2012-10 Perth

Priyadarshini Chidambaranathan, Usha Ramanujam Arvind, Roanna Gonsalves, Avi Chandiok, LP

Go forth and multiply

professional ambitions, enjoying two i ncomes to meet the material asp irations of new migrants - alJ these factors seem to cement their starns i.n dieir new home

0ne of the important challenges facin g a number of Indian Austtalian couples is how to plan for the growth of their fa mily. Whil e reunions w ith pa rents and siblings are often depende nt on the current rules of the Department of Immigratio n , it is the cha ll enge of having their own children that becomes a pare of personal a nd so cial group discussions for )' Oung couples of a certai n age group

In recent years, the number of 457 visa ho lders and Indian stude n ts h as increased substantiall y. O v er a period of time, man y dec id e to apply for Au stralian permanent reside n cy and look forward to the ir future down under. They also ger married, and the young co upl e scare their new life together. After a shore struggle of finding the right job, botb of them settle into a stable career and begin to e n jo y an i ndependent li festyle. With no famil y pressures and social expectations , the fami ly uni t consisting of two becomes more adoptive of the local lifesty le. Late night get- togetliers widi friends, the freedom to travel,

But the biological clock stares ticking. Whi.le a log ical next step in die couple's li fe, the decision co start a fa mil y is approached with a fair degree of trepid ation as there i s lim i ted, i f a n y, fa mily support availabl e Whereas die earlier freedom fro m family responsib ili ty was a pos itive in t h eir minds, now tbe very lack of it weighs heavil y on the yo un g couple. While the pregnancy i s p lanned and commenced, parents are imported from India to assist Most international parents willingly arrive a few wee k s before the birth t o help with the nursin g of their in ternatio n al grandchild Ir is a trying, yec happy ti.me as rbc young couple now become a family and settle into the ir new routine

After a while, the parents return to India and the husband rentrns to work The pressure on tlie famil y budget in creases as a double i ncome become s a si n gle. As the pressure oo the famil y u nit becomes apparent, so does the challenge of hav in g the second child.

IncLia averages about 2.6 chi ldren per fa mil y In Australia on the other hand, fami lies w ithout children arc projected as the fastest growing famil y type ~1igrant families, wbjje be lieving in

stro n g family units, /i nd themselves in a quandary The dilemma is wheclier co adapt to the Austra lian an d personal lifestyle requirements and stop at one child, or look at extending the family unit from two to three or four. \Xlhile th is is a very personal issue and should be respected with persona l h ealth as anocl1er consideration, often cl1e chalJenges of bringing up a large famil)' d o get managed w ith time. J ust as new experiences of the mig rant are perceived as road bumps on the journey, so are tlie challenges faced in the earlier years of bringing up a young family. There a1:e wonderfol options available such as childcare, mothers g roups, Aexible maternity arrangements tl1rough work , whe re some of these chaUenges can be resolved.

Over a longer term, the children will have each oth er to grow u p w ith and as the parents gee older in their new home, die s ibli n gs will have each other as family and of course, in due comse as extended famil y \Y/c Indian Australian s arc very family oriented and often draw our strengclis from our famil y units Of c o urse for the reaJJ y brave, one can fo JJow the advice of the former Australian treasurer Peter Cos tello and have three ch ild ren - one for the mother, o n e for the father and one for the countr y! The choice is rotaJJy yours.

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Ambitious talkfest opens up virgin terrain

Inaugural writers' conference seeks dialogue to share the wealth of Indian and Australian regional literary culture

Austra!ia's rollercoaster relationshi p w ith Ind ia is all set to ride a new high after a successful writers ' forum, the first of its kind, open ed fresh new pathways between the two nations, tapping into each other's intellectual and culmral identities and thereby forgiJ1g what could be long lasting relationsh ips in hitherto unexplored terrains.

Leapfrogging over linguistic and political barriers, rbe high pro61e Australia India Literatures International Forum (AILIF) organised by University of Western Sydney's (UWS) \Xlriting Society and Research Cenu·e (WSRC) brought mgether a se lection of creative talems from both countries for a meeting of minds. Two leading publishers (R Sivapriya of Penguin India and Mita Kapur of Siyahi) and ten acclaimed writers representing many re6>ional dialects flew down from the subcontinent for the largest Li terary exchange of its kind experienced so far in Australia.

The Indian delegation was led by veteran theatre personality and playwright Girish Karnad, and included Dalit writers Gogu Shyamala and Sharan Kumar Limbale; Mamang Dai and Ki.npham Singh ongkynrih, both writers fr()m the north ease; soc ial historian and women smdies researcher CS Lakshmi; Urdu storyte!Jer Mahmood Faroogui; Hindi novelise Uday Prakash; Malayali writer NS M adhavan; and Gujarati poet Prabhodh Parikh.

While Indian wr iting in English has a huge market worldwide commanding an impress ive global readership, tl1e literary offerings in myriad regional Indian languages remains virgin territory. Likewise, the rich vibrancy of Australian indigenous wr iting is a niche area with imrneme potential. As well, multicultural writers o f modem Australia have countless tales to cell, imbibing many literary and culmra l rraditions chat di sso lve geographic boundaries. The forum sought to Link these diverse traditions of scoryrelling through one co,nmon p latforrn.

"The Australia India Literamres International Forum (AILIF) hopes to develop and strengthen Austral ian ties witl1 one of the fastest growing markets for literature," said event facilitator and p o st-doccoral fellow ar WSRC, Dr Mridula Nath Chakraborty. ' 1c will have me twin effect of promoting inter-lingual ideas and enable translations of high gualicy between these Literamres, thereby helping Australia and India understand each otl1er's societies and foster closer cultural relationships".

''"The forum will contri bute significantly to our multicultural fabric and we hope t o build on the research of each other 's cult ural milieu" UWS Vice Chancellor Janice Reid

writers, to generate interest in their respective traditions and enable closer interaction and collaboration between mem, in rbe process, spearheading research and commercial ventures," Dr Cbakraborty stated.

While Australian literature has a significant presence in the English departments of Indian universities, it bas not yet penetrated the sizeab le regional l anguage markets, Dr Chakraborty l amented.

"It will therefore be directly beneficial for Australian writers to interact wirb weir Indian counterpart s to exp lore possibilities of reciprocal publication in translation , and it will be eguall y fruitful for vernacular Indian writers to expand on Australian vistas," she noted.

Funded b y the Australia India Council (AlC) in association wi th the Lirerarure Board of the Australia Council for the Arcs (ACA), the Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) and Australia India Instin1te (All) , tl1e forum was held on September 3 -6 at me Scare

behalf of tl1e lndiru1 writing communicy, "To represent a!J of India's languages and d ial ects is to represent so many complex cultures, an almost impossible task," he stated witl1 revealing cru1doUL " Each language is a ferocious nation proud of its w1ique heritage. Bloody conflicts have resulted from the demands of linguistic recognition. Language divides us, bm it also mutes us. And India has survived and flourished because of its respect for diversiry''.

The VC later hosred a reception for the visiting \Vriters.

Exploring me diverse tradition s of contemporary writing in Inclia and Australia over tl1e course of the fom days, the bold and ambitious calkfesc at Metcalfe Auditorium examined how "linguistic diversity, vernacular cosmopolitanism and global regimes of translatio n shape and effect literature".

She added, "Indian publishing is at a high point at the moment, and major g lobal publishing houses are rap idly moving inco the subcontinent to cash in on a highl)' Literate English-proficient dientele. Australia is in a good position to capitalise on chis, as our hidden gems of Australian Aboriginal, Indigenous and mul ticulcnral wriru1g, derived from traditions ocher rban tl1e European, are espec iall y unknown in the subcontinent''.

'

'This forum brings togetl1er vernacu lar writers from India with Australian multicu ln1ral

Library of NSW

Addressing the inaugural session held at the Female Orphan Buil ding of the p icn1res9ue UWS campus, Vice Chancell or Janice Reid said, "Like India, Australia is an ancient country. We loo k forward to screngrneniog ties between tl1ese rwo great nations. An event of mis sca le has not been undertaken before. The forum will contribute significantly to our multicultural fabric and we hope to build on the research of each other's culttu·al milieu "

Girish Kamad was given me onerous cask of speaking on

Open to public, me thoughtfully chosen panel sessions included speakers from botl1 nations fo llowed by interactive discussions Old traditions and new culmres, poetic imagination, tl1e salience of place, politics of location, enduri ng role of myths, great human migration, Girmitiya cultures of Pacific Ocean, linguistic allegiances and tl1e hybrid writer, purpose of translatio n and role of publishers were some of me issues discussed. The State L ibrary bookstore also made available me works of local and v isi ting writers

The forum also included special presentations on Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore as well as re\7 ival of ancient Das tangoi tradition.

UWS Vice Chancellor Janice Reid with Indian writers at the Australia India Literatures International Forum (AILIF)

Dr. Mridula Nath Chakraborty

Karnadwith guests at the dinner reception

The making and mastering of m

Indian and Australian writers discuss the importance of myth in literature and its importance in shaping mindsets

" -=r influence on Indian meatre for "' many years. But during die '60s when writers starced looking for 0 " ::, 3

Many of us are familiar with Girish Karnad, the accomplished actor and film director. ln a career spanning 40 decades, Karnad has acted in innumerable films across languages such as Kannada, Hindi, Tamil, Malayalan1 and Telugu.

But it is as a p laywright thac Karnad is most acclaimed. He has writcen fourteen plays in Kannada, his adopced language, including Yqyati, Tughlaq, Naga!llm1da/a, Hqyt1vad,ma, Ag11i Nfott11 Nlcili! and Tt1leda11da. They have won him some of India's cop awards and honours including the Padma Bhushan and che Padma Shri, d1e Jnanpid1 for Kannada in 1998, amongst several od1ers.

This multi- faceted wricer was in Sydney recently m participace in me Australia India Llteramres International Forum (AILIF). He was part of a panel of four writers discussing 'Jv[yth and the 117,ite,·' on Sepcember 5 at tl1e State Library of SW.

Girish Karnad pioneered the use of rny d1 and fol k.Jore in Indian ilieatre, and many o f his plays make extensi\'e use of myths m highlight social ii.ls. A stridem critic of the Hindurva movement and the rise of religious fundamentalism in Ind ia, Karnad's speed1 focused on d1e m.isuse of myths for political purposes by these agencies

The audience hung onto his every word, while he briefl y outlined the development of religion and myth in India from die Vedic ages to the Bhakti movement. ''}.,fyth was d1e background to an enormous tragedy mat coo k place in 1992," he said, referring to me demoli tion of Babri Masjicl. Describing the events leading up to this tragic episode, Karnad elaborated saying, "This is a perfecc example of how a m yducal subject is caken, policicized and turned imo a policical event how Rama a mythical figure was transformed into a political figure."

Karnad spoke of me changes tlus event had wrought, bow it was now acceptab le for respectab le journalists and writers to engage

Paul Sharrad a nd Subhash Jaireth in anci-Muslim writing in the mainstream med ia. Also, people now felt mey had a tight to break me law in order to uphold their personal beliefs and m yths

On a lighter noce che mulci -

furilier inspiration, tl1ey nuned to Indian myths and used mem to express meir anguish and passion. "That is how l wrote my play Ytl),ali," said Karnad.

The eminent writer said he chose to focus on di.is issue rather d1an llis own writing, as over me years, die use of m yilis has reduced to insi gnifi cance in Indian writing and we are inscead starting to witness its increasing use in policies.

Nexc on the podium was Subash Jaired1, an lndian writer based in Canberra. The aumor of mree books of poetry and a work of fiction, Jaireth joked about how he was a "writer of very minor significance", compared co Karnad who has himself been turned into a m ythical figure.

He spoke about d1e importance of m yilis and dieir reality. "The epics sucb as Ran1ayana and Mal1abbarata are sore o f older vers ions of \Xfikipedia. They are stories buil t upon scories upon stories. So there are always gaps and cleaves wluch provide d1e wricer an entry point, where d1ey can enter and cull out pearls," he noted

The author talked abom his experiences with me world of m yths, reading from his firsc book of poetry about Yashodhara, d1e wife of Buddha and lus recent book To Silence, a collectio n o f diree fictional autobiographies.

Th e tl1ird wricer of d1e day MalcoLn Knox is an award wiuning Australian writer and journalist. A former licerary edicor of the Syd111y Morning H erald, he has won se\7 eral awards including the Ned Kelly Award for Crime Writing, the Colin Roderick Award and the Walkley Award for journalism. His works of ficcion include Jamaica, A P1i11ate A1.a11 and S11m111erland. His mosc recent work called The Life is about a surfing legend cal.led DK, past lus prin1e, who is now overweight and Living wich bis m other.

myms where they can find themthey have to be magpies".

A ccording co him, d1e surfing wo.rld offers an opportuni ty for m yth creacion. Surfers are always searching for that elus ive perfeccion referred to as the ' m ythi cal l eft' and they create "scory upon story" abouc smfing champions, elevating mem to d1e status of m ythical figures. Knox talked about d1e humorous side of surfer terminology, peppered widi terms lil<e 'epic', 'legend', 'legendary', 'the stu ff of legend', all referring m that greac surfing experience.

Knox cook the example of a real-Ii fe surfe r Micl1ael Peterson, on whom his main character DK is based, who was transformed into a figure of legend. TI1e wealth of stories about me surfer was compiled into a b iography; but his biographer Sean Doher ty had to admit mat although many of them were embroidered, d1ey were too good co leave om of his biography. This is a perfect example o f how communities create their m yths tl1rough sco rytelling

The last speaker l icholas Jose is aumor of seven novels including lus most receor, Tbc Red Thread, and two colleccioos of short stor-ies He is Professor o f English and Creative Writing at the University of Adelaide. Jose spoke abom many aspects of myth, including the di fferences in myms across different cultures and the experience of communicating across die differences.

"The element of myth comes from one culnu:e co anomer, a powerful borrowing that must be haudled wim care We need to experience it from d1e inside noc as somed1 ing recorded by an outsider bm as something made real by objects in d1e story, someduog lived and living. Stot:ies and images d1at speak across this space have a mysterio u s capacity to change and shift even as they retain meir core energy," be s tated.

faceted wricer scaced, "S ince I have to talk about m yself, I wiU do so for two minuces", whid1 brought a bout of laughcer from the audien ce. He talked of Bernard Shaw being an overwhelming

The sharp contrast between d1e focus of the first two speakers aod che third was almost conlicaJ. While che Indian wricers focused on d1e abundance of legends in lndian culture, their use and mis u se, Knox l ooked at the lack of myilis in Australian culnu:e. "Australians have co get their

The questions raised by d1e audience ranged from the unifying namre of m yths to me e:xistence of countries wid1out myd1s. The panellists each broughc in the ir own perspectives, reflecti,,e of the vase cul tural differences between countries Bur d1e discussion also highlighted the wlifying role of d1e writer across culnu:es and brought into focus tbe importance of myd1s in writing

M a lcolm Knox Nicholas Jose

Excuse me, your border is perforated

In the vast, enigmatic world of vernacular literature lies the opportunity to tell our stories and listen to those of others

0ne passionate s cholar.

1 2 Indian wr iters. 24 Australian \\•Titers. Inmunerable stories. Th.is was the A u stralia India Literatures International Forum (AILIF), held at our magnificent house of books, the Scace Library of r ew South Wales from September 4 to 6, 2012. The legen dary writer and actor Girish Ka.mad led a stellar contingent of writers from India who shared the space with many Australian writers including award wi nning Indigenous wr iters Alexis Wright and Ali Cobby E ckermann.

A love affair and the birth of AILIF

Before we continue w ith the story of AILIF, we muse first tel1 the story of how AILlF was born.

Tc is in part, the story o f a Dell1i girl, Dr Mridula Nath Chakraborty from the Writing and Society R esearcl1 Ce n tre (WS RC) at the Unive rsity of Western Sydney (U\X7S), t he passi on and brains behind AILIF. The story b ears celling because it reaffirms the value of multilingualism and the value of a ground -b reaking event such as 1ULIF. It began when Dr C h akraborty or Mridula as she is familiarly called, became fascinated by the work of the ce lebrated Hindi write r, Munshi Premchand when smdying in an Engli sh medium school in Ddhi. Up on the insistence of her m other, she d1en learnt co read and write in her mother tongue, Bengali. The story con tinued when Mrid ufa began wo r king with Katha, the acclaimed publishing house chat specializes i.o translations, and she feU d eeply in love with Indian literature in translation, findi ng a " renewed se nse of d1e famastically expressive intricacies and idio m s of the vernacula r to ngues, the regi onal la nguages o f India". Howe ve r, it is u pon her arrival in Australia that the p lot chickens. Mridula's e loquent words tell us of a journey of revel ation, one chat many of us have undertaken as lnd ia.n immigrants co Aus u-alia, finding d1at A ltStralia is truly

multilingual, w i d1 almost 400 languages spoken h ere by people of 270 ancestries. With the backing of t he WSRC at UWS, and its very suppo r tive director Prof Anthony Uhlmann, she was spurred onto action.

"I came co chis countr y four years ago wi d1 the usual stereotype of it being a monolingu al nation. Bur by simply taking a mun, I

would encounter d1e so unds and la nguages from all corners of che world in all meir energy and urgency," she revealed '1 was increasin gly aware of the many indigenous languages that resound in d1is continent. Eve n as I enjoy th e spectacula r style and success of lndia.n writing i.n Engl ish, I knew drnt 1 wanted co showcase vernacu la r L1dian literamre in all its richness. Most of d1e wor ld knows and celebrates Indian w riting in English, but does nor really have any sense of the breadd1 and depth of its 22 official regional languages and 300 dialects, or the li t eratures d1at Aourish in d1em. This is what I wanted to bring to Australia AILIF is a coming together o f these sou.ndscapes, these multifarious tongues of the world, from m y home country to this one Th e scale was large to begin wid1; but it was aston ishing to discover d1e many Australian

voices 1 found in the process of bri.oging m y rwo worlds cogether. I knew mac I would have to pick and choose between d1e Indian languages, but doing d1e same with Aus tralian literauu e was even m ore cliJficult, given d1e range of established and equally talented emerging voices I kept finding".

Potent perforations

NS Madhavan, the muchadmired Malayalam writer, in bis presentation at AILIF, m emorably spoke of d1e Malayalam lan guage as being perforated. The image of a perforated l angu age, bringing co mind d1e borders of the o ld dot matrix printer paper or a fishing net, is so potent d1ar it immediately lays bare me primacy and inevitability of perforation in human existen ce, as is in the nam.ral "vorld around us. It reminds us chat like Malayalam, our lives, stories, and indeed all our languages are perforated, fuU of necessary and welcoming holes, where currems of influence from the East, West, North, and Soud1, from above, from be low,

from all a.round, m ay b low in and blow out, endlessly regen erating and res hap ing the very holes d1em selves

For rnose of us involved wirn creating new sto ri es of Ausu-alia's m ul ticulnual reality, d1e idea of perforations also reminds us o f d1e primacy of dive rsi ty, and we app laud d1e role p layed b y AILlF in celebrating d1is.

"AfLIF is a salutary rem inder d1at like genetic diversity, we need linguistic diversity, o r el se the h uma n tongue will w id1er away and perish lil,e a single strand of DNA," s aid Mr idula ''At a cime when Asia is becoming increasingly important to Australia, and lndian migration is on di e rise here, it is important co remember that l.ndia exists in m yriad tongues, religion s, culmres and modalities. Indian writing in English usually offers a metropolitan vi ew of me contrasts and contradictions of d1e vase subcontinent. Vern acular literature offers a valu ab l e way of understa nding these nuanced m ul tiplicities of India and ope n s

die w in dow to a textured, layered wo rld ".

She went on, "Outs id e of crjcket, Auscralia occup ies a lj m ited space in die Inruan imagination. As bilateral relations between the two nations increase in coming decades, it will be critical co Lmderstand what makes d1i s is land nation tick What better way to ente r this world than through its aboriginal, indigen o u s and multicultural Eteratures, which tell uruque stories about the nation to itself and die world?"

The oth er d,j11g about pe rforations is that diey cru1 erase bound acies and facilitate exchange. Mamang Dru from Arunachal Pradesh reminded us abou t die numinous exchange b etwee n d1e human an d the non -human, of talking co the land a nd liste ning as d1e land talks back. Bern Le Hum, die Inclian-English -Australian wciter of chree ac clrum ed novels, r eminded LIS of those pcimal perfora tio n s between fact ru1d fiction itself.

"The nunure yo u wri te abou t a p lace it becomes fictional," she said.

Prabodh Parikh's enchanting prese n tation on die art of Tagore poin ted to exchanges widiin die self, to the overflow of self while e rasing the self. Mah m ood Farooqui's enthralling lecturede m onstration of Dastangoi, an a ncient form of epic srorytelling in Urdu, pointed, aniong otli er things, co perforations of formal co nve nti o n s to revive ru1d rei nve nt failing performative fo rm s. Sharo n Rundle ru1d Meenakshi Bharat have been creatively perforating literar y borders between India and Australia widi di cir muchcommended emced anthologies o f shore srories b y Inman md Australian wri cers, A lim r;hores (20 12) and Fear Facto,·: Terror lucognito (2010)

Dhoti borders and other challenges

AILIF was also a space where die dirt could be gadiered from under the carpet and brough t o nce more, into me light. CS Lakshmi (A mbai) recounted the times whe n s he was used to being patro ruzed and msmisse cl b y male wri ters \vho would complement her on her looks or h e r cloch es, rather than o n her wri ting So she decided ro give diem a taste of dieir own medkine, saying, "The border of your dhoti is re ally beautiful! Where d id yo u buy it? I would also like to buy one fo r my h usband."

The appreciarive laugh ter from die aumence md n ot mean that women writer s scorn genuine and well-phrased compliments; instead iliac such compliments must not come at di e exp e n se of recognizing and val ui ng die acnial writing itself.

\'<Then Gogu Sbyamala spoke very m ovingly and with fie rce INDIAN

inte lligence about the struggles, triwnphs, everyday joys and sorrows of d1e Da]jr peop le of Telangana, there we re few dry eyes in the aurue n ce She spoke of language bein g highl y politicized , and of how she w r ites in ru1 ind igenous, ' authentic' Telegu th at is vastly d ifferent from die Sanskritised Telegu spoken by d1e powers that be Our languages are perforated differently by the different p olitics of die places i11 which they are spoken. So while in Lima, Sa n skrit may be the language of oppress ion and erasure for som e; in Australia, it is a language diat maybe used to resist o ppressio n and erasure, deli berately m a r king diversity a nd clainllng Jegi rimacy wid1ii1 a multicultural socie ty, as the Limaa Austrajjan poet MjcJ1eUe Ca h ill told us through her precise and illuminati n g poetr y.

KynpbruTI

Sing Nongkynr ih from Jl.ilegb alaya, in enlighterung and e n tercruning the audknce with his poem about a 'cantanke rous momer', remjnded us of die power of words and d1e responsibility wid1 whkb mey must be bandied.

Th e politics of die publis lung world md not go Lmremarked.

Kab ita Dbara, founder of Brass

Mo n key Books, an Anstralian

publishlng house chat rum s to publish writi n g from India in Australia, srud she was "l ooki ng for scories ilia c show how sinillar we are rather than how d ifferent we are". Yet sh e and Mita Kapm from Siyahl Literary Agency - a w r it er he r self, spoke of the challenges they faced widi die dearm of lfrerary se nsitivity and professionali sm of some publishers and booksellers in fodia a nd elsewhere Sharan K ltmar Lim bale, die Da]j t wcirer and activist wciting in Marami pointed to an economy of oppression with in publislung He spoke of me challenges faced by Dalit w r iters trying to gee published and prud in an industq d ominated by upper castes. "If anything is revolutionary (in a manuscript), me y just delete it," he said. Uday Prakash , the celebrated H indi wri t er, spo ke of t he majority of writers who are very poorly paid by mru1y roguish Indian publishers.

Storytellers of our culture

As a growing presence in Australia, we in che Indian Australian community want to see ourselves in the mirror of me Australjan sto ry What d oes

it m ea n to be an Australian?

