2011-09 Melbourne

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MELBOURNE

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INDIAN LINK PUBLISHER Pawan Luthra EDITOR Rajni Anand Luthra ASSISTANT EDITORS Sheryl Dixit, Gaurav Pandey MELBOURNE Preeti Jabbal CONTRIBUTORS Darshak Mehta, Astha Singh, Sreedhevi Iyer, Shailendra Bedarkar, Uzma Beg, Neelam Vasudevan, Sydney Srinivas, Malli Iyer, Noopur Singhal, Tim Blight, Chitra Sudarshan, Roy Lange, Noel G deSouza, Thomas E King, Ashita Vadher, Shafeen Mustaq, Farzana Shakir, Geeta Khurana, Rani Jhala, Nancy Jade Althea, Deepa Gopinath ADVERTISING MANAGER Vivek Trivedi ADVERTISING ASSISTANT Nitika Sondhi GRAPHIC DESIGN AND LAYOUT Melissa Walsh Indian Link is a monthly newspaper published in English. No material, including advertisements designed by Indian Link, maybe reproduced in part or in whole without the written consent of the editor. Opinions carried in Indian Link are those of the writers and not necessarily endorsed

by Indian Link. All correspondence should be addressed to Indian Link Level 24/44 Market St, Sydney 2000 or GPO Box 108, Sydney 2001 Ph: 1800 015 847 Fax: 02 9279-2005 Email: info@indianlink.com.au

EDITORIAL

Compassion is the key There seems to be a race to the bottom between Labor and Coalition when it comes to their views on refugees and asylum seekers. Both these parties seem to have forsaken their basic values of human decency as they pander to the fear-mongering created by shock jocks and by being slaves to the short term polls. Helping another in need is basic human value, and refugees who travel across dangerous oceans are not coming to Australia to invade it; rather, they are escaping from countries where tyranny and oppression is a part of their daily lives. It will be a test of true leadership if these parties stand by what they believe in, rather than what is being forced upon them through petty politics.

Australia is a lucky country. With a vast land mass, the climate a blessing and resources in abundance, it is a country which can easily be shared with the less fortunate. Even smaller countries like Turkey have over 18,000 refugees and asylum seekers, according to UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency. In the United Kingdom there reside 238,150 refugees and 14,800 asylum seekers, making it over 252,000 migrants who have

BY PAWAN LUTHRA

escaped the atrocities in their homeland.

In Australia, one tends to take basic freedom for granted and most find it difficult to understand and comprehend the life stories of these refugees, which number less than 25,000 here.

Perhaps one needs to consider the truly desperate reasons that will lead these refugees to flee from their country of birth. As migrants to Australia, most Indian Australians still talk about going “back home” for holidays, and they mean India. For most, it is difficult to forget their country of birth and its easy to imagine how emotionally devastating it would be if one could never return to one’s homeland. Most refugees do not have an easy option to just get onto a plane and go back home for a holiday.

Most Indian Australians with young families enjoy the security of a roof over their heads and a warm, caring

environment. Now simply imagine the desperation that would lead you to put yourself and your family in the hands of corrupt people smugglers, braving storms and rough seas in a leaky boat in the middle of the ocean. And all for the smallest glimmer of hope of a life in Australia! One needs to understand and show some compassion to the situation and these people.

“Boat people” is not a dirty phrase.

These are people, human beings whose need for relocation is urgent and dire.

Refugees need to be treated with respect and allowed some dignity. They do not need to be banished to Malaysia, Nauru or any other place. Their paperwork can be processed while they are in Australia, mandatory detention should not be enforced, and certainly not in the case of children.

The political parties – Labor or Coalition – should be mature enough to cease playing on people’s fears of new refugees. After all, all migrants to Australia are, in a way, refugees in their new home.

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COMMUNITYSCENE

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Rocking on the river Yarra “The boat down the river was sailing away Round through the Yarra where to?..... No one cared” The guests at the recent Sangam ‘World on cruise’ were so busy having a good time that it did not matter to them how far they sailed or how long they remained aboard the Lady Cutler. The family-friendly cruise was organized to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Sangam Group. It was fun from when the cruise departed from Docklands to its return, when the last guests disembarked, albeit, reluctantly. Even the unpredictable Melbourne weather seemed to be in Sangam’s favour and the boat’s journey was buoyed by a perfect breeze.

Sangam Group is a non-profit, nonpolitical, multicultural group that promotes multiculturalism within the community. As its name suggests ‘Sangam’ is a confluence of a variety of people. “We have no regional barriers and absolutely no political agenda, our focus is mainly on creating a familyfriendly and multicultural environment,” said Gurpreet Tuteja, President of Sangam as he introduced the committee members. True to his words, the guests on the cruise belonged to all walks of life and myriad backgrounds with just one common goal for the evening to enjoy this social event.

The only formal part of the evening was the official cake-cutting ceremony by the Sangam team and presentations to special guests. Certificates of appreciation were presented to Vice Consul Mr. Rakesh Kawra, FIAV President Mr. Vasan Srinivasan, VMC representatives Michael Van Vliet and Caroline Duyvestyn and Indian Link’s Coordinator Mrs. Preeti Jabbal. A special token of appreciation was presented to Sangam founders Mrs. Hardip Madan, Mrs. Usha Sharma and Mr. Suresh Sutrave. “We created Sangam a decade ago to promote harmony and multiculturalism within the community,” said Mr. Sutrave. “The idea was to encourage our younger generation to do the same. It gives me great pride to see how the current Sangam committee has continued that tradition with such enthusiasm,” he added.

An eclectic mix of entertainment created ripples of excitement through the night.

Taking off with soft songs and music, the agenda sailed through Salsa, Bhangra, Bollywood and Fijian folk presentations. DJ Arif stirred up the waters with some groovy tracks and kept the guests rocking and rolling through the entire evening. In between people did find time to eat the simple, yet sumptuous dinner catered by Curry Club. The cruise was sponsored by Prasaana and Gerard from Prestige Performance Automotive, Cengiz from Plumbcorp, Gary from GotoPrint and Suresh from Curry Club Atlite Skylights.

Feedback suggests that people appreciated the well-organized multicultural event. “It is so refreshing to attend an event that has no ulterior motives other than having fun.

I attend a lot of these community events and most them take a predictable course of lengthy speeches, noisy participants who do not allow you to hear a word and in some cases, utter chaos. I commend the attention to detail provided by the Sangam team, they kept all age groups in mind and that in itself is a remarkable feat,” said a guest.

Kudos goes to the current Sangam team that comprises of Gurpreet Tuteja, Umesh Kumar, Chirag Maheshwari, Ramki Mahadevan, Paresh Parekh, Krishna Arora, Suresh Sutrave and Joel Thankechan. Going forward, they intend to approach local councils in regional Victoria to hold similar multicultural events.

Simmi Bakshi

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SPECIAL REPORT

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Amitabh in Sydney “…the Sydney Opera House out of my window, an iconic symbol of this city... and the rest a cleaner version of Manhattan…”

With these words, Amitabh Bachchan described on Twitter his first night in Sydney.

Yes the Big B was in town briefly in late August. There was a rush of phone calls at the Indian Link office as the news went around. Where is he staying? Where can we get a glimpse?

The latest is, he’s back in Mumbai now, but Hindi cinema’s best-loved personality will be back shortly for an extended stay. Amitabh will be working here until Christmas, and that too on a Baz Luhrmann film – the remake of the iconic film The Great Gatsby.

He will join Hollywood stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire and Carey Mulligan in the $120 million production.

A host of Australian stars are also part of the feature, including Joel Edgerton, Isla Fisher, Jack Thompson, model Gemma Ward, Triple J’s Brendan Maclean and teenager Callan McAuliffe.

And what role will Amitabh be playing?

Well, rumours were that he would play ‘dad to Leonardo’, but according to a recent SMH report, “the Bollywood veteran…

plays Gatsby’s shadowy business partner Wolfsheim”.

Amitabh had stated to an interview with Indian Link a few years ago, that while there certainly were a few offers for him from film-makers outside of India, they were all too minor for him to seriously consider, and that he would do so if something substantial were to come along. Looks like one finally has come his way now.

There was some confusion in the mainstream press about the Bollywood star lined up by Luhrmann. An earlier report in the Daily Telegraph (dated 23 Aug) obviously got the wrong Bachchan: Some fresh casting news has also emerged with Bollywood leading man Abhishek Bachchan set to join the cast. A bonafide movie star in India, Bachchan is also famed as the husband of fellow Bollywood star Aishwarya Rai whom he married in 2007. He has appeared in more than 50 films but The Great Gatsby will be his biggest Hollywood film role to date.

However the SMH report got the right Bachchan, even quoting Luhrmann as saying Amitabh’s films, especially Sholay, had made a lasting impression on him.

He didn’t say anything however about Amitabh’s last embarrassing connection with Australia – when he refused a 2009 honour by the Queensland University of Technology in protest against the spate of

attacks on Indian students here. The Indian community in this country had at the time lamented that Amitabh had missed a golden opportunity to do his bit for the students here.

The Great Gatsby will be the first 3D live action movie to be shot in NSW. The filming begins this month at Fox Studios and continues for 17 weeks. The film is slated for a Nov 2012 release.

Of course we can expect Amitabh to take a leave of absence some time around November, to welcome the arrival of a rather special baby. But for the coming weeks, desi folk in Sydney can keep their necks craned to catch a glimpse of their all-time favourite film star in their very own city.

Amitabh-spotters, get to work… and send in those pics to Indian Link!

Rajni Anand Luthra

Federation Square to host Diwali

Melbourne’s most iconic location will be prime among a series of venues celebrating the Festival of Lights BY SHERYL DIXIT

Melbourne’s landmark Federation Square will see a full-scale celebration of Diwali between October 17 to 26, 2011. Touted to be the largest Diwali celebration in Australia, the event launches with a host of different programmes on October 17.

The Diwali Mela aims at bringing India’s most important and vibrant festival to the people of Melbourne while offering them a glimpse into the rich culture and heritage of the country.

Among the festivities over the ten-day event set across different venues including the airport, will be film shows screening free every day at Federation Square from noon, between October 17-21, sponsored

by Mind Blowing Films. On October 19, outdoor dance performances will be held at the City Centre from 5:30pm onwards.

Diwali celebrations will be held on the same day at Flinders St. Station at 6pm.

A major event is scheduled for October 22, which will be well-attended by representatives of the Victorian government, the government of India, city INDIAN LINK

officials, community leaders and others. On this day dance troupes will be performing in abundance, with a contemporary Kathak dance troupe visiting from India, fusion dances with an Indian flavor from Greek and Chinese dance groups, classical and folk dances of India, bhangra and the indomitable Bollywood. Dancers from the renowned Strange Fruits Company will also perform in an unusual format.

Indian Bazaar will bring you the true spirit of an Indian mela all its colourful and vibrant glory, by the Square and extending to the riverfront. With a variety of stalls peddling clothes, jewellery, handicrafts, music and movie CDs and DVDs, bargain hunters will be kept happy. And don’t forget the food stalls, which will have a variety of authentic cuisine representative of different regions in India, catering to tastes for every palate. Indulge in vegetarian and non-vegetarian delicacies, a treat for the tastebuds.

Stage performances by talented children’s groups, live music, novelty items and raffles, dance workshops will all be a part of this event which will showcase the traditions of Diwali. An AFL interactive workshop will also be conducted for sports lovers.

And of course, what would Diwali be without the fireworks? A special fireworks

display will be organized on the Yarra River at 9pm. Don’t miss the spectacular Diwali boat which, resplendently decorated and lighted, will cruise along the Yarra, with live performances on its deck for the pleasure of viewers. There will be opportunities to meet the Diwali ambassador at this free, fun, family event.

In support for the Festival of Lights, iconic buildings will be illuminated from October 17-22 such as the Parliament of Victoria, the Museum, the Exhibition Building, Consulate General of India building, Australia India Institute, Federation Square, among others. Diwali will even be celebrated at Flinders Street and particularly Melbourne Airport from 18-26 October. This is the first time the Melbourne Airport will be involved in these festive celebrations, showcasing a variety of dance and music performances through the event.

Throughout the state of Victoria, a lighting/decoration competition for homes and business will be conducted, with the first prizewinner being offered return airfare to India, sponsored by Gaura Travels. Indian Link newspaper is the main media sponsor of this iconic event, which is expected to not just draw crowds, but bring across the true flavour of India and its people to

Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu at last year’s Diwali Festival celebrations at Federation Square

Australia.

Says Arun Sharma, Chairman of Celebrate India Inc, organizer of the event, “This is a great opportunity to celebrate the Festival of Lights in multicultural Melbourne. We invite everyone to come and experience the joy, festivity and celebration of Diwali in a sprit of harmony.”

For more details, visit www. celebrateindia.org.au or email contact@ celebrateindia.org.au SEPTEMBER 2011 <> 7

COVERSTORY

Agents of change In a show of solidarity towards the fight against corruption, Indian-Australians rallied in peaceful protests and signature drives across the country to support Anna Hazare

What is the Jan Lokpal Bill?

Based on reports from Gaurav Pandey, Astha Singh and Rajni Anand Luthra Literally translated, Lokpal means ‘protector of the people’. The first ‘Lokpal Bill’, as the name suggests, was a proposed legislation aimed at creating a ‘Lokpal’ body introduced in the Parliament back in the late 1960s. The Bill never made it to ‘Law’ stature.

Now, years later, the Lokpal Bill has phoenixed, thanks to Anna Hazare and his team of supporters. With the aim of creating an ‘anti-corruption’ statute, the Government of India proposed a Lokpal Bill in 2010 to create an ombudsman, an ‘advisory body’ which would attend to complaints forwarded by the Speaker of the Lok Sabha or the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha.

By design, the powers of this Lokpal were to be limited to forwarding reports on these complaints to yet another ‘competent authority’. This proposal seemed inadequate to the average Indian tortured by red tapism and corruption.

As a result, anti-corruption activists such as Anna Hazare came together under the ‘India Against Corruption’ (IAC) banner to formulate and propose the Jan Lokpal Bill, or the Citizens’

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Ombudsman Bill, which proposed an independent watchdog to tackle the mammoth task of deterring corruption, redressing citizens’ grievances and protecting whistle blowers.

Many days of hunger strike, demonstrations throughout the country, efforts and meetings of surprised politicos, tweets and slogans later, a special and all exclusive session of Parliament was convened and a resolution achieved, which ‘in principle’ agreed to a citizens’ charter bill, as well as to create state level ombudsmen, an announcement that Mr. Hazare termed as “a battle half-won.”

If the bill becomes a law, it will result in an independent body, the Jan Lokpal, with powers to investigate, monitor and prosecute the Prime Minister, the judiciary, members of Parliament and government employees.

The Jan Lokpal will merge with the anti-corruption wing of the CBI, have powers to register FIRs and prosecute the guilty to suitable punishment which would range from 10 years to life imprisonment.

The parliament of India recently agreed to create an independent anti-corruption agency, known as the Lokpal, giving in to Anna Hazare, a 74-year-old anti-graft campaigner who almost starved himself to death in a 12-day hunger strike which was the focal point of a tense standoff between Team Anna, comprising Hazare and his supporters, and the lawmakers in India.

Anna Hazare’s hunger strike found unparalleled public support from Indians across the world. In India, his campaign became a platform for hundreds and thousands of people to express their frustration at the endemic problem of corruption, as well as their disillusionment with politicians in the country.

The movement also found resonance among Indian Australians who came out in support of Hazare, adding their own voices to those of their countrymen back home.

UIA protest: Harris Park, Sydney In Sydney, peaceful protests were held in support of Anna’s demands.

On August 27, the United Indian Associations (UIA) organised a gathering at Harris Park in Western Sydney which attracted about 200 people from the community.

The gathering reiterated the need to fight against the menace of corruption in India, and sought the support of the youth in this fight. UIA President Amarinder Bajwa exhorted people to take a stand against corruption and follow the principles of Anna Hazare.

What started as signature and education campaigns gradually gained momentum as Anna’s message reached more and more people from the community. The gathered crowd roared out slogans like, “India is Anna, Anna is India!” and “Inqlaab zindabad”.

“Corruption has two sides, givers and takers. But we should also ensure that we cleanse ourselves and make sure we are

not a part of this menace,” said Subbarao Verigonda, Managing Director of IPP Technologies.

“We need to come together and act as one community. We need to get out of the mentality to accuse others all the time.

Especially in a small country like Australia, it becomes all the more important for us to behave as one community,” said Anuj Kulshetra, Editor of Hindi Gaurav, an Indian community newspaper.

Gargi Tripathi, founder of www. australianindians.com.au, who had been on a continuous fast in support of Anna Hazare, also addressed the gathering and expressed her gratitude for the support and solidarity shown by Indian Australians.

The group ‘AustralianIndians’ was formed to gather support for the fight against corruption in India.

“We started a signature and education campaign on the issue during India Australia Friendship fair recently,” said one of the participants in the gathering.

“Later we decided to join members of the community in supporting this message.”

The following day, the UIA congratulated the Indian Australian community after the Parliament of India gave in to the demands of Anna and his team. The UIA termed it as the “first victory of people power” in India.

Protest march: Darling Harbour to Hyde Park, Sydney In another protest, about 50 activists and supporters from various professions came together on August 27 for a peaceful march from Darling Harbour to Hyde Park. The march was led by Vidul Tyagi, Mayank Kedia and Saif Wasti, who had conducted a similar rally at Sydney’s Opera House on August 21. It was supported by Isha Foundation Sydney volunteers Sathasivan Karupanan and Kavi Kamachi as well, expressing their solidarity with Anna Hazare and the movement.

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Chronology of an epochal fast Chronology of a fast that forced the Indian parliament to acknowledge its people’s power and established civil society’s priority in a democracy: Jan 30

arches in over 60 cities to demand antiM corruption Lokpal bill. Social reformer Anna Hazare, former top cop Kiran Bedi, activist Swami Agnivesh and lawyer Prashant Bhushan participate in Delhi rally.

Feb 26 Hazare announces fast unto death from April 5 if Prime Minister Manmohan Singh does not decide on civil society’s inclusion in drafting the bill.

April 5

Hazare starts fast at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar.

April 8 Hazare announces decision to end fast as government agrees to form 10-member panel of civil society members and union ministers to draft a stringent anti-corruption law.

April 9

Hazare ends fast.

April 16 Joint committee’s first meet cordial. Both sides exchange drafts.

May 2 Second meet with “no difference of opinion”.

after police crackdown against yoga guru Baba Ramdev’s fast in Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan.

June 15 No consensus on inclusion of Prime Minister, Supreme and High Court judges.

June 20 Some ice melts amid war of words; government calls it “major step forward”.

June 21 Last meeting of joint committee ends on sour note. Both sides exchange drafts; Hazare warns of another fast.

Aug 15 Hazare denied permission to fast at Delhi’s Jayaprakash Narayan Memorial Park after Team Anna agrees to accept only 16 of police’s 22 conditions.

Aug 16 Hazare begins fast, detained early morning and sent to seven-day judicial custody to Tihar jail. Government decides to set him free late night. He refuses.

Aug 17 Hazare refuses to leave Tihar Jail till a solution is reached on fast venue. Supporters gather outside prison, Hazare continues fast from jail.

Permitted to fast at Ramlila Maidan.

Aug 19 Hazare leaves Tihar Jail, continues fast at Ramlila Maidan.

May 7 Agreement on independent Lokpal with powers to initiate investigation and prosecution.

Aug 23 Government invites Team Anna for talks.

May 23 Agreement on empowering Lokpal to order list of movable and immovable assets of accused in corruption cases when sufficient evidence found to book them.

Aug 25 After meetings with political parties and Team Anna, government agrees to debate all versions of Lokpal bill in parliament.

Aug 24 Second round of talks, all-party meeting held.

No breakthrough in impasse.

May 30 Differences appear as government disagrees on including prime minister, Supreme and High Court judges and MPs’ conduct in parliament within Lokpal’s ambit.

Aug 27 Both houses of parliament debate Lokpal bill, adjourn after adopting ‘sense of the house’ and agreeing to Hazare’s three demands that will be sent to standing committee on Lokpal bill.

June 6 Civil society members boycott meet a day

Aug 28 Anna breaks fast on 13th day.

A petition was also signed by about 35 Indians at Darling Harbour on the day and by others a day prior, at the Consulate General’s office in the presence of Amit Dasgupta, Consul General for India in Sydney, demanding the enactment of a comprehensive Jan Lokpal Bill to eradicate corruption in India.

During the march that started at 4.15pm, all the NRIs took a pledge of supporting the movement until a favourable decision is made and enacted upon by the government and law of India.

“Though I’m not in India right now, I’m concerned about the growing corruption in the country and its effect on the common man,” said Arpita Singh, an IT student.

“We live in a corrupt country – the time has come to throw all corrupt politicians out and reclaim our nation,” said Vidul Tyagi from Macquarie University.

Animesh Singh said, “I simply wish that India will become a country without corruption and people will be able to access and make use of the law successfully.”

Said Mr Surya, “The biggest hurdle for the development if India is corruption, and it should be completely eradicated.”

All the activists were holding placards, posters and handwritten charts with slogans such as: “Anna, we are with you”, “India against Corruption”, “Sydney supports Anna Hazare”, among others.

The support for Anna Hazare’s movement was tremendous, with several people coming forward with statements to the effect. Parminder Singh, Kanwal Dhillon, Dean Maloney, Deepak Gupta, Ambaris Mohanty and 40 other people signed the petition, and many more attended the glorious and peaceful march to support India against corruption.

Two rallies for Anna: Federation Square, Melbourne For thirty-something Melbournians Arvind Bagla and Avinash Raina, the manner in

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which their campaign took off came as a complete surprise. Arvind struck upon the idea on Friday August 19, sending a message out to close friends that he wanted to organise a rally on the Sunday August 21.

There’s not much time, his mates said.

But the passion was so overwhelming that everything, even the approval from the Federation Square authorities, fell into place in no time.

With the message getting out on Facebook and via email, some 70-odd supporters turned up to lend their support to the anti-corruption movement in India.

“I’m not a politician or a social activist by any means,” the soft-spoken Arvind, a business analyst with NAB, told Indian Link later. “But I was touched that people from all walks of life participated, and we were able to send our message across to the Indian government. The people who came in support were everyday people, not associations”.

A second rally organised for 27 August, was just as well-attended.

“I’m glad that one person could unite all of India so successfully,” Arvind said of Anna Hazare, the man at the centre of it all. “Whatever people may say about him, he’s just demanding a system that punishes wrong-doers. The initial response by the government was harsh, but you know, some pressure can get things done! His intentions were good – his fight was about our country, at the end of the day.”

“We may live far away from our home country, but we care just as much,” Arvind continued. “Everything that happens in India affects us all directly or indirectly. The Commonwealth Games saga, for example, had us all so concerned…. And that’s why we organised these rallies”.

One of the attendees was a 74-year-old man who was visiting his son. Despite being a heart patient, he turned up at the rally to offer his support, with his entire family in tow.

“He told me, ‘I’m so proud to be here with you’,” revealed Arvind.

Their particular campaign, Arvind stressed, was not against any particular political party or individual.

“We made a promise that day, that we will do whatever we can for a ‘cleaner’ India. We will say no to bribes whenever we go back home, and we will promote this message amongst our friends and family,” he added.

Motivated by Arvind’s passion, his father in Rajasthan’s Ganganagar city organised his own rally in support, along with extended family members and friends.

Avinash Raina, co-organiser of the Melbourne rallies, said he felt “very satisfied” that Anna’s campaign has produced results.

“I feel great to have been a part of it, in whatever small way. We gave our 100% to it. Rather than sit in our lounge rooms and talk about the corruption in India, we actually got out of our comfort zones and did something about it,” he said proudly.

Avinash said he felt motivated to join simply because of the enthusiasm he saw in India for the cause. Quoting from Art Of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (who has also been an ardent Anna supporter), Avinash said, “The Big C – corruption – can be combated with five other Cs: connectedness, courage, cosmology, compassion and commitment.”

It was quite a coincidence, Avinash stated, that a day after Anna broke his fast, his AOL group had scheduled a session of 108 sun salutations; his own, he dedicated to Anna Hazare.

Meanwhile his best mate Arvind Bagla claims he is a different person now, thanks to his brief interlude with Anna’s overall campaign.

“I feel I should stand up for what I believe in. Lately I have been voicing my opinion on a number of issues such as the refugee crisis in Australia, taking to blogs of all kinds,” he said.

