2013-04 Sydney (2)

FREE Vol. 20 No. 7 (2) • APRIL (2) 2013 • www.indianlink.com.au FORTNIGHTLY

SYDNEY

The world on two wheels Sunny Gajjar’s Grand Australian Road Trip

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EDITORIAL INDIAN LINK PUBLISHER Pawan Luthra

The threat of home-grown terrorism

EDITOR Rajni Anand Luthra ASSISTANT EDITOR Lena Peacock Sheryl Dixit BY PAWAN LUTHRA

MELBOURNE Preeti Jabbal CONTRIBUTORS Hasnain Zaheer, Usha Ramanujam Arvind, Jyoti Shankar, Lena Peacock, Uttam Mukherjee, Ritam Mitra, Anita Prakesh, Noel G De Souza, Nima Menon, Sandip Hor, Talia Kaur, Saroja Srinivasan, Malli Iyer ADVERTISING MANAGER Vivek Trivedi 02 9262 1766 ADVERTISING ASSISTANT Nitika Sondhi 02 9279 2004 DESIGN Danielle Cairis Proud member of:

Indian Link is a fortnightly newspaper published in English. No material, including advertisements designed by Indian Link, may be reproduced in part or in whole without the written consent of the editor. Opinions carried in Indian Link are those of the writers and not necessarily endorsed by Indian Link. All correspondence should be addressed to Indian Link Level 24/44 Market St, Sydney 2000 or GPO Box 108, Sydney 2001 Ph: 02 9279-2004 Fax: 02 9279-2005 Email: info@indianlink.com.au

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NATIONAL EDITION

T

elevision coverage of the dramatic 24 hours since the FBI released the photos of the alleged two Boston bombers seemed like a Hollywood movie. Thousands of FBI, ATF agents and heavily armed police walking the streets or being driven across in buses, armoured carriers on the roads, police cars with flashing lights, distant sounds of gun fire - all highlighted the strength of the internal security forces of the US as they experienced for the first time the effects of home-grown terrorism. Tamarlan Tsarnaev, 26, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, ethnic Chechens, immigrated to the US roughly a decade ago, and were legal residents living with their parents in a Boston suburb.

The younger brother became a citizen last year.

A motion introduced in the US Senate defined home-grown terrorism as the “use, planned use, or threatened use of force or violence by a group or individual born, raised, or based and operating primarily within the US or any possession of the US to intimidate or coerce the US government, the

civilian population of the US, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives”.

The US, UK, much of Europe and Australia, all have largely migrant populations and face an increasing risk of home-grown terrorism.

While considerable attention has been made in developing means to prevent overseas terrorism activities reaching the homeland through increased surveillance, airport security and co-operation between various countries, home-grown terrorism is a more difficult evil to combat. While international plots are an ever-constant threat, the challenge now being faced by authorities is the nightmare of smallscale attacks carried out by individuals located within the country itself.

Many settlement issues emerge with second generation migrants: this was evidenced in the London bombings of 2007 and in the latest Boston attack.

The youth can be at odds with the values and lifestyles of their new home.

Coupled with socio-economic issues such as lack of economic growth, high youth unemployment rates, increasing levels of anti-austerity unrest especially across Europe, and rumours of contingency plans to restrict immigration in the event of a financial collapse, together create a perfect storm for the educated youth who have the means through the internet to pick up

skills which can lead to acts of terrorism.

It will be foolhardy to take the eye off the ball on the issue of terrorism, especially of the home-grown variety.

Prime Minister Gillard announced in January that the threat of terrorism as we know it, is over, with her national security strategy aiming to build closer links with Asia and toughen Australia’s cyber security defences. At the same time Ms Gillard warned that the budget for domestic security will only get tighter. This seems to be a bold view, perhaps akin to former President George W. Bush landing on the deck of USS Abraham Lincoln in May 2003 and making that ‘mission accomplished’ announcement. Over hundreds of thousands of lives have since been lost in Iraq.

From a migrant community point of view, it is important to emphasise the significance of acceptance to our youth growing up in Australia. Society is a product of evolution and is a sum of its entire people. While the views and lifestyles of others may not be similar to ours, the discussion needs to centre on contributing back to society via a different value system: if there is good in it, it will be picked up and add another step in the evolution of our overall society. Society and lifestyles are what we contribute to it rather than what is imposed on us.

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SPIRITUAL Shree Ram Sharnam weekend retreat May 4-5 Nourish the soul and cleanse the mind at a weekend retreat.

Activities include meditation (dhyaan), jaap, recital of the Shree Amritvani and Bhakit Prakash singing of bhajans and kirtans, prachaar (deliverance of holy sermons) two hours of complete silence (mouun). Shree Ram Sharnam Spiritual Centre at 23 Sheba Crescent, South Penrith. Details: Vimal Rao 0415 483 459.

Yoga Classes May 4 7am-9am (Ryde), 5pm-7pm (Quakers Hill) Hath Yoya, 16 week course.

West Ryde Community Hall, 3-5 Anthony Road, Ryde or Performance Space, Quakers Hill High School, 70 Laor Road, Quakers Hill. Yoga classes for children and seniors also available.

Details: Raja 0402 789 109 www.spiritofindia.org

What’s on

Gopa Kuteeram 4th Sunday of every month 4pm-5:30pm The Global Organisation for Divinity runs free spiritual educational classes for children aged 4-12 years.

Crestwood Community Centre, Crestwood Drive, Baulkham Hills. Parents can join in the devotional lecture by Sri Deepak Vinod.

Details: gopakuteeram@ godivinity.org.au or contact Jayashree on 02 9620 4676.

Classes are also being run in Liverpool.

Details: Deepak Vinod 0422 127 956.

Chinmaya Mission Australia activities Finding Your Place Sat 17 May 6pm Stage Musical by Director John D Williams at Chinmaya Sannidhi, 38 Carrington Road, Castle Hill.

Details: Ashok 0439 620 414.

Dare to Face the Change 26 May – 2 Jun 7:30-9:00pm

Details: Jagadish Sury 0414 703 151.

Classes Shishu Vihar Classes for children between the age of 2- 4.5 years, tailored to increase love and bonding between parent and child. Vedanta Classes In Castle Hill & Epping on Wednesday nights Meditation Classes 10-week program at Castle Hill Sanskrit Classes 10-week program for beginners (Course 1) and advanced students (Course 2) at Castle Hill.

Hindi Classes Beginners level starting in May at Crestwood Community Centre, Baulkham Hills Details: Br Gopal Chaitanya 0416 482 149.

Ramakrishna Sarada Vedanta Society of NSW activities Sankaracharya’s Birthday Celebration Sun 19 May 10:30am-12:30pm Hari Om Ramakrishna Chant, Silent Meditation, Talks by

Pravrajika Gayatriprana and Dr Ashit Maitra. Offering and distribution of Sweets and Savouries.

Buddha’s Birthday Celebration Sun 26 May 10:30am -12:30pm Hari Om Ramakrishna Chant, Silent Meditation, Talk & Guided Meditation by Graeme Lyall A.M (Past Chairman of Buddhist Council of NSW) and Talk by Pravrajika Gayatriprana. Offering and distribution of Sweets and Savouries.

Both at: Vedanta Hall, 15 Liverpool Road, Croydon.

Details: 02 9745 4320 or www.saradavedanta.org MUSIC Carnatic Music by Bombay Jayashri 28 April 5pm-7:15pm Captivating Indian classical music by the Oscar nominee for Pi’s Lullaby.

Bombay Jayashri embodies Indian music

like superstars do their genres. Sydney Opera House.

Cost: $39-$89 Details: www.sydneyoperahouse.com MISC HCA opportunities available Hindu council of Australia invites expression of interests from anyone who wishes to expand their horizons and get involved with one of the biggest community events of Sydney. These are voluntary positions.

Details: www.hinducouncil.com.au Apply: info@deepavali.com.au Sydney Sakhi Sangam’s Teej function 14 July 11am-onwards This is their 15th year commemorating Indian Women and their friendships.

Details: Nandini 0423 684 340

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Eminem’s rapping

Celebrating seniors

Rapper Eminem uses vulgarity and

T hree cheers for last few lines of your editorial in the current issue.

In fact, the parents of young Indian immigrants are much more happy in their own country and they enjoy a cheerful life style than their counterparts abroad.

violence in his lyrics, but does that mean he’s not a role model? I’m not going to say he’s the perfect role model but I can understand why he’s regarded as a pioneer for an ‘evolved’ hip hop industry and I daresay – one of the best rappers of all time. He IS still a role model. I don’t know him personally, but from what I’ve gathered, this guy grew up with a messed up life. His dad left when he was born, his mother was an addict, and he lived in a rough neighbourhood where gangsters, drugs, and murder were the norm.

Watch the movie 8 mile and listen to Lose Yourself.

Rap culture was predominantly founded by the black community, with most rappers being black. Being a white male, stepping into this industry and getting to the top IS a big deal and I have respect for his talent. And he’s a lot better than most of the rappers today.

The media has played a big part in his ‘public image’ being negative through misinterpretations. The song, Kill You spoke violently about his ex-wife Kim. But we don’t know under what circumstances he wrote that song. What we do know is that Kim endangered the

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life of their daughter, Hailie, for which a judge ruled Eminem to have custody over her. Listen to Mockingbird.

Since then, Eminem has adopted Kim’s sister’s child, Lainie, as well as Whitney, Kim’s daughter from a previous relationship. He is also the legal guardian of his half-brother, Nathan. Listen to the song Cleaning out my closet. Clearly we can see a trend here that most people in his life are messed up, to the point where the court ruled in his favour. So before we jump to conclusions and say he’s violent and racist and should not be a role model, we are forgetting the many kids out there who grew up in his circumstances, for which he is a perfect role model. Listen to Sing for the moment.

In summary, to people who like rap music, Eminem is a genius. Yes he swears in his songs, but that’s what makes him so ‘real’ and relatable. It’s music though, it’s an art form, just like movies. I watched Kill Bill when I was in high school, and I loved it. People I’ve murdered to date: 0.

Listening to Lose Yourself definitely gave me inspiration, in saying that, I can’t even imagine what kind of an inspiration he’d be for young white kids living in the ghetto.

Siam Syed Blacktown NSW

The spiritual concept of Vaanprusthaashram is the main source of their inspiration, which, in a nutshell, states that a senior should live in his family like a lotus in a muddy water. This is the best way to lead a dignified life.

Ramesh Dave

Wrong suspect Channel 9 and ABC had been broadcasting for three days that a person called Sunil Tripathi was a suspect in the Boston bombings. They were quoting this as information put out by Boston police. It has now been announced

by Boston police that the suspects are Chechnya brothers.

The false news about Sunil was spread

on social media by interest groups inimical to Indians.

Some Americans who spread the news have since apologised.

I believe that the news media in Australia should also apologise for showing false news and ascribing it to authoritative sources.

Pravin Gupta

Send your letters to: Info@indianlink.com.au

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communityscene

India and Oz move education online Conference highlights higher education and skills training for the future

BY Hasnain Zaheer

P

radeep Khanna of Global Mindset produced a highly engaging conference on the future of higher education and skills training at Four Points in Sydney’s Darling Harbour (www. futureofhighereducation.com.au).

This event was part of his initiative called Integrating Australia with Asia that aims to promote services trade between Australia, India and other Asian countries. Education is one of the most important pivots in the relationship between Australia and India and therefore it was apt to kick off this initiative with panel discussions and presentations by 30 prominent leaders from Australia, US and India, as well as discussing global education trends.

Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) and digitisation was the theme of the conference and it was kicked off by Prof Anant Agrawal, a global pioneer in MOOCs with eDX (www.edx.org).

Higher education in classrooms has almost remained untouched by technology, but his MOOCs model has set off a trend that promises to revolutionise it. On eDX, course modules prepared by leading universities such as MIT, Harvard and our very own Australian National University (ANU) are available online for free. These modules, which are generally video lessons called learning sequences are prepared by ‘rockstar’ professors and are designed to promote active learning. These learning sequences are heavily inspired by Khan Academy’s (www.khanacademy.org) style of teaching mathematics via videos and are supported by discussion forums, tests and assignments that are marked automatically or by peers. Those who pass these modules receive certificates from the participating institution with an ‘x,’ such as ANUx signifying that it was acquired online via MOOCs. Prof Agrawal’s first online course on Circuits and Electronics had a massive 155,000 registrations, 26,000 tried out the first problem set, and about 8240 online students took the final exam. Compare this with a class of 30-40 students that a professor can teach in a conventional setting.

Indian students are massive participants in these courses that make available top education for

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free. Prof Agrawal went into the details and future plans of this, such as how the platform will be open source so that any university can build this system on their own. Another point was how they will offer validated certificates, so that candidates can take the exams in testing centres locally where their identity would be verified, and the test will take place in a formal environment so that certificates issued can be better trusted by employers.

Prof Arun Sharma, Deputy Vice Chancellor at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) highlighted the need for a completely new way of thinking on higher education in India.

One of these was to impart higher education to a massive amount of students. To do this universities must become examining authorities and let the private sector take care of imparting education.

Dilip Chenoy, CEO and Managing Director of India’s National Skills Development Corporation is doing exactly this.

Approving dozens of private institutions to run programmes that will make millions competent.

The aims are lofty, 150 million people to be trained by 2022, and 350 million people over the next 30 years.

A trained workforce is the only way to benefit from India’s demographic dividend. A large proportion of the young population that can supply a fourth of the world’s workforce by 2020, if only their potential can be harnessed by providing them higher education, but more importantly, skills training.

Pip Pattison, Deputy Vice Chancellor of University of Melbourne highlighted her own university’s experience of offering a course on MOOCs on Coursera (www.coursera.com) in this case.

Uday B. Desai, Director of IIT Hyderabad joined the conference from India and had important points to make about online education, particularly for engineering. He provided an update on the Akash tablet project that seeks to place a tablet in the hands of every tertiary and secondary school student, with the aim to drive down the cost of Akash to $35. He also emphasised the need to move from credit hours to competency, as the objective of Indian higher education.

Andrew Thomson, Executive Director of Asia Pacific at Cisco and a former Minister of Education in Canada, Prof Iain Martin, and VP and Dy Vice Chancellor at University of New South Wales (UNSW) discussed

future trends in education. They also focused on commercial models that underlie this sector, what is broken and why the current models need to be changed.

In the workshop on skills training, higher education and technology, experts discussed current trends, with a focus on India. The workshop on Passage to India had Jonathan Marshall of Bondi Labs, an education entrepreneur who has set up projects in India, team up with Aditya Bhatnagar of Drona Edutronics from India, to guide participants who wished to start an educational venture in India.

There are clear headwinds for the higher education and skills training industry, in Australia as well as globally. Digital disruption and MOOCs are certainly one of them. So, is a tsumani coming our way or is it just another passing wave? The conference showed that education services is Australia’s fourth largest export, after iron ore, coal and tourism. It is estimated at $15 billion last year, and is set for a transformation.

In India and globally, students, academics and parents, must be prepared for this new style of education, which will be more advanced in technology and more relevant to jobs and industry.

Higher education in classrooms has almost remained untouched by technology, but his MOOCs model has set off a trend that promises to revolutionise it

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NATIONAL EDITION

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coverstory

xxxxx

Sunny, Motographer

BY RITAM MITRA

Y

ou travel around the globe, visiting places such as Ireland, the European Alps, Dubai, Malaysia and Italy. You spend weeks on end riding some of the most powerful motorbikes on the planet across coastal tracks, winding mountain roads and dead-straight highways, taking photos of breathtaking scenery along the way. You ride not to win a race, but to see these exotic corners of the world, to challenge yourself, to connect with others in a way few could ever imagine. Sounds like a dream? For Sundeep ‘Sunny’ Gajjar, it’s not just a dream, this is how he puts food on the table.

Sunny calls himself the ‘Motographer,’ which is a combination of his two greatest passions, motorcycling and photography. He juggles these talents with his leading motorcycling-for-leisure website as well as a print magazine, which he started just three years ago. In mid-April, Sunny will be kicking off a 23,000km motorbike tour of Australia, six years on from his

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first-ever overseas tour, which also happened to be in Australia. In between his two visits, Sunny has covered over 15 countries and has worked hard on his photography skills, but this unbelievable story had humble beginnings.

A quiet start

Born and brought up in New Delhi, Sunny began working as a graphic designer in 2000, pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Sciences at the same time. In 2002, Sunny got his first motorcycle and started up a personal website dedicated to it. As time passed, Sunny soon happened upon superbikes and he started expanding the website rapidly, uploading more pictures and adding a forum, as well as other new features. By 2003, Sunny’s xBhp.com boasted 5000 registered members. It was the biggest Indian motorcycling platform on the internet, in a country where motorcycling is more about the commute to work than the thrill of the ride.