Does b eing Indian A u stralian lit into that story? Wri ters are die storytelle rs o f our culmre, be it Indian, Austra]jru,, or fodia nAustralian. The AILIF panel chaired by Chciscopher Cyrill, comprising emerging Indian Australian write rs such as ivfarusha Amin , Aashish Kaul, Chris Raja, Kuna! Shar m a, and dus wr iter, try co cell die stories of lndian Australians. Ia doing so we are trying to write ourselves into the larger mulriculmral, mul tili n g ual Austra]jan st ory, wri ting back but also writing fo rward , w riting ou rse lves into di is Australian landscape w lille being mindful of course, cha t it always was ru1cl always wiU be, Aboriginal land Finally, Mridula's wo rd s amplify the whispers arQLmd d1e State Libra r y dur ing All.IF, wher e appreciative mul tilingual con ve rsations repeatedly as ked for m ore sucl, encounters, mor e such for l.adims and Austra]jans to meet, ro perforate bo rd ers both linguistic and culnual.

"I would like to see, coming out of AILIF, tran slations of Inman literature into Engjjsh; die Indian community in Australia can make a significant co ntributio n by sponsoring and funmng tbe translation and pu blica tions of such books," she srud. "On che other side, I would like to see t he stereotypes about Auscra]ja being b roke n in India diroug h tran slatio n s o f aborigina l, indjgenous ru1d multicultural Australian literam re into me various Inma n lmguages There bas been a clamour to have tlus forum become an annual event in Aus t ra]ja: chi s is very much possible given d1e d ive rsity of me la nguages and li teramres in both c o untries. Howeve r, t he big a id co make tlus vision happen will be financial support. Th ere is enough good will and momentum at di is moment to make AILIF go places : we sho uld r ide di e wave and make th is happen!"

The re is a world om there, in here, wruting for our scocies. All tlrnt is left is for us co create diem

Literature of anguish

There are many painful parallels to draw between the Dalits and the Aboriginals, both socially displaced peoples who tell their stories through their literature

So ifyo11 see someone like me 117ho'.r dnmk a11d loud and mrsi11g Do11t;i1dge loo hard,y o11 11ever know 117ha! so1To1vs we are 1111rsing. (little bit , lon g time, Ali Cobby Eckerman's collected poems)

For many Hindus, words like 'Shudra', 'Pariah', 'Domba', 'Asprushya' or 'l'anchama' (the list goes on) instantl y bring up unforgiving memories of a bitter chapter in hiscory that is best forgotten or better still, wished away.

Qui re literall)Tmeaning 'outcasre', the words refer to the l owest caste in the ancient Varna system D ictating social position, it speaks of many centuries of injustice, oppression and brutal di scrimination. Since the days of breakaway movements like Buddhism, Jainism a nd more recently t he Brahmo, Arya Samaj a n d Ramakrishna movemems, an honest and sincere attempt has been made ro right the wrongs and ro compensate this much -maligned community. And thankfully, more enlightened me mbers of the 'forward' caste have championed these ema ncipation efforts.

\Xn1ile tl1e Indian Constitution officially calls them 'scheduled castes', the names coined by -Phule and Gandhi - Dal.i t (crushed) or Harijan (God's people) are the prefe rred terms these days. Many a n initiative has also been taken towards 'positive discrimination'.

Accounting for almost a quarter of India's population, a number of Dalits have held influential positions. Since the si,xties, Dalit literamre is a thr iving phenomenon that has recen tly forayed into new ma r kers in India aud elsewhere. From die 'obligarory Dalit' (as Gicish Karnad so powerfully put it) of mainstream movies and li terature, they are now real personae with strong voices and upl ifting stories.

Two of their inAuential writers Sharankumar Llmbale and Gogu Shyamala spoke pass ionately about the impact of literature in changing accimdes, not only of Dalits but other caste members as weU.

Limbale and Shyamala were among tl1e p anellists at the opening session of the Australia

India Literatures Incernational forum (AILIF). Boch the regional write rs are eloquent in their native tongues (Telugu and Marathi respectively), and speak very lit tle English. Yer language was uo barrier for d1ese two human dignity advocates

The session ,vas ap tl y enti tl ed 'Old Traditions, New Cul mres'.

Sharing me podium wi tl1 die duo were Aboriginal writers A lexis Wcight a nd J\li Cobby Eckermann.

The iguominy suffered by 'o r iginal owners of Terra Nullius' in their own homeland is again, a welldocwnented fact.

Be i t Aboriginal or Dalit, tribal or in digenous, the two socially rejected communities spanning cwo entire ly different continencs, have so many parallels. Their

corU1ection co their motherland is a fertile breeding ground for countless tales. W ith deep political engagement, it is a tale of bitterness, isolation and supp ression; but their profound saru1ess makes for gripping readership.

"True, we live in a democracy But can we live easily and spea k freely?" asked Alexis Wrigh t. "Our stories are often kept in our head and heart. le is through literature that we have the freedom of bow co chink".

"Can a Dalir write? Can they be written about?" were Lirnbale's opening remarks to the audience. "Dali t literature," the Maradii writer unashameclly stated, "is the literature of clrainage water. Tt is not rh e literature of imagination

bm of brutality against Dalits. How can it be nice? Yet I had to write it. How could l neglect the call of my people? I did not kno,v the structure of literature but l wauted to share the pain of my people. Words just flowed out".

Sadly, his introduction into literary circles bas been a painful one, creating soc ial tension as well as deep personal rifts. His own community, including his family, rejected L imbale for l aying bare the uaked truth of Dalit life in all its ugly reality.

The soft-spoken autlior's autobiography A kkarmashi (U11to11chable) erupted like a volcano two decades ago.

"How could I nor write? It is my bird1.- right co express my protest tl1rough my wri tings. l e is my attempt to cleanse die stain on our country," Limbal e co ld Tndiat1 Link. "Our peop le's struggle is my paper, our movement is my ink, the peop le are my books and my protest is my parliamenr".

His ,,vritings verbalise tl1e deep pain, tl1e suppressed anger and wounded pride of the entire community of marginalized people.

It is tl1is very anguish tliat is conveyed in the works of Gogu Shyaniala, an advocate, women's activist and champion of the Telengana movement in remote rural Ancll1ra Pradesh. Shyamala who is deepl y indebted ro ber first publisher Navayana, spoke of me matrilineal matriarchic famil y system of her communi ty Her storytelling also belongs to the protest tradition. She spoke proudly of her mother goddess Pod1amma Katha a nd E!Jama

Katha, the embodiment of fertility and bi odiversity, and the freedom struggle for independent Te lengana.

"\X1e are avachas and admshas, made by Hindus but not Hindus," she said.

Het powerful writing has been translated into many regional clialects, besides English. Myfi,ther may be an elephcmt, my mother on!J a small bcuket, Merit interrupter/, Infected JV01mds ore but the tip of the iceberg. An outspoken activist of Dalit cigh ts and women's upliftment, Shyamala has also written prolificall y on the issues she is passionate abou t. Her simple Telugu quotations moved the audience to tears.

Akin to India's untouchab les, d1e scory of tl1e 'srolen generations' is yet another shameful chapter in human history. le is the heart-rending tale of half- castes and non- entities, of isolation and social rejection. The deep angst and anguish of tl1ese 'half-breeds', form tl1e bas is of J\li

Cobby Eckermau's

poetry

Australian politicians have since made botched attempts at rewriting hiscor y, but have tl1ey been ab le co heal the deep wounds? More importantly, h ave the half-hearted policies effected real social cha nge in these sidelined corunmnities?

Tri do1Jce ivitb 1110b 011 this red Land. m1111di:1 J1Jim place

I'll da1Jce awqy the111 halfcaste lies 'co.r I got my Na1Ja's face!

The well read and widely travelled Eckerman hopes to be die change agent her community needs to rally back to dignity and social acceptance.

Nothing like a father's love for his daughter

Drawing parallels from history and eternal love, a daring new movie explores the father-daughter relationship

Wi~:;:;:,

feamre film

Ttfi premiered in Adelaide as part of the OzJ\s ia Fescival 2012. Winston i s a deepthinking wr iter who, in this film, has tried to put across some of bis thoug hts through the relationships and circumstances of his characters. The Sri .Lankai1 born director's visit to the Taj Mahal in India inspired him to depict the notion of the abiding love of Shah J ehan a nd Mumtaz Mahal, w ith the modern setting of Me lbourne as a backdrop to the story. Tty is about estranged father Vjay, starring new find t\lfahesh Jadu , who realises almost roo !ate his love for his 12-year-old daughter Priyanthi.

For m e the sta.r of the film is Pri yanthi, played by the delightfully named Coco-Jacinta Cherian who is Lmdoubtedly destined for greater things, having already secured a ro le in J'\Teighbozm After neglecting his daugh ter for a couple of rear s, Vjay, who has been attemptin g to write a b ook while taking dr ugs and gambling, exercises his vis iting righ ts which leads to the father and daughter drawing closer and evenmally sharing the task of building a model of t he Taj Maha l with Lego bricks, w hich is quite an original couch

The director aL~o introduces a couple of Vjay's friends - the first, a restaurateur and t he other,

W r it er- directo r Win ston Furlo ng, a nd a sce ne from his film Taj

a vi sitor from Fiji. Both point out and contrast how o ne sho u ld live one's life against how Vjay is living h is This juxtaposi ci on succeeds in highlighting Vjay's pointless pam and li.festyle. The writer tries to show how one needs co be amhenric and true to onese l f, doing the best one can and n o t to try to be someone e lse. B r tl1e end of me film we see Vjay waicing at tables and thinking about going back to teach ing English as he used to do, as a path towards redemption. I r's a story about seeing the light and coming back o nro me righr path

While Coco-Jacinta was faul tless in her portrayal in every scene as the daughter of an estranged couple who loves botl1 her parents and also her mother's new love, Mahesh Jadu's somewhat brooding performance lacks a little subtlety, but is easily compensared for by

his s hockingly good looks The supporting cast provide varied perfo rmances witl1 tl1e character Arlene as Pri yamhi's mother, p layed by Natalie O 'D onnell, and Vjay's estranged wife putting in a convincing performai1ee in her attempt to gee on with her life while protecting her daughter.

The fil m includes some events and scenes which could possibly have been handled d i fferentlj', and as Furlong himself said, tl1e suggestion that Vjay may have a form of cancer being included in the storyline perhaps did not quite come off. It's easy to see how difficult it must be to cry to strengtl1en a storyline by me in cl usion of material tl1at does not have a direct be aring on tl1e plot.

The fil m bas already been on the inrernacional festival circuit h aving been shown in Busan in South Korea, and B osto n and Tiburon,

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born in me USA. Ir is due for a limited release in Australia later this year and 1 can see it making audiences sit up and think.

The sc reening of me film was followed b y a Q&A s ession with Furlong, and mere i s nothing like meeting w ith the w riter/director to g ive added life to a film.

Furlong immediately ap o logised for the inexplicab le loss of synchronisation of the sound to the film, and tl1en proceeded to g ive a b it of background and take questions

It \Vas interesting to n ote mat be has given up a career in engineering, but one can see his pass ion and the sh eer p leasure he gets fro m hi s present career of writing and film- making. Furlong had toyed with me id ea o f writing the great epic novel, but thoug ht better o f it. His e loquence and ease of communicacing were quite

disarming and drew the audience closer to hi.n1. Furlong readily admitted that in the making of T"j he learned something about fil m -making but also learned a lot about hin1self. Furlong admitted that perhaps he s hould have spent a little more time o n the script which was a little wanting occasionally. And )'Ct, it's a moving , sensitive film tl1at leaves you wishing for a happy futme for Vjar- I n mis self-funded fu lllength movie, we have a man in Winsto n Furlong who took a risk, achieved a goal and is n ow setting about otl1er projects. Incidentally, a new screenplay of his entitled Serena and H er Sisten was a finalist i.n the New York Screenplay competicion 2012, in tl1e Comedy sectio n. Tty. is not a Bollywood dhol"k film but o ne mat has some trutl1 co li fe an d is well worth viewing.

Diamond Queen dazzles again

With the help of a live orchestra and modern technology, the woman with whips, quips and swinging hips comes to life

,:BY - ~ LP AYER

ithindia

Wdesignated as the central theme, the Adelaide

OzAsia 201 2 festival began with an event that brought forth two major elements of art - music and cinema - from both India and Australia, in a creative presentation. lr was the screening of a 1930s b lack and white Indian movie ti tled DiamondQ11ec11, with a modern and unconventional Australian orchestra providing a continuous nmsic score as the movie rolJed along Billed as the world premi ere, this event was a novel and enjoyable form of entertainment lasting two hours. The organisers couldn't have chosen a better programme than this screening co herald the fortnight- long festival.

The Ozi\s ia Festival is in its sixth year ru.noi.ng, and tl,e orga nisers make each event distinctive by highlighting the cultural aspects of one of the neighbouring Asian countries, at the same time presenting some top performer s from other South and Somh-East Asian countries.

After watching the SBS show Bol(ywood Star a few months ago won by Teigan Lloyd- Evans, most current generation Oz- Indians may think tl1at this is the first time an Aussie girl has made it to BoUywood. They will be pleasantly smprised, per haps even shocked, to know that the most prominent foreign lass to star in Hindi movies was a Perth girl named Mary Ann Evans, aka Fearless Nadia. She ar ri ved there 80 years before Teigan, who has only gor a look-in tl1anks to J\nuparn Sharma. Nadia however, had a long, lo n g run acring in ti fry films in the 1930s and '40s, with bee latest in 1967 when the actress was in her late 50s.

The acrobatics of Aishwarya in Dboot112 and Katrina KaiJ in Ek Tba Tiger are a Sunday picnic compared to Nadia's bag of tricks way back then. She became popular as tl1e 'Sul cana of stunts' and 'Hunterwali ', after her most popular and d arin g film. However the blonde, blue eyed beauty did not just stop w ith bearing up baddi es, but delivered valuable messages on female equality, INDIAN

education and empowerment. At one point in the film Di11111011d Queen she says, "If you want freedom, you need to educate women." This was at the height o f British suppression of the Indian freedom movement. And it is a credit to the patriotic spii:it of the Wadia Brothers, producers of the film, who a llowed such lines co be included. Some bistorians of the Indian filmdom believe that the 'angry young man' persona of Amitabh Bacbchan might have had its roots in Nadia's role, combining snmts with social tl1emes.

The show "Fearless Nadia: The woman with tl,e whip' comprised of screening important sections of her fi lm Di,1111011dQ11eev on a large screen with the Orkestta of the Underground seated in front in tl1e form of an arc.

The orchestra's multicultural mix included traditional lndian in struments like tl,e tabla, sbmai srtra11gi and harmonium along with L1sual western instruments like the trurnpet, drum s, violin, sa.xophone, clarinet, among others. I had some trepidation about how an old lndian mov ie could gel with an unconventional Australian orchestra, to perform as the opening show of a major festival. But soon the trep idation turned into admiration that kept growing with eac h succeeding scene. And it was thanks to the origina.lir:y and creativity of Ben Walsh, the well - known composer and director

The show began with the screening of an interview (given years before her death in 1996, at

tl1e age of 88) by au elderly and yet beautiful Nad ia, rem iniscing her movie days. Then, bang!

Scenes from the Dia111011dQueen wi tl1 English sub - titles appeared on the screen wi th tl1e orchestra pla)ring in perfect harmony with those im ages, he lping tl1e audience folJow the sror y to d1e sounds of the live o rc hestra. As me movie was not shown in its fuU length, tl1e missing parts of d1e story were disp layed in a coup le of lin es, so no one missed the p lot. This kept the tempo and conrinuity go ing. A clever ploy indeed!

Unlike today's heroines, r adia delivered her dialogues and sang in good Hindi Single- handedly s he biffed a dozen dad11s at any time, a must act for today's heroes in eve r r South lndian movie. Bue unlike d10se heroes, Nadia's snmts

were not brief srints but lasted th e entire length of the film punctuated w ith some slapstick of tl1at era, bringing peals of laughter from the audience very many times.

T he stunts too, were not limited to Nadia on the screen One of the orchestra 's members, violinist Shenzo Gregorio, was hoisted up in a triangular trapeze frame and held in midair as he continued ro p lay his violin rolJing in vertical rotation and also hanging ups ide down. Awesome! Earlier in the show, Ben \Valsb and his dnunmer indulged in some kind of jugafbm1di tapping their shoulders and thighs in perfect unison with the two lrtbla players, one of whom is welJ- known Aneesh Pradhan. Applause galore, welJ-deserved!

As the film ended on a happy note, true to Indian tradition, each member of the orchestra was beam ed onto the big screen playing solo on tl1eir pa rticular instrument. An ingenious u se of the iPad. It was lirting, since the entire show was a blend of today's technology with a n entertainment medium of the last century Adelaide had the privilege of the world premiere and Mumbai.kars will have the opportunity to savom d1is show when it travels tl1ere in November. The older generation can reminisce, the younger ones will reali se that a1J t he tricks and techniques of today's movies are aU old hat, and the Parsees wiU love to see what their sons, the Wadias, along with l ad ia have achieved for the Indian arc world.

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ONGC-UNSW partnership to tap unconventional oil resources

Joint collaboration seeks solution to depleting oil reserves tapping other unconventional resources

BY USHA \ RAMANUJAM ARVIND

'

The UNSW School of Petroleum Engineering (SCOPE) has forged a crucial researd1 agreement w ith the Indian government run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd. (ONGC) to evaluate the production potential of an "unconventional o il resource".

The partnershi p will explore the " fea sibili c:y of recovering hydrocarbo n fuel from bardco- access offshore geological structures known as basement reservoirs".

ONGC has been particular ly interested in its Heera Fracmred Basin at M umbai Offshore located on the western continental shelf of India.

Working closely with its coU.L1terparts in US, UK, Germany, France and Japan, SCOPE is a recognised leader in the area of geothermal e nergy technology.

The latest memorandtm1 of understanding, valued at $2.05 million over the next two-anda- half years, i s the fourth major project between UNSW and ONGC. It builds further in to the existing five-year partnership, entered first in 2002 and which has since been extended twice "This i s an important partnership fo r UNS\Xl that has g rown with time," stated Professor Val Pinczewski, Head of SCOPE.

"ONGC certainly have a need for the sort of high l evel technological developments we have b een making, and we t h ink they are an excellent partner to work ,v ith," he noted. "At UNSW we have ongo ing programs in geotherm al energy Jed by Professor Sheik R ahman, which basically look at d1aracrerising

fracture systems in rock structures and forming strategies to develop these fractu red reservoirs. We also have progran1s in fracturing hard rocks co enhance productio n. Together, these researc h efforts will provide the framewot:k for d1is project".

" T he actual technology you n eed co develop these reservoirs is not m uch different from di e technology used co develop shale gas," he ford1er explained. " This is already ver y big in the US, and has d ie potential co become very b ig in A u stralia. So fo r us there are some really good synergies betwee n what we can do here in d1e local context and what we're doing internationally witb partners like O t GC."

According to Professor Pinczewski, UNSW's experie n ced engineers and geo -scientists

will be deve loping a range of mathematical models m predict fracture characteristics of d1is particular basement rock type, simul ace fluid flow through its interconnected fracntre syscem and estimate the hydrocarbon potential.

Lacer on , they will be conducting experiments w ith rock samp les provided b y ONGC and applying their models in the field to test how much o il is recoverable.

"For t he last IO years we bave been cooperating on differ ent areas of hydrocarbon reservoir d evelopmem During this period two projects have been completed, one is in progress and the fourth - die fractured basemenc study is about to st art", Professor Rahman told J11dit111 Link.

"SCOPE has developed specific

tools and methodo logy for characterisation and development of fractured basement a nd th.is partnership g ives us an opportunic:y to appl)' di e knowhow char we have deve loped for exp loitation of geothermal resources i n A u stralia," he added

Professor Rahman has made a pioneering contribution i11 the development o f Australian geother mal resources, particularly drilling mediod s and equipment for higWy stressed and abras ive e nvironments. He has advanced the teclmo logy of hydraulic frac tming to stimulate and develop naturally fracmred reservoirs. This technology has alread y been successfully applied in New Somh Wales, Queensland, Sou th Australia and Victoria.

Additionally, the work will feed into the Australian Energy

Research Institute, a sustainable energy d1ink - cank based at UNSW which conneccing engineers, scientists, economists and policy experts, both Pinczewski and Rahman beli eve.

Natutally fow1d in Earth's sub- surface, hydrocarbons are currendy the primary source of energy supply. The extraction of liquid hydrocarbon fuel (otherwise known as petroleum) from sedim entary basin s is integral to modern en ergy development.

It has been estimated diat a large proportion of the world 's proven oil reserves are found in naturally fracmred reservoir rocks.

A subset o f naturall)' fracmred reservoirs, basement reservoirs has been exploited for a while now. Since tbe la ce nineties however, there has been marked increa se in interest largel y due to in Aated o il prices that have forced researchers to delve deeper into alternative methods that were previou sly deemed uneconomical. As well technology for accessing remote oil sources has improved, particularly drilling m ethods, sophisticated down - ho le tools and seismic techniques.

The MoO will benefit ONGC significantly as well.. With its ever- increasing population, India is fadug acme energy shortages. Tapping into existing but hitherto Lmidenti6ed and und er-utilised resources like basement reservo irs could be a welcome addition. Since oil discovery in 1974, ONGC has made substantial investments for additional development works at d1e western she lf. The basin is d1e largest in India and includes Mumbai High, Bassein and Heera and Neelam produ cing fields.

\Xlith ONGC recendy striking new reserves off Mwnbai coast, perhaps d1e biggest ever so far, SCOPE i s alread y looking to closely collaborat e on tbe new development as well.

Consul Ge neral oflndia A run Kumar Goel, Vice - Chance llor Prof Fred Hilmer, Mr Rakesh Sharma from ONGC, and Deputy Vice - Chancellor (Research ) Prof Les Field

Empowering rural women in remote Rajasthan

/-India Australia's support for the 1Gudri Project' taps into a much-loved art form to eradicate poverty

IBY USHA \_ RAMANUJAM ' ARVIND

When Abha and Prabhakar Goswami were commissioned b y

UNICEF co do a study on stteet children in remote Rajasthan, chey were moved by what they saw - abject poverty, destitution, vulnerability, unsafe work practices and severe malnutrition. Coming from severely disadvantaged backgrounds themselves, the duo set up the I - India Project co give rescued street kids a fresh start.

Since its humble beginnings, the project has found additional benefaccors arom1d the world who have facilitated many new programmes to make d1ese children not just well- nurtured, but sel f- sufficient as well

The Jhag children's home, Annapurna canteen, structured curriculum based learning ac Prem Padrnshala, Ladli g irl's home, rudimencary healthcare facilities and Franklyn Scholar vocational training centre have been some of cbe positive outcomes along mis arduous, but fulfilling journey.

Mose of chese facilities were made available through the unstinting efforcs of I -India's Australian offshoot, which since 2007 has time and time again rallied their resources to sustain d1e expanding project.

I - India Project Australia (I -IAP) has teamed up with Singaporebased Street Children's Project m raise fonds and brainstorm for fresh new directions.

1-India Australia founders Celia and Renate Barnerr are now lending their support to another exciting venrure - the Gudri project

Sec up in 2010, the project is the brainchild of Abba and Prabhakar's daughter- in -law Darshana Goswami, and aims co empower .local women by providing chem a steady and sustainable means of selfemp loyment. The project provides illiterate women from the poorest slums both traiuing and resources co hand-stitch guiles, Aoor covers and homewares. 'Gudri' is an ancient Rajaschani tradition, where block -printed cotton fabrics are layered and sewn in straight lines co form an appligue work. The Street Child P roject is working closely with the Indian team to des ign products chat appeal to the western marketplace. The products made from this venture have been sold all round the world. Besides roo ls and supplies, women participating in the programme are provided rations,

INDIAN LINK

solar lights and b lankets, as well as a share of the profits. By reaching out to women, tl1e Gudri project aims to improve these women's quality of life which extends to tl1eir families as wel.l, thus eradicating tl1e root causes of poverty in d1eir respective communities. The Gudri ,vomen have since formed cooperatives, taking ownership of the project and have worked tireless ly on their beautiful craft. " Darshna Goswami is working tirelessly to extend the project as far as possibl e co benefit as many women as possible on a limited budget. We were able co see the work for ourselves for the first time in November lase yea r," Renate told Tnditm l.i11k.

