2013-08 Perth

on Gandhi s iconic charkha

THANKS DAD!

INDIAN LINK FATHE F THE YEAR AWARD

It's on: The election we had to have

It was a prayer that Tony Abbott probably said every night. With a parliament evenly spl ir., it came down to cwo men: Rob Oakeshott and T o n y Windsor, who decid ed to case their l ot in favour of the G illa rd camp. To n y Abbott has b een spi rting bricks ever si nce that fateful a nn ouncement and has continually called on tbe Gillard and Rudd governments r.o call the election.

God h as liste n ed and a n election has n ow been called, but perhaps not with aJl o f che adva n tages wh id1 T o ny Abbott had a few months ago. This time, the contest is betwee n two formidable oppo n ents, unli ke the battle between Abbott and Gillard, which was heavily tilted in tl1e favour of t he leader of the Co alition.

Th e Labor Party change of leaders h ip was a change which had r.o happen.

Labor was slipping in tbe polls and all indications were tl1at they would be totally annihilated. \'(/bile ilie Gillard led governm ent was putti ng groundb reaki n g refor ms in place, the message was just not getting tl1rough. Too mum noi se about leadership spills, backgroundin g of journalists by chose in tl1e anti Gillard, pro R udd camp, all caused a toxic atmosphere To the Labor Party and aU political observers, Rudd was whiteanting his leader and the more he did so, the m o re popular he became w ith the elec torate and ilie poU numbers in hi s favo ur shot up. The p ublic loved hi m , bur his own party, other than a select few, desp ised him

However, it was self preservation as Gillard was deposed and Rudd bec ame the n ew leader of the Labor Party, and th e fourtl1 Prime Jl.,finisrer of Australia in six years Since then , poll numbers have shot up

For tl1e Indian A u stralian community, Kevin Rudd has never openly demonstrated his fr iendship with India, mili ke his lo\·e for C h in a The Labor Party has been more d i smissive of t he smdent issues than tl1e Liberals. The issue w h im will emerge is which parry aligns itself witl1 the asp irational Indians

who h ave n ow made ilieir new h ome in Australia. Trends have been changing in the l nclian Australian commmu1:y. A large number which cam e d own under in the last I 0 -15 years have changed from being migrants in employed positions to t hose who have dabbled in small businesses

These busi nesses might be &ancluses of Subway, 7- 11, or Australia Post, o r even s mall businesses in exporting/importing, accounti.ng servic es, food ou tl ets, travel agents etc.

T hey now need a governmem whic h can support cbern in these activities by n:un imising red rape a n d the restrictio n s which lead co a free Aow of services

The Liberals have form o n this bur Labor i s erring to narrow this g a p PM Kevin R udd has increasiJ1g ly sp oken ab out his plan to connect wi cl1 business. ln his first term, h e could n ot do chis. If he can n ot assure tl1e migrant community iliac he now has a new plan ro help tl1e migrant com m unity h o ping to make a better life h e re, i t is goin g to be difficu..lt to get their ticks in ilie ballot box for t he Labor Parry

Pawan Luthra is the current Parliament of NSW Multicultural Jomnalist of the Year

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66 years after Independence, a powerful symbol of self-reliance, industry and determination still reta ins its followers and admirers, find

RAJNI ANAND LUTHRA and SHERYL DIXIT

dtfter trying his hand at Mahatma Gandhi's cheris h ed spi n ning w h ee l at the Sabarmati Ashram, Arnitab h Bac.hchan, one of India's best loved film personalities, w rote that 'peace and serenity' descended upon h im There \Vas never a stronge r modern advocate of the cause of using this simp le, yet highly sym bolic piece of equi pmen t.

Gan dhi hin1self had said of the spinning wheel, "Take to spinning to find peace of mind. The music of the wheel will be as b alm co your soul. I believe that the yarn we sp in is capable of m e n ding the broken warp a n d woof of our life".

Many symbols epi tomise India's independence from Br itish rule, b~it the 'charkhc/ or spinning wheel is perhaps one of tbe most power ful signs of the valu es and asp irations of Indi a's people of the ti.me.

The wheel of history

The legacy of the spinnin g wheel is an ancie n t one, h ailing back to the traditional role of women in Indian society. Wo m en

would spin as p art of their daily routine, which wo uld often become a social activity as they spun in groups and rook the opportunity to socialise as weU Cotton and silk fibres were generaUy sp Lm on the rharkha, into c.loth o r rugs. The charkha was generaJ.ly included as part of a bride's dowry, when she left her father's home for that of her husba nd.

British imperialism at its worst

Durii1g the colonisation o f India, the British realised tha t growing cotton was a cash crop that could enri ch the ir coffers. Co tton was grown in India, then harvested and sh ipped to Bri t ain by the co lonialists, where it was woven and spun into cloth. This was then shipped back to India and sold at unaffordable prices.

Natural.ly, Mahatma Gandhi opposed this b latantly unfair practice and propagated tl1e concept of weaving homespun c.loth on charkha in India, and wearing tl1is ii1 defiance of th e price of English - made cloth. He made spinning o n the charkha a symbol of ilie passive resistance movement in India, through this seemi_ngly mild, yet powerful activity.

The homesplm cloth was cal.led 'khaddm' o r 'khadt', meaning ' r ough'. Always one co lead by examp le, Gandhij i began spinning his own khadi on a cbarkha, and through his rnAuence, thousands of Indians took to the spinning wheel, dealing a severe economic blow to the British.

Swadeshi self-sufficiency

The entire network of cotton g rowers and pickers, weave rs, carders, distributors and charkha makers benefitted from tlus rno,, ement that represented self- sufficiency and interdependence on themselves as a comrnrnucy Khadi embod ied the dignity of labour, equality, unity a n d independence, as India rook con u-ol of her in digenous industries. le employed millions from smvii1g of cotton seeds to spinning the final c.loth, to creating an outfi t; it provided the b asic need of clotl1ing for th e population, also creating a feeling of patriotic pride in the product. indeed, Nehru called khadi 'the livery of our freedom'.

Besides h elping local business, this gesture heralded t he start of a nascent 'be lnruan, buy Indian' movement, as Indians began boycotting foreign goods and

choosing locaJ.ly produced ones instead. T his was a significan t boost to Indi a's Aeclgling eco n omy The 'sm1desbl (homegrown) movement had taken root, and was here to stay.

More than a message

Al tl1ough it's li kely Gandhiji began the ch,11khc1 movement to make a statement to tl1e colonialists, he soon discovered the merit ii1 spinnii1g, as i t aided him in silent meditation. It is recorded that he found tl1e action of the spinning wheel soorb.ing and pleasing to the psyche Gandlu ji spent many an hour p lacidly spinni ng on his charkha, engulfed in the sile nce of his own thoughts To ta.ke this concept to the masses, Gandluj i al so spun in public. It is said tl1at since the traditional chm kha was bulky and difficult co move, Gandluji held a contest co design a charkha tha t woLtld be compact, portable and easy to afford. The winner was me box design of the chark.ha, and history recounts that tl1e accelerator wheel was his idea Also, the role of spinning chat was traditionaJ.ly associated wim women, morphed into an activity that could be performed with ease and relatively pleasing results by men too.

Embedded in Independence

So powerful was the infl u ence of the charkh,1, that tl1e first d esigns of the Indian flag created inclLtcled the tra ditional spinning ,vbeel, a symbol of self-refoince. However, a few clays before India became independent, a specially constituted Constimenc Assemb ly decided that the Aag of India must be acceptable to al.I parties and c ommuniti es, and the co lour schem e, saffron, white a.nd green \Vere chosen for the three bands, representing courage and sacrifice, peace and truth, and faith and chivalry respectively. The charkha was

replaced by the Ashoka chaknt, representing the eternal wheel of law

The Rag of lndia is only allowed to be made from khadi, although in practice many Rag manufacturers, especially those outside of Tndia, ignore this rule. Some Indian currency has a charkha on it and even political parties use the cbarkha as their symbo l ro d enote the ir patriotism.

Iconic image

The black -and-wh ite image (above left) of Gandhi wich his spinning wheel tbat has become an iconic image of the Mahatma, was taken by American phocographer Margaret Bourke- White in 1946, and published in Ufa magazine in 1948. Margaret Bourke- \Xi'hice said lacer, "It would be impossibl e to exaggera te the reverence in wh ich (Gandhi's) 'own personal spinning wheel' is held in the ashram".

In notes accompanyi ng the .image, Bourke -White observed, " (Gandhi) spin s eve r y day for 1 hour, beginning usu al ly at 4. All members of h is ashram muse sp in. He and his foUowers encourage everyone to spin Even M. B- W was encouraged to lay (aside) her camera to spin \'Vhen

l remarked that bod1 photography and spinning were handicrafts, d1ey told me serio usly, 'The greater of me rwo is spinning.' Spinning is raised co the h eights almost of a religion with Gandhi and his followers. The spinning whee l is sort of an ikon (sic) co ilie111. Spuming i s a cure all, and is spoke n of in terms of the highest poetry".

Even though some of Gandhi's contempo rari es did not understand his obsession wich the sp inning wheel (Rabindranath Tagore d1ought the chm-kha and khadi movemem were akin to a cult) , ic ca nnot be d e nied that i t became an agent of change, by heralding d1e Sll'adeshi ed10s, recognising d1e dignity of labour, bringing in social and economic upliftment, and importantly, unifying t he Indian masses against a common t h reat.

Modern mission

The charkha remams an icon of me swadeshi movement, and despice economic, u1dusrrial, political and social change, h as never lost irs populari ty Homespun kbadi is still in demand despite mechanisation of the production process, a nd the cbarkha

is stiJJ used to create wo nderful, rare and uniqlle pieces of cloth ing, rugs or other decor. Charkha spinners are soug h t after for thei r trade which, while not as aggressively promoted since t he past 66 years, still retains its followers and admirers. Indeed, some are found here in Australia, keeping alive the legac y of the spinning w heel. Gandbi ji's charkha a nd alJ that it embodies stiJJ lives on as a symbo l of resilience, selfreliance and stren gth in a changing world.

The charkha in Australia 's Indian community \':(/e may have the impression that the cl1t1rkha is indigenous co India and ics

(Below) Sydney's Dr. Nana Badve channels the

colonial history, but ic certainly made its presence felt through expone nts of the art.

For Dr Nana Badve, a much - loved member of Sydney'.s Marathi community a nd the RAIN seniors group, the charkha ·was a lifelo n g passion until he passed away in 2010. H e worked in the textiles industry for most of his Life, and there is little doubt

that it was his early introd uction ro the char-kha at just 12, chat inEluenced bis career choice.

His daughter Swari Lele remembers fondly, ''T he foLmder member of the Spinners and Weaver s Guild in Australia, the late Mrs Pat McMahon asked my dad i f he would demonstrate tl, e use of the chark.ba. This was the begin ning of a rewarding journey for h im as he conducted

man y workshops over 25 years around Melbourne, Brisbane, Newcas tl e, the B lue Mountains, Gosford and Sydney In J anuary 1989, he was a spec ial invitee to the Melbourne Craft convention where he held a large workshop on spinning"

Nana's wife Sarojin.i Badve was always b y his side, and a helper at the workshops. Nana not only owned many sp inning wheels, but also sourced some 100 charkha.s

(Above) The Mahatma spins on the 'box ' or 'book' charkha

Mahatma for his friends

Guru l ru1ak used it as a metaphor for life's exigen c ies

This year's Teeyat1 festival in Sydney is coming up sho rtly, ru1d once again, V irinde r Grewal's cherished cht1rkha will get a good wo r kout.

The Powerhouse Museum

Another rhr1rk.ha sits i n state at the P owerhou se MuseLUJ1 in Sydney. A prized boxed charkha dating fro m the 1060s, it was donated by a fabri c sp inner of many rears Accompan ying documen t atio n claims a friend bought the item in Bombay for $4 00 and presen ted it to the donor as a gift. The donor approached d1e museum to see if it would acquire cbe artifact, and the gift was gladly received

T he Mahatma a dvocated the Lise of the chrnkha as a spirin1al act, ,vith t he hope that its inherent attribute of fostering sel fsufficienC)' wo u ld alleviate poverty and bcing about much -needed soci al upliftmen t. And i ndeed, histor y proves tl1at it did! This intended message of d1e ,hmkha, to become self- reliw r and to live m ore local and com mun al lives as a means of resisting che g lobalis ing power of corporations, i s p erhaps even more relevru1t today d1a n it was in Gandhi's time. It i s hoped that d1e cbmkha will continue to inspire generations to c o m e throLigh its message of h ope, humility and pe rseverance.

from India for spinners here.

Born in 1929 to a famil y m uch in flue n ced by t he Mahatma, young Nana was encouraged co spe nd so m e ti me spi nning daily, like others in the family. He fu:st l earnt to spin cotton on a spindle, called takali. le was hard not co fee l drawn coward s the political str uggle of the times.

"He stayed at Gandhiji -led ashrams and got involved in the movement for lndependence," Sarojin.i reveals. '1n bis early childhood, he enrolled himself as a vo lLmteer at youth o r g ani satio n s and was a member till almos t 1950 He atte nd ed many meetings ad dressed by Gand h iji and his contemporaries"

ln fact, wi th his charkha, I an a reminded many here of the great man bin1self. Sudha Nararajan, a c lose frien d from the RAIN group, recalls, "Nana would often quote Gandhi: ' Live ;imp(y, so thaJ othu:, l!Jtl:) .rimp(y live'. These words ring so true today in these times of wastefu l exa:avagance Nana would insist that we need to simplify our lives.

Followi n g in Ga nd hi j i's footsteps, Nana even visited several Indian v illages, where he encouraged the use of the chr1rkhtl'

Towards the end of his life, ana would often pl)' the cl1r1rk,ha for bis RAIN friends

''\'v'hen he passed away, we m ad e sure to display his favourite charkha during his memot;al service," Sru:ojini says. " His woven poru-ait of Mal1atma Gandhi, which he made as part of his Bachelor's degree in 1952, h as now been donated to the Cavalry Hospital in Sydney. It hangs in d1e foyer there"

And a cha rkha contest!

The charkha makes a regular appearru1ce at one specific annual event h ere in Austra lia. The Teeyru1 festival held in the Prn1jabi communities of Sydney ru1d Melbourne i s doing its bit to keep the age -o ld tradition

alive. Organised b y the Indian \Xlomen's CLiltural Associatio n of Australia, chis festival, celebrated primarily by women, strives to provide a 'culmral r enaissance' for of PLmjabi heritage now settled here. It was l aunched in 2005 b y Harpal Kaur, Virind er Grewal and Amandeep Grewal.

"Arts, crafts, music, poetry and dance are all packaged in to a day- long affair, wi tl1 presentations and in a variety of categories," Harpal Kaur says.

O n e c o nrest invo lves the art of wo rking cbe rharkha. The o rganisation owns four spec iall y created Pw1jabi style charkha flown in fro m India, ,vhich are brought out for e ach year's event.

"\V/e provide the pa r ticipants with cotton pm1is (ro Us of carded c ormn) w hich they have to sp in into thread," exp lains Harpal.

JLidges note the time taken to spin me yarn, as weU as the qualit y of the final produc t; t11e finer the thread , the better the quality

Harpal Kaur says, "O ur attempt is really to re con n ect to our r oots by having the older members of our comm uni ty den1onstrate o ur traditional arts and craft, and to encourage t11e yoLmge r members to cry their band ar tl1e u-adicional charkha"

A nmnber of young women have given the charkl1r1 a go at the a nnual Teeyan festival. While it may not bear much significance to their dail y lives, tl1eir g rru1dmothers in tl1eir day, would probably have been judged b y their prowess at the ir ch111khr1 abilities. For d1em, it was an important skill of 'cultured living', ru1d girls of 'good upbringing' ,vere expec ted to be adept at it

Over the ages, the chat-k.h,1 pervaded many aspects of t11e cul tural life o f P1mjabis. Philos o phers and p oets from Bu1Je Shah to

(Left) Nana Badve at an early charkha demonstration in Sydney, and above, his woven portrait of Gandhi that now hangs at Cavalry Hospital

(Below) A charkha demo and con t est at the annualTeeyan Festival

Keeping the wheel turning

Exponents of the art ofspinning share their experiences in keeping alive this dwindling craft with FARZANA SHAKIR

of Australia, given demonstrati o ns in high schools and been invited to oilier countries as weU".

J ennifer was granted life members hip at the H\XISG-NSW a considerable tin1e ago.

Formed in 1947, the Guild is a not- forprofit organisa tion aiming to bring togemer people from various backgrounds who practise hand -weaving, spinning and other associated crafts. Efforts arc also put into fostering and en couraging these crafts by providing opporm1uties for in struction, discussion and ex lub ition of work The Guild boasts a membership of hm1dreds of enthusiasts from all over d1e state who meet once a month at their current premises in Burwood.

Even d1ough spinni ng on d1e wheel does not have any meditative effect o n Jeruufer, she says, "l am inspired by d1e simplicity of me treadling and d1e rhythm achieved 1t is possible when on d1e wheel to talk to others, listen to music, have a comTersarion, ask 9uestions and sort out current p rob lems in one's life".

