2012-11 Sydney (2)

PUBLISHER

Pawan Luthra

EDITOR

Rajni Anand Luthra

ASSISTANT EDITOR

Sheryl Dixit

MELBOURNE

Preeti Jabbal

CONTRIBUTORS

Labor brand in trouble in NSW

Hasnain Zaheer,

Ramanan, Swati Nishar Dedhia, Saloni Kober, Neha Nagpal, Priyadarshini Chidambaranathan, Anusha Menon, Komal Utsav Jagad, Ritam Mitra, Sunny Cherian, Noel G deSouza, Farzana Shakir, Saroja Srinivasan, Sandip Hor

ADVERTISING MANAGER

Vivek Trivedi 02 9262 1766

ADVERTISING ASSISTANT

Nitika Sondhi 02 9279 2004

DESIGN

Danielle Cairis

Indian Link is a fortnightly newspaper published in English. No material, including advertisements designed by Indian Link, maybe reproduced in part or in whole without the written consent of the editor. Opinions carried in Indian Link are those of the writers and not necessarily endorsed by Indian Link. All correspondence should be addressed to Indian Link

Level 24/44 Market St, Sydney 2000 or GPO Box 108, Sydney 2001 Ph: 02 9279-2004 Fax: 02 9279-2005

Email: info@indianlink.com.au

www.indianlink.com.au

With the Federal elections due in 2013, issues of state politics will continue to take centre stage in Sydney over the first quarter of the New Year. While there is a separation of State and Federal politics, the political brand of the party in trouble tends to travel across both areas of influence. Labor has linked - and will continue to link - the ruling Coalition parties in NSW, Queensland and Victoria to the massive cuts in public sector employees and education with the Federal opposition, stating that this is what will occur should the Coalition take control in Canberra. But this is a double-edged sword for them.

The machinations in the NSW Labor Party can make a great script for a Bollywood movie. Untold wealth, bribery, corruption, molls offered to ministers, among other issues – these allegations are

surfacing at the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) inquiry currently talking place. The daily saga of how public wealth was allegedly being directed towards a few individuals in positions of power connected to the state Labor Party will further tarnish the Labor brand. That this has gone on for so long has surprised all, and one wonders that, had governments not changed and had the newly-elected Liberal government not initiated this inquiry, how long would this have stayed hidden under the carpet.

In the last Federal elections, Labor held its seat in Greenway by just the barest of margins. It is believed that this, along with at least half a dozen Labor seats (Parramatta, Barton, Reid, Werriwa) are in extreme danger of being lost in the next elections. The Gillard government has had a tough run in the past three years. The hung parliament was a poisoned chalice for both political parties. That the Gillard government has made headway in a number of policy positions and even implemented new taxes is a credit to Prime Minister Gillard’s political skills. Yet all along there have been allegations of misuse of monies and

other improprieties against her political colleagues. Even now, there is an attempt by the Opposition and leading journalists to link her with misuse of union monies over 15 years ago. Expect to hear more about this in the next few months.

Political foes will work overtime to link corruption and graft in the Labor Party. That there will be public hearings involving the Labor brand in NSW will not make it easier for the federal government to brush off allegations of corruption. In the meantime, they will be firing on all four cylinders to attack the Liberal leader Tony Abbott on issues of misogyny and being out of touch with women. The Labor Party has no doubt noticed the strong vote from single women for Obama in the recent US elections; they will be working hard to position Prime Minister Gillard in a similar frame with Australian women.

While the ICAC inquiry progresses, one wonders if it is time to institute a similar institution in India. It will however, take a brave politician to set this up. To quote the Bible, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” One expects very few stones will be cast in Indian politics.

PAWAN LUTHRA

Dinesh

Telstra’s exciting new international offers

MISC

SPIRITUAL Ramakrishna Sarada Vedanta Society of NSW activities

Sun 15 Dec 5.30-7.30pm Avijit Sarkar & Friends. Free early evening concert of devotional songs. Complimentary tea/ coffee, sweets & savouries provided.

Venue: Vedanta Hall, 15 Liverpool Road, Croydon. Details 02 9745 4320 or email: admin. saradavedanta@bigpond.com

Website: www.saradavedanta.org

Sri Guru Nanak Sahib’s Agman Purab (Advent Day)

Wed 28 Nov Sikh Nation urges all Sikhs to adorn a turban on the day marking Agman Purab, to raise awareness about Sikhi and the turban, in the wake of recent worldwide incidents against Sikhs. At a special event at Martin Place Sydney, everyday Australians will have an opportunity to try the turban on themselves. Details 00423 017 011 or visit the website www.sikhnation.com.au

VHP Australia

For just an additional $10 per month, customers can add an International Pack to their mobile plan and can enjoy low voice call rates of 2 cents per minute from their mobile while in Australia to India, China, Singapore, Hong Kong and Thailand and access a discounted standard SMS rate to all international destinations.

This special offer is an exciting option for people of Indian origin in Australia to enjoy the services of a quality company like Telstra and be connected with family and friends in India.

Telstra Marketing Director, Maryanne Tsiatsias, said customers will love the new International Calling offers. “Many of our

customers have relatives and friends living overseas and we know that when you can’t be in the same place, nothing beats a phone call,” Ms Tsiatsias said.

Customers who want to chat even more can add an International Calling Pack to an eligible Telstra Home Phone Plan and receive unlimited international calls to landlines or mobiles in India, Bangladesh, USA, Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong and a few other selected countries in an introductory offer of just $10 per month.

For more information on Telstra’s International Calling offers, customers can speak to a customer service representative on 1800 330 497.

VHP Australia is seeking volunteer teachers to teach Hindu Dharma in Public Schools (approved by the Dept of Education). Training and materials will be provided.  Details Akila Ramarathinam 02 8814 7016.

Sydney Veda Patasala is open for children and adults. It involves Vedic chanting and Sanskrit language. Classes are held at on Sundays Baulkham Hills, Carlingford, Moorebank and Westmead. Details Sri Subbuji 0425 284 501.

Bala Samskara Kendra (Sanskrit Language,  Indian Culture and Heritage School for children) operates out of Toongabbie, Moorebank, Hornsby and Flemington. Students learn Sanskrit language (writing, reading, speaking and reciting poems).Details Rohini Srinivasan 02 9863 3067.

Going to the Mahakumbh next year?

Australian independent documentary film-maker Mark Gould is searching for Hindu Australians who intend to go to the upcoming Maha Kumbh Mela at Allahabad (Prayag) in Feb 2013.

ABC TV’s religious program Compass (6.30pm Sundays) is keen to tell the story of this sacred journey and what it means to the devotees. The subjects of the film would need to be prepared to share their stories, their bhakti and relationship to their faith on camera in a documentary focussed on this special pilgrimage - why they are making it and what they hope to gain from this great event.

The ideal subjects would be devout Australian Hindus - individuals or a family who are articulate about their faith and keen to reconnect with their Hindu traditions. Details Mark Gould 0419 635 614 or email mark@BondiRocksMedia.tv

Dynamic Global Changes: ICAI conference

Fri 23 Nov The Australian Chapter is organising a one day international conference at Four Points by Sheraton, Darling Harbour, Sydney, entitled ‘Dynamic Global Changes – A World of Opportunities’. The full day conference will have presentations from an elite panel of speakers of international acclaim chosen from the fields of accounting, corporate governance and management and includes Dr. John Hewson (renowned economist and former Federal Leader of the Opposition) and Padma Shree CA

T N Manoharan, globally acclaimed speaker on accounting, taxation and corporate governance and former President of the ICAI. The topics for discussion would cover a wide range of current subjects including  India as the next investment destination, opportunities and challenges; IFRS (accounting standards for the future); Carbon Tax (accounting, implications and opportunities); Cloud Accounting (accounting the global way); and Indian and Australian economic overview. Details visit the website www.icai.org.au

Giving back to their alma mater

Aligarhians celebrate Sir Syed Day in Sydney

The Aligarh Muslim University Alumni Association (AMUAA) celebrated the birth anniversary of their university’s founder Sir Syed Ahmad Khan earlier this month. For about 250 participants, it was an evening full of nostalgia as they met old friends and university mates, exchanged stories and networked.

The evening opened with a recitation from the Quran, and its translation by little children. Fasihuddin Khan, President of the alumni association welcomed chief guest Arun Kumar Goel (Consul General of India in Sydney) and Prof Gary Smith (Pro Vice Chancellor of University of Western Sydney). He acknowledged the contributions made by senior Aligarhians such as Dr Qazi Ashfaq Ahmad, Mr. Zafar Ahmad Siddiqui and Mr. Shamim Ishaq. Among the achievements of their alumni associations, Mr Khan listed the scholarship project as one of the most prominent – AMUAA has sponsored 276 scholarships for students back in India since 1996. Other projects to motivate, encourage and inculcate

the importance of education in children were listed, besides other community activities. Awards were presented to local children for their academic achievements.

An award of appreciation and acknowledgement was also presented to the chief guests by Dr Ahmad and Mr Khan.

In his address to the attendees, Mr Goel talked about his own personal connection with the Aligarh University and mentioned how this prestigious institution has changed the lives of people across many generations. He also praised scholarships generated by the association. Prof Smith mentioned the role of the University of Western Sydney (UWS) in furthering education in greater western Sydney.

In the entertainment section that followed, the performance by the children of Alumni was spectacular. Several young ones participated, showcasing their skills and talents. Small gifts were presented to the performers by Prof Mathur. Students of Qibla Grammar College performed an Australian song. The formal program was then followed by

dinner and a mushaira in which local Urdu poets recited their poetry.

AMU Alumni Association is a thriving organisation in Australia with a well-knit community in Sydney and Melbourne. For any inquiries about the association and activities, contact President Fasihuddin Khan on 0414 694 839.

Hasnain Zaheer

Telstra team: Nathan Azouz (GM Consumer Post-Paid) Georgina Jasic (Senior Product Manager) Alister Park (GM Niche Segment Marketing)

Parramasala India in the air at Parramatta

BLOCK PARTY ROCKS PARRAMATTA

The Parramasala festival kicked off with a magnificent multicultural musical mix

Powerful beats, heart pumping music and a sea of vibrant colours. What better way to kickstart a festival from the subcontinent!

The third annual Parramasala Festival began on November 8 with a high energy Bollywood Block Party at the Parramatta Town Hall Square. It was a musical extravaganza that looked even more grandiose than anything out of a Karan Johar movie!

With two stages - a main central stage and a smaller stage to the side - the performances came non-stop. As one act ended, another would begin on the second stage, without the performers missing a beat. The performances ranged from classic Kathak, Australian contemporary and Sri Lankan traditional dance, to the full matkas and jhatkas of Bollywood. And then there was the legendary Kamahl, embodying India as well as Australia, truly a perfect choice for host!

Early in the evening, the musical gala began with the beautiful didgeridoo, the traditional aboriginal musical instrument. Its gentle, grounded, droning vibrations touched the audience just as much as the next act - the heart pumping beats from the traditional Indian dhol. What a study in contrast…. even as both achieved the same effect of vibrating into the very beings of those listening.

The excitement and elation kept moving to new heights as the illustrious Kamahl took centre-stage. His cleverly picked numbers, about the importance of love and togetherness, showed off the underlying theme of the festival at large. A Malaysian born, Tamil-Hindu

not only from films (Luck By Chance, Wanted), but also stage productions (The Merchants of Bollywood and Miss Bollywood)

The non-stop dance performances ended in great exuberance with a grand finale where performers danced on both stages to one harmonious beat, waving vibrant scarves.

The younger members of the audience joined in at this stage, waving colourful scarves that had been distributed before the event began.

This smashing array of dances was followed by DJ Rav who had the audience dancing and cheering to popular Bollywood tunes.

In between, the audience was treated to a visual work of art in the form of stunning digital projections which completely changed the facade of the Town Hall precinct. (Made possible by Electric Canvas, the Australian masters of Digital Projections,

these evergreen songs. They ended with that ever popular number Dum Maro Dum which swept the audience off their feet and left them asking for more.

The exhilarating precision of Sri Lankan group Naadro, wowed the audience just as much. A percussion band, they performed on four different sets of drums, from large plastic barrels to Spanish and Peruvian drums to the classic dhol, taking drumming to a whole new level. Their breathtaking accuracy and ability to play on more than one drum at a time, made this group one of the highlights of the evening.

DJ Rav came back to bring the Block Party to a close with some high energy tracks and a promise to return the next night. The night was a true testament of Australia’s multicultural diversity, brought together by the universal language of music.

Saloni Kober

not enough....

The show Maru Tarang (Desert Ripples) heralded the coming together of Australian based artists Jeff Lang and Bobby Singh, with Rajasthani musicians Asin Khan and Bhugra Khan.

The show began with Jeff Banks presenting one of his compositions titled Two Worlds It was a fitting title as the audience was transported from the Australian outback to the deserts of Rajasthan. An ARIA award winning Australian singer/songwriter, Banks has been a leading performer in the Australia blues roots music scene. He is also an equally gifted slide guitarist, and his mastery over the instrument was there to be seen by all.

As the piece progressed, Asin Khan came in with his aalaps (vocal variations), and the scene immediately changed from the red centre of

Australia to the Jaisalmer desert. This seamless transition was undoubtedly a highlight for the 250-strong audience.

Asin Khan came on with an endearing piece about the movements of a woman who goes to the well for water, but has to hurry back as her husband is waiting for her. A priceless commodity in the desert, many songs in Rajasthani music depict stories about water. Khan followed up this with a piece about the mountains. In fact, a lot of Rajasthani songs are written about nature and it was this simplicity in the lyrics which made for beautiful listening, above everything else.

Having said that, a special mention must go to the percussion accompaniment on display all through the show.

Bobby Singh, a disciple of maestro Aneesh Pradhan, had the audience nodding their heads in rhythm with his tabla. Alongside him was Bhugra Khan on the khartal – a castanet-like percussive instrument that produces a staccato rhythm by clicking two flat hardwood blocks together by hand. The expressive nature of Khan and Singh would definitely have to be one of the highlights of the evening. Often we see an artist’s emotion being absorbed in playing the instrument, and it was refreshing to see these masterful artists enjoying themselves on stage, smiling and appreciating

L-FRESH The Lion

Maru Tarang

each other’s ability. The next composition presented was titled I got to keep on moving and unfortunately that was exactly what the audience had to do following its completion, as it was the final piece for the night. The composition which began with a metallic riff, culminated with a piercing Rajasthani melody. Whilst we had witnessed some wonderful music through the course of the night, real fusion between the two vastly different styles of music had not occurred until Asin Khan came in with his roaring melody over the top of Banks’ electric banjo during this piece. It was a stunning (albeit abrupt) conclusion to a night which had promised so much.

Parramasala has been a wonderful initiative to promote South Asian arts and the public of Sydney is indeed very fortunate to have an opportunity to witness rare internationally-acclaimed artists. However, I couldn’t help but feel a bit empty walking out of the theatre, wondering what the artists could have done, had they been given more than the allocated 70 minutes. Unfortunately I had a similar feeling leaving the Chaar Yaar music concert from Parramasala 2011. Perhaps scheduling needs to be given more consideration in the future. Regardless, I for one can’t wait till Parramasala 2013!

Dinesh Ramanan

THE TROUBLE WITH INDIAN MEN

NRI blokes come clean on what’s ailing them

What would you say is the trouble with Indian men? The answer depends on whether you’re a younger Indian woman or an older Indian woman. If you’re the former, you’d say he is tied to his mother’s apron strings. If you’re the latter, you’d say he is completely dominated by his wife.

But what do the men think –about what’s troubling them?

In The Trouble With Asian Men, a show at this year’s Parramasala, a look is cast at the particular problems faced by South Asian men living outside of India.

What makes this a unique production is that it is based on actual interviews conducted all over the UK (and for this staging, Australia). The cast members simply regurgitate what the interviewees revealed, taking on their accents and mannerisms.

The show is produced by the

award-winning UK theatre company Tamasha, which is known just as much for encouraging new talent as it is for tackling issues of cultural differences. Created by Kristine Landon-Smith, Sudha Bhuchar and Louise Wallinger, and directed by Kristine Landon-Smith, the play was first staged in 2005 and has been doing the rounds at international festivals ever since.

It turns out our boys and men do have their own trials and tribulations.

They struggle with issues of identity, feeling drawn towards aspects of their own culture such as food while not wanting to seem ‘alien’ to their mainstream mates. “We went on this picnic, right, and when we got there, our dads took out their big dishes and started cooking in the carpark! We hoped no one would see us, but when the food was ready we all lined up…”

They wrestle with religion and with sticking to tradition. “When I got back home my dad said, are you happy now? You’ve got rid of your

cut off your hair. Like the way you look?”

They tussle with the whole dating thing. “I couldn’t go out with Indian girls; they’re so dull and boring and shallow. I prefer , they’re independent and know what they want”.

(And if they do get a nonIndian girlfriend, they’ll show off how ‘Indian’ she can be. “Go on, say something in Punjabi”).

A natural by-product of these ‘problems’ is a lack of confidence. “So they make up for this low self esteem by looking for it in other things, like a big car. With a big boom box, so they can’t hear other people criticise them”.

Occasionally they give in to the arranged marriage scenario, and when mates ask them if they don’t want to meet the girl to learn about her personality, it’s “Of course I’ll see her, but just to check out her looks and body – no personality required”.

They find themselves sandwiched between wife and mother, both dear to them, who squabble over meaningless issues.

“The biggest war these days is based on the roti vs naan issue: does she cook fresh rotis, or does she tear open a packet of naans and pop one in the toaster? At the moment the naans are edging ahead….”

him so many nice girls….”

At work, they sometimes find co-workers get ahead of them for reasons other than talent or capability.

Director Kristine Landon-Smith reveals that even though the show is in its seventh year now, new material is constantly being added, such as the Australian and NZ input in the latest version.

Core cast members Amit Sharma and Niall Ray took to the Parramasala stage with a different local guest performer each night (Drew Fairley, Craig Meneaud, John Shrimpton and Vico Thai), and impressed with their different accents.

While it was nice to see an attempt to add in local flavour, perhaps it could have been tighter, although they did get the accents down pat!

And while there were many laughs in the one-hour show, the non-Indians in the audience couldn’t help asking, is it really that bad for Indian men? The Indian audience members on the other hand, thought they’d heard it all before.

