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February 26 Whether they are in slums or chandeliered living rooms, Indian communities add to the cosmopolitan sheen of Bangladesh’s capitalHowever, Telugus are not the only non-Bangla community in Dhaka. There are many more. Together, they not only help Dhaka wear its cosmopolitan look, but also dispel the myth that all  the non-Muslim communities in Bangladesh have been either prosecuted or expelled. Seetha Shankari is an elderly member from the 50,000-strong Shankari community from Karnataka. These extraordinary jewellers of Dhaka came with the entourage of Ballal Sen in the late 17th century. The latter was a Bengal ruler whose ancestors were Kannadiga kings. Since centuries, families like those of Seetha have worked as jewellers. “Bengalis were not accustomed to conch shell jewelleries. We introduced these to youngsters here and now it is a rage,” smiled Seetha. Unlike Telugus in Dhaka, the Shankaris are mostly well to do middleclass families. It is therefore easier for them to maintain their distinct culture.Pirated DVDs of Kannada potboilers jostle for space with Bangla and Hindi hits in Shankari Bazaar shops. Hotels in the locality serve tasty Kannada cuisines. Hearing that an Indian journalist has come, a small crowd gathers around Seetha’s shop. Some elders try unsuccessfully to converse with me in Kannada. Seeing me helpless they laugh, and switch to Bangla. Seetha offers to pack some conch-shell jewelry for my wife. I politely decline and bid them adieu. With the Banarasis in Dhaka, I didn’t face any language barriers. They are fluent in Awadhi lashed Hindi. Most of them live in Mirpur Benarasi Palli. Impressed by their finesse, Nawab Salimullah settled 5,000 sari weavers in the late 19th century. Today, they number around 1,00,000. When you hear the sounds of the handlooms from afar, you know you are approaching the Benarasi neighbourhood.....Continue February 20 The Indian karate skidAkshay Kumar said in an interview that Rohan Sippy came to him with just a  poster of Akshay wearing a Chinese hat holding two swords in his hands that had vegetables. When asked about the script, the producer did not have one, but was so fascinated with the idea of that poster that he wanted to make a movie on that. This precisely explains why the movie was what it was, where everything was good except that there was no script.“Chandni Chowk to China” (CC2C) is about, well, Chandni Chowk-based Sidhu (Akshay) who believes he is jinxed and has no luck whatsoever. Things change when two visitors from China think him to be the reincarnation of an ancient warrior, manage to take him to China so that he can save them from a kung fu criminal (Gordon Liu). The potbellied Sidhu under the guidance of an amnesiac wanderer, (an ex-Police chief) who also happens to be the twin Deepika’s-separated-at-birth father (typical Manmohan Desai isshtyle!), learns the art of Kung-fu. What follows is an Indianised amalgamation (and a messy one at that) of Kung Fu Panda and Karate Kid. After laugh riots like “Singh is Kinng” and “Hera Pheri”, Akki’s comedy sequences in CC2C were not good enough to make us fall off our seats and the fight sequences try to ape a hybrid style between Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee, but fall short. The editing gave the movie a disjointed feel overall – sample this, Tere Naina, though a beautiful song plays through an action sequence! Probably, director Nikhil Advani should reunite with K Jo to retrieve the long lost success of “Kal Ho Na Ho.”....Continue February 06 The Great Sansad MarathonEveryone at the BJP camp is in a daze. The reason: results of an internal survey, commissioned last month by the party in collaboration with RSS to weigh its chances in the upcoming Parliamentary polls,  gave BJP something between 96 and 106 seats. Now, that is even less than the 113 seats BJP got last time.On the other hand, Congress is confident that 25 seats in Uttar Pradesh with her ally Samajwadi Party is all it needs to clear the road for UPA’s return to the Centre. That is precisely why it is willing to portray Rahul Gandhi as LK Advani’s equivalent. Also, notwithstanding recurrent antics by SP, Congress has fixed its eyes on young emerging leaders for striking alliances – from Stalin in Tamil Nadu to Chiranjeevi in Andhra Pradesh. As far as Left parties are concerned, they believe the scene of the 15th Lok Sabha will be worse than the incumbent one, and that the say and sway of regional parties