2010-07 Melbourne

INDIAN LINK

PUBLISHER

Pawan Luthra

EDITOR

Rajni Anand Luthra

ASSISTANT EDITOR

Sheryl Dixit

MELBOURNE EDITOR

Preeti Jabbal

CONTRIBUTORS

Mamta Sharma, Ritam Mitra, Darshak Mehta, Nima Menon, Shraddha Arjun, Usha Ramanujam Arvind, Chitra Sudarshan, Geeta Khurana, Madhuchanda Das, Kanishko Das, Thomas King, Shuba Narayanan, Shivangi Ambani-Gandhi, Farzana Shakir, Noel G deSouza, Guneeta Dhingra, Sunil Gautam

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Vivek Trivedi 1800 015 847

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Priti Sharma

GRAPHIC DESIGN AND LAYOUT

Darren Monaghan

Indian Link is a monthly newspaper published in English. No material, including advertisements designed by Indian Link, maybe reproduced in part or in whole without the written consent of the editor. Opinions carried in Indian Link are those of the writers and not necessarily endorsed by Indian Link. All correspondence should be addressed to Indian Link Level 24/44 Market St, Sydney 2000 or GPO Box 108, Sydney 2001

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Rejection, racism and rejuvenation

It was not the best of months for Australian soccer coach Pim Verbeek, former Prime Minister John Howard, and Kevin Rudd, also now the former Prime Minister of Australia. All three have faced rejection – not just from foreigners but also their fellow Australians.

Australia’s disappointing showing at the FIFA World Cup has been laid on the head of coach Pim Verbeek, the mercurial Dutchman who was brought in to replace Guus Hiddink, the coach under whose watch the Socceroos advanced to the quarterfinals of the 2006 World Cup. This time the Australian national team failed to break into the final 16 and Verbeek’s tactics have drawn the ire of the public and the media. Predictably, his tenure and contract with the Socceroos is now over.

One person who was not even offered a contract was former Prime Minister John Howard when he raised his hand for the position of vice presidency of the International Cricket Council (ICC). In a humiliating defeat, the voting for Howard’s candidature which was meant to be a formality was contested by 6 votes to 3, the three supporters being the developed countries (Australia, New Zealand and England), while all the other countries rejected him. Howard, a well known cricket tragic was mysteriously drafted as Oceania’s candidate for ICC bypassing not only the entire board of Cricket Australia (including Chairman Jack Clarke), but also the boards

BY PAWAN LUTHRA

of the five Australian states. Howard even elbowed out the preferred New Zealand candidate Sir John Anderson, a move which surprised many. Now, while no explicit reason was given by the ICC for rejecting Howard, it is believed that his stance on racism in Zimbabwe and calling Sri Lankan Muralidharan a chucker were contributing factors to his rejection. While one can acknowledge Howard’s views on Zimbabwe, it is strange to note that as Prime Minister he made no progress on the apology to the Aboriginals on the issue of stolen children, nor did he once criticise Pauline Hanson for her strident views on Asians and migrants.

While one can wonder at the reasons for rejecting Howard internally at the ICC, the role of the Board of Cricket Control of India (BCCI) also needs to be looked at. BCCI’s views have an important bearing on ICC’s positions on many topics; the BCCI also has many of its members from the ruling Congress party. It is the very same party which is keen to source uranium from Australia and by having one of its most influential political leaders offside is perhaps not the best idea. That too, a political leader of the party which is open to selling

uranium to India. Perhaps, representatives from Cricket Australia can go knocking at 1 Race Course Road to further the cause?

But the knock on Kevin Rudd’s door that fateful Thursday took a number of people by surprise. The change in Australia’s top job was quick and brutal; and the change in leadership has now installed Julia Gillard in the top office. As speculation of an election looms, Gillard has started distancing herself from her predecessor’s policies which led to his political demise. This political expediency has surprised few, especially as Gillard along with Wayne Swan and Lindsay Tanner were named as the “kitchen cabinet” of Kevin Rudd, the gang of four which took most of the decisions. While Rudd has been rolled and Lindsay Tanner is leaving politics, the other two have now been elevated to the top two jobs in the country. As Julia Gillard continues to assert her credentials, her participation and acceptance of Rudd’s policies during his tenure challenges the notion of a guilt-free past. One suspects that over the next few weeks, all government decisions will be poll-driven as the Australian Labor Party attempts to rejuvenate itself under Julia Gillard. A fascinating past month and I suspect that we have interesting times ahead.

‘Australia’s new migration rules shouldn’t have retrospective effect’

India has noted to Australia that the proposed changes in their migration rules should not be retrospective in effect.

Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi, who is currently on a five-day tour to Australia, made this demand during meetings with Australian leaders.

“Since there is a large number of affected Indian population, especially the students who had come under the previous immigration rules in Australia, the Indian government will be trying to seek appropriate transitional arrangements as part of this new policy,” the overseas Indian affairs ministry said in a statement.

Ravi held high level meetings on various issues and interests concerning the Indian diaspora with Australian leaders like Simon Crean (Minister for Trade), Senator Chris Evans (Minister for Immigration and Citizenship), Stephen Smith (Foreign Minister) and Martin Ferguson (Minister for Resources, Energy and Tourism).

The meetings hold significance in view of the recent proposed changes in Australia’s migration rules.

“During his meetings, Ravi has impressed upon the Australian side that these proposed changes should be effected prospectively and not have retrospective effect,” the statement said.

The minister also held meetings with the leaders of the Indian community, various associations and Indian diaspora.

“His visit to Australia is aimed at building confidence of the Indian community and as a follow up of the assurances of the Australian government,” the statement said.

During the Melbourne leg of his tour, Federation of Indian Associations of

Victoria (FIAV) and Australian Indian Business Council (AIBC) organised a reception dinner in his honour at Collingwood Town Hall, Abbotsford. Leading members of the Melbourne Indian community and consulate officials attended.

The President of FIAV Vasan Srinivasan brought the minister up-to-date with the organisation’s activities in regards to the Indian community here.

The Minister said he was happy with this opportunity to interface with the community and impressed upon them, the seriousness with which the Indian government is dealing with the current situation pertaining to Indian students here, particularly the

result of the meeting with Mr. Brumby. When asked by Indian Link and other members of the press, he chose not to comment and expressed his desire to keep the details confidential until the governments involved approved a public disclosure.

Ravi also visited New Zealand for two days to have interactions with the Indian community there.

Priya Rajan

‘Safety a matter for Governments,’ says Minister

Manish Tiwari, Member of Parliament from Ludhiana and official spokesperson of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) visited Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra recently to engage in dialogue with the Government of Australia on a full spectrum of issues which cover the Indian and Australian relationship. He arrived in Australia after attending the Shangri-La dialogue in Singapore. An informal reception was held by the Indian Consulate in Melbourne at Shiraz Indian restaurant, where the Minister met up with members of Indian community and local media.

Speaking at the reception held in his honour Mr. Tiwari said, “The Indian and Australian Governments need to explore and realize the full potential of a strong relationship between the two countries. There is a huge Indian diaspora in Australia that has contributed effectively to the Australian community and it is the collective responsibility of the Indian diaspora, as well as the Indian and Australian Governments to ensure that issues that have arisen in the past few months are resolved in a manner which is consistent with the application of rule of law across the board.”

Manish Tiwari is an advocate in the Supreme Court by profession and is also advisor to the Observer Research

Foundation (ORF), a think tank based in New Delhi.

both the National Students’ Union of India and the Indian Youth Congress, mass organizations affiliated with the Indian National Congress. He was also President of the International Union of Students, a syndical organization of 152 National Students’ Unions from 114 countries, with its headquarters in Prague.

Suave and articulate, the Minister discussed various topics ranging from Indian student’s safety, Nitin Garg’s murder, influx of migrants from Punjab and the Commonwealth Games 2010. According to him, both Governments have to be proactive in ensuring safety of students

providers, recruiters, law enforcers and anyone involved in the process of making sure that students who seek knowledge in another country are given the opportunity to assimilate in the cultural milieu of that country. He said both countries need to visit the issues in a profound manner and see how best they can mitigate concerns related to Indian students studying in Australia.

As Minister for Ludhiana constituency, Mr. Tiwari shared his experience of attending the funeral of Nitin Garg and expressed his sadness at the tragic loss of a young and promising life. Nitin Garg

and his family hail from his constituency and the Minister claimed to have known Nitin’s family personally. “It was heartwrenching for the family to lose both the father and son within a year,” he said. “I will be meeting relevant authorities and police officials in relation to this case. It is imperative for any multicultural and pluralistic society to ensure that justice is given in a just and equitable manner according to the laws that governs that society,” he said. A few days after the Minister’s statement two young males were arrested in relation to Nitin Garg murder and are currently being questioned in children’s court.

Later that evening Minister Tiwari brushed aside any apprehension about the safety of athletes and spectators during the upcoming Commonwealth Games 2010 to be held in New Delhi. Insecurity, according to him, is a state of the mind. “If anybody was to come to India and see for themselves that we actually practice our pluralism in its complete manifestation and in its entirety, then all these doubts and misgivings will be completely removed. People must come to the Commonwealth Games. October is a good time to come to India. People should visit India and enjoy the weather and games and meet the people,” he added.

Preeti Jabbal

Photo: Guruswamy

Minister Manish Tiwari with Consul Anita Nayar and Indian community members

Vyalar Ravi, India’s Minister for Overseas Indians, meets with members of Melbourne’s Indian community

Vyalar Ravi

Argy bargy - no Haanji, Haanji

BY DARSHAK MEHTA

There has been an outpouring of indignation in Australia at the perceived snub to former Prime Minister John Howard in his effort to be elected as the Vice President of the International Cricket Council (ICC).

As is usual, if anything happens in the ICC which is not to Australia’s liking, India is bucketed in the Australian media. In this instance, India was accused of sabotaging Howard’s election - which Australia expected to be a mere formality.

And, in India, the commentary has been far from deferential or objective – to the extent of labelling Howard a racist etc.

What is lost sight of in all this is: the six countries who opposed Howard’s nomination did him a grave disservice by refusing to even let him address them and, worse, have still not communicated why they opposed his nomination?

Good manners would have called for at least a patient hearing being afforded to the man and it would have been constructive and enlightening if the real reason(s) for opposing Howard had been spelt out.

Let it not be forgotten that it was the turn of Australasia to nominate a Vice-President, who, two years on, would slot in as President of the ICC. The others on the ICC were expected to endorse the choice, once Australia and New Zealand presented their candidate.

That this was “welshed” on by the secret 7 (six opponents plus the sly orchestrator, Zimbabwe, who abstained) is a regrettable occurrence.

However, not a lot of journalists have addressed one fundamental question: Why, of all people, was John Howard drafted to be the Australasian candidate?

Why not anyone from the Australian or New Zealand cricket establishment? Why not a senior Cricket Australia (CA) Director?

Of course, the ICC is the ultimate boys’ club and a closed shop. Entry into the rarefied Board is reserved only for the elite – Chairman or Presidents of national cricket boards.

It appears that even at the last minute, BCCI President Shashank Manohar told CA Chairman Jack Clarke that India was prepared to vote for Clarke or Alan Isaac - the Chairman of Cricket New Zealand, but not for Howard

These “boys” did not want Howard. Maybe, they took offence at the suggestion that Howard was being sent as a “counter-balance” to India or to “clean up” the ICC.

Maybe, the message they were sending Australia and New Zealand was: nominate one of “our” own – do not go outside of the cricket administration of your country to inject an “external” candidate (such as Howard), who has no prior experience of the ICC or indeed cricket administration at the local, state or national level in your country.

Incidentally, it could be argued that it was New Zealand’s turn to nominate its man as Australia has already had its candidate head the ICC in the recent past (Malcolm Gray from 2000 to 2003), unlike New Zealand.

Sir John Anderson of New Zealand would have made an outstanding ICC President and is a highly respected businessman and administrator who has been involved in cricketing affairs for a long time.

But that was not to be. Australia “prevailed” upon (bullied?) its small neighbour to let it nominate Howard - after a process which involved arbitration.

Everyone says that it was India which was

responsible for Howard’s end. But, this is just speculation. On the face of it, India has merely one vote and the BCCI has a very close relationship with Cricket Australia.

So, what happened?

In the absence of any hard facts, this is merely conjecture: Zimbabwe were definitely the prime opponent of Howard as a pay-back for his strong and justified stand in the past against Mugabe the scourge and despot.

South Africa usually hold Zimbabwe’s proxy, so, they did what Zimbabwe presumably desired and besides, surely they would have remembered that Howard was not their greatest supporter during the apartheid era.

It could be argued that Pakistan and Bangladesh are Islamic countries who may have viewed Howard as a war-monger for having actively colluded with President Bush and sending Australian troops to the Islamic lands of Iraq and Afghanistan.

We know all of Sri Lanka was upset when Howard labelled their national treasure, Muralidharan, a chucker, so, they certainly weren’t going to welcome him enthusiastically into this boys club.

West Indies went along with their black and brown brothers – the majority and where the big money was going.

We then come to India. It appears that even at the last minute, BCCI President Shashank Manohar told CA Chairman Jack Clarke that India was prepared to vote for Clarke or Alan Isaac - the Chairman of Cricket New Zealand, but not for Howard.

This was unacceptable to CA.

My theory is that India were prevailed upon by the likes of Zimbabwe and South Africa (who, in the past, have strongly supported India in the ICC Committee room), to oppose the nomination of Howard.

Old IOUs were encashed. It could be as simple as that.

This despite the fact that incoming ICC President Sharad Pawar, had, about a month ago, urged the 10 voting members to honour the ICC’s new rotation policy for selecting the next President, and predicted

that this would be ‘’unanimously supported’’.

Mr Pawar had committed not only to support the process but support the candidature of Mr Howard.

The fact that his own Board did not do so should be troubling for Pawar and signifies that his influence could be rapidly waning.

Under the circumstances, Cricket Australia are bound to feel betrayed and frustrated that their candidate, who they could have reasonably expected to be “rubber stamped” was instead, summarily and insultingly rejected and they had no prior inkling of it from their great ally, the BCCI.

The lesson that Australia needs to learn from all this is that it needs to be more respectful of the sentiments of the majority of the ICC and nominate a person who is non-controversial and universally acceptable.

It is not as if Australia and England are running the show as they did until 1992 with a veto et al.

The big elephant in the room contributes almost 80% of the revenues of the ICC and as they say, “he who pays the piper, calls the tune”.

Mark Taylor who is a Director of Cricket NSW as well as Cricket Australia has this job written all over him and it is his to be refused.

Allan Border too could do it well – not to mention, the redoubtable Steve Waugh.

However, these worthies would have to forego lucrative commercial or broadcasting careers and spend more time away from their families and I am not sure that they reckon the headaches and politics of the ICC would justify their sacrifice.

Post Script: It is sad that John Howard made a trip to South Africa to seek the support of Dr Mtutuzeli Nyoka, the President of Cricket South Africa. He was reportedly snubbed – Dr Nyoka chose to go to a World Cup Football game, instead.

Howard also went to Harare to meet Peter Chingoka, the controversial boss of Zimbabwean Cricket.

There is a thin line between extending an olive branch and compromising your self respect!

It’s an instance of cricketing politics at its peak, as the ICC rejects John Howard’s nomination for Vice President

Pooran phoenix to rise again

He died in Victoria 63 years ago. Pooran Singh’s last wish, that his ashes be returned to India, will finally be fulfilled now

Literally out of the ashes comes a touching story about Pooran Singh, a hawker from Punjab who died in Warrnambool, Victoria 63 years ago. His last wish, that his mortal remains be returned to India to be immersed in the Ganges, looks like it will finally be fulfilled.

The family of Alice Guyett-Wood (owners of Guyett’s Funerals in Warrnambool) has preserved the ashes of Pooran Singh for 63 years – in deference to his wishes that his ashes be returned to Punjab.

Manpreet K Singh, Executive Producer of SBS Punjabi program went to Warrnambool to pursue this amazing story and spoke to Indian Link about her experience.

“I found out about Pooran Singh through Victorian researchers Len Kenna and Crystal Jordan, who found a hand-written note that mentioned his ashes,” said Manpreet. “Len and Crystal have 30 years of research between them, locating history, traces, anecdotes and memorials of Indian hawkers around Victoria. They first discovered the existence of Pooran Singh’s ashes in Warrnambool, which was followed through by SBS Radio’s Punjabi program,” she said.

According to Manpreet, Pooran Singh left Bilga in Punjab as a 30-year-old, landing on Australian shores in 1899. Like many other Punjabis at that time, he worked as a hawker, selling goods laden in his camel or horse-cart, travelling from one country town to the other. Typically, he had left his family behind in Punjab and spent the remaining 47 years of his life in county Victoria. He died on June 8, 1947 at Warrnambool & District Base Hospital,

Victoria, aged 77 years.

The family of Alice Guyett-Wood has preserved Pooran Singh’s last remains even though no one has ever come to collect his ashes for that final journey to Punjab, and they have even been accorded the pride of place at the Warrnambool cemetery.

Speaking to SBS Radio’s Punjabi program, Alice Guyett-Wood recalls that just before her father Jack Guyett died in 1986 he told her, “We should have done something about Pooran’s ashes. We should have sent them to India ...”

There is no written instruction to convey this wish, but it has been passed down generations of the Guyetts family.

When asked why they have still kept the ashes even after six decades, Alice simply says, “We didn’t have the authority to dispose them off, so we just held them. In fact, I had thought that we may even go to India one day and fulfil Pooran’s last wish.”

Pooran’s funeral was arranged by Guyetts Funerals, and perhaps Alice’s grandfather presided over the service in Warrnambool. Pooran had left instructions that he desired to be cremated, not buried; therefore, his body was sent to Melbourne by train to the only crematorium at that time, which was in the eastern suburb of Springvale.

Records at Guyett’s Funerals show that he was cremated on June 10, 1947 at 11.45am. Interestingly, the records state his religion as ‘Hindoo’ – (typically in British fashion, all from the sub-continent then were referred to as ‘hindoo’) - and that an amount of just over £53 was paid for the funeral service, which would have been roughly six month’s salary for an average hawker in those days. It must be

noted that cremations were very rare back then; Pooran’s cremation seems to be the only one recorded in the year 1947 in Warrnambool.

The copy of Pooran Singh’s will shows that he had grown to be quite a wealthy man. When he died his assets amounted to £2376.04, clearly a result of many years of diligent saving. The money was distributed according to Pooran’s wishes by the executors of his will, with some money going to local residents John and Veronica Moore of Warrnambool, who presumably took care of him in the last stages of his life. He also left £50 to the Warrnambool hospital. Nearly £1,500 was sent to Punjab, with £360 apiece for each of his four nephews Gurbachan Singh, Chanan Singh, Milka Singh and Kartar Singh. The will names them as the sons of Sultani Ram (of Uppal Bhupa, Bilga), who was Pooran’s brother.

Following Manpreet’s story Pooran Singh’s kin has been traced by reporters in India. The families of Pooran Singh’s brother now live in Uppal Bhupa village in the Nurmahal area of Jalandhar district. While none of the nephews are alive today, the families of two nephews, Gurbachan and Kartar, are still settled in Uppal Bhupa according to a report in Hindustan Times. Pooran Singh’s land in the village was also distributed among his nephews. The main gate of their ancestral house is still inscribed with the words: ‘Pooran Singh, Sultani Ram (brother) of Australia’.

Speaking to Hindustan Times, Naseeb Kaur, wife of Amar Singh, recalled: “We received a telegram from Australia in 1947 informing of the death. As we could not afford to travel to Australia, a ‘bhog’ ceremony was organised in the village.”

“Money sent by Pooran Singh was received later, which was used to build this house, apart from installing a tubewell in the fields,” she added. The

“Incidents of violent attacks against Indians in Australia may have saturated the media in recent times, but history holds a very different story, perfectly embodied in the case of Pooran Singh”

Manpreet Singh

remaining amount was taken away by Channan Singh. His family is settled in UK and has been in touch with Manpreet recently. They are keen to be present when the ashes leave Melbourne on its final journey to India.

“After 63 years, I think it’s about time the ashes were returned,” said Alice Guyett-Wood in her interview with Manpreet on SBS Radio.

In her column for Hindustan Times and Sikh Chic Manpreet writes: ‘This Australian family has respected the last wishes of a Sikh-Aussie hawker who they didn’t even know personally. It is clear that Pooran is an integral part of their family history. Incredibly, even the trustees of the Warrnambool cemetery have extended this respect to Pooran Singh, who they regard “as their own”. In the late 1980s, they decided to commemorate Pooran’s presence in Warrnambool by installing a plaque at a memorial wall at the cemetery - his ashes are safely placed in a niche behind it. And when Alice brought up the possibility that the ashes may soon be returned to Punjab, the trustees reportedly said, ‘We’ll send the ashes back, but we’ll still keep the plaque on the niche wall, because Pooran was here!’”

“I have had overwhelming feedback on this story,” claims Manpreet. “World renowned cricketer Kapil Dev has confirmed that he will come to Melbourne and take Pooran Singh’s ashes home. Many of my listeners have offered to do the same. One of the descendants of Pooran Singh has also contacted us from UK, and phone calls and emails are pouring in from everywhere. I also spoke to Ben Whitham a World War II veteran who remembers Pooran Singh. Ben’s childhood memories of the shy, yet enterprising hawker have added interesting bits to this historical jigsaw. I have also been contacted by the Minister of Multicultural Affairs

here in Melbourne, in relation to this story. I am hoping that the final homecoming of the ashes will be sorted out soon. It would be wonderful that the journey of Pooran Singh, one that he started in Punjab in the 19th century and continued in Australia in the 20th century, reaches its culmination in Punjab in the 21st century!” she added.

“I am grateful that this story has generated so much interest and I have Len to thank for initiating the process,” said Manpreet. Historian, author, playwright and public speaker Len Kenna is the author of the book, Are Indians an Ethnic Minority? Vol. 1 - Discovering Victoria, illustrated by Crystal Jordan (2008). He also penned the Indian play It Happened in Heywood about a young Sikh hawker who died in Heywood Victoria, at the beginning of the twentieth century. His main interest is researching and documenting the contributions that non-British people have made to the development of Australia.

“Both Len and me feel incidents of violent attacks against Indians in Australia may have saturated the media in recent times, but history holds a very different story, perfectly embodied in the case of Pooran Singh,” said Manpreet.

It will be a matter of time before Pooran Singh’s wishes will finally come true and his ashes will be immersed in the Ganges but this wonderful story and the memory of an Indian hawker and an Australian family’s generosity will remain with us forever.

More details of this story and interviews with Kapil Dev, Len Kenna and Alice Guyett-Wood can be found on www. sbs.com.au/punjabi

Compiled by Preeti Jabbal Photos courtesy Manpreet Singh, SBS Radio

(Left) Victorian reasearcher Len Kenna at the memorial wall

(Above) Pooran Singh’s plaque

(Right) Cremation record

Alice and Brian Guyett-Wood of Guyett’s Funerals in Warrnambool

The classical scene

Salangai in Sangamam – the second programme in two years, was presented at the Yarra Valley School Auditorium on May 29. It was a cooperative endeavour by four of Melbourne’s well known dance schools to put on a quality classical dance show using the talents of the schools’ senior students. They also provide a platform and opportunities for senior students to perform. The four schools were those of Shanthy Rajendran, Ushanthini Sripadmanathan, Narmatha Ravichandhira and Meenakshi Elankumaran.

This year, each of the schools presented a dance ballet of such good quality and finesse, all of which were finely executed and presented at a brisk pace, that one did not feel time go by at all. It was well organized and the fact that just one orchestra was retained for the entire duration of the evening’s programme helped – only the nattuvangists changed for each school’s performance.

Ushanthini Sripadmanathan’s school began with a dance ballet on one of the great heroes of the Mahabharata, Karna. The stories of Karna’s birth, his mother Kunti sending him down the river in the basket; Karna as a warrior and Duryodana’s friend – were all well choreographed and presented – setting the tone for the other schools that followed.

Shanthy Rajendran’s senior students presented a thematic dance on the Colours of the Rainbow – the only item of the evening that was not based on a puranic or itihasic tale. The high standard and quality of her senior dancers were evident from the moment that they graced the stage until the end of the item. Only accomplished dancers could pull off an abstract theme with such aplomb and the students proved themselves worthy of the challenge.

Meena Elankumaran’s dance ballet was a very entertaining depiction of the story of Lord Vinayaka and the Moon. The tightly scripted and choreographed item was performed with confidence by the dancers, and the story unfolded seamlessly.

The last item was a depiction of the pancha bhootas – and the Shiva temples and shrines associated with each ‘element’ of nature.

What’s On

Talk on Bhagavat Gita

8 July, 7.45 - 9pm at Monash University,

LAW, Building 12, Lecture Theatre L1, Wellington Rd, Clayton, Vic. 3800. Talk by Sw. Sridharananda of Vedanta Centre of Sydney on Bhagavat Gita Ch. 9

9 July, 7.45 - 9pm at Monash University,

LAW, Building 12, Lecture Theatre L1, Wellington Rd, Clayton, Vic. 3800. Talk by Sw. Sridharananda of Vedanta Centre of Sydney on Bhagavat Gita Ch. 9

10 July, 10-11am at Monash University,

LAW, Building 12, Lecture Theatre L1, Wellington Rd, Clayton, Vic. 3800.Talk by Sw. Sridharananda of Vedanta Centre of Sydney on Bhagavat Gita Ch. 9

29 July, 7.45 - 9pm at Monash University, LAW, Building 12, Lecture Theatre L1, Wellington Rd, Clayton, Vic. 3800. Talk by Sw. Sridharananda of Vedanta Centre of Sydney on Bhagavat Gita Ch. 9

30 July, 7.45 - 9pm at Monash University, LAW, Building 12, Lecture Theatre L1,

Understandably, the stories of Nandanar and Kannappa Nayanar – two of the most famous Tamil Shaiva saints - were presented in some detail much to the audience’s delight, as almost everyone was familiar with these tales.