Yet what both sections of the audience took away from it all, was that perhaps it’s time to pay some attention to men’s issues. We’ve spent years discussing Indian women for example: raising awareness about their particular problems and finding solutions and creating programs to raise their lot. It’s time to take a peek inside the man’s world now – and look at what might be troubling him.

Rajni Anand Luthra

Parramatta Town Hall

The Trouble with Asian Men

FUSION MUSIC COMPLETES

P arramasala

and combining them to create music, probably best symbolises what Sydney is today – people from various countries and cultures coming together to create their unique culture and identity.

The choice of instruments –the sarod, a stringed instrument typically used in Indian classical music which had been wired to play western music, drums, cajon which is an Afro-Peruvian percussion instrument, all came together to create unique music which drew from both Indian and western music and was more than the sum of the parts of either music styles.

Starting the show with an audio-visual aid showing a mountaineer passing the Khumbu icefall trying to scale the Everest, the duo played a piece titled Quest, symbolising one’s pursuit to overcome the most difficult challenges, to achieve what seems improbable, almost impossible. Various themes were played as the show progressed such as Footprints, Coastline and Calcutta Triangle

Trained by the legendary sarod master Pandit Buddhadev

sarod players of his generation. Datta seamlessly moved between mellifluous, atmospheric pieces and bursts of remarkable, highspeed playing.

Schimpelsberger, a talented drummer performed with equal flair on drums, cajon, percussion and vocal percussion. Born and raised in Austria, he started playing the drums at the age of 10. While still in his late teens he discovered his love for Indian rhythm and pursuit his passion of bringing them in tune with his Western roots through years of dedicated research. Having studied under percussion legend Trilok Gurtu, glimpses of inspiration from Gurtu were visible in his use of unlikely instruments such as earthen pots filled with water and string of ghungroo (Indian anklets) to create music.

All the songs played at the event were from their eponymous album Circle of Sound. The CDs of the album were on sale and artists were kind enough to mingle with the audience after the event and autograph CDs.

Swati Nishar Dedhia

from the same country have conflicting and unique experiences of life in Australia

The film Sunshine and Shade opens with a shot of the Visa Temple in Chilkur, India, showing rows of Indians praying to ‘Visa Balaji’ for the proverbial golden key - a visa. Do they really find the sunshine they expect in a foreign land, or are there more shadows than they imagine?

This documentary by filmmaker Ana Tewary attempts to find out by chronicling the life of two Indian students in Australia, and their experiences here. As the opening film in the South Asian Film in Focus program of the Parramasala Film Festival, Sunshine and Shade opened to a full house on November 9.

The film focuses on two students who come to Australia from India – Kanishk Kumar is doing an MBA in Marketing at the University of Newcastle, and Sharn Chahal is enrolled in a vocational course in Accountancy in Sydney.

filled with positive experiences. His chance encounter with Bob Stewart is an example.

Bob, a resident of Newcastle is concerned about the spate of attacks on Indian students and decides to do something about it. He and his friends host a luncheon for the Indian students in the university and give them their first taste of Australian hospitality. Kanishk, on completing his course, lands a job in Sydney after much difficulty, but decides to quit after a few months and move back to India.

The story of Sharn on the other hand is one of struggle, as she grapples daily with the reality of living in Australia. She comes to Australia with the aim of getting a PR, a passport to what she believes will be a better life. She struggles to make ends meet and works at various menial jobs. She gets married too, and in the process of trying to get her husband a visa to Australia, gets cheated by an agent. She even gets a shot at her dream job, an unpaid internship at a community radio station which she is unable to take because of financial constraints. She too finally decides

Hari Prasad Chaurasia

Circle of Sound

Sunshine and Shade

Masala Markets

lack of support from the local Indian community, and Sharn talks of how Indian students are exploited by Indian business owners in Australia.

Another central character in the film is Alex Gollan, an antiracism activist, who has formerly been part of a racist gang himself. The film chronicles his journey and the problems Alex faces on having crossed over to the other side - death threats and abuse. They finally take a toll on him and force him to withdraw from active campaigning.

The film also suggests that the attacks may not be purely racially motivated. It records the official point of view from various government representatives and researchers who suggest that they also depend on the locality, place of work and mode of travel of the students.

The cinematography captures the day-to-day lives of the students wonderfully, with some beautiful shots of the harbour and the ocean as a backdrop. The editing is slick and keeps the film moving at a fast pace. The background score remains muted and truly in the background.

The screening was preceded by a captivating performance of a poem by slam poet Amna Bilgrami, also featured in the movie. The poem talks about the conflict between the races, between ‘colonizer and colonized’, and how that mindset is still prevalent.

The discussion post the film centered on the experiences of students in Australia. But the star of the show was undoubtedly Bob Stewart or ‘Bollywood Bob’, as he is now called by his friends although he claims he is ‘just an ordinary bloke’.

The film incorporates diverse points of view, in an attempt to look at the story from all angles; at some points they seem a little too many. But the lives of the two main characters have been beautifully etched and we are offered a window into their lives, and experience their little bits of sunshine and shade. In the end we are left with a sense of disappointment at the waste of time and money that has gone into their study here.

Priyadarshini Chidambaranathan

TO LOVE IS TO LIVE

When I first read about the play Krishnan’s Dairy, what intrigued me the most was that it was a love story based on ‘two of the most universal Indian clichés – the Taj Mahal and the corner store’, and all the roles were being enacted by a solo performer!

On my way to Parramatta I got to remembering my college days in Mumbai and the thrill of travelling to Prithvi Theatre in Juhu, to reach at least 30 minutes before time so I could be the first in line to get the best seat. And that’s exactly what I did at the Riverside Theatre in Parramatta!

The stage set-up was simple, dark, somewhat mundane. Darkcoloured silk sarees covering the length of the stage, bring in a touch of southern India. They

through this setting. An aged wooden counter table that cries of generations of labour, telling its story through a variety of posters that were glued and ripped from its surface. It is an effective reminder that Krishnan’s Dairy is the setting of a modest grocery shop in New Zealand.

This silent and dull stage transforms as Jacob Rajan (the solo performer) sings to us, introducing the play’s protagonists Gopi (the husband) and Zeena (the wife), who met for the first time on their wedding day. This is their life and love story.

Within seconds, Jacob slips into Gopi’s character; a common man who works hard to provide a decent living for his wife and child. For him time is money, and each sunrise brings the same routine tasks. But behind this is a dreamer, who aspires to luxurious retirement, living the life of kings!

With a change of mask we meet Zeena, a typical Tamilian housewife; she is simple, beautiful, gentle; she talks… a lot, she complains, she argues and just like Gopi, she too dreams. She

the life she can’t have. Fascinated by the love of Shahjahan, the Mughal king, for his wife Mumtaz Mahal, Zeena desires to be loved in the same way.

In a blink, Jacob is Shahjahan pronouncing his love for Mumtaz Mahal, and their journey as a couple. The performer impeccably unites the authoritative and decisive voice of a king with the passion and pain of a lover.

In this skilful rendition of hope, survival, tragedy and determination, Rajan does an impressive job of playing each protagonist with aplomb. This is a beautifully written play, juxtaposing rags and riches with a simple and seamless narrative, entertaining music and a thought-provoking conclusion. Jacob delivers a flawless performance, effortlessly hopping from one character to the other. He perfects each character’s gesticulations, mannerisms and speech. Indeed he is a maestro, with mesmerising voice, sparkling eyes and a very infectious smile.

Kudos to Indian Ink team for a performance that keeps one engaged and entertained from the beginning till the end!

Neha Nagpal

We chase big dreams as we emigrate, and continue to dream when daily drudgery hits us in our new home

Anusuya Nathan in Long Live the King

Asif Ali Khan

Krishnan's Dairy

occasions in Chennai.

The audience demands an encore and Susheela returns on stage with Sam on his guitar to perform Nagumomo, a request from the audience. It well and truly calms everyone down, and is the perfect song to finish with.

By then, I have a burning question for Susheela. As she’s signing copies of her album and talking to her fans, I ask her, “Have people criticized your style of singing religious shlokas and hymns?”

ANCIENT TAMIL TUNES EVOKED

Susheela Raman brings the best of contemporary and traditional together in melodious harmony

P arramasala

Paalum theli thenum, paakum arupum…, crooned Avvaiyaar back in 1st century CE, offering her prayers to Lord Ganesha, to bless her with the three Tamils which enrich the sangam: iyar tamil (prose); isai tamil (poetry); and nadaka tamil (drama). But why does Avvaiyar ask for only for Tamil, when she could have asked for so much more from the Lord? She asks for Tamil so that she could pen even more shlokas and stotras about Lord Ganesha.

Cut to 2012. Susheela Raman enters the dais in a bright fuchsia top, as the spotlight follows her haunting voice that enchants with the exact same shloka, and the audience is spellbound in anticipation of what they are about to witness. The strings of the guitar, strummed with finesse by Sam Mills, beautifully compliment her voice. It feels as if it was always meant to be this way. Two completely different genres of music and styles combine to create pure magic.

Who is Susheela Raman? This question is perhaps very easily answered within the first few minutes since the concert begins. Susheela belongs to a Thanjavur

Tamil Brahmin family from India; she was born in the UK and raised in Sydney. Her music is an eclectic mix of sounds that belongs to these countries - a reflection of what most of us feel as immigrants. It has an instant appeal.

Some would define her music as jazz and blues based; however, it is very difficult to label or identify

the genre into which her music falls. It has an almost Sufi-like quality to it. There are moments on stage where it seems like Susheela is in a state of trance, ecstatic and almost lost. Having said that, not a single note or beat is missed at any point during the performance.

A majority of the audience is familiar with her music and the rest are pleasantly surprised by her performance. She goes on to sing in praise of Ganesha – Vinayakane followed by Sarvanabhava Karunaitheiyvame... followed by Kanthan undu kavala ila maname

Kutle Khan joins Susheela on stage with the morchang. This is an interesting percussion instrument for several reasons. While it is extensively used in Carnatic music of South India, it’s also used quite a bit in Rajasthani folk music. This adds an interesting flavour to the performance.

Khan is a renowned musician whose expertise in playing the morchang, bhapang, dholak and khartals is unmatched. He mesmerises the audiences with his vocals and the morchang. We also had the opportunity to hear him play the bhapang

Nathoo Lal Solanki makes a stylish entry on stage to play the nagara, and he proudly shows off his handlebar moustache, to instant applause. The man is not all about the moustache; his performance supersedes his grand entry on stage.

It’s interesting to witness the brief jugalbandi of the nagara and the tabla periodically. The tabla artist is Aref Durvesh, the longest serving member of Nitin Swahney’s band. He is a creative tabla artist who has managed to take traditional performances on

this instrument into a new space by combining the tabla beats with jazz, hip-hop fusion and urban music.

The music at no point seems patchy, it is a seamless mix of styles, with equal importance given to each and every artist on stage.

It has been said, “The cheapest way to see a place is to hear its music”. Sitting at the Riverside Theatre in Parramatta with my eyes shut for a split second, I could visualize the vast expanses of arid sand dunes in Rajasthan, and the various Murugan shrines atop hills in Tamil Nadu.

Susheela moves on to Paal Pazhani and then to her version of the popular Hendrix number, Voodoo Child

Sam Mills, her better half, has had the privilege of working closely with the Bauls from Bengal, which have had a huge influence on him and his music. The performance features two Bengali songs as well.

By this time Susheela has coaxed the audience into standing up and clapping rhythmically, which continues as she performs Vel Muruga Vel!

Speaking about her music on The Dewarists, the popular music show, Susheela had said, “Music for me is like a physical need, it’s a kind of inner hunger… to be ambitious, it’s not an easy road, it’s an absolute necessity to stick by what you believe in... and you’re doing it because you want to do it, you need to do it…”

Watching the crowd, a mixture of Indian and Caucasian who perhaps had no understanding of what the song meant, I felt as if they had somehow managed to understand the intent and feeling behind it. For me personally, it brought back memories of the bhajan sessions during festive

“Yes, in Mauritius, it was a big issue,” she replies, which brought back the memory of a post on Susheela’s Facebook page: “Very happy and privileged to be in beautiful Mauritius… but very unhappy to be told… that we cannot play the Murugan-related songs Paal or Ennapane, which are centrepieces of both the album Vel and our live show, because some minority ultra-conservatives within the Tamil minority are upset by them. We have been given a choice, after a 26-hour journey: either agree not play the songs or cancel the show, which has been sold out/much anticipated. Hrrmph.”*

So how did Susheela counter this argument? Her response is, that her music is free.

At this point I had to thank her for it was truly beautiful to listen to some very rare and ancient Tamil songs here in Australia.

Susheela Raman’s performance is indeed one of a kind. It is honest and sincere and at the outset, it may seem like a simple mix of various genres and compositions. However when one begins to pay attention and discovers the finer details, one realizes how much research and thought has gone into the process of composing these songs. They are all quite similar to Susheela Raman herself – passionate, enigmatic, forthright, spiritual and unique!

*(www.facebook.com/

Susheela Raman

Photos: Cynthia Sciberras

Two decades of devotion

BY SHANTI RAMAN

Like all good Indian stories, this one has many beginnings, many versions of its origins and multiple experiences and voices contained within its lifetime. As members of a very privileged and unique group, we who have been meeting for 20 uninterrupted years on a Friday night to hear the ‘Shruti’ to be instructed in Advaita Vedanta by a singular spiritual intellectual, feel the need to document this journey as best as possible.

In 1992, in the upstairs room of an inner Sydney restaurant called Shapad Raman, a gathering of like souls sparked an interest in Vedanta classes. One story suggests that Swami Dayanand Saraswathi himself had paid a visit to that venue, a South Indian vegetarian restaurant run by Hari and Lakshmi Raman. He suggested that the upstairs be used as a venue for satsang and promotion of cultural and spiritual events. The Swamiji’s wishes transmitted themselves to this gathering of about 30 spiritual seekers; and became the inception of Shri Vasudevacharya’s classes in Advaita Vedanta in Australia. Another story suggests that Jai Raman, who used to attend and invariably fall asleep (!) during the Sanskrit classes at the University of Sydney given by Shri Vasudevacharya (then Dr Michael Comans), invited the Acharya to the restaurant run by his parents to expound his teachings. The first gathering was held upstairs at Shapad Raman, with Shri Vasudevacharya expounding on the Bhagavad Gita and John Napier performing an Indian raga exposition on the cello. The seeds for this multicultural, uniquely Australian Vedanta class were sown. While the exact date/ time, origins and participants in this venture may be hazy, Hari and Lakshmi Raman, Guru Shri Vasudevacharya and a core group of students have remained constant. Once the concept of the Advaita Vedanta class was born, the venue had to be somewhere central and easy to access. It was eventually settled in Metropolitan Street, Enmore, the home of Alan Croker and Kerry Reid.

The Guru

A disciple of Swami Dayananda

Saraswati, Shri Vasudevacharya imbibed Advaita Vedanta from his Guru in India and in California in the early 1980s. He has a PhD in Classical Indian Philosophy from the Australian National University, Canberra and has taught in the Department of Indian Studies at the University of Sydney. In 1995, he left university teaching to concentrate in more detail on the study and teaching of Vedanta. Perhaps the success of the Vedanta classes in Enmore spurred him on. The Acharya has been teaching Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita and Sanskrit to students and devotees with unfailing devotion since then; in all corners of Sydney, at the Shri Venkateswara Temple, and in Melbourne, Perth, Malaysia, Singapore and India.

Shri Vasudevacharya’s deep understanding of this ancient tradition, his proficiency as a Sanskrit scholar and his commitment to a rigorous interpretation of the texts make him a teacher of rare insight. A unique aspect of our Acharya is his ability to teach and respond to queries at different levels, from those with no background in eastern thought or philosophy, to those with a strong foundation in Sanskrit and Hindu philosophy and everyone in-between. No question is too silly, too obvious, too lowly. His openness and willingness to be challenged are also uncommon in a teacher of this tradition. His commitment to us, his students, is also legendary –he holds his classes regardless of rain, hail or shine.

Shri Vasudevacharya is supported in all his endeavours by

his Dharma Patni Archana, whose tireless, skilful and barely visible facilitation of various events especially retreats, is legendary.

The venue (Gyan Bhavan)

The atmosphere at 32 Metropolitan Road, Alan and Kerry’s house, is always a pleasure – without fail, sattvic and welcoming. In the midst of the buzz and chaos of Newtown/ Enmore on a Friday night, their home exudes serenity, yet has a powerful charge because of the Satsang within. Their care and consistency in hosting the class for so many years, including making arrangements for caretaker hosts when they are away, is much appreciated.

The teaching (Shruti)

In the 20 years of Advaita lessons, we have experienced the breadth and depth of this philosophy through chosen texts. The texts range from the Bhagavad Gita, the various Upanishads including Chandogya, Isha, Prasna, Katha, Kena, Brhadāranyaka, Aitareya, Taittirīya, Mundaka and Mandukya, the Hastamalaka’s Hastamalakiyam, the Atma Bodha and Shri Acharya’s own treatise, Advaitapratibodha

As one devoted disciple says, “(This) will stay with me through this life and beyond, as will the relationships formed in Enmore with fellow devotees and students of Vedanta.”

Apart from these spiritual texts, a core element of the Vedanta classes has been the Vedic chanting. As Swami Vagishananda suggests, Vedic chanting is “gymnastics for the

tongue and mouth”. By opening the mouth and articulating each sound correctly, the resulting vibrations are felt throughout the whole body/mind complex. Shri Vasudevacharya has patiently laboured through teaching disparate attendees of the classes the subtleties of pronunciation, tone and tune of Vedic chanting. A typical class starts with chanting for the first 15-20 minutes, followed by the chosen text, which Acharya will provide a discourse on, usually informed by Adi Shankaracharya. This is followed by a stylised arati, then final prayers, followed by chai and sweets/savouries. As a rather wonderful constant for 20 years, Kerry’s chai warrants a special mention; there is always plenty of it and it is unfailingly good.

The shishya

Over the years, several hundred people have attended Shri Vasudevacharya’s classes and retreats. From diverse backgrounds and walks of life, students are able to thread their understanding of Vedanta through events in their life: marriage, birth of children, loss or moving across the globe. Somehow never too many to fit into the room; and somehow never too few either. A lovely variety of people in backgrounds – personal and spiritual, stages of life, and temperament. Some shishyas come and go, but many stay and have maintained a longstanding commitment to the classes.

