The Regional Divide

(Before you start reading, a standing instruction/request – replace all occurrences of XYZ with a regional sect of your dislike; eg : Punjabi, Marwari, Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, Sindhi, Southie, Bihari, Orriya, and the list is end less – but I am sure you understood)

Some cliched phrases :

1) “India is a land of diversities”

2) “Unity in diversity”

3) “Hum sab ek hain”

4) Some “expert” comment on the pro-regional movements in India.

Well, few things are more irritating than any of the four listed above. We just love to harp on the fact that as a common man, we have no issues being secular and united. All Indians are our brothers and sisters and we love them all. We are so good – the perfect citizens any country could wish for. We literally walk around with an invisible halo on our heads!

But hey, hang on a second. I have a few quick questions. Your close friend/sibling/child is friends (or a little something more) with a person from some other region. Now honestly tell me, dont you jump to a conclusion based on the fact that the person is XYZ. Did you just look away? Ok, dont answer, I’ll still ask the next question. A subordinate of yours is XYZ. How often do you blame his/her incompetency on his/her XYZness ? Similarly, how often do you curse your boss for his/her XYZness ? Some more questions … When you relate your experience with someone, dont you mention his/her regional origins? Aaah ! The halo is suddenly dimming a bit… One last question, promise …. When you have to rent out a house/property to someone, dont you generally consider the XYZness of the prospective tenant?

Lets take stock of a few things. All of us, at some point or the other are guilty of at least one of the above. The regional factor does matter to us. Its not just the politicians who try to capitalize on this. Its high time we start judging individuals for who they are rather than solely basing our judgment on the gene pool of the person (another question I have here is “must we really judge people?” and “are we really the correct ones to judge others?” – but this is for another time). Studies have shown over and over again, that the environment in which a person is raised also makes a difference to the character. Till we are going to be so narrow minded in our approach, the bigger goons of the society will continue to restrict our thinking. Its for us to throw open those doors we have made for ourselves. Its time we challenged, respectfully, the evils of society and just made the crossing point of the good and the bad more bright so that people can choose wisely. And finally, its time we stopped criticizing those hooligans – atleast they are vocal about their true feelings and not like us – two faced beasts.

[Via http://mustardbrain.wordpress.com]

a little help, goes a long way

Today is a special day for AMURT Portugal. In 2006, in a very casual and simple way, we started a sponsorship-at-distance program, for orphans and poor children in India. We called it SOS India. It has been growing steadily, and recently this year we started helping 6 other schools in Bangladesh.

Today is a special day because we are taking this project and our commitment one step further. In a few hours I’ll introduce to the public our SOS Africa program, which is going to start by sponsoring children in Mozambique and Ghana. I’m very happy that we are extending our program to have a broader reach, and I hope we will find many generous people who will be willing to participate and help us.

Interesting stuff of the day

• Britain’s “Big Brother” surveillance program getting even more 1984-ish. Cash prizes for catching criminals on CCTVs.
• Eye Tracking study – a guideline for web forms design

[Via http://nuno.wordpress.com]

