2018-03 Sydney (2)

ONE OF SYDNEY’S BEST VALUED SUBURBS

PUBLISHER

Pawan Luthra

EDITOR

Rajni Anand Luthra

ASSISTANT EDITOR

Harshad Pandharipande

MELBOURNE COORDINATOR

Preeti Jabbal

CONTRIBUTORS

Usha Ramanujam

PAWAN LUTHRA

The recent news that India is the fastest growing tourism market in NSW is an endorsement of a side benefit - an additional value if you will - of immigration.

The Big Australia debate finds itself in the national discourse on a regular basis, and there are the strong detractors (former NSW Premier Bob Carr, former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, Pauline Hanson etc.) as well as fervent supporters.

As a migrant myself, having experienced and contributed to the growth of this country, I am an ardent supporter of an Australia that has the ability to accommodate a larger number of people who want to call it home.

Australia is one of the most stable economies in the world and a respected member of the international community. As one of the most liveable countries

in the world, it is a valued migration destination, and has a smooth inflow of highly skilled migration. As such, it finds itself very attractive to educated, aspirational Indians, India’s biggest export.

When they move to Australia, these migrants bring with them professional skills - and often entrepreneurship and even capital - adding to economic growth downline.

They also bring with them a great source of potential visitors from a large pool of friends and family back home.

And herein lies the economic benefit to Australia. This pool of friends and family adds to the tourism inflows, such that for the year 2017, India, while still behind China and US in the number of tourists, still clocked in 147,000 visitors to Australia, spending in NSW alone over $337 million. That is $2,300 per tourist; in rupee terms, this spend is well within the reach of the aspirational middle class. In India, where the middle class can stretch to over 400 million, Australia has not even scratched the surface. The United States welcomes over 1.14 million Indian tourists per year, UK over

800,000. You’ve got miles to catch up, Australia!

What Destination NSW needs to do is to understand the changing and growing dynamics of these trends. While Sydney is blessed with its beautiful harbour and the Blue Mountains and koala-cuddle opportunities, these may be selling themselves already to Indian visitors. It is time to look beyond. Speak to teenagers from India about to visit Australia, and you’ll be pleasantly surprised what they want to do here: visit the MasterChef studios; queue up for a meal at Kylie Kwong; take a surfing lesson. These are but some of the ‘iconic’ Australian experiences for today’s 14-18 year old Indians who are joining their parents on a visit to Australia and who, in most cases, are in charge of the itinerary.

Remember also the 200,000-odd Indian-origin Australians in NSW who have shared some mouth-watering images of their new home to their large social circles ‘back home’ of brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, cousins and second cousins.

These are your brand ambassadors, Destination NSW.

Arvind, Virat Nehru, Neha Malude, Shikha Chandra, Auntyji, Mohan Ayyar,

3 Steps to Exam Success!!!

Have it all with Kaplan Homes

YOUR SAY

WOMEN AND MONEY

PAWAN LUTHRA wrote why women, more than men, need to learn to handle their own nances

Neelam Rehal wrote: I completely agree with Mr Luthra’s opinion on women becoming nancially independent. And I speak from personal experience. A very close friend whose husband passed away rather unexpectedly found herself in dire straits as she had very little idea about how to manage nances. Worse, she didn’t even know about her husband’s liabilities. It was only after we friends rallied behind her that her nancial situation stabilised. Taking control of your nances may seem intimidating at rst, but with an open mind and desire to learn, anyone can do it.

WHY TO NOT BE A DOMESTIC GODDESS

DIPANJALI RAO wrote that changing gender expectations was essential to achieve parity

Krish Na wrote: Best read of the year!

Deen Parast wrote: In Indian culture, the house is to be kept clean so that good forces of health, wealth and prosperity are invited inside each day. This is why our mothers and grandmothers used to wash the front area of the door each morning and put auspicious signs by chalk powder. This is ancient wisdom.

INDIA TO ABC: NO ENTRY

HARSHAD PANDHARIPANDE wrote about how an ABC Radio team was not granted Indian visa

A reader (name and address withheld on request) wrote: Congratulations on commissioning a brave story about visa refusal to Philip Adams. Harshad has written it brilliantly and nailed them. My admiration.

Indian Link Radio anchor KASHIF HARRISON reported on parade and the Indian oat put up by LGBT support organisation Trikone Australasia Trikone Australasia wrote: Thank you for helping us make this Mardi Gras even more special, @indian_link!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BRIDGE!

On the Harbour Bridge’s 86th birthday, we asked our online readers to guess which Hindi lm had this as its shooting location. All got it right with HEYY BABYY, but some readers got creative!

