The Princess Royal made Daniel Craig a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George at Windsor Castle

Daniel Craig is an actor who made a name for himself by portraying the role of James Bond. He is a British spy codenamed 007 who has full authority to tackle anyone engaged in espionage activities against Britain. How he accomplishes it is his prerogative. It is a fictional character created by Ian Fleming and has been around since the 1960s. Craig has now received the same honor as his character James Bond. It was a CMG for services to film and theatre. Daniel Craig (54) starred in the last five Bond films. His first appearance as 007 was in Casino Royale in 2006 and the last one was No Time To Die in 2021. The versatile actor also appeared in Knives Out (2019) alongside Chris Evans, Ana de Armas and Jamie Lee Curtis. He will return in the film's sequel, due to premier at the end of next month. Daniel Craig receives same honour as James Bond.

Paul Greengrass, film director, producer and screenwriter also received honors. He has directed a number of Hollywood blockbusters. These included three of the Bourne franchise films and Captain Phillips (2013). Dame Emily Lawson will also receive recognition for services to the NHS. She headed the vaccine rollout scheme in the UK, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Another personality to receive recognition is street dancer and TV personality Ashley Banjo. He will receive an MBE for services to dance following his rise to fame following the win of his dance troupe Diversity's Britain's Got Talent in 2009 against Susan Boyle. Another person to win an MBE is six-time triathlon world champion Jonny Brownlee. He is the younger of the Brownlee brothers. He will receive an MBE alongside James Guy, two-time gold medal swimmer at Tokyo 2020. Yet another recipient of the MBE is tennis coach Louis Cayer. It will be for his services to sport. He is senior performance adviser for the Lawn Tennis Association. He has also worked extensively with men's doubles players including Jamie Murray, as well as Emma Raducanu.

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It is difficult to mop up black money

The source of one’s earnings are usually authentic like employment or business. One portion of these go to the government. These are the norms all over the world and followed dutifully. However, in some countries, people do not like to part with their money. They falsify documents and conceal the money in hard to locate places – they choose banks where one can park his cash safely. These are unaccounted money and is known as black money. Switzerland is famous for its watches, the Alps and banks where it is not too difficult to open an account and store money and other valuables because those will be difficult to locate. It seems it is a global phenomenon and it is customary to refer to such holdings as ‘black money.’ Black is usually associated with evil – like black magic. Witches wear black clothes, and no one likes the black sheep in a family. However, the Men in Black was an exception – it was a Hollywood movie and dealt with Extra-terrestrials ETs. There was also a Bollywood movie of 2005 titled Black where Rani Mukherjee portrayed the role of a blind girl. To her the world was black. Amitabh Bachhan was also there.

To return to the subject of black money. It is a topic that can embarrass people in high places. Those in power in the government know about the existence of such unaccounted assets but are unable to lay hands on them. It would amount to stirring up the hornets’ nest. Therefore, they follow the policy of let sleeping dogs lie. In India, there was jubilation when BJP came to power. The new Prime Minister made an announcement on the subject but there has been no visible progress on the issue. Indian kitty in Swiss banks jumped 50% to over ₹30,000 crore in 2021

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Saraswati and Lakshmi and their girlish talks (satire)

Lord Shiva and Devi Durga lived in their abode in Mount Kailash in the Himalayas with their children. They ventured out of their place very seldom. But – the world around them was changing very fast and being the world of consumerism, they were bombarded by ads on TV abut thousands of products. It was difficult to make a choice.
That is what the sisters were discussing.
‘I still think that the cream in that beautiful yellow bottle is the best,’ Sarasawti said. ‘I have seen one of the Bollywood actresses use it – she has such lovely curly hair and applies that cream.’
‘No,’ Lakshmi said. ‘Just because you are fond of yellow color does not mean that everything yellow is the best.’
‘Don’t argue,’ Saraswati glared at her sister. ‘Let me finish my music practice. I am trying to pick up that latest craze of a song from that Mastani movie.’
‘Go ahead. And – let me worry about my face cream,’ Lakshmi said. ‘But – tell me one thing. You are the goddess of learning and must know the answer.’

‘Shoot,’ Saraswati grinned. ‘If I don’t know, I can always google the answer, thanks to the internet. Google is such a help.’
‘The question my dear sis is – why do men go in for fairness creams to make their skin glow and look fair. How can they remain fair looking throughout the day when their beard keeps growing every minute?’
Saraswati stared hard at her sister.
‘Yeah, I also have wondered about it,’ she sighed. ‘It’s actually a sales gimmick. The common man loves to imitate his Bollywood heroes blindly.’
‘Not only heroes but heroines also,’ Lakshmi laughed. ‘Like you my sister. You are also star struck with the oil in the yellow bottle.’
Saraswati did not bother to reply.
She concentrated on the Mastani song. Immediately she struck the first chord, her pet swan woke up startled. It got up on its feet and moved away from her, frightened.
Saraswati looked at it and smiled.
‘Don’t be afraid dear Batakh,’ she said. ‘This is the new age music. Very loud, very peppy. You cannot help but dance to its tune.’
The swan was not amused. It waddled away towards the pond.
Meanwhile, Lakshmi had locked on to an online site that sold hair creams. She wanted to check out if the yellow brand of oil Saraswati was talking about was popular in Hollywood. If she could get some clue, she would try it out. (to be continued …)

(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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Indian smugglers are celebs, boast of official doubles (satire)

Smugglers in India enjoy a special pride of place in society ever since the times when an angry young man rose to power from being a shoe shine boy to become a dreaded smuggler who dictated terms to other more experienced ones.
Right now it is rumored that all the smugglers who have gone underground are shivering in their pants because of the emergence of a powerful man called Moody.
The lawbreakers are scared to come out of their cover because they are worried that Moody, one of the 10 most powerful men in the world right now, is gunning for them. Therefore, the meek surrender of one of their tribe came as a golden ray of sunshine for the electronic media.
It was the fabulous case of he who goes by the popular name of Chotu Ranjan - having realized that he stood no chance of escaping from the clutches of the law, he chose the easy way out. He chose to surrender. He knew that his return to India after nearly three decades would be a game changer. Hence a specialist team went to bring him back to the country to face trials for his misdeeds.

He delighted in showing the media how the handcuffs looked on his wrists.
And, in the background, film makers were trying to edge out competitors because all of them wanted to acquire exclusive rights to the story of Chotu Ranjan – it would be a future potboiler.
‘We want him to be lodged in a Mumbai jail,’ they said.
‘Yes,’ the would-be actors joined the chorus. All of them eyed the plum role they would like to portray.
But the ones in Delhi had other ideas.
‘No – he will be lodged in Delhi for safety,’ they said. At the back of their minds was to offload the asset to Hollywood – that way, the bond with the West, read America, would be stronger.
While the debate went on behind the scenes, Chotu Ranjan landed on Indian soil and was whisked away giving the media the miss – there was a double to divert attention. We have heard of doubles being used in case of celebrities but, India is probably the only country in the world where a common smuggler enjoys such privileges. (to be continued …)

(Image source wikimediacommons.org)

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