The city has participated in the Aishwarya-Abhishek marriage. First, clothes and celebs reached the Mumbai venue in a steady trickle. Now a city poet sends his wishes to them, spectacularly.

Premchand Motta, who calls himself the “Instant Poet of India”, has issued a cheque (picture above) to the couple. Issued on the “Bank of Happiness Unlimited”, which has its head office in “Heaven”, the cheque is payable to Ab and Ash and the amount gifted is a “Sum of One Hundred Years of Health. Happiness. Joy. Fun. Romance. Good-luck. Progress & Prosperity.”

It is accompanied by a giant greeting card that ends with a prayer: “Let there be ‘Jalsa’ forever, but no ‘Prateeksha’ for near and dear. Let they fulfil all desires of ‘Pappa (Amitabhji) & Mummy’ (Jayaji).”

We agree. It’s just that after all the hullabaloo, the couple may just be wanting one hundred years of solitude.

Some other place

The time was right for an evening of Baul music — the eve of the Bengali New Year. But the place?

The special night at Someplace Else, at The Park, featuring Bauls last Saturday was a refreshing change for many. The show was a success, with a huge crowd and resounding shouts of “joy guru” and “sadhu, sadhu”. But do we need Baul in a place that is sacred to rock? The lack of response on the “Baul eve” in the Someplace Else Goers community on Orkut, where every special night is discussed to death, was ominous.

Riders of the whip

A dip into the past.

“Remember that you are to be whipped on a Friday, after every three months, for the next two years,” said a Mayors’ court judge to Ashraf Khan and Manik Das on an April afternoon of 1758.

People never are that law-abiding, even in Company-ruled Bengal. Therefore, the need for the riders of the whip, also executioners. They brought the guilty to the whip under the specified number of lashes to fall, often suffering the same punishments if they failed.

In 1760, the Company observed that whipping failed to inspire the desired fear in “natives”, and did away with the system of riders administrating capital punishment.

What followed next? The offenders were fired off the mouth of cannons, over the “Maratha ditch”, today’s AJC Bose Road.