Jennifer beJjeves diere is enough interest amongst )'ounger Australians to keep me art of spinning and weaving alive, but she adnuts it needs conviction. "Wlille it is not a hard craft to master, it depends on the access to people interested in teachi ng, d1e 9ualiry of the teacher and the smdent's own interest," she states candidly.

Valerie Walker, treasurer at the Canberra Spinners and Weavers Inc (CSW') has been teaching the a.rt of spinning and weaving for over 30 years She is also proficient in dyeing, knitting, sewing, woo l tapestries, patchwork and embroidery.

Por Valerie, the in terest in weaving run s in tbe fanilly.

SPINNING AUSTRALIA

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Ph: 02 6247 1048

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QUEENSLAND WEAVERS, SPINNERS AND FIBRE ART ISTS

Fibrecraft House, 12 Payne Street Auchenflower, Brisbane

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Ph: 08 8352 4843

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Valerie

The spinning w heel or die 'cbarkhcl carries a special reverence for Indians. It was the symbol of the lndian Independence movement and originaUy held pride of place on the ruuiorutl Aag, before being replaced by the Ashoka wheel. Bur with the advancement iu technology, die faithful spinning wh eel is facing extinction. All is not lost though, as Indian Link discovered diehard aficionados striving to keep d1e art of spinning and weaving on the wheel, alive in Australia.

1 caught up ,vith two such devotees, Jennifer Hopper and Valerie Walker, born accomplished spinners and weavers doing their bir co keep di e wheel mming

Jennifer Marjorje Hopper lives in Diamond Beach on the east coast of S\XI, and reaches spinning and weaving at the Hand Weavers and Spinners Guild of NSW (HWSG-NSWI).

Jeruufer developed an interest in spinning at school. "i\lfy father was involved in wool 10

production in the country," s he reveals. "At Hornsby Girl s High Schoo~ I chose Textiles as one of my su bjects for the Intermediate School Certificate. I enjoyed it and chose it for the Leaving Certificate. At the end of high schoo l, 1 chose to train as a lugh school Textiles & Design teacher".

She continues, " Both sides of my famil y included teachers for many years, so I was familiar with die role of tea.clung. I trained for two years at d1e Sydney Teachers College and was first employed by the NS\XI Department of Schools as a full time qualified high schoo l Textiles teacher at Bmwood Girls High School in Sydney, and later at Sydney Girls High Sch ool. Wlille living in Sydney I attended evening TAFE courses at Brookvale with Eve Rashley, die 'guru' of spinning. Over tioie, I ran wo rkshops teaching spinning an d weaving, using wool. This expanded into d1e use of wool for felting, 1:nain.ly because of d1e standard quality of Australian wool. I have taught many wo rkshops in various parts

"Two of my great great grandfad1ers were weavers; diey came to Australia from England in the early 1800s as convicts. Also, my mother was always knitting an d I wan ted to learn where the yarn came from;' she says She learnt the craft in Canberra in 1974. Shedding light on die CSWValerie reveals, " The CSW was formed in 1966 by a group of ladies doing dus craft. Today there are 140 membe rs and we meet every week. Member's in terests include felting, weavin g, knitting, spinning, rag rugging, dyeing and tapestry weaving Apart from workshops and group activities, CSW also o rganises an exlubition and sale of members work every year".

Vale rie adds, "The organisation crea ted an International Scarf Exch ange in 1994. A different A u stralian guild conducts tlus activity each year, and we have entrants from d1e USA and NZ t hi s year. Mem berslup of CSW grew to 180 about 4 years ago, but is now going down due tO rising fees and members ageing"

The actual part of sitting, spinning and seeing the Aeece being turned i mo yam is what inspires Valerie about spinning on me wheel.

" It is ver y calming, l enjoy seeing m y fou s hed bobbin of yarn," she states

Describing the basic steps and techniques of spin ning Valerie explains, ' 'It involves deciding what the fleece is good for,

preparing the fleece: combing, washing etc. Th en spinrung, o nce bobbins are spun they are plied and then maybe dyed, and finally used i n knitting or weaving One bobbin of spinning 100gms takes about tbree hoursyou need two bobbi ns to make one skein of yarn. There ate different techniques like the long draw, short draw, d1e wooUen med1od , worsted mediod , fine and mick My personal favourite i s the fine lace spinning".

Asked what she sees as the fumre of spinning and weaving in Australia, Valarie was honest in voicing her opi.tuon, ''It will still be as now, a small am ount of professional spinning, but mostl y a hobby craft''. She also does not beJjeve diere is enough interest in spinning on me wheel amongst youngsters.

'

'\Ve are always tryi ng to recruit younger people - knitting has upsurged in the last four years, though. The CSW is always out demonstrating to schools, fairs and markets, prom oting diese skills We hope other guilds a:rorn1d Australia are doing d1e same," she says.

Both Valerie and Jennifer tbjnk m o re can be d one to promote and preserve this cra ft. In the meantime, exp erts like di em all over the coll.lltry are trying to keep the wheel spinning by passing their skills on to die next gen eration of weavers

Walker uses a Bliss spinning wheel made by Woo/makers, a Dutch company. The Blis s is a single belt, Scotch tension, single treadle wheel.

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WHY HSC SCALING MATTERS .I\. TALENT100

BY RICHARD CHUA, FOUNDER OF TALENT 100 AND EDUCATION THOUGHT LEADER

In this article, Richard Chua explains how to target and achieve an ATAR Richard graduated from Sydney Grammar School with a UAI of 100 (ATAR equivalent 99.95). He currently works as a Strategy Associate for Google in Mountain View

Next week, H SC students will fina lly get the ir ATARs - four digi ts wh ch cou d determine what caree r s and prof essions they may be doing fo r the next 20 yea r s. Your ATAR Is your t icket to University, so Its important to know exactly how t his is calcu lated. At Talent 100, we·ve cons istent ly had more than a quarter of our students achieving A T ARs over 99. Last yea r, we had 7 students who achieved an ATAR o f 99.95. Th i s week I'm going to share w i th you the secrets to t heir success - how to brea k any ATAR down into smaller. m ore ach ievable g oals in each of your subjects.

WHAT IS SCALING?

Scaling Is the process of sta ndardising marks so that they ca n be compared across subjects. In scaling marks, the UAC will adjust the hig hest mark, median mark and st andard deviatio n so that al l subjects are directly comparable. The reason it is needed is that without scaling, it would be imposs ible to compa re a 95 in Economics with a 95 in Math ematics Extension 2.

ATARVSUAC

The UAC basically converts the ave raged HSC Assessment and HSC

Exam ination Marks to their own UAC score through a process o f scali ng to a UAC score. Eac h un it is converted to a score o f 50 and the best 10 units (Inc lu ding Englis h) are used to calc ul ate a score of 500. Most stud ents are unawa re that the r A TAR is calculated from th is base score o f 500. The ta b le below illustrate the relat onship:

SCALING GRAPHS

The most importa nt th ing to not e is that not all subjects are created o r scaled equally. Some subjects that a re conside red harder are obviously sca led h igher wh ilst some subjects i n wh ich i t is easy t o sco re hig h marks w i ll be sca led downwards.

The graph below (fig 1) gives you a good Indication of how su bject scales. From the previous t able. you shou ld be able to see If yo u wan ted to score an ATAR of say 99, you would need to score -45/50. Following those marks, you c an see that you would need to score i n t he top 56% of Ma ths Ext 2, the t op 23% of Maths Ext 1. bu t in t he t op 4% of Mat hs Advanced For simplicity 's sake we've shown w hat it takes to score ATARs of 95, 9 7 and 99 respectively.

W hat you now have are t he relative benchmarks for performance to score any ATAR Hence, suppose you were aimi ng for an ATAR o f 99.00: If you were i n the top 20% for Maths Ext 2 but in the top 20% for English t his g raph clearly ind icates that yo ur time w ill be bet te r spent in English, because an improvement t o the Top 10% i n Engl ish is going to delive r much bett er gains t han a sim ilar improvement i n Maths

HOW DO T HE DIFFERENT SUBJECTS SCALE?

A t Ta lent 100, we've exam ined the sca ling of categories o f subjects such as Ma themat ics, English, Science and th e Humanities. When you exa mi ne the scaling graphs. some clear trends emerge:

Scaling Graph (fig 1)

STUDY SMARTER, NOT HARDER

You now know what ranks you need in each subj ect to score any ATAR The next steps a re to ensu re that you achieve t hose ranks.

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Highest Decision Rules

Scaling Sub1ects

3Uand4U

source: Report on the scaling of the 2011 HSC (UAC)

You should use this g raph to t arget the UAC score out of 500 you need to achieve your desired ATAR. Th is way, you can b e fa irly cert ain what ATAR you are head ing for well before you sit yo ur exams and adjust your st udy patterns accordingly. For instance. if you wanted to score an ATAR of 99, you wou ld need 449, or rough ly 45/50 for every su b ject.

3U and 4U Maths are by far, the highest sca ling subjects that are read ily accessible students Because of t heir high sca ling, you should take the highest level of malhematic,; t hat you are capable of. For Instance, to be on target for an AT/\R of 99+, you only need to be av,rage In 4U Maths, whereas you would need to be in t he top 4% of 2U Maths Advanced Where possible you should take at least advanced English The higher &Higher English as a group scale well above Standard English For instance, students who scored in the 25% of Advance receive scores higher than those students who score in the top 1% of standard Physic,;& Physic,; and Chemistry are the highest scaling sciences and scale Chemistry significantly better than biology.

Economic,;& Economics is t he best scaling humanity, and sca les j ust as well Modern History as Physics and Dlemistry. Apart from Econ omics, the other humanities scale significant y worse - you will need exceptiona l ranks to score an overal l ATAR if you choose humanities.

GROW for maintaining mental well-being

A unique organisation helps people with mental health problems through strategies to build self-confidence

:o.m the National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing, almost half (45.5%) of the coral population in Australia experience a mental health disorder at some point in their lifetime. One in five or 20% of the Australian population aged 16-85 years experienced mental disorders in di e previous 12 monrns of rneir survey. This is equivalent to about 3.2 million Australians. Depression and anxiery are die most prevalent mental disorders experienced b y Australians.

Depression alone is predicted ro be one of the world's largest health problems by 2020.

One of the people at the forefront of efforts to improve mental wellbeing in die community is Gaurav Chawla, the young branch manage r of GROW in Western Australia, GROW is a community-based organisation that has developed a unique program for improving and matntaining ment.'ll well- being of all Australians. GROW started operations in Sydney but now has groups across Australia. For over 50 years, d1eir program has helped thousands of Australians recover from a range of mental heald1 issues , including depression,

anxieC),~ panic attacks as well as diagnosed mental illness.

According ro Gaurav, "People who seek he lp with GRO\XI are those struggling with mental heald1 issues, anger issues, depression, anxiety or even people who just wam co improve their lifesryle. As the name suggests, d1e program is about growth, growing friendships and leading a more 'ratio nal l ife,' rather than an emotional one, The program is free of charge, people do nor need diagnosis or referral co participate".

lo a safe and confidential environment, GRO\XT members get together for weekly meetings to participate in die organised program. The meetings last for two hours approximately, and are followed by refreshments.

"The group sizes vary from 3-10 members and are run by experienced 'Growers ' who have taken a voluntary leaders h ip role within the group. Working in a group provides peer-support ,vhere the group members help each o d1er:' reveals Gaurav.

He highlights one of cbe many thinking strategies used wid1in the program to ask oneself the four stabilising questions when one is emotionalJy upset

* What is it char I an1 troubled about

* Is ir certain, probable or only possible

* How imporrant is it?

* What shall I do about it?

Every group has a leader and a recorder. Once people start improving within d1e group, they are empowered co take leadership

roles. GROW provides weekend leadership training to group members, so chat members can take o,voership. lt al.so drives their personal growth It is a voluntary program, completely fund ed by the Mental Health Commission.

The success of the program is measured qualitatively through the personal testimonies of people when d1e y scare recovering, and stare celling ochers about the improveme nt in their lives.

Are there clients who may nor be suitable for mis program?

"The program is a 'complement' or 'addition' to the medical treatment route for mental health issues, and does not seek co replace traditional medic al recommendati o ns," exp lain s Gaurav. "It looks at improvi ng the thought process; 'you alone can do it but you can't d o it alone', is the dictum being practiced". As state manager for WA GROW, Gaurav oversees the program in the sta re , which includes both metropolitan and regional groups, o ut of his office in Perch. ''Howeve r, it is a ream and collaborative effort. We inclLtde all the growers and the facilitators into the decision making process," he stares.

Gaurav was born in Delhi, and worked in London and New Zealand, besides work.mg with asylum seekers and agencies dealing with mental heald1 and alcohol issues. His pass ion is co work for non -profit socia l service organisations and not- for-profit seeking corporates. This led him to his current role in GROW.

And does GROW provide support to migrant communities ?

-

"GROW is crying co work with Red Cross for migrant and asylum seekers. I personalJy come from a migrant background, my parents migrated to India from Pakistan and I migrated co Australia," he says. "Migran t s sometimes don't get what they expect when rney migrate co Australia, and d1eir dreams are shattered. This results in disappoinanenc".

As part of his shore- te rm p lans for the organisation, GROW is celebrating 'Odd socks day' o n October 4, encouraging participants co wear different socks co support me anti- stigma campaign. The motivatio n is to break d1e stignia associated with mental health, and the need fo r compassion.

"We want people co make friendships and realise that we are all human beings despite the mental health issues," Gaurav scares emphatically.

In his spare time, Gamav runs free yoga and kite surfing c lasses on die beach in North Perch His maxim is, "As we connect ,vith nature, bealm improves".

The cop three suggestions from Gaurav ro readers co make sure they are on top of their mental well- being are to (1) Connect with J\fother I atme; (2) L oo k after holistic health; do yoga, go for a walk, do tai chi, or any od1er differen t activiry; and (3) Live a humorous life, laugh, focus on t he positive side of things - look at what you have and nor what you don't have.

Gaurav is happy t o receive queries and to co1mecr with more people wirnin the wider

Empowering women in rural India

/-India Australia gets together with Franklyn Scholar to launch a vocational training centre in Rajas than

- SALONIKOBER

Twenry-yea.r-old Jaipur girl Santosh has serious physical impairment as a result of comracting polio as a child. Losing both her pa.rents at a young age, she grew up under the care of her grandmother as part of a nomadic community of ba1ljams (gypsies) in a remote slum area of Jaipur. Growing up with absolutely no sel f-respect, she felt like she was a brn-den on her grandmother.

Determined to change her descin y, Sancosb d eveloped he r skills as a jewellery and handicraft student and gained back her confidence. Today, she works as a trainer at the Franklyn Scholar Training Centre at Jhag Children's Vil lage just o utside of Jaipur and earns a regular income. She is able to full y supp ort her 90-ye ar-old grandmother and does not ler her physical disabilicies hinde r her.

Sancosh owes her new life co Abha Goswami, founding director of tbe NGO I -Iadia, who encouraged her to parcicipate in the Ladli Vocational Training Centre in Jaipur in the year 2000

Franklyn Scholar, an Australian workforce education provider, a.long witb I -India Project, inaugurated the Franklyn Scholar Vocational Training Centre earlie r this year at tbe J hag Children's Village, located 45km south of Jaipur on the Ja ipur-Aj mer national highway.

Opening th.is vocational centre has a long standing endeavour for I - India

Australia, the local chapter of f- lndia , a registered not- forprofit organisation established in 2007. The centre is built on a 5-acre block of land in Jhag, w hich was sold co I -India by the Governmeor o f Rajasthan at a nominal cost. It aims at empowering women and children from tro u bled bad{gr ounds who are livin g be low the poverty line with only d1e bare minimum required to stay alive.

"Th eir homes a.re generally one room mud -brid dwellings witb an outdoor kitchen and few meagre possession s," recalls 1-lndia Australia committee m=ber Renate Barnett, who recently v isited me village herself.

" I always feel so concerned about d1em when the weather conditions a re extreme TI1e mid -40 degree hear that i s commonplace through the summer is unbearable for a day, let alone a wh ole season," s he adds Last August, many villagers lost everything they had in the wo rlcl w hen their homes were washed away in d1e monsoon floods.

"With the construction of tbe Franklyn Scholar Vocational Training Centre, I -India A uma.lia hopes to not only improving the living conditions of the people, but also at developing a feeling of self respect amongst them," says Renate.

A leading p rovider of workforce education across a range of industry sectors and qualifications, Frankl yn Scholar rook on the role of the sponsor and financed d1e entire construction and fir out cost.

ln a difficult financial climate, Franklyn Scholar is a company that has nor shied away from its social responsibility of givi ng back to tl1e community lnstead , me organisacion has =braced this task with an open heart and has been helping I -India Australia since 2010. le began when Franklyn Scholar bad starred raising mone y for I -India Australia through 'Franklyn Footpr ints,' a project that was d eveloped with die desire to give back to the community and raise awareness.

