Feb 22, 1999

Yes, tell us, did you know:
that Mithun Chakraborty was once married to Sridevi
he almost married his Mrigayaa co-star Mamata Shankar
that he once bumped into Robert DeNiro in a hotel in Russia
that Bal Thackeray once saved him from getting "eliminated"?
If you didn't, read Ananyo Mithun (The Extraordinary Mithun) by journalist Suman Gupta. Says Mithunda: "It's 98 per cent reality and 2 per cent imagination." Which is which, do tell.

Sister Speed
This nun has an unusual habit. As head mistress of the St Clare Oral School for the Deaf in Kaladi, Kerala, Sister Phincitta is firmly in the driver's seat. So when the school's bus driver goes on leave, the good sister merrily takes to the wheel. Last week she drove over 150 km to take her students to a competition in Kollam. "I like driving, so I learnt it," says the 32-year-old. "I do up to 70 km an hour." There are good habits, and there are bad habits, and then there is a nun's habit...

Too Bad
After Amartya Sen's Nobel, here's more good news. Top-notch University of Chicago prof Homi K. Bhabha has placed second in an annual Bad Writing Contest sponsored by the journal Philosophy and Literature. The contest invites readers to single out "stylistically lamentable" passages from published scholarly works. "It should be taken with humour and irony. The irony is that it's a bad scholarly practice to quote out of context," muses Bhabha who won on charges of authoring this 55-word sentence in his book, The Location of Culture: "If, for a while, the ruse of desire is calculable for the uses of discipline soon the repetition of guilt, justification, pseudo-scientific theories ..." Whoops! No space for the rest.

Spot the Similarities
When Govinda and Preity Zinta were cast opposite each other in the film Tere Ishq Mein Pad Gaya Re, we hear that our hero told the producer: "You have two Govindas in your film." Does he? Let's play spot-the-similarities:
» Bubbly, effervescent ... that's how he's always been described. You'd think he's related to a bar of soap! » He's an energetic chap. Who can forget those gymnastics in the company of Karisma Kapoor? » He's a man but that smile is misleading. And going by his affinity for drag (Aunty No. 1), the other gender beckons in more ways than one.	» Bubbly, effervescent ... same frothy words for the lovely lady. She's even modelled for Liril soap, remember? » Not quite a Karisma, but the vigorous hand waving in Soldier shows she's got potential. » She's a woman, and doing a pretty good job of it. With curves like that, she gives even the tubby Govinda a run for his funny money.

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