In 2005, Sunny was running low on cash, his graphic design work was being left behind in lieu of the time he was spending on his website. Castrol India offered to help him out, and in 2006 Sunny decided to take a road trip around India on a superbike (a Honda Fireblade 1000RR 2005 model). He

called it ‘The Great Indian Road Trip’. Its success was unrivalled, but Sunny dared to dream higher.

He had a longer road to ride.

The dream begins…

“I was 27 and yet to step out of India,” Sunny says of his decision to take the concept overseas in 2007. “Like a wet puppy scared in the rain I applied for my first visa all by myself, broke a fixed deposit account and flew to Australia. It was a 74-day trip and I was looking for sponsors to provide for motorcycles and money. I had no idea where to start,” he recounts.

With days left until Sunny was to fly back to India, having failed to secure a sponsor, a last-minute phone call from an Australian magazine gave Sunny the good news he was hoping for. After securing a couple of bikes, as well as insurance, from another Australian company, Sunny’s dreams were at last being realised.

It was at this moment, Sunny says, that he realised his neversay-die attitude. “I proved to have dogged determination, I could have had a job earning a lot in any big company, but I wanted to do this. A lot of family members were angry with me, even companies were sceptical. All I had was the xBhp.com domain name. Was that enough? 5 years down the line it seems that it was,” he recalls.

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By 2003, Sunny’s ‘xBhp. com’ boasted 5000 registered members, it was the biggest Indian motorcycling platform on the internet, in a country where motorcycling is more about the commute to work than the thrill of the ride

Riding a motorbike across the vast, sparsely populated landmass of Australia can be daunting, but exciting

Sunny calls himself the ‘Motographer,’ which is a combination of his two greatest passions, motorcycling and photography

In Japan (pics above and left) Since then, Sunny has toured New Zealand (2008), India and Ireland (2009), Italy, Malaysia and again New Zealand (2010), and the European Alps and the USA (2011).

One of last year’s tours, however, was particularly significant. Sunny travelled from Dubai to Italy across 10 countries as one of the guests of honour during World Ducati Week.

He was the only journalist in the world chosen for the ride, which covered countries including Turkey, Hungary and Romania.

“I always want to prove [myself] and do things which have not NATIONAL EDITION

been done by Indian motorcycle journalists before,” says Sunny.

“That’s why I had set a minimum standard of photography [for myself] and blogging on my rides as well. This clicked well with Ducati who recognise passion and talent. I was elated to get this opportunity”.

Having ridden across Japan and the Philippines already since World Ducati Week in 2012, it’s easy to forget that each of Sunny’s ‘tours’ encompasses motorcycling across the entire country, covering huge amounts of ground in comparatively small amounts of time. As a photographer, Sunny was

also inducted into Canon India’s pro panel in 2011, and has also had three solo photo exhibitions, as well as the honour of judging an Adobe photo contest.

The Grand Australian Road Trip

Sunny’s first trip to Australia was done on two 650CC Hyosung bikes, with a backup van for 22,000 km. This time around Sunny’s 23,000km trip will be a solo effort, covered on one of the most

‘powerful and exotic’ motorcycles for touring, the Ducati Multistrada 1200, a bike boasting 150HP and 1200CC, although Australia’s speed limits keep Sunny under 130kmph for most of his journey.

In return for riding the bikes, Sunny reviews them for the manufacturer, and takes stunning photos that the companies can then use. The Indian flag goes with Sunny wherever he rides.

Sunny’s ‘Grand Australian Road Trip’ will start off in Sydney,

Main pic: The wide open roads of Romania

APRIL (2) 2013 11

coverstory

duction g on pro ) Workin t and righ (this pic

Posing in Japan (this pic and above)

from where he will travel north to Brisbane, across to Rockhampton and Mount Isa, and then down to Alice Springs. Sunny will venture south to Uluru for a few nights before riding back up to Darwin, then west to Broome. He will then spend roughly a week in Perth before beginning his trek east across the southern part of the country, including a ferry trip to Kangaroo Island from Cape Jervis along the way. His final leg will see him spend a few days in Melbourne, catch a ferry to Tasmania, and then finally return to Sydney via the nation’s capital, Canberra, after 64 days on the road.

If you need to catch your breath after all that, don’t worry, Sunny knows how big a journey it will be.

“Australia is a huge country. And it is sparsely populated. And when I think of Australia, I think of Mad Max. The harmony of vast open rustic expanses unsettled by dead straight tarmacs rule one half of the country. Then you have the highlands of Victoria and New South Wales coupled with fantastic Tasmania. Even the 20,000 odd kilometres I will do are nowhere enough to cover this landmass tucked away in a corner of the planet,” he says with enthusiasm.

But Sunny will be doing his best to cover as much of it as possible.

On day 43 for instance, he aims to ride 1668km, from Norseman to Port Augusta in South Australia. If he succeeds, he’ll earn the coveted ‘Saddle Sore’ ride title for riding over 1000 miles in 24 hours, an honour conferred by the Iron Butt Association, who pride themselves on dealing with the ‘world’s toughest motorcycle riders’.

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Sunny also faces the heavy weight of expectation from fans and friends, including those who follow his journey on xBhp.com.

“On a personal level, I hope, as always, that I am able to complete this journey around the fantastic country and live up to the many expectations, also from the companies that have understood me and my passion. The most pressing expectations come from my friends and motorcyclists in India who follow my travels. I feel I have a responsibility of doing each ride successfully and to the best of my ability for them, and for India,” he says passionately.

In the eyes of the Motographer…

Sunny prefers to live in the now rather than thinking too much about his future plans. “A lot of countries are left (to ride in). I plan in parallel and as and when things fall into place, I pick them up,” he confides. It might seem like a rosy lifestyle, but managing a website, a print magazine, photography and organising tours is no mean feat.

“I have an office back in India which takes care of my print magazine and xBhp website. I also have to manage that and usually it happens that people stop doing what they actually love. However, in my case I have made a few sacrifices and have taken up the additional ‘burden’ and do these kind of trips anyways.

I have marked a few days in between the trip to do my office work from hotels as well. Getting sponsors and managing these trips is a nightmare of a good kind,” he says.

“Every day is a tough day. The discipline has to be militaristic.

The amount of things that I try and do in one given day on a trip is insane. But I like it. It keeps me young,” adds Sunny.

Even though Sunny has all the style, class, an attractive sense of arrogance and an unquenchable thirst for adventure, he recognises just how lucky he has been. “I consider myself very lucky and fortunate to be in a ‘job’ that is also my passion. I credit this to the rare mixture of the right kind of people and environment in my family, friends and the various corporates that have understood my passion and commitment towards producing better quality photos on my rides, whilst nurturing xBhp,” he says. “Today I strive to be a better photographer and produce even better quality work, despite the mountain of headaches that come with a magazine and

managing a company,” he adds.

So what is the Motographer’s latest journey about? Perhaps he sums it up best saying, “The Grand Australian Road Trip put very simply and honestly, is a ride celebrating the innate desire that we riders have to ride a motorcycle on open highways under a blue sky.

About having that freedom to stop when we want, where we want. The feeling of opening the helmet lid to let the cool wind hit your face and the scent of the pines invigorate you”.

To follow Sunny’s trip around Australia, visit www. thegrandaustralianroadtrip.com, where you can view photos of Sunny’s trip, track his progress around Australia and comment on the journey.

The Grand Australian Road Trip put very simply and honestly, is a ride celebrating the innate desire that we riders have to ride a motorcycle on open highways under a blue sky

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mainstream

Poll reveals what Indians think of Australia D

espite uncertain relations between India and Australia since 2008, a recently release poll reveals a positive slant in perceptions of Australia among Indians. The poll, conducted in seven languages across India’s geographic regions and all levels of society, was managed by the Lowy Institute for International Policy under a grant from the Australia India Institute (AII). The nationally representative opinion survey of 1233 Indian adults was conducted face-to-face in late 2012.

The findings are surprising, considering that Indian public opinion not long ago bordered on the hostile towards Australia, with issues like the attacks on Indian students, Australia’s refusal to sell uranium to India and even the politics of cricket adding to the general feeling of distrust.

Key issues covered in the poll included: Indian perceptions of Australian governance and society, education in Australia, the Indian media, uranium sales to India, Indian Ocean security, and cricket.

NATIONAL EDITION

Results from the poll clearly indicate that Australia is well-liked in India. Indians hold relatively warm feelings towards Australia (56 degrees on a scale of 0 to 100), which ranks fourth after the United States (62), Singapore (58) and Japan (57) out of 22 countries in the survey.

60% of Indians surveyed think it would be better if India’s government and society worked more like Australia’s. This places Australia roughly equal to Japan and Singapore. Of the 10 countries surveyed, only the United States ranked better, at 78%.

However, lingering doubts still remain a about previous crimes against Indian students: 62% of Indians consider Australia a dangerous place for Indian students, although 53% consider it safer than it was a few years ago, and 49% of Indians consider Australia generally a safe country.

Australia ranks second after the United States as a good place to be educated, according to 75% of Indians, and rates more highly

than Canada, Singapore, Britain and Germany.

“Most of the results are surprisingly positive,” said the author of the poll study, Rory Medcalf, Director of the International Security Program at the Lowy Institute. “Most Indians surveyed seem to admire our society, governance and universities. Only the United States scores much higher in their warmth and esteem. But it is clear we can’t be complacent about Australia’s image or the welcome Indians receive in this country,” he added.

“The Australia-India relationship is an idea whose time has come,” said Prof Amitabh Mattoo, Director, AII. “This poll confirms that Indian perceptions of Australia are improving, but more work is needed to build and secure this vital relationship”.

“This report focuses on our shared values and interests which have seen Australia’s relationship with India develop into one of our key strategic and economic partnerships in the region,”

Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr said. “It is gratifying to see positive results of Indian feelings towards Australia, Indian judgements of the quality of Australia’s education system, and Indian views on working with Australia in our shared neighbourhood,” he added.

However, Mr Carr also acknowledged that there were elements of the relationship where Australia needed to do more. After all, Australia’s Indian community of more than 450,000 is the fastest growing migrant community in Australia, and India is the second-largest source of international students.

In other findings, 63% of Indians surveyed see Australia as a country well-disposed to India, 59% agree the two countries have similar security interests, 60% see Australia as a good supplier of energy and other resources and 57% think it supplies good

agricultural produce.

70% of Indians think selling uranium is important to Australia’s relations with India, while only 5% think it is not important.

And of course, cricket is mostly good for diplomacy. Threequarters of Indians think the game projects a positive image of Australia, a positive image of India, and helps the two countries grow closer. Still, 35% think cricket can sometimes cause frictions between the countries.

The India-Australia Poll is a collaboration between the Lowy Institute for International Policy and the AII, and is part of a larger survey into Indian attitudes to the world. The poll can be downloaded from the Lowy Institute website: www. lowyinstitute.org Sheryl Dixit

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specialreport

The earth is flat, nuclear is safe The Radioactive Exposure Tour highlights the need for caution when it comes to nuclear power in India

E

By Jyoti SHANKAR

very time you visit India, you see the change, bigger malls, new flyovers, the lifestyle in the cities not very different to what you experience in the streets of any capital city in Australia, and, fewer power cuts. Move a bit further away from the cities and you realise that not much has changed. Dirt roads, constant blackouts, people struggling to make ends meet. And the paradox of progress hits you. Nuclear power is just another aspect of this big picture where the pursuit of economic ‘growth’ at any cost seems acceptable. India is power hungry. It needs power for its burgeoning millions, as well as for industries that supply cheap goods to the consumers in the developed world. And the government is pursuing this objective setting aside all its democratic principles.

Nuclear power is portrayed as a greener option, but scratch the 14 APRIL (2) 2013

surface, and a different story is revealed.

These are the issues that were highlighted by Bhargavi Dilipkumar, a campaigner from the Delhi Forum, a platform for social movements, in her presentation at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). She was in Australia participating in the Radioactive Exposure Tour organised by the Friends of the Earth. She visited uranium mines, met with Indigenous communities fighting to keep nuclear waste out of their backyards and saw firsthand the environmental impacts of this industry.

Julia Gillard recently overturned a long-standing decision of the Labour party not to supply uranium to India. While many Indians considered the earlier decision as racist, they are quite unaware of the ‘radioactive racism’ prevalent around the world. It is the poor and disenfranchised people who are disadvantaged when governments make decisions about nuclear plants and its waste disposal.

In Australia, the British carried out nuclear tests in the 1950s at Maralinga where Indigenous people have suffered the effects.

Nuclear dumps are sought to be created in areas such as Woomera and Muckaty, populated by Aboriginal communities, with little consultation.

At Kundakulam, the epicentre of anti-nuclear protests in India, two nuclear power plants were set up with Russian aid. This coastal fishing community is on a seismic fault line and we can easily imagine what another occurrence like the 2004 tsunami could do. There is a tsunami rehabilitation colony in the vicinity of the plant, and thousands of others live within the 16 kilometre disaster evacuation range. The project that began in the 1980s met with many delays over the past twenty five years, including ones due to the Russian political situation, but is expected to be commissioned soon. The public protests have also been going on for this long. Last September, protests resulted in the deaths of two fishermen and many are still in jail for conducting a ‘war against the state’ and sedition, when in reality they were fighting for their rights of livelihood and for the future of their community.

Concerns about the plant’s safety are rife. Nuclear waste is

Photo: Stephen Amirtharaj

Radioactive Exposure Tour

Villagers protest in Kudankulam another big issue. Nuclear plants produce highly radioactive spent fuels with extremely long halflives. What this means is that these substances are harmful to humans for a long time and have to be stored appropriately. While it awaits permanent underground storage, or reprocessing, it is stored in cooling pools, and loss of cooling due to power failures can see disasters like Fukushima happen.

Nuclear power is the most waterintensive energy source, consuming typically around 20 billion litres per year. The impact of this on groundwater systems and ocean

habitats are immense.

A recent report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) on the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) has pointed out serious organisational and operational flaws. The AERB, being the regulatory body as well as the nuclear promotional body, faces conflicts in its dual roles.

The Fukushima Independent Investigation Commission identified absence of such separation as one of the factors that led to the Fukushima accidents.

India has 20 nuclear power reactors. However, there is no long

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pigs can fly, Photo: Stephen Amirtharaj

Bhargavi Dilipkumar

It is the poor and disenfranchised people who are disadvantaged when governments make decisions about nuclear plants and its waste

Fishermen protest in Kudankulam Photo: Stephen Amirtharaj

Jal Satyagraha Villagers gather in Kudankulam term radioactive waste disposal policy. There is no distinction between military and civilian nuclear affairs and this means that the government does not disclose any information about this sector to the public.

The nuclear non-proliferation treaty aims to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons and promote disarmament, while giving signatories the right to use nuclear technology for peaceful ends. However, India is one of the countries that has not signed this treaty.

India has entered into nuclear deals with countries like US who are looking to revitalise their economies, while ignoring the NATIONAL EDITION

concerns of the poor villagers who live near these plants. At Kudankulam, the agreement indemnifying the Russian supplier against accidents mocks the very absolute liability principle that deters foreign corporations from setting up nuclear plants in India.

Politicians often delay decisions in the hope that people will tire and conflicts will dissipate. This is not so easy now with an increased awareness of the dangers of using nuclear energy. Antinuclear movements are lending support to each other globally.

A Public Interest Litigation has now been filed against the Indian government’s nuclear programme at the Supreme Court. The Right

to Information Act (RTI) has been used well by the locals to gather information to support their struggle, though little is forthcoming. Bhargavi points out that the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh tried to blame American and Scandinavian Non Government Organisations (NGOs) for instigating the protests as a way of undermining Russian nuclear credibility. And when Dr APJ Abdul Kalam and Dr Shantha of the Cancer Institute have spoken about their satisfaction regarding the safety of nuclear plants, the common man’s voice is silenced. But they continue to protest.

Nuclear power is a centralised

form of power supply that does not empower the local community. It makes them vulnerable to the decisions and interpretations of scientific and technological experts. All this falls through when a disaster happens. It is the locals and their future generations who bear the brunt of the accident. What India and the world needs are safe, small-scale, renewable power options.

“If you believe this, say NO to nuclear, speak to your local politicians, and stop the sale of uranium to India,” is Bhargavi’s plea.

Friends of the Earth website: www.foe.org.au

A Public Interest Litigation has now been filed against the Indian government’s nuclear programme at the Supreme Court

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communityscene

Sydney Vedic Centre becomes a reality Laying the foundation stone for the centre signifies the growing popularity of Sanskrit and the Vedic learning

BY USHA RAMANUJAM ARVIND

U

nlike many ancient traditions worldwide, Vedic chanting has withstood the test of time. It is recited daily by an unbroken chain of generations, travelling like great waves through living substance of mind,” Swami

Vigyanand stated at the inauguration of first Hindu Conference in 2008.

