Salman Khan on a wall clock!

Moved by his idol, Salman Khan, Kirori Mal got Salman moving on the wall. That’s the ingenuity of a barber in a dusty village in Madhya Pradesh.

DHARDA GANESH is a village in the Shivpuri district of the state of Madhya Pradesh. It is more than an hour’s drive from main district headquarter or Shivpuri urban and one has to navigate many bumpy roads and stretches which hardly have roads. The village looks like a typical village in the state of Madhya Pradesh with a cluster of mud huts, roofed with thatch or earthen tiles, narrow paths full of mud and water (if it rains) which leads to the outside world. Probably time had a little effect on these villages.

I happened to visit this village on some work. But it was interesting visit for me as I had an opportunity to visit the shop of Kirori Mal. Kirori Mal is a barber. His shop is just at the entrance of the village, outside the Panchayat Bhawan. It was a makeshift shop, a few inches above the ground. One had to climb to enter it.

Probably he seems to be a huge fan of Bollywood. The walls of his shop were lacquered with the photographs of all the well-known actresses. May be it was an added attraction to his shop for the clients who came for a haircut or for shave and sometimes had to wait for their turn. He was a self-confessed fan of Salman Khan. But I was bit puzzled as I could not see Salman Khan on the walls so got bit inquisitive. I dared ask him where is Salman Khan? He looked into my eyes and then pointed his finger towards his wall clock, which was hanging on the wall of his shop.

There was the Khan, captured in the wall clock! Actually he had a cut out of Salman Khan and had replaced it with second’s needle in the clock. Instead of ‘seconds’ needle, it was Salman’s photograph cut in shape of it. It was quite an interesting way to use a photograph of his idol.

So it was Salman Khan on the move that too every second! Not only Bollywood actress but also moving Salman attracted the young clients of the village to visit his shop every now and then.

By Anil Gulati
Source - www.merinews.com

Biko-magic spreading its wings in Bhopal

Biking has become a passion among the youth across the nation, and Bhopal is no different. Young guys flock the roads of Bhopal on weekends, riding their bikes at high speeds.

BIKING IS BECOMING popular in Bhopal these days, especially with young ones. Branded jackets, shoes, mobiles, and smart bikes are fast becoming an integral part of their way of life. Bhopal has many youngsters who perform heroic acts on bikes and get the due media attention. Bhopal has many, who do all kinds of stuff on these bikes, be it standing on the bike, zipping around, driving on front or back wheels, and all those things, which the bike inventors must have not even thought about. They probably made this vehicle to transport people!

Thanks to the available roads in Bhopal, and media attention, this keeps them going. They are like local heroes, motivating many other young ones to take risk to compete with them. Nobody stresses upon helmets and precautions, for that matter helmets are only compulsory in the rulebooks, not on the roads.

They have more incentives now. In August, Bhopal had Moto Soccer, a football match between two teams, namely Indian bikers and Biker boys, in which these men played soccer with bikes. Indian Bikers team defeated Bikers Boys to win the Mayor Trophy Moto Soccer event. The winner of the match was decided by penalty shoot out. Thankfully, the match was played with drivers wearing helmets.

Occasionally, one can notice a cavalcade of bikers on roads of Bhopal. Tens of bikes are often seen zipping around the roads of Bhopal on weekend evenings, replicating Pune bikers’ Sunday shows. All this sounds good, but catch is that one needs to undertake the ‘so-called’ heroic acts with due precaution and care with minimum risk, which is not there as of now. And finally, the petroleum conservation guys should also reach out to these young ones and tell them about the value of non-renewable resources.

Contributed by Anil Gulati