2011-01 Sydney (2)

FREE Vol. 18 No. 4 (2) • January (2) 2011 • www.indianlink.com.au • FORTNIGHTLY

SYDNEY

Hitesh Patel moves stock to the top shelf before evacuating his corner store

Loss & gain Level 24/44 Market St, Sydney 2000 • GPO Box 108, Sydney 2001 • Ph: 18000 15 8 47 • email: info@indianlink.com.au

Published Sydney • Melbourne • Adelaide • Brisbane • Perth

FUNDRAISING

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Harmohan Walia supervises the boring of the hand pump

New shoes for all

GOPIO

help for underprivileged kids For the underprivileged students of one rural school in remote Punjab, Santa Claus came last December not from the north pole, but from the southern hemisphere.

He brought with him something their school sorely needed – a hand pump for clean water.

In his sack, they also found some much-needed stationery, and some fresh fruit for them all.

And, because Santa knows it’s been a particularly harsh winter in northern India, he brought them some new sweaters, new shoes and warm socks.

‘Southern Santa’ also wore a turban – perhaps to blend in, but mostly because he is a Punjabi, now settled in Australia.

The students of the Wara Pohwindia Government Middle School in Zira district near Ferozepur, were grateful

recipients of the generosity of GOPIO Australia recently.

Global Organisation of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) Australia’s Area Coordinator Mr Harmohan (Harry) Singh Walia and Mr Balkar Singh Kang, both of Sydney, travelled to Ferozepur with the collection.

“One of the objectives of GOPIO Australia is to help underprivileged schools in India,” Harry Walia says. “As part of our services in the past, we have helped flood victims of Bihar and Fiji, victims of the tsunami in Samoa, earthquake in Indonesia, victims of Victoria’s bushfires, and victims of attacks on Indian students in Sydney, among others”.

Mr. Walia thanks the many sponsors and volunteers of GOPIO Australia for allowing them to continue their charitable works not only in India and Australia but in other

The students show off their new sweaters

parts of the world as well.

GOPIO in Australia and overseas has now set its priority to pool its resources, both financial and professional, for the benefit of people of Indian origin and the countries to which they belong.

The most recent Punjab campaign actually began in October last year when the idea came up for an Antakshari night to help raise funds. The event was held in November and many from Sydney’s Indian community attended to sing a song or two for charity.

They may have had a night of fun, but the funds collected then helped create a lasting legacy for students of the selected school, by providing them with much-needed basic amenities.

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WORK

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through sheer grit and hard work. At work, he drove alongside Raj, a staff member, doing deliveries. At the end of the episode, there were shocks and surprises galore when the staff learnt that their new co-worker was in fact their CEO. Meij was particularly impressed with the humility and dedication shown by Raj, as well as his devotion to his family. As a teary Raj accepted his surprise gift at the end, there must have been many eyes across Australia that must have welled up as well.

Raj leads an extremely busy life and when called for this interview, said he was only available between 9 and 9:40am. Raj wasn’t being difficult; it is just that he juggles two jobs and nearly 90 hours of work between them.

As someone once said, some people dream of success.... others wake up and work hard at it. Raj works all seven days putting in 15 to 20 hours at the Fyshwick Coles Express petrol station and 50 to 70 hours at Domino’s, Belconnen. Putting it rather mildly, he says, “It is a very busy and hard life in Australia”.

He moved to Canberra in early 2009 with his family, on the wishes of his sons who wanted to do further studies in Australia.

Hailing from Birak in the Jullundhar district of Punjab, he started as a fitter at the Rail Coach Factory in Kapurthlala. He completed his Diploma in Mechanical Engineering and was promoted as a Junior Mechanical Engineer. He served the Railways for over 22 years until he retired to move to Australia. Finding it hard to get job as a mechanical engineer, he did not shy away from cleaning and mowing jobs before he got the Domino’s job.

“But one day I hope to get a job as an engineer or may be save enough to start my own pizza store”.

Belconnen happens to be the busiest Domino’s outlet, not just in Australia but the world over. Raj himself delivers 100 to 150 pizzas weekly.

With the $13 per hour he currently and the high rents at Canberra, Rajinder Gautam’s dedication to his earns he is forced to work long hours to work and his family - and a simple make ends meet. His wife supports meal he cooked for himself - put him by working in casual child care jobs while his sons, aged 21 and 16, him on the road to glory are still studying.

The rewards of featuring on Undercover Boss may not have been substantial of the hugely popular American TV series monetarily, but have been high on recognition.

Undercover Boss. In this ‘reality’ show, high-flying He is stopped at shopping malls or when on executives leave the comfort of their office deliveries (even at Centrelink!) to have his to take up a low job at the coal face of the picture taken. company’s operation. They “relinquish control, “I took a delivery of 20 pizzas into an office buckle down to follow orders, and prepare one Friday and they wouldn’t let me go until to hear some home truths.” They get to see they had photos taken with me,” Raj laughs. “I first-hand the effects their decisions have on had to pull myself away from the place before others, and where the problems lie within my other pizza deliveries went cold!” their organisation. As well, they get to meet Even Don Meij sent Raj a personal new outstanding employees who ultimately make year’s card from Paris. their company a success.

The pizza he invented, the ‘Rajetarian’, has For those who did not watch the series, the sun-dried tomato, onion, capsicum, fetta cheese, first episode featured Don Meij, the CEO of pesto, sweet chilli sauce and garlic oil, but he Domino’s Pizza. Meij visited the Domino’s rues that not all shops make it like he does. At outlet at Belconnen disguised as Peter James, Melbourne he was surprised to find tomato in sporting glasses, beard and cap, seeking work. the Rajetarian. As he puts it, when he makes the Don had himself started 23 years ago as Rajetarian, “Log unguli chaat-te reh jaate a delivery boy and has risen to the top job

, a z z i p n a i r a t e j a R ? e n o y n a BY JYOTI SHANKAR

Thomas Jefferson once said, “I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it”.

For one Canberra man, these words could not be truer.

A delivery man at Domino’s Pizza at Belconnen, Rajinder Gautam’s hard-working nature has brought him not only a huge dose of good luck, but also the proverbial fifteen minutes of fame - and a pizza named after him by a leading pizza chain!

In October last year, Channel Ten aired the first episode of the Australian version

hain!” (People lick their fingers after eating my pizza). Well, the recipe did take three months to perfect!

Sharing an inside story that did not make it to the episode aired on TV, Raj says he did not know what the shoot was about.

“All I knew was that some media people were coming to film and they were making a documentary on food business. This person calling himself Peter James said he wanted to do some deliveries with me. He said that he had owned a car business and it had flopped.

So he was now looking to jump into the food business”.

When he asked Raj for some tips, he got the reply any CEO would love to hear. “Why don’t you take up a franchise of Domino’s?”

Don asked whether it would be worth it.

“Will it be ok? How can you be sure?”

Raj replied in all earnest, “It will be fine, Sir. I have been working here for a few months and I know the input and output very well, and how much we profit”.

When Don laughed aloud, Raj did not understand why. They continued with the deliveries, chatting along the way about his children and why he came to be in Canberra doing pizza deliveries.

Later that night, around 1:30am, when Raj was very hungry, he proceeded to make a pizza for himself. Don, who was helping with washing the dishes, asked him if it was something special and if he could try a slice. Raj replied, “It is a special pizza, not a Domino’s recipe”. Don was surprised at how tasty the pizza was and asked what it was called, to which Raj replied humbly, “It is just my dinner!”

Don then promptly named it ‘Rajetarian’ since it was made by Raj and it was vegetarian.

When he suggested that he should submit the recipe to the powers-that-be for consideration, Raj laughed it off.

“No one will consider my simple pizza… in any case, there will be many layers of hierarchy to go through”. Little did he know that he was talking to the big boss himself.

The next day, much to his surprise, an enormous, 2-feet diameter Rajetarian pizza was drawn from the oven. Then followed the denouement and the pizza was distributed among the staff and customers. Raj couldn’t believe it and as the rewards were announced and words of appreciation flowed, so did the tears.

Don said on the show, “What touched me most about Raj was the sacrifices he was making for his family”.

Raj received $1500 for developing his pizza, as well as tickets to the Boxing Day cricket match at the MCG for himself and his sons.

A limited edition of the Rajetarian pizza was launched for two weeks at all Domino’s stores.

They sold in hundreds and it was decided to extend the availability of this special pizza for another four weeks. The demand did not relent and soon Raj was informed that his pizza would feature on the main menu of Domino’s. He was given another $1500.

Sadly Raj does not get any royalties on his invention or he would have been a rich man.

A simple hard-working man, a true ‘Aussie battler’, had won with his dedication and devotion.

Rajinder Gautam with (from left) wife Rajni, sons Tarun and Samir, and with Domino’s CEO Don Meij

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COVERSTORY

Loss & gain As the Queensland floods unleashed their fury on an unsuspecting state, images of the catastrophe unfolded before our eyes. It was a story of irredeemable loss as we saw vast expanses of water broken only by rooftops of submerged houses. We saw cars, vans and buses swept away by the unrelenting waters that showed no signs of abating. We heard stories of shock and anxiety, of death and destruction.

But to counter these feelings of negativity, we also heard incredible stories of courage and solidarity. We learned about the fight for survival, to restore not just families and homes, but the feeling of safety and security as stories of unscrupulous looting began to emerge. We learned of how people united to help each other and restore some

BY RAJNI ANAND LUTHRA

We lost everything “Hamara sub kuch chala gaya (We’ve lost everything),” Jaimin Patel said

in desperation. “Raste pe aa gaye hain (We’re out on the street)”.

He has only been in the country for a year and eight months, but the Brisbane student is completely at a loss as to what to do. The house he shared with his wife Avanika, cousin and cousin’s wife in the suburb of Rocklea

semblance of order as the murky waters finally began to recede. We learned of people risking their lives to help others, of the hundreds of volunteers who came forward to help the victims, of the emergency support services who carried out their tasks with humanity and efficiency, of the donations that are still pouring in to help the victims. We gained in the knowledge that help is at hand, and that we are one with the victims, we share their sorrow and loss, and that our support is with them at all times.

Members of the Indian community in Queensland who were a part of this misadventure through Nature share their stories with us.

To volunteer or donate, please visit www.qld.gov.au/floods

was completely gutted in the recent floods – they barely managed to escape themselves.

“The water came down with such force and such speed that when we walked out, we were waist deep in water,” he recounted, visibly moved by the horror of the event.

They had twenty minutes to evacuate, following the authorities’ instructions, in which time they could just pack a few clothes for themselves, including their passports and important documents.

The cousin’s wife is pregnant, the other three made every effort to ensure that she was okay.

Natasha Narain of Auchenflower took this photo: She had driven through this street with her son Jason only three hours before this photo was taken

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Jaimin and Avanika worked at Ecofarm, packing vegetables. (Rocklea is famous for its produce markets). The factory was close to home, and it suited them well. Now though, they have lost their jobs, as the entire factory has been gutted.

“We moved from Rocklea to our friend Raju’s house, as he also worked at Ecofarm with his wife Pinal. They live in Greenslopes which is further away and on much higher ground,” said Jaimin. “After two days we went back to Rocklea with some council workers to see our home. There was water everywhere and everything was ruined. The water was actually muddy and slushy, and everything was brown – even the bath…”

Their horror was recorded by cameras of the US TV network NBC, and shown as part of their news program that night. The clip showed the young Indian men walking up to their top floor house, climbing the stairs waist-deep in water which had completely submerged the ground floor. As they opened the door, the cameras captured a good look inside – there was nothing that could be salvaged.

While the Patels are grateful for the help they have received from their friends, they are also concerned because Raju and Pinal have also lost their Ecofarm jobs. They are in the same boat too, but at least their home is safe. “Hamare paas to pani peene ka glass bhi nahin hai!”

The pregnant cousin, meanwhile, is to fly out to India shortly so she can be with her family.

Both Raju and Jaimin have been trying to find other jobs, but have been unsuccessful for the past fifteen days.

NATIONAL EDITION

No one is hiring at present.

Centrelink has told them they are not eligible for any financial assistance.

“Flood thodi pooch ke aaya tha… (the flood did not discriminate)”, lamented Jaimin.

No Indian association or consular service assistance has reached these victims.

Jaimin allowed himself a rare catch in his throat as he said, “India mein hotey to family support to hota, poori family hoti. Yahan par to yeh dost log hee hain (If we’d been in India, we’d have had the entire family by our side; here, it’s just us and these friends)”.

A helping hand Palanithevar of the Tamil Brisbane Organisation and vice president of the Tamil Association has been busy since the Brisbane River broke its banks on January 11.

Luckily for him, his own home in the suburb of Inala - and his family members - have been safe, but he has spared no effort in lending a helping hand.

“Many homes on the riverside have been lost,” he told Indian Link. “I have helped people move to their friends’ homes. One group of Sri Lankan Tamils were particularly affected – they were rebuilding their lives here after moving from very troubled lives back home, and now again I saw their homes reduced to skeletons… they were in a state of shock.”

“Many businesses have been affected too,” he added. “The Swamy Indian store is quite badly off; the Raja Indian Restaurant and the Ashoka Restaurant in Jindalee, and even JK Indian shop in Rocklea suffered damage.”

Palani’s help has also been noticed

through his regular email blasts to members of the Tamil Association as well as others, with information regarding affected people and calls for help.

“Everybody has been helping friends, community, neighbours, work colleagues, government officials,” he said. “At a time like this, it is nice to see the community spirit come to the fore.”

“People are still cleaning up. But the loss is huge. In many places, I have experienced a funeral kind of feeling…”.

Supporting the students Muthukumar Raju, President of the Tamil Association has been particularly concerned about the St. Lucia area.

“Many students live there because it is close to the university, and from what I know, somewhere between 100200 Indian origin students have been affected,” he told Indian Link.

Raju himself was in India at the time the floods began, but since returning, he has been doing what he can to help.

In fact, some students have been living at his house.

“I own a rental property in the area, and my tenants, again of Indian background, are also currently at my house,” he revealed.

It has been a shock for the students in particular. “Many of these are young, newly arrived people who didn’t know what to expect and did not secure their homes,” said Muthukumar. “Some of the others did not have any content insurance, and have lost all their furniture and white goods.”

The floods hit on January 11 and Muthukumar arrived back from India on Friday, January 13. “Since arriving

“As I started to drive, I realised my road out was flooding, so I had to turn back and take another route.

The alternate route I considered was exactly the same when we reached it – it was water-logged. The danger was very real that we would be carried away with the force of the water.

Ultimately, the third street I took somehow allowed me to make it through the water” Natasha Narain and over the next two days, I went out and about in St. Lucia, helping to clean up some of the worst hit streets and homes. After the power was restored, the work began all over again, now taking people back to their homes,” he recounted.

Muthukumar has started the task of seeing through requests for assistance.

An IT professional, Muthukumar came to Australia in 2003 and has been involved in social work ever since.

Consolation in cooperation When the power went off in his own home, Rajnikanth moved his wife and 9-month-old son to a friend’s house.

Having deposited them there safely, he went back to ensure that his own house Continued on page 18

JANUARY (2) 2011 <> 17

COVERSTORY

Jaimin Patel takes the help of friends and volunteers to salvage what he can of his Rocklea home

Continued from page 17

was safe. It was, luckily, but homes only 50 metres down the street were waterlogged. The young engineer went on to St. Lucia, where he had heard that the flood had hit particularly badly.

He began helping a family home of complete strangers. “The house was an absolute mess, completely gutted. We waded through the waters and began getting the debris out – basically, we threw everything that that family owned, outside.”

“I felt terrible!” said Rajnikanth. “The family was constantly crying, feeling hopeless about it all. I felt depressed and sad at the end of that day, but I consoled myself by thinking I had helped someone at their time of need.”

Of course he was back again the next day, helping another family sort

“This is the third flood in which I’ve helped out. The first was in Queensland again only a few years ago, then in Thailand, and now this one. But this is the worst flood I’ve ever seen”.

Rajnikanth 18 <> JANUARY (2) 2011

through their rubbish, sweep out slush, carry out another piece of ruined furniture.

“This is the third flood in which I’ve helped out,” Rajnikanth told Indian Link. “The first was in Queensland again only a few years ago, then in Thailand, and now this one.”

But the ex-army man revealed, “This is the worst flood I’ve ever seen”.

Still reeling from the effects of it all, he said it’s still not all back to normal.

“At my work place in the CBD, the lifts are still not working, but at least the power is back on”.

Going into damage control Natasha Narain lives in the small leafy suburb of Auchenflower, about 3 km west of the Brisbane CBD. “It is a hilly area and I always considered it a nuisance, having to carry all the shopping up,” she told Indian Link. “But I’m so fortunate now that I chose to live here!” The damage was not extensive, thankfully, even though there were some pretty tense moments.

Before the river broke its banks, Natasha set about making preparations like everyone else on the street. “Being on a slope, there was the danger of land-slides… the neighbours helped me sand-bag. We were extremely worried.

But when it came, the water came from below. The street was flooded, being so close to areas such as Rocklea and Milton that were badly affected. The police came knocking, and we were given twenty minutes to evacuate,” she recounted.

Natasha already had her suitcase packed, and got into the car with her tenyear-old son Jason. Then she felt terror.

“As I started to drive, I realised my road out was flooding, so I had to turn back and take another route. The alternate route I considered was exactly the same when we reached it – it was water-logged. The danger was very real that we would be carried away with the force of the water. Ultimately, the third street I took somehow allowed me to make it through the water,” she described.

Jason and Natasha made it safely to a friend’s place. She was to learn later that her get-away was well-timed as her car was one of the last cars that drove away from the area. After she left, it was only boats and kayaks that came out.

“We stayed away for two and a half days and it was surreal, watching it all on TV and wondering if my house was ok. When we came back, the power was still not back on, and other people on my street were still not back either!”

And what was the damage to her property? “Fortunately for me, the

water did not get into the house, only my garage… but it did all the damage there. Everything in it was ruined!” she revealed.

Natasha is an artist, and the garage is her workshop: she lost all her works, art materials, custom-built storage cupboards, and everything in them.

“At the moment, my street looks like it is hard rubbish collection week!” she quipped.

How did her ten-year-old take it all?

“Coming from India I’m quite used to the load-shedding, no water, storing water and all that kind of thing, but for Jason it was something he had never experienced before; he was terrified.

When he saw me fill the bathtub (with water in case the supply was cut off) and pack the suitcase, he asked questions like: why do we have to leave the house, will our things be ok, will my toys be ok? When we got back, he was much relieved. But I have to say, those twenty minutes were spiritual….” claimed Natasha.

There was a lot that needed doing the week they got back, of course. For one thing, Natasha had done some major grocery shopping and there was an entire mountain of food that had to be discarded. “As well, there was some pretty serious culling to be done of the stuff in that garage – with no time to be sentimental about it,” she said.

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“But we’re ok, the worst has happened. The other ramifications will have to be faced now, such as the emotional aspects. When it happened, we went into instant damage control with no time to think. But now thinking about it, it can be quite overwhelming.

Having to abandon your home can be quite disorienting, you know, I felt like a refugee…”.

Saw it all happen Rahul Chhibber works in Brisbane, going back home to Melbourne on the weekends. Home for him is in a highrise apartment block in the heart of the Brisbane CBD, right on the Brisbane River.

He saw it all happen from his fifth floor apartment.

“The river was swollen, and it was fast and furious,” Rahul told Indian Link.

“It was carrying everything down with it, battered and broken.”

It must have been an alarming sight, but became even more so in a couple of days.

“The river’s level began to rise rapidly, and it looked like thick brown sludge instead of water. There was no doubt it was going to enter our building because we are right on the banks of the river.

Sure enough, the car park in the basement was inundated,” he said.

Of course there had been prior warning, and residents were asked to

take their cars out.

“Park them somewhere on higher ground, they said, like in the Sofitel Hotel close by. But parking there costs $40 a day… ultimately everyone just took the risk and parked off street”.

Meanwhile the anxiety was that water would enter the lobby of the building.

By now, the lifts were not working, and residents were told to expect power to be cut off in case the water got to the level of the transformers. Expect water and gas supply to go off as well, they were warned.

“The water level continued to rise.

There is a boardwalk between our building and the river, where I walk frequently. We could not see the boardwalk anymore; in fact, we could not even see the railing which is a few metres high! And we were constantly being warned, the water is going to rise even higher….” revealed Rahul.

Luckily, the river did not peak at the expected levels, but the damage was done. Fortunately the gas and water supply did not have to be turned off.

“The situation was just as grave as it looked on TV,” claimed Rahul. “My family in Melbourne was obviously concerned – they rang constantly to ask if I had food and water… and the family from India began to ring as well!”

And there was panic as the lines grew longer and longer at the supermarkets and the shelves grew emptier. “I’ve

never seen anything like it before; people just grabbed whatever they could at the shops,” he said.

When Rahul took his customary walk on the boardwalk a day before speaking with Indian Link nearly two weeks after the incident, there was still nothing left of the beautiful area that he has grown to love.

“The CBD is not fully back to normal.

The luxury hotel Stamford Plaza is closed, with water in its basement; it is not expected to open until end February. The posh Southbank area is still cordoned off – dirt and muck are still being cleaned out,” he described.

But Rahul is quick to point out that the local government did its best in the days of the crisis. “They’ve done a good job in cleaning up and in helping transport get back up. The roads were damaged and cars were banned, but public transport was functioning, and it was free for a full week”.

Separation scare Nikhil Rughani moved to Brisbane just five months ago with his wife and young baby, now eighteen months old. His suburb of Coorparoo, some 4 kms south of the CBD, also received evacuation warnings.

“We knew the city was going to be hit,” Nikhil told Indian Link. “So we began to prepare by moving things in the house to higher ground. But when

There is a boardwalk between our building and the river, where I walk frequently.

We could not see the boardwalk anymore; in fact, we could not even see the railing which is a few metres high! And we were constantly being warned, the water is going to rise even higher….”

Rahul Chhibber the electricity went off we began to get anxious. How badly would we be affected, we wondered.”

Luckily for the Rughanis, they are on a raised property, so the waters didn’t enter the house.

“Our belongings were not affected, fortunately, but there was water all around us and we had no option but to stay indoors because the house had become like an island,” he revealed.

Fortunately, they were also well stocked up for supplies, having just shopped the weekend before.

Did he ever feel scared? “Scared for the family, yes!” says Nikhil. “I didn’t want us to be separated…”

(From left) Flood damage at the University oval at St. Lucia; a boat appears out of nowhere, in the middle of the university’s football field, and someone secures it to a pole; the still-muddy Brisbane River flows past what was once a popular children’s park at West End

Photos Nikhil Rughani

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YOUTH

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Look, it’s the Indian girl Growing up in Australia, a young Indian girl learns to accept - and love - her origins BY ANUSHA MENON

One can’t possibly deny the over-reaching influence that Indian culture has had on Australian society, or even Western society.

