Change of vocation Probably it's time to hop jobs. The chief minister of Chhattisgarh, who has already taken to writing in a big way, might ultimately find his pen the only weapon he can wield against commissions and other demons. For ever since being branded a non-tribal, nothing seems to be going right politically for Ajit Jogi. Take, for example, his efforts to make little of the ruling about his identity. Jogi had intended to have a mega-event on the first anniversary of the state. It turned out to be a flop show, possibly because he found it more important to please madam than the prime minister of the country. All non-BJP states maintain a functional relation with the PM. Ironically, Jogi not only refused to invite Atal Bihari Vajpayee, he, apparently, even went on to slight him in public. The non-tribal is said to have invited other chief ministers as well. But none showed up. Worse, on November 1, BK Nehru passed away and madam cancelled her Chhattisgarh trip. All strings were pulled to get Sonia Gandhi to Ranchi since scores of journalists had been flown from Delhi to watch the show. But no go. Jogi was left to face the crowds alone, and probably his future, too, in the Nai Sadi Ke Mor Pe . Festival offer Our fathers on earth. The BJP seems to be taking cultural nationalism a bit too seriously. The leadership changed the schedule for its national executive meet in Amritsar for karva chauth, a festival in north India during which married women fast for a day and pray for the longevity of their husbands. The unputdownable Union minister for information and broadcasting, Sushma Swaraj, and a lesser sister of hers, Sangeeta Singh Deo, are reported to have led the campaign to be excused from their political obligations on Sunday, which was the day on which the festival fell. Kind souls AB Vajpayee and Jana Krishnamurthy relented and Sunday will be a day when only less important issues will be discussed. And yes, without the ladies. Age does wither Age seems to be overtaking not only our prime minister, but his newly inducted defence minister, George Fernandes, as well. At a recent press meet, Georgie Porgie fumbled while recalling the name of one terrorist who has the Americans on the run. It was left to a scribe to remind him of the name he was trying to retrieve from the deep recesses of his mind. Osama bin Laden? Yes, of course. But it did not stop at that. George was also heard asking journalists to repeat their questions and to speak loudly into the microphone. Can he hear the war next door? To end a sibling rivalry Cause for worry. Although Mamata Banerjee is confident that she will make it into the government in the winter session of Parliament, the inordinate delay in reinducting didi into the cabinet has set her Trinamoolis thinking along a completely different line - her reconciliation with estranged dada, Ajit Panja. Securing the homefront just in case the winter gambit fails. On the other hand, the bad blood is also preventing AB Vajpayee from taking a decision on Panja, to whom he had promised a ministerial berth during the assembly polls in Bengal. The problem is that Mamata still hasn't softened her stand towards her detractor. Veteran Panja is therefore depending on Trinamooli bigwigs to persuade didi to forgive and forget. The lead in the peace mission has reportedly been taken by didi's former mentor and Calcutta mayor, Subrata Mukherjee. Shouldn't Mukherjee stop tempting his fate? Will he have her ear? Advantage Congress. The sagging morale of the party has suddenly been lifted by the successful parivartan rallies in Uttar Pradesh. The face behind the miracle is the Meerut MP, Avtar Singh Bhadana, who brought in an unexpected number to his Meerut rally. Madam is supposed to be so impressed that she apparently snubbed Ghulam Nabi Azad's moderate estimate of the crowd and put it at three lakh. She also congratulated Bhadana the next day on the telephone. Quite naturally, Bhadana now wants the moon. If he is made the UP Congress chief or a member of the CWC, the new man on the block has claimed that he could bring in 80 out of the 100 odd seats in the state and the emergence of a backward leadership to take on the saffronites. Just pray that madam goes on listening, Bhadana. Look who's in stockings Dubbed famously as kali billi by her co-star, the Calcutta model making it big time in Bollywood, Bipasha Basu, is supposedly quite embarrassed by her performance in Ajnabee. Apart from the fact that she has been referred to as a 'sex-bomb', she is also very aware of her 'flaws' - her make-up, hairstyle and something else. There is, apparently, a scene by the piano in which one can see her stocking line. 'A stocking line is not at all sexy.' Really? The lesser mortals going to the movies would be delighted to catch a glimpse of her stockings, if not her panties. So relax, Bipasha. Fight to the finish Mumbai is thick with the whisper of an Oscar coming the way of India. One aspirant is Mira Nair, who has already bagged a Golden Lion. But the money is on Lagaan, which stands a good chance of making it to the foreign film category. It has the feel-good factor and right politics - desis scoring over the firangis. But Asoka might give it a tough time. The producers, after consulting numerologists, are supposed to have dropped the 'h' from Ashoka in anticipation. So wait till the last reel to see who wins. Footnote / A war very close to home The most unlikely war victim. Thankfully, the victim is unaffected. Noam Chomsky, professor of linguistics at the Massachussetts Institute of Technology, will, eventually, manage to do what he came to India for - that is, to speak on philosophy, peer into the 'abyss of the future' and rally against militarism. There is only one change made in the war situation. Instead of deliberating on militarism at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, which he was scheduled to, he will speak at the Delhi School of Economics. The war, incidentally, is not the one in Afghanistan, it is in Delhi's academia. Two co-speakers of Chomsky are Arundhati Ray and Aruna Ray. Therein lay the problem. JNU missed the chance of hosting Chomsky because it tripped over a major controversy regarding the entry of Arundhati Ray into its portals. Why? Why not? Ray, the JNU's commies feel, has insulted their god, EMS Namboodiripad by her insinuation directed at the leader in her Booker prize winning novel, The God of Small Things, set in the backwaters of Kerala. Left in the backwaters, JNU?