Real-time thrills

Harpreet Singh

There comes a time in your life as a couch potato when you come across a channel called Reality TV. And then, you move on, simply because you can’t identify with whatever “real” stunts they’re churning out on screen. Not anymore. Reality TV is going Indian with a vengeance this month, and has introduced a few indigenous believe-it-or-not fillers to set the ball rolling. There’s an enthusiastic man, Harpreet Singh, who drove 16,000 miles in reverse gear from Pakistan to India, simply to send the message that the two neighbours should revert to peaceful ties. And then there’s the quadridextrous writer, a haircutter who burns hair with candles instead of cutting it (we’ll pass, thanks) and more. Tune in to get kicked.

Faster, higher, stronger — and bolder. That’s Amy Acuff for you. This high jumper from the US is the cover girl for the September issue of Playboy. Along with eight other athletes, Amy features in a stunning 12-page feast.

Abstinence is in

It doesn’t happen just in India. Sex education is a problematic issue even in the US. New textbooks for high school students make it very clear that the best form of safe sex is no sex. Among the books under scrutiny, the majority don’t even address matters such as contraception. The debate is likely to snowball into a serious crisis in the coming weeks since Texas is the second-largest market for textbooks in the US. Liberals have opposed them on the grounds that the books will teach precious little about sexually transmitted diseases and teenage pregnancies. But, till now, the proponents of abstinence seem to have the upper hand. And you always thought that teaching the facts of life were taboo only here.

Hold your fire

If you can bring down foes on the monitor, you don’t have to worry about those across the enemy lines. At least not in Finland. More and more Finnish youngsters are being allowed to dodge military service because they are so addicted to Internet games that they feel lonely without their computers. There’s a compulsory six-month training, but doctors are often sending home those with Internet addiction.

Angelina Jolie

Jolie good

Angelina Jolie has taken up playing the queen bee within and outside the sets. Our leading lady went flying some time back. But things got really hot in the cockpit. The flight instructor was so struck by her that he could hardly give her proper instructions. Jolie simply asked for the instructor to be relieved of his duties. Imperious, you’d call her, but it’s an attitude that’ll help her when she starts donning the paint for her role as Catherine the Great in a film adaptation of Randall Wallace’s Love and Honour. No more raiding tombs now!

AWARD OF THE WEEK

Goes to Children’s Valley School in New Delhi. They commemorated Rajiv Gandhi’s 60th birth anniversary by planting 60 saplings around the city.