Although one could argue that it has been the other way around and Indian society continues to be permeated with Western ideals, it is clear that people today are becoming more aware of India than ever before, from Bollywood-themed weddings to ayurvedic therapies to Jai Ho! Growing up as an Indian girl in Sydney and viewing this great ‘acceptance’ of my own culture has been encouraging, but also somewhat bewildering. This is because personally, growing up as an Indian Australian certainly wasn’t the easiest of experiences. In fact, for a significant part of my life, I wanted nothing to do with the Subcontinent.

The notion of beauty was particularly challenging, as I felt convinced that to be beautiful, you had to be blonde with blue eyes In Primary School I always felt like I was the solitary Indian, stranded amongst a sea of students who didn’t understand my culture. Of course, I had a group of amazing friends who loved me for who I was, but that didn’t change the fact that I continued to be picked on for being the skinny, dark child who came from a place where people ate with their hands, had funny accents and wore big red dots on their foreheads. I was frequently teased about my culture, picked on for being an Indian and having a bizarre and somewhat outlandish culture that had been oh-soaccurately portrayed by characters in pop culture such as Apu from The Simpsons.

In addition to all of this, I despised my name, and wondered why my parents 22 <> JANUARY (2) 2011

couldn’t have given me an English name so that children wouldn’t laugh at the fact that the first four letters of my name spelled the word ‘anus’, making me quite literally the butt of every joke!

Growing up as an Indian Australian was testing for me on many levels. The notion of beauty was particularly challenging, as I felt convinced that to be beautiful, you had to be blonde with blue eyes.

When I reached High School, I continued to be ashamed of my culture for quite some time, and found it easier to poke fun at Indian people and emphasize how different I was from ‘them’.

Nonetheless, I’m pleased to say that there is a positive ending to my story.

As time progressed and as I grew older, things did change for the better, and this essentially had more to do with me than it did with the people around me.

Figuring out who my real friends were really helped me to heal the wounds caused by the people who had hurt me.

I came to understand that not all people hated me for my culture, most of the time they simply made fun of me because they didn’t understand the customs of Indian people, and I’ve learned to be fine with that. Sure, there will never cease to be ignorant people in this world who will always be able to make offensive comments with ease, and racism will always continue be a difficult issue worldwide and for me, personally. We only have to read about the assaults on Indian students to realize that everyone will not accept us, and this is a very difficult thing to acknowledge! However, we shouldn’t let this change how we feel about where we come from. Without an ounce of shame, I am pleased to say that I am a young Australian with an Indian background, of which I am very proud.

I hope that you feel the same.

INDIAN LINK

COMMUNITYSCENE

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India Club celebrates joint Australia DayRepublic Day It was an early Republic Day – Australia Day celebration. India Club kicked off what has now become a series of celebrations marking the national days of both countries, with at least three others to follow in the coming days.

The India Club do at Epping saw calls not only for increased India-Australia relations but also a more somber thought – that of the devastation caused by the Queensland floods in recent days.

India’s Sydney Consul General Amit Dasgupta encouraged everyone present to spare a thought for the victims there.

The function played host to some of the better-known politicians from the Hills district and surrounding areas that have high Indian demographics.

The new political reality was abundantly on display as the Labor Party was badly outnumbered by the Liberals.

Labor MLC Sophie Cotsis looked out of place - even at times lonely - as Liberal heavyweights Philip Ruddock, Greg Smith and David Clarke grabbed all the attention. Ryde Liberal MP Victor Dominello and recently elected former tennis star John Alexander from Bennelong added more firepower to the already strong Liberal presence. Liberal Party candidates from Toongabbie, Parramatta, Riverstone and Castle Hill

were also present at the occasion and spoke about their support for the Indian community.

Liberal powerbroker David Clarke stole the show when he delivered a fantastic speech about the achievements of Indians, to the applause of the crowd present. His knowledge of India and his oratory skills left most audience members in a spell. Philip Ruddock reminded everyone about the achievements of John Howard Government and how immigration flourished under Liberal rule. Epping Labor MP Greg Smith, who is tipped to be the next Attorney General, told the guests that he loved the fact that 26th January is close to the hearts of both Indians and Australians.

It is widely tipped that Liberal Party will win the upcoming NSW State elections with a thumping majority and it seems they are going out of their way to woo the Indian community.

Shubha Kumar and Aksheya Kumar, who co-founded India Club, did a brilliant job in organising this event. A decent crowd of about 70 guests got a good opportunity to mix with leaders from both the Indian community and the mainstream.

Mark Sharma

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1. Phillip Ruddock 2. Ryde MP Victor Dominello (left) and Bennelong MP John Alexander 3. David Clarke, MLC 4. India Club’s Shubha Kumar

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PEOPLE

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Mitu with Shah Rukh Khan during the making of Chak De India

Mitu with Aamir Khan at last year’s Melb International Film Festival

Bollywood dance contest at Fed Square, organised by MBF

Rani Mukherjee with Melb Lord Mayor Robert Doyle and ex Premier John Brumby at MBFhosted Indian Film Festival

Mitu Bhowmick-Lange

Melbourne’s strongest Bollywood link

Mitu Bhowmick-Lange’s childhood passion for films has gone on to become a cultural bridge between India and Australia.

If you have seen a Bollywood movie in a theatre in Melbourne, or indeed in Australia, chances are that it has been brought to you solely due to the efforts of one person.

Thanks to Mitu Bhowmick Lange, Australia’s Indian community are able to enjoy the latest Bollywood movies in Australia, almost on the same day as these movies are released in India.

Mind Blowing Films (MBF), the film company of which Mitu is the director, is the biggest distributor of Bollywood films in Australia. These movies include the recent hit No One Killed Jessica, the critically acclaimed Khele Hum Jee Jaan Sey and over 25 titles from the leading studios in the past 18 months, grossing over $ 5 million at the Australian box office Kiran Rao’s much-awaited Dhobi Ghat and the Priyanka-starrer Saat Khoon Maaf are up next, to be released in coming weeks.

MBF was launched with the sole objective of bringing Australia and India closer together where films are concerned, Bhowmick-Lange says. “A major motivation was to bring to the Indians in Australia the very latest from Bollywood. It is a prolific industry back home

Yash Chopra, one of India’s leading film-makers, is the festival patron of MBF’s Bollywood and Beyond, and the advisory board reads like a who’s who’s of Bollywood – Simi Garewal, Amit Khanna, Ronnie Screwvala, etc.

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as you know, and has many followers outside of India – who don’t want to miss out on the latest”.

Chandana Singh, who migrated from Chandigarh to Melbourne in 1978, notes how the Bollywood scene has changed here. “In the earlier days, we could only see the movies when someone came from India and brought a cassette with them,” she recalls. “It was a big event, believe it or not – we would congregate at a friend’s place and watch it together…

Often, we had to wait months to watch these movies, and of course miss out on all the movie discussions with our family and friends in India. I remember the hype around the film Satyam Shivam Sundaram just as I was leaving India, but I only saw it years later! Not any more; I saw Chak De India on the same day as my sister in Punjab and we really had a good discussion about it on the same day!”

And of course, there are other ‘filmy’ aspects that the Singh family can boast about to family back home: their daughter can be seen, fleetingly but quite clearly, in scenes in the films Salaam Namaste and Chak De India – let’s see you top that! For film-crazy Indians here, Mitu has indeed changed the world around.

Both films were made in Australia, lineproduced by MBF. “I have brought in over $12 million dollars worth of production in Victoria alone with films such as Salaam Namaste, Main Aurr Mrs Khanna, Chak De India and with Bachna Aye Haseeno in Sydney along with several commercials,” Mitu notes. “Chak De India and Salaam Namaste have been the biggest blockbusters and have single-handedly increased Indian tourism to Victoria from India by 25%”.

“Forever on the lookout for new locales, Indian film-makers have absolutely loved what we have to offer in Australia,” Mitu observes. “Victoria especially has the best of

both worlds - scenic beauty as well as beautiful urban environments, so it fits in well with the dream worlds that Bollywood conjures. I was keen to showcase Australia to Indian directors and producers; and they lapped it up!”

Mitu’s passion for films began early in life. In India, she directied several TV shows including a daily breakfast show, and many entertainment, news and fashion magazine programs, for channels such as BBC World, Star Plus, Zee TV and Sony TV. Mitu wrote and directed a multi award-winning documentary on the impact of violence on the children of Kashmir, which went on to become UNICEF’s entry to the Emmy Awards.

The contacts she made in the industry have certainly helped her in another major endeavour – the annual film festival, Bollywood and Beyond. In recent years, it has attracted Bollywood heavyweights such as Simi Garewal, Yash Chopra, Akshaye Khanna, Raju Hirani and Rani Mukherjee, and has gone on to become an event to wait for, in the community’s annual social calendar.

Yash Chopra, one of India’s leading filmmakers, is the festival patron, and the advisory board reads like a who’s who’s of Bollywood – Simi Garewal, Amit Khanna, Ronnie Screwvala, etc.

The film festival itself has evolved with interesting events. Each year, a bunch of leading films from the industry are showcased, and cast and crew often come in person to introduce their films and meet their Aussie fans. Not only Hindi films, but the very best from regional cinema are also included.

In every major city, crowds throng to get a glimpse, a photograph maybe, of their favourite stars. Federation Square played host to thousands last year to greet ‘India’s sweetheart’ Rani Mukherjee, with even the Premier of the state and the Lord Mayor attending.

Events associated with the festival are just as popular, such as a Bollywood dance competition (at which actor Sohail Khan was invited last year) and a short-film competition with attractive prizes which encourages new talent (last year’s winner Samson has just signed his first independent feature film).

So what’s the plan for this year’s festival, Mitu?

“Yes, plans are nearly finalised for this year’s festival,” Mitu reveals. “All I will say is, if you thought last year was good, then you will be happy this year. My hard working team at Mind Blowing Films have in store for you some of the very leading names in acting talent from Bollywood – and dancing talent – coming this year”.

Now does that give us a clue?

She may be pint-sized, but she is one energiser-bunny bundle of activity!

Equally, Mitu is passionate about taking Aussie films to India. She is the curator for Australian and New Zealand films for India’s leading film festival (International Film Festival of India, IFFI), the oldest film festival in Asia. Last year for the first time, Mitu was instrumental in having over 8 Australian films screened at the 41st IFFI, opening the doors to an audience of over 1.4 billion Indians.

Several key Australians film makers like Mick Molloy, Robyn Kershaw (producer of Bran Neu Dae), Bill Leimbach (producer Benath Hill 60) were invited for the festival in Goa, further strengthening the relationship between the two robust industries.

Entrepreneurial as well as creative, Mitu has used Melbourne as the hub to promote the state of Victoria to India, while enriching the local community with unique entertainment options and a pride in themselves. Her work to date has served to become a wonderful cultural bridge between India and Australia.

Keep up the good work, Mitu.

Akhil Sharma INDIAN LINK

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NEWSMAKERS

W

Prof. Veena was one among 15 recipients to receive the award this year (some of the others being NZ Governor General Anand Satyanand, Canadian activist Lata Pada and Rajiv Seth, chief of USAID and key member in US President Obama’s team)

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onderfully weird!

With a reputation of ground-breaking work, it is no surprise that this talented and humble lady has been felicitated by her country of origin BY SHERYL DIXIT

Imagine using waste plastic to produce steel. How weird…. and yet, how wonderful!

Yes, that’s Veena Sahajwalla for you, the Sydneybased scientist who discovered that waste plastic can be used as a source of carbon to partially replace coal in a particular process of steel-making. The find won her the Australian Museum’s coveted Eureka Prize for Scientific Research in 2005.

She is an academic, an engineer, an inventor, a wife, a mother…. and an award-winner several times over.

With all these avatars, Prof. Veena Sahajwalla is an unusual woman. “Weird!” is how she describes herself. Of course, it’s the nicest possible description of a word that covers a plethora of meanings. She is talented, busy, innovative, curious and content – a wonderful combination that suits this special lady.

Prof. Sahajwalla is currently enjoying a stint in the limelight, as one of the recipients of this year’s Pravasi Bharatiya Samman. The Government of India honours eminent overseas Indians in an annual valedictory ceremony, and Prof. Veena was one among 15 recipients to receive the award this year (some of the others being NZ Governor General Anand Satyanand, Canadian activist Lata Pada and Rajiv Seth, chief of USAID and key member in US President Obama’s team).

The award is a rare honour and one of pride not just for Prof. Veena, but also for the wider Indian community here in Australia. She becomes only the second Australian to have received the award, following Neville Roach in 2008.

For Prof. Veena, the actual experience of receiving the award at the ceremony in New Delhi was a humbling, and yet an overwhelming one. Her parents, who accompanied her to New Delhi to attend the ceremony, must have felt immensely proud of their daughter who, as a young woman, insisted on studying Metallurgical Engineering instead of taking up a career in Medicine or the like.

At the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur, Veena

was the only girl in a male dominated classroom. Of course, it didn’t bother her in the least.

“This was what I wanted to do and I simply got on with it,” she says. “I could have chosen Medicine or a related field that attracted a larger proportion of women at the time, but Engineering was my interest and my forte. My parents certainly thought it was a weird choice, but well, here we are!”

Prof. Veena went on to complete further studies in Canada and the US, before finally arriving in Australia to settle down in the mid-1990s. Her career took off with CSIRO, and she then joined the University of New South Wales (UNSW) as a lecturer. After 15 years with UNSW, Prof.

Veena is now Associate Dean (Strategic Industry Relations), Faculty of Science and Director, Centre of Sustainable Materials Research & Technology (SMaRT@UNSW).

“It was a challenge to get to this position, but one has to work hard and enjoy what one does,” says Prof Veena.

And truly, her dedication, commitment and talent gained her recognition in the industry, and led to several prestigious awards for her work.

“But it’s not just my own effort,” Dr Veena is quick to add, “I have the support of a great team of students, administration, colleagues, researchers, collaborators, and they have all been instrumental in taking our goals forward.”

Australia has been a good place to be in, avers Prof. Veena. “I received a lot of support here as there is always interest in new concepts and ideas. I have found that I can express my ideas, no matter how weird, and they are treated with openmindedness. It’s a great atmosphere to work in and exercise your creativity,” she says, with obvious sincerity.

More than just receiving the award, Prof. Veena feels that it will progress dialogue between India and Australia in the fields of Science and Engineering.

“Lots of people I met in India in January, showed interest in the scientific work done here in Australia.

We have a lot to learn from each other, and this is a great opportunity to create collaborations, to discuss and exchange ideas and to add value. It’s a glimpse into the bigger picture, and something that I am proud of being able to achieve,” admits Prof Veena.

Although the award will help open doors and initiate dialogues, the additional work that will go into sustaining them doesn’t seem to daunt this intrepid lady even a bit. “I prefer to just get on with things without making too much of a fuss,” she says.

“Life is busy as I have my job responsibilities which INDIAN LINK

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include networking with our collaborators, and of course, my research. I like to get involved in team discussions with students, staff and our external collaborators to create something new and wonderful.”

Now for most of us with limited scientific knowledge, the creative process involved in Metallurgical Engineering can’t be very interesting, but it’s evident from her enthusiasm that this is a very important part of Prof.

Veena’s career.

“It’s the buzz you get when creating something that will actually work! It’s the desire to find something unusual, to think out of the box, to research and develop, and finally reach a satisfactory solution. It’s the best feeling in the world, and yes, I guess ‘weird’ would be one way to describe it,” she laughs.

And it was this desire to know, to understand and discover that led Prof. Veena to be a part of ABC’s highly popular TV show The New Inventors. She was asked to audition to be on the panel of judges for the show in 2005, and has since become a regular personage on the program.

Prof. Veena admits that she enjoys the excitement of being a part of the panel of judges. She was quick to revise my opinion that being on the show was different from her career as an academic, engineer and scientist. “On the show I do quite the same thing as I do at my job. I review, understand, ask questions and comment on the inventions presented. The only difference is that at my job I have lots of time to review each research project, while on the show we have to assess the presentation and offer an opinion within a limited time,” she says with a smile.

Although being a Pravasi Bharatiya Samman recipient is a unique honour, Prof. Veena has achieved several milestones throughout her career. She admits that the most notable of these are winning the Australian Museum’s Eureka Prize for Scientific Research in 2005, for innovations in recycling waste plastics in steelmaking.

In 2007, she became a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, the premier national institution for the advancement of engineering and technology. She was awarded the Fellowship for “achievements as an exceptional, innovative engineer with an established record of successful conversions of research to high-value products”. Prof. Veena is also the proud recipient of the 2006 Environmental Technology Award, for best paper and presentation (Waste plastics: a resource for EAF steelmaking) from the Association of Iron & Steel Technology (AIST, US), the premier international professional society in iron and steel.

Prof. Veena is also dedicated to promoting and motivating talented students at the UNSW. Although the Uni has several funded scholarship programs, she initiated and set up the Category Industry Partnership Awards within the Faculty of Science. A feature of these awards is that they are industry funded, which gives recipients an opportunity to interact on a direct basis with collaborators.

This broadens their perspective and gives them the extra edge in understanding and engaging with the industry, as well as making useful contacts.

“I think it’s very important to engage with the industry and to work in close partnership with our collaborators like OneSteel. I have been fortunate to have very good associations with them, which I would like the students to share. It’s a mutually beneficial relationship in which we all learn from each other. In fact we have a few surprises in the pipeline, but you’ll just have to wait and watch,” says Prof.

Veena, tongue-in-cheek.

She is also engaged in research collaboration with reputed overseas companies and institutions and is on the editorial boards of highly ranked international journals.

In her current role as Associate Dean (Strategic Industry Relations) for the Faculty of Science, Prof Veena developed the Industry Research Forums and Industry Partnerships Awards/Scholarships for the Faculty. She was closely involved in negotiations to attract industry partners and over the past few years, she secured an annual average of six new industry-funded undergraduate scholarships from leading organizations. She has served on numerous committees at university/faculty/school levels at UNSW, and is widely respected as an academic, scientist and engineer.

So with such an impressive track record that promises to only get better, how does Prof. Veena feel about NATIONAL EDITION

Prof. Veena Sahajwalla with India’s President Pratibha Patil and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at this year’s Pravasi Bharatiya Samman awards

her success, particularly after the felicitation from the Government of India?

“It’s a humbling experience,” she says unexpectedly.

“Being in the company of so many deserving individuals who have made their mark in the field of arts, social services, even politics and from across the globe - I felt so honoured. It took a while to get out of the initial daze of surprise and well, shock, but through it all, I felt both proud and humble. All the recipients had done wonderful things, and to be a part of such distinguished company made me feel special. For me, I was simply following my passion and doing my work, and to be acknowledged for that was a pleasure and an honour.”

Prof. Veena admits that the support of her family helped tremendously, in giving her the liberty to follow her dreams.

“My husband has always encouraged me to pursue my goals, and my children, well, they now acknowledge that their weird mum isn’t quite so ‘weird’ anymore,” she laughs.

“I tell my students to follow their dreams. And I would say that to anyone pursuing a career in this field. If you have crazy ideas, ones that don’t fit into what is considered ‘normal’, break out from the mould and do things differently. Follow your dreams, be passionate about your work, be creative. It will be a challenge, but ultimately you will achieve your goals. It’s really okay to be weird!”

JANUARY (2) 2011 <> 27

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Flying high India’s home-grown aircraft LCA-Tejas gets ready for take off

BY GAURAV SURATI

Recently India’s defence and aerospace industries achieved a major feat. Finally, after decades of successes, setbacks and hard work, scientists in defence agencies were able to get Initial Operation Clearance (IOC) for a homegrown Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), christened Tejas, considered to be the world’s smallest military aircraft with a single seat.

Here is a glimpse into how this significant event took occurred.

It was in 1983 that the Government of India decided to work on its own combat aircraft project, however without any clear plan or requirements defined. The Government allotted Rs 560 crores as seed money to put together a project definition. In 1988, with the project definition ready, a proposal was submitted to make aircraft prototypes. But it

design, manufacture and service various parts like engines, radars, landing gear, airframe, flight simulators, sensors etc.

Obviously developing a combat aircraft is not child’s play for any developing country, and India is no different.

It is not short of talent, but what it lacks is full-grown industrial capability to make such aircraft. Besides, there are sanctions placed by the US as a result of the 1998 Pokhran nuclear tests, which barred India from acquiring any defense technology. Many highly complex parts used in landing gear, radar, weaponisation, flight controls, sensors etc. carry the ‘Made in India’ tag, but only after several decades of relentless hard work. As per the reports, 70% of the parts for this aircraft are made in India today.

Many people would argue that the LCA Tejas are not fully indigenous aircraft as they are still powered by American GE 404 engines. While scientists are working on the homegrown Kaveri engine, it should be noted that even the highly advanced Swedish Gripen fighter aircraft’s engine is based on the American GE 404 engine. Every developed country has taken its time evolving their own aircraft – whether F-18s, F-16s or Sukhois.

General characteristics of the LCA Tejas • Crew: 1 • Length: 13.20 m (43 ft 4 in) • Wingspan: 8.20 m (26 ft 11 in) • Height: 4.40 m (14 ft 9 in) • Wing area: 38.4 m² (413 ft²) • Empty weight: 5,680kg (12,522 lb) • Loaded weight: 9,500 kg (20,945 lb) • Max takeoff weight: 13,500 kg (31,967 lb) • Powerplant: 1× General Electric F404-GEIN20 turbofan o Dry thrust: 53.9 kN (11,250 lbf) o Thrust with afterburner: 85 kN (19,000 lbf) • Internal fuel capacity: 3000 liters • External fuel capacity: 5×800 liter tanks or 3×1,200 liter tanks, totaling 4,000/3,600 liters

Performance • Maximum speed: Mach 1.8 (2,376+ km/h at high altitude) at 15,000 m • Range: 3000 km (1,840 mi (without refueling)) • Service ceiling: 16,500 m (54,000 ft (engine re-igniter safely capable)) • Wing loading: 221.4 kg/m² (45.35 lb/ft²) • Thrust/weight: .91

Armament

Many highly complex parts used in landing gear, radar, weaponisation, flight controls, sensors etc. carry the ‘Made in India’ tag, but only after several decades of relentless hard work. was only in 1993 when the government allocated the funds (Rs 2199 crores) to Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), to make a technology demonstrator (ie, a prototype aircraft that performs experimental flights often used by scientists for testing before the aircraft is cleared for use). Till date, six prototype vehicles and two technology demonstrators have been flown with more than 1500 test flights.

One of India’s main objectives behind developing its own combat aircraft like LCA, was to eventually phase out the infamous Mig-21s from the IAF, which were approaching the end of their service lives by the mid 1990s, as noted in the “Long Term Re-equipment 1981” report. The second objective was to make India self-reliant through advancement in the domestic aerospace industry which includes ability to NATIONAL EDITION

The IAF has ordered 40 Tejas aircrafts till date, and the first batch of 20 aircraft will be based in Tamil Nadu’s Thoothukudi district at Kayathar.

