A flood of memories

The birds in Nasik and Nainital

2008-05-09T09:29:00.000-07:00

The sun does not set on my memories.

I must have been a child when I discovered that nature’s beauty was a great refuge. It began with chasing the house owner’s hen and her chicks in the court yard.

I would imagine myself so small, just like the delicately sized and shaped chicks.

Then I would imagine that it was me under the wings of the mother hen, clucking away to glory on sighting a dog or a cat.

I often wondered what it must be like to fit into the wire-mesh cage they called ‘khurawada’ in Marathi.

I thought that I was plain unlucky to be born as a human. It was such a waste…you cannot fly, you cannot prance around in gay abandon and then there was that evil that one suffered with a daily routine…THE SCHOOL!

I wanted to fly, I wanted to soar like the eagle…peck at grains from fields and courtyards of people.

I wanted to live in a nest that was preferably built by my mother, also a bird.

Once, I found a dry and abandoned nest on an autumn tree. I took it to Mum, who was very sensitive to my flights of fancy and longings.

“The bird cannot come and inhabit this, child,” she had tried to tell me when she caught me placing the nest on a ‘parijat’ tree. “They build their own nests and it is their concern for their own safety, tells their instinct.”

She would say these very practical things that were not learnt from school but from mere compassionate and mute observation.

I would often tell the birds that I will not capture you, I will not harm you….wait up, let me play with you….but they never obliged.

I was reminded of this when my two kids stood in the main Bada Bazar of Nainital and insisted that I buy them the small chicks from the roadside.

The bearded old gentleman with his typically Muslim goatee kind of beard dyed in henna was a feisty seller.

He had realised that the kids were in awe of the birds and he began playing with the little creatures in an intriguing way.

There were three lots. One basket had about thirty to forty very small chicks; painted in various hues of orange, pink, blue, green, yellow and what have you. The little beings were almost a day or two old, and could barely stand, let alone fly. Therefore, without a fear, the seller had left them in the open basket.

The other lot was of a few days old chicks. These were left unpainted and wore a muddy coat of feathers. They were quick and the seller had kept them in a woven basket with a dome shaped basket covering them. The third one had chicks older yet.

By now the kids were jumping with joy.

“Mummy, please let us take them home.”
I refused to relent as I knew my mother-in-law would disallow any pets and the poor chicks would have to be left in the open.

“We will convince Dadiji (grand-mother) said one of them.

“And we will keep them clean, well fed and safe,”” tried the other.

But as I left them admiring the chicks and moved a shop ahead to buy the famous sweetmeat- the ‘Bal Mithai’ of Nainital, the shop-keeper advised me about the deal.

“Do not buy these chicks, behenji (sister), they will die…they survive only in the cool hills here. And as you say, you come from Delhi, I am sure you will travel out of here soon. Travel will most certainly kill them.”

That had me decided. The temporary return of my own childhood awe for the winged creatures vanished in a moment. I could envision a cat lunging at them in our courtyard, or them asphyxiating in the bus we would take to hot, sultry Delhi.

The children arrived at the sweetshop.

“Mummy, they cost just Rupees Five (about a tenth of an US dollar) each. Please let us have them. Puhleeeez?” offered one of my kids.

They were very angry when the sweetmeat seller tried to sell them the wisdom of otherwise.

“Mummy, you have manipulated and managed what this uncle is saying, and we can see. “accused the girl.

“Now I am not talking to you, ever,” threatened the boy.

But Mummy had become deaf, dumb and was not about to relent.

A ride in a boat on the Naini Lake and a visit to the Naini Devi temple calmed them. I do not know if it was the cool breeze of the mountains, the chill water from the lake or the calming effect of having bowed before the Naini Goddess.

Finally, the two very decided people did come around. But even today, when they see the holiday snaps and the picture of those birds opens on the digital camera, my son goes, “You did not buy me those chicks, did you? So now I have nothing to do with you. That’s it!”

Cluck….cluck…..cluck! Ha ha ha!

Here's the video of a song I love!

2007-12-29T10:50:00.001-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EebObs-vC0

BBC says Indian's surprise at Nobel award!

2007-10-16T11:01:00.001-07:00

Dr Rajendra Pachauri, celebrated Indian environmentalist is being congratulated by friens and colleagues in India and abroad. Dr. Pachauri says credit goes to the scientific community, and not to him as an individual.

Indian scientist Rajendra Pachauri has spoken of his surprise at the UN panel he heads being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for its work on global warming.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and campaigner Al Gore were named as joint winners on Friday.

"I can't believe it. I'm overwhelmed," Dr Pachauri, 67, told well-wishers in the Indian capital, Delhi.

"The committee is trying to tell the world we need to do something about climate change urgently."

Praise for Gore

Dr Pachauri said he was "just a symbol" and credit was due to his organisation and its efforts.

"It is really the scientific community that contributes to the work of the IPCC and the governments who support the work of the IPCC who are really the winners of this award."

The message should go out to everyone - developed and developing countries - we are all in this together.

He said he felt privileged to share the prize with "someone as distinguished" as the former US vice president.

"Al Gore certainly deserves it. The amount of effort he has put into creating awareness about climate change has had a major impact."

The two men spoke on the phone after the announcement.

"This is Pachy... I am certainly looking forward to working with you. I'll be your follower and you'll be my leader," Dr Pachauri said.