Kalpvriksh the Wish Tree Yours Dreams Are Just a Touch Away

Kalpvriksh the Wish Tree Yours Dreams Are Just a Touch Away
Two-time Winner Indian Cinematographer Rajeev Jain ICS WICA Creates Special World of Light, Shadows in his recent film Kalpvriksh the Wish Tree Yours Dreams Are Just a Touch Away
Rajeev Jain has a way of seeing that takes an image to its outer limits. In his years as assistant, electrician, grip, and in the past 16 years as director of photography, he has developed a visual sensitivity and expertise.
Rajeev takes his inspiration from directors such as Satyajit Ray (Pather Panchali) and cinematographers Ashok Mehta, ISC (36 Chowrangi Lane) and Binod Pradhan (Parinda) for their use of colour and lights and shadow to amplify the emotional content of stories. I find the ability to allow the characters to operate in shadow is a real art, he says. Ashok Mehta allows his characters to function in darkness. He lights everything so the blacks are really rich – yet you can see everything.
His work in Kalpvriksh, a film by director Manika Sharma exudes a period quality with an edge. Rajeev was especially intrigued by the non-narrative, fragmented script, because it offered a myriad of visual possibilities. Shooting primarily on Kodak to give contrast to the exterior scenes, Rajeev experimented with warm and blue filters to get the look he wanted. The result is a stark, almost surreal journey into the minds and actions of the film’s bizarre characters.
Up-front collaboration on any film is essential, Rajeev emphasizes.
It’s important for me to go through the script scene by scene with the director Manika Sharma, Rajeev says, to try to see what is in her mind. I want to know what the scene is saying, who the most important character is at that moment, and how the characters move through the scene. We also share photographs and movies, which gives us a visual base to work from.
A graduate of Bhartendu Academy of Dramatic Arts in Drama and a beginning still photography, Rajeev took a course in filmmaking. Intrigued by the film medium, he saw the possibilities of combining his interests with film in commercials. Searching for a way to learn camerawork, he offered his assistance (unpaid) to cameraman Subroto Mitra to learn the craft.
He taught me about his SR package, what the lenses were, and how to load magazines, he said. Then he started me by working on Shyam Benegal’s documentary on Nehru.
In 1996, Rajeev got the first opportunity to shoot a film, Army, with Mukul Anand. After eight weeks of stressful shooting – his every move was watched.

[Via http://kalpvriksh.wordpress.com]

Western shame: 25 years on from Bhopal

‘Corporate responsibility’ is a buzzword that the generation my grandmother belonged to never knew.  And mine will hopefully never know the horror of a gas attack. Sometimes  she told me about her father, who experienced this in the Great War and was never the same again. He was one of the lucky ones, only maimed by his experience. Others drowned on dry land as their lungs filled with fluid and their skin blistered.

Many a British schoolchild will have read Wilfred Owen’s Dulce et Decorum Est, and it doesn’t take much to imagine the horror of finding yourself surrounded by this invisible poison. I remember the sense of nausea as, watching TV news in December 1984, I realised how many Indians must have died a similary grotesque death during the Bhopal incident and its aftermath.

These images were a precursor to the 1988 pictures of Halabjah, when Saddam Hussein gassed Kurdish villagers. But unlike Saddam, who eventually – when his usefulness as a bulwark against Iran ran out – got what was coming to him, there has been no retribution for the deskbound generals who presided over this larger chemical obscenity.

Depending on whose estimates you believe, Bhopal resulted in the deaths of between 3,000 and 15,000 people – and its legacy continues today in the form of poisoned water and land. That takes no account of the walking wounded: those who were maimed and blinded and lost any quality of life they might have ever had.

As I listen to an anniversary report on France Inter, an Indian journalist details the cost-cutting that, he says, led directly to the release of gas. It’s impossible to imagine this being allowed to happen in the West, never mind a company like Union Carbide going unpunished.

China is much-critiqued, but those responsible for the baby milk scandal could be sure that they would never get the chance to develop a taste for prison food, never mind enjoy their liberty or draw any comfortable company pension they might have amassed.

Yet it is repeatedly stated that no-one has been successfully prosecuted for Bhopal. Money opens doors, and emergency exits for culpable CEOs are no exception it seems. So how can we in the West ever look an Asian in the eye and tell them that their life is just as valuable as a European or American one, when nobody has been held responsible for mistakes and sloppy practice that led thousands to meet their premature death in a fashion so hideous that – for this writer – it defies articulation?

[Via http://bookpacking.wordpress.com]

Why we Indians are like this!!

No, I do not hate my country! I am an as proud citizen of India as you are. However sometimes I do think of where my country is going. Yes, India  has made tremendous progress in the last two decades. Today when India does the talk, the world stands up and listens. Clocking 7.9% growth in times when most other economies are shrinking aint no ordinary feat. India is a part of so many world forums (G8 et all) and India is expected to fulfil its responsibility at these forums in all important decisions ( Free Trade, Climate Change …). As it is said, when people begin to expect from you, you are a grown up. India has really matured in industry, services, trade, foreign relations and what not!