Signing up in support Melbourne’s Anand Prabhu has been doing his bit for Anna Hazare’s campaign for a few months now.

“It’s time that we Indians here come together and share the responsibility to join the fight against corruption,” Anand told Indian Link.

When Hazare fasted for the first time in April, Anand joined in this unique form of protest by fasting for a day as well. A group of six others from the Jai Bharath Friends Association (JBFA) joined him.

“It was my way of bringing some motivation into the community here to do our bit for India,” Anand said. “When Anna fasted for the second time in June, eighteen other people joined me in my day-long fast. For the third fast in August, I was determined to have a larger number of people involved. So I decided to organise a signature campaign instead of fasting again.”

During the Association’s Independence Day celebrations on 21 Aug, some 186 people signed Anand’s petition for the Indian government to consider a strong Lokpal.

An automobile engineer by profession, Anand has been involved with community and temple activities ever since he arrived in Melbourne twelve years ago. This time round though, he was impressed by the wave of support across the diaspora for Anna Hazare in his bid to help rid India of corruption. “Matters have gone so out-of-hand in India that someone had to take a lead… Anna did, and I felt drawn in – I simply had to support him,” he said enthusiastically.

Demonstrations for support for Anna Hazare from within the Indian community in Australia were held at the Sydney Opera House (main pic opposite page), and (from top this page), Darling Harbour and Harris Park in Sydney and at Federation Square Melbourne.

SEPTEMBER 2011 <> 9

COVERSTORY

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New nationalism

As the Hazare movement increases in strength, tempo and complexity back home, Australia Indians want a single, simple goal – an end to corruption BY SREEDHEVI IYER

It’s been a saga worthy of the Ramayana itself.

A single man’s epic spiritual pilgrimage for the sake of truth, for the sake of justice.

One could have used these words to describe Mahatma Gandhi in the 1940s. The words are now in vogue again, for a gentle, soft-spoken, non-descriptive man called Anna Hazare.

How does one account for his sudden popularity in the past few months? He isn’t the first citizen to fast for an end to government corruption – Baba Ramdev, a well-known spiritual guru, attempted the same, but without any repercussions. Irom Sharmila, a lady in Manipur, has been on an 11-year fast for the repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, which has yet to occur. So what makes the Anna Hazare movement any different?

The media spotlight comes with its own inherent powers. Once a story is angled right, desired results are instantaneous. The Gandhi parallels are almost too delicious to ignore. But they work only because the disillusionment of the average Indian with its government is so rife and rampant, so much now a part of the Indian DNA (and which gave Amitabh Bachchan a roaring career in the ‘70s) that it is

no longer a leap of logic to believe the Indian citizen lives under an undemocratic, oppressive regime.

BrisVaani is a local radio station in Brisbane.

It runs 24 hours a day, and services the Indian community through request programs, newscasts, traffic reports, and Bollywood songs. For the past month, every programme that has had a live deejay has mentioned Anna Hazare, in progressively reverent tones.

His movement is reiterated in Hindi, Tamil, English, Sinhalese…. The name, like the man, has caught the Brisbane Indian’s imagination.

The question remains though – these Indians now work, live, and pay taxes in Australia. Why would a hunger strike happening thousands of miles away, garner news in a local community station?

Varad Raval of BrisVaani feels the strongest involvement comes from the first-generation of Indians, those who had arrived in Queensland in the ‘60s and ‘70s – and possibly even the newer arrivals of the past few years.

“These are the ones who have experienced the corruption in India,” he says. “The first thing you think of when you say ‘India’ is population.

The second, is corruption.”

Anna Hazare’s projection of his personality as a Gandhian involved in a non-violent movement is another factor in his diasporic appeal. A community that is nostalgic of its roots, will latch on to such iconic symbols of

patriotism quite easily. “There was a time when the Gandhian way was out of date,” says Varad.

“But now, with things like the Munnabhai movies capturing public imagination, the idea has been updated. (Anna Hazare) is a softspoken, gentle man speaking of the second war of independence!” Strong words from a quiet man, an appealing contrast indeed.

The question still remains, though – has this man’s victory been a simplistic one? Has a complex issue been reduced to patriotic oneliners in order to access the broadest possible audience – after all, you can’t have people power without the people themselves? Anna Hazare isn’t without his naysayers. Salil Tripathi writes in im4change that the Hazare adulation is misguided – the man who reformed his own village included whipping as punishment for imbibing alcohol. Gandhi fasted as a method of self-purification, including when people in his ashram behaved deplorably. It is hard to imagine the Mahatma routinely fasting in order to impose his own will against a democratically elected government. And now, Anna Hazare says the victory is half-won – and there further demands for referendums will be made – hinting at future fasts, future passive-aggressive impositions.

The complexities of such things are most possibly lost on the diasporic Indian, viewing the homeland as the repository of a cultural utopia. “There is a lot of sentiment attached to

this movement,” agrees Varad. “The nostalgia is there – the Indians here want a corruptionfree India.” A sentiment that is easier said than done.

In the end, the Anna Hazare movement is symbolic for things that are bigger than the man, and possibly bigger than the movement itself. For decades, the Indian vote bank had been its lower classes, both the rural farmer and the urban labourer choosing party members that aren’t much cleverer than themselves.

The Indian middle-class, characteristic in its political apathy and crass consumerism, neither contributed nor were consulted. But with the rest of the non-western world becoming politicised and seeking reform, perhaps an infectious spark has been lit in Delhi. It is the middle-class Indian who is not only weary of the corruption, but suddenly savvy enough to want a clean, viable alternative that doesn’t involve migrating to places like Australia.

The new Indian wants to dig his heels in and demand a change on home soil. Whether this is a new war of independence or not, this is definitely a new kind of nationalism, forming itself as we watch.

The road to Hell is paved with good intentions Could the Jan Lok Pal bill which seems to be gaining momentum on the steam of moral extortion, be a statement on corruption of a different form?

BY DARSHAK MEHTA

As far as I am concerned, Anna Hazare is, at best, a well-intentioned ex-army truck driver who has tapped into a rich vein of the Indian public’s discontent and disillusionment with politicians, and represents their frustration and alarm at the corruption in Indian society.

Full marks to him. But, I am exasperated when people call him a Gandhian. For a start, I don’t want to be preached to by a man who has been accused of beating up his fellow villagers in Ralegan Siddhi with his old army belt for over-imbibing alcohol. Also, he dictates what cable TV can and cannot be watched, and until what hours, in his village? Add enforced vasectomy to the list of requirements necessary for residence in his native village – another of his conditions.

Excuse me, but who appointed you as their moral guardian?

I also don’t want to be preached by a man who believes in sharia-like punishment of cutting off hands or in capital punishment for graft. Are we talking of Anna Hazare – alleged Gandhian – or the Taliban’s Mullah Omar, here?

I have no doubt that he is being manipulated by a couple of others in his “team”, and the generally appalling Indian television channels have, at best, cynically exploited the hunger fast and at worst, deliberately blocked opposing viewpoints from being aired.

Forgetting my above prejudices, let us examine his movement’s objectives.

Basically, they want to foist an unelected, extra-constitutional authority (a Jan Lok Pal) 10 <> SEPTEMBER 2011

on the people of India. Now that may be of Hazare’s grievances do not lend sanctity extremely relevant and the need of the hour to the method of agitation. Is arm-twisting, given the gargantuan corruption scandals, howsoever peaceful, of institutions which but really, is it in the best interests of our have been created through years of running democracy to push this through in the form a democracy not muzzling of views? Sure, and time-frame demanded, and without things need to quickly improve but courses are sufficient debate or safeguards built in, by the not corrected by whipping up a frenzy among elected representatives of the people of India? people by promising that the Jan Lokpal Bill is Democracies are messy, crazy and none the only path to nirvana from corruption. more so than India, but the thought of a Despite the hysteria which is sweeping “Super Seshan” as the Jan Lok Pal haunts every rung of the Indian urban society on me. Some readers might remember that this corruption issue, the only hope and megalomaniac Indian bureaucrat, T N Seshan, consolation is that the Indian intelligentsia has who on becoming India’s Chief Election not completely lost their marbles.

Commissioner usurped such powers and Writer Arundhati Roy said, “The search authority that the elected Government of committee, the committee which is going to the day quaked in their collective boots at his shortlist the names of the people who will be many edicts and idiosyncrasies. Do we want chosen for the Jan Lokpal will shortlist from another Seshan as the Lok Pal? eminent individuals of such class of people How can India have an “independent” whom they deem fit. So you create this panel (selected and unelected) from this pool, and then authority in a post you have a bureaucracy It is the middleanswerable to virtually which has policing powers, no-one? Not even the power to tap your class Indian who parliamentary oversight? A phones, the power to is not only weary new super Prime Minister prosecute, the power to of the corruption, who can call anyone to transfer, the power to account? We need to be judge, the power to do but suddenly savvy careful to ensure that things which are really, and enough to want the cure (the erosion of from the Prime Minister a clean, viable democratic institutions) is down to the bottom, alternative that doesn’t it’s really like a parallel not much worse than the disease (of corruption). power, which has lost the involve migrating to Sure, I am as much accountability, whatever places like Australia against corruption as little accountability a anyone else – that is a representative government motherhood statement – might have, but I’m not but to enforce a demand one of those who is down the throat of the world’s greatest critiquing it from the point of view of say, democracy by means of shameless moral someone like Aruna Roy, who has a less blackmail i.e. a hunger fast, is posturing and draconian version of the bill, I’m talking about tyranny of the worst kind. The genuineness it from a different point of view altogether of

firstly, the fact that we need to define what do we mean by corruption, and then what does it mean to those who are disempowered and disenfranchised to get two oligarchies instead of one raiding over them.”

Think about it and read it repeatedly – until you feel as uncomfortable as I do!

Indians elect their own governments. If that government is corrupt, they have the right to elect a new government. They also have the right to stand for elections if none of the parties are deemed worthy of their votes. Anna Hazare proposes that a body more powerful than the current government be established. This body will not be elected by the people (and they will have no say in the matter of who comprises of this body) but appointed by judges, IAS officers, Padma Bhushan winners and so on.

Why not focus on implementing the array of anti-corruption laws that already exist?

It’s convenient to protest in the street, shout slogans and take a ‘holier than thou’ stance against the government and government officials. We forget that we have been equally guilty and corrupt for sustaining that system.

The self-righteousness is what I resent.

Most protesters on the streets of India may know little about the proposed Lokpal Bill and its long-term implications. They are desperate to see a change in the system, but desperate times do not call for stupidity and they most certainly do not call for letting someone else do your thinking for you. Indians are into idol and hero worship, but it has gone a bit too far this time and a merely well intentioned (though, flawed!) man has been painted as the new Gandhi.

We need an objective and rational solution.

Not an emotional and impulsive one. The cure should not be worse than the disease.

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SEPTEMBER 2011 <> 11

FESTIVALS

A multicultural Eid Festivals take on a more significant meaning when different nationalities come together in common celebration By UZMA BEG

Eid-ul-Fitar is the biggest occasion to celebrate for all Muslims. It’s a celebration truly well deserved after a full month of fasting (abstaining from food and drinks from just before dawn to dusk) in Ramadan.

I fasted as well, doing my regular countdown to Eid, excited about sharing this day with all my fellow Muslims….a day where we finally put our differences aside and just celebrate, all of us on the same day, united for once. But it wasn’t to be.

On the last day of Ramadan I found out that half of the community in Australia was already celebrating Eid while I fasted – as the religious leaders for some Muslim communities decided late on Monday evening to declare Eid on Tuesday!

I ended up celebrating Eid the next day, but it broke my heart. It would’ve been wonderful for Muslims to be one on our special day! My sense of sadness was shared on Indian Link Radio during my show by Mr. Mohammed Ali, an active member of the Muslim community in Canberra.

But the disappointment didn’t last long.

I went into big time celebration mode on Wednesday!

The highlight of my day was the Eid party thrown by my Christian friend Sandra Prakash, who didn’t want me to be alone on Eid. Sandra and her brother Tony set the stage for a beautiful party at Sandra’s house.

We brought a dish each and because we were such a diverse group coming together, the culinary outcome was nothing short of sensational!

I took with me Kharray Masaalay ki Murghi, a speciality from Lahore. Sandra who is originally from Karachi had prepared the most amazing Band Kabab – it had this wonderful smoky-charcoal flavour which brought the sub-continent right into her dining room. That girl could easily earn a living from just that dish! Our friends Nitu and Praneet who are originally from Delhi brought a spinach, mushroom, cheese pulao that left us wanting more! My dear friend Nisreen also originally from Karachi, contributed a sensational palak paneer which would give any Indian palak paneer a run for it’s money! Ahmad Afzal and his Chinese wife Rozie decided to revert to good oldfashioned healthy Aussie values with a huge fresh salad instead of contributing to our rising cholesterol.

I ate non-stop throughout the party – and was still going, while the others eyed dessert!

Our gorgeous Turkish friends Rana and Ahmat and their sons added that sense of diversity.

My own Turkish friend Ege Suna looked stunning – I kept referring to her as Turkish Delight all night!

Priti from Maharashtra walked in very late and very worked up. Apparently the only thing that got her away from her home on such a busy day was the spirit of Eid! A devout Hindu, she interrupted her own frenzied preparations for Ganesh Chaturthi, which is such an important occasion in Maharashtra. She had been making prasad 12 <> SEPTEMBER 2011

Sandra Prakash (extreme right) hosts an Eid celebration for a diverse group of friends

all day for the auspicious occasion of the arrival of the deity of Lord Ganesha at her home. Apparently she had been trying for many years to bring Him home, but it wasn’t happening!

“Uzma, you don’t know how hard it is!” an overwhelmed, flustered and excited Priti told me. “It’s not easy...He doesn’t come whenever you want... only when the time is right and the time is finally right, and I can’t believe it’s actually happening!”

She had a big pooja planned at her house on Ganesh Chaturthi which was the day after Eid. I felt honoured that she had left her kids in the care of a friend and put all her chores on hold just to celebrate Eid with us!

We were all a very diverse group with different backgrounds, cultures and religions yet it seemed to work beautifully... we were a

really merry bunch that enjoyed everything look so OTT in daytime! I miss “Tarru”, we had in common with each other and the second day of Eid, which brought with that seemed to take precedence over all our it the excitement of visiting everyone and differences that night! wearing the second new outfit, and I miss Had I been back home for Eid it the understated “Marru”, the third day of would’ve been very different indeed. The Eid, when it’s all officially over! I distinctly atmosphere right from Chand Raat to the remember the huge sense of loss that would third day of Eid would be very different! overcome me on Marru while I made the I miss the excitement of Chand Raat, most of it by flaunting my third outfit to all the henna tradition, the adrenalin rush and sundry, knowing in my heart that it’ll of whether the tailor’s be business as usual the finally come through I saw the love between next day! with completing your Oh, Eid back home…!

Hindus and Muslims, It makes me nostalgic and outfit or not, the eating Christians and out on Chand Raat, the homesick to think about late nights, the rude 6 am Buddhists, and I saw us it – yes, I definitely miss awakening on Eid, the for what we really are - it. But what I experienced hustle bustle of domestic here was priceless! I saw human beings! help running helterskelter four different religions, to get things done, the countries and cultures mountain of Eid clothes come together to make being ironed, the odd scream “Hai bijli chali Eid as special as it could ever be! I saw gayee!”, the panic, the men all dressed up in the love between Hindus and Muslims, traditional shalwar kameez rushing off to get Christians and Buddhists, and I saw us for to the mosque in time for Eid prayers, the what we really are - human beings! Simple, women praying at home then taking ages to loving, caring, accepting, human beings. We get ready, the shouts, the screams “Jaldi karo, all have the same goals, wants, needs, desires the guys will be here any minute!” I loved so why then do some choose to focus the Eid breakfast we had together - sawayyan on superficial differences rather than our and halva puri - yumm! universal humanity?

My favourite thing would Multiculturalism is the We brought a dish be collecting Eidy… not new face of the world and so much now because I we are thriving in it! each and because have to give it... but back It’s just a matter of time we were such a when we were single we until everyone recognizes diverse group coming couldn’t contain ourselves what I felt so deeply! together, the culinary Eid Mubarak…and from staring the elders down into reaching for outcome was nothing Ganpati Bappa Morya…! their wallets! I miss those short of sensational! long family Eid lunches where the spread was fit for a king, the gorgeous outfits and stunning jewellery that would INDIAN LINK

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Ganesha’s glory In celebrating this auspicious festival, we learn the underlying message of creation and an ultimate return to the elements, says SHAILENDRA BEDARKAR Ganesha Chaturthi is one of the most eagerly awaited festivals in India. In Sydney, we look forward to the occasion like no other, and discussions on the theme start several months in advance. The design and planning of our celebration is treated like no ordinary project.

A touch of nostalgia

My wife Rashmi and I grew up in families wherein the Ganesha Chaturthi festival is a very important celebration. As a young boy of 6, I witnessed my uncles and teenage cousins going to great lengths in preparing the pooja altar. On the day of the pooja we looked with awe at the red eyes of my eldest cousin. The beautifully crafted altar would be a reminder of a sleepless night as he prepared the decorations overnight.

Growing up in Mumbai, I witnessed the local youth coming together to collect money from households for their preparations. These groups were very much like the rugby teams found in Australia.

They tried to outdo each other in being creative, and noisy too. Each of these ‘teams’ would erect elaborate ‘dioramas’ depicting various episodes from the Mahabharata, Ramayana, Puranas and other legendary stories. I remember one particular scene depicting a 10-foot tall baby Krishna statue on all fours raising an arm to eat a laddoo (sweet dumpling). We were particularly excited and impressed with the arm that moved forward in an eating motion. The team that incorporated some or other movement in their theme was considered particularly creative.

of drawings later, finally the design was agreed on.

We picked up the nava graham theme this year, partly because of the number 9 involved in it. This Ganesha was our ninth year of celebrating the festival. Last year we depicted ashtha vinayaka for the number 8, Ganesha in Australia and the preceding seventh year, we created According to our traditions, when the the ‘7 chakras’ in our body. eldest in our family gets married, it is This year, our theme depicted the nine his responsibility to invite Ganesha into celestial bodies that we can see from the family. When we arrived in Australia, the earth. The nava graha are commonly my wife and I started celebrating worshipped in India and especially in Ganesha Chaturthi in the south. The grahas 2001, the year after our are Surya (Sun), Som We told ourselves that (Moon), Mangal (Mars), wedding. At the time we invited Indians and we would celebrate Budh (Mercury), Guru Australians alike, and (Jupiter), Shukra (Venus), one festival well and some of our friends had Shani (Saturn), Rahu and thoroughly, and young children as little Ketu. Rahu represents recreate a truly Indian as 8 months and 2 years. the head of the mythical We lived in Newport. feeling, one that would snake and Ketu, the tail.

Some of these families Ganesha is set in make our children feel would travel over 30 kms the centre, depicted proud of us. just to show their kids as the source of how the Ganesha pooja life, the provider of was conducted. light, warmth and Rashmi and I were nourishment to the other planets and all truly touched by the effort these families living beings. made and it struck us that we sometimes go through a whole year without even knowing Working as a team which festivals have come and gone. We So we began the work. We found that MDF told ourselves that we would celebrate one or particle board is a versatile material festival well and thoroughly, and recreate a to work with. We drew, shaped and cut truly Indian feeling, one that would make the board. This process lasted over four our children feel proud of us. They would weekends. Then we began the painting. see the effort we put into the celebration We decided to make the spinning wheel if and would get to understand their Indian time permitted. Kanek, our 16-month-old culture better. We found inspiration in the boy and Nishtha, our 5-year-old girl were awe with which the children look at the keen helpers. Nishtha can use the screwdecorations. driver well; while Kanek helped us paint the pole, although he painted his face, hair Threshing out the theme and also the floor in the process. Rashmi’s This year, our planning as usual started over sister Neeta was a keen helper too, and our four months in advance. In this period, we other friends Aastha, Prajakta, her daughter brainstormed over the theme. Once the Roma, and a few others helped too. theme was set, the design was made. Lots INDIAN LINK

The celebrations

This year, Ganesha Chaturthi was on September 1, and the auspicious Ganesha pooja or Ganesha staphana is held on this day. Our friend Sumedh and his wife Gauri helped us with the pooja. Depending on individual traditions, every family houses Ganesha for one, three, five or ten days.

Ganesha is offered his favourites – modak, a dumpling made from palm sugar, coconut and durva, three bladed tufts of grass and hibiscus flowers. Devotional songs were sung and vedic verses were chanted, while Ganesha’s 108 names were sung in unison.

The whole atmosphere was charged with feelings of devotion, celebration and a certain spiritual ecstasy.

Profound symbolism

The grand farewell is on the ananta chathurdashi, the fourteenth day from the new moon. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

The thought is that anything that is created, has to get dissolved into the elements. The celebration sends this eternal message, as Ganesha Chaturthi signifies the birth of Ganesha, and the offering of his idol to the ocean symbolises his return to the elements.

The decorations cannot be kept with the person who creates them, so we try to give them away to friends. The deep symbolism, the hidden message is so profound! The only permanent aspect of matter is change.

What is created will eventually be offered to the elements. Getting overly concerned about material possessions leads to sorrow.

Joy and bliss lie in embracing change and working in unison with our environment.

Spiritual and social

Apart from its religious connotations, the festival is really a socio-cultural event. For us it is a way of depicting and celebrating religion by combining the spiritual with the social. We celebrate religion as it should be, nonsectarian and giving, with no hidden agenda. Followers of every sect celebrate

the festival with devotion and joy.

It was Lokmanya Balgangadhar Tilak who escalated this festival, which was celebrated privately in Maharashtrian homes, to a social event. It was a method to encourage unity and solidarity amongst the youth so they could unite for good causes and raise spirituality within the community. He also had the vision that India’s political freedom could be achieved through a united youth who would stand up for what is true and fair.

Our Ganesha Chaturthi celebration was enthusiastically supported by family and friends who volunteered their time to make the event a success. The flame that ignites every year seems to be perpetual. Ganapati Bappa Morya, pudhchya varshi laukar yaa!

(Hail Lord Ganesha, hope to see you soon again!) These chants from during Ganesha’s departure are but a reminder that next year’s celebrations will be even better.

SEPTEMBER 2011 <> 13

SPORT

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Breaking new ground Indian Tigers, a team comprising of 12 Indian and 17 Indian Australian players, participated in a keenly-contested Australian Rules Football tournament

BY RITAM MITRA

Australian Rules Football is something we are accustomed to seeing on television during a lazy weekend, but how much do you actually know about the sport? As the AFL International Cup unfolds in Sydney and Melbourne this month, there will be some excited young Indians on tour keen to impress on a world stage as part of the Indian Tigers. There are 17 other teams vying for the title, though; and although Australia does not take part due to its obvious dominance of the sport, the AFL International Cup is a hotly contested competition.

Commonly (and incorrectly) referred to as AFL, the football code itself is actually Australian Rules, AFL being both the name of the competition and the governing body. AFL was initially referred to as VFL, dating back to 1859. Indeed, the name The Indian Tigers AFL was only adopted in 1990 to cover for the Sudip Chakraborty, both president of AFL India expanding popularity of the sport. This explains the and the team’s captain, believes there is a lot more dominance Victorian teams traditionally enjoy in the to the tour than just AFL. He stated, amongst other league. things that, “we [the team] will look forward to However, Australian Rules Football is not meeting the participating teams extremely popular overseas – and also local football teams in indeed, it is through the AFL Sudip Chakraborty, Melbourne.” Asked what drew itself that the International Cup both president of AFL him to the game, Sudip comments is being conducted, in an effort that it’s the pace of the game India and the team’s to support international Aussie Rules programs. This year, for captain, believes there which attracted him most, and he is working hard to develop several the first time in the Cup’s short is a lot more to the tour programs to further the game in history, nominal prize money than just AFL India – such as Indikick, a program of $6000 is being offered to the similar to Auskick that is currently winner of Men’s Division 1, with in place here, as well as AussieX runners up to be awarded $3000 which was taken to over 70,000 Canadian students. and $1750 respectively. Meanwhile, Men’s Division The team is fairly young, with most players falling 2 champions will be awarded $1000 and Women’s into the 21-25 age bracket.