"A footprint leaves an enduring mark and tbis i s exactly what the Franklyn Footp rint has been set up co do - allowing each and every person working for Frankl yn Scho lar co leave th eir lasting impression by engaging and participating in their State's fundraisi n g activities and creating awareness of th is incredibly important project," says Victoria Woodfall, Tasmanian based training consultant and coordin ator of Franklyn Fo o tprincs.

Since 2010, Franklyn Scholar has d onated more than $100,000 to help build tbe vocational centre

20% of this ammmt has been ra ised by d1e staff of Franklyn Scholar through various ftmdraising activities suc.h as raffles, morning teas, golf days, Bollywood dinners and movie and trivia ni ghts. "The Jhag Children's Village is in a rather remote corner of Rajasthan, off the tourist track and out of public view, so it is fantastic that the company is prepared to invest such a huge ammmr of its time and capital where it will not receive maximum exposure and recognition," says Renate.

Besides the Frankl yn Scho lar Vocacional Training Centre, the Jhag Children's Village is planning rwo shelter homes fo r orphaned and homeless children, a health centre, sports field, produce gar den, transport vehicle, as well as staff accommodation.

With tl1e construction of chis village, ] -India aims at improving tbe quality of life for people in

nine surrounding villages d1.tougb provisio n of med ical services, ed ucatin g children and providing vocational training services The goal is to make tl1e commLmity self-suffic ient and in nirn, pm an end to the high numbers of people migrating to the big cities in search of h igher income but who unfornmarely, due co d1eir lack of educacion, join thousands o f simila r!)' disadvantaged people struggling to survive in atrocious conditions. Anod1er foc u s point is educating women of the c o mmunity in skills that can help d1em become self-sufficient and may even evenmally help mem to set up their own micro -businesses or cooperacives. \'(/it h the resources and connections d1at I-India has to offer, women will be able to sell items they make without having to g ive a large cue of their profit

to t he Lu1wamed middleman. Not o nly w ill this benefit their lo cal economy, it will also help build a feeling of sel f respect amongs t the women and along with it, a feeling of self reJiance and independence.

"Improving the status of women in these ve ry traditional regio n s is a Jong and slow process, but throug h empowerment initiatives such as those o ffered at the Franklyn Scholar Vocational Tra ining Centre, it is assured," says Re nate.

Du ring die first phase of o p eratio n s, the centre will offer s mdents a munber of vocational courses including tailoring, jewellery design, CAD, block printing and mam~facturin g of d i fferent kinds of handicrafts, paper prod ucts etc. Si nce its inaugmatio n, d1e centre bas been organi sing reg ular personal contact programmes, home s mdie s of lo cals, and o rjencatio n camp s co spread the word amongst neighbouring viJJages and inform d1em abo ut how they can use the s kills and trruning programme co improve d1eir quwty of life. As a resul t of this

effort, the c entre has alread y sr.ar ted teaching die Tailoring Trrucing course, as well as Computer Studies. Additio nall y, die l ocal co mmuni ty is offered employment opportunities for construction and maintenance of die s chool and she lter homes.

The prospect of improvi ng their quwt:y of li fe has created an eagerness co learn skills and

wor k togedi er harmoni o usly

In d1e funtre, Franklyn Scholar plans to continue its support for die Jhag Crulclren's V illage by financing their recurring costs for die next two years, at wluch p o int the centre w iU be able to support itsel f. Th ey have already started fundraising to rruse money for a van ilia c will provide transport to teachers co and from the

vocational training ce ntre.

"I-India Pro ject Austrwa is i mmensel y proud of die Franklyn Scholar Vocational Training Centre, as it is a s hining e.-xam p le of how corporate Austrwa has a heart and conscience," says Renate.

For more decruJ s o f d1 e work done b y 1- lndia Project Austrwa, visi t d1eir website www.i - indiaprojec t.org . au

Helping ambulances get through

Year 9 student Viney Kumar 1s app makes it to the finals at the International Google Science Fair, reports FARZANA SHAKIR

Google announced chis year's 15 finalises for its third annual Science Fair in June, ,\~th ]4-year-old Viney Kumar making the 'A: list as the only Australian, for his innovative PART project.

The Google Science Fair provides a p latform for budding inventors all around the world to showcase their innovative so lutions, gain recogn.irion on an in ternarional scale and realise their dreams of making a difference The comperirion is divided inro three age groups 1 3- 14, 15- 16 and 1 7- I 8 This year Viney will be arnonge di e 15 whiz kids who wi.U head to Google's headguarters in California on Septem ber 20, to presenr their projects and compete for the prize of a 10-day trip to die Galapagos .Islands with Narional Geographic E,1Jeditions, and $50,000 in scholarsh ip funding.

Vin ey's PART program (Police and Ambulance Regularing Traffic) is a n a ndro id app designed to give an early warning ro vehicl es, of an approaching em ergency rescue vehicle (ERV) The aim i s ro give traffic enough time to get out of di e way of die ERV, which in turn, \Wl enable che rescue persoru1el to arrive more guickly at the scene of an emergencr "My app has die potenrial to save lives as ic is up ro

eight rimes more efficienr than the current method of sirens which allows vehicles a reaction rime of only 7 seconds ro clear the way," explains V iney Inspiration ro develop the PART programme came to Viney during his recenr trip to India wh ere he was sntck in traffic and could hear an anibulance crying ro get through. The helplessness of die ERV drove Viney co explore ideas of improving the system and making it more efficient. rle started working on his app in January, delving into extensive research and eventually devising the early warning system employing a web server. "l conducted numerous trials using two cell phones, one sending the warning and the other receiving ic," says Viney. Afte r recording the response rim es and comparing the existing staristics, I was confident of the s uccess of my program"

Viney saw the ad for the Google Science Fair online and decided to enter. He says the concept of sucb a fait was very artracrive. "It appealed to me as ic presented a crearive approach to scie nce, plus die range of participants was from all over the world. G lobally 8,000 teens from 120 countries cook pare and die process was all online," he explai ns.

The PART program was entered inro cbe Google Science Fai r on

April 30 as a prorotype, after the process of oudiuiug the concept and writing the report to ei..1Jlain die hypothesis. After rigorous screening, 90 regional finalists were announced on June 12. This was followed by a face-ro - face interview on die Google bangom. A second round o f judging later, Viney was declared as one of die 15 finalists, and die only o n e from Australia co make i t ro mis level.

Viney hopes his PART program will be availab le in Australia in die next couple of years on car dashboards. ''Using a web serve r, cbe cars will be able to receive early audirory warning of approaching ERVs within 800m via GPS cedmology," he adds. "Also, die confusion associated widi deter mining the direction of die ERV will be eliminated as the image and direcrion of the rescue vehicle will be displayed on Google maps".

Viney bas oo plans of putting his app on the apps market as he realises people won't be able ro use their phones \Vhile driving He believes the on car das hboards will be the id eal home for his in ve ntion.

But widi so many amazing e n tries from die finalists, like green technology for degrading detergents, a flashlight powered by cbe buman hand, and the rnediod of using banana peel m produce bio plastic, does V iney consider any of chem close competition? lc(j s response to chi~ guesrion disp layed manLrity beyond his years as Vinay

replies, "J find ic hard to name any entry that I perceive to be cough competition because each o n e of the final 1 5 projects is on a unigue topic in different fields of science. The)' vary g reatly from each od,er, but each and every one of d1em bas the potential ro change die world"

Viney is a Year 9 student at Knox Grammar School in Sydney \Vhere he has received a great deal of support in developing his program. He wishes to d1ank his mentor for die help wid1 GPS coding, h is sc ienc e teacher Ms De Ridder, Dean of Sn1dies Ms Karen Yager, hi s parenrs and grandparents for their tireless support in helping hin1 reach his goals.

Currently V iney is working on a wilderness survival app and hopes to compete in the Google Science Fair next year as well. In the meantime he has sec his sights on taking out d,e grand prize in September. He is also hoping to win die Inspired Idea Award which ,vill be judged by pub lic vori ng.

Viney is looking forward ro all die support he can get from Australians in general, and the Indian community in parricular, as his PART program is the first-ever from Australia co reach this stage at the Google Science Fair.

Voti n g for [he Vo[ers Choice Award starts on 1 August. You can help Viney succeed by casting your vote in his Favour .1t: www. googlesciencefuir.com/

ra

Muslims offer prayers on Juma-tul-wida, or the last Friday of Ramadan, at Jama Masjid in New Delhi, Aug. 2 , 2013

Attempts to jeopardise IndiaPakistan relations worrisome, say experts

As anger over the killings of Indian so ldiers by Pakista1-u troo ps reverberated in parliament in t ew Delhi recently, experts said the attempts to create tens ion wid1 the Jalalabad suicide attack and the Poo nch killings were a worrisome trend and d1at despite talk of friendship, India should harbour no illusions abouc Pakistan.

Five sol dier s were killed when men in Pakista1-u n-ulitary uniform ambushed an army patrol at Chakan-da-Bagh sector of the Line of Contro l (LoC), which divides Kashmir betv.;een India and Pakistan early o o Aug 6.

While former foreign secretary Kan\\7al Sibal said the Jalalabad attack and the P oooch killings showed that the combination of Pakistani military, the ISI and jehadi groups had become active again, former deputy national security advisor Leela K. Ponappa s aid India s hould calibrate ics engagement with Is lamabad in order co g ive the message that the attacks were unacceptable.

Former Indian consul general in Karachi Rajiv Dogra suggested drnc India put a pause to the dialogue process drnc is set to be resumed.

Veteran jomnalist Kuldip Nayar said bilateral relations were becoming better, but t h e ki Uings would "definitely jeopardise talks which were to start".

"This process will stop again," said the former 1vlP. "The opposition parties will gee a handle. Everybody is looking towards elections. le might be exploited to d1e extent ic should nor be .The ruling party is going to be afraid of what happens n ow," said Nayar, an ardent proponent of good IndiaPakistan good tie5.

Sibal said d1e positive atmosphere sought to be created becau se of me feeling that Prime Mjnister Nawaz Sharif could open up a new chapter in bilateral ties have received a jolc.

Tbe former foreign secretary said mat India should be "genuinely concerned about

what see ms to be emerging a s attempts co create. tensions between d1e two countries"

He said the recent Jalalabad s uicide. attack near d1e L1dian mission in which nine Afghans were killed and me killing in Poonch "suggests that d1e Pakistani military, 151 (Inter- Services fnce Uigence) and ji hadi groups combine has become active. Thi s is consistent with Nawaz Shari f's design to project Jammu and Kashmir on the international stage and the longstanding concexc of his party's link wim je handi g roups and the lack of mutual trust between hi m and the militar y

These are worrisome trends, he said, and added that Sharif has been "too slow" i.n taking any concrete ges tures such as granting Most Favomed Nation status to India or i.n e,'[pediting che trial o f the accused in me 2008 Mumbai attack in o rder tO improve relations.

"What we have been seeing is negative trends," Sibal added.

Ponappa said that pe o ple " tend to forget realities" and " chi s is the kind of behaviour you have to expect from Pakistan".

The former deputy nati o nal security advisor s aid India should keep Pakis tan's behaviour in mind and calibrate its engagement " in a way that it doe s not send mixed signals - drnt we can't accept mis kind of thing".

She said she had " always maintained that Pakistan ,viii try co make you move on pos itive things - because iliey are seeking legitimisation with their own people and the international community, while carr ying on this kind of activity. Given d1e realities of Pakistan, yo u cannot expect anything better"

Ponappa said Sharif's saying he wanted normalisation of ties with India was n o thin g new. "(Zulfikar Ali) Bhutto s aid it, Benaz.ir (Bhutto) said it, nothin g has changed Everybody says they wane good relations bm you have co see the reali ty on the ground".

She said she ha te d ro sound pessimistic but "u nfortunatel y, dealing wiili Pakistan has to be based on not what you wane but

what you are dealing wi d1"

"Yo u have to recognis e the reality o f what you are. dealing with, then yo u will never have illusions about it," Pooappa added

Dogra said that India must stop the dialogue process. " Th e first step should be to put a pause button on d1e (secretary level) talks and depending o n Pakis tan's delivery in terms of apology and correction, we can consider the fate. of th e ta lks at the PM level," added .Dogra.

Three-layered syndicate in IPL6 spot-fixing: Delhi Police

A dlree- layered betting syndicate was involved in spot-fixing during the sixth edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL6) with d1e prime mo vers being Karad-ubased underworld don Dawoo d Ibrahim and his lieutenant Chhora Shakeel, three month s of painstaking investigations b y Delhi Police have revealed.

Apart from Dawood , Shakeel and Javed Churaoi, al so ba sed overseas, d1e first layer included Indian bookies like. Ashwani Aggarwal alias Ti.oku Mandi, Ramesh Vyas, Feroze, Jitendra Jain and Chaodresh Jai11 alias Jupiter, according to a recently obtained Delhi Police charge -sheet.

The next la ye r comprised Indian bookies like Su.nil Bhatia, Cbandresh Patel and Manan Bhatt.

"W/ e found fixers and their associates, like ex-players 1\{anish Guddewar, Amir Kumar Singh and Babu.tao Yadav, were facilitating d1e contacts of fixers with the players, who executed the conspiracy on the playi n g field," d1e charge- sheet said of d1e third layer

Three IPL players - S. Sr ee.sand,, Ankeet Chavan and Ajeec Chandila - were arrested o n spot-fixing charges May 16. Subsequently, 27 b ooki es were nabbed from me various parts of India in May,June and July, and one Aug 4.

Delhi Police goc d1e initial lead in d1e first week of May when a phone call between a Dubai number and a Pakistani number was traced in India.

possible, bm in chis case, due co traffic congestion, De lhi Police rnanaged to trace a call between a Dubai number used by Churani and a Pakistani number used by Dawood with the help of the International Telecommw-ucation U nion

This revealed t hat Chut:u-u had been in touch wid1 Tinku Mandi in India. Chutani himself is not wanted in India and therefore any communicati o n made by him wim an Indian entity would normally have remained beyond suspicion and would be treated as a normal ct1nversation. Which means mat Chutani was freel y speaking to Tinku Mandi.

While oo one hand, Cbutani conspired with Tinku Mandi, who was looki n g after the betting sy ndicate in nord1ern lndia, on the other, he co n sp ired with Rames h Vyas, who looked after the betting syndicate in so ud1ern lndia.

Delhi Police had Jul y 30 filed its chargesheet in a MCOCi\ (l'vfal1arashtra Control of Organized Crime Act) conn in the national capital.

Raghuram Rajan appointed

RBI Governor

Rag hmam Govind Rajan, chie f economic ad v isor in the finance ministr y, will be the next governor of the Reserve Bank o f India (RBI), d1e government announced recently in New Delhi.

At 50, Rajan will also be among the youngest to occupy the h igh of/ice at M:inc Street in Mumbai, w here he takes over from incw11bent Dnvvuri Subbarao on Sep 5

" Prim e Mini s ter (l'vfanmohan Singh) has approved the appointment of Rag huram Rajan as the G ove rnor of Reserve Bank of India (R.Bl) for a term of three years," finance ministry said in a statement.

Before jo ining d1e Indian government, Rajan bad se rved as chie f econon-ust at the International 1\fonetary Fund (IMF) and pro fessor at the U ni ver sity of Chicago. He. joined a s advisor in the finance n-u1-ustry last year in August.

His appointment comes at a time when the Indian economy is passing through rough wead1er and d1e government and the central bank are no t particularl y seen to be i n sync on ways to handl e the sinrntion.

The RBI is struggling t o control the slide in t h e value o f the rupee t hat hie a record low of 6 1 86 against a doUar on Aug 6

"These a.re challenging times for the Indian economy, though no one can have any doubt about die co trntry's promise," he said after being nam ed govern o r, adding tha t d1e govern ment and the cen tral bank were working together o n this.

" The Reserve Bank is a great institution wid1 a tradi tion of imegriry, independence and professio nalism," he said, honoured by the new responsibilities reseed o n I-um.

The RBI ha s also been tmder pressure from die industry and a section of d1e government to cut policy rates to rev ive growth. Rajan bas al so been advocating a rate cue.

In the first quarter review of the monetary policy announced July 30, the central bank has left key policy races unchanged and lowered the growth forecast for d1e current financial year to 5.5% from it s earlier projection of 5.7 %

The charge- sheet says the interception

of the phone calls between numbers in foreign countries was normall y not

Sikh Americans remember gurdwara tragedy with community service

Sikhs in America marked the first anniversary of the Oak Creek tragedy when a gunman attacked a gurdwara in Wisconsin killing six worshippers, with a day of community service and remembrance.

Prayer meetings were held across the US on August 5 to honour those who lost their lives on the same date last year - Paran1j ic Kaur Saini, Sica Singh, Ranjic Singh, Prakash Singh, Suvegh Singh Kharcra, and Sacwant Singh Kaleka - and pray for the full recovery of those critically injured

"\'(/e are proud that Sikh Americans nationwide have responded to this tragedy with open hearts and heads held high, consistent with the Sikh belief in Chardi Kala (eternal o ptimism) ," Sikh Coalition, an umbrella organisation of the community said in a statement.

Sikh communities nationwide and California's SEVA organisation partnered w ith the Sikh Coalition on a l ational Day of Seva (Selfless Serv ice) co pay tribute to the Oak Creek community, it said.

