Great loss to Bollywood
The deaths of Irrfan Khan, Rishi Kapoor, Sushant Singh Rajput and now Saroj Khan are a great loss to the Hindi film industry. These stars have left behind several memorable films that will be remembered for years to come.
Saroj Khan was a great choreographer and made dance look easy almost like anybody can dance. She was a three-time National Award winner and had choreographed some of the most memorable songs in Hindi cinema. In a career spanning of over four decades, Saroj is credited with choreographing more than 2,000 songs, including ‘Dola Re Dola’ from Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s ‘Devdas’, ‘Ek Do Teen’ from Madhuri Dixit-starrer ‘Tezaab’ and ‘Ye Ishq Haaye’ from ‘Jab We Met’.
Most of the songs choreographed by her had big names as lead actors. She had also trained a slew of choreographers who went on to make a big name for themselves in the ’90s, including Farah Khan. She was also known for blending Indian classical dance with modern beats.
Jubel D’Cruz, Mumbai
PM’s strong message to China
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s sudden visit to Leh is not only a surprise for us, but also to the counterpart on the other side of the border. By his visit to Nimu to review and interact with Army, ITBP and Air Force Personnel amid stand-off, powerful imagery and a strong & important message is sent to China which has shown unrelenting aggression at the border with incursions spotted in satellite images.
Leadership is always termed as “Leading from front”. PM’s visit would raise hope, energy and confidence in our jawans facing the enemy and the rough and tough terrain in Leh. His presence at LAC along with troops is a huge strategic message which is undoubtedly one of the most important gestures when it comes to stand-offs between nations. This reminds, him visiting Kargil in 1999.
Imposing ‘Digital Strike’ at first, strengthening soldiers with more powerful weapons and arms in the second place and now PM himself going into the battlefield altogether holds a powerful signal. We should applaud his courageous action beyond one’s political beliefs.
Ravi Teja Kathuripalli, Hyderabad
Goa bearing the brunt
While India is swiftly inching to surpass Russia to be in third place having the world’s most confirmed cases of COVID-19, the scene in the nation’s smallest state Goa is alarming and a matter of great concern.
From being in the Green Zone just a few days back, we today are in the precarious Zone having now already having over 1000 cases, and quickly spreading across the State. The virus has struck across the length and breadth of Goa. Our fears stand allayed that the government was causal while not taking the correct and timely steps. The series of flip flops and U-turns has only made things worse. The ground reality is that we are today in a very dicey situation on account of the politicians in power being focused on wrong priorities while the virus has merrily sneaked in much to everyone’s peril.
A confused and oscillating Chief Minister is not in the State’s best interest. Mixed messages and wrong actions are a recipe for the disaster unfolding before our eyes in Goa. When the pandemic set in, it would have been prudent for the politicians to have stepped aside, and allowed a team of experts to guide, monitor and deal with the situation with their expertise. This destructive pandemic not seen in over a hundred years requires politicians to follow the science, and specialised branches of medicine like virology and epidemiology not just ayurvedic medicine. A little knowledge can be dangerous as the current infection rate in Goa shows. But as we know politicians cannot do without having their hand and say in every pie. Power corrupts and absolute Power corrupts absolutely. Goa is now bearing the brunt. There has been a complete and total lack of leadership and a failure to act in the best interests of the people.
In the current very gloomy scenario, imposing President’s rule and having Governor Satya Pal Malik in command to steer the State through this current calamity may be a step in the right direction. Only God can Save our Goa from this looming catastrophe!
Aires Rodrigues, Ribandar
Heading in the wrong direction?
Thank God, thank heavens, at long last we have admitted the fact that the catastrophic spread of of the Covid-19 virus in Goa is indeed community transmission. How much longer could we continue to try and fool ourselves that it is not? It is an admission that has, perhaps come weeks too late. Perhaps, had we admitted up to this reality early on, perhaps Goa would not have moved from a Green zone with no transmissions to a zone with rampant transmissions, and more than 1200 positive cases spread in nooks and corner of our state, and a record 99 cases in a day! That’s a record we could do without.
It is an acknowledge scientific fact that anyone who gets the infection from a person who has come from abroad is a non-community transmission and all other transmissions are community transmission. Had we accepted this fact some weeks ago and sealed the borders of our state to all except the essential commodity trucks and traffic coming into the state, perhaps we would not have been facing this frightening situation of today. Further it is claimed that all SOP procedures are followed for all traffic entering the state by road rail, air or water ways.
However it is alleged that trucks are crossing the border without adequate testing, and there are documented case of individuals by evading and passing the testing at the border.
The virus, having now spread tentacles to many corners of the state, we may now have to live with this stark reality for the next many months or more. To drive the last nail in the coffin, hotels have be permitted to open and welcome tourists from infected areas of the nation.
A lockdown may not help, but perhaps there is still time to flatten the curve by sealing the borders to all non essential movement of traffic, combined with more aggressive drive to identify, test, track and quarantine infected individuals.
Rosario Menezes, Vasco
