Khatola Tribune

Okay kids, here is a fun quiz for you. How many factual errors can you spot in the opening lines of this opinion piece from The Telegraph of Calcutta? The writer is “economist” and “consultant editor”, Ashok V Desai.

Sixty years ago, India’s most loved actress was Suraiya. She entranced our fathers in the romantic roles she played opposite Dilip Kumar. It is not entirely certain whether she broke his heart when she left for Lahore in 1947, for he stayed on in India, married Saira Banoo, and went on to make films with Nargis. But Suraiya broke millions of Indian hearts when she left.

It would have been all right if she had won millions of Pakistani hearts. But there was no film industry in Pakistan at that time, and nowhere could Suraiya display her talents. She married and sank into the humdrum life of an ordinary housewife — sorry, a distinguished homemaker.

But then, in the Sixties, emerged another actress who stole Pakistani hearts — Noor Jehan.

Here are ten goof-ups to get you started — (more…)

If you have always wondered what formalisms and archaic legal expressions echo in the rarefied chambers of the abode of justice, how about a couple of quotes from an Indian Supreme Court judge who wants to string people up by lamp posts?

“The only way to rid the country of corruption is to hang a few of you on the lamp post. The law does not permit us to do it but otherwise we would prefer to hang people like you at the lamp post,” a Bench of Justices S B Sinha and Markandeya Katju remarked during arguments put forth by counsel for an accused.

As counsel R Singh, tried to make some submission Justice Katju further said, “Everywhere, we have corruption. Nothing is free from corruption. Everybody wants to loot this country. The only solution for this menace is to hang some people in the public so that it acts as a deterrent on others.”