The Bapu guide to freedom, from jail
Gandhi did not “appear” before him like he did for Munnabhai, but the Mahatma sure did come to Laxman Gole's rescue in prison.
fter reading Gandhi's autobiography, the 30-year-old had a change of heart and confessed to his crime before a judge. Gole’s reward: his jail term was reduced by half.
Gole, who used to run computer classes in suburban Vikhroli, had 19 cases of extortion, blackmail and assault against him.
He was acquitted in 18 of them, but the court sentenced him to four years and two months in jail in one. Now Gole, whose sentence has been snipped to two years, can walk free after four months as he has already spent 16 months behind bars in Mumbai and Nashik.
During his stay in Nashik jail, Gole had written to the Mumbai Sarvodaya Mandal and the Gandhi Book Centre for the autobiography. After finishing the work assigned to him in jail, Gole would sit down with the book every day.
Having stepped towards the path of truth and non-violence, Gole is urging his jail mates to follow suit.
Inspired by Gole, the Sarvodaya Mandal is planning to organise a Gandhi peace examination for prisoners across the state.
ADMK site, too hot to handle
ADMK workers were treated to an eye-popping sight recently when they logged on to the party’s website. Instead of information on the party, “hot dating tips” were scorching their computer screens.
The website of Tamil Nadu’s principal Opposition party had been hacked and “infected” with pornographic materials.
The ADMK wasn’t turned on, though, and immediately got down to revamp the site.
There were also links to airline tickets, car insurance and real estate deals on aiadmkindia.org.
When Jayalalithaa heard that some “unscrupulous elements” had hacked the site and tried to “discredit its official contents”, she commanded that a fresh website be created — just a revamp wouldn’t do — with rigorous software protection and firewalls to keep away intruders.
A ladies’ first on the Net
These women mean business and a web portal is helping them make their point.
The first online directory listing for businesses run by women from home was recently launched by www.sitagita.com.
The directory allows visitors to look up women-friendly service providers and a wide range of products, including fashion, finance, beauty, sports, entertainment, children's needs, travel and health.
To encourage entrepreneurship among students, the directory has a section that offers them a platform to showcase their talents, ideas and designs. It allows them to access potential customers from 120 cities across the world.
“This unique networking service for women, by women provides them the right platform to market their home businesses online” says Nirmal Mirza, the CEO of sitagita.com.
Ghost voters
Elections are knocking on the door and the ballot babus are grappling with ghosts.
Well, not of the spooky kind. The Election Commission has discovered that there are seven lakh bogus voters on Karnataka’s voter lists.
Chief election commissioner N. Gopalaswami was shocked to see that nearly 50 lakh names had been added to the list in the last five years.
Smelling something fishy, he brought in chief electoral officers from five states to scrutinise the lists.
Preliminary estimates suggested that nearly seven lakh of the total new voters did not exist at all. The commission has now ordered a total revision of the rolls, including a door-to-door survey, to weed out the non-existent voters.
Mumbai: A pot-pourri of culture, heritage, food, sports, films and music is on offer at the Mumbai Festival from January 17-21. The Mumbai Shopping Festival Expo will be organised as a part of event at the Bandra Kurla Complex. Call 67251000, 67252000 for details.