Vandana D’souza wrote: Three men and a baby :D

Manju Vinay asked: Tell us who is the baby.

Natasha Kaur wrote: Heyy Babyy, an awesome movie done in Sydney

#INDIANLINK ON INSTAGRAM

ANOTHER SYDNEY-DELHI NONSTOP FLIGHT

We shared that Air India is adding a new Saturday ight on its Sydney-New Delhi sector.

Mahesh Rohira asked: When will Melbourne Mumbai start?

Senthil Kumar wrote: Shouldn’t it y to either Kolkata or Chennai? (both being entry points).

SAY IT AGAIN

Proud to stand alongside you as a champion for global education

Priyanka Chopra, with ex-PM Julia Gillard, at Global Education & Skills Forum in Dubai

Post a picture on Instagram of Indian Link at home, work or anywhere else in your life, using the hashtag #indianlink. We’ll select the best pic and publish it here. This time’s entry is from @sukeshthapliyal

I’m studying in the university in which Dhoni is topper Cricketer Dinesh Karthik, after sealing a last-ball win for India against Bangladesh

MARDI GRAS 2018

End of an era

The India Tourism o ce in Sydney is winding up after over years in operation

BY HARSHAD PANDHARIPANDE

In a move that has left several members of the Australian tourist industry shocked, the India Tourism office in Sydney will wind up its operations on 3 March. The office had been functioning here for over 50 years.

The move comes as part of the Government of India’s larger rationalisation and restructuring of all 14 of India Tourism’s overseas offices.

Kanchan Kalia Kukreja, Assistant Director of India Tourism Sydney, refused to comment on the issue, saying that she was not authorised to do so.

However, confirmation came from India’s Minister of Tourism Alphons Kannanthanam, who has been quoted in an official press release as saying that the Ministry has decided to close its foreign offices at os Angeles, Toronto, Sydney, Amsterdam, Paris, Milan and Johannesburg ‘in the near future.’ The media release said that the ministry will open a new office at Moscow. Thus, the Ministry of Tourism will now have offices at ew ork, ubai, Frankfurt, Moscow, Beijing, Tokyo, Singapore and ondon.

Sources said that the India Tourism office in Singapore will look after the Australasia region now. There is word that

the winding up of the Sydney office could happen as early as 31 March, but there was no official confirmation in this regard.

India’s Tourism Secretary Rashi Verma has been quoted in industry publications as saying that India Tourism is creating some major hubs in the international market. India Tourism will have eight hubs and other countries will be served by India Tourism Marketing Representatives. The hubs will engage PR agencies who will work in some of these key and emerging markets.

Other reasons being talked about unofficially in travel circles are lack of senior officials in key positions, inability of present staff to adapt to requirements of changing markets, and, most importantly, the very question on the viability of having physical tourist offices in the age of internet.

But many in the travel industry aren’t fully convinced. They say that the decision

will derail the inbound foreign tourism traffic that has been having tremendous growth in India in the last few years.

The development is even more disappointing, coming as it does on the back of news that India has emerged as NSW’s fastest growing overseas tourism market with a record 147,000 Indian visitors coming to NSW in 2017, a 121 per cent increase compared with 2012. Expenditure by Indian visitors to the state has nearly doubled in that five year period to $337 million.

It’s a case of bad timing for Air India as well, which is adding another nonstop flight from Sydney to New Delhi from 31 March, ironically the same day India Tourism Sydney is winding up. Its officials here would be praying that this decision does not run counter to its goal of getting more and more non-Indians to make Air India the preferred airline to India. Will it work? That’s something only time will tell.

May be in its absence, the office will prove how vital it is. After all, it provided ample evidence of how its presence helped drive up Australia’s tourism numbers to India. How? et’s wind back the clock a little.

Australia was one of the first markets where the Government of India opened a tourist office. Although exact dates are unavailable, it is believed that the office opened in Melbourne just before the city hosted the 1956 Olympics. After functioning there for a few years, the office relocated to Sydney and has been operating here since, becoming, during the pre-internet era at least, a one-stop shop for information about all things India.

Shanker Dhar recalls those days with fond nostalgia. Just as well, because the Sydney office saw its golden period under Dhar, who served as Regional Director here in three stints, aggregating about a decade, between 1987 and 2007. With his knack for innovative ideas and an easy affability, har made quite a mark within Sydney’s Indian community as well. No wonder then, that after superannuating in 2007, he settled down here.

Saying that he is ‘shocked and saddened’ by the decision, Dhar adds that he has many fond memories from his time with India Tourism, describing it as an icon of India here in Australia.