Division 1 toppers will receive $2000 and $1000 Ash Nugent, team manager, respectively. While the figures are not massive, it is aims to continue on the “feeling important to note that this is being funded purely of warm and friendship with through the AFL and the prize money is to be the teams participating in the distributed not to the players, but in the form of tournament” during the Indian grants to the conveners of Australian Rules Football Tigers’ first Cup 3 years ago, and in the successful countries. accordingly Nugent has arranged The Indian Tigers touched down in Australia on several social gatherings and August 11th, ranked 17th in the competition. India dinners in order to meet and lost to Sweden and NZ in the mingle with initial seeding rounds, and thus other nations find themselves in Division 2 The Indian Tigers competing at along with Fiji, France, China, the tournament, touched down in Timor-Leste, and quite possibly as well as the the story of the tournament – the Australia on August local Melbourne “Peace Team”, comprising 13 11th, ranked 17th in community.

Palestinians and 13 Israelis.

“This year, the the competition AFL India currently has Indian team programs in Kerala and West would like to Bengal, and the India team take this to the consists of 12 players from India next level by meeting with local as well as 17 members from the Australian Indian football teams and potentially an community – the names of the players are as diverse AFL club.” as the range of regions they come from, including One of the ways Nugent Chokshi, Banerjee, Kailasanathan, Lakshmaiya and hopes they will achieve this is Mascarenhas.

14 <> SEPTEMBER 2011

by attending a Richmond Football Club training session at the famous Punt Road Oval in Richmond, both conducting a session with the club juniors as well as training and learning valuable skills from the seniors. The Tigers will oblige the club tradition on Thursday night of volunteers serving and preparing dinner – the team will prepare a traditional Indian dish, in an effort to build long-lasting ties with both the community and amongst the players themselves.

Richmond’s General Manager of Media and Stakeholder Relations, Simon Matthews, welcomes the Indian team, stating “This tournament is a great example of how Australian Football can bring together people from different cultures and backgrounds, to compete in Australia’s iconic sport.

We are proud to be supporting the Indian Tigers and look forward to welcoming them to Punt Road Oval”.

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COMMUNITYSCENE

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Multicultural values lauded at I-Day celebrations BY PREETI JABBAL

What does the 2011 Tour De France winner Cadel Evans and India’s 64th Independence Day have in common? A reception was hosted for both in August at the same venue – 55 Collins Street, by the Victorian Premier, Hon. Ted Baillieu. While yellow was the reigning colour at Cadels’s reception, the Tricolour took pride of place along with the Southern Star at the same venue just a week later. The formal event was attended by prominent members of the Indian community, business people, the media and dignitaries. The Minister for Multicultural Affairs and Citizenship, Nicholas Kotsiras; Member for Ballarat West, Ms Sharon Knight, MP; State Member for Cranbourne District, Jude Perera MP; and Consul General of India Mr. Shubhakanta Behera were the main guests at the reception. The Commissioner for Victoria in Bangalore Geoffrey Conaghan, whose visit to Australia coincided with India’s Independence Day celebrations, was MC for the evening.

The formal proceedings began with a confident rendition of the Australian and Indian national anthems by Amitabh Singh from Om Music Group. Mr. Conaghan then went on to welcome all the guests and introduced the dignitaries to the audience.

The Premier delivered the first speech for the evening. “India’s Independence Day in Australia is as much about celebrating freedom as multiculturalism. This is a day where people from all cultures come together and we celebrate Australia’s diverse ethnicity,” said Mr. Ted Baillieu, addressing an attentive audience. The Premier kept his speech brief and focused mainly on cohesion between the two communities.

Ms. Sharon Knight then spoke about her interaction with the Indian community from a regional perspective. She commented on the burgeoning Indian presence in Ballarat and spoke of the mutual opportunities and avenues that were offered to the local community. The final speech was by the newly arrived Indian Consul General, Mr. Shubhakanta Behera. He mainly talked

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about the Indian Government’s initiatives and efforts to create a more meaningful relationship and deeper ties with Australia through the exchange of trade and culture.

He concluded his speech by raising a toast to the Queen and Australia.

The reception venue offered breathtaking views of Melbourne City from glass windows. Drinks and canapés were also served. Om Music group attempted to entertain the guests with some Bollywood and patriotic songs. The Premier made special mention of their talent, especially that of their lead singer Amitabh Singh.

The event presented several opportunities to network with people from various professional and business backgrounds.

Several guests also flew in from other parts of the country to attend the reception, among them was award-winning young Indian film professional Anupam Sharma, and NDTV’s Deepti Sachdeva from Sydney.

After the speeches, people scrambled to pose for photographs with the Premier till his officials whisked him away. The rest of the evening was without event and wrapped up very quickly.

“It was a matter of great pride for us to be able to commemorate an important event in India’s calendar with representatives of the Australian Government,” remarked Gurmit Sahni from the Indian community who attended the event. “I hope that this becomes an annual event that reinforces the good relationship between the two countries,” he said, summing up the evening.

SEPTEMBER 2011 <> 15

COMMUNITYSCENE

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Strong multicultural message at FIAV I-Day BY SUJITH KRISHNAN

India’s 64th Independence Day celebrations held mutually by the Federation of Indian Associations of Victoria (FIAV) and the Australia India Society of Victoria (AISV) on August 20 at the Manningham Town Hall, was a memorable and festive occasion.

With the moral theme of strengthening multicultural relations within the community, this event effectively brought out the true elements of what makes this state uniquely diverse and multicultural. In his speech, Mr Gurdip Aurora President of AISV, pointed out how the Indian economy is making huge strides and how we, as Indian citizens, must support the anticorruption movement that has currently taken the nation by storm. This year also marks the 48th anniversary of AISV and Mr Aurora summarized the achievements of the organization and its future proposals, a prime and noble one being to provide a housing facility for the elderly.Amongst the honourable chief guests present were Mr. Martin Ferguson, Minister for Energy and Resources and Tourism; Mr. Nick Kotsiras, Minister for Multicultural Affairs and Citizenship; Mr. Mathew Guy, State Minister for Planning; Mr. Kevin Andrews, Federal Member for Menzies and Shadow Minister for Families/Human Services; Mr. Michael Gidley, Member of Parliament for Mount Waverley, Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations; Ms. Heidi Victoria, Parliamentary Secretary assisting the Premier with the Arts; Ms. Marsha Thomson, State Member for Footscray; Senator Scott Ryan, Shadow

Parliamentary Secretary for Small Business; Mr. Colin Brooks, State Labour MP for Bundoora and Parliamentary Secretary to the Opposition; Mayors, councillors of various city councils, leaders of the business community and various ethnic communities such as Chinese, Iranian, Fijian, Srilankan, Vietnamese, Cambodian and Korean, which added more colour and variety to the evening. It was wonderful to watch the dignitaries and guests socialize with each other without any apprehensions – just what one would expect to see in a multicultural event of this magnitude.

The evening began on a patriotic note with the national anthems of both India and Australia sung by Aarti Chhabra, followed by stirring speeches by the dignitaries, FIAV President Mr. Vasan Srinivasan, and Mr. Thomas Joseph, Vice President, FIAV, underlining the rise of India as a superpower and the strong relations shared between India and Australia. The discourses were interspersed with a few excellent aboriginal dance performances based on various themes

by Fire One Dancers. Some of the other highlights of the evening were the official website launch of the Telugu community newspaper, Pravasa Bharathi by Mr. Mathew Guy, and the felicitation of the versatile artiste par excellence, Shoba Sekhar, who has carved a niche for herself in the domain of classical dance and has played a pivotal role in the sustenance of traditional dance forms for coming generations. Also, the women present took this opportunity to bedeck themselves in sparkling traditional finery in keeping with the theme, and proved to be one of the major talking points of the evening.

A big cheer goes out to the organizers

for the majestic layout of the hall and for executing the concept of dine-while-you-watch, which was a welcome change from the conventional off-the-counter practice. The three-course dinner was catered by celebrated Indian restaurant Tandoori Junction, and was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone; the spread included an extravagant range of sumptuous Indian starters, curries and breads. The hardworking stewards/stewardesses worked well as a team and handled the service efficiently. An event is deemed incomplete without the charm of Bollywood and the evening ended with a spirited dance performance by artists from the Shiamak Davar Institute of Performing Arts that had the crowd on their feet and yearning for more.

What’s On TIHAI music festival Saturday, 17 September, 6pm onwards at Reservoir Civic Centre, 23 Edwardes Street, Reservoire.

Saturday, 15 October, 8pm onwards at 1 Mark St. Boite World Music Cafe, North Fitzroy, Melbourne. TIHAI invites you to their series of performances of Indian classical music. Ticket info: for September 10 concert contact Northcote Town Hall; for September 17 and October 15 concerts contact Boite World Music cafe.

Mehfil Night Friday 23 September from 8 – 11pm at Coburg Library Meeting Room Cnr Luisa and Victoria St Coburg. Open musical night with Karaoke and live instruments.

Free entry. Contact Dr Saratchandran on 9366 5444.

Nrityanjali 2011 Saturday, 24 September from 7pm and Sunday, 25 September from 3pm 16 <> SEPTEMBER 2011

at the Darebin Arts & Entertainment Centre, Preston. The 31st annual student concert by the Chandrabhanu Bharatalaya Academy of Indian Classical Dance will be held. Ticket bookings open now or call the Darebin Arts & Entertainment Centre on 8470 8282.

Onam celebrations Saturday, 24 September from 12noon onwards at the Springvale Town Hall 397 Springvale Road, Springvale (Melway: 80 A11). The Malayalee Association of Victoria will celebrate Onam festival with members and friends. The celebration will start with Pookalam competitionat 10:30am and Onam Sadya from 12noon followed by a cultural programme and facilitation of achievers. For more details contact Benoy Paul, Convenor on 0411 527 988; Varghese Pynadath, President on 0425 814 456; George Thomas, VicePresident 0421 359 354. Visit www.mav.

org.au or contact info@mav.org.au September Balagokulam Sunday 25 September, 4-6pm (3:45pm registration) at Clayton North Primary School, 1714 Dandenong Road, Clayton North, 3168. Melway Ref: 70D11. The theme of September’s Balagokulam is Perseverence. For more details email balagokulam.melbourne@hotmail.com or contact Abhijit Bhide on 0402081193.

Refreshments provided. Entry fee: $2.

Short film contest October 2, open for entries. Create a short film based on your perception of India.

Pick a theme - is it colourful? Creative?

Wherever you are? The film should be under 3 minutes and the will be sent, on behalf of the Indian Governement, to renowned international film festivals. The grand prizes range from Rs. 50,000 to Rs. 175,000. Participate now. Follow us: facebook.com/indiaisof_cial; twitter.com/

indiaisof_cial; youtube.com/indiaisof_cial.

Hosted by the Ministry of External Affairs (Public Diplomacy Division), New Delhi.

Community cricket tournament October 2011 on weekends in Glen Waverley and Dandenong areas.

Melbourne Premier Cricket club (MPCL) is organizing a community limited overs cricket tournament. The club is established with a motto to provide players, teams or groups interested in the game of cricket an opportunity to play and enjoy the game. Those who do not have the grounds, enough budget/resources and Public Liability Insurance but have willingness to enjoy cricket, can contact: Madan Deshmukh on 0427663847 or email:- enquiry@mpcl.net.au Visit us at www.mpcl.net.au

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SEPTEMBER 2011 <> 17

COMMUNITYSCENE

Dance dominates classical scene BY CHITRA SUDARSHAN

Bavani Bannirchelvam’s arangetram took place on July 9

at the George Wood Performing Arts Centre. Hers is the 55th arangetram for Shanthy Rajendran and the Nrithakshetra School of Dance.

Bavani had am impressive stage presence; she danced gracefully, and covered the stage well, which was really pleasing to see in an arangetram recital, for often debut solo performers tend stay put in a spot and appear rather wooden as a result. Bavani moved effortlessly across the stage, straddling it with confidence and style. She began with a competently executed Pushpanjali followed by an ode to Lord Ganapathy. In the kirtanam that followed – Bho Shambo – dedicated to Lord Shiva, Bavani truly came into her own and displayed her total control and mastery of the adavus. She twirled and leaped, and interspersed the energetic dance with beautiful sculpturesque poses as she depicted the cosmic dance of Shiva, the Thandavam. The varnam Emaguva in dhanyasi was pleasantly executed, with some impressive teermanams. The padam Krishna Nee Begane in Yamuna Kalyani gave Bavani ample opportunities to showcase her abhinaya/expressions.

Two of the musicians were from Singapore: the vocalist was Smt Bhagya Murthy, and the flautist Sri Ghanavenothan Retnam. Smt Murthy’s voice was as pleasing as it was resounding, and Retnam’s flute and Anantha Krishnan’s violin provided able support. As always, Smt Rajendran on the nattuvangam held the orchestra together, and Sri Ravichandhira on the mrudangam lent immaculate percussion accompaniment.

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Bavani Bannirchelvam’s

Salangai in Sangamam, the

annual joint presentation by the senior students of Bharatanatyam from 4 different schools, was held on July 3 at the George Wood Performing Arts Centre. Bharata Choodamani School of Dance presented a ballet on Hanuman composed in Ragamalika, followed by Nadanalaya’s item also in Ragamalika, both of which were competently rendered. Bhavayami, a ballet by the Nrithakshetra School, was simply superbly choreographed and executed: every abhinaya was done to perfection and every small detail was fine tuned to the extent that it was one of the best Ramayana ballets this reviewer has seen. Swati Tirunal’s composition of the entire Ramayana in 6 verses was wonderfully depicted, and enjoyed by one and all. Kalanjali School’s students too put on a stunning performance. This reviewer was simply taken aback by the beauty and symmetry of their dancers, and wanted to ask Ms Renuka Arumughasamy, “Where have you been all these years?” It dawned on me that as she

runs her school at one end of Melbourne, I had not had a chance to see them before. The students impressed everyone by the grace and precision of their adavus, and the perfect synchronicity with which they danced. It truly was a sight to behold. The theme of their dance was the Ashtavidha Nayaki, - the eight different heroines that are depicted in Bharatanatyam.

The Tamil Women’s Association presented the “Folk dances of India” at the Rowville Secondary College on June 26. It was a roaring success with several dance schools participating in the event, each presenting a folk dance from a different region in India.

Spiritual discourses through word and song Melbourne audiences experienced a week of sublime religious discourse or pravachan, between July 6 - 10 from talented couple Sri Hariji and Smt Vishaka Hari. Sri Hariji – or Sri Hari Anna as he is affectionately known – is the eldest son of the renowned pravachan pandit, Paranur Sri Krishna Premi.

Hari Anna presented a 3 -day pravachan on the Dasama Skandam of the Bhagawad Purana. He has a deep understanding of the Vedas, Itihahasas and Puranas, is an acknowledged Samskrit scholar, and is perhaps one of a handful of highly respected and erudite scholars of our time.

The Vedic Society of Victoria, which had organised this 4-day spiritual festival, had aptly chosen this most delightful section of the Bhagawatam for the event, for there is not a soul in India that does not wonder in amazement at the Leelas of Lord Krishna.

On day one, Hari Anna kept the audience spellbound with his talk on the avatara of Lord Krishna; on the second day he regaled those gathered in the hall with the divine

18 <> SEPTEMBER 2011

pranks of His childhood Leelas; on the third and fourth days, those gathered at the St Scholastica Hall were treated to Lord Krishna’s Brindavana Leela.

On July 10, Smt Vishaka Hari gave a three and a half hour Katha Kalakshepam on the Sundara Khanda of the Ramayana.

Although this is her first visit to Australia, her fame had preceded her, and everyone in the 600-strong audience (there was standing room only) waited for her in eager anticipation. She is the disciple of two great maestros of the classical performing arts: Sri Krishna Premi and Padma Vibhushan Lalgudi Sri G Jayaraman. With a beautiful voice and a command of classical music, she has elevated the art of Hari Katha by infusing religious discourse with the music of great carnatic composers.

The moment Smt Vishaka ascended the stage, she lit up the room with her presence, and the audience listened in rapt attention for the entire duration of the Harikatha.

She is one of a rare breed of people who

have the ability to sing beautifully in the classical style and deliver a pravachan without missing a shruti; her Sundara Kandam was soul stirring from the beginning to the end. Her descriptions of Hanuman; Rama’s faith in His bhakti; Sita’s desperate situation in Lanka; Ravana’s arrogance, were truly inspirational and moved the audience to tears. Most of the kritis were Thyagaraja’s compositions, and each one was rendered soaked in bhakti; and coupled

with her story-telling power and ability to explain deeper philosophical and theological significances of events and episodes, she is a truly great Hari Katha exponent par excellence. Smt Vishaka was accompanied

by Sri Anantha Krishnan on the violin and Melbourne’s own Sridhar Chari on the mrudangam.

Chitra Sudarshan

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SEPTEMBER 2011 <> 19

RADIO

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Radio tune kar lo aye zara!!!

Indian Link Radio’s Creative Director NEELAM VASUDEVAN with updates on what’s been happening at Australia’s favourite Hindi station BY NEELAM VASUDEVAN

While sunshine kissed the Melbourne and Sydney skies and said Sooraj ki baahon mein aa jao, we shone on the radio frequency too!!!

Anna Hazare, Independence Day, Raksha Bandhan, Janmashtami, Shammi Kapoor,

India’s visiting AFL team, interviews with the stars of new film Aarakshan, and the very latest in music (Bodyguard, Mere Brother ki Dulhan and Chillar Party) – the radio has been abuzz this month!

Tune in to Indian Link Radio 24/7 worldwide on the web www.indianlink.com.au or subscribe in Sydney and Melbourne for $9.95 per month.

SHRADDHA ARJUN on Subah Subah 7-9am (Wed) & 10am-12noon (Fri) & 5-9pm (Sun) Shraddha greets you on your weekday mornings with her chirpy and never-ending helooooos.

Setting the mood for devotional music and spirituality, listeners have been treated to halke halke discussions on the same.

Recently Shraddha sparked off a debate on what happiness and contentment really mean. Standing out with their thoughts were our very own Jyotiji, Asha Trivedi and Ruchika Mangla.

Mid mornings with lifestyle topics like recipes, books, travel,

SAGAR MEHROTRA on Subah Subah 7-9am (Thurs-Fri)

Another morning jaadugar who rises at the crack of dawn to shake you from your morning slumber, is Sagar, who has been riding high on the popularity charts. Want to try calling him on our studio line? You will be reminded of this familiar message – Aap ki call katar mein hain!!! But do you know Sagar absolutely loves it, so don’t stop calling. Getting a bit nostalgic on Rakshabandhan day, listeners felicitated their bhaiyas and behnas. Listener Priya was unable to contain her emotions…

and technology and of course Star Yaar Kalaakar (quiz show) – there was music and lots of masti galore.

Evenings with Shraddha this month saw an Antaakshari buildup with listeners belting out their songs …Aparna, Sanjay, Gargi, Zoya, thanks for making Sunday ki shaam more rangeen with your dildaar voices!

In a new move, watch out for Shraddha on Sunday evenings…

Sagar says, “I love to pose endless questions and revive the good old days and memories. One morning we asked, do you remember your first day on the job? Caller Krishna Kumar Yadav ji talked all of us back to the ‘60s…”.

Janamasthmi was welcomed in style on the morning show with special thanks to Pandit Shri Jatin Kumar Bhatt of Shri Mandir, Auburn. His talk about the significance of rebirth of Krishna in our homes every year was most meaningful!! Thank you for your blessings, Panditji.

Bhakti sangeet mixed with dhamaal songs, Sagar sure knows how to rock the mornings!

RASHMI CHAUDHARY on Meter Down 5-9pm (Tue & Thur)

Come 5pm on Mondays and Fridays and the studio gets Chatte Batte with our very own mast host and dost Rashmi. Lifestyle, travel and tech, health and beauty and the ad-mad world, all interest our chulbuli Rashmi!

Rashmi had a heart-to-heart this fortnight with Deepika Padukone just before the release of the much-talked about Aarakshan. And what was it like working with Prakash Jha? “He can be a very hard taskmaster, but he brought out the best in me in this film”.

Manoj Bajpai spoke to Rashmi of meticulous preparation for

all his roles, going deep into his character. The well-spoken Manoj impressed Rashmi and the listeners alike with his passion for his work.

With no arrogance or flamboyance in his tone, he said dil se, “Mann aur imaandari se kaam karta hoon - acting is all I know”.

Hasti khelti Rashmi also brought in a fun feel to auspicious Janmashtami. Jo hai albela madnaino waala, rangeela, chail chabeela, natkhat, jamunatat, murli bajaye - I lost count of the number of listeners who called in and shared their views on what the word ‘Krishna’ means. It was such a delight that radio par bhi gopiyon ke sang raas rachaaya, shyam salone ne! Fantastic listening.

Get set for Rashmi to bring you mid mornings on Wednesdays as well: let’s see what she has in store for us on The Lifestyle Show.

MANOJ MENON on Meter Down 5-9pm (Wed) Lagaata woh tie-shie, hai very hi-fi, aur karta hai aapka bheja fry!

Manoj makes sure your Wednesday evenings just get better as he takes to the mic.

With a great style of presentation, and a smooth-as-honey voice, (My dil certainly goes mmmmm!) Manoj moves across music of all genres effortlessly. In his show Kashish he churns out sher o shayari, ghazals and superhit naghme as you settle in after your day’s work.

And with Aarakshan fever on the radio, Manoj not only ‘reserved’ a Prakash Jha special but also an Amitabh Bachchan special!

PRIYANKA TATER on Meter Down 5-9pm (Tue & Thur)

Haan haan Meter Down toh kar hi lijiye kyunki here is the spunky and multi-talented Priyanka with her own inimitable style, setting your radio on fire in the evenings! You can be sure of masti as well as serious discussions with Priyanka.

Priyanka spoke this month, among others, with Ingrid Just of Choice magazine about comparison websites to look at while booking your flights; Vishal Gupta of Concept Tree Consulting who helped organise a ‘property fair’ bringing in

20 <> SEPTEMBER 2011

some of the best known property developers in India to woo the diaspora here; Ash Nugent of www.worldfootynews. com, who is trying to promote AFL in India; and Sudip Chakraborty, captain of the Indian AFL team that toured recently.

Tuesdays have come alive with a special segment of Priyanka’s India Now, a discussion on the changes that India has been going through. Priyanka’s popular Lights Camera and Action show focused on patriotic films to mark Independence Day. Also, with a special show on Shammi Kapoor, Priyanka captured the very first real film star of Bollywood.

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PRIYANKA RAO Sat 9am – 12 pm Saturday mornings bring on air the surili Priyanka as she takes you through the very latest tracks, with plenty of gupshup thrown in - with a dekkho on the events gone by in Australia and India Hafta Bhar; the Top 10 of just about everything you

can think of, entertainment news and box office round-up of new releases. Priyanka is definitely a bright spot on our Saturday mornings!

ANUP KUMAR 12- 4pm (Sat) Kuch luv jaisa is in the air when the golden voice of the radio starts off at midday on Saturdays. We’re talking about our love guru Anup who brings a wealth of music on his shows. One of our oldest anchors, Anup knows exactly what you want, and delivers!

August month brought much to talk about, with Raakhi, Janmashtmi, Ramadan, India’s Independence Day. Listeners shared with Anup their favourite songs based on all of these.

Callers vied for giveaway tickets for films Singham and Aarakshan.

A special show recently on the unforgettable Mohd Rafi

was a fantastic success for Anup. “If there are 101 ways of saying ‘I love you’ in a song, Mohammed Rafi knew them all”.

And you can bet Anup knows them too. Thanks to Deepti (Wentworthville), Harmindar (Campsie), Gargiji and Mrs S Kler (Sydney) for their valuable comments – especially Jyoti from Croydon (her radio is on 24/7!) who recommended Rafi songs in Telugu, which Anup managed to play for her!

Another voice of yesteryear Mukesh, whose death anniversary went by on 27 Aug, was also celebrated this month. (Anup’s all time favourite, btw, is Mukesh’s unforgettable Kabhi kabhi mere dil mein khayal aata hai…)

RACHITA SAINI 9am -12pm (Sun) Great music, bindaas attitude and non-stop banter - it’s all you need from the Karma Queen Rachita who certainly makes your Sunday mornings shine bright even if there is no sunshine!

Having had a special on the Deepika Padukone and Saif Ali Khan pairing on her show, listeners did concede that there would be plenty of chemistry in Aarakshan. A discussion on

Anna Hazare the face of India’s fight against corruption was another success. The feeling of patriotism and the support our listeners showed on air was overwhelming.