Retreats

Retreats provide us with a chance to immerse ourselves in a spiritual

From diverse backgrounds and walks of life, students are able to thread their understanding of Vedanta through events in their life: marriage, birth of children, loss or moving across the globe

quest, leaving behind the everyday world of work and life. Acharya and Archana have organised several retreats in Australia, and a large and successful retreat in Rishikesh in 2011. These special retreats provide both opportunities for deeper study and contemplation, and the pleasure of getting to know people a little more. The retreats really do deepen the sense of community.

Conclusion

The Vedanta class in Enmore has had had visitors from Europe, the Americas, Asia and from across Australia; the consensus is that this particular gathering is unique. As we are all now honouring moments in the past 20 years and celebrating the ceaseless blessings bestowed upon us, we look towards the future in anticipation of the divine force continually pushing Acharya to share with us his knowledge of Isvara. As Acharya’s devoted shishyas, we know the importance of the oral transmission of shruti; but above all, we rejoice in having such an inspiring Guru in Shri Vasudevacharya.

Shri Vasudevacharya has devoted a significant part of his time to the instruction of Advaita Vedanta

Michael Vasudevacharya (seated centre) with Vedanta students

Realistic and reverberating

Compelling Krishna musical keeps the audience interested

and enthralled

BY ANUSHA MENON

here is no doubt that Kerala-born actor, dancer, choreographer and director, Shobana was born to be a star. On November 2, her Sydney audience was left gaping in wonder after Krishna, a spectacular dance musical conceptualised and choreographed entirely by the versatile artist herself.

Presented by SOORYA Australia at Parramatta Riverside theatres, Krishna was a re-enacting of the defining chapters of the Hindu deity’s life on earth, while exploring his sacred roles as messenger, philosopher, negotiator and teacher.

Proceeds from the show went towards SIMaid, a charity that provides care and support for young girls rescued from brothels in India.

The program comprised a blend of modern and semi-classical dance sequences with drama, performed to a pre-recorded English dialogue featuring the voices of several renowned film personalities, including Surya, Konkona Sen, Andrea Jeremiah, Milind Soman, Shabana Azmi and Nandita Das. The sound engineering for the production was provided courtesy of Oscar-award winning Resul Pookkutty, who has also worked on films like Slumdog Millionaire.

According to Hindu beliefs, Krishna was the eighth son of Devaki and Vasudeva. On his parents’ wedding day, a voice from the sky prophesied that their eighth child would be the destroyer of Devaki’s malevolent brother, Kamsa. When Krishna was born, Vasudeva took his son to Gokula to protect his life, trading his child with the newborn daughter of cowherd chief Nanda and his wife Yashoda.

Students from Shobana’s Kalarpana Dance School in Chennai took to the stage to realistically portray this opening scene. The actors wore authentic costumes that were reminiscent of the ancient Krishna era. Devaki’s appeal to Kamsa to have mercy on her child was heartfelt, and set the scene for an emotionally compelling story.

The plot followed Krishna’s journey along four key stages of life - his birth, infancy, youth and adulthood.

The audience chuckled in amusement when Shobana’s

endearing infant daughter Anantha, toddled onto the stage in the role of Bala Krishna (baby Krishna). Wearing a small dhoti (loincloth) and sporting a single peacock’s feather in her hair, Anantha charmed the audience and warmed their hearts with her meekness.

The mischievous nature of Krishna the teenage prankster, played by the immensely talented Anuroopika, was vividly conveyed in a lively dance item performed to popular Bollywood hit song Dhoom Machale. Anuroopika did a sensational job of evoking Krishna’s cool, calm and collected temperament in all situations.

When Shobana bounded on stage as the adult Lord Krishna, the audience erupted into applause. Dressed in elaborate costume, Shobana used her tall, slim physique and her large, expressive eyes to exude Krishna’s beauty and magnetism.

Strobe lighting effects gave momentum to the confrontation scenes throughout the show. With graceful thrusts of the body and a smile on his face, Krishna quelled his evil uncle, Kamsa and the multi-hooded serpent, Kaliya.

The flirtatious banter between Lord Krishna and his gopis was simply a delight to watch. The sensual milkmaids captivated the audience as they coyly glided across the stage, dancing around their beloved Krishna and swishing their long dark hair. Their glittery costumes and gaudy jewellery sparkled under the bright stage lights, giving them a dazzling and ethereal on-stage presence. The intense episodes of love and desire between Krishna and his favourite gopi, Radha, were electrifying. The tantric sexual attraction between the two lovers was evoked through risqué contortions of the body and abhinayam (expression).

Krishna’s adoration of Radha, ‘the jewel in his crown’, was also later celebrated in the musical’s rendition of popular Lagaan song, Radha kaise na jale?

But Radha and Krishna’s love affair wasn’t entirely a fairytale romance. In order to follow the path of dharma, Krishna declared that he must leave Radha and his family behind in Vrindavan.

Anuroopika, who also played the role of Radha, did an absolutely stellar job of expressing the

character’s anguish and frustration towards the inevitable struggle between earthly desire and cosmic duty. The correlation between her actions and the dialogue, voiced by Konkona Sen, was seamless and natural.

The musical also contained its fair share of funny moments. The audience chuckled at English lyrics that were cleverly matched to a carnatic beat. Like the celebrity voiceovers, these hybrid tunes helped to develop the plot and explain the meaning behind the classical Bharathanatyam mudras (hand gestures) used by the dancers.

The dramatic re-enactment of the Kurukshetra War served as the show’s climactic point. While Krishna’s purpose in the war was to be the mediator between the Pandavas and the Kauravas, he had also agreed to be a charioteer for the Pandavas after being approached by Arjuna. Together, they successfully defeated the Kauravas and brutally slashed the thigh of their leader, Duryodhana. Special mention has to be made of Gayathri, the actor portraying Duryodhana’s mother, Gandhari. Voiced by the renowned Shabana

Azmi, Gayathri did a superb job of conveying the searing pain of losing a child through her dramatic actions. Gandhari’s wails hauntingly resounded throughout the silent auditorium, leaving the audience speechless.

Said Shobana with disarming accuracy, “This dance portrays Krishna, the man and his philosophies, in a way that has never been done before.” This avant garde musical was unlike any other depiction of Krishna’s story that I have experienced, and was certainly worth watching.

The dancers performed to a prerecorded English dialogue featuring the voices of several renowned film personalities, including Konkona Sen, Shabana Azmi and Nandita Das.

Making traditional arts cool again

A recent hypothetical forum at Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum between traditional craft in India and modern life in Australia

BY KEVIN MURRAY

An Indian comes to Australia to revive a craft skill that had been outmoded by technological change…

Wait a minute, shouldn’t it be the other way around?

The ‘Through Indian Eyes’ forum at the Powerhouse Museum was designed to reflect the experience many have coming to India, where they become enamoured with a traditional practice that they seek to revive. Block printing is a common example. For an outsider, the spectacle is wonderful to witness. With such concentration and exactness, the printer stamps a wooden block in place, repeating a pattern across a wide expanse of fabric. The resulting fabric has a magical aura – revealing not only the beauty of the pattern itself, but also the essence of something handmade with care.

There are no known professional block printers in Australia. However, there are some manual printing skills that have been recently replaced by more automated technology. Through the Powerhouse Museum, the Sangam Project, an Australia-India design forum, discovered Diego Bonetto at Big Fag Press. With friends, he had purchased a lithographic offset proofing press for $50. They probably could have got if for free, but the real expense was the $1,200 it cost to move. With help of some old timers, they managed to work out how to use the machine and learn its tricks. In the industry, these kinds of machines are no longer necessary because there is less need for proofing sheets. However, for artists who are seeking to have a limited print

run, it is perfect. The very handson nature of the process for them is an asset, giving them direct access to the printing plate. While an even spread of ink across the page is the machine ideal, they can create something interesting by varying this.

This press seemed to reflect an important element also found in the contemporary use of block printing. Traditionally, the textile craft is valued according to the accuracy of print. But this accuracy is better guaranteed now by newer processes such as silkscreen and digital printing. From the viewpoint of technology, block printing looks an inferior process, subject to human error. However, when seen as a creative expression, the irregularities and mis-registrations can seem positively as a form of individual expression.

As such, block printing is often the scene of conflict between Western designers and Indian artisans. A designer might encourage the printer to make mistakes, as foreign clients will value the handmade gesture rather than mechanical precision. However, a traditional artisan may be offended with the request to betray the honour of his or her craft. In the West, we take for granted the romantic nature of self expression, particularly since the Arts and Crafts Movement when writers like Ruskin reacted against the deadening nature of technology. But this romanticism is not necessarily shared by societies that have not been through the same scale of industrialisation.

One position struggles against the other. From the designer’s perspective, the artisan seems stubborn, clinging to the past. While from the artisan’s viewpoint, the designer has no respect for the craft, focusing on the market rather than the need to continue tradition. How to bring these perspectives together is a

significant challenge in developing a partnership between artisan and designer that is characterised by mutual respect.

We tried to replicate this position so that the shoe was on the other foot. The Indian designer (played by a real one, Ishan Khosla) is invited to Australia by a local media mogul (played by Pawan Luthra) to make a invitation for his daughter’s arrangetram. The arrangetram is a coming-of-age for an Indian girl where she demonstrates her mastery of traditional dance. Like the bar mitzvah, these events have become grand affairs in Sydney, with thousands of guests and bands flown in from India.

Khosla decides to use the rarity of the Big Fag Press to design cards that maximise the irregularity of the old press –every one is different. Sceptical at first Luthra agrees and they end up being quite successful. However, a guest returning to India shows it to a friend, who happens to be part of a new political group, the Artisan Liberation Front. The ALF is reacting against the loss of tradition in India that is seen as resulting from foreign influence, such as the recent decision to allow multinationals like Walmart into the local marketplace. One of

their core principles is the moral right of artisans to seek perfection in their work.

One of Australia’s leading textile designers, Sally Campbell, is at this point kidnapped by the ALF. The panel was asked to intervene at this point. Senior curator Christina Sumner offered the ingenious solution that involves the Powerhouse Museum sending over some old printers that can help the revival of dying skills.

The energetic responses of the panel helped open up this issue. As founding director of the Crafts Council of Australia, Jane Burns reflected on the misunderstandings that occurred in the past between the Australian notion of craft as an art form, versus its more practical value in India. She helped also raise the question of what kind of responsibility Australia takes now for its craft heritage. This was echoed by the founding director of the UNESCO Observatory, Lindy Joubert, who spoke about the global significance of intangible cultural heritage. Besides the creative responses of the panel, the audience too offered some important thoughts about the significance of traditional crafts. Helmut Lueckenhausen spoke about the

importance of tradition not just for the beauty of objects but also the sense of connectedness that it encourages between people, their society and wider world. There was also an impassioned call from a local audience member about the dire situation facing crafts in New South Wales, with the cuts to TAFE. She argued that we should not only be worried about the situation facing impoverished artisans in India, we need to see what’s happening to our creative skill base at home.

Ably steered by Nell Schofield, the speculative scenario managed to touch a nerve for participants and audience. As often happens, what begins as a missionary project often turns on itself, with the giver becoming the receiver. Through this reversal, we can uncover a new sense of solidarity between Australia and India. Source article: www.sangamproject.net

Dr Kevin Murray is the co-ordinator of Sangam – Australia-India Design Platform, a three-year program of parallel forums, workshops and pilot study aiming to build a common understanding between Australia and India about how designers and artisans might work productively together

Diego Bonetto demonstrating how the Big Fag Press works

Ishan Khosla explaining to Diego Bonetto, Jane Burns, Sally Campbell, Lindy Joubert, Christina Sumner and Pawan Luthra how the redundant printer could be turned to creative ends

Diwali Mubarak!

Colour, costumes, music, dance and fireworks mark Diwali Fair 2012

It took us all but a few days to prepare for Diwali, but the Hindu Council of Australia (HCA) spent months in planning Sydney’s biggest Indian community gathering, Deepavali Fair 2012.

Some 12,000 people came together to celebrate HCA’s Diwali, the Festival of Lights at the Sydney Olympic Park Athletic Centre on November 4, including attendees from other communities. Kate Lundy, Federal Sports and Multicultural Affairs Minister deserves a special mention here, as she was elegantly dressed in Indian attire.

Other dignitaries were Victor Dominello (NSW State Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Minister for Citizenship and Communities); John Robertson (NSW Opposition Leader); Ned Attie (Mayor, Auburn City Council); Craig Kelly (Federal MP); Lisa Singh (Federal MP and the first person of Indian origin to become a federal parliamentarian); Mataji from Sarda Vendata Mission Sydney; Swami Shivananda Shivacharya; singer Kamahl and many other Federal and State MPs.

The Diwali Fair is per se entertainment at its best, as the HCA has been benchmarking its celebration since 1999 with the same intensity and fervour as we do in India. The enjoyable milieu of the fair was the reason for excitement and delight for attendees, with over 85 stalls of fashion, media, craft, finance,

This was followed by the Australian Hindu Multicultural Association’s Bharat Milap drama which struck an emotional chord with scenes from Lord Rama’s return from exile.

After this gentle touch of spirituality, the day unfolded with a series of other performances. Connoisseurs of dance and

Dance Academy, Nanhi Kaliyan, Punjabi Paniri Group, Strathfield North Bollywood Stars, Meenaxi’s Dance Group, Akriti’s Dance Group, Lotus Dance School, Dancing Divas, The Indian Dance School, Nrityalaya Dance School, Poornima Sharma, Thrayee School of Dance and Jhanak Dance Academy.

The Western Union Dance Competition is one of the main highlights of the fair, especially for the eagerly waiting nine teams participating. The winner of the competition was Rythmic Dance Group, dancing away with the cash prize of $1,000.

The Nepalese and Chinese Dance were also appreciated as they showcased multicultural Australia. Sydney Chinese Dance & Song Inc performed a traditional Chinese dance wearing traditional Hanfu outfits. The dance was about the rich and pretty province of XinJiang, also known as the ‘dance village’ or ‘Town of fruits’. They also performed Meng Gu, a Mongolian dance.

wider community in Australia. The team chair Prof Nihal Agar told Indian Link, “Like every year, the event was a grand success and we would like to thank all our sponsors, volunteers, performers, media partners and the support from the audience.”

The event concluded with a finale performance by Sidi Goma Dance Group who specially travelled from Gujarat for the fair. The performance was breathtaking as they used drums, coconut shells and other props to mesmerize the crowd, dressed in traditional costume made of cane sticks, shells and headgear.

property, henna and pure vegetarian Indian cuisine, amongst many others. A beautiful giant rangoli emphasising the peacock, the Indian national bird, also caught everyone’s eyes.

The event started at noon with spiritual melodies by ISKON and Ramcharitmanas Institute.

drama united to perform at this spectacular event and the audience relished the bhangra, dhol, gidha, bharatnatyam, mohiniyattam, kurathy, katthak, garba, Nepalese, Chinese and Bollywood dance styles.

These performances were by popular dance groups from all over Sydney including The Mango

Where there is dancing, there is also catwalking! A fashion parade showcasing Indian traditional outfits was organised as well.

For over five months the HCA team has been relentlessly working with over a hundred dedicated volunteers to present the fair with novel ideas to showcase Indian art, heritage and culture to the

And what is Diwali without fireworks? One of the highlights of the HCA event, many people actually visit the fair in the evening so they can stay on for the fireworks. This time again, they were not disappointed, as the pyrotechnics lit up the night. All is well that ends well, they say, and so it was for the fair which concluded with the burning of the Ravana effigy, depicting the end of antagonism. The crowds rejoiced to see the evil king come down in a flash of flames – for the Hindus, this signifies the purging of all negativity from our minds, and the cleansing of our selves by fire, to start the new year fresh and positive.

We hope you had a happy Diwali. Komal Utsav Jagad More photos pages 28-29.

Mini India at Martin Place

Martin Place showcases the fun and festivity of Diwali

BY KOMAL UTSAV JAGAD

Martin Place, the cosmopolitan hub of Sydney’s CBD was decorated flamboyantly once again; but this time it was for a whole new reason! This was thanks to the Hindu Council of Australia (HCA) who was boldly Bolshevik in turning Sydney’s hotspot Martin Place into ‘Mini India’, as part of their campaign to spread awareness of Diwali, the Festival of Lights. The event, held on October 31 from 11am to 4:45pm saw Martin Place transformed into a mini India.

Inaugurated by Nihal Agar, Chairman HCA, the event was a showcase to promote the Diwali Fair 2012, the HCA made an immensely commendable effort to ensure this year’s Diwali not only lit the lives of Indians here, but also mainstream Sydneysiders. The carefully chosen location played its part to ensure that Indians and Australia’s wider multicultural community got a taste of India and its favourite festival.

The event was organised for the first time in such a prestigious location, and was an undoubted success. Through the day, about 3000 people walked through an array of stalls, stopping by the central stage to view a variety of entertainers perform in a riot of dance, colour and music. An action packed entertaining runorder for the day deserves all the credit here.

Part of the program was a staged wedding scenario, with the stage decorated to the theme of a typical Indian wedding with a ‘mandap’ (a four-poster canopy) and elegantly dressed dulha and dulhan (groom and bride) who exchanged garlands and took to the pheras (oaths) with a grand vidaai (farewell to the bride) in a beautiful doli (palanquin), just as per Indian rituals.

Prabhu’s Hang instrumental performance stole the show as he induced the silence of the soul, invoked a connection to nature and kindled the celebration of life using the Hang, a UFO-looking 21st century instrument, tracing its origins in Switzerland.

Other enactments were also a revelation for the first-timers who had never witnessed our spectacular culture and heritage before. Ruchi Sanghi Group performed a mesmerising kathak dance. Poojithaa Padmanaba’s

soulful bharathnatyam show was on ‘Januthakita’, which describes Lord Ganapathy’s powers of bringing good luck. A bhangra mix by Bollywood Stars Australia; a unique dance performing group run by Gracy Mosca; and a ‘Medley’ by Rhythmic Squad encompassing hip hop, contemporary, bharatnatyam and bhangra, were must-mention performances.

