Q 1. At a function to mark 50 years of his parliamentary life, Uttaranchal Chief Minister N.D. Tiwari...
a. Unveiled a statue.
b. Sang a patriotic song that he had written.
c. Spoke for three hours.

Q 2. NC President Omar Abdullah is called the Sonia Gandhi of Kashmir because...
a. His Kashmiri is as bad as her Hindi.
b. The Gandhi family is also from Kashmir.
c. His mother is foreign-born.

Q 3. While the BJP's Gaurav Yatra was being flagged off, Union Minister of State and Gujarat BJP leader Vallabhbhai Kathiria was ...
a. Holidaying in Goa.
b. Learning Urdu.
c. Donating blood.

Q&A: KARISMA KAPOOR
"It's Easy to be a Star; I Want to be an Actress"

She's not the Kapoor in the limelight. Sis Kareena is. But Karisma has not bowed out. In Boney Kapoor's Shakti, she plays a "daring and determined" mother, getting more reel-time than co-stars Shah Rukh Khan and Nana Patekar.

Q. Is it an arty, no-make-up role you have in Shakti?
A. The character I play is very complex. There was a lot of scope for performance, make-up or no make-up.

Q. So are you moving from glam to non-glam?
A. No. It's funny that people do "art movies" once in a while because it has become faddish. Not me. I have also done films like Fiza and Zubeidaa.

Q. How did Shakti change you?
A. I went through a lot of emotional and physical turmoil. I had to run across the hot desert with a child in my arms and sand in my eyes.

Q. It has been a while since you had a hit.
A. Today, what is more important for me is performance. At the risk of sounding immodest, I have done it all-61 movies over 12 years. But now I am looking for quality. It's easy to be a star. Now I want to be an actress.

Q. And marriage...
A. I want to get married. But not for another two years.

-Methil Renuka

THEATRE
Terror Act

OSAMA DRAMA: Audiences are streaming in

Our first target will be America," says Osama bin Laden to the Taliban commanders waiting for him in the cave. That's not an image from Al Jazeera television, it's the opening scene of Osama bin Laden, a play by Sankardev Theatre, an Assamese travelling theatre group.

The two-hour long play has drawn an audience of about 30,000 in rural Assam since it opened on August 22, as much because of the actors' powerful portrayal as for its anti-terrorism message. Says producer Biswa Saikia: "My idea was to condemn terrorism, and we have driven home that message." The action and props-commandos shimmying down ropes and cardboard helicopters flying around-helped.

"We had to treat this sensitive play very carefully because Assam too is wracked by insurgency," says director Sewabrata Borua. "The mood of the people is for peace and we took that into account in our treatment." Borua's global thinking and local (play)acting would certainly get a nod from us President George W. Bush.

-Wasbir Hussain

SOTTO VOICE

Determined to rid Kanpur of the pig menace, Mayor Anil Sharma heads a team of sweepers and pig catchers to various colonies each morning. Municipal officials in other cities might do worse than emulate Sharma ... Chairperson of the Anti-Terrorist Front Maninderjit Singh Bitta has demanded the expulsion of fellow Congressman Kapil Sibal for representing Davinder Pal Singh, the Punjab terrorist who set off a bomb in Delhi in 1993, killing eight people and injuring several Congress workers, including Bitta ... Guru of Joy Sri Sri Ravi Shankar was received at the New Delhi Railway Station on September 11 by over 200 coolies who have been taking his Art of Living course for the past one year ... 36,000 women in Andhra Pradesh will knit 20 million skullcaps that Saudi Arabia will gift to Haj devotees over the next five years.