"After driving soud1 from Jaipur, we .left the highway and trundled across the desert, d1rougb a few villages and then ouc into the

middle of nowhere. AU you can see as far as the horizon is sand, and small shrubs. EvenmaJJy we pulled off d1e road into a small area of land, where a number of shacks had been set up out of corrugated iron," she explained.

"As we pulled up we could see women gathered in the rough shade of the lean -to shelters They were a1J hard at work, quickly sewing long lines into gatl1ered laye rs of fabric. They smiled at us as we arrived, and then went back to their work, quickl y tugging tl1e du:ead tlu:ough tl1e fabric," she added.

"What we were seeing was cbe first oppormnity these women had had co gain employment, and to help to support their families For the first time in their lives, tl1ey had been given a vocation and a mean s of he lping tl1emselves

o m of poverty Tbe project not only empowers women, and assists families financially, but also changes attitudes of entire villages in relation co d1e rights and roles of women," she stated.

The Gudri Project was one of nine finalises in UNIFEM's 'P rojectlnspire 2012'. The winuing project wiJJ receive a gram of US$25,000

A digital and social media-driven initiative targeted at empowering marginalised women and disadvantaged d1ildren in the Asia Pacific, Middle Ease and Africa region through entrepreneurship, Project Inspire is in its second year. Founded on the ti.mdamental belief that empowering women fuels tl1rivi ng economies spurring prodL1cti vicy and growtl1, the project hopes co give the right support tlu:ough access co funding

and skills development.

The scheme was launched for centenary celebrations of International \'>Yomen's Day in conjunction with :Master Card.

Targeting youngsters in d1e 1835 age brackets, the project also hopes to inspire young changemakers co create a better world of oppornmities. Gudri Project ream members included Darshana Goswami, Pippa Reid and Edwina Ong.

Call for pitd1es, which included 5 -minme videos, written proposals and live presentation opened on March 8. Gudri Project was shorilisced from over 350 other proposals worldwide.

Two other lndia -based projects - E -learn.ing for change and Women's private personal marketplace, also made the final CUL

A young Indian-Australian makes her singing debut with one of Bollywood's best music directors

emotion into me song to make it soul ful," acids Pr iyanka.

BY KOMALUTSAV JAGAO

Iodian- Australian singe r Priyanka Bhanushali has been Aying high in Boll ywood recently, bur s he still wants to Ay! Confused? This yo ung lad y with a m e lo d ious voice will be releasi ng he r debut album in November 2012 , but sh e still aspires co caking fl ying lesso n s an d becoming a pilot.

However for now, the 19-yearo ld is already making a mark in Bo llywood w ith her singi ng abilicies, having worked on he r debut album with Aad esh Shrivascav, tl1e renowned and critically a cclaim ed m usic director a nd composer.

"

I am doing the album w ith Aadeshji; it h as eight tracks and will be co mpleted hy the e nd of mis year,'' says an excited Priyanka. ''I have already recorded four solo songs fo r it and will be doing a duet so ng each with Aad eshji a nd Shaan as well. T h e album is mix genre and includes ragabased cla ssical Punjabi folk tracks, and a coup le of dub and dance numbers, among others," she adds

So how did Priyan ka get her fu-st break \\~th Aadeshji? "It h appened q uite sudde nly during my visit co India. One of my uncles in Mumbai helped ge t his contact details and I sent him snipp ets o f my pre- reco rded so ngs When he heard me songs, Aades hji irrunecliately wanted ro rneet me a nd analyse m y voice," recalls Ptiyanka. ''In amchi Mumbai style h e said, 'Ye ladkiJahd dalegi.'' ('She is going co crac k it!') Surp ri singly, o n very fi r s t clay we reco rded a Hindi club track verse, which was very unusual fo r m e, as I had never sung a Hindi song previously," she added

How did Ptiyanka cope with a language uufamiliar to her? " I believe music is me langu age of the world. lt's about music, no t me language. It was nm very di ffic ul t as 1 was lucky ro have p eople a round me who support m e to make tlJings easier. I nailed the verse in one hour whi d 1 le ft Aad eshj i so impressed tlrnt he wanted to sign me for his own 1-ib el ," s he says

"The team was very we lco m ing and now the sn1dio feels more l ike a second h o m e to me.

Th ey e.'<plai n every so ng a nd its m eaning, which helps me add

Of aU the tra d <s, Priyanka admits that she loves Ratlf{/ Mil'!)'" the most. It was a ch allenging number and had a Punjabi classical touch ro ir," she says. Priyanka spent two weeks in Mrn11bai recording for t he album, and she is due co remrn there soo n, to put finishing couches to the songs

Priyan ka is no stranger to music, as sh e is currently srud)~ ng for her Bachelor degree in Music and Sound Engineeri ng from tl1e Australian Institme of Mus ic. Her parents recognised their daughter's talent at a young age and clad

A n and Bhanushali proudly cla ims that her ht:sc guirnr was specially customised to suit her six -yearold hands, as s he is left handed.

Priyanka began by learning the gui tar and keyboards, and she has come a long way si nce then. The young lady began singing only at 14, and it is tescimony to her talent that in just five years she is already recording a n albrnn "~th Shaan and Srivastava.

Priyanka spends a whopping mree co five hours praccicing singing eve ry clay, and records songs in her srudio at home. She studied music since high school and cl eared auclitions for several Universities, finall y ch oos ing t he Au.vi. This young la d y takes keen interest in ,vriring lyrics as well as composing so ngs. P r iyanka is like a comp lete package - me tight attitude, confidence, gr eat looks and of course, great singing.

Priyanka's family moved to Australia in 2004, and her p aren ts have been ever supp o r ci,,e of her talent and career choice. "My parents have always encouraged me co follow m y dream and live m y passion ," she says "Pri yanka makes o m clay brighter," says proud dad A n and. "Her pure soul is reflected i n her heart-warmi ng voice, s he is our hope and bles si ng from the Alm ighty "

Naturally, a few establish ed artistes have in Auencecl ber singing, like Suniclhi Chauhan, Beyonce, Riharu1a, Delta Goodrem and Adele. She also likes western commercial music like R&B, hiphop and ballads, and has sung with variou s g igs here in Australia.

So what's next in rhe pipeline for mis talented yo Lmg si n ger? "\'Q°ell, plans are on to reco rd an album of western music in my studio, which wil.l have eight so ngs an d b asic m elodies. The project starred recently, and will be a link between Australia and India, raking tl1e connection one step closer," says

Priyanka

With Bollyw ood music producer Aadesh Shrivastav, and the photo he tweeted of her Ptiyaoka who candicll y admits tint if h er singing career h adn't taken off, she would have made a foray into me modelling world.

" I love the entertainment industry and h ave always followed fashion shows an d compericions like M iss Unive rse and Nliss World. lf ir wasn't for my singing su ccess, I

would have rnosen to be a model"

Priyan ka's singing career seems to be al.ready in mid -flight, and we wi sh her luc k. But with all mese exci tin g p lans in the pipeline, will she have cime to indulge in h er

h obby of taking Aying lessons and pil o ting an aircra ft? You bet! And

g uess what? She'll do it!

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Despite controversy, Commonwea lth Games brought benefits to India

The Commonwealth Games organised in New Delhi exactly cwo years ago may have been scarred by controvers y and charges o f corruption that are yet to be proved, but India's besc ever perfor m ance at the O lympics in the London Games displays the progress the country ha s made in sports in the last !WO years

The government in its bid to continue tl1e momentum gain ed from the Oct 3- 14, 2010 Commonwealth Gan1es, ope ned up irn purse- strings under its Opex London 2012 programme. A willing government earmarked a record Rs.260 crore ($53 million) for training and competition a head of the O lympics and tl1e result was for all to see

Thoug h dogged by controversy and adverse media scrnr:iny even before it began, largely because of project overruns and delay in completion of ma jor infrastructure, the Games on the whole were an organisational and sporting success from the lndian point of view.

If a whopping 101 medals in the Commonwealth Games were considered b ig , SL'( medals at tl1e Lond o n Olympics was see n as a big advancement over previous editions.

Shooter Vijay Kumar and w restler Sushil Kumar won silver medals while boxer M.C. :Mary Kom, s hurtler Saina Nehwal, s hooter Gagan Narang and wrestler Yogeshwar Duct bagged bronze medals in London.

\~Thile tl1e Commonwealth Gan1es mig ht have been in tl1e ne\.VS for financial irregularities, it made India a hotspot for tlie top sp orting events in the country.

Though India is far from being a s porting nation, the facilities tliat came u p in tl1e national capital for tlie Commonwealth Games have been a boon for athletes

Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Major Dh yan

Chand National Stadium, Kami Singh Shooting Range, S.P. Mukherjee Swimming Complex, Talkatora Indoor Stadium, Indira Gandhi lndoor Stadium a nd tl1e Yamuma Sports Complex are amo ng the best in the subcontinent.

Post the Comm onwealtli Games, while

Nehru Stadium hosred the mighty Bayern Munich football team, SAFF Championship and the Nehru Cup, the National Stadium hosted the hockey Olympic qualifiers tliat sa\v India booking its tickets for London after having missed an O lympics (Beij ing-2008) tl1e first ti m e in 80 years.

The Sports Autl1oriry of lndia (SAI), tlie New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) and tlie owners o f most of the stadiun1s also decide d co open the gate.~ to tl1e comi:n o n man under the "Come and Play" scheme of tlie sports ministry. The scheme was well appreciated an d ensured tliat tlie stadiums don't turn into w hi te elepha nts.

The financial irregularities in tl1e preparations for the Common wealth Garnes were also a big .lesson for tl1e government in more ways tlian one It prompted the sp orts ministry to co me up with ;i National Sports Development Code to ger rid of corruption in Indian spor ts.

The l ational Sports Federations may have been up in arms against th e sports ministry over me code bur mey all thank Sports l\{i nister Ajay Maken in private fo r being so gene rous to all sports bodies by way of providing funds fo r training.

Sh ooters were the m ost favoured lot after India's fi rst Olympic gold by Abhinav Bindra at Beijing and Ra jyavardhan Rathore's si lver four yea.rs earli er at Atliens

And tl1e b iggesr beneficiary was ace do u ble trap shoo ter and Asian Gan1es gold medallist Ronjan Sodhi, who received the lio n's s hare of R s 97.37 lakh of the Rs.6.87 crore financial assistance.

Sod hi says sporrspersons have be nefited immen sely b y the govern ment funding after tl1e Com m onwealth Games.

•~'\t tl1e Comm onwealth Games, the Indians proved their mettle and promised to do much more at other major international events. The government too was conv inced and thus increased its funding fo r London.

\'{/e are iliankful to the spo rts ministry for helping us to prepare for tl1e Games," said Sodhi

Atli letics Federation o f India (AF]) technical director M.L. Dogra said goveromem funding has helped tlie

federation to se nd athletes for exposure trips abroad

"Around Rs 15.94 crore was been allornted for athletics and the atlile tes trained abroad for lo nger durations to prepare for ilie O lympics. Commonwealm Games discus gold medallist Krishna Paonia training in tl1e US was fully funded by tl1e m inistry. US- based discus thrower Vi kas G owda als o performed well in the recently held \l(/o cld Cham pionships in So uth Korea," said Dogra.

Paonia (Rs 24.20 lakb) and national record holder Gowda (Rs.24.51 lakh) beneficed from the government's Operation Excellence 2012. Their performance at the London Garnes was impressive though tliey failed to make a podium finish. Poonia was seventh while Gowda made a creditab le eighth finish in the Games.

Two years is a small ti.me to determine the benefits of the hosting the Commonwealth Games. But Indian athletes are still reaping its benefits

India pauses in its busy tracks to remember Gandhi

It was rime again on October 2 to remember thar greatest icon of peace. On Mahatma Gandhi's 143rd birth annive rsary, millions enjoyed a holiday but iliousands also flod<ed to places dedicated to his memory to pay tribute to tl1e man who spearheaded India's bloodless struggle for freedom from British rule and left a legacy of amity and 'ahimsa' as eternal as ti m e.

As the nation's leadership gathered at his memorial Raj Ghat for the annual remembrance, ceremonies were held across the country co mark tl1e day, o b served as Gandhi Jayanri.

The symbolism of tl1e day, also marked as the foternarional Day of Non- Violence, was lost o n nobod y with many, from filmmake rs to politicians, starring new ventures and making new promises.

Activist Arvind Kejriwal chose the da y to lau n c h his po li tical p arty in the national capital. W itl1 a p ic ture of Gand hi in the backdrop, Kejriwal, wearing a Gandhi cap witl1 tl1e slogan ·'.A1ein hoo11 t111111 adt11i, 11111/he chab!J'e ]011/okpat' (I am common man, I want

Jan Lokpal) printed on it, kicked off bis party by vowing to light against corru ptio n.

In Mumbai, where 120 inmates of Arthur Road prison took an o ath to create an India of their dreams, the first look of tlie film Freedom was unveiled by director Vivek Agnihocri

There were p le n ty of ceremonial functio n s.

The centrepiece of the formal observance was R a j Ghat, where Gandhi was cremated after bei ng felled by an assass in 's bullet on Jan 30, 1948. His last words " Hey Ram", forgiving eve.n in deatl1, are inscribed on a black stone s lab.

President Pranab Mukherjee, Vice President Hamid A n sad, Prime Minister Manmoh an Singh, Congress presidem Sonia Gandh i and senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L.K. Advani were among tl1ose who garnered to rememb er t he father of tl1e nation.

Ma hatma Gandhi's favo uri te 'bha jans' li ke. Raghupati fuigbav R,y,1 &111 and Vaishmiv Jana To were played and an all -religion prayer conducred in m ernory of the father of the nation,

It was also tlie 108th birch anniversary o f former ptin1e minister Lal Bahadur S hastri. And the leader s hjp paid fl oral cribures to both in the Central Hall of p arliamenr The prime minister, Congress pres ident, Lo k Sabha speaker Meira Kumar and a host of 1vfPs and ministers were in attendan ce.

Away from the formal rituals, observed year after year, ther e were a lso those who tried to get a grip on me man, who went from being Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi to simply tl1e Maliatma, or tl1e great soul - tieified in ever y corner of l ndia but with his ideology o f Gand11is m to a Luge extent con fined w itliin pages of textbooks.

At Raj Ghat, for instance, tl1ey gathered to un derstand me m ystique. of the man, descrjbed as a half naked fakir by former British prime minister W ins ton Ch urchill

From young professionals ro college students, from families to foreign tourists, they walked around tl1e complex trying to soak it all in.

" \~'e need a nationwide revolutio n against corruption - a re\7 o lu tion based on Gandhian principles," said Krishan K umar, a 44-yearo ld shop owner from Dar yagan j in Old D elhi.

Agreed D ave Lyneta, a 38-year-o ld Canadian

''I've read Gandhi's biography twice. If only more people around tlie world followed his principles, there wo uld be no 9/1 l or

A craftsman works on the world's costliest miniature model of the Taj Mahal at a Star Gems diamond jewellery workshop in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India, 27 September 2012. The hand- crafted miniature, with a value of Rs 100 crores (Rs1 billion or approx. 14,654,635 Euros ), is made of400 kg of silver, ten kg of gold, 300 kg of brass and copper and is embedded with diamonds worth Rs six crores. ft weighs 700 kg.

lraq or J\fghaaisran wars," he said.

For Khizar Hayat, 22, stu dying at me Jarnia Nliilia Is larnia in New Delhi, an introduction ro Gandhi through his Class 9 tei.,,..tbook was the begin ning of his journey toward s knowledge.

"My devotion cowa rd s him gtew over me years I'm trying co imbibe his teachings in me way l live n1y life or treat othe rs I used to be violent till a couple of years ago. Bue I have learnt to contro l m y emotions an d more importantly, channelise m y aggr ession in a posi tive way," said Hayat Gandhi was bo rn on Octob er 2 in Porbandar in Gujarat in 1869. AU of 143 years later, some lesso ns are still ones that n eed co be learnt

Indian - Americans strongest supporters of Obama: Survey

Indian-Americans are by far the stronges t supporters of U S President Barack Obama, giving him a n edge of 68 percent to five percem over his Republican challenger Mitt Romney, acco rding ro a new survey.

Thus, while two Indian -American Republican Governo rs, Bobby Jinda l of Louisiana and Nikki Haley of South Carolina, are among me strongest critics of Ohama, tl1ey seem to be in a relatively small minority of the community who support Romney, says tl1e s urvey

As ian Americans give significantly higher job approval racings to Obama than the national average (59 percent vs. 50 percent, respec tively), and t hey have a considerably less favourable impression of R omney than the national average (30 percent vs. 45 percent, respectively), acco rding ro me National Asian American Survey (NAAS).

Approval of the pr esident's job is particularly high among I ndian Americans (82 percent), and is conspicuously low among Filipinos (45 percent) and Samoans (41 percent), says the su rvey of Asia n and Asian Pacific Islanders (AJ\.Pls).

Obama 's relarivel y high approval raring an1ong AA Pi s is also matc hed by higher favourability ratings man the national average, it says, noting while 5 1 percent of di e national population has a favourable impression of Oba.ma, 59 percent of Asian Americans do so.

The favourability raring is particularly high anwng Indian Americans (88 percent) and Korean American s (76 percent) , an d is particularly low am ong Vietnamese Americans (20 p e rcent) and Filipino Americans (46 percent)

O ne in six As ian Americans (17 percem) lives in a battleground stare wi th Indian Americans and Korean Americans constituting a larger share of tbe battleground sta tes than tlie.ir national averages, the survey notes.

As ian Ame ricans also have a m o re favo urable impression of Democrats in Congress than the national average (43 percent vs. 34 percent, respectively), it notes

The survey, based on a national poU co nducted July 31-Sep 19 through telephone of 3,034 people, includ ed 386 IndianAmericans.

Ir was me coUaborative effort of Karchick Ramakrishnan at Univers ity of California.Riversid e and Taeku Lee at Univers ity of California -Berkeley

India presses for UNSC expansion to meet global challenges

India sought a reform of instimcion s of

Competitors at a traditional boat festival race along the Ganga river at Sahidpalli, 65 km from Kolkata, 19 Sept ember 2012. Competitors from different parts of Bengal participated in the festival with their country and snake boats. The 15- metre-long boats can carry ten to 25 people.

global governance including an expa nsion

o f the UN's top decis io n- making Securjry COLmcil to reflect contempo rary realities for converting today's challenges into oppor tunities.

The ,vo rld today was "faced wim multiple global chaUenges chat transcend national boundaries," Indian External Affairs :Minister S.i\lL Krishna said in his address to the U general assembl y o utlining tbe problems ranging from tepid recovery from the downturn in d1e global econ omy to the scourge of terrorism.

' 'Developing countries are still co recover from t he downttm1 in the global econ o my. Their quest fo r po,,ercy eradication and sustainable develop m ent remains an uphill task," be said

"The West Asi a and Nortl1 Africa region is seeing unprecedented socio - po li tical upheaval The question of Palestine remains unresolved ," Krjshna said.

"And , threats emanating fro m terrorism, maritime pirac)~ drug trafficking and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction con tinue to multiply."

''These challenges demand drnt we act to work for solutions in a concerted and coordinated manner. This i s the only path to success," he said, s uggesting a reform of me architecture of g lobal governance to reflect contemporary realities.

" The mos t important and decisive step cowards remedying dus situation pertains to the UN Secur ity Counc il, which mus[ be e.'-panded in both permanent and nonpermanent categories," Krishna said.

"The reformed Council muse include countries tl1ac are capable an d w illing to bear additional burdens relating to tl1e maintenance of imerna tion a l peace and se curity and be able to sustain global campaigns against new and emerging global dueats," he said.

"Equally, L1dia will promote and l end her weight for e nhancing me voice and parriciparion of developing countries in decision making in g lobal economic and Jin a nci alin scitutions," he said.

The IMF's quota reform process must be accelerated w im altered quotas reflecting

comemporary econonuc weight, Krishna said.

Expr essing support for me governmem and people of Afghanistan, K ri shna said the "continui ng existence o f sa fe havens and sancruaries for terrorises b e)'o nd A fghani stan's borders is tl1e major impedim ent to tl1e restoration o f peace and security in Afghanis tan."

Calling terrorism as one of the most pote.m threats to international peace and security, he also asked d1e world to show me necessary polirical will to agree on a Comprehensive Convene.ion o n Imernarional Terrorism.

New hopeforterminal heart patients

There's new hope for terminal heart patients, w ith a new pumping device pronusing to provide rest co d1e worn-out heart an d even recharge it - adding years and quality ro a patient's life.

The Ventricular Assist Device (\TAD), or Heartmate II, is surgically inserted between d1e ch est an d u pper abdomen and is powered by a b attery. The titanium device is connected co a monitor worn outside tl1e bod y d1at controls t he blood Aow. L1troducing the device in India and educating doctors a bout ic, India- bo rn , USbased cardiac surgeon an d healtl1 economist Mukesh Haiiawala says around 10,000 people across me world have h ad got di e Hearanate II imp lanted an d the results h ave been "fantastic".

"Heartmate II has a very huge success rate and very few complications," said Hariawala, who is associated with the Harvard Medical School Affiliated Hospitals in Boston, speaking during a vis it to New Delhi.

""Patien ts can live for 8-10 years, if the rest of the body stays well. The device rakes cai·e of the pumping function of t he heart"

Hariawala, who was felic itated as "L1dia's Most Admired Surgeon" at 1vlumbai on Sep 21 b y Maharashtra Governor K Sa n karan arayan, said tl1e Hearcmare II is implanted in d10se who are in end -stage or terminal heart patients, "chose who cannot go duough angioplasty, stem or bypass"

lr can be implanted in patients of any age, but is g iven usually to patients who are 50 -p lus, e.5pecially d1ose waiting for a heart transp lant.

A major advantage of Heartmate 11 is mat the heart "s ta r ts remodelling itself ".

Explaining, Hariawal a said tliar wim tl1e pumping load reduced, the "typically diseased a nd enlarged heart starts reducing in size" and the patient ''is able to m ove about, climb stairs and his /her endurance ,,mcreases

" The patient lives lo nger and the qu,'1.1.icy of life is better," he added

Hariawala was a m ember of the surgical team that performed the first bypass surgery oo Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 1990 along witl1 John Wlright at Harley Street Clinic in London.

Hearanate lI is manufacmred by US firm Thoratee, a worl d leader with more than 10,000 "s uccessful" implantations and the device is "soon to be offered ro India", he said.

Most of d1e imp lantations have been done in me US , Europe and Australia, and tl1e demand is ina·easing in Asia, he said.

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onours for Indian Link at Multicultural Media Awards

Winning three presti gious awards at the inaugural Multicultural Media Awards, Indian Link stands tall as an acknowledged her ald of the subcontinent community

Community Affairs Abroad, Mui ticul tural Photographer of the Year, and Investigative Journalism.

recognition , no reward and no hal l of fame."

Inwharisdeatlya significant milestone for community jou rnalism and more importantly Indians down under, ethnic newsgroup Indian Link has bagged duee of the nine awards at the inaugural Parliament ofNew South Wales Multicultural Media Awards.

The high- calibre media gro u p rook the top honours in the Editorials / News Reporting, Online Innovation in News , Blog or Website, and its publisher Pawan Luchra was named MulticulruraJ Journalist of the Year

Auscralia's Foreign M inister

Bob Carr presented the awards at a gala dinner on September 14. Winners in nine categories were selected from among 132 entr ies received from all over Australia.

The categories included, besides the three won by Indian Link, Concribution to Social Inclusion and MulticulruraJism , Coverage of Indigenous Affairs, Community Affairs in Australia,

Pawan Luthra shared the big one , the award for Multicultural Journalist of the Year, with Majid.a Abboud of SBS Radio.

The judging panel incl u ded senior academics in media studies, mainstream journalises, media representatives , c ouncillors and senior members of ethnic communities.

Initiated by Member of Legislative Council Shaoquett Moselmane, the awards are the first of their kind in Australia.

