2017-10 Sydney (1)

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editorial INDIAN LINK PUBLISHER Pawan Luthra EDITOR Rajni Anand Luthra ASSISTANT EDITOR Harshad Pandharipande MELBOURNE COORDINATOR Preeti Jabbal CONTRIBUTORS Contributors Ritam Mitra, Nisha Chaman, Murali Sankar Venkatraman, Amit Dutt, Darshee Kanagalingam, Rajalakshmi Ram, Shafeen Mustaq, Aparna Ananthuni, Dipanjali Rao, Aneeta Menon, Gaurav Masand, Vandana G, LP Ayer ADVERTISING MANAGER Vivek Trivedi 0410 578 146 ADVERTISING ASSISTANT Charuta Joshi 02 9279 2004

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

Of light, as well as darkness, this Diwali

BY RAJNI ANAND LUTHRA

I

t’s hard to feel the vibes of Diwali in the lead up to it when we live so far from India. Luckily, there are many institutions around us that help us get into that groove.

The best of these are the large-scale community melas (fairs) that gather the clan for their day-long events. They do their bit wonderfully to remind us that Diwali is upon us once again. In recent years, we’ve seen a number of these melas in various pockets of the community, each with their own flavour.

This year, of course, the mainstream participation has been heart-warming.

The pollies are beginning to greet the community at this time like never before - on their own social media platforms, in media releases issued by their offices, and in the form of ads in publications like ours. The call of NSW MPs Jodi McKay and Julia Finn for a ‘Diwali showdown’ as a contest in their respective constituencies won the

admiration of the Indian community just as much as Blacktown Council’s Diwali Lights competition did for dwellings in the area. In coming days, we are going to see the Opera House all dressed up in Diwali colours.

At the personal level, we are now gearing up for the actual event. In this festive season, we have welcomed Ganesha into our homes (and fought for him in the lamb ad!), have tapped the dandiya sticks, arranged the golu set-up, fasted for significant others, and done whatever else our part of ‘home’ in India does at this time. This weekend we’ll probably spend bringing out those diyas and giving them a spot of polish, for that final flourish on Thursday 19 Oct. And so this issue, we asked our readers for a bit of show and tell, on their favourite diyas. Out came the stories about family bonds, special moments with friends, random moments of connect with strangers, and a whole host of other fond memories. But the stories, still rooted in tradition as they were, didn’t sound dated and staid. They was a refreshing newness to them. In subtle ways, the traditions had been contemporised.

The readiness to mould our traditions to fit our modern lives in our new

homes, was also commendable. When a handmade charity candle replaces the earthen diya, when fruit and nut replace mithai, when a fundraiser replaces the taash party, the message is, there is a willingness to make the traditional more contemporary. We are not bound by our old ways, but by the essential messages ensconced in our traditions.

A wonderful description perhaps of our own community here, as it comes of age.

At a time when there is much talk of lights and illumination, it is sobering to note that there are thoughts of darkness too. There are many amongst us who are hoping this Diwali to reach into the darkness - of poverty and disadvantage - and pull someone out. There are Diwali fundraisers galore this month, with beneficiaries in India as well as in Australia.

The darkness is also in division.

The polarised world in which we find ourselves today - whether in terms of religion, race, gender inequity or gender identity - would do well with a healing light, one that will draw people closer in acceptance, or, at the very least, bring about civility in disagreement.

We pray for a more enlightened world this Diwali.

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CONTENTS Indian Link

Indian Link

LINKING INDIA WITH AUSTRALIA

SPECIAL FEATURES FESTIVAL Blacktown Diwali Mela

STAGE Violin maestro L Subramaniam

ART Kids Diwali art competition

SPECIAL REPORT Gandhi Jayanti at UNSW

27

24 27

24

38 42 COVER STORY

FOOD Diwali fare

61

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My favourite diya

mojohomes.com.au 1300 00 6656

6 OCTOBER (1) 2017

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OCTOBER (1) 2017 7

YOUR SAY

LESSONS FROM THE LAMB AD

HARSHAD PANDHARIPANDE wrote on how the community handled the infamous lamb ad featuring Ganesha eating meat.

Sadanandan Nambiar AO wrote: I was interested in your coverage of the concern raised by some members of the Indian community and subsequent media news about the protest related to the depiction of a version of Ganesh (an actor with a mask around a funny dinner table) in a TV advertisement promoting the consumption of Australian lamb meat. Around the dinner table were similar caricatures from several other religions and beliefs. The advertisement was a display of typical Australian humour, and a commonly seen marketing ploy. That is all. I gave up eating meat some years ago.

I understand the sentiments of Ganesh worshippers. However, with due respect to their views, I would like to share another perspective through your columns. In comparison with all other religions in the world, Hindu thought probably allows the highest form of flexibility, in matters of intellectual freedom, debates and multiple paths to spiritual enlightenment. Hindu gods are the embodiment of virtues and faults, passionate sexuality and deep and contemplation, acquisition of brutal power and detachment into nothingness. Krishna is an embodiment of just about every fault that we have, yet he is divine to millions. Hindu mythology is replete with paradoxes; Ganesh is a god to many, but also a jolly-good, indulging, over-eating guy to many. Creation (not by birth) of Ganesh himself is the ultimate paradox, an outcome of an unbelievably cruel act of impulse, anger, vanity and compromise. Yet, millions worship Him and find in Him a source of support and seek his blessings for wealth. If Ganesh is a personification of God or God himself to a true worshipper, how can Ganesh be dishonoured by man’s jokes or stupidity? Is He not above such things?

Vegetarianism is not necessarily a Hindu belief; it came into practice in some sections of Hindu communities very long after Hindu philosophical thoughts were well advanced. Today, millions of non-vegetarians and Indians classed as “lower caste” worship Ganesh in India.

Explicitly and wildly sexual carvings on stone walls in our many great monuments and places of past worship would more than match the most pornographic displays found today. Such were the strengths of our ancestral thoughts, truth seeking and wisdom.

Our mythology and epics are full of humour and jokes. For centuries, Vaishnavites (followers of Vishnu) and Shaivites (followers of Shiva) joked, abused and insulted each other, one calling the other “meat-eating, drunken mongrels”. There are brilliant Sanskrit plays written about this and such plays have entertained and enlightened Indians - Hindus - for centuries.

Some years ago, I played the lead role of Sathyasoma, a Shaivate monk, a drunken, cunning, half-mad, rude, womanising yet jealous fellow, to a packed audience (with repeat performance!) in a small theatre in Adelaide; my wife acted as Devasoma, my call-girl offering “hot-pleasures”! That was a Sanskrit play written a few centuries ago and staged in temples. These are rich and intelligent traditions of Hindu thoughts and culture.

For an analysis of the extraordinary intellectual dimension of the deeper Hindu thoughts, as depicted in the great epic Mahabharata, I commend to your readers the scholarly and compelling book by the illustrious writer Gurucharan Das, called The Difficulty of Being Good: On the subtle art of dharma.

Our community would do well to take these things with a sense of humour, as intended by those who created the MLA advertisement, and take such stunts in our stride with a broader perspective, informed by higher order thoughts about the meaning of Hindu Gods and our philosophy.

Voice raised to draw attention to the recent misinterpretation of the Indian national boundary is a serious and important one. In future, we would make more impacts and gain respect, if we learn to target our concerns and protests more selectively and judiciously, and on matters that really count for India, Indian secular diaspora and Australia. If we fail to uphold Indian issues in judicious ways, we might descend to be seen as petty and immature.

SAY IT AGAIN 8 OCTOBER (1) 2017

RANVEER GOES CLICKETY-CLICK!

Celebrity chef Ranveer Brar on his Oz trip Ranveer Brar@ranveerbrar tweeted: This trip was so much fun... can’t wait to share the videos with you guys.

Chef Rahul Bhatt@rahulbhatthm tweeted: Superb chef Akhila prashanth@jade_mar1 tweeted: Perfect ‘Vrikshasana’ pose Ankita Dey@Ankita1988Dey tweeted: Global, yet very much desi.

RANVEERISMS!

Celebrity chef Ranveer Brar was in Sydney and spoke to RAJNI ANAND LUTHRA about what’s new and what’s old in the world of cuisine and the role of social media in contemporary food Rajni Luthra @rajnil2 tweeted: What I learnt from @ranveerbrar Humility; gratitude; telling stories; doing what you love; loving what you do. queenbee@ashadeof_red tweeted: The best #Ranveerism fact is ‘A good quality khichdi with desi ghee.’ There’s an instant connection when you find you share the same love for comfort food - Khichdi Ranveer reposted our Instagram post: And evening with Indian Link and India Tourism Sydney Ranveer also discussed food and politics with NSW MP Julie Owens over idlis, dhoklas and chutney. Ranveer posted the pic of him and Julie Owens having idlis. Julie quoted and retweeted him Julie Owens MP@julieowensmp: What a pleasure that was. And now I know how to cook fluffier idlis.

Shivani Tiwari@sunandasuklas tweeted: Julie Owens is looking nice in sari.

RANVEER MEETS THE SPICE ADVENTURESS!

Food blogger and Indian Linker DHANYA SAMUEL teamed up with Ranveer Brar to discuss food journalism, food trends and even Vegemite.

The Spice Adventuress commented: Thanks so much for the opportunity

WHERE IN INDIA?

Sachin Wakhare answered: Stunning! Not sure but guessing Andaman & Nicobar Islands?

Poonam Chauhan wrote: Beautiful!

Kunal Singh@Kunalsatrah tweeted: Assam? Maybe Arunachal Pradesh?

Surely some North-Eastern state (He was almost there!)

Answer: This is the Umngot River in Meghalaya, possibly India’s cleanest river.

What better way to spend #dayofthegirl?

Thanks to NagleBlacktown 4 chance to share my story with tomorrow’s women leaders Aus High Comm to India Harinder Sidhu, at her alma mater Nagle College

I’m absolutely appalled by what is happening, because the impact (of climate change) on the Great Barrier Reef is now documented India’s former environ minister Jairam Ramesh, on Adani’s Carmichael Coal Mine

www.indianlink.com.au

COLOUR PENCILS ON BLACK PAPER!

We’re loving the work of young Indian contemporary artist Shashikant Dhotre Indian Australian@theaussieindian tweeted: What a talent! Have seen some of the pictures before and been gobsmacked. Truly blessed by God, @ shashidhotre! More power to your pen(cil)!!

Aneeta Menon wrote: These are incredible.

Thangamani Periasamy wrote: Excellent paintings Mahesh Berwal commented: Great talent!

Shweta Kaushal said: Amazing!

Roopa Mrudul wrote: Beautiful!

Katherine Tomlinson@Storyauthority tweeted: Vibrant!

MEET THE GIRL BEHIND THE HILARIOUS SHOPPING LIST!

Indian Link Radio anchor CHARUTA chatted with Era Golwalkar who created an organised (and funny!) veggie shopping list for her husband.

Era replied: Thanks for sharing!

Qismat Khan @qismatkhan13 tweeted: Hahaha! So sweet! All men wish to get smart wife like you! Great job.

Azmat Ali@Azmatalli tweeted: Our family enjoyed this story and your creative grocery list. Love from Pakistan.

Era replied: Thanks for your compliment. Am glad you liked it!

Marwati Suleiman@SuleimanMarwati tweeted: Good idea, must give the list to my hubby and kids too. Thanks for sharing Era. Iqbal@Iqbalvtr tweeted: Really interesting. Smart.

Vidhya@aleenavm tweeted: Good idea. I can use this too.

Vinny Carrizzo@DaVinman421 tweeted: I give her props! My wife sends me to the store with a list and I STILL have to call her at least 5 times to make sure I get the right stuff.

Barbara McKinney@rennibug8529 tweeted: I love this list! My ex would have still come home with the wrong stuff.

Rhythmicons@Synthoholics tweeted: My wife takes too long in produce.

It’s a running joke that she gets trapped there.

Ladymissmegan@gmail@ladymissmegan tweeted: Yes, this is awesome and useful. My fiancé says he used to cook pro, but brought home a shallot instead of garlic!?!

CONFLUENCE, A TRICKLE?

SCARY MOMENT FOR AUSTRALIA CRICKET TEAM

The Australian Cricket Team bus was attacked in India when the players were returning to a hotel in Guwahati.

Australia player Aaron Finch@AaronFinch5 (who was in the bus when it was attacked) tweeted a photo: Pretty scary having a rock thrown through the team bus window on the way back to the hotel!!

Chandra Kishore wrote: Sad, this is not sportsmanship.

Meenakshi@manju_gsr tweeted: When are we gonna learn to accept defeat graciously! It is a game, for heaven’s sake. Pathetic!

Leyla Singh wrote: Sore losers!

Lavleen Jeff commented: Disgraceful!

With its limited reach and menu, the Festival of India in Australia runs the risk of not engaging with mainstream Australians, wrote PAWAN LUTHRA Preeti Thadani wrote: Parenting my son who is born and raised in Oz, I was delighted when he and some of his Aussie friends got exposure to Indian culture and performing arts outside of Bollywood, at last year’s Confluence Festival. This year, fellow school parents and I were eagerly waiting to feast on a smorgasbord of performances with our children. Sadly, Sydney got only one classical music performance and one Bollywood dance workshop (a formula, we all agree, done to death). Confluence 2.0 seems more about grant gatherings, political agendas and appeasing sponsors than about PM Modi’s vision, which he shared with Sydney audiences in 2014 about wanting to showcase Indian arts to mainstream Australians. Confluence 2017 has farcically disconnected the audiences.

+ JOIN THE CONVERSATION

AT LAST, FEMINISTS OF COLOUR: MELB WRITERS FEST

> LOG on to your own Facebook or Twitter account > TYPE “Indian Link” into the search box at the top of the screen and click on the link that comes up > CLICK ‘Like’ to join the Indian Link Facebook community or ‘Follow’ @Indian_Link on Twitter

APARNA ANANTHUNI reported from the Melbourne Writers Festival about feminists of colour talking about taking control of their own narratives.

Ruby Hamad tweeted: A concise but incisive roundup of the Decolonising Feminism session at MWF 17...

Aneeta Menon tweeted: Absolutely amazing women and awesome coverage from @indian_link #RepresentationMatters #ifshecanseeit

Our band and I experienced unconditional love, a united spirit and a reflective happiness.

Thanks, Sydney.

Musician AR Rahman

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Who would want to go to a lovely Professional University?

Wil Anderson on ABC TV’s Gruen Transfer

#Adani is appalling Queensland, they cannot be trusted, Not on jobs, not on revenue, not on anything.

Van Badham, Guardian writer, reacting to Four Corners show on Adani mine

OCTOBER (1) 2017 9

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Wishing you and your family a FEDERAL MEMBER FOR PARRAMATTA

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OCTOBER (1) 2017 11

cover story

Just shine It’s beginning to feel a lot like… Diwali. The festival theme is creeping in when we catch up with friends or ring the family back in India. To get into the mood full on, what else can we do but bring out the diyas! We ask our friends here to pick their favourite diyas

THE WARMTH OF FAMILY Gaurav Masand I’ve ‘upgraded’ from diyas to tealights ever since I moved to Oz! And while it may not be possible to have a favourite tealight, there can be such a thing as a special arrangement! Especially for me as a photographer.

My favourite Diwali light arrangement snapshot is the main image of this page, from as recently as last year. My parents came visiting from Bhavnagar Gujarat, their first visit down under, making it a very special Diwali for all of us. That’s Mum’s hand arranging the tealights.

12 OCTOBER (1) 2017

COOL CANDLES Manan Paavan I like candles of different shapes. Mum gets my sister and I to pick our own candles for Diwali. When we were young, we used to bring out the number candles left over from our birthday cakes. They became our ‘special’ Diwali candles. Then we started buying our own cool candles.

Cupcake candle was always a favourite. We found animal candles, ice cream cone candles, watermelon candles and other fruit shaped ones, and car and truck candles.

One year we picked really cool thong candles. But Mum said she didn’t want chappal candles for Diwali.

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THE DIYA AS HERITAGE Sanam Sharma There are days that are all about tradition, and Diwali is one of them. In these times of fancy LED lights, there is a soothing romance about lighting up your home with those traditional earthen diyas that flicker long and slow through the jubilant Diwali night. Eight years ago, for our son Arjun’s first Diwali, my wife Jasdeep and I bought this old-style, rustic, handmade diya.

It has since remained the centre piece of our Diwali decorations each year. An important part of passing on our cultural heritage to our kids in this adopted homeland is for them to understand the folklore associated with these festive occasions, and diyas are therefore an inherent part of Diwali celebrations in our households. This particular diya holds a special place for us for it has marked every single Diwali for us, since Arjun was born.

This Diwali too, we shall wash it clean and fill it with sarson ka tel (mustard oil), dip a cotton wick deep into its sanctum, and let it sparkle our Diwali night.

LIGHT THAT DISPELS THE DARKNESS OF IGNORANCE Dhanya Samuel The nilavilakku always ignites the fondest of memories for me. It takes me back to my childhood and my annual holiday visits to Kerala. Quite contrary to popular belief, the nilavilakku is not just significant to the Hindu religion, but also extends its significance to other religions. A strong and vivid memory is the huge lamp that adorns one of our ancient churches, the oil and wicks constantly replenished to ensure that the lamp is always lit, signifying the victory of good over evil always. I remember my aunt telling me about offering oil as a donation to the church, a practice by most believers who visit the church which helps keep the lamp constantly lit. And we would always collect a little oil from the base of the lamp to bring back home, as it is considered to be holy. My belief in the ritual has waned over the years. But every time I light the nilavilakku in my home, it’s not just fond memories but also the belief that light is like knowledge which dispels the darkness of ignorance.

