Mumbai Diary page: Wednesday Whispers

Been there heard thatSouth Africa is calling Cape Town to be precise and look who is heeding that musical call itrsquos Rakesh and Friends RAF Fusion Group which includes flautist Rakesh Chaurasia and his talented colleagues who have been invited for the 15th Cape Town International Jazz Festival South Africa to be held on March 28 and 29Rakesh and Friends RAF a group of young musicians who believe music is going global consists of Rakesh Chaurasia flute Gino Banks drums Satyajeet Talwalkar tabla Sheldon DrsquoSilva bass guitar Sanjoy Das guitar and Sangeet Haldipur keyboardFor jazz aficionados the festival is also knows as ldquoAfricarsquos Grandest Gatheringrdquo earning that moniker because it is the largest music event in subSaharan Africa Like every year the event is to take place at the Cape Town International Convention Centre CTICC The schedule spans five stages and over 40 artistes performing over two nightsIt is made up of a 5050 split between South African and international artistes Rakesh Chaurasia nephew of the legendary flautist Hariprasad Chaurasia makes all the correct noises when he calls this a ldquoproud momentrdquo and stresses that more so because the aim is ldquocultural exchange and bringing together musicians from all over the world to represent their respective countries and musicrdquo We agree Now RAF go rock itSS spice mix in election masalaElection fever sees parties and candidates trying to score points over one another often with allegations flying fast and furious on all sides Not content with speeches and slogans the Shiv Sena has brought out a slim book encapsulating various scams that they say took place during the CongressNCP rule in MaharashtraTitled Ghotalebaaz roughly ldquoscamsterrdquo it is a compilation of various allegations levelled against the CongressNCP government in the state from 2000 onwards till date But whether the party leaders have taken these allegations to a logical conclusion is left unsaidTiger tiger ndash thatrsquos a WaghRecent news about leopard sightings has made residents hypervigilant apparently for any and all big cats We received an excited call from a resident near Sanjay Gandhi National Park saying his neighbour had spotted a tiger and had even captured a video of the striped cat on his mobile phoneWe were sceptical because the city is not known for tiger movement but nevertheless we went over to check out the story Turns out the big cat which had been sighted and videoed was a leopard ndash not uncommon in the environs The person who had tipped us off was disappointed but explained it away saying ldquoThe man who spotted the big cat his name is Wagh tiger maybe thatrsquos why he got confusedrdquoNever say lsquobyersquo for Tatarsquos old boysOld cricketers as we know never go awayhellip they sometimes make reappearances on the pages of your favourite newspaper More often they meet on the field and off making for great reminiscences and photoop momentsOne such occasion was the felicitation by the Tata Sports Club of its current team which won the Times Shield cricket tournament recently The club invited its former players to the event and it was a rare opportunity to catch up with the old boys Hemant Kenkre who was one of the gang shared a picture of the moment capturing the camaraderie Kenkre was Sachin Tendulkarrsquos captain when the batting maestro first played for the Cricket Club of India in 1989Talking about the moneyAT A time when the state coffers are depleted and the state debt is soaring to new heights the sales tax department has to step up to the crease and do its best More so as the government is insisting on maximum income through VAT to shoulder additional financial burdens such as the cost due to the hailstorms in the statersquos interiorsMilind Gunjal Ravi Kulkarni Lalchand Rajput Kiran More Milind Rege Ranjan Baindoor Alan Sippy Hemant Kenkre Raju Kulkarni and Ajit AgarkarThe department is already under pressure to meet the annual target of Rs 72000 crore set for the current fiscal ending on March 31 With the elections looming the state branch of the Election Commission of India has sought the services of senior level officials such as assistant commissioners and officers leaving the department high and dry Do they meet the Marchend deadline or report for electionrelated workFinally the state federation of sales tax officers found its own way of lodging its protest as the departmental bosses were unwilling to intervene Officials started working for an extra two and a half hours beyond their usual time of 530 pm Also besides exemption from poll duty they also added other demands such as better working conditions computerisation and muchneeded additional space To begin with they received exemption from poll duty last week For the rest they are still workingContributed by Ravikiran Deshmukh Hemal Ashar Ranjeet Jadhav Vidya Heble