I thank all our listeners who take the trouble to call in and show so much love and affection towards my team. It is you who make the radio happen!

NON STOP MUSIC

A bit about my part in Indian Link Radio – lining up your music!

Bhakti sangeet ho ya retro mix, ghazal ho ya mast mix, the latest ho ya Café Mix, hits of ‘60s, ‘70s, ‘80s, ‘90s and now…it’s all playing for you on the radio. Chaubeeson ghante saaton din – Mast!

That’s my line and I do know that I am matching your moods and favourites every hour on the hour, and you love it all!

“I just had to let you know I really enjoy your selection of ghazals. You do a remarkable job of whatever you do. Thanks Neelam,” Jaya from Sydney wrote recently.

The littlest fan of my work is Ishaan Patel from Melbourne who is just two years old. Now I have to tell you what I have seen in person. Getting back home the first thing he does is point to the radio and says “Music, Mummy”, demanding that it be turned on. I did believe this when he did the same at my

UZMA BEG on Morning Masala with Uzma 10am-1pm (Mon-Tue-Thurs) It was a warm welcome back to the supremely lovable - but totally crazy - morning anchor Uzma Beg, who was missed much by the Indian Link Radio family. Back after her month-long holiday in Europe (hobnobbing with the stars?), the chatterbox-extraordinaire got straight into the act.

“Absence makes the heart grow fonder - I missed all my callers!”

With a unique ability to make all the callers feel they are the only ones she is talking to, Uzma had them opening their hearts again, such as with a recent discussion on being duped by scams. “My heart went out to poor Luxmi who got swindled by a babaji in Sydney… and to Saloni who was saved in the nick of time by her hubby from a scam that would’ve rendered her thousands of dollars in the negative!”

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place too!!! His favourite song right now? Jalebi Bai. Great going Ishaan I love to see your face light up on listening to Indian Link!

Treat yourself to relaxing music all afternoon with the very latest 3@3pm. (Last fortnight we played I Love you from Bodyguard, Rabba Main Toh Mar gaya from Mausam, and your No1 song based on listeners’ requests is Acha Lagta Hai from Aarakshan).

Followed by Mast Mix everyday Mon - Sat 4pm to 5pm you can be assured of uplifting music to beat the evening blues away. 10pm onwards Saari Saari Raat promises to take you on a journey that is filled with melody of different genres all the way up to 5am next day.

So how can you be a part of it all? Just subscribe to the radio.

With a radio set in your home or business or a car decoder to keep you entertained in the peak hours…the choice is yours.

Toh Indian Link Radio bajne do zara…faltu attitude de de tu zara!

But her own favourite morning on radio recently was during the discussion on parental authority. “Being a parent myself I’ve researched this topic to death and thought my listeners would benefit from it just as I have. Callers had so much to add that I’ve promised to repeat it early next year when all the festivities are over and it’s time to exercise some parental control!”

And of course what would Uzma’s show be without some mindless fun that has us all so wrapped up we forget our morning chores? It was a fun-filled romp as she got us to translate muhawaras in English. How would you say “Kab nau mann tail hoga, kab Radha nachaygee” in English? Manzar did it for us: “When will there be 9 mann oil so Radha will dance?”

Lol... see? You can have fun too... just pick up that phone and call Uzma on Monday, Tuesday & Thursday between 10am & 1pm and you can have yourselves a real party. Ye masti hai truly sasti!

SEPTEMBER 2011 <> 21

Photo: AP Photo/Jin Lee

DIASPORA

Bollywood actress Rani Mukherjee greets the parade crowd at this year’s India Day Parade in New York.

Google doodles on Freddie Mercury’s 65th birthday

Flamboyant Parsi-British musician Farrokh Bulsara, better known by fans as Freddie Mercury and the lead singer of popular rock band Queen, was remembered on his 65th birth anniversary by Google with an animated doodle on its home page.

The 100-second collage, said to be among the longest posted by Google, has been kicked off with a blog by Brian May, who was a song-writer for Queen with numbers like We Will Rock You that made Mercury one of the most popular artists ever.

“From time to time, we invite guests to post about items of interest and are thrilled to have Brian May join us to talk about friend and bandmate Freddie Mercury,” said Google, introducing the blog on Mercury, equally versatile on piano, keyboard and guitar.

“Freddie was fully focused, never allowing anything or anyone to get in the way of his vision for the future. He was truly a free spirit. There are not many of these in the world,” said May, remembering his friend, who would have been 65 on September 5.

“Some people imagine Freddie as a fiery, difficult diva who required everyone around him to compromise. No! In our world, as four artists attempting to paint on the same canvas, Freddie was always the one who could find the compromise - the way to pull it through.”

Born to Bomi and Jer Bulsara in the British protectorate of Zanzibar, now in Tanzania, Bulsara soon moved to Panchgani near Mumbai and spent his childhood there.

He started taking piano lessons since seven and five years later formed a rock band of his own.

His family then moved to Feltham in Middlesex, England, and after his graduation and some odd jobs, he joined a band called Ibex in 1969. A year later, along with May and drummer Roger Taylor, he formed Queen 22 <> SEPTEMBER 2011

and also changed his surname to Mercury.

Counted among the greatest entertainers, Mercury himself wrote several songs, notably Bohemian Rhapsody, Killer Queen, We Are the Champions, Seven Seas of Rhyme, Play the Game, Somebody to Love and Don’t Stop Me Now. He was openly gay, but hid his HIV status - believed to have been diagnosed sometime in 1987 - from the public for at least two years. He died on November 24, 1991 at his home in Kensington, when he was barely 45, a few months after bidding adieu to Queen.

Among the other notable tributes, luxury car-maker Lotus has produced a one-off Evora S coupe in his honour, in pearl white with red and gold accents that was the entertainer’s signature costume in the mid 1980s.

The car is to be auctioned off for an HIVAIDS charity formed by his Queen-mates.

Underground river named after Indian-origin scientist

Brazilian scientists have discovered the existence of an underground river some 6,000 km long running beneath the Amazon River. The river has been named after an Indian-origin scientist.

Valiya Mannathal Hamza, a professor at the National Observatory, Rio de Janeiro, has just been bestowed the rare honour of having the river named after him. Hamza has been studying the region for more than four decades.

The discovery was made possible thanks to research work performed at 241 wells that the Petrobras oil company drilled in the Amazon region in the 1970s while prospecting for crude, according to the study published by the Sao Paulo daily O Estado which was carried out by the National Geophysical Observatory.

The subterranean river runs at a depth of about 4,000 meters along a course similar to that of the Amazon, and it has a flow rate calculated at about 3,000 cubic meters per second.

The flow is just 3 percent of that of the Amazon River itself, which has its headwaters in the Peruvian jungle, empties into the Atlantic in northern Brazil and at 6,800 kilometers is considered to be the world’s longest river.

Over 1,500 delegates to attend Indian diaspora conclave in 2012

Over 1,500 delegates from across the globe are likely to participate in India’s annual diaspora conclave to be held in Jaipur Jan 7-9, 2012, Vayalar Ravi, minister of overseas Indian affairs and civil aviation, said recently.

Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar will be the chief guest at the 10th edition of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD).

The theme of PBD 2012 will be “Global Indian-Inclusive Growth”.

“We are expecting more number of participants in the PBD 2012. Over 1,500 delegates are likely to participate,” Ravi said at a press conference in New Delhi.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is scheduled to inaugurate the event Jan 8, 2012 and President Pratibha Devisingh Patil will deliver the valedictory address and confer Pravasi Bhartiya Samman awards Jan 9.

Ravi said the event would provide an excellent opportunity to connect with 27-million strong Indian diaspora spread over 150 countries across the world.

The Indian diaspora is the second largest expatriate community in the world after the Chinese. “The expatriate community plays an important role in the growth and development of the country. Our aim is to encourage them to play an even greater role,” the minister said.

The PBD 2012 will be organised by the ministry of overseas Indian affairs in partnership with government of Rajasthan.

The Confederation of Indian Industry is the institutional partner of the event.

The three-day event will be held at

Marriott hotel in Rajasthan’s capital Jaipur, popularly called the Pink City.

“The event will help the people from northern part of the country, especially Rajasthan, to reconnect with diaspora and go abroad and find jobs,” Ravi said.

Ravi pointed out that an increasingly large number of people from the northern part of the country were going abroad, especially to the Gulf countries, to find gainful employment.

Four Indians among MIT’s top 35 innovators

Two Indians and two persons of Indian origin figure among Top 35 Innovators under 35 in the latest list of Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Technology Review, the world’s oldest Technology Magazine established in 1899.

Ajit Narayanan, Invention Labs, Chennai and Aishwarya Ratan, Yale University, who were part of TR35 India Winners announced in March 2011, have made it to the annual list of people who exemplify the spirit of innovation in business and technology.

The honourees are blazing new paths in a wide range of fields, including medicine, energy, communications, IT, consumer technology, entertainment, and robotics, Cambridge, Massachusetts, based institution announced recently.

Chennai-based Ajit Narayanan, 30, was selected for his work on affordable speech synthesizers He is currently working with the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, to improve the quality of the speech synthesis.

He also plans to use mobile app stores to distribute a version of his software with about 90 percent of the full Avaz system’s functionality.

Aishwarya Ratan, 30, was working with Microsoft Research in Bangalore when she won the prestigious honour for her work on converting paper records to digital in real time. Ratan has since moved to Yale University, but the NGO that she was INDIAN LINK

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partnering with continues to test the slate in villages.

Two winners of Indian origin include Bhaskar Krishnamachari, 33, University of Southern California who has been selected for his work on smarter wireless networks and Piya Sorcar, 33, for Teachaids software that can be localised to teach taboo topics.

The TR35 will present their work and be honoured at an awards ceremony during the 2011 EmTech MIT conference, taking place Oct 18-19 at MIT’s Media Lab, USA.

NRI woes on surrendering Indian passports

Many non-resident Indians (NRIs) say they are facing problems because of the formalities they now have to face while surrendering their Indian passports to acquire US citizenship.

“It is mind boggling how much paperwork they have added for someone born in India to revisit India,” lamented NRI Padma Golla from Houston, US. She was among scores of NRIs reacting to the IANS report about India lowering the fee for surrender of Indian passports in early July.

Rules regarding surrender of Indian passports on attaining US citizenship, introduced by India’s Ministry of External Affairs in May 2010, were relaxed from June 1, 2011, after strong pressure by NRIs. Indian consulates used to charge $175 as fee for the surrender of old Indian passports and additional penalties for various “violations”. The fee has now been reduced to just $20.

“I am being put in a difficult situation where I can’t get a visa while my kid has one and I can’t travel with my kid who just needed an American passport with an application for a visa,” Golla added.

Many Indian consulates still have no idea about the announcement.

The consulates in countries other than the US are not sure if this new ruling applied to NRIs with British and other passports.

The websites of many consulates show the higher, outdated fees.

Kawal Gupta from Toronto had a similar problem. He wrote: “I heard on radio that the fees for surrender of Indian passport after obtaining the citizenship of other country has been reduced to $20 but when I called VFS (visa processing office), they said they have not heard of any such change and that I should submit my forms with the fees of $175.”

Till mid-July, the visa processing office insisted on charging a higher fee from Kawal who has four passports to cancel, which means paying about $700.

Sanjay Zala of Houston, Texas (US), who became a Canadian citizen in 2006, said Trasvisa Outsourcing, which handles visa requests from the United States, insists he pay a penalty of $250 because he did not surrender his Indian passport within a year.

He made representations to the Indian ministry of external affairs, ministry of overseas Indian affairs, senior officers and the Indian consulate in the US, but to no avail.

In his letter to the ministry, he wrote, “By paying penalty and Overseas Citizenship of India fees together, is the government of India really interested to increase the interest of NRIs and their investment in India?”

“And by imposing this penalty, is the government really doing a favour to NRIs to visit India and obtain Overseas Citizenship of India?” he asked.

“I have many thousands of names of the people who became foreign nationals before 2005 and kept their valid Indian passports for over three years. On renouncing their Indian citizenship, they did not pay any penalty,” Zala added.

“Why have the consular officers abroad not drawn any attention about this to the ministry of external affairs? Why is there INDIAN LINK

a gross discrimination against those who became foreign nationals after 2005 with valid Indian passports?” he asked.

Zala has not received any replies.

Tilak Sen and Raamprasad in Britain found it difficult to convince the Indian consulates that British passport holders should also pay the lower penalty.

Clarence Gomes from Mississauga, Canada, wrote that the previous rule was that anyone who obtained citizenship before May 2010 had to pay only $20 to obtain a surrender certificate but those who obtained citizenship after May 2010 had to pay $175.

Gomes wrote, “There are many like me who obtained Canadian citizenship in March 2011, does it mean that I have to still pay $175 for the surrender of my Indian passport? If so, there is no change in the policy as I understand it. We will appreciate if the correct policy is confirmed as it is still not clear to many Indians who have recently been granted citizenship of another country.”

Gomes sent letters to the local TV stations, newspapers and the Indian consulate in Toronto and the ministries of external affairs and overseas Indian affairs, but with no response.

Australia and India cooperate on mental health

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare India and the University of Melbourne signed an MOU on 30 August in Delhi to collaborate on strengthening India’s national community mental health system.

This collaboration will seek to address the mental health burden and treatment gap in India on mental health.

Simon Evans, the Pro Vice Chancellor International of the University of Melbourne told an audience in Delhi today that “this project is an innovative and exciting opportunity to create positive change for diverse community mental health care in India, and to provide global leadership in implementing quality and culturally appropriate services to close the mental health treatment gap.”

The University of Melbourne is a leading centre for the development of mental health services both nationally and internationally.

The collaboration will develop community mental health models in India that can be scaled up to increase access to effective care for people with mental illness.

Four key pilot sites across India have been identified as pathfinders for a national program. Best practice models will be developed in these pilot sites to reflect the needs of people in diverse rural and urban conditions.

Acting Australian High Commissioner to India, Dr Lachlan Strahan, welcomed the initiative saying “both India and Australia are looking at ways to get individuals to recognise mental illness, get access to the right services, and get help in dealing with the stigma of mental health which can lock people out of work, education and community engagement. This collaboration will identify innovative and practical approaches for dealing with these challenges in the Indian context.”

Over the next two years, each of the four field sites will be supported by a tertiary care mental health institute and a local administrative committee representing the broad community stakeholders in partnership with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

A bilateral Advisory Committee chaired by the Directorate General of Health Services, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare will oversee the overall project.

Technical expertise will be provided

by The University of Melbourne’s AsiaAustralia Mental Health. The project is a partnership with the Australia India Institute.

Indian-origin entrepreneur builds wine chateau in Argentina

Life’s a voyage for this promising entrepreneur. Meet Aziz Abdul who has come a long way from his humble background in Asia to build a sprawling wine chateau in this beautiful Andean nation that is home to star footballers like Digeo Maradona and Lionel Messi.

Born to a Tamil father and a halfVietnamese mother, Aziz can speak fluent Spanish and Vietnamese. “I am a foreigner in any country”, he beams with a smile when asked to which country he belonged.

Aziz has named his chateau Hana, a combination of the initials of his two daughters, wife and the letter A of his name, said R. Viswanathan, Indian ambassador to Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay who spent two days last month visiting his vineyard and listening to his stories over many glasses of Hana wine.

He produces high-end wine which sells for 90 pesos ($22) in wine shops in Argentina.

His wine is also served in upscale hotels, restaurants and wine shops in Buenos Aires, Bariloche, Mendoza, Mar del Plata, Cordoba and Rosario.

He was born in South Vietnam where he lived for the first 15 years. His father, a Tamil from Pondicherry, returned to India on losing their possessions when Saigon fell in 1975.

Aziz went to a French school in Pondicherry and later moved to Paris where he studied mathematics and thereafter computer science at the University of Orsay.

He worked for 20 years in the IT department of the French multinational group Lagardere. But he did not want to end up life staring at the computer screens.

He longed to have a quiet life in the countryside and was saving money to pursue his dream to own a vineyard and make his own wine.

While studying in Paris, he was a frequent visitor to the cellar of the home of one of his friends. He then studied viticulture and enology. The taste for wine led him to explore vineyards in France and beyond.

As soon as he had the minimum savings he started looking to buy a vineyard.

The French and European ones being expensive, he tried India, hoping he would be able to re-root himself to his fatherland. But it did not work out.

Thereafter, Aziz came to Argentina, the fifth largest wine producer in the world. He bought a 15-hectare vineyard on the outskirts of San Rafael city in Mendoza province in 2008 where he grows malbec, cabernet sauvignon and bonarda varietals. He is into his fourth crop this year.

He put up a new boutique winery, with a capacity of 85,000 litres. He manages the farm with the help of a local husband-wife pair and an enologist.

He enjoys taking care of the plants and the processing with an eye for every detail. Aziz’s favourite quotation: “God had created water, men the wines (by Victor Hugo).”

Aziz has integrated well in the small town of San Rafael. While he makes upscale wine he himself leads a simple life. He is connected to his family in Paris by skype, said Viswanathan.He is planning to start exports soon. How about exporting to India?

He beams with yet another smile.

His wife shares her time between her husband in Argentina and daughters who live in their apartment, a few blocks from Eiffel tower in Paris.

Like Aziz, many foreigners are investing in vineyards in Mendoza for the pleasure and pride of having their own vineyard and boutique winery. Aziz had bought the vineyard from an American investor. There is no restriction on foreign investment. Aziz’s own investment in the vineyard and winery is

about $500,000.

The climate in Mendoza is perfect for the grapes with warm days, cold nights and sunshine throughout the year, said Viswanathan.

Wine exports from Argentina reached $864 million in 2010. Argentine wines are getting more recognition in the international markets in recent years. They have overtaken the Chilean wines in the US market. Malbec has become famous around the world as the signature wine of Argentina.

A true-blood Malayalee from Pakistan pushes for friendship

In his traditional cotton mundu and khadi kurta, 80-year-old Biyyathil Mohyuddin Kutty looks every inch a sprightly Malayalee from Kerala. The political activist who chose to make Pakistan his home 60 years ago believes that one “cannot know the Pakistanis unless you live there”.

Kutty does not let his Kerala sensibility overshadow his Pakistani soul and nationality and likes to call himself a “dyed in the wool Pakistani national”. Kutty, the general secretary of the Pakistan Peace Coalition and former political secretary to the governor of Balochistan, believes that ties between India and Pakistan are poised for a change.

“The recent serial blasts in Mumbai on the eve of the foreign ministers’ meeting was a definite attempt to undermine the meeting.

But the government of India spokesperson came out clearly that unsubstantiated allegations should not be made against Pakistan - and the talks continued. It was a turning point in the India-Pakistan relationship,” Kutty told IANS. Kutty was in Delhi to launch his book Sixty Years in Self-Exile: No Regret - A Political Autobiography (published by the Pakistan Study Centre, University of Karachi and Pakistan Labour Trust). The launch was facilitated by the Policy and Planning Group, a social forum promoting cross-border friendship.

A committed socialist, Kutty arrived in Lahore to work as an assistant at the India Coffee House and then switched to a series of a multinational companies. But a jail term for alleged trade unionism changed his life. In 1966, Kutty joined the Trade and Industry Journal as managing editor and later chief editor of Finance and Industry, which later came to be known as the Pakistan Economist.

He rose to become a policymaker in the Balochistan government and later in the Pakistan Peace Committee, where he is currently campaigning against terror and fundamentalist violence and rallying for convivial ties with India. A man of stringent principles, Kutty has been involved in drafting labour statutes and policies for the Pakistan government.

“What is important is that today’s Pakistanis are as such not an enemy of Indians. They have all sorts of ideas which they have built up over the years - a particular mindset - which can change with more people meeting each other and communicating with each other”.

“Bureaucratic and political meetings don’t go down well with the common people of Pakistan because what the bureaucrats decide today they un-decide the next day. People of Pakistan want the exchanges to be lasting,” Kutty said.

A few months after the 26/11 Mumbai strikes, Kutty led a Pakistan Peace Coalition delegation to India. “We addressed students in universities because that was where we wanted to send the message that Pakistan is not at war with India,” he said.

He says the “growth of fundamentalist terror can be linked to Zia-ul Haq’s Islamisation of Pakistan”.

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India and Pakistan are set to scale up bilateral trade and business when Pakistan’s Commerce Minister Makhdoom Amin Fahim visits India later this month. It’s being speculated that Islamabad could grant New Delhi the long-overdue Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status.

Fahim’s visit to India is likely to take place from Sep 26-30, said reliable sources. He will hold talks with his Indian counterpart Anand Sharma on the removal of trade barriers and pruning down of a negative list of products that the two countries don’t want to trade in.

Pakistan, sources said, has indicated its willingness to double the number of goods it imports from India, but it’s not clear whether it will go all the way with the MFN status.

Building upon successful talks between their foreign ministers in July, India and Pakistan are now poised to expand their bilateral trade and liberalise the visa regime, especially for businessmen.

Issues relating to liberalisation of the trade regime were discussed last month during the talks between joint secretaries (commerce) of the two countries last month.

Pakistan, in principle, has agreed to move from “positive list” to “negative list” trade regime with India as required under the conventions of the South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA).

“Pakistan has also recognised that grant of MFN status to India would help in expanding the bilateral trade relations,” Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Jyotiraditya M. Scindia told the Rajya Sabha last month in reply to a question.

Pakistan maintains a “positive list” of 1,945 items which are allowed to be imported from India. Under SAFTA, Pakistan operates a sensitive list (negative list) of 1,169 items.

New Delhi has asked Islamabad to prepare the negative list of items that it does not want to import from India.

The MFN status for India could be a key step in expanding trade ties between the two countries whose relations have been marred by a host of issues, including terrorism and Kashmir.

The MFN status would benefit a range of Indian products, including textiles, cotton, vegetables, coffee, tea and spices and can take bilateral trade up to $10 billion and help cut down on informal trade that is going on between the two countries.

Pakistan, on its part, is expecting India to remove non-tariff barriers that restrict imports from that country.

India-Pakistan trade was estimated to be $1.85 billion in 2009-10. Indian exports accounted for $1.78 billion.

In April-December 2010, bilateral trade is estimated to have gone up to over $3 billion with India’s exports at $1.7 billion.

A study by Delhi-based Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations estimates that, given reciprocal concessions, bilateral trade between India and Pakistan could go up to $14.3 billion, with India exporting about $11 billion-worth and importing goods worth $3 billion from Pakistan.

Reddy, a director of Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC) and Srinivasa Reddy, the managing director of OMC, at Bellary in Karnataka and shifted them to Hyderabad amid tight security.

The duo was produced before a CBI court, which remanded them to judicial custody till September 19. They were later shifted to Chanchalguda Central Jail.

The court adjourned to Sep 7 the hearing on the CBI’s petition seeking custody of the accused for 15 days.

Janardhana Reddy’s counsel Raghavachary, during the arguments, alleged that there was a political conspiracy behind the arrest. The counsel also termed the arrest “illegal” as Janardhana Reddy’s name is not included in CBI’s FIR as an accused.

It was also submitted that Janardhana Reddy has nothing to do with the day-to-day functioning of OMC. The judge, however, asked the counsel to file a counter to the CBI’s petition September 7.

The CBI counsel sought the judicial custody of the accused saying they could tamper with the evidence.

Earlier, while being shifted from the CBI office to the court complex, Janardhana Reddy told reporters that he is innocent.

“The truth always prevails,” he said.

Janardhana Reddy, a lawmaker in Karnataka, and Srinivasa Reddy were arrested in a case registered against them in 2009 for illegal mining in Andhra Pradesh’s Anantapur district, bordering Karnataka.

“A CBI team from Hyderabad arrested Janaradhana Reddy after raiding his residence and took him to Hyderabad in their vehicle for interrogation in connection with the case registered against his mining company,” a senior police officer of Bellary said.

Hailing from Andhra Pradesh’s Chittoor district, the Reddy brothers made their fortunes in Karnataka’s iron ore rich district of Bellary.

The Reddys, who were small businessmen, became billionaires after entering into mining 10 years ago.

Interestingly, the arrests come at a time when the CBI is probing the alleged illegal assets of MP Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy, son of late Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy. Janardhana Reddy was close to the former chief minister and his

son.

Both Andhra’s ruling Congress and opposition Telugu Desam Party hailed Janardhana Reddy’s arrest and demanded probe against Jaganmohan Reddy for his links with mining baron.