The orchestra consisted of Ahilan Sivananthan whose vocal was the centerpiece, and his voice did not once tire or shake during the 3 hour dance marathon. Ravichandhira on the mrdangam was impeccable as usual, and supported by two of his students.

Vasundhara Doraswamy, one of the most accomplished classical dancers in India, performed at the Chandler community centre on June 20. For the few who got to know of the event and made the effort on a Sunday afternoon to see it, it was a treat of the highest order. She is no ordinary dancer, but one who is so steeped in the knowledge

and history of bharatanatyam, that it shone through from beginning to end. She is an A graded artist of Doordarshan, and belongs to the Pandanallur bani. She is also one of the disciples of the late Sri Pattabhi Jois, the great Yoga teacher who made Ashtanga yoga a household name all around the world. Most dancers slack off by the time they are in their 40’s, cutting short theermanams, omitting more physically demanding items such as tillana or kautuvam. But not so for Dr Doraswamy: despite having 40+ years of dancing to her credit, she performed for over 2 hours at a fast pace when the choreography demanded it, and her teermanams were crisp, complex and imaginative. The Kautuvam is a fairly demanding piece, and Dr Doraswamy’s choreography and presentation were most delightful. In the item “Harihara Ragale”, a dance depicting Lord Shiva’s majesty, based on the lyrics of a famous Kannada poet,

she covered the stage and brought to life the spirit of the ‘tandava’ in the most difficult of poses which even the youngest dancers today are fearful of undertaking. In this, and the other padams and keertanams that followed in the second half, the audience was awestruck at Dr Doraswamy’s extraordinary story-telling abilities. Everyone could follow her depiction of the stories of Ganga’s flow broken by the matted locks of Lord Shiva; Subrahmanya’s courting of the maiden Valli; Lord Krishna’s pranks as a child and as the Lord of the Universe. Dr Doraswamy is truly a thinking person’s dancer. It was one of the best dance performances this reviewer had seen in her lifetime, and one hopes that the next time she is in Melbourne, more rasikas will have the opportunity to see her perform, because it is a treat not to be missed.

Chitra Sudarshan

Wellington Rd, Clayton, Vic. 3800. Talk by Sw. Sridharananda of Vedanta Centre of Sydney on Bhagavat Gita Ch. 9

31 July, 11am – 12noon at Monash University, LAW, Building 12, Lecture Theatre L1, Wellington Rd, Clayton, Vic. 3800. Talk by Sw. Sridharananda of Vedanta Centre of Sydney on Bhagavat Gita Ch. 9

Saaz Aur Aawaz

10 July from 8-11pm at Mount Street Neighborhood house, 6 Mount Street , Glen Waverly, MelRef: 71 D2, entry from Panoramic Gv Car park. Free light Indian musical evening presented by local artists. All welcome. For more details contact Satish Dutta on 0418179122

Vasudeva Kriya Yoga classes

17 July, 7:30am and 9am in Mulgrave, Camberwell and Donacaster; 18 July, 7:30 and 9am in Rowville. Theory and practice

of yoga including asanas, pranayamas, kriyas and meditation techniques. Call Rajendra 0410 527904 /9802 8348; visit www.vasudevakriyayoga.com or email vasudevakriyayoga@gmail.com

Musical bonanza

25 July, 5pm sharp, at Spenserslive 419 Spencer Street, West Melbourne. Matthew Fagan and Voyages World Music Group feature Indian percussionist

Raju Sharma and sitar player Radhey

Gupta, fiery 10 string Spanish guitar, Flamenco and belly dance, world music grooves and many surprise guests. Pre sales: $17.00+b/f/ Door sales$20.00 or 18.00 concession. Tickets www.moshtix. com.au or 1300 438 849.

Cruise on the Yarra Countess

1 August, departure 5 pm sharp from Federation Wharf (Mel Ref: 2F H6) Corner of Princes Bridge (St. Kilda Rd) &

Federation Square. Cost: $65 per person, includes dinner, soft drinks, beer, wine and dance music. Contact S. Mudher: 0413760574, D. Kochar: 0413976394

Launch of AIBCT

5 August, 7 pm onwards at The Green Acres Golf Club, 51 Elm Grove East Kew. Launch of Australian Indian Benevolent and Charitable Trust by the Hon. Jeff Kennett. RSVP July 23. Donation $250 per couple. For bookings contact Arun Sharma on 0412 183 157.

2010 Celebrate India Festival

22 August from 5-9pm at OCA Pavilion, St Patrick’s College, 1431 Sturt St, Ballarat VIC 3000. Organised by Ballarat Indian Association Inc., the festival is dedicated to Indian arts, culture and food. Limited tickets. Contact Mukul Hatwal on mobile 0403 875 838 or e-mail mhatwal@mysoul. com.au for more information.

Salangai in Sangamam

Vasundhara Doraswamy

“I want everyone to participate in this amazingly creative and fulfilling process and I want to promote Tamil and Indian culture through this beautiful art form” Shantha

Icing Queen

Creations that delight the eye and palate are rare, but possible through talent and hard work

BY PREETI JABBAL

Her world is full of words like meringue, sugar flowers, pastillage work, French butter cream, marzipan and royal icing. Her cakes have sari clad women, Lord Ganesha, a wedding mandapam, Thyagaraja, Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Teresa. Meet Shantha Jeyaraj, the creator of an extraordinary fusion of culture and cakes. Author of one of the first cake decorating books in Tamil, Shantha is passionate about spreading the beautiful art of creating frosted dreams. Food is the centre of almost every social event and a cake even more so. Decorated cakes are often a focal point of special celebrations such as birthdays, anniversaries bridal showers etc. Needless to say, people put in a lot of thought into selecting an appropriate cake. There’s Ben 10, Clone Wars, Toy Story, Barbie for kids while the romantics opt for hearts, rings, flowers etc. While the most common themes of decoration tend to be westernized, global influences are increasingly evident in the art

and craft of contemporary cake making. According to Shantha her cakes are a reflection of both her Indian and Australian culture. On one hand she has mastered the art of whipping up a scrumptious two tiered ornamental piece bedecked with incredibly lifelike flowers; on the other she uses the same frosting to create an intricate, multihued kuthu vizakhu (traditional prayer lamp). “I suppose it is an addition to multicultural Australia,” she comments as she shares her life and times as a cake decorator with Indian Link

Originally from Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu, India Shantha lived in Kandy, Sri Lanka for 20 years before moving to Chennai, India in 1984. Five years later she moved to Perth where she lived for the past two decades before moving to Melbourne in early 2009.

“I moved to Melbourne to be with my kids. They have settled here and it made no sense for us to live so far away from them in Perth,” says Shantha. She recently launched two more books Shantha’s Samyal and Shantha’s Cakes on cookery and cake decorating in Tamil. The book launch and cake exhibition was held at Hallam Scout Group Hall on June 20.

“I have been teaching cookery and cake decorating for many years. My first book on cake decorating was published in 1990.

I have held several cake exhibitions in Sri Lanka, India and Australia,” says Shantha. Famous South Indian actress Manorama inaugurated her exhibition in 1985 and popular actor Kamal Hassan inaugurated her exhibition in 1987. Her cookery and cake decoration shows have also featured on Tamil (Jaya/Sun etc) Television since 2006. Shantha is currently working on a book on cake decorating in English to cater to the younger generation. “I want everyone to participate in this amazingly creative and fulfilling process and I want to promote Tamil and Indian culture through this beautiful art form,” she claims enthusiastically.

Through her registered school Palkalaikkalanjiem, Shantha taught and promoted fine arts and home economics in Perth to people from a Tamil background. “When I migrated to Perth there was a need to have a formal channel through which people could learn and retain their culture. My school taught dancing, Carnatic music, cooking, drama, bridal make-up… everything. It was a school that appreciated all art forms. I have reregistered the school in Melbourne, but am going to mainly focus on cooking and cake decorating classes to begin with,” reveals Shantha.

Shantha’s creative journey began in Sri

Lanka when she joined a cake decorating class for a few months. “I had no formal training as such. Over the years I gained knowledge through books, demonstrations, trial and error,” she says. “In Perth I joined a proper cake decorating course and leant both the English and Australian method. I found the Australian method very dainty and I now incorporate all these methods to make my own creations. The cakes I envision are rooted in my culture. It is my way of creating something unique and the feedback I get is enormously encouraging and positive.”

At her recent exhibition, accolades continued to stream in for Shantha’s sugary masterpieces. With their impeccable lettering, patterning and ornamental look the cakes were almost too good to be eaten. ‘You see it before you eat it’ is her motto and Shantha’s cake certainly did not disappoint on the aesthetics. A tentative bite into one of the exquisite creations confirmed that it did not fail in the taste department either. As soon as the cake hit my tastebuds, I got over my qualms about not spoiling the décor. I left with many d-letter words buzzing in my head: dreamy, delicious, decadent, divine….

“Calcutta changed

A debut feature film reveals the innermost emotions of its protagonists against a changing setting

BY SHIVANGI AMBANI-GANDHI

“You’d never survive a day in the slums of Calcutta.” This rather random taunt from their mother sent Sydney director Claire McCarthy and her younger sister to the streets of Calcutta in 2003. And it was here that the first ideas for her debut feature film, The Waiting City, germinated.

The city is not only the primary location of the film – making it the first Aussie feature shot entirely in India – but also plays a major role driving and transforming the lives of the two protagonists. An Australian couple, Ben (Joel Edgerton) and Fiona (Radha Mitchell), arrive in Calcutta to collect their adopted baby. Delays with the adoption agency

mean that they must wait there for days and succumb to the chaos and magic of the city which drives them to confront deeply buried differences as well as their core beliefs.

The ways in which the city transforms the couple is quite close to McCarthy’s own experience. “Calcutta opened my eyes to a lot of things, partially also because of the volunteer work we did with Mother Teresa’s sisters,” she recollects. “That experience cracks you open. You meet people you would never otherwise meet and see things you would never otherwise see. Calcutta changed my world.”

During that first visit, McCarthy made a documentary film about her and her sister’s experience with the Missionaries of Charity sisters and the way in which the experience transformed them. “There were so many contradictions in the work we were doing. There was always a great paradox – with great sadness and poverty, there was also great beauty. We saw life and death so openly,”

Delays with the adoption agency mean that they must wait there for days and succumb to the chaos and magic of the city which drives them to confront deeply buried differences as well as their core beliefs

she says.

During this time, McCarthy also became privy to the highly emotional process of adoption and started interviewing couples who had adopted children. “I started to collate those interviews and find threads in those stories. This film is an intersection between truth and fiction,” she reveals. To maintain what McCarthy calls the “poetic realism” of the film, she used many non-actors as well as real locations. The film starts off in the generic looking airport and a five star hotel. However, as Fiona and Ben travel around the city and to its rural outskirts to understand the place from which Lakshmi, their adopted daughter hails, the drama and chaos of the city unfolds. “Claire is just so ballsy to even have the idea to come to Calcutta and shoot in the train station, and shoot in the street, take over the airport,” Radha Mitchell says in an interview for the production notes. In McCarthy’s hands, Calcutta is no mere exotic locale to tell an emotional tale on overdrive mode.

my world”

in one of India’s most prolific cities

Rather, the complex character of Calcutta itself unfolds through its people, its festivals and the music.

Krishna (Samrat Chakrabarti) who acts as a guide to the couple, often unexpectedly throws up very different points of view, especially about motherhood, barren women and adoption, really galvanising Fiona to think about her own life and choices. The Durga Puja – the chaotic street processions and immersion rituals, as well as the potent imagery of the goddess herself all push Fiona to question her atheism.

The high-flying lawyer, who has driven her life by her own choices suddenly finds herself losing control, and in one scene surrenders inexplicably in front of Durga. “I was lucky enough to see a Durga Puja and was interested in the devotion that goes into the making of the Durga. It was an interesting context to push the buttons and to raise the questions in her life that had remained unanswered,” says McCarthy. “For Fiona, there’s

an opening; a sense of acceptance and surrender to things she was always trying to control.”

Meanwhile, it is the local music that plays a crucial part in Ben’s transformation. Ben is a onetime musician, suffering from a creative block and working as a music producer, engineering other people’s music rather than creating his own. In Calcutta he discovers local music, which revitalises his own creative spirit. Perhaps it is this portrait of Calcutta through its musical diversity – from Tagore’s melodious songs, to the powerful voices of the Bauls, and the pulsating sounds of young local bands – that really makes The Waiting City an incredible film to watch.

It is due to McCarthy’s integrity in using real locations, local music, earthy costumes and even a local crew, that gives this film the authenticity that is lacking in many other western films about India. She easily admits her dependence on the local crew, particularly. “The logistics of filming on location in

Perhaps it is this portrait of Calcutta through its musical diversity – from Tagore’s melodious songs, to the powerful voices of the Bauls, and the pulsating sounds of young local bands – that really makes The Waiting City an incredible film to watch

technical crew. There were some very senior crew from India who had a lot of experience. I mean you guys (India) made close to two thousand films last year, while we (Australia) made about 40! So I knew we were in good hands,” she says.

“There is this culture of filmmaking which is really a part of India already, so everybody’s very experienced,” says Radha Mitchell. “What I was really impressed by, especially with the Indian crew, was that they could just change hats, and somebody who’s an actor could also be an AD, could also help in wardrobe, everybody could do everything.”

“I love the people, I love how interested and

Breaking down barriers of hate

A young film-maker uses her art to spread the message of peace

BY USHA ARVIND

Debutante filmmaker Saliha Wazirzada’s Zarmina - A Story of Hope was adjudged Best Short Film at the inaugural Colourfest Film Festival recently.

The national festival, which focuses exclusively on culturally diverse filmmakers in Australia, has attracted hundreds of entries, which were then whittled down to 10 finalists. Zarmina was named winner after an audience vote on the opening night.

Directed and produced by Saliha, the 12-minute feature tells the story of an Afghan woman who stakes her existence, in hope of a better future for her young son, surviving the trauma of a bitter war, only to emerge stronger in the face of extreme adversity.

“The movie explores changing perspectives and the desperate hope for peace and understanding,” the Pakistani born filmmaker told Indian Link

It is about understanding perspectives and making peace within, by reaching out to each other, she explained.

“Through emotional empathy, we can recognise the larger purpose of life and eventually become better human beings. No matter where we are born or raised and how different we are, deep down we are all the same inside. What runs within is still blood, red, just red. And I strongly believe that forgiveness is the only way to peace and by killing each other we merely sow seeds for an eternity of hatred,” she emphatically stated.

“Thus, through my maiden venture I wanted to show that emotions are universal and that, two people hailing from two different cultures or geographical locations can still connect through an emotional understanding,” she continued.

Filmmaking has been a lifelong dream for this young woman, who moved down under with her parents nearly a decade ago, in search of a better future, more specifically a good education, which she believes is the basic foundation for any good citizen of the world.

“I have always yearned to tell the stories that aren’t being told, but I had no idea that nine months and 24 drafts after I started my maiden production, Zarmina would touch so many people. I was speechless when they called my name out after the screening”, Saliha confessed.

A creative storyteller, her passion for spinning a yarn

goes back to her early teens when she used to engage her young cousins in Pakistan. Her tales were loaded with pathos, expression, movement and songs.

“My little cousins still remember how the scriptwriter in me thrived, when I used to whip up a drama script instantly and give each of them a character to play, performing it in front of the whole family,” she recalls nostalgically.

Hobby soon became a passion and when the family moved to Australia, her parents encouraged her to take it up professionally. Saliha enrolled for a Masters in Media Arts & Production at UTS, enjoying every bit of the practical hands-on exposure.

At Uni, her primary focus was on documentaries, but around this time, she also felt the strong urge to express her ethnic diversity through the artistic medium. “Rather than worrying whether the course would open up professional or monetary opportunities, I felt the need to just express myself as who I am. Being a first-time filmmaker I wanted to study more and more about my culture and my focus grew on the issue of Afghan women,” she narrated.

“I learnt a great deal about their resilience. This then led to me to conclusion that these women are the ‘real war heroes;’ having their husbands and sons fight for freedom at the fore front, they are left behind to raise kids within a society where the man is the main bread winner. While hearing many sad stories of these women, I felt that I should reach out to these women and give them hope. I wanted the world to understand them, the way I understood them”.

“And I am really glad that I touched so many chords. After all, for every true artist, real success comes though connecting with the audience,” she concluded. The award obviously means a lot to this talented young woman, whose role models include film-makers Benjamin Gilmore, Mehboob Raawi and Aamir Khan.

Thrilled with her award, she sees it as a way of repaying her parents for all their innumerable sacrifices. “All the good values they instilled in me, helped to see the world as a global place rather than one with harsh borders and differences of religion and culture. I also feel better knowing that I have provoked people to care about the helpless and think beyond the square. If I can help people let go of their hatred and negativity against each other and connect on the basis of humanity, then that is my biggest achievement,” she proudly acknowledged.

Saliha is also thankful for the tremendous support she has found from within her ethnic community.

“They believe what I am doing will always reflect their voices and wherever I go, whatever I do, my ethnicity will always be reflected in my work,” she added.

Egged by her success, Saliha now hopes to continue her campaign for those whose voices are yet unheard in the mainstream.

“Rather than worrying whether the (film-making) course would open up professional or monetary opportunities, I felt the need to just express myself as who I am”

Sydney actress Mehreena Khan in Zarmina

First-time film-maker Saliha Wazirzada

Saliha at work

New appointments at AIBC

Trevor O’Hoy has been elected the National Chairman and Ravi Bhatia has been elected the National Vice Chairman of Australia India Business Council (AIBC) on June 10. Both elections were unopposed and the candidates had strong support from AIBC members. The AIBC is a business association that exclusively promotes, develops and maintains bilateral trade, business and investment relationships between Australia and India. The only one of its kind in Australia, it is the conduit through which traders, exporters and investors from both countries can make connections and leverage opportunities.

Trevor O’Hoy is a distinguished and highly respected businessman. He was until recently, President and CEO of Fosters, having previously been Managing Director of Carlton & United Breweries. He is currently a director of a number of companies and organizations, including the RACV, Cricket Australia and Cricket Victoria, et al. In 2005, Trevor was voted as BRW Magazine’s most admired new CEO and is also the recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award at Monash University.

Ravi Bhatia is the CEO and founder of Primus Australia, one of the largest telecommunications companies in Australia. He is also the Chairman of Terria Access Seekers Association, an industry association of leading telecommunications companies in Australia and a Director of Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman. He has previously held senior management positions in the US, India, Europe and the

Middle East. His international experience spanning over three decades has covered technology, international business, trade, and public policy and he is a graduate of IIT, New Delhi.

After the elections Ravi Bhatia said, “We are committed to facilitating growth of

trade and investment between Australia and India, as well as building strong relationships between the two countries at all levels. Our immediate internal objective is to finalize and implement strategies for achieving AIBC objectives and proactive engagement with our members.

I would also like to take this opportunity to extend our sincere thanks to Brian Hayes, the former National Chairman and Harish Rao, the former National Vice Chairman of AIBC for their distinguished services and contributions to the organization over several years.”

Ravi Bhatia sharing a word with Manish Tiwari visting MP (left)

No Melbourne contract this time, but Indian player wins Hearts

Budding

In the past month, football really has become the world game – the increased interest in football as a result of the FIFA World Cup has hit every part of the planet, and India is no exception. Trying to make a career out of football in India is no easy feat – however 24-year old defender Gouramangi Singh is doing just that: an aspiring young footballer about whom we will definitely hear more in the future.

Gouramangi recently toured Australia, trialling with the Melbourne Heart Football Club for two weeks. He was an instant hit with the head coach, John van’t Schip who said, “Gouramangi made a real impression on the coaching staff throughout his trial with the club, showing great spirit and character in the way he conducted himself”. He is the first non-striker to have been offered a trial to prove their worth outside the subcontinent, but unfortunately circumstances prevented him from joining the club formally and creating a little piece of India-Australia football history.

However as his agent Lyndon Miranda put it, “He’s still young, just 24. They already have defenders who have played for clubs such as Manchester City. He’d only be on the bench, so it makes more sense for him to train with India.” In fact, Gouramangi would have had to compete for game time with players like former Socceroos stars Michael Beauchamp and Simon Colosimo; it was a mutually beneficial result for Gouramangi to train with India instead, ahead of the Asia Cup next year.

Still, Gouramangi ‘s dedication in Melbourne earned him a starting berth against Brisbane Roar, playing the full 90 minutes.

Last week Gouramangi did indeed join the Indian national team in Portugal, where they are currently training hard for the 2011 Asia Cup (where, ironically enough, they will face Australia in the group stages!). He has already been an instrumental part of the Indian side in the team’s victories in both the 2008 AFC Challenge Cup featuring

Gouramangi’s achievements on both the international and club stages are numerous, but his story has somewhat humble roots: it really is a fairy tale for him. He started playing football when he was very young, coming from the north-eastern state of Manipur, where all the children played the sport at school. He reminisces, “I saw the senior boys playing on the field, it inspired me to go play after school…From then on, I grew up and got more interested to get into this game”. In his tenth year of school he was offered a spot at the Tata Football Academy, and ever since, it’s been a rollercoaster ride. A few years on, he has won nearly every club trophy in India, including the 2008-09 I-League (the top tier football competition in India) with his club Churchill Brothers, as well as being named ‘best defender’ in the League for the same season.

Although fame is knocking on his door, Gouramangi is still very much a modest celebrity, crediting his family and friends with shaping the person he is today. “In terms of my footballing career there are lots of people from various sections of life who have played their part in shaping me up to be what I am here and now,” he says. And truly, Gouramangi has blossomed under some highly-respected coaches, like Bob Houghton and Stephen Constantine.

Van’t Schip suggests that perhaps the most impressive part of Gouramangi is his age – while he is one of the tallest members of the side at 6’1 and a calming influence in the back line, at just 24 years young, he already has over 6 years of international experience, including a successful run as the captain of the winning Under-18 Indian side at the Ian Rush Trophy in 2003.

In a sport like football, the respect of teammates is arguably a bit more crucial than other more “selfish” sports, and as one would expect for such a prodigious and humble talent, his teammates are gushing with praise for him. Indian forward

Melbourne Heart Football Club head coach, John van’t Schip

team over the last few years. He keeps the defence intact…If you check his record in the national team, you will find that India has not conceded many goals when he has played.” His commitment to the sport is unquestionable, and Gouramangi knows he has a lot more potential. In terms of the future, he looks forward to the Asia Cup and performing well with the national team, as well as securing a contract in a higherstandard league. “I’m still learning, so I think I can still improve a lot both physically and mentally, while continuing to study more and more about the game.”

If he had not been so talented at football, Gouramangi says he would have definitely completed full time college and university. But we can be very thankful that he has been given such talent – it heralds an exciting period for Indian football. It will be a hard choice for some to decide where their loyalties lie, come January 10, 2011, when India and Australia face off in the first of their group matches of the Asia Cup in Qatar. But if there’s one thing that’s certain – it’s that Gouramangi Singh will be there, giving his all and sharing his talent with the world.

footballers in India are a rare treat, but Gouramangi Singh is set to blaze a trail of glory, writes RITAM MITRA

“Gouramangi made a real impression on the coaching staff throughout his trial with the club, showing great spirit and character in the way he conducted himself”

Singh with Melbourne Heart coaches

Bhangra explosion rocks Melbourne

If there was only one word to describe Preet Harpal and Diljit Dosanjh’s bhangra explosion show held recently at Melbourne Convention Centre, it would have to be ‘rocking’. I could even go on to add entertaining, lively, peppy etc and completely exhaust the thesaurus, but it would suffice to say that the show was way better than I expected.

I can generally handle bhangra music in small doses and am quite happy to shake a leg or two to upbeat and popular numbers but quite honestly, I have limited knowledge of this genre of music and I had not heard much about these singers before. I was a little unsure about this show and when it began on Indian stretchable time with a relatively unknown artist, I resigned myself to a night of mediocrity. But then came Preet Harpal, full of energy and verve and everyone, including me, sat up and took notice.

He sang all his popular songs like Jutti utte ghungroo, Nashele nain, Lock up, Chittiyan, Mahi and the predominantly Punjabi audience loved him. Preet Harpal spoke their language and sang their life, and threw in some great dancing moves for good measure. The crowd showed their appreciation in typical Punjabi fashion with lots of bhangra in the aisles. Security was strong and evident; however even their stern presence did nothing to deter people from having a good time. Every now and then someone evaded the strong guys to shake hands with the singer or request a song and he was most obliging.

I thought Preet Harpal would be a hard act to follow, however when Diljit Dosanjh took centrestage I was happy to be proved wrong yet again. The sheer energy that this young

man from Punjab put into his performance was gob smacking. He strutted around the stage, confident to the point of arrogant, he sang songs that bordered on aggressive, he danced like he owned every inch of the stage and surprisingly he rocked, not repelled. Diljit sang his popular hits Ru ba Ru, Panga, LA, Desi Daroo etc. and provided true conviction to the term ‘Singh is King’. And true to their names Preet’s songs and stage persona were likable, but Diljit simply stole the show.

By now many in the audience could not resist the desi beats and the bhangra brigade took off in earnest. Those like me who kept sitting missed out on some fun but got more entertainment than we bargained for. Varsha Patti as the MC dazzled the stage in a becoming turquoise outfit. She was serenaded in true ‘cabbie’ style by a young man dressed up as a cab driver. Familiar terms like Immigration, spouse visas, Punjab and Pendu (villager) brought up at regular intervals seemed to resonate among many in the audience.

According to Sabrina Olomi, Marketing Director of The Buzz Events who organized this show, they are a premium event organizing company specializing in promoting South Asian shows throughout Australia. “We guarantee each of our shows will leave you spellbound and wanting more mind-blowing performances from your favourite artists,” she claimed. With my newfound interest in bhangra music I won’t go as far as calling Preet and Diljit my favourite artists but I am certainly left wanting more. Bring on more balle! balle!