Nobel laureate Al Gore
Al Gore's film An Inconvenient Truth was an unlikely box office hit

"Convey my congratulations to the IPCC," replied Mr Gore.

The two campaigners did not get off to the best of starts when Dr Pachauri was elected to head the IPCC in 2002.

US President George W Bush backed the Indian for the post, but Mr Gore, who had lost the presidential election to Mr Bush, criticised his appointment.

In an article in the New York Times, he called Dr Pachauri the "let's drag our feet candidate". The Indian hit back a few days later with a letter condemning Mr Gore for his "derogatory comments".

Former engineer

The spat seemed a long way in the past as the two men exchanged warm words on Friday.

* INTERGOVERNMENTAL PANEL ON CLIMATE CHANGE (IPCC)
* Established in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and the United
* Nations Environment Programme (Unep)
* Made up of more than 2,000 leading climate experts
* Tasked with assessing scientific data on the risk of human-induced climate change, its potential impacts and options for mitigation
* Does not carry out any research of its own
* First Assessment Report published in 1990; its Fourth Assessment Report called Climate Change 2007 to be published mid-November

The IPCC is the top authority on global warming, comprising more than 2,000 leading climate change scientists and experts.

As its chairman, Dr Pachauri is well-placed to combat environmental damage posed by rapid industrialisation.

He began his working life as a mechanical engineer building diesel railway engines, before moving on to study energy and economics.

He is also founder director of the Energy and Resources Institute, India's leading environmental think-tank.

Dr Pachauri says he is very concerned about India and other developing economies which will be hit hardest by climate change.

At the same time, he believes that the lead should come from the West.

"I think the developed countries will really have to create the conditions by which the developing countries will follow in due course," he told the BBC earlier this year.

There ends the BBC article. Personally, I feel, that Gore has been accused of over reacting and scaring the people. But I say, this kneejerk reaction was very necessary to wake us from our complacency.

BBC quotes Iraqis over fear of escalated action by Turkey!

2007-10-16T10:44:00.000-07:00

A nightmare that escalated with the US invasion is getting worse for Iraq. The poor nationals first tolerated dictators and ethnic cleansing.

And as though, the US soldiers on its soil are not enough, now Turkey is slipping in too!

The BBC article show Turkish tanks heading for the Iraqi border and reports that Turkish military hardware has been gathering near the Iraqi border.

Military build up

Check out the BBC article on: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7046765.stm

Unilateral action by Turkey in Iraq could have "very grave consequences" and set a worrying precedent, Iraq's deputy prime minister has warned.

Barham Saleh told the BBC such action could destabilise the region and prompt other neighbouring states to step in.

Turkey has said its patience has run out over the handling of Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq.

It is seeking parliamentary permission for a cross-border operation to pursue Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) members.

The government must put a thick wall between themselves and the terrorist organisation Tayyip Erdogan Turkish Prime Minister

Ankara argues the group is a terrorist organisation responsible for the deaths of at least 15 Turkish soldiers in the past two weeks, and says the Kurdish separatists enjoy freedom of movement in northern Iraq.

Baghdad has called for "urgent negotiations" over Turkey's threat and has dispatched Iraqi Vice-President Tareq Hashemi to Ankara for talks with Turkish leaders.

Iraq alarmed

Mr Saleh warned that any cross-border operation could have destabilising effects.

PKK members in northern Iraq (20 June 2007) Ankara says the PKK are terrorists who move freely in northern Iraq

"Any unilateral action by the Turkish military in violation of Iraqi border will be a terrible precedent for everybody," he said in the BBC interview.

"If Turkey as a neighbour of Iraq allows itself the right to intervene militarily in Iraq, what is there to prevent other neighbours from intervening?"

Meanwhile, the head of the UN refugee agency said he was deeply concerned that the Turkish action could lead to big displacements of people.

UNHCR chief Antonio Guterres said the "relatively stable" area had until now acted as a haven for Iraqis displaced from other parts of the country.

Mr Erdogan's AK Party, which has a parliamentary majority, is expected to vote in favour of the motion on Wednesday.

If passed, the vote will authorise cross-border operations for one year with the government deciding on the timing, scope and frequency of any incursions.

The Turkish province of Sirnak is at the heart of the 23-year-old conflict between the military and Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas.

Turkey hopes it will not be forced to resort to military action, even if its motion gained approval in parliament, Mr Erdogan said on Tuesday.

"I sincerely wish that this motion will never be applied," he said in televised comments.

"Passage of this motion does not mean an immediate incursion will follow."

Mr Erdogan called on Iraq's government and the regional administration in the country's north to crack down on the rebels, saying they should "build a thick wall between themselves and terrorist organisations".

He added that any military operation would respect Iraq's territorial integrity and only target the rebels.

Kurdish protests

Jamal Abdallah, a spokesman for the government of Iraqi Kurdistan, told the BBC there was no co-operation with the PKK.

"We have not helped the PKK and we are not helping it," he said.

"Their bases are not under the control of the Kurdistan regional authorities."

Iraq signed a counter-terrorism pact with Turkey last month, but opposes any military incursion into its territory.

The US has also warned Ankara against ordering any incursions into Iraq.

So, finally fears that US withdrawal may worsen the situation made grave by US attack/invasion?

Mr. Bush would better be warned himself!