Aimed at passing on this precious legacy to future generations in Australia, the Sydney Veda Pathashala (SVP) was founded at this very conference. A handful of volunteer teachers soon started imparting the knowledge of sacred texts to an eager group of students in a structured format. It was the first of its kind outside India, and a novel experiment. The numbers grew rapidly, prompting the core group to aspire for a place they

could proudly call their own, where Sanskrit and Dharmic values would flourish. Approved by Department of Education and Training’s Community Languages programme, the thriving weekend classes are now being conducted at six locations across Sydney.

Half a decade on, that dream has finally come true when the foundation stone for the building was officially laid at Greystanes recently. Known as the Vedic and Cultural Centre of Australia (VCCA), the centre is the culmination of years of dedication and hard work by the group of volunteers driving the project.

Speaking to Indian Link, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) general secretary Akila Ramarathinam said that their tireless work had paid rich dividends. “Learning Sanskrit is a thriving culture not just in Sydney, but also Melbourne and Brisbane.

Thanks to our extensive support network, SVP will become a cultural icon for all Indian Australians and a role model for other countries,” said Akila.

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Presided over by Hindu priests from various temples, the VCCA open day was celebrated with a Bhoomi puja, homams and chanting at the venue, strictly in keeping with the customs prescribed in the shaastras. Swami Chandrashekarananda of Ramakrishna Mission conducted anugraha sambhashanam, while Shri Ashok Chowgule laid the foundation stone.

The morning rituals were followed by a cultural ceremony at the Redgum Centre in Wentworthville, showcasing the rich and varied talent of its students.

The event was attended by several luminaries including former premier Nathan Rees, Member for Parramatta, Julie Owens, Member for Granville, Tony Issa, Deputy Mayor Holroyd Council, John Brodie, Hornsby Councillor, Dilip Chopra, senior priests and community members.

Speaking on the occasion, MP Nathan Rees promised every possible support to build this facility.

Holroyd Deputy Mayor said he was very proud that the iconic centre was underway in his local council area and extended his support.

VCCA has also launched its own website (www.vedic centreaustralia.org), dedicated to promoting its activities.

Once completed, the centre will provide a permanent facility for conducting Vedic and related ritual activities, besides cultural education for children and adults.

Vedic chanting and Sanskrit lessons (basic and advanced), classes on the Bhagavat Gita, Upanishads, Sahasranaamam, Samskrita Shibhiram, Vedic rituals (and its relevance in today’s world), meditation, devotional music, spiritual discourses and Vedic retreats are some of the activities that will be offered. A fully functional resource and learning centre is being planned, complete

Known as the Vedic and Cultural Centre of Australia (VCCA), the centre is the culmination of years of dedication and hard work by the group of volunteers driving the project

with a well-stocked library and multimedia centre. A full time Vedic scholar and Sanskrit teacher will also be available at the centre. Its location (off the Great Western and Cumberland Highways) was specially chosen to make it accessible to families all over Sydney.

Besides promoting aspects of Hindu culture, SVP has hitherto participated in many mainstream events like Clean Up Australia. Its members were invited to take part in the official Queen’s Baton Relay ahead of the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.

“We are well aware that such activities need high capital investment for establishment and ongoing maintenance. It is our humble request to the wider community to donate liberally for this great cause and become a family patron of this project,” Akila requested.

To find out more or get involved contact Divakar Harle on 0415 436 646.

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youth

On your mark, get set, go!

Australian Junior Athletics Champion Tavleen Singh mixes training with studying as a recipe for success

By LENA PEACOCK

O

n top of currently studying the HSC this year, 17-year-old Tavleen Singh is also extremely busy winning races. In March this year she flew across to Perth to compete in the Australian Junior Athletics Championships 2013, and came first in the 200 metres.

In February she also came first in the 100 metres and 200 metres

18 APRIL (2) 2013

at the NSW Junior Athletics Championships 2013. Along with this, she came away with a first in the 100 metres and second in the 200 metres at the NSW All Schools Athletics Championships, October, 2012 (under 18s). On top of all of these achievements Tavleen won the 2012 Pierre de Coubertin award, presented by the Australian Olympic Committee, for excellence in school sport.

“She has balanced her academic and sporting endeavours very well, [and] her dogmatic pursuit to be number one in the country has finally paid off. We are hoping this

springboards her into achieving bigger and better in the years to come” Tajvir Singh, Tavleen’s father told Indian Link. Tavleen’s current personal bests are 11.93s for 100 metres, and 24.29s for the 200 metres. These results reflect her current ranks of fifth in the 100 metres, and second for the 200 metres on the Athletics Australia National Ranking Under 20’s for women, 2013.

Tavleen’s sporting heroine is Shelly-Ann Fraser, a Jamaican track and field sprinter, who last year, at the age of 21 become the first Caribbean woman to win the

100 metre gold at the Olympics.

Shelly-Ann comes in at only 1.52 metres in height, which is just below Tavleen’s 1.58 metre height. “This inspires me to not be intimidated by taller sprinters,” Tavleen told Indian Link. “At the recent nationals, I was the shortest in the final’s line up. Shelly was an inspiration, and self belief helped me win the 200 metres. In the process I managed to beat one of the girls who was a semi finalist of the 200 metres at the World Juniors in 2012. I believe nothing should limit you from having a go at anything in life. One of the reasons I idolise her is because of her determination and willingness to always do her best”.

Shelly-Ann has managed to win gold at the Olympics, and Tavleen hopes to one day do this too.

Tavleen joined her local Randwick Botany Little Athletics at age seven. And since 2005, she has won national, and even Australia wide athletics titles in the 100 metres and 200 metres.

Tavleen trains up to six days a week, racking up to somewhere between 10-15 hours of training a week. This is a combination of two days spent at the gym, working on strength and conditioning with her trainer Eimear Cradock. The other four days are spent with her second coach, Australian Olympic athlete Penny Gillies, training on the track. Penny Gillies is an elite sports coach, as well as being a dual Olympian, and has been the Australian Team Coach for the World Championships and for the Commonwealth Games (2002 and 2006).

Along with all of this training, Tavleen is currently studying for the HSC at Caroline Chrisholm College, Glenmore Park.

Tavleen is focusing now on the

Tavleen’s sporting heroine is Shelly-Ann Fraser, a Jamaican track and field sprinter, who last year, at the age of 21 become the first Caribbean woman to win the 100 metre gold at the Olympics

Worlf Junior Championships to be held in Oregon in the USA in 2014. She hopes to get a gold or silver in the 200m event and a position in the relay event. This is just a short term goal, and after this she plans on training even harder and pushing herself even further to try out for the Australian Commonweath Games team. And who knows, maybe the Olympics one day?

“A long term goal would obviously be to make it to the Olympic Games in Rio, 2016 and Commonwealth Games in 2018 at the Gold Coast,” Tavleen said.

Tavleen sure seems to have her life on track.

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sport

Indonesians thrill with their shuttlecocks An anti-climatic, yet gripping finish at the Yonex Badminton Championship in Sydney

The Indonesian pairs at the doubles were a treat to watch: fast, furious and fun. They dominated the finals so much so that the men’s doubles was an all Indonesian affair leaving the crowd little to hoot and cheer about

Song Xue

Nichaon Jindapon cross court return

By UTTAM MUKHERJEE

T

he final showdown at the Yonex Badminton Championship 2013, held in Sydney, was quite an anti-climax, after six days of intense games.

Most of the seeded players across all events (singles and doubles) had made their exit before the finals on Sunday April 7. Unlike the previous year, when China ruled in most events, this year was a success for Indonesia as they won three of the five events. Unfortunately, however, Australian and Indian players had already made an early exit.

The tournament was played from April 2-7 at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre, with an impressive draw of players (288 in all), including Ajay Jayaram (seeded 9) and Gurusaidutt (seeded 11), from India. There were many players from Australia too, but unfortunately both Indian and Australian players were knocked out by the pre-quarter finals.

The most impressive Indian player was Gurusaidutt who went down in 3 sets to the number one

NATIONAL EDITION

seed, Chong Wei Lee: 21-10 18-21 21-15. Before that, Ajay had lost in straight sets to the number four seed, Wei Feng Chong: 21-19, 2115. The two Indian players did not go down without a fight, especially Gurusaidutt.

Earlier on day one, Arvind Bhat gave superstar Chong Wei Lee a scare using his height to advantage, but was ultimately beaten by Lee’s accuracy of shots. Lee won 21-10, 21-18. What the Indian players lacked mainly was the finishing killer shots that their destroyers possessed in good measure. The Indian players seemed to rally and return well, but were unable to finish the rally with a winner.

Some of the highlights of the tournament were the emergence of young Chinese player, Song Xue. At the pre-quarters, he destroyed former world champion Taufiq Haidayat of Indonesia, and at the quarters eliminated last year’s runner-up, Tien Minh Nguyen.

Song was a delight to watch and won most of his matches in straight sets. If he had the experience to choose his shots wisely when it mattered, he could have easily won.

The winner was another unseeded Chinese, Houwei Tian, who had a near flawless game and possessed an answer to everything that his opponent, Song, threw

Champ Houwei Tian in action at him at the finals. One of the toughest things in badminton is to play the backhand stroke and Tian did that with grace, power and ease.

However, his key weapon was his killer smashes. Whenever he leapt in the air to unleash one of his smashes, the crowd roared.

The Indonesian pairs at the doubles were a treat to watch: fast, furious and fun. They dominated the finals so much so that the men’s doubles was an all Indonesian affair leaving the crowd little to hoot and cheer about. The eventual winning Indonesian pair was last year’s semi-finalist, Angga Pratama and Ryan Agung Saputra. At the women’s singles final, Japan’s Sayaka Takahashi’s overcame her opponent, Nichaon Jindapon, of Thailand, in straight sets. Although the latter executed some breathtaking cross court net shots, she was a victim of her errors.

The semifinals proved to be a cracker of a day. Seven of the ten matches went to three sets, which gave spectators a badminton feast.

It ended with huge disappointment too. The number one seed, Chong Wei Lee, was defeated by Houwei Tian: 19-21 21-17 18-21. The winner played a highly motivated game and Chong made a few unforced errors that made it harder to make a comeback. Some from

the crowd left early, disappointed that their superstar was gone.

The crowd, mainly of Asian background, cheered boisterously till the finals. The exit of top seeded players, same country matches and the lack of many Chinese players at the finals meant that the crowd was a lot quieter and more sober than the previous year finals.

One must also not forget the efforts of the referees and linesmen, who tirelessly ensured that the games were played properly. I witnessed one yellow card being flashed at a Chinese player for disobeying a referee’s instructions to carry on playing. This seemed quite tame considering what happens in many other competitive sports.

While this year’s event was successful, it was announced that from next year onwards, the event is going to be transformed into a Badminton World Federation (BWF) Super Series. The Badminton Australia community was very excited about this news. This change means that Australia will be able to attract the top world ranked players to Sydney, at the new venue: Sydney Olympic Park. See you there next year.

The semifinals proved to be a cracker of a day.

Seven of the ten matches went to three sets, which gave spectators a badminton feast

APRIL (2) 2013 19

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communityscene

A different kind of devotion

A debut producer puts a promising career on hold to pursue his dream, and makes it a reality!

BY RITAM MITRA

I

f you think it’s too late to change careers, Nilesh Patel will make you think again.

At the age of 37, he recently left behind a comfortable career in management consulting to become a movie producer.

Within six months of making the big decision, Nilesh’s first-ever full length film, an Australian revenge-drama titled Torn Devotion, premiered at Hoyts earlier this month to over 500 people, the first step in a truly inspirational journey.

Brought up in Baroda, Nilesh was fascinated by the idea of making movies, having fallen in love with the movie The Last Emperor in his youth. He considered doing a Bachelor of Social Sciences after finishing year 12, believing that it would prepare him to become a good movie maker. However, his parents did not warm to the idea, as they wanted Nilesh to take over his father’s engineering business.

“I wasn’t desperate to the point of having the courage to go ahead with making movies,” he says. “I wanted to do it but my parents said, ‘you shouldn’t do it.’ It didn’t come through, and engineering was the default option”.

Having moved to Australia to pursue further studies, and eventually moving into management consulting, Nilesh still always felt as though something was missing. He recalls the moment when he decided to drop it all and do what he had always wanted to do. “It was only in late 2012 when I decided, to hell with it all, I will go after my dream. It is now or never!”

Nilesh was well aware of how big a decision it was to be. “When I left management studies I thought seriously and hard about what I was going to do. I said I’ll give myself five years, then I’ll reevaluate. If things don’t work out, I’ll consider whether I will still pursue movie-making or go back to consulting. At this stage I don’t have any regrets,” he says.

However, a support network at the Participate Film Academy (PFA) gave him the guidance and knowledge he needed to take his first steps in the industry.

He also made several contacts through some short courses at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), with whom he made sure to keep in touch.

Nilesh’s role as producer involves managing the entire process, including getting storyboards done, securing financing, hiring the cast and crew members, and it’s what drew him to the idea in the first place.

Although he had no previous experience in the industry, he believes being honest to the cast from the outset allowed them to work cohesively, even though at times it was tough going.

“We were upfront that we’re newcomers, we don’t have the experience of making a full-length movie,” he explains. “It was clearly mentioned to them in the contract. There were times where there was frustration, sometimes, pros get things done in two hours, but we took four hours. But we set the expectations at low and tried to better them”.

The journey begins

Production pains

Getting on with it

Nilesh’s extraordinary turnaround time between leaving behind his old career and producing his first movie, just over six months, might seem scarcely believable.

NATIONAL EDITION

The team more or less hit the production schedule of 35 days, but these were not by any means traditional 9-to-5 days of work.

Because shoot locations were

booked by the day, even if it meant working 12-hour shifts, the work had to be done. Nilesh tried to do ‘little things’ to make sure the cast knew they were being taken care of, such as letting them know if filming was running late, so they didn’t have to come in early without reason. A mentor from the PFA guided Nilesh and his crew through the process, but as the debut producer says, “when you go on set, things don’t go as planned, things don’t work as expected”.

For Nilesh, the main challenge was sustaining the group’s momentum and enthusiasm.

“When you have a project that goes for a long time, people are enthusiastic for a short time. But you have to maintain their energy levels, because there can be long hours throughout,” he says. And long hours they were, during two months of pre-production, Nilesh worked 12 hours a day, 6-7 days a week, often sleeping for only 3-4 hours a night. During postproduction it got even worse, because of the constraints of imminent deadlines, Nilesh often found himself without sleep for a couple of nights in a row.

But all the hard work was worth it when the film premiered on April 10.

“Seeing the final product was definitely the most rewarding part.

To watch the movie together with others, that was amazing. There

was a red carpet, and an after party, everyone was very supportive and people said they liked it,” says Nilesh enthusiastically. His parents too, came around to the idea.

Nilesh’s father speaks with him every week and was ‘very curious’ about how the whole industry worked. Nilesh was also glad to receive a call from his father the day after the film premiered, although his parents will have to wait to see the movie on DVD only after it releases on DVD here.

sounds clichéd, but you just have to go out and do it,” says Nilesh emphatically.

Nilesh also has some special advice to anyone who thinks it’s too late to change things. “I am excited to be starting my journey as a movie producer. I want people to know that it is never too late to go after their dreams and that instead of looking to settle in life, we should be looking to live life through our dreams,” he says contentedly.

Words of wisdom

Nilesh recognises that parents want people to follow ‘proper career paths with jobs,’ acknowledging that all the actors who worked on Torn Devotion were working ‘odd jobs here and there to make it in the film industry’.

But he has some very constructive advice to anyone trying to choose their career.

“Love your parents, but if they force you to do something and it’s not your passion, stand up for what you believe in. It’s good to have a road map and plan, a high level one that will guide you and tell you whether you’re going on the right track or not. Find a role model who is doing what you want to do, so that you get an idea of how to approach whatever career you’re looking at. This way, when you start, you already have an idea of where you’re going.

In any industry, in any career, it

Nilesh tried to do ‘little things’ to make sure the cast knew they were being taken care of, such as letting them know if filming was running late, so they didn’t have to come in early without reason

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I reckon, my application’s short processing times was owing to Ramneek’s immaculate understanding of the process, sharp eye for details in reviewing documents and presentation of the case. The first check list for submission that was customized for my professional background and situation) that Ramneek provided served as the ultimate guide in assembling the application. All my queries were answered in less than 24 hours. Such professionalism and efficiency made my visa process a breeze… highly recommended for anyone serious about his/her immigration plans. – V. Srivastava, Melbourne, VIC • Thanks for the effort taken in securing Ganga’s work (457) visa. I know it was a difficult case, much appreciated, thanks. – Dhaya Chandra Pty. Ltd., NSW • I withdrew (my) first 457 visa application…& I got it the second time with Ramneek’s help. Thank you so much. – C. Koppela, Homebush, NSW • Ramneek, handled our matter in a very professional way…was precise with what he wanted…his knowledge is deep and accurate. I felt very comfortable.

