loo's talk: m s gill, whose smile does kill

MS Gill is India's sports minister, I said so if you don’t know.

Gill sahib has a big face, always smily so that a lurking photographer should not click him frowning. It is learnt that last week, after shooing away Sushil Kumar [the gold medallist wrestler]’s wrestling guru, Satpal, he didn’t take even ten seconds to wear a broad smile good enough for his photo with the wrestler.

What a big deal, you might say. Or you might whine that Satpal himself is as publicity hungry. Or you might suggest that with a wrestler and a well-built minister, a postcard size photo has no place for one more person. I will respect your feelings if you say one of these things. But allow me to tingle Gill sahib a bit more. In return I will not dare ask for a photo with him, not because I am not a wrestler but because he is Gill.

Just a month back, Gill was laughing at the habitually cribbing opposition in parliament. No siphoning of money had taken place, he told them. It was later learnt that he was so sure because siphons to remove water from rain soaked stadiums could not be purchased in time. When he came out, he told TV people that he had left everything to the God - because of untimely rain, his heart’s pain and choking of Delhi’s each drain. Now, if you think God will siphon money, are you sane?

The other day, he told us that because he was married in November, he would have advised that the games were held a month later. He smiled and then laughed when he realised that it had been taken as a joke. The smile was so romantic! Now, who could be a more optimistic and cheerful sports minister when Hooper, British Queen, Aussies and others are frowning upon Indians for the mess called CWG?

I am not reminding you of the incidents when he had insulted other sportsmen. But this one is worth emulating: he is reported to have advised a young mountaineer sometime not to take the risk such sport involved and said, such bravery is befitting to the Englishmen, not Indians.
I am told, he kept smiling after saying so, till the last press photographer had clicked him. If I were a sports minister, I would like to give similar advice to budding sportspersons who called on me, but my tongue would slip into saying something else, I suppose. Thank God, you didn't make me MS Gill.

Photo taken from Indian Express.