Preeti Jabbal

Diljit Dosanjh

Preet Harpal

Winter Funk gets warm applause

With shimmies, ripples, rolls and twists it was a delectable fare of dance moves at the Shiamak Winter Funk held recently at Robert Blackwood Hall in Monash University. The clever and the cute got together to perform on Shiamak’s trademark combination of gymnastic drills, graceful arabesques and rhythmic fusion of Indo Jazz. Shiamak’s vocabulary of movement consists both of contemporary dance with blasts of high impact flashiness and the luminous fluidity of traditional and classical Indian dancing. Either way, the final product on stage offers a visual feast especially for the new observer.

It all began with the Commonwealth Games in 2006 where Shiamak and his group choreographed and performed at the closing ceremony. Melbournians were hooked and Shiamak opened his first dance school in Australia. The Shiamak Indo Jazz Dance Movement (SIJDM) have now completed four successful years in Melbourne and are growing by leaps and bounds. They are planning to start classes in Sydney soon. Their affiliation to Bollywood and Bollywood stars gives them extra leverage and popularity among dance lovers.

An average Shiamak student loves the funky fusion of jazz and Indian dances, enjoys the workout that the sessions offer and belongs/adheres to the mindset that it is hip to be Indian. The expressive potential of Indo Jazz has found

appeal amongst all ages and the mainstream Australian community as well. Shiamak’s dance troupe comprising of his special potential batch, Shiamak show kids and local instructors, are constantly in demand at events and celebrations. The Summer and Winter Funk are annual events where students from SJDM perform to an audience. It is a stage production with costumes, props rehearsals etc., to showcase the talent of SIJDM students.

The Shiamak Winter Funk this year was no different to the others in terms of feverish excitement of the

performers, glittery outfits, Bollywood medleys and nonstop entertainment. There were varying degrees of expertise with some stand out performers, some not so bad movers and some rhythmically challenged first timers. They all won points for trying, if not for talent. Of note in this show was increasingly fine tuned group work by Shiamak’s instructors Vihang, Deepti, Darshan, Mehak, Sahil, Ankush and Radhika. Years of training were visible in their dance movements as they led their bodies into the rhythm of desired emotions and surrendered to the inspiration of their souls.

Yes, for someone who has attended numerous Shiamak events it can get repetitive at times, but in the midst of all the familiarity there are always sparks of newness that keep you interested. MCs for the evening Manisha and Sahil, also tried new gimmicks to keep the audience entertained. The cutie-pies and teeny-boppers warmed the heart, especially of their parents and family members who were in attendance. The seniors got a thunderous applause and it all ended on a feel good note. The tried and tested formula of popular music, fast paced dance steps and shimmery costumes worked its magic yet again. The result - a fairly engaged and satisfied audience that did not hesitate to show their collective appreciation

Preeti Jabbal

On the Jayant Patel issue

Don’t condemn ‘Indian’ doctors

There are few joys in life which can supersede that of finding a position in your dreamt and desired career. Becoming a doctor is one of the few privileged accomplishments which not only secures social status, but fulfils one’s underlying desire to alleviate suffering and serve humanity. The grief of falling from grace in one of life’s most treasured aspects is soul shattering. And that is what has happened to Jayant Patel, who has been repeatedly referred to as an “Indian” doctor in disgrace. This term has evoked an indignant response from the Australian Indian Medical Graduate Association (AIMGA), a large group of skilled, honourable and dedicated doctors from India.

Australia has been actively recruiting foreign trained doctors since the past 40 years. The process of medical registration in Australia is by no means lenient. Medical training in India, though somewhat variable through its hundreds of medical institutions, is generally considered comparable with world-class medical education, both at the graduate and postgraduate levels. A vast majority of Indian doctors have made easy, comfortable and acceptable transition into the Australian community of patients and professionals. Indian doctors are valued as competent clinicians, academics and researchers around the world, and Australia is no exception.

Dr Jayant Patel’s conviction must not reflect on the Indian system of medical education, training, culture or philosophy. It was a most unfortunate event for the doctor and his patients, which undoubtedly was unintentional. As professionals, we are citizens of the world without borders in providing selfless service. As much as Dr Patel must bear most of the responsibility for his neglect in the stringent review of the failure of his surgeries, the hospital must have maintained a peer review system to avoid continuing complications on the operated patients.

Dr Patel has submitted to the highest defeat and failure of his life, and will continue to pay the price for his unscrupulous professional competence. It is a mistake made by a doctor, and not an Indian doctor.

Dr Patel’s actions may seem catastrophic but in the precise field of human anatomy any inadvertent deviation can cause a catastrophe, further blurring objectivity.

The art of success is to remain vigilant with objective and realistic self-appraisal, and the courage to consult a colleague when in doubt. There will be unavoidable, unforeseen and unfortunate adverse outcomes of medical and surgical treatments in the future, and doctors of Indian descent who make up nearly a quarter of the medical workforce in Australia can not be excluded from it.

AIMGA will continue to promote good medicine, scrupulous professionalism, dedication and commitment to patients and towards the advancement of medical science in Australia.

AIMGA would like to emphasise that Dr Patel in his situation does not specifically represent India. As a professional, he is a doctor before he is an Indian.

Shailja Chaturvedi

Criminal, not civil?

Dr Jayant Patel has been sentenced to seven years in prison. This is the very first time that a doctor’s case was tried as a criminal matter, rather than a civil matter. It has caused a serious concern among the doctoring community in Australia and is going to have a serious impact on the way medicine is practised here.

We all know that Dr Patel was a USAtrained surgeon, although he was born in India and did his MBBS in India. Thankfully, this time the Australian media did not overemphasize him being an Indian too much.

Every doctor I have spoken with including myself, feel for what happened to patients in Bundaberg. This did not need to happen and indeed, it would not have happened if the ‘system’ in Queensland had worked effectively. Had the system been effective, Dr Patel would not have received unrestricted registration in the state. In the USA, he was required to seek a second opinion on cases like the ones he operated upon in Queensland, but not in Bundaberg.

If the system had worked, the complaints and concerns in Bundaberg hospital would have been acted upon, thus preventing harm to patients. Many of these problems will be taken care of by the new national registration for medical practitioners. AMA and other medical bodies have raised concerns about the implications of this judgement on the medical profession. The concerns are about doctors being forced to practise defensive medicine and second-guessing about the criminal consequences of what they do, day in and day out. This may lead to delays in providing treatments. Concerns have been raised about the insurance premium for doctors, with the follow-on effect on fees which doctors will have to charge.

The biggest concern is, however, the fact that Dr Patel was tried as a criminal case, rather than a civil case. It is hard to believe that he operated on patients with the intention of causing death. People can bring on incompetence and negligence, but I don’t think criminal motives can be entertained in regards to the operations he performed.

Even though the case was conducted in Brisbane, not Bundaberg, the saturated coverage in media over the last five years including branding him “Dr Death” has

been such that everyone has heard about it. Did he get a fair trial is a question which is also being raised by many.

In Queensland and regional Australia, less than 25% of the doctors are trained overseas, and they provide great medical services. They are very concerned, as some of them have been abused or targeted by a small number of people who hold adverse views against overseas trained doctors and people of ethnic backgrounds.

Dr Jayant Patel’s case is bad news for these overseas trained (ethnic) doctors specifically, but it is also bad for the medical profession in general. Mistakes do happen in health services delivery and now we have this precedent of a criminal litigation. It is a bad news for regional Australia as doctors, many of them overseas trained, may not be willing to work there. One doesn’t have the same level of support and supervisory mechanisms in regional hospitals, as in teaching hospitals in metropolitan cities.

There is disquiet on this matter among doctors who will be keeping a close eye on the outcome of the appeal by Dr Patel’s defence team in the court of appeal.

Yadu Singh

Jayant Patel, former director of surgery at the Bundaberg Base Hospital, will serve seven years in jail after being convicted of manslaughter

Air India returns to Aussie skies

BY MAMTA SHARMA

Thirteen years after it discontinued its services to Australia in 1997, India’s official airline Air India has announced the “relaunch” of its daily direct flights between New Delhi to Melbourne on November 1 with B-777 aircraft.

While the airline deal is seen as a significant move to further strengthen trade and cultural ties between the two countries, this announcement has taken the community and travel trade professionals by surprise.

Under the deal, the airline will establish its regional headquarters in Melbourne, creating up to 78 jobs. There was a strong bidding war for Air India’s business between New South Wales and Victoria, however it is believed that the incentive packages offered by Victoria were extremely attractive and a visiting delegation led by Air India Chairman had no hesitation in accepting Victoria’s offer. It is believed that among other incentives, the Victorian government will contribute to the cost of an advertising campaign in India. Melbourne airport has no curfews unlike Sydney, and will allow maximum aircraft utilisation meaning it will not be stuck on the ground and will allow overnight flying. The Melbourne government also owns the airport, unlike Sydney airport which is in private hands and so was able to throw in landing right concessions and other subsidies, according to industry sources which helped Victoria to pick up this

prestigious contract.

According to Carl Jones, Melbourne Tullamarine airport’s airline business manager, the number of people travelling between Melbourne and India grew by nearly 20% last year, well ahead of the overall Australian growth rate. “Air India, by choosing Melbourne as their base, has seized this market opportunity. The Indian community in Victoria represents around 57,000 people, helping fuel the growth [from India] of those visiting their friends and relatives in Victoria,” he said. The deal aims to see up to 123,000 new tourist and business arrivals from India to Victoria each year. However, it would be interesting to note that according to sources a large percentage of the increased number of visitors in the past year comprised parents of students who had come to visit them in the wake of the recent alleged racist attacks on Indians in Melbourne. The numbers seems to be too ambitious with an expected decreased inflow from India to

Victoria Uni to offer courses in Gujarat

A high level delegation of Victoria University visited Gujarat recently and offered to help the state’s efforts in higher education.

Affirming the commitment of Australian universities to ongoing partnership and collaboration with the universities of India, Victoria University has signed an agreement with Ganpat University in Gujarat to jointly offer a range of courses from September this year.

The agreement was signed on July 2, 2010 by Victoria University (VU) Chancellor George Pappas and Vice-Chancellor Professor Elizabeth Harman, who earlier called on Chief Minister Narendra Modi in Gandhinagar and offered to partner and assist Gujarat’s efforts in higher education.

“In the first stage of the partnership, VU would offer the first year of masters courses in computer science and business and an MBA at the Ahmedabad campus of Ganpat University from September 2010. Students will complete their courses at Victoria University in Melbourne,” said VU VicePresident International Andrew Holloway.

Later stages would involve diploma and bachelor programs including joint degrees with Ganpat University, he added.

A large number of students from Gujarat pursue university education in Australian universities. Mr Holloway estimates that about 1000 students will enroll in a range of VU programs in Ahmedabad by the end of 2011.

The Gujarat State Government has also invited Victoria University to establish a vocational training institute with funding support from the state.

According to Mr Holloway there is strong

demand for postgraduate courses in business and computer science in India and VU is well placed to provide these. “This is the first stage of our plans for further collaboration with Ganpat University. We are discussing a range of further options, including development of a VU-badged campus to be operated by Ganpat University in the state’s largest city, Ahmedabad,” he said, adding that there is also interest in establishing pathways to VU undergraduate and postgraduate programs in engineering, computer science and management.

The Victoria University delegation to Gujarat also evinced interest in training and upgrading professional skills in technical education, keeping in tune with the fast changing global requirements, a release from the Gujarat government said. Victoria University has offered $50,000 scholarship for brilliant and needy students of the state, it added.

The delegation also agreed to the Gujarat Chief Minister’s suggestion to conduct a detailed research in Gujarat’s success story in people’s participation in rehabilitation of the quake-hit in Kutch, and study the Gujarat Government’s unique disaster management policy, ordinance and setting up of the Gujarat State Disaster Management Authority (GSDMA) in all its perspectives.

The Victoria varsity has expertise in specialized subjects like tourism, marine engineering, shipbuilding, environment technology, sports management and infrastructure, besides short-term technical up-gradation courses.

Mamta Sharma

Melbourne in the wake of the recent alleged racial attacks on Indians in Melbourne and the Migration Amendment (Visa Capping) Bill 2010 introduced into the Parliament recently, which if passed will adversely affect the number of Indians travelling to Australia.

However, with just five months to go, there is no travelling schedule in place and the airline is yet to get an office in Melbourne. Sources say the airline first needs to go for registration at Canberra, which is yet to happen. Besides, there is lot to do in terms of work at the airport for the service and the crew. With daily direct flights, Air India in its B-777 aircrafts would need to fill in approximately 3,000 seats per week, an extremely challenging task. Even a large international carrier like Etihad has flights scheduled only three times a week.

But for the Indian Australians it will be a pleasure to welcome back the smiling Maharaja to these skies.

Air India has announced the launch of its daily direct flights between New Delhi to Melbourne from November, but it seems there is a long way to go.

The Visa Capping issue Time to appeal

The Australian Government is close to passing the Visa Capping Bill which will change the lives of thousands of foreign students hoping to make this country a place of residence. It’s time to stand up and appeal.

To ensure that Australia is moving towards a demand driven system in terms of skilled migrants, the Migration Amendment (Visa Capping) Bill 2010 was introduced in Parliament recently. The Bill is currently with a Senate Committee, and if passed in its current form, may adversely affect nearly 147,000 General Skilled Migration applicants including a large number of international students (approximately 36,750).

The proposed bill will allow the minister to allocate a certain number of places to each occupation in the points test (such as accountant, cook or nurse); when that quota is met, he seeks to be able then to not just stop processing in that occupation for the rest of the program year but much worse, actually return those applications back to visa applicants. In other words an application will be simply axed, even if the applicant has been waiting a year, two years or three years for a decision. If the applicant is in Australia, their bridging visa will cease and they will have 28 days to pack up and leave. This is potentially going to affect many

thousands of people who have been waiting for residency.

Students who have applied for permanent residency after graduating from Australian colleges and universities, feel that the new immigration changes will be unfair in more ways than one. The changes eat at the core of Australian fairness for all those people who have sacrificed so much in making sure they meet Australia’s requirements, lodged perfectly good applications, and then have had to wait patiently whilst their applications and lives have been put on hold for an inordinate amount of time. Members representing many different community organisations, as well as the general public from Indian and sub-continental heritage have come together and formed a team called “Friends of International Students” to lobby the government for change. The team has lodged a petition with the Federal Government seeking changes to the proposed amendments to the Migration Regulation Act 1994. If you also feel for the cause, then go to www. fairgo4internationalstudents.org and register your support.

We also urge all fair minded people to make contact with not only their local MP urgently but also other people of influence. Ask them to review this unfair visa capping bill. Names and contacts are provided below.

If you wish to petition these politicians, please urge them as follows:

“I believe that Australia is a fair country. While you reserve the right to make and change any immigration policy, please note the impact it can have on thousands of people. Visa capping is one such issue. It is unfair to reject existing applications which have been lodged without due process being followed. Visa capping is unfair and immoral. Please review and ensure that applicants are treated fairly. As your party says, give everyone a Fair Go.”

Name

Contact details

Julia Gillard Prime Minister

Julia.Gillard.MP@aph.gov.au

Suite MG 41

Parliament House

Canberra ACT 2600

Telephone:(02) 6277 7320

Electorate Office:

Shop 2, 36 Synnot Street

Werribee, VIC, 3030

PO Locked Bag 14 Werribee, VIC, 3030

Telephone : (03) 9742 5800 (03) 9741 6213

Wayne Swan

DeputyPrimeMinister, Treasurer

Wayne.Swan.MP@aph.gov.au

Suite MG 47

Parliament House Canberra ACT 2600 (02) 6277 7340

Electorate Office: 1162 Sandgate Road Nundah, QLD, 4012 (07) 3266 8244

Senator Chris Evans MinisterforImmigration senator.evans@aph.gov.au

PO

Stephen Smith MP MinisterforForeign Affairs;DeputyLeaderof the House Stephen.Smith.MP@aph.gov.au

Telephone: (02) 6277 7500

Fax: (02) 6273 4112

Laurie Ferguson ParliamentarySecretary for Multicultural Affairs and Settlement Services

Laurie.Ferguson.MP@aph.gov.au

Electorate

4844 (08) 9481 4244

Electorate Office: 953A Beaufort Street Inglewood WA 6932 PO Box 901 Inglewood WA 6932

Tel: (08) 9272 3411

Fax: (08) 9272 3477

Parliament House PO Box 6022 Parliament House Canberra ACT 2600

Electorate Office: 3rd Floor, 10 Bridge Street Granville NSW 2142

Tel: (02) 9637 4713

Fax: (02) 9682 6320

SYDNEY/CANBERRAMELBOURNEADELAIDEPERTHBRISBANE/GOLDCOAST

Sharing the food of friendship

A bunch of Indian students enjoy some warm hospitality, extended by an Australian senior citizens group. PREETI KANNAN reports

After numerous media reports of hostility towards Indian students in Australia, a group of retired, Australian senior citizens from Newcastle decided to take matters in their own hands to make newly-arrived students feel welcome. Monday Desperates, a modest group of Newcastle citizens who play Lawn Bowls every Monday, recently extended an invitation to Indian students at the University of Newcastle and hosted a unique ‘friendship luncheon’ for about 22 students. Their aim was to make them feel a sense of belonging and acceptance in the Australian community.

The luncheon, a first of its kinds, saw the students and about 40 members from the Monday Desperates come together and share a meal at an Indian restaurant. The luncheon was an attempt to counter antagonising reports in the Indian and Australian media about what was happening Down Under.

The students, mostly newly arrived, were deeply touched by the welcome and the warmth shown by the group.

“We were overwhelmed by the gesture,” said Kanishk Kumar, a Newcastle University student. “Everyone felt extremely touched by the humility and welcome extended by the members of Monday Desperates. None of the students had experienced such hospitality in Australia before and the fact that it came from the local senior citizens,

made it more special. One of the Indian students called me the next day and told me she missed her parents a lot after she spent time with members of Monday Desperates”.

“I feel we come from our country not just to study here, but for a holistic experience, which extends to knowing about another culture and understanding it. This makes a student’s experience complete and worth coming, even if it means leaving your comfort zone,” remarked Kanishk. He added that such interactions with locals were crucial as it made students feel comfortable, especially since they were leaving their family behind.

“More such events should definitely be held across the country to not just make Indian students welcome, but also to make students from other parts of the world welcome,” he told the Indian Link Students conceded that the lunch helped them see Australians from a different perspective and the perception that Australian society is racist was dispelled.

are really friendly and generous and the luncheon really changed my views towards Aussies,” said Zaanif Kugashia, another student. Zaanif added that the lunch helped overcome any fears of racism and was now enjoying student life.

Monday Desperates, a modest group of Newcastle citizens who play Lawn Bowls every Monday, hosted a unique ‘friendship luncheon’ for about 22 students

Robert Stuart, one of the members of the Monday Desperates, who had initiated the luncheon, said, “I wanted to organise a function to provide the Indian students with a sense of belonging and acceptance in our wonderful community, just like I would have hoped a community may offer my daughter, if she was studying in India. I believed there was no finer group of local citizens with the generosity of spirit and community fellowship than the Monday Desperates and fortunately they supported me and we were thrilled with the result.”

added bonus.”

Similar sentiments were echoed by the students. “They did a great job by arranging lunch on that day. It helped me to find out other Indians studying at the university,” said Aakash Mehta, adding, “I really liked the initiative and hope people around the world come to know how hospitable the Australians are. I am looking forward to more such encounters”.

Vaibhav Gaikawad said the lunch provided the opportunity to make good friends with people who he otherwise may never have met. “I thank Bob and all his colleagues for such a wonderful experience. It was undoubtedly the best afternoon I had in Newcastle,” he added.

“The respect and generosity which we got at the luncheon was unforgettable. I never expected this because of the past attacks on Indians. But, truly speaking, Australians

Seventy-two-year-old Robert, who likes to be called Bob, added, “One of the unexpected surprises to come out of the dinner was learning that this was the first time all the Indian students had been brought together in one place and hardly any of them knew each other prior to this. So we were delighted they had the chance to get to know each other over lunch. This was an

The lunch was also attended by a university staff member. The Desperates was started over seven years ago and now has about over 130 men and women, who are retired doctors, nurses, solicitors, journalists, teachers, accountants and people who come from various trades and industries and also comprise of some well-known sportsmen.

The name ‘Monday Desperates’ is in fact a fun title given by former Olympic basketball player and member Terry Charlton, when he sent Bob a postcard from Zurich for the bowlers.

The group is planning a similar event in spring this year and is hoping to bring more students together.

Dhoni weds college sweetheart at private affair

Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has tied the knot with his college sweetheart Sakshi Rawat

The wedding took place at a very private affair at a country villa owned by former Rajasthan chief minister and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Vasundhara Raje on the outskirts of Dehradun.

Around half an hour before the auspicious time of the wedding , Dhoni on horseback and other guests, which included his teammates Harbhajan Singh, Suresh Raina, Ashish Nehra and R.P. Singh and actor John Abraham, walked for around half-akilometer to the bride’s place, located at the same resort’s premises.

John Abraham reached Dehradun, along with Dhoni’s teammate Piyush Chawla, earlier Sunday to attend Dhoni’s wedding N. Srinivasan, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary and the owner of Chennai Super Kings, which Dhoni led to victory in this year’s Indian Premier League (IPL) season, was present at the ceremony.

John’s girlfriend and actress Bipasha Basu took to microblogging site Twitter to congratulate the couple. “Wishing Mahi and Sakshi a very happy life together forever. Sad that I can’t be there,” she tweeted.

Bipasha also refuted rumours that Dhoni decided to get married on the spur of the moment, saying the wedding was planned months in advance. “The wedding on Sunday night was all planned. But no one was supposed to know about it. Whatever the truth, we must all be happy for the couple. It’s party time!” she said.

Shilpa Shetty also congratulated the couple, posting: “Congratulations in order to Mahi and Sakshi, wishing them all the happiness and marital bliss forever.”

The media was kept far away. The hordes of media persons and television OB vans gathered there were not being allowed to proceed by private security guards, around more than one and a half kilometre from the venue.

Dhoni has been reported to have visited Dehradun and Mussoori frequently over the last two years. The girl’s father and Dhoni’s father were working together in Ranchi. Her grandfather, a retired divisional forest officer, lives in Dehradun.

Indian High Commission denies Nadira Naipaul’s charge

The Indian High Commission has denied a charge by Lady Nadira, the wife of Nobel laureate and acclaimed author V.S. Naipaul, that she encountered discourteous behaviour from a commission official when she came to inquire how her husband could apply for a Person of Indian Origin (PIO) card.

Naipaul apparently wanted the card as it would enable him to travel visa-free to India. It is learnt that Lady Nadira approached the Indian High Commission at India House in London three months ago inquiring how to apply for such a card.

She recently told an Indian newspaper that an official of the high commission told her that the Trinidad-born Naipaul would have to go to Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh - where his family hailed from - and fetch a certificate of origin from the office of the local ‘tehsildar’. The report referred to Lady Nadira’s indignation at the treatment meted out to her and her husband.

The High Commission issued a statement Monday evening saying “No application has been made by Sir Vidia Naipaul for a PIO card.” It said Lady Nadira had visited the high commission some three months ago and made inquiries regarding the procedures for applying for a PIO card for her husband. The procedures were explained to her, the

statement said, adding they were the same as that appeared on the high commission’s website.

The statement came after seeking details of Lady Nadira’s visit and her meeting with the concerned official.

According to rules, an applicant for a PIO card is eligible to do so provided he or she fulfills any of three criteria.

The criteria are, (1) who at any time held an Indian passport; or (2) he/she or either of his/her parents or grandparents or great grandparents was born in and permanently resident in India as defined in the Government of India Act, 1935 and other territories that became part of India thereafter provided neither was at any time a citizen of any country as may be specified by the Central Government from time to time; (3) who is a spouse of a citizen of India or a Person of Indian Origin as mentioned above.

The PIO scheme covers up to four generations and also the foreign spouse of a citizen of India or a PIO.

The documents the applicant has to submit along with the application include the existing, valid passport in original and the expired Indian passport in original or any two or more of six documents.

These include, photocopy of expired Indian passport, letter from British Home Office confirming Indian origin, Indian passport or its photocopies of parents or grand parents of the applicant, birth certificate of the applicant and of the

parents or grand parents of the applicant, nationality certificates of the applicant and of the parents or grand parents, school or college leaving certificates of the applicant or parents of the applicant.

India shuts down against hike in fuel prices

More than 250 trains were cancelled or disrupted, 100 flights cancelled and millions of people inconvenienced as India was brought virtually to its knees with opposition parties calling for a shutdown against the rise in fuel prices.

The dawn to dusk all-India strike, the first such challenge for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government, called separately by the Left and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) cost about Rs 10,000 crore, said the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham).

Describing the nationwide shutdown as an “unprecedented success”, the Left threatened to intensify its protests inside and outside parliament if the government did not roll back the hike. “The unity achieved on the street is the real unity... The fight against the government will continue,” said a triumphant Janata Dal-United chief Sharad Yadav at press conference with his BJP counterpart Nitin Gadkari.

With the exception of a few states, life was impacted in most parts of India with trucks and buses off the roads, educational establishments and businesses closed. Malls, shopping complexes and government and

private offices also stayed shut.

The strike, sponsored by both ends of the political spectrum, the Left and the BJP, was peaceful in many places. But there was sporadic violence too, with 200 buses burnt in Maharashtra.

Opposition leaders, including BJP’s Gadkari, Arun Jaitley, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Rajnath Singh, joined their workers in courting arrest in several places. Left leaders Brinda Karat and D. Raja also did the same in New Delhi.

The shutdown was total in states ruled by the NDA parties and the Left such as Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Bihar. The situation was similar in West Bengal and Kerala, ruled by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), where normal life came to a virtual standstill. However, The response was tepid in Tamil Nadu, Punjab and Haryana.

In Congress-ruled Delhi, however, opposition workers forced the strike on buses and shops during the protests following the central government’s move to end curbs on petroleum pricing and hike fuel costs in order to tame the huge fiscal deficit.