But pause a second and reflect on this: Can we say the same thing when it comes to fulfilling the social responsibilities within the country? Isn’t it shameful that we project our country as the epitome of secularism, at the same time we have some of the most bloody and heinous riots in our country? Aren’t we responsible for giving birth to Maoists (whom our Home Minister categorises as an as acute threat as the external one). What can one expect from the people when leaders like Madhu Koda siphon off the state money to their bank accounts. Will such a leader have the time to think of the public when he is busy thinking of methods to invest his black money? Jharkhand was envisioned as a state which would serve its people, the tribals and see what the state leaders have made of their own state! So whose fault is it, aren’t we a part of it because we select our leaders based on cast and religion? In the recent assembly elections in Maharashtra , the party championing the cause of “Marathi Manoos” at the peril of bhaiyyas of UP and Bihar, won 13 seats while the issues of development were relegated to the background. Even Haryana voted for caste and family instead of development. Why will such representatives take the pain of working for development when the voters themselves are not concerned?

When will we become socially responsible ? Exercising our franchise is one of the fundamental social responsibilities. We should not only cast our vote but caste it for the right person.

[Via http://itsabhi.wordpress.com]

Around the Web: World AIDS Day Edition

Today marks the 21st annual observance of World AIDS Day. The global community is marking the day with calls to action, and efforts to heighten awareness:

• President Jacob Zuma has announced a major policy shift for South Africa (the country with the highest number of people living with HIV): “South Africa will treat all HIV-positive babies and expand testing” (Associated Press)
• Getty CEO Jonathan Klein weighs in on the power of images in combating stigma surrounding AIDS (Huffington Post)
• The U.S. continues to fund the fight against AIDS in Vietnam, where stigma around the disease is still very strong (Dallas Morning News)
• Family members of HIV-positive patients are applauding the lifting of the U.S.’s 22-year-old HIV travel ban (Chicago Tribune)
• In India, new HIV infections are down by about 100,000/year (Sify News)
• Organizations including the San Antonio AIDS Foundation are working to meet the needs of homeless Americans living with HIV/AIDS (San Antonio News)
• After bringing HIV/AIDS education to a Pittsburgh juvenile detention center, Schweitzer Fellow Meredith Dixon traveled to the Schweitzer Hospital in Africa and helped to establish a pediatric HIV treatment program (Beyond Boulders)

[Via http://schweitzerfellowship.wordpress.com]

UNICEF: 'Paediatric HIV care should be integral to health programmes

Early diagnosis of HIV without regular follow ups that ensure access to health services is of little use. Keeping that in mind, paediatric HIV care and treatment need to become an integral part of infant and child survival and health programme, a Unicef report said Monday.

A day before World AIDS Day, the report said failure to follow-up on mothers and children after birth represents both avoidable child death and a massive loss of investment as children identified in need and who have been referred to services do not access them. 

In this regard, the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) in India is planning to roll out the early infant diagnosis by 2010 in 700 integrated counselling and testing centres (ICTC) across the country.

‘Since 2005 many lives have been saved because of interventions, such as combination prevention efforts with young people, early infant diagnosis of HIV and antiretrovirals (ARVs) for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV,’ the report which was released in New York said.

In terms of results, the report said that there has been a substantial increase in access to preventing mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV.

‘In 2008, in low-and middle-income countries, 45 percent of pregnant women living with HIV received antiretroviral drugs to keep them from passing the virus to their babies. That represents an increase from 35 percent in 2007 and from just 10 percent in 2004,’ it said.

India reported 10,673 women receiving ARV prophylaxis in 2008 out of an estimated 49,000 HIV positive pregnant women.

From Sify

[Via http://myviews4life.wordpress.com]