SL Haldankar’s Glow of Hope (1945-46)

THE MAGIC OF LIGHT Aparna Ananthuni I don’t do diyas, but I do have a favourite diya in a work of art. In this watercolour portrait of a young girl dressed in a salmon-pink sari and shielding a richly painted, lit diya from the wind, we see the quiet, secret magic of light. It gilds the golden blouse of the subject, casts a warm, friendly glow over her sari and face, and seems to have its own personality.

The portrait is highly skilled in its realism, and yet the direct gaze of the young girl (artist Haldankar’s third daughter Gita Uplekar, then aged just twelve) and the shadows blanketing the wall behind her, combine to create a sense of mystery and subtle happiness. ‘Glow of Hope’, finally, makes light both a beautiful and complicated thing.

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OCTOBER (1) 2017 13

cover story HOPE AND LIGHT Chetana Ganatra Diwali symbolises hope, knowledge and the victory of light over darkness. Of the various rituals involved in the celebrations, the lighting of a terracotta oil lamp, or diya, is my favourite. The diya illuminates the whole house with its warm glow and is a delight to behold. On Diwali, every nook and corner of my house is lit with an oil-andcotton-wick diya - it brings a sense of enjoyment and celebration in my household. On one such fine occasion back in Mumbai 15 years ago, there was festivity in the air just before Diwali. For almost a week, I had been noticing a frail old lady, fondly called Aaji (grandmother), sitting in a dark and lonely corner of the local mall. Her handmade diyas were not exactly selling like hot cakes. But that didn’t sour the friendly smile with which she greeted passers-by. That she had not lost hope was endearing. When it was time for me to buy diyas, I decided to get them from Aaji rather than a fancy showroom. I didn’t need to light the diya for its light; I felt a glow inside when I bought it from Aaji and saw her face light up. The diya travelled with me across the ocean as a cherished possession.

Aaji’s undying optimism - that’s what it reminds me of today.

NEVER JUDGE A GIFT BY ITS WRAPPER Punita Udeshi I have a set of brass diyas that are very close to my heart. On our first trip back to India as husband and wife, Gopal and I visited Pune. It was Diwali. Gopal had been to university there, and rented a flat with a few other students. A retired couple, the Sardesais, were their neighbours and would invite them for meals from time to time. During our visit to Pune, they invited us newlyweds for dinner and showed us the fun side of their retired life. Uncle, a retired army officer and Aunty, a social worker, made the most of this stage of their life. As we took our leave, the Sardesais gave us warm blessings. To my utter bewilderment, Sardesai Aunty handed me a box of Bagpiper whisky. Times must have changed in India, I thought, if new brides are given alcohol instead of something traditional! Back home, I opened the pack - out came the parts to two beautiful brass diyas. I will never forget Aunty’s laugh when I described to her my (double) surprise, the next day. For 14 years since, the brass diyas have come out for Ganpati Pooja, Diwali and all other auspicious functions at our home. When it’s time to put them away, they are disassembled, and stored in the very same whisky box they came in! My diyas remind me of the gorgeous couple who gifted them to us - their blessings are always with us.

I was raised in Australia, but there were SL Haldankar’s Glow of Hope a few times that I was lucky enough (1945-46) to celebrate Diwali in Delhi with my grandparents. I remember buying diyas from the Blind Relief Association’s annual Diwali Mela. This Mela has become quite an institution in Delhi over the past 30 years. It all started with a simple effort to teach visually impaired people a skill - making earthenware diyas and wax candles - as a means of earning a living. Today, their beautiful, handmade candles see people lining up at the stalls, and subsequently selling out. Although they themselves cannot see, their effort to spread a little bit of light is inspiring. I encourage all to embrace the spirit of Diwali by buying charitable candles to light up their homes with. There are plenty of places that sell the most wonderful candles for a variety of charitable causes – women, children, and animals in need. My favourite diya is a charity candle.

14 OCTOBER (1) 2017

Photo: Blind Relief Association

CANDLES WITH A CAUSE Tia Singh

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INVITING LAKSHMI IN, DRIVING DARKNESS OUT Mittu Gopalan A fond childhood memory involves my mum lighting the traditional lamp each evening and taking it to the main door, chanting “Deepam, Deepam, Deepam” (lamp, lamp, lamp). She would leave the lit lamp on the floor, praying to and inviting Goddess Lakshmi to enter our home and banish the darkness. The main door would be left ajar, with the lit lamp at the threshold, for half an hour. Only after this lamp was lit, would the lights get turned on for the night. This is the traditional way of ending the day with thanks and gratitude, and saying prayers with the hope of finding light in darkness, achieving knowledge where there is ignorance and spreading love where there is hatred. Living in Australia now, I follow the traditions that my mum instilled in me. Here’s a photo of a lamp that Mum gifted us. I feel blessed to have her love and light around us all the time.

WELCOMING LIGHT Neeta Mathur My husband Ajay and I opened our restaurant Bijolias Indian in Seaforth in 2004. I bought a lamp then to place alongside my cherished Ganesha statue. It is made in India and although it has a tealight in it, it looks like the real deal, very antique. It has been lit every evening since November 2004. I feel it brings us a lot of good luck as it sits beside Lord Ganesha and shines its glow over everyone and everything! It is very close to my heart and I call it my “Aladdin ka chirag” (Aladdin’s lamp). May this lamp light your paths as well and bring you all lots of happiness this festive season. May the festival of lights light up your lives with peace, prosperity and good health. Happy Diwali from all of us at Bijolias Indian.

YUM YUM! Vishakha Iyer My favourite lamp is a ma vilakku. Ma vilakku is a Tamil word meaning a lamp made of rice flour and jaggery, lighted with a wick dipped in ghee (clarified butter). This lamp not only lights the home with an aesthetic appeal, but the natural substances used to light the lamp are also believed to have medicinal properties that spread well being and positivity around the home. It is also decorated with vermillion to add auspiciousness.

The best thing about this lamp is that it is absolutely delicious to eat after the offering!

NATIONAL EDITION

OCTOBER (1) 2017 15

cover story MUM’S LONG-LOST LAMPS Sondarya Krishnan My favourite diyas are a pair of one-foot long silver lamps. The bottom stands have images of goddess Lakshmi and on top, there is a swan.

These lamps can host five flames at a time, representing the five elements of space, air, fire, water, and earth. The story of these lamps is that they were given to my mother on her wedding day by my grandmother. After coming to Australia 15 years ago, Mum never saw the lamps again and lost a good memory of her wedding day. One month ago, she celebrated her 25th wedding anniversary. We remembered our memories in Australia, but we didn’t have a memory from the actual day my mother was married. Then, last week, my grandmother came to Sydney after 7 years and brought the lamps with her. It was the first time I saw the lamps and I was taken aback by how large and ornate they were. It was such a nice memory from 25 years ago! I’m happy to have had the lamps pass down through three generations of women in my family. They are like a long-lost treasure that has fortuitously turned up when it was given up for lost. My grandmother and I had a lot of fun decorating it to take these photos.

THE LAMP OF FOND MEMORIES Nandini Kumar It is when our festivals come round, that I miss India the most. Our festivals are all about big gatherings of family and friends, and connecting over old stories, jokes and laughter. Immediately after moving here, I missed that conviviality. But then, many years ago, a friend visiting from India around Diwali brought along this lamp as a present.

This lamp brought me a lot of cheer that Diwali in my early years away from home. Every time I look at it, it brings back the memories of those full-filled afternoons spent with dear friends reconnecting over masala chai and samosas. The times spent with dear ones may pass, but the lamp will ensure that those memories remain alive.

SURROUNDED BY LIGHT Rani Jhala I have always looked on a simple light with awe. A single flame, emitting the same light and solace to every person in the world, regardless of religion or creed! One day a message was given to me that my destiny would be with light. Just before my marriage, a confirmation of this message came in the form of a lamp. Shortly after, I married someone whose name means ‘victorious light’. My in-laws’ home is called ‘God’s light’, and the home we bought ourselves as a young couple had been christened ‘House of lights’. Quite coincidentally, there are many significant others in my life today, who have names that refer to light!

16 OCTOBER (1) 2017

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GANESH IN DIFFERENT FORMS Anubhuti Madan For me Diwali is the time to make everything around the house including ourselves be at our beautiful best. I’m always particular about decorative items to reflect beauty.

My all-time favourite diya sits on a Ganesha idol. I call it “Atharva”. Atharva is one of the many names of Lord Ganesh. Atharv is also the name of my son, named so because he was born on Ganesh Chaturthi. So for obvious reason, this diya is closest to my heart. We got this diya for Atahrv’s first Diwali and have lit it on Diwali ever since.

CROWD FAVOURITE Nita Tanna Deepavali is a composite word that means ‘a row of lamps’. Well, I prefer ‘a wall’ of lamps! Why have a row when you can have an entire wall?! My favourite diya will have to be my wall of diyas. It is always a crowd pleaser at my event management company Décor-A-Shaan. As clients walk in to my warehouse, they invariably stop at it and ask about it. I can literally see their eyes light up, ha ha! My husband Hemant and I designed it ourselves. I had a vision of what I wanted and we brought it to life.

Hemant made the wooden framework and designed the metal cutouts which we got specially cut here in Sydney. We then put it together and painted it gold. The magic was created! It has been used not only at Diwali functions but also at weddings, community functions, corporate social events and as stage decoration. It’s great as a photograph backdrop as well as a decoration in its own right.

ART SMART CANDLES Devna Luthra Forget tealight candles. How about teacup candles? I’ve just got introduced to craft candles - perfect timing, since Diwali is coming up! Handmade and old-style, they are simply stunning, and look and feel luxurious. You could DIY them - with a container of any sort, wax flakes, metallic wick holders and a double-boiler - but who has the time?! This particular one shown here, I got as a gift on my birthday recently. It is a scented soy candle made in an up-cycled vintage teacup. It will be my favourite diya this Diwali. The lovely lady who made this beautiful candle for me runs a business called The Scentimental Lady - look her up! She will make you a bespoke candle, in your own special container if you wish, and with your own choice of fragrance. And guess what, you can go back for refills!

NATIONAL EDITION

OCTOBER (1) 2017 17

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festival

A nostalgic throwback to an enduring melody Photos: Kartik Malik

85-year-old Bengali musical tradition lives on in Oz

E

ach year, on Mahalaya - the first day of Durga Puja - millions of Bengalis, particularly those in West Bengal wake up at the crack of dawn to the sounds of Mahisasura Mardini, a radio program broadcast by All India Radio for over 85 years, its most popular iteration composed by Pankaj Mullick. It’s no talk show or latest hits countdown, though - it’s the quintessential collection of classical Bengali songs, music and acoustic melodrama in the form of scriptural verses that marks the beginning of one of the biggest festivals in India.

Thousands of miles from home, a group of devoted and talented vocalists recently performed Mullick’s unique melodies to a captivated audience, evoking for many a very particular and welcome nostalgia.

Durga Puja, a Hindu festival, is at its heart the epitome of the celebration of good over evil. A ten-day long festival, it has evolved into an event that is social as much as it is religious, although its origins lie in the triumph of Goddess Durga over the shape-shifting demon, Mahisasura.

Other than the eponymous radio program, Mahisasura Mardini is the name given to the fierce form of Goddess Durga - literally, the destroyer of Mahisasura.

Kakoli Mukherjee, one of Sydney’s pre-eminent classical vocalists, directed the troupe of primarily local artists who performed the Mahisasura Mardini program at Baulkham Hills High School and, separately, at the Vedanta Centre of Sydney last month.

For Mukherjee, like many of her ensemble and those in the audience, it was a chance to rekindle treasured memories. “We grew up listening to it in the early morning of

22 OCTOBER (1) 2017

‘‘

Mahisasura Mardini is the quintessential collection of classical Bengali songs, music and acoustic melodrama in the form of scriptural verses that marks the beginning of Durga Puja

‘‘

BY RITAM MITRA

Mahalaya. In the whole neighbourhood, in every house, all family members would sit in front of the radio and listen.

The songs were sung by the famous singers of those days and we always considered this event as the beginning of Durga Puja. We never got bored even though we have been doing it for so many years.”

Speaking to Indian Link about leading the group of 22 singers and instrumentalists who formed a dynamic chorus, Mukherjee’s overwhelming feeling is one of pride. “I feel proud that I have been able to help many Sydney residents to be a part of this event,” says Mukherjee. “Each one of us feels proud to continue with this tradition.

We have performed it in many venues over the years, and everyone spends valuable time and puts in a lot of effort to make it a success.”

In fact, Mukherjee has led performances of the program in Sydney for over a decade now, and the dedication of her group is a testament to the enduring nature of Mullick’s composition. “I have heard from many people ‘Again, you are all performing the same program!’ But then again, many of them still come to watch it, and afterwards they often feel like they have missed out on being a part of it,” laughs Mukherjee.

Parth Upadhyay, a 25-year-old singer who has been learning classical music under Mukherjee for a remarkable 12 years, was the youngest member of this year’s ensemble, and he enjoyed the unique challenges that the program presented to him. “Mahisasura Mardini is in a foreign language to me and is the product of a beautiful, vibrant Bengali culture and its love for a cultivated literature,” says Upadhyay. “What was initially a radio program has taken the form of a

live performance, and is still captivating musicians and audiences alike for so many years - that makes it unique compared to other bhajans and concerts in which I’ve performed.”

For Upadhyay, the experience also carried with it some very welcome fringe benefits. “Being the youngest is particularly fun as you are spoilt by all at the practice sessions,” laughs Upadhyay. “The group is full of talented and jovial members whose experience and light heartedness made it a highly enjoyable program to be a part of.

And, with every passing Durga Puja, I’ve fallen more and more in love with this mishti

loving community and we can’t wait for the next one!”

This year’s event also included a collaboration with Udok Performing Arts, a group of talented Bharatanayam dancers headquartered in Kolkata, whose contribution Mukherjee labelled as “brilliant”.

The multi-discipline performance is a mark of how much more than just a radio program Mahisasura Mardini has become over the years - as much as the sound of the dhak and the ululations of Bengali women, Mahisasura Mardini embodies the sound and soul of Durga Puja.

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OCTOBER (1) 2017 23

festival

Blacktown Diwali

B

lacktown Diwali Mela brought the community together to kickstart this year’s Diwali celebrations in Sydney.

The annual event organised by Bikram Cheema of Star Event Productions also attracted the mainstream community to a large extent.

With its large-scale events this year, the company has arrived on the bigmela scene.

Bikram Cheema, a biotechnologist by training, gave up science to get into event management. “I love people and gatherings where people can get together to have fun,” he said. “It gives me great pleasure to see people happy at our events.”

It all started with a one-off event he helped his wife Indu Takkar organise in 2011. It was a Karwachauth

24 OCTOBER (1) 2017

celebration, a women’s festival that is marked with communal prayers and plenty of fun. “It went off pretty well, and we were hooked.”

While that event has now gone on to become an annual feature, Bikram and Indu moved on to other events like Diwali, Eid, curry festivals. This year marked their third Diwali fair.

Their vision has grown bigger and better. The welcoming gates at this year’s event were a worthy innovation, and the main stage was pretty large by community standards at 18m by 10m.

The stalls were very reasonably priced, a clever move that saw the volumes make up for it - there were 80 of them in all. Most were clothing and jewellery based, in keeping with the current festive season when the consumers are on the lookout for personal and decoration items. The

food stalls as well were popular.

Among the attractions were the photo ops with the mythological characters of the season, Ram, Sita and Raavan, organised by the newly launched Kuber Vaults.

On stage the lure came from the dance competition, sponsored by Winning Smile Dentists who gave away a $1000 prize. Plus of course there was giddha and bhangra galore, with attractions thrown in from across the country’s cultural traditions as well.

Overall, it was pretty highly Punjabi-influenced: but such is the Punjabi bonhomie that it sucks everybody in.

Hope there’s plenty of balle balle in your Diwali this year.

Nisha Chaman

www.indianlink.com.au

Photos: Balz I Click Photography NATIONAL EDITION

OCTOBER (1) 2017 25

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stage

Indian and western classical music: Differences and synergies

Violin maestro Dr. L. Subramaniam at a SPIC MACAY lecture-demonstration in Sydney

NATIONAL EDITION

this using the raga Shankarabharanam, identifiable as a Major Scale in Western classical. As he expounded on the rhythmic aspects, he explained different timesignatures and how 175 talas are derived from the constituent elements namely laghu, drutam and anudrutam. As he educated the audience in Indian scat singing, he encouraged them to repeat the vocalisation in different speeds. At the highest speed as he effortlessly vocalised them, the

untrained audience, unable to reproduce, acknowledged their failing cheerfully with laughter and applause all around. The rhythm segment also featured illustrations on mrudangam by DSR Murthy and morsing by Satya Sai. Questions from the audience, such as comparison of violin with sarangi, were answered clearly. The maestro ended the lecture with a few tips to the younger generation for improving their bowing and fingering techniques.

The night before, his team of musicians along with his wife Kavita Krishnamurthy Subramaniam who is an eminent singer in her own right, had presented a beautiful concert at the Australian Maritime Museum.

Kavita’s pick of songs (bhajans as well as Bollywood numbers) were followed by almost an hour of raga Abhogi played by Dr. L.Subramaniam with a grand finale of Carnatic Allegro, a Vahulabaranam Thillana, by the entire team. The artists were brought down under by the Confluence Festival of India in Australia.

Photo: Sandip Hor

“I

mprovisation is the core of Indian classical traditions, and so was the case with Western classical for quite long before it paved the way for the rigid score-sheet based performances we see all around now,” Dr L Subramaniam said in Sydney recently.