In the background, stalls for astrology, henna, kurtas and a bookstall selling Indian folklore stories, amongst others, kept many participants captivated and entertained. Children could test their creative skills at the rangoli craft stall, try their hand at diya making or Diwali colouring competitions. They even lent a hand for the ‘Ravana making session’, a novel task for them. After all these efforts, they did not mind queuing up at the HCA stall to get their surprise goodie bag.

Claire Portman, who visited

mini-India with her 7-year-old daughter, said, “This is totally new for us and we are glad to be a part of it. My daughter loved the rangoli and the craft stall. We are looking forward to the Diwali Fair too.” It was gratifying to see so many Australians participate in the event, almost matching the Indian attendees in number. Among these were Arun Kumar Goel, Consul General of India in Sydney; John Robertson (State Opposition Leader); David Clarke MLC; Marie Ficcara MLC; Peter Primrose MLC; and Gurdeep Singh councillor.

Raman Bhalla, Nihal Agar and Sanjeev Bhakri of the HCA commenced work on this project in early 2012, and were delighted with the great and positive response. “The event was a success and we thank all our sponsors, volunteers, performers, media partners and the amazing and supportive audience. We hope to be back next year with an even

bigger show,” they said.

Raman and Sanjay were assisted by a team of twenty volunteers.

Indian Link Radio broadcast live from Martin Place, bringing to its listeners the hustle and bustle of it all, and giving them an opportunity to greet the community on the occasion.

Diwali at Martin Place was a wonderfully fresh idea and the

HCA’s initiative seems to have made a remarkable impact on those who attended the event. The concept of spreading divine thoughts of health, happiness and prosperity connected with the festival by turning the iconic Martin Place into a mini India was very well received and was a taste of what to expect at the Diwali Fair.

Phoos: Sunny Cherian

A bit of charity at Diwali

Manjit Gujral helps raise more than $30,000 for I-India Project

Hope the children at Jhag village, just outside of Jaipur, had a good Diwali this year.

Some 400 Sydney-siders were thinking of them as they celebrated the Festival of Lights in downtown Sydney; and by simply agreeing to attend this year, they had in their own way helped ensure that Jhag kids would have an even happier Diwali next year round.

Leading Indian-Australian entrepreneur Manjit Gujral and the Sydney-based NGO I-India Project held their second annual Diwali Ball on November 10 at the Four Seasons Hotel.

I-India Project Australia is a not-for-profit organisation based in Sydney which was established in 2007 in partnership with I-India. The aim of this organisation is to raise money for the construction and operation of the ‘Jhag Children’s Village’ located 45 minutes from Jaipur in India, where the organisation is helping to run a school for children, two shelter homes caring for former street children, as well as a medical clinic. By providing health services, shelter and education, I-India hopes to help these children rise from poverty and ensure better lives for themselves and their families, while at the same time trying to stimulate the local economy.

The fundraising event was attended by people from different backgrounds, all present to help battle poverty and illiteracy and lift lives in Jhag village.

Manjit and Kanwar Gujral welcomed guests with bindis, necklaces and scarves, the festive atmosphere kicking in even at the door. A giant ice-sculpted Lakshmi smiled down at attendees, who made the most of the Goddess of the day, decorated with flowers and candles, by making her a fitting backdrop for their Diwali photographs.

Over drinks guests browsed around the huge display of silent auction items for which they could bid through an easy-to-use online system. A large number of items and services ranging from Prada perfumes to cake decorating classes and much more were on offer.

The Grand Ballroom was beautifully decorated in shades of black and gold, with majestic silver candlestands as the centrepiece on each table. (Manjit’s touch was immediately apparent). Celia Barnett, committee member of the I-India Project Australia offered a short introduction on the history and goals of the I-India Project

Australia. “We’re just under the $5 million mark in our overall fundraising,” she announced, adding that she hoped the barrier would be crossed at the end of the night. Her accounts of the manner in which the Jhag Children’s Village has grown ever since they started their work there, moved the audience. As she recounted stories of some kids under I-India’s care, she brought home loud and clear that ordinary individuals can become change-agents.

he had seen so many taxi drivers together at the one spot). Crooner Larry Stellar stood up to his name beautifully as he channelled Frank Sinatra and had the girls up on their feet dancing in the aisles –and mid-centre! The aerial acrobats Aerialize were simply stunning, introducing some truly beautiful Indian links to their act, such as with music and costumes; they kept the audience spellbound.

Throughout the evening, the guests were treated to multiple courses of a lavish Manjit-style dinner - a truly dazzling variety of mouth-watering Indian dishes - as MC Preeti Thadani guided the events on the program.

Magician

And yet, there is much we can celebrate in our daily lives, the entertainers of the night reminded us. Ruchi Sanghi School of Dance and the Sirens group brought in a fun element. The Ctaare fashion show concluded safely with no untoward incident as some impossibly high heels negotiated the steps up to the stage.

Brendan Montana from Magic to the Max was entertaining, even though his tricks were run-of-themill (clearly he has never waited at a taxi rank before, because he claimed this was the first time

As Manjit came up to wish everyone a happy Diwali, he was surrounded by a spectacular display of indoor fireworks which were set off on the stage perfectly on cue, as well as at the dinner tables through special custom-made devices cleverly concealed as candles.

With tickets priced at $175 per person and $1750 for a table, in

addition to the silent auction and a live auction, the night raised over $30,000 for I-India Project Australia. Guests bid generously throughout the evening with the highest bid placed at $3500 for a Steve Waugh autographed cricket bat. The live auction was similarly well received, with a variety of items being offered such as a queen size mattress and a romantic Fijian holiday for two.

Celia Barnett must surely have been thrilled to have exceeded the fundraising goal, thanks to the generosity of the guests present and the businesses that had provided their support. For more details of the work done by I-India Project Australia, visit their website www.i-indiaproject.org.au

Saloni Kober, Rajni Anand Luthra

Celia Barnett of I-India Project

Manjit Gujral of Total Events Management

Larry Stellar

Aerialize

Magic to the Max

Indian decor

Sirens Dance Group

A view on Australia’s Asian engagement

Panellists discuss the need for a mutually beneficial interaction and involvement between Asia and Australia

BY HASNAIN ZAHEER

The government’s recent white paper called Australia in the Asian Century has generated much debate about why and how Australia should look north into its Asian neighbourhood, especially India, China and Indonesia for continued and sustainable growth. It recommends a number of initiatives such as teaching of priority languages that includes Hindi in schools, Asia experts on company boards etc. But mostly its contribution has been in helping set the context and raising the temperature for Australia’s Asian engagement in economic terms.

One of the events that plugged right into this debate was Digital Australia & Emergent Asia on November 1, organised by Pradeep Khanna of Integrating Australia with Asia and CEO of Global Mindset. The event was hosted by PwC Sydney in their plush Sussex Street offices and was supported by AsiaLink, a think tank created by the University of Melbourne.

About 110 people participated in this event whose core theme was: How will Australia’s digital economy co-exist with the digital, real and blended economies of Asian countries?

Mr Khanna introduced the topic by saying, “In a highly globalised, digitised and services-intense marketplace, if we can access Asian services marketplace, can’t our Asian neighbours access the Australian services marketplace and deliver better quality services at a lower cost? The Australian

economy has a high degree of services intensification with services accounting for more than 80% of employment and 75% of GDP. It is a developed economy and more easily accessed in a highly digitised world. Are we prepared for this transformation of our economy?”

Keynote speaker, Matt Barrie, founder and Chief Executive of Freelancer.com, offered a glimpse of the future where chances are that most jobs one can think of will be performed somewhere else in the world, mostly in the emerging markets of Asia and elsewhere, at a fraction of the cost back home. He attempted to help participants visualise a future where every business would be an internet business dominated by software, software and software. In particular he highlighted disruptive business models such as MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) that are about to impact Universities. This is on top of several industries that have been transformed into software or internet industries such as books retail (Amazon); travel (wotif); music (iTunes); education, recruitment and more to come. He offered generous hints about how to use the internet to grow one’s business.

A panel discussion by Asian business experts followed the topic of the day. It was a robust discussion dominated by the need for Australia to engage more intensively with Asia, in which this Asian Century white paper is just a beginning.

In response to a question about whether there is a single entity called Asia, Trent Lund (Lead Partner for Innovation & Incubation of Digital Ventures, PwC) said, “We keep hearing of Australia as a gateway of Asia. First of all, there is not one Asia,

it is a multitude of countries with very unique personalities. They want to do business in an integrated way with people who are there on the ground with them, who understand the nuances of their cultures, and not through a gateway.”

On the definition of the digital economy, Ian Birks, CEO of Australian Services Roundtable, was emphatic that what is needed is not a technology dominated agenda, but one that targets transformation – business, societal and economic transformation.

In regards to whether we will see a time when technology may make country borders irrelevant to form a global community, Prof Aditya Ghose, Professor at University of Wollongong and

President, Service Science Society of Australia, felt there would be a progressive reduction of borders through the use of technology, and that we are already seeing some elements of a homogenous culture emerging as the world becomes flatter. There were, however, differing views from some other panel members.

Dr Dean Economou, Technology Strategist, NICTA, provided a good example of the digital divide not only among nation states, but within a country itself. In one of his visits to South Korea, a highly digitised economy, he found a similar situation as in Australia – with the countryside behind metros in digitisation.

Bob Hayward, Chief Innovation and Technology

Officer, CSC Australia & Asia, was passionately concerned about Australian business not being prepared to take advantage of opportunities from Asia’s rapid growth. He highlighted some of the comparative advantages of Australia - good infrastructure, clean environment, effective public administration system, good welfare health systems, among others. These offered considerable scope in sustainable services trade with the Asian region.

Brad Howarth, commentator and author of Faster Future, a book on digital transformation, felt we all need to take responsibility for creating awareness about the digitising of the economy. Citing his recent visit to Mildura, he gave an example of how we could get a local printer to consider opportunities from a 3D printer instead.

Likewise, Keith Besgrove, First Assistant Secretary, Department of Broadband, Communication and Digital Economy highlighted Australia’s open and flexible economy. This has enabled us to change, adapt and grow in the past, and will do so in the future as well, he noted.

Lindley Edwards, Group CEO, AFG Venture Group and NonExecutive Director, Asialink, concluded the session with closing comments.

Minority within a minority

Same-sex issues discussed at South Asian GLBTIQ forum

In a first for Australia, the South Asian community came together on November 3 to talk about queer life for desis living here. The forum titled Let’s Talk: Being South Asian and GLBTIQ was arranged by Trikone Australasia, and held at ACON’s Surry Hills premises. South Asians constitute one of Australia’s fastest growing communities and hail from the Indian subcontinent, comprising countries such as India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and Maldives. The event brought together over 60 people from varying cultural and religious backgrounds.

In a relaxed atmosphere, the

audience heard the views of a panel of experts including health professional Aziz Mahee; psychologist Sekneh HammoudBeckett; social justice advocate and commentator Senthorun Raj; academic and author Dr Yasmin Tambiah; and lawyer Meena Sripathy. The panel discussed wide-ranging topics from human rights to depictions of same-sex love in Hindu and Buddhist texts. The audience listened attentively as the panel recounted their own stories of coming out in South Asian families. The presentations were followed by a lively and at times moving, question and discussion session chaired by Andy Quan, author and musician.

“Let’s Talk has been a great opportunity for South Asians to come together and talk about issues that aren’t openly discussed within our communities,” said Alan Maurice, co-Chair of Trikone Australasia.

“The South Asian GLBTIQ community is a minority within a minority, and at the forum we came together to talk about our identity, our visibility and our communities.

Many GLBTIQ South Asians have to leave home to be able to live their lives freely. We hope that today is the first step in making this process easier and that it increases the visibility of GLBTIQ South Asians so that others know they are not alone,” he added.

“The forum was fantastic,” said a member of the audience. “When I first came out there were very few gay South Asian

people around. The organisers are creating something that has been needed for a long time.”

Following its success, organisers hope to make the event an annual fixture on the GLBTIQ community calendar. Let’s Talk was sponsored by ACON and Parish Patience Immigration Lawyers.

Trikone Australasia can be contacted via www.trikone.org.au Simon Ruth

CLEARANCE SALE All stock at cost price

Gentlemen of the game

BY RITAM MITRA

In October, the Sydney Cricket Ground played host to the seventh annual Bradman Gala Dinner, a truly memorable event that recognises not just two of the greatest cricketers of all time, but two gentlemen who exemplified the values of integrity, respect, and determination – traits that Sir Donald Bradman brought to the game more successfully than most. This year, the recipients of the honour were Australia’s Glenn McGrath and India’s Rahul Dravid.

Each year since 2006, The Bradman Foundation has honoured a successful past cricket player who brought to the game every ounce of passion and courage expected of a Test cricketer, but left pride in the wake of humility both on and off the field.

The list of past Honourees is few and exclusive - the list reads:

Norm O’ Neil, Neil Harvey and Arthur Morris (who were both in attendance on the night, and are also the only two surviving members of Bradman’s 1948 ‘Invincibles’ team), Sam Loxton, Bill Brown, Alan Davidson, Dennis Lillee, Sunil Gavaskar, Adam Gilchrist, Richard Hadlee and Bob Simpson.

If it wasn’t already tough enough to find more illustrious company, the 2012 Bradman Honourees managed to raise the bar. Although Dravid was unable to attend the function because of an illness in the family, he gave his acceptance speech through a familiar voice – former Prime Minister John Howard delivered Dravid’s words to an audience packed with past cricketing icons, after they had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to have drinks on the field and take a photo with a very realistic cutout of the Don himself.

“I remember the excitement that went through Indian cricket when we heard the news that Bradman had seen Sachin Tendulkar bat on TV and thought he batted like him. It was more than mere approval; it was as if the great Don had finally passed on his torch. Not to an Aussie or an Englishman or a West Indian. But to one of our own,” said Dravid through Howard.

Richie Benaud OBE, the former

Australian captain and now Patron of the Bradman Foundation, paid tribute to both, McGrath and Dravid on their achievements.

Benaud is synonymous with the Australian summer of cricket, and as one of the most respected cricket personalities in history, the praise he reserved for these two players will certainly rank among their proudest honours.

Benaud aptly summed up the esteem in which Dravid is held worldwide saying, “He represents everything that is decent about this great game.” Benaud also looked back on calling Dravid’s debut match at Lord’s – a debut he shared with Sourav Ganguly –with genuine fondness.

Joint Honouree Glenn McGrath was no less generous in his praise of Dravid himself. “I’m proud to accept this alongside Rahul; to me he’s a guy the Australian team respected more than any other in the world. He’s a class player and a top bloke. There are a lot of memories with him – good and bad, of course one time in Kolkata he and VVS (Laxman) batted all day,” he said.

In Dravid’s absence, however, McGrath was the focus of the night, with tributes being paid not only to his wonderful career – he took 563 wickets in Test matches and 381 in ODIs, retiring as the leading Test match fast bowler of all time – but also to his work

in establishing the Jane McGrath Foundation, whose 78 McGrath Breast Care Nurses now support over 16,000 Australian families.

McGrath has also recently taken over from Dennis Lillee’s role as the director of MRF’s Pace Foundation fast bowling academy in Chennai, under which bowlers like Javagal Srinath, Zaheer Khan, Brett Lee and Chaminda Vaas have all prospered. Indeed, even Tendulkar spent some time at the academy in his younger years, training to become a fast bowler. McGrath’s stature in the game as one of the most respected greats will certainly have a significant impact in his nurturing of the next generation of fast bowlers.

“To stand here (at the SCG) it’s amazing to see where the time goes. I feel privileged and lucky to represent Australia for fourteen years. I still get goosebumps when I walk out onto the SCG – it’s my favourite ground in the world. To think about where I grew up…to think I was lucky enough to play for Australia for fourteen years alongside guys like Steve Waugh, Matthew Hayden and Gilly,” reminisced McGrath in what was a humble and heartfelt speech.

Plenty of other fast bowling greats were present on the night – 2009 Bradman Joint Honouree, Dennis Lillee, as well as his partner-in-crime Jeff Thomson formed part of a World Series

Quizzed by Stuart Clark (who was still fresh off the plane from the Sydney Sixers’ Champions League triumph in South Africa) and Tim Gilbert, the quartet gave some fascinating insights into the rise of World Series Cricket and the challenges it overcame to change the face of cricket forever.

The players looked back with perhaps bittersweet nostalgia about the tough time they had as players in the face of a regime under which players received little pay and relied on employers being accommodating with leave requests, making it impossible for players to support their families. Benaud continued to charm with his quips – saying Cricket Australia, formerly known as the ‘Australian Board of Control’, was named so “for good reason”.

Thomson in particular was the crowd favourite, and perhaps with good reason – he bowled some quick-fire bouncers at the late Kerry Packer (all in good humour of course) to prove that he was still as sharp as a tack. Incredulous at the amount of money Packer had thrown at the game in order to bring entertainment value to cricket and professionalise the players, Thomson’s selfdeprecating humour and

Benaud aptly summed up the esteem in which Dravid is held worldwide saying, “He represents everything that is decent about this great game.”

McGrath’s stature in the game as one of the most respected greats will certainly have a significant impact in his nurturing of the next generation of fast bowlers.

McCosker’s raw admiration for the West Indian quicks at the time –Holding, Garner, Croft, Roberts –typified the relaxed yet interesting conversation.

Lillee summed up Packer’s influence on the game with this: “Every single professional cricketer should find Kerry Packer’s grave and worship him.” And indeed they might – Lillee recalls being paid in the vicinity of $400 a Test match at the time.

The night was still however, mostly about the two Honourees – and McGrath and Dravid are two of those gentlemen in the game’s history who are, quite simply, in a class of their own.

Cricket ‘Expert Panel’, along with Rick McCosker and Richie Benaud.

Two of the world’s greatest cricketers are honoured for their passion, courage, talent and integrity

2012 Bradman Gala Dinner

Photos courtesy of the Bradman Foundation

Trade will be balanced gradually, China assures India

China recently assured India that it is aware of the need to balance trade between the two countries, which is heavily loaded in favour of Beijing, and “it will be done gradually”.

This was conveyed to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during bilateral talks with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao at Peace Palace in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh.

During the 45-minute talks between the two leaders, perhaps their last such official meeting with the Chinese premier set to step down from office following the leadership change in that country, Prime Minister Singh raised the issue of increasing India’s market access to China, especially for IT, services and pharmaceuticals.