However, Jaganmohan Reddy denied any links with former Karnataka minister.

‘Doha round can’t be allowed to collapse’

The Doha round of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) must not be allowed to collapse as it will result in protectionism and hurt global economy and trade, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said recently.

“Many skeptics feel that the WTO is at crossroads and that the lack of progress in the Doha round raises questions on the relevance and efficacy of this institution. We do not share this pessimism,” Sharma said at the inaugural of WTO Regional Trade Policy Course 2011, at the Centre for WTO Studies in New Delhi.

The minister said there was disappointment among members due to the delays but the negotiations should not be allowed to collapse.

The so-called Doha round of WTO negotiation, launched in Qatar capital in November 2001, has been deadlocked since 2008.

Sharma said India had taken initiatives to break the deadlock and remained committed for early conclusion of the talks.

Emphasising the need to stay focussed on the developmental dimension of the round, the minister said the terms of the discourse can’t be changed.

He pointed out that developing countries were being called upon to pay an unconscionably high price to conclude the round.

“This certainly was not our expectation and our commitment when we agreed to participate in the round,” he said.

Sharma, who is also the minister of textiles, said a timely conclusion of the Doha round would have strengthened the WTO as a bulwark against protectionism and given a boost to the global economy.

“While a crisis may lead to inward looking and promote protectionism, it will be counterproductive and will delay the

recovery and deepen recession. WTO has a crucial role to play in this regard,” he said.

Tainted High Court judge accepts Lok Sabha’s stand

Soumitra Sen, who resigned as a judge of the Calcutta High Court, has accepted the stand of the Lok Sabha that he will not be impeached by it and wants to put an end to the “debate,” his lawyer said.

With President Pratibha Patil accepting his resignation, the Lok Sabha Monday dropped impeachment proceedings against Sen.” “We are accepting the verdict of the MPs of the lower house,” Sen’s lawyer Subhash Bhattacharya said. “We’d like to put an end to the debate,” he added.

Law Minister Salman Khurshid moved the motion to drop impeachment proceedings against Sen in the Lok Sabha. Speaker Meira Kumar put it to vote before the house, which adopted the motion.

Sen was held guilty by the Rajya Sabha last month on charges of misappropriating Rs.33.23 lakh in a 1983 case when he was appointed a receiver by the high court. The upper house had on Aug 18 adopted an impeachment motion for removal of Sen with 189 members voting in favour and 16 against.

Justice Sen is the first judge against whom any of the two houses of parliament has passed an impeachment motion. The first such attempt to impeach a judge was against Justice V. Ramaswami of the Supreme Court in 1993, but the motion to remove him fell through in the Lok Sabha as the ruling Congress abstained.

A three-member committee constituted

by Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari found the charges of financial irregularities against Sen to be correct.

Sen, then an advocate, was held guilty of misappropriating Rs.33.23 lakh in a 1983 case when he was appointed a receiver by the high court.

Jurists differ on controversial Gujarat Lokayukta appointment

The legal fraternity in India is divided on the manner in which the Gujarat governor’s discretionary powers have been interpreted in the appointment of retired judge R.A. Photo: AP Photo/Pawan Sharma

Pakistan commerce minister to visit India

Mining baron Janardhana Reddy arrested, jailed

Former Karnataka minister and mining baron Gali Janardhana Reddy and his relative B. Srinivasa Reddy were sent to a jail in Hyderabad after a special court remanded them to 14 days judicial custody in an illegal mining case in Andhra Pradesh.

On September 5, a day of fast paced developments, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested Janardhana 24 <> SEPTEMBER 2011

Muslims offer prayers in front of the historic Taj Mahal on Eid al-Fitr in Agra, India. Eid al-Fitr is a holiday marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan, which is observed by millions of Muslims around the world.

INDIAN LINK

Photo: AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade

Devotees mass around a large statue of the elephant-headed Hindu God Ganesh on the way to immersing it in the Arabian Sea on the final day of Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India. Every year millions of devout Hindus immerse Ganesh idols in oceans and rivers in the ten-day-long festival that celebrates the birth of Ganesh.

Mehta as the state’s Lokayukta.

Last week the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) disrupted parliamentary proceedings on two days, seeking the recall of Governor Kamla Beniwal over the appointment of Mehta as the state’s anti-corruption ombudsman.

The August 25 appointment by Beniwal has been resisted by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. He has accused Mehta of being “biased and prejudiced” against the government and questioned his capacity to act independently as the Lokayukta.

The chief minister has also contended that the governor has eroded the credibility of the institution of Lokayukta.

Supreme Court counsel and former Madhya Pradesh advocate general Anoop Chaudhary felt that the governor could act independently under the Gujarat Lokayukta Act in the exercise of discretionary powers.

Senior counsel M.N. Krishnamani contended that Section 3 of the Gujarat Lokayukta Act, which provides for the appointment of Lokayukta by the governor, is unconstitutional as it is ultra vires of Article 163 of the Indian constitution.

While agreeing that Section 3 of the Act does not expressly say that the governor will appoint the Lokayukta on the recommendation of the state cabinet, Krishnamani said that the expression “governor” in the section should be inferred to mean the chief minister or the cabinet.

He said that construing the section to mean that the governor could act independent of the state government would run counter to clause (1) of Article 163 of the Indian constitution.

The clause reads: “There shall be a council of ministers with the chief minister at the head to aid and advise the governor in the exercise of his functions, except in so far as he is by or under this constitution required to exercise his functions or any of them in his discretion.”

Krishnamani said that no statute could survive if it was contrary to the mandate of the constitution.

Chaudhary disagreed. He said that the apex court had held in several matters that there could be situations in which the governor could act independently without the aid and advice of the council of ministers.

INDIAN LINK

He said that in the case of the Gujarat Lokayukta, the statute itself was explicit that the governor would make the appointment in consultation with the high court chief justice and the leader of the opposition.

According to Chaudhary, the fact that Modi wrote a letter to Chief Justice S.J. Mukhopadhaya, objecting to the latter recommending Mehta for the Lokayukta clearly showed that he was in the know and even tried to amend the Gujarat Lokayukta Act to take away the powers of the governor.

The senior counsel wondered how BJP leaders could reconcile their action of first moving the high court and then stalling parliamentary proceedings on the issue. He said that if legality of the governor’s action was in question, it had to be settled legally.

Noted jurist and Jan Lokpal bill drafting committee member Prashant Bhushan said that the entire course of events went to show that Modi was not inclined to submit his actions for scrutiny by an independent authority.

Bhushan said that for seven and a half years, Modi did not allow the appointment of a Lokayukta, and now that it was being done, he was trying to frustrate the efforts by making it a political issue.“It shows the BJP and Narendra Modi in a poor light that they were unwilling to submit themselves to scrutiny by an independent authority,” Bhushan said.

Teesta water agreement hits choppy waters

There will be no agreement on the sharing of the Teesta river waters without the consultation of the West Bengal government, Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai said.

“Nothing is done and nothing will be done without the consultation with the state government,” Mathai told reporters. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has refused to accompany the prime minister on his visit to Dhaka to protest the final draft of the Teesta river water sharing agreement with Bangladesh.

The Teesta, which begins its journey in Sikkim, flows through north Bengal before entering Bangladesh.

Banerjee’s unhappiness stemmed from

the amount of water sharing of the Teesta mentioned in the final draft of the agreement that was slated to be signed during the September 6-7 visit of the prime minister.

“There was difference between the initial draft of the agreement and the final version.

The state government had agreed on sharing of up to 25,000 cusecs. But the final version talks of sharing 33,000-50,000 cusecs,” a source close to Banerjee had said in Kolkata.

“She feels this will hurt West Bengal’s interests,” the source said.

The other river on the India-Bangladesh discussion table is the Feni.

The Feni, which flows 135 km south of Tripura capital Agartala, has been in dispute since 1934. In a total catchment area of 1,147 square km of the river, 535 square km falls in India and the rest in Bangladesh.

On the Feni river, Mathai said that things were as per plan.

Manmohan Singh will now be accompanied by the chief ministers of Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya and Mizoram on the trip that comes four decades after the India-Pakistan war had led to the birth of Bangladesh.

Rajasthan ex-royal threatens stir if assailants not arrested

Former MP and erstwhile royal Vishwendra Singh Monday threatened a stir across Rajasthan if action was not taken against those responsible for firing on his supporters protesting against a controversial book on Bharatpur’s former rulers.

“We will launch state-wide protest from September 9 and stage demonstration at the offices of district collectors and superintendents of police if those involved in firing are not arrested,” he said, addressing an all community meet in Kumher Baigor village in Bharatpur district, some 170 kilometres from Jaipur.

Seven of his supporters were injured in a shootout at a hotel in Bharatpur recently while he and his wife Divya Singh escaped unhurt.

The meet was attended by Member of Parliament Kirori Lal Meena and some prominent leaders of other communities.

Vishwendra Singh and his supporters also demanded a permanent ban on the

book titled “Bharatpur Rajvansh - Achhooti Smritiyan,” authored by his uncle Raghuraj Singh.

The controversy over the book had led to a violent protest by his supporters at Hotel Laxmi Vilas owned by Raghuraj Singh.

Witnesses told the police that while the supporters were damaging the reception area of the hotel and set ablaze some furniture, unidentified persons fired at them.

The district administrative authorities have banned the circulation of the book till Sep 15.

The Rajasthan government recently issued notice to Raghuraj Singh seeking his reply over the ban proposed on his book.

District Collector Krishna Kunal Sunday issued a notice to Raghuraj Singh and the publisher seeking an explanation as to why a ban should not be imposed on his book, which allegedly contains objectionable material.

“A local politician Rajveer Singh had submitted a complaint in writing seeking ban on the book,” a senior administrative official said.

Among the many controversial parts, the book claims that Bharatpur estate borrowed a huge sum of money to buy uniforms for the army during the reign of Maharaja Sawai Kishan Singh and did not return this. This was strongly protested by Vishwendra Singh, who claimed that the money was meant for flood relief work and was returned.

Vishwendra Singh also raised objection over some personal letters being published in the book, claiming that it amounted to breach of privacy.

From cops to clerks, Taj city comes clean on graft

After moving the police to take a collective oath, the Anna effect has now begun to influence other government segments in the city of Taj Mahal.

Last week, the Agra police pledged to refuse bribes in the discharge of their duties.

Can they really change colours? People were initially cynical.

But the results are showing: Raja ki Mandi, a chaotic traffic point, looked all streamlined Friday.

Said shopkeeper Vishal: “When they pledged against bribe, encroachments on the busy road are fewer, and suddenly law enforcement is easier.” He added: “They have placed dividers and traffic is moving comfortably.”

In other parts of the city too, the Anna wave is discernible as cops on duty are refusing to be ‘entertained’ by truckers and encroachers,” advocate Rajvir Singh said.

“Suddenly the number of traffic challans has shot up.”

Touts near the monuments - called Lapkas in local parlance - have been warned. “They will be physically shunted out and booked if a tourist complains of harassment,” Deputy Inspectotr General of Police Aseem Arun said. “They will first be told to mend their ways, later face the music.”

The Regional Transport Office, haven of corrupt clerks and middlemen, presents a changed look after senior officials chased touts and fixers away and the clerks or babus collectively swore they would come clean.

Transport officer V.K. Sonkia vowed the campaign would continue till the goals were achieved. “All information is now available on our website: The number of licences issued and the state of applications,” he said.

A miracle-change was seen at the Sales Tax (trade tax now) divisional office at Jaipur House as well. The babus congregated in the hall there and took a joint oath against bribery. It was administered by Additional Commissioner Janardan Dubey.

IANS

SEPTEMBER 2011 <> 25

COMMUNITYSCENE

www.indianlink.com.au

Sensational singing at Saaz 2011

Dreamslogic, an enterprise started by a group of talented individuals immensely passionate about music, offers a perfect platform for anyone aspiring to venture into the music industry. Riding on the success of the spectacular musical Fanaa in 2007, Dreamslogic has garnered a reputation of striking the perfect chord. Along with this success, comes the responsibility of living up to the audience expectations and with Saaz 2011, they did just that. The spirited audience gathered at this event were of various ethnic backgrounds. Mr. Rakesh Kawra, Vice Consul for India, graced the occasion with his wife Mona Kawra, and they cheered the performers during the entire show.

There was no questioning the quality of the performances on stage. Emcees Jasreen and Manish captured the pulse of the audience instantly and struck the perfect balance between humour and substance.

The audience could not have asked for a better start to the evening with the jubilant Ghanan Ghanan from Lagaan sung with a great deal of enthusiasm by Priyanka, Jagati and Mohit; thereafter, what followed was a heady concoction of melody, verve, joy and bliss. The youthful Amit was in the thick of the action taking charge of the keyboards, providing background vocals as well as crooning many a popular track with ease.

Prashant mesmerized the audience with his tranquil voice and was brilliant in his rendition of Shukran Allah from Kurbaan.

Mohit was an instant hit with his surreal voice complementing his calm demeanour; he was at his melodious best in Tere Mast Mast Do Nain from Dabanng. Jagati is a diva born to be a performer and belted out one track after another with consummate ease, blowing the audience away with her command and poise.

One of the pivotal figures of the team,

Priyanka, was in top form throughout the evening exhibiting the capacity and range of a professional in sync with her wide array of shimmering costumes. Her solo renditions of the husky lounge number Mar Jaava from Fashion and the serene medley of Tu Muskura/Man Mohini from Yuvraaj were just a few instances that showcased her scale. And let’s not forget, Sahil Hoogan, a versatile artist who, apart from having several performances under his belt, is exceptional both as a singer and musician.

If the first half of the concert had all the essential ingredients of Bollywood, the artists unleashed their complete repertoire of skills in the second half. Raat Ke Andherey is an excellent original track with a haunting melody penned and sung by Mohit with Sahil, who accompanied him brilliantly on the piano/keyboard. Then followed the lyrical Khamosh Pal which is another melodic original composition written by Priyanka,

with Sahil this time on the vocals. There were a few worthy cameos by Amitabh, Vicky and Irshad. Amitabh was in total command in Mitwa from Lagaan; Vicky put in two exceptional performances starting with an original Punjabi wacky track, Soniye, and the spiritual Bulla Ki Janaa that sent the crowd into raptures. Irshad delivered a robust performance with the peppy Chotu, in tandem with multi-talented Sahil.

The show was ably supported by dancers from PoisE’n who injected life into the songs with their energy especially in the rhythmic Zoobi Zoobi from 3 Idiots. One could not miss the unmistakable presence of guitarists Chet and Sandeep, charmers in their own right who also provided ample support in chorus. It was an enjoyable evening and Dreamslogic has only raised the bar for their future performances. Here’s wishing them all the very best in their future endeavours.

Sujith Krishnan

Gidda is a hit at Trinjna dance show BY PREETI JABBAL

I meet countless, spirited women in Melbourne who claim that they love to dance but when I ask where they dance, their faces fall. Most of the time they answer heartbreakingly, “I don’t!” and the reasons could be anything from, “there isn’t enough time” or “I work” or “I have children” or “I don’t know where to go”. This irks me no end. Dancing to me is an integral part of life, a channel for the expression of human experience, a way to be in our bodies whatever life brings. If we’re open and if we have a space in our community, we can dance to celebrate, grieve, struggle, connect and commune with others, our environment and ourselves. I always wonder at how, despite our hectic lifestyle, we somehow find time for everything else that is important to us, so why not spare some time for this wonderfully uplifting activity?

Why not dance more often and in the process, live it up more often?

It was therefore with great enthusiasm that I accepted an invitation to attend Raunak Trinjna Di, a dance event held recently by the organization of Punjabi Folk Arts in Melbourne. A few enterprising women from Punjab came together to form this organization to uphold the 26 <> SEPTEMBER 2011

tradition of Punjab and revel in its culture of celebrating every season and every reason, with exuberance. With Raunak Trinjna Di, the entertainment quotient turned out to be as high as the spirits of the participants. Dance after dance captured the joyfulness of Punjabi folk art and the predominantly female audience applauded generously after each performance. For a few hours the women forgot all their commitments, woes, concerns and responsibilities as they immersed themselves in the exultant atmosphere. They even forgave the lengthy waiting time that they had to endure before the show began. As for me, I couldn’t stop the involuntary tapping of my feet to the infectious Punjabi music. My hands rose on their own accord to clap with the beat and it was hard for me to stay still for too long on my seat. Balle Balle generally has that kind of effect on most dance lovers.

The show took off with the traditional lighting of lamp by FIWAA President Mrs. Madhu Dudeja, followed by many items performed in quick succession. Threading it all together with remarkable aplomb was MC for the afternoon, Varsha Bhatti. Her command on Punjabi language was as good

as her control on the audience. Quoting couplets, shayaris, jokes and anecdotes, she kept the audience engaged throughout the show. The talent on display at the Besan Centre in Burwood that afternoon was very inspiring. Equally inspiring were the youngsters who performed on a combination of traditional and contemporary folk songs, along with the globally popular style of dancing from Bollywood.

The afternoon stretched out to accommodate numerous routines, each flavoured by the spice or sweetness of Punjab. The highlight of the show was a gidda item performed by an awardwinning group from Melbourne. With its rapid and vigorous movements, mimicry element, satire and expression of human emotions the ever-popular gidda stirred the audience to start dancing in the aisle. It was impossible not to have the spirits lifted

after such an amazing show. Hopefully, the organization of Punjabi Folk Arts will not rest too long on their laurels and will bring us more of these fun-filled events very soon. In the meantime if you want to chase off your blues, make time to put on your INDIAN LINK

SENIORS

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The Seniors scene BY GEORGE THAKUR

The Indian Senior Citizens Forum

(ISCA) in August 2011 earned the envious distinction of becoming first seniors association to hold monthly meetings at separate venues and separate dates: Camberwell and Dandenong. A few years ago, the Forum’s founding father Shri S. K. Aulplish, chose to serve the rather large Indian, Sri Lankan and Fijian Indian communities that inhabit Dandenong, but on public demand conceded that the Forum would serve equal or larger combined communities in Camberwell. The Dandenong venue was thus wound up, but mounting desperation in the city’s communities over the following years persisted, and Auplish ended up reconsidering his decision.

As moving back to Dandenong lock, stock and barrel would be counterproductive, Auplish chose a smarter option and made an application. Shunning its past, the city of Dandenong progressively ameliorated with wide promenades, high-rise buildings and 21st century facilities, so the City Council was pleased to accept the Forum’s return to their City. They approved the application forthwith, and offered all help necessary.

Forever obliging, FIAV President Vasan offered their premises as a free venue. But where would India be if the confusion embedded in every sphere of its inhabitant’s lives was absent even overseas! The adequately announced time slot of 11am to 1pm allocated by FIAV to the Forum was stuttered, with a Malayalam language class already occupying the slot. Recognising the Forum’s predicament, the kind-hearted Malayalees agreed to depart.

Evidently organised in a hurry, the meet had no definite programme for the day. Members and non-members alike, even visiting Indians who graced the occasion with their presence, helped arrange tables and chairs to accommodate the thirty-five odd of us. On public demand, Coomi Patel initiated the day by singing Vande Mataram. MC Anand Shome welcomed all with a few introductory words and then requested one and all to come forward, introduce themselves, and comment on the forthcoming Independence Day. While some chose to brag about property and vehicles they own in India even in Australia when non-residents, some explained that after forty-odd years of dedicated work that us Indians are recognised for, they now enjoy a relaxed retirement. Ten minutes was allocated to delineate the wide world of yoga, and Guru Bhagatji could but briefly talk of the benefits of deep-breathing, moves to control blood pressure and values of practiced discipline in everyday life as promoted by yoga. Before departing, he declared he was “wachan bandh” not to gain monetarily from his teachings.

Besides the venue, FIAV kindly provided lunch as motivation. When evaluating the quantity, a hue and cry went up that it was insufficient to feed 35; however in reality, Vasan had to invite the Little India shopkeepers for a free lunch. Forums meet in Dandenong will take place on first Saturday and last Sunday at Camberwell. For more information, please call S. K. Auplish on 9543 6615.

Kingston Indian Senior Citizens Association (KISCA) held their Annual

General Meet this month. Since President Mona Raju was hospitalised with a non-lifethreatening ailment and finds herself weak and unmotivated, she suggested members elect another president. Hence Usha Sharma, ex-multicultural Commissioner, was elected President. Usha, however, was absent as she was engaged in a previous appointment.

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Barbara Nagaya is Vice President; Asha Jamini is Secretary; Vishnu Prasad is Treasurer; Shiv Narayan, Govindamma Nath (not yet a senior but much involved), Simon Charan, Ashok Jamini are Members, with Mona Raju as Public Officer.

Members brought in a plate each to share with the thirty-five attending member. The array of edibles was interesting to behold. KISCA hold their meetings on third Sundays. You may still call Mona Raju on 8558 1610 for information.

Month of August For Indian Senior Citizens Association (ISCA) members, the month of August has been, for many long years, the time for Multicultural presentations to be announced. Once the Indian and Australian national anthems had been sung enthusiastically, Federal MP The Honourable Anna Burke, eloquently highlighted our community’s persistent appreciation of our origin. “Never give it up,” she said motivatingly, “Speak and sing in Hindi!” She stated that India struggled for years and gained her Independence at a greater cost than did Australia. Denouncing the riots in Britain, she appreciated India’s efforts toward climate change and wished us a happy Independence Day. The Honourable Michael Gidley, Victorian MP representing Mt. Waverly, equally eloquently praised Australia’s cultural and linguistic diversity, highlighted our community’s contributions to social and economic fields, and offered ISCA all assistance and advice possible. Indian Vice Consul Mr Kawra also spoke briefly and circulated among tables to meet members, just as did FIAV President Vasan.

Arranged by member Sheila Sharma, the talented Vijay Patki, family and friends now took to stage to entertain seniors with 1950s to 1970s Bollywood songs. While Vijay presented his expertise on keyboards, harmonium, accordion and mouth-organ, his wife and children, individually and in chorus, took turns to entertain us. The talented Atmaj Patel on tabla performed amidst with loud and prolonged appreciative applause. Vijay even had someone to handle the complex sound system. Geeta Pendharkar on guitar then played Bollywood songs, and Guru Umranikar performed on tabla. Then came young Keyur Kelkar to entertain us with a variety of well-known and some new tunes on the instrument of his choice: the saxophone.

Detailing that the saxophone was an invention a hundred fifty years old, had thirty keys and sixty notes, Keyur delighted us with tunes such as Mozart in Salzburg, various styles of jazz in the USA and the UK, and many more-lyrical and smoother numbers. Delightful!

President Prem Phakey thanked attending dignitaries for sparing precious time for ISCA, as well as City of Monash Cr. Joy Bannerji for being a friend of ISCA, for favours the City bestows in shape of additional rooms for Yoga and Bridge, and for paying hall charges, etc..

Prem also thanked the Department of Health for various grants and free Public Liability Insurance.

While most of us enjoyed interacting with others, the programmme and lunch, some noticed remediable minuses, such as the programme was mono-cultural. The Honourable Michael Gidley, MP, was introduced as ‘Mister’ Gidley. The ISCA banner - its flagship the first to be displayed – was hoisted an hour late.

Irremediable though, was a high-ranking ISCA official’s response when asked what next month’s programme was, replying, “I don’t know, and I don’t care!”, “That is not my department”, etc.

As by now is tradition, Tandoori Junction catered lunch and expertly undertook the no-small-task of preparing and serving it to 165 members, guests and artists. ISCA hold their meetings on second Saturdays. For more information, please call President Phakey on 9560 9607.