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For appointments, please call 02 9745 3106 or 0412 764 660 or email: enquiries@tglt.com.au UNIT 6, 24-26 Morwick St., Strathfield, NSW 2135 (5 min. walk from Strathfield Station. Opp. Strathfield Recreational Club/Tennis Courts) * Provision of complimentary advice &/or assessment for our eligible students &/or their employers is at our sole discretion.

Education, Career & Visa Solutions @ The Great Learning Tree NATIONAL EDITION

APRIL (2) 2012 25

INDIAN NEWS Photo: AP

A Sadhu performing a ritual at Sangam

Indian ‘human computer’ Shakuntala Devi no more

Indian mathematical genius and astrologer Shakuntala Devi, who was dubbed “human computer” for her swift numerical calculation abilities, passed away in Bangalore on April 21 after brief illness.

She was 83.

She is survived by her daughter, son-in-law and two grand daughters.

“Madam breathed her last at 8:15am due to heart failure and renal problem,” Shakuntala Devi’s long-time associate Kavita Malhotra said.

The number-crunching Devi was admitted to Bangalore Hospital April 3 as her kidneys became 80 percent weaker and she also had respiratory problems.

“Even in the intensive care unit (ICU), her mind was full of ideas though her body was frail and weak. She wanted to leave the hospital and return home soon. Trust me, she was full of energy till last,” said Shakuntala Devi’s daughter Anupama.

Hundreds of people, including relatives, friends and admirers were present at her last rites, which was performed in a southern suburb of the city before sunset.

Born here Nov 4, 1929 in a Brahmin family, Shakuntala Devi moved to London in 1944 when she was 15 years old with her father, who worked in a circus company as a trapeze artiste and tightrope performer.

She returned to India in the mid-1960s and married Paritosh Bannerji, an IAS officer from Kolkata.

The couple, however, divorced in 1979 and Shakuntala Devi returned to Bangalore in early 1980s and started offering astrological advice to hundreds of people, including celebrities, politicians and anyone who approached her. Bannerji passed away in 2010 in Kolkata.

“She was a legend. Really, we didn’t expect madam to go like this. She was very lively and was looking forward to get well soon. But her health was not good and it’s a great loss to all of us,” said Malhotra, who accompanied Shakuntala Devi on mathematical and astrological tours abroad.

As a toddler, Shakuntala Devi was discovered to be a born genius by her father when he was showing her some card tricks.

26 APRIL (2) 2012

“When mother was three-years-old, she was found to be fond of numbers and having a phenomenal memory. She could calculate any equation and reel off amazing numbers in a flash,” Anupama, a director in her husband’s firm, recalled.

According to the Guinness World Records, Shakuntala Devi displayed her mathematical skills when she was six-years-old at a public function in Mysore, and two years later, proved to be a prodigal wizard in number games at Annamalai University in Tamil Nadu’s Chidambaram, about 200 km from Chennai.

In 1977, Shakuntala Devi discovered the 23rd root of a 201-digit number mentally.

Three years later, in June 1980, she answered in 28 seconds when she was asked to multiply two 13-digit numbers picked at random at the Imperial College in London.

She wrote a number of books on mathematics and astrology including Fun with Numbers, Astrology for You, Puzzles to Puzzle You and Mathablit.

She had also set up an educational foundation public trust to promote studies in maths, astrology, philosophy and astronomy.

Shakuntala Devi was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award in Mumbai last month.

336 percent jump in child rapes in a decade

Amid a public outcry over a brutal sexual assault on a five-year girl in New Delhi, a report by rights group Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) shows there has been an increase of 336 percent in cases of child rapes from 2001-11.

The ‘India’s Hell Holes: Child Sexual Assault in Juvenile Justice Homes’ report, circulated recently, said sexual offences against children in India have reached an epidemic proportion and a large number of them are being committed in the juvenile justice homes run and aided by the government.

The 56-page report, citing National Crime Records Bureau statistics, said that a total of 48,338 child rapes were recorded from 200111 and the country recorded an increase of 336 percent in child rapes from 2001 (2,113 cases) to 2011 (7,112 cases).

“This is only the tip of the iceberg as the large majority of child rapes are not reported to police while children regularly become victims of other forms of sexual assault too,” said a statement from ACHR. Among the states, Madhya Pradesh recorded the highest number of child rapes with 9,465 cases from 2001-11, followed by Maharashtra with 6,868 cases.

Uttar Pradesh with 5,949 cases was third, followed by Andhra Pradesh with 3,977, Chhattisgarh 3,688 and Delhi 2,909.

The report also said many of the child rapes took place in juvenile justice homes.

“It will not be an understatement to state that juvenile justice homes, established to provide care and protection as well as reintegration, rehabilitation and restoration of the juveniles in conflict with law and children in need of care and protection, have become India’s hell holes where inmates are subjected to sexual assault and exploitation, torture and ill treatment apart from being forced to live in inhuman conditions,” said Suhas Chakma, director, ACHR. “The girls remain to be the most vulnerable. It matters little, whether the juvenile justice homes are situated in Delhi or in smaller towns,” he added.

The recent outrage in the national of the five-year girl’s rape follows her abduction April 15 and sexual assault for a couple of days by her neighbour in east Delhi. The accused has been arrested.

Nutrient from urine, antibacterial clothes: Innovations from IIT-Delhi

A process to recover nutrients from human urine and an antibacterial shirt to keep the body fresh in sweltering heat are some of the innovative solutions offered to the industry by students of the Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi (IIT-D) for the benefit of common people.

These are part of around 500 researchbased projects showcased at the annual exhibition of the premier institution.

Students of the Centre for Rural Development and Technology have devised a technology that can retrieve nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium from human urine.

“Human urine contains 70 percent nitrogen, 50 percent potassium and 50 percent phosphorus and if retrieved it has potential to replace any kind of chemical fertilizer and will be environment-friendly,” said Vijayaraghavan M. Chariar, associate professor at IIT-D. Chariar has been working on the project with a team of seven students.

“We have developed reactors which have the capacity to trap nutrients from urine.

These reactors can be fitted to the toilets for retrieval,” said Chariar.

The team has also developed waterless urinals fitted with odour traps and biological blocks to minimise the use of water and make urine odourless.

The technology is already in use at some toilets in IIT-D and the industry has also acquired the technology for replicating it in public loos.

Students from the textile technology department have developed fresh and cool smart technology for garments.

“We have developed silver nanoparticles which when applied to fabric during its manufacturing makes it antimicrobial and keeps it fresh and cool in sweltering heat,” Manjeet Jassal, professor, research group on smart and innovative textile materials, said in New Delhi.

Jassal said the technology has been successfully transferred to RESIL Chemicals, Bangalore, which is Asia’s largest specialty textile chemical company.

The product has already been used by brands like Marks & Spencer, Louis Philippe, Raymonds and Amante.

But that is not all.

The other innovative products include a biosensor chip to detect pesticides, heavy metals, aflatoxin and bacterial contamination in milk, multi-functional wheelchairs and protecting household items from earthquakes.

“We have devised a multifunctional wheelchair which, apart from serving the purpose of navigation, also aids the physically handicapped to use western toilets themselves, reach objects at some height,” said Ansal E, a student from the Department of Applied Mechanics.

According to IIT, some of the projects have caught the attention of industry, with many companies seeking to develop these ideas on a larger scale and take them to the people.

“In the last few years, our strategy has been to invest more in research and development. The innovative solutions offered by students are part of this approach and we have got a very good response from industry,” said Suneet Tuli, Dean, Industrial Research and Development.

Tuli said the industry has approached the institute for technology transfer of several products to produce the products on a large scale.

India receives $69 bn in remittances; tops global list

India received $69 billion remittance in 2012, the highest in the world, followed by China with $60 billion and the Philippines $24 billion, World Bank data showed.

Other major recipients of foreign remittances were Mexico with $23 billion and Nigeria and Egypt with $21 billion each, according to the latest edition of the World Bank’s Migration and Development Brief released recently.

“India remains the largest recipient

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INDIAN NEWS

Finally, a tiger spotted in Goa jungle

After years of constantly rejecting the notion that Goa’s forests are home to tigers, forest officials finally admitted to seeing the striped beast for the first time. Camera’s equipped with motion sensors laid out at strategic locations in the Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary, 70 kms from here, recently captured a full grown tiger near a spot where it had slain a wild boar.

Wildlife officials said that the operation stretched on for almost a fortnight, with the majestic beast eluding the cameras every time, until it was finally captured on camera.

“Our informer tipped us off that a wild boar has been killed in one location in the northwest side of sanctuary. Accordingly we started tracking and finally got the pugmarks of a tiger,” senior range forest officer Paresh Parab said. “We were tracking this tiger since April 9,” he added.

The Mhadei sanctuary, like the Netravali and Bhagwan Mahaveer sanctuaries, has several open cast iron ore mines located in its vicinity.

For decades now, wildlife activists have alleged that the forest department had been systematically trying to deny the presence of the tiger in Goa’s forests, which could have repercussions on the state’s multi-billion dollar iron ore mining industry.

“It is beyond doubt that these forests were always a home for tigers. The forest NATIONAL EDITION

Photo: AP

country in the world, receiving $69 billion in 2012. In addition to large numbers of unskilled migrants working mainly in the oil-rich Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, India also has a large skilled diaspora the US and other high-income countries,” the World Bank report said.

Flows to Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal have also been robust, helped by strong economic growth in the GCC and India.

Remittances to the region are projected to remain buoyant in the coming years, reaching $140 billion in 2015.

Officially recorded remittance flows to developing countries increased by 5.3 percent to $401 billion in 2012.

“Given that many migrants send money and goods through people or informal channels, the true size of remittances are much larger than these official figures,” the World Bank said.

According to the report, remittances to developing countries are expected to grow by an annual average of 8.8 percent for the next three years and are forecast to reach $515 billion in 2015.

As a percentage of GDP, the top recipients of remittances in 2011 were Tajikistan (47 percent), Liberia (31 percent), Kyrgyz Republic (29 percent), Lesotho (27 percent), Moldova (23 percent), Nepal (22 percent), and Samoa (21 percent).

“The role of remittances in helping lift people out of poverty has always been known, but there is also abundant evidence that migration and remittances are helping countries achieve progress towards other Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), such as access to education, safe water, sanitation and healthcare,” Hans Timmer, director of the Bank’s development prospects group, said in the report.

Officially recorded remittance flows to South Asia are estimated to have increased sharply by 12.8 percent to $109 billion in 2012. This follows growth averaging 13.8 percent in each of the previous two years.

Indian Hindu devotees cross the polluted Ganges River on World Earth Day officials have denied this because the presence of tigers means setting up of a reserve. And that in turn would mean mining has to stop in those areas,” said activist Rajendra Kerkar, who first documented tiger poaching in the same sanctuary in 2009.

But the mining ban since last October has changed the scene somewhat. So has the appointment of Richard D’Souza as the principal conservator of forests for Goa a little more than a year ago.

D’Souza was the architect of the Mhadei sanctuary, which was notified amongst much political opposition over a decade ago.

Underlining the importance of the visuals of the tiger caught on camera, D’Souza said it could go a long way in convincing the central government to upgrade the Mhadei sanctuary to a wildlife reserve.

“We did have some indirect evidence in the form of big animals being brought down by a tiger. But this is in the face, direct irrefutable evidence,” an elated D’Souza said.

Quite in contrast to his predecessor Shashi Kumar, who had rejected the tiger-in-Goa’sforests premise, saying the beast’s presence in Goa was at best “migratory” from other contiguous forest reserves in Maharashtra and Karnataka.

The question was more or less answered in a tragic manner after one male tiger was snared in a trap laid by hunters for wild boar in the Mhadei sanctuary.

The tiger snared himself in the metal noose and his attempts to break loose only resulted in the wire tightening around his belly, resulting in a deep gash. The tiger’s wails brought the hunters to the spot, who put the animal out of its misery by shooting it dead.

While the poachers were arrested, the case is still pending in court.

Rama Prasad Goenka: The business titan and takeover king

Rama Prasad Goenka, doyen of Indian industry died on April 14, after a prolonged battle with cancer.

Long before takeovers became the norm for the country’s industry captains to spread wings, RPG Group founder Rama Prasad Goenka showed India Inc. the inorganic way of business growth through a series of acquisitions.

Regarded as “takeover king,” Goenka (popularly known as RP) in 1979 established the RPG Enterprises with four companies,

Phillips Carbon Black, Asian Cables, Agarpara Jute and Murphy India, which he inherited when the family assets were divided.

The four constituent units then had an annual turnover of around Rs.105 crore, but by 1990, even before the opening up of the country’s economy, Goenka was presiding over one of the leading business conglomerates in India, as he added brick by brick by acquiring mostly companies once owned by British merchants.

In 2010, when Goenka divided his business empire among his two sons, the total turnover had touched Rs.18,000 crore, with its imprint in several countries of Asia, Europe, North and South America and Africa.

The tycoon, born March 1, 1930, had business interests spanning a wide range and across diverse sectors like power generation, transmission and distribution, electricity transmission engineering, tyres, carbon black, retail, entertainment, plantations and information technology.

The diversity of the bouquet was unique then in the sense that most of his contemporaries had concentrated on their core areas of operations.

His undivided business empire encompassed: CESC, Noida Power Co. Ltd., RPG Raychem, Spencer, CEAT Tyers, Saregama India (previously Gramophone Co of India), KEC International, Phillips Carbon Black, Fujitsu ICIM (now Zensar Technologies), Harrisons Malayalam, Firstsource Solutions Ltd and RPG Life Sciences.

Goenka was born into one of the oldest business families established in Kolkata by Ramdutt Goenka who moved from Dundlod in Rajasthan in 1820 to do business with the English East India Company. The firm was into banking and later traded in commodities like textiles, jute and tea.

RPG received his training from his grandfather Sir Badridas Goenka who was chairman of Imperial Bank of India and of FICCI. It was his grandfather who had taught him an old Marwari value: word of mouth is much more sacrosanct and important than any legal document.

A few years back, RPG said in an interview that experience taught him the second lesson: “nothing should be hidden

from the three most important persons in your business sphere - your lawyer, banker and your doctor”.

The Presidency College and Harvard Unviersity alumnus went on an acquisition spree in the 1980s, beginning with tyre company CEAT in 1981, that created a national media buzz.

The group then went on to acquire Searle India - now RPG Life Sciences (1983), the age-old Gramophone Company - now Saregama India (1985), Harrisons Malayalam (1988), and finally CESC and Spencer (1989).

The reclusive and spotlight-shy entrepreneur scripted quite a few chapters in the history of Indian business. His most prized catch was Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation, now CESC Ltd., a more than 100-year-old power firm set up by the British.

However, he also had a few setbacks.

Dunlop was one of them. He bought the company in 1984 jointly with Manohar Rajaram Chhabria but eventually had to leave it to cut losses. His efforts to acquire Bombay Dyeing also did not succeed.

Despite his business empire spreading across the country, Goenka stayed rooted in Kolkata, though the city witnessed a sharp fall in entrepreneurial activity. “If I am not a Bengali, then who is?” he used to say often.

Like his father, Keshav Prasad Goenka, who had distributed the family assets between his three sons decades ago, the RPG Group patriarch in 2010 amicably divided his entire business between his two sons, Harsh Vardhan and Sanjiv, who were running all the companies within the umbrella branding.

Next year RPG’s younger son Sanjiv launched a new group corporate identity RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group for the companies controlled by him.

Goenka was chairman emeritus of both the groups with a combined turnover of around Rs.30,000 crore.

The octogenarian industrialist was like a guardian of Bengal industry captains, who rushed to the visionary man for precious advice.

“He was a very close family friend of ours. He was exceptionally intelligent In his death, not only Bengal but India has lost one of its prominent sons,” said a crestfallen Birla family patriarch Basant Kumar Birla.

IANS APRIL (2) 2012 27

Stalking a wildlife

Following the calls of the Languar watchmen to catch a glimpse of the most secretive and elusive of the large carnivores

By ANITA PRAKESH

I

t was around 7am as we came bumping around the sharp bend in Kabini forest. “kaaaarrrrr” came the alarm call from the Langur watchman. We screeched to a halt and started looking for the watchman who gave the alarm call. With an alarm that means a tiger, or leopard is nearby, it’s hardly an alarm call to be ignored. The petrified Langur was on top of a nearby tree, looking in the direction of 11 o’clock.