2007-08-28T22:37:00.000-07:00

A BBC story reports that US President George W Bush has warned Iran to stop supporting the militants fighting against the US in Iraq.

source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6967502.stm

The same story reports that in a speech to US war veterans in Reno, Nevada, Mr. Bush renewed charges that Tehran has provided training and weapons for extremists in Iraq.

"The Iranian regime must halt these actions," he said.

Earlier, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned that US authority in the region was rapidly collapsing, and Iran would help fill the void.

"Soon, we will see a huge power vacuum in the region," Mr Ahmadinejad said.

"Of course, we are prepared to fill the gap, with the help of neighbors and regional friends like Saudi Arabia, and with the help of the Iraqi nation."

So it is no wonder that Dubyaman is seeing red here. There seems a sinister design on the part of the Iranian power Turks to de-stage the US of A and take over the reins.

Mr. Bush better be warned and so should the rest of the world, that if this happens, there will be nothing worse for the Iraqis in particular and the Asian continent may see an upsurge of violence of the worse kind.

The US Prez feels that the terrorist strikes are backed by the Iranian government in the region and terms them 'Murderous activities'.

In his speech to the American Legion, Mr. Bush hit back, accusing Iran's Revolutionary Guards of funding and arming insurgents in Iraq.

And he said Iran's leaders could not avoid some responsibility for attacks on coalition troops and Iraqi civilians.

"I have authorized our military commanders in Iraq to confront Tehran's murderous activities," he said.

The BBC's Justin Webb, in Washington, says this looks like a conscious effort by the White House to elevate the tension between Washington and Tehran to a new level.

Shortly after Mr Bush made his address, Iranian officials reported that seven Iranians working for the country's electricity ministry had been arrested in Baghdad by US forces.

'Nuclear threat'

In a wide-ranging speech, Mr. Bush also tackled the issue of Iran's nuclear ambition - which Tehran insists is solely to provide power, but the US believes may be used to develop weapons.

"Iran's active pursuit of technology that could lead to nuclear weapons threatens to put a region already known for instability and violence under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust," he said.

"Iran's actions threaten the security of nations everywhere.

"We will confront this danger before it is too late."

It was Mr. Bush's second major speech on foreign policy in a week.

Correspondents say he is seeking to rally support for the so-called surge strategy of sending more troops to Iraq.

Such an effort might be designed to avoid the need for armed conflict or might equally be an effort to bring that conflict about, the BBC correspondent concludes.

Whether Iran helps in hauling up the terrorists on its soil or turns defiant will decide the course of history in terms of the on going conflict. It may also tip the power balance precariously.

With not much time left in office and little or no chance of re-election, Mr. Bush better be warned, or the 3000 + lives lost defending and quelling Iraq will be a waste.

Hollywood actor Owen Wilson attempted suicide? Depression…sign of the times!

2007-08-28T20:28:00.001-07:00

There is a story in there, about people having it all and yet going over the edge.

Now that the official reports show that Police were called to Wedding Crashers ’ star Owen Wilson's home because of an attempted suicide report, it is talked about that the star was depressed and actually calling for help.

Depression is so commonplace and yet so unrecognized, few realized that it can happen to anyone, anywhere.

You do not need the Santa Monica Police Department’s log of weekend calls to show that there are more Wilson around. Anyone depressed is giving out subtle signals that he or she is depressed.

Wilson was found bloody and dazed after trying to commit suicide by overdosing on pills and slitting his wrist in the wake of a blow-up with a close friend, a source told the New York Post.

Fox news also quotes a source close to the "Wedding Crashers" actor, 38, telling "Extra" that the actor did indeed attempt suicide over the weekend, saying Wilson has been depressed for the last few months, but not over a broken relationship.

The source also told “Extra” that Wilson’s famous younger brother, Luke Wilson, found him and that Wilson’s family and friends are shocked.

"It's hard. He's such a wonderful person," a source told the New York Post. "He's such a great guy and so smart and just ... nice. We're just hoping he gets better."

One neighbor told the Post that when she heard the ambulance, she was surprised because Wilson never causes any trouble.

"All the neighbors like him, he's a friendly guy. He never has any crazy parties or does anything wrong," Betty Miller said. But Wilson has a history of depression.

"It's very upsetting. People are complicated. It's not just one thing," a friend of the actor told the Post.

On Monday, Wilson was receiving care Monday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and was in "good condition," a publicist for the hospital said.

Meanwhile, Wilson asked for privacy in a statement released through publicist Ina Treciokas.

"I respectfully ask that the media allow me to receive care and heal in private during this difficult time," he said.

So this only proves that the new age mantra of ‘Having it all’ is taking its toll. Helen Gurley Browns of the world not with standing, the rage to achieve too much too soon is killing people in the process.

It makes little difference here that Wilson was nominated for an Academy Award for his work on the screenplay The Royal Tenenbaums. He starred opposite the likes of Jackie Chan, Ben Stiller, Gene Hackman, Will Ferrell and Eddie Murphy.

If you are cracking under the pressure, fact is you need help. And if you are so sick with depression that you do not realize you need help, then you better have a brother like Wilson’s who arrived in time to play savior.

Unlike Britney Spears’ family who have been unable to get the ‘Ooops’ Pop tart back on even keel.

People, depression is treatable, just like other (physical) maladies. And like ‘if Mohammad cannot go to the Mountain, the mountain must come to Mohammad’, the family must rally around before wrists are slit…irreparably.