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An Aussie guy in Chennai The impressions formed by life in India’s vibrant South are making a definite and positive impact on this author’s psyche

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entions, I’m pressure cooker! Good int India of ns ssio pre e! im sam my g the tin all India), rela sure, but awkward a few words I mentioned a. dh various rad all Sh ut gue abo I’m still trying to pick up lea ng col rni lea my to Also, I’m nakkam, Va d is yon h (be fait r, ge ula gua sec lan n’t exist is il do ia of the Tam how, although Ind new products which simply talk. Many ay all ryd sm eve ke ma of n ric cover’. eve d fab to ‘be ) a the h llo’ le, or ‘he BY interwoven wit in Australia; for examp speak in English g in ivin arr a quilt, , te ain qui Ag t y. no t ntr bu cou et TIM BLIGHT s locals, however, prefer to life in thi Thicker than a she to lt en ficu op dif it w ho kes by ma ree uck ich dust-f and if they can, wh Chennai, I have been str a bed cover keeps your bed yone An . to rnt go lea n e me hav u I nd rds Hi wo is; n day. Laxman practice any religious expressio looking tidy through the on guage ed lan n ear eig line sm for ka a tik rnt h t lea wit no s ly ste has job who it’s probab Rekha, a my rious chalk white collar To those who know me, oss ians for whom English acr Ind w ny dra slim ma g Mu you ; t din ia. ads tha clu Ind (in ehe to ved their for tify tes uld very surprising that I mo wo ge) gua ich lan wh your porch isn’t their first w me, I have women walk through the Learning without From those who don’t kno t – or maybe only – way to without and ab bes ck niq the g t somehow keeps the sho arin tha m we fro s, eet str nse po to practice. pra in elicited various res it ctic t e pu lea to ves is ly on n ive e der ect mo eff and bugs at bay. Ice cream learn itement turning heads; surprise to admiration, exc ctice leaves one with a pra ut wit ho ce an h wit offi a wh ing ned bought in brick for m, ned ole arn is pen -ow I Le hea ber p in the Christian idle ing sitt even jealousy. Last Decem y lar abu voc h packed in a cardboard whole heap of of vocabulary sitting ich I described blocks are adorned wit ression exp ss article for Indian Link in wh ple hel ed, fus e… con o aus a wh box – I remember my brain and (someone huge crucifixes bec idle in the brain and I have been in myself as not an Indophile n atio situ a – e a ly – fac ear ry e’s In sto on t? mum telling me about on India’s well why no loves India) but as part of a con fus S ed, SM hel es! ich an ple wh tim ed l ss in s existing in Australia t eiv era thi bu rec sev I e, lov August d to use get to country which I not only had e hav I ng expression on one’s Another thi when she was little. opportunity on my Indian mobile ed with par com I feel at home. So when the en wh sle has of a k I Drumsticks, a string y is the lac ut a year, face – a situation phone wishing me arose to live in India for abo n you is due to Chennai s thi s hap per I’m – and rth no an, vegetable which is said to the r tha happy Ramz le, mp exa for I hav n, had my bags packed quicke e tha bee city n y miraculously provide one being a less tourist portunity was sure I’ll be getting more could say pani puri! The op Agra or New Delhi. in sev eral times! day’s nutrients in a single messages as Diwali to move to Chennai, in a Occasionally a ian Ind ser ve. And of course I approaches. The I’d never had to part of India with which rickshaw-wallah n gio reli the gag reflex-inducing approach to manually turn on a wasn’t familiar, and within umn all to will call out to me, col a es erv ’ which seems des ich wh ic Hajmola, a mouth ‘freshener a ride, is a top nt wa I o if a month I had packed up als ing it’s ask t bu gas n), cyl inder to cook Vegemite in that itself (in another colum to be India’s equivalent of t nothing like firs my life and was on a plane it’s my t in bu on nti me it! to t ch either, and I’m still too important no only the locals can stoma bharat-bound. . walking down Delhi’s ent tin for one con ia sub Ind the in m n column fro getting used to where Rajpath where several So far, I have bee Of course, Chennai rks of life qui er course oth Of rse it. cou e of lov are ady There month and I alre ms to source things – Big ter is only really ‘bharat’ in to ing three-wheelers stalked the com l on t , bu in India which I am stil there have been challenges reds of nd ter hu name – any Hindi which wa a for on me n sitive tur po a to Ba n zaa had bee r doesn’t stock with. I had never whole my experience has , but I had learnt proved alia tres, shouting out str me is that Au ia in r Ind we ut sho abo a e ng electricity adapters heater to tak e. The strange thi on next to useless in this had er destinations and ‘special nev e frustrating and then in Chennai’s heat, I’v like Woolworths does, price for you sir’! I’m while many people find it er!

Tamil speaking city, eith e her ter hea ely felt this. to turn on my water infuriating, I have very rar gas and I’ve heard many a although curiously, on n sure plenty of Indians tur ally nu temperament ma my I’d never had to Perhaps it is because of ge when they l Chennaikers talking stil crin l I’m wil and er, before that I d the eith nte k y do me coo sell televisions cylinder to friends have com my about northern India ngs thi rce read this, but please don’t sou they know. The getting used to where to and clothes! am the most patient person y as if it were a foreign icit ctr ele – every country comes ck sto ia definitely has – Big Bazaar doesn’t type of life I’m living in Ind gh ou nation. “Oh I went to alth es, with its annoyances and do hs not enduring ort I’m olw – adapters like Wo something to do with it relatively Delhi once” reminisces are and s ia’s ion Ind vis t many tele tha l st sel exi do to y erly le y an eld curiously the the everyday str ugg a taxi driver, the same wa r treat. Call it ng India the nci ano is erie g ut exp ! l pin abo ign op stil lly Sh ben ica I’m s! t ant clothe Indians do. Bu I was alia str Au (I’m Australian might wax rom l left sel I d d that’s har ore An or bef e s to. try A few day derstandable good customer ser vic as much as I can possibly about dio Ra ibly Paris. This, of course, is un k red Lin inc ai! ian it d Ind enn fin Ch on I ), rth in ed no ich interview ween the still not sure wh enough for this Aussie guy ed to stumble silently given the cultural divide bet nag an ma by I at ia. red Ind sta for be a ns to pla g like tin my feels disconcer interview and the south. Tamil Nadu ile I look at a through the early morning , and it’s one rth no overattentive salesman wh the to y ntr e cou lov ent I as differ ch mu as up g kin (I loathe wa pt to.

1) The sun sets on Independence Day that I took a while to ada at the Gandhi Statue, Marina Beach, Chennai 2) Street scene in Chennai 3) Independence Day at Marina Beach, Chennai 4) On Marina Beach, Chennai, on Independence Day 2011 5) Sri Ramakrishna Math Temple

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OPINION

Do we need a reserve bank?

Scandals concerning Australia’s primary financial institution have recently come to light, raising questions about its credibility

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32 <> SEPTEMBER 2011

Alan Greenspan – kept the federal funds rate at an absurdly low 1% from June 2003 till June BY 2004. Many attribute the resulting housing SUKRIT SABHLOK bubble to Greenspan’s suppression of rates.

In Australia, Leithner shows that the RBA also started an artificial boom. Leithner shows The Reserve Bank of Australia has been in that from 1991-2007, the money supply rose the news recently, thanks to a corruption rapidly. By Leithner’s reckoning, inflation scandal splashed across the front pages of (the M1 measure) increased by 404%, at an newspapers throughout the country. According annualised compound rate of 10.2%. As in the to reports, two currency firms overseen by the US, much of the credit created by the Reserve Reserve Bank funnelled bribes to government Bank was pumped into the housing market, officials in Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam, creating an asset price bubble. Stock prices were to win banknote deals. Securency and Note inflated.

Printing Australia are partly and wholly owned For Leithner, however, the bust has not yet (respectively) by the RBA, and many prominent arrived – hence the reason why the Australian political figures sat on the boards of the two recession was not as severe as its American companies. counterpart. Australian house prices remain This scandal, overvalued and have however, is just the tip not dropped to more of the iceberg. Other realistic levels.

In Australia, Leithner aspects of the RBA The role played are equally shady, but shows that the RBA by central banks in are rarely exposed fostering monetary also started an artificial to public scrutiny. A instability leads Leithner boom.

Leithner shows new book by investor to question whether that from 1991-2007, Chris Leithner, The we need a central bank Evil Princes of Martin the money supply rose at all. It’s not a crazy Place: The Reserve Bank question! For much of rapidly of Australia, the Global Australia’s history, there Financial Crisis and the was no central bank.

Threat to Australians’ Private banks issued Liberty and Prosperity, currencies and there documents in detail the nefarious schemes of was little government regulation of the banking Australia’s central bank. sector.

Leithner is an adherent of the Austrian In an environment of global financial School of Economics, which argues that instability that many argue is caused by central central banks are behind the boom-bust cycle banking, it is worth asking serious questions that characterises modern economies. They about these institutions. Most central banks are, in other words, the culprit responsible for are highly secretive about their activities. For recessions and depressions. By controlling the instance, the Reserve Bank did not even publish overnight cash rate (the rate at which banks minutes of board meetings until December borrow from the central bank), the Reserve 2007.

Bank is able to control the money supply and There is a fundamental democratic principle thereby influence interest rates. This sets in involved here. Why should central banks, which motion a process that influences the rate of are staffed by unelected bureaucrats, wield such interest on housing loans, deposits and business a high level of discretionary power? Shouldn’t loans. there be more democratic oversight of these When interest rates are kept artificially low, money mandarins who have so much influence distortions in the structure of production, over our living standards? excessive borrowing and speculation are the We have seen what happens when central result. The central banks are left unchecked. bank’s loose money In Zimbabwe, for policies mislead example, hyperinflation In an environment investors into starting has crippled the of global financial projects that appear purchasing power of the instability that many profitable, but in currency. Prices in the hindsight are not. The argue is caused by African country rise at crash comes because an extremely rapid pace, central banking, it is investors foolishly think over 50% per month. worth asking serious that the boom will last, Nobody is suggesting and leverage themselves questions about these that a catastrophe of too highly, as they were institutions. that nature is likely to not prudent in their befall Australia. But accumulation of debt.

Zimbabwe is a reminder This, in a nutshell, of the awesome power is the Austrian theory of the business cycle. that central bankers wield, and should prompt According to this view, economic downturns us to improve accountability and search for are the price paid for prior (artificial) credit less discretionary ways to manage money and expansion. banking.

We find evidence of this in the United States, when the Chairman of the Federal Reserve –

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East is the new West While Australia has been a long-standing ally of the US, it’s time for this country to wake up to the changing realities of this world As a lefty I take an eccentric view. I believe that globalisation is more beneficial to BY countries that have been excluded form the ROY LANGE world’s economic engine. It has been strongly tempered with the West taking advantage of the sickening reality of child labour exploitation The Australian Government’s main defence in and the virtual non existence of labour law the sacking of 1000 BlueScope workers was implementation. that this was a painful symptom of an ongoing For the West could not have seen the writing economic transition. But this transition is been on the wall. They could not have foreseen treated as a magically vague happening and how well India and other Asian giants have not explained for very strong political reasons. risen to the challenge. They have embraced Australians don’t want to hear that India globalisation with a rabid enthusiasm. and China are fast becoming their economic This has left countries like Australia, who superiors. dreamt that their products were infinitely For the Government to fully explain the superior and would find new massive markets, implications of this ‘transition’ would be looking non plussed. They never dreamt that political suicide. To enlighten the electorate they would become the market. that Australia has been reduced to a quarry Australia’s economic position can now be for booming Jamshedpur steel furnaces equated with pre independence India, when would make Gillard’s chances of re-election Gandhiji would lead huge rallies burning impossibly even more remote.

Manchester woven clothes made from Indian The Australian public is simply not ready raw cotton. Gandhiji saw that the paralysis to take on the reality of the Indian economy that the United States is stemmed from India We have become no longer our obvious exporting her raw materials latte servers and pizza to be almost exclusively choice for snuggling up to in a new Asia Pacific. deliverers. We serve processed in England then With our Uncle Sam insultingly imported back one another in a looking increasingly senile, into India to be purchased closed loop with the how long can Australia by her then British ruled unquestioningly endorse assistance of coffee masses. Not unlike American policy and as machines and pizza Australia exporting raw Professor White of ANU materials like coal that is ovens, all made almost says, “turn around, point then used to make steel in exclusively in China up to the US and say ‘I’m India that is then imported with him.’” or India into Australia at a massive Australia is an obedient added value. ally of the States. I don’t Australia’s economy rests treacherously belittle that in the unhinged lefty sense. If heavily on this model. Almost 90% of the it wasn’t for the US, Australia would have diamonds from Australia’s Kimberley mine predated its Asian destiny by many decades. find their way to Indian traders who polish We forget how many 19-year-old GIs died the stones in centres like Baroda, again in malaria infested Papua jungles ensuring a adding a massive value to a resource that resource starved Japan didn’t set up shop in was sold in Australia at a fraction of its final Newcastle.

Mumbai showroom price or indeed its Sydney Australia will be forever grateful and of showroom price. course culturally identify more with her North Australia has all but resigned to the reality she American cousins. But the US’s faltering cannot compete in manufacturing. She is still a economy and her ditzy expeditions in the force in innovation but I feel this century will Middle East have exposed a shrunken dog with be characterised by India and China shedding a deafening bark. their well deserved nicknames of copycats and The US economy has proved shockingly show the world they also have a strong creative fragile. The myriad of reasons given to why it spirit with future ground breaking research and can’t shake it’s unrelenting string of crisis are development. unconvincing. Few are brave enough to talk of This new Indian the elephant in the room. innovative spirit may break The US doesn’t produce it To enlighten the Australia’s back. For if consumes. electorate that Australia an Asian laboratory with This model has been increasingly huge budgets, has been reduced to enthusiastically taken up searching to solve over a quarry for booming

by Australia. 25 years reliance on Australian ago, 20% of Australian Jamshedpur steel resources, finds a steel GDP was from the substitute Australia will be furnaces would make manufacturing sector today banished to an economic Gillard’s chances of that is halved. Only one in wilderness. The demand re-election impossibly 20 Australians is involved for coal and her own steel or connected to the even more remote manufacturing would manufacturing sector. plummet. In an age of Our economy is windmills and Macbooks overwhelmingly service based. We have become the whole process of steel manufacturing latte servers and pizza deliverers. We serve one seems medieval crude and is begging to be another in a closed loop with the assistance replaced by a new competitive material. of coffee machines and pizza ovens all made With these future prospects Australia will almost exclusively in China or India. have to decide whether to keep snuggling up to This is of course globalization, where you Uncle Sam and be a detached quarry or partner are rewarded for your competitiveness not your with India and become once more competitive. country club.

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BOOKS

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A peek into Pakistan An experienced writer and a younger one deliver masterpieces in their own styles, depicting the intrigue within and without Pakistan BY CHITRA SUDARSHAN

We continue with the theme of books about Pakistan, but now we move to fiction.

Pakistan has, not surprisingly, become a fertile setting of late for thrillers and novels with an Islamic extremist angle. Mohsin Hamid did it brilliantly in his book The Reluctant Fundamentalist, published and reviewed in Indian Link some time ago. Two very recent publications are, first, a literary fiction genre

by Sunjeev Sahota called Ours Are the Streets, (Picador, 2011), and second, a thriller by David Ignatius titled Blood Money, (Quercus, 2011).

David Ignatius is a prize winning columnist for the Washington Post, who has been covering the CIA and the Middle East for more than 20 years. He has already written some best-selling spellbinding thrillers such as Body of Lies (2007) based on the work

of a Jordanian Intelligence Chief, which was made into a movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio; and more recently, The Increment (2009) which is also being made into a movie

by Jerry Bruckheimer. So when this author writes a thriller on the CIA and Pakistan, it is worth taking notice of, for he knows what he is writing about. It is thoroughly researched, yet written in a simple and easy style that never loses its momentum: the stuff of best sellers. The novel is, on the one hand, about a rogue element in the CIA which has tried to break away from the bureaucratic reach of the parent organisation; on the other, it is about a brilliant Pathan mathematician Dr Omar, who is out to avenge the death of his family in a drone attack. Ignatius describes to the reader in detail the Pashtunwali – or the code of honour which guides Pathan conduct, peppering the pages with a host of Pashto proverbs for each occasion. Ignatius’ strength is his storytelling, and the way he brings the two strands of the story in an exciting climax.

There are a host of colourful characters such as Sophie Marx, the intelligence operative who is charged with the task of solving the conundrum of the selected killing of CIA operatives or agents in different parts of the globe; Thomas Perkins, the share trader in London who becomes a hapless victim of the machinations of the chief of the run-away Intelligence arm, Gertz;

and Cyril Hoffman, the CIA afficionado who brings things to a head. However, the real protagonist of the novel, in the final analysis, is the ISI Chief Lieutenant General Mohammed Malik whose role is pivotal to the plot; Ignatius paints a thoroughly convincing portrait of this character, and in doing so, says a great deal about the ISI as well. It is a thoroughly enjoyable, nail-biting spy novel that also tells us a great deal about the CIA as well as the ISI. Highly recommended.

Another surprising debut novel, Ours Are the streets, (Picador 2011) is by the young Britishborn author Sunjeev Sahota, who has weighed into the subject with a novel about a Britishborn Pakistani, Imtiaz, who turns terrorist after a visit to Pakistan. Imtiaz has grown up in Britain, the son of an immigrant Pakistani taxi-driver and his veiled wife. He grows up doing the usual things - loiter, dream, plan and abandon a career, go to pubs, date, etc. He loves his parents yet is embarrassed by their accented English and their keeping their sofa wrapped in plastic - as well as more serious things: such as their ‘spinelessness’ in the face of provocations.

Although Imtiaz meets and marries an English girl, Rebekah, when his father dies, he and his mother accompany the body to the family village in Pakistan where he falls in with some Islamists and volunteers to undertake a suicide mission. He returns to England with his cousin, Charag, who is to help him in his

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mission. But his old life is falling apart and his turn to religion does not help his domestic life.

Ours Are The Streets is narrated by Imtiaz in the first-person. It is structured as a kind of diary that Imtiaz writes, primarily for Rebekah and their baby, in a bid to explain his decision to carry out the planned suicide bombing. The language and tone of this narrative is one of the strengths of the novel, and is replete with a lot of Derbyshire slang – where Sahota was born and in which he grew up. Sahota is at his best when writing about urban England. He manages just the right register with both cultural and personal matters; his section on Pakistan is less convincing, but only in comparison with his superb portrayal of immigrant life in England.

He presents Imtiaz as a multi dimensional personality: both a distinctive individual as well as a youth who reflects certain currents of anger and frustration in Muslim youth in the west.

Ours Are The Streets is a gripping novel and entirely convincing. Sahota emerges as a new voice in postcolonial British literature, and is a name to watch.

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SEPTEMBER 2011 <> 35

TRAVEL

A trio of Taiwanese treats From the exotic ‘Lantern Festival,’ breathtaking landscape and pristine countryside, to fascinating historical monuments, Taiwan offers visitors an experience to remember BY THOMAS E KING

It’s not too often that anyone comes face to face with a 20.5 metre high bunny. I did and what’s more it was pink and made of paper! I wasn’t dreaming but I didn’t feel the scene before me was real. Nonetheless I couldn’t help but stare in wonderment at a giant lantern shaped like a rose coloured rabbit. I blinked a few times just in case my eyes were playing tricks in Taiwan. They weren’t but I did indeed get an eyeful as I participated in a fanciful extravaganza which has been described as “one of the world’s best festival events”.

For 12 days every year the Taiwan Lantern Festival is staged by the energetic residents and administrators of a specially chosen county or city to mark the end of the Lunar New Year. Competition is always fierce leading up to the announcement of the successful bidder. This year the honour of hosting the prestigious festival went – for the first time – to the county of Miaoli in north-western Taiwan.

Organised for the past 22 seasons by the Taiwan Tourism Bureau, this year’s festival not only featured handmade lanterns of all shapes, sizes and colours but a series of drama, music and dance performances as well. It drew enormous interest from around the country and the international community eager to see innovative uses of digital technology coupled with a prized tradition.

As in previous festivals, the giant main lantern and a hutch of far smaller side lanterns had been fashioned in the shape of the zodiac animal of the year, which throughout 2011, has been the rabbit. But as I saw during the gala laser light grand opening celebration in mid February there was much more on display than a field filled with illuminated carrot-crunching paper rabbits.

Thousands actually tens of thousands of lanterns were on show in Maoli City’s main sports park. Some were fashioned from bamboo and tissue paper using different folk art techniques. Others had a high tech animated touch coupled with an elaborate wire frame covered by coloured silk. Imaginative designs and skilful construction techniques not overtly evident during daylight hours became obvious as the sky darkened and the lights were switched on.

Suddenly I was walking amid lanterns that represented all the mythical creatures of the Chinese zodiac, other more worldly animals as well as birds and beasts, famous people and scenes from the world stage. Light from inside the lanterns streamed forth to create a technicolour wonderland. With the roar of the masses still reverberating in my ears and rainbows of light still flashing in my eyes I eventually thought it appropriate to head for the hills and a little peace and quiet.

This is not difficult to do in this peakpunctuated country just over half

the size of Tasmania. Taiwan is a highly mountainous isle with nearly a third of the country covered with massifs over 1000 m high. The jagged Central Mountain Range – one of five mountain chains – makes up the backbone of the 144 km wide island nation.

Thrusting its bulk 3952 m into the blue sky, Jade Mountain is the standout peak in the range. Covered in a mantle of evergreens, the highlands around the mountain are ideal for a range of summer activities from camping to climbing and, of course, trekking. With the advent of winter, shorts are replaced by skies, however. January is the height of the snow season as lodges and professional instructors welcome enthusiasts keen on the slippery slopes of East Asia’s tallest mountain.

I’m not a hard-body adventurer and have never had a desire to slice through snow.

However, I did sniff the rarefied summer air of Jade Mountain many years ago. During my last visit I was far more interested in getting a little off the beaten track by trekking through areas where dense forest thrives and not so many tourists congregate.

I kicked off a progression of rural rambles during a weeklong jaunt through the surprising isle with a walk in the Tri-Mountain National Scenic Area. The country has gazetted 13 such picturesque zones. Just one, the Tri-Mountain National Scenic Area incorporates three separate heavily forested tourist regions: Mt Bagua, Lishan and Lion’s Head Mountain, the latter so named because the northern part of the peak resembles a big cat’s forehead. I found that abundant vegetation and ample attractions make Lion’s Head Mountain an attractive and interesting destination.

Some 18 tiny townships are spread across 775 sq. km of mountainous terrain in this area. Fortunately, expressways have not yet pierced the peaceful countryside and as I arrived in quaint Nanzhuang in Maoli County I felt that I

had travelled a little way back in time. Old brick houses with tile roofs predominate in this village located between two bamboo forest-lined rivers.

A lunch of local specialities was served in an old house built in One Dragon style typical to south China. Several of the veteran trees in the restaurant’s expansive garden, I learned, were over 100 years old. Peering past pink camellias I could see mist discerning upon the Lion’s Head so detoured into the township where coal mining used to be the financial mother lode.

The most noted historic site in Tainan, the Chikan Tower (red roofed tower) was built on a hillock in 1653. One of the two pagoda-like buildings constructed atop the ruins over two centuries later still serves as a place of worship dedicated to the God of the Sea Nowadays tourists interested in cultural explorations and trekking through pristine environs are the lifeblood of the hamlet. In order to appeal to those seeing the former, a narrow lane where coal miners used to gather has been transformed into an eclectic precinct with shopkeepers tempting all comers with locally produced goods.

Except for two congenial travelling companions in my group not one other foreign face was to be seen in Nanzhuang.

This was certainly not the case in Tainan, another delight of southern Taiwan. Facing the Taiwan Strait to the west and south, Tainan, the nation’s fifth largest city and the country’s most historic centre is 320 km

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3 southwest of Taipei.

First settled by immigrants from China during the 1500s, Tainan like Goa and Pondicherry retains a colonial flavour. Instead of close encounters with the Portuguese or French, however, sub tropical Tainan has a Dutch connection. That’s because the city was a Dutch East India Company trading between 1624 and 1662. The Dutch built two strongholds during their tenure in Tainan. Parts of Fort Provintia have resisted the ravages of time and the forces of destruction though a newer double storey temple rises from its foundations today.

The most noted historic site in the former capital city, the Chikan Tower (red roofed tower) was built on a hillock in 1653. One

4

of the two pagoda-like buildings constructed atop the ruins over two centuries later still serves as a place of worship dedicated to the God of the Sea. (Salty waves used to roll across the shore just 20 metres from the tower though the sea has long since receded.)

While I eagerly trotted around the tower where artefacts of early Dutch days are displayed in the adjoining building the area surrounding the landmark is also a pleasant place to relax and savour history. It’s a lovely banyan tree-studded spot where locals engage in tai chi (shadow boxing) exercises in the mornings. In the afternoons high school students come to the tower to study or ask the Chinese God of Literature for

2

As in previous festivals, the giant main lantern and a hutch of far smaller side lanterns had been fashioned in the shape of the zodiac animal of the year, which throughout 2011, has been the rabbit success in exams. In the evenings locals return to sit and talk about recent events. And throughout the day visitors from around the world come to admire the pleasant landscaped gardens, carp filled ponds and manicured trees of this true Taiwanese treat.