in the functioning of the government will only increase. Left parties are sure that the possibility of a BJP or Congress-led government is dismal. There are realistic chances for a secular parties-led government. In fact, central committees of the Left parties have already started discussing the options. Unperturbed by this, Sangh ideologue and BJP-thrown out, Govindacharya is also mulling over a third alternative stitched up of “like-minded parties”. Though Congress was nervous and jittery on the eve of assembly elections, its results injected a new lease of life in the grand old party. Now, the party has carefully started projecting itself as the party of the youth. The Rahul Gandhi led “Opportunities Amidst Challenges” committee maintains that targeting the under-40 voters, who constitute around 36 per cent of the electorate, will greatly enhance Congress’ prospects in the elections. The government has approved a Rs 102 crore budget for Bharat Nirman. The party has hired as many as eight advertising agencies for a sleek publicity campaign – similar to that of BJP’s India Shining – for the parliamentary polls that will laud the work done by the government.....Continue January 06 Ian Scot Anderson and company haven’t lost their touch – not even after 40 long years. Jethro Tull is vintage wineThe old rocker wore his hair too long / wore his trouser cuffs too tight /  unfashionable to the end – drank his ale too light / death’s head belt buckle – yesterday’s dreams – the transport caf’ prophet of doom / ringing no change in his double-sewn seams / in his post-war-babe gloom… That’s their Too Old to Rock n Roll: Too Young to Die classic. And so come the crowds, both young and old, many to listen to what was and still is, and so many to just find out what is, and, more importantly, could be. According to Levon Helm, drummer of The Band, the group that once played with Bob Dylan, there came a time when all kinds of music mixed, Bluegrass, Country, Blues… And what did they call it, asks the interviewer in the 1978 Martin Scorsese film “The Last Waltz”, the celluloid recording of The Band’s last concert together. “Rock n Roll,” says Helm. With bands such as Jethro Tull, apart from the genre getting more pleasantly complex and hard, Anderson’s repertoire perhaps does what many failed to do: take forward the great Rock movement even while staying distinctly apart in sound, and often thought. And, of course, versatility has its virtues. For some unexplained reason there seems to be a tradition of being the multitasking rocker among the maestros of the school. Anderson plays guitar, flute, mouth organ, his bassist also plays the xylophone, the keyboard man plays the accordion and piccolo…....Continue December 29 The ambiguous legal status of prostitution in India is set to become muddier as a new law threatens the existence of the world’s oldest profession.Another proposal in the law in Section 3 states that,  “Any person who keeps or manages, or acts or assists in the keeping or management of, a brothel shall be punishable on first conviction with rigorous imprisonment for a term of not less than two years and which may extend to three years and also with fine which may extend to ten thousand rupees and in the event of a second or subsequent conviction, with rigorous imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than three years and which may extend to seven years and shall also be liable to fine which may extend to two lakh rupees”. What this basically means is that the landlord of a brothel and any relative of a prostitute above 18 years of age and financially dependent on her, can be imprisoned. How stupid is that? If you want to declare prostitution illegal then do it, so we can at least contest that in the courts; it’s nothing but a roundabout way to make prostitution unviable.Through our work at G.B. Road, we’ve been able to cut down on child trafficking prevalent in this area; this evil has been rooted out only because of our consistent efforts. We would have to deal with the same problem again if this business was made unviable. As it is, these women exist at the fringes of the society; if this law comes into effect they would be forced out on the roads, deprived of their support structure and their access to NGOs. Many would then resort to begging, or even have unprotected sex, leading to increase in AIDS cases, and years of work of various NGOs in combating the disease will be wasted.....Continue |
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