Our heads turned to look in this direction, but couldn’t see anything in the bushes. A few minutes later another Langur continued the alarm call about 200 metres ahead of us, which indicated that whatever it was, had started moving.

We started the engine, which seemed to shatter the silence, and continued down the trail, stopping under the tree where the last alarm call came from.

There was silence for a few minutes after this, but the Langur watchman was still visibly frightened and was tense watching looking in that direction.

The driver signalled that we move ahead and started moving with the least amount of noise possible. We climbed a crest, so that the rest of the track ahead was a downward slope.

He switched the engine off, so that our vehicle bumped along with only the creaking of its suspension to be heard.

We came around a sharp right turn and all of us were holding our breath in anticipation. Finally, a majestic leopard was walking on the track about 100 metres right in front of us, and looked up startled.

We braked to a halt about 50 metres behind the carnivore, while it continued to walk at a leisurely pace, occasionally looking back at us.

I had my camera ready

28 APRIL (2) 2012

and started to shoot quickly whenever the clearly male leopard looked back. At one point he crossed into the bushes and looked directly at us. I managed to get a good shot of this, which shows how well a leopard can be camouflaged in the bush.

We cruised behind him keeping a distance of about 30 metres, which the leopard seemed to be fine with. Near a bend in the trail, he stopped on the side of the track and started to mark his territory, which is the usual habit of leopards, as well as tigers.

We must have followed the leopard for a couple of kilometres, after which he crossed into a lakebed and sat down. This was my longest sighting of a leopard in the wild and I had massive goose bumps.

I had taken enough shots and did not want to disturb his sojourn further, so I signalled to the driver to head back, leaving the leopard to enjoy its solitude.

I think leopards are the most beautiful cats, with an agility unmatched in hunting their prey. Because of this, the role of the Langur watchmen is to sit perched on the highest point in a tree and send out a unique alarm call to the tribe, as soon as they spot a tiger, or a leopard. This call alerts the family of Langurs, as well as spotted deer, who take to their heels.

Over the last couple of years the population of leopards has gone up, which indicates a better balance between the population of prey to predator.

Occasionally, leopards sneak into neighbouring villages and kill cattle or dogs. Poachers are a constant menace to this beautiful species, because as long as there are consumers for leopard skin, and other animal products, poachers will continue to exist.

My admiration and appreciation goes to all the diligent forest guards and staff who protect the wildlife for generations to come.

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The role of the Langur watchmen is to sit perched on the highest point in a tree and send out a unique alarm call to the tribe, as soon as they spot a tiger, or a leopard

NATIONAL EDITION

APRIL (2) 2012 29

opinion

Confiscation of savings leads to panic in Europe As Europe still flounders in the mire of the GFC, it seems evident that the Euro experiment is a dismal failure reduced from €2 Euros to just 1€/cent, thereby punishing its shareholders. This loss of share value was a prerequisite for recapitalising the Bank.

Governments in several countries are BY noel g de sOUZA trying to extract money from the rich to fund social demands. India, the world’s biggest buyer of gold, has imposed a 6% duty on gold imports. This reduced the magine this scenario: a person lives appeal of gold and it fell in value, but this moderately and they save diligently for helped India’s balance of trade and its retirement. By making sacrifices they coffers got healthier. put money into the bank. Then one day the Portugal and Spain have recently government suddenly clamps restrictions on encouraged the buying of real estate in their those savings, and they can only draw small countries. As an incentive, Portugal offers amounts per day. Those savings are going two free citizenships to foreign buyers. to be punitively taxed (virtually confiscated) But buyers should be wary of taxation. at 10%!

France has imposed a heavy duty on real This is what has happened in estate to help it to reduce its unpopular Cyprus. When the initial shock of the income tax which was hiked to 75%. That announcement spread, there were large hike infuriated the famous actor Gerard street demonstrations. The government, Depardieu so much that he left France to making policy on the run, then announced settle in Russia. that on savings up to €100,000, the tax Throughout Europe, many would be around 6% whilst countries are introducing those with bigger deposits austerity measures at the would pay 10%. expense of common As it became clear that people. The result is that Cypriots with meagre Nationalist parties which savings were going to be Russian money preach independence from severely hit by the taxes, invested in Cyprus the European Union, are persons with savings under having a heyday. In Italy, €100,000 were exempted, as well as Russian Beppe Grillo, an anti-EU while those with over that loans to Cyprus protagonist, now holds amount would be even ($1.5 billion) are at a key position in Italian more harshly treated with stake. Talks between politics. In Britain, the British losses of between 30% and Cyprus and Russia Independence Party had an astronomical 60% from have failed to resolve success in elections for the their accounts.

European Parliament, as well Cyprus is a divided their financial as in local elections. Subisland with periods of disputes continentals are amongst its intercommunal violence supporters. between Greeks and Turks.

A UN report titled World In July 1974, a military Economic Situation and coup in Cyprus aimed to Prospects 2013 points out that world growth establish a union with Greece (or ENOSIS).

Turkey, one of the independence guarantors, has been weak in 2012 and it expects the world economy to be subdued in 2013 with protested to no avail. Five days later, Turkey growth at 2.4%. Although Asia’s two giants: launched a full scale invasion and conquered China and India are expected to reduce their the northern (Turkish) area which is a little once phenomenal growth, it will still be at over a third of the island. It is doubtful if high levels. India’s growth is expected to fall the Turkish area is much affected by what from 6.9% in 2011 to 5.5% in 2012, but to happens in the Greek zone. recover to 6.1% in 2013 and grow to 6.5% In today’s globalised world, those with to 2014. large assets find ‘safe’ places to park their Sweden, a non-Eurozone country, has money. Cyprus was one such haven. It a strong currency (the kroner) helped by welcomed money from foreign countries, its thriving manufacturing and agricultural notably from Russia and Britain. But now sectors. Perhaps each of the Eurozone Cyprus has become the first member of countries would be better off and more the EU to impose sanctions on internal EU responsible for their own affairs if they have movement of money. their own currencies again.

Russian money invested in Cyprus as well The Euro experiment has become as Russian loans to Cyprus ($1.5 billion) a dismal failure with non-democratic are at stake. Talks between Cyprus and ‘solutions’ imposed on their people from Russia have failed to resolve their financial outside. Cypriot President Anastasiades disputes. It seems that sovereign countries has accused Eurozone leaders of making have full control over assets located within “unprecedented demands that forced their borders. Globalisation can now mean Cyprus to become an experiment”. Indians nothing in the face of sovereign might! are found in most West European countries.

Also, assets within banks can now be Some of them like the steel mogul Laxmi virtually confiscated. Such appropriation Mittal have set up large industries. Others of bank assets is not new. Recently Spain have smaller enterprises. For all of them nationalised its prominent Bankia SA. there is much at stake.

The bank’s share value was drastically

I

30 APRIL (2) 2012

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opinion

Unskilled migrant woes Open immigration is not as far-fetched as some claim history. While this may be justified on the ground that skilled migrants have higher labour participation rates, it is questionable on humanitarian grounds.

A second characteristic of the current BY Sukrit Sabhlok legal framework is the arbitrary limit on the number of migrants accepted.

Yet it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, for immigration authorities ome writers have hypothesised that to centrally plan the correct amount of globalisation leads to a ‘withering migrants. The planned 2007 target, for away of the state.’ instance, was between 142,800 and 152, 800 Indeed, it is true that trade in goods and places. But widespread shortages have been services has become freer since the advent reported, indicating that this intake was of free trade and the accompanying not sufficient. dismantling of Australia’s The assumption that protectionist tariffs by government must set a the Hawke and Keating fixed number of places governments. ought to be challenged.

However, there has been What if there was a way no such diminution in With a reliance to avoid discriminatory state control in the area of on welfare out exclusion against certain immigration policy. From of the question, classes of people, Federation in 1901 till without suffering adverse 1973, the White Australia immigrants would economic consequences?

Policy excluded ‘non-white’ have to either find a “When we consider migrants through various job or return to their the role of migration in direct and indirect means. country of origin economic development, It was under the Whitlam once their finances it is clear that immigration government that the run dry and free trade are two transformation of Australia sides of the same coin,” from the ‘most British’ states Chris Berg. The country to the ‘most rationale is as follows. multicultural’ began to Firstly, “through take hold. remittances, migration In 2005 an impressive encourages capital flow 131,000 people from a variety and economic interconnections of backgrounds relocated to between the First World and the developing Australia. Nevertheless, world.” Secondly, “migrants working in governments continue to restrict the developed world are providing services the free movement of people across that people in the developed world want”, borders so as to create a two-tiered and hence both parties benefit. system of ‘haves and have-nots.’

If trade and migration are but two Current legislation does not treat sides of the same coin, then understanding all applicants equally, it favours skilled the movement of money and the migrants over the unskilled. Australia movement of people requires adherence has made special efforts to screen for to similar principles. workers with desired skills Opponents of or levels of education. immigration suggest The stated rationale for that fresh migrants this approach is to raise would become a labour market productivity, drain on taxpayers, but a practical outcome as they would take of discrimination on the It is extremely advantage of Australia’s basis of skill is that the difficult, if not generous social educated class residing in impossible, for welfare system.

Third World nations are immigration This objection is benefitting at the expense easily resolved: prohibit of the uneducated. It is authorities to income support for educated individuals who centrally plan the new immigrants. With possess the qualifications correct amount of a reliance on welfare required to impress migrants out of the question, Australian authorities, with immigrants would the illiterate poor in India have to either find a and China unlikely to pass job or return to their the screening process. country of origin once An unintended their finances run dry. American consequence of discrimination, therefore, Economist William Niskanen correctly is to exacerbate the divide between haves states that we should “build a wall and have-nots, as the poorest of the poor around the welfare state, not around are unable to leave developing nations our national borders.” in pursuit of a better life abroad. The Easy immigration, but not Department of Immigration prioritises easy welfare, should be the goal doctors, nurses, engineers, accountants and of policymakers. other professionals with a verifiable work

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viewpoint

It’s all about perspective…

We should mourn the loss of precious human life no matter where in the world tragedy occurs Sebastian Wallroth (Wikimedia)

BY RITAM MITRA

T

he week beginning Monday, April 15, saw bomb blasts across the world in four different cities, each claiming several casualties; but there was a stark difference in the way they were reported. Bombings in Damascus, Syria on April 15 killed 20 people; bombings across Baghdad on the same day killed over 30 people and wounded well over 100. A bombing outside the BJP office in Malleshwaram, Bangalore on April 17 saw at least 16 people, including 8 policemen, injured and bombings at a café in Baghdad also claimed 27 lives on April 18. But news headlines around the world focused almost exclusively on the twin bombs that went off in Boston on April 16, killing 3 people and injuring several others during the closing stages of the Boston marathon.

You could be forgiven for not knowing about the other hundreds of people that lost their lives on those days – and that is in itself, a chilling thought.

The Boston bombings were certainly outrageously brazen and cold-blooded. Three died, including a young boy aged only 8. Several dozens were injured, many having limbs blown off by the two bombs that exploded as hundreds of marathoners approached the finish line of the prestigious Boston marathon. But as the world’s media reported in real time on the senseless attack, it was cruelly ironic that the blasts in Iraq - which is in a state of limbo ahead of its first elections without US presence since the fall of Saddam Hussein - were considered underreported or considered not to be newsworthy.

The somewhat blasé attitude of the world towards death, destruction and tragedy in developing countries is no new phenomenon. Indeed, there has always been a chronic underreporting of those events, perhaps most notably when they affect countries in the Greater Middle East – think back to the 75,000 killed in an earthquake in Pakistan in 2005, or the 70,000 that have been killed in the Syrian uprising since 2011.

The sad truth is that we are desensitised to atrocities in these

32 APRIL (2) 2012

regions by the sheer volume of horror to which we assume its civilians are regularly exposed.

But even if it were conceivable that mass murder is a regular and accepted occurrence in any part of the world (which is an extremely narrow and arrogant message to preach), it is counterintuitive and inhuman to offer that as an excuse for ignoring it.

The media’s over-reporting of the Boston attacks in comparison with the other bombings is not necessarily by design. On one level, it is symptomatic of the age of social media – this age of instant hype, real-time updates, and an uncontrollable flow of information online that is hard to verify. We have access to a lot more information in a much shorter timeframe, and news sources consequently become oversaturated. On another level, America’s history of terrorist attacks, as well as its massive media presence means every incident in the US becomes a significant one by default.

From a more fundamental and overreaching viewpoint though, this type of reporting effectively places a higher value on lives in developed civilisations, than on others.

The counter-argument is that given the close ties between America and Australia and

our similar political and socioeconomic landscapes, the attack in Boston was more relevant to Australia and so naturally more widely reported. In a similar fashion, the attack in Boston may well have been underreported in countries such as Iraq and Syria, even if they didn’t have blasts in their own country to report.

But that argument misses the point completely.

In a country of free speech, Australia’s essentially apolitical media is a microcosm of our society. It is, to a large extent, a reflection of our own attitudes and morals. The Boston attacks were covered extensively because that is what we, the public, wanted to know more about – and it’s likely that the public psyche is similar in other countries like ours.

It is doubtful that hearing about a bomb blasts in Iraq or Syria would invoke the same reaction in an individual in our society as the attack in Boston – in fact, it is likely that most of the developed world was more moved by Boston bombings than the others. Perhaps because it hit closer to home and opened up our eyes to the possibility of attacks in our own countries. But the extensive media coverage of the Boston attacks simply mirrors how awry our society’s

collective moral compasses have strayed.

Obviously, the bombings in Bangalore carry with them a different weight for Indians – as do the bombings in Syria that affect Syrian nationals. This is a natural situation where family, friends, and the concept of ‘home’ is concerned.

But at the most basic human level - free of any nationalist or religious thought - how many of us can truly say we were at least equally disturbed by, or gave an equal amount of thought to, the bombs that slayed dozens of Iraqis during the week compared with the bombs which wreaked havoc at the Boston marathon?

It’s not a case of ‘the more deaths, the more horrific’ - the effect of the loss of innocent life should just simply never be qualified by virtue of nationality.

Even if terrorist activity is definitely more prevalent in some parts of the world than others, asylum seekers prove that no amount of unrest is simply ‘accepted’ by those societies.

People in those regions are still terrified, and they are by no means ‘used’ to it, as we sometimes so readily assume.

The world is a much smaller place than it used to be. We are quick to offer aid to countries around the world when they need it, and that’s definitely a

step in the right direction. But a more significant achievement would be for us to immediately accept that all human life as precious, regardless of ethnicity, gender or religion.

That shift in mindset is probably too much to hope for – but it would be an ideal planet to live on if one life was not valued over another because of its geographical and political closeness with Western civilisation.

The Boston attacks were covered extensively because that is what we, the public, wanted to know more about – and it’s likely that the public psyche is similar in other countries like ours

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literature

Popular Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen’s novel is still relevant 200 years later with characters like Elizabeth and Darcy continuing to captivate readers

Photo: www.designrelated.com

By NIMA MENON

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife”.

2013 marks the bicentenary of the publication of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. First published in 1813, the story has continued to captivate readers, generation after generation. Even 200 years later in a different time and age, the story has not lost its charm, and has sold over 20 million copies. It just refuses to become

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mundane. Many romantic novels have been written and enjoyed by generations, but none like Pride and Prejudice. Darcy and Elizabeth appear to be caricatures of the characteristics they have been endowed with. Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte and Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell are other novels with strong male and female protagonists who have continued to woo readers with their idiosyncrasies. Jane and Rochester, Catherine and Heathcliff, and Scarlet and Rhett Butler, like Darcy and Elizabeth, are characters who not only exasperate readers, but make them fall madly in love with them. They have all been made into movies and television series, won awards,

been popular and inspirational, but it is difficult to find another novel that has as many adaptations as Pride and Prejudice.

“He is a gentleman, and I am a gentleman’s daughter. So far we are equal”.

Because readers were so desperate for more of Darcy and Elizabeth, there are more than 100 literary adaptations of the novel.

But the fascination does not stop at Elizabeth and Darcy, as there have even been stories written about Mr Darcy’s little sister, Charlotte Collins and Caroline Bingley, Mary and Lydia Bennett.

There are numerous stories written on Pemberley (Darcy’s home) and even some on Mr

Darcy’s daughters. The fascination with the characters and the story has had such far-reaching effects that Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls were written for slightly alternative Austen fans.

The first television presentation of Pride and Prejudice was in 1938 and the first movie was made in 1940. Since then there have seven miniseries, the most popular and the most memorable being the one with Colin Firth as Mr Darcy. Of the movies made, the 2005 flick with Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfayden as Elizabeth and Darcy respectively has been the most popular.

