The US's Space Command and India's preparedness

Vigour, thy name is Vardhan: Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan has had a hectic week. He undertook early-morning bicycle rides to a prominent hotel in Delhi, which was hosting a World Health Organization summit of health ministers and officials from southeast Asian countries. He attended yoga and aerobics sessions with the delegates, and even led the visiting ministers on a morning walk across Lodhi Gardens. Harsh Vardhan, who has been on a fitness regime of late, had also rode a bicycle to office on first day as health minister | Illustrations by Jairaj T.G.

Feuds and fantasies: BJP leaders in Madhya Pradesh have high hopes about the internal feuds in the ruling Congress. Gopal Bhargava, the leader of the opposition in the assembly, recently commented on Bahujan Samaj Party and independent MLAs expressing displeasure about the feuds in the Congress. He said if the legislators were so disappointed, they could stop supporting the government and meet the state and central BJP leadership. Bhargava had made similar statements in the past. This time, too, he quickly backtracked as he had done earlier, apparently after being told to do so by the party. He said the BJP was not making any move to come to power in the state.

Men of faith: P.S. Sreedharan Pillai, president of the BJP’s Kerala unit, seems to have figured out why his party is yet to make a big impact in the state. According to him, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala are true believers in each other. Vijayan keeps a picture of Chennithala in his puja room, says Pillai, and Chennithala keeps one of Vijayan in his room. Why? Because they need each other to escape the CBI cases against them, according to Pillai. “We all know that the opposition Congress and the ruling CPI(M) scratch each other’s back in Kerala,” he says.

Into the wild: Alia Bhatt and Ranbir Kapoor are in Kenya, enjoying some time away from the limelight. Fortunately for their fans, they have not gone completely incommunicado. Bhatt posted a few pictures from Kenya on Instagram. Among them was one of her looking soulfully at the sky in an olive green outfit; another one showed her facing a brilliant sunrise exploding on the horizon. “Morning is here, the day is new, perhaps this is where the light breaks through,” she captioned it. Guess the jungle is bringing out her inner poet | AFP

Strike one: Tilda Swinton might think twice before sharing screen space with Dev Patel again. Patel admitted in an interview that he had accidentally elbowed Swinton in the mouth while shooting for The Personal History of David Copperfield. “There is a whole thing where he (Patel’s character) is almost about to pass out and he is trying to find a couch to land on and I was spinning around and flailing and I kind of did like a UFC elbow,” he said. “And Tilda stopped, and I thought, ‘I just broke Tilda’s teeth in the first scene.’” | AFP

Patriotism sells: After a series of flops like Tevar, Akira and Noor, Sonakshi Sinha finally seems to have got a break with Mission Mangal, which did well at the box office. “I feel great,” she said. “For me at least, it has been long overdue.” She has even nailed the formula for success. “I did expect the film to be successful because it talks about a very big achievement of our country,” she said. “I feel, if you make a film on patriotism and the subject is good, it always works.” | PTI

Chair no bar: Divya Arora is possibly India’s first wheelchair-bound theatre actor. The Mumbai-based thespian was at the India Habitat Centre in Delhi last week to play the titular role of Tara in a 1990 play written by Mahesh Dattani. The play, Tara, is about a pair of conjoined twins separated by surgery and gender discrimination. How Arora, who was diagnosed with cerebral palsy when she was two-and-a-half years old, transforms to Tara is a rare treat to watch.