Kindle Magazine March '10

Kindle Critical Reflective Journalism

Editor in Chief: Pritha Kejriwal Managing Editor: Maitreyi Kandoi Senior Editors: Sayantan Neogi, Chiradeep Basu Mallick Feature Writers: Saswat Pattanayak, Swayam Ganguly, Abhishek Chatterjee, Sayan Bhattacharya Columnists: Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, Parnab Mukherjee, Rajeev Masand, Santosh Desai, Gautam Bhimani, Rohit Roy, Pratik Udeshi Coordinator: Varsha Daga Marketing Manager: Priyanka Khandelia Finance: Binoy Kr. Jana Circulation: Arindam Sarkar Cover: Artist’s interpretation of the classic “Rosie the Riveter” war poster from the 40’s. By Sagnik Gangopadhyay Art & Printing: Anderson Printing House EN-11, Sector-V, Saltlake, Kolkata - 700091 Distribution: Kolkata: Vishal Book Centre Jamshedpur: Prasad Magazine Centre Pune, Bangalore, Ahmdebad, Mumbai, Delhi, Jaipur, Chennai, Lucknow, Vadodara, Hyderabad: Outlook Publishing Pvt. Ltd Vol 2 Issue 8: March’10 For subscription queries: SMS kindle (space) sub to 575756 or visit www.kindlemag.in or write to info@kindlemag.in For advertising write to us at: advertising@kindlemag.in For marketing alliances write to us at: alliances@kindlemag.in Ink Publications Pvt. Ltd. is not responsible for the statements and opinions expressed by authors in their articles/writeups published in ‘Kindle’.

'Kindle' does not take any responsibility for returning unsolicited publishing material.

All pictures, if not mentioned otherwise are from Reuters

Editor’s note t so happened in the recent past, that while watching an advertisement, I almost fell off the couch. The commercial, which had caused the off-guard reaction, started off as a classy, model-infused ad with an opera like background score. Women wearing all colours were shown swimming/dancing fully dressed in an ocean- like- pool in perfect synchronization to the music. I was humming along with the tune, in appreciation, thinking it to be an expensive water-proof watch advertisement or maybe the women would find some jewellery at the bottom of the ocean- like- pool and it would be a D-DMAS ad or something .To my utter consternation, somewhere out of the opera music came the lyrics - WASHING POWDER NIRMA. As if to reaffirm what I could not believe I was hearing, they repeated – WASHING POWDER NIRMA. To top it all - at the end of it, round and round came the little girl in the frock. This is where I had to switch off the television and start thinking.

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The question: How does a brand which makes low priced detergents and sells in a market that is essentially SEC (Social Economic Class) B Or C expect to connect with its target audience by portraying extremely aspirational values to them?

Flashback to the previous Nirma ads, which featured the four sari-clad women who washed their clothes together and then,

climbed into autos to pick up their children or buy the groceries. In my understanding the ad connected well with the buyers of the detergent, through the roles of the women as ‘homemakers’ and caretakers of the children.

I do believe advertisements reflect the growing change in social – cultural trends. Without questioning the positioning of the Ad, I would rather question myself. Who is to say that the woman who buys a Nirma for her house is not one who does not enjoy opera music or ballet performances or who wears a dress instead of a stark white sari? I do admit of being guilty of the phenomenon called stereotyping and I have been duly punished with an injured toe (as a result of falling from the couch).

I recently learned that a lady named Jagari Baske - a Maoist leader, masterminded the Shilda attacks in which a number of policemen were killed in West Bengal. That too taught me a lesson or two about stereotyping.

Mindset Women – Women who have defied the hitherto defined roles. The list is not exhaustive as no good list on women can ever be. The women we have chosen are synonymous with people who represent excellence in whatever they do. Read and be inspired.

Maitreyi Kandoi

URL: www.kindlemag.in

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Vol 2 Issue 8 March’10

CONTENTS

CHANDRA MUZAFFAR

Speaks to Kindle on the ‘Allah’ Controversy in Malaysia P05

05 Times they are a changin’

News stories from around the world 08 THE TAKE

Phir Mile Sur reviewed

By Sayan Bhattacharya

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COVER ESSAY

By Pritha Kejriwal MEDHA PATKAR

Tells us about Narmada Bachao

10 IPL HYSTERIA

By Gautam Bhimani

Andolan & more P20

14 GROWING PAINS

Discussion on soaring food prices

By Paranjoy Guha Thakurta

22 THE K - FILES Stoneman murders

By Swayam Ganguly

KINDLE SPECIAL COLLECTOR’S EDITION

LILLETE DUBEY

Signs off for Kindle this month P40

27 KINDLE ARTS & CULTURE Book Recommendation CHOMSKY for beginners and DORK by Sidin Vadakut The best in Music - this month’s selections, album Reviews & lots more My name is Khan reviewed and 50 Directors - Adoor Gopalakrishnan

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Also thoughts that Kindle me with

Anaita Shroff Adajania

Letters to the Editor Write to us at: Kindle, Ink Publications, DN 37, Sector V, Salt Lake City, Kolkata - 700 091 or e-mail your response to us at feedback@kindlemag.in

Dear Editor, At a time when love has become completely commodified, your February cover story ‘Love in the time of technology’ was well timed. However Parnab Mukherjee’s cover essay was more of a theoretical discourse on love than a comment on the various aspects of love in the digital age. I wish there were some interesting anecdotes on love in the virtual platform to complement the graphic illustrations.

Regards, Ritesh Agarwal Bengaluru, via mail.

February 2010

To the Editor, Over the last few months, I’ve been reading Kindle regularly - while the articles are quite well-written, I still feel you could try and add more content.

Also the Kindle Arts section, should try and include some Indian music and films - a constant push of Western titles is good but should be balanced with other fare as well.

Thanks, Sameer Qureshi Pune.

To the Editor,

January 2010

As a sports buff it is my request that please incorporate interviews of sports personalities (however not just cricket players) in your magazine. It was sad that there was not a single sports piece in your February issue. The hockey players, shooters, boxers do not get the kind of media coverage they deserve. Hope that KINDLE can be different here.

Thanks, Payal Ghosh Kolkata.

Dear Kindle, Your interview with Shankar Mahadevan was an interesting read. However I expected a question on the glut of music reality shows (some of which sees him as a judge) and the ultimate fate of these reality show aspirants. Also Lou Majaw’s interview was very refreshing. Keep up the good work.

December 2009

Thanks and regards, Mayank Shah Pune,via mail.

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CURRENT AFFAIRS

Times they are a changin’

A Malayasian Muslim recites a prayer next to an Islamic calligraphy saying “Allah” at a mosque in Kota Bharu, North-East of Kuala Lampur.

Chandra Muzaffar On ‘Allah’ Controversy In Malaysia

By Yoginder Sikand 22 February, 2010 Countercurrents.org

Chandra Muzaffar is Malaysia’s bestknown public intellectual. In this interview with Yoginder Sikand, he talks about the

ongoing controversy in Malaysia in the wake of a recent court ruling permitting the country’s Christians (and other nonMuslims) to use the term ‘Allah’, which many Malaysian Muslims

fiercely oppose.

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CURRENT AFFAIRS

Q: Why do you think many Malaysian Muslims are so opposed to the use of the term ‘Allah’ by Christians?

word ‘Allah’ to refer to the Divine—taking a position against the Muslims.

A: I think among many Malaysian Muslims there is a certain degree of apprehension about Christians using the term because they feel that it is somehow exclusive to them. They also fear that some Christian groups deliberately want to use the term in order to mislead Muslims and gradually convert them to Christianity. Supporting these fears is the general Muslim mindset that sees Islam as special, as an exclusive claim to truth. Now, since Allah is the basis of Muslim doctrine, they feel that the term ‘Allah’ must be a Muslim monopoly.

Q: What do you think of the way the Malaysian Government has handled the controversy?

Personally, I do not agree with this thinking, but you have to understand the general Malaysian Muslim response in the wider political context, in the context of how the Malays, who form the vast majority of Malaysia’s Muslims, feel about their position in Malaysia. Islam is one of the major pillars of Malay identity, the other two being the Malay language and the Malay Sultans. Islam can be said to be an even more powerful pillar of Malay identity than the other two, the essence of which is the concept of Allah.

Q: But non-Arab Christians generally do not use the word ‘Allah’, so why are some Christians in Malaysia making such a hue and cry about the reaction of Malaysian Muslims to the court ruling?

A: It may be that some of these Christian groups are indeed missionary in orientation and that they actually want to spread Christianity among the Muslims. I think we really must ask the question as to why, if the vast majority of Christians worldwide do not use the word ‘Allah’, these groups are insisting that they must have the right to do so in Malaysia.