There’s also the fantasy version of the story Lost in Austen, written by Guy Andrews, which gives Austen’s version an interesting twist. Many a young, ardent Austen fan would have found herself in the shoes of Amanda Price, the main character. The books and movies in the Bridget Jones’s Diary also have a loose connections to the novel, and the novel even dazzled Bollywood, with Bride and Prejudice.

“There is, I believe, in every disposition a tendency to some particular evil, a natural defect, which not even the best education can overcome”.

“And your defect is a propensity to hate everybody”.

“And yours,” he replied with a smile, “is wilfully to misunderstand them”.

A Jane Austen fan myself, I have the read the novel a number of times, and have even seen all the popular television and film versions of the novel. And I can safely say that any number of repeated viewings fail to make Darcy and Elizabeth boring.

“Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us”.

The cleverness and clarity with which Austen has drawn these characters endears them to all ages at all times. Austen was way ahead of her times in her maturity of thought, but did not get any recognition for her books during her time as they were all published anonymously.

Even during the Victorian and Romantic era of English literature, readers preferred Charles Dickens and George Eliot. A surge of appreciation for her work was seen in the late 19th and early 20th century, with critical appreciation of her work being published in several literary journals. Soon her books became the focus of academic study, making way for my first audience with Jane Austen in early 1980s. I have remained one of her fans ever since. I have to say, without an iota of doubt, that Pride and Prejudice is one of my all time favourites.

APRIL (2) 2012 33

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APRIL (2) 2012 35

TRAVEL

Delhi chalo!

Seven historic cities have contributed their legacy to the now ultra-modern metropolis

BY SANDIP HOR

W

elcome to Delhi!” says the smiling officer at the Indian capital’s new international airport.

Being unused to receiving such a convivial reception from Indian airport officials, I was surprised as I walked into Delhi after a gap of 15 years, and guess what?

More surprises awaited me as I walked out of the airport with my luggage within just twenty minutes after landing! While experiencing difficulty absorbing this massive, but positive change, it made me wonder for a moment if Delhi airport was in some sort of performance competition with its counterpart in Singapore?

Yes, India is changing as fast as one of the most progressive nations of the world. And there are many signs of this in the capital, from the ultra modern international airport, and the efficient metro railway system, to a galaxy of glittering shopping malls, five star hotels, high-

36 APRIL (2) 2012

rise office blocks, and modern residential condominiums crowding every corner of this ever-expanding metropolis. And that’s not even mentioning the Mercedes, BMWs, Hondas and Toyotas, all manufactured in India, which fill the road space, while hoards of Nokia and Sony products draw consumer attention, and fast food outlets of McDonalds and KFC continue to surface on every corner.

However, my mission to the thousand-year-old city this time is more to discover its glory filled antiquity, rather than savouring its 21st century attributes. So I set out for a hands-on experience with history with the help of my omniscient companion Asif Hussain from Secrets of India, a Delhi based tour operator specialising in unfolding hidden treasures of an enriched land to visitors.

Delhi is often referred to as a ‘City of Cities’ because today’s metropolis boasts of an ensemble of seven historic settlements, each built and developed by conquerors from central Asia who, since the 11th century, were attracted to this land by its amazing wealth.

The first city surfaced in 1192 when Qutbuddin Aibak

established Qila Rai Pithora, around today’s Mehrauli Park, as the capital of the Mamluk dynasty. The most important archaeological remains from that period is the red sandstone built 73 metre high Qutb Minar.

Undoubtedly this World Heritage site is the most tourist-infected one within the city, and the setting and architecture of this soaring monument won’t disappoint anyone.

Delhi’s second city was built

by Alauddin Khilji in 1303 at a place called Siri where nothing remains other than the ruins of a crumbling rampart and a tomb, dotted within a green field used mainly by locals as a private hideout, or an afternoon resting place.

Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq, the flag bearing monarch of the Tughlaq dynasty, built the fortified town of Tughluqabad, the third city in 1321. With its battered walls of grey rubble perched on desolate hills where its position gives it a natural advantage, Tughluqabad is located 8km east of the Qutb Minar and was raised as a stronghold, rather than as an architectural enterprise. It is an irregular rectangle with over 6 km of fortification. The citadel is still intact and the original palace walls

can be discerned, despite the rest being in ruins.

Not far from here is Jahanpanah, the fourth city built in 1325 by Ghiyasuddin’s successor Muhammad-bin-Tughlaq.

Nothing much remains of the old colony and now the main attraction of the locale is the imposing Begumpuri Mosque featuring 44 domes, 24 arched openings and an imposing doorway.

Feroze Shah Tughlaq, another successor from the Tughlaq dynasty built Ferozabad around 1351, the fifth city, which is located across the road from Delhi’s main cricket ground. The most significant exhibit here within the decrepit ramparts and structures is Mauryan King Ashoka’s polished stone pillar which stands as a symbol of pride among Indians. There are also ruins

of a mosque where it is said the Mongol conqueror Timur Long used to attend Friday prayers, and a gateway called ‘Khuni Darwaza,’ or ‘Bloodstained doorway.’ It was here that a British soldier shot dead the last Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar’s two sons, and a grandson in 1857 after crushing the Sepoy Mutiny, India’s first battle for independence.

The British had earlier captured the aging Emperor and brought an end to the colourful Mughal dynasty that ruled India from Delhi since the early 16th century.

While trundling there, chapters from Last Mughal, a bestseller from the celebrated Delhi-based Scottish writer William Dalrymple came to mind.

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The Mughals, like the Ottomans in Turkey, Safavids in Iran and Tudors in England, were one of the greatest medieval dynasties.

They introduced a stable political system in India, patronised art and culture, bequeathed the land with architectural splendours and made Delhi famous to the world. Their legacies are evident throughout Delhi from several thoroughfares named after the Emperors such as Akbar Road and Aurangzeb Road, with every quaint quarter sprinkled with forts, bazaars,

monuments and tombs testifying to the brilliance of period architecture, to museums packed with their memorabilia.

There is even a Mughal Garden inside the British-built Rashtrapati Bhavan and the Presidential Palace at Raisina Hill. As I go through some of these memoirs, Asif aptly titles this part of our journey as ‘Walking with the Mughals.’

During the Mughal era two cities were built: the Purana Qila (Old Fort) and Shahjahanabad, now better known as Old Delhi.

This houses the famous Red Fort, Jama Masjid and Chandni Chowk, all sponsored by Shah Jahan, the fifth Emperor of the celebrated dynasty.

Humayun, the second Mughal Emperor built the Purana Qila as a grand citadel in the 16th

century and made it the capital of his empire. An ardent religious man, he called his city ‘Dinpanah’ or ‘Asylum of Faith.’ He was ousted from his kingdom in 1540 by Afghan King Sher Shah, who strengthened the fortifications and added new structures, many of which still remain in good condition such as the mosque, gateways and a library. After five years, Humayun recaptured the fort and ruled from there for the next 11 years till he fell down the stairs in the library building and died. His tomb, located nearby, is an architectural marvel and a ‘must see’ for any visitor to Delhi.

Unquestionably, Shahjahanabad has been considered by historians and ancient travellers alike, as the grandest of all of Delhi’s ancient cities. Built around 1638, it was surrounded by a massive wall with 14 gates to access the city of which three: Delhi, Turkman and Ajmeri, still exist. A graceful and highly cultured lifestyle was nurtured by merchants, traders, courtesans, artists and poets living in the lanes and alleyways of the walled quarter. Wandering through these gives us a sense of

Main pic: Humayun’s Tomb enrichment, while imagining its vibrant and colourful past.

The shops and bazaars alongside Chandni Chowk (which was originally designed as a wide boulevard, but is now heavily crowded with pedestrians and all sorts of vehicles) and those surrounding the Jama Masjid still retain some of the Central Asian souk-like atmosphere. And the Red Fort which stands as a silent witness to many episodes that fill in the pages of Indian history, still draws large numbers of visitors each day to view its Royal Quarters.

The misty air of Shahjahanabad is flavoured by the irresistible aroma of Mughlai food. Asif takes me to Karim’s, one of Delhi’s oldest and most authentic eateries for sampling recipes that have descended from the kitchens of the Mughals. While sampling mouth-watering kababs, biryani and korma, ‘Walking with the Mughals’ ends for me in a gastronomically enjoyable fashion, akin to ‘Eating like the Mughals.’

Clockwise top: Remains of Siri Legacy of the Mughals Lal Qila the redstone battlement Clockwise bottom: World heritage listed Qutb Minar Ruins of Ferozabad The ruins of Purana Qila from lakeside Purana Qila A 17th century monument

The first city surfaced in 1192 when Qutbuddin Aibak established Qila Rai Pithora, around today’s Mehrauli Park, as the capital of Mamluk dynasty

Travel notebook delhi GETTING there

Singapore Airlines (www.singaporeair.com) flies twice daily to Delhi from Singapore, which is connected with major Australian cities with several flights per week.

Accommodation

Conveniently located at Green Park in South Delhi, Ashtan Sarovar Portico (www.sarovarhotels.com) is a boutique hotel with contemporary amenities and personalised services.

Delhi tour operator

Check www.secretsofindia.in

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APRIL (2) 2012 37

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Mad about FASHION

metallic How to make this traffic stopping trend work for you, without looking like a disco ball Pair metallics with neutrals By TALIA KAUR

I

f you’re looking for an exciting way to add an on trend touch to your everyday outfits, metallic colours are the answer this season. Many designers dipped into pots of gold and silver for their Spring/ Summer collections. And it was revisited again at New York Fashion Week, by designers such as Alexander Wang, Derek Lam, and Burberry. Metallic colours are a trend that adds a rich texture to classic designs like pencil skirts, tailored trousers and trench coats.

They give a great modern twist to timeless looks, and are an easy way to add instant shine. Get your wear out of the metallic trend this season with the following few tips, and embrace it (without feeling like a robot).

Less is more

Like any other trend, stores are already filling up with metallic items, including shoes, knits, jeans and jewellery. Although it’s incredibly varied and so much fun to style, it’s important not to get lost in it all. Try purchasing one or two key items that are simple, modest, and flatter your body that can be worn with many outfits.

When styling metallic, chose one key piece, a shirt, a pair of jeans, or a bomber jacket, and keep the rest to a minimum. The key is to balance your metallic piece with the rest of your outfit, while adding a slight edge to your look.

For a casual, yet comfortable day look, pair a metallic shirt with a tweed jacket, jeans, and wedge sneakers. Metallic colours are perfect for a night out as well, and you can experiment a little more with it. Try pairing a metallic shirt, with a pencil skirt, and a pair of heels. Finish off with a structured blazer and some jewellery and you’re done. Remember to play around with the style, shape and cut of your metallic pieces, but hold back on adding bright colours to it.

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It’s super easy to incorporate metallics into your wardrobe this season, by simply pairing them with neutral colours. Go for a nude skirt or crisp white trousers with your metallic sweater. If you’re wearing a metallic skirt, pair it with a grey tank top or a cream blouse. By using neutral tones to balance out the brightness of the metallic piece, you’ll look chic and polished, yet still eye-catching and right on trend. This look is perfect for those of you who aren’t as daring with the trend, and might be afraid of looking overdone.

And for those who still want maximum impact with this trend, try incorporating neutral colours, which will shift the focus of your outfit onto the metallic piece. You could even go one step further, and look for sequined metallic items such as a pair of sequined rose gold pants. Team it with a basic white or black shirt and let the trousers do all the talking.

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Blumarine

ZATCHELS

boohoo

Try purchasing one or two key items that are simple, modest, and flatter your body that can be worn with many outfits

Play with different metallic colours

Don’t stop at the typical metallic hues like copper, silver and gold.

Be experimental and try out some other light colours like lime, pink or baby blue. These colours have been all over the runway and look super-luxe and unique. You might even find that these unique shades of metallic suit your style more.

These interesting colours can also go a long way in your wardrobe.

Pair them with neutrals to make the colour pop, and add your favourite statement accessory such as a shoe, bib necklace or a jewel clutch. This way, you’ll instantly put your own individual stamp on this trend.

Keep accessories to a minimum

Metallic shades will not go unnoticed in an outfit. It’s definitely eye-catching, so you’ll want to keep your accessories to a minimum. If you’re going for a day look, wear your metallic piece with a few simple accessories like dainty rings and necklaces or even some simple studs. If you’re headed for a night out, you can

burberry

shopbop go for more statement pieces, like a jewelled necklace or chandelier earrings, but stop there. Make sure they have clean lines, and whatever you do, don’t pile them up.

Make a choice, and wear one or the other. Let the metallic piece be the focus of your outfit, and allow the accessories to compliment it.

Otherwise, your eyes won’t know where to look. Another safe option is to wear accessories that are matt, instead of shiny, so that there’s no chance of any distractions.

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APRIL (2) 2012 39

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psyche

Are you talking to me?

How to speak clearly and precisely, to achieve better communication

By SAROJA SRINIVASAN

W

hen we talk about poor communication, we need to realise that there is never just one person to blame. This is because every single person involved in the act of communicating is contributing, whether in a positive or negative way. On the road to effective communication, there are many hurdles that must first be jumped over. But before you can start jumping over any, it is also important to realise that communication comes in many different forms.

As a message travels from one individual to another, it is affected by language barriers (through choice of words and phrases used), attitudes of those involved (the tone of voice, and gestures), and emotional barriers (where anxieties and emotions being expressed are not appreciated). Another very important aspect is the personality of the parties involved.

Did you know that two individuals can understand the same message differently?

Importance of intent

Intention, impact and meaning can differ from individual to individual.

For example, what was intended as a joke, might go astray if the receiver of is not in the mood to enjoy it. More recently we had an example in the media of a practical joke that got completely out of hand. What was intended to be a harmless 2Day FM radio show

prank, led to the death of the nurse who received it.

Some general rules to improve communication

As a speaker you have to state what you want clearly and precisely. It is also your duty as the speaker to make sure that the person receiving your message has received it the way you meant it. Don’t assume the listener knows your intent.

No one is a ‘mind-reader’. When the communication is based on assumptions that are not clarified, there is a higher chance it will be misheard. As a listener you have to make sure you have understood what is being said to you. It is your duty to ask for clarification when you are not clear about the message. Again, do not make any inferences or assumptions or guess what the speaker might have meant.

As was mentioned earlier, there are many ‘filters’ on both

sides that affect the true nature of communication. The most important thing to note, is that the biases that occur are because of these filters, which can be corrected by good feedback.

Feedback

Feedback is a process that helps to clarify and help each other to make sure you have understood what was intended. It is also useful, because it gives information back to the other person. This of course, requires the correct timing and tact.

For example, an important piece of information may need to be communicated calmly and when both have time to clarify doubts.

It cannot be given and received correctly if done hurriedly or at an inappropriate time.

Communication is a two-way street

Communication is not static. It is a process and it changes constantly

depending on the interaction.

It is a two-way process, with all parties involved doing both listening and responding. And many of the factors that were mentioned earlier, such as the personality of those involved, influences the quality of the communication.

is quite easy to digress by talking about your own similar experience, which interrupts the other speaker. Completing other people’s sentences is another big no no. You’ll only frustrate the other person, and damage your relationship.

When you are not listening, make sure that you ask appropriate questions or make unsuitable comments that show that you were not listening, rather than watching the TV out of the corner of your eye, or continuing to playing with your mobile. Even if you’re speaking over the phone, it’s very easy to spot someone who is distracted by something else.

To be an active listener means that you first have to actually care about what the other person is saying. You’ll then need to give them ‘air space,’ which is the freedom to say whatever is on their mind. Developing good listening skills is the first and foremost step in effective communication. You might want to try out your new listening skills today.

How to listen

The most fundamental skill in good communication is listening.

Listening is not just hearing, because it requires that you focus on what is being said. This means observing any expression of emotions being conveyed, and being sensitive to hesitations. Sometimes you may have to invite the speaker to expand and tell you more, if you feel they are holding back something. This allows the other person to feel comfortable about elaborating on what they are saying. You also have to allow ample time for the speaker to complete what they are trying to tell you, without any interruptions. It

It is very important to give time for the speaker to say what they want to convey, giving them ‘air space’, which is the freedom to open up and say what is on their mind

MBH Coaching College Panania, 8.30am to 6.15pm each Saturday Speciaising in creative writing for primary schools and essay writing for high school.

Vocabulary, Grammar and Punctuation classes available for primary aged students wanting to achieve excellence in NAPLAN, OC and Selective School exams.

Selective School training available. High school classes also available.

Experienced teachers.

Phone Mrs Hurley 9771 4795 or 0411251332 Email: sahurley@optusnet.com.au

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wellbeing

What are you putting into your shopping trolley?

Food safety and labelling regulations in Australia

BY MALLI IYER

F

ood, including fruits, vegetables and grains, used to come from sources that were easily identifiable. These days, it is a different matter entirely. The food in our shopping trolleys is often imported from other countries, and this means that there are not the same regulatory structures in place to guard our health.