Addressing the special invitees , Moselmanenoced, " Since the first multicul tural newspaper Die Deutsche Post was published from Adelaide in 1848 and first Chinese paper Guangi Huabao in 1894, ethnic media has contrib u ted extensivel y to the Australian way of life:'

He added, " Today m ul ticultural media has diversified across print, radio , web , TV, sate ll ite and alJ forms of social media There has however been no standa lone award to recognise this substantial body ofwork. These papers and their pioneering journalists have passed into history with litde or no

" Tonight we break that drought and celebrate the beginnings of spring for multicultural and indigenous media in Auscralia ," he declared.

"Your ingenuity and spirit has left no stone unturned. With the capacity to bring news and events to eveiy multicultural household like never before, your dedication is admirab le ! '

Speaking co this reporter, chief guest Foreign Minister Bob Carr later said, " I was proud to be a part of the first Multicultural Media Awards. It is great co see multicult u ral media getting the attention it deserves. I believe it is essential to Australian democracy."

" I congratulate Indian Link for winning three Awards on the night," he added. "Journalists representing those of Indian ancestry are ambassadors for Australia to the Indian community. By sharing cultural ideas through journalism, you are helping to create the overlap of cultures that makes up Australia's national identity."

ABC cor respondent and one of the members of the judging panel, Llz Foschia said that she was impressed by the submissions and range of

Shaoquett Mosselmane with Indian Link team ( from left) Danielle Cairis, Nitika Sondhi, Rajni Anand Luthra, Vivek Trivedi and Pawan Luthra

topics covered by ethnic media organisations.

"IL is very important to have a strong mulricuJrural media Lo inform their local communities about issues of particular concern to them , bur also to cover wider events with a different perspective," she noted.

"There were good examp les of quality joumallsm that would not have been our of place in mainstream publicacions. hidian Link, in particular had made a special effort with its entries and chat is reflected in the number of awards it received."

As the only speaker on the night from amongst the awardwinners, Pawan addressed the audience and spoke about the specific pressures faced by the multicultural media such as the constant struggles for funding.

Yee it was his story about Indian Li11k Radio that couched a chord. Pawan recounted the iucident from a few days ago, when a radio listener rang him to say chanks. " You're keeping my mother alive," the listener told Pawan. Apparendy, his mother, a nursing home resident, is an avid listener, turning on the radio as soon as she wakes in the morning as her only regular means of contact wich a Hindispeaking world.

"Three awards in one night can only be a team efforc," Pawan also nored in hi s speech, and thanked his ream , who work very hard to see that a quality product goes out every fortnight in press and every day on the airwaves. Seven full- time staff at Indian Link oversee the work of no less chan sixty newspaper concribucors across the country, and a dozen radio broadcasters in Sydney. Each of these individuals, Pawan fee ls stron gly, has ownership of rhe awards me company has received chismonch.

A journalist with over two decades of experience in boch Australia and India, Ltthra has certainly raised me bar in community journalism , since he and his wife Rajni founded Indian Link in 1994

Like most migrant success stories, cheirs has been founded on humble beginnings It is a truly inspirational tale born of a passion to excd and commitment to its cause.

From a smal l 24-page black and whice newspaper co glosswrapped monchly e ditions in all major metros besides fo rtn ightly editions in Sydney, with a priut run of 44,000 copies and a readership of 200 ,000 per edition, a 24-hour radio station, e-paper and live website, Indian Link has grown co become noc merely a trusted media house , but a forum for me community.

" Our desire was to start

a communi ty newspaper of the community &om ourside, .., g substance, seeking ouc Indian including demographers, 1i links iu Australian life," political analysts and social

explained Indian Link editor historians.

Rajni Ltthra, looking back The award for Online "'

nosraJgically on those scare- up Innovation is eq ually a well-

years. Rajni gave up a career iu deserved one, for Indian Lillk psychology to build the Indian has always embraced technology link brand wholeheartedly.

" It was definitely not "We have been on the cutting an overnight success," she edge of technology since confessed. "We did everything, our inception," commented from content generation to Luthr a. ' With our most recent ddivery, by ourselves. Bue innovation, che Indian Link as che Indian community iu Radio App for smar1 phones, Sydney grew, so too did che the 24/7 Radio station has gone interesL With a strong focus on global. le can be downloaded quallty and authenticity, readers free from iTunes and allows became addicted to the features, people me &eedom co listen co the stories of other migrants live radio." settling in10 life here, even the "The application has already Bollywood articles. Growing clocked over 5 ,500 downloads in scope and influence through and is growing everyday. With various forms of digital and the Indian diaspora worldwide print media, Indian link is now currendy esd.matecl at over 30 a vehicle for celling the Indian million, che Australia-developed story in Australia." radio app has far- reaching

Both through che Ilagshlp potential," Luthra observed. newspaper and diversi fied " Listeners not onJy in media portfolio, Pawan Luchra Australia buc also in New has established himself as the Zealand , India, US , Canada, voice of the community noc Dubai, even Afghanistan and only within , buc also in the Korea, are enjoying our pick mainstream. 11 is to his credit ofBollywood music , and that he is repeatedly asked participating in talk back and to speak on behalf of Indian discussions live on air," be Australians ar mainstream added. gatherings and media panels, A ' family' feel bas inexplicably commenting on current affairs been created out of the Indian such as the uranium issue , che Link Radio aura: regular international scudenc fracas lis1encrs ' know' ca.ch ocher, and che Delhi Commonwealth wichou t ever having physically Games crisis, and also on Indian met, as callers ring in; milestone traditions and beliefs. birthdays are celebrated; old

D urin g the 2010 friends have found each ocher; Commonwealth Ga.mes, gee- well- soon wishes are shared Luthra was invited by Foxtel aL hours of ill-health; even co commentate on the marriages have resulted amongst opening ceremony, the first listeners. Babies have been born ethnic journalist to do so on as expecting mums have taken mainscream TV. His insighcful the radio with them to the comments on che opulent maternity ward (welcome, pageant helped facilitate cross- baby Om Ganwani of cuJrural understanding. Melbourne), and listeners have

Ltthra's contributions have even mourned togecher the loss been recognised not only ofone of their own ( RIP, Col through the Multicultural Kle.r of Sydney)

Journalist of the Year award but " Our listeners will happily also for his thought stimulating vouch for chis comrnunicy editorials that have effectively feeling," Pawan said, adding, bridged the gap between his "I fed fortunate indeed to councry of birth and adopred have created this forum that land. Always in rune wich the has connected people ac s uch a pulse of the community, his level"

discerning and candid scyle of Only last year, Ltchra won me writing has a loyal readership NSW Government' s Community base and Is repeatedJy endorsed Harmony Award for facilitating by community dders. and promoting social cohesion

Encompassing a range of and understanding between current and topical issues, the communities of the Indian including local politics, subcontine n t and che broader health and education, state NSW community. of economy, thorny India- Nor those to rest on meir Ausrralia re lationship and laurels, the Luthras are already burning communicy Issues, his exploring new pastures to powerful editorials represent the build and extend on me voice of reason while fearlessly existing portfolio. For Indian confronting the hard truth. Australi ans, this can onJy Pawan's notes on community mean fresh pachways for beccer affairshavebeenofparticuJar integration ancl a stronger interest to those observin g public voice.

Life, death and hope in Mumbai's underbelly

Katherine Boa's poignant and we/I-written book explores the varied lives of dwellers in the Annawadi slum

of our lives to poor drudges underground , blackened to tl1eir eres, with t.l1e.ir t hroats full of coal dust "

Katherine Bo o, a staff writer

What is i t about Mumbai that invites such ground -breaking and b rillian t works of non- fiction?

From Sukecu Mehta's amb itious wo r k Maxiv111m Ci!)'; to Sonia Faleiro's study of Mumbai's red light district in her book Bea11t!Jiil Thing; now we have a Pulitzer prize-winning author Kathe r ine Boo's just published book on a M wnbai s lum, Behind the Bea11tif11/ Fore11m· It is a landmark work of ' n arrative non -fiction' that tells th e dramatic and sometimes heartbreaking stories of families striving cowards a better life in Mumbai. ln th.is brilliantl y written, fast- paced book based o n aLnost fo ur years of research and uncompro misi ng reporting, author Katherine Boo brings to life some of tl1e residents of Annawadi, a ma keshift settlemen t in the shadow of luxur y hotels near the Sahar airport. This book is written in such a way that w hile it is acn1ally reportage, it reads li.ke a riveting novel as Boo makes the charac ters come alive with her delightful prose and superb sense of drama.

One o f the b ook's endearing characters is Abdul Husain, a refuse-soning worker whose family are migrants from Uttar Pradesh. He is a reflective and e n terprising teenager w h o sees 'a fo r t Lm e beyo n d counting' in the recyclable garbage that r ic her people throw away; his mother Zahmwussa is an indomitable character w ho finds strength fro m God -knowswhere to hold her family together u nder the most crnshing o f circumstances. Then there is Asha, tl1e teache r from Vida rbha who is determin ed to lift herself a nd her famil y out of poverty by any means she can - she is not above using her charms and her body to forge contacts with the local Shiv Sena pollie s o r the Sahar police - co become th e 'slum lord' of Anm1wadi, and failing even that, co use the money given for the ed ucation of the m ost m arginalised children to feather her own nest. \Xlich a little luck, her sen sitive , beautiful daughter l'vla n ju , A n11awadi's ' most-everythin g girl' will soon become ics first female college graduate And even the poorest Annawadians like Kalu, a 15-year- o ld scrap- metal chief, believe they are inc hi n g closer to tl1e good lives and good times they caU 'the f ull enjoy'.

Abdul's precocious refusesorting skills rake in a not-too-

the beautiful forever s

This book is written in such a way that wh ile it is actually reportage, it reads like a rivet ing novel as Boo makes the characters come alive with her delightful prose and superb sense of drama.

incons iderable income for the large family, an d t.l1ey even manage to save enough for a deposit on a parce l of land in a new housing estate. Both Abd ul's skills and the famil y's rising fortLmes are the e nvy of An nawa di when everything comes crashing d own after the family is accused of being responsible for the death of a neighboL1t.

Through the lives of some of tl1e Annawadi residen ts, Boo sh ows us h ow globalisation and the risin g prosperity of the Indian economy reverberates even in the backwaters of a slu m ; how governmenc m oney se c aside for poverty alleviation or edu cation of the poor is pilfered by unscrupulous politicia n s and middle men and women; alternative housing schemes meant to h elp the slum dwellers \vhen th eir land is repossessed , are r orced by corrupt men and women the li st goes on!

Boo makes it clear in the 'Autl1o r's Note' at tl1e end of tl1e book, that ultimately poverty co rrup ts everyone in Mumbai. The police stations are a b azaar - a marketplace where guilt or inn ocenc e is bou g h t and sold; char ges traded for money; documencs and affidav its manufactured for a price - and

everyone is on tl1e take.

It is not e asy for an outs ider to fu lly Lm de r st,'llld t he complexities and nuances o f caste, language, religion and etlmicity in India. It is to Boo's credit that she gets them just Lig h t - perhaps ber busband Su nil Khilnani, t.l1e well- known academic for m e.rly of J ohn Hopkins University, and ber imerpret ers and research assist,'ll1ts helped her; however, t.l1e consistently high level of understanding is remarkable and prai seworthy. Th.is is a brill.iam book, beautifully written - and puts the residents of the slu m at tl1e c e ntre of the narrati ve and gives LIS a glimpse into wbat it is to be h L1U1an.

I was reminded of Orwell's poignan t lines from his powerfu l work on the b leak lives of coal miners, The Road to IVtt111 Pil'r. O n e can easily substitute di e garbage sorte rs of Annawadi for tbe coal miners of Wigan Pier in thi s q u ote from the book: "It brought home tO you that it is only becau se they sweat their g uts out that supei-ior persons can r emain super ior: you and I and the Editor of the Times Litem~y S11pplernent; poets and the Archbishop of Can terbmy and Comrade X all of ns really owe the comparative d ece n cy

for The New 1'or.ke1; has spem the last twenty year s reporting from within poor commmuties, and won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service She learned reporting at d1e Washit1gto11 Ci!)• paper, was an editor of The lf/ruhit1gton Month!;• and , for nearl y a decade, a reporter and editor at Th e Washingto11 Post. Th.is is her first book.

This is a brilliant book, beautifully written - and puts the residents of the slum at the centre of the narrative and gives us a glimpse into what it is to be human.

A PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE

Katherine Boo was a guest at the Wheeler Centre in Melbourne recently, and was interviewed by Jo Case, resident writer and editor. Here are a few snippets from the inter view:

O N WHAT STRU CK HER M OST ABOUT ANNAWADI

What impressed Boo most was the fact that the people in Annawadi kept trying to improve their lives despite the multitude ofobstacles and setbacks they faced every day. The thought that was foremost on their minds was, 'How do I get to the middle class'.

Even in such a deprived slum as Annawad~ Boo was amazed that people still tried to be good despite the fact that everything was stacked against them, and they encountered corruption at every stage. Boo recounted her own biner experiences with the Mumbai police, and how corruption was all-pervasive. ON THE EFFECT OF GLOBALISATION AND RISING PROSPERITY OFTHE INDIAN ECONOMY Boo examined how globalisation affects the lives of even slum dwellers Even in Annawadi, there was palpable optimism - most people felt the rising prosperity around them would mean that their lives would get better. Talking about Asha, the woman who wanted to be the 'slum lord; Boo pointed out she was from a poor family in Vidarbha, one of the poorest regions of Maharashtra. She was driven by a burning desire to better herself and improve the lot of her children. Others felt they were in the right place (Mumbai) at the right time, and had a chance to 'make it'; that they were on the cusp of changing their lives for the better. Most of them also felt they could escape the opprobrium of their caste in the city

Women too, felt that gender roles had opened up and there were more opportunities for them in the city.

Boo also saw a lot of economic envy even in Annawadi; it was perhaps an indication of the rising mobility, a sign of hope that opportunities were opening up for upward mobility. What disheartened her was how pervasive low-level corruption squanders the life-chances of millions of poor people in India. So many young people's talents are wasted as a result.

SOME OF THE THINGS THAT TOUCHED HER

Boo did four years of research for this book and tried to portray different narrative threads to show the diversity of people and characters even in a slum. Her aim was to keep the readers engaged There were some key moments that got to her. She was struck by the choices that people made - and was arnazed that they were often non-economic, despite their being poor. Su nil, one of the boys of Annawadi, loved nature and del ighted at the sighting of lotuses growing in a sludge pond behind the slum. He could have plucked and sold them - but he didn't; instead, he would retire there alone and admire the flowers in bloom quietly - for fear that if others discovered them, they would be gone. Similarly he was overjoyed at the sighting of parrots in Annawadi. Again, he didn't kill them, even though they would have kept him fed for a few days had he done that and sold them.

Justice also mattered to the people of Annawadi - and they wanted to know how Kalu was murdered When they realized that Boo was trying to get to the bottom of it, they extended her their cooperation. She often moved about Annawadi on her own with her expensive equipment, even late into the nightyet never felt unsafe. The people wanted her to tell the truth to the world; they wanted the truth to come out. It was quite Important to them.

ON THE EFFECTS OF ECONOMIC POLICIES AND M I CROFINANCE

Boo has also explored not only the impact of economic policies and politics on a place like Annawadi, but also the work of NGOs

Talking about the effects of microfinance, Boo pointed out that people like Asha felt it was too incremental a route to becoming rich. At the same time, the full benefits of microfinance did not accrue to those at the very bottom and the most in need.

Katherine Boo

Vignavin ayaka,

Ganapati are just a few o f the I08 names that exto l the vir tues of Ganesha

The elephant- headed, potbeUied elde r son of Shiv a and Parva ti is nor only tbe foremost God amon g the Hindu pantheon, he is per haps the m ost loved

coo In bis capacity to remove all obstacles, Gaoesha is remembered ever yd ay b y one and all

Often associated with th e auspicious ' Om', he is amo ng the most enigmatic as well Ganes ha's ph ys ical attributes are the m selves rich in complex symbo lism. fo fact, every part of Ganesha's sumpmous body cells irs own little tale.

Primarily, the image of Ganesha is a composite anthropomorphic one. Four living entities - man, elephant, serpent and mouse have contributed ro th e makeup of his figure. AJJ o f them indiv iduall y and collective ly have deep symbolic overtones Ganesha thus rep rese nts man's eternal striving towards i n tegration with nature. This has ro be in terp reted raking into co n sideratio n tl1e fact that despite evo lutio n over many mill en nia, man remains closer to animals roday than he was ever before.

The mosr s triking fearure of Ganesha is bis elephant head, symbolic of auspici ousness, stre ngth and intellectual prowess. On the fo rehead , the Tr.ishula (weapon of Shiva) is dep icted, symbolisin g time (past, present and future) and Ga n esha's mastery ove r it. AU the quali ti es of the elep hant are co n tained in the form of Ganapati The elephant is tlie l argest and strongesr of animals of d i e forest Yer he i s gentle and, amazingly, a vegetarian, so chat he does n ot kill to eat. H e i s very affectio n ate and loyal to his keeper and is greatly swayed i f love a nd kincL1e ss are extend ed to hirn. Ganesha, tl1ough a powerful deity, is no less loving and forgi vi ng,

and moved by the affection of his devotees

Yet at the same time the elepha nt ean destroy a whole fo rest and is in himself, a o ne-man arm y when p r ovoked Ganesha is sim ilarly most powerful and can be ruthless when containing evil

Again, Ganesha's large bead is symbo lic of the wisdom of the elephant. His large ears like the winnow, sift tlie bad from tl,e good. Although they hear everytliing, they retain only that which i s good ; tl1ey are attentive to all reques t s made by the devotees, be they humble or powerful.

WhiJe the large ears and head receive all in formation, the sm all mouth talks less an d tlie tiny eyes represent uanost concentration.

Ganesh.a's trunk is a symbol of bis discrioiioation (viueka), a m ost in1portant quality necessary for spiritual progress The elephant uses its trunk to push down a mass ive tree, carr y huge logs to tl1e river and for ocher heavy tasks. The same huge trunk is used to p ic k up a few blades of grass, co break a small coconut, remove the hard nut and eat the soft kernel i nside. The biggest and most minute of rnsks are w ithin the range of this trunk which is symbolic of Ganesha's in tellect and h is powers of discrimination.

The curved trunk perhaps also represen ts the aro usal of tlie powers of the k1mdali111: Th e trunk relares ro d i e power of hmnan mind. It must be stron g enough to ha n dle t he e,"1:te rnal world, but delicate enough to explo re the subtle realms of die inner san cmm.

Yet anod1er intriguing aspect of G a nesba's iconography is his broken rusk, Ekda11ta - Ek meaning one and donta me aning teeth. Theologists believe that tlie rwo rusks rep resent wisd om and emotion. The broken left rusk signifies that o ne must conquer emotions wid1 wisdom co at tain perfection. It carries an interesting legend behind i t:

\ '\,' hen Parashurnma , one of Shiva's favouri te disciples, came to visit him, he found Ganesha guarding Shiva's inner apartments Hi s fatl1er being asleep, Ganesba opposed Parshuran1a's entry.

Parasburan1a nevertheless tried to urge his way, and a tussle ensued.

Ganesha had at first the advantage, seiz ing Paraslmrama in his trunk, and giving him a rwirl tliat left him sick and se nseless; on recovering, Rama threw his axe at Ganesha, who recognizing ic as h is fatl1er's

Lm desirable or corrupting grounds. By showing the mouse paying subservience ro Lord Ganesba it is implied that the intellec t has been tamed through Ganesha's p ower of disc rimination

Any attempt to penetrate the deptl1s of tl, e Ga nesha phenomenon must note d1at he is born from Goddess Parvati alo ne, and as suc h he shares a very unique and special r elationship with his mother. The sensitive nature of his relationship with Parvati is made amply clear in the following tale:

Indian artist Milon Mukherjee's Nata ( naughty) Ganesha: The young Ganesha imitates his father Shiva doing the tandava, the dance of creation weapon (Shiva hav ing given ic to Parashurama) received it with all htunility upon one of his msks, which it immediately severed, and hence Ganesha has but one rusk.

A different legen d narrates chat Ganesha was asked to scri b e down the epic of Nfahabharata, dictated ro him by its author, sage Vyasa. Taking in to note the enormity and significance of tl, e task, Gan esha realized tl, e inadequacy of any ordinary 'pen' m undertake tlie task He rims broke o ne of his own rusks and rnade a pen out of it. The lesson offered here is d1ar no sacri fice is big enough in the pursuit of knowledge.

Ganesha is often portrayed with six h ands O n e is n or m ally shown in the abhd)'a (fearless) pose of protection and refuge, and the second ho lding a sweet (rnodaka), symbolic of the sweetness of the realized inner self. The 111odak represents the reward for sadha11a, while t he prasttd at bis feet rep resents the world at o ne's feet waiting to be conquered. Ganesha also holds an axe co cut off bond s of attac hm ent.

ln tlie two hands behind h im he often holds an t111k11sha (elep hant goad) an d apasba (noose) The n oose is to convey that worldly attachments and desires are a noose. The goad is to prod man to the path o f righteousness and trutl1 \'Xl ich this goad C,.a_ne sha can both strike and repel obstacles. Yer another hand holds a loms Aower (padma), and it symbolizes the h ig hest goal of human evolution, tlie sweemess

of the realised inner self.

Ganesha's pot-b elly contains infi nite universes. Ir signifies t he bouncy of nature and equaniniity, the abili ty of Ganesha to swallow tl1e sorrows o f th e Unive rse and protec t tlie world; the posi tion of his legs (one resting on the ground and one raised) indicate die im portance of living and participating in the material world as well as in tl, e spiritual wo dd , tl, e ability to Jive in the ,vorld without being of the world.

Th e lirrle m ou se tl1at Ganesha i s supposed co ride upo n is another enigmatic feature in his iconograph y Lord Gan esha sits on a tray of lttddtts signifying die wealrn and prosperity mat he gave to his devotees. However, a mouse si rs near the bottom o f die statue to represent the ego th.at can eat away at the goodness of a person At a cursory glance it seems strange tl1at the lord of supreme wisdom has been granted a humb le o b sequious mouse quite incapable of lifting the bulging belly and massive h ead that he possesses. Bur ir implies tliar wisdom is an attribute of an ugly conglomeration of factors, and fu rther th at the wise do nor find anytl1 ing in the wo rld di sproportionate or ugly.

The mouse i s, in every respect, com parable ro the intellect. It is able co slip tmobsenred or w itliout our knowled ge into places which we would have nor thought it possible to penetrate. In doing tlii s it is hardl y concerned whether i t i s seeking virtue or vi ce. The mouse thus represents our wandering, wa)'\vard 11.und, lured co

As a child, Ganesha teased a car by pulling its rail, rolling i t over on the ground and causing it g reat pain, as naug hty young boys ate wont to do After some time , tired of his game, he went co his mother Parvati. He fo tmd her in great pain and covered witl, scratches and dust all over. 'iXThen he questioned her, she put the blame on him. She explained tbar she was tlie cat whom Ganesha had ceased.

His total devotion cowards his motlier is tl1e reason why in the South Indian tradition, Ganesha i s represented as single and celibate. Ir is said d1at he felt tbat bis motlier Parvati, was the mosr beautiful and perfect woman in the uni\'erse. Bring me a woman as beautiful as s he is a nd I sh aU mar ry her, he said. None could find an equal ro the beautiful U ma (Parva ti), and so the legend goes, tile searcl1 is still 011

In variance wirn the South Indian tradition, in North India Ganesh.a is often shown m a rri ed to t he two daughters of Bral11na (tl1e Lo rd of C reation) , na mely Buddhi and Siddhi. Metaphorically Buddhi signifies wisdom and Siddhi, achieveme n t. In tl1e sense of yog a, Bnddbi and Siddhi represent the female and male currenrs in the human body ln visu al arts dus aspect of Ganesha is represented witli grace and charm.

Li kewise, no analysis of Lord Ganesha can be concluded witbouc a mention of the mystical syllable Om - the mosr powerful mi.iversal symbol of the divine p resence in Hindu t ho ught. The written m a1i.ifestation of di.is divine symbol when inverted gives the perfect profil e o f the god with the elephant head.