5 1. Colourful cultural celebrations are frequent in historic Tainan, a pleasant city known for its rich folk heritage.

2. The Tri-Mountain National Scenic Area has many picturesque walks through tranquil forests.

3. Standing on the ancient ruins of a Dutch fortress, the Chihkan Tower is the landmark of Tainan.

4. Giant lanterns in the shape of the zodiac animal of the year feature at the annual Lantern Festival.

5. Enjoy a bowl of noodles at Tainan’s 116 year old Tou Hsiao Yeuh, one of the oldest noodle shops in Taiwan.

Photo: Thomas E. King

Travel notebook TAIWAN

FLIGHTS

Between November 6 and March 3, China Airlines, Taiwan’s national carrier, has five A330-300 flights a week between Sydney and Taipei. The award-winning airline also operates three services a week linking Brisbane with Taipei. Taiwan can be a stopover en route to India as China Airlines has three flights a week linking Taipei with New Delhi. The convenient flights are well timed for Australian passengers. Bookings can be made through your travel agent or on-line at www.china-airlines.com. There are no booking fees or credit card surcharges for online bookings.

ACCESS

Northerly Taipei and Kaohsiung, 345 km to the south, are connected by the Taiwan High Speed Rail (THSR) System. Stops are made at major centres including historic Tainan and Taichung, a convenient centre for Lugang, the host venue of the 2012 Lantern Festival. Reaching a top speed of 300 km/hr – the same speed as the Eurostar service that connects London and Paris - there are 12 sleek orange and white carriages for each 989 seat passenger train. See www.thsrc.com.tw/en. Until Miaoli is joined to the high-speed rail network in 2015 take an air conditioned express train on the Western Line from Taipei. See www.railway.gov.tw

EVENTS

The quaint town of Lugang on the island’s west coast has won the right to host the 2012 Taiwan Lantern Festival. Selected for its rich history, folk customs and architectural assets, Lugang, an important trading port in the 18th and 19th centuries, will be transformed into a lantern city from February 6 – 19, 2012. Next year will be the year of the dragon so expect to see a striking centrepiece lantern in the shape of the mythical creature.

STOPOVER

As China Airlines flights from Australia arrive in Taipei why not spend a few days exploring the Taiwanese capital before setting off in other directions? During my Taipei stopover I soared to the top of Taipei 101, the capital’s 508 metre high landmark and traipsed through the National Palace Museum which houses the world’s largest and richest collection of Chinese art. A shopping adventure waited at the Shihlin Night Market, an outdoor bazaar where everything is available from furniture, jewellery and clothing to photographic gear and electronic goods like laptops and MP3 players.

INFORMATION

Lonely Planet’s Taiwan, a comprehensive guide to the dynamic island nation, is widely available in leading bookshops. For more information on travel to Taiwan as well as the opportunity to view informative on-line promotional videos see the official website www.taiwan.net.tw

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SEPTEMBER 2011 <> 39

COMMUNITYSCENE

www.indianlink.com.au

AIBC gets the long handle BY DARSHAK MEHTA

Indian High Commissioner Smt. Sujatha Singh took direct aim at the Australia India Business Council in her address on the 25th Anniversary of the AIBC in Sydney on August 29.

In an extraordinary attack, Her Excellency expressed her frustration that the AIBC had not fulfilled its potential in “exponentially expanding the economic relationship” between India and Australia.

She publicly asked for it “to transform itself to become a truly effective body” and play a more important and representative role. She alluded to the fact that it seemed obsessed with process rather than focusing “on issues of substance”.

She conceded that on its own the NSW chapter was functioning well so, it was apparent that her swipe was at the organisation’s operations at the national level which are yet to be at par “with the most professional Business Councils in Australia and India”.

Indian diplomats rarely speak out in unobfuscatory language and the audience certainly grasped (if not, gasped at!) the disappointment of the High Commissioner

and the timing, venue and importance of her message delivered right between the eyes, at the organisation’s Annual Dinner in the presence of an array of senior politicians and business folk.

The audience heard her in stunned silence and if the AIBC take the message to heart in the spirit in which it was delivered, it will be the first step in righting itself.

The Dinner was well patronised and the venue was wonderful as was the food.

However, the AIBC committee needs to do some hard-thinking regarding organisational matters, prior to such events. They had lined up not one or two and certainly not three or four but NINE speakers in the course of the evening – and that does not include the MC, Dean Jones, the former Australian cricketer, in itself an unusual choice.

The Speakers were: John Robertson (Leader of the NSW Opposition); Andrew Stoner (Deputy Premier of NSW); John Alexander MP (conveying Federal Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott’s message: question – would the opposition leader have ever missed an Australia-Israel Business Council 25th Anniversary Dinner?); Dipen Rughani AIBC NSW President, H.E. Smt. Sujatha Singh, Trade Minister Dr Craig Emerson, and the great Bob Hawke who was the real draw-card of the evening.

And it ended with Arun Jagatramka of Gujarat NRE delivering a Vote of Thanks

and Sheba Nandkeolyar – for thanking the Committee.

To mind that was at least FIVE speakers too many.

Would it not have been more appropriate and stimulating to hear a senior Australian or Indian business leader give the key-note address?

And, the old Indian obsession with politicians continues. When will the Indian community realise that these people are happy to go to the opening of an envelope and mouth banalities till the cows come home? What is more important is hard and continuing engagement on issues and policies, not soft appearances.

The Live Auction bombed spectacularly and embarrassingly. The quantity of the Silent Auction merchandise was overwhelming though the quality was not!

The Vote of Thanks was delivered to a half empty room, which was not the fault of Jagatramka, but a tremendous insult to him. Worst still, the people being thanked (on the top table) had all scooted home, by then!

Former Prime Minister Bob Hawke in a nostalgic address, bordering on the emotional, reminisced about his close affinity and relationship with the late Indian Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi and the circumstances leading to the establishment of the AIBC in the late ‘80s. Hawke can

File Photo

An unexpected but timely chastisement was in store for this organisation, by none other than India’s top representative here in Australia

Sujatha Singh, India’s High Commissioner to Australia

still captivate them as few can and inviting him was the smartest thing that the AIBC did. It would have been good to schedule his address much earlier in the evening and certainly before the tamasha.

Not sure of dance and song at serious business events, either.

Do our countries have so little in common that we clutch at straws and bring up cricket all night long, as almost every speaker did?

UIA blamed for Sunny Deol no show The controversy over the no show of Bollywood actor Sunny Deol at United Indian Associations’ India Australia Friendship fair on August 14 in Sydney, seems to have taken a fresh turn with one of the organisers, in a letter to Indian Link, questioning the veracity of the reasons UIA president Amarinder Bajwa cited for the actor’s failure to participate in the event.

Indian Link received a letter from Ajay Kumar and Vishal Goswami, who were the agents involved in Mr. Deol’s arrangements with UIA. In response to UIA president Amarinder Bajwa’s comments on the issue which were published in the August edition of Indian Link, Mr. Kumar, in his letter, says, “I as one of the persons involved in the attempt to bring Mr. Deol to Australia for India Australia fair strongly deny his (Mr. Bajwa’s) comments as they are completely false and misguiding the media and general public.”

Mr. Kumar also forwarded an email from one Vishal Goswami, who was involved in organising the trip from Mumbai. The correspondence gives an impression that one of the main reasons why the deal between Mr. Deol’s representatives and

40 <> SEPTEMBER 2011

UIA fell through was the failure of the two parties to come to a mutual understanding on flight tickets for Mr. Deol and his group – a situation Mr. Kumar squarely blames the UIA for.

Mr. Kumar says in his letter, “It was an agreement initially to give two business class tickets and three economies (sic) to Mr. Deol and his support staff but was then conveyed to Mr. Bajwa that Mr. Deol can travel only first class due to his spinal problem.”

Mr. Deol’s office, the letter adds, had agreed to settle for just one first class ticket instead of the two business class tickets initially agreed upon. Subsequent events indicate that the UIA failed to provide first class tickets for Mr. Deol despite, perhaps, giving Mr. Deol’s side an indication that they would.

The letter adds that after “various excuses” from Mr. Bajwa on the matter, “fully confirmed ticket itinerates were sent to Mr. Bajwa along with there (sic) PNR numbers on 03rd of August with a deadline of 08th of August to pay for them and get them issued.”

Mr. Kumar claims to have been in

constant touch with Mr. Bajwa during this time. “On 8th August evening I was informed by him that he has taken the extension of payment for tickets until 9th August and he will certainly get the tickets issued by 9th afternoon. Then I receive a phone call from him on 10th afternoon that for some reason the tickets can’t be issued and they have cancelled and he started offering business class tickets of different airlines again,” the letter says.

Mr. Kumar goes on to add, “Mr. Bajwa’s claims of 11th hour money demand from Sunny Deol or his office or anyone are completely baseless and I openly challenge him to prove that.”

It may be noted that Mr. Bajwa had, in his email to Indian Link which was subsequently published, had blamed the “dealers/brokers/agents” working with UIA for the fiasco, indicating that “there was an unreasonable demand of additional $15,000.00 at the eleventh hour of our preparations.”

Mr Kumar further states that “Mr. Deol was so keen to attend the function that he offered to catch a Singapore Airlines flight on 13th August morning from Mumbai

which was going to land him in Sydney on 14th morning around 10 am and he was prepared to go straight to stadium from Airport,” adding “you might be shocked as Mr. Bajwa stated at that time that since he has organized a dinner on 13th evening for which he is charging people and if Mr. Deol can’t attend that function he is of no use for him.”

Indian Link contacted Mr. Bajwa for his response on the matter, however our email queries remained unanswered till the time of going to print.

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WELLNESS

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The colour wheel A simple combination of differently coloured fruit and veggies could make all the difference to your health regime

BY GEETA KHURANA

Most people are aware of the concept of 2 & 5, i.e. one should have 2 serves of fruit and 5 serves of veggies every day, but by eating these in a variety of different colours, one can enjoy the best all-around health benefits. Each differently coloured fruit and vegetable contains unique health components that are essential to our health. By eating different coloured fruit and veggies, you get a diverse amount of vitamins and minerals.

The ‘colour wheel’ diet was developed by Dr. David Heber, director of the UCLA Centre for Human Nutrition. It incorporates the seven colours of health: red/purple, red, orange, orange/yellow, yellow/green, green, and white/green. The category system makes it easier for people to consume the proper amounts and types of nutrients needed in diets.

According to this diet, each coloured fruit or vegetable provides a unique benefit to the diet, and there is also evidence of interactions between colours that provide benefits. As a result, the colour wheel diet advises the intake of as much and as many different colours as possible. Consuming a variety of fruit and vegetables will ensure a diverse intake of more than 25,000 different phyto-nutrients.

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NUTRIENT

These are high in iron, fibre, calcium and magnesium, vitamins C, E, K and many of the B vitamins. Green foods help eye sight and support retinal health, digestion. These foods fight free radicals and boost your immune system.

Chlorophyll, fiber, lutein, zeaxanthin, calcium, folate, vitamin C, calcium, and betacarotene.

These are high in vitamin C and beta-carotenes.

They help keep your heart healthy, good for eye sight and help reduce age related macular degeneration.

These help in collagen formation and healthy joints.

These also work with calcium and magnesium to build healthy bones.

Beta-carotene, zeaxanthin, flavonoids, lycopene, potassium, and vitamin C.

These help boost immune system, reduce cancers mainly colon, breast and prostate cancers and balance hormone levels and hormone related cancers.

Beta-glucans, EGCG, SDG, and lignans

BLUE / PURPLE

Lutein, zeaxanthin, resveratrol, vitamin C, fiber, flavonoids, ellagic acid, and quercetin.

green

GREEN

These support healthy digestion, improve calcium and other mineral absorption, reduce strokes and cancers.

They are also high in vitamin C and fibre. These also help to fight inflammation and boost the immune system.

yellow and orange

YELLOW / ORANGE

Lycopene, ellagic acid, quercetin, and hesperidin

Avocados, kiwi, asparagus, green apples, peas, green grapes, artichokes, lettuce, asparagus, celery broccoli, spinach, green beans, green cabbage, cucumbers, limes, okra, leek.

Carrots, oranges, apricots, cantaloupes, lemons, mangoes, nectarines, peaches, yellow peppers, papayas, sweet potatoes, pineapple, pumpkin, corn, lemon, tangerines, gooseberries.

Bananas, cauliflower, garlic, ginger, mushrooms, onions, potatoes, turnips, parsnips, artichoke, shallots, white peaches, white nectarines.

white

BENEFITS Red foods help fight cancers especially prostate cancer, help lower blood pressure, and lower cholesterol and keep your heart healthy. Also help reduce tumour growth and support joint tissues.

Blackberries, blueberries, plums, figs, grapes, raisins, purple cabbage, eggplant, prunes, purple potatoes.

blue and purple

Consuming a variety of fruit and vegetables will ensure a diverse intake of more than 25,000 different phyto-nutrients.

Red apples, tomatoes, cherries, cranberries, beets, red peppers, radishes, watermelon, raspberries, red onion

WHITE

red

RED

FRUITS AND VEGETABLES

But mainly, fruit and vegetables can be divided into 5 main colours: red, blue and purple, green, yellow and orange, and white.

Try to include different coloured fruits and veggies in your diet to have more variety and to attain maximum nutrition.

SEPTEMBER 2011 <> 43

FOOD

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Foodie fathers Having your dad in the kitchen can mean meals with a touch of spice to them, a unique change from mum’s banal offerings

BY SHERYL DIXIT

We know, in these super-modern days, that men are as good in the kitchen as women.

Men make great cooks as endorsed by Master Chef, enthusiastically supported by their kids, and grudgingly acknowledged by their partners who are, after all, more concerned about the fat, sugar and salt content that goes into a meal.

My dad and father-in-law were good, if

eccentric cooks. Their occasional forays into the kitchen always meant that we would have something interesting and definitely delicious served up as a meal. We would even be advised on how to eat it, for example, one couldn’t have a certain kind of aachar with that particular dish or you wouldn’t be doing justice to the original taste.

In my childhood and youth, we were rampant non-vegetarians, only indulging in ‘dal’ (pronounced ‘doll’ curry) around the end of the month, when the bank balance was lean. My dad was an absolute foodie, and if he were alive today, the myriad of

cooking shows on TV would have delighted his soul and upped his cholesterol. Later in life, he had to curb his appetite on contracting diabetes though, but he soon discovered a new kind of joy in steamed veggies, karela juice, fresh paneer dishes and bit sized morsels of chicken and fish. It was tough, but he persevered with the philosophy that, in his prime, he had indulged in the best cuisine had to offer.

My father-in-law too, enjoyed his food, particularly if it was pungent and deepfried. Strictly vegetarian, he would often sneak into the kitchen when my mum-inlaw was busy elsewhere in the house, and

add his own ingredients to whatever dish happened to be cooking, just to spruce it up a bit. This usually meant adding chilly powder and salt to the dish, and whatever other spice he favoured. His sons loved his experiments, but they didn’t please his wife, who would have to wipe off mounds of powders spilt all over her kitchen platform, and eat a larger portion of curd-rice to take away the spicy sting of the main meal.

These recipes are in memory of Thomas, my father and Taranath, my father-in-law – now gone, dearly remembered, still missed.

Happy Father’s Day!

Tommy’s fried mutton chops

Tari’s mirchi bhajis These were my father-in-law’s speciality, still admired by the whole family.

This recipe shouldn’t be attempted by the faint-hearted; however, with a mild adjustment of the ingredients depending on your taste, it could be the best snack.

These were a great favourite in our household, and on the rare occasions that it was prepared, the recipe used was exclusively my dad’s. The kitchen was in a tizzy when this dish was being made, as my dad politely hounded the cook until she prepared the dish exactly to his instructions.

6 finely sliced mutton chops with the bone on For the marinade: 2 onions 1 cup coriander leaves 2 green chillies 1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste ½ tbsp cumin powder 4 tbsp vinegar Salt to taste For the coating: 1 cup breadcrumbs ½ cup semolina (rava) 1 egg Oil for frying

6 large green chillies, short stem included For the filling: 1 tbsp tamarind paste 1 heaped tbsp besan ½ tsp red chilly powder ½ tsp turmeric ½ tsp roasted cumin (jeera) 1 tbsp very finely chopped onion (optional) Salt to taste For the coating: 1 cup besan 1/3 cup roasted rice flour ½ tsp turmeric powder ½ tsp chilly powder Pinch of soda bicarbonate

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Salt to taste 1/3 cup water Oil for frying In a small bowl, mix together all the ingredients for the filling, into a slightly thickish consistency. Keep aside. Next, wash and dry the green chillies on a paper kitchen towel. Use the sharp tip of a knife to carefully make an incision on one side of each chilly, stopping about an inch from the end. Very gently begin deseeding the chillies, taking care to avoid increasing the incision. They may break slightly at the top near the stem, but that’s okay. Using a teaspoon, gently fill the inside of each chilly with the filling and keep aside.

In a separate bowl, gently sieve the besan powder to get rid of any lumps. Add the rice flour, turmeric and chilly powders, soda bicarb and salt. Add the water to the mix and stir until all the powders are well dissolved with the flours and the mix takes on a thickish consistency. Keep aside for 10 minutes. Next, heat oil in a deep-bottomed kadhai, in preparation for frying. Take each stuffed chilly by the stem, immerse in coating mix until fully covered and gently drop into hot oil. Fry on both sides for about half a minute or until golden brown.

Remove, place on a paper towel to drain excess oil. Serve hot with mint chutney.

Grind together all the ingredients for the marinade into a fine paste. Keep aside in a large shallow bowl. Place each mutton chop on a chopping board, and gently flatten with a meat tenderiser. Next, place each chop into the marinade mix, coating thoroughly. Cover with foil or clingwrap and refrigerate overnight. Prior to cooking, mix breadcrumbs and semolina in a shallow plate and keep aside. Heat oil in a shallow frying pan. In a small bowl, beat the egg with a little salt and keep aside. Take each marinated chop, dip into egg, and place into the breadcrumb/semolina mix. Coat thoroughly and place into the shallow frying pan. Fry on both sides on medium flame for about two minutes or until the meat inside is fully cooked. Remove and drain on a paper towel. Repeat procedure until all the chops are cooked. Serve hot, garnished with fresh coriander and finely cut onion rings.

Tip: For a healthier option, once coated, pop the mutton chops into the oven and bake for 40 minutes on 180 degrees (fan forced) or until fully cooked.

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The ‘Daddy’ thing Father’s Day has come around once again, and its time to pay tribute to those great dads who played such an important part in our lives

with his immediate family, something I saw and admired at our wedding, where BY practically the whole family turned up to SHERYL DIXIT wish us well and participate in the festivities.

I have always marvelled at the levels of respect that they were able to evoke, simply “When I was your age, I had to study under by being themselves – honest, steady, the lamp-post outside my house, because dependable, hardworking and…well, good. we didn’t have electricity in our home!”

Yes, they had their quirks and said my dad frequently when I was a child, eccentricities, but who doesn’t? Its what his closing statement to a raft of preceding gave them character and made them complaints, ranging from leaving the lights charming, if occasionally annoying. My on, to not studying, to coming home with dad loved recounting parables, no doubt low grades… Although my older siblings from his close association with the Bible. tended to take this oft-repeated statement He also had a thing about idioms, which for granted, I have to admit that I was may sound trite, but actually contain a impressed. That is, until I heard it from my good deal of common sense. One of his father-in-law too, a few years later. It was favourites was, “You can take a donkey to the norm, it would seem, to study under the water, but you can’t make it drink!”, lamp-posts, to indicate which he usually quoted diligence, studiousness after someone who had and determination. Can’t They made friends for come to him for advice argue with that logic seemed unimpressed life, people who still though, because both his simple, obvious remember them with with these remarkable men solution to their problem. fondness and pleasure, I often think of that had a good dose of these admirable qualities in their phrase these days, not that just like we do constitutions.

I would even consider I have always been myself worthy of giving grateful for a happy advice, but because I have childhood, a state of being that has largely noticed that people don’t see the obvious dominated my life. A few years after my only because they don’t want to. I’m dad’s demise, I met my father-in-law, who guessing my dad would be proud of that seemed more like my mother in personality, observation on human nature! but he had the same values and morals that My dad-in-law had a huge sense of I had grown up with. Strangely, my dad was independence, and nothing would annoy pretty much like my mother-in-law, patient, him more than to be treated with kid gloves kind, understanding and humble. It took a by his wife and sons. On holiday in Sydney lot to make my dad lose his temper, even after a brief illness in India, he would with three relatively annoying kids and their wander off on his own causing the family myriad dramas. I always got away with the some anxiety, but he always found his way worst offenses, being the youngest and back and had some interesting anecdote to most spoiled, a trait I see in my younger son recount about his adventures. He took care today. though, to mention them a few days later, Both these men, although from fairly when the heat had died down. I am sure his different backgrounds, had many things friends back home would have been treated in common. They had great belief in their to the unexpurgitated versions, unlike us. faiths, a strong sense of righteousness, an Of all the many things I learned from my even stronger sense of dad and dad-in-law, the duty and a commitment simplicity of their logic to the family which gained has made a profound them the respect of not impression on me. As I have always just family and distant marvelled at the levels a rebellious teenager relatives, but also friends and an I-know-it-all of respect that they and acquaintances. They 20-something, it was an made friends for life, were able to evoke, annoying realization that people who still remember they could be right more simply by being them with fondness and than not. Simple themselves – honest, often pleasure, just like we adages like, “As you sow, steady, dependable, so shall you reap!” and do. Both had a yen for adventure of different “You will have to face the hardworking and… kinds; my dad loved the consequences of your well, good. theatre and indulged in actions”, while meaning his hobby for acting and the same thing but said directing Konkani plays, by different people, were while my dad-in-law went lessons learned the hard on a jamboree in the Czech Republic, where way. However, the greatest comfort of all he was posted for two years. was in knowing that you could go back Marriage and having children sobered feeling foolish, and be accepted because both, as it does with most of us. My dad, no matter what, you were still the prodigal as the oldest in the family with a sister returning home. Mothers have that innate and two brothers, was like a father figure sense of caring, but because our dads had to his younger siblings. My dad-in-law it too, I think we were very, very lucky. had a close and comfortable relationship Its hard to imagine what we would have INDIAN LINK

The boys and the bike

done if we had nowhere to sleep off the excesses of a night on the tiles, or nowhere to heal after falling off a motorbike after a foolhardy adventure.

And we are now parents, with their legacy to pass on to our kids. “Daddy, you’re cool!” wrote my older son in an email to his dad on work in India a few weeks ago. And yes, I have to admit, Daddy’s cool. He can be a crocodile-dinosaur at the drop of a hat, kick around a soccer ball, play Beyblades and win without causing a tantrum, he can work out maths mentals while I’m trying to find more fingers and toes, he can laugh heartily as they practice fart noises, he can yell for quiet just once and miraculously, you won’t hear a word for the next five minutes. He can explain the difference between Queen and Pink, and they get it. How? I don’t know, I guess it’s just a ‘daddy’ thing!

But apart from all this, my husband, like

many daddies I know, have many things in common with their fathers. Like endless affection for their children, pride in their kids achievements, a strong sense of integrity and goodness, and a quirky sense of humour. These traits have been passed on from generation to generation, and there’s no doubt that we are the wiser for it.

Sometimes in moments of stress I tell my boys, “I hope that when you’ll have kids, they’ll be just like you’ll!” But the truth is, I hope that if and when my boys do have kids, they become just like their dad!

SEPTEMBER 2011 <> 45

46 <> SEPTEMBER 2011

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STARSFORETELL

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Tarot Tarot ‘n’ You Tarot predictions September Tarot predictions forfor February 20102011

By

NANCY JADE ALTHEA

ARIES March 21 – April 19

LIBRA September 23 – October 22

TAURUS April 20 – May 20

SCORPIO October 23 – November 21

This month you will be planning to start an exercise routine and looking at ways to keep fit. You will feel a little more in control of a work situation and feel you are making steady progress with difficult colleagues. In your love life, you are still unsure about a certain individual and how to handle them.

Those who are single are happy that way for now. Try wearing red on Tuesday, it will bring you luck.

You will feel more adventurous and want to do more outdoor activities.

The cards also indicate a new opportunity around you with work and finances. There are also indications here that you will try to save money.