The decision increased the price of diesel by Rs.2 a litre, kerosene by Rs.3 a litre, petrol by Rs.3.50 a litre, and cooking gas by Rs.35 per cylinder.

Rail operations in the country, especially in the east, were severely affected with 73 trains cancelled and 192 disrupted.

For passengers who chose to fly to their destinations, it was not much easier with at

Caught and bowled: Indian cricket team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, his bride Sakshi Singh Rawat and an unidentified relative pose for photographs at their marriage in Dehradun, India on July 4, 2010

Photo: AP

least 96 flights being cancelled, in many cases because passengers just couldn’t make it to the airport.

In Mumbai, the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA), one of the busiest, wore a near-deserted look as taxis and autorickshaws remained off the roads. If the country’s financial capital was hit, so was the national capital, also ruled by the Congress where opposition leaders courted arrest at various places and activists forced shopkeepers to down shutters and deflated tyres of buses.

Huge traffic snarls, blockades and protests caused chaos even though most major markets were closed as were schools and colleges.

The ruling Congress, however, labelled the strike as against public interest. “It is actually an anti-public interest step masquerading as public interest activity,” Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Sanghvi said, and he questioned the Left and BJP’s strategy.

Indian rocket to launch five satellites July 12

India’s advanced, high-resolution remotesensing satellite Cartosat-2B would be launched on July 12 at 9.23 am from the Sriharikota spaceport in Andhra Pradesh, giving a boost to the country’s infrastructure and urban planning.

The Indian Space and Research Organisation’s (ISRO) rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) will carry into space the 690 kg Cartosat 2B and an Algerian satellite, Alsat (117 kg).

The rocket will blast off carrying also three nano satellites - NLS 6.1 and NLS 6.2 from Canada and Switzerland, and StudSat developed by students of engineering colleges in Bangalore and Hyderabad.

“The launch is fixed for July 12 at 9.23 a.m. The rocket will carry five satellites,” S.Sathish, director (Publications and Public Relations) saidd.

The rocket’s main cargo Cartosat-2B is a remote sensing satellite carrying a sophisticated panchromatic camera on board to photograph specific spots closely. The pictures are useful for cartographic applications such as mapping, land information and geographical information system.

Cartosat 2B will join the other two cartography satellites Cartosat 2 and 2A launched earlier. With three satellites ISRO’s satellites can cover the country effectively.

ISRO has been carrying out multiple launches for several years and in 2008 it set a world record launching 10 satellites at one go.

Originally scheduled for launch May 9, ISRO decided to postpone the launch as it found “a marginal drop in the pressure in the second stage of the vehicle during mandatory checks”.

Though the pressure drop was marginal, ISRO wanted to be sure as it does not want to risk a failure since PSLV is a major revenue earner, carrying satellites for others for a fee.

India, Canada sign civil nuclear cooperation pact

India’s relations with Canada changed from one of suspicion and unease to a strategic partnership after they forged a civil atomic energy pact which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described as breaking new ground.

Canada, which had led India’s nuclear isolation in the mid-1970s and late 1990s, is now the ninth nation with which New Delhi has a peacetime atomic energy pact, opening the doors for bilateral nuclear commerce on the lines India has with the US.

The pact, paving the way for Canadian

firms to take part in India’s $40 billion nuclear energy business over the next 10 years, was inked after a meeting between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Canadian counterpart Stephen Harper.

“The civil nuclear agreement that we have signed breaks new ground in the history of our cooperation in this sector,” Manmohan Singh told reporters at a joint press conference with Harper.

“It reflects the change in international realities and will open new doors for mutually beneficial cooperation in nuclear energy,” he said, alluding to how the global community now looks at India compared with when New Delhi conducted its nuclear tests in 1998.

Thus far, India had civil atomic energy pacts with eighth countries, led by the US, which had kicked off the process to resume the global engagement with India in nuclear commerce.

The other countries are France, Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Argentina, Namibia and Britain.

According to data available with atomic energy department, India currently has 19 nuclear reactors at six locations, all operated by the state-run Nuclear Power Corp of India, with a capacity to produce 4,560 MW of electricity.

The plan is to quadruple this capacity to 21,180 MW by 2020, taking the share of nuclear energy in India’s total installed electricity-generation capacity of around 150,000 MW, from around 3 percent to a

little over 10 percent.

While Canadian firms, like those in other countries, cannot yet produce nuclear energy in India that has been reserved for state-run firms by law, they can supply equipment and components - which, in itself, is a big business, officials said.

Four out of India’s 129 reactors are at Tarapur in Maharashtra with a capacity of 1,400 MW. Six are at Rawatbhata in Rajasthan with 1,180 MW, three at Kaiga in Karnataka with 660 MW and two each at Naroda in Uttar Pradesh, Kakrapar in Gujarat and Kalpakkam in Tamil Nadu, with 1,320 MW.

These apart, six new reactors are also under construction, some at advanced stages, with a capacity of 2,720 MW. These are two at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu with 2,000 MW, one at Kalpakkam with 500 MW and one at Kaiga with 220 MW.

Bill against sexual harassment likely soon

A bill on prevention of sexual harassment of women at the workplace will be introduced in the monsoon session of parliament beginning later this month, Women and Child Development Minister Krishna Tirath has said.

“We are expecting to table the bill in the coming monsoon session. The draft of the bill is ready and is in the final stage of consultations,” Tirath said. The minister said that the legislation will put pressure on the private sector, which has so far not been

prompt in taking steps to check harassment of women workers. It also includes a clause which brings students, research scholars, patients and women in the unorganised sector within the ambit of the proposed law.

“Many private organisations still don’t have a committee for addressing the grievances of women in sexual harassment cases. The proposed law will see that a committee headed by a women is present in every firm to address such cases,” she said.

“A penalty will be imposed on those who fail to follow the guidelines. If private organisations don’t meet the rules strict action will be taken against them,” Tirath added.

According to ministry officials, the legislation has been sent for consultations to all stakeholders.

“Once the draft is cleared by the stakeholders in other ministries and departments it will be sent to the cabinet for approval,” an official said.

The bill envisages that every workplace, whether in the organised or the unorganised sector, should have a forum to take up complaints pertaining to sexual harassment.

In the case of the organised sector, there will be internal complaint committees, in the absence of which a penalty, including deregistration of the institutions or a fine of Rs.50,000 for first offence, will be imposed.

The monsoon session of the parliament will start July 26.

Continued on page 26

A global window: People inspect the newly-built state-of-art Terminal 3 building of the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi. With the new Terminal 3, a futuristic, 2.7-billion-dollar facility in glass-and-steel, the capital finally has a showcase airport that chimes with the India’s global aspirations.

Photo: AP

Swine flu situation grave in five states

The swine flu situation continues to be serious in the four southern states and Maharashtra, which have reported 366 of the 370 H1N1 infections in the recent past.

Kerala remains the worst affected state with 222 confirmed reports of swine flu. A rise in number of swine flu cases has been reported from all severely affected states with Maharashtra reporting 72 cases, Karnataka 31, Tamil Nadu 22, and Andhra Pradesh 19.

Recently 16 people have died due to the virus, with 10 of these being reported from

Kerala while four from Maharashtra and two from Andhra Pradesh.

A health ministry official said that lack of awareness was to be blamed for the growing number of infections in the southern part of the country and the unpopularity of the vaccine.

“There is lack of awareness about the vaccine. Even though the stocks are there not many are willing to take the vaccine,” the official said.

Three cases of swine flu have also been reported from Gujarat, while one case was reported from Uttar Pradesh last week. New Delhi has so far been more or less free from the virus with only three minor cases being reported in over two months.

India’s first indigenous swine flu vaccine was launched by Zydus Cadila in June. The vaccines has, however, not proved to be popular till now with people and even health professionals being unaware and uncertain about its benefits and implications.

India says Iran sanctions can impact energy security

In an oblique reference to the US sanctions on Iran that also target foreign companies doing business with Tehran, India has voiced its concern, saying such “unilateral sanctions” can have “a direct and adverse impact” on India’s energy security. Underlining the importance of Iran for India’s energy security, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao pitched for dialogue and diplomacy to resolve the Iranian nuclear issue within the framework of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

“We are justifiably concerned that the extra-territorial nature of certain unilateral sanctions recently imposed by individual countries, with their restrictions on investment by third countries in Iran’s energy sector, can have a direct and adverse impact on Indian companies, and more importantly, on our energy security and our attempts to meet the development needs of our people,” Rao said.

This is the first time New Delhi has reacted since US recently imposed a new set of sanctions - the toughest so far - on Iran for allegedly defying international norms about its atomic programme, suspected of developing atomic weapons.

US President Barack Obama has signed a bill imposing harsh sanctions on Iran that includes cutting off Iran’s access to refined petroleum imports, including gasoline and jet fuel and bans US banks from doing business with foreign banks that provide services to the Revolutionary Guards.

Rao reiterated that India supported Iran’s right to peaceful uses of nuclear energy within the NPT framework and called for adopting “a flexible approach to achieve a comprehensive solution to all issues.”

The US sanctions have the potential to affect a slew of Indian companies doing business with Tehran in the energy sector, including Indian oil and gas companies that are doing business with Iran, including Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Oil India Limited (OIL), Oil and Natural Gas

Corporation (ONGC), ONGC Videsh Ltd and Petronet LNG.

Rao’s stand on stiff sanctions imposed by the US and the EU, soon after the UN sanctions, is seen to be placatory towards Tehran that has nursed “hurt” at New Delhi for voting against its nuclear programme at the IAEA board of governors thrice over the past five years.

Paes wins his 12th Grand Slam India’s Leander Paes and Zimbabwe’s Cara Black won the Wimbledon mixed doubles titles, overpowering Wesley Moodie of South Africa and American Lisa Raymond 6-4, 7-6 (7-5).

Paes and Black,who won the Australian Open title in January and the US Open in 2008, will earn 92,000 pounds between them, while the runners-up take away 46,000 pounds.

With this victory, 37-year-old Paes, surpassed his one-time doubles partner and compatriot Mahesh Bhupathi in winning the most Grand Slam titles for India. Paes now has six doubles and six mixed-doubles titles, one more than Bhupathi, who has won four doubles and seven mixed doubles title.

Paes has lifted the Wimbledon mixed doubles trophy twice previously - with Martina Navratilova in 2003 and Raymond in 1999 - while Black won it with brother Wayne in 2004. Paes also won the 1999 men’s doubles title here with Bhupathi.

It looks like age has still not caught up with Paes, who showed sharp reflexes at the net and came with some stunning returns to surprise Moodie and Raymond. Black, who initially struggled with his serve, was swift with her backhand returns and the two combined well for a convincing win.

Paes and Black took just 37 minutes to win the first set that saw five breaks of serve, four of them coming in the first five games. The second seeds broke Raymond’s serve in the seventh game and Black held on to nose ahead 5-3 before Paes served out the set.

The second set was a close affair with the match going with the serve. Moodie and Raymond gave a strong fight to Paes and Black and took the set to the tie-breaker.

Paes and Black held their nerves in the tie-break before the Indian sealed the match with a volley.

It turned out to be another successful outing for Paes and Black, who have reached five Grand Slam finals winning three titles in two years.

Paes and Black had beaten Czech ninth seeds Lukas Dlouhy and Iveta Benesova to reach the finals while 11th-seeded Moodie and Raymond beat 10th seeds Marcelo Melo of Brazil and Rennae Stubbs of Australia for a place in the final.

Moodie won the 2005 men’s doubles title here, while Raymond won the 2001 ladies’ and 1999 mixed doubles titles.

Special sight-seeing buses in Agra during CWG

Tourists visiting Agra during the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi will be taken for sight-seeing in special tour buses to be launched very soon.

Agra district authorities have announced a plan to start an exclusive sight-seeing bus service, which will pick up tourists from hotels and take them around local tourist spots. Another bus service will take tourists to Fatehpur Sikri, District Magistrate Amrit Abhijat said.

Abhijat said the special buses will make it convenient for tourists to see not just the Taj Mahal but also other historical monuments in the city.

The administration also announced a total ban on spitting and littering near historical monuments. Violaters of the order would be booked and fined heavily.

New hoardings and signages for the convenience of tourists are also being put up near the Taj Ganj area around the Taj Mahal. Delhi’s

gets a new glitzy airport terminal

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Saturday recently inaugurated a glitzy new terminal at the Indira Gandhi International Arport , stated to be the sixth largest and among the most modern in the world, built in record 37 months at a cost of nearly $3 billion.

The actual operations though will start July 14 for international services while that for the domestic sector, for non-budget carriers, starts 16 days later, the developers of what is called Terminal 3 said at the grand opening.

Among those at the inaugural event were National Advisory Council chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel, Delhi Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit and chairman of GMR Group, G.M. Rao, which led the consortium that built the terminal.

“Today is a special occasion for our country. We are all very happy and proud of the completion of one of the world’s largest airport terminals in a record 37 months,” the prime minister told the well-attended opening ceremony.

“This airport terminal establishes new global benchmarks. It exemplifies out country’s resolve to bridge the infrastructure deficit in our country. It also proves the success of public-private partnership,” he said. “We have proved the sceptics wrong.”

According to the prime minster, as many as 58 government agencies were involved in coordinating the efforts to build the airport, and accordingly congratulated every artisan, technician and worker involved in the project.

The prime minister said it was noteworthy that India was today the ninth largest aviation market, with 10 scheduled airlines, as opposed to just two in 1990. He said the total fleet size of scheduled carriers had also grown four-fold to 400 aircraft.

Going forward, he said the country’s commercial aviation industry had the potential to absorb up to $120 billion in investment by 2020 and the capacity to handle some 160-180 million domestic passengers and 50 million from overseas.

The developers of the new terminal - the Delhi International Airport Ltd - said the new facility can handle 34 million passengers per annum in the first phase of development, against less than 10 million passengers at present at the international terminal.

They said the new terminal will be the sixth largest in the world -- after those at Dubai, Beijing, Singapore, Bangkok and Mexico City. It is a super-structure spread over 5.4 million sq ft, to give an experience of a city within, they added.

The airport’s developers are led by the Bangalore-based infrastructure major GMR Group, with the state-run Airports Authority of India, Fraport of Germany and Malaysian Airport Holding as members of the consortium.

Some of the key features of the new terminal are:

l Sixth largest in the world after those at Dubai, Beijing, Singapore, Bangkok and Mexico City

l One pier each for international and domestic operations spanning 1.2 km from one end to other

l A city within, with a super-structure spread over 5.4 million sq ft

l 78 aero-bridges, against less than 10 at the current international terminal

l 63 elevators, 35 escalators and 92 automatic walkways

l 168 check-in counters and 95 immigration desks

l One pier each for international and

Hugging for a cause : Volunteers take part in a ‘Free Hugs’ campaign as part of International Free Hugs Day at Elliots Beach, Chennai, India on July 3, 2010. The Free Hugs Campaign is a social movement involving individuals who offer hugs to strangers in public places which was started by an Australian man known by pseudonym ‘Juan Mann’ in 2004. These youngsters, by the Free Hug campaign also spread the message that AIDS is not contracted by hugging.

domestic operations spanning 1.2 km from one end to other

l Over 20,000 sq meters of retail area, including a large food court

l Capacity to handle 12,800 bags per hour, with 6.4 km of conveyor belts

l Multi-layer parking facility that can accommodate 4,300 cars

l Exotic plants, material imported from Thailand, Mexico, Bahrain.

Toyota investing Rs.500 cr for engine plant in India

Japanese auto major Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) is investing an additional Rs.500 crore (Rs.5 billion) in India to set up an engine plant for its upcoming compact car Etios, a top company official said this month.

“We are setting up the second engine plant with an installed capacity of 100,000 units per annum for our Etios compact car, which will enter the Indian market in December,”

Toyota-Kirloskar Motor Ltd (TKML) managing director Hiroshi Nakagawa told reporters in Bangalore.

The new plant will be set up by Toyota Kirloskar Auto Parts Ltd (TKAP), a joint subsidiary of TMC, Toyota Industries, Japan and the Pune-based Kirloskar group.

TKAP has already invested Rs.500 crore in setting up a transmissions plant and an engine plant for exporting to its overseas manufacturing facilities in Asia, Europe and Latin America.

The Toyota group has 90 percent stake in TKAP, while Kirloskars hold the remaining 10 percent equity.

Till Etios production is scaled to 100,000 units per annum from the initial 70,000 units, the remaining 30,000 engines will be exported to Toyota’s auto plants in Thailand and Argentina.

“Though Etios is specially designed for the Indian market, it will have an imported engine from Japan till engines from the TKAP third plant roll out,” Nakagawa said.

TKML has invested Rs.1,700 crore in setting up its second plant to roll out Etios, with an installed capacity of 100,000 units per annum.

TKAP’s third plant for Etios engines will

be commissioned in the next 24-30 months.

Simultaneously, the capacity of the first plant, which manufactures 170,000 manual transmissions (gear box) per annum for its Fortuner sports utility vehicle (SUV), will be expanded to 240,000 units per annum by 2012.

All plants are located in the Bidadi industrial hub, about 30 km from Bangalore.

TKML also made a cumulative investment of Rs.3,200 crore in its first plant over the decade to manufacture Qualis and subsequently Innova multi-utility vehicles (MUV), Corolla sedan and the Fortuner. The global auto firm also imports in completely built unit (CBU) its luxury sedan Camry, Land Cruiser Prado and hybrid vehicle Prius for the Indian market.

Photo: AP

Gillard Going for

Members of the Indian community speak their mind about the political coup that rocked the nation and brought about a change in the leadership at the very highest level

extensive political experience prepares her for any challenges that come her way,” avers Sashi Bala.

BY SHERYL DIXIT

There was a buzz in the air. The Socceroos were ready to take on Ghana in a make or break match in the wee hours of the morning of June 24, and the nation was on tenterhooks. But on the eve before this crucial event came another unprecedented crisis – Kevin Rudd’s leadership was being challenged, by none other than his trusted deputy, Julia Gillard. The news sent Australia into a spin, snatching the focus off the Socceroos who silenced their detractors by exiting the FIFA World Cup with their heads held high.

The dice was cast. And at 9am on June 24, Kevin Rudd stepped down as Prime Minister, relinquishing his coveted position as leader of Australia to Julia Gillard. Whatever resentment he may have harboured, Mr Rudd bowed to the inevitable and made a dignified exit, much like the Socceroos.

Julia Gillard is now, unexpectedly, Australia’s first woman Prime Minister. Time will tell if she can face up the challenge of being a credible and competent head of state. But to even the odds, Indian Link asked the community if Julia Gillard would make a good Prime Minister, and to comment on her political abilities and aspirations. So does she have the verve to rule a nation, or will she be a mere stopgap until the next Federal elections?

A medley of opinions

Darshak Mehta is a fan, and he says, “Julia Gillard is probably the smartest politician in Australia. She has a genuine following in her caucus, is consultative - not arbitrary, has her pulse firmly on the public mood and is a good listener. She is extremely savvy and street smart, can think on her feet and disarm hostile questioners with her smile, wit and unflappability.”

Bindi Shah agrees, “Julia Gillard will be a good Prime Minister as she will breathe some life into the political scene and give a unique perspective. She is a very experienced politician and a highly qualified lawyer.”

Noel G deSouza concisely comments: “If politicians wish to succeed, they need to listen to what their people are saying such as through opinion polls and discussions. And that is what exactly Julia Gillard is currently doing quite well.”

“Julia will make a better PM (than Kevin Rudd), if not one of the best Australian PMs recently. Julia is one of my most favourite politicians of all times; I like her the best for her diction and for being on the message all the time, every time. It is a great art for any politician, let alone an Aussie PM!” says Dilip Jadeja.

“Julia Gillard’s strong willed, ‘what you see is what you get’ personality, combined with her

“Julia seems confident and capable and will bring about a refreshing and much needed change, and she has a good image,” claims Shalini Ponnaiya

“Julia Gillard seems to be an extremely focused, seasoned and passionate politician who has great belief in herself and her abilities. She is a great communicator and seems to understand the value of working collectively as part of a team, of a society, and that a strong community provides the best platform from which individuals can excel. She believes in a multicultural Australia and favours skilled immigration,” says Mala Mehta

Madhuchanda Das agrees, “There’s definitely a sense of optimism and prospect on Ms Gillard as Prime Minister. Her appointment is a landmark moment heralding positive directions and initiatives for the nation.”

However, not everyone is as optimistic about Julia’s role as head of state. Says Pinky Bhatia, “Although Julia Gillard comes across as a very confident and intelligent woman, I question her leadership and policy-making abilities. If she was a true leader, she would have influenced and steered Kevin Rudd in the right direction if she felt strongly about certain things. She could have exercised her power as Deputy PM to question Kevin and get him to rethink his approach. There are too many credibility issues to trust that she would be a good PM.”

Yogendra Bhatnagar complies with this view.

“I don’t agree that Julia will make a good PM (compared to Rudd). She was deputy PM and I can’t say that she was not equally responsible to Kevin Rudd’s policies, even if those policies were wrong. She does not instill confidence as the leader of a nation should do. Hope I am wrong, as I would hate to see Tony Abbott become the PM of Australia!” he says vehemently.

Australia’s political arena

Australian politics can be intriguing and exciting, but after the initial shock, unsurprising. Australia’s politicians are a breed who tend to simply oust a leader whose credibility is in question. We’ve seen it happen with the Liberal party, who went through the rote of Mark Latham, Brendan Nelson and Malcolm Turnbill in quick succession, before putting Tony Abbot in the hot seat. Julia Gillard joined the pack by questioning her Prime Minister’s leadership, ironically after he had elected her into the trusted role of Deputy. And went on to take his job. This strategic move has impressed Darshak Mehta who says, “I like a politician who can play politics because anything has to work politically and economically before it works at all. Her timing in ousting Rudd is immaculate because she did not make a Costello of herself. As regards the action itself, it is the law of the Australian political jungle. Get over it! Time to move on to Julia!”

A smart move, but a distasteful one, feel some.

“It seems that Julia Gillard was just playing her political cards right as she already had her sights

Rudd go the way he did. He deserved more respect than that, but if Julia Gillard didn’t take over, then the party may have lost the election.”

Sunil Gautam isn’t impressed. “This has been a petty display in which the 2IC to the PM, who should have played an equal role in all his policies and decisions, decides to oust him and take his place. Doesn’t quite cut it for me!” claims Sunil Gautam. “I was no fan of Rudd’s but have even less respect for Gillard.”

Adil Sarkari too, has a pronounced opinion on Julia’s actions. “I cannot trust her. The way she went around stabbing Mr Rudd in the back even after consistently pledging her loyalty to the former Prime Minister till the last minute makes me feel distrustful about her character,” he says.

Political princess or puppet?

So what was the Labor party’s strategy behind supporting Julia Gillard to take over the role of Prime Minister? Opinions vary on whether this was yet another clever tactic or simply a ruse to help win the next Federal elections. Julia will be a puppet for the rebels (of the Labor party) who have placed her there and once they get what they want they will chew her and spew her. I am sure Labor will win the upcoming election but what will follow will be watched by many political pundits. Interesting times ahead!” says Mannie Pratap.

“Labor really needs to come clean on what happened behind closed doors and the reasons behind the big decision to throw out the PM that we elected. If it’s purely opinion polls that

“She was deputy PM and I can’t say that she was not equally responsible to Kevin Rudd’s policies, even if those policies were wrong”

Yogendra Bhatnagar

Julia Gillard with the children at the Asha Community Health and Development Society in New Delhi, last year. (AP Photo)

Raj Paul Sandhu is unsure of how Julia will fare in her new role. He feels she will survive “only until she can keep the Labor powerbrokers and plotters happy. Members of the Labor party make up the policies and the Prime Minister sells them to the country. If anything Labor party members are more responsible for failed polices than the Prime Minister,” he says.

“What change should we expect now? All the Labor policies are their joint product so we can’t expect any major change there. So is it just a new face, a new leader?” asks Sunil Gautam.

Comments Tanveer Ahmed, “While Julia Gillard suits the Labor brand perfectly, “having the mind of a barrister and the mouth of a bricklayer”, she is untested on so many fronts and has not had the scrutiny that someone campaigning for PM has to endure. This will change, of course, but it remains to be seen whether factional dynamics of the ALP are rearing their head at the expense of the democratic process.”

“In a democratic country like Australia, citizens vote for the “ideology” of a party, whether it is Liberal or Labor. The Labor party was elected based on the new ideas or reforms they promised to implement, but unfortunately most of the policies have failed. Now Labor is trying to portray Kevin Rudd as a bad salesman, while still trying to convince us that the product is still worth considering. Clearly, this is another gimmick before the Federal elections. Only time will tell if the Liberals are any better!” says Ajay Sankaran.

“The change of PM is not an issue; such is

get Labor re-elected.”

“Julia Gillard was selected by specific party members and she will be more or less like a puppet of them. Australians did not select her and this fact is very much diluted in the media,” says Rina Day.

“It is yet to unfold what changes Julia Gillard will bring and what policies she will take on board. Only the right policies and their determined implementation can take Australia forward, not just charm and rhetoric,” says Shubha Kumar emphatically.

Through the looking glass

The one thing that everyone agrees on is that the job ahead is going to be a tough one. So what are the challenges that our new leader faces and how will she deal with them? “It should not be all plain sailing for Julia Gillard. In the election campaign, the Liberal Party will likely (and, justifiably!) focus on all the stuff-ups of the Rudd Government of which Gillard was such an integral part. It is entirely fair that she should be taken to task for the policy back-flips and implementation failures of the Rudd Government – in which she was the Deputy Prime Minister,” says Darshak Mehta.

Raj Saneja supports Julia, because he feels that she would practice what she preaches. “She intends to manage the borders better and has announced plans to negotiate the mining super profits tax, which would restore confidence in the economy and share market. She is also confident that the Australian budget would be in surplus by the year 2013 and plans to revisit the Emission Trading

Scheme in a rational way.”