This popular Hindu elephant god has complex symbolism in every facet of his divine avatar

Moos//i'k., 1•,wha11t1., mo'rlba ~1 bastha Chamam kama vilani/Htht1 mlhm

Vt1T11a11a mpa 111ahesi/J[lmj)Hfhm

V-ig11a vinqJaga pr1dha 11amt1ste

Vakrathtu1da, Lambodbara, Sarvasidha n tba, Gajanana,

Forthright or fourth grade profession?

The journos ofAustralia face a daunting future as they lose their credibility with the public, but they do have one staunch ally

J.:BY "W, _, LP AYER

f lace, journalists or the people behind the new s, have themselves become front page news. Noc in a positive way, tho ugh. Some senior journalists have already q uit before being p u shed from a major newspaper. Over

a thousand of their tribe face the grim prospect of recei ving the sack from the cou ntr y's m a jor newspape r groups in months co come. And the contagion may spread to their country cousins too. The folk who

has s u ch a deep-rooted mistrust of these profess ions, that l can frilly understand the low rating received by lawyers an d pollies (most o f who, incidentally, are lawyers) For heaven's sake, wl,y jo urnalisrs? They arc only the messenger s, and not the m:Lnufacturers of news. They are li ke retailers who di stribute the product given to them b y politicians, lobbyists and anrone else with vested interests. lo fact, they carcf,illy examj ne the glossy packages given to them gift-w ra pped by publicists, read between the lines and forensically scr utini se these before putting them o n the public domain for consumers to sec rheir rea l worth. For

The folk who provide food for thought

on a daily basis to hundreds of provide food for thoug h t thousands of the general public will be wondering how to put food on the table for

on a daily basis to hundreds of thou sands of the general pub li c will be wondering h ow to put food on the tab le for theit own families. Having belonged co that profession

all these thankless tasks they ge e a kick in their teeth. f Low unfair to p lace o ur sc ribes 25th o ut of 30 professions covered by the Roy Morgan sw·vey; yet in the US where sensati o nal journalism is the norm, they are ranked much hi gher in the Gallup Poll.

Minding your language

ABC prese'.1te'. Leigh Sales' ~'.obing questiomng of Opposmon Leader Ton y Abbocr o n her program

7.30 so enraged an impo rtant Liberal strategist Grahame Morris, chat in an inremperare moment, he called he r a ' cow' The reaction was furious an d Morris was rightly forced to apologise by Abbon.

E lsewhere, calling a female a ' cow' might have had a very differe n t reaction. Fo r exan1ple, befo re an open palm of the hand becam e the emblem of the Congress parry in India, tl, e symbol of the Indira- led Congress part was d, e cow and calf. That symbol had a wide appeal and an almost sacred connotation.

matriarch who wrote tl1e m ucl1 -lauded bur controversial The Fe1J1ale Eu1111ch, h as bad no hesitation in lashing om at o t her fe 1n inine celebrities. During an ABC television debate she said tl1a cJulia Gillard sh ould accept tl,e fact that she is 'big arsed' Some years earlier she had attacked 1'fichelle Obama's choice of clothes saying that they wer e a type of apron and a 'travescy'

Ir was Indian -born Rud yard Kipling, creator o f li terary images of die times of the Raj, who said words are 'the mos t powerful drug u sed by mankind'. For contemporary writer Paulo Coell10 the word is one of the m ost destructive and co,vardly weapons ever invented We see tl1eir ,1se in political combat. Politicians can be admonished for what d1ey sa}; but radio shock- jocks have often made it d1eir stock-in- trade to use shocking and denigrating language. There seems to be little to contro l their

their own families

We do have some wonderful wordsmiths with high inte lligence and integr ity. decades ago, I have my s ympathy for them.

Already fut urists are predicting rhe demise of newspapers within 20 ye ars. At least that wo uld give the scribes some breath in g time to chart o ,1 t their fut m e. But this doomsday is fo recast

to arrive sooner than 2020 by the biggest baron of the print media, Mr Murdoch himself. He should know. 1 lc i s the one with print ink in h is vei n s Even as the pressmen's plig ht is being played Out in the papers, someone in a rece n t 'Letters tr) the Editor' coltmrn unchari tably quipped that these Cjllill drivers could b e retrained to drive dump trucks at the mines. Those of us who form the ' O' (ou tdated)

,,1 must admit journalists use colourful language as part of parading their professional skills li ke peacoc ks preening thei r pl u mage. Isn't that what they a rc trained and paid for? Who will be interested in readjng a b land narrative' Today's journalists not only need to info r m, bur enter tain as well. lnfo tainment is the name of

Where will the world the game in a competitive wo rld be without a fearless band of men and Where will t he world be w ithout a fearle ss band of men and women of the fo ,Lrth estate whose work helps to dislodge dictators, flush our fra uds and even

women of the fourth estate whose work helps to dis l odge dictators, flush out frauds and even save save whales? Of course, the re m ay be some bad a pples as whales?

generation have fond o r dreadful memories of how o ur teachers and parents used t0 badger us on how tO position all five fingers to hold the quill (pen, dudes) to write c ,,rsive letters like calligrnphr, But to day's yo uth use o n l)' one digit to SMS or scroll on their smart phones fo r all their info /inp ut/ o u tp ut, making the other fou r lingers redundan t

Aside from ch e c,1rrent threat o f impending redundancy, jo mn os are treated tO an ann ual roasting when the Roy Morgan lmage o f Profess ions Smvey of Ethics and Trust gets publis hed. As s ure as s un rises i n the east, nurses, docto rs and pharmacist s take t he top places, while journalists get one of the lowest rankings, just a tad a bove used car salesmen. The only consolation is that they are in close company w ith politicians The genera l public

in every other profess io nthe 'cash for comment' type who get i nfluenced b)• good wining and dining and overseas jalln ts. P lenty o f char happens. Columnists arc not w1known to be into calumny, and unabashedly unload their bias on an unsuspecting public There are also a few who rake in big monC )' as mcdja minde rs, a ka spin doctors.

Notw ithstanding all that, there is a cruel irony in the 1'11lorgan survey. I low often d o we h ear at backyard barbie s someone saying "the othe r dny I read in the paper blnb, blah " to trump up tn1st in whatever he wants to say. So the general public that professes little trust in mem b ers of the fourth estate, h as no hesitation in summoning the scribes to their resc ue in times of need. l rest my case.

I hold the stand ard aloft in defence o f the profess ion to which I once belonge d

1n a globalised world, diplomatic use of language is d1e n orm for decent political disco urse The us e of animal ter m s for hum,rns i s well know n in common everyday Language. For exan1ple, tl1e Americans use d1e term ' Holy cow!' as a form of exclamation, along wid1

''It was Indian- born Rudyard Kipling , creator of literary images of the times of the Raj, who said words are 'the most powerful drug used by mankind'

verbose ourput. l ew internet media which has a.ijsen in tl1e currenc environment is Facebook a nd Twitter. Eveu school kids ar e using th.is device one against another, sometimes with very serious consequences. Some schoo ls have done well to altogether ban tl1eir srnclents from having such acconnts and using these so-called 'social' media. d1e lesser used term ' H oly mackerel! '.

In most languages, the word 'swine' is inappropriate when applied co any human. Thus 'You s,vinel' mig ht b e unacceptable; but 'You lucky swine!' amongst friends in Britain and Australia is more like a pat on d1e back. Be tween d,e Mediterranean an d Soud1east As ia, it is best to keep away from tl1e word.

In the Middl e East , the \\rorcl 'dog is as equally unacceptable as is 'swine'. ln contrast, in E ngland we hear about an important perso n as being a 'top dog'; however, politicians often love to describe themselves as 'un derdogs' when they need to get the electorate 's sympad1y vote. Cats seemed co h ave had a better rating

,,People react to how a word i s spoken ai1cl pronounced Good voices create good speech which can prop el ai1 audience in one's favour. A few individuals have voices which have hardly changed over the years. lndia's most famous songstress Lata Mangeshkar who is now 82, h as over 10,000 son gs

''Despite the feminist movement and the

placing of women in important positions, the place of the woman in the household has

(recognised by Guinness reco rds) to her credi t, and she still s ings to crowded auditoriw11s in a voice tl1ar is indistinguishable from d1at of her youd1.

,,be called old age. That

speech has obvious ly helped in her political career She has been a US representative to the UN, ambassador to Ghana a.i1d die Cze ch Repub lic and Chief of Protoco l of d, e USA.

The American chi.Id star Shirley Temple (84) whose ability co absorb and deliver dialogue and songs still currency in the politica l scene to an enchanted audience, p reserves her youd1ful speech in what would otl, eru,;se tl1ai1 dogs Tbus well- paid bureaucracs an d corporate entities a.re often referred to as 'fat-cats'. Anothe r term used derisively when applied co humans is the word 'donkey'. Donkeys have been cons ide red smpid and useless In India th ey are used as beasts of burden by washermen The value of don.keys d uring war is emphasi sed through t he story of Simpson's D onkey which helped in r escui ng wo Lmded soldiers during a battle in World \ \7ar I. A coin commemorates the event. In S \l(! there i s a donke y rescue centre where stray or a b ando n ed donkeys are cared for and nmsed back to health. Visitors including school children, go to the centre.

President Obama, in an effort to neutralise his rival Mitt Romney's use of his wtfc Ann to bring a homel y couch co hi s image had his wife Michelle spea k at the launch o f hi s campaign. Despite the feminist m ovement and the placing of women in important positions, the place of d1e woman in the hou seho ld has still cur rency in th e political scene However, tl1e war of words on the world stage and at the micro level s uch as a school still n eeds moderation.

Germaine Greer, d1e ,veil-known feminise

The power of expression through spoken words have tremendous impact, in building or breaking

Apple losing its way? The tiger finally roars

Will its rivals make an impact on the popularity of this hugely successful technology driven company? ,.o

r.'1.,.'I';

BY

RITAM MITRA

From its now- famous lrnmb le beginnings in the garage of co -

fmU1der Steve Wozniak, Apple stands today as the most valuable brand in the world, leaving previ ous arch - rival Microsoft in the dust. Now, a year on from the death of inspirational co- founde r Steve Jobs, a new pair of rivals stand in Apple's wayand d1ey aren't s Ltr renderi.ng as meekly as Microsoft did.

Despite being beleaguered by international and national bodies, the Prime Minister of India sticks to the route of reform

were already availab le in Samstmg's Galaxy S3 unit, released three months earlier. Aesthetically p leasing as ic may be, the phone is n ot innovative.

ln another blmv to App le's usually seamless product laun ches - and this is perhaps tl1e biggest - they de livered a product with which many consumers were unhapp}' - and ic ,vilJ affect all iPhone users, not just those who purchase die latest model.

Apple's recent iPhone 5 launch was the first phone rel eased by the tech giant since Jobs' long bartle wi d1 pancreatic cancer came

Apple's decision to remove Google's Maps software from the latest iOS

6 software, and instead include its own Apple Maps software, has drawn criticism from all over the world

for consumers who longed to have che option to down load Google's Maps software instead.

Samsung responded co the iPhone 5 by, within

Apple's dec ision to remove Googl e's Maps softwa r e from die latest iOS 6 software, and instead include irs own Apple Maps software, has drawn criticism from all over the world. It p laced entire cities in ocean s, directed drivers to drive through shopping plazas, an d even placed its Sydney flagship store on tl, e wrong side of the road The software left a sour taste in the m outh to an end in October last year. It also came in the context of an increasingly ugly bat tl e with C\VO massive smartphone playersSamsung, who outso ld App le uni ts by enormous margins in the first half of thjs yea r, a nd Google, who create the Andro id platform which runs on almost all non -Appl e srnarcphones and tablets.

lt did not help eid,er that App le raised eyebrows worldwide when they

successfuUy sued Samsung for $1 bn in August 2012 over accusations that the Korean company's 'Gala,-1'' units too closely resemb led their own products. Many viewed d1is as vexatious Litigation,

given some of the evide n ce included t he fact diac Sarnstmg phones and tablets were 'rectangular w i th rounded edges' - a feamre Apple considered purely their own Samsung has appealed the verdict, alleging juror mi sconduct.

le was crucial d,ac me launch should go smooth ly to play down die some,vhat n egative attitude that has SLtrtounded che company for the first tinie in recent memory. The launch

howeve r, was anything but the seamless, inspiring event that it has known to have been in the past.

''If the battle

a week, releasing an ad portraying chose who wait in Line for tlie iPhone as less- than - intelligent, and suggesting that die Apple product was more sui table for older generations.

Samsung, w ith its aggress ive yec simpListic marketing, is

effectively tr ying co beat Apple at its own game, one iliac it has dominated for a decade.

For years, owning the latest Apple gadget has carried with it a sense of pride, and che latest gaffes will probably not hurt

the com pany, given it enjoys a somewhat ridiculous market capi taLisation of $630bn.

with Samsung and Google continues any longer, the smartphone landscape could soon change dramatically

Apple has u·aditionally used the launch of a new product as a way to disp lay a leap - forward in innovation. It is after all, innovation and uniqueness diac gives App le the most loyal custo m er base i11 the world. The iPhone 5 rnough, left much to be desired. Amongst its newest featllres, none were unexpected, an d furtl,er, many

But if the battle with Samsung and Google continues any longer, Lhe smartphone landscape coul d soon change dramatic ally. Apple's next even t will be scrutinised even more closely; an d failing co live up co tl,e hype twice in a row will definitely pm a dent in tl,e company's gl eaming armour.

''There i s no doubt that Apple has shaped the world in a way no other techno logy company could have hoped to iniagine. Otl1er compani es owe Apple a great deal for forcing them to lift up their gaoie. During Jobs' battle with cancer, diough, many wondered how the company wo uld keep up with the iconk legacy he left behind Apple, it's )'Our move

thi s rear, the racings agency Standard & Poor's direatened to former cue India's rating, as the investment outlook in lndia didn't look good anymore S&P Director for Sovereign Ratings Tal{llhira Ogawa, said in a statement, "We believe that the government's recent annotrn cement on foreign direct investments is an encouraging development, but ar diis stage it is still Lll1Certain whemer t hese measures can be imple m ented or not." India's cmrent S&P invesmient raring is 'BBB-', which is considered the l owest b y i nvestors for future inve.~tment. To maintain credit rating and India's GDP (cunendy forecasted to be around 5 5%, me lowest in the past 9 years) , the government had no odier choice apar t from Minister Manmohan Singh. SRK is initiaUy portrayed as a simp le, bashful man. But when he realizes his partner Taani (Anusbka Sharma)

If you haven't had chance to watch BoUrvood film Rab Ne Ba11a Di Jodi, then 1 recommend you co watc h it at l east once The first reason i s chat it has an interesting storyLine and some good acting by Shahrukh Khan (SRK) and Anushka Sharma. The second reason is that d1e dual role played by SRK in tli is movie can b e compa red co the recent actions of lnclia's Prime

''The UPA couldn 't put the reforms issue

any more, as it was hampering India's growth story more than ever before

goi n g furdie r - i ntroducing FDI in retail and ignoring die opposition. It was is not so comfortable on the backburner just matter of time and gathering some guts wid1 him as sbe is a very cheerful and v ivacious girl, he .scares playing h is second ro le Mam11ohan Singh seems to be foUowing che same path J\fter he

It needs to be seen what real benefits die FDl in retail can bring to consumers, farmers, die business environment, infrastructme and overaU , to Indi a. The po licy would was recently lamented by TTMB magazine and me Jf;/asbi11gto11 Post as an 'Lll1derachieve r ' and 'a dithering ineffecmal bttreaucrat pres iding over a deeply corrupt government', the UPA government has suddenly sprung into action. People have so far viewed Manmohan Singh as a nonaggressive 'poodle of Sonia

Gandlu', not fully effective as prime minister. Bm suddenly now, Singh and the UPA government seem co be showi n g ne r ves and guts in lead ing lndia further through mul tip le financi al refo r ms, one being Foreign D irect lnvescment (FDI) in retail and aviation

let foreign retai lers own up to 51 percent of supermarkets and 100 percent of single- brand scores. Cttrrently, only few states a re willing to aUow FDI in retail and welcome stores Like Wal -Matt (USA), Tesco (UK), Carrefour (France) etc. If tbese companies a re aUowed in, d1ey won't ha,1e a free run as ther e are s ome strings attached. T hese stores muse source 30

These stores must source 30 percent of their goods from smaller local

industries, and must One might wonder why me UPA decided to imp lement FDl in retail ar this point of rime. Is it because the government is now concerned about

country die n egative pub li c ity ir bas gained through mul tip le cormption scandals like the Coalgate, 2G telecom scandal etc? Is i t because many i nternational publications have joined me bandwagon i n tanushing whateve r image was left from this government? I beli eve that die government had no oth er option - they simp ly had co take these b o ld decisions. T h e UPA couldn't put me reforms issue on me backburner any more, as i t was hampering lnclia's growth story m ore than ever before. The currenr government had tried to imp lement FDI in retail lase year as well, b u t it backtracked afte r srroog opposi tion from Mamata Banerjee, d, e BJP and otl1er parties. Earlier

invest a minimum of $100 million or Rs 450 crores in the like cold storage and most imporcanrly, individual states can decide whether to allow mese stores i n tbeir states ''

o r not

OCTOBER 2012 29

Eat well this festive season

The season of indulgence has now begun, with a range of festivals making it difficult to stick to a healthy food routine

d1em slowly and g radually Try to use smaller plates and avoid second helpings.

Give away the extras goodies

The festival season i s here agai11 with Ganesh Chaturchi co Bhai Duj, and just like in lndia, they can never be complete without special foods and good hospitali ty. With so much variety availabl e as well as some traditional foods chat are only cooked on these particular festivals, ir sometime s becomes difficult co a void bigb calorie festi ve foods. Th.is i s the time when even rhe most disciplined person lets loose. And at th.is time of t he year, anyo ne even talki ng about a diet or bealcby eating is deemed t o be mo st unpopular

But if you have managed to lose ,veight or keep ir off thi s season, or are a diabetic or have high blood pressure or cholestero l, it becomes even more imperative to eat heald1y as after the feasting is over, yo u might end up witb m any more problems than you starred with. Counting calories at festivals is a b ig challenge. It bas been seen over the years rbat after the festival season, the rate of obesi ty goes up, suga r control o f diabetics goes down and those who are predisposed co develop diabetes also sbow signs of contracting diabetes. Experts warn that festival fun - and not the l east, cbe culture of sweet-eating d1at peaks rhencan help trigger long- rerm health prob lems, with diabetes only the start. In fact, Tndi a is di e diabetes capital of tbe world, as it hosts the most diabetics among all nations. Bue \\1th festivities following each od1er during this time, it is ve t )' difficult to stay focu sed and ad here co a strict d iet schedule It might scan with a bite here and a bite dlere and before we know it, we have eate n a plate full of e..'<tra cal o cies b)' the end of the day. If you keep in mind a few points, you need not m iss our all the fun and they might help in avoid health prob lems later.

Smaller portions

Have smaller portion sizes o f sweets a nd high calorie foo d s. Even whil e visiting fr iend s a nd families, pick up smaller pieces rather than overindulging o r being rude and complete ly refusing. Instead of loadi ng yo ur plate to cbe brim \Vith sweets, just rake a few, m ay be one or two, and ear

Do not eat sweets and 111ithai just because they are there or go ing bad because no one e lse is eating dlem. It is better to th row away a few pi eces of r11ithai railier cban putting yo ur healdl at risk. Or take the extra sweets to your workplace, to be enjoyed by your muJticulmral colleagues who would d efi nitely love a taste of lndian tradition.

Avoid aerated drinks

Avoid hav ing aerated drinks, sweetened beverages and fizz y drinks, which only add unnec essar y calor ies. Instead , have natural refreshing drinks like lemon ju.ice, ja!Jeera, coconut water, g reen tea or fruit juice. Drink plenty o f water, dle healthiest drink available!

Reduced fat foods

lf you are making sweets you rse lf, use low fat ingredients like low fat milk and other dairy pro ducts. Use natural sweeteners like honey and dates m make sweers, and avoid using refined sugar or artific ial sweeteners. But even if you use low fat products, do not overconsume. Plan recipes that are low in calori es and set an example for od1ers co follow. When eating out, d1oose roasted or baked, grilled o r barbequed s n acks instead of fried o nes.

Avoid skipping meals

Do not skip meals to compensate for the extra calories. You always ten d to have more cravings and overeat on an empty stomach.

Rather, cry to nibble on h ealthy snacks like salads, sproms, fruit and nuts to avoid overeating at dinner parties or bingeing o n unheal d1y sn acks.

Snack healthy

Include fresh fruits, yogur t dips

with crackers, outs, raw salads, soups, roasted meats and chicken, soups as part of your snacks and meals instead of fried, oily and h ig h sugar foods and sn acks Do not skip out on sweets completely, bur adding fruits and nuts to d1e p la te may help balance dle calori es You c ould also have a light s nack before visi ting, to avoid consuming high calorie foods d1ere.

Gift healthy

Set a n example by g i fti ng healiliy foods such as basket.~ of fruit, dried fruit, nuts or candles ins tead of sweet s or ch ocolates.

Limit alcohol intake

Avoid consuming too much alcohol at parties. Sip on some fruit juic es or water in between drinks or go slow on drinks to avoid refilling. And make sure you s nad, in moderation and snack healthy wid1 alcobol, as that is

where you add dle

maximum calories

Exercise

No matter h ow busy yo u are o r h ow late you might have slept dle night before, do nor miss your exe rc ise schedule

Nothing can be more harmful dlan m issing exercise at th.is time Most of us tend ro skip our daily exercise during festivals m catch up on sleep or go visi ting. Bu t exercise i s very important m burn out th e extra calories dlat have been consumed and som etimes i f we break our .routine i t takes a while to get back on track.

Festivals and celebrations should be to mingle and socialize w i dl friends and not give us an excuse

co binge eating Remember moderation is dle key to enjoy festive food am! still keep d1e weighi n g scales io balance.

i

I t.,. , BY TIM BLIGHT

0ver the years, the Indian subcontinent has esmbLished it self in my heart as my favourite travel destination. What I love most abom the subcontinent is its diversity, not just within India, but in her neighbours: Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bhutan and Nepal. lam fortmiate enough co have visited all of these na tions, a nd have met with their people and heard their thoughts on the region's superpower, Bharat. In this article l recount to you m y experiences of these conversations, and the sentiments which may surprise some.

Bhutan

' 'The truth is, we depend o n India a lot," said m y Bhutanese friend Tenzing. "B u t they depend on us too - look at the electricity!" he joked, referring to the August 201 2 widesp r ead power outages. India imports large amounts of energy from Bhutan, a result of the country's excess of hydroelectricity. Man y power plants were b uilt through Indian-Bhutanese joint venntres, and Bhutan appreciates the mone y that lnd.ia pays for the power. Bhutanese students attend universities in India, and Indian passport holders are the oaJy people who can eater Bhutan without a costly v isa/cour package. The Bhutanese view seems to be that India's and Bhutan's destinies are intertwined, and everyone's a wmner.

Maldives

Maldivians seem to be coo cl~illed out to worry about lndi a too much, although recent history bas contributed to some locals' opinions. The p resence of Indian businesses in the l\.1al di ves is a sore point, with some worried that the local market isn't big enough for such heavywe ight competition.