Frankly, as I see it, the issue is not strictly religious. In fact, the controversy has become an ethnic one, and so you have many Hindus and Buddhists—people who generally do not use the

A. The Government has taken a largely law-and-order approach to the issue. But, I do not think this law-and-order approach is enough. The government has not dealt with the theological issues involved, and, as a result, it is the Islamic muftis associated with the ruling establishment that are now setting the tone. Sadly, they have all adopted a very conservative, bigoted and exclusivist position—to the effect that the term ‘Allah’ is a Muslim monopoly. Very cleverly, they have resorted to the Sultans, who have the last say on Islamic matters, and who have largely endorsed their stance. It is a pity that the muftis are reflecting such a superficial, shallow understanding of the Quran. Their understanding of the Quran appears to be very shallow and superficial, and even worse.

There is always this great fear in Malaysia of an ‘ethnicquake’—inter-community violence—and I think ordinary Malaysians, Muslims and others, know that this is something that we just can’t afford.

Q: The way the Western media reported the controversy, it was as if Malaysia was on the verge of civil war in the wake of the violence following the court ruling. How do you see the way the Western media handled the issue?

A: I think their projection was wide off the mark. They made it out to be as if Malaysia was on the verge of destruction.

They seemed to relish the thought of that actually happening.

I think this has much to do with the way the West wants to see itself—as supposedly ‘civilized’, compared to the nonWestern world, particularly Muslims, who are depicted as the mirror opposite, as intolerant, violent, barbaric, primitive, fanatic and so on. I think, therefore, that the Western media’s reporting was really most unfortunate, although not entirely unexpected.

The Buzz he competition gets hotter in the social networking and micro blogging zone with the launch of Google Buzz. Google Inc is tapping its huge network of Gmail users (around 150 million users now) and Web surfers to create a Buzz that it hopes will catch up with online social networking leaders Facebook and Twitter. The Google Buzz will allow users to share messages, videos, web links and photos with friends and colleagues directly from Gmail along with the benefits of Facebook and Twitter.

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the form of Kapil Muni came down to earth at this point. But all is not well here. The sea is steadily encroaching on this island; even barrages built with bricks and cement have been pounded down by the all engulfing waves. The sweet water ponds are turning saline forcing the locals to abandon their farmlands and move inwards. The fishing community is also facing the heat as their catch has drastically reduced over the years. Oceanologists predict that the entire island will get submerged by 2020-2030 rendering thousands homeless. Already the neighbouring island of Lohachara has gone under the surface level. The Kapil Muni temple has been relocated thrice in the last three decades because of the erosion. The temple authorities have installed an idol of Hanuman to please the Gods and arrest the rising waves but so far the Government has only reeled off stock phrases like ‘climate change’ and the ‘rising sea’.

In the year of tiger s celebrities, politicians and the government continue giving lip-service to a host of ‘Save tiger campaigns’, it has been reported that 59 tigers fell prey to poaching rackets in 2009, the highest figure in the last three years. Ironically it is a Government report which says that the tiger count has drastically depleted in 17 tiger reserves of the country. These reserves could very well be the next Sariska or Panna where no more tigers are left. There are only 1411 tigers left in the wild in India. To add to the woes, the year 2010 is the year of Tiger as per the Chinese calendar making the already sky high demand for tiger skin and bones for traditional Chinese medicine soar even higher. Besides that the protection of the big cat poses a tough challenge in the Naxal hit areas- be it Buxa in West Bengal, Simlipal in Orissa or Palamou in Jharkhand. So the need of the hour is to strengthen policing on the Indo-Nepal, India – Myanmar and also the inter-state borders along with the adoption of a more scientific method for tiger census.

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Hungry tide ajendra Pachauri’s false alarm on the melting glaciers has hogged the media limelight for long but a catastrophe is slowly but steadily unfolding closer home in the Sagar islands where the river Ganga flows into the Bay of Bengal. After the Kumbh Mela, if there is any other big ticket Hindu Pilgrimage event that can be compared to it in scale and grandeur, it is certainly the mela on the Sagar island. The legend goes that God in

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A familiar scene from the Sagar Mela

The age of Kali n a small but significant step to root out gender bias which is so intrinsically entrenched in our society, the Andhra Pradesh Government has decided to allow students to choose between giving their father’s or mother’s name while seeking admission in schools. In a recent Government order, the state government has allowed the children of ‘joginis’-who are bonded to temples in a kind of religion sanctioned prostitution-to give their mother’s name in school admission forms. The jogini system of ritualistic prostitution which was banned in 1988, is still prevalent in some districts of AP. Unable to give their fathers’ names, more often than not the children of joginis were refused admission in schools. It is expected that this progressive step can be implemented for all students, including the wards of divorcees and single parents.

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CURRENT AFFAIRS THE TAKE: SAYAN BHATTACHARYA

BollyMata ki Jai The timing could not have been more apt. 60 years of the the Bachchan clan was appeased, it was the Khans’ and the Indian Republic, 60 years of the ratification of the Kapoors’ turn. While Salman’s act with the hearing impaired Constitution which proclaimed secularism, equality and was delicately choreographed indeed but pray what was the diversity as the cornerstones of the Indian democracy. What excuse for the shirtless routine? Aamir Khan too reprised his better way to celebrate the multi-cultural and multi-layered role as the ‘saviour’ of Indian kids with his ‘Bum bum bole’ identity of an Indian than a song which transcends all the meets ‘Aati kya Khandala’ concoction. Shahrukh Khan in social, political, economical and religious barriers in the his ‘never-seen-before’ arms outstretched act hammered into country. When ‘Mile sur mera tumhara’ was first aired on our heads that he is the ultimate Romance icon in case we 15th August, 1988 on Doordarshan, it attained near got too carried away by his autistic act in ‘My Name is anthem status. In just 5 minutes it captured the rich and Khan’. Shahid Kapoor continued with his pseudo rockstar varied landscapes, cultures and the people of this country act of the dud named ‘Chance Pe Dance’ and Ranbir Kapoor and so it was innately rooted and Indian in essence. Today was no different from his films. Whether it was Deepika when the Thackerays of the world are stridently invoking Padukone’s Liril pose (the director of the video Kailash Surendranath directed the the ‘Marathi Manus’, first Liril commercial!) or when separatist forces are Priyanka Chopra’s beauty stronger than ever, when queen act (mingling with development has still not rural girls), the video percolated down to the reuses every Bollywood grassroots, the latest cliché and this was version of the song could supposed to be about have been so much but national integration! sadly is so little. In When it came to retrospect I realize that my representing the other expectations had regions, it was again only skyrocketed because there the local filmstars who was one minute but found a place in the video. important detail that I If Rituparna and Prosenjit missed out. The ‘Phir mile represented the Bengali sur mera tumhara’ was a Intelligentsia, there was Times Now and Zoom Gurdass Mann and Juhi initiative and the present Chawla from Punjab, catchline of Zoom is Some of the stars invoking their ‘Indianness’ in the video.

Vikram, Surya and ‘100% Bollywood’. So Mahesh Babu epitomized what more to expect from the south! And thanks for making me realize that I need to the track than a Bollywood extravaganza! adopt a celebrity parent to become successful what with the The musical arrangement of the song has been reworked by profusion of star kids like Yesudas junior, Amjad Ali Khan’s Louis Banks (who had co-composed the original song sons, Louis Banks junior and so on in the video. alongside Ashok Patki) to make it more ‘contemporary’.

While I am no music connoisseur to comment on the track In this 16 minute video, sports personalities feature for a but as an ordinary Indian I declaim what was masqueraded little over one minute and that too at the tail end. Just a few as Indian culture but was nothing more than a complete frames were enough to ‘honour’ the Olympic medal homogenization of ‘Indianness’. The song opened with winners. The height of tokenism was reached when the A.R.Rahman (the Oscar and now the Grammy connection video was concluded with the Indian Army and the apparent) and then moved on to the ubiquitous Big B. If Bachchan Senior is around can ‘Paa’ and ‘Bahu’ be far fluttering tri-colour. But every cloud has a silver lining.I behind? So in came Aishwarya Rai with her typical coy went back to You tube to see the old video again and Indian bahu expression and after her trotted Chota B. Once quickly forgot the monolithic re-construction of India.

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PRESENTS

The adventures of Rizwan Khan (straight from the epiglottis) IN THE BEGININING THERE WAS AN ANGRY SHAH RUKH KHAN...

GHAJINI, PAA, 3 IDIOTS... I’M TIRED, DISGUSTED & SICK...I NEED A MASSIVE RECORD-BUSTING HIT!!!