Bad luck, Bollywood, Salman Khan and Sanjay Dutt

2007-08-23T23:43:00.000-07:00

Two Indian actors who have been doing exceptionally well in recent films and incidentally are friends and neighbours, are facing over 5 years’ jail terms, separately and for different causes.

Sanjay Dutt aka Munnabhai has won a temporary reprieve (in the form of bail) from his on going jail term of 6 years that requires him to live and share the fate of other prisoners- food, clothes style and vocational work included.

Just as that happened on Thursday morning, Friday came up with another shock for Bollywood fans and clans.

An Indian court rejected an appeal by Bollywood star Salman Khan against a five-year prison sentence for a 1998 poaching case on Friday, a verdict that will send the actor to jail, reports Reuters.

Bollywood’s ‘Bad luck is only ‘kharaab’ (Hindi word for ‘Bad’) is what ‘Munna’ (Aamir Khan’s character in ‘Rangeela’) would have said!

Salman Khan had filed an appeal against a 2006 court ruling which had sentenced him to jail for poaching a chinkara -- an endangered species of gazelle that is protected under wildlife laws -- while shooting a film in Rajasthan state.
That court also fined him 25,000 rupees ($600). Hunting such animals carries a maximum sentence of seven years, provides Reuters.

He was also convicted in 2006 for killing protected black buck antelopes in the western desert state of Rajasthan and given a one-year jail sentence.
He was granted bail while he appeals that conviction.

Khan, a muscular hero of Bollywood's musical melodramas, was not present in court in the city of Jodhpur when the verdict was announced.

"His hotel room was booked but he couldn't get a flight and was therefore held back," S.R. Bajwa, one of Khan's lawyers, told the Times Now news channel.
It was not immediately known when he would be taken into custody.

"Salman's Khan's advocate will now have to decide when he surrenders," said Mahipal Bishnoi, a prosecution lawyer, speaking on a local news channel. "I think he might surrender on Monday."

Bishnoi said an arrest warrant would be issued.

Khan is also facing charges of killing a person sleeping on a pavement in Mumbai while driving drunk in 2002. He has denied being at the wheel, said the Reuters report.

($1 = 41.2 rupees)

A debate where guns and bombs are the norm

2007-08-20T19:59:00.000-07:00

Hi friends.

I read this mail from my yahoo group pal. I would like all of you to see this and let us debate. She only sent it to raise dialogue and foster peace, which is the one thing disallowed in Islam. Let us all see if dialogue and not bombs or guns buy peace and prosperity.

"Here is a powerful and amazing statement on Al Jazeera television. The
woman is Wafa Sultan, an Arab-American psychologist from
Los Angeles . I would suggest watching it ASAP because I don't know
how long the link will be active. This film clip should be shown
around the world repeatedly!! !

http://switch3. castup.net/ cunet/gm. asp?ai=214& ar=1050wmv& ak=nul

India: Partition of a soul

2007-08-15T23:46:00.000-07:00

Millions were displaced and killed in the chaos after partition of India

Want to hear a partition tale of sorrow, first hand? Click on http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/629/629/6945591.stm

In this BBC video, a woman whose family was divided by partition speaks of her memories of 1947.

This footage (Warning: Please practice discretion as it contains disturbing and graphic images) is for all those who think that anybody at all benefited by the brutal partition of India, 60 years ago.

I can never forgive the colonist British for their final blow to the jewel in their crown. They proved a simple policy: If we cannot keep it, we will hand it to you in tatters.

People tell of millions of scared Hindus fleeing the suddenly declared ‘Islamic Pakistan’ side of Punjab. Someone said that the train loads of dead bodies kept on arriving till the Hindu leaders on the Indian side of Amritsar border sent a trainload of Muslims dead or near dead.

Another BBC article provides glimpses into the mayhem during the partition.

The entire act was wrong, say papers unearthed by the son of the now deceased Mr. Beaumont who was private secretary to the then senior British judge, Sir Cyril Radcliffe (the chairman of the Indo-Pakistan Boundary Commission) in 1947.

Radcliffe was responsible for dividing the vast territories of British India into India and Pakistan, separating 400 million people along religious lines.

"The Punjab partition was a disaster," he writes.

"Geography, canals, railways and roads all argued against dismemberment.

"The trouble was that Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs were an integrated population so that it was impossible to make a frontier without widespread dislocation.

"Thousands of people died or were uprooted from their homes in what was in effect a civil war.

As an Indian who has never experienced the pain of partition but has seen it in the eyes of hundreds of survivors, I feel even if the Queen were to apologize, it is not enough. Sindhis lost their entire motherland. The Sindhu river civilization is the oldest and most developed one in archaeological terms, mind you.

Mohenjodaro- The excavations pertaining to ancient India (Sindh) that once thrilled the archaeologists, now in an unconnected surrounding and hold- that of Pakistan.

Today’s Kandhahar, which was the erstwhile Gandhar province of Prince Shakuni of Mahabharatha, is in Afghanistan now. Manasarovar, the Hindu pilgrimage spot is in China held Tibet.

India was a religion, a brotherhood and a way of life…untill the mayhem of Mughal and Arabic invasions destroyed it and the British served the final blow.

Stop, we are lost!!!