Jvforeover, a small handful of dodgy deaLi ngs have left some isla nd dwellers wondering whether their smaU n atio n would be better off witho ut Indian corporate inte rference. But the Maldi v ians are also a pragmatic bunch, and like the Bhutanese, recognize and largely appreciate the importance of lndia in their Lives. Not to mention the growing popularity of the IPL among young Maldivians! INDIAN

Sri Lanka

Tbe Sri Lankan view of India is pe rh aps what surprised me the most during my travels. Often I was asked rather brusq uely, "Oh yea h, how's India?" The (mostl y Sinha lese) Sri Lankans l met had a fairl y non -commirtal opi nion of India, which they seemed to consider an often patronizing, not particularly clo se sibling. In fact, many of the Sri Lankans I mer we re much more in terested in their country's place in South East Asia - why t al k about India, when we can chat about Singapore, Malaysia a n d Thailand? Blood i s thicket than water, and the Buddhist connection seems to b e stronger with the more similar culntre across the Gulf of Mannar. U nless you speak w i th Sri Lankan Tamil s, of course

Nepal

The veiled h ostility continues in Nepal, where I met lots of ordinary Nepal.is who felt that India was overbearing and often incons iderate. "T hey're always looking d own on us," complai ned Prakash , a NepaLi associate, who was n ot alone in hi s views. ''They th.ink tl1ey're better tl1an us," alleged Ramesh, a frequent business traveUer to India. ''They're always looking for ways to cheat u s," comp lained Don, a Kathmandu resident with an interest in poLitics. However, from what I could gather during my sh ort visit, the Nepalis' attitude towards their n eighbour reminded me of the semi -serious resentm en t which exists in , ew Zealan d towards Australia, or in Australi a towards the domin ating force of America. Friendly jib ing , l egitimate grievances som etirnes, but overall benign!

Bangladesh

Ban glad eshis are a contradictory people. On one band , they will g ladly point o u t areas in whic h India has wronged t hem, such as the contentious Farakka Barrage, a dam in West Bengal which regulates Bangladesh 's access to tbe Ganges. On the otl,er band, they enquire enthusiastically about, "What is India li ke?" The econ omic reality of modern Bangladesh is something which leaves m any feeling s lightly e nv io u s of 21st cenmry India. None of this however, dan1pens their pride in the ir s maU nation.

The fact that man y people ignore India's role in the liberation of Bangladesh should not be see n as a s nub; when a nation's history is only 40 years o ld, one muse focus on what builds pride, not w h at erodes it.

Thinking about India in Kathmandu: Many Nepalis aren't sure about India's regional dominance

''Although they would never admit itto an Indian, even the proudest Pakistani knows that what they share

Bhutanese circumambulate the National Chorten in Thimphu

Sri Lankans look out over the ocean at Unawatuna

Pakistan

A hh , Pakistan 1 saved tb e best (or juiciest!) for last. Giv en how fraught relations are with India , it i s only natural thac perceptions are somewhat c onfused But the mainstream Indian idea of Pakistan as an impoverished, uncivilized bastion of MuslimHindu hatred is simply inaccurate. Like India , it is an .incredibly multi -layered nation, and the majority of peop le are ab le to distinguis h between l ndia's gove rnm ent and her people.

Ma ny Bangladeshis hope their country can piggy-back on India's succ esses

"They're li ke our brotl1ers;' said my good friend Sajid of Indian people adding, "Vf/e c an't forget that we were once part of India." Of course, peopl e like Saj id wo n 't be heard on te levision news channels, when there are isolated cases of Aag-burning to sensationalise. Occasional spurts of nationalist fervour aside, most Pakistanis these days enjoy Indian movies, music and culmre. And al thou gh they would never admit it to an Indian , even the p roudest Pakistani knows that what they sh are wi tl1 lndia is much greater than wh at divides tl1em.

A surprising blend ofopinions are discovered when traversing co untries that flank the Indian subcontinent

with India is much greater than what divides them.

Perfectionism and managing the high achiever

Not being able to achieve the high standards set for themselves by themselves can lead to a feeling offrustration and anxiety in children and adults

M~:~::~~~:~en that ~hey would classify as perfectionistic.

Perfectionism is evident when a chi.Id (or adult) foc u ses on completing activities and tas k s tO best that they can possibly do and to a p erceived stan dard of excellen ce drn t would class i fy the o utco m e as 'the best'. Whilst doin g work of a h igh standard i s to be val u ed, d1e associated feelings of anxiety, stress, fr u stra tion and Low self worth may n eed to be addressed.

Perfection.ism is o fte n seen in chi ldren who disp lay d1e following characteristics: t h ey are often bright, usually first born (eldest) o r only children., fu1d change difficult to manage and ar e often anxious about the results of an e ndeavonr they u n de rtake. A person manifesting perfectionist tendencies a nd w ho i s a lso highly visual, may te n d to arrange thei r wo rks pace to a ver y specific standard Perfectionists can become stressed around deadlines and performance, i f there is clutte r or a sen se of d isorganisatio n o r unpredictability Such smden ts also t end to need fixed times for srudy, a clear wor king space, a tidy c lass roo m and teachers who are o rd ered and methodical.

Teacher pleasers

Perfectionism n eeds to be distinguished from 'te ach e rp leasing' or parent- p leasing behaviours. \ 'Vhilsr obedie nc e can be valued in classroom and h ouse ho ld r e latio n ships, ir is not a s ign of intelligence or perfectionism. Pear of critic is m can make a ch ild want to be compliant. Perfectionism however, rend s co be viewed as an inner prompt ramer d1an aris ing from an external source.

Langua~e and rationalisation of feelings

W hen a chi.Id ac quires la nguage at a y0tmg age, they can be very engagi ng, chatty and cute. This can encourage furd1er

developmen t o f lan g uage as older children, adults and others ta ll, to the child. Th e ac quisition of language at a yo ung age can lead to difficulty w ith re sp ect to the management of perfectionistic beh aviours. Th e chi.Id with strong language skills mar be e nc ouraged to 'ca.Im down ' or to 'stay cool' when they baulk a t a task or expr ess dissatisfaction w ith d1eir own ac hi evemen t s This use of logic an d ration al th inki ng actually undermines d1e child's capacity to h elp to manage perfectionistic beh aviours

Ad ultification

A further comp lication char ari ses wid1 me early acquisi tio n of lan guage is that of adu.ltification. If di.i s occurs, me chi.Id te nds to be treated Li ke a n equal of che parents, wi m d1em appealing to d1e child to manage, and even asking d1e child for t heir opinion on vari ous matters, Like feelings and choices they would l.i ke to m ake Some measure o f independe nce is e ncouraged by mis approacli, but far greater dependence also occurs This dep e nde nc e is pi:imaci.ly em o tional.

Emotional dependence and the perfectionist

A chi.Id manifesting perfectionism can find i t very difficLtlt to cope with perceptions of 'failure', performance that is even sligh tly below that which d1ey are capable of achievin g, and ma)' be ve r y re luctan t ro take r isks when rh e o utcome is nor certain. In a class room su c h children wi.11 not venture answers co qu es tions unless they are certain t hey are corr ect. l'vforeover, if gi ven an open -ended task they can find it extremely di fficult to kn ow where to start. They w ill often ask to b e to ld exactly wha t to do. For teachers such beh aviours see m very limiting, as m e smdeoc appears ve ry dependent.

Moreover, as the child ages a nd pa sses through high sch ool such perfectionism undermines me goal o f helping a child to ' learn co .l ear n'

The

language

of fee l ings

It is ve r y important ch at sn1dencs wid1 perfectionism lear n h ow co manage this tendency and beco m e more resilient. If they can be taug h t how to identify, articulate and rake co n trol over d1e feeli ngs assoc iated with me stress a round performance and acluevemem, th ey will have a cquired skills for life.

Th e first step is d1ac feelings muse be articulated. This is a very difficult step. Th e o nu s here l ays with me adults not d1e chi.Id. I r sounds quire easy to do - simp ly 11ame d1e feelings associated wid1 me process o f doing somethi n g where performance rea.lJy, really matters.

Managing stress

The typical respo n se from a parent or teach e r in managing m is s ituation usua.lJy ta kes d1e following fo rm: "You have tried yom: b est, just be happy wi th what you have done". " D o n 't be so upset. Just get ir done No need get ting so stressed abom it".

These responses whilst wellmeant, ate gen era.lJy worse man ineffectual. Th ey actually attempt to manage emotion wim logic or reason. The usual effec t i s to create a wi d e gap between the adL1lt and child, an d for the situation to worsen ramer dian improve. So t he question arises as ro wheth er there is a bette r an d m ore effective way wi th lo ng .lastin g e ffects Formnately, rh e simple a n swer is 'yes'

What feelings?

So what does a child fee l wh en they believe they have to produce m e pe rfect p iece of work ever y time? \'\'h at feelings are be ing

exp ressed when a child rips up work a n d starts again ? An obviou s answe r, in t he scenari o given, is th at 'the c hild feels a ngry or frustrated'. Unformnately d1e obvious answer is n ot tbe correct one. \l\lhi.ls t they may be expressing strong frustratio n , th e actual feelings leading to the frustration need to be iden tified. Behind d1e frustration, a child pro bab ly feels 1.ike mey have d isappoim ed them selves, mat they w ill be judged for letting down ome rs. This, in turn may be premised on low levels of sel f word1 Thus, ad d ressing the 'anger' and c alm in g i t acma.lJy does n or iden ti fy o r ad dress the tmder.l ying feelings.

Levelling feelings :

Three benefits

W h en a child is told h ow they are feeling - not asked how Lhey are feeling - it has mree benefits l f a parent or teacher was ab le to say, " D oin g well rea.lly matters to you. When you have high srandard s then i t is very stressful h aving to complere dungs in a short rime".

These words first tell a chi ld d1ar me adult understands d1em Th is is a very signifi cant.

Second!)', d1e acmal ar ticulation of the feelings helps to normalise the feeli n gs and als o give t hem a n ame This srateme nt s hould be followed b y a short p eriod of s ilence. At th.is time t he child norma.lJy agrees b ecause clearly they have been tmderstood and this articulatio n creates a p owerful and palpabl e sense of Lmderstandi.ng.

Lastly, the p a rent can d1en say, "And when we feel d1ese overwhelming fee lin gs d1en we can breadie slowly and calm ourselves down". ln tl1is way tl1e parent also role models cop ing strategies.

If mis pattern is foll owed, over time the child should learn

Behind the frustration, a child probably feels like they have disappointed themselves, that they will be judged for letting down others

to iden tify meir own feelings, articul a te them fo r themse lves and learn to manage the feeli n gs tl1rough self- talk and calm breathing.

A n ote of caution, however. Whils t this i s a very simple model, it is ver y difficult to app ly for a number of reasons. Firstly, in today's so ciety we are n ot u sed to having tl1e tim e requir ed ro actua.lJy wor k through the process or to even identify how we feel. Secondly, leveJJing feelings runs counter to t he dominant paradi!,>m o f managing throu gh rationalisation and .l.ogic. T hirdly, articula ting feelings cakes time and practice. Fourthly, th is type of articulation can mal,e the parent feel vul n erabl e. T h is is because tl1ey may well be managing a situatio n d i fferendy to h ow they have eve r managed prio r. A n d this can feel novel and weak. Lastl y, tl1e mode.I takes some time to perfect and thus feel.ing secure in tl1e process can take time lo summary, perfectionism can drive peop le ro a chieve to a high standard consisten tl y.

When perfectionism is associated with hig h levels of anxiety, a rational or .l ogical app roacli d oes n or help in eime r easi ng srress o r a ssistiog a child to become better at iden tifyi ng and cop ing with t he behaviour.

A n approach based on an w1derstanding of d1e underl }ring feeling tends to be more effective, and helps in self-understanding and long term coping.

Perfectionists can become stressed around deadlines and performance, if there is clutter ora sense of disorganisation or unpredictabil ity

From Tanglish to bhangra and R&B, this song has transcended boundaries of linguistics, rhythm and emotion

I'm one of those second generati_on migrants who, faced with the pressures of maint.'UJlllg culniral continuity, grew up more traditionallyociented in some ways than my r elatives in the mother countr y. I hover between diis conservatism and a radicalism ,vhich comp letely reject.~ convention. Hence, my music taste spans from deepl y conservative, class ical (o r folk) traditional styles to wildly alternative innovations on the fringe. One o f the fallouts of diis is that I never actively listened to a lot of Indian popular music except at weddings, as it was nor tradi tional enough o r alternative enough for me.

Ar the end of 2011, my brothe r 's family returned from a trip to India and o ne of the first things he aske d me was, " Have yo u heard the Kolrweri song?" I hadn't, and educated mysel f w ith YouTube clips of t he song, including a chipmw:ik version.

I wasn't mar impressed by the song. My first reaction was that it perpen1ared the racially discriminatory obsession with fair skin so prevalent in India through focusing on a 'girl with white skin' \\~th a 'black' heart as the object of love. The idea that white skin is the epitome of beauty and a black heart is a bad thing, and die kind of overt colourising of good and bad was a bit coo overt for m y liking. I may be accused of reading too much into a nonsense song, but these questions need to be asked. The sheer popularity and populism of a song which did not, to my min~ have much to ir, also annoyed me. Ok, just another blip on die Indian pop tirneline, or so l diought.

Then, a couple of months later, l picked up a copy of Indian Link from the local spice store and saw a headline about a Kolr111e,i Di flash mob on the cover. In mild s hock, I b rought it home and soon m y wife and l were on YouTube enjo)ring the Pitt St display - wel.l d one, people! But after checking our flash mobs in Auckland, Chennai, USA, Canada and Holland, we discovered d1ar the re were versions

of the song s panning different languages including Punjabi, French, Sinhala, Italian, English (as o pposed to the original 'Tanglish ') Some of these were superimposed over die original music and ochers were musicall y reshaped in to bhangra or R&B rearrangements. The linguistic and stylistic dive rsity of these different versions of die song motivated me co give di e song a second cliance, after I go t over d1e slight embarrassment that it would take such a self-evident nonsense song (or self-proclaimed ' flop song') to place Tamil adu and die Tamil language so prominently on the world stage

The original song uses mostl y Engli sh words within a simplified Tam il syntax and case endings called 'Tanglish' (for the record , I'm nor a big fan of di is term as it could be used for any mixture of English with a language beginning witb 'T' such as Telugu, Tullu, Thai , Turkish or Tagalog).

The lines are very simple and formulaic so it doesn't rake much to understand the song i f yo u can understand English and have some awareness of Indian pronunciation.

India has a rich liistory of poetry and song diat mL"Xes and moves between different languages - in south lndja this is called 111anipra11"1,m, 'lvlmil is Tamil for 'ruby' and 'pravdld is Sanskrit for ' coral', depicting d1e high aesthetic regard given to such poetry. The word 111t111ipmvtil"m is also used in contemporary Tamil co refer to

code-switching ~1r d1e mixing of languages in conversa tion, which is very common across India and the world over. The interspersion of English words into Tamil conversation is deepl y entrenched, particularly in Chennai where loan words which end in consonant.~ are often followed by die vowel u, making them fir into South Indian pronunciation. This featLtre is called vowel epenthesis and occurs even in Tamil whe re words such as pal (tooth) , sol (speak), 11w11 (dirt) and /fr (country) become pal/11, sol/11, t11a111111 and 1im in d1e spo ken Taniil of various parts of Tamil adu. This same change o ccurs to English words w hich end on consonanrs like girl (girl-11), skin (skin-11) etc. And it only happens in the South, highlighting the regional flavour of the language of the song

The other language versions of Kolaueti are equally interesting. Amongst my fa vourites is one of the Sinhala versions (of at least three!) called 1'1etre song which appears to be about some misadventure in vol ving a taxi or auto -rickshaw metre. While 1 expect a degree of ridicul ousness from die clip and the insobriety of the singers' voices, I am intrigued as to how it's all lyrically strung together The English R&B version of Ho)J) cott!dJ•ou df/ this to ,,,e b y the UK -based Tamil background singer Arjllll is also interesting, because i t draws on die catcliiness of the tune and restyles it w ith an R&B touch.

Arjuo's version coolifies the lyrics, replacing the 'Tanglish' 'flop song' vibe w ith something more in keeping with an R&B song (to make the point, his YouTube clip begins with a d isclaimer: 1 don't usually do diis type of song ) Then the re's die Punjabi bhangra ve rsion whjcli is lots o f fun too. The different vers ions show how the sentiment of being str uck down by love in the Tamil word kolave1i Qiterally 'murderous rage ') is various ly adapted and reinterpreted.

While many of the versions and flash mobs have come from the lndian diaspo ra living abroad, the flash mob hdd in H o lland by the G ya s Groningen rowing team breaks d1a t mould, enacted by non-Indian looki ng performers. The whole performance confounds several preconceived ideas (well, at least mine) about music, id entity and language, and so is worth cbecking out. It l ooks like the performers are taking the song way too seriously and parod ying it at the same time. Whatever it is, a Im of thought has gone into ir a nd clearly die 'Tanglish' i s accessible enough to make the dramatisations hilarious. When m y brother's family visited LI S in Canberra ove r Easter, this time it was us showing them Kolaueri clips and the Durch version had us all in stitches

Thanks to the Sydney Aash mob, l revisited rliis nonsense song and took d1e time to see it th.rough fresh len s, en joying ics different

manifestations Ok, ir is quire catchy and l admit rliar it often gees played in Ollf house (in one or more of irs different versions) between our varied appetite of class ical and foll<, traditional and hybrid, sacred and silly music. The linguistic and cultural aspects of the manifestation s of the song continue ro intrjgue me, and may do so for a while yet. I've now djscovered diar there is a Kolaveripedia which is documenting the global spread of Kolaveri across India and the world, including an l SKCON vers ion w ith the "Hare Krishna" mantra.

While its status as a 'Tamil' song may be debatable, Kolaveri is definitely d1e pr oduct of a Tamil language setting, and it has been embraced across India and die world like dosai. This fills me w id1 a mixed sense of pride and embarrassmenr (about Kol,,veri, not dos111l), but that's popular cu.ltLtre for you The other interesting fallout has been a debate it has inspired about the integrity of language manifest in a '.Jaffna' ve rsion of the song in prosaic Tamil asking (die authors and fans) why ' m y Tamil language' has been subject to a murdero us rage (en Tamizp 111ozpi Jllel 1makkift1 inda kolaveri dd). And with a foot in tradition al revivalism and another in tmbridled hybrid ity, I find m ysel f appreciating the creative expression on bodi sides of the debate, and hopping on die Kol111,c1i bandwagon.

All the murderous rage about a linguistic curiosity

Just like a haircut where you choose a cue ch at suits yo ur face, it is important co keep in mind the shape of rour face and featu res before tweezing o r threading your eye brows into a certain shape. Some fo lks are lucky - they have perfectl y shaped eyes and brows Bm for those who don't, it is possibl e to make the mos t of what they have Here is a guide on do's and don'ts to make sure your eyebrows frame yo ur eyes perfectly.

in brows. The natural shape is a ge ntle curve, and if there is a peak in die middle or towards tl,e latter half, it can make yo u look harsh and stern.

1

If yo u have thick eyebrows, ir is better co keep them chat way and not shape th em to become pencil tl,in. Really dun eyebrows make a person lo ok o ld er. Yo u sho uld co n sider thinner eyebrows (and even th at should be in moderation) only if yo u h ave a narrow forehead and very thic k brows

2

The ideal shape fo r eyebrows should be thick at the stare, dunning out in the middle in proporr.ion and gradually tapering out cowards die corner of the eye. Whatever the t hickness of your b rows, try and retain this shape. Also, avoid angular shape

5

If yo m eyebrows meet in the centre above yo ur nose (essentiall y tl,e spot where yo u place a b indi), you have co ensure tl,at there is a gap between your brows The ideal ga p should be a little more than tl,e wid di of your index finger. Clearing up this space can open up the area and make your face brighter.

3

If you have natmally scanty eyeb rows or hair d 1at d oesn't grow close togedier, fill in tl,e gaps with an eyebrow pencil. :Most women grm7 itate towards black eye pencil s but ideally a dark brown works better. Use i t to fill in colour where the h air is sp ars e - usually at die end or th e start of the eyebrows. You can a lso consider using waterproof pencils if it's a hot day.

6

If you decide to have highlights m your ha1r, make su re you lighten your eyebrows too. I do n't mean go blond e on yom face, but you can opt for a dark s hade of brown ro lighten your brows

4

A !or of women have naturally long eyebrmvs II dieir peepers below are large and tl1ickly lashed , tl,ey look wonderful - case in point, Deepika Padukone. Bm if you have really thick and long brows, bur a small face an d sm a ll d eep set eyes, it is better to thin them out a b it. You can take one line of hair off, but from die top of tl, e eyebrow, not below.

7

Make- up artists recommend p lucking eyebrows with a tweezer over direading or waxing them into shape A tweezer helps yo u decide the shape better a nd you can isolate the hair you wane to remove. A lso, if you have a do co attend in die mid dl e of the week, you can pluck o m the extra hair and maintain a well-g roomed appearance

8 Along w ith your eyes, it i s important to have well-shaped eyebrows. Keep a good tweezer handy and if you have a sp aci ous batllfoom where you can keep a magnifyi ng m ir ror l ike they have in hotel rooms, you can keep your brows in good shape at all times.

Casual j oumalists

So yo u have a passion for writing Indian Link News paper is seeking reporters in your city, to cover Indian community events, as well a s India-re l ated events in the mainstream.

Having been successfully operating in Sydney for the past 17 and Melbourne for the pas t 10 years, Indian Lin k has now established a presence in B risbane, Adel aide and Perth.

We would like YOU to be part of o ur exciting growth! App ropriate remunerations paid.

Whether you have large almond shaped eyes or not, the shape ofyour brows can enhance your peepers. Here is a gu ide on how to make sure your eyebrows frame your eyes perfectly.

Langu.idly reclining under a lai:ge beac h umbrella at the Independence Hore!, a tanned wellrounded Russian puffs on a Cuban cigar, while his glamorous companion wears a bored expression as she gazes out to sea With a long crescent shaped beach, clear blue sky, casuarinas and swa)~og coconut palms, this could be anywhere hot and exotic, except that we three are the onl)' guests

Could this really be Cambodia? ln a cow1try renowned for the temp les of Angkor Wat, the Mekong river and the museums, temples and palaces found in th e capital Phnom Penh, the lesser known coastal resort towns are an unexpected find for those travellers who take a trip off the beaten track.

Sihanoukville bas srwming white sand beaches, budget guesthouses, rustic ourdoor beach front restamwts, a national park and diving excmsions to nearby is lands including the Bamboo and Monkey islands that are teeming with marine life. Given Can1bodia's recent history, the resurgence of Sih anoukville is remarkab le. In tbe early 1960s, a port was builr and a town created, named after King Norodom Sihanouk. Then came the Vi etnam War followed by the Khmer Rouge who murdered l. 7 million people, almost ever yo ne in t he country w ho possessed wealth or an education Their holiday homes and resort hotels were abandoned and fell into ruin.

Also in d1e '60s the Independence Hotel was S ihanoukville's premier resort, and many celebrities stayed here. Exuding a retro 007 James Bond a mbience with t he classic sounds of FranJ~ Sinatra coming from the bar, and black and white photographs of Jackie Kennedy who scayed here in 1967, I felt myself taken back in time. Ir was lmv season and the mysterious Russian couple and I had the opulent, fully-restored hotel to ourselves.

After breakfast, being d1e only g u est faced wid1 choosing from a lavis h buffet selection, I asked the Duey ]\l[anager if I could walk ro all beaches in a day. ''Yes, ok!" was his reply. Unconvinced d1ar he had fully 1mderstood m y question, I set off with a tourist map. After several kilometres I neared a fishing village at the end of a peninsula. Young schoolgirls indicated I had come too far and practising their English,

walked me back ro the right pad1. Sokha Beach has a beautiful white san d beach, a spacious resort and a handful of guests. Then past the famous Golden Lion roundabout, internet cafes, bars and massage parlours to die ma.in beaches of Serendipity and Ochheuteal. Here you will find guesiliouses wiili rooms from USS3 and beach.front restaurants w ith raised bamboo p latforms where local families sit to enjoy BBQ seafood. The furthest, Orres Beach is the prertiest ai1d least touristy, d1e guesd10uses still more rustic.