It is well known that Customs and Quarantine undertake no more than just random checks, which may not exceed 2% of the total quantity of foods imported.

Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service (AQIS) keeps an eye on imported foods, and is subjected to the Imported Food Inspection Scheme. Since this runs into thousands of tonnes of food imported in most countries, it is impossible for every imported gram or ounce of food to be inspected, and Australia is no exception.

Use by and best before labels

Food safety is a global concern on account of the lack of knowledge about risks in foreign food. Food labelling laws are therefore being reviewed by most countries on a regular basis. The country of origin of the foods is slowly taking hold in products sold in Australian food stores and supermarkets, although there are still labels like ‘made in Australia from local and imported ingredients’, which is very ambiguous.

‘Packaged in Australia’ is another label that confuses buyers, as the entire product may have been manufactured elsewhere.

‘Use by date’ and ‘best before... date’ are also seen widely on product labels. For commodities like bread, cheese, meat, seafood and poultry, the ‘use by date’ is critical. For shelf stable foods like ready-to-eat snacks, pulses, cereals, and grains, the indication of ‘best before... date’ suggests that the food quality is likely to have deteriorated beyond the stated date, but may still be usable for a short period after that.

Labels for vegetarians

How many vegetarians among us worry about rennet free cheese or NATIONAL EDITION

yoghurt? And how many take care to avoid using curry pastes made in Southeast Asia, which invariably have shrimp paste or oyster sauce as an ingredient? Yet, how many more look at the ice creams they buy without knowing that most contain gelatin? It is a moot point that vegetarians are sometimes less fussy about the blending of non-vegetarian ingredients in the food they eat. There are also new ranges of products in supermarkets and Asian stores that are called vegetarian meat, which are made from soyabeans or tofu. One wonders whether their meat-like consistency and taste are entirely made from vegetarian ingredients, or are suited to the palate of the “curry brigade,” (many of whom are hard core and not keen to adapt).

Visit any Indian Spice store and you are sure to find products ‘made in India’ or another South Asian country, which are on shelves well past their ‘best before’ date. Some of these shop owners are brazen and do not believe they will ever be questioned about their sale of products that do not meet Australian food standards. What is more, they still seem to get regular patronage from their clientele.

Labels for meat eaters

The carnivores among us fare no

better. They have to negotiate through a maze of labels such as ‘grain fed beef,’ free-range or cage eggs, organic or ‘antibiotic free’ chickens and poultry, ‘lean’ meat and pork of various specifications, and of course ‘halal accredited meat’.

There is no means of knowing if livestock have been bred using genetic technology, as rules and regulations vary from country to country. Genetically modified meat and foods are a fact of life as rules governing them vary dramatically. This makes the line of distinction between GM and non-GM farming an extremely very thin indeed, due to the unrestricted movement of farm produce. How much care is exercised by shoppers when they fill up their trolley is also debatable.

When food goes bad

Should suspect food consumed cause food poisoning, an allergic reaction, or other ill-health, there seems to be no alternative but to visit a Doctor. Even so, after the symptoms and causes have been established, there does not seem to be a system of reporting or identifying the food batch for a recall by the manufacturer. In short, we have no way to prevent similar damage to health occurring

elsewhere. Rashes on the body, irritable bowels, bloating, and headaches are often caused by food intolerances.

Shelf life

The shelf life of canned goods is normally longer than fresh food, and many bottled and sealed products recommend refrigeration after the product seal is broken after initial use. Many sauces, salad dressings and dips fall into this category. These have a tendency to become mouldy if proper care is not taken. And although packaged and frozen foods have become an essential part of our grocery shopping, there are still worries over a loss of nutrition in the food.

New terminology

Consumers have to reckon with a new concept of ‘super foods’.

Unknown previously, we have had to learn to distinguish between ‘organic,’ ‘pesticide free,’ ‘highfibre’ and ‘low GI’ (glycaemic index) foods which are conducive to good health. We have also learned about quinoa, chia seeds acai, and goji berries that have recently gained universal acceptance, and find out about the virtues of pomegranate, and the humble coconut water. We have also discovered the Guar bean,

which is also luckily drought proof.

In essence, it is important to create an awareness among those of us who need to become more inquisitive about the way that we feed our families. We do not live in a perfect world, but need to be on our guard in the interest of good health.

Happy grocery shopping!

The food in our shopping trolleys is often imported from other countries, and this means that there are not the same regulatory structures in place to guard our health

APRIL (2) 2013 43

food

Chestnut craziness Cholesterol free and relatively low in calories, this nut is incredibly versatile and simple to prepare

Guide to chestnut preparation

Step 1 Score chestnuts by cutting a small x on the flat side with the tip of a sharp knife

Step 3 When ready, place nuts in a clean tea towel.

Wrap them up for five minutes. Giving them a little squeeze will make them easier to peel.

Step 2 Some recipes call for chestnuts to be grilled and others boiled. Both are easy.

If grilling: Place on a tray under a moderate to hot grill for about 10-15 minutes depending on their size. Parts of them will burn and go black.

DonPt worry, this is just the outer shell.

Step 4 Unwrap and peel both the outer shell and the pellicle (the extra layer between outer shell and nut) off.

If boiling: Place in boiling water and cook until tender, if in doubt cut one in half to check it is cooked through.

Some recipes don’t require the nut to be whole, in which case, cut the chestnut in half (in shell) and use a teaspoon to scoop of out the flesh.

D

espite being grown in Australia for over 150 years, Australians are still confused by how to prepare chestnuts, and a third of the population has never tasted them. Crazy right?

“I grew up eating chestnuts, and despite what some people think, they’re incredibly versatile and simple to prepare,” says chef Stefano Manfredi, of Osteria Balla Manfredi at The Star and Manfredi at Bells restaurant at Killcare.

Manfredi has created three new simple recipes to reveal the versatility of this magnificent ingredient to Australian home cooks.

Chestnuts are cholesterol free 44 APRIL (2) 2013

and relatively low in calories compared to many other nuts and seeds. For example, roasted chestnuts have half the calories of roasted cashews. They’re also low GI, which means the body digests them slowly, keeping you satiated for longer.

Traditionally thought of as a winter food, the Australian season actually begins in March.

Chestnuts are a fantastic allround ingredient. They are delicious sliced into salads or boiled as an alternative to pasta or potatoes. Chestnut puree also lends itself beautifully to desserts like tiramisu, tortes and cakes,” he says.

Chestnuts are an excellent source of vitamin C, folate, and minerals such as calcium,

magnesium, zinc, iron and potassium. Chestnut flour and meal are gluten free and suitable for those with intolerance and coeliac disease.

With all recipes to follow, make sure that you use the guide for chestnut preparation using the boiling method.

Creamy Chestnut Tiramisu

500 g fresh chestnuts (or 350g frozen peeled) 250 ml milk 3 tbs brown sugar 1 tsp vanilla essence 3 eggs, separated 100 g caster sugar 300 g mascarpone 32 Savoiardi biscuits (Italian

sponge fingers) 400 ml water 4 tbs cocoa powder, plus 1 tsp for dusting Put 8 peeled chestnuts aside and thinly slice them.

Place the rest in a small pot with milk, brown sugar and vanilla essence. Simmer on very low heat for 15 minutes until chestnuts become very soft. Remove from heat and place aside to cool.

Once cool place in a food processor and blend till smooth.

It may be necessary to add 3-4 tbs more of milk to get a creamy consistency.

Beat the egg yolks and caster sugar together until the mixture becomes pale.

Beat the egg whites in a separate bowl until they form fluffy peaks.

Mix the yolk and sugar mixture together with the mascarpone, and then fold the whites in gradually.

Mix 4 tbs of cocoa powder with 100 ml of water to make it easier to dissolve, then add remaining 300 ml.

Soak the Savoiardi in the chocolate water, dipping them two at a time for a second on each side, then arrange a layer of 8 soaked biscuits on the bottom of a high-sided ceramic container around 16cm square.

Spread on a layer of the mascarpone and then dollop on some chestnut puree, spreading with a spatula. Repeat the process until all the biscuits and mascarpone have been used up, finishing with a layer of mascarpone on top. Scatter the sliced chestnuts over and sprinkle with remaining cocoa powder.

Serves 10-12.

Easy roast chestnut, pumpkin and ricotta salad

300 g fresh chestnuts (or equivalent frozen, peeled fresh) 500 g Queensland Blue pumpkin or similar ½ cup fresh sage leaves 3 tbs extra virgin olive oil 1 tbs roasted sesame seeds 150 g fresh ricotta Salt and pepper Peel and deseed pumpkin and cut into roughly 2cm cubes.

Place pumpkin, peeled chestnuts and sage in a baking dish. Toss with olive oil, salt and pepper.

Place in a preheated 180°C oven for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool.

Slice each chestnut into 5-6 slices. Plate by stacking cubes of pumpkin in a pile on each plate, spoon ricotta around and scatter the sliced chestnuts on top. Use the sage leaves as garnish and any pan juices over the top as dressing.

Finish by sprinkling sesame seeds over.

Serves 6 as a first course.

Hearty Chicken with chestnuts and mushrooms

250 g fresh chestnuts (or 200 g frozen peeled chestnuts) 8 dried shiitake mushrooms 3 tbs extra virgin olive oil 3cm-long pieces of ginger, peeled and cut into thin slices 1 onion, peeled, cut in half and then cut into ¼ cm wedges 8 chicken thighs, bone in, skin on 8 chicken drumsticks, bone in, skin on 5 tbs dark soy sauce 125 ml dry sherry 1 tbs caster sugar 2 pinches salt 1 whole star anise ½ tsp cracked pepper 250 ml water Cut chestnuts in half and reserve.

Place dried mushrooms in a bowl of hot water and soak for 30 minutes. Drain, remove stem, cut each mushroom in half and reserve.

Heat a large, heavy pot and add oil. When it begins to smoke, add ginger and onion. Stir for 15 seconds and then add chicken thighs and drumsticks. Keep turning chicken until skin is golden making sure onions and ginger doesn’t burn.

Add soy sauce, half the sherry, sugar and salt. Stir well so the soy has completely coloured the chicken. Add the star anise, pepper and the water and stir well.

Turn down to a simmer and place a lid on the pot.

Keep simmering for 15 minutes occasionally turning the chicken.

Add the remaining sherry, the chestnuts and the mushrooms.

Mix in, cover and simmer gently for another 15 minutes.

Remove from heat and let rest for 10 minutes then serve with steamed rice.

Serves 8.

Stefano Manfredi, www.chestnutaustralia.com.au

www.indianlink.com.au

NATIONAL EDITION

APRIL (2) 2013 45

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NATIONAL EDITION

APRIL (2) 2013 47

ENTERTAINMENT

THE BUZZ

Aamir among most influential people in the world!

B

ollywood star Aamir Khan has been featured on one of the seven special covers of Time magazine listing the world’s 100 most influential people.

Aamir Khan, 48, who won praise from composer AR Rahman, “has been chosen for using his influence to raise social awareness in India”.

“In a world of false diplomacy and evasiveness, Aamir is a straightforward man,” wrote Rahman noting, “He uses his gifts as a charmer to give his audience the most bitter medicine.

48 APRIL (2) 2013

Hypnotized, we take it without complaint”.

“Aamir has started a movement that will help change the world in which Indians live. Jai ho!” added the Academy Award-winning composer.

The list includes Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, Delhi lawyer Vrinda Grover and California’s Indian-American attorney general Kamala Harris besides teenaged Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai and US President Barack Obama.

Up-to-date news on what’s hot and happening in Bollywood

Boney still mad over Sri

They’ve been married for several years now and have two young daughters, but filmmaker Boney Kapoor is still madly in love with actress wife Sridevi. There seems none of the jaded matrimonial stories we are so used to hearing about relationships, as Boney candidly confessed that it was love at first sight for him.

“I fell in love with Sri when I watched her Tamil film during the late 1970s. After watching her film, I wanted to know more about her,” Kapoor said recently, sharing the inside story which has been kept under wraps so far and caused much speculation, much to the embarrassment of his wife.

“I had especially gone SRIVEDI AND Bone to Chennai at her house y KAPOOR to meet her, but she was shooting in Singapore. I Chandni in Switzerland, he flew down returned to Mumbai disheartened,” too, “because I wanted to be close to her”. he added.

“After coming back, I told my first wife Boney opened his heart out (Mona Shourie) what I had felt for Sri,” to reporters at New Delhi, while he said, revealing that when Sridevi’s accompanying Sridevi, who was mother died, he was there with her all attending the India Today Women the time.

Summit 2013.

“When she finished shooting for Looking beautiful in a red embroidered Lamhe, her father passed away. We sari, the Chandni actress made futile became close to each other slowly. attempts to stop Kapoor from divulging I supported her throughout,” more details about their romance. added Boney.

But her hubby was not to be deterred.

“Even she was there for me always.

“After some time, I watched Sri’s Solva She is not only a talented actress, but a Sawan (1979). I desperately wanted to fabulous wife and mother. She still lives meet her. I wanted her to work with me. in her own world and doesn’t get into One day I went to meet her on the set (of controversies. Even after so many years a movie). Sri is an introvert. She doesn’t of our marriage, I am still madly in love talk to strangers. She talked to me in with her,” said a still-smitten Boney. half broken English and Hindi, and just And when Sridevi was honoured with said that her mother takes care of her the title ‘Empress of Indian cinema’ at professional matters,” he revealed. the TSR-TV9 national film awards, her Boney, who married Sri in 1996, said husband lavishly stated that nobody when he met his future mother-in-law, else in the industry deserves the award he offered Mr India and Sridevi’s mother more than her. Boney himself won the asked for Rs.10 lakh to sign the film.

‘Star Producer of the Millennium’ award.

“When she asked for Rs.10 lakh, I offered A winning couple who are made for each her Rs.11 lakh because I wanted to be other, such is the stuff of Bollywood! Well close to Sri. Her mother was completely done, Boney and Sri! impressed with me. Sri was the highest paid actresses of that time and she later confessed to me that she thought I was Yash Chopra to be felicitated a crazy producer who was offering more at Melbourne than what she had asked for,” said Boney.

As part of a special tribute, late filmmaker It was a ‘dream come true’ for him Yash Chopra will be conferred the title of when Sridevi acted in his production ‘Father of Contemporary Indian Cinema’ venture Mr India. In the super hit sci-fi at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne comedy directed by Shekhar Kapur, (IFFM), to be held from May 3-22.

Boney roped in his younger brother to Celebrating 100 years of Indian play the male lead opposite Sridevi. cinema, the festival will honour Chopra “I made sure she was comfortable on for his strong ties with Australia and the set (of Mr India). I personally took constant support to the festival. The care of everything. Gradually, she felt award and honour will be received by comfortable with me,” said Boney.

Yash Chopra’s wife Pamela. “Yashji had It was the beginning of Sridevi’s foray a close connection with the IFFM. He into Hindi films and Boney’s life as she was happy to support it as he believed starred in his films like Roop Ki Rani in promoting Indian films in foreign Choron Ka Raja and Judaai. countries,” said Pamela in a statement.

He claimed to be so madly in love Even the Agora cinema in Melbourne with her that when Sridevi was filming is being renamed as the Yash Chopra

www.indianlink.com.au

RANBIR

KAPOOR

Cinema, and will be inaugurated

by Pamela.

Two of Yash Chopra’s productions, Salaam Namaste (2005) and Chak De! India were shot in Melbourne. The tribute will be a fitting one for the renowned filmmaker who died last year.

Govinda a fashionista?

In what is going to be a shock to the senses, actor Govinda will soon be a judge on a reality show titled ‘Indian Model Hunt 2013’. Now, despite being in the film industry for nearly three decades, Govinda has been better known for his pelvic-thrusting dance moves than his sense of fashion and style. The 50 year old candidly admits this, but is quick to point out that he has often risen to the challenge and snubbed

who wore it better?

Deepika Padukone and Zoe-Saldana in Prabal Gurung Share your views with us on our Facebook page

NATIONAL EDITION

Govinda his detractors. “Earlier people used to say that I cannot become an actor, but I became (an actor), they said I cannot be a star but I became a star, then they said I cannot become a leader (MP), but I became one,” he said. Having worked in over 120 films through his career, it is only to be expected that Govinda would have picked up a few fashion tips, but judging from his creative style of dressing, that hasn’t happened yet.

Perhaps the show will succeed where movies failed. After all, the reality show ill feature talented contestants from across India. Or perhaps, the contestants will adopt to Govinda’s style and create a unique fashion statement. What do you think? Its not such a scary thought!

A tale of four films

Fans of actor Ranbir Kapoor must make

sure they see the soon to be released Bombay Talkies, as filmmaker Dibakar Banerjee claims that the young actor appears in every frame of his short film.