2007-08-14T06:01:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody. And a very Happy Indian Independence day, too as we are only hours away from 15th August.

I am reminded of the respected poet, nobel laureate Tagore's poem and I quote it verbatim, here.

Where the Mind is Without Fear

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection:
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is lead forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action--
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

--Rabindranath Tagore, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913.

But the truth is far from the poet's prayer. India lives the nightmare of Terror, called Islamic Terror by some. It harms all Indians, Hindus, Muslims and other communities.

But we will rise above all this and hopefully awaken in the promised state someday.

But while I celebrate my 'Indianness', the other side of me which is a global citizen, feels stifled. I watch in horror as people's ideas of liberation seem to be spiralling out of control. More and more humans are falling prey to drugs, addictions and into the vicious cycle of glamour, sleaze and abuse. Sometimes I wonder if as a human race, we have our priorities all wrong. Why is pancake and superficial beauty gaining more importance over the awe for the courage of the likes of Christa McAuliffe and Kalpana Chawla (who died in Space Odysseys).

Why do we lap up news of the latest freaky things that Paris Hilton or Britney Spears did in the dead of the night???!

In that respect I really likes this article I read in the UK net edition of THe Telegraph.It sums up a few of my concerns for the human society in general and the state of women in particular.

Tragic Britney, brought down just like Lolita
By Jenny McCartney, Sunday Telegraph UK Last Updated: 12:01am BST 12/08/2007

One of the saddest little public dramas of our times, captured daily by gleeful paparazzi, is the ongoing nervous breakdown of the pop star Britney Spears. Last week it emerged that Spears's ex-husband, Kevin Federline, a dancer and aspiring rapper known as K-Fed, is seeking primary physical custody of their two young boys, on the grounds that she is not in a fit state to bring them up happily and safely.

That grim news comes against the lurid backdrop of a string of other recent Spears stories: that a plump, post-partum Britney - dressed for a pole-dancing video shoot in a minuscule leather bustier - abandoned the project, sobbing, later to canoodle topless with a grinning stranger in a hot tub; that she spectacularly wrecked an OK! magazine photo-shoot by letting her Yorkshire terrier defecate on one dress, wiping greasy hands on another, and wandering off with a substantial haul of the designer sample goods.

The impression of a woman in mental freefall is accentuated by Spears's ever-changing wigs: earlier this year, she suddenly shaved all her hair off with a pair of clippers. It is dubious how much those in her immediate circle are doing to help.

Spears's breakdown reminds me of a tragedy contained within a novel, and the novel in question is Nabokov's Lolita, the story of how Humbert Humbert, a fastidious European aesthete and paedophile, seduced and destroyed a 12-year-old American girl. Lolita, despite the furore caused by its subject matter, has always seemed to me an intensely sad and moral novel: it exposes not only Humbert's chillingly selfish fascination with exploiting the precocious sexuality of "Lola, the bobby-soxer", but also his towering indifference to the fact that he has ruined her character and future prospects. Her school observes that she has become "antagonistic, dissatisfied, cagey", and when she leaves Humbert, it is for the arms of another predator, until she finally winds up pregnant, penniless and married to a much older man.

Remember the then 16-year-old Britney Spears in 1998, bright-eyed, confident and lithe, gyrating sensationally in her school uniform while singing the ambiguous lyrics: "Hit me baby one more time". The phenomenon that was Spears allowed middle-aged men who would otherwise have felt embarrassed about ogling schoolgirls to be roguishly open about fancying Britney: Alastair Campbell, as I recall, was a particularly avid fan.

The talented, God-fearing Spears, of course, was 16 and not 12: but wasn't it, in retrospect, all more than a little creepy, including the very public obsession with Spears's virginity and when she was going to lose it? Now, aged 26 and the mother of two children born in quick succession, Spears herself doesn't seem to know how to age: she is dead-eyed and disorientated, pushing herself into ever shorter and tighter clothing, confusedly court-ing attention while seeming sickened by it.

She appears to want to remain in a hyper-sexual girlhood, even as time and circumstances require her to act like a grown-up. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that the world's lascivious attention acted like that of a collective Humbert Humbert upon the teenage Britney: its price has been her psychological ruination, from which she will need considerable help to recover.

Yet, once, millions of little girls wanted to be Spears, a just slightly older girl drooled over by millions of adult men. Now that she is in trouble, her role will be usurped by younger stars, such as soap celebrities and girl band members. Little girls are suckers for glamour in its most lurid form, from Barbie to the big-breasted, long-tressed Katie Price, also known as the topless model Jordan. At no time in history has the message been pumped out so forcefully to pre-pubescent girls that the primary import of any woman's life is to be sexually desirable to men. What follows from that message in less stellar lives, one suspects, is a brief flurry of coquettish triumphs followed by decades of eating disorders, plastic surgery, and quiet self-loathing.

A Government-commissioned report concluded last week that black boys were being similarly let down by their role models, suggesting that instead of focusing almost exclusively on black rappers and footballers, it might be time for the media also to remind schoolchildren of black men and women who have risen in the law, medicine, finance or the police. At present, the most ubiquitous image of an adult black man, offered up for apparent admiration in music videos and films, is of a muscular gangster who profits from crime, drives a souped-up car and is surrounded by subservient female eye-candy.