I found the bucolic laidbad{ charm char I h ad come in sea rch of several hours away along the coast in Kep, where Phnom Penh 's elite established a retreat in the first half of the 20d1 century. The )' built modernist mansions many in the style of Le Corb u sie r, some now sympathetically restored ai1d turned into lrnmry residences o r boutique hotels. Ald10ugh the narrow beach in Kep fronts a retaining wall and is less spectacular t han the beaches of Sihanoukville, the town has an appealing relaxed feel to it. For tlle days I spent here, I cycled from Kep Lodge, a delightful p lace widi bungalow:, set in a lush tropical garden on a hillside, ro the waterfront crab market and along the headland for a tasty vegetable curry at Brise De Kep restaurant an d guesthouse. l took a boat ride co nearby Rabbit Island and after circumnavigating it, in die company of two young New Zealanders, spent several hours relaxing in a hamnmck until the fishing boat rernrned There are a lso waterfalls and pepper plwtations to explore along a series of hiking trails. 1 took a trip to the dusry town of Ka m pot w id1 its yellow and wbite French colonial buildings co Bokor Mou.main, d1e sire of an abandoned hill station built by the French in 1922 wid1 the ruins of a Catholic Church, h otel and casino abandoned since 1972. It i s an ee rie haunting pbce surrOLmded by d1ick impenetrable fog where many Cambodians ,vere executed bi7 the Khmer Rouge. A Chinese company is building a massive casino and turning die road leading up there into a highway.

lf you can get beyond the bars, massage parlours, too man)' ruk tuk drivers in search of a fare and aging westerners w it!, long white pon)rtails riding nois y moto rbikes, Si hanoukville has a lot to offer, but for me, Kep is one of d10se special places d1at l think of ofte n. Cambodia's so uth ern coast is well worth the detour.

TRAVEL NOTEBOOK

CAMBODIA'S COASTAL RESORTTOWNS

GETTING THERE SingaporeAirli nes, Ma laysiaA irlines,Air Asia, Tha i AirwaysorVietnamA irli nes fly to Cambodia Jetstar Asia and BangkokAirways also fly there From Phnom Penh buses departfrequentlyfor both Sihanoukv illeand Kep. Journey t ime is under4 hours. Many travellers also arrive in Sihano ukvi ll eby bus from Bangkok, taking around 9 hours. Kepis Yerycloseto Vietnam and traYelling onto Phu Quoc Island is high ly recommended WHERE TO STAY The top beachfrontchoice in Sihanoukville in the 1960s, the Independence Hotel has been given a stylish redo. 855-34-943-300; www. independencehotel.net In Kep, Kep Lodge provides bicycles. and mea lstaken in the openair dining room are a highl ight 855-092-435-330; www.keplodge.com Other choices include the Beach House, La Villa de Monsieur Thomas a restored colon ial vi Ila, and the Veranda Natura l Resort.

are

SEEKING GROOMS SEEKING BRIDES

Seeking suitable match from Australia, never married, for Hindu girl 34 years, Chartered Accountant (non-veg), li ving in Austra lia for over 25 years, with eastern and western family values. Please email with all details on ga nesh2011 v@gmail.com

Punjabi groom sought for beautiful Hindu Punjabi girl, 40 years, 5'4"height, Australian citizen, divorced (no kids) and holding teaching qualifications (taught in Austra lian and UK schools). In terest Invited from qualified boys settled in Australia Please contact girl's brother on 0406 948 892. Match required for my sister, 5 ' 2'; 34 years, never married, beautiful, slim, fair complexion, double degree holder, and Aust citizen, working in family busines s. We are a Punjabi Khatri family, settled in Melb. Caste no bar. Please send bio data and photo to matri@hotmail.co uk

Paren t s seeking match for A ustralian-born (1975) good looking Punjabi girl, medical professional working in SA Prefer Australian citizen or long-settl ed r esidents with good profession. Serious proposal only contact mandy_sing@hotmail.com

Well educated Punjabi family seeks professionally qualified well settled match for th eir Austra lian citizen daughter, 27 years, 5'4", fair sl i m traditiona l Indian/ Western values, highly educated, Master ofTeaching and MBA from Australian universities. Working as project officer in well reputed company Please email particulars with recent picture to schanderchopra@hotmail. com or ca ll 02 9760 1832 / 0431 289 442.

Seeking match from Australia /overseas, for ta 11, handsome guy 41, graduate employed, good family values, non- smoker, nondrinker. Interested l adies wit h good family values may please email particulars with recent photo to: smartg uy213023@yahoo.com

Well settled famil y in Australia invites alliance for 29-year -old, 5"11, Sood Punjabi boy (Aust citizen ), wor king as a Senior IT consultant for the Austra lian govt on high income. Seeking I ndian girl, caste no bar. Please send bio data/particulars of girl t o aumohindra@gmail.com

Seeking graduate Hindu girl for well established 5•10·: very fair 21/11/1968 born Australian citizen. Never married. BE(Electrical) self employed. Vegetarian non-smoker teetota ll er Please emai l profile with photo to anandrao68@gmail.com

Compatible match for 1975, h andsome, clean-shaven Sikh Khatri boy, 5'9': two post grad degrees from India and recently finished Masters in IT from Australia. Applied for temp orary r esident visa (currently with full work rights) and working as Vehicle Service Agent for Hertz multinational car rental company, earning $4000 per month. Girl should be tall, well- educated with pleasing personality, and must be from Sikh background. Early marriage; serious proposa Is only please.

Phone 0422 102 242 or email jas ghai01@gmail.com

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SECRETS OF THE HSC.

In thi s article, Richar d Chua explains what to expect in your HSC and how to succeed i n it. Richard graduated from Sydney Gramma r in 2001, with a UAI of 100.00 (ATAR equiv. 99.95) and holds a degree in Commerce and Law from UNSW

Every Decemeber 60,000 students anxiously await their HSC resu lts wandering whether their hard year's work will be e no u gh t o get them into University Small differences in ATAR can make the difference between admission and rejection.

However many of the HSC's top performers p re pare well in adva n ce to ensure their success. In th is art icle, we look at 4 secrets to p reparing for yo ur HSC.

1 Choose the ri ght subjects, and understandi ng scaling

Perhaps the most important cons ideration for students is to understand h ow each of you r subject scales. Most stu dents will be fami liar with the fact t hat mark s in difficult subjects, like Maths Ext 2. get "p ushed up ", whi lst marks in other subjects l ike Legal Stud ies w ill get "pushed down",

However you need to know much more than th is.

If you understand sca ling properly, you can actua lly breakdown any ATAR into a particula r mark or rank in each subject Below, we list a tab le of the highest scaling subjects in t he HSC. and what you need to score i n each subject to achieve an ATAR of 95/97/99.

2. Expect at least ONE bad assessment

Many students get disheartened when they see ONE bad assess m e nt result. Some student s decide to "drop' subjects premature ly or pan ic and believe they are no lon ger capable in that subject.

However you sh ould expect t o have at least ONE bad assessment. A bad assessment does not necessarily mean you are weak in th e subject. Rather, with rough ly 5 assessments per subject, you will be doing betwee n 30-36 assessment and exa m tasks i n the year. Realist ically, you are bou nd to have a sub-par performance i n at least a few of those assessments.

CATEGORY HIGHEST SCALING SUBJECT DECISION RULES

MATHS Maths Ext 1 & 2

ENGLI S H Advanced or Higher

S C IENCE Physics and Chemsit ry

HUMANITIES Econom ics & Modern Histo ry

TA LE NT1 00

w/www tal en t-100.com .au p / 1300 999 100

3U and 4U Maths are by far, the highest scaling subjects t hat are readily accessible students Because of their high sca ling. you shou d take the h ighest level of mathematics that you are capab le of. For i nstance, to be on target for an ATAR of 99+, you only need to be ave rage 1n 4U Maths whereas you would need to b e in the top 4% of 2U Maths Where possible you shou ld take at least advanced Engli sh The hig her English as a group, scale well above Standard E nglish For i nstance, students who scor ed In the 25% of Advance recei ve scores higher than those students who score n the top 1% of standard. Physics and Chemistry are t he highest scali ng sciences and scal e significantly better than biology

Humanities are generally quite subjective, a nd tend to scale lower Economi c s Is the h ighest scaling humanity readi ly available. followed by Modern History Ancient H istory, Busi ness Stud es, Commerce and Legal Studies scale even l ower st ll

In order to score 99 ATAR, you ne ed to be ranked In the top + 57% of Maths Ex t 2 + 25% of Maths Ext 1 + 5% in Chemistry, Physics and Eng lish

In order to score 97 ATAR, you need to be ranked In t he t op + 80% of Maths Ex t 2 + 47% of Maths Ext 1 + 12% o f Chemistry

+ 11% Physics and Adv E ng l sh

In order to score 95 ATAR, you need to be ran ked in the top + go% o f Maths Ext 2 + 60% o f Maths E xt 1 + 18% or Chemistry + 16% Physics and Adv Engli sh For a full explanation of scaling, please see www talent-100.eom.au/ hsc-study-guide php or regi ster for our free Scaling Seminar (Jan 15,16, 29, 30)

If a single assessment is weak. don' t panic. Understand that t he assessments increasing i n weighting all the way up until the HSC exam (which counts for 50% of your fi nal mark) so you can always make up lost ground. Und erstand that the final HSC exam will count as much as everything you do In school put together.

3 Ta ke a spare subject

Although your HSC is only scored from your 10 best uni ts , it i s best to take a spare subject, or take 11-12 units. Some students think that taking 10 units w i ll g ive them extra time to study.

Whilst there is some meri t in this this is a r isky strategy. It ass u mes that you wil l be ab le to execut e your exams flawlessly.

If you take 10 unit s and you perform badly i n one subject, you will be forced to count that subject In contrast. ta ki ng an extra subjects give you " insurance" - even if you pe rform badly in one subject, you'l l be able to include you r 'spare subject' instead.

4 A c celerate you r leamin g

A growing trend among many of the HSC's top performers is to accelerate part of thei r HSC in Year 11. In particular, m any schools

(such as Sydney Boys and Normanhurst) are encouraging the ir Year 11 Maths students to sit the 2 Unit Maths Exam whilst in Year 11. Other schools , like Baulkham Hills High School, allow Year 11 students to sit Econom ics.

The p hilosophy behind th is is straight-forward. If you can comp lete 2-4 units successful ly in Year 11, you will have much more time to devote to your subjects in Year 12. Effectively, these students have a massive advant age over their peers, as they are able to sit the HSC over t wo yea rs.

ConverselY, there is very little risk. If you don't perform well in the HSC in Year 11, you can simply sit the same subject again in Year 12

Our concise, straight-forwa rd and resul ts-focused approach has hel ped the Talent 100 students perform at the top of Sydney's best private and se lect ive schools If you would like to know more information about scaling, or woul d like a FREE THREE W EEK

T RI AL of any of ou r co u rses•, please contact us on 1300 999 10 0 , email lnfo@talent-lOO.com.au or visit our websi te.

Teen treats

Active youngsters can find creativity in cuisine these school holidays

24 shore bamboo skewe rs or long coothpicks

1 tbsp olive oil

Sea salt to tasre (for a variation, try smoked salt)

Freshl y ground pepper

with M&Nfs and fenced with Kitkats I wanted it, and badly! I made myself this yummy, impracrical, fattening delight for Eid. Bur it was easy to mal{e and casted absolutely out of this world.

he school ho]jdays have begun and we all k.now that somerimes it equates to adults scramb ling for acriviries and teens getting quickly bored at home.

\\7ell, the re's a solurion to that - a fun, easy solurion. Cooking! And no l don't mean it in an Auncyji kind of way, "Beta, learn how to make do/ l'Oti for your marriage!" Cooking is an excell ent form of de-stressing and results in some fabulous results (when done correctly)

So here's a few recipes for the teenagers in school holidays. The comple,'City level is zero so anyone can do these and learn the basics of getting .in and around the kitchen w ith minimal damage. They are quick easy and fun, and very very yummy. Enjoy!

Cuwrnber lemon and mint drink

One of m y favourite nonalcoholic- make- anycime-an ywhere drinks for spring, this is a Lig h t and easy concocrion that cleanses the palate and sootl1es the soul.

1. Fill half a glass with lemonade

2. Chop up a handful of mint and a quarter of a cucw11ber into th in slices and drop into tbe glass

3. Top up with soda or sparkli ng water

4. Cuc a wedge of lemon or lime and perch on rim before serving Easy. Fresh and fantasric!

caprese on a sti,k

These nibbles can be used as snacks or an encree, and are quick, easy and fun to make and eat. Younger children can help in making tl1ese, provided the skewers are not too sharp. Use furn, ripe cherry tomatoes and good -quality fresh mozzarella for these salad skewers. They are perfect for that movie marathon you have organised for ten friends (Beware, they are so good - lo o king your mum might gee you co make these for her ne,'<t big patty)

24 grape or cherry tomatoes

24 mecliwi1 - sized basil leaves

250 gms fresh mozzarella, drained, cue imo I -inch cubes (cry bocc~mcini, or better scill, baby bocconci ni, you won't have to cue d1em)

INDIAN LINK

Thread one tomato, a basil leaf and a cube of mozzarella onto each skewer. Repeat the pr ocess until all 24 skewers are ready. Lay the skewers on a serving platter. Drizz le olive o il over tl1em and spr inkle generously with salt and pepper. Serve at room temperature.

•••• .............

Can you Otonelloni

l Jove pasta. l absolutely love it.

I know it's earing a bowlfu l of carbs and its usual partner in crime is a stringy, soft, yummy melted cheese which isn't tha t great for you either, but when i t comes co cannelloni I can't help m yself! So here is a quick and easy recipe to try at home and enjoy all those carbs and cheese! In moderarion that is, and don't repeat the d ish for at lease rwo weeks

500m.l tomaco paste or pasta sauce

600g ricotta cheese (low- fat, if desired)

250g cooked mince Oamb or bee0

2 tbsp Rat-leaf pars ley, chopped

2 tbsp basil, chopped

1 egg

½ cup grated parmesan

Salr and cracked black pepper co caste

1 cup grated low fat mozzarella San Remo readymade cannelloni

Preheat oven to 190°C. Lightly grease a 20cm x 28cm x 4cmhigh ovenproof dish. Pour in a quarter portion of the comaco paste, spreading evenly over base of dish. Keep as ide. Place ricotta, mince, parsley, basil, parmesan, egg, salt and pepper in a large bowl and mix co combine. Take each cannelloni tube and stuff witb the r icotta mixture. Lay tubes side b y side in the dish.

Spoon over the rest of the mmato paste to coat tl,e tubes, using enough to suit your preference. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheeses and bake for 25 minutes or uncil golden. Serve warm with a green salad.

••••••••••••••••••••

Chocolatey Chocolate Cake

I saw a picntre on Iostagram and T fell in love. It was of a choco late cake with chocolate icing topped

Chocolate cake mix (vou can make it from scratch, but why reinvent the wheel?)

I pack (350gms) M&Ms

I pack of 12 medium sized Kitkat chocolate bars

For the chocolate icing

I cup icing sugar

1 esp cocoa

1 tbsp butter or margarine

I tbsp milk

Bake the chocolate cake from the mix, as per the inscrucrions on the pack. Leave to coo l on a wire rack Prepare the chocolate icing b y mixing together all tl1e ingredients to form a smood, consis tency. Next, transfer to a serving dish and ice the top and sides evenly with the icing mix.

Before the icing sets, quickly but evenl y d ress the top with M&Ms scarring from tl1e outside edge of the cake, making a concentrk circle in a different co lour unril you reach the centre

Ensure that you leave at least a centimetre gap from the edge of die cake and the outermost concentric circle Gen tly fence me s ides with Kitkats. Leave to sec and th en serve

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

Sridevi is a sensation

It's been a long, long time since Sridevi graced the big screen, but she is now back with a vengeance, and we can all expect to see much more of the versatile actress. Sridevi is in the news for English Vinglish that marks her comeback onto the big screen after 15 years. And it's not just fans who are queuing upto see the actress, Bollywood's best are also waiting for her re-debut.

Amitabh Bachchan, who saw a preview version ofthe film, recently tweeted that Sri's performance left him in tears.

Film-maker Ram Gopal Verma (RGV) said: "Ca n't wait (for the movie to release). For first time in 20 years, ever since I became a director, I am going to stand in a line and buy a ticket to see Sridevi:'

And actor Anil Kapoor insists that his sister-in-law and co-star Sridevi is one of the best actresses of recent times. "She is a complete actress. I have done a lot of films with her and in the last many, many years, I think she is the best;'the 52-yearold said re cently. Anil and Sridevi worked together in the past with successes like Mr. India, Laadla and Judaai.

Sridevi is married to Anil's elder brother Boney Kapoor who, says the buzz around Bollywood, is planning a sequel to his 1987 hit production venture Mr. India. Naturally, Anil is expected to be a part of the sequel, and perhaps, so wil l Sridevi.

English Vingish wil l release soon, produced by R Balki and directed by his wife Gauri Shinde, who makes her debut with the film. It will see 49-year-ol d Sridevi playing housewife Shashi, who is bullied by her children for her poor

GUESS WHO?

command over the English l anguage. So get ready for what is likely to be a sensational performance from Sridevi!

Vyjaya nth ima Ia's comeback call!

Yesteryear actress Vyjayanthimala Bali has decided to return to the world of grease paint after 42 years, but only for Sandeep Malani's issue-based movie Janleva 555. All of76 and still going strong, Vyjayantimala last appeared in the 1970 release of Ganwaar, and urges everyone to "watch this one of its kind film''.

The actress will be seen in a two to three minutes'video to be played before the film, which talks about how to save cobra bitten children in villages. Janleva 555 has been made to support and help acquire venti lator systems for the hospitals, said the veteran actress and added, "First of all it is a great thought and it's very useful for the people in the villages, and especially children, who die of snake bites''.

"This kin d of ventilator system to save children dying of snake bites is a very noble task and I appreciate this work. I wish the makers of the film all the success and I request everybody to please watch the film because it will be one of its kind,"the actress said in a statement.

Although Kalpana Pandit, who produced the film and also plays a pivotal role in it, is reluctant to discuss details, she is clearly thrilled at Vyjayanthimala's contribution. "There can be no bigger blessing for my maiden home production Janleva 555 than receiving the good wishes of the first original superstar of Ind ian cinema," she said, adding, "She has given a social message in a special video, which will be shown before the beginning ofthe film. The two to three minutes' video of superstar Vyjayanthimala will have a critical medical message for cobra bitten ch il dren. I can't reveal much about the subject. You will understand it once you wil l watch the film:'

Janleva 555 also features Anant Nag and Akash Hora and is scheduled for a mid-October release. Kudos to Vyjanthima l a for taking on the mantl e of mentor for a good cause!

Vivek a modern Gabbar Singh?

ActorVivek Oberoi has played many roles but his latest one for Krrish 3 is the most challenging, describe d as "Gabbar Singh of our times". Vivek plays the baddie for a change, and he 's excited about the role.

"I am really very, very excited about Krrish 3. It's a really cool, bad character and it's a ro le of a l ifetime It's like a Gabbar Singh of our times, so I am very

He played a young Mahatma Gandhi in a critically acdaimed film (Find the a n swer under Caption Con t est)

excited;' said the 36-year- old actor.

Directed by Rakesh Roshan, Krrish 3 is a sequel to the 2006-superhero flick Krrish, featuring Hrithik Roshan in the lead. And to balance the badness, Vivek's romantic-comedy Kismet, Love, Paisa, Di/Ii wil l release soon Vivek has also been working on Zilla Ghaziabad, and romantic comedy Jayanta Bhai Ki Luv Story Seems like Vive k's spreading his wings a bit - always a good sign of a competent actor

Delhi Safari set to be the whole trip

It boasts of actors like Akshaye Khanna, Govinda, Suniel Shetty, Boman Irani and Urmila Matondkar, so it's little wonder that director Nikhil Advani is so thri ll ed about his film Delhi Safari. The movie is a bilingual stereoscopic 3D animation film and apparently a complete entertainer, packed with great music.

"It (Delhi Safari) has got fun, lots of tamasha (drama), lots of energy and lots of great music;' Nikhil said recently at the movie's music launch.

And with the impressive line of voiceovers, he may indeed be right.

Nikhil Advani, known for directing Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Kai Ho Naa Ho, has dedicated Delhi Safari to his 6-year-old daughter Keya

"It's a proud moment, she (Keya) is not allowed to watch the other movies I have made;' said Advani, whose last directorial was Patia/a House. Good luck to the movie, wishing it all success!

Akshay's healthy heart tip

"Eat before sunset for healthy difference," says Akshay Kumar, and he should know. The actor is counted among the fittest men in tinsel town, and he recently shared the secret of his fitness. "Onl y one ru l e which I have fol lowed in my life, which I would like to share, is to eat your food before sunset. It will make a lot of difference;' said the 45-yearold actor, who became a secondt i me dad recently.

He spoke on the sidelines of Happy Heart Carnival held to celebrate the World Heart Day at SL Raheja Hospital in Mumbai.

The actor asserts people shou l d be carefu l of thei r food intake "It i s very important to take care of yourself and your fami l y. I would advise al l of you to just be careful of what you eat;' he said to the audience.

Akshay is trained in martial arts and he maintains a regular fitness regime. He prefers to indulge in outdoor games and sports to keep himself fit and fine, and believes that yoga, meditation and martial arts help in staying physically fit as well as bring menta l ba l ance. Words of wisdom indeed!

Raw Indian music rev ival

It's hard to remember the last

, time a Hindi film song resonated to the clear sound of a harmonium or a flute, thanks to the introduction of technologically advanced synthesisers and other recording equi pment. But many composers are now str i ving to bring back the lost char m of raw Indian music.

Composers like Sneha Khanwa l kar and Ajay-Atul or Indian Ocean 's vocalist Rahul Ram have experimented by bringing back the rawness in their music and have succeeded in striking the right chords with the youth, without adopting western tunes.

Khanwal kar is the woman behind the distinct music in Anurag Kashyap's Gangs of Wasseypur and her songs,/ am a hunter, Womaniya and Chhi chha ledar have a blend of rustic beats, wit h local fo l k singers adding up to the regional flavour. The music is desi to its core Sneha believes in spending time with the artists and using their true talent.

"If a song is based in one place, that place has its own quality People have their own of way of thinking and talking, which is different from how we think in the city. So it is important to know how they sing and render their music;' said Khanwa l kar

"It is only after you know the place that you w i ll be able to imbibe its quality in t he song. If the director of the film is going all out to depict something skilfully, then I just try to do the same thing with the music of the film;' she added, pointing out to Kashyap's knack of bringing the real as is on reel.

Ajay-Atul, who composed music for Karan Johar's remake of Agneepath, tr i ed to retain the charm of raw music with compositions li ke Chikni chameli and Gun gun guna. They recorded the songs with live instruments.

Chikni chameli is the Hindi version of their Marathi hit Kombadi pa/a// Singer Sukhwinder Singh, who recently visited Australia on tour and has done playback in Prakash Jha's upcoming movie Chakravyuh as well as sang for Ekta Kapoor's Kyaa Super Kool Hain Hum, feels 90 per cent of the composers are making music by modern ways while the rest 10 percent try to retain the old charm.

" We used dumroos in Hum hai cappuccino in Kyaa Super and in one of the songs in Chakravyuh, we have instruments that Naxalites generally use to make their music. So good work is sti ll happening in the industry," Singh said. And it is important too, as he feels " you have to be extraordinary to make a place for yoursel f in Bollywood'.'

The music of Akshay Kumarstarrer Rowdy Rathore also boasts of regional music with songs like Aa re pritam pyaare and Chinta ta ta, which find inspiration from the south. Also, remember the chartbusters Des mera and Mehangai dayan from Aamir Khan 's Peepli Uve?

The lyrics and music were composed by the Indian Ocean band, and

Priyanka: Now that our fi Im Barfi's done well, do you think we can let go and have half a barfi in celebration?

Ileana: Ok, I will if you will. ...

Ratna Panjabi Subiaco,WA

Ratna wins a double pass for new Hind i fi lm English Vinglish

immediately struck a chord with the viewers.

Though the Indian version of Coke Studio of Pakistan has hel ped in reviving the old world charm in a big way, Ram feels Coke Studi o is even more raw

" Coke Studio Pakistan has given us an impetus - we are nowhere cl ose to that. They have managed to retain the rawness;• he sai d.

"In India, I feel Coke Stud i o is overproduced. It's become too slick," he added.

One hopes the trend does not translate to the big screen!