“While I acknowledge there are different artists imparting subtle differences in playing these pre-set compositions, imagine how wonderful the musical output would be if various talented artists all over the world are to present their improvised versions of cadenzas! The variety would fill this world with different flavours and colours of music. I yearn to be in such a world.”

As a practitioner of both classical schools, the Indian and the Western - both vastly different - the eminent scholarcomposer, has crystallized a total of 36 basic scales which are amenable to microtone-based orchestral arrangements.

Dr. L. Subramaniam’s lecture on 3 Oct at the Australian Institute of Music (AIM) wonderfully engaged the students in an interactive session as he expounded the various aspects of music - principally from the Carnatic tradition. He explained simultaneously in the equivalent Western classical terms, thereby establishing firmly the differences (microtones vs tempered) and the synergies (the orchestral concepts).

His talk derived from his multi-decade long experience as a performer and composer whose works have been played by top symphony orchestras like the New York Philharmonic.

‘‘

The eminent scholar-composer, has crystallized a total of 36 basic scales which are amenable to microtonebased orchestral arrangements

‘‘

BY MURALI SANKAR VENKATRAMAN

Arranged by SPIC MACAY Australia (the third event in the series for 2017), the lecture started with a brief history of Indian music, through the monotonic chants in the times of the Rig Veda, its septatonic expansion in the times of Sama Veda, and its subsequent bifurcation (during the Mughal era) into the present distinct south and north Indian classical traditions. He addressed the fundamental melodic and rhythmic concepts of the Carnatic tradition and how various scales - parent and derived - are created, giving rise to more than a million distinctive scales. However, he noted repeatedly, playing the notes alone simply does not constitute a raga and that a raga is characterised by set of primary notes, secondary notes and microtones.

The microtones, he jocularly mentioned, could sound “out-of-tune” to ears trained in Western classical, although they are very much reproducible frequencies which are essential and unique embellishments honed through oral traditions. He deftly illustrated

OCTOBER (1) 2017 27

business

High Commissioner sets the tone at AIBC event

F

ormer Indian High Commissioner Sujatha Singh in her address to the Australia India Business Council in 2011 had publicly taken the organisation to task, questioning them on their ability to deliver on their mandate to increase bi-lateral trade between Australia and India.

Now, four years on, the current Indian High Commissioner Dr AM Gondane delivered a similar message, even though the tone was a lot more diplomatic and subtle.

He was speaking at the annual Australia India Address in September.

With over 300 guests in attendance, the signature event for the business community working in the Australia-India space attracts business leaders, leading politicians and other key stakeholders. The keynote address was delivered by the premier of NSW Gladys Berejklian.

The Darling Harbour skyline set the backdrop in the main ballroom of the Hyatt Regency, and gave the guests a chance to network as well as understand the vision of the NSW Government and AIBC (NSW) to grow the trade between the two countries. With NSW as the largest and the strongest economy in Australia, and India,

in spite of short-term hiccups still on track to achieve high singledigit GDP growth, it seemed but logical that the alliance between them would grow at a strong trajectory. However, it seems that the needle is stuck - perhaps even going backwards. According to a Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade report, bilateral trade between NSW and India was valued at $1.93 billion in 2010-11.

A report released in 2015 by the former Premier Mike Baird stated, “Our markets trade approximately $1.8 billion worth of goods each year. NSW supplies India with coal, metals and textile fibres (such as cotton). India supplies NSW businesses and consumers with medicinal and pharmaceutical products, petroleum and manufactured goods.”

It seems the needle is not only stuck but is actually slipping.

And what is the reason for this, High Commissioner Gondane asked when he addressed the business community.

“I have only been in Australia for nine months but I am a seeker of knowledge. And for that I need to raise some questions,” he said. “Is the engagement between India and Australia growing, is it stabilized at an optimal level, or is it slowing down?”

Taking aim at the AIBC, he also inquired if all the reforms in India are actually known and understood in Australia – reforms such as open investment options, digital reforms, tax reforms and other economic reforms. He also gently reminded the Australian businesses present of the many opportunities in India.

There are great reforms taking place in education, he observed.

With over one million schools, over 800 universities and over 350,000,000 students, there are great opportunities for Australia to share their knowledge in an area where there is much hunger for this expertise. “It will only depend on supply from your side, the demand is huge from our side,” the Indian High Commissioner said.

“If Australia takes one step in our direction, we will take two,” he promised.

The incoming AIBC NSW President Kylie Bell in her welcome stated that while they are rebuilding their website and developing an app, her team is new on the job and still finding direction.

It is unclear as to how AIBC plans to actually address some of the opportunities the High Commissioner spoke about and which all in the room know, are there for the taking.

Premier Gladys Berejklian in her address confirmed that she will follow in the footsteps of her predecessors Mike Baird and Barry O’Farrell and visit India in December. While her agenda is still being worked through, she claimed she is keen to leverage off the growing Indian diaspora in Australia. She acknowledged the culture and traditions of India and shared values, and remembered PM Modi’s visit to Australia. She also emphasised her desire for NSW to engage more with India. There was however, little information on how, and what this will be.

The evening allowed networking

opportunities, but as to whether this will evolve into actual business, only time will tell.

Four years ago former High Commissioner Sujatha Singh remarked, “Will the Australia India Business Council rise to its potential? I hope it will. We are all waiting for AIBC to show us what it can do and to become an important player in defining and grasping the opportunities in the shape of things to come.”

Only weeks ago, the current head of Indian government in Australia Ajay Gondane was still seeking such knowledge.

Pawan Luthra

P Chidambaram at AII

I

t started as a talk on the unfinished economic journey of India. It turned out to be a lecture on major disruption to the Indian economy with BJP government initiatives like demonetisation, the participation of the RSS in government, and the GST. The speaker, Dr P Chibambaram, the former Union Minister for Home and Finance in the UPA government, was speaking at an event hosted by the Australia India Institute on his recent visit to Melbourne.

Dr Chidambaram needs no introduction, a Harvard alumnus and one of the architects of the opening up of the Indian economy along with Dr Manmohan Singh. In his Melbourne talk, he started with a lesson on the history of economics from the 1970s and then moved up to the 1990s when the real action with the Indian economy began. An experienced and astute speaker, Dr Chidambaram highlighted the UPA government’s achievements, including pulling 140 million Indians out of poverty, a big

28 OCTOBER (1) 2017

reminder of his post budget speech in 2014.

Much of the speech highlighted the numbers achieved over the decades under the Congress governments, from increase in life expectancy, fall in infant mortality rates, increase in international trade and the 10-fold increase in food production over the last 3035 years. Playing to the galleries, Dr Chidambaram highlighted the vitality and robustness of the India-Australia relationship, the three-fold increase in the number of Indians in this country over the last decade, and the similarities between the two countries.

However, seasoned politician that he is, he did not miss the opportunity, even in a foreign land and amidst a pre-dominantly foreign audience, to take pot shots at the BJP government’s policies like implementation of GST and demonetisation, calling them major disruptions in the otherwise smooth working of the Indian economy. The RSS was on his hit list too when he accused them of running a parallel government and the BJP being the political wing of the organisation.

While the recent killing of some journalists continues to be investigated, to a question on the murder of Gauri Lankesh in Congress ruled Karnataka, Mr Chidambaram hit out at the central government accusing it of wilfully doing away with those that opposed it.

Much was expected from Mr Chidambaram’s speech, with hopes that he would expound on the emerging Asian giant, the ‘sleeping tiger’ as the western media refers to the Indian economy. But he could only muster past growth figures besides taking a few pot shots at the current government.

To a question on Congress’ stature as a political party during recent assembly elections in 5 states, he said he viewed the victories as equal, with BJP winning UP and Uttrakhand, Congress in Punjab, and Congress being the largest party in Goa and Manipur.

The q-and-a that followed raised a wide variety of questions, including climate control to corruption and Adani. He would only provide a generic statement in response to Adani, saying corruption can be found at all levels of society and government, and getting rid of it means teaching the bureaucracy to work differently.

The question that brought a smile to everyone’s lips was, why would Mr Chidambaram himself not lead the Congress Party as a Prime Ministerial Candidate.

Again like an astute statesman and not wanting to tread on the wrong toes, he skilfully dodged the question. “I will leave it to my party to decide on that.”

Amit Dutt

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As Australia’s energy system transitions, the Australian Government is making energy more affordable.

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Oz volunteers support Rally for Rivers

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n Sunday 8 October, a group of volunteers from Isha Foundation gathered along the banks of the Swan river in Perth.

They were there to commemorate and support

the campaign Rally for Rivers in India, and to acknowledge their foundation’s tireless efforts towards revitalising the rivers of India.

Indian rivers are depleting rapidly. A 650-page draft policy

recommendation was presented

by Sadhguru, Founder of the Isha Foundation, to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 3 Oct. It suggests that one very simple yet effective means to replenish our rivers, is to create a kilometre-

wide tree cover on riversides (and half a kilometre for tributaries).

Sadhguru made the presentation to the PM after personally driving over 9000 kms from Kanyakumari to New Delhi through 16 states.

This unprecedented campaign

has brought together not only several state governments but has also received support from leading personalities across India and overseas.

Hundreds of thousands of people showed up on the rally route. It’s time now to raise awareness of this incredible national movement among Australian Indians.

The campaign in India is calling for missed calls to be sent to the number +91 80009 80009. It is hoped that 30 crore missed calls will be recorded by 31 Oct. The Perth event was graced by the presence of the Consulate General of India, Amit Mishra, the president of ISWA, Ramkrishna Bansal and Rajyashree Malaviya from the Hindi Samaj.

Mishra applauded this campaign and said “Please be a part of this campaign and give a missed call to 8000980009. Let us rejuvenate the rivers together!”

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WHAT’S ON FESTIVAL Diwali and Bandi Chhor Diwas Thur 19 Oct Gurudwara Turramurra Sikh Temple (at 81 Kissing Point Rd, Turramurra NSW) will organise a special Diwali and Bandi Chhor sangat in an all-day event, 7.30am-9.30pm.

Details 0 2 9449 8253.

Diwali and Annakut celebrations at BAPS Mandir Thur 19 and Fri 20 Oct Festivities include Diwali Chopda Pujan, grand Annakut Utsav, New Year Aarti and Mahapouja and Satsang sabha.

BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, 40 Eleanor St, Rosehill.

Details 02 9760 2277.

Deepavali at church Sun 5 Nov (6.00pm-7.00pm) St Mary’s Church, corner of Miller and Ridge Streets, North Sydney will celebrate the Festival of Light, India’s biggest festival. Ceremonies will include blowing of the conch shell, lighting of the ceremonial lamp, special Indian music, including Christian hymns and prayers in Indian languages such as Hindi and Gujarati and a Sanskrit mantra and devotional and festive Indian dances.

Details 02 8918 4101 DIWALI Opera House Diwali Tues 17 Oct (7:00pm) The NSW government is arranging for the Sydney Opera House to be lit up in festive lights for Diwali. The lighting can be viewed from the Museum of Contemporary Art, 140 George Street, The Rocks Deepavali Mela Sat 14 and Sun 15 Oct The Hindu Council of Australia presents its annual Deepavali Mela at Parramatta Park, Parramatta. Details www. deepavali.com.au Diwali Dhoom Fri 13 Oct (7.00pm onwards) South Sydney Indian Association presents Diwali Dhoom celebration. The Sapphire Function Centre, 7 Station Rd, Auburn.

Details yogeshmanav@hotmail.com Diwali Competitions Sat 14 Oct Arya Pratinidhi Sabha of Australia and HilLs District Aray Samaj announce a Rangoli competition and Kids’ Fancy Dress Competition.

4.30pm - 5.00pm at 69 Shane Park Road, Shane Park. Details Yogesh Khattar 0422 368 246 Deepavali Milan Sun 15 Oct Australian Hindi Indian Associations AHIA presents Deepavali Milan at RSL Club, 4 High St Hornsby.

5.00pm.

Details Yash Bhasin 0423 454c 086; Lt Col VK Sahni 0416 965 764.

Nepalese Deepavali Sun 22 Oct (12 noon- 9.00pm) Rockdale Bicentennial Park West Botany St, Rockdale Pink Diwali Sat 28 Oct (7.00pm onwards) Saheli Club Sydney presents Diwali event at

34 OCTOBER (1) 2017

Hemani Mehmi Indian Restaurant 268 George St, Liverpool. Details email team@saheliclubsydney.com.au SENIORS Dementia forum Fri 27 Oct (5.30pm-7.30pm) The Consulate General of India and the Dementia Support Group for Indian Australians Inc in collaboration with the Federation of Indian Associations of NSW (FIAN) present a dementia forum at the Consulate, Level 2, 265 Castlereagh Street, Sydney.

Details Anju Kalra 0478 130 464 Seniors Forum Sat 4 Nov (1.30pm-4.00pm) AASHA Australia Foundation Ltd presents a panel discussion on ageing and seniors’ rights. Pennant Hills Community Centre, cnr Yarrara Rd and Ramsey St, Pennant Hills.

Details Bijinder Duggal 0412 786 569 FILMS Film For Thought The South Asia Study Group at the University of Sydney presents its film series ‘Films for Thought’, at the New Law Annexe Seminar Room 342.

This film series includes a set of films over the course of Semester 2, 2017 focusing on gender issues in different countries across the South Asian region and the South Asian diaspora in Australia.

Thur 26 Oct (5:30 pm – 8.00 pm) Gulabi Gang Thur 16 Nov (5:30 pm – 8.00 pm) Udita Thur 30 Nov (5:30 pm – 8.00 pm) A Thin Wall Details Nishtha Sharma 0490 373 031 Vatsalyam Tues 24 Oct (6pm) Community Migrant Resource Centre and partnering organisations to hold screening of the film ‘Vatsalayam,’ an exploration of parenting amongst South Asian migrant communities in Australia. Free event. Crows Nest Centre, Johnsons Hall, 2 Ernest Street, Crows Nest.

Details Shantha 0422 082 608 STAGE Odissi dance Fri 13 Oct Sam Goraya, Melbournebased Odissi expert presents Mystery of Chakras at Bankstown Arts Centre.

Details 0413 434 544.

Stand-Up Comedy Fri 13 Oct India’s leading comedian Johny Lever performs with his daughter Jamie Lever and his own orchestra. C3 Conference Venue, George St, Silverwater.

Details 0412 779 418.

Bhangra Knockout 2017 Sat 14 Oct (6.00pm onwards) The Bhangra Project presents dance competition Bhangra Knockout.

Cherrybrook Community & Cultural Centre 48 Shepherds Dr, Cherrybrook.

Tickets ticketebo Dance: Vidwan Raghunandan S Fri 20 Oct (5:30pm - 7:00pm) Indian

Cultural Centre, Consulate General of India, Sydney presents Aranya Kaand: Ramcharitmanas of Goswami Tulasidas a solo dance drama by Vidwan Raghunandan S, at Level 2, 265 Castlereagh Street, Sydney.

RSVP to library.sydney@mea.gov.in Harbhajan Mann Sat 21 Oct Punjabi singer Harbhajan Mann presents Satrangi Peengh.

C3 Conference Venue, 108-120 Silverwater Rd, Silverwater.

Details 0403 125 316 Sonu Nigam Sat 21 Oct Sydney Olympic Park Sports Centre, Cnr Sarah Durack Avenue and Olympic Boulevard, Sydney Olympic Park.

Details 0404 272 412 Kathak Sat 28 Oct Swastik Institute of Dance presents Kathak exponent Pandit Rajendra Gangani in the show Kathak Darpan. Riverside Theatre in Parramatta. Details 0402 551 841 Fri 24 Nov 24, Sun 26 Nov and Tues 28 Nov Shrimad Rajchandra Mission presents stage production Yugpurush, based oin the spiritual life of Mahatma Gandhi. Sydney Baha’i Centre, 107 Derby Street, Silverwater Details sydney@ shrimadrajchandramission.org FUNDRAISER Diwali Fundraiser: Vision 2020 Sat 21 Oct Vision 2020 organises its annual Diwali gala dinner at Roselea Community Centre, Carlingford. A grand Diwali dinner and variety entertainment program has been organised in a festive ambience.

The funds raised will be used to support VIRAT hospice in Jabalpur, India. This hospice provides palliative care to terminally ill patients and provides the necessary support to patients and families at a critical stage in their lives.

Vision2020 will help build an eightbed ward to support families that need palliative care.

Details Priya Chand 0432 496 909 or visit www.vision2020.org.au RANI Walk Sat 21 Oct Rajasthani Association of NSW (RANI), a not-for-profit community association, is organising a Sydney Harbour Bridge pedestrian walk to generate funds for building a girls’ toilet at Rajkiya Adarsh Uccha Madhyamik Vidyalaya in Gendaliya, Rajasthan. The group is asking for a minimum donation of $20 per person.

Groups start walking at 7:00am (Group 1) and 7:30am (Group 2).

Bank details: Rajasthani Association of NSW Inc; BSB: 062221; Account No: 10316544; Description: your full name. Details www.RANI.org.au ATSA’s Saaya Sun 29 Oct (3.30pm-6.30pm) Australian Telangana State Association presents its annual Saaya program, an evening of Bollywood songs at The Performing Arts Centre, Pacific Hills Christian School, 9-15 Quarry Rd, Dural. The two worthy charities picked as the beneficiaries of the

event this year are NAAM foundation which works for the welfare of the farmers in India and Sarvodaya Youth Organisation in Telangana which helps provide homes for orphans.