AND SO HELP ARRIVES, WITH BEST PAL, KARAN JOHAR MAKER OF GREAT TEARSOAKED BLOCKBUSTERS ANOTHER PROJECT IS ON THE ANVIL.... READY TO RESSURECT THE FADING STAR...

soon the product is ready...sensitive, emotional, soft stuff...with a new secular angle...the film is called ‘MY name is khan’ and every body loves it!!! shahrukh is now ready again for:

critical acclaim

award overload

“my thanks to the great balasaheb and the shiv sena controversy

big-time moolah

factory... they turned Mnik into a spectacular campaign everybody wanted to fight for...” ( and i got another hit!)

Concept and art: Chiradeep Basu Mallick Kindle

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SPORTS

I P L

CONIC

ARTY

The stars, the cheerleaders, the sixes and the 20 overs are back in India this year.

Gautam Bhimani dissects and predicts the proceedings and results of the 3rd edition of the desi vaudeville show called the Indian

EXICON Premier League.

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t came. It saw. And it conquered. A year later it went away. Saw. But still conquered. This time it is back and all set to conquer all over again. Not too many things in life can lay claims to certainty of success as it can. “IT” happens to be the phenomenal sporting and marketing sensation that has taken the world by storm since early 2008. “IT” happens to be the Indian Premier League, no longer just another set of dates on the cricketing calendar, but a way of life for India’s entertainment hungry public. That it is sport remains purely incidental.

Let’s start with the defending champions the Deccan Chargers, who have had their fair share of controversy even before a ball was bowled. Thanks to the Telengana agitations, there was uncertainty about the home ground, though in hindsight that might just prove to be their lucky charm given their abysmal record in their own backyard. They lost everything in Season One and even when the Airtel Champions League came calling last year, they conspired to lose yet again. They still have some serious firepower in their lineup with Gilchrist, Gibbs, Symonds Fidel Edwards, Kemar Roach and Dwayne Smith, along with some handy local talent led by VVS and Rohit Sharma with RP Singh and Pragyan Ojha bolstering the bowling. Expect them to snatch a semi final berth but no more.

Moving to nearby Bangalore, the Royal Challengers also turned their tables on Season

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Scenes from a party: celebrities, cheerleaders, sixes and success

One last year but one fears that they will be up against it and we may see a repeat of 2008. Kumble may be an inspirational leader but his armoury seems to be sporadic at best. Lots of talent in the likes of Ross Taylor, Kevin Pietersen, Dale Steyn, Roelof van der Merwe to bolster their hopes.

Another team which oozes talent but may just lose out on a semi final spot is the Kings XI Punjab side. Yuvraj is free of the burden of captaincy, so that is a huge plus. Solid performers like Shaun Marsh will complement the Sri Lankan duo of Sangakkara and Jayawardene. But with Brett Lee struggling to find fitness, Sreesanth also suspect on that front, Yusuf abdulla untried in Indian conditions and Irfan Pathan perennially trying to prove himself, they may just lack that knockout punch.

SRKs Kolkata Knight Riders will always be the team to watch, but again may not be the ones to make it all the way.

They will still earn big marketing bucks but not the prize money. As a Kolkatan, it pinches to say this, but Déjà vu may just be the story for Dada and co. Dave Hussey and Hodge are great value but an X factor of a Shoaib Akhtar and the solidity of Ponting will be missed. Two key players will be the Kiwi connection of McCullum and Bond and whether they can deliver remains to be seen.

Rajasthan Royals were the fairytale story of the inaugural edition of the league, but such surprises occur just once and given that they have not made much effort to strengthen their resources, it will take all the guile of Shane Warne to pull another 2008 miracle out of the bag. Yusuf Pathan will be a key as will the skipper with ball in hand but its tough to see them making the last four no matter how much Halla they Bol.

Moving further down South to the men in canary yellow.

With an inspirational leader in Mahendra Singh Dhoni and a power packed line-up, the Chennai Super Kings are more than likely to make the semis for the third year in a row. You can’t ask for a better opener than Matt Hayden, who has found an able foil in Parthiv Patel. Get rid of them and the trouble only starts with the likes of Suresh Raina, Dhoni himself, Jacob Oram and Albie Morkel to follow.

Now to the two teams I feel will play the final of IPL 2010.

First the unluckiest team in the competition so far, the Delhi Daredevils who were easily the best team in year two but still failed to make the final. On both occasions they lost the semi final to the ultimate champions, no less. They have a top order to die for in Sehwag, Gambhir, Dilshan, David Warner and AB de Villiers. With loads in the reserve tank including former KKR man, Moises Henriques and pocket dynamite Dinesh Karthik. The bowling reeks of class with Nannes, Parnell Nehra and Dan Vettori. Yet again, the team to beat in IPL 2010.

The only team that looks like lording it over the Daredevils is my other favourite to go all the way to the final, the hitherto underperforming Mumbai Indians, purely on the strength of their all rounder brigade. Dwayne Bravo, JP Duminy Jayasuriya and Abhishek Nayar, will be joined by the explosive Trinidadian Kieron Pollard who can single handedly change the game.

My prediction for IPL 3 Finalists: Mumbai / Delhi Semi Finalists: Deccan / Chennai Kindle

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POLITICS

Growing

Going

Gone

The rising prices of essential commodities is further widening the nation’s

economic divide.

Paranjoy Guha Thakurta takes us through the pangs of the

UPA Government’s attempts at controlling India’s galloping

inflation figures. he single biggest failure of the second United Progressive Alliance government on the economic front has been its inability to check the runaway rise in food prices. Whereas much of the flak for inflation has had to be borne by Sharad Pawar who holds three crucial portfolios in the Union government – Food, Agriculture and Consumer Affairs – the government as a whole is responsible for the inefficient and apparently apathetic manner in which

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food supplies have been managed (or should one say, mismanaged).

Inflation is one economic phenomenon that is easily understood for it directly impacts the lives of large sections of people. Irrespective of ideological inclinations or political predilections, economists are unanimously of the view that inflation is like a tax on the poor. This is simply because the real incomes of underprivileged sections get eroded

when prices of essential commodities go up whereas incomes and profits of the affluent rise relatively in such situations. Thus, there is an indirect transfer of purchasing power from the poor to the rich, thereby widening inequalities.

When inflation is driven by high food prices, this is akin to a double tax on the weakest sections of society. Why? For a most obvious reason, which is that food accounts for a much higher

proportion of the incomes of the poor than that of the rich. In India, various studies indicate that those who live below the poverty line – any which way one chooses to define it – spend more than half their earnings on food.

It is for this reason that food inflation is feared by politicians, especially those in power, because it easily translates into popular discontentment.

Prices of certain categories of pulses (urad, moong and tur dal) are at a record high of close to Rs 100 a kilogramme. The prices of most dairy products have gone up by around 40 per cent over the last year or so. In this period, potato prices have nearly doubled while sugar prices have almost tripled. The government’s official wholesale price index indicates a close to one-fifth rise in the prices of all food products put together. And the gap between wholesale and retail prices is as high as 50 per cent in many markets across the country.

It is inexplicable why the government allowed food prices to shoot up the way they did. One uncharitable explanation is that since the UPA regime is safely ensconced in New Delhi and with the political opposition on both the Right and the Left having become weak, the government can cynically afford to forget the proverbial aam admi it used to swear by, especially since the next general elections are nearly four and a half years away. Even if one believes this to be true, the reality on the ground is far more complex. Part of the story lies in the callous manner in which food supplies have been mismanaged. Sugar is perhaps the most glaring example of how this happened.

Sugarcane is a cyclical crop and one surplus year is typically followed by a year of shortage. Towards the end of 2008 and early-2009, the government allowed sugar to be exported at a subsidized price of roughly Rs 12.50 a kg. Around the third quarter of 2009, it became apparent that the country

would need to import the sweetener.

By then, world sugar prices had doubled and by the time the imported sugar reached shops, prices had jumped nearly threefold. Who gained the most from the myopic manner in which sugar was first exported and then imported? Answer: a clutch of powerful traders and a bunch of sugar mills in the cooperative sector, many of them located in Maharashtra. No prizes for guessing the name of the Union minister who is considered a mentor of sorts to the country’s sugardaddies (literally, not metaphorically).

It was well known by August 2009 that rainfall had been rather deficient in India’s “grain bowl”, that is, Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh.

Thereafter, there were devastating floods in parts of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. That cereal production during the kharif (summer) season would fall by more than 10 per cent was hardly a secret. Yet the government kept making optimistic prognostications that much of shortfall in output would be made up in the rabi (winter) season and acted less than expeditiously while releasing stocks of rice and wheat from the Food Corporation of India to the public distribution system.

What followed was an unseemly blame game. The central government said states were not lifting stocks and not doing enough to check speculation and hoarding by enforcing the provisions of the Essential Commodities Act. State governments, in turn, blamed the mandarins of Krishi Bhavan and Udyog Bhavan for poor coordination, their inability to anticipate shortages through an early warning system and worse: letting the whole world know that the government was about to import food.

