Changing colours of DNA
The Doon School, Dehra-Dun’s elite boarding school is also known as the grooming ground for politicians considering that it sent one former Prime Minister (Rajiv Gandhi), a couple of Chief Ministers (Naveen Patnaik, Amarinder Singh) and more than a handful of Union Ministers and MPs (Rahul Gandhi, Kamal Nath, Jyotiraditya Scindia, R.P.N. Singh, Jitin Prasada, Mani Shankar Aiyar and Dushyant Singh). Considering that most of these names belong to the Congress, Kamal Nath had once quipped that the “DNA of Doon is Congress”. But now it seems as if the DNA is taking a distinctly saffron hue, for at the recent Founder’s Day, one could see more BJP faces than Congress ones, as Dushyant Singh, Kiren Rijiju, Himanta Biswa Sarma and Dharmendra Pradhan came to meet their respective sons studying in the school.
From A to Y
Those travelling on the high profile Delhi-Lucknow expressway built by Akhilesh Yadav may have missed this, but a birds’ eye view of the toll plaza shows that the two toll booths are shaped as A and Y, for Akhilesh Yadav. However, as he pointed out to me in my soon to be released book on young leaders entitled, The Contenders (published by Simon & Schuster), “this now stands for Adityanath Yogi as well”. What I liked about him is that this was said in a very matter of fact manner, by someone who accepts the toll of politics as a way of life.