Is there a new player in the Indian Team's WAG club? The media was hot on his trail when Suresh Raina, captain for the team headed for West Indies, went to Shirdi to seek blessings on Tuesday.
The dashing left-hander, currently the toast of the town, was accompanied by a tall and slim young thing in a canary yellow salwar kameez and oversized glasses, who kept her face covered even while in the sanctum sanctorum.
It was only when the head priest handed them the ritual tokens, did the mystery woman reveal her face it was former aviation minister Praful Patel's daughter Poorna.
The young couple refused to speak to the media and understandably so. Poorna has had her share of controversies ever since she joined the IPL in 2008.
The 25-year-old glamorous IPL Hospitality Manager was in trouble for allegedly deploying a national carrier craft to ferry the players, while her father was still the aviation minister.
Poorna's name had cropped up again during IPL's Modigate when she was accused of leaking confidential email from the league's COO's office.
While most girls would shy away from another shot at IPL after being tossed and turned in the media fire, Poorna, has soldiered on.
She has shed oodles of weight since the time she walked into limelight as a guest ramp model for a Manish Malhotra show in 2008, and has perfected the art of dealing with the press rather well throughout the Shirdi trip, she stuck by Raina resolutely and kept her mouth shut.
You can run, but cannot hide
Speaking of handling the paparazzi, perhaps some of our Bollywood younglings should pick up a thing or two from the cricketers.
While avoiding the flashbulbs by going incognito makes sense, trying to outrun the paparazzi in a crowded Bandra street, deserves a rap on the knuckles.
And to top it, if you are stopped mid stride by the locals who've mistaken you for a petty robber (what with chain snatching on the rise and all), it has to be your most embarrassing paparazzi encounter, ever.
That's exactly the unflattering moment your diarist found I Hate Luv Storys director, Punit Malhotra a couple of nights ago.
It was at a popular restaurant in the burbs that the young filmmaker was enjoying good food and even better company of his 'close friend' Sonam Kapoor, when a journalist (just a few tables away) spotted him.
Worse, a cameraman also happened to be around. Sensing that a delicious scoop was staring at them from the other table, the journalist duo swung into action, and began filming the duo discreetly.
Punit and Sonam immediately caught on to their ploy, and while the Kapoor lass took charge of telling the reporter off, Punit tried to sneak out of the restaurant.
With the cameraman chasing him, Punit broke into a sprint and that's when the passersby mistook him for a petty thief and got him by his collars. It was thanks to the cameraman's intervention that the director managed to escape being lynched.
Now the issue that deserves a debate should Punit have thanked the journalist who was chasing him?
Custom-made controversy
He's been posted at the Mumbai International airport for less than a year, but in this short span Assistant Commissioner Sameer Wankhede has quickly earned the reputation for being possibly the most feared Customs official to walk the baggage department.
But now, the young man's enthusiasm has apparently earned him a reprimand from his seniors and forced shopaholic celebs into changing their flight plans at the last moment.
Wankhede, it is said, has been behind some of the biggest celebrity-customs encounters of recent times Sangita Jindal, Minissha Lamba and Bipasha Basu being some of them.
Said to be a stickler for the rule book, Wankhede has reportedly put his seniors in a spot over the way he handled Bipasha's case.
According to sources in the Customs department, Wankhede was told that while it was "good" that he was "doing his job", there no need to get "over excited" about it.
Speaking to your diarist, Mahendra Pal, Additional Commissioner, Air Intelligence Unit, said greenhorns do get carried away by their enthusiasm.
"We tell all our new officers, including Wankhede, josh-josh mein aisa koi kam nahi hona chahiye jis se department ko neecha dekhna pade."
That is a little odd, considering in every high profile case that Wankhede has handled, something or the other has been amiss. Some months ago, he grilled actor Imran Khan for hours over a toy helicopter, as the rule book does not allow such devices being brought in.
Since then, Wankhede says he has "confiscated 700 helicopters." He shrugs off the controversy, saying, "I strictly follow the rules."
Tailpiece
Shah Rukh Khan's magnum opus, Ra.One was in the news all day yesterday, as the star revealed the first official trailer of his film at a multiplex, while the much-hyped song by Akon, Chammak Challo, 'leaked' strategically on the internet simultaneously.
While more people were interested in quizzing SRK on his pal Karim Morani, was has been sent to jail in the 2G scam, the song met with a mixed response on the web.
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