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AP 2003: Highs and sighs

AP 2003: Highs and sighs

Highs
* Shantha Sinha gets Magsaysay award.
* Sania Mirza won the girls’ doubles trophy on the hallowed turf of Wimbledon.
* V V S Laxman’s love affair with the Australians continues.
* Child bride Ameena of a decade ago is now married.
* Baby Haseena finally found a home for the first time in the four-and-a-half years of her life.

Sighs
* Mahmooda Begum from the city walked away with the days-old son of Latha Reddy of Mahbubnagar district
* IAS official C Arjun Rao started off an ugly badmouthing Chief Minister’s Office biggie Satish Chandra.
* A new scam hits Hyderabad cricketer Vanka Pratap said Noel David paid selectors for a place in the Indian team.
* A variety of swamis and sadhus still rule the dark corridors of the mind.
* F-1 and Volkswagen are only one part of the story.
* Science capital, IT capital. And now crime capital.
* The racket in sale of organs is thriving.

Lows
* The rape of an 11-year-old girl who became pregnant after she was raped by neighbour in Warangal town.
* Pavan Kalyan beats up journalists who go to cover the betrothal of brother Chiranjeevi’s daughter.
* Bread Kumar took the jam, the cake and oodles of moolah brokering loans from Prudential Bank.
* Mohan Babu smacks newcomer Shilpa Shivanand for not smooching son Vishnu for his debut film Vishnu.
* Krishna Yadav stamped his name in infamy by demanding Rs 2 crore from fake-paper tiger Abdul Karim Telgi.

The Little People
* A 22-year-old man Dasari Suresh of Kavali in Nellore district took an entrance test for his 12-year-old sister Revathi.
* Taxi driver S Mallesh of Warangal gets PhD in Public Administration from Kakatiya University.
* 20-year-old N Rajendra Prasad commits suicide. He tells parents to sell eyes and kidneys for family marriages.
* Child labour continued to thrive, and the children were oftentimes cruelly treated.

Tailpiece:
Robert Blackwill, Bush’s man in India, compliments AP for its Pepperhilli: “Make no mistake, it’s a real weapon of mass destruction”