Details 0402 335 054 BAPS Walkathon Sun 12 Nov (10.00am-12.30pm) Sydney BAPS Mandir will hold its annual fundraising walkathon at the Sydney international Regatta centre, Penrith Lakes. The two worthy charities picked as the beneficiaries of the event this year are Nepean Hospital and the Chappell Foundation.

Meet at Gate A, Old Castlereagh Rd, Castlereagh. Details Pradeepbhai Jobanputra 0420 779 988 EXHIBITION The Indian Himalayas Tue 17 Oct (2:30pm-4:00pm) The Union Bank of India (in association with Aei4eia) presents an art exhibition entitled The Indian Himalayas Through My Eyes. The artists are school children, aged 11-16, students of Ladakh’s Druk White Lotus School located in Shey and made famous in the Bollywood hit Three Idiots. Level 9, 20 Hunter St, Sydney. Details Pankaj Kumar, 02 9221 2766 or sydney.australia@ unionbankofindia.com SEMINAR Visit of Dr MR Rajagopal, father of palliative care in India Wed 18 Oct (11:30am to 12:30pm) The Mater Hospital North Sydney and St Vincent’s Health Australia’s special one-off free public event.

Dr MR Rajagopal, described as the father of palliative care in India, will present a seminar entitled ‘Reframing medicine for the whole world’. He is in Sydney for the launch of a new film, Hippocratic, which explores his life story and his mission. Dr Rajagopal will show an excerpt from the film. The Poche Centre Auditorium, 40 Rocklands Road, Wollstonecraft. Places are limited, RSVP essential to rosemarie.sheppard@svha.org.au Ambedkar lecture by Michale Kirby Wed 8 Nov (12 noon – 2.00pm) Western Sydney University presents the Hon Michael Kirby AC CMG, presenting a talk entitled ‘Law Reform, Constitutional Reform and the Inspiring Example of Dr BR Ambedkar’.

Moot Court, Building EO, Parramatta Campus, WSU. Cnr James Ruse Drive & Victoria Road, Rydalmere. Details k.manning@westernsydney.edu.au COMMUNITY Lajawab Haryana Sun 22 Oct (6.00pm-8.00pm) The Haryanvi Association of Australia marks the 50th foundation day of their home state in India.

Details 0428 373 193

To list your event email: media@indianlink.com.au

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The Strathfield versus Granville Diwali Competition Jodi McKay, Member for Strathfield and Julia Finn, Member for Granville invite you to show us how you celebrate Diwali.

Participants must live in the state electorates of Strathfield (including Homebush and Burwood) or Granville (including Merrylands, Westmead and Wentworthville).

A winner will be selected from each electorate, and the overall winner (between the two) will win dinner with Jodi and Julia in Parliament.

There is also a “highly commended” award for anyone who makes an entry but does not reside in either electorate.

Entries close on the 20th of October 2017 and should be emailed to either Strathfield@parliament.nsw.gov.au or Granville@parliament.nsw.gov.au.

Queries can be directed to 9747-1711 or 9637-1656.

OCTOBER (1) 2017 35

indian news Earthern lamps for sale in Mumbai ahead of the upcoming Diwali festival. Photo: EPA

the contrary, we have the direct evidence of deterioration of air quality at alarming levels, which happens every year.” “... , burning of these fire crackers during Diwali in 2016 had shot up PM (particulate matter) levels by three times, making Delhi the worst city in the world, so far as air pollution is concerned. Direct and immediate cause thereof was burning of crackers during Diwali,” it said.

India gives more medical visas to Pakistanis

Sex with wife below 18 is rape, rules Supreme Court

The Supreme Court of India said sex with wife below 18 years of age is rape, striking down the provision of criminal law that permitted sex with a wife aged between 15 and 18.

Referring to the Exception 2 to Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code that allowed such a sexual contact which now stands struck down, the court in its verdict said, “ ... in our opinion, sexual intercourse with a girl below 18 years of age is rape regardless of whether she is married or not.”

The husband is liable to be prosecuted if the woman files a complaint within a year of the sexual act, the Supreme Court said as it struck down the exception.

Describing the exception as “arbitrary, discriminatory and capricious”, the bench of Justice Madan B Lokur and Justice Deepak Gupta in their separate but concurring judgments said that its verdict would have a prospective affect.

Section 375, which defines rape, in Exception 2 said, “Sexual intercourse or sexual acts by a man with his own wife, the wife not being under fifteen years of age, is not rape.”

The court verdict came while deciding the question whether sexual intercourse between a man and his wife being a girl between 15 and 18 years of age is rape, after NGO Independent Thought had moved the court in 2013 against it.

The court, however, made it clear that it was not saying anything on the larger issue of marital rape.

“We make it clear that we have not at all dealt with the larger issue of marital rape of adult women since that issue was not raised before us by the petitioner or the intervener,” said Justice Lokur.

Describing the distinction between a girl child and a married girl child as “unnecessary and artificial”, he said it “has no rational nexus with any unclear objective sought to be achieved.” Holding this distinction was also “contrary to the philosophy behind some statutes, the bodily integrity of the girl child and her reproductive choice,” he said, adding that 36 OCTOBER (1) 2017

it also “turns a blind eye to trafficking of the girl child and surely each one of us must discourage trafficking which is such a horrible social evil.”

Justice Gupta in his separate but concurring judgment said that Exception 2 was “arbitrary, capricious, whimsical and violative of the rights of the girl child and not fair, just and reasonable” and thus was “violative of Article 14, 15 and 21 of the Constitution”.

Exception 2 grants “immunity” to the husband for the offence of rape especially when the “victim wife” is below the age of 18 years - at an age when she is “legally not capable of giving consent to have sexual intercourse”, he maintained.

Dismissing the Centre’s stand that it would not be proper to criminalize the consummation of child marriages which were taking place in a large number across the country, Justice Gupta said, “Merely because something is going on for a long time is no ground to legitimise and legalise an activity which is per se illegal and a criminal offence.”

He asked if a child marriage, which is admittedly “an evil” and also a criminal offence, can be “set up as an exception in a case of a girl child, who is subjected to sexual intercourse by her so called husband.”

“Shockingly, even if this sexual intercourse is forcible and without the consent of the girl child, then also the husband is not liable for any offence,” he said, pointing out several rights that a girl child loses including right to study and develop “physically, mentally and economically into a mature woman.”

No firecracker sale in DelhiNCR this Diwali: SC

The Supreme Court of India ruled that there will be no sale of firecrackers in Delhi and National Capital Region during Diwali, as it restored a November 2016 order banning the sale and stocking of firecrackers there.

The bench of Justice AK Sikri, Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre and Justice Ashok Bhushan, while restoring last November’s

order, said, “We are of the view that the order suspending the licences should be given one chance to test itself in order to find out as to whether there would be positive effect of this suspension, particularly during Diwali period.”

However, the court said that the September 12 order lifting the ban on the sale and stocking of firecrackers in Delhi NCR will be back into effect from November 1.

Pointing to the adverse impact of the bursting of the fire crackers that is witnessed year after year, Justice Sikri said, “The air quality deteriorates abysmally and alarmingly and the city chokes thereby, it leads to closing the schools and the authorities are compelled to take various measures on emergent basis, when faced with ‘health emergency’ situation.”

This very situation, the court said, had occurred on the very next morning after Diwali in the year 2016.

“This order prevailed during the year but the impact and effect of this order remains to be tested on Diwali days,” the judgment said.

The court said, “We are of the opinion that the judgment dated September 12, 2017 passed by this Court should be made effective only from November 01, 2017.”

Making it clear that though it was not tweaking with the various directions issued

by September 12 judgment, the court said that the effect of September 12 order “would not be given effect during this Diwali, and, therefore, we are making it effective only from November 1.”

It said that all the temporary licences that police had issued in pursuance to September 12 order stand suspended forthwith “so that there is no further sale of the crackers in Delhi and NCR.” Further orders in this behalf can be passed on assessing the situation that would emerge after this Diwali season, it added.

Referring to the arguments by firecracker sellers that the contribution of firecrackers to the worsening of the air quality was negligible and there were other contributing factors, the court said, “On

Continuing a trend that started after a promise made on Independence Day this year, India has issued medical visa for a one-year-old Pakistani seeking open heart surgery and a man seeking a liver transplant.

“We have approved the visa request for liver transplant surgery of your uncle Mr Azhar Hussain in India,” External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj tweeted in response to a request from a Pakistani national Abbas.

Swaraj had earlier announced medical visa for a one-year-old Pakistani girl. ”We are giving visa for the open heart surgery of your one-year-old daughter Shireen Shiraz in India,” she tweeted in response to a request from the child’s mother Hira Shiraz.

So far this month, India has issued five medical visas for Pakistanis seeking urgent treatment.

India had last month also issued a medical visa to a Pakistani child seeking open heart surgery in India.

On Independence Day, the External Affairs Ministry had announced that India would provide medical visas to all bona fide Pakistani patients.

As ties between the two countries soured over various issues, the ministry had announced in May that only a letter of recommendation by then Pakistan Foreign Affairs Advisor Sartaj Aziz would enable a Pakistani national to get a medical visa for India.

The action was termed “highly regrettable” by Islamabad, which said that asking for a letter from the Foreign Affairs Advisor violated diplomatic norms and such a requirement had not been prescribed for any other country.

However, on July 18, a patient from Pakistan-administered Kashmir, seeking treatment in New Delhi for liver tumour, got a visa.

Swaraj then said that he needed no recommendation from the Pakistani government for a medical visa because the territory “is an integral part of India”.

Australian cricket team bus attacked in India

Australia’s cricket squad suffered a scare after a stone was thrown at their bus on its return to a hotel from the Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati.

The incident took place after Australia defeated India by eight wickets in the second Twenty20 International (T20I).

“Pretty scary having a rock thrown through the team bus window on the way back to the hotel!!” Australian batsman Aaron Finch wrote on Twitter, posting a

www.indianlink.com.au

India’s Komal Thatal kicks the ball as US goalkeeper Justin Garces jumps to block it during their FIFA U-17 World Cup match in New Delhi on 6 Oct. India lost the match 0-3.

Photo: AP

picture of the broken window of the bus.

No one was, however, injured.

Australia also witnessed a similar incident during their tour of Bangladesh last month.

The Barsapara Stadium hosted its first international match 10 October.

Mumbai stampede: Officials get clean chit, rain to blame

An official probe into the September 29 stampede in Mumbai gave a clean chit to Western Railway (WR) officials, but instead blamed heavy rain and rumours for the tragedy that killed 23 railway commuters.

WR Chief Safety Officer (CSO), who conducted the inquiry into the stampede at a foot overbridge connecting Parel and Elphinstone Road stations, submitted the report to General Manager Anil Kumar.

It includes statements of injured commuters, eyewitnesses like police and railway officials and members of the general public. The inquiry also analysed closed-circuit television footage at the station and the foot overbridge.

The probe report said a vendor dropped a bunch of flowers and a cry of ‘Majha phool padla’ (my flower fell) led to the spread of rumours of ‘pool padla’ (bridge fell), which “possibly triggered panic and led to the stampede”.

“The committee concluded that the tragedy occurred due to a downpour and accumulation of commuters on the overbridge and the staircase around 10 a.m. on the fateful day,” the CSO observed in his report.

WR Chief Spokesperson Ravinder Bhakar told media later during the day that “rumour, coupled with sudden torrential rain” on September 29 morning led to a huge rush at the Elphinstone Road station and the bridge, which led to the tragedy.

“Many people stranded on the bridge were unable to move due to heavy rain, even as other commuters were stepping out of trains and trying to climb the bridge,” Bhakar said.

The probe committee also recommended certain short- and longterm measures for Mumbai suburban stations, including installation of additional CCTVs at stations and in trains, removal of all encroachments on bridges and foot overbridges and in railway stations’ vicinity, among others.

Trump asks Congress to enact merit-based immigration, silent on H1-B visas

While keeping mum on H1-B visas, US President Donald Trump has asked Congress to introduce a merit-based immigration system that could benefit Indians but would also deny green cards to some relatives of immigrants.

Trump’s 70-point enforcement plan calling for stiff immigration reforms unveiled by the White house would continue to allow the spouses and children of immigrants to get green cards or permanent resident status but not their brothers, sisters and parents.

The goal of the merit-based system that awards green cards based on factors NATIONAL EDITION

like education, employability and English language proficiency is “to promote assimilation and financial success”, the White House said.

A merit-based system is likely to benefit India if the national quotas limiting green cards to about 20,000 per country per year are also done away with and they are awarded purely on merit.

Because of the large number of highly qualified Indians, most of the professionals from the country face an 11-year wait to get green cards and a meritbased system could cut down the delay.

Professionals from all countries except India and three others do not have to wait for their green cards.

Trump’s wide-ranging reform package proposes the stiffest immigration reforms ever offered by an administration and seeks to make good on his election promise of getting tough on immigration.

But it faces strong opposition in the Congress from Democrats and some Republicans making it unlikely to pass in the near future.

The request to Congress for legislation formalises the immigration reform plan he announced in August.

The proposals sent will deal only with permanent immigration and with illegal immigration, and not with the temporary H1-B visas given to professionals and advanced degree-holders from US universities.

India has expressed concern over the future of H1-B visas because Trump had said during his election campaign that he would limit them because he asserted they affected the employment prospects of Americans.

When External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj met US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson last month, she raised the H1-B visas.

So far the H1-B system has been functioning without any changes and the immigration service is processing applications at the same levels as before.

One of the items in the proposal that concerns Indians is the future of those brought in illegally by their parents as

children and have grown up here.

It is estimated that there about 7,500 Indians in this category referred to as “Dreamers”.

Former President Barack Obama issued a presidential order allowing the “Dreamers” to remain in the US and to work.

Trump is rescinding the order and asking Congress to pass a law not to allow them to stay on.

Yet another issue that concerns India is that of illegal immigrants and criminals whom the US wants to deport, but New Delhi has refused to accept some of them because of what it says are inadequate proof of their identity and Indian citizenship.

countries.

“I am honoured and excited by the opportunity to lead the US-India Business Council and to join the leadership of the US Chamber of Commerce during a period of historic opportunity for both countries,” she said in the USIBC release.

“As one of the most significant and fastest growing markets, India is an important economic partner for the US. Likewise, Indian companies are investing in ever greater numbers here in the US. I am proud to be part of an organization which will play such a critical role shaping USIndia relations, and I am thrilled at the chance to help our companies deliver a brighter, more prosperous future for the citizens of the US and India.”

Nisha Biswal to head USIndia Business Council

Modi’s EAC to focus on India’s economic growth, employment

Nisha Biswal, a former US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, will head the US India Business Council (USIBC), according to an official announcement.

“We are thrilled to welcome Nisha Biswal to the US-India Business Council and to the US Chamber team,” said Myron Brilliant, US Chamber executive vice-president and head of International Affairs.

“She is a driven, visionary leader who has a strong record of advancing United States business across the growth markets of Asia and throughout India.

“Under her strong leadership, we’re confident the US-India Business Council will play a critical role growing commercial partnership, investment, and innovation across the world’s oldest and largest democracies,” Brilliant said in a press release.

The 42-year-old former diplomat will start her tenure from October 23 next.

Biswal succeeds another Indian American, Mukesh Aghi, who left the organisation following disagreements with the US Chamber of Commerce. The USIBC, an advocacy group that promotes business and commercial ties between the US and India, has presence in both the

With the economy slowing down and joblessness becoming a major issue, the newly-constituted Economic Advisory Council to Prime Minister Narendra Modi identified 10 major priority areas including accelerating economic growth and employment over the next six months.

The 10 themes were identified during the first meeting of the council chaired

by NITI Aayog Member Bibek Debroy.

The council was reconstituted a fortnight ago in what was seen as the government acknowledging for the first time the problem of economic slowdown.

Apart from giving recommendations to the Prime Minister on these issues, the EAC-PM would also focus on the next budget preparation over the coming months, Debroy told reporters here after the meeting.

“The 10 themes identified are economic growth, employment and job creation, informal sector and integration, fiscal framework, monetary policy, public expenditure, institutions of economic governance, agriculture and animal husbandry, patterns of consumption and production, and the social sector,” Debroy said.

IANS OCTOBER (1) 2017 37

festival

Kiddy Diwali Highly Commended Ethan Geevarghese 5.5

Winner Taaruni Naig 7

Highly Commended Aashi Choksi 6 Ankita 7

Sai Sravan Shailesh 7 38 OCTOBER (1) 2017

Shreya Vudayagiri 6 www.indianlink.com.au

What a burst of colour! The spring school holidays turned out to be the perfect time for Indian Link’s Diwali art contest for kids. This year we have entries in two categories, age 7 and below (opposite), and 8-12 (this page).

Congrats to our winners, Taaruni Naig of Carlingford and Niveditha Santhosh of Kellyville Ridge. They win Dymocks vouchers worth $50 and $75 respectively. Niveditha will also see her work featured on Indian Link’s official Diwali cards for 2017. Congrats also to all of our young readers who sent us their work. Well done, budding artists! May your Diwali be filled with light and colour! Here are some of our favourites.

Winner Niveditha Santhosh 10

Aashna Rana 11

Shirley Kumar 11 NATIONAL EDITION

Highly Commended Ananya Wakhare 12 (last year’s winner)

Highly Commended Tanvi Bhandari 10

Riya Suvarna 9

OCTOBER (1) 2017 39

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Reminder of a spirit that moved a nation Kids re-enact the Dandi March at UNSW’s Gandhi memorial event

BY RAJNI ANAND LUTHRA

“G

andhiji used to walk very fast,” says Vatsal Dave, 8.