Some of the tests the LCA Tejas has gone through are allweather trials, successful R-73 missile firing, bomb drops and drop tank trials. The IAF has ordered 40 Tejas aircrafts till date, and the first batch of 20 aircraft will be based in Tamil Nadu’s Thoothukudi district at Kayathar where the air force is setting up a new base this decade. IAF Vice Chief Marshal P K Barbora last year reportedly said IAF is “reasonably happy” with Tejas, and though it came “a little late”, it will help India in achieving its goal to be self-reliant in this industry. The IAF is expected to place more orders once the more refined and advanced version of LCA MK II is ready, which will be powered by even more powerful GE 414 engines. China has already developed JF-17 Thunder aircraft, and the Indian defence agency HAL and end user IAF needs to fast track the induction process of LCA Tejas.

• Guns: 1× mounted 23 mm twinbarrel GSh-23 cannon with 220 rounds of ammunition.

• Hardpoints: 8 total: 1× beneath the portside intake trunk, 6× under-wing, and 1× under-fuselage with a capacity of >4000 kg external fuel and ordnance • Missiles: Air-to-air missiles: o Python 5 o Derby o Astra BVRAAM o Vympel R-77 (NATO reporting name: AA-12 Adder) o Vympel R-73 (NATO reporting name: AA-11 Archer) Air-to-surface missiles: o Kh-59ME TV guided standoff Missile o Kh-59MK Laser guided standoff Missile o Anti-ship missile o Kh-35 o Kh-31 • Bombs: KAB-1500L laser guided bombs FAB-500T dumb bombs OFAB-250-270 dumb bombs OFAB-100-120 dumb bombs RBK-500 cluster bombs • Others: Drop tanks for ferry flight/extended range/ loitering time.

Litening targeting pod

Avionics

Hybrid MMR radar (Israeli EL/M-2032 back end processor with Indian inputs)

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Bhimsen Joshi: Legend, music maestro and lover of fast cars too

Kalmadi sacked from CWG Organising Committee; remains defiant

India’s legendary Hindustani vocalist Bhimsen Joshi, who died in a Pune hospital on January 24, had left his home in Dharwad, Karnataka, more than seven decades ago when he was only 11 to search for a guru. But, apart from music, he had another passion -- fast cars.

Pandit Joshi, whose “Mile sur mera tumhara” along with other artists endeared him to the entire nation, was a protagonist of the Kirana gharana and was known for his mellifluous ‘khayals’ as well as for his popular renditions of devotional ‘abhangs and bhajans’. His death at 88 truly marks an end of an era in Indian classical music.

He was conferred the country’s highest civilian award Bharat Ratna in 2008.

Born to a Kannada Brahmin family in Gadag town in northern Karnataka, Joshi lost his mother early. He was initiated into classical music by legendary musician Sawai Gandharva, who tutored under one of the founders of the Kirana Gharana (school), Abdul Karim Khan.

The musician’s search for a guru is woven around an interesting anecdote. As a child, Joshi heard a recording of Abdul Karim Khan’s ‘thumri’ in raga Jhinjhoti.

The devotional song moved him so much that he instantly decided to become a musician. He left Dharwad in 1933 at the age of 11 to Bijapur to find a tutor.

It is said that Joshi went to Bijapur with money lent by co-passengers on train. He went to Pune from Dharwad and later enrolled at the Madhava School of Music at Gwalior.

He was helped by sarod exponent Hafiz Ali Khan. After a brief tenure at Gwalior, he travelled in north India for three years - and hunted for a teacher in New Delhi, Kolkata, Gwalior, Lucknow and Rampur.

Eventually, his father traced him to Jalandhar and brought him back home.

He decided to stay on at Dharwad, a classical music hub home to legends like Gangubai Hangal, Mallikarjun Mansur and Basavaraj Rajguru. He was taken in as a pupil by Rambhau Kundgolkar alias Sawai Gandharva, a native of Dharwad to study classical music in the ‘guru-shishya’ tradition. Gangubai Hangal was a costudent.

After three years of training, he moved to Mumbai in 1943 and debuted with HMV at the age of 22.

The musician had a fetish for driving fast cars - with a dash of recklessness.

Reminisces an old fan: “While at the wheel, he used the same technique as in singing. He ignored the possibility of danger from bad or slippery roads,

The government on January 24 sacked Commonwealth Games Organising Committee (OC) chairman Suresh Kalmadi and secretary-general Lalit Bhanot following concerns by the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) that they were hindering the “impartial investigation” into the allegations of financial irregularities in holding the sporting event last year.

In Ranchi, a defiant Kalmadi said he is ready for any probe and would continue being the president of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA).

Sports Minister Ajay Maken, who assumed charge of the ministry last week, said Jarnail Singh, CEO of the organising committee, would take charge of the OC. “The government has decided to remove Kalmadi ... and Bhanot ... with immediate effect,” Maken said in a statement.

“The move comes in light of the ongoing investigation by the CBI over allegations of corruption and irregularities in organisation and conduct of the Commonwealth Games and the concerns expressed by the CBI and in the interest of impartial and unhindered investigations,” he added.

“Kalmadi has been directed to hand over charge to Jarnail Singh, who is also a member of the executive board of the organising committee,” he said.

The move comes three months after the Oct 3-14 Commonwealth Games, clouded by serious allegations of corruption. The long-awaited decision comes while the CBI is conducting an inquiry into the Games organisation.

“The CBI had asked the government to take action against him and CBI had said that they (Kalmadi and aides) are intimidating the witnesses and are interfering in the investigation. Following CBI’s request of taking action against Suresh Kalmadi, we sought legal opinion and today in the morning we have got legal opinion from the attorney general and as soon as we got that we took this step,” said Maken.

Kalmadi refused to comment on his sacking, but said he is cooperating with the investigating agencies.

“I have no idea about the removal.

I am ready to face any probe and I am cooperating with the investigating agencies,” said Kalmadi, who was here to take a stock of the 34th National Games scheduled from February 12.

Asked if he would continue as the IOA president, Kalmadi said: “The IOA is an autonomous body and I am not quitting

34 <> JANUARY (2) 2011

Bhimsen Joshi (1923 - 2011)

ditches, pot holes and other obstacles such as oncoming cars and stray cattle.

Only luck saved him from a couple of grave accidents. This toned down his recklessness”.

However, with years, tight schedules and fame, Bhimsen Joshi, realised that a car after all had limitations. He began to accept numerous invitations to far off places - he would have to be in Kolkata one night, Delhi the next evening, Mumbai the following day and Jalandhar immediately afterwards - and so he had to switch to air travel.

The pilots of Indian Airlines and airport officials came across Pandit Joshi so frequently that he was soon known as the “flying musician of India”.

Joshi’s strength was his devotional music which was made of a repertoire of Kannada, Hindi and Marathi ‘bhajans’ and ‘abhangs’. He playbacked for several Hindi movies like “Basant Bahar” (1956) with Manna Dey, “Birbal by Brother” (1973) and “Ankahee” (1985).

Joshi was known for his flexible voice that allowed him to span an enormous range ofthree octaves. He cornerstone was an ingenuity in approach to his music.

He could unfold unknown facets of an ordinary raga and make it sound novel by imbuing it with subtle nuances.

Joshi founded the Sawai Gandharva Music Festival.

His first wife was his cousin, Sunanda Katti. They had four children - two sons and two daughters. Sunanda died in 1992.

Joshi then married Vatsala Mudholkar, with whom he had two sons and one daughter.

as the president.”

The CBI is probing irregularities in the award of contracts during the Queen’s Baton Relay ceremony in London in October 2009 as also wrongdoing in awarding a contract of Rs.107 crore for procuring timing equipment for the athletics event of the Games. The CBI has already grilled and raided the properties of both Kalmadi and Bhanot.

Investigations are also being held into overlays contract, A.M. films deal and the purchase of the aerostat - one of the main attractions of the mega sporting event.

The CBI has so far filed three complaints of alleged irregularities in the CWG preparations. Two FIRs are about the contract to AM Films, a firm in London, for the Queen’s Baton Relay function. The third is related to Rs.107 crore spent on overlays at the CWG Village and other Games venues.

BJP controversial flaghoisting in Srinagar In a day of high drama, three top BJP leaders were prevented from leaving Jammu airport and l.ater arrested to thwart the party’s controversial flaghoisting in Srinagar on Jan 26. Even as the BJP dug in its heels, its top ally, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar expressed open disapproval of the move.

The stand-off between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Omar Abdullah government over the former’s insistence on unfurling the national flag in Srinagar’s Lal Chowk saw BJP leaders - Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj and Ananth Kumar - being physically stopped from leaving Jammu airport. After pleas to make them return to Delhi failed, in a drama that lasted six hours, they were arrested and taken in a convoy to Madhopur in Punjab where they were freed.

The three had landed in Jammu airport in the afternoon to join the youth wing’s Ekta Yatra. The Omar Abdullah government has disallowed the yatra as it could vitiate the atmosphere in the state that saw massive street protests and over 100 deaths in summer of 2010.

Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj and Ananth Kumar sat on the tarmac and ignored pleas by the chief minister to return to Delhi to prevent tension escalating.

They were arrested late in the evening and taken in a convoy to Madhopur Bridge in Punjab, near Lakhanpur Barrier, on the border with Jammu and Kashmir.

They reached at around 10.50 p.m.

Madhopur is 15 km from Pathankot. The three were formally released by the Jammu and Kashmir Police at the border, district authorities said.

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succeed.

He charged the Jammu and Kashmir authorities with “repression”.

Meanwhile, in Lakhanpur, police columns with armoured vehicles moved in and more than 2,000 police personnel were deployed to thwart the BJP’s plans.

Tiwari challenges court order on DNA test Congress leader N.D. Tiwari approached the Delhi High Court challenging its order directing him to undergo DNA test on a suit filed by a young man who claimed to be his biological son.

Challenging the single bench’s order, Tiwari filed an appeal before a division bench that he cannot be directed to undergo DNA test.

Tiwari, who had held the posts of chief minister of undivided Uttar Pradesh and later Uttarakhand, opposed the paternity suit filed by 31-year-old Rohit Shekhar, who claimed to be the biological son born out of an alleged relationship between his mother Ujjwala Sharma and the Congress leader.

Tiwari, who last year resigned as governor in the wake of allegations of sexual misconduct, countered the charges and said that he never had any physical relationship with Ujjwala, who is also a Congress activist, and Rohit was not entitled to seek a DNA test as a matter of right.

Warrant issued against Subrata Roy, 4 Sahara officials for cheating

Pakistani writer H.M Naquvi flanked by his wife Aliya receives the first DSC Prize for South Asian Literature from H.S Narula (unseen), Chairman of DSC Limited on the second day of DSC Jaipur Literature Festival on January 22, 2011. South Asia’s largest book festival kicked off on January 21, 2011 in India’s western desert state of Rajasthan, drawing many renowned international writers, critics and thousands of literary fans.

Photo: AP

BJP national secretary general J.P. Nadda, the party’s Amritsar MP Navjyot Singh Sidhu, party Punjab unit chief Ashwani Sharma and two state ministers, Mohan Lal, transport minister, and Manoranjan Kalia, industries minister, were present at Madhopur to receive the leaders, a party official said.

Hundreds of BJP activists shouted slogans to greet them and denounced the Kashmir government for arresting them.

A party source said the three leaders will Tuesday proceed to Lakhanpur to join the rallyists entering Jammu and Kashmir.

Jaitley, speaking to repoters in Madhopur, said they were “illegally deported” from Jammu.

A huge contingent of Jammu and Kashmir Police is stationed at Lakhanpur, 90 km from Jammu, to prevent the marchers from entering the state.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, expressing open disapproval of the BJP’s march, said: “I am against it. There is no justification for it.”

The Janata Dal-United leader, who is running a government with the BJP in Bihar, said he did not support the Tiranga Yatra. “Given the kind of tension that is prevailing in the Valley, this yatra has no meaning and I don’t support it”.

JD-U chief and NDA convenor Sharad Yadav has also said he is not in favour of the Ekta Yatra.

The Congress said the BJP should instead march to Bangalore where the its government “was not being run according to law”.

Congress spokesman Manish Tewari, commenting on the Ekta Yatra, said it was “a wrong display of political opportunism”.

NATIONAL EDITION

“Is Srinagar not an integral part of India? Is Jammu and Kashmir not part of India? What is the need to hoist the flag...

It is not Muzaffarabad that there is need to hoist the flag,” Tewari said.

But the BJP is determined to go ahead with the rally.

Party chief Nitin Gadkari, who is visiting China, termed the Omar Abdullah government’s move to prevent the rally as “undemocratic” and “infringement of their fundamental rights”.

Gadkari had flagged off the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha’s Ekta Yatra from Kolkata Jan 12. Gadkari is on a fiveday visit to China at the invitation of the Communist Party of China and the Chinese government.

Earlier, Home Minister P.Chidambaram told the BJP leaders when they were in Jammu to return.

The home minister told the BJP leaders that they made their point and should come back now, a home ministry official saidS. From their protest area in the airport, Sushma Swaraj, leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha, tweeted that she and her colleagues would not budge and took on the government for stopping them from entering Jammu, a known BJP bastion.

“The government has the right to arrest us but they cannot deport us,” she said.

Officials then took away the mobile telephones of all three leaders. An official added that the three leaders had been allowed to use facilities inside the terminal building.

In New Delhi, BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad accused the central and state governments of trying to provoke his party but said the strategy would not

A Delhi court on Jan 24 issued a bailable warrant against Sahara India group’s chairman Subrata Roy and four other officials of the group on a complaint that they duped investors in a proposed housing project of Rs.25,000 crore, holding there was enough prima facie material to proceed.

A statement issued by the Sahara India group, however, said the “entire complaint is based on false and frivolous allegations”.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vinod Yadav asked Delhi Police to execute the warrant by Feb 9.

The court passed its order after conducting an inquiry and recording the testimony of complainant Neeraj Pandey and his wife Beena, who alleged they were not allotted a flat even after investing over Rs.one lakh in the proposed housing project ‘Sahara Swaran Yojana’ in the National Capital Region in 2003.

Pandey, one of the applicants in the housing scheme, filed the compliant against six respondents, including Roy, deputy managing directors Om Prakash Srivastava, Joy Broto Roy and Swapna Roy and Delhi Projects in-charge H.S.Rawat.

“It is also apparent that false promises were held out to the general public through brochures/booklets which prima facie amounts to forging the documents.

In my opinion, there is prima facie enough material on record to proceed against them for offences punishable under Sections 420 (cheating), 468 (forgery), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 120B (conspiracy) of the IPC,” Yadav said.

Pandey’s advocate Ashutosh Bhardwaj alleged the company had fraudulently collected Rs.1 lakh from 25,000 investors each with the false promise of allotting a flat in the project which never took off.

He also alleged the company had illegally routed the money collected from investors for the housing project to other ventures.

The company had launched the scheme

for developing 217 townships all over the country, including the NCR region, he said.

In the complaint filed on April 12, 2009, it was alleged that despite the promise made in 2003, no progress was made in its project in the NCR region and the company, after six years, offered to return Rs 1.58 lakh.

Pandey approached the court seeking action against the company and its officials after police did not act on his complaint of cheating, forgery and criminal intimidation.

“It is apparent that till date no allotment has been made to the complainant. It is also apparent that even the site of the township has not been disclosed to him, giving rise to the presumption that despite collecting money from the proposed allottee, the township has not been established,” the court said.

The court noted that the company did not even acquire the land for developing the townships.

The advocate alleged before the court that the company officials had sought to intimidate Pandey and even asked him to withdraw his petition.

“There are further allegations that when the complainant approached this court and invoked criminal proceedings against Roy and others, they used all possible measures to thwart this litigation, firstly by intimidating him and secondly by sending him the cheques of amount without having asked for the same, and thereafter invoking the arbitration clause, knowing fully well that the same was for civil litigation and not for criminal litigations,” Yadav said.

However, the Sahara Group said it had never promised any housing project in Delhi.

“The company had offered Neeraj Pandey a flat in Sahara Grace (a housing project started 5-6 years before Swarn Rajat Yojna launched), Gurgaon. Pandey along with his counsel visited the site of Sahara Grace but he wanted a flat for one lakh rupees only which is much less than the actual price of the flat, and hence he could not buy the same,” said Abhijit Sarkar, head, corporate communications, Sahara India.

He also said that the it was “absolutely false and baseless statement” made in the complaint that the company’s branch manager Ravi Chaturvedi had told him that SICCL had collected Rs.1 lakh from about 25,000 persons in the NCR region.

“In fact, Ravi Chaturvedi never made any such statement and he was also never called in the court to verify his statement,” said Sarkar.

IANS

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wayne@prmg.com.au JANUARY (2) 2011 <> 35

Buildings

as art The built environment, rather than nature, captivates photographer Sachin Wakhare

BY FARRHA KHAN

When photographer Sachin Wakhare shows you a collection of his favourite shots, he lingers over one particular piece.

“Everyone loves to photograph the Empire State Building in New York,” he says. “But I wanted to do it differently; I thought, why not capture the iconic building from another building. So I went to the Rockefeller Centre. On the 17th floor, I found my vantage point – through a small window in the lobby!

I could see the top of the Empire State Building and I just clicked.”

He hadn’t realised how good the shot had turned out until he came back home to Sydney, nor that it would become one of his favourites.

Sachin Wakhare loves to see the world through a lens.

“I have always been interested in photography.

Even as a kid, I was always taking photos,” says the 32-year-old.

But it was the built environment rather than natural scenes that had him captivated.

As a child he was also interested in art and spent many hours drawing. Perhaps it was his engineer dad who steered him towards drawing buildings….

A university degree in architecture seemed a natural progression.

“While photography was a passion, growing up in India, it could never have been a full time profession,” Sachin laughs. “There was great support for my decision to study architecture. But photography would always have to be just a hobby! Of course I pursued it with all my passion, but I never let it get in the way of my studies or career. So my parents could never

36 <> JANUARY (2) 2011

object, you know, with their Indian mentality, because it never got in the way.”

Today, a Sydney-based architect, Sachin has successfully blended his two great passions into one, having become an “architectural photographer”.

Together with his wife Kalyani, also an architect who he met while at uni, Sachin set up Sa-Kal Architects in Sydney in 2005.

“While at Mumbai we had done some work for an Australian architect and Kalyani was interested in doing a Masters program at University in Sydney. So we thought why not, let’s take the jump”.

They moved here in 2003.

But what it is it about buildings and architecture that really draws the creative side out of him?

“I love to look at buildings in a different way. I like to capture the building as a whole and also find intricate details in it.”

The trip to the US was stimulating creatively, and the Wakhares are already planning their next trip to another part of the world.

“We’d really love to go to France. We’ve read up on it and seen photos. Can’t wait to get there and bring back some different pictures!”

But, Sachin doesn’t necessarily need to travel the world to take amazing pictures.

“There are many fascinating buildings – both new and old – right here in Sydney. I like to walk around the city with a camera and take pictures. It could be a contemporary building or a Victorian style building.”

He has a particular fondness for the Queen Victoria Building in Sydney.

“I think it is an interesting style of architecture.”

While he has travelled across the United States as well as around Australia, he believes that India’s historical architecture is still very special. As part of his five-year architecture course in Mumbai, he had the opportunity to travel to different parts of India every year to visit the different architectural historical buildings.

“I still believe our ancient Indian architecture is really the best,” he says. “It’s really very inspiring, the way buildings were designed to ‘elevate our souls’ to a higher level…”

At Sa-Kal, Sachin and Kalyani have a strong bent towards designing buildings with environmental sustainability in mind.

“Kalyani has done her Masters in Environmental Design and we try to incorporate that in all our designs as much as we can.”

Meanwhile their five-year-old daughter Ananya shows all the signs of following in her parents’ creative footsteps.

“Ananya loves to draw - she just draws and draws and draws…”

Sachin Wakhare now hopes to start up his own photography company in Australia. With the talent he has, we’re sure he’ll be very successful in this endeavour.

Perhaps his daughter will help too.

“I love to look at buildings in a different way. I like to capture the building as a whole and also find intricate details in it.”

INDIAN LINK

Wa lt D is ney C L o s A n go n ce rt H a ll e le s

NATIONAL EDITION

Gu gge nhe im M use u m Ne w Y ork

Go ld e n Sa n Fra n Gat e cis co

Empire State Buildin g New Y ork

tt a n S Ma nha

k y li n e, N

e w Y o rk

JANUARY (2) 2011 <> 37

BOOKS

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Frontier writers mirroring angst Af-Pak and Kashmiri writers don’t have to look far for inspiration, notes MADHUSHREE CHATTERJEE The socio-political ferment in the Pakistan-Afghanistan and Kashmir regions has sown the seed of a very powerful genre of literature, both fiction and non-fiction, that mirrors the harsh realities and gut-wrenching human stories that abound there.

Four powerful books emanating from the northwestern frontier region and Kashmir in a span of two months prove that frontier writers are still looking beyond the realm of imagination for stories about the plight of their land and people.

Three of the books are by Pakistan-based writers - Shehryar Fazli’s Invitation, Amir Mir’s The Bhutto Murder Trial: From Waziristan to GHQ and Bina Shah’s Slum Child - while the fourth is Collaborator, by Urdu journalist Mirza Waheed from Kashmir.

According to Pakistan-based writer Shehryar Fazli, writers in Pakistan are engaging with the socio-political situation in their homeland, much more than writers in the region.

Concurs writer Ali Sethi, the author of Wish Maker: “The world is getting more interested in literature from Pakistan and Afghanistan because it wants to understand certain events that have taken place in the region.”

Invitation, a novel by Fazli (published by Westland Ltd), goes back to the 1970s in a Karachi noir that follows young Shahbaz, who has returned home to Pakistan after several years, through the high-life, scintillating cabaret night clubs, corruption and opulence of Karachi, to recreate the darkest days of Pakistan’s history in the days leading up to the creation of Bangladesh.

Fazli said it was a way to connect to the era that shaped the history of Pakistan’s crusade for democracy and the accompanying turbulence that has carried itself forward through the decades, defining the chequered growth of the nation. “I had missed out on those years,” the writer said.

Journalist Mirza Waheed, who works in London as an editor for BBC’s Urdu Service, has set his novel Collaborator in the Kashmir of the 1990s. It captures the dislocations and suffering of the average Kashmiri at the peak of insurgency when “Indian soldiers appear from nowhere to hunt for militants on the run”.

Four teenagers who spent their afternoons playing cricket or singing ballads down by the river disappear one day to cross into Pakistan. Their lives scatter to end in a bloody reunion.

The writer, mentored by pioneer of the genre Mohammed Hanif, the author of the Case of the Exploding Mangoes, says the book is a tribute to those who have faced the militants’ wrath in the frontier terrain.

