Ama Khan Bhopali - The Orkut Group

Once upon a time, in the era of pre high speed internet, their used to be a phonomena called Yahoo Chat. Yahoo! Chat was not just about making connections. It actually fueled the economy, by building the cybercafe business in India. College and school kids would come to cybercafes, in groups, and huddle over one Pentium machine, giggling and nudging each other. 

Soon Yahoo!, the company itself began to die under the onslaught of Google. By then however, another heavy weight of social networking was rising. Orkut. With its profile pictures and real names, considered more trustworthy than Yahoo!, flourished during this time. Orkut brought a whole set of new vocabulary like Friending, Unfriending, Blocking, Scrapping, Testimonials.

Assembly Elections 2013

The voters of Madhya Pradesh are being given a stark choice: pick between a caring Mama (maternal uncle) and a man whom the masses address as Maharaj (king) because of his royal roots. BJP chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, 54, is projecting himself as a “farmer’s son” who will “serve” and not “rule”. He is seeking a third term saying kings in their palaces know or care little about the people. Jyotiraditya Scindia, 42, a royal scion educated at Harvard and Stanford, is silently countering the charge by cultivating the image of a mass leader. The Congress chief campaigner moves around in an open jeep, leaning across and stretching his arms out to shake hands with people in the streets. His plea: throw out the corrupt Shivraj government. Each has distinct advantages and weaknesses. The “tried and tested” Shivraj acquired the “Mama” tag after the success of his Ladli Laxmi Yojna, under which the state gives a girl child over Rs 1 lakh in instalments till she turns 21. His problem is that most of his colleagues are seen as corrupt. “Shivraj is in our hearts but his ministers and MLAs are thieves,” said Banwarilal Shak in Gwalior city.
Jyotiraditya’s problem is that a faction-ridden Congress, despite putting up a united face in recent months, has balked at declaring him its candidate for chief minister.

“As chief minister, he will certainly do well, but will the Congress make him the chief minister? It has too many kings in its ranks,” said a doubtful Suraj Singh, sarpanch of Baretha gram panchayat in Gwalior. His allusion was to the known differences between Jyotiraditya and fellow Congress royal Digvijaya Singh. Shivraj knows his ministers are pulling him down; so he is trying to blur his team out of the picture. “If you don’t elect the MLAs, how will I become chief minister?” he pleads with folded hands. But while some of his government’s schemes have been popular, the failure of many others has earned Shivraj the nickname of “Sapno ka saudagar” (seller of dreams). So, Shivraj has been left playing the Mama vs Maharaj card. “All the kings have joined hands (in the Congress). But they live in forts while I am your servant and live among you,” he says.

Before Shit Hits The Fan

Some time back, while surveying the low income areas of Madhya Pradesh to start a sanitation project, an woman member of  NGO stopped by one of the houses to drink water. However, she was taken aback to see the women of house looking horrified as she drank an entire glass of water. When she asked the reason for their surprise, she was told that, no matter how thirsty they were, women in that area could never take the risk of drinking a full glass of water at one go during the day. Surprisingly, it was not the quality of the water that compelled women to drink less of it, but their 'imprisonment by daylight'. With no toilets inside the house or in the village, women and girls must go to the nearby fields to relieve themselves. But modesty forbids them to do so during the daytime when they are in full view of men. They have no choice but to limit themselves to a few sips of water all day, so that they can wait until dark before needing to use the fields. Although sometimes a newlywed woman leaves her husband's home and returns only after a toilet is built, largely the women folk of India remained "Imprisoned by Daylight".

In the shadow of its new suburbs, torrid growth and 300-million-plus-strong middle class, India is struggling with a sanitation emergency. From the stream in village to the nation’s holiest river, the Ganges, 75 percent of the country’s surface water is contaminated by human and agricultural waste and industrial effluent. Everyone in Indian cities is at risk of consuming human feces, if they’re not already, the Ministry of Urban Development concluded. A report by the WHO and the UNICEF says that India has a shocking number of 58% of all people who defecate in the open. China and Indonesia share the second place with just 5% of their population not having toilets. Pakistan and Ethiopia are third with 4.5% such people.

Bhopal To Mars

Meet 31-year-old Vinod Kotiya from Bhopal, who dreams of making it to Mars and settle on the planet permanently.

Kotiya is among 31 Indians who have applied for a one-way ticket to Mars. Vinod Kotiya from Bhopal dreams of making it to Mars and settle on the planet permanently. In the category of Indian applicants he is reportedly currently leading in the first round of the selection procedure with four stars.

The Mars One Foundation is a Dutch non-profit organisation that claims that it will establish a permanent human settlement on Mars in 2023. As per the procedure as laid down in the form for making it to the planet the applicants have to clear four rounds to become a part of the team that will leave the first human footprints on Mars.

Kotiya, a manager posted at NTPC, Delhi happens to be the first Indian who applied for the extraterrestrial experiment. Talking to Hindustan Times on phone Kotiya said, "A one-way mission to Mars is about exploring a new world like Christopher Columbus and Vasco-de-Gama had done. It is an opportunity to conduct the most revolutionary research ever conceived, to build a new home for humans on another planet.” "I am ready to endure every difficulty because this will be the flight carrying me to my dream. I always wanted to be an astronaut but I couldn't succeed. But through Mars One project, I can become a Mars astronaut," Kotiya added. In the first round, applicants will be selected on the basis of their popularity level and answers to certain questions. Kotiya is leading the popularity graph in India group of applicants and is quite confident that he will get selected for the second round.

"This is a one-way ticket so there is no possibility of returning to Earth. I have a one-year-old daughter. This has created a panic too in my family. My wife has asked me not to go ahead with this project but I think this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," Kotiya said.

Talking about the extremely cold weather condition on Mars and the chances of his survival, Kotiya said, "I have worked on a hydro power project in the Himalayan region where I had to provide basic IT infrastructure in a difficult hilly terrain for six years. So, I am not afraid of the cold climate. " On the words doing the rounds that the project would never take off he said people should have a positive mindset. Success might come or not but what was necessary that one should take an initiative to explore new world.