The Indian prime minister emphasised on the need for “accelerating exports to China”, said Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai, briefing Indian journalists on the talks.

Premier Wen said “he was looking at gradual balancing of trade with India, and that they were cognizant of India’s interests”, said Mathai.

Wen said China “did recognise the need for balance in trade and said it would be done gradually”.

India-China bilateral trade hit a record $73.9 billion last year, but the ballooning trade deficit in Beijing’s favour rose to over $27 billion.

The bilateral trade registered a $12.2 billion increase in 2011, taking the total to $73.9 billion as against $61.7 billion in 2010,

according to official trade figures for 2011.

Prime Minister Singh said India was “committed to working to achieving the full potential” on trade and emphasised on the need for greater market access, especially to IT, services and pharma sectors”.

He also welcomed Chinese investments in infrastructure in India, which he said would help create employment and help to bridge the trade gap, said Mathai.

As part of boosting their trade, the two countries are holding a strategic economic dialogue at the end of November in New Delhi. The Indian side would be led by Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia.

Wen said a large Chinese economic delegation, with economic experts, would visit India to participate in the strategic economic dialogue.

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement did not figure in their talks, said Mathai. The RCEP, a trade agreement between the East Asia countries which is still being worked out, aims to create a trading highway among the countries of the Asia and Pacific.

The prime minister visited Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital between Nov 18-20 to attend the 10th ASEAN-India Summit and the 7th East Asia Summit.

India joins talks to create world’s biggest free trade market

India has entered negotiations to further liberalise trade in goods, services and investment in Asia in the Cambodian capital

Phnom Penh, that are expected to bring in significant economic benefits to the country.

Two competing visions of regional economic integration animated conversation at the ASEAN and East Asia summits which too place amid a faltering world economy, regional tension and great power manoeuvrings.

ASEAN leaders have pledged to create the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) comprising their 10 member-nations and six partner countries: China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

It aims to lower trade barriers across the region to create the biggest free-trade market on the globe and a production base that would ensure the free movement of goods, services, investments and skilled labour in the region by 2015.

China, which has just emerged from once-in-a-decade leadership transition, is a strong votary of the RCEP to offset the US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) that excludes Beijing.

President Barack Obama is advocating the TPP as part of his administration’s “rebalancing strategy” towards Asia. The TPP also aims to bring down trade barriers between the US and a group of Asian countries and venture into new areas of cooperation.

“We’re organising trade relations with countries other than China, so that China starts feeling more pressure about meeting basic international standards,” Obama, who won a second term in office earlier in November, said during one of the

presidential debates with Mitt Romney. The Trade and Economic Relations Committee (TERC) headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh decided earlier this month to join the ASEAN plus Six talks keeping in view its 20-year-old “Look East” policy and the deadlocked Doha Round.

Sources said the government has some concern about the possible impact of the RCEP on certain products but decided to go in to reinforce India’s determination to be a “constructive” partner in the negotiations that are expected to remove the kinks in the architecture of economic partnership.

India and ASEAN have a free trade agreement in goods and are negotiating to include services and investment, widening the agreement to a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA).

India-ASEAN trade currently stands at $79 billion, surpassing the $70 billion target set for 2012.

ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan told the Asia-Europe Business Forum in the Laotian capital Vientiane earlier this month that the grouping needed support from its dialogue partners.

“I talked about the five FTAs that we have with the six (dialogue partner) countries. We are now putting the five together into one agreement,” said Surin.

The prime minister led the Indian delegation to the 10th ASEAN-India summit and 7th East Asia Summit.

RCEP has grown out of a plan to launch trilateral trade talks among China, Japan and South Korea and billed to be worth $17 trillion.

Huge crowds gather in Mumbai on 18 Nov 2012 to watch the funeral procession of Hindu nationalist leader Bal Thackeray, triggering a virtual shutdown of the city. Thackeray died on Nov 17 aged 86.

There is however, still a fair degree of scepticism about the success of the talks as protection for sensitive goods and geopolitical sensitivities could disrupt the negotiations.

Experts say countries might ask for special treatment for their agricultural produce. For example, talks between Seoul and Tokyo have been on hold since 2004 over Japan’s reluctance to lower tariffs on agricultural goods.

And South Korea is said to be separately negotiating a free trade agreement with China, which would enable some 25,000 South Korean firms operating in China to supply to the domestic market rather than exporting their Chinese-produced goods as they are obliged to do now.

Also, ASEAN Deputy Secretary General Lim Hong Hin told a business forum in Makati city in the Philippines that 28 percent of ASEAN Economic Community measures due to be implemented for 2008-2011 are still pending as of end-August 2012.

Experts point to poor infrastructure, lack of human resources, good governance and low participation from the private sector as the possible main hurdles in achieving the establishment of a single market.

There are also concerns that the South China Sea territorial disputes between China and Vietnam and the Philippines over the Spratly and Parcel islands may muddy the negotiations and delay the launch of the pact.

Bal Thackeray: The tiger roars

no more

You loved him, you hated him, but you never could ignore him. That was Bal Keshav Thackeray, a fierce proponent of Hindu supremacism in a secular India who built his chauvinistic politics around the emotive cause of regional pride of 112 million people of Maharashtra, the country’s most industrialised state and home to its world renowned film and entertainment industry. He was 86.

Views on Bal Thackeray, known as Balasaheb, were as polarised as the politics he practiced. Known for his caustic tongue, he was idolised by his followers in the Shiv Sena and scorned in equal measure by liberal and secular Indians for his communal, divisive politics that didn’t stop with radical expression of views against Muslims and violent action against those opposed to his extreme rightwing ideas - including being firmly opposed to the visit of the Pakistani cricket team to India.

The cartoonist turned politician was often portrayed as a roaring tiger, the much cherished logo of his party Shiv Sena, which he formed to accord dignity to Maharashtrians, but which became known as a party of restless youngsters out for trouble. He was a demagogue whose strong views polarised the polity at the state and the national level, but he never flinched from expressing himself with conviction despite opposition.

The posterboy of rightwing Hindu and Marathi chauvinism, he never plunged into electoral politics and never contested any polls. He never made it to the national stage either but remained an active, acidic voice, commenting on any and every issue through the party mouthpiece Saamna

The party is virtually orphaned but the canny Thackeray had anointed son Uddhav as the next boss well in advance. In 2011, he

even placed grandson Aditya as the next in line for the family legacy.

Born on Jan 23, 1926, in Pune, in then Bombay Presidency, Thackeray started his career as a political cartoonist with The Free Press Journal (FPJ) group in the early 1950s, a contemporary of the legendary R.K. Laxman, who too was with the FPJ at the time.

He used his cartoons to promote the Samyukta Maharashtra (United Maharashtra) movement, launched in the mid-1950s to crusade for the formation of Maharashtra. His father Prabodhankar Keshav Sitaram Thackeray was one of the five leaders who spearheaded the movement.

In 1960, he quit his FPJ job and began taking interest in politics. As a tool to cash in on the strong anti-migrant sentiments among the locals, he launched a Marathi humour weekly Marmik in August 1960, ironically released by then Congress chief minister Y.B. Chavan.

Two months later, in October of 1960, he addressed the first Dussehra Rally at Mumbai’s Shivaji Park, a ritual that continued virtually uninterrupted for 46 years.

Shaping his political agenda through Marmik, Thackeray initially targeted the communists and their influential trade unions, followed by south Indians who he said got preferential treatment over locals in jobs in Mumbai and other big cities.

Guided by his father, Thackeray finally plunged into politics by launching the Shiv Sena on June 19, 1966.

As the Sainiks vigorously espoused the cause of Marathi Asmita (pride) and targeted south Indian migrants - Thackeray sarcastically called them “Yandu-Gundu lungiwallahs” - the party’s support swelled amongst the poor, lower middle class and middle class Marathis.

Spurred by this, Thackeray harped on emotive issues like “Mumbai for Marathis” and “jobs for sons of soil” through the dreaded Sthanik Lokadhikar Samitis - but nobody knows how many jobs it finally translated into.

The situation was volatile. There were regular riots that led to Thackeray’s arrest in February 1969 - the one and only time he ever saw the inside of a jail.

Political power came when Sena candidates won in the 1967 Thane and 1968 Bombay municipal elections - the latter being the state’s cash cow and the country’s financial powerhouse.

In 1973, it controlled the BMC in alliance with other parties, including the Muslim League (!), and also bagged the mayor’s post. It captured the BMC in 1985 - and continues to rule it till date.

After south Indians, the volatile Sena took up movements against Gujaratis, north Indians and Muslims.

Its anti-Muslim agitation, a perpetual one on one of its burners - either the front or the back - was among its shrillest. Thackeray’s famous comment to Time magazine after the demolition of the Babri Masjid was a vituperative “Kick’em out!”

The anti-Muslim stance fuelled by the demolition led to Mumbai’s worst-ever riots in December 1992-January 1993. It continued for another two months in some small pockets, followed by the retaliatory March 12, 1993, serial bomb blasts in the city.

These incidents were largely responsible for catapulting the Shiv Sena to power in

Maharashtra in the 1995 assembly elections. Thackeray, who came to be known as Sena Tiger, could have been chief minister. But he chose to be kingmaker instead, appointing schoolmaster Manohar Joshi as the state’s first Brahmin chief minister.

In 1989, Thackeray and the late Pramod Mahajan of the BJP designed the winning saffron combination. For nearly a quarter century, despite hiccups, the saffron alliance has survived, rare in India’s quicksand politics.

Surprisingly, all this he achieved practically sitting at his Bandra home. During his entire political career spanning over five decades, Thackeray travelled out of Maharashtra only twice -- to Lucknow to attend cases related to the Babri Mosque demolition.

Thackeray never travelled abroad either, though old timers hazily recall that he had made one or two brief foreign trips in the pre-1966 era. But, the shaper of Maharashtra politics hosted and received dignitaries and people from all over the world at Matoshri.

In Thackeray’s later years, the acidic language was reserved mostly for the edit pages of Saamna, which, despite its nearcharacter assassination of most leaders, escaped any major defamation proceedings.

During his political years, Thackeray was let down by some of his closest aides -- those like Chhagan Bhujbal, Narayan Rane and Sanjay Nirupam. But the worst blow was dealt to him by his nephew Raj Thackeray in 2005, who formed the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) in 2006.

He attempted a reconciliation between his feuding son and nephew - but it didn’t happen in his lifetime. Just like he couldn’t fulfil his dream of a saffron state and dying under the flutter of a saffron flag.

I feel myself partly a citizen of India, says Suu Kyi

“I feel myself partly a citizen of India,” Myanmar’s iconic pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi said recently, during an emotional visit to Lady Shri Ram College in Delhi, where she studied as an undergraduate in the 1960s.

Suu Kyi, moved by the warm welcome she received by her alma mater, said she never felt far removed from India.

“Coming back to LSR is not just coming back home, it is coming back to a place where I know my aspirations have not been wrong. I have learnt that my faith in the oneness of human aspirations is justified. I’m coming to a place where I can feel that my hopes have not been in vain,” she said, addressing dignitaries, students, faculty and media at the Ramakrishna Dalmia auditorium of the college.

“I always knew I would come back to this hall where I had learned to sing one of Gandhi’s favourite songs - ‘Raghupati Raghava Raja Ram’. I feel myself partly a citizen of India,” she said.

Illustrious ex-students were in attendance at the ceremony. A dance recital by bharatnatyam exponent Geetha Chandran and a puppet show by noted puppeteer Anurupa Roy were also part of the programme.

Suu Kyi returned the outpouring of love by planting a sapling in the sprawling lawns of the college to keep the memory of her visit alive.

The college wore a festive look, decked up in buntings of Myanmarese Buddhist motifs,

Oriental art works and an exhibition panel with photographs and excerpts from Suu Kyi’s speech on receiving the Nobel Prize.

The Nobel Laureate, who spent her childhood and early adolescence in New Delhi while her mother served as Burma’s envoy to India, returned here on a six-day visit, during which she has met India’s leaders as well as friends from her school and college days.

The charismatic leader, who spent decades under house arrest and is known for her heroic struggle against the all-powerful military junta in Myanmar, spoke about principles in politics.

“Principles must always exist in politics. Unprincipled politics is the most dangerous thing in the world. If you compromise on your principles, I think you’d better stop engaging in politics,” she said.

For the students of the college, her visit was an inspiration.

“She is coming home after so many years. It is a dream come true for us. She referred to us as ‘her girls’. The connection was immediate. I liked the bit in her speech about principled politics... Politics is in our everyday life,” said Jumi Gogoi, president of the LSR Students’ Union.

“Governments may change, but people remain the same...,” echoed Abhismrita B., cultural secretary of the LSR Students’ Union. Ms Suu Kyi also visited Bangalore and two villages in Andhra Pradesh to study women’s empowerment and development models.

Aamir Khan asks health activists to fight malnutrition

Pitching to rid the country of malnutrition, actor-producer Aamir Khan recently appealed to grass root level health activists and the local administration across the country to make the mission successful.

“I appeal to the ASHAs, Anganwadi workers, sarpanchs, you are the foot soldiers. I appeal to all of them to take this very seriously and make this movement successful,” Khan said at the launch of a media campaign against malnutrition.

ASHAs, the Accredited Social Health Activists, are community health workers instituted by the government to assist in the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM). Anganwadi workers work under government’s Integrated Child Development Service programme as a neighbourhood centre for health-care activities like contraceptive counselling and supply, nutrition education and supplementation, and child care.

Talking about the effects of malnutrition, Khan said: “The damage in first two years does the damage that stays through out the life.”

“If you love your country join the movement. How will India become a super power if we are affected by malnutrition?” he added.

The actor has been attached with social causes, and had recently done a television series featuring social issues. He has been associated with the information, education and communication programme of Women and Child Development Ministry, which was launched by President Pranab Mukherjee recently.

The programme will spread the message across the country in 18 languages, through television, radio, print and other media against malnutrition.

Diwali 2012

Scenes from the Hindu Council of Australia’s Diwali Mela at Olympic Park, Homebush Bay

Photos: Sunny Cherian

Immersing Australia in Asia

BY NoEl G dE SoUZA

The new white paper entitled Australia in The Asian Century released by Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, has been welcomed by both Government and Opposition circles. This is the one area where there is a lot of bipartisan overlap. It is a blueprint for Australia’s Asian future.

Julia Gillard laid down the rationale for the work by stating that “our region will be the world’s largest producer of goods and services and the largest consumer of them.” And she further elaborated this by saying that “our nation has benefitted from Asia’s appetite for raw materials and energy. The challenge we must now address is how Australia can benefit from what Asia will need next.”

Australian schools is a tribute to India. India has seventeen constitutionallyrecognised national languages; the White Paper has chosen Hindi which is the most prominent of these. Like most other languages, there is an official Hindi, which prevails in the Hindi-speaking states in India, and a popular Hindi which is the staple of the immensely successful Bollywood movies. Spoken Hindi is akin to the Urdu spoken in Pakistan and in Bangladesh.

That Hindi has been chosen as one of four Asian languages to be encouraged in Australian schools is a tribute to India

Popular Hindi is replete with words from Persian, Turkish and Arabic; it also contains English words. It is also understood well in Nepal. It is practically the lingua franca of much of the subcontinent. It is also spoken by a sizeable percentage of the inhabitants of Fiji, Mauritius and the three Guyanas. School children can be taught new languages, along with new scripts at an early age. However, teaching popular spoken Hindi can be effective if taught in the Roman script.

There are no detailed foci in the White Paper for individual countries. However, some countries are prominently mentioned, India being one of them. That brings a sense of relief, because in many forums which I attended, there was invariably a comment such as, “I do not consider India as being in Asia.” Things became a bit more defined but not in India’s favour, when the term ‘Asia-Pacific’ was introduced. Fortunately, that term does not figure much in this document.

When courses on Asia were introduced for teacher trainees, many students wanted to know why there were courses on Asia at all. “Why are we learning about Asia when we should be learning about Australia?” was a common comment. Courses on Australia were introduced when employers found students fresh from HSC to have little knowledge about Australia.

As the Asian Century document states: “Australia’s agriculture and food sector is extraordinarily well-placed to build on its strengths proximity to markets in Asia, complementarity in production systems, a robust biosecurity system, a record of innovation and reputation for producing high-quality and safe food products, and a skilled workforce.” The economies of Asia were once traditionally largely agricultural. There has been a shift though, to manufacturing whilst simultaneously agriculture has become modernised.

Australia has increased its export of sophisticated products such as wines, which are in demand from a modern Asian clientele

Noting that “only a small proportion of Year 12 students study anything about Asia in the subjects of history, literature, geography, economics, politics and the arts under existing State-based curriculums” and that “the building blocks to develop knowledge of the history, cultures, societies and languages of nations in Asia are laid at school”, the Asian Century document emphasises that the focus on Asian literacy will be at the school level.

To satisfy the aims of the White Paper, school level courses in most subjects can have an integrated model. For example, a single course can look at the climate of both Australia and Asia. Likewise with regards to history and economics.

That Hindi has been chosen as one of four Asian languages to be encouraged in

Despite the high exchange rate of the Australian dollar, Australia is still well placed to benefit from the region’s agricultural needs. A good example of the growing needs of India is sugar. Though being the world’s largest producer of sugar as well as being the largest consumer of that commodity, India needs more sugar to fulfil its needs which Australia, being the world’s largest exporter of sugar can fulfil.

Australian supermarkets stock mangoes over a large part of the year. Mango production from the Northern Territory extends the local mango season. Mangoes also come from several countries in Asia, including Vietnam.

Australia once exported large quantities of basic agricultural material, such as wheat, to Asia. Because of the high dollar, Australian agriculture and manufacturing industries find it difficult to cope with foreign competition. In response, Australia has increased its export of sophisticated products such as wines, which are in demand from a modern Asian clientele.

Indian-Australian relations have moved to a more sophisticated level. India is now being considered on par with China.

Australia is making a concerted effort to increase and improve its trade and cultural relations with India

Shuttle diplomacy

Yogen Bhatnagar calls it a day after 12 years as an international badminton umpire

BY RITAM MITRA

The Indian badminton scene recently raised its profile significantly when Saina Nehwal, widely regarded as the best player in the world outside of China, clinched a bronze medal at the London Olympic Games.

There’s another star of the international badminton circuit closer to home, though.