“And what are my Pakistani brothers thinking...if they can make out what is happening here (in Kashmir) from their

faraway picket...” the protagonist says.

The borders in Waheed’s tale blurs in death as it ends with a prayer for all the departed souls.

Quoting figures cited by the Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society, he said “more than 70,000 people have been killed in Kashmir since 1989”.

“Around 8,000 people have disappeared; at least 25,000 children have been orphaned; and over 4,000 people are in Indian prisons,” he said. Thousands of women have been widowed in the conflict and there are at least 2,000 half widows whose husbands are missing. The government refutes the numbers, the writer adds.

Leading investigative journalist of Pakistan and former editor of the Weekly Independent Amir Mir, whose gripping non-fiction The Bhutto Murder Trial: From Waziristan to GHQ (published by Westland Ltd) was released in December, says his book “is a serious investigation into Benazir’s assassination”, a catalytic event that changed the political course of the country after the hanging of her father Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

Mir said he has raised questions in his book whether “Benazir’s killers will ever be brought to book”.

“Although the United Nations Inquiry Commission’s report into her assassination released in April 2010 stopped short of naming Musharraf as Bhutto’s killer, it did go much further and give broad hints about his role in the security lapses...,” he said.

The assassination of Punjab governor Salman Taseer has brought the spotlight back on his son Atish Taseer’s book about his father and Islam, Stranger to History: A Son’s Journey Through Islamic Lands, in which he tries to understand Islam and his difficult relationship with his Islamic father.

According to the author, the “book started with a letter to an estranged father in Pakistan”, a complex real life situation.

For journalist-turned writer Bina Shah, “the human suffering in Pakistan is as grim as the political situations in the country”.

Her novel, Slum Child is one of the first novels about the Punjabi Christian community in Pakistan narrated through a child, Laila, in Karachi.

Documentation of contemporary socio-political realities in fine print became a wave a few years ago with Mohammed Hanif ’s Case of the Exploding Mangoes in 2008.

The trend was consolidated over the next three years by writers like Daniyal Moiunuddin, Nadeem Aslam, Kamila Shamsie, H.M. Naqvi, Mohsin Hamid, Basharat Peer, Moni Mohsin and several others.

But historians say it began with the partition which was used by classical writers like Bapsi Sidhwa, Ismat Chugtai, Khushwant Singh and Saadat Hasan Manto to pen gutwrenching stories of emotional trauma and loss.

Journeying beyond Indian stereotypes If you love India, you will love Indian writer AK Pande’s new book Beyond the Office Window.

It could well be called a mini Discovery of India. That is what the author sets out to discover - the omnipresent Indian ethos. A former customs officer with an eye for detail and a flair for writing, Pande talks about his travels to the near and far corners of India both during service and after retirement in 2002. He presents a beautiful and cogent account of the India he loves - a land of a billion people, myriad cultures and languages, numerous ethnicities and cuisines, varied religions and shrines, rivers and ghats, monuments and cultures, all inexplicably bound together.

Pande’s strength lies in weaving together people he has met and places he has seen and events he has witnessed into one common story, the story of India. A north Indian by background, he talks effusively of M.S. Subbalakshmi, the only one who “can truthfully render the divine frenzy of Meera’s love and fathom the depths of those soul stirring thoughts”. He writes movingly about Varanasi 38 <> JANUARY (2) 2011

and the undying Ganga, but laments that one of the holy town’s greatest sons, Tulsidas, has been treated shabbily.

Pande is no prisoner of street talk ideology - he delves into Baburnama and discovers that Babur was “anything but a monster”. He pays fulsome tribute to T.N. Seshan, the man who changed the Election Commission from a doormat of politicians to a powerful constitutional weapon, and witnesses the festival of Indian democracy in an interior region of Assam as an election observer.

He takes us to the little known Bheemunipatnam port in Andhra Pradesh and reads a British era diary with references to books by Mahatma Gandhi and Lala Lajpat Rai that have been banned!

His journeys across India take him to the border of Nepal - with a fleeing entry into that country - Malwa region and its forts, Ashoka Stupa in Sanchi, and Ujjain, whose clean ghats he in part credits to the voluntary service provided by the Daudi Bohra community.

Pande does not treat his travels like an average tourist.

He calls his journeys a learning experience, “by no means

ample, yet good enough to correct many of my wrong notions. They have also given me a feeling of belonging to the whole country”. He even goes where not many would go, including the northeast, whose people he salutes and admires.

Pande is an ardent advocate of preserving the “unique kaleidoscope of cultures and traditions of different states and regions that is India, this colourful fabric, the tapestry which is a riot of so many hues and patterns”.

He devotes maximum space to Kolkata, where he spends considerable time, avoiding politics and taking us instead to small and big places, and the numerous full-of-life streets.

He salutes Bengali culture and civility. He prays that the decaying buildings of old Calcutta must be redone and preserved. “Kolkata,” he desires, “must not drive Calcutta to extinction.”

M.R. Narayan Swamy

Beyond the Office Window

By A.K. Pande (Konark Publishers Pvt Ltd) INDIAN LINK

NATIONAL EDITION

JANUARY (2) 2011 <> 39

4 <> JANUARY (2) 2011

INDIAN LINK

OPINION

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Materialism breeds

corruption Although corruption is rampant in India, definite measures are being taken to control and even eradicate the rot The USA is ranked at 22. Could the Global Financial Crisis have originated there without BY the grand scale of corruption in its banking and NOEL G DE SOUZA financial sector which are so well documented?

Likewise, could Britain (number 20) have landed into its present crisis without any corruption, A society that judges a person’s worth on his whether legal or not? The same applies to the or her assets, family connections and influence, financial woes of Ireland (ranked at 14!). is a materialistic society. Such societies rate This very dubious Index has been severely individuals not on personal character and criticised. It is based on simplistic surveys achievements, but rather on the display that the such as asking people whether corruption is individual or their family puts on show such a problem in their own country and whether as a grand palatial house, a fabulous wedding they trust their government. It is, at best, a celebration and expensive clothes. These are perception index. There have been demands the hallmarks of a materialistic society. When for its abolition from within the organisation. people compete to build the trappings of wealth However, criticism about these rankings should and put these on display, corruption could not detract us from the good work done by that become rampant. organisation.

A society which glorifies the fruits of Transparency International India (TII) does materialism inevitably sows the seeds of commendable work by raising awareness and corruption. Over the years there have been by collaborating with private corporations some major claims of corruption alleged to eradicate corruption. India does have the in India. We are currently seeing a spate of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 but that such allegations which are neither restricted was unfortunately often used against very minor to any one political party nor any one region. staff which prompted the Supreme Court to Is India become a materialistic society whose ask the government: “Why do you come to values are no longer those that propelled it to us frequently against labourers, khalasis, and independence? chaprasis? Do you have the guts to take on IAS/ The independence struggle produced leaders IPS officers?” (Times of India, June 2010). who suffered for a cause: they were imprisoned The Government has listened. The Chief and underwent deprivations and laboured to Secretary of a large Indian state was recently see the birth of a free country. We now have convicted for inappropriate allotment of plots the spectacle of the recent Bihar election where in a development authority. Cases against top news reports suggest that over half of the officers are being spoken about daily, as India elected legislators have criminal convictions. seeks to clean up its image.

Recent corruption allegations concern largeKarnataka Lokayukta (ombudsman) N. scale events like the Commonwealth Games in Santosh Hegde believes that corruption is Delhi and the Indian Premier League (cricket), all-pervasive in India. Last year the Supreme as well as local schemes like land distribution Court observed that “Day-in and day-out, the for army personnel and for civilian use. Persons problem of corruption holding power have been among public servants is The USA is ranked at accused of having family on the increase. Large22 on the Corruption members and close relatives scale corruption retards Index. Could the GFC become beneficiaries of nation-building activities. have originated there valuable urban land. Other Corruption is corroding without the grand scale of like cancerous lymph nodes, alleged scams involve corruption in its banking granting lucrative mining the vital veins of the body and financial sector which politics, social fabric of concessions and mobile are so well documented? efficiency in the public phone spectrum licenses.

The Western world, service and demoralizing which has a penchant for creating indexes and honest officers”. (TII newsletter). ratings, has developed a Corruption Index Corruption, present in all societies, is not devised by Transparency International. As usual uniquely Indian. Prof Jagdish Bhagwati of for such indexes, the Scandinavian countries, Columbia University, a renowned economist, Canada and Australia top the list by seemingly speaking in the presence of Prime Minister having ‘low corruption’. Iceland, which was Manmohan Singh, recently said that it is easy the first to be affected by the Global Financial to exaggerate corruption in India. Modern Crisis, is rewarded with being rated at number democratic societies have built-in legislation 11! to control corruption but loopholes are often India, as usually happens in ratings by these found by the unscrupulous, and governments self-appointed agencies, is placed somewhere constantly need to legislate to close such in the middle at number 87 (out of 178), after loopholes.

Malawi and Morocco at 85! China, despite its If India is to attract large-scale foreign reputation of severely punishing corruption, investment for its infrastructure and industry, it does only somewhat better at 78. Pakistan (143) needs to prove that the days of license-raj and and Bangladesh (134) do not do well at all. influence buying are truly over.

40 <> JANUARY (2) 2011

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VIEWPOINT

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Corruption in India

New perspectives Fresh corruption charges have brought businesses and events in India into the limelight, both nationally and internationally

BY MALLI IYER

The Indian diaspora in Australia have recently been distressed and dismayed by adverse reporting in Australian and global media alleging endemic corruption and scams involving senior politicians and bureaucrats in India. Top industrialists and military commanders are the newest additions to this list of corrupt officials in public life. The sums of money commonly mentioned in the Indian media runs into thousands of crores of rupees diverted from the exchequer to ‘feed the beasts’ and fulfill the demand for ‘backhanders’ by top officials who already have authority vested in them to approve astronomical sums of money to achieve the goals and objectives set for the projects. It would seem that the money involved dwarfs those in the Bofors scandal and the Harshad Mehta scam of yesteryears.

Government institutions need to put in place adequate punitive measures to obtain control and prevent leakage of revenue from the public exchequer.

It started with revelations in the latter half of 2010 when the Chairman of the Organising Committee and his team for the

Commonwealth Games came in for severe criticism. Global media focussed on the poor preparations and a scant regard for the deadlines, whilst the Prime Minister assured the world that he would ensure the smooth conducting of the Games.

Everyone agrees that the Games were moderately successful but recriminations have since begun. The Central Bureau of Investigation, the Income Tax Department and the Enforcement Directorate are all digging deep into every detail of awarding and administering contracts, as well as investigating any scams and embezzlement of funds.

Amongst the biggest scams that dot the landscape now, is the 2G spectrum scam which has enveloped the biggest industrialists in the Tata and Ambani groups who have used lobbyists at top political levels to obtain Telecom licenses. Heads have started to roll as taped phone conversations between the lobbyist and cabinet minister reveal issuing of licenses to the tune of Rs 176,000 crores to Telecom companies that have subverted the process and cornered the Government contracts. This scam is new and unparalleled in the Indian milieu. The process has involved cutting several corners that have clearly revealed the ugly face of businesses collaborating with opportunistic political parties and officials. A Joint Parliamentary Panel is being recommended to look into this murky affair.

Another case of corrupt officialdom involves the Maharashtra Government and the Army’s Southern Command. They have overseen the construction of a 31-storey apartment building in prime real estate adjacent to a strategic naval base in Colaba, an upmarket suburb in Bombay’s business

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district. The construction is reputed to be unauthorised and flats and apartments have been allocated to Senior Bureaucrats of Maharashtra State Government, as well as to recently retired service chiefs of our Armed Forces. Public outcry has already forced out the two senior State Government officials. There are allegations of violation of coastal protection zones and national security guidelines. The Central Bureau of Investigation is already conducting an inquiry and the Bombay High Court is keen to expedite the verdict on demolition of the entire building.

Corruption allegations about IPL continue at boiling point as BCCI and Chairman of IPL, Lalit Modi have fought legal battles to protect their posturing in the way the IPL franchises have been allocated. Top stars from Bollywood, well known industrialists and business tycoons have all associated themselves with IPL, and several million dollars are involved.

However, it looks as though IPL 4 will nevertheless go ahead, wrangling by the parties involved notwithstanding.

There is no denying that controversies and malpractices are associated with any economy as vibrant as India in the new millennium. Would corrupt officials and practices, therefore, be a natural consequence of such frenetic social/ business activity? When people allege corruption, the reference is to politicians, bureaucrats and money that belongs to public and the Government treasury. It is extremely rare for businesses, international events and trade shows organised by private sector to be associated with corruption, as taxpayer or public funds are not normally involved. It is highly relevant that we look at the bigger picture of how India fared in

the global context. I think most discerning observers would agree that India and its successive governments have acquitted themselves creditably in terms of the progress achieved over the last six decades since the country acquired independence.

On several fronts India has marched on as its five-year plans have plotted the right course. The track record of industrialisation, urbanisation, education revolution, green revolution, financial management and above all the stature of India as a mature democracy is a notable feature in all global forums. There is little doubt that India is seen as a powerhouse in the 22nd century and we have every reason to be proud and continue to be the envy of many countries in the region.

Many of us would probably take the view that corruption in public life is nothing more than a ‘bump on the road to progress’. Political pundits believe that poverty and corruption are ‘good bed mates’ and once Indians rise above poverty levels, corruption will slowly fade away as a way of life. This is not to say that we need to accept corruption in public life as inevitable. Government institutions need to put in place adequate punitive measures to obtain control and prevent leakage of revenue from the public exchequer. Education and reform also becomes the responsibility of social, political and business institutions. Some of the corruption-prone ventures like power generation, housing, transport, roads, foodgrains distribution, banking, insurance and tax reform should be entrusted to the private sector as they are more than capable of creating an efficient infrastructure to meet future needs.

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Stemming the

flood

Large land masses of Australia and India will be regularly under flood waters with rising sea levels, claims a report BY DILIP JADEJA

On December 16, 2010, the Australian Financial Review published an article that indicated how Brisbane Airport would be regularly under water by the year 2100. By then, floods in Brisbane (and for that matter in many coastal cities and towns) would impact huge areas on an annual basis. As the article stated, the Australian government has published data of how rising sea levels may impact Australia, but local councils keep ignoring the facts and allow buildings to come up at the risk of flooding.

Councils need to wake up to the legal opinion that residents can commence class actions against councils for damages, if they knowingly ignored these information maps released by Greg Combet, the Commonwealth Climate Change Minister. On the other hand, the tenacious builder lobby wants to build, notwithstanding rising sea levels and flood risks. So buyers, beware!

The article led me to make some interesting investigations on how rising sea levels could impact India. Before that, let me make it clear - I accept that the globe is warming and sea levels are rising (facts). However, I do not believe humans are greatly responsible for this (so far it is largely a hypothesis lacking evidence vis a vis the scale of sunspot cycles and other warming impacts and the cyclical nature of global warming with a 40,000+ years cycle). Sure, it is in our interest to reduce global warming but I do not believe that carbon tax, fossil fuel usage reduction or any cost/tax-based approach will actually succeed. What can succeed is in growing more trees. That is best done by offering jobs to the poor and by welcoming them to live in cities, rather than having them in African, Asian or Latin American forests, felling trees for farmland!

Cost and tax are never good motivations; but jobs, infrastructure building, an open mind, a welcoming heart and good living habits certainly are! So don’t

NATIONAL EDITION

dwell too much on global warming; rather focus on ways to grow new forests!

In the mean time, the sea level is on the rise.

Some estimates indicate that sea levels will rise this century between 0.8 and 2 metres. The worst-case scenario is for a rise of 8.8m, with a mid point rise of 4.8m. I checked out another source (http://flood. firetree.net/), which uses data provided by NASA and shows how different rates of sea level rise would impact various regions of the world. A minimum resolution of a 1m rise on this website is unhelpful, but it does give a clear idea of the flooding problem that can only get worse, unless the worst happens – a perennial drought.

Kerala’s backwaters will grow in size, and new backwaters will be created in Tuticorin and between Mahabalipuram to Chennai. Pattukkottai to Nagapattinam will lose vast areas to marsh lands.

Floods are not caused by rising sea levels but are made worse by the rising sea. They are caused by excessive rain dumping large amounts of water on an area in a short time. Some floods are made worse by man-made techniques to prevent them, for example, when dams overflow or levies burst. Normally levies protect cities from a body of water like the sea, a river or a creek. Dams store flood water for irrigation. But dams and levies have a limit. Usually set at the last worst flood level mark, this limit needs to allow for the rising sea level impact, civil engineers please note!

Dams overflow because authorities initially discard the idea that a dam may eventually overflow; early warnings are easily ignored, mainly because heavy rains often follow heavy drought, and at first one is tempted to fill up the dams to the brink in the fear that the rain will vanish and the drought will return.

Any statistical correlation, if it exists, between how long dams remain empty and how quickly they fill up and how such weather patterns lead to flood, is either not well researched or not widely publicized.

In some cases, storm-water drains open into creeks or rivers. During floods, as the river overflows, the drains work in reverse to bring river water back into low lying areas. If the sea is close by and the land area is low lying, tides throwing massive amounts of water back into rivers cause too much water to come back into storm drains.

Therefore, in any coastal flooding, the relative height, with respect to the sea levels, of the flooded land is of great significance because once the water on the land is at the same or higher level than the sea water, no water is flowing away and flash flooding occurs with just a little excess rainfall.

Similarly when dams break or levies give up, water rushes back to large land masses in the vicinity and flash floods build up.

A quick check shows that a mere 1m sea level rise will cause regular monsoon flooding in many coastal cities and towns of India. Virar to Bhayandar, Thane and Dombivli, many areas will be under water in Mumbai. Kerala’s backwaters will grow in size, and new backwaters will be created in Tuticorin and between Mahabalipuram to Chennai.

Pattukkottai to Nagapattinam will lose vast areas to marsh lands. Pulicat Lake will grow a lot bigger.

Chilka Lake will become a bay area. Bitarkanika National Park will become a ‘Sunderbans’. Marsh lands will claim huge land mass from Dum Dum in Kolkata through to Khulna and Mongta.

Sunderbans will grow by 1.5 to 1.8 times its present size. Large areas of all coastal states of India will lose land mass, a large number of coastal townships of Gujarat and massive areas in Kutch will be under water.

When floods damage an area, before rebuilding, people ought to consider the impact of sea level rise and the next flood. Resilience is great; ignorance of, and disregard for, stark facts are altogether another thing, and neither is a virtue nor reason for national pride!

JANUARY (2) 2011 <> 43

FEATURE

A tale of two cities Two capital cities in two continents share uncanny similarities in the history of their creation and development

BY LP AYER

January 26 is a unique day for Australia and India. Besides sharing this day of national significance, these countries have in common a few other things of historic importance. Of course, cricket will readily click in the mind of every reader, particularly at this time. Also, being former colonies of the British Empire, now federal democracies and membership of the Commonwealth of Nations are the other political features they share. But it may interest and even surprise many of you that the capital cities of the two nations had their beginnings almost at the same time, a hundred years ago, in 1911.

The later part of 2011 will see New Delhi celebrating its centenary as the national capital. It was on December 12, 1911 that King George V, the then Emperor of India, along with Queen Mary, announced at a specially convened Delhi ‘durbar’ that the nation’s capital would be shifted from Calcutta to Delhi, and four days later laid the foundation at that site in Kingsway camp. Of course, it did not start functioning as the capital right away as the planning and building work took several years.

Enjoying capital status is not new to Delhi. The 5000-year-old city has been the seat of power for many a kingdom, from the Mahabharata, known then as Indraprastha,

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through the Mauryas and Guptas down to the last Mughal Emperor in the 19th century. As a capital it has had the most chequered history as any: sacked and rebuilt at least five times during various invasions, and changing hands through seven different empires with a certain powerful ruler from each dynasty building a city. These were Lal Kot in 736 AD by Thomar whose last famous Hindu king was Prithivi Raj Chauhan; Siri (by Ala ud din Khilji in 1303); Jahanpanah (1327 by Ghiyas ud din Tughluq); Firozabad (1354 by Firoz), Purana Quila (1540 by Sher Shah Suri), and Shahjahanabad in 1649 by Shah Jahan, the builder of the famous Taj Mahal. Delhi lost and regained its capital status when Md. Tugluq moved his government 700 miles south to Daulatabad (Devagiri in Deccan) and back; Akbar ruled from Agra, and it was for Shah Jahan to move back to Delhi. It remained as the capital of the declining Mughal empire until 1857 when the British annexed it after the First War of Independence, but they continued to rule the Raj from Calcutta until the announcement in 1911. Their new design was to include all of the seven old sites within the capital.

Unlike Delhi that had seen several battles, Canberra witnessed one long battle; but of a different kind before its selection to become the capital of the new nation. While the idea of uniting the six Australian colonies (now States) into a federation was mooted as early as 1851, it was only in 1891 when the total population of all these colonies reached

3.5 million, that their premiers decided to form a “full union under one legislative and executive government” and prepared the country’s first draft constitution. It took another ten years of discussion before the Commonwealth of Australia as a federal government was born on January 1, 1901.

During the decade of debates while issues like tariffs, customs, defence etc. were settled, the choice of a city to house the nation’s capital could not be decided upon. New South Wales, being the ‘mother’ colony (until 1836, NSW was the only colony covering more than half of the land mass) insisted on Sydney being given the honour, but met with severe opposition from Melbourne, its traditional rival, and from other states. The Sydney and Melbourne press played a big part in rubbishing each other’s claims while raving about their own. At last a compromise was reached among the premiers in 1891 that (a) the oldest colony would contain the capital; (b) it would be well clear of Sydney by at least 100 miles; and (c) Melbourne would be the temporary home of the federal parliament until the new capital was ready. It was also agreed that NSW would hand over at least 100 square miles of its land to become a federal territory to house the capital.

The compromise set off a new ‘battle of sites’ among the various potential cities within NSW, with each one forming a pressure group called Federal Capital League. At one stage there were sixty such groups. Claimants to the coveted

prize included Bathhurst, Bombala, Dalgety, Orange, Tumut, Yass, Wagga Wagga and a score more.

Sydney interest groups wanted the new capital much closer to them and as far away from Melbourne as possible (talk about mateship!). It was just like the Melbourne Cup not only in numbers, but also in the progress of the race with the lead changing a few times. The Seat of Government Bill of 1904 nearly gave the gong to Dalgety but the battle continued for six more years. After visits to various sites by groups of MPs, endless debates in Parliament, replacement of the 1904 Act by another in 1908 and finally a visit by NSW Surveyor Charles Scrivener to three preferred sites, the Canberra valley - meeting most of the selection criteria of ample virgin land, affable climate and abundant water supply - got the nod. Scrivener also satisfied his instructions to “find a site for a beautiful city, occupying a commanding position with extensive views and embracing distinctive features which will lend themselves to the evolution of a design worthy of the object, not only for the present but for all time”.