Detroit SiJ{hs partnered w ith Kleis Against Hunger co package 20,000 meals for needy famil ies and Houston Sikhs volunteered at a local library and partnered with Urban Harvest to clean a garden at a local e lementary smool.

In New York City, Sikhs cleaned Morningside Park while Sikhs in California's Central VaUey and Bay Area packaged and .served food to the home less.

Washingto n area S ikhs marked the anniversary of Oak Creek tragedy with prayers and reAection at Guru Gobind Singh Foundation, RockviJJe Sikh Centre coo.

"Since the Sep 1 1 attacks, too man y Sikh Americans have been wrongfully subjected co hate crimes and discrimination," said Ami Bera, the lone Indian American member of the US House of Representatives vowing co keep working closel y with the community for protecting domestic civil righ cs.

Other members of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) also pledged to "work to ensure that discrimination and hateful acts based on intolerance do not have a p lace in our "naoon

South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT), leading a network of 41 Sonch Asia organisations, started a blog seri es "to place the Oak Creek traged y in a broader hiscory and context of racial and religious injustice in our country"

The Cou n cil on American- Islamic Relations (CAJR) issued a statem ent saying American Mus Li ms "stand with their Sikh brothers and sister s" after the Oak Creek tragedy.

Reversing brain drain? Better research faci l ities see Indian scientists return Finall)', the brain drain appears to be reversing. Better researcl1 opportunities in lndia, passion co do som ething for their native couotr y and family obligations have started co lure back Indian scientists working abroad. Around 500 scientists have come back in the la st seven years - and only six have gone back

Go ing by the figures maintained by the union science and technology ministry, the majority of the reverse brain drain has happened from the US, Germany and

Britain. Recendy, scientists have also started coming from Somh Korea and Japan.

"About 500 scientists have come back from abroad and are working in various institutions across the country. Of these only six have gone back for various reason s," T. Ranrnsami, Sec retary, Department of Science and Technology, said recendy in New Delhi.

Credit must al so be given to the several schem es run by the Indian government to encourage scientists and engineers of Indian origin from al] ove r the world to take up sc ientific research positions in India, especiaUy those scie n tists who want to return to lnd ia from abroad.

The Ramanujan Fellowship, Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE) Programme a nd the Ramalingaswamy Fellowship are amo n g those that provid e a p latform to scientists willing to return an d work in India.

An internal analysis by the ministry of the reasons for the reverse brain drain revealed that cough competition abroad, better research opportunities in lnd ia , love of work fo r the mod1erland and aiming to contribute to science were some of the major factors that drew L1dian scien tisrs co their homeland.

Family obligations was another reason that attracted chem back home.

Sheeba Vasu, who was doing her postdoctoral research at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, said she came back as she always wanted to work in lndia

"I wanted to come back and scart my work in India after getting trained in the US Moreover, it is not easy to get a job as a facul ty in any of t he universities in the US as there is a tough competition," Vasu, who is a Ramanujan Fellow since 2008, said. She was in the US for six years.

Vasu, who i s now doing her research in the Evolutionary and Organismal Biology

Unit of Bangalore's Jawal1a clal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific R esearch, says d1ere are more research opportunities in Indian unive r sities and elite instimtions

Like the Indian Institutes of Technolog y, Indian Institute t1f Science (llSc) , Bangalore, and Indian lnstimtes of Science Education and Research (IISERs),

among others

Echo ing similar views, another Ramanujan feUow, V idya T.N.C. , said competition is much higher abroad as compared to lndia, where there is a shortage of experts and qualified faculties.

"There are i ssues with research fac ilities in lndia. He.re, we do not have many advanced research laboratories. We also face a funds crunch. But overall it's a good platform that gives you a kind of startup w hen you return to lndia," said Vidya, who worked at Columbia University.

So m e scientists feel co ndu cting research iu India is more relaxed while d1ere is a rat race in d1e advanced cow1tries.

"l think academic work outs id e India is stressful and it is a bit more relaxed in India and I am saying that in a positive way," Ashwin Srinivasan, a professor at Delhi's lndraprastha Institute of Information Technology, said.

Srinivasan, who had worked at Oxford Univers ity, said there is an economic crunch in the academic setup abroad and it i s coug h to get research grants.

"The research setup is better in lndia an d the opportunity to work in science in India is not as bad as it being said. Yes, there are d1ings like most of the big science ideas are explored in institutes abroad and lack of options to do inter-disciplinary research that hurts," said Srinivasan, who has been abroad for 15 years and took a four- fo ld cut in sa lai·y when he remrned co India.

The figures show that the majority of researchers prefer to work in Kamataka, :l',faharashtra, Andbra Pradesh and \'Vest Bengal. The reason i s chat these states have d1e largest munber of good research instirutions

"Through various schemes, we provide a p la tform under which scientists in th e age-group of 30-45 years can work in an y of the scientific instirutious and Ltniversities in India and would be eligible for receiving regular research grants and a monthl y rem u neration," he said.

Srinivasan, who is a US citizen, suggests some changes - for instance, schemes should be flexible co e n sure people of Indian origi11 who are nor fodia n citizens cai1 also take up jobs at central government universities and institutions.

"Some more initiatives are needed to make India a very attractive destination for scientists wanting to work for their m otherland," he said.

ASI unearths a slice of Harappa in north Rajasthan

Artefacts elating to the Harappan era have been excavated in Karai1pura of Hanumangarh district in Ra jasthan, the first time remains of d1e Indus Valley Civilisation have been found in dus part

"The excavation has brought to light h ouse comple..'<es built of mud bricks of both Early (3300-2600 Before Commo n Era) and Mature (2600 -1900 BCE) Harappan periods. Even though scattered remains ai1d fragments of baked bricks are available, it \Vas n ot found in any building," said Archaeological Survey of India superintending archaeologist V.S Prabhal<ar in a Jecrur e at the India International Centre in New Delhi recendy.

"The presence of bichrome wme consisting of red ware, decorated with black and white-colow:ed painted motifs, is also n oticed from d1e Early T-:larappan period, a few of wluch continues du.ring the Mature Harappan period," he added.

"Presen ce of rlunoceros bones poin t to d1e marshy environment the Harappans were accustomed to," said Prabhakar Harappai1 pottery along with terracotta bangles, grincling stone fragments, beads of agate an d an animal terracotta figurine were excavated. Numero us copper artefacts reveal trade ties people here had with od1er ci vilisations Apai t from motifs like circles, pipal leaves on various items, graffiti on pottery and artefacts like the sp indle whorls are distingui shed features.

The Indus Valley civilisation is o n e of the ea rliest urban civilisations and also known as the Harappan c ivilisation.

Karanpura is located on the right bank of D1ishaclvati river, now Chautang, in the upper reaches and is loca ted between Siswal, Ha.ryana (upstream) and Sodu, Rajasthan (dO\vnscream). The r iver is dried u p now.

The archaeological remains at Karanpura were firs t discovered in 2010 and the exca\7ation branch started work in December 2012. The work wil l end soon.

Indian cricket great Kapil Dev travels to Melbourne for the official launch of the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup

Free om 0 to •

August 15 is a date Indians across the world associate with nationhood, and freedom from British rule. SHERYL DIXIT and RAJNI ANAND LUTHRA find out what the term 'freedom' means to Indians today

The textbook definition of'independence' is ' freedom from control or influence of another or others' Freedom means being responsible enough to enjoy the feeling of doing what one wants without restraint.

?

But what does the term ' freedom ' mean to Indians living in Australia? Is it an association that is still kept alive through links with the motherland, or has it taken on a completely new and liberating meaning? And does India's Independence Day in particular still mean something to us desi Australians? Or is it a past memory of flag hoisting at dawn, followed by bhajjias and garam chai? Indian Link asked people of Indian origin what independence rea lly means to them, with surprising results.

• Here and there!

: For me, li ving here in Australia,

• 'freedom' in an Indian context

.

: mean s independence from

: pollution, corruption and poverty

: back there. And for m y family

: back home, 'freedom' would mean

: the same thing - co have running

Say it loud, say it clear

I think India has been experiencing more freedom than ever before, and there is scill more to come. In the past year we have seen many issues that were hidden brought to light, like corruption and rape, which people never wanted co confront in public in the past. The freedo m of expression has become more pronounced, and I feel this is a good thing. This is what India needs , peop le co co Uectively voice their op inion and feelings about injuscice, and make a demand for righting wrongs. It is a good feeling to know char there are so many people wbo supporr the cause of right and who are willing co take a stance, as we have seen in the case of the New Delhi rape victim and the pub lic frenzy that followed, to ensure justice for the young girl who tragicaUy di ed from her injuries. In saying chat I bave co admit d1ac so metimes d1e press in India makes too much of an i ssue, they give social issues as much importance and coverage as Bollywood celebrities! But overaU, it is great to see that India l s going through a change where

the freedom to speak openly and without fear is gathering strength I o n ly hope it lases!

Ashlsh Chawla St . Albans

My list

Can I have freedom to go to bed whatever time I want? And have McDonalds for dinner on more nights. Not have pumpkin soup for cl.inner or yellow rial. Watch TV whenever 1 want. Skip my shower when I am coo tired?

P lease?

Vihaan Chaw l a

Doing what I like

Freedom means not being dependent on anyone. So wb y single om Independence Day for chis. I enjoy this freedom every day! I love the freedom to do what I want in m y daily life, raise m y family as I see fit, make mer r y with friends, go out and enjoy beautiful Melbourne!

And yet I manage to do m y duty to our extended family back home, and the com m unity that I interact with at different levels here

Deepti Chawla

Choices

Freedom to me is being independent co make my own choices, to be able to express mysel f freely without restrictions, to be a part of th is wonderful life where I can respect others and have the same respect returned ro

wate r and electricity throughom the da y, and to breathe in clean air instead of the dust and pollution from a million rickshaws, buses and cars! Bue they also have another kin d of freedom, they have the love and support of their entire family, which is what I miss They keep traditions alive rneecing at weddings and parties, they help each od1er in times of need. When J go back they treat me like royalty! After 66 years of Independence, corruption and poUucion have got worse, bm family ties have gotten stronger, they have become more multicultural and they last longer Their freedom is special and they will all celebrate Independence Day together with march pasts and !Nasti, while I will buy a flag from a local l ncliao s hop and stick it in a m Ltffi.n while si.nging]rwa

g,ma 111at111!

N i ti.ka Son dhi

Sy dney

me. To be true to myself without the fear of anyone or anything a reminder how lucky I am to wake up each morning and feel these words i:ing true every clay and every minute!

Ncclam

Vasudevan Oakleigh East

To be free is not merely to cast off one's chain s, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others

Nelson Mandela

''

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it notfor them selves

Abraham Lincoln

Young and free India may be celebrating 66 years of Independence, bm it is still a young country and in op inion , it is getting yo unger. There is a new breed of professi o nals, politician s, industrialists that are the new youthful face of India .in tbe international arena, which indi cates a change in the way the world sees us - modern and trendy, instead of conservative and obsolete. The old are making way for the young, who are not

Live and let live

As an lnd ian woman, freedom to me mean s being ab le co exercise the same rights and liberties enjoyed by men in the society with n o questions asked Freedom from hypocritical values, freedom from double scandards, freedom to disagree and not conform to superstition and blind faith

Freedom from fea r, prejudice and hate.

Around the \vorld in varying degrees, women are treated unequall y In some places they are not aJlowed to be seen or heard. Right to education and work opportunity fo r everyone

irrespective of his or ber sex, race, wealth or religion equates t o cme freedom in my opinion.

Peter Parker's (S p iderman's alter ego) quoce, "With great power there must also come great responsibility," can be reworded to suir the context: "\'{/ith freedom there must aL~o come responsibili ty" I believe freedom g iven/ available to a few, causes more harm than good. A sociecy is truly free only when it's free from inequali ty and ignorance. True freedom is co be able to live and lee live.

Shraddha Arjun Sydney

Freedom to create

Freedom to me, personally, is all abom having the option to be creative in life. I believe that if God is watching us, the least we can do is be emert.c'lining and co be entertaining one n eeds to be creative. During my wonderful childhood m y parents ga\7 e me the freedom to explore, learn and in mm create. My dad \Va$ in a role that required a lot of travel and we lived in many part~ of India. In all the travelling we did there was always so much to !earn from tbe divers ity and util ise the !earning in my own li fe be it in cooking something from a region, dancing a local folk dance, learning a new

tbat much interested i.n money-making and are keen to scamp our corruption. Maybe because they themselves were born ri ch, so it doesn't marte r as much to them They mar not have much experience like the older generation, bur they are smart and qui ck learners. India today makes me wish tbac l was getting younger too!

Sheryl Dixit Kellyville Ridge Sydney

language, adopting a new fashion or being inspired by a new book. All of it inAuenced and enriched the way I lived and enjoyed m y life

The experience fo r nu1ate ly continued even after l grew up and finished my education, got married and migrated to Australia. Despite the challenges of seeding in a new country, adjusting to new relationships and working in a new environment, there was always freedom to create, freedom to learn and be inspired and freedom to do my own dung I rate that as one of the highest facmrs in m y abili ty m enjoy m y life and be happ y

Pree.ti JabbaJ

Glen Waverley

. . .. .... ..... .... ..... ...................................... .... ......... ..... .... ........ .. ..

I

depend on me!

1 enjoy my freedom I am a mother and a homemaker, but even with all this, I am free. To ha\'e a cup o f tea at 1 1am, to rend to my t11/si and karne pt1k trees .in my garden, co chat with my friends, to enjoy the occasional mums' night om, to not have to feel the pressure of answering too many questions about my li fe from inquisitive neighbourhood aunties and nor being coo deeply imo fami.ly politics back home r work, cook, tend to my family and enjoy life - without the aid of cooks, maids or ,9ahs. And 1 survived, learning to depend on myself. Living away from India has made me more independent, so 1 guess I have every reason to celebrate its 66th.

Asha Pujari Hawthorn East

INDIAN LINK

It's, like, cool!

Freedom, like, it'~ a really cool cbing! My idea of freedom is to go clubbing with my friends, but my parents won't let me until I'm

2 1. They're.like, really, reaJly OTT with stuff like that, d1ecking FB and m y Mac. Bur like, I'm not a kid! I'm 1 6, and y'know, I'd like to p lay on the PS3 all day, or sleep in late every day, or not go to school, or bang out at tbe maJI all weekend with my friends. I wane an iPbone 5, a WiiU, designer skinny jeans and a cool haircut.

M y parents don't let me do ani'thing! I guess someone needs ro exp lain wbac freedom is to theml LOU

Na111 r 1J1itbheld 0 11 request, or his pr11 r11/s 1111: r gil'f hi111 theji-redo111 lo ltal'f ho111pf

Fun freedom

l'ru called the 'chanya choli queen' and I love it! Freedom for me means the chance co wear gorgeous Indian clothes and jewellery and dance to bha11gra and Bollywood b eats eve n in the middle of winter in Melbourne! My cous ins in Mumba i don't do this, they d ress in western clothes co go to rave parties and dance co Timomatic! I love the freedom co be more lndian d1an lndian's back in lndia. Ir's great]

Surabhi Sh ah

Carlton North

TV time for me

Freedom is co be able to watch the TV I want, peacefully 1 o st1as-bah11 dramas for me, or even your T/ oicc, lvlastcrchej, Big Brother or whatever d1e latest reality series is. I've made arran gements to be able to watch the cricket wherever it is being played in the world, and am on top o f the foory here. l'vfy wife and I now bave out own separate TV sets, and I am enjoying my TV freedom.

Padmanabhan T Rowville

ATTENTION INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

Moving from a disadvantaged position to social integration

It is essential to maximise jobs for long term socioeconomic stability

BY

NOEL G DE SOUZA

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financial i n stinitions which !em D etroit money, m ay weU see their assets g reatly reduced in value ('from doUars co cents'). Detroi t as a w h ole has become disadvantaged. One needs to prevem Geelong go ing down the same path.

The Government in India has reserved numerous industries co the rural sector such as soap an d beedies (the Indian hand rolled cigarettes). The id ea is to maxirnize emp loyment. Th e Western id ea, a heritage from the groups in the past. These include Aboriginals, children who were forcibly and secretly brought from tl1e United Kingdom, and

There has been an emphasis in Australia in recent years, on the ' ' remediation for wrongs whic h were done tO certain

The same GFC made days of the indu strial revolution, is to reduce employment and thus to increase prolics. Potential \1<:Testern investors in India, particularly from the USA and Britain need to absorb the tl1ose who are physically handicapped.

As a country with a strong econo my, it might be safely assumed chat Australia can look after its disadvantaged. But the term ' disadvantaged' has suddenly begLJn to

Austra l ia, particularly with its high interest rates a safe haven forforeign investors and this ensured Indian viewpoint becau se of its prevailing socio- economic conditions The underl)fog philosophy i s that ·what is good

the strength of the Australian dollar

assume a newer and broader meaning in Australi a. As the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) began to unfold, a lifeline had co be thrown co those who d epended on their sup erannuation earnings for mere sustenance, because share portfolios had begun co dranrntically fall in value.