 -Shruti Tomar, Hindustan Times

Neglecting flu may prove risky in Bhopal

Don't let your guard down if tested negative for H1N1. In the past two weeks about a dozen people in the city have been diagnosed with influenza A and B, the strains of which complicate respiratory disorders in a similar way as it happens in case of swine flu.

Though Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) laboratory in Jabalpur has been testing three strains of H1N1, influenza A and B - it has just been informing about H1N1 status. However, this changed last week after a senior health official was tested suspected for H1N1.

Senior health official had all symptoms of swine flu but his test report was negative. To calm down him, ICMR officials released his complete diagnostics wherein he was positive for influenza A, a less harmful variant of swine flu, said Neeru Singh, director, Jabalpur Regional Centre of the ICMR.

Taking a queue from the precedent, the District Integrated Disease Surveillance Project (IDSP) started demanding similar reports from all patients. "In the last two weeks about dozen patients have tested positive for influenza A and B in Bhopal. We are complying data to generate trends," said district epidemiologist Rashmi Jain.

Bhopal has reported 34 H1N1 positive cases, which caused nine deaths this year. An analysis of deaths due to other influenza strains is not available with the IDSP.

- TNN

Shahrukh Khan's article in Outlook

The following is the article about which much offence is being exchanged - locally,nationally and internationally. I could not find anything offensive, in fact I just loved the article.  Can some body please point out the offensive parts for me?

"I am an actor. Time does not frame my days with as much conviction as images do. Images rule my life. Moments and memories imprint themselves on my being in the form of the snapshots that I weave into my expression. The essence of my art is the ability to create images that resonate with the emotional imagery of those watching them.

I am a Khan. The name itself conjures multiple images in my mind too: a strapping man riding a horse, his reckless hair flowing from beneath a turban tied firm around his head. His ruggedly handsome face marked by weathered lines and a distinctly large nose.

A stereotyped extremist; no dance, no drink, no cigarette tipping off his lips, no monogamy, no blasphemy; a fair, silent face beguiling a violent fury smoldering within. A streak that could even make him blow himself up in the name of his God.
Then there is the image of me being shoved into a back room of a vast American airport named after an American president (another parallel image: of the president being assassinated by a man named lee, not a Muslim thankfully, nor Chinese as some might imagine! I urgently shove the image of the room out of my head). 
Some stripping, frisking and many questions later, I am given an explanation (of sorts): “Your name pops up on our system, we are sorry”. “So am I,” I think to myself, “Now can I have my underwear back please?”
Then, there is the image I most see, the one of me in my own country: being acclaimed as a megastar, adored and glorified, my fans mobbing me with love and apparent adulation.

I am a Khan.

I could say I fit into each of these images: I could be a strapping six feet something – ok something minus, about three inches at least, though I don’t know much about horse-riding. A horse once galloped off with me flapping helplessly on it and I have had a “no horse-riding” clause embedded in my contracts ever since.

I am extremely muscular between my ears, I am often told by my kids, and I used to be fair too, but now I have a perpetual tan or as I like to call it ‘olive hue’ – though deep In the recesses of my armpits I can still find the remains of a fairer day. I am handsome under the right kind of light and I really do have a “distinctly large” nose. It announces my arrival in fact, peeking through the doorway just before I make my megastar entrance. But my nose notwithstanding, my name means nothing to me unless I contextualize it.

Stereotyping and contextualizing is the way of the world we live in: a world in which definition has become central to security. We take comfort in defining phenomena, objects and people – with a limited amount of knowledge and along known parameters. The predictability that naturally arises from these definitions makes us feel secure within our own limitations.

We create little image boxes of our own. One such box has begun to draw its lid tighter and tighter at present. It is the box that contains an image of my religion in millions of minds. 

I encounter this tightening of definition every time moderation is required to be publicly expressed by the Muslim community in my country. Whenever there is an act of violence in the name of Islam, I am called upon to air my views on it and dispel the notion that by virtue of being a Muslim, I condone such senseless brutality. I am one of the voices chosen to represent my community in order to prevent other communities from reacting to all of us as if we were somehow colluding with or responsible for the crimes committed in the name of a religion that we experience entirely differently from the perpetrators of these crimes.

I sometimes become the inadvertent object of political leaders who choose to make me a symbol of all that they think is wrong and unpatriotic about Muslims in india. There have been occasions when I have been accused of bearing allegiance to our neighboring nation rather than my own country – this even though I am an Indian whose father fought for the freedom of India. Rallies have been held where leaders have exhorted me to leave my home and return to what they refer to as my “original homeland”.
Of course, I politely decline each time, citing such pressing reasons as sanitation words at my house preventing me from taking the good shower that’s needed before undertaking such an extensive journey. I don’t know how long this excuse will hold though.

I gave my son and daughter names that could pass for generic (pan-Indian and pan-religious) ones: Aryan and Suhana. The Khan has been bequeathed by me so they can’t really escape it. I pronounce it from my epiglottis when asked by Muslims and throw the Aryan as evidence of their race when non-Muslims enquire. 

I imagine this will prevent my offspring from receiving unwarranted eviction orders and random fatwas in the future. It will also keep my two children completely confused. Sometimes, they ask me what religion they belong to and, like a good Hindi movie hero, I roll my eyes up to the sky and declare philosophically, “You are an Indian first and your religion is humanity”, or sing them an old Hindi film ditty, “Tu Hindu banega na Musalmaan banega – insaan ki aulaad hai insaan banega” set to Gangnam Style.

None of this informs them with any clarity, it just confounds them some more and makes them deeply wary of their father.

In the land of the freed, where I have been invited on several occasions to be honored, I have bumped into ideas that put me in a particular context. I have had my fair share of airport delays for instance.

I became so sick of being mistaken for some crazed terrorist who coincidentally carries the same last name as mine that I made a film, subtly titled My name is Khan (and I am not a terrorist) to prove a point. Ironically, I was interrogated at the airport for hours about my last name when I was going to present the film in America for the first time.
I wonder, at times, whether the same treatment is given to everyone whose last name just happens to be McVeigh (as in Timothy)??