“My short film in Bombay Talkies couldn’t have happened without Ranbir Kapoor, as he is totally associated. He is a shadow of god associated with the film.

He is there in every frame. He is there as the ultimate hero against this average common man. Without Ranbir this could not have happened,” explained Banerjee, who has directed one of the four short films in Bombay Talkies.

Nawazuddin Siddiqui features in the lead role, with the director claiming that he has wanted to work with Siddiqui for a long time now, since Black Friday.

“It was a lovely experience. It was a spiritual experience for both of us,” said Banerjee.

The director was excited about the Aamir Khan-starrer promotional song that would be a huge boost for the movie, which is primarily a celebration of Indian cinema’s centenary. “He (Aamir) is not there in my film or any of other the other films. He is there in the promotional song. He has been such an enthusiastic supporter of the project.

His presence will be lovely for this film,” he said.

Other directors who have contributed to Bombay Talkies are Anurag Kashyap, Zoya Akhtar and Karan Johar.

Karan talked about his short film saying, “It’s an emotional film. There are songs and emotions (shown) in a different way. It is about relationships.

There is no glamour. It is more real in that way.”

His segment will see Rani Mukerji, Saqib Saleem and Randeep Hooda. “I have no problem in working with stars, but that was not the demand for this film,” he said.

Seems like the movie will certainly be something to talk about!

CAPTION CONTEST What’s the chitchat between Puja Gupta and Kunal Khemu?

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

Last issue Caption Contest winning entry What’s Javed Akhtar saying about his wife Shabana Azmi here?

Javed: Your outfit is fit for a poet!

Shabana: And your outfit is fitting of your poetry!

Prashant Dixit Homebush NSW

Prashant wins a ticket to new Hindi film release Ek Thi Daayan

APRIL (2) 2013 49

ENTERTAINMENT

CINETALK Not an overwhelming comic outing NAUTANKI SAALA

Starring: Ayushmann Khurrana, Kunal Roy Kapoor, Evelyn Sharma, Pooja Salvi, and Gaelyn Mendoca Directed by: Rohan Sippy

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I

f it is any consolation, Rohan Sippy’s latest presentation is far more cohesively constructed and sure of its raison d’etre than his last film Dum Maro Dum, which bumped off its protagonist half-an-hour before ‘The End’.

Thankfully, no one dies during Nautanki Saala! - not even the audience from laughing. This one is just not funny enough to qualify as a lol (laugh out loud) spree. At the same time, the bumchum camaraderie between Ayushmann Khurrana and Kunal Roy Kapoor is so pronouncedly pungent that we cannot but chuckle at the gambolling antics that

take this desi French Friday special to the level of bearable humour.

Oh, didn’t I tell you? Nautanki Saala! is a remake of a 10-year-old French film Apres Vous, which I had the good fortune of seeing. While the French film, directed

by Pierre Salvadori, is far more nimblefooted in the telling of a quirky ‘One Fine Evening...’ plot, the ‘official’ remake (unofficial ones went out of vogue with stringent copyright laws) scores for the sheer joie de vivre (don’t miss my French appreciation!) that Ayushmann brings to the table.

Kunal - as all of us who have seen that homage to horniness called Delhi Belly know - is an actor with notable comic acumen. Here as the spaced-out suicidal stranger, who blows into Ayushmann’s theatrical existence, Kunal confers a sense of hectic audacity to his intruder’s part.

Ayushmann bequeaths a clenched vitality to his character. Here’s an actor

who knows how to milk a situation or a line and exactly where to stop before it goes over the top. As the reluctant exceedingly altruistic host to a suicidal guest, Ayushmann goes beyond his Vicky Donor debut to show some hefty mettle.

Unfortunately, the writing just doesn’t give Ayushmann, Kunal or the three pretty female actors a chance to breathe easy and let their characters acquire their own volition. Not that the screenplay is in a hurry to get anywhere. Rather, it takes its time to get somewhere that we don’t really reach in spite of the film team’s best intentions.

It remains a mystery why Sippy whose earlier films, for whatever they were worth, were originals - would now want to remake a mediocre French film.

This is not as inexplicable as a remake of Himmatwala. But then again it does make you question the scarcity of original screenplay writers in our cinema.

On the plus side, the original French film’s restaurateur’s realm is relocated into the bustling theatre world. And that is a cue for some eye-catching visuals and in-house humour.

Sippy’s eye for theatrical detail can’t match what R Balki did to the restaurant business in Cheeni Kum. But then, who’s comparing?

The cinematography is a refreshing synthesis of gritty realism and flights of colourful fantasy, quite like two worlds off and on stage that Ayushmann’s character grapples to come to terms with.

All said and dumb, the comic timing of the two lead actors does keep the narrative on track most of the way.

Ayushmann and Kunal dig happily into their derivative roles of the saviour and the loser from the French film. The duo whips up a wicked humour in this comedy of errors filled with a reined-in blizzard of boyish bacchanalia and banter.

While you are mildly amused by their antics, you don’t come away overwhelmed by this comic outing on the downside of spontaneous hospitality.

Oh, Sippy had desecrated the RD Burman classic Dum Maro Dum in his last film. Here he goes at the Anand-Milind track Dhak dhak karne laga.

Frankly, it doesn’t make a difference.

Subhash K Jha

An out and out Vidyut Jamwal film COMMANDO

Starring: Vidyut Jamwal, Pooja Chopra, and Jaideep Ahlawat Directed by: Dilip Ghosh

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ithout the risk of exaggeration we can ‘safely’ say Vidyut Jamwal takes the kind of risks in his action scenes that we haven’t seen in any screen-hero from any part of the world. The choreographic precision with which Vidyut flips, somersaults, and fells his adversaries is a sign of an exceptionally skilled action-hero.

To be sure, a star is born in Commando.

We saw Vidyut completely upstage John Abraham in the hand-to-hand heart-inmouth fight scenes in Force. Now, Vidyut proves himself a maestro of unequalled sinewy skills, gliding rather than fighting, pre-empting the adversary’s moves almost like a chess game.

With tongue firmly in shriek mode, Vidyut in one of the early stunts scenes of the film rips open a poster of Force and attacks the baddies. The action never stops. And the song breaks, especially an item song in the second-half by Nathalia Kaur, are unwelcome speed breakers.

We really don’t want to see Vidyut romance the pretty Punjabi damsel in distress played by Pooja Chopra who

50 APRIL (2) 2013

seems a tad too well-groomed for the rigours of the jungle.

Not that we care. We just want to see Vidyut take on the bad guys, full-force.

And boy, does Vidyut deliver!

Admaker-turned-feature film director Dilip Ghosh keeps the plot wisely simple ramrod-straight and to the point.

Apart from those utterly annoying song breaks, there are no digressions from the dynamics of instant scoresettling. It’s a straight one-to-one fightto-finish between the silently simmering Commando and a satanic goon from a small-town in Punjab with no eyeballs and apparently no balls either, who believes the power of the gun and the strength of Santa-Banta SMS jokes can be coordinated in one range of activity.

Jaideep Ahlawat, last seen giving a riveting performance in Kamal Haasan’s Vishawaroop, gives the goon’s part a wacky spin. The man is half-devil halfimbecile. The goon makes Simrit (Pooja) an offer - either a suhaag-raat with him after the wedding, or a suhaag raat with him and all his battle-stained cronies right away? Hmmm?

Is it any wonder that the pretty spunky Punjabi lass makes a run for the jungles rather than accept the goon’s marriage proposal. Predictably, Simrit runs into the banished army-man, our commandohero, who seems to have seen the

collected Rambo series back-to-back at least eight to ten times.

The first time Vidyut plays the saviour at a bus stand, we know he means business.

He is not just a one-man army, he is also the Indian army’s favourite bete noire.

Despite the heavy burden of playing protector to country and the leading lady, Vidyut’s fights manage to bring in a lot of warmth and some humour in their execution.

The narration is an unabashed homage to Sylvester Stallone’s jungle-survival saga. And yet, thanks to Vidyut’s powerful screen presence the combat between the commando-hero and the goons never slackens in pace. The physical combats, which are undoubtedly the crux of the theme, propel the plot forward in leaps of inspired action.

Happily for Vidyut, his opponents are not shown to be ineffectual jokers. The back-and-forth of fists and rhetoric are uniformly engaging. Though we know exactly where the protagonist’s one-man battle against his enemies is heading, we never lose interest in the plot.

The film is shot on some interesting locations. The backwaters of Punjab and the thick jungles serve as just the right ambience for the rugged actioner.

Vidyut takes care of the rest. His action definitely speaks louder than his words.

Sejal Shah’s cinematography and Ritesh

Shah’s dialogues constantly add to Vidyut’s fist-power, imbuing his combat to the finish with some unexpected flourishes of serious socio-political comment towards the end when we are told we need to clean up our act if we want to protect the country from external threats.

It’s a one-man-show off all the way.

Pooja shows flashes of talent when she isn’t busy brazenly aping Kareena Kapoor’s voluble-Punjabi act from Jab We Met. Not her fault. If the hero is a silent seething ball of implosive fire, and the heroine is a talkative Punjabi girl who runs away from home to escape an unwanted marriage, ‘phir toh boss Jab We Met banta hai’.

To its credit, Commando creates a climate of clenched conflict for the hero to vent his voluminous talent as a martial artiste.

Indeed, a star is born.

Subhash K Jha

www.indianlink.com.au

A ‘Dayaan-mic’ slick, spooky offering EK THI DAAYAN

Starring: Emraam Hashmi, Konkona Sen Sharma, Huma Qureshi, Kalki Koechlin Writer-Director: Kannan Iyer

HHHH

D

o you believe in the supernatural? Even if you don’t, this fabulously effective take on the wages of renewable evil would prompt you to look nervously over your shoulders the next time you pass through a dark, shadowy corridor.

So right away, a round of applause to producer Vishal Bhardwaj and first-time director Kannan Iyer for a scare fare that goes way beyond the mundane terror gimmicks of Indian cinema’s muchabused horror genre to search out the very core of the human nature.

Why do we fear the unknown? And could it be what we consider to be the supernatural is actually a manifestation of our own deep insecurities?

Ek Thi Daayan enters the world of the supernatural with a finesse and delicacy rare to the horror genre.

The first hour of the storytelling when we are taken back to the magician-hero Bobo (Hashmi)’s seemingly well-ordered childhood, is splendid, warm, funny and, yes, ominous.

The child actor Vishesh Tiwari who plays the young Hashmi and the little girl who plays his baby-sister are delightfully unaffected. The bubble-waiting-tobe-burst world of the two children is steeped in a distant sorrow and a vague terror, as though to say, we who believe good triumphs would have to suffer a whole lot of evil before we arrive at that state of moral liberation.

More than the somewhat scattered second-half, it’s in the early sections of the storytelling where director Kannan creates a feeling of fabulous foreboding through hints and whispers, rather than red-herrings and shrieks.

The creaky lift descending into ‘hell’ with the two children clinging on for dear life, the creepy lizard on the wall which might be much more that what it seems, the hints and signs of diabolism are strewn across the length and breadth of the breathtaking frames.

But then again, the ‘witch’ could just be a scared little boy’s terror of a stepmother. Who knows why we fear what we do?

For crying out loud, this is such a normal seductive world! To see it shatter with supernatural aberration is a heartshattering experience.

The nimbly-knitted script builds evil into the world of normalcy and innocence. The narrative’s gaze never falters as it sweeps across the characters’

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lives making inroads into the anatomy of evil without charting a course that has been green lighted by the cinematic horror conventions.

Ek Thi Daayan is far more delicately delineated, much more ‘caste’-effective than other films of the horror genre. The actors act terrified, but they don’t run around screaming blue murder.

They are too shaken to act suitably scared.

Emraan Hashmi as the magician who finds his world torn apart by events his wand cannot pretend to control, brings an anguished tension into the plot without stumbling over the dark edges of the plot.

But the film clearly belongs to the three luscious ladies.

While Huma Qureshi and Kalki are seductive and impish, it’s Konkona who clearly takes possession of her part and of the film with authority.

The fact that her father Mukul Sharma has written the original story could have played a part in establishing Konkona’s comfort level with the eerie environment. But you suspect it’s more inherent.

Talent finds its level.

Saurabh Goswami’s cinematography takes care of the rest. This is one helluva good-looking film that lights up not just the characters and their surroundings but also sheds luminous light on the darkness within the characters that reveals itself fits and starts, to cast a splendid spell over the audience.

Ek Thi Daayan re-defines the spook genre. It’s at once eerie and enchanting, soft, subtle, dark and yet powerful and persuasive.

Tonally rich, vibrant and sensuous, the performances including Pavan Malhotra as Hashmi’s bewitched dad and Rajtava Dutta as his bewildered shrink, boost the beauty of the witches’ tale.

More treat than trick, no matter ‘witch’ way you look at it, Ek Thi Daayan is in one word, ‘daayan-mic!’

Subhash K Jha

APRIL (2) 2013 51

BACKCHAT

Ask Auntyji Dear Auntyji

I have a peculiar problem on which I needed your guidance. I am 43-years-old and have been married once before. I have bought and sold three properties. My new husband is 34-years-old and has never bought a property, and is now buying one for the first time with me. Now, because we both earn a good income and don’t have kids, we save a fair bit. We are about to get a mortgage for a million dollars for a terrace in Sydney. We are fairly conservative and are not stretching ourselves financially. The mortgage payments per month will be covered by my husband’s income, which is lower than mine. I am confident and comfortable about the mortgage. However, my husband is making a big deal about the whole process, and is torn up and worried sick about this mortgage.

Each time we talk to our banker he tells us we have nothing to worry about, but my husband still gets frantic and stressed. He says he is concerned that we won’t have savings. In my experienced and prudent view, we have nothing to worry about. But Dev’s stress makes me very irritated. He is overwrought by the situation, as though he is the only human being ever to get a mortgage.

Please tell me how to manage this situation so that the process of buying our home is pleasant and filled with happiness, instead of stress and anxiety?

Please help me aunty, or I will have to divorce this nadaan! Only joking!

M at u re a k e wo m e n m m at u re d e cis io n s

Auntyji says

Arre, This is what happens when you marry a bachcha. This inexperienced ladla, who left university not so long ago and probably does not even own his car, is now being a grown up and does not know how to deal with it.

Well my dear gulab jamun, there must have been reasons why you married such a nadaan, such a bachcha. So, with the good that youth brings, such as stamina, virility and longevity, there are setbacks, such as an irritating lack of experience with worldly matters. What can you do, except try to alleviate this young buck’s concerns and guide him through this journey? Mera mutlab hai, when you think about it, why else would he have married you if not to get all the privileges that comes with dating someone with more experience, earning capacity, whatever. Ok, I know I sound harsh, lekhin mein jhoot nahin bhol raheen hoon. Poocho na apni saheliyo se. Your ladka is lucky to have a wise woman by his side.

It’s time you told your pati dev to man up and understand that the mortgage process is not that scary, with millions of Australians with no education and low incomes all engaging in this national pastime. Tell your husband that he needs to be cool, or else you will send him to the corner while you take charge.

Nothing is more irritating than a husband carrying on like a toddler about a process that is so simple, anyone can do it. Your husband needs to grow up. But you knew all this jab shaadi kiya tha unse. It’s time you told him how grown ups do it. Then tell all your mature friends to have a word with him. Silly boy! Worrying about not having a savings when you are in such a privileged position. Bewakuf chikna!

On bea ut if u l pe op le

Dear Auntyji

I read an article recently where a lady gave some advice to girls that while they are at uni, they should find themselves a husband. Everyone was outraged, but I am struggling to see the issue with this.

Can you please tell me if I am misguided or I am missing something

Auntyji says

Yes, I too read that article and I am unsure about the tamasha. What the lady said made a lot of sense. Essentially, she said what we wise, old fashioned Indian aunties have been saying forever. You should always marry someone smart and talented, from a good family. And if you are a smart, talented girl, then where else are you going to meet a smart talented boy than at uni? I see nothing wrong with this statement.

If you want to meet an eru geru, as my Fijian bahenas say, go looking for such types walking down the streets, especially in Blacktown. But to find yourself someone who is your equal, find them where they are normally found - at uni, and not at aunty Sheila’s Christmas parties. So, you are not misguided. You are not like all the other simple-minded folk squawking because they think they are outraged. They would not even know how to compose an intelligent conversation about the cause of their outrage.

Most people nowadays think that it’s par for course to get outraged about anything. So don’t be like these mindless fools with their pseudo outrage. Challenge them and see what is the basis of their concern. You will find that they are irritated because they did not come up with this genius advice in the first instance. Tho, batao, are you at uni now? And have you met any dishy boys you have your eye on? Besharam! I knew this is why you asked me this question in the first place!

Do you have a question for Auntyji?

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