A reader who has requested anonymity comments, “Julia Gillard debilitated the party organization just before the elections. Her achievement as Deputy hasn’t been impressive. Relations with Japan, China, India and even USA are at an all-time low. She seems to have no clear future agenda except for mingling with trade tycoons and seems to have bowed to pressure from mining tycoons.”

Malli Iyer is more optimistic. “Julia Gillard is a good politician who saw turmoil in Labor’s policies because of backflips on some its key policy decisions. Her tactics were bold and pro-active before more damage was done. Julia Gillard could become another ‘iron lady’ (like Margaret Thatcher) if she stands firm. The same Australian electorate would respect her (and Labor policies) for her determination, which is in the long term, good for Australia,” he says.

“The Labor government of which Julia was a part delivered income tax cuts three times in a row and saved the Australian economy from recession. She will remain true to her objective of the democratic socialization of industry, production, distribution and exchange to the extent necessary to eliminate exploitation and other antisocial features. She will do her best to achieve the political and social values of equality, democracy, liberty and social cooperation and integration in Australia,” claims Raj Datta.

“The new prime minister seems to be very goal driven and focused, with a collaborative approach to solving problems and advanced communication skills. If her superior leadership skills are combined with her declared aim of doing what is best for the country, we are looking at a great future of this country and a long innings at this position for her,” says Hasnain Zaheer.

Wearing the pants

How important is the fact that Julia Gillard is Australia’s first woman Prime Minister? Quite important, apparently!

“Wow! We now have a Governor-General, a Premier and a Prime Minister who are all women. We should be proud of Australia’s first woman PM. She is intelligent and has a lot of experience. It’s likely that she will call an early election to capitalize on the positive opinion polls,” says Premila Singh.

“It is fantastic and inspirational to have a female in that position of power. It is significant that a woman is in the highest job in Australia. It empowers women,” says Akila Ramarathinam.

Gillard suits the Labor brand perfectly, “having the mind of a barrister and the mouth of a bricklayer”, she is untested on so many fronts and has not had the scrutiny that someone campaigning for PM has to endure. This will change, of course, but it remains to be seen whether factional dynamics of the ALP are rearing their head at the expense of the democratic process.”

Tanveer Ahmed

Indranil Halder feels that being our first ever female Aussie PM, Julia will bring different strategies to the leadership role.

“In time, women voters will surely see her as a woman first and also as the first woman to break the much maligned - and now certainly non-existent for some parts - glass ceiling,” says Dilip Jadeja.

Says a reader who has requested anonymity, “Women do a better job than men, and that includes my wife. Women politicians have been of a high calibre globally like Indira Gandhi, Golda Meir (Israel) and Margaret Thatcher (UK) to name a few. Hillary Clinton is also good, but Condoleeza Rice is the exception. Julia will most likely be a puppet of the right and left wing unions!”

Rather rudely, Sunil Gautam says, “As regards her personal charm to give the party a facelift, the only people welcoming her are the cartoonists!”

In conclusion, it’s fair to say that most of our respondents are willing to give Julia Gillard a fair go as Australia’s Prime Minister. “Whether she will be a truly good Prime Minister depends on whether she is willing to pursue the common good above her own political career,” says Diljot Sidhu.

And as speculation about the upcoming Federal elections simmers towards boiling point, we will keep our fingers crossed for the best – for Australia and our futures. It’s anyone’s guess on how Julia Gillard will fare as the country’s Prime Minister.

“I believe under her leadership we as citizens will become more equal and Australia as a country will become more prosperous,” says Raj Datta.

Well, we hope so, we certainly hope so!

Murder, she wrote!

A couple of women crime writers are blazing a trail through literary circles, infusing the mystery genre with their distinctive styles

BY CHITRA SUDARSHAN

Although Indo Anglia has come of age and there is a new author popping up every week in India or some corner of the world, one genre has eluded the group until recently: mystery novels. That has now been set right by the publication of a series of mystery novels in recent years.

Perhaps the very young Mumbai-born and based Ashok Banker was the first to attempt mystery novels in India: he wrote three of them in quick succession before moving on to other subjects. All is not lost, though. Two relatively new women authors have written three whodunits each in the last couple of years, and they are not bad at all.

One is Mumbai-based Kalpana Swaminathan, a surgeon and unabashedly crime-directed author, whose first novel Page 3 Murders, (Penguin India) introduced the readers to her heroine Private Eye Lalli, a sixtyish, silver haired sleuth not unlike Ms Marple, now retired from the police force, but is still LR – the Last Resort – when it comes to solving crimes in Mumbai.

The other author is Shamini Flint, a Malaysian-born, Singapore-based lawyer who has now turned to writing: her detective is the likable Inspector Singh of the Singapore police force, a portly, dishevelled, maverick Sikh, who follows his instincts, negotiates political pitfalls, and despite interference from higher echelons, solves crimes beginning with her first book Inspector Singh Investigates: A Most Peculiar Malaysian Murder (Piatkus).

In Swaminathan’s Lalli mysteries, the narrator is the detective’s niece, a sort of Dr Watson, who tags along with her intrepid aunt; that is not the only murder mystery formula that the author follows: in Page 3 Murders, published in 2006, there are other tried and tested ones. There is an isolated bungalow, an old Parsee home on the outskirts of Mumbai accessed by a winding and narrow road, inhabited by a paediatrician who decides to invite a motley crew for a weekend. Lalli and her niece are included in the guest list, which includes (no surprises here) a novelist, a gossip columnist, a dancer, a doctor and his rich wife and an industrialist. The cook, a Bangladeshi refugee from the pavements of Mumbai serves up the most authentic and delicious dishes. Murder strikes, and our Lalli is left to solve the crime. In many ways it is a reworking of the classic Agatha Christie formula, and some may argue that the writer doesn’t quite pull off the transplantation of such setting and the plot into an Indian milieu. However, the author’s style is quite unpretentious, and despite the fact that the murder takes too long in coming, she constructs her plot well, and it is interesting in its own way. As one reviewer noted, ‘re-polished or fake antiques can also be a source of pleasure’, so there is every reason to commend this novel to readers everywhere. The fact that Swaminathan is a

surgeon is a plus, as it definitely adds to the strength of the story telling.

Page 3 Murders was followed by The Gardener’s Song in 2008, and she has just published her third Lalli mystery Monochrome Madonna. The two later mysteries are set in a more domestic locale and are an improvement on the earlier novel in that the murder occurs quite early in the books, so the bulk of the novel can actually be devoted to solving the mysteries. The Lalli mysteries have captured the imagination of a sizable section of the English reading public in India to an extent that the publishers, Penguin Books, have launched an online game based on the book in which the players help Lalli solve a murder mystery in a Mumbai apartment!

Shamini Flint’s Inspector Singh Investigates series was launched in 2009 with the first title A Most Peculiar Malaysian Murder. Inspector Singh of the Singapore police force is loath to leave his comfort zone –Singapore – and travel to Malaysia to solve a crime, but go he must. He is sent by Singapore to represent the interest of the former Singaporean model Chelsea Liew, who has been convicted of the murder of her former husband, Malaysian Alan Lee. As a Sikh police officer investigating in Malaysia, he is forced to negotiate not only the strained relationship between Malaysia

in Singapore, but also the racial and religious tensions in the region. Here Flint’s superior writing strength and compassion come to the fore: she views and presents the reader with different perspectives on the clash of cultures, and never once lapses into a simplistic or uni-dimensional analysis of the tensions that exist in the region. Flint’s wonderful description of Kuala Lumpur evokes all the senses and smells of this metropolis, and being a trained lawyer, she is also able to lay bare the peculiarities and idiosyncrasies of the Malaysian legal system.

Shamini Flint has written two more Inspector Singh mysteries in quick succession: A Bali Conspiracy Most Foul, and The Singapore School of Villany. In the latest, a murder in a law firm rips apart the fabric of Singapore society and exposes the ugly underbelly. Singh muses that perhaps coming home was not such a great idea after all! This series is not to be missed!

In many ways (Page 3 Murders) is a reworking of the classic Agatha Christie formula, and some may argue that the writer doesn’t quite pull off the transplantation of such setting and the plot into an Indian milieu

Flint’s wonderful description of Kuala Lumpur evokes all the senses and smells of this metropolis, and being a trained lawyer, she is also able to lay bare the peculiarities and idiosyncrasies of the Malaysian legal system

(Above) Shamini Flint (Right) Kalpana Swaminathan

The solution to corruption

Raising salaries isn’t the best way of reducing dishonesty in the government sector; but cutting down bureaucracy in the system could help

a business or perform other routine day-today tasks.

Whither Australia?

BY SUKRIT SABHLOK

The political class in India is largely populated by criminals. If in doubt, simply look at Transparency International’s rating of India, which ranks the country as even more corrupt than China.

Elections come and go. But corruption is a constant; it never seems to go anywhere. Some have suggested, however, that a way to eliminate corruption is to boost public sector salaries. Supposedly, making government officials richer will make them less tempted to take bribes. But in reality, there is really no logical limit to how far this argument could be pushed. At what point do we draw the line? $100,000? $200,000?

To take an example of Singapore, ministers receive about $1 million a year. Sure, Singapore is a low-corruption society, but wealthy politicians are not the reason why.

There is nothing stopping government employees from taking money, regardless of how wealthy they may be. All we can be confident of is that individuals will pursue their self-interest as they perceive it, and if the probability of detection is low, political corruption will continue.

Consider what happened in Indonesia when judicial salaries were raised. Although the Supreme Court’s budget went from 79.5 billion Rupiah in 2002 to 153 billion Rupiah in 2004, 1.2 trillion in 2005, 2.2 trillion in 2006 and finally 3 trillion in 2007, academics Simon Butt and Tim Lindsey observe that “increased salaries, even combined with strong new corruption laws, have apparently failed to reduce corruption.” The judiciary still remains the most corrupt institution in Indonesia.

Increasing salaries just ends up being a reward for bad behaviour. Even if some officials take bribes because their low salaries ‘force’ them to do so, relying on them to stop taking bribes because their salaries have been increased is hardly a foolproof policy. Rather than looting taxpayers to arbitrarily enrich government agents in the mere hope of reducing corruption, what we need is a policy that is guaranteed to get the job done.

And that policy can be summed up in one word: freedom. This means moving towards the free market, rather than socialism and corporatism. It means eliminating reams of paperwork and unnecessary complexity in the legal system. The ultimate aim is to do away with the need for citizens to supplicate in front of government agents just to set up

An example will help illustrate the point. Suppose you intend starting a business, but came up against a babu who demands Rs 1000 more as the price for granting you a license. “All right,” you think, “I’ll pay him because I really need the income from my business.”

The problem here wasn’t the bribe per se, it was the onerous licensing system that allowed the bureaucrat to exercise power over the small businessman. As David Henderson of the Mises Institute explains, “A necessary condition for corruption is that someone has power to make decisions for others, decisions that those others can’t perfectly monitor. The reason so much corruption occurs in government is that government officials hand out so much in the form of subsidies, tax breaks, permits and regulatory exceptions”. Therefore, the way to reduce corruption is to start removing discretionary powers that facilitate extraction of bribes.

Now we are in a position to understand why countries such as Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia have achieved such success in stamping out corruption: they invariably tend to prioritize the market economy, at least in comparison to India.

The other argument often used in favour of raising salaries goes as follows: we should pay public sector employees more, because this will attract the best and brightest into politics. This is an equally nonsensical argument. Why would we want to encourage India’s smartest men and women to enter politics? Far better to have them go into private sector jobs where they actually create something of value. Bill Gates has done more to improve the standard of living for the common man through his work in Microsoft than all the prime ministers of India combined.

It should be remembered that politicians in a democracy are inevitably thinking about their short-term careers, rather than what is best for the country in the long-term. As Hans-Hermann Hoppe argues in his book Democracy: The God that Failed, politicians are essentially caretakers who think from one electoral cycle to the next. Thus, it is in their interests to extract the maximum benefits they can from taxpayers before they are voted out at the next election. It is emphatically not in their interests to put in place long-term reforms that will improve the overall health of the nation.

The great philosopher Cicero reminds us that “The more laws, the less justice”. We should heed his words.

BY NOEL G DE SOUZA

The Julia Gillard ascendancy gives Australia

its first female Prime Minister who also happens to be foreign born. India’s first female Prime Minister Indira Gandhi took office way back in 1966 and Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh have also had either female Prime Ministers or Presidents.

Australians like moderate policies. Both main political parties subscribe to “middleof-the-road” centric policies and reject extreme policies. Thus when the Goods and Services Tax (the GST) was introduced, income tax concessions were offered simultaneously as compensation. The terms “left” and “right” in Australia do not have the same connotations as do elsewhere, making it difficult to equate Australian parties with Indian political parties. There is a degree of class division in Australia, broadly equating into workers and bosses. Generally, but not always, workers vote for Labor whilst the privileged vote for the Liberals. This results in some safe seats for each of these parties, but no hard-andfast lines can be drawn. Even the safest seats have only margins of some 10 percent or less. Indians are distributed over all types of metropolitan voting areas, Some Indians are members of the main Australian political parties.

The country areas where farming predominates are in a class of their own, being for the most part, the preserve of the National party.

Voting in Australia is very different to that in India. In India, language, caste and creed are often considerations, though these were not that much in evidence in the last national elections. Australia has just three-year terms at the federal level which is considered as insufficient for effecting meaningful change. Thus in just one-and-half year of governing, a new government has to start thinking of the next election. In India five-year terms give a new government more time for implementing its programmes.

The Australian Senate can override bills passed by the House of Representatives. In the Senate, every state however small in size or population like Tasmania has got equal representation compared to the large and more popular states such as New South Wales and Victoria.

Except for the last term of the Howard government when Liberals gained control of both the lower and upper houses of Parliament, Australian governments of all persuasions have had to wrestle with getting

their legislation through the Senate. The current Labor government found the Senate to be obstructionist, leading to the ultimate downfall of Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister. This inability to get government legislation through has led to the question: whither Australia?

In India, in contrast, the upper house (Rajya Sabha) is a house of review which is not directly elected. State and territorial legislatures choose its members whilst several are nominated by the President. The upper house cannot block budgets. In case of bills being held up, a joint sitting with the much more numerous lower house can ensure the passing of a bill.

The Australian Senate is an ongoing sore point for Labor politicians who espouse a one-vote-one-value system. Each state (however populous like New South Wales or with very few inhabitants like Tasmania) selects the same number of members. This situation is only changeable through a Referendum but Referendums have a poor record of success in Australia.

In Australia, most people vote on the basis of issues which directly affect them Perhaps the most important one is that of jobs. Job security comes ahead of such considerations as interest rates because, even though interest rates may cause pain for mortgage holders, the loss of jobs can be devastating.

Ethnic considerations do not have the same importance as they do in some other countries. Australia does not have ethnic issues on which elections are fought.

Migration on racial lines is also not currently an issue. Issues on which the media has focussed are economic management, climate change and health.

The proposed mining super profits tax, which contributed to the undoing of Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister, is apparently getting defused.

Migrant groups including Indians, are in the same boat as other Australians and, therefore, have no particular issues of their own which have a bearing on how they are going to vote. Some improvement of Australia’s relations with India can be hoped for, given Gillard’s performance during her brief visit to India.

There have been no charismatic leaders in Australia in recent times, though Gillard’s sudden ascendancy and media welcome has been endowed with charisma. The last leader considered as charismatic was Bob Hawke.

The Australian electorate is quite mature and voting is based on factors like economic management, fair taxation, social service needs (like for the disadvantaged, retirees and the aged) and protection of the environment. In country areas, water management is become an important issue. How leaders handle these issues is what the voters will watch.

The ultimate aim is to do away with the need for citizens to supplicate in front of government agents just to set up a business or perform other routine day-to-day task

The comparisons in electing a government to power is broad-based and diverse, in both India and Australia

Job security comes ahead of such considerations as interest rates because, even though interest rates may cause pain for mortgage holders, the loss of jobs can be devastating

Life’s a stage

Life can be a pleasant and peaceful revelation, when we stop to smell the roses, instead of rushing to pick them

BY MADHUCHANDA DAS

Of late, I’ve been fiddling a lot with the retro button of life’s remote – now on, now off. The appearing absurdity of this action has actually managed to whip up a storm and transform my life’s dominant landscape. It has compelled me to speculate on the essence of existence and the lifeblood of living a socalled ‘complete life’. This is probably a natural sign of hitting the wrong side of thirty when quests, cravings and ambitions start giving way to pleasant nostalgia. One looks back fondly as opposed to racing ahead manically. I can liken my life to a play in three acts, so here we go…

Act I

Assuming we’re all familiar with the much clichéd rat race of life, I had the privilege of choosing either Highness Happiness or Pretty Perfection as my trusted comrade-in-arms nee navigator in the uber cool manic dash of modern times. As expected, my middleclass mindset guided me (in true blue Shakuni-mama style) to opt for what the larger aam janta was betting its stakes on. Oblivious and shorn of any worldly wisdom, I assumed (like most ordinary mortals) that perfection and excellence were natural gateways to the heaven of happiness. After all, what defines happiness …bada ghar, ussey bhee badee gaadi, khush family and the rest? So chasing the irritatingly elusive Pretty Perfection became my second nature and favourite fixation.

I drew strength and inspiration from past chapters of life where Perfection had determined my choices and priorities. Just as it had been the implicit cornerstone

of all my parents’ sermonizing when I was another clumsy, cribbing child. It defined my manners, grades, choice of subjects and uni scores as a gawky teenager; and my jobs, promotions and relationships as a foreveraspiring adult. Akin to a never-say-die personal trainer, it sternly monitored my grind. It incessantly poured the ‘can-and-will-do’ mantra into my ears as I frantically pranced through the maverick race of life. It fed my typically human trait to leave the pack far behind in a self-absorbed trek to the peak of earthly acquisitions and egoistic consummation. It never let me be my ordinary self but goaded me to don varied masks, evolve, metamorphose and be chameleon-like to suit the ever-changing rules of the game. It taught me to be superficial, sly, sugary-sweet or suave, depending on the situation. It made me envious when I didn’t attain this or that, and puffed me up when I did. It relentlessly satiated the pent-up steam in my systemic pressure co oker, carefully sealing any safety valves. My pressures invisibly built up, but so did the ambition, drive and the heady high of success. And thus, in this Kurukshetra of circumstances, I played my dices of Rajneeti, assuming it to be my only Karma in the Mahabharata of life. I continued in the marathon, at times leading, on occasions trailing, and throwing caution to the wind. There is also a life after the finish line, but who cares?

Act II

As months and years glided past, my muscles and joints started revolting and fatigue began plaguing me. The inner voice, ignored until now got louder. At first I snubbed it with the remnants of my never-say-die strength, but it soon got the better of me. Hopelessness and desperation hovered in the atmosphere. Used to chutki mein dard bhagaaye sprays and balms, I desperately hunted for instant nirvana, for gurus, for answers and for solace. Petty (yes,

Pretty had turned to Petty) Perfection had moved on, flirtingly forging new relationships with fresher blood, leaving my harried soul helplessly stranded in dilemma land. Now this land is a modern Alice’s Wonderlandflamboyant and glamorous, new age and tech savvy, but inhabited by spiritually poor souls, already into or fast approaching their twilight years. They are depressed, lonely, stressed out, glum and isolated. Now what? And where to? Is this the end of the road or is there light at the end of the tunnel?

Act III

I decided to sit under the cool shade of my Bodhi tree of realization and retrospection. Highness Happiness still beckoned me, though I had forsaken it many summers ago for Petty Perfection. It gently knocked on the doors of my parched and sick soul, and entered to welcome me with no qualms. My near-wrecked nerves felt a soothing calm, similar Ma’s khichdi and cool palm on my burning forehead as the fever raged through my clumsy, cribbing child’s body.

After much contemplation, I garnered enough strength to resume the march with renewed vigouronly this time it wasn’t a race but a relaxed, unwinding journey. For the first time in many years, my morning walk with companions felt liberating. It was indeed spiritually elevating to behold the beauty of dawn, to smell roses with fragile dew drops strewn over them, to feel the breeze on my cheeks when lying on the grass, to inhale positive energies and to smile and wave at others. Gone was the hurry to be first or the feeling of grumpiness at someone else’s relaxed pace. I could wait, catch up and move forward in collaborative unison. And above all, I could experience and enjoy the simplicity and happiness of each ordinary, uneventful day.

My Mahabharata was over - it was now time to rebuild joys, relationships and life itself. I was at peace to have had figured out my dharma, and I hope you find yours one of these days.

After all, what defines happiness …bada ghar, ussey bhee badee gaadi, khush family and the rest?

Huehurrywithout

A pleasant river cruise brings alive Vietnam’s religious and historical landmarks

BY THOMAS E KING

Serpentine waterways wing their way through many well known cities in Southeast Asia. The Chao Phraya, for instance, slices through Bangkok while the Klang bisects the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur. The Huong River, on the other hand, isn’t a familiar haunt with many globetrotters so I felt fortunate to have had a leisurely encounter with the evocatively named Perfume River last month.

dragon boats were temporarily moored. Rising beyond several brilliant flame of the forest trees lining the river bank was an octagonal tower. Hue is a city of pagodas with more than 300 sacred Buddhist buildings gracing this city of 400,000 residents. Built in 1844, the seven tiered Thap Phuoc Duyen Tower was constructed on the grounds of the older Thien Mu (Heavenly Lady) Pagoda.

Hue is a city of pagodas with more than 300 sacred Buddhist buildings gracing this city of 400,000 residents

Stretching just 80 km - much of this journey is amid forests and fields of aromatic plants - the wide river cleaves the Vietnamese city of Hue into two divisions. Located roughly midway between the unbridled frenzy of Ho Chi Minh City - more commonly called Saigon - to the south and the more conservative Hanoi, the capital of the 86 million-strong Socialist Republic of Vietnam to the north, the provincial capital of Hue (pronounced Hway) has long been one of the nation’s main religious and educational centres. I gained a valuable introduction into its cultural attributes and saw a variety of its historical landmarks during a pleasant river excursion in a boat ‘guarded’ by twin dragons. “They symbolise double power,” said Ngoc, my genial and ever-smiling guide who not only provided detailed commentary on Hue but also acted as an interpreter when I tried to speak with older residents who weren’t conversant in English.

One of those was Mr Lu who piloted the dragon boat during the 5 km morning cruise. Previously employed as a fisherman, he said he now enjoyed showing his city to visitors from around the world. We chatted - courtesy of Ngoc’s fine translation skills - as the aluminium craft cut through the water and then coasted to a rustic riverbank jetty where scores of other

Buddhism came from India and then spread throughout Vietnam. Today 90 per cent of the population now profess the gentle faith. Several dozen adherents currently live at the monastery which is mercifully quiet once the tourist hordes leave. The sweeping scene of river boats and the purple hue of the Troung Son Mountain Range beyond was enticing but another major point of interest was only a few km upstream.

Also set above the Perfume River, the Tomb of Minh Mang is the most typical and best preserved of all the royal mausoleums in Hue. Said to be modelled after the Ming Tombs in Beijing, the 18 ha. complex is filled with statues, temples, terraces and stone bridges. In the middle of it all is a large hill of earth where the emperor rests shaded by pines. The exact location of the tomb is unknown because, Ngoc explained, much gold and silver was interred with the revered royal ruler.

Minh Mang who ruled from 1820 – 1840 was the second emperor in the Nguyen Dynasty, a line of hereditary rulers which lasted for 143 years. All 13 Nguyen emperors lived in a massive fortified expanse spread over the northern bank of the Perfume River. In 1802, after nearly 40 years of conflict, Vietnam was united for the first time by a Saigon lord, Nguyen Phuc Anh. He proclaimed himself Emperor Gia Long as the first Nguyen ruler and began rebuilding the Phu Xuan Citadel into an impregnable stronghold, the first fortified city in Asia modelled on European military design.

Fortified is the operative word because the 10 km in circumference Citadel has an 8 metre high, 21 metre thick outer wall. Inside this 520 ha stronghold where subjects lived, worked and tended fields was another moat-enclosed space, the Inner City or Dai Noi. Accessible through four entrances, access through the Ngo Mon Gate was once reserved solely for the emperor.

I walked unhindered through this passageway, across the stone Golden Water Bridge which spans a fish-filled lotus pond and into a still grand palace where emperors would confer with advisors, meet other nobles and issue royal decrees. The elevated red and gold

1. Central Vietnam’s river and mountain splendour unfolds only a few km beyond the busy urban centre

2. The Golden Water Bridge was once reserved for the exclusive use of Nguyen emperors

3. A couple celebrates their newly wed happiness before the moated entrance to the Citadel’s Inner City

4. The ornate octagonal Thap Phuoc Duyen Tower is regarded as the symbol of the cultured city

5. Hue remains a centre of the arts with displays showing works of cutting edge - or odd - design

throne where this occurred takes centre stage in the Thai Hoa (Supreme Peace) Palace, a spacious hall with an ornate roof supported by 80 carved, gold inlaid and lacquered columns.

When the emperor tired of curtsies, courtesies and ceremonies he would retire to the third walled enclosure known as the Forbidden Purple City. This 10 ha. inner sanctum was designed for the exclusive use of the emperor, his family, numerous concubines and an entourage of eunuchs who not only acted as servants but often wielded much of the power behind the throne. Anyone else who breached the sanctity of the Forbidden City usually received a one way ticket to the next world!

The remaining architectural treasures of the Citadel - many of which were destroyed during the Vietnam War - and a substantial part of Hue are located on the north side of the Perfume River. The city’s southern sector also contains many residences and commercial outlets but for tourists this part of the city is the most user friendly because has the greatest selection of shops, restaurants and hotels.

Linking the two parts are several steel structures though one veteran stands out from the rest, the nearly 125 year old Truong Tien Bridge. It’s the longest legacy left by the French who played a significant role in Vietnam and left their mark in many cities.

I negotiated a fare and then entered a cyclo outside the Citadel for a cycle rickshaw ride across the bridge and along tree lined streets to my hotel. The night air was warm and humid and I had no reason to hurry back to dream about Hue. Nothing could have been better than what I had seen: the palaces, pavilions and pagodas as well as the peace that has come to this privileged city on the Perfume River.