I don’t intend to hurt any sentiments, but truth be told, the aggressor and taker of life follows his or her own mind. It has to nothing to do with a name, a place or his/her religion. It is a mind that has its discipline, its own distinction of right from wrong and its own set of ideologies. In fact, one might say, it has its own “religion”. This religions has nothing to do with the ones that have existed for centuries and been taught in mosques or churches. The call of the azaan or the words of the pope have no bearing on this person’s soul. His soul is driven by the devil. I, for one, refuse to be contextualized by the ignorance of his ilk. 

I am a Khan.

I am neither six-feet-tall nor handsome (I am modest though) nor am I a Muslim who looks down on other religions. I have been taught my religion by my six-foot-tall, handsome Pathan ‘Papa’ from Peshawar, where his proud family and mine still resides. He was a member of the no-violent Pathan movement called Khudai Khidamatgaar and a follower of both Gandhiji and Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan, who was also known as the Frontier Gandhi.

My first learning of Islam from him was to respect women and children and to uphold the dignity of every human being. I learnt that the property and decency of others, their points of view, their beliefs, their philosophies and their religions were due as much respect as my own and ought to be accepted with an open mind. I learnt to believe in the power and benevolence of Allah, and to be gentle and kind to my fellow human beings, to give of myself to those less privileged than me and to live a life full of happiness, joy, laughter and fun without impinging on anybody else’s freedom to live in the same way.
So I am a Khan, but no stereotyped image is factored into my idea of who I am. Instead, the living of my life has enabled me to be deeply touched by the love of millions of Indians. I have felt this love for the last 20 years regardless of the fact that my community is a minority within the population of India. I have been showered with love across national and cultural boundaries, from Suriname to Japan and Saudi Arabia to Germany, places where they don’t even understand my language. They appreciate what I do for them as an entertainer – that’s all. My life has led me to understand and imbibe that love is a pure exchange, untempered by definition and unfettered by the narrowness of limiting ideas. If each one of us allowed ourselves the freedom to accept and return love in its purity, we would need no image boxes to hold up the walls of our security. 

I believe that I have been blessed with the opportunity to experience the magnitude of such a love, but I also know that its scale is irrelevant. In our own small ways, simply as human beings, we can appreciate each other for how touch our lives and not how our different religions or last names define us.

Beneath the guise of my superstardom, I am an ordinary man. My Islamic stock does not conflict with that of my Hindu wife’s. The only disagreements I have with Gauri concern the color of the walls in our living room and not about the locations of the walls demarcating temples from mosques in India.
We are bringing up a daughter who pirouettes in a leotard and choreographs her own ballets. She sings western songs that confound my sensibilities and aspires to be an actress. She also insists on covering her head when in a Muslim nation that practices this really beautiful and much misunderstood tenet of Islam.
Our son’s linear features proclaim his Pathan pedigree although he carries his own, rather gentle mutations of the warrior gene. He spends all day either pushing people asie at rugby, kicking some butt at Tae Kwon Do or eliminating unknown faces behind anonymous online gaming handles around the world with The Call of Duty video game. And yet, he firmly admonishes me for getting into a minor scuffle at the cricket stadium in Mumbai last year because some bigot make unsavory remarks about me being a Khan.

The four of us make up a motley representation of the extraordinary acceptance and validation that love can foster when exchanged within the exquisiteness of things that are otherwise defined ordinary.

For I believe, our religion is an extremely personal choice, not a public proclamation of who we are. It’s as person as the spectacles of my father who passed away some 20 years ago. Spectacles that I hold onto as my most prized and personal possession of his memories, teachings and of being a proud Pathan. I have never compared those with my friends, who have similar possessions of their parents or grandparents. I have never said my father’s spectacles are better than your mother’s saree. So why should we have this comparison in the matter of religion, which is as personal and prized a belief as the memories of your elders. Why should not the love we share be the last word in defining us instead of the last name? It doesn’t take a superstar to be able to give love, it just takes a heart and as far as I know, there isn’t a force on this earth that can deprive anyone of theirs.

I am a Khan, and that’s what it has meant being one, despite the stereotype images that surround me. To be a Khan has been to be loved and love back – that the promise that virgins wait for me somewhere on the other side.

- Shah Rukh Khan, Outlook Turning Points 2013

Tiger Tourism And A Prayatna From Bhopal

Over the past two years, a simply dressed, soft-spoken man from Bhopal has almost single-handedly managed to rattle India’s powerful tiger tourism industry.

When Ajay Dubey, a 36-year-old activist, filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Madhya Pradesh high court in September 2010 to promote the conservation of India’s dwindling tiger population, he had three demands.

First, Madhya Pradesh’s six tiger reserves should notify their core and buffer areas— core denoting critical habitats for the tiger, and buffer referring to areas where human settlements are allowed to coexist with tigers.

Second, tourism should be banned in the core areas in line with the Wildlife Protection Act.

And third, that the tiger conservation plan specified by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) should be implemented in Madhya Pradesh.

The court rejected Dubey’s second, and most provocative, suggestion in January 2011, although it is still considering the others. Undeterred, Dubey filed a special leave petition in the Supreme Court six months later. His persistence paid off. On 24 July, the apex court issued an unexpected and unprecedented interim ban on tourism in the core areas of all 41 tiger reserves in India. The tourism industry reeled. Dubey says it was a turning point in his life. “My main concern is to make sure that tigers in this country get their rights back,” said Dubey, whose activism has extended beyond the welfare of jungle cats over the past 10 years. “Just like people fight for human rights, I am fighting for tiger rights.” There were around 4,000 tigers in the wild in the 1990s, according to government estimates. Their number has now come down to 1,706, according to the tiger census conducted by NTCA. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court pulled up the government for the decrease in the number of tigers in the country from 13,000 to 1,700. They might have been referring to the number of tigers in the country in early 1990s.

