Ignored Sensations

The News that Deserved to be front-paged.

- Dharam Paul Sabharwal

It is a saturday and doctor lotay Tshering has just completed a urinary bladder repair surgery on a patient at the National Referral Hospital in Bhutan. No one at the hospital bats an eyelid as Tshering, wearing a faded lab coat and crocs, walks through the busy corridors after the surgery. Nurses and hospital attendants continue with their jobs as normal, though Tshering is no ordinary doctor. He is the prime minister of the country where Gross National Happiness is more important than Gross National Product.

This news was on page 10 of one national daily and on page 11 in another in India. By all standards it is no small news. The prime minister of a country performs national duty from Monday to Friday, performs operations and surgery on saturdays and devotes sunday to his family. But in today’s time it is no news at all, just a filler for the gaps to be filled on some page inside the 24-page newspaper. However, there are many such stories and happenings that deserve to be on the front page, if not the head news just because either they tickle a funny-bone (so rare in today’s stress ridden lives) or for the uniqueness. Savour few of such incidents.

As per a new report, a conductor with the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation was issued a memo for not issuing a ticket to a pigeon, which happened to have a tryst with a drunk passenger while perching itself on the window of the bus plying between two towns. The inspector while doing so quoted a rule as per which tickets are to be issued for animals and birds as well.