Inbound tourism from Australia to India has seen better growth than that from other countries in last five to six years

Kanchan Kalia Kukreja, India Tourism

“Our mandate may have been to drive up tourism numbers from Australia to India, but, more importantly, India Tourism helped change India’s perception from a land of snake charmers, or a place where one would get Delhi belly, to a place full of culture, history and natural wonders. Foreign tourists also realised it was easier to travel through India than other Asian countries because of the widespread knowledge of English,” he says.

That change of perception didn’t happen overnight. It was the result of sustained, and sometimes ingenious, campaigns. One campaign involved Tricolour-bearing girls riding jet skis around Darling Harbour on Australia Day and India’s Republic Day. But even more interesting were the big, fat Indian shaadis organised as part of promotion during travel shows.

That’s right. Who would have thought that a wedding would be used as a showcase of a country? Remember, this was way before the film Monsoon Wedding came out, which introduced Indian weddings, in all their garish glory, to Western audiences.

Once you think about it, it becomes immediately clear how the typical Indian wedding has all the ingredients the country is known for: colour, music, spirituality and vibrant celebration.

And how did India Tourism get mainstream Australians involved in the wedding? Not as guests, as you might have imagined, but as bride and groom!

“We would advertise in the paper, asking if anyone wanted to get married Indian style, in a proper, formal

wedding,” Dhar recalls. The adverts said that the couple would be given a honeymoon in India. “We would get a lot of responses. A full-fledged committee would use select criteria to pick the candidates for the wedding,” he says. In Sydney, Jonothan Naiman and his then fiancée Elvira Wayne were selected.

On an auspicious day in June 1997, Jonothan was taken to the wedding venue on horse back. It was a grand event with all the bells and whistles: ladies sangeet, reception of the baraat, chanting of Vedic mantras etc. The event got a lot of support from the Indian community. “Mala Mehta from Indo-Australian Bal Bharti Vidyalaya and her school kids and ladies used to take part in ladies sangeet, Rajiv Maini would organise Indian props,” Dhar says, adding that the priest would chant mantras in Sanskrit and explain the meaning and significance of those mantras in English about the responsibilities of the bride

and the groom towards each other. Hundreds of people would watch the extravaganza unfold. It would be covered extensively by mainstream media. “My wife Shhakuntala and I have performed something like 10-15 kanyadaans all over Australia,” Dhar laughs.

It was initiatives such as this one that helped India Tourism set benchmarks for other tourism organisations and win several awards, year after year, at travel shows. “ inally, our efforts won us a Hall Of Fame award,” Dhar adds.

But more than awards, the efforts generated a tremendous buzz about India. Dhar recalls a time when there would be ‘mind-boggling’ crowds at the office. “People would wait for an hour or hour-and-a-half just to get to the reception, even when we had three persons manning the front office. Each evening, we would post 250-300 brochures and letters about India,” he says.

He also recalls how the India Tourism office, modelled on a fort and complete with arches and water features, was a tourist attraction in itself. “Almost each day, groups of tourists from Japan, New Zealand and various parts of Europe would visit the place and get their photos clicked in front of the majestic Indian backdrop,” he recalls with unmistakable pride.

Dhar would be equally proud of the results that India Tourism’s Sydney office delivered. From around 60,000 Australian tourists to India in the late 1980s, the number rose steadily to 2,93,625 in 2016. In fact, Australia is now the seventh largest source market in terms of foreign tourists to India. Tourist numbers from Australia to India clocked an impressive growth of 9.8% and 11.6% in 2015 and 2016 as compared to previous years. “Inbound tourism from Australia to India has seen better growth than that from other countries in last five to six years,” Kanchan Kukreja, who heads India Tourism’s Australasia region, had told Indian Link during an earlier conversation. “Australia is a growing market and a prime one in terms of generating foreign tourists,” she had said.

Naturally, tourist revenues too have gone up during this time. Sandip Hor, Chairman of Australia India Travel and Tourism Council, says that while no official data is available, it is estimated that visitors from Australia contribute over $1.5 billion annually to the Indian economy.

Dhar says that during his time with India Tourism, a study showed that each Australian tourist spent approximately $2,500 on holiday in India, excluding >

India Tourism helped change India’s perception among foreign tourists

Shanker Dhar, former Regional Director. India Tourism

The wedding of Jonothan Naiman and Elvira Wayne in presence of Shanker Dhar and other India Tourism officials at the India Stand, Holiday & Travel Show at Darling Harbour in June 1997

> airfare. The number, obviously, is much higher now. And, as many as 40-50% Australian tourists in India are repeat travellers, Dhar adds.

