CITY BA N G A L O R E M I R R O R | W E D N E S DAY, S E P T E M B E R 3 0 , 2 0 0 9 6

SA M E E R RA N JA N BA K S H I

Don’t be surprised if you seecaricatures of Tamil super-star Rajinikanth, former USPresident George W Bush,

legendary pop singer Michael Jacksonand others on Facebook. What is evenmore of a surprise is that these carica-tures have been uploaded by studentsof the Indian Institute of Manage-ment-Bangalore (IIM-B)! Infact, this isa new strategy which has been adopt-ed by students of the top B-school topromote their cultural fest Unmaadwhich kicks off on Oct 2.

Instead of promoting the fest by wayof posters and boards, the students atIIMB for the first time decided to havea mascot. The mascot called Globe-trotter represents the freedom to trav-el, to explore and discover new expe-riences. Globu, as he is affectionate-ly called, is the face of Unmaad 2009and will be seen on campus during thethree-day fest. “The theme of the festis ‘the world is Bangalore’ and the factthat the mascot will be seen on cam-

pus during the fest underlies the factthat Bangalore symbolises globalisa-tion and it is in fact a global city,” saidVernon Fernandez, a student of IIMB.The mascot was designed by the pub-licity team headed by MainakChakraborty, a second year student.Mainak, who heads the publicity teamof the students’ cell said, “Cartoons arebeing posted on social networking sitesto attract publicity. Last year, we or-ganised the fest like any other college.But this time, we wanted to organise itin a different way by bringing in an el-ement of humour.”

Unmaad was traditionally held inFebruary every year with the last edi-tion being Unmaad February 2009.

This year, the stu-dents and

faculty

members decided to swap the timingsof the cultural and business fests. Thebusiness fest is usually held in themonth of October. The decision wasarrived at in order to give the ex-change students on campus a chanceto enjoy themselves by participating

in the cultural activities on a muchlarger scale. Another reason for decid-ing to hold the festival in October wasto avoid a clash with the cultural festsof other colleges. The future editionsof Unmaad will be held in the monthof October as well.

TOON RAJINIKANTH, COURTESY IIM-BFacebook and other social networking sites are sporting caricatures of the bold and the famous. All this thanks to IIM-B students who are gung-ho about celebrating their cultural fest Unmaad which kicks off on Oct 2

BA N G A L O R E MI R R O R BU R E AU

A12-year-old’s Navaratricelebration ended tragi-cally when he was

knocked down by a bike onTuesday. Naveen Kumar (12), asixth standard student of NewClarence Public School, hadgone to his grandmother’splace in Yelahanka to celebratethe festival and was returningwith his mother Rathnamma,an employee in a private firm,to their residence in Banasawa-di. He was walking on the foot-path at around 7:30 am whena biker, Pavan Kumar, swervedto avoid colliding with a bikecoming from the opposite di-rection and hit the boy.Naveen sustained severe headinjuries and died while beingtaken to a hospital, while Pa-van is under treatment.

The other biker, who wasidentified by the police as B TDasar, took the duo to the hos-pital but fled the scene, leavingbehind his bike, when he learntthat Naveen had succumbed tohis injuries. “The accident wasDasar’s fault and he will benabbed soon,” said Banasawadipolice inspector Guru Swamy.

Naveen’s mother Rathnam-ma, a widow, was in a state ofshock after losing her only child.

PRIEST KILLEDIn another accident on the Bana-sawadi main road, a priest, Ra-mananda Swamiji (44), was on hisway home at around 8 pm onMonday after finishing a pooja atthe Siddhi Vinayaka temple whenhe was knocked down fatally by amoped. The biker, NarasimhaMurthy, is absconding.

BIKERS MEET WITH FATAL ACCIDENTThe misadventure of a car driveron Hosur Road near JhonsonMarket opposite Elgin apart-ments killed two bike riders onthe spot on Tuesday evening.One of the deceased has beenidentified as Sher Singh (28), anelectrician residing in Yelahanka.The identity of the other personis not known as yet. The acci-dent caused a huge pile up onHosur Road for about 2 hours.

According to the police, Sub-hahin Das, the car driver wastrying to cross the road by rid-ing on the centre road median.The newly introduced BMTC‘Big 10’ bus coming fromAudugodi, in trying to avoidcolliding with the car, swervedto the right. The bike riderswho were right behind the bustried to overtake it and endedup being caught between thebus and the car. After the acci-dent, the BMTC bus driver es-caped while the car driver hasbeen admitted to a hospitalwith severe injuries.

Tragic adieu to NavaratriA young lad was runover by a bike whilereturning home after celebrating thefest at his grandmother’s place

Honest ManjaAs we had not known his name,

we could not recognise him. But,Manjunatha introduced himselfstating that he had dropped usfrom K R Puram to Shivajinagarand wanted to return the laptops.He asked us to be at the placewhere we got down from the auto.Though, we could not believe thisinitially, the prompt auto driverlanded at the place at 3 pm,”Naveesh said. The trio said theywere really grateful to the autodriver as he had brought back thelaptops which had so much valu-able information in them, and thattoo without expecting any returns.

I DID MY DUTYOn the other hand, 30-year-old

Manjunatha, the auto driver, whosaved the day for the techies said hedid not do anything great excepthis duty. “Last Wednesday, afterdropping three techies, I ferried twowomen from Infantry Road toMysore Road. That’s when I saw thelaptop bag. I asked the womenwhether it was theirs. But, whenthey said no, I checked the bag andfound visiting cards and then Icalled the techies,” he said.

NOT THE FIRST INSTANCEManjunatha, who has been driv-

ing an auto for the past three-and-a-half years, said he was suitably re-

C OV E R S TO RY

warded. “When I gave them their laptops, they gave me Rs 1,000. That was very nice,” he said. But didn’t hefeel, at least for a moment, like sellingthe laptops and pocketing the cash.Manjunatha shot back: “This is not myproperty. Moreover, I was sure the lap-tops contained important documentsand gave it back.”

This is not the first time Manjunathahas displayed such honesty. “Couple ofmonths ago, one lady had left her mo-bile phone behind in my auto. I remem-bered her place and returned it,” he re-vealed matter-of-factly. Time, we beganto see auto drivers in a new light.Manjunatha with his auto

WHEN I GAVE THEM THEIR

LAPTOPS,THEY GAVE ME

RS 1,000.THAT WAS VERY NICE

— Manjunatha