The same GF'C made Australia, particularly with its high interesr rares, a safe haven for fo r eign investors and this ens ured the strength of the Australian dollar. However, a stron g Australian dollar added to the cost of producing good s in A u stralia, made tl1ern tmcompetitive on the world stage. This affected both manu factur ing and agriculture. Thus muuerous manufacturing units either closed down or were downsized, and some moved to a mucl1 cl1eaper New Zealand Closing down o r downsizing a manufacturing p lant is a ver y traumatic affair fo r its workers The whole community gets affected. The price of h ouses m ig h t fall, sp ouses jobs might have to abandoned a nd chi ldren's education could get disrupted. 111ere have been large government handouts to keep mannfacruring planes from being shut down , but the results till now have been dub ious.

An e.'lample of a diver sified economy is in Geelong in Victoria It has been the home of tl1e ford Motor Company since 1925, including other manufacturers like Backwell IXL and MHG Glass Nor surprisingly, the A L1s ttalian Amomotive Research Centre is located there. Complementing the automotive in dustry is one the largest petroleum refineries in A u stralia. There are food processing unit.5, including seafood, and these add to Geelong's econ omic diversiJicati.on.

A similar example to Geelong is found in D etroit in the USA. Once a thriving city with the automobile industry as its crown jewel, Detroit has now become a ghost of its former self. Wid1 its population reduced, manufacturing unit.5 in tatters and dilapidated housing, the city's income has fallen to the exte nt diat on July 19 this year, it declared itself bankrupt. Pension funds and other

for the greater number should prevail

''Th e Government in Australia has foresee n that it n eeds a we!J trained workforce. Large amoums of money have therefore been spent in bringing Australian education up to the best levels. And this incl ud es those w ho are disad vantaged. Kirn Ca rr, cl1e !vl.inisrer for Innovation, Industry, Science, Research and Higher Education claims d1at Australia now has twenty per cent of disadvantaged studen ts in higher educatio n.

These are important facts which will d etermine the reshaping of d1eAustral.ian economy. As Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has said in a recent policy speech entitled The .Australian Econot1!)' in Transition: B11ilding A Nell' Co111petitivemss /lgendrr.

"Because d1e China resources boom is coming off, Australia's core economic strategy for the future must be one whi ch diversifies our eco nomy by creating more jobs in manufacruring, food production, infrastl'Ucture, construction, and our man y other services ind ustries, rather than having all our eggs in ju st one basket - the resources and energy sectQr".

Indians in Australia are found in all socio -econ omic g roups which range from the very ad vantaged or rich industrialists and en trepreneurs (who are fo und in small numbers) co d1e very disadvantaged (best examples include recent migrants or asylum seekers who lack such skills such as proficie n cy in the English language). Th e la t ter groups (migrants and asylum seekers) have become the subject of submissions b y Th e Fed eration of Ethnic Communities' Councils of Australia (FECCA) to the Australian Government. FECCA, currently under the leadership of Pino :Migliori.no, receives funding fro m the Department of Immigration and Citizenship.

An example of d1e healthcare sector will illu strate the large expanse in wh ich Indians are found. Indian doctors fill patient needs in botl1 cities and rural area s. There are besides, lndian scienti st.5 an d doctors who do r esea rch in sucl1 fields as cancer and diabetes. There are, at the othe r end, Indians who ate patients and some who are h andicapped.

ramm1n

Getting familiar with the basics in a world literally being eaten up by software could be helpful

In one of the recent issues of fodia11 Ll11k (Issue 2, July), 1 had made a case for why kids should be taught programming.

Today, I am go ing to argue why you, an adult b usiness owner or employee, should also learn programming. Like last ti.me, I wou ld like to mention that learning programm ing is not limited to learning the syn tax or the rules of a programming language. Or learni ng how to configure a system such as SAP, although that kind of knowledge is not bad to have either

My recommendation is to be capable of understanding general principles of h ow internet and mo b ile applications work, what factors can make them succeed or fail , and knowing how to work with IT, mobile and internet vendors and workers - ro understa11d what they are saying and their scope of work and limitations, and to be able to provide them great requirements

As bus in ess owners, you should understand online business As employees, you should know how to automate part of yo ur work that

INDIAN LINK

is manual or repetitive, so you can be more prodL1ctive.

But before we venrure further, Jet me clarify why 1 am making this recommendation.

About rwo years ago, Marc Andreessen, a pioneer of commercial .internet wrote how 'software is eating the world'. He argued that .internet and mobile communication and their co nvergence w ith commerce, entertai nm ent and business modeJs, is disrupting and taking over entire industries. This is contrary to the ge neral belief in which today's popularity of Facebook and other dominant websi tes are seen as just a nother 'b ubble'.

As p roof of his assertion that alJ industry is going online, Andreessen cited Amazon and the way it transformed the books retail business and even the way we read books now (on Kindles, ra ther than on paper). He aJso cited streaming music services such as Spotify and App le iTunes a nd their effect on the music industry, Linked.in and its effect on recruitment etc. The po.inc is, whole industries are be ing eaten al.ive by software and the internee. Your industry may just be waiting in line. Get ready to meet th e n ew reality of an ITdriven wo rld before the business or job is ea ten by it (or IT - pun unintended). It does n ot matter

whether your .industry is content, media or sofrv;;rare driven; many employees of banks, insurance a nd mining wo Ltld find their skiJJs in adequate to deal with in the new e nvironmen t.

If Mark Andreessen has convinced you enough to give software a shot co preserve your career o r do better in business, here are a few resources ro enhance your ski.11s.

To get a feel of programming in an ente rtaining way, check om amateur game development platform developed by MITScratch (scratdunit.edu). This is as good for adults to h ave a flavour of sofrware deve lopment, as for kids

When you are ready for serious stuff, then you can learn programming online interactively at Codecade m y (www.codecademy.com). General Assembly (generalassemb.ly / sydney), an educaror of start-ups and entrepreneurs, offers classes in web development, computer science fundamentals, data science among othe rs. Classes are be ld in U ltimo near Sydney CBD. Before enrolling i.nto one of d1eir comprehensive courses, you can attend a few of their workshop sessions that are offe red for as .low as $40 for a 2 hours sess ion. They also have several videos on.line (generalassemb.ly/ online) that are offered co paid members (about

US$25 per mond1-).

Do you thi n k your Excel skiJJs needed a little update? Need to brus h up Powerpoint skills? Head over ro udemy (www.ude m y com), en te r w hat you want to learn and you would have a c hoice of dozen s of online courses offered by other people like you and me, n or necessarily colleges, and who are experts and experi enced u sers. You may subscrib e to their courses an d complete on ude m y's platform. Interested in learning how to bui ld a n onli ne strategy for your business? Attend Intern et Business Strategy (cce.sydney edu. au/course/Il3S1) at the Cen tre for Continuing E ducation (CCE) in Universi ty of Sydney to learn about business m odels online, work on tl1e new business for a month and then come back to learn how to impleme n t it· (cce.sydney.edu

au / course/IBst) O th er o n e - day workshops at CCE (cce.sydne)'.edu au) include mobile strategy, social media and project m anagement. All th ese are reasonably priced an d are quality courses

W l bether you have a preference fo r p lanning and strategy, or you are creativelr inc lined, love numbers, play w ith data, or create grea t art, there is a role and an area waiting for you in on.line, software and mobile. So, polish your programming skills and let's deve lop t hat game. And I am not saying this to kids!

Oncewas a • en1us.

Reiterating four basic values to children can help them discover and manifest their true ability

I

Ahigh proportion of parents have experience of a child who demonstrates ability in a particular field of endeavour, only to notice that over ti.me the child n o longer appears to manifest the talent This ability may be linguistic/verbal, sporting, mathematical, musical or other. 'Namral ability' evide nc ed when yo1mg can fade as children grow and fall back into the pack - either they underachieve or simp ly all ow t hemselves to become o rdinary. Unfortunately th.is can be highlighted by the tendency of pa.rents and schools to re.cord and measure everything. I t is common for even ver y young children to bave extensive portfolios managed by their parents.

have a certificate, therefore I am

There was a time once, when participation was valued for itself These days, putting o n a shirt at an athletics carnival wins house p o ints and bonuses. Entry into a mathematic s competition gets a certificate of participation, and in sporting contests the 'player o f the match' is rotated so that every child is a 'winner,' regard1ess of the effort they bave made. Over prai se leads to Lmderachievemenc and unde rm i1Jes resilience

Underachievement

It is common n owadays fo r parents to report that a child is underperforming That is, they believe that their child has far more ability tha.n is bein g manifest. They will say to tbe child, "W h y don't you jL1st see that if yo u tried harder, you would see how good you ca.n be" In saying this, the pa.rent hopes to 'tra nsmit' a value that will become intrinsic to the child. Alas, it i s rarely the case that what a parent values will be what the ir child also val ues, partic Ltla.rly while the child is still in schoo l. Why, for examp le, should a school child 'listen' if the teaching is insipid and uninspiring? Why should a child value 95 % , when 82% o r 73 % is good enough to them?

Wh y too, shmtld a child enjoy training for sport when a coach favours the children who appear to have greater ' natural' ability?

ln th is context, pa rents n eed to understand that children best learn when there is broad understanding of the factors li kely to encourage a.nd engender success

There are four values that all children and young adults mus t be taught if they are to consistently manifest to tl1eir true ab ility, or even i f they a.re to uncover ,vhat they are truly capable of. These values are d iscipline, openness, s trucrnre a.nd coac h ability.

1. Discipline

Never fret for the child who works hard, but does not achieve. Ed u cacors find hardworking smdents who achieve quite easy to mentor However, the student,

most admired arc those who work hard but do not achieve to tl1e standard they desire. The key factor that is admired is tenacity. Why? Because success in life comes to those who arc consistent a.nd disc iplined. Di scipline begins projects and finishes them off. Discipline sees so metl1.ing through to the end , and builds resilience a.nd strengtl1. l t a.lso builds s elfcon fidence. Inc identally, also neve r fret for the child who can focus for hours o n things that matter to them, but do not matter co you. The capacity to focus for h ours i s a facet of di scipline

2 . Opennesswillingness to try new things

A second key factor to build in young people is a capacity to be o pen to new things. Risk - caking can be scary, particularly for children to whom tl1ings come easily. To take risks requires allowi ng oneself to be open a.nd to be humble Humility makes a person learn empathy, understand others, le.'lrn from their mistakes and also the mistakes of others Hw11ili1:y is the basis of forgiveness when there arc misundersta ndings. Of course, humility cannot be taught t hrough self- righteousness, arrogance o r the intellect. Humility is the scuff of an open heart.

3 . Structure

The greatest of all achievers, tl1e ones who sustain success, have one thing in common Ability a.nd the capacity to app ly structure that develops, applies

and hones that ability. Structure is, i n effect, a.n extension of di scipli ne. Structure requires a person to have th~1ught about goals a.nd what is possibl e. Structure invests time in improvement and says, ''This matters, a.nd I a.m prepared to coalesce other things in m y life around the goals that l value"

4. Coachability

U nderachievement is overcome when people arc 'coa chablc'.

Thi s means that they believe they can learn from the expertise of ochers, a.ad they seek i t out. la essence, all peopl e seek mentors and g uides through their life. However, finding such a person ca.n be hard.

Underachievement and the key values

T oo often parents say tlrnt thei r children are underachievers - that tl1ey are not mani fesc:ing to their fuU ability. Howeve r, co have s uch an expectation may be misplaced. Achi evement should not be seen as an end, but rather as intrinsic to the process o f learning

If pa.rents focus on instilling values sud1 as discipline, structure, humility and coachabili ty in their children, they a.re g iving them a.II of the tools they need co utilise their na tural talents at their highest capacity. [n di.is way, the means takes ca re o f tl1e end. Success in li fe i s no t found solely io a school report, or in a troph y, ribbon or Speech r ighr list

Sometimes, true success comes from time and expe rience - from the stuff of life. Experience helps children to integrate the val ues tlrnt engender success.

Sweet and spice success

The miracle combination of honey and cinnamon is a cure for countless ailments

Do you find yourself going through medication after medication to cure a cold, an upset tummy or other illness but nothing seems to work?

Look n o further! You can zap diseases and boost your health with rwo mirac le ingredients char are probab ly sitting in your kitchencinnamon and honey!

Honey and cinnamon have been used in Ayurvedic medicine for centuries, and no\v scientists across the wo dd also accept honey and cinnamon as effective mecl.icine for all kinds o f diseases and disorders.

The m 1tcitional values of honey have been documented in Vedic, Greek, Roman, Christian, Islamic and other texts for centuries; all mentioning honey co be 'good'. According to scientists honey co ntain s powerful anti- bacteria.I properties which can fight against at leas c sixry species of bacte ria, unlike antibiotics which are useless against man y rypes of bacteria.

Honey i s made up with a number of vitamins and minerals such as cal.cium and iron amongst man y others, as weU as vita mins such as vitamin B and C. \Xlhen used topically, for wound dressings, as th e hooey dilutes wi th the bodil y Auids hydrogen peroxide is produced acting as an antiseptic.

Every time l have fallen ill with a co ld my parents a lways teU me co have a spoon full of honey As a yo ung g irl , whenever I feU ill, I remember how I absolutely used to dread diat spoon full of honey

first dung in the morning and before going to bed and never quite undersrood their fascination with honey even though it use to do the job. Now I do. So the next rime ym1're ill and someone re.Us yo u co have a spoon fuU of honey chink of all of the good that one spoon of h oney, is doing to your health and body.

Cinnamon on the odier hand, is an ingredient I absolutely love, whedier ground or whole, cinnamon is one fragrant, warm and versatile spice which can b e used in bod1 sweet and savoury foods.

Cinnamon is obtained From die bark of several trees and for centuries h as been believed to have meclicinaJ properties from die essen rial oils found in the bark, and was used co cure sn.akebi tes, common colds, and kidney troubles to name a few.

So you might be won dering how these two miracle ingredients can benefit you?

Here are a few of the benefits when both ingredient.~ are combined together.

Heart ~as,e Create a paste of honey and cionamon powder and apply to bread/toast or chappati regulady for breakfast. This wil.l reduce cholesterol and keep you mile s away from a heart attack. This also revitalises di e arteries and veins and stre ngthen s the heartbeat.

lnsect bites A paste of one part

honey, rwo part.5 luke warm water and a small teaspoon of cinnamon powder massaged onto the itcJi.ing bite is said to relieve d1e pain tnscandy.

Arthritis

To cure chroo.ic arthritis cake a cup of hot water with two spoons of honey and a small teaspoon of cinn amon powder twice a day regulad y llair loss Apply a paste of hot o live oil, a tablespoon of h o n ey and one teaspoon of cinnamon powder to your hair before taking a bath, and keep in for approximately 15 minutes.

Bladder i nfection Take two cab le spoons of cinnamon powder and one teaspoon of hooey in a g lass of lukewarm water and drink This will kill bacteria and germs in me bladd er.

Tootbo.dia

Make a paste using these cwo ingredients and apply to the affected area at least three rimes a day.

Do you want to buy a business in Australia which req uires very littl e effort to manage

Cholesterol Mix two table spoons of hooe y w ith three teaspoons of cinnamon powder. It is also said diac having a spoon full of pure honey with a meal daily relieves cholesterol.

This is one that I'm familiar with, although instead of cinnamon, I was always given a spoo n full of honey with mrmeric powder or made to mix honey into warm water and drink

Colds Take a tablespoon of lukewarm honey with some cinnamon powder regularly It is said that this will instancly cure coughs and colds and help you bread, easyily once again

lnfen!Jhy

For men: I t is said that caking a tablespoon of honey before going to bed will solve al.I problems. For· ,vomen: lo countries such as China and Japan, women w ho are unable to conceive take a pinch of cirrnamon powder and half a teaspoon of honey and rub diis o n dieir gums. This is said to strengdien the ute rus

There are many odier facrors for which these two ingredients are said co work as miracle healing aid, amongst which are: stomach upsets, pimples, skin infections, cancer, bad bread1, hearing loss and many many more the list i s almost endless!

So die next ti.me you fall ill and find medication just isn't doing clie trick, rry giving your body a spoon full of sweetness and spice!

MEDIUM, CLAIRVOYANT AND SPIRITUAL HEALER

Renouncin eroc

Confronting the Mahatma reveals the greater truth of his principles of non-violence

My father was a farmer and we grew cotton. While we we re n o t rich, we had a comfortable livin g just on tbe outskirts o f A hm edabad. I had enjoyed a carefree childhood playing witl1 the v illage children and under the care of loving parents. I t was a happ y home and while we knew that die British ruled our homeland, it was not of any real significance. Generations of our ancestors bad served one master or the ocher. The Maharajas, the MoghuJs and even our village head, all expected some kind of obedience, so it was easy to transfer tha t dependence and loyalty to the British.

During those frrst five years of my live, I bad not e,, en seen a 'British sahib' though m y mum often spoke of our 'Queen Victoria,' and m y teacher showed us a painting of her at schoo l.

It was when l was five and a balf, chat an inciden t happened that would change tl1e course of my life and would sec it on a patl1 where 1 would see g reat struggle, offer immense sacrifice and live to see evenmal success. As a nation we would find freedom and evennially become 'independent'.