The tiger tourism industry in India is worth more than Rs.1,000 crore, and many of its representatives, vehemently protesting the ban, have now turned on its instigator. Dubey said he has been receiving hate SMSes, phone calls, emails and Facebook messages from various people. “There’s a page on Facebook called ‘tiger ban’, which calls me an enemy of the tiger,” he said. Though mild mannered, Dubey is capable of extreme focus and he knows how to dig his heels in when necessary. A year after completing his Masters in business administration from Bhopal University in 2000, the young graduate started his own non-governmental organization (NGO) called Prayatna, which translates as effort. His interest in activism overwhelmed everything else, he said. Although Dubey had never been very interested in family life, he eventually married in March last year at the insistence of his mother. Dubey now lives in Bhopal, the city of his birth, with his mother, wife and a three-month-old daughter. His wife Rupali, a PhD student in Sanskrit, said Dubey was a workaholic and often away travelling. But as the daughter of a police officer, Rupali said she’s been used to erratic work schedules since childhood. “To win some, you have to lose some,” she said, adding that her husband’s work will always have priority over his family. Dubey’s own father was a government official and a nature lover. “He always believed that you don’t need to be a part of the system to bring a change in society. Being an alert citizen helps as much,” Dubey said. His own journey as an alert citizen got a boost in 2005, when he started using the Right to Information Act to obtain facts on issues such as which police officers were being transferred on the basis of recommendations by politicians in Madhya Pradesh. He campaigned against plastic waste, illegal mining and industrial pollution. Dubey’s NGO filed its first PIL in 2005, but it was the one against illegal mining in the Madhya Pradesh high court that made him famous in the state. In 2008, the court ordered that all mines that did not have the requisite environment clearances, and air and water consents should be shut until they could obtain them. “The state government also benefited and they were able to collect the revenue which had been pending for years from these mines,” Dubey said.

Still, Dubey worried that people might question his credentials. “I still remember that I sold off a portion of our farm...to have enough funds to start the NGO,” he said, referring to his family’s ancestral home in Chhattisgarh. The NGO now runs on money donated by private parties, he said, but background checks are done on donors before any money is accepted. “We have around 500 people working with us for various causes in MP (Madhya Pradesh), but most of them are part-timers and volunteers. We only have a full-time staff of 14,” he said. Dubey admits that his new role as a tiger crusader has not gone down as well with some of the more prominent tiger conservationists in India. “A lot of them have claimed that I am a newcomer in the field of environment and wildlife, and I don’t understand the issues well enough,” he said. “These senior tiger activists don’t want anyone new to enter in their domain and they are upset because their inability to conserve tigers in the country is now being exposed.” Vishal Singh, managing director of Delhi-based Travel Operators for Tigers India lobby group, which is fighting the case against Dubey in the Supreme Court, called him a “publicity monger”. “Ajay Dubey will be responsible for the loss of livelihood of 10,000 people in just Madhya Pradesh,” Singh said. In his defence, Dubey argued it is the city-based tour operators and not the forest dwellers who earn the most from the resorts around tiger reserves. “I have seen cases where tribals living in a reserve do not even have drinking water, and these resorts change the water in their swimming pools every day,” he said. He dismissed well-known tiger conservationists such as Belinda Wright and Valmik Thapar, who have declared themselves to be against the ban.

“Had they been genuinely concerned about tigers in the country, they would have also raised the issues that I have now raised,” Dubey said. “I don’t understand how the tiger numbers in the country have gone down if there are so many conservationists in the country.” Sushil Levi, Dubey’s childhood friend and co-worker at Prayatna, was not surprised that his colleague has found fame. “Since childhood, we wanted to do some  positive work so that the whole country knows our name and recognizes us,” he said. Raka Arya, an assistant professor at the National Law Institute University in Bhopal, said the biggest advantage for Dubey has been that he used legal advocacy in the right way from the start. Arya has known Dubey for around four years now and said he would regularly recruit student volunteers from their law school to help him with his work. “Even now, one of the lawyers fighting the tiger case in the Supreme Court is a graduate of this law school,” she added. Dubey said legal advocacy has helped him wage battles against many powerful people in the country, including the mining mafia of Madhya Pradesh. “But the tiger tourism case is more of a war,” he said.  

-Neha Sethi

A case for better tomorrow

Recently a prominent academician of Bhopal asked what should be done about the complaint of industry that the students being provided for a job are not suitable and it is extremely difficult to find suitable candidates for any given position, the reference point being IT /ITES sector. We discussed briefly about the mushrooming of an industry around this need called “Finishing school” and their providing of services like polishing the presentation of the candidate. The discussion then veered towards different topic.

However, what could be the way out? This is a serious issue facing the nation and I am sure there are fine intellectuals who are pondering over this issue. Here is my two pennies worth opinion about the same

Today we teach modern technology subjects using basically the same same technology as this 14th century classroom in the painting below. Note the textbook the teacher on the stage and the sleeping guy in the back.

The modern technologies available to us today should be utilized better.

Private and Government Schools

The phenomena of Indian parents sending their children to private school, no matter whether they are rich or poor, isn’t just happening in big cities. It has spread to towns and villages, as well.

I recently visited the village of Badichurlay, about a three-hour drive from Indore, in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. The village has about 3,000 people and agriculture dominates the local economy. It is connected to the rest of the country by all-weather roads and is connected to the electricity grid. Badichurlay is neither rich, nor deprived.

The village, with just around 600 school-aged children, has three government schools and three private schools.

Bhopal Remembers Chawanni

As the humble chawanni receives a nostalgia-soaked send-off from many Indians following the Reserve Bank’s refusal to give it any more quarter, some are ready to put up a last stand for the little guy-turned overnight hero.

A BJP activist from Indore has moved court alleging the 25-paisa coin’s withdrawal from June 30 is illegal, while many others are dismayed at the silence of politicians and civil society on what they see as a “momentous decision with major financial implications”.

One hitch is already being encountered in Madhya Pradesh’s post offices, which are charging 50 paise for the 25-paisa stamps that carry Jawaharlal Nehru’s picture and are used mainly to send medical literature and newspapers by book-post.

Paan shops and small groceries have been rounding off the bills, as are petrol pumps for those two-wheeler riders who buy in small amounts. Neighbourhood photocopiers have raised the rate from 75 paise to a full rupee, the bara aana now having died with its lifeblood, the chawanni.

