TWO TO TWO TO TWO TWO

This is a just-so punch line from a kamalahassan comedy track…kamal lands up in a railway station and enquires the arrival and depart of a train,,,the station master quips….TWO TO TWO TO TWO TWO….in effect  1.58pm arrival,depart 2.02 pm.

Two celebrities I admired have passed over the earht’s horizon this fortnight.

1.russy karanjia of the one-of-a-kind BLITZ tabloid ....founder and editor.

2.baba amte…..who worked with the leper’s on par with father damien

Russy of BLITZ was the quintessential tabloid editor of independent India.

BRAVE BOLD BEAUTIFUL.

Publish or perish….his topline.

BLITZ was concurrent with another tabloid those days…the CURRENT.

Rumor had it that BLITZ was financed by the KGB and CURRENT by the CIA…it was the time of the coldest season of the cold war.

I still remember that when BRITAIN invaded the FALKLANDS ..BLITZ screamed BRITANNIA WAIVE THE RULES….as opposed to the once-upon-a-time BRITANNIA RULE THE WAVES…

OUTLOOK still carries on this tradition first enacted by BLITZ.

We all read BLITZ from the LAST PAGE first.

The LAST PAGE was by KA ABBAS..and that was the page you read first.

Of all the Indian magazines on the stands it is only OUTLOOK which has perfected the LAST PAGE.

INDIA TODAY , the WEEK and the FRONTLINE have the worst last pages.

RUSSY was famous for his pussies ..the PIN-UP page..the PIN-UP is an American world war 2 tradition....PIN-UPS of marilyn monroe and others were posted to american soldiers on the battlefront  to relieve their tedium and medium!!!!

The tamil morninger THE DAILY THANTHI has a pin-up on its sundae front page.

INDIA TODAY in its early days had a pin-up in every issue…there was one with a female cuddling a kitten bridging her breasts..the PIN-UP screamed PUSS IN BOOBS…how man of you remember the  PUSS IN BOOTS fairy tale production..it first came on srilanka television.

.......HEADLESS BODY IN TOPLESS BAR....check-it-out with the BLITZ past issues!!!

BYE BYE RUSSY...

I did a 30-day short fellowship in leprosy in a hospital in india,which was one of the 4 international centers for the DAPSONE TRIAL….  and that has affected my perception forever.

I salute BABA for the wrok he did among the lepers.

When father Damien worked with the lepers,no leper  really took a liking for the father.

One day father Damien himself gets afflicted with leprosy.

He still doesn’t tell anyone in that remote leprosy island colony.

..but he starts his prayers with the lepers…FATHER IN HEAVEN…WE,the lepers..the news spreads like wildfire….the highest international award in leprosy carries the name of FATHER DAMIEN.

BABA did not contact leprosy bcoz with the success of the dapsone trial,leprosy was controlled and now eradicated.

BABA was in no way lesser than father DAMIEN.

Baba amte,jayaprakash narayan,vino bhave,sunderlal bahuguna,mehta patkar….

These are my BHARAT RATNAS