I remember one afternoon , when die village rs came running 26

to our home. They brought m y fatl1er in tl1eir bullock cart. His white km-ta was stained with his blood and h is Jeft e ye had been swo llen shut. My mother began wailing even before she came out of her room. The villager explained what had happened, for m y fatl1er who was still in shock, was unable to speak for himsel f.

The two villagers who had accompanied m y father to the city to sell out cotton had w itnessed it all. They were b oarding th e u·ain atAhmedabad station when m y father was sco pped from entering, even though he and his men had bookings. When he asked that they permit him to enter, he was pushed to die ground. When he tried to reboard his compartment, be was beaten up by tbe guards who were accompanying the niece of the local 's ahib'. They told him chat no Indian could travel in tl1e same comparm1enr as the Sahib's niece. My father should have let it be, but remembering a similar incident that o ccurred with Gandhiji, be was determined to make a st.'lnd. A stand that ultimately cost him his left eye.

My father never regretted that move. Instead he called it the day 'he truly began to see,' because for the fust time he saw India for what she was, a mere mistress to an alien monarch.

Two da ys after th at incident, mere was much anger among die village rs and I too carried a rock to tl1row at die next 'sah ib' tl1at crossed m y path. Many s poke of burning tlieir homes and of abductions My father remained

calm , bur did not object to what was being suggested.

On tl1e fourth day after die incident, I beard great commotion coming from die road leading into o ut village There were more than twenty people coming o n foot. At die front was a strange man, skinny, bald, wearing glasses and a p lain white dhoti. I heard someone call o ut, 'Gandhiji is coming!' l ran and hid behind m y father, and watched as the villagers began to gather around my fatl1er too.

As the man reached my father, I saw my father rise. It was the first time that he had stood up si nce he was brought home after the attack He cried to touch the man's feet but was instead pulled imo his embrace. And tl1e man said, "Yo u silly man, did m y experience n ot teach you any thin g?" Then after a smile he added, "But I am g lad, you stood up for your right!"

Gandhiji spent that e,, en.ing at our bome along with his twenty fo ll owers. We had a simple communal m eal and everyone helped in cleao.i.og up. Then we sac outside as someone sang Raghupati &igh11v Raja Ra11J, one of Gandhiji's favourite bhaja11s. Our counyard was already full, but more and more peop le kep t coming from the neighb ou ring villages. Finally tl1ere were too many to fit inside our walls, so we g arnered around die local well instead.

There, Gandhiji talked of his dream of a free India, of an independent India and of his wish tO see die British leave Indian so il. Seated near my father, I s h outed,

" Then let us al] throw stones at them and make diem go away!"

Gandhiji froze and looking directl)' at me said , "And that will make you no better clian th ose that hit your fatl1er''.

He tbe n added, " To kill for freedom will legitimise killing after freedom".

\"Xlhen I continued to maintain my silence he added in a softer cone, "Do you not see child, chat 'an eye for au eye' will make the who le world bli nd?"

He continued, "1 need volunteers who will fight for a free India, but tliey must come \Vith the commiunenc co non- violence and a promise to honesty. lf there is anyone here who cannot commit to these principles, do n ot join my cause. D o n ot pollute it with hatred and anger I w ish co free my homeland , not enslave it to a greater evil".

My five-year-old mind could nor decipher its true meaning, bL1t I know that tl1e rock fell &om my hand and I have never lifted o ne up again.

The entire gathering chanted witli one voice, " \Ve give you chat promise, Bapu. Lead us to independence and we will follow as yo ur non -violent army!"

And so, ] too gave my pledge. I walked in tl1e Dandi Salt March alongs ide m )' pa.rents I visited my father i.n jail on so many occasions, tl1at l almo st felt incarcerated too. I even learned to ,veave cotton on a cbmkht, or spinning wheel as Bapu did. I wrote patriotic so ngs and J o nly wore a white garment.

At e,, ery step of th.is movement, I knew tl1at history was be ing made and that I was a part of it. l was part of an India mat had served its queen with love and devotion, but which now wanted to respectfully severe tliose ties and stand o n irs own An India that wamed to decide its own fun1re w itli 'Self-Rule'!

I am now 83. Like Bapu, l walk with a stick and 1 wear glasses Like him, l sit in my little home, spinning tl1e wheel and watching independent India revolve around me.

I still have great hopes for the country mat was so loved by 'die fatl1er of the nation'. I have dreams of it being restored ro its former glory But I have great fears too. That just as Bapn was gunned down when tl1e couutry most needed him, I fear m y free India will be enslaved by greed and corruption. Th e only way to stop th is is to keep that struggle for non -Yiolem alive.

1/Jis is a work officnou. Most co1111ersfl1io11s m-e p11rt ofthe lllltbor's i111ngiuarion .

I ree

Indian Independence Day cuisine, done with a fair dinkum Aussie twist

ostofus

M• already have : 0 tLr favouri te • • dishes to whip : up fo r friends : and famil)' for Independence Day : But what about dishes for o ur Aussie friends? Here are some recipe ideas to share w ith them to get them into the mood (o r for us if we're feeling a little bit creative).

Although it's hard to pin-point exactly what Australian cuisine is (no -one really seems sure about this one), it's even harder to think about what yo u cou ld combine to make an Aussie-Indian fusion meal. There could be some real disasters waiting to happen - like adding vegemite to hi1ya11i (eww)

or tandoori chicken to lamington s : (ok - that's taking it a bit coo far!) .

But the diversity of flavours in Indian cooking mean s that tl1ey can jazz up lots of Aussie favourites. Before you start reading die recipes, go and get some chapatis and spread with butter and Vegemite to get yo u in tl1e mood. Here are fun options:

•

. : Independence Day pie

: This recipe could eas ily be

• swapped witli most curry options.

• Serves 8

• : Pie ftlli11g

: 1 crushed garlic glove

: l 1 curry l eaves

: 1 long, hot, finel y chopped chilli

: (or more if you prefer)

• 6cm of ginger, finel y chooped

1 Lps hot engli sh mustard

1 small onion, finely d1opped

: 1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds

: 200g goat (or other meat)

Freedom dessert

There are many clifferent options for this one. Bue che ide::i is to take a traditional Indian recipe for something sweet (like barft s11khd1; chheflt1poda, l11dd11, shiro, pakhctla, rosgulla, etc.) and combine with crushed pieces of pavlova (either store bought or home made) or larnington (either store bought or home made), and serve wicli icecream with an Indian and Australian flag scuck in it.

:

fenugreek and curr y leaves and cook for a few minutes. Combine witli remaining ingredients

: 1 tsp olive oil

1 00g cauliflowe r, cut inco small : pi eces

• 300g chickpeas

2 tomatoes, finel y diced

Pas!iy

250g chilled butter

1 egg, beaten

500g plai n flour

: Preheat oven to 200 C. In a Er ypan

: add oil, garlic, chilli and ginger and

: fry tm til co loured. Add mustard,

Pastry : sift tlie flour with a pinch of sal t. Rub in butter with fingertips until pastry comes rogether witl1 tl1e water. Dust Aour over a clean work bendi rolling pin and roU clie pastry our to 3 mm in thickness, after dividing into 2 sections. Butter a pie pan and place pastry (wor ked to a round shape) co bottom of pan. Cut off any excess pastry on tl1e edges with a knife

Place filling into pie pan. Place section piece of pastry over the top and brush the top of the pastry w itl1 a little beaten egg. Press the edges d o,vn w itb your fingertips o r a fork.

Bake for around 30-35 minutes until golden.

Senre with a mint and 1oghurt side.

: Nutella naans

: Serves 8

: This is a 5j1nple o ne, bu t a good

•

• one.

: 8 naans (ei ther store bought or

: made at home)

: 1 jar of Nutella (or si.111.ilar)

: 200g icing sugar

I punnet of strawberries/ or 2 bananas

Sim pl)' thickly spread nutella onto 11aa11 bread. Slice strawberries/ bananas o n top and dust with icing sugar.

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ana

1veu to its e's ectations?

The Congress strategy to create a separate state could mean an election win, but losses for its denizens, writes

PARTHASARTHYCHAGANTY

Members of the Australia Telangana Forum welcome the recent announcement of Telangana as India 's 29t h state

At 66, Mocher In@ gees read y for the 29th baby. So ran the headline in an Indian national daily, highlighting the Congress party's decision co carve Telengana out of Andhra Pradesh as the 29th state of the Indian U nion, in the 66th year of Independence. The modalities need ro be worked out, which could cake about four m o nths, before the new state comes imo being, bm no difficul ty is envisaged as the move has wide support across the political spectrum.

The demand for a separate Telengana state is about half a century old, with periodic agitations of varying intensity in its support. And it is more than tbree years si nce the government announced in December 2009, its firm resolve to address the issue. The Justice Srikrishna Commiss ion, constinaed in its wake, was not categorical witb its reco mmendations but its report v iewed bifurcation with disfavour,

its preference being greater autonom y and increased resource allocation for the region within the ambit of the existing unified state. However, d1e governmem had not acted on the report and continued to dither, bedevilled as it was widi multip le corruption scandals, apart from odier preoccupations.

\1(/ith die general elections looming (due in May 2014), and fearing a rapid erosion o f its electoral base, the Congress was probably desperate to get a move on, and hence the sudden urge to grant statehood to Telengana.

The party se ems to have strud, a deal with TRS (Telengana Rashtra Samid1i) , the force behind die latest agitacion for a separate state. Even if die two parties do not me rge immediately, die y are sure to contest on a common p latform and are expected co sweep the poUs, capturing most of die 17 Lok Sabha seats and 119 assembly seats that the region offers. l c is a foregone conclusion chat diere \\~ll be a backlash agai n st d1e pany in tbe rest of the state, compris ing

coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema , which account for no fewer than 25 Lok Sabha seats, bes ides 175 assembly seats. That the Congress bas vi.rmally given up on this larger area, being content with its prospeccive ho ld o n Telengana, appears co be indicative of the party's l ow morale radier dian any weU thought-out strategy.

In such a scenario, the clear winner appears to be Jagan (mo niker for Jaganmohan Redd y), chief of d1e YSR Congress, the party named after his late fadier and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy Jagan has the advan tage of being cons istent in his opposition to the formation of Te lengana, unlike die major regional party, TDP (Telugu Desarn Party), and the major nati o nal parry, BJP. Jagan has been embroiled in corruption cases and may not even be able to contest elections as per a recent Supreme Court order, but diat is not likely to come in his way. otwithstanding the grandstanding of duly "hurt"

Congress ivfPs and ivrLAs from th is area, some of whom could in face be res igning their sears, the Congress will have no alternative bm to come to terms widi him. He will acquire die kind of done now enjoyed b y Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mayawati by virtue of their outside support to die gover11D1ent. If die Congress had been more accommodative of Jagan in the wake of his father's death and not driven him away from its fold, the party may not have had to concede Telengana, bm histor y is not about conn terfacmals.

ArgLUnems like smaUer states being mo re amenable to effective administration are just academic. Issues like division of sta tes will almost invariably be based on poli tical considerations in a democracy. Therefore, it is futile to deride the Congress' decision on Telengana as political oppormnism. But a major concern here is diat the main protagon ist, K. Chandrasekhara Rao, chief of TRS, who is sure to wield enormous influence in running tbe fledgling state, at least in the initial rears, is noc known for his integrity or administrative experience. And his party seems to have thrived on extorrion dllting the past few year s, hence die nuanced agi tacion, which pe rrn.itted the Congress to sit on the issue for years.

People from Telengana have often comp lained abom '' loss of jobs" It is not that people from the region are at present discriminated against: what they want is a distinct preference for sons of tbe soil - and tliis is where the rub lies. A major national party l ike d1e Congress owes it to i tself to check the parochial tendencies of its ally and ensure peace and harmony.

Considering diat H yderabad, which will serve as a joint capital fo r the rwo states for the first

''Even if the two parties (Congress and TRS) do not merge immediately, they are sure to contest on a common platform and are expected to sweep the polls, capturing most of the 17 Lok Sabha seats and 119 assemb ly seats that the reg ion otrers

''IO ye ars and diat the city is not even going to be a union terr itory in die interim peciod, people from Andhra could suddenly fi nd themselves reduced to the status o f second class citizens in d1e megalopolis, which has been home to millions of them. Every ca re s hould, therefore, be taken to ensure diat Andhras do not feel alienated and there is no flight of capital or business from d1e city. The first few years are bound to be marked b y mrmo il, but it is to be hoped chat Telengana, which is well-endowed in terms of natural resources, will eventua lly come to occupy a p roud place among states and prove that the sacrihces made by thousands to realise the dream have not been in vain.

Celebrate Independence Day with your very own lndo Australian fusion creation

'Indian women; chis one's a nobrainer fusion l ook for sure! Quirk it up by pairing tl1e kurti top with coordinated co loured denim.

' BY KALYANI WAKHARE

Itis remarkable bow we are influenced by the fashion and style of the country we live in, and how easily we adapt this in to our own personal sryle over time. However, our cultural heritage is timeless and so very special to us that we look fonvard to celebrating festivals and occas ions, and love sporting traditional outfits to these.

Typically, weekdays probab ly see you Lil pencil skirts and pantsuits busy ar work, or tunics and leggings paLted with boors, rushing to finish numerous errands, before you pi ck up the kid s from s choo l.

Sometimes, I'm sure that like me, you wait eagerly for that weekend soiree to dress up in a gorgeous s ui t o r sw ish arotmd in an exquisite s,m1 Don't we all love an occasion to flatmt our spl endid Indian wardrobe and jewellery co match!

Ever wondered how you'd successfully sport an IndoAu ssie fusion look that is effortless ly chic? Come a day like Independence Day, it's your perfect chance to try a new lookl

Contemporary Australian fashion i s all about looking and feeling sty li sh in a relaxed and smart- casual manner. Traditionall y inspired by the Far East more so than Europe, J\ustralian fash ion has always included prints and flowing forms in the ir outfits. And that's what makes the fusion challenge much easier!

The key to a great fusion outfit is co b lend tl1e l ndian piece seaml ess ly; trying too bard or adding coo many pieces will only ruin the look So how do you do it? Here ar e fou r easy pointers to get the look righr.

1. Indian prints

Indian prints are so distinct and charming tbat yo u would create an instant winner witl1 delicate paisley printed pants or a ha11dba11i (tie and dye) skirt. The rest of your o u tfit can then be fairl y plain w ith a neutra l coloured Aowing top, paired with a smai:t tote hag. One coul d safely say that p rinted kmtis paLted witl1 jeans is al.most I.be uniform for co ntemporary u.rban

2 . Colou r

\Vhen we think of Independence Day, the co lours that come to mind su·aight away are saffron, white a nd green. Can yo u actually team tl1ese up to create a l.ook dedicated to patriotism? Ok, it's not as outrageous as i t sounds. One way to do it elegantly is to just wear a white or beige shirt w itl1 jeans, and throw in a subdued green scarf and a lovely baigara mirror-work orange bag Wear your fancy wedges or sandal s and finish tl1is look in style witl1 a pretty ser of silver and oxidised metal bangles

3 Jewellery That brings us to d1e next and perhaps one o f the most important elements of an Indian look, jewellery. Statement necklaces are all the rage righ t now and you'll be surprised how easy tl1ese are to work into a shirt 'n' jeans look, or even with a pretty evening dress Indian jewellery is so versatile be ic k1111da11, delicate gold and silver, or pearls. You can instandy glam u p an ourht w ith pretty stone earrings, intricate bracelets or tantalising anklets.

4 Accessories

If you are not abl e to identify your s1:yle in any of the above, I'm sure th is o n e will have you n odding ) Our head and smiling, because it can't get simp ler tlian tl1is Ye e 1 promise these accessories can't be underestimated ac all! I'm talking about scarves w ith Indian prints and colours; just adding this one piece to an outfit w ill in srandy make your fus ion loo k compl ete, irrespective of whether it's silk, wool o r chiffon. The other easy accessory is an exclusive Indian dutch with embellishments, perfect arm cand y, you will agree! And lase but not least is footwear. Attractive lndian sandals, rllf]i-is or k.olhapmi chappals all work magic in an Indian fusion look. So go out there with confidence, sporting a fusion outfit to your Independence Day gathering-and leave your friends spellbound by your super-stylish l ook!

1an cu1s1ne

Common misconceptions about Indian food are that it's too spicy, oily or takes too long to make

Indi an cuisine is more than 7,000 ye ars old and has survived many cultural and geographical changes. It has evolved significantly over tl1e years, gaining in richness and variety iliroug h tl1e influence of vario u s traveUers and invaders over ilie years, rather than losing its identity

Early Indians ace nantral food, w hile frui t, wild berries, meat and fish were che main foods of the nomadic people But now witl1 modernisation, development of communica tio n , i nfrastructure, information technology and globalisation, global food is easily available such as pastas and spaghetti from Italy, tl1e ever-popular ch01v111ei11 from China, tacos and enchiladas from Mexico, continental pizzas and burgers, French Aambe, ro name just a popular fe\\r.