(966 L 'DWJD4DW a4J JO 6Uf>(DW a41) JO Ode)! l !(el:! WHM SS3n9 Ol JaMSU\{

Last issue Caption Contest winning entry

A naked look at Bolly_wood shenannigans ______

Somewhere deep within the corroding flamboyance of filmdom, there is a tale of heartbreaking compromises and immorality tucked away from the naked, tearless eye. Madhur Bhandarkar nearly gets to the nerve centre of that world, and then pulls back just before he's really gotten there.

Heroine is an intriguingly unfinished film - partly in the rapidfire mood of a game show and partly like an elegiac melody played gently on an antique piano with immaculate fingers. It lacks a centre, sometimes even a focus as it tries to cram in too many incidents, episodes, scandals, controversies and plain absurdities that are an integral part of Bollywood, so much so that the first hour or so gets suffocatingly airtight.

And then you realize towards the end, that the world of the superstar Mahi Arora traps the star, makes her a puppet of success, traps her in a web of deceit and finally throws her into a whirlwind of vaporous deceptions.

The closing moments have that gut-wrenching element which made Bhandarkar's Chandni Bar, Page 3 and Fashion among the more sensitive

dramas in recent times.

We see Mahi, shattered forlorn and bereft, trapped in a car surrounded by merciless television journalists. As the haunting background score by Salim-Sulaiman builds up to a shattering crescendo, Mahi's hands fold together in a plea of mercy. In moments our hearts bleed for Mahi.

God help those who are cursed with stardom. They first have to struggle to get there.

And then they must continue to fight to cling to their place.

And then, as Govind Namdeo playing Mahi's quietly faithful secretary tells her: "An actress' life-span is by its very nature limited''.

Not that we haven't heard such wisdom on the show world before. The dialogues could have been far more powerful. Instead they try to shock with a casual candour that fails to ignite the scenes.

Kareena Kapoor in the best performance of her career so far, leads Mahi's character through the murky labyrinth of ambition, rivalry and selfdestructive tricks of survival in the rat race. Though her character is inconsistent (suffering, we are told, from bipolar disorder or is it just the writer's vagaries?) Kareena furnishes the heroine's character

with a rare vulnerability and an exceptional inner life.

In the film's rawest moments when the star's mask peels off completely, Kareena's face shows that stricken expression of naked panic and abject solitude that one last saw in the performance ofTabu in Mira Nair's The Namesake after her husband's sudden death.

Stardom kills you bit by bit. Kareena bravely undertakes Mahi Arora's perilous journey from the top to the bottom of the star-ladder. This is Kareena's most fearless performance to date.

Interestingly this is the second film in three weeks where a desperate falling star resorts to the dirtiest of measures to retrieve her stardom. Raaz ki baat to yeh hai ki Heroine sidesteps all the cliches of the film industry even while plonking the plot pat into those predictable places.

So does Bhandarkar's film exaggerate the sham that underlines the shindig of showbiz? The answer is, yes. Heroine is guilty of gross excesses. There are too many unnecessary characters, specially in the first-half bustling around in clumsily staged ramp shows, awards functions and filmy parties claiming our attention.

Once Bhandarkar and his co-

writers Manoj Tyagi, Nilanjan lyenger and Anuradha Tiwary get over their look-we-knowshowbiz-in-and-out fetish, the narrative finally settles down to tel ling us Mahi's story vis-a-vis the two men in her life, the star Aryan Khanna (Arjun Rampa!) and the cricketer Angad Pal (Randeep Hood a).

Though Rampal's character reminded me of Arbaaz Khan in Bhandarkar's Fashion, both are characters despite their uni-dimensional nature and are brought to life by two of our most interesting actors today.

At least three other standout performances that burnish Bhandarkar's flawed but fabulous film are those by Divya Dutt playing Mahi's ruthless business manager who occasionally surprises herself by feeling real emotions for the fast-fading actress, Ranveer Shorey as the eccentric egomaniacal arthouse filmmaker from Bengal and Shahana Goswami as Mahi's Bengali co-actor in one of the film's finest episodes when Mahi, in a defiant attempt to show she is star who can act, has a disastrous trust with realistic cinema.

In fact, Shahana and Kareen a share some of the film's most special moments. Bhandarkar over-juices some of the film's sensual possibilities, underdevelops some of the more engrossing characters, for example the yesteryears' star played by Helen.

The love-making scenes are done fitfully and hastily. And the dialogues (most of them sounding profound without actually meaning anything really substantial) are spoken by the actors in the tone of a radio play. But Heroine still works, and works wonderfully in some places. There's an inconsistency to the storytelling that works effectively in putting the protagonist's deeply flawed and fractured character into a pulsating perspective wherein we can no longer distinguish between the fatal flaws of the main character and the action and reactions that have been written to define her flawed existence.

You come away from the film haunted by Ka reena Kapoor who plays the disembodied diva with devastating honesty. Bhandarkar rips into the artifice of showbiz with vigour and tenderness. Like its heroine, the film is flawed, but also bewildering, beguiling and yes, beautiful.

Subhash K. Jha

!=ILM : Heroine

CAST: Kareena Kapoor, Arjun Rampal, Randeep Hooda, Shahana Goswami, Ranveer Shorey, Govind Namdeo

DIRECTOR: Madhur Bhandarkar

Sweet offering, a modern master •

ilences seldom spoke so elo9uently. It's been a while since we saw a film chat set style at a subsidiary state to substance, put the characters' inner life ahead of tbe flamboyant manifestarions o f self-idenrity in a world governed by benevolence and cbarm.

Barfi! is a very charming film, remarkab l)7 devoid of vanity. The story of a deaf-and- mute man who could have grown up watching Chap lin and Raj Kapoor's c.inema, and an aurisric girl who has definitely not seen Shah Rnkh Khan in 1\lfr Na111e ls Kh,m, is to ld withom the props of loud background music and other prompters to get audiences' involved in the proceedings.

Th.is is a picaresque world of artless charm which invites you i.o without band baqja or baaraati. Fanfare is for the circus. Ba,ji! is pure cinema.

Goodness1 l am already gushing. lc's the oarcocic effect that Barfi ha s on yo u. With.in n o rime at all you are swept into the

protagonist's wor ld, the cwo lovel) women who breeze in and out of his existence and various other characters, all etched witb a compassion and vividness that o ne associates w ith the cinema of Frank Capra and Ricwik Ghatak. Barft! exudes the warm glow of a life well Lived. This dazzling glow originates from the protagonist Barfi who Jives h is life king-s ize with many Chaplinesgue antics creating a chain of comic -boo k adventures for our ' happy-golooking' hero, even though he can't speak or hear. Bm then speech was always supposed to be the least essential component of cinema. Ask Ingmar Bergman or Satyajit Ray. Their cha:racre.rs spoke through lingering silences.

Ic's been a while si nce any protagonist on screen said so much ro us witbouc speaking Rani

Mukerji in Sanjay Lee la Bhansali's Black said ic all through her muted mode of communi cation. But she had tl1e formal s ign language plus a vo iceover for anicuL-tte support.

Significantly Anurog Basu, a

masle.r scoryceller (and never mind the tormenting tepidity of his la se film Kites) does away with the crutches of sign language and voiceover.

Ranbir Kapoor as Barfi (or Murphy, whatever!) is left to his own devices. An incredibly enterprising actor, he brings a Chaplinesgue aura ro Barfi 's character. Blending a ve.ry physical pie-in - the- face sryle of comic acting w ith an intangible poignancy, Ranbir rums his character and the fi lm into a muted celebracion of life. The tears are hidden from view. Bur tl1ey are the re.

His grand father, Raj Kapoor, has ne,,er been ,, ery far from Ran bi.r's acting skills. Raj Kapoor was highly influenced by Chaplin. Ranbir brings both the legends inro tl1e same line of vision, and yet ere.ates a charactet which is unique in its buoyancy and optimism, never mind the sleep ing dogs. Just let them bark in their sl eep.

Priyanka Chopra as the auti stic Jhi lrnil sceals tl1e show from

Ranbir, if that's possible. Lately, she has been found LO be guilty of overacting in ./lgneepath and .r l1ifam1a ./lnjarmi (with Ranbir again). 1n Bo,ft! all her recent sins of excess are washed away.

Pri yanka's inherent gl amorous personality simply disappears into her cbaracter. We don't see the actress on screen at all! We see only Jhilmil who reminds us in a very pleasant war of Sridevi in S11dma This is one of the most flawless interpretations of a physical-psychological disability seen on cellulo id.

While Ranbir and Priyanka effordessly prove themselves the best actors of t heir generation, Ileana D'Cruz makes a confident engaging debut into H.indi cinema. ls she here to stay? Time will tell.

As for Basu, in his earlier films Gangster - A Lo,,r Story and Life f!I A Aietro, h e proved himself a maestro of tl1e inner life. Bmft! too is shot on location w ithin the hearts of the characters. Not just the memorable pro tagonists, even the smaller players specially Roopa Ganguly and A.kaash Khurana aod

Haradhan Bandhopadhyay, leave a lingering impact.

Bmft! ce lebrates life without dismissing the dark passages and roadblocks chat we often encounter as we trave l thto ugh that craggy road to death.

To be able to celebrate life so warmlir and sensitively the fil mmaker has to know death dose ly. Basu, a cancer survivor, has been there.

Ba,ji! comes as clo se to being a modern masterpiece as cinematical.ly possible. To miss it would be a crime. To embrace it is to serenade cbe sublime.

Subhash I\. JI ,a

Ask Auntyji

Dear Aun t yji

) 6_e,t (!JLtVt tVte, f rogrvtVIA, AIAY\\~jl~

Auntyji says

You have such insightful advice for everyone. Such pearls of wisdom you give to all of us. So Auntyji, if you are so sage, so wise, why is it that you are not on Facebook? And why can 't I follow you on Twitter? And surely you would have a blog? Is Auntyji scared of technology? Please tell me that these things are in motion and it's only a matter of time before my day can be brightened with insightful tweets from you. And all my friends agree with me on this- you really need to get aligned with technology. What say you?

Oh you namarad, oh you besharam, have you no shame calling me a Luddite? Let me tell you why I am on not on social media. Let's start with Facebook. Facebook is where friendships go to die. It is the biggest time-waster ever and is only useful for narcissists who want the world to know what they are up to and how cuddly shuddly and sho shweet their little chand ka tukda is. Besotted parents post image after image of their ugly babies and recalcitrant bachche, and all their friends feel compelled to post inane ripostes, such as, oh, so cute, oh your baby is so beautiful. And somewhere along the way you feel validated about your miserable existence because 5 people commented on your latest photo. Here is the reality for people who post baby pictures on FB. No one cares about your ugly baby but people will make comments in the hope that you will reciprocate with comments about their baby. Additionally, if people don't comment, they come across as rude or discourteous, so they engage in the insincere and manipulative social behaviour of posting nice comments. People, get over it. Your babies are ugly, no one cares what the baby did and honestly, get over yourselves, it's not about you. Stop being such narcissists. Go and walk in the park and pay attention to what your kid is actually doing instead of looking for opportunities to take cutesy pictures to post on FB. Naturally, I don't loiter on FB because if I did, I would be the one posting honestly refreshing, candid and accurate comments such as, man, your baby looks like Raavan's offspring. See, now do you really want me on FB?

As for Twitter, you are right. I have so many insightful things to say which are intelligent and funny that of all the people tweeting out there, I should be number one. I have good things to tweet, yet I am not going to waste my time or my pithy comments on people who just don't have the insight to understand wit when they see it. So yes, while I have lots to say, I don't want to say it. I'm keeping mum. My khamoshi should say it all.

There, is this sufficient reason to understand why I am not on FB or Twitter?

Dear Au ntyji

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le,, or Y\ot?

I have a particular problem that I am hoping you will help me solve I am in love with an Aussie man. He is a wonderful human being and I love him dearly. My only issue w i th him is that he smokes, and I absolutely hate it. He is trying to give up, but when he goes to the pub each Friday night, he smokes a fair bit. Not only that, he insists I come along and we sit in the beer garden and I second hand smoke with his leisurely drags. This went on for two years , Auntyji, and I complained and complained. Then one day, I told him I am no longer going to the pub with him, if he was going to smoke So I stopped going to the pub. Now, we have a dear friend whom I really li ke seeing with Andy on Friday evenings, but li ke Andy he too smokes. So I said that let's go for dinner, and instead of going to the restaurant, they insist on meeting at the pub first. Now being a good Muslim girl, I don't drink nor smoke. This means I need to sit there and wait for them to finish the i r cigs and beer before we can go for dinner. I am beginning to find this most irritating Not only that, now, Andy 's sol ution 1s that I don t have to go to the pub Instead, I can wait at home for them, and when they are done, then we can go and have dinner togethe r. I find this most upsetting I don' t understand why they just have to go to the pub for drinks on the odd occasion that I get together with both Andy and Chris I don't think I am being selfish, Aunty I have not stopped Andy from seeing Chris, I have never stopped Andy from going to the pub - and I tolerate his smoking as long as he does not do it near me. So why can't Andy just go stra i ght to t he restaurant with me instead of being a bogan sharaabiwho has to have a drink at the pub before going to a restaurant which serves alcohol anyway.

Auntyji says

Oh dear. Oh dear. What to do. This is what happens when you fall in l ove with someone - you take them with all t heir bad habits and foibles. Now I totally understand that you hate smoking and yes, it i s a rather disgusting habit. The important thing to note is that he is trying to give up, and with your love, understanding and patience, I am sure he will fo ll ow a healthier l ifestyle. As for going to pubs with his friend and smoking, well, I get that you don't like this habit. Especially ifthey sit in the beer garden and smoke and expect you to go along with this. Well, the solution seems to have revealed itself. If you hate the smoke-filled environment that much, I think you are right not to go along. But you have fallen in love with an Aussie man, and there is a tradition of going to the pub - so I doubt that you will be able to get him to stop doing this. Besides, you don't say that he comes home drunk - which means that your Andy does show some judgment. So in the instance that they insist on going to the pub before a restaurant, you can't stop them, and you don't have to go to the pub either. Just decide on a time to meet at the restaurant, and both of you get there independently. This way, no one gets upset, Andy gets a nice quiet drink with his buddy, and you avoid the smoke -filled atmosphere. All's well that ends well, nah?

TA n QTPREDICTIONS FOR OCTOBER 20,2 K

By NANCY JADE ALTHE A www nancysood com

ARIES M a r c h 21 - Apr il 19

This is the month where you need to let someone cl ose to you k now how you are f eeling Do not worry about things not w orki ng out, b e b old and true t o your h ea r t Do not hesitate and go fo rth with strength There will b e some d eve lo p m ents at work that will g ive you the confi d ence and strength to m ove i nt o n ew d irect i ons an d p u sh forward w ith you r plans. Th ere w i ll be some news a bout a family celeb ration.

TAURUS April 20 - tv1ay 20

, The ca rd s in dicate that this is a good time to take a break and relax your m i n d and soul. You may even meet you r soulmate

There is an indication t hat you need to start saving for your f u ture, making sure y our debts d o not mount u p. You h ave b een a litt le hasty with your spending l ate ly, and wil l now n eed t o take t hings easy Make sure that you stick to your promi se of being m ore responsib le this m onth

GEMINI tv1ay 21 - Ju n e 20

The ca rd s indicat e that chances of an affa i r are likely this m onth If y ou are u nattached, you may decide to go for it. If not, you are warned t hat th in gs cou ld get out of hand There is news of m ore responsib ility at work You wi ll also be ab le t o earn some extra cash. Go fo r it, thi ngs are getting better and you will b e thin king of treating yourself. Look at your exercise routine and make needed changes.

CANCER

Ju n e 21 - July 20

You are f eeling ag itate d to get th e truth about a situati on out i nto the open. It m ay not be a g ood idea as th in gs can get rather dis tu rb i ng Wo r k colleagues ma ke sure you get your say in , a s th ere i s a li ke lihood th at y ou may not h ave stated your o p inion w hen it comes t o ce r t ain chan g es that are taking p lace at work ~....;;......., The atmosphere is a little t ense at the mom ent, but around m i dm onth, things wil l calm down cons i derab ly.

LEO Ju ly 2 1 - A ug 22

li5 ~ The ca rd s indicate a change in your fi nancial situation. You are think i ng of a new exercise rout in e, as you h ave not been freq u ently to the gym or b een exercising Check you r d iet and sleeping patterns, and al so your blood p ressure as you have b een sufferi n g from h eadaches lately, an d are stressed o ut about a re lation ship nme t o m ake some d ecisions about w hat yo u wan t to d o, to stay or to go - t hat i s the main q uestion

VIRGO Aug 23 - Sep 22

The ca rd s indicate that y ou wil l need to give a y ounger m ember of your fam ily th e b enefit of your t ime. The re could be some i ssues around their health or p erhaps progress at school. M ake sure yo u spend quality time, and n ot just load them w i th p resents.Th e re will be ne ws about a property which you h ave be en waiting for, you w ill get a chance t o sell it. Long sta nd in g disputes wi ll resolve soon Pa t i ence is n eeded

LIBRA Sep 23 - Oct 22

This month sees you tr ying t o maintai n your status quo Do not make unrealistic promises to th ose y ou l ove, as you will find it hard t o d eliver them Make sure you are careful w i th mach in ery and when you drive, take care as your m i nd wi ll b e wandering al l over the place and you will b e d ay- d reaming a lot more. You h ave b een un d er a lot of stress, so try to relax and t r y some medi tat ion

SCORPIO Oct 23 - Nov 2 1

The ca rds i n dicat e a time when you need to keep y o u r t ongue in control. You may say things y ou d o n ot mean, and your fu t ure progress will be seriou sl y hampered at work M ake sure you send off a mail that you need to, instead of d elaying the obvious You d o not seem too happy at the moment w ith work, so look at other options You h ave been unhappy fo r a wh ile. You owe it to yourself

SAGITTARIUS Nov 22 - D ec 21

You will be meeti ng someone in the most strangest of places, you will feel instantly attracted t o them , finding out to your comp lete shock that you are in l ove Try and work th i ngs out in your business too, as th i n gs are not p r ogressing as p l anned There will b e someone at your workplace who will cause some problems and upsets. You will be fi ne if you sort things out and speak to t hem about it

CAPRICORN Dec 22 - J an 19

This m onth you w i ll b e thinking about what you really wa nt from life A frien d will offer some advice as you have b een unhappy for some t ime now M ake changes and step forward into a ne w lif e, as th in g s are about t o change You will also look at some n ew proj ects and w ork. Exp ect news from a loved one conce rni n g a desire they have, an d th ey w ill want to involve you in their p lans. Have fun

AQUARIUS Jan 20 - !=e b 18

Th is m onth you need to l ook at your worth. Look at your accompl i shments and material possess i on s Take advice J from a d octor, as y ou a re n ot g ood at having ch eck u p s. Do not get invol ved in office politics , as you m ay get drawn i nto something that you will not be able t o g et out of later There will be some news about a p reg nancy o r ma rr iage You will be p lanning a surprise for a loved one.

PISCES !=eb 19 - M arc h 20

The cards in dicate that a fin ancia l i ssue is n ot out o f control. You can solve y our problems w ith some r ational th inking and immediate action. M ake sure you make your own d ecisions, and do n ot let oth ers influence y ou Get enou gh rest, as you are not feeling that energetic. You m ay h ave some stomach issues and you need to m ake sure you look at your diet carefully and eliminate t hose foods to wh ich you are allergic.

Music of my childhood

Music can be a soul-soother, and fortunately, some melodies are impossible to forget

Is it o ld age when, no matter how catchy the t Lme of a new song may be, when you are feeling down you go back to the songs of your childhood? I needed a mood lift the other night and started sifting tbrough the songs that defined my childhood. Here are my favourites, grouped by langnage for your listening pleasure too.

English

Growing up watching video hits surrepcitious ly with my sis and flicking back to Sat11rday Dislll[J' when the parents walked in was an integral part of my Samrday mornings. This was before Satttr&!J' Disnl!J became almost as bad as video hits and video hits became the trash it is roday. So m any songs made it to onr school l unchtime dramas, our bus and a·ain rides, our graduation and final prom or graduation dinner. There were songs that we latched onto at first crush, songs that got us through h igh school dramas and 'heartbreak', songs d1at were so silly we laughed out loud in class long after we had sung them at the top of om voices in the playground I wonder if an y of you will remember

If f Let Yott Go (Westlifc)

Hero (Ewique Tglesias)

C11p qf Life (RicA,y Ma1ti11)

f '111 Blue (Eiffel 6 5)

Crazy To111n (Butterf!y)

Frees(yler (Bomfimk M Cr)

The 13 qy is M.i11e (Brall(fy e:,,,_, Monica)

A Whole Ne111 World (A laddin)

Hit Me Bafo, One Mm·e Tin1e (Rnhil!J Spean)

M y taste has mam red somewhat and even though m y p laylist is now 6lled witb more of the songs below, T like to revere back ro the golden oldies on the odd occasion. But who can forget

Kashfllir (Led Zeppelin)

Hotel California (E11gles)

SI/lee/ Child of Mine (G1111s and Roses)

Muse (Up1ising)

The Black K1ys {Lolleb' Bq;~

Hindi

I wi.11 always remember m y first Hindi film and the .irreparable damage it has done to my l.ife, as

Dill/lale D11/h(l11it1 Le ja_yenge mrned a m m bo)" into a dreamer, a hopeless romantic waici.ng for her Prince Charming who would come along

in his cheeky boi sterous manner and sweep her away. \Xlell, drnt hasn't happened yet, but I did become hopeless ly addicted to the music and melodrama of Indian cinema and pop. There were songs to dream ro, songs to cr y to, songs to dance to, songs to laugh to songs we heard with cousins, p la yed at weddings, songs for almost every memory Here are just a few, and there are very ma n y more

T1!)be Dekha To Ye}t1al/a

Sm1a111 (DDL})

Oh Oh Jane jt111a (F)ar K!Ja to Dama

[ya)

Dm11 Dlfma D11111 (Di/)

Aur A hisfc1 Kij!J•e 13aatei11 (Pankaj

Udhas)

Cori Te,i A 11khen Kahe (Li,ck:J A li)

P!J,a Basanti (Ustad S11/ta11 Khan & Chitra)

Kabhi Aana Tu M~eri Gali (E uphoria Guffy)

Kajra Re (131111/y Affr Babli)

Teti M eri PreJ/J Kahani (Borfyg11ard)

Bang la

T was never a big fan of Bangla music: it always Sotll1ded so o ld, boring and sad. Bue at 10 I went to dance school , and a tenn of dancing to /..,al T11k Tuke Bo11 (Little red bride) with m y dance c lass was enough to enamour me to the wide wocld of children's music and folk songs, for which Bangladesh is so renowned. I began to d iscover musicians Lil~e James and Srikanro on m y trips to Bangladesh , and then Habib and Arnob became internatio nal sensations with their modern music. Tr is a testament to some of the current talent that I like some

of the songs coming from the rock and pop scene in Bangladesh. Below are a few I grew up wid1 , and a few that grew on me.

Jokhor, Ami 13oro Hobo (finger 1111k11ou111)

Lal T11k T11ke Bott (Singer 1111kno111/i)

Rokto L,/ (linger 1111kt101/111)

Roat Nirgh11m (Hahih)

SheJ e 13oscbe Ache (A mob)

13rishti Tomake Di/am (Srik,mto)

Korean

I am Bengali, I Jive in an Englishspeaking countr y and I enjoy Indian and Pakistani musical influe n ces. But I cannot write about music withou t mentioning my newfound love for Korean dramas and movies, which have some really good OSTs. They are songs that capmre tbe mus ic and emotions of Hindi songs

wiLh lyrics reminiscem of the 13ack.street 13qys a combination yo u can't help bm Jove. Here are a few that l reaUy enjo y and you would be doing yourself a huge favour by checking out die dramas themselves tool

You're Beautiful OST 2 - 03 What Should T Do (Park Da Yae)

Heartstrings OST Beca11se TMiss

You Om1g Yong Hwa of C Bl ue)

Personal Tasre OST Like /111 Idiot

Like a Fool (2AM)

Boys Over Flowers OST Stand Jh, M e (Shinee)

And of course, a tribute to the current rage about an oppa (man) who loves a_ yqj,1 (woman) who likes her kopi (coffee), Ps y's Ga11g11a!II Sf:yle!

Enjoy!