He should know he played the role of Gandhiji at a recent reenactment of the famous Salt March.

As he speed-walked across the lawn in his Gandhi costume - holding his rustic walking stick and his white chadar flying behind him like Superman’s cape - he channelled the Mahatma brilliantly for the dozens of marchers behind him.

The re-enactment was part of a Gandhi memorial held on 2 Oct at UNSW. Way back in 1930, Gandhiji took 24 days to walk 400 km from his home in Ahmedabad to a coastal village called Dandi. He walked to wilfully break the “Salt Law” imposed by the British, which prevented Indians from producing their own salt. Thousands joined him along the way in defiance against the British.

Gandhi urged his followers not to retaliate against the waiting brutality, and the aftermath is well known.

The incident garnered the attention of the world, and became the changing point in India’s freedom struggle. Gandhi had finally managed to develop a strategy

42 OCTOBER (1) 2017

against the British - using nonviolent protest and civil disobedience.

In its brief Sydney re-enactment, Vatsal Dave as the young Gandhi not only walked the walk but also talked the talk.

“Even those as powerless as a grain of salt can make a difference,” he paraphrased the Mahatma.

It was a poignant reminder of a spirit that moved a nation.

The University has been organising the memorial on the occasion of the birth anniversary of the most well-known Indian, for a few years now.

Led by Neville Roach AO, of the Australia India Institute arm of the university, the ceremony involves garlanding the bust of Gandhiji that sits on the Library Lawn.

At this year’s event, Mr Roach joined the Pro-Vice Chancellor of UNSW Mr Laurie Pearcey and the Consul General of India in Sydney Mr B Vanlalvawna in paying the floral tribute.

Meherlyn A Jussawala, the university’s Director of Diplomatic and Network Relations, organised the event and took special pains with the garlands: they included Australian elements as well as the university’s branding colour, yellow.

In his reflection, Mr Roach described the story behind how the bust came to be at UNSW. “It was a gift from the Government of India in recognition of the university’s work to enhance Australia-India relations,” he recounted. The first ever statue on the campus of the university, it

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Vatsal Dave, paraphrasing the Mahatma

provides a welcoming environment not only to its many Indian students, but to others in search of a few moments of quiet and contemplation, he added.

The Pro-Vice Chancellor Laurie Pearcey in his address agreed that the statue was “a symbol of hope to our students”.

Reprising the Mahatma’s philosophy that education is the key to changing attitudes, he spoke of the relationship the university has forged with India in terms of research and other partnerships. Some 700 students from India are currently enrolled at the university, he added. He also spoke of the weeklong India Illuminated event that the university will soon be organising as part of its India strategy.

Some of Gandhiji’s favourite hymns were presented on the occasion, including Raghupati Raghav by Aradhana Bhatt, Hari Tumharo by Dr Usha Sridhar, Lead Kindly Light by a sari-clad Heather Lee, and the Bengali folk song Ekla Chalo Re by Prof.

Srikanto Bandopadhyaya.

NATIONAL EDITION

‘‘

‘‘

Even those as powerless as a grain of salt can make a difference

In his concluding comments Neville Roach urged attendees to return next year with non-Indian friends, to expose them to the legacy of Gandhi.

He can rest assured he is doing his bit for the younger members of the community - like the young students at Mala Mehta’s IABBV Hindi School.

“I learnt how to walk like Gandhiji by watching his videos this week,” Vatsal, the young Gandhi revealed. “My mum told me he was a fast walker. She has been telling me about Gandhiji since I was in kindergarten. Now I know his full name, I know about his Salt March - I watched him pick up the salt with his hands.”

What else does he know about Gandhiji?

“Nonviolence. Gandhiji said we should use words instead of fighting.”

Perhaps there’s a lesson there in his innocent words. As he walked the UNSW lawn in his avatar of the apostle of peace on 2 Oct, thousands of miles away in LasVegas, a horrific violent event was about to unfold.

OCTOBER (1) 2017 43

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Jeeti raho, beti RAJALAKSHMI RAM remembers how she met Gandhi twice, once before and once after his death

I

was about eight years old in 1942, and living in the erstwhile Poona (today’s Pune), when the Indian freedom struggle, with Mahatma Gandhi as the leader, was in full swing.

Gandhiji pressed on with the Quit India movement against the British rule with his amazing and unconventional tools of noncooperation and non-violence.

Gandhiji’s freedom movement energised one and all – young and old, men and women all around India. As little girls my friends and I joined the Seva Dal, children’s after-school freedom movement camps.

After games and exercises, the leaders would tell us about Nehru and Gandhi, their efforts for the country’s freedom and how important it was for people of all religions to be united and to focus on getting rid of foreign rule.

Indian leaders, big and small, would get arrested and put in prison by the hundreds.

Riots would follow and we would miss school, watching flag-waving processions, and shouting Quit India slogans.

One evening in 1942, a Seva Dal leader told us that Gandhiji was holding a prayer

‘‘

tri colour border. At school we were given a packet of sweets and a small tricolour flag.

It was thrilling!

But alas, with partition came the riots.

Gandhiji was in Naokhali, fasting to bring the Hindu Muslim communities together.

The dream of an undivided India was shattered. Some extremist elements plotted against the great Mahatma. On 30 January 1948, as Gandhiji was moving towards the prayer grounds in Birla House in New Delhi, one of them shot down our Mahatma. He collapsed, saying “Hey Ram.” That day and the next, all adults and children in our neighbourhood went on a 24-hour fast, stunned into silence and deep sorrow. We sat glued to the radio, listening to his favourite hymn: Vaishnava Jana To Tene Kahiye Je Peer Parayi Jane Re (God’s people are those who feel the others’ pain).

Our Gandhiji was no more – but he lived on in my subconscious mind and deep being.

And yet, another opportunity came my way to be with him when I lived in New Delhi.

In 1969, as the nation marked Gandhiji’s

Just before the prayer bhajans were to start, on an impulse, I shook myself off the cordon and ran towards the Mahatma

meeting the next day close to the Bund Gardens, near the Camp area. I persuaded my parents to take me there. There I spotted my Dal leaders - Kusum Gole and Nalini Urankar - and joined my group.

Under a beautiful banyan tree was the Mahatma, seated in a meditative pose, surrounded by his followers. A sharp thrill passed through my body as I gazed upon his face.

Seeing the crowds build up, the Dal leaders formed a protective cordon around the area. I was part of the chain and I felt so proud.

Just before the prayer bhajans were to start, on an impulse, I shook myself off the cordon and ran towards the Mahatma. As I touched his feet, he looked up at my face.

He touched my head and blessed me, saying, “Jeeti raho, beti” (Live long, my little girl)!

It was an ecstatic and proud girl who turned back and joined her leaders again.

In 1945 WWII came to an end, but India was still negotiating with the British for its freedom. It would take two more years to secure it. It finally came through on 15 Aug 1947, a day I remember vividly. I wore my favourite khadi sari - a light sky blue with

‘‘

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birth centenary, the Rashtra Bhasha Prachar Samiti held a special India-wide study program and examination called Mahatma Gandhi Janma Shatabdi: Gandhi Vichar Darshan in October 1969.

One had to study his biography, philosophy and political engagement.

I was 35 then but still wanting to understand him better, so I went ahead and enrolled.

On the day of the exam, the hall was full of noisy students and the supervisors were still chatting into the exam time.

I just stood up and looked at them – all in silence. They all fell silent, as if suddenly reminded of their duty. Everyone started writing!

I wrote furiously, completely submerged in Gandhi’s life and thoughts. I summed up his dreams for a free India and all that he had achieved.

The last line I wrote was: “Gandhiji gave up his life for all of us and alas he is no more with us…” The tears were flowing profusely, blinding me.

Then the whole hall was filled with an effulgent light – and through my tears, I saw him a second time.

www.indianlink.com.au

opinion

‘‘

It’s hard not to imagine that the framers of America’s Constitution would be turning in their graves if they saw the way the Second Amendment was being interpreted today

‘‘

Déjà vu in Las Vegas Why the US is condemned to the repetition of its increasingly horrific past

BY RITAM MITRA

T

It’s easy for us to convince ourselves that this time, things will be different. This time, because so many perished, because hundreds were injured, because the guns were so powerful and the violence was so relentless: this time, lawmakers will be compelled to respond.

Much has been made of the uniqueness of Stephen Paddock’s merciless rampage on concertgoers at the Route 91 Harvest music festival in Las Vegas last weekend, particularly given his apparent lack of motive, his negligible criminal record, and the fact that the guns Paddock used were obtained, and modified, legally.

The harsh reality for Americans though, is that Paddock’s systematic slaughter of innocent civilians was, in many ways, rather trite.

Just over 5 years ago, a Colorado gunman shot dead 12 people and injured dozens more during a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises. James Holmes - who had no criminal record - had legally purchased each of the firearms, and the 7,000 rounds of ammunition, he used during his assault.

Within months of the Colorado shooting came perhaps one of the most senseless non-war mass murders in recorded history the slaying of 20 schoolchildren and 6 staff

NATIONAL EDITION

members at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, by 20 year-old Adam Lanza.

Lanza had no criminal record, and like Holmes before him and Paddock thereafter, Lanza was legally entitled to purchase the rifle which he used to murder his victims (although Lanza only obtained access to the rifle earlier that morning after murdering his mother, who owned several guns).

Even though the quintessential “thoughts and prayers” were offered by all concerned parties at the times of those shootings, and no doubt also to varying degrees following more than 1,500 mass shootings that have since followed, the gun control debate in America continues to fester along political lines.

The much-cited right for American citizens to bear arms is enshrined in the Second Amendment set out in the Bill of Rights, which provides that a “well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed”.

The concept of civilian militias was certainly relevant during a civil war context where, for various reasons, standing armies were not trusted, and it was preferred that citizens would bear arms to protect the land.

But today, the US has a powerful standing state military - the largest permanent armed forces ever assembled - and the need for civilian militias has long subsided.

Relevant too, are considerations regarding the advances in firearms since 1789, when muzzle-loading muskets could, at best, fire 2-3 rounds per minute. In Las Vegas, Paddock was firing up to 9 shots a second - nearly 300 times as fast as the guns available at the time the Bill of Rights

was documented. The capacity for today’s weaponry to cause unimaginable devastation in a short period of time is clear - in the 11 minutes during which Paddock fired his quasi-automatic rifle, he injured or killed one person nearly every second.

It’s hard not to imagine that the framers of America’s Constitution would be turning in their graves if they saw the way the Second Amendment was being interpreted today.

Among advanced countries, Australia and America stand out like beacons - while Australia, with its notoriously strict firearms legislation, sees 1.4 homicides by firearm per 1 million people, the United States endures nearly such 30 homicides. The United States does share one significant similarity with Australia, but it’s not a helpful one: the United States Constitution is incredibly difficult to change. And in the current global political climate - where bipartisanship is as rare as a hen’s tooth - amending the constitution is a practical impossibility.

Changing the Bill of Rights does not involve simply passing a majority vote in the Congress. First, both houses of Congress (each of which is currently controlled by the NRA-backed GOP) would have to propose a constitutional amendment, requiring a two-thirds majority in each house. The proposed amendment would then be submitted to each of the states for ratification, where the legislatures of 75% of the states must then ratify the amendment (sometimes, within a certain period of time) before it becomes part of the United States Constitution.

Many American civilians are misguided

by the roots of their own Constitution, but taking away firearms is not a viable option in a country where freedom, liberty and firearm ownership are so inherently intertwined; untangling that web will take generations of grassroots, sociocultural change. Legislating to protect the lives of citizens isn’t an all-or-nothing measure, though: limiting the purchase of large volumes of ammunition, cutting down on private gun sales, and tightening restrictions on purchases of firearms by mentally unstable individuals are all achievable without depriving the fundamental liberty so craved by the 36% of the American population who currently own guns.

In fact, the protection of its citizens is the most fundamental task of any government and right now the US Congress is failing its citizens enormously.

Bullet Points

• America is home to 50% of the world’s civilian-owned guns, but has only 4.4% of the world’s population.

• More than 100,000 people are shot in America every year, while about 30,000 are killed by guns.

• Since and including the Civil War, nearly 1.4 million Americans have died on the battlefield. Since 1968, more than 1.5 million have died due to firearm violence.

• Americans are 25 times more likely to be killed with a gun than people in other developed countries.

• Considering lost wages and hospital expenses, the annual monetary cost of shootings in America could be up to $45 billion.

OCTOBER (1) 2017 45

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NATIONAL EDITION

OCTOBER (1) 2017 47

women

Give us opportunity and watch us soar

What we can do to empower girls on International Day of the Girl

BY SHAFEEN MUSTAQ

O

ctober 11 was observed as the International Day of the girl.

Six years ago, the United Nations General Assembly voted to pass a resolution adopting October 11, 2012 as the inaugural International Day of the Girl Child to raise awareness of the importance of nurturing girls globally and in developing countries in particular.

This year’s theme for the Day of the Girl is “EmPOWER Girls: Emergency response and resilience planning.”

Whilst the theme is about empowerment, we still have a lot to do to bring girls around the world onto the same level so that empowerment is standardised across the world.

Let me give you some examples.

• According to UN statistics, there are 100 million girls missing around the world. Where have they gone? Many of them are left on the sides of roads, drowned, maimed and thrown in trash bins. The reason? They were girls, not boys.

• Sex-selective abortion, also colloquially known as “gendercide,” is a huge problem. For every 200 girls born, one is refused the chance to see the light of

48 OCTOBER (1) 2017

•

•

• • • •

day just because she is a female. Over the last 14 years, there were an average of 4,575 abortions every day. That comes to about one abortion motivated by gender every 18 seconds. Which means that if you make it into the world as a girl you’ve already achieved something.

But that doesn’t mean you are safe.

Global child mortality is at around 4% and studies show that infant homicide is still predominantly female. So being born and then staying alive after birth is also an achievement.

As a girl, you have less chance of being educated than if you were a boy. Twice as many girls as boys will never start school in countries all around the world.

Girls are almost two and a half more likely to be out of school if they live in conflict-affected countries, and young women are nearly 90% more likely to be out of secondary school than their counterparts in countries not affected by conflict. So being born, staying alive and getting to go to school is an achievement.

Then there is the struggle to stay in school as you get older and battle cultural and societal pressures.

Millions of girls are at risk of FGM One in four girls globally are married before they reach 18.

Discrimination because of disability is real. The literacy rate for adults with disabilities is 3%. For women with disabilities the literacy rate is even lower, at 1%.

•

• • • • •

•

Each month, when you get your period you could be shunned from society.

In some countries you’re seen as untouchable and forced to sleep outside.

As a girl, you’re at greater risk of HIV. Girls aged 10 to 14 are more likely than boys to die of Aids-related illnesses.

Worldwide, the biggest killer of girls aged 15 to 19 is suicide.

Teenagers are at more risk of having unsafe abortions than older women.

Maternal death is the second biggest cause of mortality for girls aged 15 to 19.

Even if you make it through school, grow up without being shunned for naturally occurring bodily functions, dodge early marriage and get into paid employment, the odds are you’ll earn less for doing the same job as your male colleagues.

And then there’s life outside work. UN women estimated that 35 per cent of women worldwide have experienced either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or sexual violence by a non-partner at some point in their lives.

Where do we go from here?

So how exactly can we empower girls with regards to emergency planning and resilience response when we are yet to bring girls around the world on equal footing?

When it’s an achievement just to stay alive, healthy and educated? When will we be able to say that girls are just as equipped as boys to achieve their potential? That the path to success and empowerment for girls is as

obstacle free as for boys?

It’s a long slow road to success but it hasn’t been in vain. Studies by the UN show that when girls are given an opportunity to learn, they learn at a faster rate than boys.

Governments and organisations are working together to address infanticide and child marriage. To ensure the safety and well-being of girls within and outside the home.

When more women work, economies grow. Studies show that an increase in female labour force participation results in faster economic growth. Evidence from a range of countries shows that increasing the share of household income controlled by women, changes spending in ways that benefit children.

World leaders have promised they will end it by 2030. Globally companies and organisations are working hard to bridge the pay gap and create gender friendly environments.

What you can do

But until a father provides his daughter with the same opportunities as his son, until a mother supports her daughter’s dreams of education and professional experience, until a brother fights cultural prejudice and oppressive practices to ensure his sister is safe – there is no end to the suffering of the girl child. Change begins with me. With you.

With the support you give to the girls and women around you.

Girls of the world are watching. We will speak out, we will support our fellow girls and women till all of us are able to achieve more than that which is a basic human right.

www.indianlink.com.au

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NATIONAL EDITION

OCTOBER (1) 2017 49

books

At last, feminists of colour When FOC talk about taking control of their own narratives

A

day spent listening to women speak about feminism.

Heaven.

And one, let me tell you, that is rare to find, given how dismissed and ignored the discrimination faced by over 50% of the human population (since the beginning of human existence) remains.

But at MWF 2017, I got to engage - forty to fifty precious minutes at a time - with not only my identity as a feminist, but as a feminist of colour (ie ‘FOC’. Hmm, wonder why hasn’t this become an official term?)

Hands down for me the standout item on MWF’s feminist programme was ‘Decolonising Feminism’; I joyously booked my place two weeks beforehand, and I wasn’t disappointed.

Moderated by journalist Beverley Wang, the panel brought together three women of colour (four, counting Beverley!) to discuss the colonisation of feminism, intersectionality, and the true meaning of white supremacy.