It was on New Year’s Day in 1911 that the territory was officially handed over by NSW to the Commonwealth, and towards the end of the same year, Delhi was named the new capital of the Raj. Similarities continued. In 1912 Chicago architect Walter Burley Griffin was commissioned to build the “bush capital” here, the same year the British architect Edwin

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Australian War Memorial

Humayun’s tomb

Luteyns arrived in Delhi to start O’Malley opened in Canberra. Now design work. On February 20, 1913 how’s that for the Aussie sense of the first surveyor peg was driven to humour? commence construction (Canberra New Delhi had its beginning on will celebrate this event in 2013).

February 13, 1931 inaugurated at New capital cities were emerging the hands of the then Viceroy Lord in both Commonwealth countries Irwin. It was rededicated as the around the same time. Work was capital on 15 August, 1947 and was delayed in both locations during bestowed Union Territory status in World War I, but picked up after 1956, and statehood in 1993. that.

Canberra (ACT) Architects on either Architects on gained its selfeither side of the governing status in side of the Indian Indian Ocean had 1988.

Ocean had the same the same vision: The connection vision: to build their city to build their city between Canberra with wide avenues and and India has a with wide avenues marvellous buildings. and marvellous few more links. buildings. Griffin Canberra’s designer had the luxury of a green-field site Griffin went to Lucknow in 1936 of gigantic proportions to intersect on gaining a commission to build the city with a massive lake and its university library, and in a short introduce more modern building time got work for 40 other projects. designs, whereas Luteyns had He passed away in 1937, and his to synthesise his buildings with body is buried at the Christian established Greco-Mogul styles cemetery there. of previous empires in a city that Since 1931, the newly-built had been lived in for centuries. city of Delhi witnessed waves Both succeeded in translating their of invasions of a peaceful kind. dreams into visible monuments.

People from all over India came After 16 years and 12 million to work, settle down and form pounds, Canberra was inaugurated successful communities making it on May 9, 1927. The first Act of the a melting pot and a microcosm of new Parliament here was to scrap India. Canberra too has a changing prohibition introduced by Home human face with people from Affairs Minister King O’Malley different countries now calling it in 1911, enforcing the true Aussie home. spirit! In 1999, a pub named King NATIONAL EDITION

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Once upon a time we managed our lives and ran our businesses without email. In the 1960s and 1970s, email existed as a textonly messaging system for people connected to the same mainframe computer. Today, nearly every teenager has an email address and it is now viewed as a ‘mission critical application’ in most businesses. Now we’re struggling with email overload. We’re receiving newsletters, defending ourselves from unsolicited commercial email (spam) and email viruses, and sifting through work requests from clients in amongst jokes and recipes from friends. This month we look at how to tame the constant flow of information and turn email into a productivity tool, not an overflowing bookshelf.

Your Inbox should be as empty as possible and should only contain current, shortterm items to be actioned.

What’s in your Inbox?

Your answer to this question should not be ‘everything’. Your Inbox should be as empty as possible and should only contain current, short-term items to be actioned. Emails usually fall into three categories: 1. To be read (interesting but not urgent) 2. To be actioned (things that I have to do) 3. For my information (discussions between other people that I need to be aware of) Category 1 emails can be read now if you have time, or moved into a folder called To Be Read. Go back to this folder to review any unread newsletters etc. over lunch or over a coffee.

Focus on maintaining category 2 emails in your Inbox and moving everything else.

Send any replies or action any items that can be handled quickly and immediately (e.g. requests for information that you can retrieve easily). Avoid ‘email tennis’ by including options in your emails, for example instead of “when are you available to meet?” say “I’m available today at 2pm, tomorrow at 4pm or next Friday at 10am – which one would suit you the best?”.

Category 3 emails can be read and deleted or filed into a folder if you really want to keep them for later reference.

Folders can be used for retaining historical information, or for splitting up emails that still need addressing. For example, create a folder called ‘To be posted’ for email enquiries that require something to be sent out in the post. Then you can easily access all of these enquiries at one time to prepare the postal mail at the end of the day or end of the week, instead of searching for them throughout your inbox. If you’re keeping an email ‘just in case you need it again’ it should be in a folder, not in your Inbox. If you want to keep the latest jokes and recipes, place them in their own folder too or consider a separate email account for personal communications.

Protection

It’s essential to have a solution in place for handling viruses and malware that are sent via email. You can also lose a good portion of your day just deleting spam emails, so consider a solution that will prevent most of those messages from hitting your Inbox in the first place. Several Anti Spam software solutions are available; however, if you are in a business, consider hosted Anti Spam solution.

The main difference between the two is that Anti Spam software deletes or quarantines spam after it arrives in your Inbox while the hosted Anti Spam solution launders your emails before it arrives in your Inbox

Mobile access

Instead of being a constant interruption, receiving emails on your mobile phone can empower you to quickly reply, file or delete a message without being near a computer.

Now a few days out of the office won’t require an hour when you return to sort through a hundred missed messages. If you want peace during a weekend or holiday, just turn the email connection off.

Backup

This is the most important requirement but often ignored. Just consider where you’ll be if your entire Inbox disappears one day. You may also consider implementing an email archival system. It is a legal requirement for many businesses and professional to retain the emails for 5 to 7 years. The benefits derived apart from compliance purpose is that it helps you to have a backup of your mission critical emails which can be retrieved easily, thereby reducing the load on your email server. It insures your business against any otherwise potential litigation by enabling you to retrieve emails sent 5-7 years back by any employee, since court of law treats emails as proof of evidence.

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Pilgrim’s progress The Hajj opens up the body, mind and soul to the many aspects of humanity, all of which are enriching BY SHAFEEN MUSTAQ

People say that Hajj is a life changing opportunity and that one returns from the journey a changed person. Well, I’m glad to say those words certainly came true for me.

Hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam, involves a once-in-a-lifetime journey to the holy city of Makkah. To be eligible for Hajj one must be a Muslim; have reached puberty; be of sound mind; be free (not a slave); have the financial means; and possess the physical means.

Hajj spans five days with several specific locations to visit and rites to perform, for one’s pilgrimage to be valid. The first day of Hajj falls on the 8th day of the Muslim month of Dhul Hijjah and everyone who has made their intention for Hajj goes to Mina on this day. The day is spent at the camp in Mina, settling in, praying and resting for the days ahead. I was warned ahead of time that the camps at Mina are no luxury locations, and I would have to be patient with others and with my environment. Still, I was surprised to see minimal conditions and frugality in the level of hygiene maintained by others.

Despite this, Mina was a great experience.

I spent time at close quarters with people I would never ever see again, that were now my best friends for the next four days - people whose clothes hung to dry at my feet, whose hands nudged me in their sleep.

As Australians in a Bengali camp, we were a bit of an anomaly, and everyone wanted to NATIONAL EDITION

know our life story. It was at times like this that patience was again essential, as we tried to remember and gently remind others that this was a time for prayer and repentance, not twenty questions.

The next day was the 9th day of Dhul Hijjah, also known as the day of Arafat.

On this day every single Hajji (person who is performing Hajj) stands on the field of Arafat and prays from noon to sunset for forgiveness and for anything they so wish.

Contrary to popular belief, the central part of Hajj is not to perform the tawaf (rounds around the Ka’ba), but to be present at Arafat during the time between noon and sunset on the 9th of Dhul Hijjah. The prophet said, “Hajj is Arafat.” (Ahmad).

The number of people I saw on this day was absolutely mind-blowing (6 million, I later found out), and I was mentally ready for all kinds of mishaps. Yet the heat seemed mild, the tent seemed cool, and there was even a light breeze as every single person made their presence felt on the field of Arafat through their tears and cries for forgiveness and their hushed prayers for their loved ones. The sight of so many people from such varied walks of life, race and creed was enough to move even the most hardened heart. I found myself wondering if Hajj was not only an introspective journey, but a way for us to mingle with people from all over the world, observing and learning from them while growing as mature and aware individuals with respect and patience.

After sunset we made the move to walk to Muzdalifah, seven kms away, where we were to spend the night. As we prepared to walk we were informed that a bus was

available, but little did we know that this bus would be the reason why seven kms would take 6 hours. The bus did not move for the first three hours because of the amount of traffic on the road. The next three were spent crawling at a snail’s pace amongst the thousands of other buses travelling on the same road. Again, patience was the key as women on the bus became increasingly agitated and the driver got lost. Having finally made our way to Muzdalifah, we spent the remainder of the night sleeping, praying and collecting pebbles, and we returned to Mina in the morning.

On the third day of Hajj – the 11th of Dhul Hijjah – we started off to the Jamrat, the spot where three walls stand which represent the devil. Here, we would cast 7 stones as a way of expunging the devil from our consciousness. It was a 4 km walk from our camp to the Jamrat, which took over an hour, climbing over broken sandals, umbrellas, blankets and rubbish, moving as a sea of bodies towards our destination.

Despite the crowds, there were no fights, no disruptions and people shared their food and water, as well as smiles.

After casting our stones we made our way back to Makkah and performed the seven rounds of the Kaa’ba which is known as tawaf. Here again I was surprised at the level of patience exercised by such a huge volume of people as we all moved in unison. So close and yet so completely unaware of each other, and so intensely aware of God. Again patience was the key as people grew tired and slowed down and others overtook them, but everyone had only one thing on their minds: repentance.

There are two key things I have brought

away from my Hajj experience, patience and observation. Without patience, 6 million people would not have been able to complete the 5-day ritual that is Hajj with smiles on their faces. And without observation, one cannot learn from the people around them nor judge themselves and ask for repentance. During Hajj there was not a moment that I was physically alone, I was continuously hemmed in by others surrounding me, and yet the peace, tranquility and heightened awareness of being close to God I have found nowhere else!

Abu Hurairah reported that the Prophet said, “He who performs Hajj for Allah’s pleasure and avoids all lewdness and sins will return after Hajj free from all sins as he was the day his mother gave birth to him.”

(Bukhari and Muslim). Congratulations to everyone who performed Hajj, for completing such an intense journey.

I found myself wondering if Hajj was not only an introspective journey, but a way for us to mingle with people from all over the world, observing and learning from them while growing as mature and aware individuals with respect and patience.

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EDITORIAL

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INDIAN LINK PUBLISHER Pawan Luthra EDITOR Rajni Anand Luthra ASSISTANT EDITOR Sheryl Dixit MELBOURNE Preeti Jabbal CONTRIBUTORS Jyoti Shankar, Gaurav Surati, Farrha Khan, Noel G deSouza, Malli Iyer, Dilip Jadeja, LP Ayer, Sunil Ranadive, Shafeen Mustaq, Akriti Goel, Saroja Srinivasan, Minnal Khona, Sandip Hor, Rani Jhala.

ADVERTISING MANAGER Vivek Trivedi 02 9262 1766 ADVERTISING ASSISTANT Priti Sharma 02 9279 2004 GRAPHIC DESIGN AND LAYOUT Kaye Martin Indian Link is a fortnightly 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 Ph: 02 9279-2004 Fax: 02 9279-2005 Email: info@indianlink.com.au

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Spinning India Ric Birch is an Australian icon. Mention his name and one immediately thinks of the extravagant and spectacular pageantry associated with sports and watched by billions around the world. Birch is best known for the spectacular opening and closing ceremonies of the ‘best games ever’, the Olympic Games in Sydney in 2000. He was an integral part of the ceremonies at the Commonwealth Games in Brisbane in 1981, as well as the Los Angeles and Barcelona Olympic Games.

More recently, he was the mastermind behind the opening ceremony of the Delhi Commonwealth Games in India in 2010.

When a man of the stature Birch says that ‘India’ is an acronym for I’ll Never Do It Again, it makes Indian-Australians hang their heads in shame. Years of work by Indian business and tourism organisations went down the drain as those words were uttered. The Indian government and officials are impotent in replying as it is their own mismanagement and lack of ethics that have forced Birch to make such statements. Apparently Birch is owed hundreds of thousands of dollars by the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee that has been ignoring his request for payment for months. A few days ago Lalit Bhanot, Secretary General of the Organising Committee in Delhi (who has since been sacked, along with Suresh Kalmadi) wrote back that the opening ceremony was not

BY PAWAN LUTHRA

upto the mark, which was why payment was being withheld. For the millions who watched, this statement has been met with disbelief as the ceremony was spectacular and surpassed all expectations. This specific reason for not paying up simply reeks of dishonesty.

The problem is that Brand India with its various components - the Indian government, various public and private companies, Indian businesses - are covered in the stench caused by these statements. On request of the visiting Mr. Krishna, Foreign Minister of India, the Indian Sports Minister Ajay Maken has asked that all legitimate payments be released by end-January. However urgent steps need to be taken by local Indian public and private businesses to start pushing Brand India.

There are Indian government and private businesses that are promoting India and Indian services in Australia.

These include, but are not limited to, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Mphasis, Wipro, Indian Tourism, State Bank of India, Union Bank of India etc. Sitting across boardroom tables or with local Australians, one would like India to be known for its dynamic tiger economy,

its largely educated work force, an educated society with a strong history, and its progressiveness rather than the image portrayed by a few weak, corrupt and unethical individuals. There is a booming scientific and cultural sector of India of which local Australians are unaware, there are successful local Indian Australians who need to be paraded in the mainstream as migrants who have given a lot to their new home, while continuing to maintain their Indian ethnicity. India’s secularism is a very powerful story whose basis is a strong and resilient country.

These stories have to be told.

It is time that India-centric businesses - both government and private - band together to use professional services of public relation companies who can bring this out. The fantastic work done

by Indian scientists and artists who have made a name for themselves on the international stage, aspects of Indian cinema which have an international following - all these issues need to be pushed into the spotlight. The richness and diversity of India and its pluralism has to be acknowledged; its strengths have to be highlighted.

India needs to shine again in the local media, and having professionals to light the torch and lead the way should be a major project for Australia-based Indian companies.

Perhaps, this will also smooth the way for Australian uranium sales to India.

JANUARY (2) 2011 <> 5

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INDIAN LINK

LIFESTYLE

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Fumbling in the dark A night out with your friends? Grab the camera, and follow these simple, practical steps

BY AKRITI GOEL

Destroy that photo!

How many times have you said these words? Sometimes softly like a secret, sometimes seriously like a threat, sometimes screaming like your life depended on it, and sometimes like a silent plea, because you’re too embarrassed to say anything at all.

We’ve all been there. Pictures are a tricky thing.

Not everyone is good at being photographed, and let’s please finally acknowledge that not every genius who can press a button is good at taking photographs either.

So how do you get the perfect picture?

Especially when you are out with a dozen friends, are ‘festively happy’ and in the mood to party like there’s no tomorrow?

Well, here are my top ten pointers in getting the best pictures on camera when you are out partying. Never mind the low lighting in the club, the fact that one of your most awesome friends is just not photogenic or that you are not too good with the camera. Special moments deserve to be memories worth storing in your albums.

take great pictures, but guess what? You’re in none of them. Why? Because you were the one taking all the pictures. Make sure you have at least one more friend carry a camera so you don’t have to pass yours on each time you want a picture of yourself.

2. Don’t go solo This one is for all you lovely photographers out there. Yes, you NATIONAL EDITION

Ever looked at pictures from a night out and realised that you don’t know almost half of the people in them? Well, being sociable is all good, but when random strangers start showing up in all your group pictures, it’s time to dial down on the friendly. Every gang needs one

7. Don’t zoom in, just move closer It might be a good idea to zoom in on your subject in daylight when lesser things can go wrong, but when taking pictures at night, zooming in just makes the photographs blurrier.

So, instead of using the zoom, move in closer to your subject, put on your flash and take the picture.

8. Frame of work Framing is an important part of planning a picture, if you think you might have to edit something out later. A ciggie that you never smoked, an acquaintance that you don’t like or the shoes that don’t match your dress; frame them out of the picture, man! Tilt your camera at different angles, be creative, this is not your high school art project, thank goodness!

9. I SO know it!

3. Shout!

Candid shots are all wonderful and artistic, but only in calendars and movie montages. We’re not all blessed with the beautiful, soft features of Scarlett Johansson. We need a ‘heads up, please!’. Tell your friends to smile or say cheese or even look like they don’t know the picture is being taken, but tell them.

Believe me, you’ll be happier for it.

1. Check the battery and memory card Don’t laugh, but the most important thing is to know that the epic party you are planning to capture for posterity can actually be captured because the battery in your camera lasts all night and there is enough space on your memory card to fit in all those glorious pictures. Don’t just shrug this one off. It’s the one step that matters most.

4. Who are you?

perfect picture from a night out and indiscriminately unfamiliar people in the picture is uncool.

5. Flash ‘em!

The club is a dark place, and that shiny disco ball is not going to provide any help with the lighting either. So what is? Your flash, my friend, your ever-ready flash! Use it, and those dark dingy pictures will automatically lighten up. Literally.

6. Red eye

Instead of using the zoom, move in closer to your subject, put on your flash

It is such a nuisance when you have a great picture of someone with the nice hair, the right amount of pleasure on their face and the perfect smile, only to find that your eyes have turned a jungle animal red.

Do yourself a favour: go to your camera menu and turn the red eye on. Once you do this, the camera does all the hard work and you just enjoy the outcome of looking great and capturing the moment.

ISO. Say it and don’t let these letters scare you away from taking pictures. Now I’m not going to get all technical, but you do need to know that with the ISO, the lesser the light of your environment, the more you keep your ISO. Simply put, the ISO determines how sensitive the image sensor is to light. Thus, when you have very little light, your ISO should be set high, so that it is as sensitive to light as possible, and it can capture most of the surroundings.

10. Read the manual Just kidding ! Who does that any more? And for a night out?

Nah! The most important thing to take good pictures is to go out there and have a good time.

Take the photographs, but don’t live your moments through the lens, because at the end of it, this night is about experiencing, not documenting.

Enjoy.

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PSYCHE

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Anger management One of the fundamental rules of losing one’s temper is to control it before it controls you!

BY SAROJA SRINIVASAN

Anger arises when an expectation is not met. We expect someone to do something and they don’t; we expect someone to behave in a certain way and they don’t; or we expect certain results and they don’t happen. Quite often the expectation can be of oneself too and when it is not met, we can be angry with ourselves. Our reaction depends on the intensity of the feeling of disappointment. Sometimes it can be quelled quickly, yet at other times a virtual explosion can occur which leads to further difficulties.

Particularly in close Inevitably we tend relationships, anger can be to point the finger at very destructive. Surprisingly, the ‘other’ person or some people who are very situation, or some past angry show it by becoming frustration that led us to extremely passive. They the angry outburst, and become over-compliant – thus justify the reaction. waiting to be told or asked to do almost every little thing.

This, of course, makes it very difficult for others to confront them in any way and increases their frustration; thus setting up a very destructive style of interaction.

Sometimes anger is aimed at the wrong person at the wrong time. For example a husband having had a difficult time at work can come home and take it out on his wife even before she has said a word. Perhaps she’s waiting to share a piece of good news, but with his behaviour the happy moment is lost for her, and it turns into a major angry outburst from both.

The more worrying aspect of anger is the inadvertent way

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in which it can give rise to rage over a period of time. Behind the experience of repeated anger and rage is the sense of powerlessness to change things to the way one would like it to be. When anger is directed repeatedly against those we love, it can set up a cycle of rejection and disconnection that only fuels disappointment and frustration. It leads to further helplessness and isolation. It is even discussed that anger could be the flip side to depression. Suppressed anger over a period of time increases frustration, and results in dejection and apathy.

So how does one deal with anger? The first step is to stand back and see what the expectation was that has not been met. Then question whether it is a reasonable expectation – that is, in all fairness was it right to expect it? If it seems reasonable, perhaps the reprimand of the person in a firm

manner is all that may be needed.

If the anger is at oneself, again, questioning whether it was reasonable almost always belies the exaggeration that has led to the anger. Of course, the self-discipline that is required is precisely the very quality that is hard to summon at that very moment when one becomes angry. Often those who get angry easily are the ones for whom self-control in general is a hard task.

So where does one start if self-control is hard to practice?

Perhaps the starting point could be acknowledging the remorse that often follows an angry episode. Almost always the sadness that seems embedded in the outburst of anger only presents itself afterwards. Perhaps those close to the person who has repeated anger outbursts could respond to this sadness by acknowledging it and speaking about it.

Sharing with a loved one When anger is directed may lead to the realization repeatedly against that something needs to be done urgently and that there those we love, it can set are others around who care up a cycle of rejection and will support one. This is and disconnection by no means easy. that only fuels Very often we may feel disappointment and justified in our reaction and frustration we may look for reasons why we had to react so angrily. Inevitably we tend to point the finger at the ‘other’ person or situation, or some past frustration that led us to the angry outburst, and thus justify the reaction. The important thing is that justification can almost always be there if one doesn’t look at the ‘real issue’ – which is the fact that the reaction of anger was really totally under our control, but we didn’t implement that control. It is hard to accept that responsibility, but it has to done. Only then will some change come about.

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RELATIONSHIPS

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Look back in anger Irrational bouts of temper should be controlled, specially in the presence of children BY SHERYL DIXIT

The sun was setting at a picturesque national reserve park in Sydney’s eastern suburbs as my children enjoyed a final run around the play area. The only other children were a boy, a girl and their mother, with their father lounging on a mat a little distance away, engrossed in his mobile phone. All of a sudden, he abruptly got up and came striding towards his wife in what seemed like a threatening manner. He came right up to her and began ranting, “What are you doing, it’s getting cold and we have to leave right now. Why haven’t you told them it’s time to leave? Why haven’t you packed up? Go and do it right now!”

Throwing me an embarrassed glance which I deliberately avoided, she obediently walked across to the mat and began

readily enough, but the boy began throwing a tantrum, yelling at her and running away when she came near him.

Finally, he ran straight at the packed bags and simply kicked one over. The contents spilled out, some falling at a distance of several feet, and all he did was run away again.

The woman stood still, very still. She didn’t move a muscle, it seemed like she’d turned to stone. Her daughter looked frightened, then she slowly began picking up the stuff. My sons and I moved forward to help, which seemed to snap the lady out of her reverie. As we piled everything back into the bag, I glanced at her husband out of the corner of my eye.

He was still on the phone having witnessed everything, and his only reaction was to mildly shake his head.

