Hyderabab, March 01:Traditionally, the Union Budgets are presented with much fanfare. Television news channels go whole hog and give wall to wall coverage of the budget, which was presented by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Monday.
Channels, both national and regional, stacked their newsrooms with financial specialists who gave their expert opinions on every aspect of the budget.
However, for a common man, the ‘jargon’ used by these so called business analysts went completely over the head. The public on the street were left scratching their heads, as expert after expert gave opinions that mattered little to them.
Everybody complained why nobody is bothered to break down the budget for the common man. Is anybody listening?
The other day, an elderly gentleman came to this newspaper office. Speaking clipped English, he wished to talk to a reporter dealing with a particular subject as he had some interesting information to share.
He was told that the reporter concerned was away in an assignment and it might take a good two hours before he returns to office. So, would he like to wait for him? “Oh! I can’t because am working in a key department in the Secretariat and have to rush to office.”
But, since nobody is working these days in any government office, what’s the rush? “Only those who don’t want to work don’t work. I am not like that,” bristled the gentleman and walked away after taking down the mobile number of the reporter.
It was a promotional event conducted by a mobile service provider but a film actor, who was chief guest for the programme, was caught off guard.
It all happened on Monday, when a mobile service providing company announced its tie-up with a latest Telugu movie. The company had also unveiled its signature tune and the same was used in the movie. The lead star cast of the movie were invited to grace the occasion.
When media persons questioned the actor whether he was using the signature tune in real life too, the actor replied “I am a customer of another service provider but am planning to use it now,”
M. Sai Gopal, V. Geetanath, S. Sandeep Kumar
-Agencies