In love and romance, there seems to be an interest from the past that has your attention. Single Taurians will be ready for fun, but not thinking of long term commitments. Wear blue/green on Fridays for luck.

GEMINI May 21 – June 20

This month, you are advised to watch what you say around people as there may be a tendency to have arguments around you. There is an indication that you will be headhunted for a new job which may take you to another city. Love and romance is a little stressful, but you will find ways to bring peace back into your relationship. Try wearing orange or yellow on Wednesday for luck.

You are in a very good mood, generally. Work will be your priority and if in a management role, use better tactics with your team to get them working for you. Teamwork and joint efforts will pay high rewards and your boss will notice you. You love life is not particularly interesting right now, as you are feeling a little restless and bored. Try taking time out to meditate. Try wearing pink, blue or green on Friday for luck.

You are a ball of energy this month, with a lot of goals up your sleeve. You are planning to buy a property or new car and are working hard to achieve your dreams. At work you are restless, and may be looking for other opportunities. It’s possible that you will be travelling for work too. Love and romance is hot and steamy, with a new interest around. Try wearing black or red on Tuesday for luck.

SAGITTARIUS November 22 – December 21

This month sees you travelling a lot more, and the cards indicate that you have plans to settle in another state or city. You have been putting out feelers for a new job, and opportunities exist if you want them. Learn to stabilize your emotions as you are hopping around and feel no stability right now. Love and romance need attention as you are restless there too.

Try wearing blue, beige or violet on Thursday for luck.

CANCER June 21 – July 22

CAPRICORN December 22 – January 19

LEO July 23 – August 22

AQUARIUS January 20 – February 18

You need to be careful of what you are spending as finances are a little strained. There may be a change in your responsibilities at work and more money is also indicated, which you need right now. Love and romance are exciting right now as you are feeling energetically connected towards a colleague. Try wearing white on Monday and Thursday for luck.

You will be trying to defend your position at work and around friends and family. You yearn to do what you want, and may be planning to change your job and relationship. Try not to be too hasty and think about things carefully. Hasty words may cause you regret later. You may also be thinking of booking a holiday to get away on your own to think about things. Try wearing the colour gold on Sunday for luck.

VIRGO August 23 – September 22

You are feeling very restless and agitated. You have a list of things to do, but are not getting much done. You are also thinking about a new venture, but are contemplating the risks involved. The cards show a favourable outcome if you take things slowly, and not rush into anything you cannot handle. Love and romance are on your mind, and you are ready for a commitment now. Try wearing yellow or blue on Wednesday for luck.

The cards indicate that this month is all about changes and transformation.

You must focus on your plans and finances for the future, and not on trying to change others. There is a need for communication and understanding between you and your loved ones. You are dwelling on things and not resolving issues around you. The cards indicate travel this month. Wear black or earth tones on Saturdays for luck.

You will be feeling creative and may decide to write; a great way to channel any feelings of stress and tension. Lately you have been working very hard and not taking time out for yourself. Pay attention to your knees this month. Love and romance is around and you may decide to propose to someone or if married, there are feelings of re-establishing your feelings of love for your partner. Try wearing black or blue on Saturday for luck.

PISCES February 19 – March 20

Pay particular attention to your health, because you have been overdoing things like working late and not spending enough time on yourself. You have been shouldering a lot of burdens and not speaking to anyone about your feelings. Take a short trip, re-connect with nature, and just relax.

Love and romance is not on your mind this month if single; if not, you will find a happy balance. Try wearing silver or purple on Thursday for luck.

We have a fantastic opportunity for 10 Process Workers in a contract packaging industry in Bendigo.

Work is on Afternoon and Night shift only. IMMEDIATE START! Accommodation provided if you wish to stay local. Work is on Contractor basis and if you have an ABN number it will be an advantage.

Please email selena@australianworkforce.com.au or should you have any inquiries please call 1300 003 901.

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SEPTEMBER 2011 <> 47

BUZZ

ENTERTAINMENT

The

ABHILASHA SENGUPTA

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

Bodyguard busts box office

Bips needs no beaus!

Now that beauteous Bong bombshell Bipasha’s single, it seems like Bollywood’s buzzers are trying hard to set her up with any going hunk. As the gorgeous actress discovered when she mentioned that she loved the Rockstar trailer, featuring Ranbir Kapoor. Instantly reports were out that Bips was trying to woo Ranbir, which she snubbed as “bizarre”.

The actress claims that she’s not hunting for love, after splitting up with long-time love John Abraham, another stunning piece of eye candy. Now use your imagination, buzzers, Salman Khan’s hitting highs with Bodyguard. Don’t you think Bips and Sallu would make a lovely pair?

Naseer trusts his instincts

SALMAN KHAN

Salman Khan-starrer Bodyguard is on a record-breaking spree. After a stupendous opening in the domestic market with Rs 22 crore in collections on its opening day, the film is creating waves on the international scene too.

Bodyguard has surpassed the record of Shah Rukh Khan-starrer My Name Is Khan by earning 194,000 pounds on the first day of screening in Britain.

The film is also on its way to becoming the highest grosser in the Middle East, having begun with a promising $1.6 million in the first two days of its release. But that’s not all, as it earned $3.8 million in the US, and is expected to increase. Let’s not forget that Kareena Kapoor also stars in this blockbuster, which could have something to do with its success. However, Salman himself finds it hard to believe the amazing success of this movie, a sentiment which actress Pooja Bedi shares. “Salman (Khan) must be destiny’s child! Worst dialogues, worst script, zero story but the film’s a roaring success! I’d love to have him as my bodyguard,” she tweeted on Twitter. Wishful thinking Pooja, he’ll have other things on his mind now, like Bodyguard II. Que sera sera!

48 <> SEPTEMBER 2011

It’s quality over quantity for Naseeruddin Shah, the versatile actor who has spent 35 years breathing life into innumerable, welletched out characters on the big screen.

He has been lauded innumerable time and deservedly so, for his acting ability and considerable contribution to Bollywood.

The National Award winner admits he is getting better roles now than ever, but he picks a film only if he has “faith” in it and his “instinct” pushes him to go for it!

“It is extremely gratifying, flattering almost, that so many young people find place for me in their films. I’m probably being offered better parts now than I was being offered five years ago or for that matter in my 35-year-old career,” said the 65-year-old actor recently.

Naseer’s performances have been memorable, Ijaazat, Sparsh, Aakrosh, Karma and Masoom have testified. But in recent times, he has been proving his versatility over and over again, without bothering about the screen time he gets.

Whether it was in the role of a cricket coach in Iqbal, a common man ready to change the system in A Wednesday, a conman in Ishqiya or a painter in Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, he carried out every role with aplomb. The length of the role isn’t as important for him any more, as Naseer says his priorities as an actor have changed over the years.

“When I began my career in films, I had a lot of hopes, most of which have been fulfilled. The hopes were to play varied roles and to be different in every movie. My priorities over the last 35 years have shifted a little,” he admits.

“I’m still not averse to play great roles, but that is no longer the most important thing for me. Over the last 10 years I think I have come to a realisation of what an actor’s role in a film should be. That’s why I have been participating in any movie that I feel needs support and in which I have faith.

The size and the importance of the part has receded to secondary importance for me,” said the actor, who received a Padma Bhushan award in 2003 for his contribution to Indian cinema.

Currently he is looking forward to his return as a lead in a film with Anurag Kashyap’s production venture Michael, directed by a newcomer, Ribhu Das Gupta.

Naseeruddin plays a tainted cop, whose trials and tribulations have been narrated in the film.

“To get a script like Michael, where I was the eponymous character, it was a bonus to be present in practically in every frame.

But my real reason for doing the film was because I feel it’s a sensible film and it is a film that will be remembered,” he claimed.

There’s another criterion behind Naseeruddin’s choice of films.

“I choose my films on instinct. My reason to do every film is different. I should just feel like doing it. I believe in my instincts.

When I decide to do a film, I don’t think whether that film will work or not or whether it will fetch awards or not. All I think is how can we make this film a good film.”

If you’re a fan as I am, watch Naseer do brilliant job as usual, in That Girl in Yellow Boots.

Preity for cultural harmony

Now it’s been a while since pretty Preity Zinta’s been in the news, apart from a mention here and there about the nowancient IPL masala. But now that the actress will be honoured at the 68th Venice Film Festival for bringing cultural harmony through her work, she has good reason to feel pretty perked up. Preity will be awarded the “World Diamond Group Platinum Award for Peoples/Friendship” at the Kineo “Diamanti al Cinema” event at the festival for her contribution towards reconciliation and cultural harmony among people of different cultures.

Preity will be felicitated with a white olive tree, with its tree trunk sculpted off a block of Carrara hand-carved marble, and its branches and leaves fashioned out of 3,333 grams of platinum and 3,003 diamonds - 2,503 marquise cut and 500

GUESS WHO

?

His claim to fame comes from the small screen (Find the answer under Caption Contest)

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new 82 facets round cut - adding to a total of 366 carats. A wonderful token indeed, and well deserved one at that. Preity seems to have taken to business ventures lately, probably a legacy left over from her nowdefunct relationship with tycoon Ness Wadia. But have faith, she’ll soon be back with a bang!

Final farewell to Shammi Kapoor

The late Shammi Kapoor, who romanced Bollywood beauties in the snow-capped mountains of Kashmir in films like Kashmir Ki Kali and Junglee and immortalised the shikara on the Dal Lake in the song Tareef karun kya uski, has finally become a part of that idyllic surrounding forever as his ashes were immersed in the lake.

The ashes of the prolific actor, who died on August 14, were immersed by his son Aditya and daughter Kanchan.

Actors Shabana Azmi, Vinod Khanna, Asha Parekh, Sharmila Tagore, Poonam Dhillon, Amitabh Bachchan and Tina Ambani joined them in a final farewell to the legendary actor.

A household name among the old and middle-aged locals of Kashmir, Shammi Kapoor’s family and friends could not have thought of a better farewell to the Bollywood veteran.

“He loved the Dal Lake and his soul will definitely be solaced as his ashes were immersed in the lake of his dreams,” said shikara owner Zahoor Ahmad, 56, on the lake.

The valley has, for the first time since the early 1990s and its era of armed violence, seen a plethora of Bollywood stars in its environs, as Shammi’s closest friends and colleagues bid him goodbye.

“We hope to keep Shammiji’s relationship with Kashmir alive.

We hope his friends and family would persuade Bollywood to return to the valley with the same love and attachment as the Junglee did all his life,” local travel operator Abdul Hamid said.

And wouldn’t that be wonderful?

Bollywood has the budget to film in exotic locations like the Swiss Alps and the Rocky Mountains, but the reality is that the Kashmir valley can match up to any global destination in beauty, serenity and breathtaking panorama. So wake up Bollywood, and smell the fresh, clean air.

BIPASHA

What’s Abhishek Bachchan saying to make Sameera Reddy laugh?

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

Last issue Caption Contest winning entry

PRIETY

RISHI AND RANBIR KA

POOR

They’re a popular father-son duo, but Rishi Kapoor and son Ranbir have never shared screen space together.

But now for the first time, the actors have shot a commercial for Pepsi, playing father-son roles just like in real life. Sources say that both were professional and comfortable in their roles during the shoots. It seems commercial’s concept involves the hit TV show, Kaun Banega Crorepati, whose music featured in the teaser campaign. Well, considering that this Kapoor clique is now endorsing a big brand, it won’t be a surprise if they’re already adding crores to their kitty!

What’s the chitchat here between Imran Khan and Deepika Padukone?

Imran: You’ll have to give up high heels if you want to continue acting with me…

Deepika: I’ll have some designed for you if you want to continue acting with me.

Pritam Kapoor Dunlop ACT Pritam wins a double pass to new Hindi film Mere Brother Ki Dulhan Answer to GUESS WHO? Aman Verma

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CAPTION CONTEST

Ranbir and Rishi rock for Pepsi

Jagmohan Mundhra is no more

Hollywood-based Indian filmmaker Jagmohan Mundhra, who made films like Bawandar and Provoked, died of cardiac arrest on September 4 in Mumbai at just 62. His last rites were performed by family and friends, and were attended by Bollywood actresses Deepa Sahi, Deepti Naval and Udita Goswami. Mundhra is survived by his wife and a daughter, who lives in Los Angeles.

Born in 1948 in a conservative Marwadi family, Mundhra studied engineering at IIT Mumbai and then moved to US to do his M.Sc. But his ultimate calling was moviemaking, and in 1982 he ventured into filmmaking with Sanjeev Kumar and Shabana Azmi starrer Suraag, followed by the women-centric film Kamla with Shabana and Deepti Naval in lead roles.

Later he made films like Night Eyes, The Jigsaw Murders, Eyewitness to Murder, Open House and Halloween Night.

In 2000, Mundhra moved to issuebased movies and the first in the series was Nandita Das starrer and critically acclaimed Bawander, which was based on real story of rape victim Bhanwari Devi in Rajasthan.

In 2007, he teamed up with Aishwarya Rai to bring on screen the trials and tribulations of London-based Punjabi woman Kiranjit Ahluwalia, a victim of domestic violence in Provoked.

In 2007, Mundhra took up yet another sensitive subject for his movie Shoot On Sight, which talked about the West’s perception of Muslims following 9/11.

The movie’s take-off point is the order London police passed to shoot suspected terrorists after the July 7, 2005, London subway bombings.

However, Mundhra recently moved to a lighter subject with Govinda starrer Naughty @ 40. He was also very keen to make a film on Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

Tributes poured in from Bollywood’s actors and actresses, through microblogging site Twitter.

Said veteran actress and activist Shabana Azmi: “Sad news. Film-maker Jagmohan Mundhra passed away this morning. Heartfelt condolences to his family.

He was one the most subjective director. His NASEER Shoot On Sight is a film which is identical to A Wednesday.”

Pooja Bedi tweeted, “Deeply saddened to hear Jagmohan Mundhra passed away!

A wonderful man, my first director and the one responsible for me being in show business.”

Vikram Bhatt said, “A prayer for the departed and strength to his family.”

Kabir Bedi tweeted: “Jagmohan Mundhra, friend from my Hollywood years, passes away and I’m deeply sad.

Last met at Shammi Kapoor’s funeral.

RIP.” RIP, Jagmohan Mundhra, your legacy in Bollywood will be remembered and revered.

SEPTEMBER 2011 <> 49

ENTERTAINMENT

Cine Talk

Bodyguard delivers the goods Film: Bodyguard Cast: Salman Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Raj Babbar Director: Siddque For three years now, every Eid, a Salman Khan movie has become one of the rewards of the festival. Last year we had Dabangg, which despite its simplicity had layers into it; this year we are treated to Bodyguard which isn’t a patch on Dabangg.

Despite this, it has enough to hold the attention of festive audiences.

Bodyguard Lovely Singh (Salman Khan) is a nice, honest man of steel who is faithful to Sartaj (Raj Babbar).

Sartaj, asks Lovely to guard his daughter Divya (Kareena Kapoor) day and night.

Lovely does his job diligently, but is unawares that Divya serenades him under a pseudonym Chhaya over the phone, and has fallen in love with him.

Things get out of control when Sartaj’s enemies try to kill Divya while Sartaj thinks Lovely is trying to kidnap his daughter.

Bodyguard, conceptually, is based on the type of stories that have made

Imtiaz Ali popular - sweet, gentle love stories, where the underlying theme being sacrifice for the sake of love. Yet whereas Imtiaz Ali reveals in a certain quaint subtlety despite the melodramatic nature of his films, Bodyguard director Siddique does not have the skills to pull that off.

The result is a film that has its few funny, slapstick moments but the problem area is the surprise twist in the end. It is an end that does not gel with the pace of the rest of the film and seems cooked up. That is especially true because director Siddique gives no foreshadowing or inclination before of a possibility of a character doing what she does in the end.

However, that would be a problem with urban audiences. As far as rural viewers go, the ending, fantastic as it may be, might actually work for the film. After all isn’t there enough elements of fantasy in the rest of the film like when Salman, going in the opposite direction in a train, simply jumps on to a running train in another direction. If one can digest that, one can do the same for the ending.

A little more effort on the editing table would have eased a lot of things.

Salman fans, however, have much to

cheer. They not only get to see their favourite star beating enemies to pulp, but also get to see his well toned torso, that in the end is revealed after jets of water blow away his shirt, much like the subway wind blew away Marilyn Monroe’s skirt.

Debutante Rajat Rawail provides comic relief to the film not just with his antics but also the funny messages on his t-shirts like ‘6 Pack Coming Soon’ pasted over his fat belly. alman is his well-chiseled self, and Kareena is as good as the script demands of her, which isn’t much.

The music is catchy, especially the Himmesh Reshamiya composed song

a shady massage parlour charging Rs.1000 to give ‘happy endings’ to her customers. She is caught up in her druggie boyfriend’s mess, but a greater mess awaits her in the discovery of her father.

TGIYB is good news for Indian

cinema for many reasons.

Firstly, it is perhaps India’s first commercially released film to be not just entirely shot in digital (LSD was the first) but also shot on cameras that are usually used to shoot stills.

Seeing what digital can do on big screen, like LSD, is an experience and lesson in filmmaking.

Secondly, it will perhaps become the second innings of NFDC. The brilliant films produced by its precursor FFC in the 1970s and 1980s will vouch for the veracity of how much creative cinema needs and deserves governmental patronage. In a few months’ time NFDC will also release Dibakar Banerjee’s Shanghai.

Shot in 13 days, TGIYB is spot on in almost all departments. It is carried forward by a stellar performance from its cast, especially Kalki Kochelin, who’s also the co-writer.

TGIYB is a statement on modern life and society. The character of Ruth, despite her seeming loss of innocence and purity, is the purest character in the film. Yet, like a beautiful flower in full bloom, she is trampled upon by a ruthless society

Film: That Girl In Yellow Boots Cast: Kalki Kochelin, Prashant Prakash, Naseeruddin Shah Director: Anurag Kashyap

The 1960s were a wonderful time for Indian cinema. The government set up the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) to impart cinema education and FFC (Film Finance Corporation) to fund creative cinema. The result – at the beginning of 1969, India saw what is today called ‘The New Indian Cinema’ that resulted in some of the greatest films ever made in the nation.

Recently, with the advent of digital filmmaking, little droplets of creative cinema have been foreshadowing another cloud-burst of creativity.

However, it needs patronage. Perhaps NFDC (National Film Development Corporation), transformed from FFC, would provide that shot in the arm to extremely talented, but unfinanced filmmakers in India. And The Girl In Yellow Boots (TGIYB), co-funded by NFDC, could be that game changer.

A British national of Indian origin, Ruth (Kalki), is in India looking for her dad had left her when she was 50 <>who SEPTEMBER 2011 young. To fund her trip, she works in

I Love You. Overall, Bodyguard may not have the chutzpah of a Dabangg, but it pulls itself through to entertain viewers during the festive season.

that ceaselessly uses her. Her yellow boots becomes a metaphor for the beauty and cheer that is stolen from her.

Violence, though rarely physical, is inflicted upon her till she becomes insensitive to the innocence of another like her. Her trampling seems complete, till in the end she redeems himself, by refusing to act as per her impulse.

This is a typical Anurag Kashyap film as it returns us to the themes that form the backdrop in many of his films - sex, drugs and violence. The quirky characterization and the pun of language is all there. Who else can pun a name ‘Chittiappa Gowda’ and pull it off, or juxtapose the banal telephonic conversation of a chatty woman and serious confrontation on phone between mother and daughter at the same time?

Yet, the film is also atypical of Anurag for unlike his other film he exercises great restraint. And it is in this control, of not ending the film in violence, lies its greatest power.

The time is ripe for another cinematic revolution in the country, where filmmakers are not shackled by nepotistic and uncreative production houses and corporate houses married only to profits. Hopefully, TGIYB will prove to be the first, in the many to INDIAN LINK follow.

Satyen K. Bordoloi

www.indianlink.com.au

BACKCHAT

Two hopefuls, one dog and the deep blue sea…

It’s a piece of cake, but only as long the fish decide to take the bait, as these holidaymakers discover

It looked so easy on TV……you put the line attached to the rod thingy in the water, wait a few minutes for the big tug, and when you feel it, you reel in your dinner!

and stayed at Angler’s Rest, partly chosen for its highly inspirational and appropriate name. As you can imagine, BY being brought up in south Indian Brahmin families, neither DEEPA GOPINATH of us were raised to be knowledgeable and adept in the art of fishing. Personally, my domestic education consisted of how to make authentic rasam and Rangoli Drawing 101, A few weeks ago, hubby and I decided that it was time for among other similarly indoors-y things. With this in mind, a mini-break. Our last holiday over Christmas was but a the next morning all three of us excitedly trooped off to the distant, fading memory and we decided it was time to escape local service station, apparently the place to go for all things from the inner-city madness and go coastal for a couple fishing in Greenwell Point. Despite being told that it was of days. The four-legged member of our family, Cookie not possible to hire a rod, with grand dreams of 2kg salmon the stumpy little Jack Russell Terrier, expressed his desire and sea bass, we stuck with the plan and invested in a bright to join us. Actually, Cookie probably doesn’t know what a red (because anything that is red goes faster) fishing rod holiday is per se, but we decided it was about time he was instead. Assuming some basic knowledge, the nice service introduced to that incredible thing - the beach. So after station owner proceeded to talk to us about tides, species of securing some dog-friendly fish, deep sea vs. river fishing, accommodation, arguing over etc. Our bewildered faces and finally deciding on which soon gave away the plot, and Aside from the inherent hunter/ car to take, and packing the gatherer instinct, my ever-optimistic he switched over to an Idiot’s boot full of both human and Guide explanation of how to get hubby had insisted that I pack the canine delicacies, we headed started. ingredients for two different types of off to Greenwell Point at the So $60 later, armed with basic south coast of NSW. marinade for the many fish that he equipment and even more basic One of our objectives on knowledge, we headed down was planning on catching. this trip was to try a spot of to the water’s edge and claimed fishing. It looked so easy a small jetty to try our hand at on TV……you put the line this ‘sport’. The best part of attached to the rod thingy in the water, wait a few minutes the first half hour was spent loading the line onto the rod for the big tug, and when you feel it, you reel in your dinner! (not as easy as the professionals make it look), working Fool-proof! We arrived in Greenwell Point in the evening out where the sinkers and the swivel go (still not quite sure

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what they do, apart from looking pretty) and negotiating the complicated knots that we were taught, with our semi-frozen fingers. With everything (sort-of) in place, we cut up the pilchards, which are smaller fish used for bait, and loaded a succulent looking piece onto the hook. Proud of our initial efforts, we cast the line into the water and waited. About an hour and several attempts later, we felt a tug! Excitedly, hubby started reeling in the catch and I braced myself, ready to help him with the huge fish. It soon became clear that instead of catching, we were the ones who were caught - on some reeds in the water.

After untangling our line from the reeds, hubby tried another tactic. He put the head end of the pilchard onto the hook, explaining patiently and convincingly to me that the fish out there may look into the eyes of our bait fish, fall madly in love, get hooked, and then we could reel it in. This sounded perfectly logical to my frozen brain, so we gave it another half an hour with this technique.

No luck. Hubby’s next tactic was to use the tail end of the pilchard. Apparently, any fish seeing another fish’s tail swishing at him would become furious and would want to take a big bite out of that cheeky fish. While this explanation somehow did not seem steeped in logic, I accepted it, bearing in mind that as a man, his pride rested on catching a fish. Aside from the inherent hunter/gatherer instinct, my ever-optimistic hubby had insisted that I pack the ingredients for two different types of marinade for the many fish that he was planning on catching. After all, there would be nothing worse than having lots of fish and no spices, right…..?

Two hours on, a little more frozen, still fishless and having donated a few hooks to the reeds, we decided to call it quits.

To add to our humiliation, we realised that there were chunks of meat missing from the piece of pilchard that we had been using as bait. Evidently, the fish were out there, but what we saw as a fishing expedition, they saw as feeding time! And so it was that the three of us trudged into the local fish shop with heads hanging low and tails (both literal and metaphoical) between legs to buy some fish fillets for dinner.

And what was Cookie doing all this time? Being the ever obedient man’s best friend, he sat patiently on the jetty with us, shivering silently and probably wondering why these humans were sitting in the cold for hours holding that ridiculous looking stick, when all three of us could be happily curled up on the couch in front of the heater.

Actually, he was the only one who was rewarded during this whole experience, although it’s a sad day when most of the bait ends up as the dog’s dinner!

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