The lady unsmilingly nodded her thanks and walked away, carrying all the bags and balancing the mat under her arm. The husband followed in a lordly fashion, carrying nothing but his seemingly invaluable mobile phone. A couple of feet away from us, he hung up and then began to loudly berate her once again. She was so clumsy! She didn’t

tidying up, putting things away in know how to control the kids! She was They don’t realise that useless! I watched her walk away, and the bags. At that moment the man’s phone rang, and it was obviously a call was suddenly filled with a sense of just the one outburst he was expecting. His entire manner which helps them give indescribable sadness. It was a familiar and demeanour changed from superstory, and once again, I felt utterly vent to their feelings, aggressive to well, positively purring. powerless at the sight of that figure, It was a complete volte face, and took sometimes results shoulders slightly hunched, walking away me entirely by surprise. Now I know it into a future that she was very likely in hours, or perhaps was none of my business, but curiosity to change. even days of the other unable made me linger to watch their children’s Why are people like that, I asked person feeling lousy, reactions, but there were none. They myself. Why is the need to bully and continued to play with unabashed inadequate, disturbed. berate so essential to feeling important, aplomb, while my children seemed a bit or to making a point? How can anyone nervous after the initial outburst. be filled with such insensitivity or In five minutes the lady had packed up and she returned perhaps of egotism, that they don’t realise that their anger, to the play area and called her kids. The girl came along contempt or disdain can utterly demean another human NATIONAL EDITION

being?

Or is it simply that it makes them feel superior, and gives them the satisfaction of having cowered their partner? I hate to admit that I have seen this before. The mother who suffered years of mental abuse at the hands of her husband, who blamed his unreasonable outbursts of temper on a stressful job. The wife who even contemplated suicide because of her husband’s addiction to pornography, and his constant reminders of her inadequacies as a woman which he insisted, were responsible for his despicable obsession. The partner who realised, after years of mental torture, that there was no love or affection, simply indifference and the need to hurt.

The husband, who on seeing his wife barely hold back tears remark, “She’ll get over it, she cries for the least reason. She’s a real drama queen!” Another accused his wife of prolonged sulking; “I shout and let it out, why does she have to brood and carry ill-feeling for what seems like years?”

Perhaps these people don’t realise that their behaviour could have seriously damaging effects on the psyche of their partner. They don’t realise that just the one outburst which helps them give vent to their feelings, sometimes results in hours, or perhaps even days of the other person feeling lousy, inadequate, disturbed. They lose their self-confidence, and worst of all, it makes them unhappy. Now perhaps I’m an idiot, but to me, happiness (or even some semblance of it) is an important aspect of my life. If I am unhappy, my children sense it instantly, and it makes them fractious and unhappy too. It’s a vicious cycle in which there are no winners. Even at this tender age they know the difference between irritability and unhappiness, and the former they can handle, perhaps even feeling a sense of satisfaction in getting a reaction. It’s the latter that makes them insecure because it’s an emotion they can’t understand, and certainly can’t cope with.

Besides, although children have the uncanny sense to realise the difference between what’s right and wrong, that feeling is over-ridden when, for instance, they see their father constantly yell at their mother. They observe her reaction, either an acrimonious exchange or a submissive reaction.

Depending on their temperament or fondness for the parent, they could either emulate and begin the process of bullying, or, at the other end of the spectrum, sympathise with the abused parent and feel animosity towards the other.

Either way they lose. They lose respect for one parent or the other, or they simply become less sensitive human beings.

Now, marriage isn’t a bed of roses, and we all have our moments of looking for something large and heavy to chuck at our partner’s heads. But if it’s simply a reaction to what is said or done that needs to be threshed out, I would recommend either waiting until the children are in bed, or count to ten, then to twenty, and then saying firmly and calmly, “Let’s discuss this later.” That should get the message across, and even if your children know that there’s a kurukshetra waiting to happen, they’ll be glad it didn’t start in their presence. Some children get the feeling that any disagreement between their parents, no matter how mild or acrimonious, will result in either divorce or murder. And it is simply for their sake, that I would rather be the one keeping the peace.

Lately, I’ve realised an important thing in life; stopping to take a breath and often not vocalising my thoughts instantly has helped me a lot. I call it ‘the pause’, because that’s exactly what I do: I pause – to think, to rationalise and most importantly, to keep my big mouth shut. As the years go by and my children grow into adults, I would rather that they grew to respect and remember harmonious and happy moments, not those filled with acrimony and disgust.

I have to admit, I’m not very good at pausing; but having identified a solution, I’m going to try my hardest at putting it into practice. Charity begins at home is a well-worn cliché, but one adaptable to this instance. So will my family see a calmer, more rational person instead of the ratty, irritable shrew they often encounter? I certainly hope so!

JANUARY (2) 2011 <> 53

BEAUTY

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Facts about facials A facial will definitely help your skin feel better if you choose to have one done regularly. It is also a great way to have a relaxing few hours to yourself.

BY MINNAL KHONA

Most of us women and now, an increasing number of men, would have had a facial at some point or the other.

From the usual exfoliator, moisturiser and mask routine, facials today have morphed into exotic spa treatments that can include anything from fruits, intense serums, rejuvenating lotions and deep cleansing masks.

A good facial will last for at least 45 minutes, unless you are like me and rush the beautician through the process because lying still for so long is restricting for me.

Now, the million dollar question is: do they work?

Especially when these facials can cost quite a bit — the good ones do — and often are worth it. They work provided you go to a reputed place, the ingredients and creams being used are of reasonably good quality and you are the type who would gladly leave behind your household chores and switch off your mobile phone to relax in a darkened room while gentle hands pamper your face.

So what, do you ask, are the benefits of a facial?

There are several, and depending on the problems you have with your skin, can even be used to minimise those problem areas if not erase them completely.

For example, if you have dry skin and have not been moisturising it often, a good moisturising facial will leave your skin plumped up and soft, with all the dead skin scrubbed off.

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If you have a tan, while a facial may not bring your skin to its normal colour in one sitting, the damaging effects of being in the sun can certainly be undone to some extent.

If you are the type who has a facial regularly, then it is more like a spa treatment where you just maintain what is already looked after. It can give your skin the extra TLC it needs periodically where the process would cleanse your skin, remove blackheads, unclog pores and moisturise your skin right down to its deepest layers.

Then a face mask — again, depending on your skin type — will either moisturise, reduce oil content or simply nourish your skin. The cotton pads soaked in cucumber juice or ice cold water can be the most refreshing part of the facial.

Some facials also have extra processes involved which remove acne, work on scars and minimise dark circles.

Apparently, the massage of the facial muscles is also known to activate the lymphatic glands, which can reduce puffiness and also enhance blood circulation.

Some facials include skin firming and tightening masks which work well to tighten the skin and minimise the appearance for fine lines. Nowadays, there are a lot of gizmos that are used in some high end facial treatments but most are manual and done with the fingers and the palms.

What is important to remember is to be sure about your skin type and then opt for the facial best suited for your skin. You can always have a chat with your beautician before choosing the right one.

So, the next time you want a break from family and work, give your skin a treat by going in for a relaxing facial.

INDIAN LINK

NATIONAL EDITION

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TRAVEL

Original

Oman This heritage-rich and interesting country is very unlike its ultramodern neighbours

BY SANDIP HOR

I wouldn’t have planned to visit Oman, if not for the fact that my nephew Manojit and his wife Jaya live there. That’s simply because it’s one of those destinations of which one has not heard much and it is generally overlooked on the international tourism radar as an area of interest.

But after exploring this sand-splashed land, edged by the turquoise blue waters of Arabian Sea and Gulf of Oman to one side and rugged desert mountains on the other, I have no hesitation in pronouncing it as a jewel in the crown of the oil-rich Gulf nations. If given a miss, I would have surely regretted not exploring its endless charms, stemming from its history, culture, landscape and people.

Arriving in Muscat, its capital city, I found the airport unimpressive, but as soon we hit the wide boulevards flanked on both sides with date palm trees and manicured gardens, occasionally interrupted by magnificently decorated roundabouts, I was simply intrigued by its stunning facade.

Every building I noticed was gleaming, every car we passed was less than five years old and the decorative lamps lining the streets reminded me of fairyland scenes that we sometimes see in dreams. The city, with a population of 600,000 had the appeal of a developer’s showpiece model in a glass cabinet 56 <> JANUARY (2) 2011

new, clean, tidy and untouched.

Manojit surprised me by saying that 40 years ago, the scene was vastly different. Oman was then an obscure coastal settlement with around five km of surface roads, three schools, one hospital and no police force, newspapers, radio or television.

“So was it Aladdin’s magic that made this rapid transformation?” was my obvious question.

“Not really, the credit goes to Sultan Qaboos, who came to power in 1970 and launched a massive modernisation program to present his oil rich nation to the world the way we see it, fast forwarding 40 years,” Manojit replied while parking his car at the basement of a massive apartment block, home to expatriates like him from India, who constitute the largest proportion of foreign population in Oman.

It is said that Oman is owned by the Sheikhs, but run

by Indians. Ownership of major businesses in nearly all industries belong to Omanis, but managers and workers through the line are mostly Indians, though there are some Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Sri Lankans in the mix, while Western expatriates hang on to a few executive positions.

During our stay we encountered more Indians than Omanis, which at times made me feel as if I was wandering in a typical Indian city, the resemblance arising not from the landscape, but from the surrounding physical environment and ambiance which assaulted my senses in a very Indian way. We saw people dressed in colourful saris, salwar kameez, sherwanis and lungis, smelt the aroma of biryani and heard an acoustic fusion

of loud Bollywood music and multi linguistic conversation, at times interrupted by calls to prayers from the mosques.

The metropolis dubbed as Muscat today actually sprung forth combining three smaller towns – the old Muscat (often referred as the walled city), Muttrah, originally a fishing village, now famous for its seaside promenade and a bustling souk, and Ruwi, the commercial and diplomatic centre of Oman.

The architectural highlight of the city is its Grand Mosque, the third largest mosque in the world. Built by Sultan Qaboos Bin Said al Said in 2001, its incredible exterior displays a riot of white Italian marble and creamy Indian sandstone.

The spacious main prayer room has one of the world’s largest hand-woven Persian carpets, a stunning eight-tonne Swarovski crystal chandelier and some astounding marble panelling marked with scripture from the Koran.

The other icon that impressed me was the imposing Al Alam Royal Palace which is used more for ceremonial functions as Sultan Qaboos resides at a secluded location not known to the public. This beautiful palace stands on the head of a natural deep water harbour and is guarded on either side by the twin forts of Mirani and Jelali, which were built in the 16th century during the Portuguese occupation of the land.

Oman is often referred as the land of forts, castles and watch towers. Numbering over 2000, they continue to stand guard over the expansive landscape, bearing witness to a proud past and each with its own history to narrate.

Sometimes integrated with lively souks, mosques and INDIAN LINK

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2

1. Oasis in the desert 2. Colourful souk 3. Grand Mosque 4. Muscat street 5. Friendly Omanis 6. Desert safari 7. Al Alam Royal Palace 8. Grand Mosque from a distance

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fascinating artisanal, they provide visitors with a unique way that made me pause. Surely one can generate wealth by of experiencing history. working there, but it’s the lack of freedom and uncertainty We generously sampled that at Nizwa, the former capital revolving around what can happen the following day that town of Oman located 150 km from Muscat. The 16th concerns foreigners, particularly those from the subcontinent. century fort, 40 metres high and 50 metres wide, adjacent to a Their stay in Oman is tightly meshed with their job and mosque and a vibrant souk famed for if, for some reason they lose this, it thriving craft industries, is the finest in means leaving the country almost Every building I noticed immediately. So you can imagine living the nation.

The splendour of Oman diversified a life out of suitcases each day. was gleaming, every car as we explored beyond the city limits In the evenings I noticed long we passed was less than queues in front of money exchanges, into mountain villages clutched against canyon walls, clusters of dates which appeared strange to me until five years old and the weighing heavy in the plantation oasis, Manojit explained that transferring decorative lamps lining a ribbon of sand blown across the money out of Oman almost on a the streets reminded me daily basis is a common practice. This dunes, a lone camel padding across seemingly limitless landscape. arises out of anxiety that anything can of fairyland scenes that Oman struck me as somewhat happen tomorrow, like the Sultanate we sometimes see in different to its neighbours Dubai and stopping funds going outside Oman.

Abu Dhabi, as its landscape is not The nation today stands as one of dreams spearheaded with high rise building the most progressive and up-to-date, nor are its roads jammed with cars in a region marked with extremism, and finally, its lifestyle is not as fast as the megacities. Society, turbulence and unrest. It is very safe for tourists, but I sensed though shrouded with modernity, still lives with its Bedouin that those who live there survive with an uncanny feeling of values like hospitality and practical piousness, and that makes insecurity.

Oman a great destination to experience Islamic culture at one One day when we were travelling out of Muscat our of its best. car was stopped by army guards who, after checking our As an outsider I thought it to be a good place to live and documents, advised us to go back to Muscat without giving work, however some expatriates hesitantly depicted scenarios any reason. The next day when we were out again, we saw NATIONAL EDITION

vehicles entering Muscat being thoroughly checked by the army. The search was still continuing when we returned in the evening and we felt uneasy when the guards peeped inside our car. The general public will never know the cause for the hunt, and perhaps that kind of concealment creates nervousness for foreigners.

So I left lovely and picturesque Oman with the thought that everything that glitters may not, after all, be gold!

Travel notebook Oman

GETTING THERE

Fly Thai Airways (www.thaiairways.com.au) from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth to Muscat via Bangkok.

ACCOMMODATION

You may wish to splurge at the opulent Al Bustan Palace Hotel (www. ichotelsgroup.com). Otherwise check www.expedia.com.au for quality accommodation to suit budget.

EXCURSION

Al Hoota Caves, one of largest cave system in the world.

Currency Omani Rial 1 AUD = 2.9 OMR Visa Australian passport holders get visa on arrival to enter Oman More information Check www.omantourism.gov.om

JANUARY (2) 2011 <> 57

KIDSCORNER

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o t k B ac l o o h Sc

By D

Luth n a n a M & evna

Photo Competition

ra

Laugh Out Loud

Top Tips For Starting School Again

Teacher: Name two days of the week that start with “t”.

Pupil: Today and Tomorrow.

1. Make a good impression on your teacher, i.e. smiling, saying hi, asking sensible questions. DO NOT however, forget your own name, bring them an apple, ask silly questions or fall off your chair

What school supply is always tired?

A knapsack!

Teacher: I see you missed the first day of school.

Kid: Yes, but I didn’t miss it much.

Teacher: Could you please pay a little attention?

Student: I’m paying as little attention as I can.

Teacher: James, where is your homework?

James: I ate it.

Teacher: Why? James: You said it was a piece of cake!

Teacher: You’ve got your shoes on the wrong feet.

Pupil: But these are the only feet I’ve got!

Pupil: Today my teacher yelled at me for something I didn’t do.

Parent: What was that?

Pupil: My homework!

2. Bags a good locker quickly and be nice to your locker buddies. You’ll be spending the whole year next to each other so best to become friends rather than frenemies.

3. Keep in mind some teachers make you stay in your seats for a few weeks until they learn your names. In this case, sit with someone nice who doesn’t fart all the time.

4. If your approach is to be a so-called ‘Nerd’ this year, wear fake glasses if you don’t already, to give a knowledgeable look.

Carrying a book adds to this look, making you look professionally nerdy.

5. Smile at everyone you see, to make new friends. But make sure it isn’t a massive fake smile, like this

Teacher: What is white when it’s dirty and black when it’s clean?

Pupil: A blackboard!

Send in your craziest, weirdest, funniest pics and we’ll choose the best ones to show in the Kids Page! U cud b kissing a kangaroo, smelling a beehive, washing your mum’s hair, trimming your dad’s moustache, whatever! And of course we’ll have prizes… Send in your pics to info@indianlink.com.au before March 1 2011.

FAQs What is the first day of high school really like?

Q. Do older kids shove your head in the toilet as a form of welcome?

A. No! Older kids love showing the Year 7s around. They’ll think you are very cute and will probably want to pinch your cheeks like your grandparents do.

Q. Will I get lost all the time?

A. Yes, probably! But it is important to remember there are so many other new students like you. You never know, you might make a new best friend while madly running around, searching for your class!

Q. Will I be able to handle the homework?

They never gave us homework in my primary school…

A. No. The teachers love the cute little Year 7s the most, and treat them like the babies they are….

Foto Corner Failing in style!

Samples from students’ exam answers

Translation Station Impress your teacher and friends with proclamations such as: I utilise gargantuan idioms to fabricate intelligence.

(Translation: I use big words to sound smart).

Your Turn A stunning lunar eclipse

By Viney Kumar

On the night 20th and the 21st December 2010, half the world experienced the wonders of a lunar eclipse on the day of the “Summer Solstice” in Australia and the “Winter Solstice” in the northern hemisphere. It was a unique event, as a lunar eclipse on this day hasn’t occurred since 1638.

What is a Lunar Eclipse?

A lunar eclipse occurs when the Sun, the Earth, and the Moon line up in a 58 <> JANUARY (2) 2011

straight line, with the Earth blocking the moon from the sun’s light. As a result, the earth’s shadow falls on the moon partially blocking the full moon until the heavenly bodies move away from their straight alignment.

Our recent eclipse

At 8:15pm on 21Dec or the “Summer Solstice”, my family and I went to watch the first lunar eclipse in three years. We took our telescopes, rugs and folding chairs to the local oval, ready to watch.

The eclipse was beautiful and combined

with the effects of the sunset and the view of the surroundings, it was simply spectacular. The moon had risen to a deep desert-red colour as the sun set, but soon became the colour of a golden mango as the heavenly bodies gradually went their separate paths.

It was a beautiful opportunity to see the forces of nature at their full potential. This opportunity hasn’t presented itself in 4 hundred years and I doubt that we’ll ever see this natural phenomenon again in our lifetimes.

INDIAN LINK

NATIONAL EDITION

JANUARY (2) 2011 <> 59

What’s On REPUBLIC DAY – AUSTRALIA DAY BVB Wed 26 Jan Join BVB’s “Indian Boat” as part of the Parade of Vessels on Darling Harbour’s Cockle Bay, as part of the 2011 Australia Day celebrations. (The Parade of Vessels will feature a variety of cultural communities that make up Australia’s diverse society, ferried around Cockle Bay on beautiful, grand and interesting boats as a part of harbour life on Sydney waterways). Confirm participation by 20th of January to pr@bhavanaustralia.org and 1300 BHAVAN (242 826) Consul General’s event Wed 26 Jan India’s Republic Day will be celebrated at the residence of the Consul General in Sydney (2 Pleasant Avenue, East Lindfield, NSW 2070) at 0900 hours. As in earlier years, the flag hoisting would be followed by singing of the national anthem, reading of the President’s speech, followed by refreshments. All Indian nationals are welcome to attend.

CIA Fri 28 Jan The newly formed Council of Indian Australians Inc (CIA) announces a joint Republic Day Australia Day event at Bowman Hall (Campbell St, Blacktown). Details Ajoy Ghosh 0433 413 933.

SPIRITUAL Ramakrishna Sarada Vedanta Society Sun 30 Jan Celebration of Swami Vivekananda’s birthday, 6.30 to 9.30pm.

Program includes devotional songs, silent meditation, talks by Dr.Rick Spencer & Rev. Pravrajika Ajayaprana Mataji. All are welcome.

Concludes with dinner. Venue: Vedanta Hall,

15 Liverpool Road, Croydon. Details 02 9745 4320.

Chinmaya Mission retreat Sat 29 and Sun 30 Jan Retreat based on Tattva Bodha, “Who is fit?” at Central Coast (127A Albany St, Pt. Frederick), 9.00am to 6.30pm (each day).

Details Dr Rahul Suri 0439 644 764; Dr Sham Gupta 02 4323 6110, or Chinmaya Sannidhi 02 8850 7400 / 0416 482 149.

STAGE Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Feb 18 – 27 As part of the 2011 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras festival, Trikone Australia presents a stage production In The Space Between dealing with homosexual themes within the Indian context as well as within Australian-Indian context (and features stunning costumes, foot-tapping music, sweeping dance numbers, promising an evening of quintessential Bollywood entertainment).

Cleveland Street Theatre, 199 Cleveland Street, Redfern. Details Akash Arora 0430 933 234.

Sri Purandharadasa Aradhana Sun 20 Feb A classical tribute to one of Carnatic music’s greatest composers, 9:00 am – 2:00 pm, Ermington Community Hall (8 River Road, Ermington). Details Anu Ananda 9764 4587.

FUNDRAISERS Probashi for Qld flood victims Sun 30 Jan The Bangladeshi youth of Campbelltown are coming together in support of those affected by the floods in Queensland.

Probashi, a registered charity organisation comprised of young Bangladeshi girls, will be hosting a dinner and auction at the PCYC at Minto as a charity effort to contribute towards the Queensland Premier’s fund relief appeal.

Details Tasnim Aziz 0424 148 108 or Shafeen Mustaq 0431 594 522.

I-India Project for Rajasthani kids Wed 23 Feb I-India Project Australia’s fundraising dinner for the Jhag Children’s Village in Rajasthan will be held at one of Sydney’s favourite Chinese restaurants, Golden Century at Fox Studios, Moore Park, at 7.30pm. This year’s dinner celebrates the 2011 Chinese New Year, the Year of the Rabbit, with a ten course banquet. The cost is $110 per person. Lucky door prizes, raffles, auctions and entertainment will add to the evening’s fun. Funds raised will help ongoing work at the Jhag Children’s Village which is a residential and educational facility for vulnerable children in Rajasthan that yearn for brighter futures. RSVP 16th February. Details 0402 958 582 or visit www.iindiaproject.org.au FILM The Future Makers Tue 8 Feb Climate Action Burwood Ashfield together with Ashfield Council are putting on a free movie night featuring the documentary The Future Makers. Venue Cadigal Room, Ashfield Pool, cnr of Elizabeth and Frederick Sts, Ashfield, 7pm for 7.30 showing.

Free tea and coffee provided.

The film tells the story of key Australians leading the way on the world stage in renewable energy. Some are designing a future

based on models in nature. Others are creating a sustainable energy model for a 21st economy.

It features the Indian origin scientist Dr Prame Chopra who is leading Australian research in the field of geothermal energy.

MISC Martyrs’ Day Sun 30 Jan The University of New South Wales is organising the inaugural Martyr’s Day Commemoration at UNSW. This spiritual occasion will be observed at the bust of Gandhi located on the UNSW Library Lawn.

RSVP by Thursday 27th January 2011 to pvcinternational@unsw.edu.au or 02 9385 7668. Confirmation of attendance is essential.

GOPIO Young Achievers Award Night, March 2011 Applications are invited from HSC passed students in the following categories: * Academic: Students who achieved ATAR 99 and above in 2010 HSC exam. * Highest marks obtained in HSC 2010 in Indian languages, dance, drama, music, photography & visual arts. * State or National level achievement in sports by youth under 20 years of age.

Awards will be decided on merit by a selection committee.

Details Harry Walia 0402 842 375.

UIA’s community forum Sat 5 March Women’s Forum Sat 19 March Seniors Forum Both events will be held at 10.00am at Parravilla Function Centre, 42 Campbell St., Parramatta. Working lunch will be provided on both days. Details Aruna Chandrala 0410 338 900.

Radio anchors wanted Are you creative?

Can you think on your feet?

Do you have a talking to people?