Yogen Bhatnagar, former sports editor of Indian Link, is a face that is familiar to many readers. Yogen retired from international umpiring of the sport recently.

Having spent 12 years as an international umpire, Yogen has officiated in no less than 50 international tournaments in almost every corner of the world – including the Olympics, Commonwealth Games, World Championships, All-England Open, Canada Open and Singapore Open.

Yogen was introduced to the game of badminton by his father Brijraj Swarup at the age of just 5. Labelling him as “inspiring” and “one of the sharpest brains in sports and in organising national level tournaments,” Yogen credits his father with his sensational achievements in the sport –encompassing somewhere in the vicinity of 50 titles over the years, including a stint as the captain of the star-studded national team. Yogen also drew inspiration from his mother and sister, as well as the sacrifices and support of his wife and son.

Although a shoulder injury cut his promising career short in 1994, it is a testament to Yogen’s positive attitude that he took up umpiring in the same year, to remain involved in the game.

He progressed rapidly from being a club level umpire in 1994 to becoming the first and only international umpire in NSW by the new millennium, where he officiated at the World Championships in Spain. “I still remember the hug I received from my father whose dream I had realised,” reminisces Yogen.

Although badminton is a sport where finesse and touch are paramount, it is also the fastest racquet sport in the world at the international level – where the shuttle can reach speeds of up to 421 km/h. Speaking about

what it takes to be a successful international umpire, Yogen offers some fascinating insights into the challenges he was faced with.

“It (being a successful international umpire) requires a thorough knowledge of the laws of the game, uncanny vision, control and quick interpretation. Physical fitness, concentration and strict discipline are needed to sustain the highest level of performance in week-long tournaments. On a typical day you may be required to umpire up to 20 matches from 9am till well past midnight without any rest. Combined with this, you may have to adjust to the time difference and the freezing climate of certain European countries. I still recall walking from the hotel to the stadium in a snowstorm in Montreal,” reveals Yogen.

Speaking of the pressures that come with umpiring, especially in the finals in front of packed halls, global television audiences and the world’s media, Yogen confesses that it’s not as easy as umpires make it look. “It is not uncommon to have your hands trembling when you make the

opening announcement. Games are for players and the umpire is there only to facilitate the game in accordance with the laws. If you do the right thing you hardly get noticed; however, the moment you make any mistake, you attract the wrath of everyone!” he says.

Yogen compares the rivalry between the players of MalaysiaDenmark and Indonesia-England “as intense as perhaps the rivalry of the Ashes.” As a result of this fierce competition, Yogen says, “The most difficult tournaments to umpire are the team events (such as the Thomas Cup) consisting of players from these countries.”

Although Yogen relates very well to the players, he acknowledges that there is a great rivalry between players and between countries, especially between players from Asia and Europe. “While badminton is truly a gentleman’s game with a strict code of conduct…a few players are known for their short temper. But the hallmark of a good umpire is to be in control of the match at all times,” he adds.

Although he acknowledges

that Asian giants China, Korea, Indonesia and Malaysia are in a league of their own, Yogen thinks Saina Nehwal is the best badminton player (either male or female) India has ever produced.

Saina has more than a dozen singles titles and Yogen thinks she “has the potential to become number one and seal her place in history as the finest badminton player.”

Having officiated in the matches of almost every top badminton player in the past, as well as the current crop, Yogen says that he has formed a close bond with them off the court. “However, once you are in the umpire’s chair, you forget everything except the laws of badminton which you have to administer in total fairness, regardless of your nationality or ethnicity. I have known most of the top Indian players from Prakash Padukone, Gopi Chand, Aparna Popat and Saina Nehwal

very closely. I have formed a very special bond with Saina who epitomises the best qualities as a sportsperson,” says Yogen. He has known Saina since her stunning debut at the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games, and is a very close family friend of her father, Dr Harvir Singh.

Yogen, having umpired in more than 500 international matches, admits that sometimes he might not have made the right call (which is perfectly understandable given the shuttle is hurtling left and right at 400 km/h and the crowds are screaming at 100 decibels).

“Once at London Airport at the end of a tournament, a Korean doubles player (Gold Medallist at the Athens Olympics) confessed to me that the shuttle touched his hair before his partner returned the shot – I had failed to pick up the nick. Inadvertent mistakes are acceptable; however, there is no excuse for not knowing and interpreting the laws of badminton – failing to do so will cut short your umpiring career,” he states.

Yogen was recently given the honour of umpiring the finals of the French Open in Paris as a gesture of acknowledgement of his contribution to the game.

“It was a fairy-tale finale to my 12-year career as an international umpire. It is impossible for me to describe in a few words the enthralling time I have had during my years as an international umpire. It is not just watching and admiring the best badminton players from the best possible seat, but also learning and appreciating different cultures and the remarkable world we live in,” says Yogen.

Even after such a rollercoaster of a journey, Yogen is by no means done with the sport– with such a vast arsenal of knowledge and experience at his disposal, he has been invited to join the Badminton World Federation’s elite referees’ team, a less stressful position which will allow him to stay involved with badminton at the highest level. Whatever lies ahead, Yogen can definitely look back on his time and know that he has left a positive mark on his beloved sport.

“On a typical day you may be required to umpire up to 20 matches from 9am till well past midnight without any rest”. Yogen Bhatnagar

Yogen Bhatnagar with Saina Nehwal at the French Open 2012

Being felicitated by the Chairman of BWF technical officials Torsten Berg of Sweden in August

Umpiring at the French Open Final this year

Shrouding the light

FARZANA SHAKIR on a cultural perspective on solar eclipses

The eyes of the world were on our backyard on November 14, as Australia’s Cairns and Great Barrier Reef region was honoured with being the only place on earth to experience the full magnificence of one of the most spectacular astronomical phenomenon of the year. From 5.45am to 7.40am on that Wednesday, the moon started to cover the sun, resembling a small bite which slowly increased in size to finally cover the entire sun, plunging the area into total darkness for 2 minutes. The eclipse was seen for up to 140 kms, and witnesses report that the stars were clearly visible in the sky at that time. Tens of thousands of people, both locals and tourists who gathered to soak in the spectacular sight recount feeling goosebumps and chills. Time seemed to stand still as if in reverence to this phenomenon. All went eerily quiet, the wind stopped, the temperature dropped, the water stood still like a sheet of glass and birds that were earlier seen circling the waters, sat quietly in trees. All activity of nature ceased, including the early chatter of birds and animals.

It was the first total solar eclipse in Australia in a decade and the last until 2028. While partial solar eclipses are fairly common occurring up to 5 times a year, a total solar eclipse at any particular location is a truly rare, once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon. Going by data, far north Queensland will not experience another one for more than 200 years.

In ancient times a solar eclipse was synonymous with doom, and was considered a bad omen. The sun was revered in ancient cultures as a life-giving source, so something that could cast a shadow on this powerful entity was interpreted as a sign of foreboding. Indeed there has been ample evidence of calamities ranging from wars to floods, disease, political unrest and individual misfortunes coinciding with or around solar eclipses to endorse these beliefs. It is interesting to note how different cultures and religions interpret and react to eclipses.

India

Many Hindus fast during the solar eclipse. They take baths, purify themselves and chant mantras. Performing these acts and taking a dip in the sacred rivers

A young couple on honeymoon were part of a group of visiting Indian tourists who flew in a fleet of 11 hot air balloons at dawn this Diwali to view the Cairns Total Solar Eclipse.

is considered highly auspicious. Food is neither cooked nor eaten by many during the eclipse, in the belief that the germ count increases at this time as the sun’s rays do not reach the earth. Pregnant women are especially discouraged from venturing outside during the solar eclipse. They also refrain from tasks such as sewing, using scissors and knives believing if they did the child would be born with some deformity. The solar eclipse is said to be a fight between the sun and the demon Rahu, so praying and chanting mantras is highly recommended as it aids the sun in fighting the demon which is trying to devour it.

China

According to ancient Chinese beliefs, solar eclipses occurred when a legendary celestial dragon attacked the sun with the aim of eating it. The same dragon was thought to be attacking the moon during lunar eclipses. Traditionally the Chinese beat drums and banged pots and pans to create a din to scare away the dragon.

Ancient Chinese astrologers were very advanced in predicting natural phenomena, and total solar eclipses were considered a major element in predicting the future heath and success of the reigning emperor.

Thailand

Thais believe that the sun and the moon are the brothers of Rahu, the God of Darkness who, from time to time, swallows them up causing the solar and lunar eclipses, before throwing them

out again. Believers buy lucky objects and beat drums to ward off evil. Since black is the colour of Rahu and the number eight is associated with him, devotees offer him eight black items like black chicken, black rice, black liquor, black joss sticks, black eggs and pudding during solar eclipses to ward off bad luck associated with his attempt to swallow the sun. Worshippers pay homage to the God of Darkness and seek his help to repel bad luck.

Indigenous Australians

Most Aboriginal cultures believe in a female sun and a male moon. The Sun woman is said to light a small fire each morning which we witness as dawn. She decorates herself with red ochre creating red sunrises. Next she lights a torch and makes her way across the sky from east to west carrying her torch to make daylight. During the solar eclipse, the Sun woman is hidden by the Moon man as he is said to be making love to her and during the lunar eclipse the moon is running away from the Sun woman as she pursues him. So in many indigenous cultures a solar eclipse is considered a romantic event which people actually look forward to, as it is said to bring divine blessings.

Greece

The word ‘eclipse’ means ‘abandonment’ in Greek because it was seen as the sun abandoning the earth. The ancient Greeks interpreted the eclipse to be a sign of angry gods and bad omens. Greek astronomers were way ahead of their time in predicting natural phenomenon, understanding and explaining eclipses and making accurate scientific observations.

Arabia

In Islam, the sun and moon are both associated with Allah’s reverence. Muslims believe that everything in the heaven and earth is created and sustained by Allah. A solar eclipse is interpreted as a sign to the believers from Allah to seek forgiveness for their sins and to remember the Day of Judgement. Special congregational prayers are offered at this time as a reminder that Allah alone has power over everything.

Special precautions were urged for those who witnessed the total solar eclipse first hand. Proper protection was necessary to avoid injury to the retina and the skin. It was a truly unique and remarkable experience the memories of which will last a lifetime.

Tens of thousands of people, both locals and tourists who gathered to soak in the spectacular sight recount feeling goosebumps and chills

In

eclipse

many indigenous cultures a solar

is considered a romantic event which people actually look forward to, as it is said to bring divine blessings

Photos: Hot Air Balloon Cairns: www.hotair.com.au

The discovery that starfruit can be used in a variety of dishes beyond chaat, has been a delightful one

Starry airs

BY RAJNI ANANd lUTHRA

during my early days here in Australia, every time I saw starfruit on the grocer’s shelves my mind would rush back to those chaat times outside the college gates in Delhi. The attractive star-shaped slices would make a fancy garnish on the chaat plate, and its sweet yet tart and refreshing taste would fit in perfectly with this summer afternoon snack.

Only recently, I saw a TV cook work with this exotic tropical fruit: she sliced crossways to make star shapes, and then carefully rounded the edges of the spikes to make beautiful flower-shapes. They looked gorgeous as decorations. Watching her, I realized how far I have moved from chaat – which was the only way I knew of putting starfruit to use! Other than making your fruit platter or cocktail look glamorous, the starfruit is not a bad fruit to juice, can be added to cereals and yogurts, can be made into a chutney or jam, can be used in cakes, can be dried for use in granolas and trail mixes, can serve as “crackers” on a cheese platter, and is even a wonderful addition to chicken salad!

Starfruit - the correct term is carambola - is packed with antioxidants, is rich in vitamin C, potassium, copper and fibre, and is low in saturated fat and cholesterol.

To put into a fruit salad, pick the other fruit carefully: starfruit combines well with passion fruit and papaya – serve with a nice yoghurt.

To juice, trim starfruit of any green or brown bits on the ridges, liquidise and then pass through a sieve. Mix with freshly squeezed lemon juice, water or pineapple juice.

You can make starfruit ice cubes to use in your iced tea or punch. Place starfruit slices in a baking tray, drizzle with lemon juice, cover with water and freeze. Break into pieces to use.

Starfruit grills very well too: slice, brush with olive oil and sprinkle brown sugar over, and grill lightly. Serve with a nice icecream.

Kapoor makes a yummy starfruit and mint raita as an accompaniment to biryani

Starfruit Bruschetta

1 sturdy starfruit, sliced

2 tbsp cream cheese

1 tbsp thick Greek-style yoghurt

Chilli flakes to taste

Pinch sugar

Pinch salt

2 pineapple slices, diced finely

Handful blueberries

Mix cream cheese and yoghurt

well. Combine in a bowl pineapple, blueberries, chilli flakes, sugar and salt. Lay out starfuit slices on platter. Spoon a bit of cheese-and-yoghurt mixture on each. Top with fruit.

Prawn Salad with Starfruit

3-4 sturdy starfruit, sliced

2 avocado, cubed

15 cooked and chilled prawns

Chilli flakes to taste

Salad greens of choice

For dressing

3 tbsp fresh lemon juice

2 tsp olive oil

1 tsp Dijon mustard

1 small garlic clove, crushed Pinch sugar

Salt and pepper to taste.

Make sure starfruit is slightly under-ripe. Combine with avocado, prawns and chilli flakes. Prepare dressing by shaking ingredients in a screwtop jar. Arrange greens on platter. Spoon prawn salad over evenly. Drizzle dressing over.

Asian Style Chicken

Salad with Starfruit

3-4 starfruit, sliced

1 large red capsicum, cut into strips

1 chicken breast fillet

Baby Asian salad greens of choice

½ bunch coriander leaves

Handful bean sprouts for garnish

For dressing

3 tbsp fresh lemon juice

1 red chilli, diced

1 tsp brown sugar

1 tsp fish sauce.

Cook chicken breast by placing in stock and bringing to boil. For a crunchier feel, cook on a pan. (If time is of the essence, try storebought barbecued chicken). Cool and shred

chicken finely.

Combine with red capsicum strips, salad greens and coriander leaves. Drizzle dressing over and mix again. Serve with bean sprouts arranged on top.

Starfruit Chutney Indian (Konkani) Style

1 starfruit

½ tsp fennel seeds

2 cloves garlic

Red chilli powder to taste

1/8 tsp turmeric

Salt to taste

2 tbsp oil

2 tbsp brown sugar

Chop up starfruit. Coarsely grind fennel seeds using mortar and pestle. Crush garlic cloves. Heat the oil and then let it cool.

Combine in a bowl the oil, garlic, fennel, salt, turmeric and red chilli powder. Toss in the starfruit pieces and mix well to coat. Add in the sugar – its quantity should depend on the sweetness of the starfruit. Store in airtight container.

Starfruit Chutney

2 cups cubed starfruit

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup dry red wine

1 tbsp finely chopped ginger

1/4 tsp ground cloves

2 tbsp white wine vinegar

Combine all ingredients in a heavy-bottomed pan. Bring to a simmer on medium-high heat. Keep stirring. Cook until slightly thickened, about 20-25 minutes. Store in an airtight container.

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A place for prayer?

An often debated question within our lives is the need for prayer and worship in everyday life

BY SARoJA SRINIVASAN

Prayer is the modern brain’s means of connecting to more powerful ancestral states of consciousness,” says Gregg Jacobs, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. With meditative states, people seem to turn off what Professor Jacobs calls “the internal chatter” of the higher conscious brain. Perhaps this gives a means of solace to a turbulent mind.

The question that is often debated in a number of family and social groups is the need for temples, prayer and rituals of worship. The argument becomes very heated with followers of each argument taking a firm and often emotional stance.

There is a need to explore the place for these long-held beliefs. They are beliefs in the sense there seem no ‘objective’ evidence, that is, statistically verified ‘data’ that is reliable and can be duplicated. This is the preferred argument by those who hold strongly against such beliefs. The pro-belief group hold steadfastly that their proof and evidence is subjective experience and reliable, and needs no further verification.

Let us accept the fact that a vast number of people all over the world cater to the view that prayer, places of worship and rituals of worship are important in their lives. On exploring the need or reason for such beliefs and practices we can see how they would benefit our daily lives. Rituals seem to offer a good way of compliance, the protocols setting a reliable cue for repeated practice. In a world of uncertainties, everyone looks to some predictability and comfort in being able to remain positive and

optimistic in the face of adversity. When one also realises there are many unknowns in the equation of life, any possible way we can predict it becomes a tool. Seeking divine grace would appear to be one such avenue.

Several years ago, the Institute of Noetic Sciences in California, published the results in a well-controlled study testing the validity that prayer can effect changes in medical conditions, even when it is done anonymously from afar. Significant improvements were noticed in patients who had been prayed for by several unknown people, as compared to those for whom this did not happen. This is very similar to beliefs in the Indian culture where many rituals and prayers are conducted for those who suffer from serious conditions, even when they are not present, and improvements have been noted.

More recently, there have been discussions about a ‘God

gene’. In fact, about three years ago a book called Final Freedom created quite a stir - its author says that we can obtain proof of the reality of the existence of a higher power by following a single moral law offering its own proof, “that God responds directly to an act of perfect faith with individual intervention into the natural world, correcting human nature by a change in natural law, altering consciousness and human ethical perception beyond all natural evolutionary boundaries”. Of course this is intended to be understood metaphorically where ‘death’ is ignorance and ‘life’ is knowledge’. Several such interpretations are abundant in many wisdom traditions including ancient Vedic literature.

In particular this concept is not alien in Hindu, the Sanatana Dharma thinking which is succinctly illustrated in the prayer Asato ma sadgamaya Tamaso ma Jyotir gamaya and Mrityo ma amritham gamaya.

Translated it reads: Lead us from ignorance to knowledge, from darkness to light and from death to immortality. The same metaphors are validated again and again from gaining the understanding of the universal Dharma principle of selfknowledge, understanding the true indestructible nature of our self. It seems even those who have been sceptical are moving towards accepting that there is a place for prayer and acts of faith in our daily life that can enrich us and help us to live through life’s many vicissitudes.

The beach

Walking along a litter-strewn beachfront, the author finds something infinitely precious

BY SONDARYA KRISHNAN

Iremember smiling down at Cochin a few years ago from the plane, despite seeing the dilapidated roads and discoloured stone buildings. It was like nothing I had seen before, and for someone who had never been out of Australia all her life, this was a strange place to have a holiday. But after I read an article about this part of India in a magazine, I couldn’t stop thinking about what it would be like to actually be there and sure enough, here I was now to see for myself.