Travel notebook

Vietnam Airlines has five Boeing 777 flights a week from Sydney and five weekly services from Melbourne to Ho Chi Minh City’s international airport. There are four daily flights from HCM City on to Hue.

Vietnam can also be a stopover holiday en route to Europe as the country’s national carrier has direct flights to Paris, Moscow and Frankfurt. For details of flights and fares see your travel agent or contact Vietnam Airlines offices in Sydney (02) 9283 1355, Melbourne (03) 9606 0658 or toll free 1 300 888 028.

March and April are ideal with June, July and August being very hot and humid. The winter monsoon from October to February brings cool, wet weather.

ACCOMMODATION

Hue offers options from family run guesthouses and budget lodges to star rated properties and grand hotels like the Celadon Palace. Surrounded by lush gardens, this 222 room designer hotel offers a signature spa and a massive pool, all located near the Perfume River. See www.celadonpalacehue.com

The popular Mandarin Café, 24 Tran Can Van St, is a delightful place to dine on local specialities like banh khoai, a crepe topped with peanut sauce.

The pleasant owner, Mr Cu is not only an acclaimed photographer and happy to show his gallery of images, he is very knowledgeable about the city and region.

EXCURSION

Hue is an excellent base for exploring other attractions in central Vietnam. Perhaps the most spectacular is the Phong Nha cave system, 162 km northwest of Hue. (This natural marvel is just 50 km from Dong Hoi where family oriented beachside resort accommodation is available.)

Formed about 250 million years ago, there are 14 chambers linked by the world’s longest known underground river. A virtual convoy of boats departs from the jetty and transports visitors into and through a short section of the illuminated grotto from dawn to dusk. There are sandy banks in the grotto where visitors can alight for an up-close examination of limestone formations.)

INFORMATION

Vietnam does not have a tourist office in Australia and only limited tourist information is available from the Consulate-General in Sydney and the Embassy of Vietnam in Canberra where your tourist visa is issued. See www.vnconsulate.org.au

Lonely Planet’s Vietnam has a chapter on Hue. See www.vietnamtourism.com and www.hue.gov.vn

Soup: A complete meal

There’s nothing quite like a bowl of hot, nourishing soup to chase away your winter blues

GEETA KHURANA

A hot bowl of soup that is nutritious, comforting and filling…. What else do you need to take the chill out of your bones on these freezing winter nights when the temperature falls below 0 degrees, breaking all previous records in Sydney!

There is evidence that soup was consumed even in the iron and bronze ages. It is quite likely that people have been enjoying some version of meat cooked in heated water since the days when prehistoric man was forced to stalk and kill his dinner before he could even think about cooking it. Portable soup was devised in the 18th century by boiling seasoned meat until a thick, resinous syrup was left, that could be dried and stored for months at a time. Commercial soups became popular with the invention of canning in the 19th century, and today a great variety of canned and dried soups are on the market. Dr. John T. Dorrance, a chemist with the Campbell Soup Company invented soup in 1897. Today the meaning of soup has changed. It can be as thick as bouillabaisse that nearly crosses the line from soup to stew, or thin clear consommés or anything between these two.

Portable soup was devised in the 18th century by boiling seasoned meat until a thick, resinous syrup was left, that could be dried and stored for months at a time

Soups can be prepared from various main ingredients like vegetables, grains, eggs, meats and seafood. is a heavy and smooth soup that is made from seafood like lobsters and shrimps. Another thick soup is chowder, a chunky soup generally made from seafood but also includes poultry, vegetables and other ingredients. Stock and broth are clear soups that have ingredients like meat and poultry which are cooked with vegetables and herbs. refers to commercial products like granules and cubes. are strong meat or fish broth that have undergone clarification. Dessert soups include Ginataan, a Filipino soup made from coconut milk, milk, fruits and tapioca pearls, served hot or cold. Garnishes are used to increase the visual appeal, texture and tastes.

Soup is consumed the world over: some of the wellknown varieties include New England chowder, Spanish gazpacho, miso soup from Japan and bouillabaisse from Southern France. Mulligatawny soup, goulash of Hungary, Russian borscht, Italian minestrone, French onion and the Chinese won ton are other popular international varieties.

Benefits of soups

l Soup may not necessarily be taken as an appetizer at the start of the meal but it can be planned as a complete healthy, nutritious meal in itself. It is an excellent way to add healthy beans, vegetables, legumes, grains and meat, fish and chicken to your diet, and also an inexpensive way to take in proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals.

l There is nothing more comforting than a hot bowl of soup for a sore throat and taking the chill out of your bones on a winter evening. It helps to soothe coughs and sore throat as the gentle heat from the soup improves the circulation of blood near the throat and the windpipe. Also, a power-packed soup with minerals

and vitamins helps to boost your immunity and thus helps to relieve cold.

l Healthy soups are filling and if you do not add high fat foods, they can be quite nutritious and a balanced meal. In China, the children are sent off to school after eating a bowl of soup made with rice grains.

l Soup is the easiest form of food for digestion and absorption. The simmering and boiling allows the nutrients to dissolve in the broth and thus aids in digestion.

l Bone soup or broth is a concentrated source of vitamins, minerals such as calcium, potassium, phosphorous, magnesium, silicon and glucosamine. Bone soup also contains proteins, collagen and natural salts, and is thus excellent for the elderly and people suffering from joint pains.

l Soups are a great healthy substitute in winters for excessive tea and coffee.

l Children also tend to enjoy soups more than heaps of cooked veggies to fulfill their 5 serves of vegetables every day.

l The Japanese miso soup is one of the healthiest soups. It is made from miso - a soybean paste which is fermented with salt and rice or barley for at least ten months and dashi which is seaweed and bonito flakes. Other ingredients are frequently added and may include green onions, mushrooms, radish, clams, and different types of tofu.

Keep a few tips in mind when planning healthy, nutritious soup meals

l Add many vegetables such as spinach, mushrooms,

carrots, broccoli, corn, peas, celery, bok choy, leeks, pumpkin and tomatoes to increase the fibre, vitamin and mineral content of the soup.

l Add beans, lentils, whole grains, tofu, and sprouts to add more protein in a vegetarian soup.

l Reconstituting your soup with skimmed milk or non fat milk powder increases its protein and calcium instead of adding whole milk or cream. Try to avoid adding cream as much as possible as it introduces unnecessary fat and calories.

l Skinless chicken, lean meat, eggs and seafood added to the soups help to add on the protein. But make sure you trim off all the fat from the meat.

l The inclusion of a little pasta or noodles helps to make it a complete meal.

l Also avoid adding maida or corn flour as a thickening agent as it adds extra calories. Instead use potatoes or sweet potatoes, rice or even washed moong dal as an excellent thickening agent.

l Add your favourite herbs and spices to enhance the flavors and boost up the immunity. You can experiment with fresh ground pepper, cardamom, parsley, fresh coriander, basil, oregano, lemon grass, ginger, and garlic.

l Beware of processed or canned or commercial soups as these may be very high in sodium and carbohydrates, and are more expensive than homemade soups.

l Try to simmer and cook the soup stock slowly so as to extract the maximum nutrition and flavors.

Soup can be as simple or as complicated and interesting a dish as you prefer. Therefore, enjoy yourself with hot soups this winter and get the best of health and nutrition.

Fabulous at forty

There is no doubt that looking after your skin from a young age delays lines and wrinkles. Moisturising your skin regularly and of course, not stepping out without effective sun protection helps. However, there are some women who go totally wrong with their make up and instead of looking younger, they end up with the opposite effect. So what is needed to conceal those telltale signs of ageing?

Don’t lay it on so thick!

Wearing foundation is the most common and easy way to hide wrinkles, especially crow’s feet and lines around the mouth. But some think wearing it really thick reduces the visibility of these lines. It won’t. When you wear too much foundation, it cakes up and makes the lines more visible. So ideally, add a drop of water to your liquid foundation so it thins a bit or if you are using a foundation stick, spread it in the form of tiny dots on your face and blend it in. Wearing a moisturiser

Shimmery eye shadow should be avoided as it can draw attention to the lines on your eyelids, and can make you look older

before applying foundation also helps. Stay away from the glitter… Your age is first revealed in the area around the eyes. Be very careful while choosing eye make up. I know someone who cakes on glittery eye shadow and you can count the wrinkles on her eyelids. Shimmery eye shadow should be avoided as it can draw attention to the lines on your eyelids, and can make you look older. Choose matt colours or if you must use the ones with glitter, go for soft shades and draw a line over your lid instead of covering the entire eyelids with them.

For your eyes only

To look younger and give a lift to sagging eyelids, you must wear mascara. This helps in brightening the eyes and enhances them. Eyeliner can also help to achieve this result. Wearing kajal, or brown and black eye pencil along with mascara can give your face a bright and alert look. Nowadays you get several mascaras that help make eyelashes look longer.

Wearing kajal, or brown and black eye pencil along with mascara can give your face a bright and alert look

Get colour smart

When you wear make up avoid going OTT, so you don’t end up looking like a Christmas tree. Some women wear a lot of blush and then slap on the mascara and lipstick till they look overdressed, no matter what. You must pick and choose your make up and the feature you want to highlight. To highlight your eyes, go easy on the lip colour. If your blush is bright, wear nude lipstick and brown eyeliner. The trick to remember is that if either your eye shadow or lipstick or blush is bright, keep the other two toned down. And if you are in doubt, play safe with nude lipstick and just mascara on the eyes with a shade of blush as close to your complexion as possible.

Watch those lips

As we age, our lips tend to get thinner and our skin tends to dry. So when moisturising your face, be sure to apply some on your lips as well. While botox for plumper lips may not be a solution for everyone, you can use make up to make your lips look fuller. Avoid lip liners and lipsticks in dark browns, purples and deep maroon. If you are dark skinned and light frosted colours don’t suit you, wear dark lipstick but blot with a tissue after applying and coat with a slightly shimmery or clear lip gloss. Again, when in doubt, nude shades of lipstick are the safest so ensure you always have this shade on your make up table.

As we get older, lines and wrinkles are inevitable, but there is no reason why you can’t minimise them with the right make up, says PRIYA NAIR

The Showman personified

Raj Kapoor’s social conscience came to the fore through his movies which highlighted the plight of the poor and destitute, writes

MALLI IYER

Raj Kapoor was popularly known as the “Charlie Chaplin of India”, a well deserved accolade for one of the greats of Indian cinema. This versatile actor stood head and shoulders above all his contemporaries, and was an exemplary part of a filmy dynasty headed by the legendary Prithiviraj Kapoor. Following his own career and that of his brothers Shammi and Shashi, the next generation came up with Randhir, Rishi and Rajiv, and the fourth generation with its glamorous successors in Karishma, Kareena and Ranbir are wowing audiences today.

Raj Kapoor was born in 1924, in a Pathan family at Lyallpur (near Peshawar). He must have had films in his genes as he began acting at the young age of 11 and by the time he turned 23, he had a major role opposite Madhubala in Kidar Sharma’s Neel Kamal Tragically, Raj died of severe complications caused by asthma at the comparatively young age of 63. At the time of his death, he was a producer, director, editor, script writer and was adept at camera work. His collection of awards, nominations and titles conferred upon him would be the envy of the film industry’s top artistes. He received 16 Filmfare awards; his films Awara (1951) and Boot Polish (1954) were nominated for the Palme D’or at the Cannes Film Festival; he was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1971, and received the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1987. Raj Kapoor achieved an international stature at the peak of his career as he was honoured and acclaimed in the Middle East, Soviet Union and all over South East Asia. One of the youngest entrepreneurs in the industry, he launched RK Films at the age of 24 and later, RK Studios. Raj conceptualised many of his films to convey one or more social messages – either ills within society, traditions like widow remarriage that should be jettisoned, or social taboos like dowry, exploitation of children, among others.

(Raj) could easily identify himself with the scum of society like petty thieves, pickpockets, jailbirds, strugglers and the homeles

A champion of the poor Raj Kapoor’s tramp-like personality was likened to Charlie Chaplin, but using his films like Boot Polish, Awara and Mera Naam Joker as the medium, he bemoaned the lot of the ‘have-nots’ in Indian society. He even dared to dream of a Utopian future for the poorest children on the streets of Bombay in Boot Polish

The song Nanhe munne bacchhey teri mutthi mein kya hai sung by street urchins typified his dream. He could easily identify himself with the scum of society like petty thieves, pickpockets, jailbirds, strugglers and the homeless. In Awara he even compared his own likeness of living with that of a dog. In Shree 420 his famous song Joota hai Japani, yeh patloon inglisthani, sar pe laal topi Roosi, phir bhi dil hai Hindustani portrayed his love of the simple things in life in a socialistic Nehruvian plan for India.

Raj often saw the women and the poor of India as victims of a social system where inequality of wealth and day-to-day comforts were more the norm than the exception, as well as a historical fact. He was a rebel who was a pacifist at heart, and believed that love would conquer the problems of the world more

than use of force or violence. His film Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai reinforces this view. His film Mera Naam Joker was almost autobiographical and took six long years in constructing the character that he played himself.

A visionary and a true romantic

Raj Kapoor was a romantic to the core as can be gauged from his well-publicised affair with Nargis. That he admired his chosen women was no secret. Nargis was his inspiration in several films and he made Aag, Barsaat, Awara and Shree 420, the last being during the peak of his romantic relationship. He chose his heroines not because of their acting prowess or their reputation, but how eminently suited they were to the roles – such as Vyjayantimala in Sangam, Zeenat Aman in Satyam Shivam Sundaram, Dimple Kapadia in Bobby and Mandakini in Ram Teri Ganga Maili Raj was not averse to exposing the female anatomy to create a tasteful appreciation of the character and situation, but not necessarily to titillate the baser instincts of the audience, regardless of whether it was Zeenat Aman’s mini-saree and transparent blouse, Dimple Kapadia’s repeated bikini clad appearances or the scene of Mandakini breastfeeding her infant. In any case, the film censorship regime saw itself as a moral custodian of the people, and prevented any excesses. Almost all his heroines were wronged, oppressed or neglected by misdemeanours of their

lovers, partners or family. Perhaps it was Raj’s way of bringing to light the inherent strengths in women, not recognized in the Indian milieu during his lifetime.

Loyalty to his convictions

Raj stuck by his friends and was utterly loyal throughout his life to associates like lyricists Hasrat Jaipuri and Shailendra, his playback voices Mukesh and Manna Dey and his music directors Shanker and Jaikishen. He was an ardent admirer of Lata Mangeshkar’s music and openly admitted it. He did 16 films with Nargis, but had starred opposite almost all the leading ladies of 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s like Padmini, Mala Sinha, Waheeda Rahman, Hema Malini, Simi Garewal and Padmini Kolhapure.

Raj was a worshipper of Lord Ganesha and each year during the Ganapati festival, RK Studios and their crew had a giant sized Ganesha in the procession – a tradition that is carried on by his family till today. As some of his film titles like Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai, Ram Teri Ganga Maili and Satyam Shivam Sundaram suggest, he was a patriotic socialist at heart and never missed an opportunity to uplift the downtrodden in society through his films.

Indian cinema has good reason to be proud of Raj Kapoor’s incredible contribution to the industry, which also gave Bollywood an international persona at a time when films from the subcontinent were practically unknown globally.

Laugh out loud

Life Saver

By Julian Moshegov

A goalkeeper was walking along the street one day when he heard screams from a nearby building. He looked up to see smoke billowing from the top and a woman leaning out holding a baby. “Help! Help!” screamed the woman, “I need someone to catch my baby!”

A crowd of onlookers had gathered, but none was confident about catching a baby dropped from such a great height. Then the goalkeeper stepped forward. “I’m a professional goalkeeper,” he called to the woman. “I’m renowned for my safe hands. Drop the baby and I will catch it. For me, it will be just like catching a ball.”

The woman agreed. “Ok, then. When I drop my baby, treat it as if you were catching a ball.”

On a count of three, the woman dropped the baby. Everyone held their breath as the goalkeeper lined himself up to catch it. There was a huge sigh of relief, followed by wild cheering as the goalkeeper caught the baby safely in his arms. Then he bounced it twice on the ground and kicked it 50 yards down the street.

Famous football quotes

Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you, it’s much more serious than that.

Bill Shankly, Scottish football player

The rules of soccer are very simple. Basically it is this: if it moves, kick it. If it doesn’t move, kick it until it does.

Phil Woosnam, Welsh football player

Did you know...

The first FIFA World Cup was held in 1930.

The FIFA World Cup Trophy is made of real gold and weighs 6.2 kgs. It was made in 1970 by an Italian designer. Winners have to return it at every tournament, but they get a gold-plated replica to keep.

Before 1970, there used to be another

foto corner

trophy, but it was stolen. It has never been found – it is believed the thieves melted it down for its gold.

FIFA also organises the FIFA Futsal World Championship and the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup.

The average age of the FIFA 2010 players is 27 years.

I learnt a new word

Clean Sheet: When a goalkeeper doesn’t concede a single goal Manan

Dead Ball: When the ball is ‘dead’ it is temporarily not playable, and neither team may attempt to advance it and or take possession. Devna

Vuvuzela

The goalkeeper is the jewel in the crown and getting at him should be almost impossible. It’s the biggest sin in football to make him do any work.

George Graham, Scottish football player

Whoever invented football should be worshipped as a God.

Hugo Sanchez, Mexican soccer player and coach

The “vuvuzela” is a South African instrument with roots in traditional music. It means “vuvu-ing”, or, making the “vuvu” noise. It could also be related to the word “shower” because it showers the spectators with noise, or maybe simply because it looks like a showerhead

Supporting the Soccerblues

It’s just a game, but a lot of fun and one that teaches important lessons

BY SHERYL DIXIT

Spread out, spread out!

Watch the ball!

Come on, go!

Get closer, get closer…

Good kick!

Awww!

Nice try!

Well done!

Yes, it’s a football match. And if you think we’re watching the FIFA World Cup, well, you could be right. Because the game’s as important to this bunch of Under 6s Kookaburras, playing their Saturday morning game against another group of little people, as the World Cup is to die-hard fans of the Socceroos.

We’re all rooting for our little stars, all us proud parents yelling at the sidelines as our young team in blue run around the field attempting (or in the case of my son, avoiding) getting close to the ball. There are cries of encouragement, instructions, commendations, that sometimes makes it hard for the little tykes to concentrate on the game. But it’s all a part of the game, and despite their score often matching that of the Socceroos debut game against Germany, we are all immensely proud of them.

They kick, dribble, defend with enthusiasm, and during the ride back home I am treated to splendorous fiction of goals scored and kicks to the other end of the field

My son is a part of this seven-sided football team, including an extremely talented young girl. When faced with an activity in which he could participate on starting school, football seemed a good alternative to tennis, karate or nothing at all. He was also very interested in the sport, and the studded boots in particular held a charming fascination, which exists to this day. He seems taller and prouder in those shoes which have got grimier and more worn over the past couple of months. The ankle and shin guards were an unexpected bonus, and when worn on the arm, are a fair substitute for superhero armoury.

We religiously go to training on Thursdays, battling the chilly winter air, while the team runs around with the nonchalance of a summertime play. For the most part they follow the instructions of our amazingly patient and encouraging coach and assistant coach, occasionally taking time out to have a little private scuffle in the sidelines. They kick, dribble, defend with enthusiasm, and during the ride back home I am treated to splendorous fiction of goals scored and kicks to the

other end of the field. Which strangely, still need to manifest into reality when the actual games are played on Saturdays.

Aah, those Saturday games! Despite my efforts of leaving the house well in time, I am yet to make it to a match at the stipulated half an hour before kick-off. Perhaps unfairly, I blame it on the concept of Indian Standard Time, which dictates that one is expected to arrive at your destination a minimum of ten minutes too late. What takes the longest and a good bit of effort is pulling on the socks and tying up the shoes, a technique that I am just about beginning to master. I remember our first training session where I gazed at the shinguards and boots in mystification, until one of the mums explained the intricacies of how they go onto my impatient son’s feet.

Once we get to the venue and the jerseys are on, our young heroes line up for an invigorating chat with the coach and then they’re off on the field. It’s the best sight to see them gravely shake hands with the other team, a bunch of tykes not much taller than them, also clad in oversized jerseys and shorts that look like they could fall off any minute. The referee blows his whistle and they’re off!

This is the part that I most enjoy, the game itself. Both teams run around the field with enthusiasm, getting into little scrimmages, kicking the ball in all directions,

occasionally manoeuvring the ball towards their own goal and causing the coaches to have several nervous moments. And there are the families on the sidelines, with parents, grandparents and siblings sometimes yelling out instructions that drown out even the more rational ones by the coaches. Players are called off the field to replace others, and everyone gets a chance no matter how adept they are at the game.

And what is most heartening are the little scenes of camaraderie that we see, in teammates hugging each other after scoring a goal. Or a fallen player being given a hand up by a team member who’s much littler in size. Or of a player being gently manoeuvred to face the right direction by a team mate, through the simple expedient of jersey tugging. Or one little boy advising another who’s retired hurt, that it could be worse, he could have broken a leg! There are so many of these incidents too numerous to recount which remind me once again, that children have the innocence and wisdom of life that as adults, it takes us years to relearn.

And finally, at the end of the game, it’s the moment of glory our young stars are waiting for – awarding of the Trophy. This is awarded to the best player or the one who’s tried the hardest, as the case may be. The team gathers around the coach, their faces alight with anticipation, and when the winner is announced, the winner’s look of triumph, satisfaction and sometimes disbelief, is one of the best things about the game. They are surrounded by their teammates, parents and spectators, and are heartily and sincerely congratulated. There’s no doubt that the trophy will dominate their lives for the rest of the week, and provide a proud topic for ‘News’ at school.

I have to say here, that while the children show enthusiasm, it’s the parents that also make the difference. They are involved, supportive and enthusiastic, not just towards their own children, but to every child on the team. Each child who comes off the field is given an encouraging chat and pat and at the end of the game, they are all commended for their effort. Even the coach and assistant coach who have watched with despair as a player looks at the ball slowly gliding past him straight into the goal, do no more than make a couple of agitated noises. The children are always instructed, never reprimanded, which to me is a sound technique as it keeps them enthusiastic about the game.

At a young age, these children are learning a lot –about playing as a team, being comrades, sportsmanship, game strategy, getting physical exercise, and most important of all, having fun. And so are we!

Little kicks, little kicks…

That’s it, go!

C’mon, kick!

Turn around, turn around!

Goal!

Yay, hooray!

Well done!

Great job!

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Teatime treats

There’s a chill in the air, the sky’s getting darker with stormy thunderclouds and it’s nearly time for afternoon tea. What better time to indulge in a lovely, refreshing cup of chai and some goodies guaranteed to drive away the chill and leave you with a wonderful warmth.

Masala Chai

4 whole cloves

2 cardamom pods

1 medium cinnamon stick, broken into pieces

3 cups water

1/4 inch fresh ginger

1/8 tsp freshly ground black pepper

2 cups milk

2 tablespoon sugar

2 tablespoons strong tea

Add spices, water, ginger and pepper and bring to a boil. Next, simmer on low for 5 minutes to release the flavours. Add milk and sugar to the pan and bring to a boil again. Finally, add tea and bring to a boil again. Turn off and strain it into a warmed teapot or directly into teacups. Serve piping hot.

Coriander Chutney Sandwiches

1 bunch fresh coriander

1 cup freshly grated coconut

1 green chilli (optional)

1 tsp ginger/garlic paste

Pinch chana dal, jeera, coriander seeds

Salt to taste

Finely chop the fresh coriander and keep aside. Soak the chana dal, jeera and coriander seeds for 10 minutes, then drain. Grind together coriander, grated coconut, chilli, ginger/garlic paste for 20 seconds until well blended. Add drained chana dal, jeera, coriander seeds, salt and grind again to form a thick paste. Add a little water, if necessary to get the right consistency. The mixture should be thick and easily spreadable. Mix a portion with a little butter or margarine to make delicious sandwiches.

Cucumber Mint Sandwiches

Fresh mint leaves, chopped fine

Butter, softened

Cream cheese

Whole-wheat bread

Seedless cucumber, cut into thin slices

Salt to taste (Quantities depend on number of sandwiches to be made)

In a small bowl combine the mint, butter and cream cheese and stir till combined. Spread the bread slices with the butter mixture. Top with the cucumber, distributing the cucumber evenly and seasoning it with salt, and top the cucumber with the remaining bread slices. Cut off and discard the crusts and cut each sandwich diagonally into quarters.

Nankhatai Biscuits

1 ½ cup melted ghee

1 cup powdered sugar

3 cups maida (refined wheat flour)

1 tsp soda bicarb

1 tsp fresh lemon juice

Few drops of vanilla essence

2 tbsp candied cherries, cut into small pieces (optional)

Salt to taste

Mix the melted ghee, powdered sugar and salt to light, buttery consistency. Add the maida, mix well and leave overnight for 6-8 hours. Add the soda bicarb and lemon juice to the dough and knead well to a light consistency. Add vanilla essence for flavour and knead again.

Divide the dough into small, slightly flattened round balls, adding a small bit of candied cherry on the top centre. Place in greased tray and bake in the oven for 20 minutes at 180º (fan forced). Cool and serve, or store in an airtight container.

1 kg chana dal

3 ¾ litres milk

750 gms castor sugar

250-300 gms ghee

125 gms khaskhas

125 gms fresh grated coconut

100 gms sultanas or raisins

125 gms phool makhane (optional)

100 gms melon seeds (optional)

100 gms each cashewnuts, almonds and/or any other nuts, chopped.

Wash dal well and soak overnight in about 1 ¼ litres of milk. Grind to a coarse paste.