The fact that feminism has been colonised by white women is the elephant in the room

50 OCTOBER (1) 2017

‘‘

Feminism will continue to be colonised as long as we refuse to acknowledge the ongoing exploitation of people of colour

‘‘

BY APARNA ANANTHUNI

of modern-day female empowerment. As Gunai/Kurnai, Gunditjmara, Wiradjuri and Yorta Yorta woman Nayuka Gorrie remarked, “Black women have been feminists for a long time. It’s not this thing that white people invented.” However, as she pointed out, the history and ‘canon’ of feminism is perceived as largely white and its successes through the lens of benefits to white women; for example, celebrating women’s suffrage in Australia, which overlooks the simultaneous oppression of Indigenous women.

“You can’t separate the black woman in this country from the colonial experience,” she said, citing the sexual violence perpetrated upon Indigenous women, the breaking up of their social structures which changed gender roles, and the very real and disturbing fact that she, a black woman, has been in many ways “socialised to be a white woman.”

Daily Life columnist Ruby Hamad spoke strongly about how feminism will continue to be colonised as long as we refuse to acknowledge the ongoing exploitation of people of colour - cultural, economic, military - that characterises white supremacy around the globe. She also highlighted the misuse of ‘intersectionality’ (a term originally coined to specifically describe the lack of job opportunities for black women in the ‘70s). It’s a real buzz word these days, but it has also been used against her by white feminists

when she critiques things that they see as ‘untouchable.’

Even when intersectionality is recognised, as she pointed out, “what we see time and time again is white women being elevated… every single time we try to say something, we’re told, well, not this time.”

London writer Reni Eddo Lodge, author of Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, said she has “checked out” of feminism as a movement and described it as “a very narrow gender-only analysis of feminism that is quite interested in changing the world for a particular kind of woman. And when you say, hey, other women exist, tends to be upset, defensive, and starts to cry.”

Eddo Lodge is also critical of the way

popular feminism tends to latch on to and celebrate films, product advertisements, TV shows, and give them “the stamp of validation for Progress”.

“I’m very unconvinced by that,” she said.

“None of these things should be counted as wins…the brands are not on our side.”

As Nayuka Gorrie pointed out, white supremacy is built into fundamental systems in Australia. “It is our parliament, it is our education system; for twelve years, we learn about white people, we’re learning white history, we’re learning white language, we’ve got white people teaching us… that’s white supremacy, only learning white history.”

She also highlighted that it “has been much easier for settlers, and settlers of colour, to be able to occupy spaces that still Indigenous people can’t. In a settler colonial society, there is something about indigeneity that equals erasure.”

It’s worth noting, in conclusion, what all three writers said repeatedly: women of colour have been writing, thinking and, in Gorrie’s accurate phrase, “doing cool shit” for a long time. Feminisms of colour have been around for centuries.

And yet, as Ruby Hamad said, we still write from “a position of limited power.”

“Why after all these years are we not in the positions where we get to decide, we get to commission, we get to say ‘this is what we’re going to publish?’”

www.indianlink.com.au

When reality becomes fiction, & fiction reality Dissecting patriarchal structures through fiction: Meena Kandasamy

“N

o f**king red saris on the cover.”

This was Meena Kandasamy’s instruction to her publisher while marketing her latest book, When I Hit You: Or A Portrait of the Writer as a Young Wife. In conversation with Mridula Nath Chakraborty at the Melbourne Writer’s Festival about her book, Kandasamy talked about how she wanted to avoid clichés and be taken seriously. Treat me like a 70-year-old white European man, she says of her instruction.

“No hennaed hands, no disembodied body parts, an ankle or navel, and no jewellery,” she says emphatically. “You don’t do that to men, do you? You don’t f**k around.”

When I Hit You is fiction, but based on Kandasamy’s abusive marriage, and has been hailed for its poetic intensity and its deconstruction of toxic masculinity and patriarchy. Though the cover of the book says it is a ‘courageous take on traditional wedlock in India,’ Kandasamy stresses that family violence isn’t uniquely an Indian problem. Similarly, about rape, she says it needs to be talked about in a larger context. “We live in a culture where it is ok to rape any woman as long as she can fit into certain boundaries. She was a traitor, was Maoist, so she can be (raped)”, she says, referring to widespread accusations of rape made against the Indian army and law enforcement. This not only gives rape legitimacy, but is the ultimate method of victim blaming. Kandasamy talks about marital rape in the book, and says she was conscious in her writing that misogynists and abusers didn’t get off on the woman’s suffering. However, excerpts seem to focus on just that. “This is a book of 250 pages, yet those little sections outlining the rape

‘‘

This is a book of 250 pages, yet those little sections outlining the rape were the ones they picked!

If I had to write sensationalist shit, I would write sensational shit

‘‘

BY DIPANJALI RAO

were the ones they picked! I felt such a betrayal because you work so hard to tell the whole story. If I had to write sensationalist shit, I would write sensational shit!”

Kandasamy also explains why English is the language she chose to write in. “I write in English because it allows me to escape Tamil and the moral, cultural and linguistic codes I have to follow.” She gives an example. “The word in Tamil for rape means a ‘destruction of chastity’, so it presupposes that rape can only occur when there is an element of chastity involved.” Also, the language of oppression can take many forms, and Kandasamy talks of this in the book.

Words like whore and slut, used to malign women and their sexuality, are not the only weapons in the armoury of the abuser. He appropriates the language of the left, and uses Marxist and Leninist ideology to persecute. The simple act of wearing lipstick becomes fraught, and the narrator is accused of being petty and bourgeois because her lipstick costs more than what a poor woman in central India might earn.

Kandasamy talks about this amongst her friends in left circles in London too, where she now lives. “I hear stories of how men force women into sex saying ‘oh, you don’t want to have sex with me because you’re still married to ideals of old world morality’. Or if there are certain sexual practices that

one doesn’t like, it is because of their petty bourgeois conditioning. One can easily use Marxism, just as one uses the Bible or the Quran,” she says, referring to fundamentalist interpretations used to oppress women. “(It’s a case of) the devil quoting the scripture.”

Kandasamy’s book is a searing work of fiction inspired by real life, but she doesn’t think of it as a memoir. On this fiction-memoir debate, she reflects on the construction of the narrative, and how being a victim and being a storyteller both involve a degree of disassociation. “When you find yourself in a bad situation, life becomes unreal. Reality appears like fiction, but when I tell the story, people read the work of fiction and think it is real. To me,” she concludes, “this book is about storytelling.”

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NATIONAL EDITION

OCTOBER (1) 2017 51

ADVERTORIAL

Getting legal help after a crash Personal injury lawyer KASTURI WREN on why knowing your legal entitlements soon after an accident ensures good treatment too

F

or the last 15 years I have acted for everyday people whose lives have been turned upside down because of an accident that someone else caused.

So many of my clients often share similar anxieties and ask me - How long will this take? How much will it cost me? Do I even have a case?

What they don’t ask me, but often becomes clear and is the source of their sleepless nights, is - Will I get back on my feet again?

Whether you are the driver, passenger, pedestrian, cyclist or motorcyclist, the fact is that a road accident can be shocking and is always unexpected. We often have no issue exchanging details with the other driver and then spending the next few days dealing with insurance companies and smash repair centres.

However, for some, the accident has more lasting effects even though this might not seem to be apparent immediately following the accident.

Usually, there is an initial sense of shock and an adrenalin rush that leaves you in a mindset where the only thing you want to do is get to the comfort of your own home and rest. Then, like an awful dream, you awake the next morning to such soreness that you struggle to even get out of bed.

The fact is that we live in a world where we avoid doctors’ waiting rooms unless we absolutely must and do not even think about going to the hospital unless we have broken bones or are bleeding profusely. When our bodies experience an impact, be it large or small, there are likely to be consequences and our immediate actions are vital to our better health and recovery.

I have often had clients who ignore their pain and hope that in doing so, they will make a recovery and get back to their everyday activities or their normal occupation. Taking this path can be unwise, particularly if you are experiencing nerve damage with referred pain down your

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Your health matters and that is exactly why your legal needs and awareness matter too, and why speaking to a personal injury lawyer is important. What I have come to learn over the years is that a person’s ability to access their legal entitlements quickly and early on also ensures they get the best treatment and that, in turn, leads to better recovery rates.

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NATIONAL EDITION

OCTOBER (1) 2017 53

stage

There’s a bear in there, and Nick as well!

Indian-Aussie presenter makes it to iconic kids show

I

f you’ve grown up in Australia, or been around children who have, you’ve likely heard of Play School. Widely considered one of the most iconic television shows in Australian history, Play School has been a staple of children’s edutainment since 1966, making it the longest running children’s show in Australia.

In 2003, the ABC estimated that 80% of pre-school children under six watch the program at least once a week, a percentage that correlates to around 1.5m viewers each week! For the last few weeks now, those 1.5m viewers have met Aussie-Indian musician and actor Nicholas Brown.

Born and raised in Australia by Indian parents, Nick moved to Mumbai in 2007 to pursue a Bollywood career. Having trained at NIDA and having an above-average interest in song and dance, Bollywood felt ‘like a second home’, Nick tells us.

After finding success and collaborating with Hrithik Roshan in 2010’s critically acclaimed Kites, Nick returned to Australia but not before starring in a stage show of

54 OCTOBER (1) 2017

‘‘

At a time where the brown male body remains the single most vilified image in the Western world, Play School takes a phenomenal step in the direction of positive representation

‘‘

BY ANEETA MENON

Disney’s Beauty and the Beast in India. Nick laughs, recalling the experience, “A lot of Bollywood stars attended the stage show and complimented us on our flawless lip syncing. We had to tell them that we actually sing and dance at the same time.”

Overall, Nick’s experiences in Bollywood were favourable, despite the expected culture shock. “When we take risks, I think they almost always pay off. I had nothing to lose and wondered what it was like to live and work over there with no expectations or idea what I was in for. India is an assault on the senses, even for people of Indian origin.”

But any discomforts were made up for by the overwhelming ‘adventure, excitement of the unknown’. Upon asking if he’d return to Bollywood, Nick says, “I could never be Bollywooded out but TV is so great right now, and so many great actors are doing television,” so he decided it was time to pursue the medium.

Nick’s next move was LA where he faced “absolutely blatant racism”. Roles for actors of Indian appearance are often restricted to doctors, nerds and terrorists. “My agent kept telling me to be geekier and nerdier, but I am a big, beefy guy. I can’t hide that, and I didn’t want to be a career terrorist.”

So, how did a big, beefy guy navigate his way to children’s television?

“I had auditioned for Play School many times when I was younger without any

luck.” However, now he feels “the timing is right, now I am a bit older and more mature”. Nick also has real live children in his life now with whom he interacts and admits that absolutely provides “more of an understanding of the work”.

At a time where the brown male body remains the single most vilified image in the Western world, the importance of being able to see one’s self represented on screen and across media and advertising, is a crucial element of developing one’s sense of self, especially from an early age. Men of Indian appearance are routinely seen through a media lens as dangerous, so the introduction of a presenter of Indian descent into Play School is a phenomenal step in the direction of positive representation. Something Nick is absolutely thrilled to be a part of. “It

is so important for young people to have positive role models and see themselves depicted on screen, especially young Indian kids”. Additionally, it is just as important for children of non-Indian backgrounds to see the brown male body represented in a positive manner to counter-act all the negative representation. A huge focus of Nick’s work is around “normalising diversity, which is important for future generations. At the moment, it is such a buzzword and actors are cast for the sake of it.”

In the future, he hopes that diverse actors are presented with opportunities as diverse as their respective backgrounds.

As for his own future plans, Nick is presently content with where he is working on Play School and is also lending his voice and using his platforms to aid the Yes Campaign for Marriage Equality of which he is a big proponent. “I am a Yes campaigner!

And I believe in equality for all”.

Saving the most important question for last, Nick confirms that he would indeed always and without hesitation choose to go through the Arch Play School window (earning a thumb’s up from us!) but also goes on to explain, “There is a diamond window now! We went through it the other day!” Change is well and truly in the air, even on Australia’s oldest television sets the sort of change that is both long overdue and wholeheartedly welcome.

www.indianlink.com.au

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NATIONAL EDITION

OCTOBER (1) 2017 55

MATRIMONIALS SEEKING GROOMS

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(Use your smartphone or any other device) 3. Send us your recording via Whatsapp (+61 410 578 146) or via a message on our Facebook page (facebook.com/IndianLinkAustralia).

Please include your name, age, city, contact details and email id.

Successful candidates will be invited for a live audition.

NATIONAL EDITION

OCTOBER (1) 2017 57

this month

People! Places!

Parties!

Mona Sharma is all dressed up for Karwa Chauth

DO YOU HAVE A PHOTO FOR THIS PAGE? EMAIL IT TO INFO@INDIANLINK.COM.AU

UNSW’s Scientia Prof. Deo Prasad AO, one of 25 winners of the Mahatma Gandhi Pravasi Samman Award from across the Indian diaspora at the Global Indian Summit.

The event, facilitated by the NRI Welfare Society of India, was held at the House of Lords in London

Happy 21st: Devna Luthra (second from right) with friends

It’s a cruise holiday for Sonal Chopra

Extended family get together at Srini Gokul’s home for Navratri celebrations

58 OCTOBER (1) 2017

Golu arrangement at Anu and Ramesh Sethurao’s home at The Ponds

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NATIONAL EDITION

OCTOBER (1) 2017 59

60 OCTOBER (1) 2017

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food

Sweet things in life With Diwali just round the corner, get inspiration from GAURAV MASAND as he rustles up these divine delicacies in his kitchen

Chikki Chikki/brittle can be made with sugar or jaggery or both. You could make this with peanuts, dry fruits, coconut, sesame seeds or bengal gram. The recipe presented here is simple and has readily available ingredients.

Ingredients

1 cup peanuts (without skin) 1/2 cup jaggery 1 tbsp ghee or clarified butter 2-3 cardamoms powdered

Instructions

Pulse peanuts in a food processor very briefly, to get a roughly cut texture. You don’t want a powder.

Dry-roast peanuts in a heavybottomed pan, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes. Take off the heat when the nuts start to get brown spots.

In another heavy-bottomed pan, add ghee and jaggery until they start to melt.

Keep stirring on a medium flame until the jaggery turns a deep brown and begins to bubble slightly.

To test if the jaggery is ready, take a few drops of the hot jaggery in a spoon and drop it in a small bowl of cold water. If the jaggery turns brittle immediately, the jaggery mix is ready.

Add cardamom powder to it along with roasted peanuts and take it off the heat.

Pour the mix on to a greased plate/ baking sheet.

While it’s still hot and pliable, cover it with a baking sheet and roll it with a rolling pin so that it spreads evenly.

Make square (or any other shape) incisions with a sharp knife before it cools down completely.

Let it cool down completely, at least an hour, then break it into the pieces.

Store in a dry container.

Baklava Baklava is a Mediterranean sweet with Turkish roots. It has a rich filling of dry fruits, sweetened with honey or sugar, between filo pastry sheets. This recipe is a Persian ‘Pakhlava’, made with dry fruits and rose water. You will need filo pastry sheets which are readily available in the freezer section of any supermarket.

Ingredients

For filling 1/3 cup almonds, peeled 1 cup walnuts 2 tbsp rose petals 1 tsp cardamom powder 1/4 cup sugar

Khorak This is a traditional Sindhi recipe, made with whole wheat flour, dry fruits, ghee and poppy seeds (khus khus) during festivals, especially during Diwali.

Ingredients

¾ cup whole wheat flour ½ cup ghee ½ cup water ¾ cup jaggery ¼ cup dry fruits (cashews, almonds, walnuts, raisins), chopped finely 2 tbsp poppy seeds 2 tbsp dessicated coconut 3-4 cardamom, seeds only

NATIONAL EDITION

For covering/pastry 20 filo pastry sheets ½ cup melted butter For sugar syrup 1 cup sugar ½ cup water ¼ cup rose petals

Instructions

For the syrup In a saucepan, boil water. Stir in sugar until it dissolves and then add rose petals.

Keep aside.

For the filling In a food processor, pulse walnuts, almonds, rose petals and sugar for 1 minute.

For making baklava Preheat oven to 180 deg C. Grease a baking dish (18cm x 28cm and 3.5cm-deep) evenly with butter.

Lay 8 filo sheets in the baking dish one by one, brushing each sheet with butter.

Scatter half of the filling evenly over the buttered filo sheets.

Cover mixture with 6 filo sheets one by one, brushing each with butter.

Scatter the remaining filling over. Cover with 6 sheets one by one, each brushed with butter.

Brush the top with butter too.

Refrigerate for 10 minutes.

Make incisions into baklava, with a sharp knife, in desired shapes. Traditionally, it’s diamond-shaped.

Bake at 180 deg C for 35-40 mins or until golden brown.

Pour rose petal syrup over the pieces. Let it cool.

Remove from baking dish.

Serve at room temperature.

Instructions

Heat water in a pan and add jaggery to it. Boil until it forms a sticky syrup.

Keep aside.

Heat ghee in a pan. Add flour and cook on medium flame, stirring continuously, until golden brown for 5-6 minutes.

Add all other ingredients, except the jaggery mix, to the flour. Mix well.

Add the jaggery syrup to the flour mixture.

Stir for 2 minutes on medium flame until jaggery syrup has been absorbed.

Spread the mix in a tray lined with baking paper or greased with ghee.

Garnish with extra dry fruit pieces.

Let this set for 2-3 hours and cut into required shapes.

Stored in a cool, dark place. Will keep for 1-2 weeks.

OCTOBER (1) 2017 61

achievement

First Indian to win honours at broker award It’s an achievement that will gladden the hearts of IndianAustralians. Vishal Gupta, the Director and Founder of mortgage broking company Unique Finance Services Pty Ltd (UFS), became the first Indian to win the Customer Service of the Year in 2017 at The Adviser Australian Broking Awards.