If all this sounds like small change, Bhopal-based industrialist and former head of a chamber of commerce, Rajendra Kothari, disagrees. He estimates that consumers in Madhya Pradesh would be losing Rs 700 crore a year because the 25-paisa coin has been abolished as legal tender.

His charge against finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, under whose watch the decision came, is that “no thought was given” to the fact that levies like service tax and value-added tax are calculated “in rupees and paise”.

“So, customers are being forced to pay extra for no fault of theirs,” Kothari said.

Bhopal civil judge Varsha Sharma has issued a notice to the RBI after BJP activist Anil Bhargava sought a stay on the chawanni’s withdrawal.

“Even some medicines are priced in rupees and paise. If the government doesn’t want the chawanni, why can it not announce that anything cheaper than 50 paise will not be charged and that anything over 50 paise will cost a whole rupee? It will at least even out customers’ expenses,” Bhargava said.

They will not admit it but at bottom, the reactions of Bhargava and Kothari may have less to do with economic arguments and more with sentimental affection for the underdog and nostalgia for a time when it counted for something.

Since last week, many ordinary Indians and celebrities have flooded social networking sites with laments for the quarter, recalling its role as their “tiffin allowance” at school, good enough to buy an ice-cream or chocolate bar —or at least a lozenge or toffee, if the writers are younger. Older Calcuttans will remember that the lowest tram fare was 25 paise even 30 years ago.

For all that, the use of the coins, introduced in 1950, had already gone down because of inflation and very few people seemed to have any to return to the banks on June 29 (unless they were holding on to them as keepsakes).

By RASHEED KIDWAI

Of Vegetables and Non-vegeterian

A report in Times Of India goes:

The Madhya Pradesh government has banned genetically modified (GM) seeds in the state with agriculture minister Ramkrishna Kusmariya saying that scientifically re-engineered foodgrain and vegetables will become "non-vegetarian" and "end" Indian culture.

The same minister had blamed crop destruction because of heavy winter rains three months ago on the "sins of the farmers".

Kusmariya told reporters in Damoh on Thursday that his department won't permit use of GM seeds in the state because "use of GM seeds would make every grain and vegetable non-vegetarian and end our vegetarian culture". He claimed that "nothing will remain vegetarian if genes and bacteria are infused in the DNA of grains and vegetables".

Ramkrishna Kusmariya had protested to environment minister Jairam Ramesh that GM experiments were being carried out in the state despite a ban, without the government's knowledge.

MP had banned GM seeds which would take away farmers' right to grow crops of their choice, he said in a letter sent to Ramesh earlier this week. Citing experiments in growing corn with GM seeds in Jabalpur, Kusmariya claimed that the Genetical Engineering Approval Committee under MoEF was conducting these tests which could contaminate and harm non-GM seed crop in the area.

@rameshsrivats said on tweeter "Without such ministers, Madhya Pradesh would be just Hya Pradesh."

Bhopal To Bhojpal

"Charaiveti Charaiveti” - Gautam Buddha
(go on, go on, and never stop; become an eternal journey)

The Times of India reported on 18th December 2006 that Jabalpur is being renamed Jabalipuram, and that the MP government is "mulling renaming Bhopal to Bhojpal and Indore to Indur."

Going according to the speed expected of the Government of India a good 4 years hence, the government found an opportunity on 28th February 2011, when the announcement came at an event to mark 1,000 years of the Parmar king who was famous for his sense of justice, scholarship and patronage for education, science, literature and the arts.
Flanking Chauhan was BJP national president Nitin Gadkari and vice-president Venkaiah Naidu. Actor Kabir Bedi anchored the programme while singer Sukhvinder Singh and percussionist Sivamani tuned the decked-out city to the millennium moment.

Bhopal had a good time, with the laser shows, Sukhvinder's singing and Shiva Mani's drums, cleaning up of major squares and roads and of course - traffic jams. The Upper lake - Bada talab - was to be called the Bhojtal from now on.

But not everyone has taken to the name change.In a letter to Union home minister P. Chidambaram, the Opposition Congress said a change of name would affect the composite culture Bhopal has been known for.Congress spokespersons Atul Sharma and Arif Masood both questioned the move. “For over 200 years, Bhopal has been a symbol of Ganga-Jamuni (mixed) culture. This is an attempt to disturb communal harmony,” Masood, a member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, said.

“The town,” he added, “was founded by Afghan chieftain Dost Mohammad Khan in the 18th century. Besides, what’s the use of changing names? People want fresh drinking water, electricity and good roads.” Chief minister Chauhan brushed aside such criticism. “Where is the communal agenda in this? If the name of Bangalore could be changed to Bengaluru, Bombay to Mumbai and Calcutta to Kolkata,” he said, “why can we not change Bhopal to Bhojpal?”

Fellow party man and Bhopal legislator Vishwas Sarang, who first initiated the move to rename the city, said: “The legendary Raja Bhoj, therefore, must get his due with the state capital renamed Bhojpal.” But even if the city does get a new name, it won’t be in a hurry.The process of renaming cities is lengthy and complex. After a state writes to the Centre, the Union home ministry makes an assessment, taking into account historical facts, feelings of elected representatives, non-government organisations, and the implications on communal and social amity.

If the ministry approves of the proposal, it then writes to, among others, the railways, the postal department and the Geological Survey of India for inclusion of the new name on maps and other survey records.

Earlier, Chauhan unveiled a huge statue of Raja Bhoj in one corner of the city’s famous Badatalab lake. The statue was installed on a structure that once formed a part of the outer wall of the old city of Bhopal.

The irony is this fort and the outer wall was built by Dost Mohammad Khan, on which the staue of Raja Bhoj now stands.

"Charaiveti Charaiveti” - Gautam Buddha
(go on, go on, and never stop; become an eternal journey)

Earlier post

Ajab Gazab Ki Kahani

The Ogilvy Mumbai team that created this campaign includes:

Creative Team:

Executive Chairman & Creative Director (South Asia): Piyush Pandey

National Creative Director: Abhijit Avasthi

Creative Director: Pradyumna Chauhan (Copy)

Senior Creative Director: Mahesh Gharat (Art)

Client Servicing:

Vice President: Ajay Menon

Senior Account Executive: Rohit Sharma

Production House:

Foot Candles Film Pvt. Ltd

Director: Vinil Mathew

Ogilvy Mumbai created a new advertisement campaign for MP Tourism with shadow artistes from Bengal bringing Madhya Pradesh Tourism alive through their campaign “MP ajab hai, Sabse gazab hai”.

