Of Flying Juniors and Narendra Modi

Yes, our juniors are certainly flying high these days.

Setuka Mahajan officially kicked off outstation assignments for the juniors flying out to Chandigarh along with some cancer patients.

Meanwhile, Sumathi Chandrasekharan got a chance to nach baliye with Chief Minister Narendra Modi as she covered the four-day Gujarat Mahotsav at Ahmedabad.

The latest outstation trip again went Setuka's way with a day's sojourn in quake-hit Ursu in Kashmir, to report on the Indian Air Force's role in relief and rescue operations.

Good show, people! We seniors wish you many more such assignments.

Of TV Anchors and White Teeth

Television anchor Mriganka Dadwal is going great guns, hobnobbing with the likes of Diya Mirza, Riya Sen and Shilpa Shetty over the past week for her show Ab Aayega Mazaa which airs weekdays at 5.30 pm on Zee Business.

"Of the three, Diya was really sweet," says Dadwal, hinting the other two were not. Weren't they?

And for those under the impression the IIT damsel pigs out at each restaurant she reviews, think again.

"Arre bhai, I hardly get the time to eat," says Dadwal. She recently did a feature on a newly-opened Chinese deli in the capital. "I had an assignment right after that," she explains.

Dadwal now sports a dazzling array of sparkling white teeth and like other media celebrities denies having got them whitened professionally. We find that hard to believe but the Zee Biz Miss is sticking to her stand.

Despite her busy schedule, Dadwal said she would like to meet her friends for lunch at CP this Sunday. Those interested please call her up and let her know right away.

Of Mallus and Mallu-ism

Aparna Nair waxing eloquent in Malayalam while making the Foreign Impact.

Nothing wrong with that of course except for the recipient of her discourse - David Lalmalsawma, who incidentally is not a Keralite and doesn't understand a word of the Dravidian tongue.

But given the fact that Malayalees and Bengalis have grabbed a huge share of the Indian journalism pie, David might just have to put up with the torture a wee bit longer.

Of Blogs and Shameless Publicity

Toe Knee's zany blog at Crazy Journo created a minor splash this week by appearing on Times of India columnist Peter Griffin's watchlist this week.

Griffin, whose weekly column on blogs and the computer world appears in the Mumbai and Kolkata editions of India's most read English newspaper, adjudged 'Crazy Journo' the 'Blog of the Week.'

Despite the honour, Griffin did point out that Toe Knee would have to work a lot, lot harder before he can even think of emulating humour writers Dave Barry and Art Buchwald.

"As the title suggests, the person behind this blog is, apparently, a journalist. And one who perhaps, finds the news reporting not satisfying enough. He does regular take-offs on the news, with deadpan articles that spoof our more, ahem, conventional media," he said.

"His standards are a tad erratic, but we put that down to youth. It will take a lot more life lived before he can hope to rival a Barry, Buchwald, or our aapro late lamented Busybee, but what I like about this blog is that he tries and does often get a grin out of my cynical face," Griffin added.