Put the remaining milk in a heavybottomed pan and add khaskhas and coconut. Bring to a boil and then keep stirring on low heat till

Suji Halwa

1 cup suji (semolina)

1 cup sugar

2 1/2 cup water

2 teaspoons ghee

1 tbsp reduced fat butter or canola oil

1/3 cup coarsely grated almonds and full raisins

2-3 cardamom pods, coarsely powdered

Salt to taste

Add sugar to water and mix well. Keep aside. Mix the suji, ghee, salt to taste and roast on a kadhai for three minutes. Add oil/butter and fry on medium heat, till the suji turns light brown. Next, add the cardamom powder, raisins, grated almonds and slowly add the water-sugar solution, constantly stirring with the spoon. Allow the water to evaporate, which should take about 5-7 minutes. Garnish with a

the milk is completely reduced; cook till mixture is slightly browned. Remove from pan.

Add in the ghee and the ground dal and cook till the raw smell disappears and the dal begins to come together like a halwa. Add the khaskhas-coconut mixture and sugar and cook till well-combined. Add in the nuts and raisins and mix well.

Cool till easy to handle. Then grease your palms and roll small handfuls of mixture into balls. Lay out single file to cool fully and harden. Store in an airtight container.

Pinni is a winter favourite in Punjab, rich in warmth-producing ingredients.

few grated almond pieces. Remove from stove and allow to thicken. Can be served warm or cooled and cut into slices.

Peas and Corn Cutlets

1 cup peas

1 cup corn kernels

6 spring onions, thinly sliced

2/3 cup fine polenta

2/3 cup self-raising flour

1 ½ tsp coriander powder

2 eggs

½ cup plain yoghurt

Oil for frying

Salt and pepper to taste.

Mix together peas, corn, spring onions, polenta, salt and pepper. Add sifted flour and coriander powder.

Mix yolks from both eggs in ½ cup yoghurt and add to peas and corn mixture. Beat egg whites well. Fold one-third into peas and corn mixture and mix well. Gently fold in remaining egg whites.

Heat oil in a frying pan (pour to about 1 cm depth). Over medium heat, spoon small quantities of mixture into oil and flatten slightly. Cook for 3-4 minutes on each side or until golden and cooked through. Drain on absorbent paper.

Suji Muthia

For muthia:

1 cup semolina

¼ cup chickpea flour (besan)

1 cup grated ghia

2 tsp grated ginger

1 tsp crushed garlic

Green chillies to taste, finely chopped

½ tsp turmeric

Finely chopped coriander leaves

Salt to taste

1 tbsp vegetable oil, or if you prefer, ghee

½ cup yogurt, whisked.

For seasoning:

1 tbsp oil

1-2 tsp black mustard seeds

1 –2 tsp white sesame seeds

1 sprig curry leaves

Juice of one lemon

Coriander leaves and shredded coconut for garnish.

Mix all ingredients for muthia into a dough. Take fistfuls of dough and arrange into sausage shapes. Steam in microwave steamer (four minutes for four pieces, covered, on high, works well). When cool, cut each sausage into five or six pieces.

Heat oil and add curry leaves, mustard seeds and sesame seeds. Pour onto prepared muthias, add lemon juice and mix well by tossing. Decorate with coriander leaves and shredded coconut.

Serve on a platter with coriander-mint chutney. Great as an entre or at afternoon tea.

Seviyan

2 cups vermicelli

Juice of 1 large lemon, adjust 3-4 tbsps roasted peanuts

Salt to taste

For tempering:

1 tbsp oil

1 tsp mustard seeds

1/2 tbsp urad dal

1 tbsp channa dal

2 dry red chillies, torn

1/4 tsp asafoetida

1/2 tsp grated ginger

2 green chillies, slit

1/4 tsp turmeric powder

8-10 curry leaves

Bring 5 cups of salted water to a boil. Add the vermicelli and cook for just under 4 minutes. Turn off heat and strain. Pour cold water over and then strain again. Add 2 tsps of oil and combine.

To temper, heat oil in a pan and add the mustard seeds. As they begin to splutter, add the dals and allow them to turn slightly red; add curry leaves, green chillies, grated ginger, red chillies and stir fry briefly. Add asafoetida and turmeric powder, roasted peanuts and combine. Turn off heat. Add salt to taste and lemon juice and mix well.

Sheryl Dixit, Rajni Anand Luthra

Upma

Chana Dal Pinni

The night of the hurricane

A short story by SHUBA NARAYANAN

If human beings could smell a storm brewing, the way many animals can, these are what we would associate with the smell of a storm: the faint scent of rust from reddish, brackish water flowing out of rust-red pipes; sweat soaked polyester; the smell of dry ash and burning rubber. The smell of a storm brewing

A sweltering humidity weighs down on the earth like a thick acrylic blanket that does not allow you to breathe. Then, like a blessing from heaven, the sweet smell of rain, sensuously filling the air even before the first large drops of water fall from the sky. Smell that makes you want to grab a handful of the rich brown soil and taste it in your mouth!

It was 1984, the 11th day of November. A day when I could definitely smell a storm brewing. I got up and clumsily rocked to the side of the bed, before sliding down and walking towards the kitchen, from which was wafting the most delicious aroma of freshly brewed decoction coffee. 35 weeks pregnant I might be, but nobody was going to deprive me of my legitimate dose of caffeine.

My mother’s kitchen smelt of coffee as the decoction dripped into the lower container of the ancient brass coffee filter we still used. You know, the kind with two brass canisters fitting into each other, the top cylinder containing little perforations that act as a second filter. Coffee pregrounds are scooped into the top cylinder. A little perforated disc with a handle is placed on the coffee and boiling hot water is poured over the disc. Same principle as a plunger, except it takes all night for the double filter to allow the thick black decoction to seep through to the lower cylinder.

Making the morning coffee is a bit of a ritual in most South Indian households. The decoction is shared out into tall steel tumblers, placed into “davarahs” - little steel rimmed bowls - and hot milk poured over the decoction, followed by little scoops of sugar. The coffee is then poured from tumbler to “davarah”, then back into tumbler, until the brown liquid is sufficiently short of scalding hot, to be drunk without burning your tongue. In Madras where my mother lived, we drank coffee like that on hot and humid summer mornings, hot and humid summer afternoons, warm and humid winter mornings and warm and humid winter afternoons!

On that day, the 11th of November 1984, I took the tumbler of coffee my mother handed me and absently pouring it into the “davarah”, I wandered out to the front of the house. Even the morning dew and the residual coolness of the fading night, could not hide the fact that it was going to be a suffocatingly hot day.

I pushed my way past tendrils of bougainvillea hanging down the side of the pergola which shaded the front patio. Magenta, mauve, orange and white bougainvillea blossoms lay tangled on top of the pergola, the heavy knotted branches of the bush, making the bamboo trellis sag in the middle. I walked down the driveway to the front gate and began picking the fragrant jasmine flowers from the shrub trailing over the adjoining wall.

On that day, the 11th of November, I did not

particularly feel like reading the newspaper. I wanted my little human being to be born, so I could return to Dubai in the Middle East and get into the job of being a mum. My husband and I lived in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, but because this was our first child, we had decided that I should fly back to Madras, to draw on the “support system” of parents, grandmother, aunts and household-help, that we could not access in Dubai.

I put the coffee away and went in to have a bath. The maid had half-filled a plastic bucket with hot water, which I then topped up with cold water from the tap. I dipped in a large plastic mug and poured the delightfully warm water on my swollen body. The baby jerked and darted forward in my belly. “It shouldn’t be too long now”, I thought to myself.

The day passed, flat and dull, all of us making desultory attempts to seem active. My father had kept the television turned on just to have some noise flowing through the house. I closed my eyes to shut out the noise, abolish the nastiness of reality. I tried to focus on the miracle that will be my child. Tried to concentrate on that moment of complete purity, which would define the rest of my life.

A cool change had set in. Dark clouds had gathered across the tropical blue skies and there was a cool breeze blowing. The servants were bringing the clothes in from the clothes lines. I noticed it had begun to rain lightly. I went out into the front garden. This time, the bougainvillea “pandal”, the pergola, had begun to shake, gently at first and then more violently, as if a giant hand were playing with it. The wind was blowing more strongly, crashing through the tall coconut palms, drowning out the rain, which by now was falling in dense sheets.

I loved the smell of the rain. “The Winter Monsoons are setting in,” my father muttered to nobody in particular, as he paced up and down the verandah.

Somewhere in the distant skies, I heard thunder.

The wind’s roaring was drowning out that sound as well. I went back into the verandah and sat down on the cane chair that was permanently set out there. I needed to listen to the rain, to have the cool breeze blowing on my face, to touch the cool rain.

The pergola was shaking even more violently. I looked skyward. The 20 or so, 60 foot palms that surrounded our home, were swaying to and fro, like so many straws in the wind. The bamboo pergola was creaking under the weight of the bougainvillea, as the bush bowed and wove under the force of the wind.

“Come inside, Makha!” called my mother. I went inside the house, a little frightened by the ferocity of the storm. The television station had decided to interrupt the steady flow of bad news, with more alarming news. Hurricane warnings were being issued.

The weather bureau was forecasting gale force winds. There was a depression in the Bay of Bengal they said and winds were now blowing at 150 km per hour and were likely to increase in force. This was a hurricane.

Residents were asked to remain indoors and keep

I made myself another tumbler of coffee. So did my parents. My mother had made a snack of boiled peanuts and we munched on that. The television news update had scenes of how the storm was affecting Madras. I leaned forward to turn the volume on high, when it happened! The first twinge of pain which told me my baby was ready to arrive!

Outside, the winds roared - the angry, frustrated roar of a large, wild animal in pain. Somewhere behind my own pain and fear, I empathised.

“I am feeling some pain - not much!” I informed my mother.

Her response was predictable.

“Oh my God, not now! Not in this weather! This must be the unkindest cut of all,” she replied.

I telephoned my cousin’s wife, an obstetrician. She was going to deliver the baby. She snapped to life when I telephoned. She had been anticipating this moment for days.

“Stay calm! How far apart are the cramps?” she demanded.

“45 minutes give or take” I replied.

“Report to the hospital when they are about 20 minutes apart,” she said.

I sat back on our sofa and waited.

It was only 4pm, but outside, the sky had turned ink black. The street lights had not come on. The rain continued to fall and the winds continued to bluster and roar… but in the distance, behind the crashing thunder and swish swish of the rain, behind the

There was a depression in the Bay of Bengal they said and winds were now blowing at 150 km per hour and were likely to increase in force. This was a hurricane

a long, mournful whistle.

My father leaned forward and saw two figures holding up umbrellas, walk up our driveway. Athai, my father’s sister and my grand-mother, had heard the news from my cousin and were coming in to check on me.

The ladies lit a lamp in the tiny shrine situated in the corner of the kitchen and said a quiet prayer to the Gods, asking for a safe delivery for me.

I walked back and forth timing the cramps. They were 35 minutes apart. Outside, the wind continued to roar, a sound louder than the crashing of the sea; louder than the roar of a plane. A crashing, angry roar that ended each time in a long, demonic, wolfish howl of pain. It was about 5pm then.

About an hour later, I phoned my cousin’s wife Gita, again.

“It’s 25 minutes now!” I said.

“You’d better make your way to the hospital now,” Gita commanded. The risk of trees falling was so great, we could not take the van. The hospital was only half a kilometre away - a nice, easy stroll, if the sun had been shining and if I had not been in labour. On a night like this, it might as well have been on the other side of the moon. The gale blowing all around us, the swaying palms and flickering street lights, and despite the meagre lighting, the darkness of it allcertainly reminded us of an alien landscape.

Still the rain fell. Still the wind roared and crashed, each crash ending in an extended howl. My mother

and I packed our bags. She was allowed to stay in the hospital with me. This was a family practice and we were family.

We made a strange spectacle as we trooped out of the house, the five of us, me wearing a loose kaftan, with a shawl wrapped around my shoulders; my mother carrying a bag of clothes; my father, grandmother and aunt with umbrellas and small wicker baskets filled with odds and ends.

We waited in the verandah for my father to lock up the house. The front patio was fast turning into a disaster area. The rude shaking the bougainvillea had received, had sent the rainbow-coloured blossoms to the floor of the patio. There, they floated in the ever-rising water, bobbing forlornly, like so many catamarans battling a choppy sea. For a second there, I almost forgot the wind. A cracking, ripping sound forced the hurricane back into our consciousness.

The bougainvillea had given in. With a wrenching, crashing dive, it broke through the bamboo trellis work and crashed to the floor of the patio. Bamboo splinters and thorny bush lay everywhere, cutting off access to the gate. The only thing that stood between us and the howling, roaring demon that was the hurricane, was gone. I went back to the verandah and sat down.

“Hurry up, we had better get to the hospital before anything else happens,” my mother hissed through gritted teeth, panic giving way to anger at my slowness. “Keep to the right of the road. Stay as far away as you can from the power pole. There won’t be any traffic coming our way,” my father said grimly. An electric shock could hit you like a blow to your head. I shuddered to think what that fallen power pole could do to us and my baby.

We stepped over the fallen tree in the middle, to avoid the branches that now made the road impassable for all motor traffic.

“Thank goodness coconut trees are so narrow at the trunk,” I commented as I forced my heavy body to make the small leap across the trunk.

My cramps were coming in short waves, about 15-18 minutes apart. The rain still fell but we could use the umbrella to protect ourselves from the rain. I tried not to focus on my own pain, listening instead to the sound of the hurricane

My father dragged out a pair of shears and a sharp knife. He, my mother, my grand-mother and my aunt, set about attacking the bougainvillea, cutting away branches, to allow us a narrow path to the gate. Wearing only leather sandals on our feet, we picked our way through the vanquished bush to the front gate.

My cramps were coming in short waves, about 1518 minutes apart. The rain still fell but we could use the umbrella to protect ourselves from the rain. I tried not to focus on my own pain, listening instead to the sound of the hurricane. We opened the gate cautiously and stepped on to the road. It was almost 7pm now. The wind pushed us forward, then jerked us to the side with each blow and return. My father and aunt each carried a large flashlight to light up the street ahead of us. The street lights were still glowing, but with the power poles being buffeted by the wind, who could tell what would happen.

“Watch out for snakes, insects and live wires,” my father called out. There had been no time to call my husband to tell him that we were going to the hospital. We left that for later. My grandmother, aunt and mother, hitched their saris up to their calves, to avoid getting the gold borders in the muddy water which was swirling at our feet as we wound our way to the hospital whose front porch light shone ahead of us.

The rain still fell. The wind continued to crash through the palms. Battered and punched by the wind, one tall palm bent double, its fronds beating the terrace of the house across the road. We picked our way through water and debris as we walked along the road to the hospital.

Still the rain fell. Still the wind howled out its pain and anger, ending each time in that surreal howl/whistle. Still the cramps kept coming - this time at 10 minute intervals. It could not be too long now.

Once we had crossed over the fallen giant, our progress became more rapid. A few yards away there was the miraculous sight of one electric light lighting up the patient drop-off point at the hospital.

“Gita must have got the generator going,” my mother muttered.

We were met at the hospital steps by two of the most senior nurses in the hospital.

“These two nurses were present at your birth,” my mother said. She was right - the hospital staff had got the generator going and the hospital was the only building for several kilometres, with any light at all.

By the time the nurses had prepared me for the delivery, it was past 9pm. Enema, stirrups and Syntocinon drip later, I was into the hard labour part. Outside, above the closed blinds of the windows, through the glass skylights, I could see the rain still falling.

Just behind us, the door to the labour ward, built as it was 65 years ago, rattled each time the wind kicked it. With each blow, the double doors blew in and strained at the bolts. I could still hear the howl of the wind as its anger spent itself out. Struggling through the throes of childbirth, it seemed to me that my every massive spasm, had an echo in the storm. On it came, off it receded and I could almost believe that the howl/whistle in the distance, was just my body crying out for relief.

Struggling through the throes of childbirth, it seemed to me that my every massive spasm, had an echo in the storm

A few minutes into our pilgrimage, we heard a loud crash up ahead. We walked quickly up to a curve in the road, which would give us a better view of what lay for us ahead. I closed my eyes in dismay at the chaos unfolding before our eyes. One of the taller coconut palms had surrendered to the pummelling of the hurricane and now lay fallen across the road like a giant “rakshasa” - one of the demons of Hindu mythology.

We stared disbelievingly. The tree as it fell, had hit against the power pole across the road and sent it sprawling lengthwise, parallel to the road. A fiery explosion of sparks...then inky blackness descended on us as the entire neighbourhood, the “colony” as my family called it, plunged into the darkness of the underworld. Chaos had taken control. The only live thing around us, was that wind - blustering in anger one minute, howling in pain the end of each fresh tirade.

The obstetrician held my hand as in desperation I begged for a Caesarean.

“Just two more pushes and you are done, champion,” she said simply.

Later, she was to confess that the one thing she had been praying for all along, was a normal delivery for me. Had I needed a caesarean, there would have been no way for the anaesthetist, or blood or oxygen to have reached me through the storm.

The clock in the labour ward struck midnight. It was the 12th of November. As suddenly as it started up, the hurricane blew itself out. With a mighty push, the baby’s head emerged and the doctor and nurses slowly drew out my beautiful little girl.

“A perfectly normal, healthy little girl, Makha - all 3.8 kg of her,” Gita said as the nurses beamed.

I felt as if I had passed the toughest test of my life.

“Hello Sweety”, I greeted the new-born. As the nurses took the baby away to bathe her, I looked at the door. With one final blow from the wind, the bolts gave way and the doors blew inwards swinging free.

Outside in an anxious huddle, stood the rest of my family. Beyond them, was a little jasmine bush still covered with tiny white blossoms. Miraculously, they had survived the storm. Now as they glowed sweetly in the faint light from the porch, I looked at the brand new human being the nurses placed in my arms. Fragrant and newly cleansed, innocent, pure and beautiful, she was my own little jasmine, left behind by the hurricane. I called her Sumana - Sanskrit for jasmine.

ARIES March 21–April 20

TAURUS April 21–May 21

GEMINI May 22–June 23

Tarot

Tarot

Tarot

‘n’ You

‘n’ You

‘n’ You Tarot ‘n’ You

Tarot predictions for July 2010

Tarot predictions for February 2010

Tarot signifies a period of spontaneity. There is a focus on trust and hope. Be prepared for the unexpected. This is a positive time for travel. You are likely to be offered new opportunities leading you to new heights. Trust your judgement while planning for the future, which will leave you feeling fulfilled if you decide to undertake this unforeseen journey. In a relationship reading, it seems that you will benefit by living in the present.

You have an ability to combine spiritual knowledge with spontaneity of temperament. This aids you in achieving harmony by being patient and using self-control. Your approach in life at this time needs to be balanced and at the same time, be diplomatic in your dealings with others. A blend of actions and emotions would bring a sense of harmony within you, leading to inner peace. The time is right for both learning and teaching. Travel, if undertaken, will prove to be fruitful.

Stability and familiar things are missing. You may be unable to release yourself from a past emotional situation. Tarot advises you to be aware of your current opportunities. You may receive an inheritance, which may not bring you much pleasure. There is a general feeling of anxiety, sorrow, bitterness, displeasure and regret. It is important for you to take a step back and focus on things that you may have taken for granted.

CANCER June 23–July 22

Tarot portrays isolation, a need to be alone in order to think over issues, meditate on the options and energize oneself before acting. You are able to prioritize things and focus on your goals. You contemplate on your future prospects, making judicious use of the time on your hands. You are trying to be at peace with yourself after a long period of turmoil. The time is right for regaining mental and physical health.

LEO July 23–August 23

You will not only be able to live well within your means but also be able to save towards an important project. Tarot cautions you not to let materialism overpower the emotional values of your relationship. In order to have a healthy relationship, it’s important for both the partners to be open to new ideas. Remember that nurturing is a prerequisite for any relationship to develop and grow.

VIRGO August 24–September 22

You realise that you can no longer stay away from issues and are required to face your problems in a responsible manner. There is conflict in the air that may have brought out the worst side of everyone involved. You need to be careful of an individual who can create trouble. It is in your best interest to avoid arguments as your reputation may be at stake. Tarot advises you to be careful in taking up only as much responsibility as you can cope with.

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LIBRA September 23 – October 23

Tarot indicates the beginning of a new project or a business enterprise. You are likely to receive an offer for a business partnership. It could also be an offer for a new relationship leading to emotional fulfilment. There is a focus on news, a message or a proposal for marriage. The time is opportune for pursuing higher studies or new learning. Tarot indicates that a reunion with a friend or a partner is likely to materialise.

SCORPIO October 24–November 22

There is a focus on strength in opposition. Suspension of events is indicated. This period of delay should be used productively to reassess the line of action in the future. Tarot advises you to complete some of the incomplete projects in your life. You have perhaps been hurt by your partner or are yet to come to terms with your past relationships, and in turn are not able to commit yourself fully to the present one. Over-caution is likely to hamper the growth of your relationship.

SAGITTARIUS November 23–December 21

Sagittarius November 23 – December 21

You may feel restricted as you are not able to see anything in a clear perspective. You seem to have submitted your personal power to the challenges posed in front of you, leaving you feeling trapped in a specific situation. You are undergoing a mental conflict due to an inner crisis and therefore you are under stress. Do not lose hope as things and situations would get sorted out in due course. It is important for you to get your personal power back through inner strength and self discipline.

CAPRICORN December 22–January 19

Tarot indicates fortune, luck and change, and with it new things in a different environment. Optimism should be high on your list, as whatever is at the bottom of life’s wheel can only move up. The key to your success lies in your ability to change with the flow of time. You need to observe this change from within and then put in physical efforts to make the best of what you are presented with.

AQUARIUS January 20–February 18

It’s time for you to decide what it is that you truly desire and how to achieve the same. You may find yourself fantasising about the way you want things. You are likely to be presented with an offer par expectation. The card drawn for you represents favours, imagination, reflections and a time to acknowledge the path of spiritual fulfilment. Tarot emphasises on the need for you to take time out for inner growth and fulfilment.

PISCES February 19–March 20

Tarot indicates the inevitability of change. Certain events in your life may be unexpected, but it’s important that you remain optimistic. The changes at home or in relationships are likely to be for the best. You need to leave behind old beliefs and values which no longer support you and adopt a new approach in order to progress ahead. You will do well by accepting the fact that old forms collapse and give way to new forms, for the better.

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SEEKING BRIDES

Australian citizen, age mid 40s, University educated, Government employee, seeks honest Indian / Fiji Indian lady for marriage. Email tamavu@hotmail.com. Mobile: 0404 263 400

Australian citizen Aggarwal/Punjabi

Hindu boy, 5’8” tall 39 years old (looks 30), divorced, very good looking, pleasant personality, generous, eggetarian, very good in reputed job. Seeks good looking, caring, sincere and family oriented girl with GSOH and DTE. Issueless divorcee or widow also accepted. contact with full bio-data and photo to yankee1_2009@hotmail.com

Seeking a suitable like minded alliance for my brother, a turbaned Sikh boy, 32 years, 5’8”, smart and sophisticated, highly qualified, Canadian citizen, working with a leading telecommunication firm in Toronto. Interested enquiries please email gksahni.2010@gmail.com

Match for Gujarati banker boy 29 / 5’4” smart, good looking. Aus citizen, working in IT. Looking for perfect life partner. Please call 0431 328 424 if interested.

PR/TR/student or willing to settle in Australia match required for Hindu Khatri boy, ‘77 born, 5’5”, I.T professional in Melbourne. Innocent divorcee (brief marriage lasted 15 days only). Contact 0424 647 565 or email cutevarin@yahoo.com

Seeking a suitable match for Ramgharia Sikh boy, my brother, handsome, 6’ tall, 26 years old, clean-shaven, working in family construction business in UK, with degree in building surveying. I’m settled in Sydney. Please email biodata with recent photo to jsmotay@hotmail.co.uk tel: 98372998.

Seeking a slim, fair and homely girl with good family values, for my brother, very handsome, 29 years, clean-shaven Sikh boy, Marketing Manager in Dubai. I’m well settled in Sydney for the past 8.5 years. Please email a.kaur@optusnet.com.au

Suitable matches are invited for our 28/180 handsome Punjabi (Manglik) boy. Senior managerial job, internationally recognised qualifications, with well settled family here and in India. Fluent in Hindi, boy loves to cook and plays sport. Please email details with pics, Sydney.Matrimonial@gmail.com

Palghat Iyer 32/5’9”, MBA, MS, veg, dual citizen, well settled with permanent IT position in large telecom, with pleasant looks and cheerful personality, seeks bride, 27-30 with similar cultural background. TM ID M607788, horoscope available, email kkrangan@yahoo.com or contact 0418 720 781.

Match for Arora boy, Oct 74, 5’11”, fair, working with bank in Melbourne. Permanent resident. Elder brother Australian citizen, staying with him. Parents here till Oct. Wife met with tragic accident, lost her memory therefore legally divorced. Caste no bar. Early marriage. Contact Mukesh Pahwa Mob: 0413 175 681 Res: 03 85020656 Email Photo and CV: karneshp@gmail.com.

SEEKING GROOMS

Well-settled and professional alliance invited for fair, beautiful Sikh girl,

35/5’3”. Profession doctor and working in Canadian based company in India as Senior Health manager. Well mannered with modern outlook and traditional values. Brother well settled in Australia. Please respond with photo, education and professional details to email: singhsarav@hotmail.com Mobile: 0402 954 955

Seeking a suitable match for goldsmith girl, 32, (applied regional residency), 5’2”,working full time in community welfare. Seeking match with broadminded personality, preferably in Australia. Caste no bar. Contact kaur_m13@yahoo.com 0011-91-99887-49191, 0011-91-85250-1746

Seeking alliance for our 23-year old, 5’3” beautiful Sarswat Brahmin daughter. She is an engineering professional working in a reputed company and has strong family values. We have been settled in Sydney for 18 years. Please send us your details with latest photo and horoscope at hsg2045@gmail.com

Seeking professional well settled boy for Mair Rajput (Verma) manglik girl, 83 born, 5’4” MA English, MBA, plus 1 year course in Interior Design. The girl comes from a very respectable business family in India, and is presently visiting her sister in Sydney. Cast no bar. Please send details with recent photo to: niraj.verma@dymocks. com.au.