It is, perhaps, heavily ironic that the two great social movements of the late 20th century were the rise of feminism and of black civil rights. Their leaders, who preached an aspirational, political message of access to the echelons of genuine power, would weep to see the stereotypical role models that the consumer industry routinely dangles today before young girls and black boys. It is hard for the teenage coquette to age happily, and the violent drug-dealer to stay out of jail. These days, children have got to be careful what they wish to be when they grow up. The terrifying thing is, it just might happen.
___________________________________

I am glad that some thinkers are sitting up and taking notice. The paparazzi should stop hounding the woman and sending her the Diana way. Save other girls from such a fate. Focus on better news than Britneys topless romps or one night stands.

If at all anything, get her help. Before it is too late for Britney...and other starry eyed immature girls.

Racial bias and business sense

2007-08-11T00:41:00.000-07:00

A friend who works in the US of A said once to me that there may be no overt racial bias seen in the country of Uncle Sam, but it exists!

You do not see it, it is not talked about but lies in subtle happenings. You feel it but cannot say a thing. I wondered how that can be. "The native (read White) Americans work with you by day, but when they can chose who to socialise with in the evenings, you are clearly out! We do not get invited for family outings together or mixing, generally!" That is why, long ago, in India- one often heard- It is better to be an equal citizen in your own (not so developed) country than be a second-rated citizen in another (developed) nation. But with India's 300+ million middle class consumers that even President Bush eyed and mentioned in his visit, the business sense is beginning to prevail, one sees. Like the introduction of the Indian origin American character - Raj Patel- in the Archies comics. Please read the link below to understand the business sense that played a big role in the creation of a very likeable character as Archie's friend.

"...The Archie comic series has undergone a change and Archie now has a brand new Indian friend. There's a new kid on the block in Riverdale. The latest addition to Archie Andrew's gang of friends is an Indian-American- Raj Patel. The creation of Raj Patel comes at a time when the advent of computers and video games like WII and X box is affecting readership for the comic series across America...

Meanwhile, over a million Archie comics are sold in India every year..." I read on the net.

''The fact that there will be an Indian character in our comics on a regular basis will bring more attention to the comic and hopefully more readers in India will vie to read Archie and we will sell more Archie comics in India,'' said Michael Silberkleit, Publisher, Archie Comics (Quoted from NDTV's story http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20070022253)

For a change, the (Riverdale) boys hobnob with eachother, share agendas and do not fall into racial bias traps.

The creators say a lot of research went into conceiving the Patel family. While they insist it was not intentional, the Patel family is the stereotypical Indian-American success story. Raj's father is a doctor. His mother, who sports a bindi, is a research scientist. .. Says the same NDTV story! Aha!!! I must say, as my heart leaps at the sudden equality!!! As an Indian, I feel that the stereotype of an educated family from India, trying to fit in the American scenario, is a hard earned on.

For generations, Indians have toiled in research laboratories, hospitals and industries as the brains that helped the rise of America.

Now, the children may face less bias, maybe that's the 'pay-back' religion often talks about.
But does this also mean that if India was if India had nothing to offer in terms of market, the racial bias would have remained? Man, Money Talks!!! Doesn't it?

Nature's small wonders

2007-08-11T00:05:00.000-07:00

I guess we all are overpowered with a sensation of 'Wow!' over simple things in life. Like wanting to get drenched in a rain shower...sitting in a window and watching the sun set behind the hills or mountains!

My children do plenty of the both.

They love rain, and when in Nasik, my son loves to sit in the window of my sister Jyoti's third floor flat and watch the horizon in the evenings.

This video I am including next is something from the same adventurous flavour we all seek in plain matters of life.

The caterpillars are nibbling away at the leaves with what gay abandon! Watch this is the link to the video I have pasted below.

A member of my yahoogroup shot the video and I have included his note.

Have fun. I am sure you will watch it again and again.

Hi guys,
Here is a time lapse of caterpillar eating awaay the leaf...unfortunately, my cam's battery was over before I could take a much longer video of it.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3263294504127164755&hl=en

Recently, the pets are in the pupa stage and maybe emerge in a day or 2 as a moth or butterflies.The interesting thing was that they made the pupa using there own droppings maybe, because there was no sand or other material I kept for them in the box.
Cheers and good wishes.
Hitesh Gusani

They ravaged my green town

2007-05-27T23:39:00.000-07:00

The Nasik I lived in as a child was a small town.

Families knew each other. To begin with, there weren't too many, anyway. A few thousands, amongst them a few were natives of the place and the rest migrants.

There were good schools and streets were safe enough to walk to school.

What a joy it was to walk to school as the academic session began in June. Rains would be pouring down and one's biggest dilemmas in life were whether to wear the raincoat over the school-bag slung on the back or to save the bag in some other way.

Streets were more like avenues where ancient trees dotted the walks on either sides and the road. The streets were punctuated on either sides with villas and old style bungalows in stone and wood.

This part of India has always been safe for women and children to walk the street even at 2 am, barring a few, very rare mishaps.

So we could scamper to an aunt's place even at an unearthly hour, chaperoned or otherwise.

Job and marriage took me away to Mumbai first and to Delhi next. Now Nasik is the place I visit in summer holidays and it still is the cool, lovely and clear air here that draws me at least once annually, apart from my maiden family that remains here.

But...

Lots has changed as the rapid and planned industrialization has brought people from all over India flocking to the place. Can't blame the peoples' influx, its God's land and no one owns it.