But most of us thinJ( t hat Indian food is coo spicy o r oily, and involves a long and tedious cooking process. So i s thi s really true or a misconception? Another factor iliac .inHuences popular perception of l.ndian food is chat many people's exposure to this cuisine is in restau.rants th at o ften prepare dishes jusc co make tl1em tasty and easy co prepare. Here are some the misconceptions abom Indian cuisine.

Indian curries

All Indian foods are n or 'curries ' as most of tl1e people mink. Curry is a word that was invented b y tl1e British co describe a dish tl1at is made with a b lend of several spices Curry powder is a b lend of differen t spices, and is not the key i ngredient to every Ind ian dish. \Xlbar is often used however, is a b lend called gara!fl 111asala, which is added to man y dishes but not all, and often in combination with other spices and Havou.rs. Each is different, and a lot of fami lies like to make their own.

Hot and spicy

Although Indian food o ften contains a lot of spices , chis doesn't make every dish spicy. Ch illies are just an option when making an Indian dish, and can easily be o mitted or added as per your l iking and ta ste. Another misconception is that there have

co be four to five, o r even more co ndimems and spices in every dish However, chis is not true as sometimes even one condiment can enhance and Aavour a dish, such as roasted and ground cumin seeds in ntilas.

High in fat, rich and oily

A dish can vary depending on who makes it, like any o tl1er cuisine. A lot of Indian cuisine might seem rich, but this doesn't necessarily mean fac; as with any national cuisi ne, lndian food also has its rich and decadent dishes.

When preparing Indian food at home, omit as mucb fat as you like, adding just as mucb oil as you prefer, depending on your choice.

Crean1 can be replaced with yoghurt. Ghee or clarified butter is also not an essential ingredient in any food and agai n , the quantity depends on you. You can also prepare rhe dish by ro asting, steaming o r grilling and therefore cutting om added fat while retaining maximum nutrition.

Of course, hldian cooking also includes a Joe of vegetabl es a nd spices such as ginger, garlic, nu:meric and chilli, all of which have medicinal qualities. Not co mention the fre sh nes s o f ingredients in Indian cuisine.

Long and tedious

Though ] ndian dishes may appear compl ex, there is really n o additional process in cooking them, than there may be wi th any other meal. Nor is tl1e cooking time an y longer. Most Indians like to prepare their foods from scratch , even d own co preparing their own masa!tis rather than using co mmerci al produces or pre- mi.. es. This is what adds more time ro d1e cooking process, but helps you to eat healthier food and avoid preservatives. le is just like preparing the bread, sauces and meat at home co make a simple hamburger. Try out a recipe like cbicken o r fish tikhi and yo u 'll see h ow simple it is co make delicious Indian food. Most grocery sco res would have the ingredients needed co prepare these simp le dis hes. Like all cuisi nes, there are techniques to learn for proper cooking, bm once learned, man y popular Indian dishes can be fixed quickly and easily. Also, standard d is h es a nd utensils can be L1sed co fix meals with no special equipment required.

All Indians are vegetarians

Although Indian food has ve ry refined, delicious and diverse of

vegeta rian dishes, there are also locs of wonderfuUy prepared mea t dishes as weU. India's religious b elie fs and cul ttu:e have inHuenced d1e evolution of many o f irs dishes. Cows are considered sacred by Hindus, but goat, chicken and fish are quite popular Even a meat- eater can enjoy Indian vegecacian dishes. As per the food py ramid, half of your dietary inta ke should be fruit and vegetables, you.r intake of protein sh ou ld include beans and nuts, and your meat porti ons should be l ean and small. This is a perfect march for an Ind ian food diet.

All Indian foods are similar Traditio n, echnicit:y, geographic location, relig ion and individual preferences all play a major ro le in Indian cuisine Each region and culnire in lndia has its own unique specialties and exclusive style of cooking. Use of ingredients is influenced by race, religion, history and geograp h y, and each person preparing the dish adds thei r own special much and flavour ro it. Punjab is famo us for its 71/akki ki 1·oti and saag, the use of dairy products and also for its use of the tandoor. Whereas

in the arid areas of Rajasd1an and Gujarat, a great variety of dai s and preserves (acha rs) are used co sub stitute the lack o f fresh vegetables and fruit. Goans boast of delicac ies like cangy pork vindaloo, the ever-popular Goan fish cmry witl, rice, whereas Bengal's greatest contr ibution to the food heritage of India is a magnificent spectrum of sweets mad e fro m mil k and cued. RasognlltJ g11/ub jmmm, cbam challl, 111altti s1md1vich, chentt 11111rki, mwrka!i, rtfihhog - me list of moutl1-ware.ri ng delicacies is endless. Dosa, id/i, wda and bonda w id1 sambbar from d1e soutl1 are famous aU over India. Soud1 Indian chutneys are made o f tamarind, coconut, peanms, dal , fenugreek seeds, and cilantro. Do we still ch.ink Indian food is aU the same?

lndian food has become steadil y more prevalent in recent years d1roughouc the western world , bringing with it bocb p opularity and misconcepti o ns. Knowing the actual options available, yo u can prepare a healtl1y m eal to c over tl1e various tas t es of your guests, and enrich the quality of food in your pers o nal diet.

SEEKING GROOMS

Seeking Sikh boy for Sikh Kamboj girl 5'2' /1980 post graduate. Brother and sister well settled abroad, good cultured family. Contact: + 91 9464 117 500. Email: parampawan5@yahoo.com

SEEKING BRIDES

Fijian Indian male Australian citizen in mid forties invites corresp ondence from single Indian females (no kid s) for marriage, and to settle in

Melbourne. If interested please Looking for a suitable match for my 37 -year-old contact on: 0478 083 457. Gujarati sister. Honest, beautiful, educated, issue

less divorc e. Has cust ody of a child, currently living in India. Sincere responses w elcomed from a well settled and educated Hindu family. Please email details with a re ce nt photo to: dipmis$0@ yahoo.com.au or call on : 0414 096 162.

Seeking suitable match for 36-year-o ld, who works for a multinationa I company in a senior position (chartered accountant) Values both Indian and western culture. Seeking Hindu professional man, preferably from a well settled family. Please email: ganesh2011 v@gmail.com

Well settled family in Australia invi tes alliance for 26-year- old, 5"7, Punjabi girl (Australian Citizen), working as a lawyer for the Australian government. Seeking Indian boy, caste no bar. Please send biodata/ particulars of boy t o: fordsyd88@gmail.com

Parents seeking suitable match for Sikh Ramgarhia clean shaven boy, born 1/ 03/1987, 5'6 ½''. Working as a manager in hotel, h e is a Permanent Resident of Australia. Contact 9814 877 267 (India) or 0430 310 632 (Australia). Email: singhinde rjit2014@gmail com

Looking for appropriate match for my brother from a Kadva Pat el Gujarati family who currently resid es in India. 32-yea rs-old, 5'5", fair skin, never married. Well-educated, non smoker/ non drinker. Always r espe cts family values and culture Caste no bar. Responses welcome from India or Australia. Residential status is immaterial. Please e mail your bio data to: hiral_patel 109@yahoo.com or call m e on: 0433 156 883

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ARIES March 21 - April 19

This month you will have a tendency to spend far too much You are usually very careful with your finances so make sure you do not overspend. The cards are showing that you will be spending time with loved ones and friends and want to keep everyone happy. You may be feeling a little restless in your job. Speak to you superiors for a better position. Look after your health and eat healthy foods.

TAURUS Apr i l 20 - May 20

The cards are indicating a time of change around you You may be looking at moving home or work. However, wo r k will be satisfying later in the month , you just need to keep your mind on the job. There are a lot of things on your mind and a feeling of being restless You will have some challenging moments in your relationships

GEMINI May 21 - June 20

This month is going to be very interesting for you You may be thinking of taking a holiday or a break which you badly need Take time out to solve difficult situations with your loved ones. With regard to your home, the cards are indicat ing some plans to get new furniture or decorative items. If you have started a gym regime, keep it up, as you need to keep an eye on your health

CANCER June 21 - July 20

This month you will be very energetic and feeling good about yourself The cards are indicating you may have some fluctuations in your health, so make sure you keep your health in peak condition Keep you r checkups up-to-date. Be careful not to get into any financial commitments that you do not want to get into. At work you will achieve great headway and your superiors will notice your good work.

LEO July 21 - Aug 22

This month the cards are showing a time of passion in every aspect of your life. You will be looking at new projects and working with all your efforts towards creating a more balanced working life If you are in a relationship, you r focus will be on making things comfortable at home. The first half of the month will be frustrating as you will want to spend time with others, but family commitments will come first.

VIRGO Aug 23 - Sep 22

This month sees your enthusiasm on super tu rbo charge. You will be feeling very loved and wanted, as you have some lovely caring friends around you There is also a special person who is showing you the right signals. There will be some developments with a project or work you are hoping to start. Children will be a little restless this month, as there are some problems at school that need to be dealt with

LIBRA Sep 23 - Oct 22

The cards are indicating a time of putting a lot of plans into action You have been thinking about making major changes at home, with your work/ family life balance. , Financially you will feel a bit more relaxed, as you have enough to pay for your outgoings You may have to get yout car seen to, as it may need to be serviced Romantically, you will be wanting a lot of attention this month.

SCORPIO Oct 23 - Nov 21

The cards are showing a great hunger for success this month. You will be enthusiastic and motivated to achieve anything. Those of you who are working in the education field will be particularly successful this month You may think of taking up a course to learn some new skills. Your energy levels will be high and you will be feeling rather happy Maintain an exercise regime

SAGITTARIUS Nov 22 - Dec 21

This month the cards are indicating a great month for career advancement and new possibilities There will also be travelling this month, and you may decide to look at the possibility of a venture in another country. Financially you are managing to save a little money and you are feeling good about that. Your love life needs to be spiced up boredom sets in with you Saggi's.

CAPRICORN Dec 22 - Jan 19

This month you will be looking at ways of increasing your income You will also be feeling healthy and relaxed as you are taking good care of your health and trying to lose those extra pounds The cards are also indicating a time of travel. You will be thinking of purchasing a house or maintaining your current premises. There are a lot of exciting changes coming up for you this month.

AQUARIUS Jan 20 - f=eb 18

This month you will be feeling restless as there is a lot of pressure on you at work You will have to take care and J get enough rest as you have a lot of demanding work and projects to handle. Take care when driving, especially if you , drive a red car. There is some news relating to a health test you took, which will be favourable. You will find little time for relaxing The heat is on.

PISCES f=eb 19 - March 20

The cards are showing a time when you will be t aking more interest in spirituality meditation and chanting of some kind You will be feeling stressed out, so will need to relax your mind and body Taking a massage will be a very good idea. Relationships are a little on and off, but you need to decide what you really want. Start a savings plan

SRK FOR SYDNEY!

So the rumours are true! Shahrukh Khan, Bollywood's most l oved personality, is due to come to our shores for Parramasala.

There was much buzz about th is, with the Indian Link office taking a few calls by fans who wanted to find out if this was true The authorities when asked were tight-lipped, giving us the feeling that something was abuzz.

Apparently, SRK was asked, and the Sydney authorities were waiting for him to get back to them

So, get set for SRK, Sydney!

The mighty King Khan wil l be here for Parramasala 4-7 October, the Premier of NSW Barry O'Farrell announced.

He will headline a two - hour Indian variety show of music, dance and comedyTemptation Reloaded as part of the Festival.

Parramasala is NSW's arts and culture festival centred around Sydney's South Asian population which was launched two years ago It includes free concerts and performances, exhibitions, food and handicrafts markets, and a communities stage

While it started off with much promise, last year's event was decidedly l acklustre, and no doubt the message was brought home loud and clear that a 'celebrity' was needed to infuse more enthusiasm

Well, who better than SRK to bring in the bums on seats!

M r O'Farrell observed at the announcement on July 31 ;'Shahrukh Khan's show wil l attract an audience not on l y of Indian origin, but will also appea l to his fans overseas including Fiji, Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia In addition to international visito rs, we are also expecting SRK and the Temptation Reloaded show to attract more than 5,000 people from Sydney and interstate"

"Temptation Reloaded offers a unique cu ltural experience and it is a great event for Western Sydney with many hotels and restaurants expected to reap the tourism rewards;' Mr O'Farrell added

SRK's popularity is not lost on the Premier, a Twitter fan himself, who could not help noting that"Shahrukh Khan has more than four million Twitter followers and is one of the most popular and influential Bollywood actors''.

SRK will no doubt be a coup for Dr Hari Harlnath, Parramasala Chairman, who has been looking at ways to make the event more profitable since taking over last year.

Temptation Reloaded will be held at All phones Arena Homebush on Monday 7 October.

The making of Madras Cafe

It's a long awaited spy thriller w ith loads of act ion, but will appeal only to a selective audience, admits John Abraham when describing his soon -to -be released second co-produced film.

With no confusion or ambiguity in his mind, model-actor-producer Joh n Abraham is aggressively promoting Madras Cafe, saying it is not a multiplex movie and that he is targeti ng a selective audience who can appreciate it.

After his first successful production venture Vicky Donor, this is his second film and he is al so acting in it

"We are not trying to make our film a mass entertainer;' John said recently "I am an actor and can make 10 other mass entertainers, but t h is film is to reach out to a specific audience and I don't have a problem with t h at''.

The politica l thriller is directed by Shoojit Sircar Explaining the concept, John stated, "This is not Welcome Back or Dostana where you get your audience For this film, you have to search for your audience. I am sure people will appreciate the effort that we have put in; at least that's the intention with w h ich we have done it. I hope it does not go unnoticed''.

Describing the movie John said, "I am sure peopl e down south wi ll appreciate what we have done. It's a story about an agent an d the story is told from h is point of view. We researched for it for six years and it has honest content The 30-pl us audience will relate to this film immediately''.

Meanwhile, Nargis Fakhri is excited about her lead role in which she plays a war journalist. She says it was wonderful to l earn about the real women who r isk their lives on war fronts to get truth across to people.

"My experie n ce of working on Madras Cafe was intense and i nteresting, like doing a lot of background work on what these women do _. I think most of us watch the news and we don't really care what's going on in the wor ld," said the 33-year-old in an interview recently.

"It was great for me to do so much research on certain events that happened as well as l earning about these amazing women that are out in the field, in a war zone risking their l ife to get truth out to us," she added Nargis believes Madras Cafe is very different from typical Bollywood fare

"It was a wonderful experience where I play a journalist, an on-field war correspondent. This film is very different from typical Hindi films;' she added Also part of the cast is model-turnedactress Raashi Khanna, a tinseltown beauty, but by her own admission, a geek Th is gradu ate in English Honours from Delhi's Lady Shri Ram College is currently

NARGIS fAKHRI

doi ng her masters in psychology Raashi plays the wife of an army officer (John Abraham) in the film.

John is obvious ly proud of Madras Cafe, but doesn't want to use Boll ywood's new yardstick of the Rs 100 crore club to measure its success.

"All Rs.100 crorefilms are not the greatest fi l ms. There are Rs 20 crore to Rs.30 aore films that are bri l liant,"he said.

Well, good l uck to Madras Cafe, let's hope it's a thriller at the box office.

Naseer nugget

Naseeruddin Shah has always been one of the most revered and respected veteran actors in Boll ywood So when he makes a pronouncement about anyone else in the pack, people sit up and take notice This time Naseer had something to say about actor Arshad Warsi, with whom he worked with for lshqiya.

"Arshad is one of the finest actors we have today He is the most secure actor in Bollywood He is very sure about himself;' Nasser said in an interview recently. Nasser, who will once again be seen with Arshad in lshqiya seque l Dedh lshqiya, said his co-star doesn't take himself too seri ously, a trait that he finds admirable. The Abhishek Cha ubey directed 2010 lshqiya featured Vidya Balan in the lead role, but for the sequel the director has roped in Madhuri Dixit for the female lead. He has also cast Huma Quresh i in it Talking abo u t the sequel, Naseer said, "We have shot al most the entire film, now the dimax portion is left, which w ill be shot soon. The sequel has nothing to do with the first one. It's altogether a different story:'

So wi ll Dedh /shqiya be as popular as the original, with these two bigwigs in it? Well , let's wait and see

Riteish the romantic!

Lucky Genelia D'Souza, she seems to have found a w inner in hubby Riteish Deshmukh Their love story is as Bollywood as it can get - the Masti star made sure he sent a telegram to h is wife

PRATEI KBABBAR

on the day that the 160-year-old service ca me to an end.

"Received my 1st telegram on the last day of its service from my navra (husband). Thank u Riteish #happy me;'Genelia posted on her Twitter page.

She even posted a part image of the special telegram sent by her romantic and thoughtful hubby! The telegram service faded into history on July 15.

Riteish and Genelia were rumoured to have been in a relationship since they featured together in their debut film TujheMeri Kasam in 2003. Neither of them confirmed their romantic liaison, but they finally sealed their relationship by tying the knot in 2012. Theirs certainly seems to be an enduring love story Apart from Tujhe Meri Kasam, the duo has worked together on the big screen in Mastiand the more recent Tere Naal Love Ho Gaya

The boys of Bollywood could pick up a few romance pointers from Riteish, I'm sure!