It is common knowledge that well before the gargantuan pachyderm called India enters international food markets, sellers obtain advance knowledge of the country’s purchasing intentions and start hiking prices in advance. This is precisely what

happened this time as well.

There is a combination of short-run and long-term factors that are responsible for food inflation.

Agricultural productivity has improved at a tardy pace and public investments for the farming sector have been stepped up only in recent years. Much of the money that is spent on agriculture and rural development gets wasted or stolen or both. Despite the huge amounts that have been spent on major irrigation projects, the net irrigated area covered by such projects has stagnated or actually shrunk. The minimum support prices given to farmers have gone up fairly fast over the last few years and this has added to the government’s subsidy bill.

When inflation is driven by high food prices, this is akin to a double tax on the weakest sections of society. Why? For a most obvious reason, which is that food accounts for a much higher proportion of the incomes of the poor than that of the rich.

With minimum daily wages earned by the rural poor having gone up to Rs 100 under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, demand for cereals has risen. Eating patterns of the middle classes have also undergone a gradual change with preferences for vegetables, fruits, poultry and fish getting pronounced. None of these trends are terribly new – these should have been anticipated by our policymakers. Still, those in positions of authority chose to turn a blind eye to the plight of the poor and a deaf ear to their pleas – that is, till the clamour became a bit too loud for even our thick-skinned netas and babus to ignore.

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BIRLA INSTITUTE OF FUTURISTIC STUDIES (BIFS) is an institute, which offers a wide range of professional courses. These specially designed courses help to guide young minds to fulfill their dreams, and equip them with both professional and personal skills.

“Alternative careers” is the ‘talk’ and ‘need’ of the day. At BIFS we give our students a chance to opt for careers with a difference and careers that are much in demand in today’s competitive world.

Noted below is a list of courses offered at BIFS:

Course

Eligibility

Duration

Career Prospect

Hospital and Health Management Holders in any hospital

Graduates in any discipline/Diploma State ‘Council of Related technical Course

1 year P.G. Certificate Course affiliated to the Institutes/Health Care & Technical Edu.(Govt. of W.B.)

Hospitals/Nursing Homes/Medical Research Diagnostic Centers.

Mental Health Care and Basic Counseling Skills

Graduates in any discipline

6 months P.G. Certificate Course

NGOs, Schools, Corporate Sectors, Hospitals.

Tea Management

Graduates in any Discipline

1 year P.G. Certificate Course

Managers of Tea Gardens/Tea tasters/ Corporate Officers of Tea Companies.

Investment Management

Class XII- preferably with Com. & Eco.and above

6 months certificate course (2sessions/years)

Finance & Broking Companies/investment banks/mutual fund/equity research outfits.

Technical Analysis with Com & Eco.

Class XII- preferably course and above

6-week Comprehensive related issues

On-line trade, investment

Photography

Class XII/above (any Discipline

6 months certificate course

Freelance/regular employment in newspapers Magazines, printing presses.

Public relation & Advertising (with computers)

Graduates in any discipline

6 months P.G. certificate course

Media analysis in electronic & print; business houses; journalists in PR & Advertising agencies, self- Employment

Retail Management & BBA

-Will Be Introduced Shortly

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COVER ESSAY

ONE

HUNDRED

YEARS OF

SOLITUDE

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The journey of the modern Indian woman has progressed like a river from the Himalayas...starting in solitude, but ever widening and slowly melting into a vast sea of humanity... hen I sit down to define the modern Indian woman – I would ideally steer clear of all the stereotypes that the popular culture industry throws at us everyday – The Kingfisher calendar girl, the bahu from the K- soaps, the manipulative PYTs in reality shows, the stereotypes within the Bollywood idiom, the stereotypes within the ad-world idiom, the heroines of some new wildly popular genre of books called the ‘chick-lits’, women splashed regularly on Page 3 of daily newspapers, women mouthing vagina monologues or cartooned middle class housewives….

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So, where do I look for the real Indian woman of today? In the newspapers, in television news stories, in statistics, in art, in literature, around me or within me…And the deeper and harder I look, I am overwhelmed by the zeitgeist of ideas – the images that come to me form this unique collage, which if given a tangible shape, would perhaps look like an optical illusion! A picture of deep paradoxes and contrasts.

But as much as I am weighed down, to continue this discussion as a gender discourse, theorizing my way to women emancipation, I shall not do so, for the simple reason that I would fail to do so. So, as I join the dots of the billions of stories of half of humanity, and follow their trail, I sometimes feel like I’m following the trickle of blood from Jose Arcadio’s ear in Marquez’s epic ‘One hundred years of solitude’ – “A trickle of blood came from under the door, crossing the living room, went into the street, continued in a straight line across the uneven terraces, went down steps and climbed over curbs, passed along the Street of the Turks, turned a corner to the right and another to the left, made a right angle at the Buendía house, went in under the closed door, crossed through the parlor, hugging the walls so as not to stain the rugs, went on to the other living room, made a wide curve to avoid the dining-room table, went along the porch with the begonias, and passed without

by Pritha Kejriwal Editor-in-chief being seen under Amaranta's chair as she gave an arithmetic lesson to Aureliano José, and went through the pantry and came out in the kitchen, where Úrsula was getting ready to crack thirty-six eggs to make bread.” –Gabriel Garcia Marquez (One Hundred Years of Solitude) This magical, real, bloody trail of half of humanity, when enters the post modern world, passing underneath the kitchen doors, forming a wide curve to reach the rice fields, disappearing into ankle deep waters and emerging once again to climb walls of factories, travelling across iron machinery to circle the mud platforms of village panchayats, curving its way into polished bedrooms and living rooms, climbing down stairs, elevators and escalators, into college and university campuses, inside smoky hostel rooms, marking its trail on bare male limbs…female limbs, crossing highways and boarding flights to reach offices, winding it’s way across gray cubicles into plush leather clad chambers, and crossing the road to cosmetic surgery and abortion clinics, making its way in dark nights into darker pubs, climbing bar stools to make a round circle around the glasses, and climbing down to reach the doors of crèches, sinewing its way into the cold corridors of parliament… the stains are deeper and darker than ever.

This journey past independence, modernism, feminism, post modernism and post feminism – has given us many special moments of joy, celebration and freedom, perhaps more instances of tragedy and failure, but most importantly has given us an intense battlefield, with more forces than ever – not to fight the other half of humanity, but to fight the forces of history and the politics of oppression.

On the occasion of International Women’s day, Kindle is proud to bring out a special edition celebrating 25 contemporary women soldiers, who have fought oppression and perceptions to change the way India thinks. They are our ‘Mindset women’ Kindle

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INTERVIEW OF THE MONTH

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The River still runs deep Whether its the land agitation in West Bengal, or the decade long battle for the rehabilitation of the tribal population uprooted by the dam on the Narmada, Medha Patkar has always been the voice of the downtrodden. In an interview with Kindle, she speaks on her journey, the future of the Narmada Bachao Andolan and more.

Q. Give us an idea as to where the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) is headed:

this is our fight – it’s our cause and we must do it all by ourselves – we cannot expect others to run this for us.

A. Well, the NBA is at its place…as you know there is an absolute host of issues built around the Sardar Sarovar dam – issues that have yet to find any sort of resolution –issues of social and environmental rehabilitation, issues of land rehabilitation, issues of corruption (as regards the dispensation of the relief funds) – an enquiry to this end is going on…the entire project has to be reviewed and revised… unfortunately there is a chronic absence of any political will to drive this movement forward.

When celebrities join a cause, it doesn’t stay limited to its own circle, it reaches into the hearts and minds of the mass, that helps us to motivate and arouse an interest or an involvement among people – but as I said ultimately this is our own war, other people will always have their own regular lives to return to, we cannot stop until the job is done.

Q. The NBA has beena long and difficult struggle for you – what pushes you on, what gives you the strength to fight this long and arduous battle?

You know, any movement, any real social cause is not carried on the shoulders of heroes – ordinary people, simple everyday people are the ones who make this work – their commitment, their sacrifices, their untiring efforts are astounding and very inspiring.

I see the adivasis, the people who’ve probably lost the most, who’ve faced the highest number of injustices and I see their unstoppable commitment to the cause – it drives you, it helps to never lose focus, I’ve come this far and I cannot leave before the job at hand is done; Also, all my life I’ve seen my parents struggling and fighting for what’s right – I grew up in a world, whose bedrock was the fight for the marginalized or the forgotten, that’s been my rearing and so for me this is quite simply, a natural way of life.