Around twenty minutes later we touched down and came to a halt on what looked like a short runway. My glasses kept knocking against the bridge of my nose and everybody gripped their seats a little tighter as our hand luggage rattled loudly in the overhead lockers. It was a wonder how any plane managed to land here at all, who approved the tarring of this runway?

The first thing I noticed about India as soon as I got off the plane was the smell; and it wasn’t pleasant. Then after sweating through three hours at the airport, I finally made it to immigration.

“Passport,” said a sweaty Indian man, peering over his glasses and into my eyes. I placed my passport in his hand and watched as he typed furiously into a computer.

Three angry clicks, one judgemental gaze and he ushered me through.

I cautiously took my passport back from him and walked out of the airport.

Outside, there was a hustle of people, rickshaws, beggars and scooters with what appeared to be whole families riding on the back of them. Everyone was frustrated and running late, it seemed, their horns were blaring in a bumper to bumper traffic jam. From the look of the traffic it was probably better if I walked to my hotel, and so I started making my way there.

As I walked along, I noticed that the road was very dusty and there was rubbish littered everywhere; it looked as though people threw things out of their cars as they kept driving. It was a heartbreaking sight.

I came to an intersection and noticed that to the right, about a kilometre or so away was a beach, and it looked too good to miss. As I neared the beach I was appalled at how people could litter so carelessly right next to it …

Disgustingly enough, even the air around me seemed to be tinged yellow with dirt and pollution. I clamped my palm over my nose and my mouth, but the smell could not be avoided.

When I got to the beach, I marvelled at the beautiful yellow sand, which seemed to span on forever on either side of me. Amazingly, the rubbish managed to cover most of the surface of the beach as well. Numerous food stalls along the shore wafted a not-so-divine aroma of their wares, and the sight of a small boy defecating in the water around ten metres away left me very unimpressed…

I shook my head and stood there with my eyes closed for some time, until I felt a gentle tugging at the leg of my jeans.

I glared down and saw a small boy looking up at me as though I was his mother, with one little hand clutching at my jeans. I blinked and looked again at this little boy, and then looked around; surely someone must have noticed that their son was missing.

“Nobody is looking for me.”

“What was that, little boy?” I asked, squatting to his height.

“Nobody is looking for me, I have no home to go to, please can I have some money?” he begged, cupping his hands in front of him.

I looked him in the eyes and felt that he was telling the truth, so I gave him 50 rupees.

“Thank you ma’am, you have made me so happy, please come, I want to show you something,” he said with glee, grabbing my hand and excitedly pulling me along. I grimaced as I had no idea where this boy’s hand had been, but I decided to go along as I could always wash my hands later.

He led me along the beach down to a dilapidated little boat whose paint was once bright, but had now peeled to reveal damp, blackened wood; the boat itself lay on its side, a pathetic shadow of what it once was.

“Wait here, ma’am,” the boy called, glancing at me in awe as he scrambled eagerly into the boat

through a broken window.

What is he doing? What does he want me to see? My eyebrows furrowed, but in a minute the boy was back, holding a little piggy bank, the grin on his face spreading from ear to ear.

I squatted down, took the bank from him and examined the faded and dirty receptacle. On upturning it, I found a few notes, about rupees 200, or 4 Australian dollars.

I raised an eyebrow at this little boy; I couldn’t believe the poverty which he called his life.

“I’m saving to buy a new pair of shoes one day, thank you for helping me get closer to buying them,” he said.

I looked at him for two more seconds, and grimaced before I looked down at his feet. He had no shoes, just a pair of mismatched socks that were blackened with grime. I closed my eyes and turned my head away. How could anybody live like this?

I scratched my head in confusion, how could anybody not know that this was happening in some part of the world?

I sit on this park bench and reminisce about that little boy I met three years ago; I admire his willingness to be happy in such adversity. But then again, I remind him of that every day.

Craning my neck to my right I

My eyebrows furrowed, but in a minute the boy was back, holding a little piggy bank, the grin on his face spreading from ear to ear

call out, “Raj! Do you remember how I met you?”

“Yes, Mum, you’ve told me this story countless times before….” he answers.

“Son, how did you manage to be so happy without even a decent home to live in?” I ask him, tapping the seat beside me. He sits down, lays his head on my shoulder and replies, “I think life is what you choose to make of it, even when I didn’t have a proper home, I wanted to be happy, and so I was.”

The author is a Year 10 student at Penrith Academically Selective High School

Illustration: Vasya Tai

Berlinbreak

The city that was Hitler’s playground and Stalin’s dreamland has changed for the better

efficient network of S-Bahn and U-Bahn, makes me wonder how Berlin achieved such a massive transformation with such a short period of time.

Iwill defeat them here in Berlin or face my downfall,” said Adolf Hitler in April 1945 from the underground bunker when Soviet tanks were rapidly advancing towards the Third Reich capital city, already reduced to rubbles from constant Allied Forces bombings. We all know what finally resulted, to make the pages of history.

Berlin today

After 67 years, standing at the spot just above the bunker, I look around and see an avant-garde metropolis, not much dissimilar in character from any other 21st century European settlement. An attractive cityscape painted with wide boulevards and avenues, sprawled with parks and gardens, and filled with everything that today’s travellers look for – from shopping malls, art galleries and theatres to luxury hotels, restaurants, and cafes all efficiently connected by an

Its touristy attractions are countless, ranging from museums and palaces, to historical monuments. You can’t visit all of them in one go, but following guide book recommendations for tourists, I surf along Charlottenburg Palace, Berliner Dom and the Pergamon Museum; wander around stylish and fashionable Kurfurstendamm; shop at KaDeWe, the largest department store in Europe; dine in style at Hotel Adlon, frequented by celebrities from Charlie Chaplin to Michael Jackson; sip cocktails at the roof top bar of Hotel de Rome from where the view of the architectural silhouette at sunset is breathtaking; eat curry wurst, a spicy sausage served with bread rolls from a wayside stall; drink plenty of Pilsner beer; and all this before launching into understanding Berlin as it was before and after World War II.

Turbulent past

Considered as one of Europe’s younger cites, written reference

into prominence much later in the 17th century under the Prussian Emperors, and continued till World War I in 1914. Since then the city passed through several turbulent incarnations, most significant being the Nazi and Communist periods, spearheaded by Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin, two names history will never forget.

Austrian-born Hitler wanted to become a painter, but after being twice refused admission by the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, he moved to neighbouring Germany. He worked his way up to become the crumbling nation’s Chancellor in 1933 and led the country into a monstrous war in 1939, that ultimately triggered his downfall in1945. He committed suicide prior to the Soviets taking control of the city. Post-war the city was divided into two based on political alliance. Berliners were thrown out of the frying pan into the fire. A heavily guarded wall was built to split a race with Stalin’s Communist Party taking charge of the eastern side.

History’s silent witness

You can feel the beats of this tumultuous history by visiting the impressive Brandenburg Gate, an

getaway was built in the 18th century as a symbol of peace. Over the years it has withstood sun, rain and bombing; faced torture when Napoleon, after conquering the city, carried away to Paris the statue of a Greek goddess on a chariot crowning its top; watched Hitler celebrating the birth of his Third Reich in 1933, and triumphant Soviets raising the red flag twelve years later. After its division, Berlin felt like it was stranded in a death strip, as people on either side heard the cries of anguish from across the border. It also paid attention to dignitaries like John Kennedy and Ronald Reagan demanding unification, and burst into jubilation in 1989 when it ultimately did happen.

Standing in front of the wall and reminiscing about those significant episodes, I feel this silent monument tells us not to forget the shameful atrocities of the past, on which stand today’s glitzy Berlin. This feeling intensifies when I walk through a concentration camp just outside Berlin and see the new Holocaust Memorial, even whilst I stumble on the remains of the Berlin Wall, or wander along the corridors of

Nazi fascism

“You’ll understand the horrors of Nazism when you visit a concentration camp,” said Carlos, my German friend. A few of his ancestors died at the fatal camps used by Nazi authorities to remove enemies of the Reich and their cluster of ‘undesirables’ that ranged from Jews and Communists to homosexuals, gypsies and the mentally ill. It is claimed that between 1933 and 1945, over 3.5 million Germans spent time in concentration camps, and around 77,000 were executed. In addition, several millions were exterminated in similar camps in other Nazicontrolled countries, serving the agenda of racial genocide.

The Sachsenhausen concentration camp located 35 km away from Berlin was built in 1936, at the same time the city was preparing to host the summer Olympics. A poignant walk around the ruined barracks, punishment cells, execution grounds and crematorium, showed signs of unthinkable brutality. The

SANDIP HOR

living conditions were extremely poor, perhaps kept that way purposely so that inmates could die of starvation and disease to save the Nazis a bullet. Even now the small cells in the barracks emit an odd and unpleasant smell that plagued men and women who lived there for days. Unless you have a strong heart, it’s hard to face such gruesome reality that happened only in the recent past.

The life of Berliners whose fate was unfortunately sealed in the eastern quarter, didn’t mean

filled with fear, restrictions and suspicion. The museum is housed inside the former head quarters of the Ministry for State Security, better know as ‘Stasi’ which considered itself the shield and sword of the party and

The city passed through several turbulent incarnations, most significant being the Nazi and Communist periods, spearheaded by Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin

the government.

Since reunification, Berlin is dressed in many new types of attire. Historic buildings have been refurbished, most significant being the Reichstag, the German Parliament which has been crowned with a new glass dome that dominates the skyline. However, KarlMarx Allee is a wide, treelined avenue flanked on both sides with buildings reflecting socialist neoclassical architecture that still remains almost unchanged since it was built in 1949 as a showpiece of new East Germany. A gem of the quarter is Café Sybille. Portraying

charms of the ‘50s, its attraction is not only the coffee, but also its numerous posters, photographs and documents that provide good historic information on how the area was developed. Going through them I realise that the thoroughfare when built was called Stalinalle, and featured a huge statue of Stalin, brought down in 1961 after his death and triggering the street name change. The waiter at the café shows me Stalin’s ear scavenged from the torn statue. This instantly signals to me that Berlin has changed, it has become fearless and doesn’t want to remember the darker sides of the past.

Main pic: Charlottenburg Palace

Clockwise from top right: Berlin Wall Sachsenhausen concentration camp East German officer’s uniform Berliner Dom Brandenberg Gate

The Stasi Museum draws a picture of daily life in East Germany, constantly filled with fear, restrictions and suspicion

Travel noTebook

BERLIN

GETTING T h E r E

Fly Singapore Airlines (www.singaporeair.com) to Frankfurt or Munich from where there are excellent rail connections to Berlin. For all information on rail journeys contact Rail Europe (www.raileurope.com.au) that connects travellers with country railways and offers Eurail Passes, which is a perfect solution for multi-country travel spanning over a period of time.

AccommodATI o N

Overlooking the Spree River, conveniently located Melia Berlin (www.meliaberlin.com) offers excellent service and value. It’s near a train station and walking distance to many iconic attractions.

EATING

Eating A must visit is Amrit’s Lounge (www.amrit.de) at Mitte for an enchanting curry meal while engulfed in an vibrant and colourful atmosphere IN formATI o N More info www.visitBerlin.com

SEEkING GrooMS

m A tRimoni AL s SEEkING BrIDES

Seeking suitable match (from Australia, never married) for hindu girl 34 years, chartered Accountant (non-veg), living in Australia over 25 years, with eastern and western family values. Please email with all details on ganesh2011v@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 Australian and UK schools). Interest 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 business. We are a Punjabi Khatri family, settled in melb. caste no bar. Please send bio data and photo to  matri@hotmail.co.uk

Punjabi Hindu Khatri girl, good looking, smart, homely, never married, 35, 5‘11”,looks very young, seeking tall Indian boy settled in Australia. Two brothers well settled in Sydney. caste no bar. contact with photo and details 0425 910 007 or ricky.bhalla@gmail.com

Well educated Punjabi family seeks professionally qualified well settled match for their Australian citizen daughter, 27 years, 5’ 4”, fair, slim, traditional Indian/ Western values, highly educated, master of Teaching and mBA from Australian universities. Working as project officer in well reputed company. Please email particulars with recent picture to schanderchopra@hotmail. com or call 02 9760 1832 / 0431 289 442.

Punjabi Saini boy in Sydney, Australian citizen, 30, 5’5”, divorced, customer Service rep, whole family well settle here, looking for single/divorced good hearted, family oriented girl. caste no bar. Send full detail to email: hsingh83@hotmail.com or SmS 0469 418 689.

Hindu Gujjar boy, 32,

Australian Permanent resident, working as Assistant house Keeping manager in Sydney, regular job in 4-star hotel, earning $50,000 per annum, divorced. reputed family in India. Looking for qualified, smart, sweet natured, down to earth girl.

contact 0431 326 292.

Seeking tertiary qualified Hindu girl below 25 years, for boy with BA Acc. hon degree, non smoker, non drinker, stable job with strong values and well settled family in Australia. Preferred height, 5’4” and above with strong values. Please send full details to newrishta@y7mail.com

Seeking tertiary qualified Hindu girl, below 25 years, for boy with BA Acc.hon degree, non smoker, non drinker, stable job with strong values and well settled family in Australia. Preferred height 5’4” and above, with strong values. Please send full details to newrishta@y7mail.com

Hindu Gujjar boy, 32, Australian Permanent resident, working as Assistant house Keeping manager in Sydney, regular job in 4-star hotel, earning $50,000 per annum, divorced. reputed family in India. Looking for qualified, smart, sweet natured, down to earth girl.

contact 0431 326 292 or email baba_ankur@yahoo.com

in Bollywood

the Buzz

Lots of jaan in JTHJ

Yash Chopra would have been pleased with filmgoers’ response to his swansong movie Jab tak hai Jaan (JTHJ). The director’s evergreen romance formula seems to have worked wonders with the movie which grossed rs.60.39 crore at the domestic box office in just four days of its release. The Shah rukh Khan, Anushka Sharma and Katrina Kaif-starrer love story released on 2,500 screens on the auspicious occasion of diwali. Produced by Aditya chopra under the family banner Yash Raj Films, JTHJ was reportedly made at a budget of rs.50 crore. Shot in exotic foreign locales, the movie witnessed a good opening in the overseas market too.

The total overseas collections turned out to be $4.75 million (rs. 26 crore). JTHJ released alongside Ajay devgn’s Son Of Sardaar, a comedy entertainer. Looks like there’s a lot of jaan in JTHJ!

Wet works for Aamir

Aamir Khan’s shower scene in Ghajini turned out to be a turning point in the film, so Bollywood’s buzzing that the actor-filmmaker is planning to include a similar shot in his new film Talaash too.

Bollywood’s for the boys, says Bips

Bong beauty Bipasha Basu claims that Bollywood will always be a hero-centric industry, with ‘minimum’ opportunity for female actresses. Although women are active in show business like never before, they’re not likely to surpass the status Bollywood men enjoy, claims Bips.

“In Bollywood, the opportunities for actresses are minimal. There’s not much choice for us except to be safe and look pretty and do some nice dance numbers,” said Bipasha recently in an interview.

however films like The Dirty Picture, No One Killed Jessica and Saat Khoon Maaf have showcased a trend of women in prominent roles.

But Bipasha says, “one Dirty Picture hasn’t changed anything much. It’s just that you’re lucky sometimes to get a Dirty Picture or for my sake, get a Raaz, Jism or Corporate”. She adds, “As much as we say that the film industry is changing, it is a very hero-centric business and it will always remain that!”

The 33-year-old entered the film industry in 2001 with Ajnabee and has cemented her position in Bollywood over the past decade with projects like Raaz, Jism, No Entry, Dhoom 2, Apharan, Corporate, Race, Bachna Ae Haseeno and, most recently, the successful Raaz 3

however, Bips admits she can sense some positive change.

“There are now some intelligent filmmakers, who are making films which are thankfully not about being feminist but about making an entertaining film with the heroine having to do something. And as an actress, you have to really hunt for these films! These are not very easy to find and they are not on higher budgets. It’s rare that a Raaz 3 comes your way and that’s when you jump at the opportunity,” said the actress.

Bipasha is eagerly awaiting the release of her debut hollywood movie Singularity, in which she plays a maratha warrior Tulaja Naik, opposite Josh hartnett. Unlike her glamorous image in Bollywood, Bipasha has gone simple for the role. She will also be seen in a cameo in Race 2, the sequel to her successful 2008 film Race. Plus there’s an upcoming psychological thriller Aatma. Life’s pretty much full-on for our favourite Bong beauty, let’s hope more women-centric roles come her way!

If sources are to be believed, a shower scene in Talaash will also play a pivotal part in the movie. It will see Aamir, who plays Inspector Shekhawat, get to the root of the problem that he fights against.

“The scene in question was shot in a flat that belongs to hairstylist Avan contractor’s mother. It was a one-take shot,” said a source.

Perhaps Aamir feels that the shower scene is his lucky charm, a sentiment shared by the film’s crew. A spokesperson from Taalash confirmed that there is a scene in the movie similar to the one

GUESS WHo ?

in Ghajini, but refused to comment any further as “it occurs at a very significant point of the film.” directed by reema Kagti, the film will release in endNovember and also features rani mukerji and Kareena Kapoor.

meanwhile in an attempt to promote the movie, Aamir will also be seen in two episodes of TV crime thriller C.I.D., which is also one of the longest running TV shows in India, and its theme is in tune with the film’s basic plot. So look out for yet another Aamir treat!

Sonakshi’s keen on Saif

Yes, it’s true, but only for Bullet Raja Sonakshi Sinha and Saif Ali Khan will be paired together in the movie for the first time. Sonakshi has worked with big names like Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar and Ajay devgn, and she’s quite excited about working with Saif as she considers it a “fresh pairing”.

“It’s a very fresh pairing and I am looking forward to work with Saif Ali Khan. I actually wanted to work with him for quite some time, and luckily got an opportunity with Bullet Raja. I am extremely excited to work with Saif,” said an excited Sonakshi. Bullet Raja, directed by Tigmanshu dhulia, is set around the Uttar Pradesh-based mafia.

The shooting of the movie has already begun, but Sonakshi was busy with other commitments and will join the crew in february 2013.