This campaign, the third in a series of hugely popular and successful campaigns done in the past, is based on the ancient art of shadowgraphy. This art form woven around an earthy and rustic musical jingle captures some of the unique and surprising facts about Madhya Pradesh. 

Like in the past, the current television commercial stays true to the fact that we Indians love our song and dance. Therefore composing a song was an obvious choice, albeit much more challenging this time. Because unlike previous efforts which showcased a multitude of offerings, this time the focus is on fewer destinations - but each one of them having amazing stories built around them. So for instance the song lines were crafted around amazing facts like the hanging of ten elephants from a hall roof to test its strength, communicate that there is a castle which with water bodies on either sides looks like a ship more than a castle and many more. Definitely these are awe-inspiring facts but equally daunting task was to turn them into short and simple song lines. The television jingle has been sung by acclaimed film and television actor, Mr.Raghuvir Yadav, who is a native of Madhya Pradesh himself.

Shadowgraphy or shadow theatre is a unique performing art which today is on the verge of going obsolete. India has a long and rich tradition of Shadow theatre. According to many scholars, this art originated in India. Reference to shadow theatre is found in the Tamil classic Shilappadikaaram. Many Western Indologists such as Pischel, Luders and Winternitz are of the opinion that the well known Sanskrit drama Mahaanaataka was originally written as a play for the shadow theatre. This art form is, thus, at least one thousand years old. It apparently went to Southeast Asia, Turkey and other places from India.

However, the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Mr. Shivraj Singh Chauhan said during  the launching of the promotion campaign, that this campaign is beyond the comprehension of the common people. He agreed that artistically the campaign is accomplished, but added that the campaign is unable to focus on the nuances of M.P. Tourism. The CM appreciated the previous two campaigns and suggested that some changes should be made in this campaign. 

Volkswagen has already used similar theme in their advertisement. No complaints about comprehension was heard about this though

Bollywood – The Reconnect

Bollywood is rediscovering this city of royals, lakes and monuments that offers a scenic and culturally rich backdrop for shooting and exudes hospitality and warmth for film crews. It also pulls filmmakers for the Bhopal gas tragedy that continues to haunt India and the world.
  Anusha Rizvi's hugely acclaimed satirical comedy " Peepli Live", which is also India's Oscar nomination, has a Bhopal connection as it was shot in Badwai on the outskirts of the city.
Well-known filmmaker Sooraj Barjatya flew down here to film his family drama "Ek Vivaah... Aisa Bhi" and Prakash Jha's successful multi-starrer political thriller "Raajneeti" too has the city as the backdrop.
"It's the city's beauty and warmth," said Jha who will shoot his movie "Aarakshan" with Amitabh Bachchan and Saif Ali Khan here again.
"Besides the story of films suiting the locations of Bhopal, I find the people of Bhopal very warm. The administration is both helpful and supportive and that helps me do my work very comfortably," Jha told us.
Bada Talab, Jahanuma Palace, Gauhar Mahal and Kerwa Dam are some of the favourite locations.
Bhopal is well-connected with Mumbai - barely a two-hour flight away - and hotels here are good enough to cater to the needs of the stars.
Manoj Srivastava, commissioner of Bhopal, said: "Its virgin beauty, the warmth of people, disciplined crowds and a supportive administration are actually attracting the Bollywood filmmakers to Bhopal."
Reminiscing an incident, Srivastava said when a well-known actress came here once, she turned up her nose.
"When she landed in Bhopal, she was heard complaining, 'Oh, what a place the director has brought us to.' But after going around the city and the lakes she was mesmerized by the beauty and was forced to say - 'Oh, it's such a beautiful place!"
It's not Bollywood alone that has fallen in love with the city.
This year Ravi Kumar shot "Bhopal: A Prayer for Rain" that chronicles the events around the Dec 2-3, 1984, gas tragedy - the world's worst industrial disaster - in which tonnes of toxic gas leaked from Union Carbide's pesticide plant, killing and maiming thousands.
He shot the yet-to-be released film with a mixed cast that boasts of big Hollywood names like Martin Sheen, Mischa Barton and Kal Penn as well as Indian actors Rajpal Yadav and Tannishtha Chatterjee.
Last month Britain based actor-singer Sofia Hayat joined the cast of "Diary of a Butterfly" in Bhopal. The film is being directed by Vinod Mukhi and produced under the banner of Bhaggyashri Productions in association with Prince Movies.
British filmmaker Michael Anderson's cinematic adaptation of Indra Sinha's famous novel "Animal's People" will have Bhopal as the backdrop.
Highlighting the city's high point, social scientist Shiv Visvanathan said: "Bhopal is a symbol of tradition and modernity together. It has an old and a new city. It has erstwhile royals and is the centre of the country. Now the directors are sensing it and flocking to it."
There are reports that the city will have a film city soon.
"We have a plan to have our own film city. We are in the final stage to identify the land," Culture Minister Laxmikant Sharma told us.
Bhopal also has an old connection with Bollywood celebrities like Jaya Bachchan, Jagdeep and Raza Murad who hail from the city. Veteran writer Javed Akhtar too spent his formative years in the city.
B.R. Chopra's 1957 superhit "Naya Daur" starring Dilip Kumar and Vyjayanthimala was shot outside the city and Dilip Kumar used to practise tonga riding here for his role in the social drama.
It was here that internationally renowned Hollywood-based Indian filmmaker Ismail Merchant based his 1993 directorial debut "In Custody" that starred Shashi Kapoor.
In 1999, "Bhopal Express", a film based on the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy starring Naseeruddin Shah and Kay Kay Menon was shot here. The yet to release Paresh Rawal-Raghuveer Yadav- starrer "Kusar Prasad Ka Bhoot" was also shot here.