Q. Have you ever felt lonely during this fight?

No, not at all – there are so many people around me at all times – the media never shows you what’s happening all around the NBA. There are so many people, on so many levels, from activists to school children who’ve joined us, who give us strength and courage – how can I ever be alone?

Q. Has it been more difficult to manage so much, being a woman? has this ever interfred or disturbed your work?

On the contrary, I’ve only seen positives – I could probably reach out more easily ,because I was a woman; men are often patriarchal and dominating , but if they see a strong-willed, capable woman who knows her mind , they stand back to let her lead the way – woman have always had the tenacity and the perseverance to never let go, to always finish what they’ve started and that could be our special quality – it helps us to tie men together, beyond petty concerns to grand initiatives.

Q. Over the years we’ve seen celebrities walk in and out of the movement – joining in at certain times and then moving away once the focus has shifted; do you feel these were purely media or publicity stunts?

Furthermore, when you are in the middle of something like this, what matters is the human-to-human contact or connection, beyond any issue of gender or discrimination – our bonds are more human, built on mutual respect and empathy.

Of course some of them could have been publicity stunts, but I don’t think that was the case with Aamir or with Arundhati – see, the thing is, people from several walks of life may come to us with genuine interests, but ultimately

Of course, like any other woman I’ve also faced some basic, everyday regular difficulties – to be honest you need to take all of that in your stride – at the end of the day it doesn’t really matter.

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THE K FILES

THE STONEMAN MURDERS A notorious case from the 80’s - five cities, several murders and an as yet unidentified serial killer - Swayam Ganguly revisits the dark alleys of India to unravel the strange case of the Stoneman.

January 3, 2010 : Fatasil Ambari, Guwahati ajesh had just returned from his drinking binge from the local liquor shop. In his thirties, Rajesh earned his living doing odd jobs and normally slept on the footpath near the Assam State Electricity Board colony. It had been a long hard day and Rajesh fell into deep slumber.

Never to wake up again.

His body was discovered the next day with his head smashed. A blood smeared stone lying beside the body hinted at the possibility of being the murder weapon.

Kolkata : March 27,2008 : Ritchie Road he early risers on this busy stretch of Kolkata were greeted by a strange sight. The body of an unidentified youth lay in a pool of blood. Closer inspection revealed a heavy stone near the body stained with the victim’s blood. And that is

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when panic struck. Was the dreaded stoneman of the eighties back ? ‘ toneman’ was the name given by the popular English language print media in Kolkata to an alleged serial killer, who is said to have committed 13 murders over a six-month period in 1989.

The ‘stoneman’ would choose his victims from among pavement dwellers and bludgeon them with a stone at the dead of night.

When asked about the possible return of ‘Stoneman’, DC (south) Rajesh Subarno rubbished it saying that the murder looked more like the result of an altercation.

“One murder committed with a stone doesn’t mean the Stoneman has returned or that it is the work of a serial killer,” he said.

“If there were several murders following the same pattern, then we could begin to speculate. As far as we know, the incident appears to have occurred during the night and could have been the result of a fight,” he said.

But the fact of the matter is that the cops have yet to crack these cases and the style of murder resembles that of the ‘Stoneman’ who stalked the city and created mass phobia in 1989.

No police officer was willing to go on record on the “stoneman angle” but the source confirmed that they were looking into it. “It could be the handiwork of the stoneman because he usually strikes during January and February. Not only last year, between

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December 2007 and February 2008, too, five pavement dwellers were attacked in a similar manner,” the source said.

Mumbai : The beginning of the end t all began in Mumbai in the year 1985 and lasted for a span of over two years. The first hint of a serial killer came from Mumbai who was targeting homeless ragpickers and beggars. For two years a series of twelve murders were committed in the Sion and King’s Circle area of the metropolis.

The modus operandi of the criminal / criminals was simple enough: Locating an unsuspecting victim sleeping alone in a desolate area and crushing the victim’s head with a stone weighing as much as 30kg.

The celluloid obsessed Mumbaikars had christened the killer “Pattharmar” But what was really surprising was that it took the Mumbai police only after the sixth murder to observe a pattern in the crimes.

It seemed that the Mumbai police was close to cracking the case when a homeless waiter survived the brutal attack by Pattharmar, narrowly escaping being bludgeoned to death.

But what was perceived as a stroke of luck and a big break came to naught.

The dimly lit area in Sion where the victim had been sleeping was responsible for him being unable to get a good look at his assailant.

In the middle of 1987, the killings stopped as mysteriously as they had started.

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Kolkata : Summer of 89 t has never been ascertained that the Mumbai killings were linked to the I‘Stoneman’ killings in Kolkata. But the uncanny similarity in the choice of murder weapon, selection of victims, execution and the time of the attacks suggests rather strongly that this was the handiwork of the same killer or someone familiar with the episodes in Mumbai.

June 1989 saw the first victim succumb to head injuries and twelve more died in the six months that followed. Panic seized the city of joy as all the cops could conclude was that the assailant was a tall,well built male as it needed quite an effort to lift the heavy stone or concrete slab.

Unfortunately due to the lack of any survivors or even eyewitnesses there were no clear cut leads in hand.

The police retaliated with massive deployments of men in various parts of the city at night as numerous arrests were made. But the case was like a dead end. Suddenly the killings stopped and to date,the crimes remain unsolved, making this one of the greatest unsolved mysteries plaguing modern metropolitan Indian police forces.

The Bollywood Stoneman roducer Bobby Bedi produced a film titled “ The Stoneman Murders” based on these incidents.

The film released on Feb 13, 2009, starring Kay Kay Menon and Arbaaz Khan. It was written and directed by Manish Gupta, the writer of the Bollywood film, Sarkar.

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Advertorial

CINEMA

THEATRE

BOOKS

MUSIC

TRAVEL

FOOD

The first half of the year always promises a slew of award shows - grand designs, remarakable acceptance speeches & enough awards for everyone to find a share.

But are the academies rewarding genuine achievement or are they merely following the basic, most obvious line of American celebritydom, pop-culture and fan-favourites?

Chiradeep Basu Mallick and Sayantan Neogi explore the hidden lines and the invisible geometry beneath the ceremony of “assumed� excellence.

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t’s been an interesting year at the cinemas: we’ve had a suitably varied blend of films, addressing different issues, chasing new ideas and ploughing fresh territories. ‘Avatar’, ‘The Hurt Locker’, ‘District 9’, ‘A Serious Man’, ‘The Blind Side’ – movies with complex plots, great drama, strong characters and a potent contemporary echo – as much as I may appreciate the spectacle at this year’s box office and look forward to the giant celebration of success, good art and general all-round bonhomie at the Oscar’s, I’m tempted to ask if Hollywood has really managed to pull off something daringly alternative or fresh or new or legendary.

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AN ACADEMY OF

EPHEMERA

by Chiradeep Basu Mallick

Since the last five years, American cinema has been following a staid, readable pattern, an arc that points towards three basic directions – the summer event blockbuster (with regulation cardboard cut-out heroes, swirling through the skies, fighting off outrageous bad guys, in full CGI glory), the existential drama, searching for hidden epiphanies in the plastic heart of corporate America and the Iraq/War on Terror movie – trying to explain or understand the crisis of defense and hegemony.

To be frank, films mirror the zeitgeist of the era – politics, religion, society, love, violence and war – in a post 9/11 America, Hollywood has learnt to deal with its nations paranoia – ‘Rendition’, ‘Redacted’, ‘In The Valley Of Elah’, ‘Lions For Lambs’ and this year’s dark horse for the best picture ‘The Hurt Locker’, all reflect on the changing sociopolitical geometry of a country constantly at war with an entire religion and also at times with itself. Not all of these are very good films – save for a few – but each of them try and assess the psyche of the American war machine and the lesions it constantly develops in the process.

The zeitgeist: Inglourious Basterds, Crazy Heart, Avatar, Up in the Air & The Hurt Locker (from right to left)

On the other side are the other society dramas – films that cut through modern urban conflict and intercourse, to reach a strand of simplified, life-reaffirming thought – ‘Up in the Air’ and ‘The Blind Side’, ‘A Serious Man’ and ‘Precious’.

But to me, the problem really is, the lack of a wider, larger, genre-breaking, time-defying element in any of these films – as hard as you may try, there is no ‘Taxi Driver’, no ‘Raging Bull’, no ‘Midnight Cowboy’, no ‘Godfather’ and no ‘Annie Hall’, hidden in the nominees list. Instead what you find are films that beautifully capture the mood or the flavor of the moment – cinema that echoes or draws from the here and now but unfortunately cannot manage to surpass the limits of its immediacy – Clooney in ‘Up In The Air’ or Sandra Bullock in ‘The Blind Side’, Jeff Bridges in ‘Crazy Heart’ or Meryl Streep in ‘Julia And Julia’ are wonderful characters, superbly rendered, brilliantly written and brought to life by some exceptional actors – but unfortunately ( and I say this in all honesty) characters that can bridge through time and space, characters that stay embedded in your consciousness and become part of a generation’s culture, characters who enter into the fabric of our shared contemporary history – nowhere in this year’s list of movies can you find such characters.