All that income comes with very little investment. “For every $100 earned through tourism, the expense was only $7 at the time. It’s such a high return on investment. Tell me which other industry can claim that,” Dhar says.

Tourism is also very favourable in terms of employment generation and has a multiplier effect on many sectors of economic activity. “Therefore, tourism helps the society, by and large, in a better, faster and more distributed way than most sectors,” he explains.

There have, of course, been financial benefits in Australia stemming from the increased interest about India. “Effective promotion of India in the Australian market has increased the number of tour operators, travel agents and Indian hoteliers specialising in tours to India,” Hor says. “Many of them have expressed concern that the closure of India Tourism office will impact their India business due to absence of day-to-day contact.”

Dhar also fears that the move could have an adverse impact, especially in the medium and long term. Tourism is an extremely competitive business now. Every country is vying for the tourist dollar because investments are low and returns are high. “Therefore, you have to be visible all the time in people’s perception. Someone also needs to be in touch with tour operators, persuading them, cajoling them, inviting them to seminars and travel shows so that the India product is on the top of their minds while they’re selling it. Now, if there is laxity on that front, in fourfive years, we may see adverse effects of the

closure of the tourist office,” he says.

On the other hand, those who support the decision say that in today’s internet age, tourists have all the information they need at their fingertips. Sure enough, walk-in enquiries at tourism offices would have reduced. Dhar admits this as well.

“The tricks of the trade have changed in the age of digital and social media,” he says, but adds that any country that’s serious about tourism has an office in Australia. Anybody who is serious about tourism understands that you need visibility overseas, he says.

Hor adds, “Most of the other South East Asian countries where Australians travel regularly - Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Korea, Japan and China - have offices in Australia to cater to the local market. India as a tourist destination competes with them and the industry feels that closure of the office will push back India in the competition.”

Insiders say that while PM Narendra Modi has talked about the importance of tourism, there aren’t enough people to talk about tourism down the line. There are strong lobbies for exporters in Delhi, but since the tourism industry is so fragmented, it doesn’t have a big clout, so it can’t influence decisions, he adds.

“Inbound tourism has to be seen as an export because we earn in dollar terms. The tourist comes to your country, eats food, drinks tea and liquor, buys clothes, travels in taxis and airplanes, basically injecting money directly into your economy,” Dhar says.

While India Tourism’s presence in Sydney helped generate just such tourist revenue for India, it is not just about dollars and cents. Tourism doesn’t work in isolation. What India Tourism did was help change popular perception about India. This was brought about by the people-to-people contact that has been generated through tourism.

And it was this perception that helped India Tourism’s Sydney office craft a memorable - or should we use the word ‘unforgettable’ - publicity campaign.

Dhar recalls that the precursor to the massively popular Incredible

India ads was the ‘Unforgettable India’ campaign that was developed and launched for the Australia and New Zealand markets. “In the mid-1990s, we tried to find out what the impression of India was,” Dhar says. India Tourism spoke to the travel industry, regular tourists and conducted focus groups. At the end of the study, a couple of things became clear. The expectations of people were very low when they went to India and they experienced was a big culture shock. But gradually, they developed a love for India’s sights and sounds, its monuments, lakes, rivers and temples. They had never seen anything like it in Australia. “We asked what their final impression of India was. They said that most people love it, some hate it, but that it was definitely unforgettable. On the basis of that, we developed a campaign ‘Unforgettable India.’ It was very successful and turned out to be the mother campaign for the hugely popular ‘Incredible India’,” he says.

In fact, so successful was the ‘Unforgettable India’ campaign, that some time after it, an ad agency in Australia wanted to use word ‘unforgettable’ in the tag-line for a product. “But the client refused it, saying that it would be confused with Unforgettable India,” Dhar says. And to think that all this never would have happened - or happened differentlyif the Indian Government had had its way almost three decades ago.

The year was 1990. It was the preliberalisation India economy. The country was facing a severe foreign exchange crunch. In a remedial measure, the then government decided to shut operations of all but one of the close to 25 Tea Board of India overseas offices and five India Tourism offices. Sydney was one of them. There was a lot of buzz about India among Australian tourists at the time. Many on-the-ground initiatives of India Tourism were shaping up well and delivering results. Ending it abruptly would have meant seeing all that hard work go down the drain.

170,000*

193,000*

202,000*

NA

239,762

263,101

293,625

(* Figures rounded off. Source: tourism.gov.in)

Dhar says he approached the Indian government authorities in New Delhi, explaining how the Indian government might save foreign exchange by closing the overseas offices, but also how the offices were also helping generate foreign exchange. “We gave them statistics to show how the Australian tourist spend was generating hundreds of thousands of dollars,” he says.