I lament however, the change of fabric of the city.

The old, 'colonial' plus the 'native Indian' mixed look and feel is gone.

Malls, huge residential complexes and huge roads sans trees make the face of the city now. The population is maybe twenty times more of what it as two decades ago.

It still is safe. But the feel of 'my town' and a sense of ownership and responsibility is missing.
I do not recognize the place, the people and at times feel like an alien...

They ravaged my town in the name of development...is there a 999 helpline I can call?!!! Is there a Ctrl Z on this, anyone???!

Depression - Just another condition

2007-04-26T03:44:00.000-07:00

It is yet another memory.

We had moved into a new locality. I must have been ten or eleven.

A neighbour had an heart attack and his children ran wailing out aloud to our bungalow. My mother ran out with the kids with a handful of mustard.

Of course, the man did not survive and mother was with the grieving family through out the day and for hours each day after the funeral.

I quizzed her later about the handful of mustard.

"That was for heating on a pan and throwing on the chest of the person who has suffered the heart attack!" she had explained.

No mumbo jumbo this, I now know that it was the first aid people conjured by who had no ICCUs at hand immediately.

A kind of shock therapy, I guess. We all resort to desperate measures to make a difference, to help, to see something through...some times.

What touched me is my mother's innocent belief that she must try and it was her duty to rush to the aid of the family in distress.

The effect hangs on...after all these years.

A friend called in this morning. She has had major changes in life of late. An early marriage, change of work place, stagnating career etc...

What alarmed me is that she repeated what she had said a few times before- that she has just lost the confidence, professionally and personally.

All these past few weeks I have been trying to hunt down a placement for her profile. She insisted that since I was better in terms of contacts in the industry and the courage to break ice, I must do the honours for her.

I had been trying but always noted that when I fixed up appointments, she would develop weak knees.

Her excuses were so weak, I wonder if she believed in them herself.

Some times it would be the lack of transport or the distance, at anothertime- the lack of confidence whether she could do it.

Calls to our collective mentor (a lady who dotes on us since our student days) and to her husband to push her into action have not helped.

What alarmed me, I repeat, is her breaking down while on the call.

So I asked her to see me in the evening.

I felt that I had to help her out of this. It is no favour to her. It is a duty I feel I am bound to do for a friend.

She could as well have been another woman in the street and I still would have wanted to help. I guess her call felt clear and urgent.

Unless she is fetched out of the vicious cycle of 'depression', it will do a quicksand effect on her. The more she will struggle, the deeper she will sink.

So I went to see her in the evening. It was an effort to throw her a rope. I wished to step out of my selfish existence for a while and do my duty to society.

I wanted to bail her out without her knowing that I did.

I am no saint, far from that. I am not writing this so that someone gives me accolades.

I wish this to have a cascading effect. This is an attribute I learnt from someone who acted instead of talking about it. She may be no more, but I have learnt my lessons well.

So I sat with this friend and heard her out. She felt lighter already, she said. Then I spoke to her about dilemmas everyone, even I, face in life.

Soon, she and I parted ways with promises to stay in touch and also work on a plan to get her professional career on track.

It was vital I had felt, to run and help than speak at length about how nice a person someone was.

After all Depression is just another condition and whether or not I can make my friend seek professional help, at least my presence as a friend will make her stronger.

I am the one who is enriched by this experience, by a rewarding friendship.

We all must carry this 'fistful of mustard', I feel, sometimes if not always.

Domestic violence is not a sudden phenomena

2007-04-08T00:36:00.000-07:00

Aishwarya Rai does a 'Provoked' and India sits up.

"This happens in UK, not India. Women are worshipped here." This was one opinion.

"Only an Indian woman could have taken so much. They are used to so much of subjugation, they take it with their chins up." was another.

Really, you cannot draw geographical, communal and class lines where violence is concerned. One perpetrates violence and the other is so trapped that he or she lives with it with hope that it will end on a happier note someday, that there will be light at the end of the tunnel.

But the truth is that a violent person is in need of treatment, consultation and reorientation. He or she resorts to violence as a means of venting out or leashing out suppressed feelings. The victim often is in a dependent situation like that of a financial dependence or emotionally dependent one.

So the dependent person gets blackmailed into playing along and really does too because he or she fears that a revolt will harm either one or all of them.

What the close ones of the perpetrator must realise is that if the person is not given professional help in time, it could harm any or many of them in the long run.

It is a vicious cycle and needs intervention; which if it is not forthcoming from within, should arrive from without.

Because there's only so much that anyone can take.

A Flood of Memories

2007-02-05T04:52:00.000-08:00

The memories just won't go away, try as I might.

In my nostalgia, I still stand there, an eight year old, on a summer vacation at my family's farm at Chittegaon village in Nasik city. The early mornings were an ensemble of cattle-bells, farmhands shouting and cool breeze gushing around.

Mum was on vacation, too, away from her killing routine of city life as a housewife. She was ever the graceful and patient woman. She would give us (to my brother, Manoj and me) a quick breakfast that we would digest in no time at all, running around the fields.

The house was a structure in mud, cement and bricks. The front yard had cattle tied to wooden poles embedded partly in the earth. The labourers would untie the black cow named 'Kapila' and the pair of oxen. The cattle would head for the water pond and a meal of green grass thrown before them. Then, the farmhand would wash the cow's udders and milk it.
The dogs would go crazy running around and keeping tresspassers at bay.