Gupta won in the Office (5 or less brokers) sub-category.

There are over 18,000 registered brokers all over New South Wales and this is the first time that an Indian has won in any category.

The Australian Broking Awards are the only industry awards focusing exclusively on the leading brokers, brokerages and aggregation groups in the Australian mortgage industry. The awards recognise the very best brokers and brokerages in the industry.

Almost 700 industry professionals attended the five-star awards luncheon that took place in Sydney in June.

“Winning some of the highly soughtafter industry accolades is an honour and tribute to achieving outstanding results

as an Indian in the Australian finance industry,” Gupta said.

This is not the first accolade for Gupta.

He was also awarded as the winner of the NSW/ACT Finance Broker of the Year in 2016 at the FBAA Awards of Supremacy.

“Our organisation provides customer services beyond the conventional mortgage broker services due to our comprehensive portfolio of consultancy services and product selection. As an Elite Mortgage Broker service provider, we believe we stand out from the crowd of thousands of mortgage brokers in the industry by providing tailored customer service,” Gupta said.

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Khushhaali aur Samriddhi Happiness and prosperity to you this festive season.

Best wishes from the team at Indian Link The

Hunter CaLD Elder Abuse Prevention Network presents

EVERYONE DESERVES RESPECT

Understanding Your Rights

EVERYONE DESERVES RESPECT A discussion on your rights Community Forum for Members of the CALD Communities 2017 ANNUAL FORUM Friday 6th October 2017 INCLUDES:

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NATIONAL EDITION

OCTOBER (1) 2017 63

Southwest

Australia’s biggest public transport project Sydney Metro is Australia’s biggest public transport project. It will transform Sydney, delivering more trains and faster services for customers across the network.

The T3 Bankstown line is being converted to metro standards between Sydenham and Bankstown.

The Environmental Impact Statement for the upgrade is now on exhibition.

INFORMATION SESSIONS Sydney Metro is holding a number of drop-in information sessions.

Come along to meet expert members of the project team who will be happy to answer any questions.

There is no need to make a booking.

COMMUNITY INFORMATION SESSIONS Thursday 19 October 2017, 3–7pm

Marrickville Town Hall 303 Marrickville Road, Marrickville

Thursday 26 October 2017, 3–7pm

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Saturday 28 October 2017, 10am–2pm

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64 OCTOBER (1) 2017

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TAROT

foretell OCT 2017 BY VANDANA Lights twinkle in an October that is especially devoted to festivity, food and family. Diwali sheen magically rejuvenates homes, people and relationships as though in resonance with the freshness of Nature; the unfolding of many-hued flowers in Australia’s magnificent Spring serenade. May the festival of lights brighten and bring peace.

ARIES March 21 - April 19

TAURUS April 20 - May 20

GEMINI May 21 - June 20

CANCER June 21 - July 20

Your faith in yourself is unshakeable, Aries, as it ought to be with Mars in your driver’s seat! The High Priestess asks you to look for that which might not be clearly visible - a secret you must unfold. Might that be your lyrical side?

The Page of Cups urges you towards poetry, music and all things artistic as you are invited to balance intelligence with empathy. A visit to an art museum with young members of your family proves exciting!

Sunshine, you’re a blessing to be around this month! Lifting spirits, spreading cheer, lending a helping hand and a listening ear - you place others at the centre of your life’s sphere and you get back so much more. Love and harmony light up your family life!

It’s a vibrant time and even though the Knight of Discs niggles at your purse strings a wee bit, you take that in your stride for you know together-times are fleeting and most precious.

Mercurial wings lift you to great heights in the areas of communication, especially if writing and public speaking are your forté, Gemini. You may be invited to address a gathering to inspire young minds and you’ll be in your element. The Tower cautions you to do a bit of ground work as you may need a couple of aces up your sleeve.

Certainly, with your charm and a bit of humour thrown in, you’ll own the mic and the day!

Emotions rule you and yet, in the mire of the daily toil, you crabs are the least likely to spend time with yourselves.

With the Judgement card encouraging you to admit your own feelings to yourself, this is a priority now. Cancer, you must be gentle with yourself as you feel your thoughts. The Queen of Cups encourages you to open up to the possibilities there are for relationships and at work - for they hold a lot of promise!

LEO July 21 - Aug 22

VIRGO Aug 23 - Sep 22

LIBRA Sep 23 - Oct 22

SCORPIO Oct 23 - Nov 21

The Star with the Ace of Wands places you where the action is! Your imagination and inventive power propel you to make a foray into fresh avenues of business activity. Luck from above graces your intelligence and vivacious optimism, leading you to success. Like a benevolent ruler, you are mindful of those around you and your concern for others makes you well-loved. You’re a magnet for miracles, Leo! As you take a bow, keep the stardust on those regal shoulders!

The Fates smile on you this month, Virgo, as the Nine of Cups grants you a wish fulfillment. Whether your wish is related to family, home, career or recovery from illness - a long-held goal will be brought to full fruition. Hold your success in your heart, though, for all may not be as a first glance may reveal.

A toss up may reveal fair-weather friends that you need to tuck away. Rely on your instinct and savour time with soulmates.

Noble Libra, you balance your work and ideals for the greater good. You will be successful in realising your goals if you act after deliberation and weighing of the pros and cons. This may keep a few people around you guessing but so be it! The Magician card ensures you will not be swayed by lower energies.

The Three of Cups brings you love and understanding. When you see love shining in your partner’s eyes, you’ll feel you’ve come home.

The card of The World assures you of success! It lies just ahead. All the prework towards a presentation and the burnt oil of maddening midnights are about to bring you your heart’s desire.

If you feel you’re losing steam, take power naps, recoup and get back in there! The Two of Swords will neither let you give up nor give in to suggestions that are not at par with your ideas. Stay as you are, Scorpio - top notch you!

SAGITTARIUS Nov 22 - Dec 21

CAPRICORN Dec 22 - Jan 19

AQUARIUS Jan 20 - Feb 18

PISCES Feb 19 - March 20

Oh, Sagittarius, you’ve been dreaming a solitary dream of finding your own way. You’re innocent of worldly ways just like The Fool is, but is it deliberate?

You feel you need this time to go within and explore; to discover where you view yourself a few years from now and then work out ways to get there. Rebuilding is always good with a dash of Sagittarian optimism. The Ace of Swords beckons you to go in the direction of your dreams.

Going somewhere, Capricorn? Your bags are packed and you’re on the ready says The Chariot! You’re enchanted by a mind-body-yoga kind of tour to a national park or remote spot that is appealing to you at several levels.

Perhaps you feel a calling to conduct a session where the spirit is refreshed.

The Page of Wands is definitely outdoors and sporty and loves to learn. Happy times with young people around a campfire are definitely your thing in October. Enjoy!

You’ve been in a charmed space of late, Aquarius, which may have spoilt you for choice, says The Lovers card. Perhaps you need to connect with the real world.

Art and aesthetics play a strong role in your life and you tend to gravitate towards the futuristic. The Two of Cups leads you on the persevering path so you come into contact with people who value your labour of love, be it prose, poetry or painting. Go for it, Aquarius!

You may welcome The Alchemist into your life as you work on small changes in your lifestyle - be it your diet or health routine or work hours. You will discover a new energy within yourself once you implement these changes.

And it’s catching! Those around you will feel this, too. The Four of Cups brings you an enhanced experience of satisfaction at both the home and workplace. There will be memorable fun times that will exhilarate your gentle Piscean spirit!

NATIONAL EDITION

OCTOBER (1) 2017 65

entertainment

cineTALK GEM OF A FILM

TU HAI MERA SUNDAY

STARRING: Barun Sobti, Shahana Goswami, Avinash Tiwari, Rasika Dugal, Nakul Bhalla, Pallavi Batra, Vishal Malhotra, Jay Upadhyay and Shiv Subramaniam WRITER-DIRECTOR: Milind Dhaimade

HHHHH

Once in a while in my career as a movie fanatic, I come across a sparkling gem that reminds me there’s still so much to see, so many places to go, for Indian cinema. First-time feature filmmaker Milind Dhaimade takes us into places where we all have visited at one time or another.

And I don’t mean only Mumbai, which

like many memorable films stands a silent hero in this film about unsung heroism.

Dhaimade takes us to places in the heart where we go quite often in seclusion but don’t really wish anyone else to know. The oddly titled Tu Hai Mera Sunday is about working class yearnings, crushed dreams and smothered aspirations floating to the surface to confront the characters even as they conform to the stagnating status quo, loath to swim against the tide.

Some of the major characters, and there are so many of them all so vivid and relatable even in the briefest of roles, have serious meltdowns in unexpected moments. And if the others don’t break down, we know they are

holding it all in. The cloudburst can happen any time.

It’s the sunshine that director Dhaimade and his astounding cinematographer Harendra Singh focus on, but never at the cost of the darkness that lies beneath. The overbridge on which we first meet the five protagonists could be the ill-fated venue of tragedy that happened on Elphinstone Road in Mumbai recently. There are no traces of crisis where our heroes first appear. But then this is Mumbai. Everything changes in a jiffy.

It is this mix of mirth and melancholy that makes Tu Hai Mera Sunday one of the most precious slice-of-life films in recent times.

The core theme is the five protagonists’ search for space to play their Sunday football game, an event that centralizes their scattered lives.

Among this gem’s many virtues, the one quality that gives it an absolute stand-out stamp are the performances.

I don’t think I’ve seen a more accomplished complete and engaging ensemble cast in any film. Taken from theatre and television, these are actors who haven’t acquired the cocky arrogance of stardom. They breathe life into their characters even as the characters suffocate in the cramped polluted environment of Mumbai. Shyam Salgaonkar edits the multitudinous characters and their rapidly mutating

lives with a reined-in vigour.

There is Arjun Anand, whose relationship with Kavya grows when he starts taking care of her dementiaridden father (Shiv Subramaniam).

Barun Sobti and Shahana Goswami play Arjun and Kavya with such warmth and candour it feels like they are a couple I know first-hand. But the footloose womanizing Rashid’s (Avinash Tiwary) growing closeness to the abandoned wife (Rasika Dugal) and mother is equally compelling.

Both the romances plough persuasively into our hearts. As does the sulky musician Dominic’s (Vishal Malhotra) troubled relationship with his brother until his sunshiny sister-inlaw-to-be (Manvi Gagroo) intervenes.

And how can I forget the decent Parsi whitecollar boy Mehernosh (Nakul Bhalla) who can’t bear to watch his office colleague Peppy (Pallavi Batra) being abused by their boss.

Finally, there is Jayesh (Jay Upadhyay) the Gujarati businessman stifled by his commodious family’s noisy religiosity.

When Jayesh has a sudden meltdown, we are unprepared for it.

But if you ask me the one real hero that stands tallest in this film of looming achievements is the writing. The sharply but unobtrusively-drawn characters and the intriguingly spot-on situations and words that they exchange will have you wondering where you’ve met all these people before.

While you figure that out, please excuse me. I must see the film again.

Subhash K. Jha

ENDEARINGLY PALATE PLEASING CHEF

STARRING: Saif Ali Khan, Padampriya Janakiraman, Chandan Roy Sanyal, Milind Soman, Svar Kamble DIRECTOR: Raja Krishna Menon

HHHHH

An official Hindi remake of Jon Favreau’s 2014 film by the same name, Director Raja Krishna Menon’s Chef is a breezy film, centring around the self-discovery of Chef Roshan Kalra (Saif Ali Khan), a Michelin three star chef.

Roshan, who hails from a middle class Chandni Chowk family, is attracted towards cooking from the age of ten and aspires to learn cooking from the chhole bhature wala chacha in his neighbourhood and become a chef, much to the chagrin of his father who wants him to become an engineer.

How after losing his job at a renowned restaurant in the US, Roshan returns to Cochin to meet his son Armaan (Svar Kamble) who lives with his ex-

66 OCTOBER (1) 2017

wife Radha (Padampriya Janakiraman) and realises his priorities and centres his career as a chef around them, is actually the raison d’etre of the film.

The film dives straight into his present life as a chef in the US and merely skims through his early life, including his failed marriage and divorce. While the first half has a wee bit of emotional drama, the second half is a series of road trips showcasing Roshan’s newfound meaning in life as a chef and how he makes a success of it.

Director Raja Menon extracts natural performances from his actors and that perhaps is the strength of the film as the story is staid and the treatment simple. There is no element of drama or any interesting twists. Humour comes in the form of Saif’s comic timing and some witty one liners.

Saif as Chef Roshan Kalra is endearing. He portrays the character in his inimitable style with his attitude and swag to boot. Save some attempts at

chopping, or perhaps frying, one does not really get a peek into his cooking skills. His relationship with his son Armaan aka Ari is one of the highlights of the film.

Swar Kamble as the young Armaan is confident and essays his character realistically. Padampriya as Radha Menon, his ex-wife, is every inch the independent working professional who has put her past behind her and is yet a

friend and well-wisher of her husband.

Milind Soman as Biju, Radha’s friend and anchor is competent, while Chandan Roy Sanyal as Nazrul, a junior Chef and devoted to his guru Chef Roshan has nothing much to offer, but is sincere.

Overall, Chef is a feel-good film about the importance of relationships and the message comes across smoothly albeit garbed in a long-drawn plot.

Troy Ribeiro

www.indianlink.com.au

VARUN DHAWAN OUT-SALMANS THE ORIGINAL

JUDWAA 2

STARRING: Varun Dhawan, Jacqueline Fernandez, Tapsee Pannu, Anupam Kher DIRECTOR: David Dhawan

HHHHH

Now this is a film that reminds us how enjoyable frivolity in cinema can be, if packaged and executed expertly.

When a 20-year-old film about identical twins caught up in endearing inanity is rebooted, we immediately

get emotional about the old film which incidentally, was trashed on release.

We even begin to treat Anu Malik’s pedestrian tunes in the original as classics.

There is news for all nostalgia addicts. Judwaa 2 is not only a more engaging ode to inanity than the original, but Varun Dhawan even manages to outdistance Salman Khan’s considerable energy level in the original.

What works bigtime for this remake is its absolute honesty of intention.

David Dhawan wants to entertain as he has been doing for decades. There is no socio-cultural political agenda (bar a super-dumb reference to Trump), no attempt to induce gravity. The point is the pointlessness.

The prattle and the preening is all so frenetic, we get no time to think.

We just go with the flow. And glow with the sparkle that father-son Dhawan generate together.

Judwaa 2 is unwilling to let go even a stray moment of potential pleasure.

The film’s obstinacy to win us over with a feast of fatuousness breaks our defences down after a while. It is the kind of massy rabble-rouser that we don’t see in mainstream cinema any more. We either have “realistic” romcoms set in small towns or wannabe Hollywood spectacles which go nowhere with their egoistic ambitions.

Judwaa 2, never embarrassed about its aspirations, aims to be a lowbrow entertainer. Nothing more, nothing less. And it succeeds in being just that from the first frame to last. Everyone on screen has a blast. The mood of an ongoing party slithers down to the

audience, infecting us with a giggly sense of beholding guilty pleasures.

The film is lavishly mounted.

Cinematographer Ayananka Bose shoots London with the lip-smacking relish of a tourist who has been there, done it all. There is the comfort of the familiar about the presentation which is something quite the opposite of nostalgia. Speaking of which, I wish Salman’s cameo had been better written into the plot. It is disappointingly glib and lacking magic.

Holding the crunchy crisp saga of mistaken identities together is Varun.

He is so perky and on-the-ball, this film is bound to take his stardom many steps ahead. Without making a song and dance about it, he manages as an actor to connect both with the child within himself and the audience.

With two ladies more than willing to swoon over him, Varun has himself a whale of a time. While Tapsee Pannu brings a kind of sobriety even to the wackiest incidents, Jacqueline Fernandez’s giggly sexiness is becoming tiresome. A crash course in restraint is seriously recommended.

But everyone in the film quickly cottons on to the impetuous mood of the presentation.

So do we, actually. Don’t think about why and how the two Varuns end up where they do. There is a remarkable absence of apology about the David Dhawan kind of film. It exists for the sole purpose of providing mass entertainment. That Varun Dhawan proves to be such a chip off the old block is providential for David Dhawan.

Subhash K. Jha

A SIMPLE, REALISTIC EYE-OPENER NEWTON

STARRING: Rajkummar Rao, Anjali Patil, Pankaj Tripathi, Raghubir Yadav, Sanjay Mishra and Mukesh Prajapati DIRECTOR: Amit Masurkar

HHHHH

Low-concept and modestly-scaled films are always hard to sell, but authentic passion and a steady accumulation of detail, sets writers Amit Masurkar and Mayank Tiwari’s Newton apart.

Set against the backdrop of elections in the world’s largest democracy, Newton is an exemplary indie drama.

It is the portrait of an idealistic man surviving in a society that is corrupt by tradition and lethargy.

Wanting to make a difference in society and to standout, Nutan Kumar (Rajkummar Rao) who has completed his Masters in Physics, rechristens himself as Newton.

He is now working for the Indian government. During elections, despite being a standby, he is named the presiding officer of a booth situated deep in the jungles where 76 voters reside. The area is purported to be infested with Maoists. How Newton

NATIONAL EDITION

deals with the administration and the security forces to conduct the elections there despite the constant threat of an ambush from the Naxalites, forms the crux of the tale.

Projected in a fair and balanced manner, Newton’s journey is truly an eye-opener. Initially, his gullibility is suspect, it borderlines to stupidity but Rajkummar Rao as Newton carries it with elan. You chuckle at his idiosyncrasies and conversations with his superiors and counterparts, especially when he attempts to conduct the elections by the book during the absurd circumstances.

