Southern States - Karnataka-Bangalore   

Pleasant surprise for the caller

By Harichandan A. A.

Bangalore Jan. 6. How much did you pay for a local call the last time you made one from a PCO. Chances are that it could be Rs. 2. If you tried to argue with the person manning the booth, the stock reply would probably have been "go to any booth in the City, and find out what they charge." At the `media centre' of the Science Congress, there are two phones - one free and the other a pay phone. Obviously, the free phone is always being used. So, a pressperson in a hurry decided he could afford to part with Rs. 2, and tried the pay phone. It worked of course.

The only difference was that the man who was collecting the money, returned 75 paise, with a bill for Rs. 1.26!

***

Help thy neighbour

More on the media centre: Monday morning at the Science Congress on Jnana Bharati campus was a "plenary session" chaired by N.R. Narayana Murthy, who always makes for a "good copy."

So, after a session of what India must do for ICT so that it can do something for the country, a pressperson from an eveninger had finished his report, but had five minutes to his deadline.

He was getting panicky as he had no e-mail ID of his own. So, he asked a colleague to help him out, but was brushed aside as the colleague, from a morninger, had his own copy to file. Now, our friend's plight was seen by a woman reporter, who was rushing into her own deadline, and was on the phone with her boss, telling him her copy was on the way.

Yet, she managed to take five minutes off from her work, to save and send the evening daily's reporter's copy, using her own e-mail ID, though, it meant she had to save and exit her copy. May the sun shine forever on such neighbours.

***

Expectations belied

Brainstorm, the title suggests a coming together of heads to come up with something worthwhile, perhaps. The daily single sheet newsletter, brought out by the organisers of the Science Congress, started out to be something worthwhile: there were little nuggets of information on science and scientists in India, a science quiz, excerpts from the presidential address of the first Science Congress which was held in 1914, and so on. But as the days wore on, the small editorial board that produced the newsletter couldn't keep the interest going, despite their brainstorming, perhaps. The President's visit of course would find its way into the letter, but more and more pictures found their way into it that looked like promotions.

Overall, the idea was good, until they decided to replace the quiz with pictures of the kitchen, and a quote from an ITDC official, about how pleased he was with the food.

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