Good command of Hindi?

Upto date with current affairs?

Like your Bollywood music?

Want to work part time? Early mornings?

Late evenings? Weekends?

Be part of the Indian Link radio team!!!

Email expressions of interest with details of relevant experience to info@indianlink.com.au

6 <> JANUARY (2) 2011

INDIAN LINK

FOOD

www.indianlink.com.au

Tandoori Chicken with Naan What to cook when your mum takes a well-earned break BY SHAFEEN MUSTAQ

We have a portable Tandoor oven. It’s blerdy awsum and Ammu makes the maddest naan in it. But Ammu’s in Bangladesh and Abbu and I really wanted some naan… so did we go out and buy some?

Nope! I googled a naan recipe (don’t you just love google?) and

WHOLE TANDOORI CHICKEN 1 whole chicken with skin (I used a size 10) 1/2 cup yoghurt 3 tbsp Shaan Chicken Tikka Masala 1 tsp ginger paste 1 tsp garlic paste 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar (You’re supposed to use lemon juice but I was too lazy to squeeze a lemon).

Mix all the marinade ingredients together (make sure you don’t overdo it and make it too runny). Poke some holes in the chicken with a fork and then coat the whole thing with the marinade, make sure to get some inside as well. Cover and leave for at least 4 hours (I left mine overnight). Now if

decided to wing it with some tandoori chicken (with the help of Shaan Masala of course!). A simple side dish of veggies finished the meal, and for dessert, I brought out some brownies. Ammu would have been so proud….

you have a Tandoor oven you put it on a seekh and bung it in there for 30 min but if you don’t – preheat your oven to 180C. Line a tray with alfoil and place your chicken on top. Cover it up and cook for 1 hour and 30 min, uncovering and turning and basting with the liquid in the tray every 30 min or so.

NAAN 2 cups plain flour 3/4 cup water (make sure it’s warm!!!)

2 tbsp oil 2 1/2 tbsp yoghurt 1 tsp yeast 1 tsp sugar Pinch baking powder.

ALOO GOBI MATAR I really like how Ammu makes this dish and I was craving it so I googled Aloo Gobi thinking ‘How hard can it be to cook some veggies?’ According to the long winded recipes I found, very.

And so again I found a recipe and a video and followed neither and both in my own way. The result? Redder and tangier than Ammu’s but oh so good!

1 medium sized cauliflower cut into florets 3 potatoes peeled and diced 100g baby peas 3 tbsp Shan Vegetable curry powder (yes I cheated) 1 medium onion 1 tsp ginger paste 1 tsp garlic paste 1/2 cup tomato paste

GUILT FREE FUDGE BROWNIES I know what you’re thinking – there is no such thing… But there is. It doesn’t taste as good as melted gooey fudge brownie in your mouth but then what does besides the real stuff? As I was browsing recipes online I came across a divine recipe for brownies. Now I’ve just lost about 250 grams after MUCH struggle with my self control so I decided to a. reward myself and b. not make something so rich that would return 250 grams to my waistline and much more. So I modified it with less chocolate, less sugar, less butter, but just enough to make you go mmm!

100g cooking chocolate (milk or dark) 100g butter 2 eggs 1/2 cup caster sugar 1/2 tsp vanilla essence 60 <> JANUARY (2) 2011

Mix yeast with water and set aside. Sift flour, sugar and baking powder together. Add yoghurt and mix. Add the yeast and water mix and mix. At this stage its a gluggy mess, just keep kneading. Whatever you do, DON’T add more water or flour.

Place in a bowl, cover with cling wrap and/or a cloth and put it in a warm place for 4 hours (I left mine overnight). Take the cling film off, punch the dough and watch it fall, take the dough out and break into 6 even portions. Sprinkle with flour and knead each one individually. Now if you have a tandoor, you need to make the outside floury while the inside remains soft. So roll it with a rolling pin only a little and cover with flour, put it on the ‘pillow’, sprinkle with a bit of water and bung it in the tandoor for 2-3 min (Makes 6).

Chopped coriander Salt to taste.

Blanch the florets and diced potatoes for 2-3 min in boiling water. Heat the oil in a medium frypan over medium heat. Stir in the onion, garlic and ginger. Cook for about 1 minute until onions are lightly browned. Add the Shan Masala and tomato paste and cook well till the raw spice smell is gone. Add the potatoes and cauliflower and salt and cover and cook for 5 to 7 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the coriander and baby peas, cover and simmer, stirring occasionally. Continue cooking for 10 minutes or until potatoes and cauliflower are tender.

Note: 1/2 cup of tomato paste will give a red tinge to the curry so lessen this quantity and add some turmeric if you want it yellow. Also, the Shan Vegetable curry spice has a generous dose of amchur powder making it tangy, to even this out I put in a tablespoon of sugar.

(Just under) 1 cup plain flour 3 tbsp cocoa.

Melt butter and chocolate together and set aside (work quickly or else this will set). Combine eggs, sugar and vanilla essence and mix. Add chocolate mixture. Sift flour and cocoa and add to the mixture. The original recipe says to add loads of choc bits. I added about 50 grams. Mix well and pour into a baking try lined with baking paper. Bake for 20 minutes at 180C My extra additions: When this was done and cooled I tasted it.

It was great for diabetics and people like my uncle who don’t like overly sweet stuff – but for me it was still a bit bland. So I let it cool, whipped together some sifted icing sugar (3 tbsp) and cocoa (1 tsp) with 1 tbsp of milk and poured it on top.

When that set I dusted it with some more sifted icing sugar and chocolate curls. My cousins finished half of it in 15 minutes!

INDIAN LINK

NATIONAL EDITION

JANUARY (2) 2011 <> 61

Matrimonials SEEKING BRIDES

L

ooking for a suitable match for Hindu boy, never married, handsome, 37 years, fair, 5’9”, non-smoker, non-drinker, vegetarian and working in IT in Sydney, A$100k. Seeking good-looking, nonsmoker, non-drinker, vegetarian Hindu girl, preferably settled in Australia. Send details and recent photos to alliance. matrimony73@gmail.com

F

iji Indian man, 35, uni graduate ( BA), 160 cm, fair complexion, looking for an Australian lady for marriage. Please email narendraraj41@yahoo.com or call 0439 835 278.

M

atch for Sydney-resident never married, 28 year old, slim, handsome, fair complexioned, Sood Punjabi boy, IT professional, 5’9”. Seeking Indian girl. Caste no bar, girl’s merit main consideration. Please call 0416 407 496.

C

aring, youthful looking, slim, fit Hindu widower 51, Australian citizen, in professional government job, children living separately, seeks presentable lady (38-47), vegetarian, with strong family values. Caste no bar. Call 0416 099 177, genuine enquiries please.

3

0-year-old Punjabi Brahmin male, 6 feet, fair, handsome, double degree holder, Reigistered Nurse, Australian citizen living in Sydney, seeks suitable match of honest girl with good family

values. Caste no bar. Please reply with photo and details amit4012@hotmail.com or call 0431647402.

S

eeking an alliance for Valmiki boy, 36, 5’8”, very well educated, LLB, MIB (AUS) government employee, Australian citizen. Parents are seeking a well educated, homely girl with traditional values. Caste no bar. Respond with photo and complete bio at valmikiboy@hotmail.com or call 0431 159 221.

M

atch for Melbourne-resident nevermarried Arora boy, self employed, earning good money, dob 30-08-1977, 5’5”, smart features, fair colour, open minded. Caste no bar. Girl’s merit main consideration. Respond with photo, education and professional details to email: sachdevasunil30@gmail.com or call 0401 408 211.

SEEKING GROOMS

C

orrespondence invited from a wellto-do established young man aged between 31 to 36, for a charming, pretty Hindu girl of 32, working in India in an MNC as HR Manager, Bangalore India. Please contact with profile and recent photograph at 0423 749 793 or email sujayinmel@gmail.com, sanchi26@ gmail.com, or rjp5306@gmail.com

S

eeking match for Maharashtrian girl 37, Homeopathic doctor BHMS, married briefly and divorced with no children, 5’2”, good looking girl, born and raised in India

with Indian values, from a very well-settled family in India. Ready to settle in Australia.

Seeking professional, well-educated Hindu match with good family background, caste no bar. Contact 0409 005 320, or email: mrudula_msn@hotmail.com

S

eeking a suitable match for Hindu lady, 53, 5’2”, young looking, very fair, living in Australia for 25 years, works in govt dept. Groom must be between 47-55, well qualified, non-smoker, occasional drinker and vegetarian. Contact sydaus@hotmail. com.au.

D

r. G. L Gupta settled in Australia since 1970 seeks match for granddaughter Meenakshi Gupta DOB 7th Nov 1986, 5’4”, fair with sharp features, from Hyderabad, India. Graduate in Commerce, PG Diploma in Banking and Finance from IFBI and worked in ICICI Bank. Coming to Sydney. Seeking Hindu (pref. Agarwal) professional match.

Contact 0401 448 186 / 0404 833 750. E mail giri32@yahoo.com.au

3

4 year old girl, 5’7”, post graduate diploma in advertising, holding PR visa, seeks well-educated boy of wellsettled and educated family, with liberal and supportive values. She is sensitive and considerate to elders, warm and nurturing to all. She loves to socialize, going out for movies. Has a drive and wishes to be working professionally, with healthy balance between family and work. Please email profile and photo to smk3005@ hotmail.com

W

anted well-qualified, handsome, fair Punjabi Hindu boy, well-settled in Sydney, PR holder/Australian citizen, for a Punjabi Hindu girl, extremely beautiful, slim, very fair, 32 years, 5’3”, MBA (Australia), Australian citizen and a professional belonging to a high status, very well qualified business class family.

The girl is an innocent divorcee with a brief marriage. She is a very loving, homely, caring, intelligent and bubbly with a perfect blend of traditional and modern values. She is born and brought up in India. We are God fearing, very well-respected, down to earth and sober family with a positive outlook towards life.

Similar profiles preferred. Please send full profile with latest photos to email to.sweet@hotmail.com

A

lliance invited for a good looking Tamil Christian girl (CSI Protestant), 28 years, 5’7”, engineering professional working for a European company at Chennai (currently in Holland). Seeks Christian professional of good family background. Contact details 0458 788 869 or email fredrick.samuel@gmail.com

W

ell established Indian Hindu family from Fiji living permanently in Melbourne seek a professionally qualified boy with good career background for their daughter, 28+.

Five feet tall, medium complexion, slim, attractive, Australian born, University graduate.

Please send in absolute confidence your biodata, telephone number, recent photograph and email address to The Advertiser, PO Box 339, Naree Warren South, 3805.

Liquor Business for Sale • Sydney Western Area • Weekly Turnover $18,000 + • Outstanding Opportunity • Great profit margin • High Density Residential Area • Ample Parking • 3+5+5 Years Lease • Asking $ 350,000+ STOCK

Contact on 0403 493 824

62 <> JANUARY (2) 2011

INDIAN LINK

FICTION

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The farewell It’s the mind-destroying anguish that every parent feels when seeing their child slowly slip away from life, and knowing that there’s nothing they can do to change destiny

BY RANI JHALA

Every day was one big rush – to work, to school, to games, to family, to friends and then to the shops. So busy was our life that even our communication was automated. I would ask my child, ‘How was your day at childcare?’ And before my daughter could reply, I had turned to put dinner in the oven, and I would ask my husband ‘How was your day?’ But even while asking, I would be mentally solving a problem at work. The busier we got, the more successful I felt.

Activities even filled my daughter’s day ballet, music, art and singing. I don’t know what they taught her or what she learnt, but it was important for me tell people of these.

The world was moving at a fast pace and to keep up, our little girl had to be better than the rest. No praise could aptly describe ‘the world’s only little genius’.

That was the moment my husband and I decided that whatever time we now had with her was to be filled with laughter, with hugs and with love We had it all – the four F’s – fame, fortune, family and friends. We had already enrolled her in the top primary school, and the best high school had been lined up. The best university was at the back of mind. To prepare for this wonderful future I worked full time, though it meant putting our daughter in childcare from the age of one.

But she went happily and returned the same NATIONAL EDITION

way. It was just perfect. Too perfect!

Then one day just after I had picked her up from childcare Milly stumbled as we reached our car. I put it down to ‘tiredness’, gave her a cool drink and we drove home. A week later she stumbled again, this time it was soon after getting out of bed. Not even a week after that, she had the first seizure. I remember screaming, feeling helpless, my desperate struggling to dial the emergency. I called the ambulance but before they arrived, the attack was over. She looked tired but otherwise normal, but as a precaution they took her to the hospital. We spent a week there while all the tests were done. I kept telling myself that it was not serious. I kept trying to be positive, but that twisted knot in my stomach grew tighter with each passing day. Each time they gave her a needle I hurt, each time they did a test, I cried. All I wanted was to take her home and cocoon her in the safety of our walls.

On the morning of the seventh day, they let us bring her home. But the seizures continued. They tested several drugs and these worked for a while, but soon it became apparent they were not effective. Five months later we were back in the hospital for more tests. This time they let us return home quicker, but they also give us an unwanted gift. Milly had been given a death sentence in the form of the deadly Battens disease – late infantile NCL. In most children it begins between 2 and 5 years. Looking back, Milly had displayed all the usual symptoms - loss of muscle coordination and seizures that could not be controlled by drugs. The prognosis was cold and clinical -death by the age of 12!

How could I accept that? No God was going to take my child! No man was going to decide her fate! We tried everything, from medication, to natural therapy, to faith healing. At the end of it, my arrogance received a rude awakening. Neither was I ‘all powerful’, neither was my God, ‘omnipresent’.

Each day we watched our baby drift away.

The smile slowly fading, the glow in her eyes losing their shine and her gentle little grasp gradually weakening. And the fame and fortune that I had strived for did nothing to stop its progress. Our families could not end our hurt and our friends could not divide our pain. These were ours, only ours. Ours to feel, ours to experience! But their presence was the strength we needed to keep us staying afloat. Someone cooked for us, someone did our shopping. The only job no one got was to babysit our Milly.

There was so much anger in those first few months. Anger at our fate! Anger at God! Of all the children in the world, I could not understand why He had picked mine. One night I held her as the tears streamed down my cheeks, and I felt her little palm brush them away. And she said in her soft voice, ‘Mum, if you keep crying I won’t be able to enjoy my time with you both. And I will be so worried about you that I won’t be able to say goodbye!’ She knew. Even at just five years, she was aware of her future. But she had never screamed as I had. She had never cried as I did and she had never expressed the fear I had lived with. And I was not the one dying.

She was!

That was the moment my husband and I decided that whatever time we now had with her was to be filled with laughter, with hugs and with love. When she was gone I would have my time to wallow in sorrow or drown in tears.

She stayed with us for four years! The four most precious years of our lives. Even at the end when she could not even open her eyes, she held each of our palms in hers, reassuring us of her presence. She had asked only two things of us. “Don’t let them give me pain, because even if I am asleep, I will know”.

And the second was “When I am going, I want you both near me. Promise!” We are now grateful we were allowed to fulfill both those wishes.

With both of us by her side, with all her toys surrounding her bed and her favourite books on the shelf, she suffered one last seizure and gently slipped away.

Our home now remains empty. It will never ring with our child’s laughter. It will never sparkle with her sunshine. On the wall are displayed her paintings; her keyboard still remains on the stand, untouched. Her clothes still hang in her wardrobe. I still can’t bring myself to give any of them away, they had been touched by her. They were my only link to her.

In the first of the four remaining years of her life, she went on a planting spree.

Milly chose every flower and every colour saying, “If this one blooms, that means that I am thinking of dad!” If that one does, “I am thinking of you, Mum!” “And if all the plants bloom together, I will thinking of everyone, even that stupid little dog next door that barks at me all the time”. By the second year she was wheelchair-bound. By the third she could no longer speak, and by the last year she could longer see. The disease had progressed so quickly.

No parent likes to think ill for the child but in those moments when she was so totally dependent on us, I said only one prayer, “If you are going to take her, please God, make sure you take her before us.” I could not imagine my little baby in anyone else’s care.

Or at anyone else’s mercy!

I never returned to full time work. It no longer seems important. My husband went back to work in an attempt to forget his pain.

It hasn’t worked. Milly had asked once “How come man can go into space, but they can’t cure me?” And in answer to that question we started the ‘Milly Batten Foundation’, to raise funds and to increase awareness of the disease. It has one more salient feature; it provides income to parents so that they can stay at home with their beloved child during those very precious years, as they slowly bid them farewell.

JANUARY (2) 2011 <> 63

BUZZ

ENTERTAINMENT

The

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

Aamir Khan is different!

What does it take to be different - instinct, guts, conviction? Actor-director-producer Aamir Khan shows he has it all in abundance with his off-beat production Dhobi Ghat, the latest in a 23-yearlong career, getting rave reviews.

Directed and written by his wife Kiran Rao, produced by Aamir Khan Productions, the film shows new avenues of scripting and filmmaking, and it seems only a thinking actor-filmmaker like Aamir could have done justice to this unique cinematic concept.

Dhobi Ghat is surely not for the masses as clarified by Aamir when he said, “I have to inform them that if you are looking for an entertaining film, a lot of dhamaal, action, thrill and fast pace, then this film is not that. I believe the film is made for an audience who are maybe more interested in music, art, painting, poetry, reading or people who want to try something different.”

This is not the first time Aamir has shown confidence in a budding talent - just a few months ago, he had presented another simple and real story by newcomer Anusha Rizvi. Peepli Live was a satire on farmers’ suicides told in a humorous way. Directed and written by Rizvi, the film had no frills, no glamour and no known name in the cast, but still it swept the nation off its feet.

The film was India’s official entry to the Oscars, but is out of the race. Lagaan (2001), another Aamir film made it to the top five nomination list in the best foreign film category at the Academy Awards.

Perhaps Aamir had it in him since the beginning.

After starting his acting career with the super successful romantic drama Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, followed by hits and flops, Aamir continued to do something different with movies like Raakh, Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar, Baazi, Rangeela, Sarfarosh and Earth 1947.

But he came into his own with Lagaan, venturing into production with the movie which proved to be a box office wonder. It was perhaps the first film that turned movie theatres into stadiums where audiences clapped and cheered as the movie progressed to the climax.

If with the stupendous success of his maiden production venture Aamir broke the jinx that there are no takers for period films, he dispelled another myth that children-centric don’t work, with his directorial debut Taare Zameen Par, revolving around a child suffering from dyslexia. The film’s success established that if a story is narrated intelligently and interestingly, even an issue-based movie can bring glory.

It’s not that Aamir always makes zara hatke films.

The ultra-talented actor launched his nephew Imran Khan with Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na in 2008, which was a puppy love story starring Genelia D’Souza, and was written by him. This coming-ofage romantic movie hit the jackpot at the box office.

Aamir says that “it’s only on merit” that he produces a film.

In an industry where creativity is usually confused with grandeur, Aamir has tried to give new meaning to filmmaking. He is expected to keep people’s expectations intact with Delhi Belly, another venture first-time director Abhinay Deo at the helm.

Aamir finds himself often in the international limelight, a clear indication that recognition for his talent is increasing. He is on the international jury the international jury of the upcoming 61st Berlin International Film Festival, to be held in early February.

Whether it’s the ‘difference’ that is Aamir, or whether he has the pulse to spot a good theme and create a good movie, the actor has proved to be creative and daring in all his ventures. Kudos to him and may his kind flourish in Bollywood!

AAMIR KHAN

GUESS WHO

?

One of Hindi cinema’s most-loved stars, she continues to retain her beauty in her senior years (Find the answer under Caption Contest) 64 <> JANUARY (2) 2011

First work, then talk, says Anil Kapoor

The normally placid Anil Kapoor is irritated with people making castles in the air about the sequel to his 1987 sci-fi hit Mr. India and says rather than talking, we should start the project.

“We have all been talking about it and I think more than talking, we should start working on it. There is nothing we can talk about it as of now, it’s a complete blank. We should get going,” said Anil recently.

To be produced by Boney Kapoor, the film is going to be shot in 3D. While Anil and Sridevi are to reprise their roles as Arun Verma and Seema Sohni respectively, rumours are rife that Salman Khan is going to play a negative role in the film.

Mr. India in 3D, now that will be a movie worth watching!

Saif excited about first political venture

Romance, drama, action, thriller - he has done the entire lot, but Saif Ali Khan hasn’t tried a political thriller yet, and says Prakash Jha’s Aarakshan is his first in the genre.

The actor is starring in Jha’s high voltage political drama that also has Amitabh Bachchan, Deepika Padukone, Prateik Babbar and Manoj Bajpayee.

“This is my first time in a political movie.

Considering my rest of the films are commercial, it is good to be in something socially relevant,” said Saif recently.

The movie is based on caste-based reservations in government jobs and educational institutions and will see Saif sporting a trimmed Zappa moustache without a goatee for his character.

Wonder how long it will be before girlfriend Kareena dons a desi janta role too?

Amitabh aids AK Hangal

After Aamir Khan, megastar Amitabh Bachchan has come forward to offer support to ailing veteran actor A.K. Hangal, who is languishing in penury.

“It has been sad and unnerving to learn of the dire condition of one of our most devoted and dedicated character artistes of the industry, Mr. AK Hangal. I came to know of this through the kind offices of cyberspace - the net and the social net,” Amitabh wrote on his blog bigb. bigadda.com.

“I have now initiated my office, sitting some distance away, to render immediate support and help. As individuals, as fraternity, as humans, that is the least we can do,” he wrote.

The 68-year-old has worked with Hangal in Abhimaan, Sholay and Sharabi, and Amitabh admits that he’s disturbed to read about the 95-year-old’s condition.

INDIAN LINK

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SAIF ALI KHAN

Ruskin Bond buzzes into Bollywood

Ruskin Bond, the grand old “sahib” from Landour in Mussourie, has been bitten by the tinsel bug. The novelist will make his maiden foray on the big screen with a cameo in Vishal Bhardwaj’s forthcoming Saat Khoon Maaf, based on his short story Susannah’s Seven Husbands.

“I am in the movie. I have told Vishal that I have got a movie part. Don’t you dare cut me out,” said Bond recently in an interview.

This is not Bond’s first movie with filmmaker Bhardwaj. “I had earlier collaborated with him in the Blue Umbrella which was also based on my story, and recommended to Vishal by his wife. I could not work with Bhardwaj on that movie,” the 76-yearold author said.

Bond has been actively involved in scripting Saat Khoon Maaf, which stars Priyanka Chopra, unlike a previous screen adaptation of his short story The Flight of Pigeons in Junoon, where he “did not even meet the director”.

“Susannah… was originally a short story comprising a few odd pages.

When Vishal decided to turn it into a movie, I expanded the story into an 80-page novella and then began to think in terms of scenes. It became an actual script - a 200-page fulllength Hindi script,” Bond said.

Bond appears in the movie with Priyanka Chopra, who kills “each of her seven husbands”.

