Slum bank?
Election time is when anything goes — including hit songs rewritten to suit leaders, with promises and punchlines galore. But sometimes the music is not enough to attract followers to the Pied Piper of the day. During MP Sanjay Nirupam’s visit to the Ganpat Patil slum pocket in Borivali yesterday, though the loudspeakers were doing their best to entice people with catchy numbers, Nirupam’s supporters had to still call through the gullies, “Baahar niklo, Sanjay ji aaye hain (Come out, Sanjay ji has arrived)!” Nirupam arrived an hour later than scheduled but did his best to win hearts and votes as he walked around the area. He claimed that he has visited the shanty area some 50 times in the last five years — so we can’t help wondering why the place is full of muddy paths, stony ground and filthy puddles. He gamely walked through it all, however; so at least for one evening, he was on the same page as his constituents.

Defending Yuvraj
Needless to say, Yuvraj Singh has been the butt of ridicule after Sri Lanka beat India in the World T20 cricket final on Sunday night. Jokes apart, some people on social media have been downright vicious in their attacks on Singh, apparently forgetting his stellar track record in the past. Brings to mind Singh’s TV commercial some years ago, wherein he says — in effect — that things go okay so long as the bat does well. The same ad was called to mind when Singh was diagnosed with cancer, and the nation cheered when he returned to the pitch. Now, that fervour has turned against him.