- IANS

Related Posts:  Ticket To Bollywood

A Dog's Life

A dog's life couldn't get worse. A mongrel brought up in an upper caste home in Morena was kicked out after the Rajput family members discovered that their Sheru had eaten a roti from a dalit woman and was now an "untouchable". Next, Sheru was tied to a pole in the village's dalit locality. His controversial case is now pending with the district collector, the state police and the Scheduled Caste Atrocities police station in Morena district of north MP.

The black cur, of no particular pedigree, was accustomed to the creature comforts in the home of its influential Rajput owners in Manikpur village in Morena. Its master, identified by the police as Rampal Singh, is a rich farmer with local political connections.

A week ago Sunita Jatav, a dalit woman, was serving lunch to her farm labourer husband. "There was a 'roti' left over from lunch. I saw the dog roaming and fed it the last bread," Sunita said. "But when Rampal Singh saw me feeding the dog and he grew furious. He yelled: 'Cobbler woman, how dare you feed my dog with your roti?' He rebuked me publicly. I kept quiet thinking the matter would end there. But it got worse," she said.

On Monday, Rampal ex-communicated the dog. A village panchayat was called, which decided that Sheru would now have to live with Sunita and her family because it had become an untouchable. Sunita Jatav was fined Rs 15,000.

An outraged Sunita and her brother Nahar Singh Jatav rushed to Sumawali police station. They were directed to take the matter to the SC/ST Atrocities police station in Kalyan. "When we went there, the officer asked us why we fed the dog," recalls Nahar. "So we went to the DSP in the SC/ST Atrocities department and submitted a memorandum to him, as also to the district collector. But no one has registered our FIR so far.

DSP SC/ST Atrocities (Morena), Baldev Singh, recalls, "We got a complaint in which it has been alleged that a dog was declared untouchable and a dalit family fined for feeding it. We are investigating the allegation," said the officer.

Pyar Impossible

The Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court will pronounce its judgement on the 60-year-old Ayodhya title suits on September 24, a decision that may trigger a political fallout. The date for pronouncement of the judgement reserved by a special full bench comprising Justices S.U Khan, Sudhir Agarwal and D V Sharma on July 26, was conveyed to the counsels appearing in the four title suits relating to the disputed site at Ayodhya.

The court will be addressing three issues. One, whether there was a temple at the disputed site, prior to 1538. Two, whether the suit filed by the Babri committee in 1961 is barred by limitation. And third, whether Muslims perfected their title through adverse possession.
The first title suit was filed in 1950 by one Gopal Singh Visharad, seeking an injunction for permitting 'pooja' (worship) of Lord Ram at the disputed site.The first suit goes back to 1885, the year the Indian National Congress was born. The case was revived in 1950. In 1885, the Faizabad deputy commissioner refused to let Mahant Raghubar Das build a temple on land adjoining the disputed structure. Das then filed a title suit in a Faizabad court against the secretary of state for India, seeking permission to build a temple on the Chabutra on the outer courtyard of the disputed structure. His suit was dismissed on the ground that the event (alleged demolition of an original Ram temple in 1528) had occurred over 350 years earlier, and so it was “too late now” to remedy the grievance. “Maintain status quo. Any innovation may cause more harm than any benefit,” the court said.

The second suit was filed by Paramhans Tamchandra Das also in 1950 seeking the same injunction but this was later withdrawn.

The third suit was filed in 1959 by Nirmohi Akhara, seeking direction to hand over the charge of the disputed site from the receiver.

The fourth suit was filed in the 1961 by UP Sunni Central Board of Waqfs for declaration and possession of the site.

The fifth suit was moved on July one, 1989 in the name of Bhagwan Shree Ram Lalla Virajman also for declaration and possession.

With one of these suits having been withdrawn, four title suits remained pending in the Faizabad civil court and in 1989, on an application moved by then then Advocate General of UP, these suits were transferred to the High Court.

So will that be the final word on Ayodhya? Certainly not. There are dozens of other petitions — for access, right to worship or pray, writ petitions and the like. Further more, any party can challenge the verdict in the Supreme Court which, if it admits the appeal, will immediately order status quo. The Supreme Court’s decision will be final unless one of the parties seeks a review — by the same bench — or file a curative petition to an apex court bench of at least five judges. Also remember that the Allahabad high court only began hearings in 1996, and in six years ,had managed to hear only twelve witnesses!

What could be the solution then? The solution, ironically, is obvious to any body who wants to solve the issue. The Government Of India, sadly, does not appear to be one.  
Union Home Minister Buta Singh called a meeting of leaders of all national parties in a bid to find a workable solution on May 16, 1989. The solution proposed by one speaker "The dispute cannot be resolved in a court of law, it should be solved by goodwill from both sides. In this connection, the site under dispute should be handed over to Hindus who, as a goodwill gesture, will maintain the structure as it is, without there being any worship by either community. A temple and mosque should be built near the disputed shrine, to satisfy both communities and restore harmony".

This came from, no not a pseudo-secularist, but from Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

In the deposition of former prime minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh before the Justice Liberhan Commission on November 20, 2001, he testified that during his tenure, Muslim leaders led by Syed Shahabuddin put forward a three-part formula. The community agreed, firstly, to abide by any and all court orders. Second, the Muslims would withdraw all cases relating to all areas other than the one on which the Babri Masjid physically stood. Thirdly, the Muslims would not in any way oppose construction of the Ram temple from the adjoining Ram Chabootra onwards.

As per Singh, negotiations were begun with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in the person of the late Bhaurao Deoras. The meeting took place in the home of RSS sympathiser and media baron Ramnath Goenka. Deoras on that occasion made an oral statement, which was then typed out and signed. In it, Deoras said that though the Ram Janambhoomi belonged to the Hindus, "it did not behove the Hindu ethos to demolish any place of worship". Therefore, the Hindu community would react favourably to the Muslim proposal for construction of the temple in the area immediately abutting the masjid.

News of the imminent solution, leaked out to the Congress. That party by then had begun seeing nightmares of a possible axis between the Janata Dal and the BJP, supported by the 'secular' left. In order to counteract it, Rajiv Gandhi went to the VHP's Ashok Singhal with a "better proposal" - shilanyas.