GENELIA D'SOU Z A

Al 's a pal, says Akshay

Of all the unlikely people watching Bollywood's buzz, would you believe Al Paci no has actually seen Akshay Kumar in a promo of Once Upon Ay Time In Mumbai Dobaara!? And apparently, Akshay's role reminded Hollywood superstar A l Pacino of his own blockbuster, The Godfather.

Naturally, Akshay is thrilled that a person of Pacino's stature noticed his film.

"It feels good that such a big star ta lks about our film and it's a big thing for our industry;'the 44-year-o ld said recently.

Al Pad no played Michael Corleone, son ofVito, played by Marlon Brando, in 1972.

Meanwhile, Akshay feels that comparing him with Ajay Devgn, who played the lead in Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai, is unjust

"We make a fi Im for the sake of filmmaking and not to pull down someone else I don't work thinking that I have to do better work than Ajay Devgn,

WI-IO WORE IT BETTER?

JOHN ABRAHAM

I think only about my work;' Akshay said. "You should do your own work and that's important. I have never thought this way and I don't believe in competition. We are not horses that you can bet on us," he added

Directed by M ilan Luthria, Once Upon Ay Time In Mumbai Dobaara! will release soon, and also stars l mran Khan and Sonakshi Sinha.

Well, at least Al's a pal, if Ajay isn't!

Prateik's passionate pal

Actor Prateik's gently intense performance in lssaq has received rave reviews from some critics and has been savaged by others. But the one person who stands firm by the young actor's talent is Ravi Kishan, who plays a pivotal role in the film In Ravi, Prateik has found not just an unlikely all y, but also a mentor and advisor.

Ravi, who plays a powerful role in lssaq, was resoundingly vocal against negative reviews of the film, which is director Manish Tiwary's rugged adaptation of Romeo & Juliet.

"Not liking a film is every critic's r ight and prerogative Please feel free to d i slike our fi lm by al l means But why these personal comments? Why hit out at Prateik just because he has had some setbacks lately?" asked Ravi recently.

"Other actors too go t hrough a lean phase. Prateik has worked really hard on his body languag e, voice and performance in /ssaq. I think he has a very bright future;' sa id the actor.

Ravi, who has assumed the role of a protecti ve brother in the younger actor's life, feels there is a lobby operating against Prateik

"I don't know how or why he has offended people. But there is a lot of hostility towards him Maybe because he is not media savvy. He likes to keep to himself. That isn't a crime Don't punish the boy for nothing. Look at the way the audience reacts to him in the theatres;'he said

For Prateik, Ravi has been "a great source of strength and support''.

"

I've no words to d escribe how much strength I've derived from just being in his company,"Prateik said.

Share your views with us on our Facebook page

Well, good actors enjoy each other's company, so don't worry, Prateik, you've got a friend!

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan or Jennifer Hudson in Roberto Cavalli?

ANOTI-IER GANDl-ll'S EXPERIMENTS WITI-I TRUTI-I

SHIP OF THESEUS

STARRING: Aida AI-Kashef, Neeraj Kabi and Sohum Shah

DIRECTOR: Anand Gandhi

ometimes ailing and healing become a unified process. Just as suffering is a precursor to wisdom, so too a film about the curative process can , and in this case, does, provide some profound insight into the workings of the human heart.

There are three stories of infinite reverberations in debutant director Anand Gandhi's film. And what a debut Gandhi has made! Ship Of Theseus is so luminously layered, so spectacularly segmented, and yet so cohesively assembled, that you fear the entire burden of existence would weigh down the narrative. But no. The 'Gandhian' miracle is that there is a sense of lightness running through the three stories.

We can comfortably say, this is the neo-Gandhi's 'experiments with truth'.

Anand Gandhi doesn't fear the unknown. He explores the darkest areas of the human soul and waits patiently for answers to emerge in the questioning light. Often we see the three protagonists walk that ta l k to an area of enlightenment through intersectional interactions that don't subscribe to basic rules of engaging cinema.

The film's three editors - Adesh Prasad, Sanyukta Kaza and Satchik Puranik (presume each edited one of the three stories), don't prune down the shots to get our attention. Instead, we are invited into this world of spatial scrupulousness where cinematic rules oftimemanagement are undermined for the sake of something much larger and vital.

Hence, when in my favourite story, the ailing monk (played with inscrutable veracity by Neeraj Kabi) speaks to his young beatnik lawyer-friend as they walk briskly across the bustling streets of Mumbai, the camera trails their dialogue without cuts.

No one would dare interrupt a discourse on the exigencies and practicalities of a non-violent protest against medical experiments on animals when two such iconoclasts are at it with an extempore exuberance.

The importance of this film lies in its complete eschewal of self-importance.

Anand Gandhi takes on questions that echo across eternities. Rather than assume a position of infinite disposition, the film's tone is one of contained exposition

As a writer and director, Gandhi doesn't get carried away even when his characters do. Not that they are susceptible to extravagant self-expression. The one trait that connects all three protagonists is their aversion to overt emotional display.

In the first story, the very beautiful Aida EI-Kashef plays Alia, who in blindness, discovers an inner incandescent vi sion that enables her to become an outstanding photographer. Alia tends to get argumentative with her patient boyfriend in her state of non-visibility.

Even when Alia loses her cool, she loses it coolly. Very coolly. The disposition to allow the characters an emotional and spiritual freedom is pre-empted by a stark austere state of expression which doesn't encourage self-indulgent narrative devices. The images that run through the film are qualified by a minimalist beauty. Even the streets, sights and sounds of Mumbai are not used to convey the overpowering desolation of the dispassionate bustle that we saw in, say Kiran Ra o's Dhabi Ghat.

Monks walking bare feet through acres of windmills, or the solitary monk barely able to walk through his il l ness plodding through Mumbai's compromised hinterland For some reason, the best visual images occur in the monk's tale.

Cinematographer Pankaj Kumar (what a maestro of the lens!) is given the daunting task of visually manifesting a series of abstract intangible images of suffering and redemption that run through the director's head. The camera never lies. This film wouldn't allow it to, even if it tried.

The visuals constantly assume positions that manifest the lost inner world of the characters while making sure not to lose sight of the ambience that fosters their individual space. As the characters seek to find a centre to their fractured conscience, we are privy to an extraordinary process of filmmaking where the director builds a connecting bridge between the world of ideas and their outward manifestation.

The most straightforward and the least lyrical of the three stories is the third story where Sohum Shah (born to play

his character) is a stockbroker, who sets off on trail to Stockholm to retrieve the stolen kidney of a poor chaw/ dweller.

Retrieval and redemption run across the length of this unconditionally nourishing cinema. Gandhi's narration is so devoid of cinematic affectations and so emphatically rooted to a reality that shuns coyness, that we straightaway become a part of the world that the director has built brick by brick into this edifice of uncluttured beauty.

Indeed, the more profound the ideas get in Gandhi's narration, the less complicated is the storytelling. Finally, when the three stories come together through the theme of organ transplant, we are no longer l ooking at and for binding threads. Ship OfTheseus takes us so far away from the acceptable prerequisites and definition of'good

cinema'that we forget that so far, we have never forgiven cinema that dares to be self-indu l gent.

Ship Of Theseus is a cinema of selfindulgence at its most sublime. Gandhi weaves his i deas into coiled urgent vignettes that tell us so much about the qual ity of l ife without engaging us in unnecessary polemics. This is a film of ideas.

What we come away with is a sense of loss even as the film weaves a hypnotic tale of repair, redemption and renewal.

This is a sombre, meditative, profound and yet weightl ess work of unfettered beauty A l ife-changing experience.

No less. Anand Gandhi defines l ife's mysteries in mysterious ways, showing a command over his mammoth philosophical world that Mani Kaul and Jean-Luc Godard would have envied.

SUB HASH K JHA

SAMBARAND SANDALWOOD

CHENNAI EXPRESS

STARRING: Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika

Padukone

DIRECTOR: Rohit Shetty

Dammit! No out-takes!! Is this really a Roh it Shettyfilm? Every film of the Go/ Maal director has so far ended with out-takes giving us entertaining glimpses from during the making of the fi l m. Here those trademark Shetty out-takes are replaced by a Honey Singh track which celebrates Rajnikanth and the fungi.

The rest of the film resembles those typical sambar-and-sandalwood creations by K. Raghvendra Rao, and worse still, Raj Kanwar's Dhai Akshar Prem Ke where Aishwarya to escape her parental wrath at her elopement, introduces to her family a man she has just met as her sou l-mate.

Of course, there are the flying cars exploding in the air to make sure we know that all said and drummed, this is a Rohit Shetty presentation.

Packaged with pickled precision, peppered with just the right doses of naughty jokes and precocious pranks that go wel l with Shah Rukh's 40-yearold brat's act, Chennai Express is the kind of non -toxic comic entertainer where the most damaging double-entendres you'd get is a Tamil word that sounds like Angelina Jolie's name.

Come again?

That brings me to another major hurdle in the heap of hilarity that Shetty builds so meticulously in the first-half. The generous outflow ofTamil that seems initi ally engagi ng (more so, since Shah Rukh shares our noncomprehension of the rapidfire Tamilian cloudburst that accompanies Deepika's quicksilver character) begins to come in the way as the narration grows older and runs out of energy.

But then there is the sprightly Deepika as the runawayTamilian girl who piles on to the North Indian mithaiwala stranger to escape marrying the boorish fiancee back home in her village in Tamil Nadu.

We've seen Kareena Kapoor do the ch i rpy runaway train traveller in Jab We Met. Deepika brings a special filteredcoffee flavour to her chirpy character. Even that broad hammy accent grows on us.

Yes, we like! Here she is the only Roh it Shetty team member (and I use the term 'team ' since Shetty generously credits the direction to himself and his team) who seems to have a firm grip over her rudderless dithering character.

Deepika plays Meena Amma with

flavourful flourish. She is specially delightful in three key sequences, two of them comic and the other unexpectedly sombre.

In the sequence where her character turns into a sleeping, kicking and convulsive zombie, she's unbelievably goofy. It's not just Shah Rukh who gets a kick out of that scene.

Would Rohit Shetty please do a fullfledged out-and -out comedy with Deepika?That, Chennai Express is not. It is a half-hearted but l augh-hearted effort that makes the fatal error of taking itself too seriously.

Towards the end when the utterly shammed climactic fight ensues, we even have a long speech by Shah Rukh on the social status of the girl child.

Not now, please!

As we squirm at the attempt to turn comedy into a serious business we look back at the rest of the film with some amount of warmth and affection.

Some of the long shots of the train w i nding through green acres are breathtaking. And Shah Rukh's first meeting with Deepika's father over a bridge over a fast-flowing river is shot with amazing brio.

There's a wonderfully-shot sequence where Shah Rukh has to carry Deepika to a temple over hundreds of steps. Deepika here goes from amusement and mockery to a sense of belonging and pride in her man's arms. It's a moment built with care and love.

But then, such tender affection really has no place in this comedy of cultural dispossession where the Punjabi boy

Rahul gets embroiled in Tamil girl Meena's family affairs and comes out well not quite wiser, but fi ll ed with selfmocking laughter.

Shah Rukh pokes a whole lot of goodnatured fun at his now-aging lover-boy persona. There are tongue-in-cheek references to Di/wale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge and several other Shah Rukh Khan films and songs including the introductory South Indian lines from the Jiyajale song in Oil Se.

All these self-tributes work better than what Puri Jagganath did with the Bachchan persona Buddha Hoga Tera Baap.

Rohit Shetty is more in command of his canvas here than in his last comedy Bo/ Bachchan. But the self-deprecatory laughter is still not good enough. Somewhere you feel the one-line p lot (okay, if not one then two-line plot ) is stretched into an unwelcome secondhalf where nothing rea l ly happens. Even the humour tracks stops short beyond a point.

But there is some genuine steam and spark in the earl y part of Chennai Express. Towards the beginning of the train journey when Deepika and Shah Rukh p l ay a kind of antakshari of Hindi film songs to put the goons off her trail, Deepika completely overshadows her kingly co-star, who should be okay with being upstaged by his female co-star.

After all he has given Deepika priority over his own name in the credit titles. And Deepi ka takes the lead very

seriously. She has never l ooked better and never been funnier on screen without even tryi ng too hard.

But then the p l ot and the situations let her down. The antakshari-speak that was amusing in the beginning recurs dur ing a stale fight sequence in the second-half.

We are no longer laughing. Not when Shah Rukh's purported big chase sequences end in embarrassing dead-ends. Not when an item song with incoherent words and even more misguided logistics pops up l i ke a joke whose punchline has gone missing.

Through all of this, Shah Rukh Khan braves it with a delicious sense of self-mockery bordering almost on a masochistic absence of heroic pride.

Yes, he likes it when the joke is on him. But that happens once too often here.

So it's finally here. The film that all Shah Rukh Khan fans (which covers half the hemisphere) have been waiting for. The good news first. Chennai Express is a pleasant and likable film i n parts. The bad news is, it does nothing for Shah Rukh Khan's imdomitable star power except to tel l us he can still play a 40-year Rahul without faltering.

That we already know S UBHASH K JHA

PNG: Problem Never Goes

The PM finds a dream solution to stopping the boats

' ; BY 4111'. LP AYER

R~:;;;;

Hello, is this

t he Pi:ime l\un ister's office?

PM's Secretary: Ye: it is. Who is calling please?

Caller: Thi s is Sul ta n Dhow

Dinghy from Cisarua, currently the busiest coastal rown in south Java.

Secretary: Excuse me, how d id you get our number?

Caller: We p icked it up from one of your many navy vessels that come here every day. In fact we have aU the nw11bers of your Immigration, Customs and Eme rgency Services, senators, lawyers and many more

Secretary: Ok why do you want to talk to our PM?

Caller: I can stop t he boats and save him billions of dollars.

Secretary: Wait a minute (doin1 a hurried check on the computer)

Did you say your n ame is Sultan Dhow? We will call yo u back in ten minutes. \Xlhac is your number there?

Caller: 01 l 62 420 420.

C Lic k.

Secretary to colleagues: Guys, the l eading people smuggler has made contact. Get the treasurer, immigration and defence ministe1 and tl1e defence chiefs of Navy into the PM's office asap. Ring ring.

PM: Sultan, tlus is the Australian PM: \Xl hat can I do for yo u?

Sultan: Nor much you can do for me, Prime Minia~ter Sir Bue I can save yo ur job and billions of dollars.

PM: Not even my treasurer can do that. How can yo u do that for me?

Sul tan: By stopping the boats.

PM: Our Oppos ition has been saying chis t hree-word slogan for months. Bm the y are not sure now. By the way, our intelligence tells us you are the one sending the boats om.

Sultan: True That's why I can stop mem. You can tweer co your hordes of followers that your tough srnnd did the trick, and win !.heir votes.

PM: Brilliant, Sultan. But what's in it for yo u ?

Sultan: It's simp le. Every boar l send out makes me a million but costs you hLLndreds of millions. So for every boat I stop sending, you

38 AUGUST 2013

pay me two million. Imagine the savings VIP jaws drop in unison. Buttons on ca.lcubtors are tapped furiousl y. No word exchanged for a few nunmes.

PM: Sultan, two miUion a boar a day, is a bit too much!

Sultan: Think of tl1e savings I am making for yo u. I ow that we choose aU the in1migrants, you can abolish the Immigration Department. Cnsroms too, si nce mese arrival s bring in their own customs. Look at the ones we send - well- fed and in designer clotl1es. They won't be a burden. Quite affluent They pay 10K per head for such a short journey in a leaky boat, almost the price for a

world cruise in a luxury liner.

PM: Yes but two million Foreign Affairs Minister: Look, we have PNG to help us. We are scouring new islands roo.

Sultan: Listen Sir, PNG stands for ' Problem I ever Goes'. Look at the work we do for you \Y/e provide valuable training for yo ur navy chaps calling them over here every other day. That's the only exercise they ger to do. Without tl,ar they may get into their o ld games, sexual harassrnem.

The Navy Chief in a very low tone: Mr PM Sir, let me give you a couple of buUec points for bargaining.

PM: I can do w ith cannon- size

points. What have you got?

Navy Chief: Tell h im we will undercut h is business. We now go almost 10km close to their shore. We can pick up liis cargo right from the port at half the price. We can even provide aid to build that pore to world class standard The journey wiU be r isk free. We'll take om full page ads in d1e papers there.

PM: Brilliant. Any other point~?

Navy Chief: Our defence b udget is severely cur. This discount offer will bring in nullions. We can also pick tl1e brains of the boat crew iliat wiU become ic!Je.

PM: In what way?

Navy Ch ief: Many of their boats

start sinking witlun minute s of se tting off. Our Collins class subs can't dive. We can ask th eir technical know- how to make our subs 'hole in' class PM: ExceUenc suggestions. PM to Sultan: You there, Sul tan? OK then Two millio n bucks a boat.

Everybody cheers to a done deal The applause goes on and 011 .• and on

1he PM wakes to see he is in the midst ofan election mlfy, having dozed offas a remit of extreme exhamtion Sultan DhoUJ Dinghy UJas but a dream

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