But it is his sincerity that touches the right emotional chord. It throws open questions about the democratic procedures adopted in the area and its projection by the administration to the media and the world thereby.

Rao is aptly supported by Anjali Patil as his assistant during the election process.

As Malko Neetham, the teacher in a local school, she is a perfect balance to Rao’s naive beliefs. As a local, she gives an appropriate insight into the plight of the oppressed tribals.

Raghubir Yadav and Pankaj Tripathi

add some spark to the otherwise staid narrative. Yadav as Newton’s laid-back colleague, the near retiring Loknath is excellent. He keeps you entertained with his constant complaining of how he is forced to work under strenuous circumstances despite his diabetes and various health issues.

Tension brews with Pankaj Tripathi as Atma Singh, the leader of the platoon deployed to provide security for Newton and his team members. He is a natural with his patronising tone trying to demoralise Newton. And, it is interesting

to watch him become submissive every time he tries to get his way around.

Apart from the performances, the few things that stay with you after you leave the auditorium are the visuals and the background score. Swapnil S Sonawane’s cinematography captures the rustic set-up with flourish. Music

by Naren Chandavarkar and Benedict Taylor adds a subtle undertone to the sombre note of the narrative.

Overall, this simple, slice-of-life tale is interesting, engaging and educative.

Troy Ribeiro

OCTOBER (1) 2017 67

ADVERTORIAL

A granny flat worth gloating over RESCON Builders’ granny flat wins honour at MBA Awards

I

f you’re thinking of building a granny flat in the backyard, you aren’t alone. Granny flats are becoming increasingly popular across the nation, and particularly in real estate-hungry Sydney.

But if you are going to drop a substantial chunk of money on the granny flat, you might as well go to the specialists. And one of the biggest players in the field is RESCON Builders.

RESCON Builders recently proved its credentials when it won an honour in the Granny Flats ($100,001 - $150,000) category in the Master Builders Association (MBA) of NSW Excellence in Housing Awards on 2 September.

RESCON Builders’ Bancroft design from the firm’s Designer Range won the accolade. The suburb where the granny flat was built was West Hoxton.

“What makes our achievement special is that 90% of granny flats built fall in this category, so our build was the best of 90% of granny flats built,” said CEO of the company Timothy Cocaro.

The judge’s comments about the flat explained why RESCON Builders’ was the winning entry. “The granny flat was built for the owner’s daughter and constructed over an existing pool that had to be removed and filled… The elongated windows give the home a spacious look.

The kitchen, bathroom and laundry are well designed with built-in robes to both

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The clients for whom the granny flat was built, Joanne and Nicky Miliambro, couldn’t stop gushing about the flat either.

“The trades were friendly and their work was of the highest standard. The staff and site supervisor were always friendly. The finished product looked amazing, both inside and out. They gave us a granny flat of the highest quality and with this in mind, I would recommend Rescon to anyone thinking of building a granny flat,” said Joanne.

RESCON has experience in building granny flats all over Sydney Newcastle, the Central Coast and Illawarra. They have display homes at Fairfield Heights and Dapto and are offering a brick granny flat for $109,000, a free site visit and a quote.

“We offer design, approval and construction. We are a one-stop-shop as we do everything,” said CEO Timothy Cocaro.

He added, “It was incredibly humbling experience accepting the award on behalf of the entire RESCON Builders team.

This award helps recognise the immense contribution by each member of the RESCON family, from our tireless staff in the office, out in the field, our sales team, our contractors and suppliers as well our clients.”

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entertainment

the BUZZ UP-TO-DATE NEWS ON WHAT’S HOT AND HAPPENING IN BOLLYWOOD

ANUPAM KHER

ANUPAM KHER: FTII CHAIRMAN

THE TOM ALTER WE DIDN’T KNOW

H

e was the most different American India has ever seen. Actor Tom Alter, who passed away on 29 September, was an actor but also a cricket fan, teacher and a shayari exponent. He was 67 when he lost the battle against skin cancer.

Here are some facts about him you might not know: * Born in 1950 in Mussourie, Tom Alter was the son of American missionary parents whose family moved to India from Ohio way back in 1916. * As a child, Alter would be made to read the Bible in Urdu by his father, a priest.

In later years, his love for the language inspired him to play such great Urdu literary figures as Ghalib, Sahir Ludhianvi and Bahadur Shah Zafar on stage. * He was drawn to Bollywood after seeing Rajesh Khanna in Aradhana. Inspired

by Khanna’s crazy stardom, he came to Mumbai to try his luck in acting. “I didn’t know who Rajesh Khanna was before Aradhana. But in just one week I saw that film at least thrice,” Alter had said in an interview. * He was also an avid cricket fan who did the first ever TV interview of Sachin Tendulkar, and also gave commentary in a one-day match India played in * He acted in Assamese, Gujarati, Kannada, Kumaoni, Marathi and Malayalam cinema. * He was the only actor who appeared as two key figures spanning a momentous near-century of the country’s history - portraying both Bahadur Shah Zafar and Lord Mountbatten. * He made his debut with Ramanand Sagar’s Charas (1976). * He was also among the handful of actors who played both tyrant colonial officers and figures from India’s freedom struggle. That’s right, he played Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and Mahatma Gandhi. * His last TV show was Rishton Ka Chakravyuh, and on the big screen, he was last seen in Sargoshiyan. He also shot for a short film The Black Cat, in which he plays acclaimed author Ruskin Bond. * He also worked with late actor Peter O’Toole and Ben Kingsley. * He was conferred the Padma Shri, India’s fourth highest civilian honour, in 2008.

70 OCTOBER (1) 2017

Anupam Kher, the newly appointed Chairman of the Pune-based Film and Television Institute (FTII), says he will work towards sharing his experience with students rather than setting agendas as an administrator.

The 62-year-old says, “I’m happy and humbled to facilitate students with my 40 years of experience in Indian and international cinema, travel and stage acting. I think sharing experience adds up to perspectives and that’s what I want to do.”

Kher’s appointment as the FTII chief was announced early this month. He will succeed the controversial Gajendra Chauhan, whose appointment in 2014 triggered widespread student protests.

Kher, a vociferous BJP supporter, had often remarked that the FTII Chair needed to be a person who was more than just a producer, director or actor.

Now Chauhan, in reaction to Kher’s appointment, returns the favour and says the FTII needs a good administrator rather than a good actor.

Of course, Kher brushes off these remarks. “I think it is a great honour and a great sense of responsibility”.

Earlier, Kher served as the Chairman of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), and from 2001 to 2004 he was the Director of National School of Drama, where he finished as a student in 1978.

Kher also runs his own acting institute Actor Prepares. He was honoured with Padma Shri in 2004 and with Padma Bhushan in 2016 for his contribution to the field of arts.

Will his new responsibility as FTII Chairman affect his film work?

“No, no. My grandfather used to say, ‘A busy man has time for everything’.”

ASHA PAREKH: 75, NICE GIRL

Asha Parekh, who turned 75 on 2 Oct and doesn’t feel her age at all, is happy to share her birthday with Mahatma Gandhi.

But there is the downside too.

“Every birthday of mine is a dry day.

So my friends never get to toast my health and wellbeing with a glass of wine...! Aah, never mind. I am happy to be alive, well, healthy and still not pushed into oblivion, as many of my colleagues are.”

Oblivion is far from Asha’s ambit of activity. In fact, 2017 has been a particularly eventful year for her.

“That’s right. My memoirs The Hit Girl came out. I was apprehensive that it may hurt some. But I was determined to tell the truth. Or else, no point in writing about your life.”

Asha boldly spoke about her relationship with filmmaker Nasir Hussain. Was there any negative impact on Nasir saab’s family?

“None at all. I didn’t expect there would be. When I was so careful not to hurt his family during our relationship, why would I cause them any hurt now?

Nasir saab’s family has always been close to my heart. They all respect me.

In fact, (Nasir Hussain’s nephew) Aamir (Khan) is always very respectful and affectionate.”

On the downside, the year saw her dream project, her hospital for the poor, shut down.

“My hospital will now be turned into a 5-star health facility. That means the facilities will no longer be available to the poor and the underprivileged.

That’s why I ran this no-profit hospital, for the poor. Alas, the dream has ended.”

Ever the optimist, though, Asha is thankful for what life has given her.

“I am still around and healthy. I was called the ‘hit girl’ because of the success ratio of my films. It was God’s blessings.”

“It’s sad to lose friends at my age, though. Watching them go one by one is a very scary experience. I just wish when I go, I go without pain. And that people will remember me as a nice girl.”

MEANWHILE, AMITABH BACHCHAN, 75, STILL THE INDUSTRY’S BIGGEST DRAWCARD

Amitabh Bachchan may have turned 75 on 11 Oct, but shows no sign of slowing down or retiring into history as “decent bloke”. (Sorry, Asha P).

Filmmaker Karan Johar announced that he is collaborating with the megastar and actors Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt for a fantasy adventure called Brahmastra. It is going to be a trilogy, no less.

The first edition will release on Independence Day, 2019.

The project is to be directed by Ayan Mukerji, known for Wake Up Sid and Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani.

SHARMILA TAGORE: WHAT ABOUT SENIOR FEMALE ACTORS?

Veteran Bollywood actress Sharmila Tagore, who was presented the Excellence in Cinema India Award at

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SHARMILA TAGORE

AMITABH BACHCHAN

the opening ceremony of the 19th edition of the Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival on 12 Oct, is calling for a rethink on the industry’s senior women.

She feels there are very few scripts for “elderly” heroines, while the same is not true for their male counterparts.

“So many scripts are written for elderly male actors,” Sharmila, 72, laments. “The girls have to be very young and the men can carry on forever.”

She adds, “Life doesn’t stop… at 30 or 40. There are plenty of interesting phases in life (after this age).”

Sharmila made her acting debut at the age of 13 with Satyajit Ray’s Apur Sansar (World of Apu), the last in the celebrated Apu trilogy.

She went on to receive many industry awards, as well as the government honour Padma Bhushan, and also served as the head of the Central Board of Film Certification.

Sharmila still faces the camera once in a while, and she has observed changes in the industry. “(In my day) acting was not considered a very good profession, but now that has changed. Films have become a very coveted profession and the roles of women are getting stronger.

Films like Piku and Neerja being made and doing well proves that.”

She also feels that while the multiplex culture has helped filmmaking evolve, so that small films like Masaan and Newton enjoy the big

screen experience.

There’s also “healthy appetite for diversity”, she notes. Today, female actors get to play more varied roles, even negative characters.

So why don’t we see more older women on screen?

Hmm, trust Sharmila to raise this issue in her trademark manner: gentle and dignified, with plenty of underlying spunk.

Anyone listening?

YOUTHFUL VIBES

And so, youthful vibes continue to dominate.

The nation is going ga-ga over the trailer of the much-awaited Padmavati. Not only did it garner the highest number of views in 24 hours on YouTube for a Hindi film trailer, its lead star Deepika Padukone “looks ethereal” in the titular role, the media has been gushing.

Deepika tweeted recently, “I cannot even begin to express the gratitude and joy I feel today. I sometimes wonder, ‘What have I done to deserve so much love and appreciation’... And while I seek, all I can say is a big thank you.”

Her (youthful and virile) co-stars Ranveer Singh and Shahid Kapur too are “overwhelmed” with the reactions.

Directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, the movie will be out on 1 Dec to tell the tale of the valour and heroism of the Rajputs. Deepika features in a

WHO WORE IT BETTER? KANGANA RANAUT or BEYONCE in TOM FORD Share your views with us on our Facebook page /IndianLinkAustralia

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powerful role, dressed in intricately embroidered ensembles and bespoke jewellery. She sports a unibrow - but of course she looks good in anything!

The trailer shows the high production value, panoramic shots and carefully curated looks that Bhansali has become known for.

Ranveer, who describes the filmmaker as a “crazy genius” and “a master craftsman”, guarantees that what is shown in the trailer, is but a “fraction of what this film has to offer”.

WORTH WAITING FOR? YOU DECIDE!

Director Pooja Bhatt’s Sadak 2, the sequel of her 1991 hit film Sadak, deals with the issue of depression. It features Sanjay Dutt “in his true and present time” as a drug abuse survivor.

The Mahesh Bhatt directed Sadak had starred Sanjay Dutt, playing the character of a young man in love with a sex worker (played by Pooja Bhatt).

Meanwhile, Pooja’s last produced film Cabaret, starring Richa Chadha and Gulshan Devaiah and scheduled to release in 2016, is yet to hit the screens…

And now, yet another sequel, starring Sanjay Dutt. Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster 3 is well underway. Nafisa Ali and Kabir Bedi play Sanjay’s parents in this crime drama franchise. But recent pics of Sanjay show he himself is ready to play the parent role now…

WHAT TWEETY BIRD TOLD US THIS WEEK

Match the following tweets to the celebs that made them.

Twinkle Khanna, Hrithik Roshan, Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone

Yes, (Padmavati’s) determination, courage & strength was like no other & for me a reflection of today’s women!

Although this film, for me, is beyond numbers… this is a pretty amazing record! Congrats to the team! #PadmavatiTrailer Scientists studying longest living mammals, bowhead whales found for a long life what is needed is a slow metabolism & not wives who fast :) Just wish no one is in this situation. I hope something productive comes out of it.

What is HRITHIK ROSHAN thinking here?

Send your response to: media@indianlink.com.au TO WIN A MOVIE TICKET!!

LAST ISSUE CAPTION CONTEST WINNING ENTRY

Can you guess what KANGANA is trying to say to her B-town, er, friends?

Dekhte rah jaoge!

Aur bhi logon ki pol kholungi!

TARANJEET BEDI Stanhope gardens Taran wins a Hoyts movie ticket Another good one: Hey guys! I am in this industry thanks solely to my talent - I am not a product of nepotism.

CHINTAN D

OCTOBER (1) 2017 71

backchat

Miracle or mirage?

A mid-term report card for PM Narendra Modi

N

ow it is customary for political leaders to produce a report card after 100 days in office.

Who could forget the colourful booklet Kevin Rudd put out on this milestone occasion. Looking back, that may be the only memorable achievement of his short stint at the Lodge. By western standards, things move a bit slowly in India. So it is fair to add a ‘0’ and make a 1000-day report card on Modi’s ‘achche din’ promises. Writing a report of this kind from a distance of 7,000km and out of on-line news reports would be unfair, I felt.

So I decided on a short visit to India at my own cost to take on this national duty. (Ok that’s a bit of an exaggerated claim: I had a personal agenda too.)

Mr Modi’s political journey has now reached its half way mark. Unlike the Indian leader, America’s Donald Trump made only four simplistic promises during his campaign - halt the Hispanics, scrap Obamacare, stop the Islamists and send home the Indian ‘softies’ (software techies).

After six months he hasn’t kicked a single goal. He hasn’t even gone out of the White House very much, whereas Modiji has logged lakhs of air miles and hugged every leader of some standing.

Now about his other track records.

Narendrabhai’s narrative included a multitude of ‘yojanas’ like Digital India, Make in India, 100 smart cities and, my own favourite, ‘Swaatch Bharat’ the launch of which that I had the privilege to watch in 2014. Modi may well be the only world leader to talk about public toilets in a national public address. Besides these major announcements, he shocked the nation with a ‘bolt from the blue’ broadcast on demonetisation (DeMon, for short) to flush out black money. De-monised common folk flocked at bank branches to convert their

‘‘

‘‘

BY LP AYER

The benefits of demonetisation are not worth the effort and the cost of printing millions of new notes is phenomenal. The other objective of choking the funding of Kashmir terrorists has not materialised

banned high-value currencies.

Now that that bitter episode has become part of history, the Reserve Bank of India in its report card recently has revealed that 99% of banned notes had been sucked out of the system, a record feat for any nation. While Modi’s supporters gloat over this, his critics are equally vociferous, saying the benefits are not worth the effort and the cost of printing millions of new notes is phenomenal.

They also claim that the other objective of choking of funding Kashmir terrorists has not materialised. Who could stop Shandong presses copying new notes and pumping them through One Road to the all-weather ally in Pindi. Regardless of this, I give eight out of ten to Modi for his daring move.

Another major reform that was not part of Narendrabhai’s narrative before the election is the introduction of GST in a

country where every State has a multitude of taxes at multiple levels. The only problem with GST is, it is not set at a uniform rate for all goods and services, resulting in some confusion. These two reforms have caused some drop in consumer demand and GDP, obviously due to drying up of black money and teething troubles of GST. For pushing through such a mega tax reform Modi deserves eight points.

On to Digital India. I saw in a remote village, dozens of semi-literate people walking into the banks and printing their own statements. A score of six is okay, I’d say.

The public toilets program is not flushed with great success as the others above. Some ‘user pays’ communal loos remain closed since some loose ends need to be tied up.

Of all the countless ‘yojanas’ Modi has proclaimed one that really interested me

is ‘Swaach Bharat’. It was launched with great fanfare, with every politician wielding a broom in front of a garbage pile to grab a photo opportunity. At that time Modi set October 2019 as the target date to have a ‘Clean India,’ that is five years hence. The cynic in me then wrote “I dare say it may take not five years or even 50 years before one sees a Modified clean India.” Unlike the toilet ‘yojana’ that requires counting a lakh of nondescript cubicles, this ‘swaach’ program can easily be assessed. On landing in India I started taking pictures of roadside rubbish piles, but after two days, gave up for fear of my SD card running out of space. I see very little progress and, if anything, it is worse than before. So should Modiji get a zero for this?

No, that honour should go to every Indian.

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