Soon, we could run into the fields where the farmhands were weeding out unwanted growths amidst the crop. It was wonderful to run into the sugarcane field where the rough leaves disallowed smooth passage and often cut through skin.

The farmhand called Dattu 'Kaka' (meaning 'Uncle') would tell us of scary tales that wolves frequented sugarcane fields.

Dattu Kaka enjoyed having us, the 'cultured' children around, because living in a joint family from the Marathi heartlands had ensured that we were always courteous, within limits of socially approved behavious and never rude, 'even to servants'!

I loved to stand beside the scarecrow and watch the birds feast on the standing crop. A farmhand would spin off a stone or pebble from his 'gallore' as they called the contraption they fashioned out of a two faced branch and a rubber strip tied around it. The birds would fly out in a flurry only to resettle elsewhere closeby in a few seconds.

The field would be aflush with marigold flowers blooming on small shrubs and another adjacent one would have green grass being cultivated for the cattle on the farm. It looked like fenugreek and I would ask Dattu Kaka if they ever did the mistake of carting away some of the green growth to the market and selling it as fenugreek vegetables. I was only eight and my brother Manoj, a year younger.

"No, Kittu Tai," Dattu Kaka would laugh, adding the suffix 'Tai' to show respect for the master's daughter. I hated anyone calling me 'Kittu' which was my pet name and would rather they called me 'Kirti' but it was no use beginning the exercise with Dad's subordinates on the farm.

The wet fields, cool from the water that had been fed into it's folds from the canal, would beckon us to walk into them. The mud felt soft under our tender feet and often a stiff twig or two would prick at the tender skins of the two city bred children. But we would carry on, attempting to look like 'real' farmer-kids.

Many a times we would run into dry, ploughed sections of the farm and bruise our feet badly. I had come over wearing my cousin Manisha's 'chappals' (an Indian word for open-toed and open-heeled footwear) and the frequent runs amidst the clods had ruined the chappals while also chaffing the skin on my tender feet.

The breeze on the crop would send a ripple and we could sense that the grains (we couldn't easily tell what was the crop of the season) were dancing in a slow motion under the Wind God's carress.

Soon, it would be evening and the birds could be seen rushing across the sky in flocks, racing against the setting sun, to reach their babies tucked away in the shelter of some trees somewhere.

The setting Sun, like a globe of orange would look amazing and breathtaking on the green crop. Soon, it would be time to return to the walls of the house and be tucked away into bed. We would return with a heavy heart, like yet another lovely day had gone by and soon the vacation would be over.

But these were also times when Mum seized the chance to subtly inculcate humane values in us. She never preached, only allowed the message to be drawn home in an effective way without making us look like bumbling fools.

Once, Dattu Kaka took us to his home after seeking permission from 'Aai', my Mum and 'Anna' my Father.

We noticed that we were being pampered and everyone in Dattu Kaka's household made us seem special. So, we continued behaving ourselves and asked not an awkward question, though the village lifestyle left us dumbfounded.

Soon, it was mealtime and Dattu Kaka's family was once again busy trying to play the good hosts to the master's children.

The special dish of the day was the 'Bombil' or the Dried (Bombay Duck) Fish, as they would say in English. It is a kind of fish that is dried in open air and stored away. As and when, one needs to cook it, a vesselful is cooked in a spicy curry till the fish goes soft. It is considered a delicacy but not for us, who had been spared the 'nasty' smell of ill preserved fish, all our lives.

To add to it, they were serving it with Bajri Bhakris, which is a coarse western Indian bread baked from bajra (millet) grains.
Both of us, brother sister duo, were put off but with every attempt to sound nice, we could only turn away and say that we were not hungry.

Soon Dattu Kaka dropped us home with a word to Mother that 'maybe' we were hungry, because we had not eaten a crumb.

Mum got to task immediately. No canes and cudgels from the woman. She served us food to tide over hunger, soft wheat bread called 'chappatis' and a vegetable picked fresh from the farm. Then she sat us down with our version of what had happened.

"Aai, they served us 'Bombil' and do you know how horribly it smelt! We couldn't stand the awful, rotting smell and how could we have eaten?" we offered.

"They are poor people and they thought that you will be happy with the dish which was all they could afford," Aai said.
"We would have had chappatis and water, but the Bhakris were tough to swallow. You do know we do not like it," one of us said.

Aai would not let it go at that. "These people may be monetarily poor but they have hearts of gold. Do you realise that they must have felt sad and inadequate that a guest returned hungry from their doorsteps? Do you realise that they must have tried really hard to cough up enough money to source the 'smelly' Bombil fish, as you choose to call it?" Aai continued in a gentle but unrelenting tone, anyway.

Of Course, we realised. But how could we undo the harm we had caused, we wondered.

That evening, Aai cooked some Bombil and Bhakri, herself and served us.

Needless to say, Manoj, my brother and I ate it without a word of protest.

"I am happy you co-operated," Aai said before retiring that night and added, "this will ensure that not another caring but poor family feels pained when they call you over to share their bread next."

Those were the times and those were the days. The people I mention here, are all gone, save for Manisha, my cousin, Manoj, my brother and I.

But I can still feel the breeze on in my hair as I stand on the huge expanse of Marigold many years ago.