Nagpur.
Fable of Christ birth has it that when baby Jesus was born in a manger, the angels spread the message that son of God was born and wise men from far and wide came to bless him.
Today is Christmas – the season to count our blessings – and we cannot but help feel grateful for the wise women and men of Nagpur; and some from Mumbai too, who came to bless us when our new venture “Central Today” was launched on 21st December.
The ‘manger’ for this birth was the elegantly decorated banquet hall of hotel Tuli Imperial. The colors were the royal colors of deep crimson and dark blue.
The first to arrive on the scene were plenty of police men and women with sniffer dog ‘Sheru’ re assuring us that CM Devendra Fadnavis , at whose hands Central Today was to be launched, was definitely coming! Among the political VVIPs, the first to arrive on the scene was Banwarilalji Purohit, the dapper and dashing Ashish Deshmukh, recently elected BJP, MLA from Katol. Ex Guardian Minister of Nagpur, Nitin Raut, smartly turned out as always, followed soon.
A lot of the press fraternity ‘wise men’ were there to be with us on this momentous occasion. From Delhi arrived Rahul Dev, our special invitee. A surprise guest was Rohan Jagdale, CEO of Jia news.
Among Nagpurians who obliged us by their presence was a lady Banker whose co operative bank is making news by going multi state; Directors of elite educational institutes of the area; legal luminaries like retired Judges of the Bombay High Court and practicing advocates, barons of the Nagpur auto and other industries, the Divisional Commisioner himself and a host of other bureaucrats of the Government of Maharashtra ; friends of other fraternities.
Last but not the least, Royalty of Nagpur represented by Shrimant Raje Mudhoji Bhonsle himself.
‘Central Today’ is the all new Vidarbha’s Weekly Hindi newspaper, the circulation of the copies of which would be across Nagpur and Vidarbha. Now we have taken a step forward towards widening our reach, and hence intend to make Central Today the most popular weekly edition of entire Central India soon.
Going back to the fable, the wise men had followed a star to reach Bethlehem and find the stable where
they found Mary, Joseph and the baby, in the stable. They offered gifts of of gold, incense, and myrrh.(a gum). We were offered precious gifts of blessings, support and a exhortations of being true to our hard profession of being purveyors of truth – tirelessly and fearlessly.
Hey! But no one says one cannot party and celebrate the moment too when we pause and get respite from the above. That’s what the young and raring to go executives and associates of Central Today and Nagpur Today did with all the invited elite to who loved to mingle with us on this enchanted Sunday. Tuli Imperial laid out a grand buffet of high tea for the occasion and the ‘spirits’ ( tea, coffee and lemonade) flowed freely!
PICS BY : Vinay Thorat and Amol Gajbhiye