“I was busy shooting for Once Upon a Time in Mumbai 2 and Dabangg 2, and I may have to travel to Uttar Pradesh for the shoot,” she stated.

The actress, who made her Bollywood debut with Dabangg in 2010, says she is happy with the roles she has received. She says, “Luckily I am doing some good films, and I am fortunate to be part of Lootera, which has been a tough role and different.” She features in the film opposite ranveer Singh. Not quite in Saif’s class, but one step closer to working with him! Good luck to Sonakshi.

Stay-at-home Srk

Shah rukh Khan has revealed that he’s a stay-in-Bollywood man, but surprisingly, that he has no interest in politics. Now many Bollywood actors are making their way into hollywood as well as politics, but King Khan says he is happy acting in Indian movies and doesn’t consider himself fit to be a part of politics.

Third time lucky? This bridegroom-tobe has bagged himself one of India’s most desirable women

(Find the answer under Caption Contest)

“first of all, I have not been offered any hollywood movie. I know a lot of people working in the production of hollywood films. There are a lot of studios here, so we keep meeting the studio heads also. But I don’t feel I have the USP of being in hollywood,” Shah rukh said recently. The actor who has completed two decades

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

B I pASHA B A S U

in hindi film industry, feels hollywood has enough actors of his age and that he wants to dedicate his future to Bollywood only.

“I don’t know kung fu. I’m not the greatest dancer. I’m not like a cool guy. I think they (hollywood) have enough actors of my age. I desire to work in Indian films and be a part of Indian films in any way I can. I dedicate my coming years to Indian cinema only,” he said.

Asked if he plans to be a politician in future, Shah rukh said, “I have been asked this question for the past many years. I know many politicians and have huge amount of respect for them. I talk a lot to them too, but politics is not my job profile.”

“my job is to make films and entertain people through this medium. I just want that people, who are fed up of continuous ups and downs of the political world, breathe a sigh of relief and get entertained through my films,” he added. however, if he gets the chance to play a politician on-screen, Shah rukh says he will love to play rashtriya Janata dal chief Lalu Prasad.

Perhaps he’ll change his mind as he did in Jab Tak Hai Jaan despite his rule of never kissing on screen, he was ‘forced’ into a liplock because of the ‘demand of the script’. Social networking platforms have been abuzz about the kiss scene between Shah rukh and Katrina Kaif, but the actor has an explanation. “Adi (Aditya Yash ji and Katrina, and I say this with all humility and thankfulness to them, that they knew I was awkward, I had issues and I am a very easy actor to work with. They are like my family and they said, ‘You don’t have to do this’ and then they got together and they forced me and then even paid me for it,” he said, tongue-in-cheek.

“So... when heroines say that ‘I wore a bikini because the story demanded me to’, I did it (the kiss) because the story demanded it. Believe me or don’t believe it,” said the 47-year-old actor, who has been in showbiz for over two decades.

Shah rukh feels doing something as intimate as a kiss on screen, is mechanical. “It is very mechanical with 100 people telling you what to do. It’s very odd. I don’t even do photoshoots with heroines if it is not for my film and that is also rude, but I don’t want to waste anyone’s time. I find it very awkward taking my shirt off and posing. I can do it in character for film,” he said. The actor consented with late filmmaker Yash Chopra insisted on the kissing scene. “ everyone and he said ‘Shah this is a requirement’,” recollected Shah rukh. So what’s next and new on the agenda for King Khan? Let’s wait and see…

Special viewing for khanna’s family

Late superstar rajesh Khanna’s last film Riyasat will first be shown to the actor’s family members, before being screened for the press, says director Ashok Tyagi.

“I am going to show Kakaji’s (rajesh Khanna’s) last film to his family members first. It’s worth a watch and I am sure they will love the film. I’m planning to show his last film to his family members including dimple Kapadia, Akshay Kumar, Twinkle Khanna and Khanna,” said Tyagi in an interview.

The film is in its post-production stage as of now, and rajesh Khanna features in a prominent role in it.

“I will send Kakaji’s family

quite confident about this

in July after prolonged

Kakaji’s last film, I don’t want to keep any stone unturned and want to make this film a memorable one,” he explained.

Riyasat also features Gauri Kulkarni, Aryan Vaid, Aryeman ramsay and murad.

Dhir’s second will be comedy

Writer-director Ashwini hir is “extremely happy” and “overwhelmed” with the response to his Son Of Sardaar And he’s certainly not wasting any time, riding the wave of popularity with the scripting of his next film, which will also

“I have started scripting my next film...All I can say is that the film has a good sense of humour and will be a hir said recently.

“The star cast is yet to be decided. nce the script is ready, I will make an announcement,” he added. hir has earlier directed films One Two Three and Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge?

hir is thrilled about Son Of Sardaar’s performance at the box office, with the movie s.52.13 crore within

four

of its release. dhir said, “right now I am extremely happy with the audience response and overwhelmed with the box office collection.”

“I was confident about my film and I am happy about the fact that both the films - Jab Tak Hai Jaan and Son Of Sardaar - are doing well at the box office,” he said.

So perhaps his next film will be Grandson of Sardaar?

Let’s wait and see…

SoNAkSHI SINHA

AAMIr kHAN

rAJESH kHANNA

SHAHrUkH kHAN

Cine Talk

Comical saga of vendetta

finally tells him, “Sorry, I don’t want to build my mandap over the grave of another woman’s love”, is also intellectually challenged.

The smartest character in this smarter-than-the-characters film is played by Tanuja who, as the matriarch, feigns senility whenever it suits her.

The men around her make it easy. They are incorrigibly dumb, you see.

Love it or hate it, Son Of Sardaar is what a mainstream hindi film is meant to be, a full-on masala-maar-ke actioncomedy with dollops of drama dripping from the edges like wet cheese in a tasty pizza. This is a film which is not just smarter than its character but also much more intelligent than it actually seems.

Son Of Sardaar derives its feisty energy from the original Tamil film by S. rajamouli (Maryada Ramanna). The feudal plot is transposed from madurai to Punjab. With that journey that the plot undertakes the film acquires a whole lot of cocky humour and a kind of eclectic warmth that keeps popping up most unexpectedly.

Providentially, Son Of Sardaar turns the vendetta saga on its head. The bloodshed between two warring families is converted into a crisp comic currency where action speaks louder than the words. director Ashwan dhir, whose antecedents in television show up here in the episodic movement of the plot, sustains the action, comedy and drama in the same line of vision.

last hindi film Atithee Tum Kab Jaoge, devgn refuses to leave once he enters dutt’s family home. The rather eccentric comic strain in the plot hinges on trying to get devgn out of dutt’s home to settle an old family score.

While dutt is more satirical than sinister in his search for vendetta (and that’s what the script requires him to be), devgn’s Sardar act is brilliantly controlled and moderate. he plays the foreign-returned Sikh who is suddenly thrown into a fatuous feud with a sense of wonderment.

The quips about Sardar jokes and Sardar quirks lend a selfdeprecating transparency to the character.

Ideally, Akshay Kumar would’ve played this part. But devgn takes the rather dimwitted but affable character to a higher than the goofy plane. This man knows when to act dumb.

Among the truckloads of supporting players, mukul dev as an oafish loutish drunkard stands out. But didn’t he play the same character in Samir Karnik’s Chaar Din Ki Chaandni not too long ago? come to think of it, haven’t we visited the Punjabi heartland frequently enough since Imtiaz Ali’s Jab We Met? Give this one a chance though.

Every time Vindoo Dara Singh, who plays a part of an extended patriarchal Punjabi parivaar in the Sikh heartland, opens his mouth to speak, he is shushed down by others saying, “Silencer lagaa”.

At times you feel this loud, flamboyant, ostentatious - yet all right, admit it - sinfully engaging film should just pipe down. There is so much that’s noisy

about this film. And we aren’t talking about Sandeep chowta’s over-accented background score. Yet it’s never unpleasant noise.

Son Of Sardaar takes us into the core of a family feud in Punjab where Sanjay dutt, playing a goofy oddball of a Panjabi patriarch as only he can, wants our affable Sardarji Ajay devgn dead to fulfil an ancestral vendetta.

character in this film is way below average. Every man in Ashwani dhir’s world of belligerent bloodbaths is more daft than the previous. The women are slightly more intelligent, though our leading lady Sonakshi Sinha, photogenic as she is, has begun to get repetitive in her chirpiness. Juhi chawla, as the woman who waits 25 years to marry Sanjay dutt and then

miraculously, the plot moves steadily from mood to mood without seeming scattered. There is space, even regular breaks, for romance in the narration. Though the songs could have been avoided, the song breaks are pleasant. By the time the chaos is all sorted out, the narration collapses in an exhausted but triumphant heap.

Some sequences such as devgn and Sonakshi’s first encounter in the train overstay their welcome. Just like the mehmaan Paresh rawal in dhir’s

Son Of Sardaar is a rollicking rambunctious wild and wacky action-comedy. It’s a spaghettiwestern relocated to Punjab that would keep devgn’s fans regaled. Even if you are not a big fan of the typical potboiler this one makes you smile. one question: why was Juhi chawla behaving like dolly Bhindra?

Subhash K. Jha

FILm: Son Of Sardaar

CAST: Starring Ajay Devgn, Sonakshi Sinha, Sanjay Dutt, Juhi Chawla, Tanuja, Mukul Dev, Vindoo Dara Singh

DIrECTOr:

Ashwani Dhir

Flawed but fabulous

The pasha of romance

Yash Chopra’s swan song – may god rest his rhapsodic soul – is a swoonworthy ode to that achy-breaky feeling called love. Reams of poetry and volumes of prose have been written on it. But no poet no author has come close to unraveling the mystery of the heart.

Yash Chopra spent most of his adult years peering passionately into the heart. Jab Tak Hai Jaan (JTHJ) is not his best work. The last 35 minutes when Shah Rukh Khan loses his memory is best forgotten.

Miraculously the entire endpiece of this fractured symphony co-written by Aditya Chopra and Devita Bhagat, doesn’t take away from the sublime beauty of the work.

JTHJ is like an elaborate work of art that offers many different kinds of guilty pleasures for all those diehard fans of Yash Chopra’s romance who grew up, grew wise and even grew old watching Daag, Silsila, Chandni the doyen’s best work Lamhe

His latest and sadly his last work could keep you enthralled trying to play the game of spot-the-earlierYash-Chopra-referenced. You will catch Daag in the way Katrika Kaif returns into Shah Rukh Khan’s fractured life. You can catch many shades of Karisma Kapoor from Dil To Pagal Hai in Anushka Sharma’s girl-madly-in-unrequitedlove act. You will see Kabhi Kabhie in the way Katrina comes to search for her fugitive mother (played by Neetu Singh, who had played the girl in search of mom in Kabhi Kabhie) and you can spot Silsila in Katrina’s scenes with Anushka in London.

Both the ladies are madly in

love with the same man, much the way Sharmila Tagore and Raakhee loved Rajesh Khanna in Yash Chopra’s Daag. Indeed, there are perceptible shades of Rajesh Khanna’s poetic romanticism from Daag in Shah Rukh’s loner death-defying soldier’s character.

Shah Rukh imbues the part of solider Samar with a great deal of heart. Never since Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Devdas has he expressed the pain of lost love so eloquently. That his lady love happens to be Katrina Kaif helps us in sharing his pain. Yup, it’s possible to fall hard in love with this tragic beauty of elaborate elegance and spend the rest of one’s life pining for her.

Luckily fate and the

ending for the soldier love story. But not before a sassy spunky bindaas photo-journalist Akira (Anushka Sharma) sweeps into the traumatized Samar’s life. The Shah Rukh-Anushka sequences in the second-half shot in the stunning Ladakh and Kashmir valleys blend the war-time urgency of army life with a seminal spot of sunshine. It’s a pleasing blend of the valorous and the romantic that turns the Shah Rukh-Anushka chemistry from Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi on its head. There he craved for her attention.

Now it’s her turn. Comeuppance, anyone? Fate, as imagined in JTHJ is a flimsy mistress, hard to please and very high-maintenance. Katrina’s

protagonists seem assembly-built for their characters. And they are never short of support from every department of film’s making. It’s the script that intermittently turns villain showering unexpected blows on the tender romance that the director so meticulously carves out of the lead pair’s unflinching commitment to delineating the doomed dimensions of an ill-fated love that finally conquers even fate. While we applaud the film’s visual and emotional velocity Meera’s dumb deals with god are plainly not the stuff great love stories are made of. And yet, we can’t help cheer for the lovers when they finally embrace in strife-torn militant Kashmir. Devdas had it easier. His explosive mine-fields were only in his mind. And he could’ve never imagined his Chandramukhi would ever be as persistent as Anushka Sharma. Kya karoon, ishq ho gaya hay tere se, she blurts out in a tragic confession of one-sided love. Ah, love! What a fall it causes even for the cynics. We don’t quite fall in love with the film the way Akira falls for Samar. But we come close.

Meera is a bit of a silly romantic masquerading as an in-charge woman entrepreneur. She makes ludicrous deals with god and pays heavily for her trade practices with an unequal partner (god). Meera is a woman of today captivated by outdated beliefs.

In some ways this exquisitely mounted work of art belongs to Katrina. She owns Meera’s role in the way Sridevi and Raakhee owned Chandni and Kabhi Kabhie, respectively. Shot in pristine colours by cinematographer Anil Mehta whose camera evidently loves Katrina’s face as much as Samar, Katrina emerges as an actress who feels her character’s pain in anguished close-ups.

Yup, Yash Chopra couldn’t have chosen better. All the three

JTHJ is an ambrosial autumn sonata done in colours and moods that redefine Yash Chopra’s legendary levels of aesthetics while sharpening and polishing the contours of his characteristic preoccupations. There is the elusive search for love and of course the unattainable beauty played by Katrina who miraculously manages to take her character beyond her porcelain features. When she dances in an underground London pub she forgets the world around her is watching. Then there is Shah Rukh Khan standing tall as a soldier who defuses bombs but can’t seem to defuse the love catastrophe in his life.

Jab Tak Hai Jaan makes you fall in love with love all over again. We will miss you, Yashji.

Subhash K. Jha

FILm: Jab Tak Hai Jaan

CAST: Shah rukh khan, katrina kaif, Anushka Sharma

DIrECTOr: Yash Chopra

Ask Auntyji

Dear Auntyji

I am an Australian married to a wonderful Indian man. We have a 4-year-old girl called Tara, and Aunty, this is where my issues lie. Tara is unusual looking, and I know you might think I am biased, but I am not. Little Tara is small for her age, and has skin the colour of milky tea. She has black, very curly hair with lots of ringlets, which I keep shoulder length so I can better manage it. But Aunty, Tara’s eyes are so unusually beautiful that when she stares at me, even as her mother, I get goosebumps. Her eyes are very, very large, almond shaped and framed with two sets of eye lashes. But the colour is almost yellow, golden, like a brass pot shining in the sun. She is quite adorable, and all would be well, but she has started wearing all the clothes my in-laws send from India. Aunty, I don’t want to be an ingrate, but to be honest, the clothes my lovely in-laws send for Tara are quite well, to put it bluntly, hideous.  They are always in blue and pink all mixed together, with lots of frills and sequins and nasty scratchy lace and netting. She usually ends up looking like she was dressed by a colourblind performance artist. Of course, with my tastes being understated, I dress her in OshKosh or Collette Dinnigan or other muted colours and simpler styles. But when she puts on these strange frilly, technicolour dresses, then puts on her beaded chappals, her jingly jangly bangles and on the odd occasion, her red and gold bindi and even a tiara, she looks ...well, no one knows what to make of it. Then, she skips everywhere she goes, and sings to herself, so I notice people stopping to look at her. Once, she was in the toys section at Target with all the dolls, and she was standing there with her big eyes fixated in the distance on something, and a poor kid comes around the corner and walks to her and says, “I want this doll”. At which point Tara moved and the poor kid yelped with surprise. Aunty, I really don’t want Tara wearing these unusual clothes, because she gets too much attention and this can’t be good for her. Can you please tell me your thoughts? Thank you so much for your help.

Fashion police

Auntyji says

Ask your Hindustani husband what this means. You have been blessed with an absolute angel of a daughter, a perfect sitara, a pari, and you are focused on your own needs for your daughter to conform, to look like all the other bland OshKosh clones? If your daughter is happy wearing these clothes and is always singing and skipping from place to place, and if she is unusually adorable with a distinct sense of fashion, then I think the problem is not with her, but with you. You should be pleased to have a darling for a daughter, and leave it at that. You might think blue and pink are an illegal combination, but you may need to go to Rajasthan to see the striking beauty of this. I say leave little Tara alone to be whoever she wants to be, and in the meantime, you need to work on your sense of style. And also, send me a photo of your little raajkumari

Dear Auntyji

I work in a large corporate where there are a lot of Indian developers and testers. Our managers are very nice and they provide us with buckets of sweets and chocolates to eat during the day. Now Aunty, I have noticed that the Australians take the sweets whenever they want one, but the Indians, well most of them anyway, grab handfuls of them and squirrel them away. At the end of the day, if there are lollies left over, some Indian women take them home! Auntyji, as an Aussie Indian (meaning I grew up here), I find this behaviour unnecessary and vulgar. But I am a polite person, and have not said anything, although I have thought it many times. Do you think I should say something – as I too am an Indian and I think this reflects badly on me.

Lolly grabbers

Auntyji says

Hmm, food always brings out the questionable elements to our nature. I do think that those that grab handfuls of the sweets and take them home at the end of the day are showing poor form, and yes, this is quite tacky, common behaviour. I understand you don’t want to be associated with this type of behaviour and or of being guilty by association. Well, if you’re thinking it, then others are probably thinking it too. So next time you see someone helping themselves rather generously to the sweets, you can make a polite comment that sweets should there for everyone. Or plead ignorance and next time you are in the cafeteria, ask a few of the guilty parties outright why they do that. Perhaps it will make them realise how their behaviour is perceived by their colleagues.  Poor behaviour should always be pointed out. No point thinking it but saying nothing. If this is what Gandhiji had done, where would we be today? Well, probably in a better place, some would say, what with the Indian Railways efficiency being mirrored across the entire country, but that’s another rant. So, let me know how you go. And don’t worry, the Indians won’t gang up on you – they are too polite themselves. But they will probably call you names behind your back