Seeking clean shaven, teetotaller for Punjabi Prajapati manglik beautiful, slim girl, born July 1981, 5’5”, graduate (PU), diploma in fashion designing. Family in Chandigarh, own business. Brother in Sydney, running own business. Girl visited Australia last year. Preferable Australia/ New Zealand/around Chandigarh. Upper caste no bar. Contact: +91-94170-72965, 0422 669 082 or contact rk_ sangar@yahoo.co.in

Seeking professionally qualified/well-settled match for 39/165, never married, fair, slim, beautiful Punjabi girl, family oriented and responsible. Engineer working in Sydney, Australian citizen. Early marriage. Can relocate. Parents well-settled in India. Caste no bar. Email with photo: sydgirl09@ gmail.com

Well-settled and professional alliance invited for fair, slim, beautiful and tall

Sikh girl, 22/172 cm. Professional lawyer and accountant, working in MNC. Well mannered with modern outlook and traditional values. Family well settled in Australia. Please respond with photo, education and professional details to email: sohnachan@gmail.com

Mobile: 0415 035 802

Seeking match for 28/158cm, fair, beautiful, intelligent, Australian citizen girl, from a respectable Hindu family with good professional job. Boy must be 29-32, professionally qualified, well settled, openminded, non-smoker with strong family values. Please email profile and photo to sydney_girl2010@hotmail.com

Punjabi Arora parents invite never married well-settled/professional match for fair, slim, attractive, 37/165, IT professional with strong family values. Never married. Settled in Sydney. Australian citizen. Status family. Caste no bar. Early marriage. Email with photo: ausgirl101@gmail.com

Sister-in-law seeks educated and well-settled boy for Sikh Punjabi girl. She is working as Auditor at KPMG, Australian citizen, Sydney based, 23 years old, 5’ 6” slim and beautiful. Please send details and photo to Ravinder Kaur ravinderkaursydney@gmail.com

BUZZThe

We Are Family

So Sydney’s Indian community is waiting to see Karan Johar’s next offering …. And while we all have known it as Stepmom, it’s now going to be called We Are Family. After mulling over the title of his Hindi version of Chris Columbus’ 1998 comedy drama Stepmom for a long time, Karan has finally decided to go with the name We Are Family. The 38-year-old filmmaker had promised fans that he would announce the name of the film on Twitter first, and he kept his word.

The movie is a heart-warming tale about a terminally ill divorcee who has to accept the new woman in her ex-husband’s life as the stepmother of her kids and the problems they face to find a common ground of understanding.

While it was earlier being called Love You Maa, Karan was still on the lookout for a suitable title and had even asked his Twitter followers to suggest one.

We Are Family, directed by Siddharth Malhotra, features Kajol, Kareena Kapoor and Arjun Rampal. It is expected to release in October. The trailer has been released on YouTube already

Meanwhile, it’s ‘family’ time at lead actress Kajol’s place as well, with second baby due soon. She’s enjoying her second pregnancy, with no diet restrictions to spoil her fun. She’s indulging her taste for cuisine she likes the most, and the latest on the list is South Indian dishes. In fact, she even invited famous south Indian chef Muthuswami to her house as a part of a private south Indian food festival, attended only by family and close friends. Hubby Ajay is happy to let her get on with it, and has taken on some of her maternal responsibilities. Recently he took time out for a vacation with daughter Nysa, and has even volunteered to attend school meetings and swimming lessons, stilling his wife’s complaints that he hasn’t had enough time for them. And of course, to be on hand at the time of Kajol’s delivery, Ajay has arranged his schedule so that he’s always within city limits and never too far away from home. Now how’s that for planning? Kajol’s not just discovered a doting father in Ajay, but a loving hubby as well. Lucky girl!

Bollywood presence at Dhoni’s do

Bollywood actor John Abraham flew to Dehradun to attend Indian cricket captain Mahinder Singh Dhoni’s wedding to Sakshi Singh Rawat, giving the ceremony a touch of filmi glamour. Dhoni and his school friend Sakshi dated for two years before tying the knot, and will follow through with a reception in Mumbai later in the week.

Although hunky John’s equally sexy girlfriend Bipasha Basu couldn’t make it, she took to microblogging site Twitter to congratulate the couple.

“Wishing Mahi and Sakshi a very happy life together forever. Sad that I can’t be there,” she tweeted. Not to be left behind was Shilpa Shetty’s post, “Congratulations in order to Mahi and Sakshi, wishing them all the happiness and marital bliss forever.”

The buzz is that Suresh Raina, RP Singh, Aashish Nehra and Harbhajan Singh attended the wedding, but Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag

gave the ceremony a miss, very likely opting for the reception in Mumbai. It won’t be surprising if Bollywood turns out in full force, along with stars in the cricketing world. Congrats to Dhoni and Sakshi, that’s another one hit for a six!

The Kinng is back!

Akshay Kumar’s too smart a cookie to rest on his laurels.

Before Singh is Kinng becomes Bollywood history, Akshay’s back on the wagon, getting set with a sequel to the box-office hit. However, the new movie will be directed by Vipul Shah, as Anees Bazmi seems to have too much going on at the moment.

“We’ve finally cracked an idea that works for the sequel, after planning and plotting for two years since the first film,” says Vipul, who worked with his writer Suresh Nair to finalise the key concept of the movie.

Natually, Vipul’s not too keen on disclosing details, but rumour has it that the sequel will begin where Singh is Kinng ended – in Australia, and will then move on to Canada,

it is speculated. Akshay has a huge fan following and close ties with the country, which is like his second home.

Akshay’s been bombarded by fans about a sequel to Singh is Kinng, with Sikh fans anxious to know when they’ll see him play the charismatic Singh again.

The only person still to come on board is Akshay’s queen, Katrina Kaif who’s completely booked out till next year. And

naturally, given her contribution to the first film, a sequel without her is unthinkable. And she knows it!

“She won’t let Akshay or me make it without her,” laughs Vipul. “We’ll just have to work around dates.” Well, get ready for it – another king-sized comedy coming our way….

GUESS WHO

She may come from a filmi family, but she made her mark on the small screen

ABHILASHA SENGUPTA brings us up-to-date on what’s hot and happening in Bollywood

United in dance

Arshad Warsi and wife Maria Goretti’s marital problems are old news now, but it seems that the couple have finally made up and in a show of solidarity, they will perform together on the dance reality show, Zara Nach Ke Dikha. The couple will go a step ahead, claiming for the aam janta that they are giving their relationship a much-needed shot in the arm and are starting afresh. The trouble started when reports of Arshad cozying up to Dia Mirza hit Bollywood circles, and there was a time when divorce seemed likely on the cards. But gossip gleaners have discovered that this time round, Arshad and Maria do seem to be truly happy. Arshad confirmed this when contacted. “We are rehearsing for the grand finale of Zara Nach Ke Dikha it’s a very tough job. Ever since I’ve been acting and Maria’s had our boys, we haven’t danced together in public,” he says. The versatile actor also confirmed that the couple have had their differences but says, “We are very happy now, and that’s all that matters!”

Let’s hope the couple dance together forever…

Mithun’s the youngest star in the industry

After more than 30 years in the Indian film industry, three national awards in his kitty and over 300 films to his credit, veteran actor Mithun Chakraborty still feels he is just 27 and getting younger. “I am getting younger day by day. Mind you, I am only 27-plus. I am the youngest star in the industry,” he revealed in an informal chat.

“But I don’t want to wish anyone the hurdles I had to go through to be here,” added the actor, who rose to become a dancing sensation with movies like Disco Dancer and Dance Dance

“Dance is like my religion. It is like god to me and like worshipping. It is in my blood. I knew that it was only through that I could have come in the industry,” said the hero of yesteryears, who was last seen in Veer.

Mithunda looks younger than ever, but its not dance that keeps him fit. Instead, he exercises every day. The actor is upbeat about his role in Gautam Pandey’s recently released Bengali movie Shukno Lanka

“I play a junior artiste in Shukno Lanka and it gave me a rare opportunity to retrace my struggling days... It is almost similar to the humiliation and the treatment faced by junior artistes in real life,” he said. “But it is not a story about me or that junior artiste. It is about a dream knocking at your door and living that dream. Look at me, I was nobody but I rose from that to whosoever I am today and even changed the definition of dance in this country,” he added.

The film also stars Sabyasachi Chakraborty, Debashree Roy and debutante Australian actress Emma Brown.

Mithunda, as he is fondly known, worked in a slew of low budget B-grade movies in the 1990s. When asked about these, he shared a professional secret: “There are three categories of films I do - films that make money where nothing else matters, films that satisfy me and films that hit the gallery with all the action and dialogues that make audiences go gaga.”

Mithun’s future projects include Sphagetti 24X7 with son Mimoh, Golmaal 3 and Bengali movies Aami Subhash Bolchhi and Ek Nadir Golpo. His schedule is fairly balanced as he does two Bengali and two Hindi films every year and his TV reality shows Dance India Dance and Dance Bangla Dance

“That’s how it works for me,” he says.

Not bad for 60 going on 27, don’t you think?

Emraan goes for the young

Ever wondered why Emraan Hashmi is so

often paired opposite young actresses? It’s because he’s discovered lady luck in these new heroines and, as he says, “it makes some great on-screen chemistry and works for the film”.

“Most of my successful films have been with new actresses and young girls,” confided Emraan.

The not-so-young 31-year-old will be wooing one-film-old Prachi Desai, 21, in thriller Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai; debutante Neha Sharma, 22, in Crook: It’s Good To Be Bad, 24-year-old Sagarika Ghatge in 24x7 Raftaar and Shruti Haasan, 24, in Madhur Bhandarkar’s comedy Dil To Bachcha

Hai Ji

“All these girls are extremely talented. Some of them are very new faces and there is always a need by the audience to see fresh faces. It has worked in my films earlier and definitely worked for the audience too, to see me paired opposite them,” he said.

Emraan’s stint with younger actresses started with Zeher in 2005 in which he romanced single-film actresses Udita Goswami and Shamita Shetty. He then wooed Tanushree Dutta in her debut Aashiq Banaya Apne, and Nisha Kothari, debutante Geeta Basra and Isha Sharvani, who were all 22 at the time in The Killer, Dil Diya Hai and Good Boy, Bad . Also on his list are Sayali Bhagat in her debut project (2007); Shriya Saran Awarapan the same year and Sonal Chauhan in hit Jannat in The actor, however, considers his pairing with Kangana Ranaut, 23, as the most fortunate. “Kangana and I have had a few hits together like Gangster Raaz - The Mystery Continues, and now we are starring in Once .... That’s a successful pair for me,” he said. And what about his infamous ‘serial kisser’ image? “That really doesn’t bother me any more. Everyone is doing it in movies now. For some reason, people have put this image, but if it’s a requirement of a film, it has to be done,” he said philosophically.

Rumours were rife that Shruti was apprehensive of being paired opposite him for his kissing tag, which Emraan takes with a pinch of salt. “That’s nothing new. I don’t really blame anyone. It’s a very intimidating image for people and if she is scared, I don’t blame her,” he said with surprising candidness.

And apparently, he’ll continue to kiss in his upcoming films.

Variety seems to be the spice of this man’s life!

Neil Nitin is daddy’s boy!

Veteran singer Nitin Mukesh, who turned 60 recently, got his life’s most cherished gift, a Mercedes, from son Neil Nitin Mukesh. The Mercedes is the one car that the senior Mukesh had wanted to own almost all his life. “You had to see his expression when I took him blindfolded to the garage where the car was parked. He jumped up and down and squealed like a child,” Neil says excitedly.

“He then ran to his best friend’s apartment and got him down to see the car. The two of them were like school kids on their first outing to Disneyland. It was full paisavasool for me,” he added.

For Neil, this was the proudest moment so far. “If I’m earning a certain amount of money, my biggest wish is to make my family happy. I planned the car for a year for dad’s birthday,” he says.

“When I bought myself the Audi Q7 last year, dad was like... ‘Ok, but Merc’s the car for me.’ Then itself, I decided the gift for his 60th birthday,” chuckles Neil.

On his dad’s birthday, the entire family drove in the golden Mercedes to Amby Valley to celebrate the occasion.

“My whole family was here. We took a boat into the middle of the lake and stayed in the waters the whole day, singing my grandfather’s (Mukesh) songs. There’s nothing I enjoy more than being with my family,” he adds.

Now there’s a good son for you!

Last issue Caption Contest winning entry

What’s Amitabh saying here?

Amitabh (to photographers): Hang on guys, take a couple more photos of us… don’t rush off yet!

Rishi Patnaik Hornsby Heights NSW

Rishi wins a free ticket to new Hindi film IHateLuvStorys

Another good one

ARSHAD WARSI WITH WIFE MARIA GORETTI

MITHUN

“Hold your cameras. Can someone get a stool for Jaya to stand on”?

Raj Saneja, Castle Hill NSW

AKSHAY KUMAR

Cine Talk

Predictable, but lovable

Film: IHateLuvStorys

Cast: Imran Khan, Sonam Kapoor, Samir Soni, Bruna Abdullah, Aamir Ali, Kavin Dave, and Pooja Ghai

Director: Punit Malhotra

You will not hate this love story, a spoof on ace director Karan Johar from his own production house. Hats off to Karan for daring to produce a film that makes fun of his kind of cinema. Samir Soni steps into his shoes with great ease in the film.

Director Punit Malhotra takes a pot shot at everything - designer sets, boy meets girl sagas, actresses singing in chiffon saris in the Alps - that made directors like Karan, Aditya Chopra and Kunal Kohli a name to reckon with in the industry.

In terms of content, nothing is new. But the treatment is fresh, the backdrop is interesting and it’s fun watching the romance brew between the lead pair Simran and Jay on the sets of a movie. Yes, the film is about the making of a love story where Simran works as an art designer and Jay as an assistant to highly successful director Vir Kapoor (Samir), known for his candy floss romantic sagas.

Imran Khan as Jay Dhingra and Sonam Kapoor as Simran fit the bill quite perfectly.

First time director Punit Malhotra proves his mettle by narrating a predictable story in such an interesting manner that you are hooked till the end.

A romantic by heart, Simran is contented with life. She is engaged to banker Raj, played by Sammir Dattani, and loves her job. But her life turns topsy turvy when the weird but funny, bratty but lovable Jay walks into her life as her assistant.

They have nothing in common. While Simran is highly disciplined, organised, professional and takes her work seriously, Jay is laid back and always late on the sets.

Yes, opposites attract here too, and they eventually fall in love.

The first half is pacy and director infuses enough energy in this otherwise predictable love story. But some scenes in the second half drag.

Another flaw in the film is that Imran is given too many dialogues to speak, but then he delivers them with just the right expressions. He suits the role of a spoilt brat perfectly and keeps tickling your funny bone. Especially when he breaks down like a girl while talking to his mum (Anju Mahendru) on phone.

Editing could have been better, but never mind.

In sum, the witty dialogues, on screen chemistry of the lead pair and performances of the supporting cast - Kavin Dave, Bruna Abdullah Aamir Ali and Pooja Ghai - make it a good watch.

Sonam may not have hits in her kitty so far, but this film should change things. In every scene, she complements Imran.

In terms of music, Vishal-Shekhar’s pacy numbers add zing to the narrative and background music adds a nice flavour to this predictable love story.

I Hate Luv Storys proves that one can make good film without lavish sets, foreign locales and mega budgets. In short, a commendable effort by the first time director.

You may not be a great fan of candy floss cinema, but do watch I Hate Luv Storys… it’s refreshing.

Arpana, IANS

Sydney girl in Bollywood

Sydney-born Emma Brown Garrett, who makes her big screen debut with Bengali movie Shukno Lanka, has gone blonde in her Bollywood avatar and even picked up Hindi - all for the love of Indian cinema.

Emma is upbeat about her new projects - the Abhishek Bachchanstarrer Dum Maaro Dum and Dharmendra-Sunny Deol-starrer Yamla Pagla Deewana

“I was discovered first by the Bengali film industry, which has given me a good grounding before venturing into Bollywood,” Emma says. “I had dark hair but I went blonde for both the roles which are typically gaudy,” she adds.

“I speak Hindi in Yamla Pagla Deewana, and Russian and bad English in Dum Maro Dum,” she reveals.

Shukno Lanka is directed by Gaurav Pandey and also stars Sabyasachi Chakraborty and Debashree Roy.

Emma says she was a huge fan of her co-star Mithun even before she met him on the sets of Shukno Lanka

Speaking of how she came to Indian shores, Emma says: “My husband and I decided to come to India to work - we’ve been here for two and a half years now. My husband runs a financial business and I thought I can come to India and try my acting and it worked out. We’ve both been very successful here and we’ve kind of settled in India nicely.”

“I landed my first job only after two weeks of arriving here. I got myself an agent, auditioned for the role and director Gaurav Pandey was very happy”.

“I was a huge Mithunda fan even before I worked on this film. My husband and I would sit and watch Hindi films - I loved Disco Dancer and Hum Paanch,” she added.

So did she take language lessons for Bollywood?

“I have a Punjabi guru in Mumbai who taught me from the very beginning - a mixture of both Urdu and Hindi. I see her from time to time. So I speak a little Hindi. I can read and write Hindi as well, but my conversation gets a little scattered sometimes. I am very good in communicating slowly. I see a lot of Hindi films and I pick the language up from there too. I don’t know that much of Russian though. It was just a matter of learning the script and then I had a voice coach,” syas the actress, who is also open to working in other regional films.

Asked if she knew the meaning of “Yamla Pagla Deewana”, pat comes the reply: “Of course. It means crazy crazy crazy! I’ve done my research.”

Probed more on her Bollywood ventures, she says: “I’m so sorry but I can’t talk much about my characters, as I have signed a confidentiality agreement.” She plays Sunny’s wife in Yamla...

Having studied films and acting and pursued a singing career in Sydney, Emma is now eyeing a Bollywood career.

“I’ve got an opportunity to work with veterans right from my early days here - people like Mithun Chakraborty and Dharemndra ji, who has just completed 50 years in Bollywood. It is so different for me to be involved in these films as I don’t have the history and the background. It’s so new for me to come into the country and experience it from a fresh perspective. But I’m falling in love with Indian cinema every day!”

IANS

Just shoot me!

The possibilities are endless - and so exciting - in the world of Indian TV soaps.

BY SUNIL GAUTAM

Story tellers of all kinds fascinate me – playwrights, writers, movie directors, politicians – all of them. That is why I was very excited when someone took me for a TV serial shoot on my recent trip to Mumbai. It was one of the most popular soaps on TV and I was like a little kid on the sets, ogling at all the stars and starlets but most of all, the director.

My friend, knowing my enthusiasm, organised a quick meeting with the director. He was a very busy man but when he learnt we were from Australia, he agreed. I introduced myself as a writer of sorts and requested him to educate me a bit on how they go about shooting an episode.

“What are you shooting today?” I asked, wanting to know all the details of the episode.

“The Mehra family is having a get-together when they have an unexpected visitor,” he replied quickly, while correcting some mistakes in the script.

“Do you realise how loyal my viewers are? And how unforgiving? They demand to know what is going on in each character’s life, and head. If, for example, I don’t show Nirmala’s reaction…. do you know what kind of hate mail I’ll get? It will be the same if I leave Dadaji out. You guys don’t realise the pressure we work under”

“And?” I enquired innocently, imagining the visitor to break some big news or to spoil their party or perhaps, be the police. I also imagined how all the members would handle the crisis and how every passing second would unravel more action.

“And what?” he snarled, “There is a knock on the door and they look at the door”.

“And?” I knew he was teasing me.

“That’s all we are shooting today.”

“But I thought you were shooting an entire episode.”

“Yes we are, this is the whole episode. There is a knock on the door, the door opens, someone enters and they all look up.”

“But an episode lasts a long time. Is this enough action?”

“Just because many Indian movies are shot in Sydney, is everyone from that city a film director? This is enough action for one episode.”

“But how?” I demanded a better answer, while my friend pretended he didn’t know me any more.

“Look,” he seemed to have taken it as a challenge, “There are 11 people in the hall. Each one is an individual. Each one will have his or her own perspective of the situation.”

“So?”

“So, we’ll shoot each one of them separately, with a few close ups and dramatic angles. It will capture the hidden feelings of every character. Each shot will last about a minute.”

“So, that is eleven minutes in that case…” I persisted.

“You should never try to become a director,” he sympathised with me. “What about the visitor?? Doesn’t he have to look at each person present in the hall? Won’t that take another eleven minutes? And did anyone in Sydney tell you that a TV serial episode is for 22 minutes?”

“But what about the story going forward? What have the viewers got in these 22 minutes?” I felt like a consumer rights activist now.

“What about them? Do you realise how loyal my viewers are? And how unforgiving? They demand to know what is going on in each character’s life, and head. If, for example, I don’t show Nirmala’s reaction to the visitor to, well, please my Australian guest, do you know

work under.”

“But what about holding people’s interest for so long while just showing reactions?”

“Your innocence is touching,” he said. “There is a small flashback with each reaction as everyone in the hall recalls their previous encounter with the visitor”.

“But haven’t people already seen those encounters? Why repeat them?”

“Does anyone have a copy of TV Serials for Dummies here,” he shouted. “We need to educate someone that a TV soap travels in its own directions – back or forward, and at its own pace, on its own will.”

“Looks like your intention is to use up an entire episode without showing anything new. By the way, why do you have eleven people in the hall? Where do we have such large families anymore? ”

“We didn’t, originally,” he confessed. “The Mehras were just a family of five. But the producers forced me to discover their other members hiding overseas and bring all six of them back to India. More people, more problems, more episodes, more money, and NRIs also bring their own peculiar issues with them… nothing personal, please…” he was down to a whisper now.

“But how do the viewers keep track of what is going

“They don’t!” he leaned so forward that I could tell he has a kidney problem by looking at his iris. “Why do you

“We are hoping next week a couple of these eleven actors will be sick and won’t be able to shoot.”

“How will that help?”

“We can then base the next episode on where those missing characters are. Infidelity? Murder? The possibilities are endless – and so exciting.”

I asked my last question.

“How does the story end, by the way? Promise I won’t tell anyone!”

“If the channel keeps us on air, then it will never end. People have children, you know.”

“And if the channel asks you to pack your bags?”

“We have already shot a scene of mass murder-suicide in which no one survives. I hope viewers will forgive me for ending the serial that way.”

“Don’t worry,” I said, “They have already forgiven you for making it.”

Email blunder

Dear Auntyji

Two months ago, things were really stressful at work, and to let off steam, I sent an email to a colleague which included a sentence about me getting calls from people I found really irritating. Unfortunately, the email got forwarded to everyone, and I got a reprimand from my boss about it. People occasionally tease me about it, but I am completely mortified by it. I am really embarrassed by the episode, and wish that everyone would forget about it. Please tell me how I can get over this humiliation

Auntyji says

Hey, this happened over two months ago. Don’t you have more important issues to think about, rather than selfflagellate over an issue than no one really cares for any more? Each time you find yourself getting upset about this issue, think of one good thing you have done for the company. Then think of another. And another. There is really no point in wasting your time thinking inane thoughts. Don’t worry about it - no small child died because of what you did. If it was a serious matter, you would have gotten fired, so don’t worry about it. It’s over, get on with your life.

Beautiful face, big mouth

Dear Auntyji

A couple of months ago, I saw a drop dead gorgeous girl at a cousin’s

Ask Auntyji

wedding. I couldn’t help myself and I went and spoke to her. I actually asked her out. She declined to go out with me and I don’t care about that - because hey, at least I tried, right. So anyway, the next thing I know, everyone is teasing me about asking Shanya out and what’s more, they all know what I said to her. What really bothers me is that Shanya actually told everyone everything I said. I find that irritating, and sometimes when I see Shanya, I just want to go up to her and give her a piece of my mind. It really irks me that she told everyone. I don’t care about the fact that she doesn’t want to go out with me, particularly as I now have a girlfriend who is just as beautiful as Shanyabut I find her behaviour disturbing. Do you think I should tell her what I think of her?

Auntyji says

Well, I can’t see any signs of your ego being hurt by this episode, especially

seeing that you have a beautiful girlfriend, but I can quite easily see how upset you would be about this. I too would be most upset, no, I would be livid if something I had told someone in a private conversation started doing the rounds at a dinner party. So here’s what I suggest you do. Shanya needs to learn that what she did was wrong - not the rejecting you bit, but telling Aunty Shallu, Uncle Rikku, Munna mama and Pushpa bua about what you said. So the next time you see her, go up to her and tell her that while you don’t mind that she didn’t go out with you, you find it most disturbing that she went around telling everyone what you had told her in confidence. Tell her that she caused you a lot of embarrassment. Tell her that it was quite impolite what she had done. And stress on the embarrassment part. And don’t talk like a loser, and don’t be awed by her beauty. Just tell her like it is; she really needs to know when to keep her beautiful muh bund

Whoa, Wuha…

Dear Auntyji

I have a neighbour who has just had a little girl. She has named her Wuha. Now, as an Indian, I understand the beauty of this name; however, when my Australian friends hear about this, they give me a strange look. I found out that usually, in moments of extreme happiness or joy, an Australian has the tendency to holler wooohaaamuch like a cowboy would. Do you reckon I should say something to my friend? Or should I get my other neighbour with no tact to tell her this. I feel sorry for the child when I think about her at school.

Auntyji says

I’m hoping that by the time Wuha starts school, she will be living back in Mangalore where all her friends will think she has a lovely, lilting, mellifluous name which means nothing more than what it originally meant. So, should you poke your nose into Wuha’s business, or leave her to the mercy of little bullies who will torment her mercilessly by running through the playground hollering Woohaa at the top of their little voices? Hmm, this is a tricky question. People’s lack of foresight confounds me to the extreme sometimes. I say leave little Woohaa alone because by the time she goes to school, there’ll be lots of kids with even stranger names. Wuha will seem mild by comparison. But, I do question Wuha’s parents’ sense. I don’t know what they were thinking, and I wish I could make them see the error of their ways, but what the hell, I can’t solve everyone’s problems.