In 2003, the Prayag Peeth Shankaracharya, Swami Madhawananda Saraswati, had agreed to the building of a temple and a mosque within the area in question in Ayodhya.
Workable solutions have been found, and then scuttled by one party or another with a vested interest in keeping the pot boiling.

However when the pot boiled over, the leaders were seen asking for protection themselves.
Like on October 31, 1991, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bharatiya Janata Party leaders address thousands of karsevaks who have assembled in Ayodhya at their behest. The speakers range from VHP President Ashok Singhal to BJP leader L K Advani -- but the message is the same. 'You have given us power in Uttar Pradesh. And in return, the Kalyan Singh government has acquired the land, handed it over to the Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas for temple construction, and even performed a bhoomi pujan for the second pillar of the main entrance. Now we need you to go back home and work to bring the BJP to power at the Centre -- only then can we remove all obstacles and construct the temple here.'The karsevaks who had travelled to Ayodhya from remote corners of the country, and in the preceeding days been primed to the gills with emotional and religious fervour, were outraged. They had come to work for the Ram temple, not to listen to political propaganda.They expressed their disgust through abuse hurled at the leaders (Bajrang Dal chief Vinay Katiyar barely escaped physical assault on that occasion), and followed it up by breaking the security cordon, clambering atop the Babri Masjid, and hoisting a saffron flag on top of it.
On December 6, 1992, the Babri Masjid was demolished. In its aftermath, the BJP and the VHP repeatedly said that it was 'a spontaneous reaction' by the assembled faithful. So what were the karsevaks 'spontaneously reacting' to? Disappointment. Yet again, they had been brought together from various parts of the country, yet again an enormous amount of emotional energy and religious fervour had been whipped up, and yet again, they found themselves watching a token ceremony and listening to a lot of speeches. Enough is enough, they said as they proceeded to storm the masjid and say it with pickaxes and hammers.

On March 15, 2002, yet again, this time braving the most stringent security clampdown yet witnessed in the region, a few hundred karsevaks manage to infiltrate into Ayodhya. Yet again, fervour and emotion are systematically whipped up over the preceding fortnight. Yet again, karsevaks are led to believe that actual construction will commence. The shila daan procession commences. Without warning, Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas president Ramchandra Das Paramhans switches plans, scurries inside his akhara, and announces that he will hand over the shila right there.
The move angers the assembled sadhus and karsevaks. The sadhus abuse the VHP and the mahant - 'Is this why you asked us to assemble here? Is this why you put the people of Ayodhya through so much hardship?' they demand. The karsevaks raise angry slogans accusing the VHP of a sell-out. A housewife makes an angry speech accusing the VHP of corruption and of toying with people's sentiments, and the crowd that had gathered at the behest of the VHP cheers her on. VHP International President Ashok Singhal is reduced to asking the security personnel to clear the akhara premises, to protect him from his followers. He is also forced to ask for the summary ejection of the media. After all, which leader wants prime time viewers to see video footage of himself being abused by his own followers?

We have all been to places where local taxi drivers or relatives we are visiting to point out places where "Hanumanji rested" or "Pandavs came visiting". When travelling in Mathura, locals  would point to a stone and tell that this is where Krishna sat and played the flute, that this little patch of greenery and jacaranda trees is where Radha danced in ecstasy to the divine music. Do you ask for proof? No body does. Hinduism is full of such articles of faith.

The Supreme Court recognized this fact when it sensibly refused to entertain the then government's request that the apex court determine whether Ram was in fact born in Janambhoomi. So let's take that for granted and not waste the court's time raising the question and then producing truckloads of documents purportedly proving it.

One has to clearly understand that the verdict of the court is of interest to the parties involved and not any religious communities. The turmoil and unrest, if any, is for the benefit of political parties.

Dastan E Mahangai Dayan

Aamir Khan's home production Peepli Live has been mostly shot in village Badwai of Raisen district very near Bhopal. Reports go that the song Mehangai Daayan Khaye Jaat Hai  from the film, has become so popular with the audiences that political parties were vying with each other to buy the rights of the number. The song's popularity soared when BJP leader L K Advani reportedly called on Khan to sell them the rights of the song. “The Opposition wants to use it as their theme song for the forthcoming Bihar elections,” said our source.Even Laloo Prasad Yadav has his eyes on the song. He's believed to have said that this is the best song on rising prices he's ever heard. However, Aamir Khan, Producer of the film refused to play the ball with politicians and kept the number solely for his film.

Were these reports part of the promotion program of the film? No body is telling.

Meanwhile, the singers of the song were apparently unhappy with the amount paid for their work.Gayaprasad Prajapati, a teacher from the village Badwai in Madhya Pradesh, has penned the track and sung it along with his troupe. "The crew had come here for shooting and said they want to use the song which I perform with my troupe. Me and the 11 singers were only given 1100 rupees. I feel that it's not a justified amount to be given to a musician, and that's why I have raised my voice against it. We want to be paid Rs 11 lakh", said Prajapati. Aamir Khan got hold of the situation and resolved it by settling the issue at Rs. 6 Lakh and asking them to perform live during the music launch.

Is it so difficult for the political parties with so many village level workers to  pick  up  rural talents to pen their campaign songs?

The movie was mostly shot in village Badwai of Raisen district near Bhopal at a cost of Rs 6 Crores, stars Omkar Das Manikpuri, Raghubir Yadav, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Naseeruddin Shah and Malaika Shenoy in the main roles.The film has already made waves at Sundance  and other film festivals abroad and is expected to be released all over on August 13.

Written and directed by debutante director Anusha Rizvi, the film is a satire on the farmers' suicides and subsequent media and political response in the country.

However a more interesting person related to the film is Mahmood Farooqui, the co-director and the casting director of Peepli Live. Mahmood Farooqui studied history in India and at the university of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. Over the last four years he has worked to revive Dastangoi, the lost art of storytelling in Urdu, also known as Dastan-e Amir Hamza.

Now as Bhopal has figured in the radar of this talented couple, here is hoping Bhopal gets a performance of the Dastangoi some time soon.