Ironically Hollywood animation, more than anything else makes up for this chronic lacuna – ‘Wall-E’, ‘Up’, ‘Nines’ and its ilk are taking the art of animation up by several notches adding color, dimension, complexity and multiple –layers to their plot, treatment and narrative – these are the movies you’d want to watch again and again, even after the hype and the hysteria of an Oscar-winner film, has died

down and the ashes of the year gone by are finally buried.

Tarantino’s ‘Basterds’ is possibly the most interesting and the least serious choice on this list – as always Tarantino, takes the grain of an idea, subverts it completely and creates a pastiche of comic book ultra- violence, biting irony and satire, old cult films and some popular socio-cultural motifs - funny how a Tarantino film is always an event unto itself, that cannot be ignored, that also cannot be taken seriously, that must adhere to its own brand of violent spiritual karma – a sort of answer and analysis through blood and entrails!

Finally, a brief cough on that giant blue monster business idea that is ‘Avatar’ – James Cameron was on the frontlines of cutting edge technology and revolutionary visual design right from the 80’s – Avatar is a great experience – a fantastic, adrenalin-pushing, high energy, thrill ride, an absolute overdose for your senses, but great cinema, a motion picture classic (that will probably by the 8th of march stand shoulder to shoulder with the likes ‘Ben-Hur’, ‘Chariots Of Fire’, ‘Amadeus’ and ‘One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest’) it is not.

Strangely contemporary film criticism on both sides of the Atlantic seems to have forgotten about the difference between a grand visual spectacle (a lot like a visit to a fantastically designed theme park) and a strongly-etched, clutter-breaking, era-defining movie.

So this year when you wake up at 6.00 A.M. to catch the live telecast or Google “Oscar 2010”, a couple of hours later, try and remember these are films that are good, beautiful, great… but not the classic your grand children will share with theirs.

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DRESSME-UP MUSIC

by Sayantan Neogi

he Oscar, the Emmy, the Tony and the Grammy are the most coveted awards in performance arts from the American larder. The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences have been conducting this annual musical fanfare with all the expected glitz and glamour since 1958. The ‘stunt’ gold gramophones have been given out to over 8000 artists but over the years, the world has loved, hated, respected and bashed the awards.

But why such mixed feelings and varied opinions on the Grammy awards? How does the Grammy select the nominees?

Who are the jury members? Who decides who gets a Grammy?

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Beautifully blinded: Taylor Swift’s American good girl looks have now won her the highest pinnacle of achievement in music.

See, the key to the Grammy award is not ‘outstanding achievement in music’ but ‘outstanding achievement in the music industry’, which they say is without regard to album sales and chart position (which is quite baffling). The Grammy awards are another example of the American democratic process, which is therefore covertly affected by ‘institutionalized’ lobbying. The voting and nomination process is completely conducted by the members of the ‘National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences’ and all the submissions are also made by these 150 members. Ballots are then tabulated by an independent accounting firm called Deloitte Touché Tohmatsu, which leaves another card open

Girls on Top: This year’s winners, Beyoncé & Lady Gaga have managed to brilliantly combine pop, easy-listening,thumping music with their smoldering personalities.

to influence. Now, I’m not saying that it’s all eyewash but merely pointing out the loopholes of the system.

One could easily state that the award is not one for merit and technique but a collective opinion of 150 members of the academy on the basis of how important the acts were in shaping the music industry of America. Moreover, if these 150 members, who are conveniently undisclosed are the best musicians and producers in the ‘industry’ then they’re the ones who should be nominated.

The 52nd Annual Grammies saw more eyebrows raised than any other even though there were whispers of jubilation in a few pockets of India. Although AR Rahman was burnished in Grammy gold for the mediocre (by his standards) ‘Jai Ho’, stalwarts like Ustad Zakhir Hussain and Ustad Amjad Ali Khan had to lose out on getting the celebrated award after nominations. Rahman as humble and honest as ever told the press, “Getting two Grammies is insane, God is great but again it definitely means more when you're recognized by your own people and country. I definitely value this award (Padmabhushan) more than the Oscar or the Grammy.” Now, it’s a thought that most Indians rarely express in a country where the ghar ki murgi is almost always dal barabar.

Beyoncé won a total of six awards breaking the record for most wins by a female artist in one night. Taylor Swift won four while the Black Eyed Peas, Jay-Z and Kings of Leon won three. Artists who won two awards include Colbie Caillat, Eminem, Kanye West, Lady Gaga, Maxwell, Jason Mraz, A. R. Rahman and Rihanna. See the question isn’t whether these artists should have won the awards; the real question is for which work of their’s. I mean Jason Mraz in

best male vocal performance for ‘Make it mine’ and ‘Lucky’ and not for the far more technically challenging ‘I’m yours’; AR Rahman for Jai Ho, one of the least impressive songs in his otherwise illustrious body of work. Rahman’s awards again pay testimony to the fact that the West understands nothing other than what is made in the West and the Danny Boyle connection is probably the only reason why the genius of Rahman was recognized, which is quite demeaning and supremacist on the Academy’s part.

Then we have Taylor Swift, the fairytale princess of world music bagging, would you believe it, the best ‘country’ music album of the year! One has to wonder what the likes of Willie Nelson, John Denver and Kenny Rogers have to say about that. There’s no doubting her talent and freshness but ‘Fearless’ can under any circumstances qualify as a country music album. Beyoncé Knowles, America’s own destiny’s child bagged a staggering six Grammies this year shattering all kinds of records for actually creating music in a direction that the ‘industry’ wants to shift back towards.

Without questioning Knowles’ talent and performance the true reason behind creating this sensation was to manipulatively motivate future artists to create music in the same genre so that it falls in line with the way the Academy has envisioned the industry in the near future.

Over the years, the Grammies have become a machine that patronizes the big bucks over artistry and it has craftily created a bigger stage outside on the red carpet than in the studio or in a concert. The 52nd Annual Grammy Awards 2010 had its highest high as Beyoncé’s skirt’s hemline and its lowest low as Chris Brown’s low-slung jeans.

THE KINDLE LIBRARY: BOOKS

RECOMMENDATION OF THE MONTH: Chomsky – for beginners David Cogswell & Paul Gordon beginner’s guide to works of great intellectuals is a good idea.

Presenting it in a graphic novel format is an even better idea. Giving Noam Chomsky such representation is, perhaps the best idea!

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Why Chomsky?

Well, not because, the New York Times calls him, “arguably the most important intellectual alive”, not just because .he is the most quoted author on earth, not just because he mirrors and criticizes his socio-political paradigms like no other…but because, in spite of all this, most of us, don’t have a clue of what

Chomsky is all about! And it is of extreme importance, for any one who wants to think about the world seriously,that they should start knowing and understanding Chomsky. And ‘Chomsky – for beginners’ is sure to get you hooked on!

The book is perhaps the best way to approach Noam Chomsky, for the mere fact, that new readers who would straight away bite into Chomsky’s actual works, might be at the risk of being scared off by the apparent complexity of the theories and texts. Thus, a simple, humorous and lucid introduction plays an important role here. David Cogswell’s text peppered with humour and wit and Paul Gordon’s interesting illustrations make this book the quintessential combination of work and play. There is also an exclusive interview with the ‘genius next door’.

All in all, a must-buy. After all, Chomsky is among a very few, left to us today.

Publisher: Orient BlackSwan 153 pages Price: Rs 200

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REVIEW

DORK: THE INCREDIBLE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN “EINSTEIN”VARGHESE

by Sidin Vadakut Penguin India 248 pages Rs. 199 hink Dilbert, think Adrian mole and you know what Sidin Vadakut does with his debut novel; Dork: The Incredible Adventures Of Robin “Einstein” Varghese, is a zippy, zany, racy read – the sort of screwball office comedy calculated to abuse, mock and make you roll with laughter.

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To his credit, Vadakut’s central figure, the naive, hyper-intelligent and super-foolish Einstein, is a wonderfully crafted character, drawn with a sharp, keenly observant eye, the hysterical version of the desi good boy.

Vadakut’s male caricatures are in fact, far stronger than the onedimensional prototype of his women – however, the twisted, pompous and complex world of urban Indian offices, with all its mix of politics, ambition, subterfuge, crisis and most importantly laziness and inefficiency is drafted with deliciously quick comic-timing – Dork promises to be the first of a trilogy of urban office novels and one hopes the writing and the drama, as also Dork’s silly and crazy world can only get better.