“I had to devise regional (Indian) ways of killing the husbands,” Bond said.

Mallika’s the prize

ANIL KAPOOR

AR RAHMAN

AR Rahman disappointed with solo win

Indian maestro A.R. Rahman says that after the mega sweep of Slumdog Millionaire at various awards, a solo win so far for the music of Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours has caused “great suffering” to the entire team.

“It’s so strange that when you NATIONAL EDITION

experience great success, the second movie gets really ripped off. It’s been a great suffering for the whole team,” Rahman said recently.

He lost out at the 68th Annual Golden Globe Awards for 127 Hours to The Social Network. However, the Mozart of Madras, as he is fondly called, is happy with the people’s response and nominations.

“Getting a nomination in itself is a great thing, among all the extraordinary talent. It’s got great reviews and people love the movie. I think it’s been a good ride so far,” said the ace composer, who also has to his credit the background score of Vince Vaughn-starrer Couples Retreat.

The shy musician has been nominated for the forthcoming British Academy of Films and Television Arts (BAFTA) award for original music in the biopic.

This is the Chennai-based composer’s second stint at Hollywood’s prestigious annual movie prizes after Slumdog...

“I don’t think I’ll get any award, but I’m grateful for the nominations. A lot of other movies are there and other very good talent, but I hope Danny Boyle gets the best director (award) and the film gets best film (trophy),” he said.

MALLIKA SHERAWAT

Anees Bazmee made a last minute decision to shoot an item number with Akshay Kumar and Mallika Sherawat for Thank You, but had to steal the actress from Indra Kumar who was filming some intricate group shots with her for Double Dhamaal.

“We needed her for five days and Indra Kumar, who is a dear friend, was sporting enough to lend Mallika to us,” said Bazmee who admits that the item song Razia goondon mein phans gayi was an afterthought and therefore created big date problems.

“We had a situation for the song but until recently, we had no song. When Pritam (Chakraborty) came up with the song Razia we immediately thought of Mallika Sherawat.

I’ve worked with her in Welcome and we had a good working relationship. In fact, she was supposed to do an item song for the movie which Malaika Arora finally did,” said Bazmee.

The song was apparently called “Sheila gundon mein phans gayi”. But Akshay, who had lately done a spectacular Sheila number with Katrina Kaif in Tees Maar Khan put his dancing foot down. So Razia it was.

And how did Indra Kumar manage?

“Well, we didn’t use a body double. But I had to adjust her shots in the group scenes so she could be away for five days”.

And as for Mallika, regardless as Sheila or Razia, she’s sure to shine.

CAPTION CONTEST

What are Suneil Shetty and Anil Kapoor saying to each other here?

Send in your responses to info@indianlink.com.au and win a surprise prize

Last issue Caption Contest winning entry

What’s the joke being shared here between Andie MacDowell and Aishwarya Rai? Look, there’s Freida Pinto, she thinks she’s in the same class as us….

Sudipta Chatterjee Fyshwick ACT Sudipta wins a free ticket to new release Dhobi Ghat Another good one Ash: You know what Abhi said to me the other day?

Andie: What?

Ash: He said that he wanted our first child to be bald, just like Paa! Andie: You can take my husband, he’s as shaved as you can get!

Khem Kharel GUESS WHO ANSWER: Mumtaz

“It has always been disturbing to read and learn of such occurrences. I do not wish to mention names here, for they are individuals that were idolised and revered in their prime, and bringing up their condition now is an act that would seem most demeaning to them and to their stature,” he said.

“Life’s stories have been overloaded with vivid descriptions of unfortunate circumstances. Circumstances that have brought the greats down to their knees. It is shocking and most undesirable to comment on it, but a quiet yet considered action for their good, is what I would want to get involved in. And I do. My prayers and wishes for Hangal Saheb.”

Hangal, a professional tailorturned-actor, currently lives with his son Vijaya, 75, in his ground floor flat in Mumbai. He is unable to afford his mounting medical bills as he suffers from old age related problems. The father-son duo together have a medical bill of over Rs.15,000 per month and now have to practically choose between spending on food and medication.

The Big B’s timely intervention will go a long way in helping the family.

It’s good to know that Amitabh’s living up to his sobriquet.

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A feisty tale of getting back in the groove Film: Turning 30 Cast: Gul Panag, Purab Kohli, Sid Makkar Director: Alankrita Shrivastava

It’s that sassy, spunky, urbane chick mouthing that ‘f ’ word again! Only days ago it was Rani Mukherjee in No One Killed Jessica. This time it’s the delightfully spontaneous Gul Panag, who plays an ad agency exec on the verge of 30. But things are not quite working out for her and she is watching her life come apart at the seams.

This is Sex and the City transposed to Mumbai.

Abandoned by her well-to-do boyfriend, Naina weeps with unabashed self-pity in front of the bathroom mirror and pleads, begs and whines with him to “take her back”.

In one of the film’s best sequences, Naina’s ex-boyfriend comes home to collect his things. Gul Panag’s body language and her desperate attempts to provoke him into emotional and sexual submission echoed Shabana Azmi’s celebrated ‘party’ sequence in Mahesh Bhatt’s Arth where she pleaded with her husband to take her back.

“Is she better in bed,” Gul asks with poignant aggression.

The problem, you realize in telling the tale of an urban girl’s adventures in the big bad city, is the language. While debutante director Alankrita Shrivastava, in control of her narration and characters, gets the mood right, the dialogues often appear to be straining for effect.

Which woman of today, hitting on a guy in a bar or for

that matter anywhere, uses a term like “fuddy-duddy”?

The chick flick, as it is rather crudely called, is an alien genre in Bollywood. The first-time director gets the tone and spirit of urban female bonding far more accurately than in the recent Aisha. Turning 30 goes for the inner wear-and-tear.

The music is loud and played at just the right decibel. The

characters seem to be grooving in rhythm most of the time.

Once Purab Kohli makes a late entry into Naina’s life, the film kind of loses its ebullient spirit. The narrative gets lazy and Naina’s 30th birthday party just goes on and on… Naina and her friends play ‘truth or dare’ where two girls confess they’re lesbians… and there is laughter, acceptance and warm hugs.

But at the end of it all, we do care about what happens to Naina’s adrift life. How Naina gets back her groove makes an interesting if at times sluggish story.

The situations created in the script appear straight out of the urbane chaos of designer labels and self-preserving image-creation... The narrative has an endearing fluidity and fluency to it. Girls here wanna have fun.

The unabashed references to the protagonist’s sex life and physicality are new to Hindi cinema. Gul Panag plays Naina with a disarming mix of transparency and confusion. She lets the character’s strength and vulnerability hang out in the same line of vision, creating a world that is at once lived-in and unexplored.

It’s a wonderful experience just watching Gul light up the screen once again after Dhoop and Dor. The supporting actors are all like people you’ve bumped into in Mumbai in an elevator or while waiting in line to get into a multiplex to watch a film like Turning 30.

New cinematographer Akshay Singh shoots the characters in a way that they appear in a far better light than they would otherwise. Fresh, feisty and well-designed with above-average technical virtues, Turning 30 is more chic than a ‘chick flick’.

Subhash K. Jha

A heartwarming tribute to the Deols Film: Yamla Pagla Deewana Cast: Dharmendra, Sunny Deol, Bobby Deol, Kulraj Randhawa, Anupam Kher, Nafisa Ali Director: Samir Karnik

When was the last time you went to see a movie to watch a real-life film family have fun? Was it 40 years ago in Kal Aaj Aur Kal when the Kapoor khandaan, grandfather Prithviraj Kapoor, son Raj and grandson Randhir Kapoor got together to show us how the generation gap can smother a free flow of ideas and emotions within a family?

In Yamla Pagla Deewana (YPD) the Deol parivar puts its laughing heads together for a fun fiesta. The problem in the plot is just the opposite of what we saw in Kal Aaj Aur Kal. The generation gap has disappeared. Son Bobby Deol calls his father Dharmendra ‘Dharam’ in the formal moments and ‘Kamina’ when Bobby-boy is in a particularly affectionate mode of thought.

Both father-son go around conning the whole of Varanasi in the first, decidedly more deft and amusing half of this crazy, zany, irreverent ode to a dysfunctional family. Sunny Deol’s NRI character comes searching from Vancouver for a father and brother who are hardly in the mood to be found. Turban in place.

Cleverly, often wittily, written by Jasvinder Singh Bath, YPD is big broad burlesque-styled homage to the spirit of on-screen and off-screen camaraderie. The Deol brothers are in full form and have been cleverly cast to create a somewhat disembodied study in contrasts. Bobby is deliberately loud and hammy, almost like Salman Khan in Dabangg without the humour in uniform.

Sunny Deol in a more controlled avatar than the other two Deols does his larger-than-life heroic act with habitual panache.

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It’s interesting to see how Sunny balances out the guffaws with the fights. His character and the rest of the plot repeatedly hark back to the dhishum-dhishum bak-bak razmatazz of the 1970s when cinema was all about unabashed villain bashing on sets that were supposed to look like sets.

Director Samir Karnik who showed his sensitive side in the underrated Heroes, here muffles the mellow moods in a melee

of harangue and one-liners.

Interestingly the lines of morality are delightfully blurred here. Dharmendra the ultimate super-hero of the 1970s is here an unapologetic con-man. One never knows when the heman transforms into the hee-hee man. All that matters is that Dharmendra seems to be having fun in his sons’ company. The mood of mischievous gaiety is contagious even in the second comparatively less engaging half when the entire cast moves to rural Punjab where Bobby woos the comely Kulraj Randhawa and wins over her zanily autocratic father (Anupam Kher, in full farcical form) and his battalion of goofily macho patriarchs.

For better or worse all films about marriage and courtship in a Punjabi milieu always reminds us of Imtiaz Ali’s Jab We Met. But hey, did Imtiaz’s film have Dharmendra’s first-born creating a ruckus after drinking whiskey out of a bucket?

Nahin na? There are in-house Deol jokes and references to Dharmendra neo-classics Sholay, Dharam-veer, Phool Aur Patthar and Pratiggya, all adding up to a rather heartwarming tribute to the Deols.

The spirit of tongue-in-cheek irreverence dominates the proceedings. The film has a rough-at-the-edges feel to it, perhaps deliberately to accentuate the rugged humour.

By the time we come to the crazy climax in the go-down in the second-half, someone comments, “This looks like a cheap go-down set from a tacky Hindi movie.” And we get the point of this scrambled crazy-as-can-be exercise in subversive laughter.

Director Samir Karnik loves the Deols. The Deols love one another. And we love watching a diehard Deol fan of a director bring Bollywood’s family together in a comedy that keeps us smiling till the last breathless moment of hilarious havoc.

Yes we love this film’s anything-goes mood. There are some delectable cameos. Watch out for Sucheta Dalaal as a spacedout Canadian sex-starved spinster and Amit Mistry as a not-socool Punjabi dude. They get the point.

So do we.

Subhash K. Jha INDIAN LINK

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And what a stunning debut!

Film: Dhobi Ghat Cast: Aamir Khan, Prateik Babbar, Monica Dogra, Kriti Malhotra Director: Kiran Rao

Every year literally hundreds of thousands throng to the city of dreams, Mumbai. To cover so many dreams in a small span of an-hour-and-a-half, calls for some brilliant filmmaking. And watching Dhobi Ghat will make you realise that there indeed have been very few debuts as stunning as this one.

Dhobi Ghat is the story of five characters - Yasmin (Kirti Malhotra), Arun (Aamir Khan), Shai (Monica Dogra), Munna (Prateik Babbar) and the city of Mumbai. After a one night stand with Arun, who is a painter, Shai, an investment banker from America and an

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amateur photographer, obsesses over him, while her dhobi Munna pines for Shai.

Arun, meanwhile, discovers a few tapes in his flat from the previous tenant and, watching them, falls in love and finds a muse in the woman who has made them - Yasmin. Each of the character is thus looking for something in one another, while the fifth character, Mumbai, simply stares blankly at them without comment or prejudice.

One of the best things about the film is its casting. Each of the actors complements the film, its director, and the city of Mumbai perfectly. Each is believable in his or her own garb. Prateik is bound to become the heartthrob of the generation, while Kirti Malhotra’s innocence has to be seen to be believed.

Real life singer Monica brings out the uncertainty of her character beautifully.

The only one who is a little out of place, and hence the small sore point of the film, is actor Aamir Khan. He begins shakily and is self conscious, unable as he is perhaps of shaking away two decades of Bollywood’s acting baggage.

By the end of it though, he manages to get into the film’s rhythm and gives a believable performance.

It is hence not Kiran Rao’s luck that she got superstar husband Aamir to act in the film, but Aamir’s luck that he is in this film, which will go down

in the history of cinema as one of the best character sketches of a city and its people. Very few people in cinema have sketched any city with such tender love, care and affection. And to add to the lilting melody that is Mumbai in the film is composer Gustavo Santaolalla who gives a haunting background score.

Director Kiran Rao brilliantly manages to find a physical representation of Mumbai city, in the old woman who blankly stares at all the characters, but says nothing. The metaphor is simple but powerful - Mumbai is a dying, decaying city, but also one that is definitely alive and watches over all.

And like the character of Arun who becomes a voyeur into the life of Yasmin, it is Kiran Rao that has played voyeur on the city of Mumbai.

Another good thing about the film is that nowhere does it slacken or lose pace. On the contrary, it unfolds almost like a mystery, like a rose bud, only to scintillate the senses in full bloom. It thus might become the low budget indie Indian film that will finally make just as much money as big-budget Bollywood fare.

In the end though, that wouldn’t matter much to the audience - who are sure to find themselves somewhere in the film. Each one of the characters in the film is like Mumbai, and Mumbai is like each one of us who inhabit it.

Satyen K. Bordoloi

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BACKCHAT

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Gob-smacked!

Ask Auntyji To be or not to be… happy Dear Auntyji I know that you have many other important problems to worry about, and I do feel a little narcissistic writing to you about my problem, but you are so wise, so sage in your counsel, I just need to hear what you have to say. Auntyji, it’s like this. I got married three years ago and my husband is the most wonderful man alive. I am so in love with him that I can’t even express this. He has a job that he really loves and it pays very well. I am a project manager and I get paid well too – and I too love my job. We live in a very nice suburb in Sydney and we are both so happy with everything in our life, we are healthy and young. So Auntyji, my problem is that I think that...maybe I do not deserve any of this and somehow it will be taken away from me. I worry about it constantly – to the point that I think it’s only a matter of time. Auntyji, what do I do? Mind you, I grew up in a wealthy household so none of this is new to me. And I have been happy all of my life.

So why this feeling, Auntyji? Why? Auntyji says What the…? You are rich, young and happy, and this is your problem? Arre, you ungrateful little shaitaan, have you no shame whatsoever writing to me like this? You need to understand two things. One, that you probably starved to death after you lived a life of abuse from a neglectful horrid, drunk husband in your previous life and this is probably payback, or karma.

And second, honestly, really, you worry about tripe like this?

Have you considered giving your wealth away and fighting with your husband over trivial issues so you can have drama in your life? You are wasting my time, you ingrate. I suggest you learn to be happy with your lot in life. It’s as simple as that. Make it a project – to learn to be thankful for everything you have. And if it gets taken away from you, well, so be it. That’s what life is.

Do you have a question for Auntyji?

Send it in to GPO Box 108 Sydney 2001 or email it to info@indianlink.com.au

Dear Auntyji I am a 45-year-old professional woman, and Auntyji, I am quite embarrassed to come to you with this problem. Now, Auntyji, I will have to be honest with you, so you don’t get the wrong impression of me. I am, what some might say, an attractive woman. All my life, I have had most people tell me I am very attractive. Plus they also say I have a very charming personality.

In my own opinion, I am simply well groomed and personable.

I have interesting things to talk about, but that’s all. I do not think I am Ash Bachchan or anything.

I have recently started work at a small company (10 people only) as a general manager, and while my colleagues do very good work, they can be quite unprofessional sometimes. They are very young, so play jokes and the banter can be quite colourful. In any case, at the Christmas party, my 22-year-old colleague, who is younger than my son by a month, invited me to go on a cruise with him! Of course, I laughed it off, but yesterday, he told me, before he left on the cruise that he hasn’t stopped thinking about me since I joined, and he wants me to move in with him. He says he prefers older women, and has no idea how old I am. And even though I am married, his impression is that my husband is dull and boring.

Where he got this idea from, I do not know. But Auntyji, I smiled it off and told him he needed to go out and get a university degree and sort out his life – the same advice I give to both my sons. But Auntyji, I am most perplexed. Horrified.

Startled. Caught by surprise. I am totally not flattered about any of this, and I want to ensure I handle this in the best possible manner. What would you suggest? As smart as I am, I have, for once, been left totally gobsmacked. Smacked of gob, I am.

Auntyji says Oh dearie me, dearie me. You poor little aam ki chutney, how devastated you must be. I can totally understand your indignation. Why, this reminds me of the time – well never, mind, let’s focus on you.

These Gen Y kids… sometimes they have less sense collectively, than my little billi rani Sheetal. Well, young men sometimes say the strangest and weirdest things and I hope for your sake that he came back from leave with at least half a brain, although judging by his actions, he had only an ounce to begin with.

But, I am pleased to hear that you did not hurt his delicate little ego, and you gave him practical advice.

I suggest to pretend he did not say anything of that nature to you. But if he persists like most amorous ashiqs, I recommend that you tactfully mention to him that you are not interested, and that any further conversation on the topic will be unprofessional and that you will not tolerate it. And then treat him with professional courtesy – as you do with all your other colleagues. I suggest you work hard on improving the culture and workplace behaviour of that place – it is up to you to set standards. Be very mindful that you must be consistent in your behaviour – so keep your family life private, and for my billi rani’s sake, who must endure the odd profanity from me as I read about problems people have – do not stoop to their level. So don’t ask them to play Snoop Dog and then join in with the rapping.

Don’t discuss private matters – conduct yourself with decorum and dignity. Don’t tell them how hot a curry you are - if you know what I mean, my beautiful little gulabo.

And don’t ask them details about their private lives. And if they try to discuss it with you, you can always maintain a dignified silence, you saucy wench, you. And write back if that poor do takey ka ashiq continues with his advances.

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SPECIALREPORT

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Sale of uranium issue still not resolved While Mr Krishna and Mr Rudd’s discussion on bilateral cooperation issues was varied and fruitful, a status quo still exists on the sale of uranium to India (Mr Krishna) requested consideration of students who had come to Australia under the old rules being placed in a special category that allowed them to fulfill the demand that existed in Australia for their skills.

BY PREETI JABBAL

Indian External Affairs Minister Mr SM Krishna met Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd in Melbourne recently and conducted the seventh round of the annual Foreign Ministers’ Framework Dialogue. The key focus of the meeting was to discuss issues that affect and engage bilateral cooperation between the two nations. Mr. Krishna was assisted by Indian High Commissioner Sujata Singh, Secretary (East) Vijay Latha Reddy, and Adviser Raghavendra Shastry.

During his three-day official visit, Mr. Krishna met Mr. Kevin Rudd, several senior officials and leaders of the country including new Victorian premier Mr. Ted Baillieu and Energy and Resources Minister Mr. Martin Ferguson.

The ministers discussed many regional and international issues, including climate change, terrorism, the East Asia Summit, the G20 process, reform of the UN and international financial institutions, maritime security and people smuggling in the Indian Ocean.

During his meetings with Mr. Rudd and Mr. Ferguson the External Affairs Minister raised the issue of India’s standing request to Australia to sell uranium to it to generate clean energy. “If you have to have clean energy, then according to India the only option is to have

nuclear energy, and if you have to have nuclear energy, then you certainly need uranium,” Mr. Krishna said at a joint press conference with Mr. Rudd. However, while Mr. Rudd acknowledged India’s clean record on nuclear proliferation, he stuck to Australia’s stated position of not selling uranium to non- Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) signatories. Mr. Rudd stressed that the disagreement over the uranium issue should not affect the solid progress being made in the Indian Australian relationship.

During his visit Mr. Krishna also met a large number of members of the Indian diaspora in Melbourne. A community reception was held in the Langham Hotel followed by a brief media interaction session where the minister answered questions raised by local media.

In his address to the community Mr. Krishna assured those present that the security and safety of Indians in Australia continues to be of prime importance to both nations. He expressed his satisfaction over the efforts taken by the Australian Government in that respect.

Speaking on the Australian Government’s stand not to sell uranium to India till it signed the NPT, Mr. Krishna said that he hopes Australia will revisit its stance. “India is hoping to reach a double digit in GDP growth soon and this will result in increased demand for nuclear energy”, he said. “Our negotiations with Australia have been with the backdrop of climate change. Climate change demands we aim at clean energy. It has been accepted by experts that nuclear power is the cleanest power, and India is committed to pursue its nuclear

power expansion,” he said. “Australia has to understand that India is a responsible nuclear power and revisit its decision not to sell us uranium,” he added.

In his joint statement with Mr. Rudd, the Minister noted that changes in the skilled migration program had significantly impacted on Indian students already studying in Australia, many of whom had taken heavy loans to pursue their studies. He requested consideration of students who had come to Australia under the old rules being placed in a special category that allowed them to fulfill the demand that existed in Australia for their skills.

Mr. Rudd, on the other hand, highlighted the generous transition arrangements for most international student’s visa holders at the time of the changes in February 2010.

He also noted Australia’s review of its students Visa program announced in mid-December, and expected to be completed in mid 2011.

Mr. Krishna also announced that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would visit Perth in Australia to attend the next Commonwealth Heads of Governments Meeting in October this year and hold a bilateral summit. “If this visit takes place, it would be a very important visit - the first prime ministerial visit to Australia in 25 years,” he said, adding the trip “would provide a significant opportunity to take our bilateral relations to a significant level”.

While addressing the local media at Langham Hotel Mr. Krishna said “India attaches great importance to Australia. Australia is India’s sixth largest trading partner, and India is now Australia’s third largest overall export market and fifth largest trade partner. Trade and investment between the two countries will continue to increase,” he said.

The year 2012 has been designated as the Year of Australia in India. On a lighter note Mr. Krishna, who is a tennis buff, regretted his inability to watch any live Tennis during the Australian Open due to his hectic schedule.

Earlier that evening in his informal speech to the Indian community, Mr. Krishna reiterated his satisfaction at the interaction with Mr. Rudd on a host of bilateral issues. “I believe this has been a constructive and fruitful engagement” he said. He also informed the community that Mr. Rudd had accepted his invitation to visit India later this year to continue the dialogue. Mr. Krishna’s visit is said to mark the concerted efforts that the two sides are making at the government-to-government level to take bilateral relationship to the next level by encouraging high-level dialogue and engagement.

India’s Foreign Minister SM Krishna with (from left) the Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd, members of the Indian community, and High Commissioner Sujatha Singh and Secy (East) Latha Reddy Photos: Guruswamy

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