drawn and was not being properly used, lodged a complaint with the police.

Police took Bawali into custody after registering a case under Section 2 of Insult to Nation’s Honour Act, 1971 against him.

A little tough on the toothless pauper, perhaps, but certainly a small price to pay considering the stakes involved. Well done, vigilant Orissis. You may now ceremonially wrap Advani’s used underwear around your heads.

Man draws flag on paper, arrested

These people are so frustrated with trains not running, that they have blocked train tracks in their agitation.

Traffic on the Central Railway route was disrupted at Mumbra station in Thane district on Wednesday morning after hundreds of angry commuters blocked the lines protesting ‘enormous delay in resumption of rail services’.

It should then come as no surprise, then, that

The rail roko protest is still on, the railway police said.

But the irony is likely to be lost upon the protesters.
Trains stopped at Mumbra