MUSIC

S-OTERIC By Sayantan Neogi

THE BAABA OF AFRO name like Baaba Maal might conjure up images of an A alcohol-wielding saffron-clad quack promising a cure to any dysfunction or ailment, but the truth is far from it

Recommendation: The Archangels of Celtic Music eltic Woman is an all-female musical ensemble conceived and assembled by David Downes, a former Musical Director of the Irish stage show Riverdance. In 2004, he recruited an aggregate of five Irish female artists who had not previously performed together: vocalists Chloë Agnew, Órla Fallon, Lisa Kelly and Méav Ní Mhaolchatha, and fiddler Máiréad Nesbitt, who became the first representatives of Celtic Woman. Downes proposed a repertoire that would range from traditional Celtic tunes to modern songs much in the mould of an all-girl Il Divo.

Through 2009, five albums have been released under the name ‘Celtic Woman’. The group has undertaken a number of world tours. Cumulatively, albums by Celtic Woman have sold over 50 million records worldwide, making it one of the most commercially successful musical acts in the world.

The foundation for Celtic music's popularity outside Ireland and Europe was built by tapping into the success of artists such as Enya and Clannad, along with stage shows Riverdance and Lord of the Dance. However cosmetic and staged the group’s genesis may sound, the girl band actually has oodles of grace, talent and an ethereal quality that almost makes them both sound and look angelic. Their pastoral and delicate renditions of Sting’s ‘Fields of gold’, Rod Stewart’s ‘Have I told you lately that I love you’ and Simon & Garfunkel’s ‘Scarborough fair’ have seen them grow beyond the tag of mere ‘youtube’ sensations.

Celtic woman concerts offer much more than just beautiful music; there’s a certain concert bigness, which is because the group is extended by a 27-member film orchestra, The Discovery Gospel choir, the 12-member Aontas Choir, 10 Extreme Rhythm Drummers with an 11-piece bag pipe ensemble. That’s not all; they back all this up with lights and pyrotechnics that come close to rivaling Pink Floyd and KISS concerts. The girls believe what binds them is their friendship above all else but a few have the perverse desire to see a catfight break out amongst the five gorgeous women.

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and is probably equally exciting. Baaba Maal is the Senegalese high-priest of ethnic and world music. Since his father was a fisherman, Maal was expected to become one as well. But fortunately, Maal trained at the music conservatory in Dakar and won a scholarship to study at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, where he studied Western music. While in Paris, Maal hooked up with his longtime friend, blind singer Mansour Seck, they returned to Senegal and put together the group Dande Lenol (Voice of the People). Maal also maintains an acoustic folkloric group that uses only traditional African instruments. Known as ‘the nightingale’ because of his clear high-pitched voice, Maal sings in Pulaar, the language of the Fula ethnic group, a nomadic people also found in Niger, Somalia, Guinea, Mali, and Benin (the ancient Senegalese kingdom of Futa Tooro).

After one hears the music of Baaba Maal, one truly understands the definition of ‘world music’, for he may sound like a Baul from West Bengal, a Lohaar from Northern India or even a Mele singer from Hawaii. Maal was nominated for a Grammy Award in the ‘World Music’ category in February 1996. But it went to the group ‘Deep Forest’ in the end but he was still recognised as one of the greatest in his category. In July of the same year, he sang the first half of the famous guitarist Carlos Santana's concert at the Wembley Stadium, England and was acknowledged as an equal to Carlos. He later went on to collaborate with the likes of Brian Eno and Bob Geldof and became far more active in fund-raisers and social work for his country. He used the medium of his music to talk about the shortcomings of his country’s economic and political situation to raise funds from all over the world. Unfortunately, some people wouldn’t call him a music activist like a Guthrie, Seeger or a Dylan because the truth is that his earthy rusticity wouldn’t go down that well with their occidental leanings.

THE KINDLE LIBRARY: CINEMA

Run Rizwan Run

Karan Johar’s new film picks up the most common clichés and creates typical Bollywood masala - packaged as visionary but only a diluted, pretentious and juvenile attempt at understanding Islamophobia and secularism. Chiradeep

Basumallick discusses. t’s been an interesting month for Shah Rukh Khan: a victim of political bullying, media messiah, new-age secular hero and finally India’s own home-grown Forrest Gump, out to solve Islamophobia and kiss America sorry for all that’s wrong or terrible.

By now, most people must have seen MNIK, so I’m going to bypass narrating the story or discussing the plot; television reviewers, newspaper critics and every arm chair film aficionado has spoken, written and blogged at length on the genius of the film’s story, so what I will do, is take you through the strange, superficially serene, cosmetic secularism of KJO and Shah Rukh.

MNIK claims to be a film that paints Islam in a new, softer and socially relevant light – ‘Rizwan Khan’ attempts to undo several clichés and restore Islam’s image and all of this

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by a grand cross-country journey across America, ending in a glorious handshake with the big daddy, the American President. While all of this sounds and seems to be a generally harmless and fun idea, what irks the casual movie –goer or the informed cine-phile is the utter, total and unnecessary over-the-top melodrama that is attached to every scene or plot device in the film.

A Karan Johar flick is supposed to be a couple of things – loud, grand canvas, sweeping romance, hummable music and lots of crying and hugging – and this is where the problems begin – a subject as sensitive, complex and layered as the contemporary demonization of Islam cannot be sugar coated into song, dance, love, tragedy and eventual resolution. Karan Johar’s hackneyed Bollywood treatment of the content is what takes away any fulfilling possibility

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DIRECTORS TO WATCH BEFORE YOU DIE

#48 Adoor Gopalakrishnan O ne of India’s most feted film-makers, Moutatthu "Adoor" Gopalakrishnan Unnithan, is a National Award winning director, script-writer and producer, credited for revolutionizing Malayalam cinema.

Having pioneered the New Wave cinema movement in Kerala, with his debut effort, Swayamvaram (1972), Gopalakrishnan has an enviable list of award-winning films and documentaries – most of his work has travelled the globe and has met with strong critical acclaim, with several retrospectives and honorary commendations in homage to Gopalakrishnan’s outstanding talent.

from MNIK – as always he takes a story and turns it into a huge bhelpuri of emotion.

What’s worse is the sudden rise of a great secular consciousness, that is supposed to be the fulcrum of the media buzz: is understanding Islam, the issues of immigrant Muslims or American xenophobia so simple? Can the travails of a single Muslim protagonist sum up the difficult and tortured history of a decade?

It is saddening to think that an actor with the intelligence and ability of Shah Rukh would need to play this over-hyped secular card ( aided by the stupid Shiv Sena controversy)to push his film – the iconification of Shah Rukh and KJO by the mainstream media as newly minted liberal, emancipated minds is the kind of thing, our media today specializes in – take a story that has the basic potential of arousing the most normal or primal human emotions and milk, milk and milk it dry – in the process create heroes or icons, prop them up, bombard the respondents with them until everybody feels this is the only reality.

Finally, a word on KJO’S obsession with America: we all know, the country and its pop culture is at the apex of mass consciousness, thanks to Hollywood and cable television, but to set every film in the U.S., to constantly play a sycophantic fan boy drooling over the wonders of the West and to solve the world’s problems only in their backyards( when South Asia is actually your principal audience) is pure wish fulfillment, escapist and glossed up, hyper-reality, intending to only make you feel good and do nothing much else.

Gopalkrishnan is also a film-enthusiast and cine-phile credited with starting off an indigenous film culture in Kerala with the ‘Chitralekha film society’ that has since then triggered a wave of art-films and film-makers.

Gopalkrishnan’s style is taut and specific, planned down to the last detail – indeed his work is like one gigantic body, knitted and held together by the vision of this contemporary great.

RECOMMENDED VIEWING: Swayamvaram(1972) Kodiyettam(1977) Elippathayam (1981) Mukhamukham (1984) Anantharam (1987) Mathilukal (1990) Vidheyan (1993) Kathapurushan (1995) Naala pennungal (2007) Kindle

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KEEP OFF THE GRASS

Engineered Veggies:

Bt it

In the world of environmental politics, something as insignificant and purple as a brinjal can bring the environment ministry to its knees. Rohit Roy finds out why. hy are Indian lives so dispensable to the global food and health industry? Surely the plight of a farmer in Tamil Nadu or a consumer in Delhi is of no less concern than people in the first world. And yet, when, GM crops the world over are being systematically banned for their health concerns to the average citizen, and for their environmental repercussions, India chooses to perform what can only be described as a political gaffe with the Bt brinjal.

