Expectant mums
The Begum of Pataudi (a small Indian princely state) is expecting a baby soon, and this news would be of no consequence but for the fact that Begum Sahiba is none other than the Bollywood star, Kareena Kapoor. Married to actor Saif Ali Khan, Nawab Pataudi after his father Tiger Pataudi’s demise last year, Kareena is far from the reed thin girl “Jeet” who stole so many hearts via the Bollywood blockbuster “Jab We Met”. Our mole saw her in London — she’s apparently bloomed into quite a copious expectant mum, and was window shopping with Saif’s teenage daughter from his first marriage to Amrita Singh.
Rumour has it that Kareena’s gone over to give birth to her child in the UK because her husband has a British passport. And according to British law, the child of a citizen does not automatically get citizenship unless born in the UK. A group of Bollywood fans, elite women from Karachi, were overheard saying, “we don’t see why Kareena wants to give her child British nationality. It’s not like India’s a chronically unstable country like Pakistan!”
Also expecting is the Duchess of Cambridge, nee Kate Middleton. We hear she’s having twin girls and with their birth Prince William and Kate’s brood with be all of four. It’s said the Duchess is keen on having a large family and wants at least five children. Good on her — she’ll spend the rest of her life raising kids and cutting ribbons.
Cribbing & complaining
Officials of some multinational telecom operators working in Pakistan are cribbing and complaining. Why? Because they say The Man of Steel’s government set up an Universal Service Fund (USF) to promote the development of telecommunication services in the underserved areas of Pakistan. And for this, telecom operators deposited 1.5% of their revenues in the USF’s account. But suddenly, Rs 50 billion of this was transferred to the Federal Consolidated Fund to meet energy payments. The Man of Steel’s plea: you’ve gotta have bijli before you have connectivity.