Alarmingly, this seems to be one of those classic cases of repeating one’s mistakes. A few years ago the same companies, that are now looking to market Bt brinjal seeds (Mahyco of India and Monsanto of the US), were responsible for the entire Bt cotton fiasco. Billed to be crops impervious to external risks they are now largely considered a monumental failure. Not only were they ineffective against certain worms, but sadly, their failure resulted in the spate of suicides of cotton farmers in southern Indian states.

The reason for such a fiasco was insufficient testing. One would imagine that in a country of over 2 billion consumers, satisfactory product testing would be obligatory. Yet it is a factor that can easily be overcome by greasing the palms of some well chosen politicians. After all, what are the lives of a few farmers in exchange for unfettered commercial growth?

The only problem is, the stakes in the case of Bt brinjal are supremely higher. In the event of adverse repercussions, it is not just the producer who gets affected this time. Consumers (this means you and me) running into millions could be subjected to health hazards.

The problems with Bt brinjal are twofold. There are, firstly, the inherent problems attached to all GM crops. GM seeds are controlled by MNCs. Large conglomerates control what can almost be described as cartels and this pretty much means that these companies control pricing. India has already had a problem of high pricing with medicines and yet we seem to be inviting the same dynamics, with open arms, for GMOs. In an almost colonial familiarity, poor farmers will be forced to pay higher prices for seeds that may just turn out to be bird feed.

Moreover GMOs have environmental repercussions. They are manmade invasive species that tend to eradicate less commercially viable plants. They are also instrumental in tipping the ecological balance of a system by affecting flora and fauna, dependant on them.

However, the more immediate problem is with Bt brinjal itself.

It appears to be a hastily developed product with distressingly insufficient testing carried out on it. The brinjal works on the

W

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principal of having its DNA infused with a pesticidal toxin producing genome. In other words every single cell in the vegetable is loaded with potentially harmful and untested pesticides. It is of great concern then that the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC), formed to watch over such issues, could so easily lend its approval to the commercial sale of Bt brinjal seeds. What is even more disconcerting is that, the only truly independent member of the GEAC, appointed by the Supreme Court, declared that many necessary bio safety tests had not been carried out.

However, it is a pleasing testimony to the UPA government’s relative respect towards the democratic process that the Bt brinjal was subjected to such levels of public scrutiny. This has resulted in a moratorium on the commercial release of Bt brinjal until an independent scientific enquiry can conclusively establish Bt brinjal to be safe for consumption. However this is only a breather. The only foolproof way to ensure such dangerous products do not reach our tables is for us as consumers to reject it. As for me, if I want toxins in my baingan bharta, the dirty kitchens of the local dhaba are good enough.

Let’s keep the Americans out of it, thank you very much.

TECHNOLOGY

Welcome to the CLOUD Pratik Udeshi takes you through the next generation of innovation.

Imagine that you are on your way to one of the most important client meetings. Something that is critical for your company and will also help you leapfrog in your career. You haven’t slept last night because you wanted to make sure that your presentation was the best. You reach the office. The presentation is just about to begin and as you try starting your laptop… you see the blue screen of death. To your horror, the operating system of your laptop has crashed, taking all your valuable data with it, including your presentation!

It is said that the web is the operating system of the future and Cloud computing is what makes this possible, The term cloud is actually used as a metaphor for the Internet, based on the cloud drawing used to depict the Internet in computer network diagrams.

The technical definition of cloud computing is "a computing capability that provides an abstraction between the computing resource and its underlying technical architecture (e.g., servers, storage, networks), enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction."

Cloud computing is an emerging technology in which data – documents, email messages, photographs, etc. – and applications – word processing and spreadsheets, for instance – are stored in cyberspace and not on an individual’s computer.

Infrastructure-as-a-Service like Amazon Web Services provides virtual server instances with unique IP addresses and blocks of storage on demand. Customers use the provider's Application Program Interface (API) to access and configure their virtual servers and storage. In the enterprise, cloud computing allows a company to pay for only as much capacity as is needed, and bring more online as soon as required. Because this pay-for-whatyou-use model resembles the way electricity, fuel and water are consumed, it's sometimes referred to as utility computing.

Platform-as-a-service in the cloud is defined as a set of software and product development tools hosted on the provider's infrastructure. Developers create applications on the provider's platform over the Internet. PaaS providers may use APIs, website portals or gateway software installed on the customer's computer.

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Force.com, (an outgrowth of Salesforce.com) and GoogleApps are examples of PaaS. In the software-as-a-service cloud model, the vendor supplies the hardware infrastructure, the software product and interacts with the user through a front-end portal. SaaS is a very broad market. Services can be anything from Web-based email to inventory control and database processing. Because the service provider hosts both the application and the data, the end user is free to use the service from anywhere.

In cloud computing, you don’t own the infrastructure but you pay as you use or even rent it and lower costs continue to remain one of the biggest selling points.

Some see this loss of control as a negative, but the pros out-weigh the cons in a big way. To start with, the capital expenses on infrastructure reduce thus enabling the company to divert the money to other causes. Also, cloud computing enables the user by making the data universally available, compared to system/ software dependant in the previous case. Though, performance and down time could be issues that are out of control and sometimes could cause havoc, you can solve that issue for a slight premium with some service providers.

One other major topic of discussion has also been around data security. However, cloud helps most of the SME’s improve on this front by a huge margin and be at par for their bigger cousins.

Cloud computing is expected to change the face of enterprise solutions in the days to come and with companies like G o o g l e , Salesforce and Amazon leading the way. This revolution is unstoppable!

Thoughts that

Kindle

My DVD collection is incomplete without:

I AM NOT A MOVIE BUFF I only binge on: FASHION..BESIDES

THAT ANYTHING THAT IS SWEET LIKE CHOCOLATE Music I wake upto: VOICE OF MY SON Three people I would like to style:

MADONNA….OTHER THAN HER I HAVE STYLED ALL THE REST I WANTED TO Aishwarya or Deepika – The better designer’s muse is:

BOTH ARE MY CLIENTS One person I would never want to design for: I AM NOT

Three places I would like to visit: THE

BAHAMAS, ALASKA AND ARUNACHAL PRADESH A name I would never want to be called by:

OUTDATED I watch TV: WHEN I AM STRESSED

OUT IN THE EVENING TO MAKE ME SLEEP My upcoming projects: RA1 WITH

SHAHRUKH, SOME ADVERTISING PROJECTS WITH VARIOUS STARS AND OF COURSE VOGUE IS MY BABY

THAT MEAN The fashion designer who’s work inspires me: ALEXANDER

MCQUEEN My wardrobe must-have: A PAIR

OF SLIM JEANS, A WHITE GANJEE AND A BOTTLE OF VINTAGE HAWAIINA Books I keep by my bedside: NO

BOOKS…I KEEP MY BLACKBERRY AND A GLASS OF WATER BY THE BEDSIDE

ANAITA SHROFF

ADAJANIA Kindle

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SIGN OFF

FIRE STARTER Sayan Bhattacharya speaks to Lillete Dubey - Theatre person, actor & free thinker - on defining the Indian woman & on the ugliness of the Indian male.

How would you define the Modern Indian woman?

To me a modern Indian woman is anyone who understands that she is as much an individual as a man. The roles of a mother, wife or a sister come later. She should follow her dreams and aspirations unapologetically.

What according to you is a milestone in the history of the feminist movement in India?

Firstly I do not believe in labels like ‘feminist’. Therefore the question of a feminist movement does not arise. Change in the perception about women has been a gradual process and any change should be judged by time.. But a lot is left to be done. It is important to realize that women are not child bearing creatures.

Your thoughts on the Indian male - evolved or regressive?

Well, whether he is a corporate honcho or a farmer in the UP heartland, the Indian male is generally very family conscious and attached to his mother (laughs).

He is full of double standards. He may appreciate the attractive girl on the road but he will take the conventional, homely girl to his mom.

An experience from your childhood, when you've faced any sort of difficulty or prejudice because of your gender?

I am lucky because my mother was a working woman. I did not face any prejudice because of my gender but because I come from a service class background it was very difficult to convince my parents that I could make a living out of theatre. I dabbled in advertising but right from my college days I did theatre.

What are the challenges you've faced as a woman while pursuing theatre?

Once I got married and my kids were born, I put theatre on hold for a while. But as they grew up, I formed my own theatre group.

I have always met challenges that are self created rather than from the outside.

Your thoughts on the role of female actors in Hindi cinema?

Commercial Hindi cinema has little scope for the female actor, more so for middle aged actors like us. Unlike in the West where Meryl Streep essays such complex characters in film after film, we are reduced to cardboard cut outs here. The Pareshes, Naseers and Oms still get meaty character roles but where are the parts for us?

Meaty roles are hard to come by. So theatre gives me the creative satisfaction that films cannot.

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RNI applied for. Vol 2 Issue 8 March ’10 Rs 30