Just like this time, there was a lot of outrage even in Australia among tour operators and travel agents. “Even the government of the day wrote to India, saying that they would love to see the India Tourism office stay back,” har says.

All the efforts and lobbying resulted in the decision being reversed. Of the five India Tourism offices that were to shut, only Sydney remained. “Thankfully, the government realised the importance of having a presence here,” he says, adding that even this time, although the full office in winding up, he dearly hopes that there is some kind of representation of India

Tourism outside of the consulate where they could perform some basic duties such as giving information, keeping stock of promotional literature and so on.

Asked if the Indian consulate would do anything in this regard, consul Chandru Appar says, “We have been encouraging and undertaking activities in this regard, individually as well as in collaboration with various organisations and institutions including India Tourism. Our efforts in this regard will continue.”

The (tourism) industry feels that closure of the o ce will push back India in the competition Sandip Hor, AITTC Chairman

India ads was the ‘Unforgettable India’ campaign that was developed and

Divine and dazzling

BY USHA R ARVIND

As the Swaminarayan Sampradaya prospers throughout the world, the Sydney chapter, which has witnessed exponential growth in the last few decades, recently welcomed its guru and President Param Pujya Mahant Swami Maharaj. Swami Maharaj, who arrived in the Asia-Pacific region on 3 Feb and will be here till 17 April, led a series of events, including the inaugural vicharan, pushpadolotsav and bhumi pujan for the new temple premises.

Several political leaders and dignitaries joined thousands of devotees at the Rosehill Racecourse venue over the nineday period, seeking Swami Maharaj’s blessings. Notable were Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen, iberal member for Parramatta r Geoff ee and abor MP Julie Owens. A large delegation of international followers also flew down to

Australia for the occasion.

In what was clearly a mammoth community affair, the dedicated volunteers had made elaborate arrangements for the event. Celebrating the time-tested tradition of BAPS Seva, planning and preparation had begun long before the actual events.

The formal welcome event, conducted in chaste Gujarati, also showcased the rich cultural heritage and diversity, with several presentations by children and youth, including a beautifully presented skit on the history of BAPS Sydney. In a fitting tribute, the young bhaktas raised $46,000 themselves.

“The event went off like clockwork, thanks to the commitment and dedication of our volunteers,” Praful Jethwa of BAPS Sydney told Indian Link.

“Through his vicharan, Swamishri expressed his wish to focus on further developing the Satsang in the Asia-Pacific region. With a total of 12 temples in the region and plans for more in the future, the Satsang continues to flourish in the region,” he added.

Sumptuous vegetarian meals, prepared entirely by volunteers, were

offered to all devotees in the tradition of BAPS, as is now well chronicled around the world. The arrangements were impeccable, from the beautiful marquee and lavish podium to numerous volunteers coordinating the event and willingly assisting the devotees.

A high point of the event was the exquisite garlands that were presented to Swami Maharaj. Made from cardamom and fennel seeds by woman devotees, the garlands were indeed a labour of love and a humble token of thanks.

As part of the 2018 Asia Pacific tour, Swami Maharaj, or Pragat Satpurush as he is called, will visit Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong and Bangkok to nurture, guide, inspire and bless the Satsang in these countries.

The BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha describes itself as a spiritual, volunteerdriven organisation dedicated to improving society through individual growth by fostering the Hindu ideals of faith, unity, and selfless service.

The backbone of the BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha’s spiritual and humanitarian activities is its dedicated

force of volunteers and sadhus. These volunteers and sadhus comprise a diverse group of professionals and skilled workers that come from different geographical, academic, and social backgrounds, resulting in an effective mosaic of leaders and workers.

Thousands of volunteers around the world serve in local centres. Many have professional careers and businesses, while others have left such positions to serve full time; they admirably balance their personal, family, social, professional and volunteer duties. Always willing to serve, these volunteers perform over 15 million hours of service annually. They are involved in physical service, planning, management and implementation.

“Our temple started out as a vision by His Holiness Pramukh Swami Maharaj, who shared his desire to one day set up a temple for devotees, not only from the Swaminarayan fellowship, but anyone who desired a better spiritual future. The vision has now become a reality, through endless hard work, dedication, and selfless pride by devotees in Sydney,” Jethwa added.

Photos:

BA S organises a grand celebration as its spiritual head Mahant Swami Maharaj visits Sydney

Statement by sitar

the experimentation in musical sound - is that the album is a deeply visceral response to the ongoing global refugee crisis. The audience experiences each and every track with that humanitarian struggle in mind. Each track is like a window into the ongoing ordeal of the refugee experience and how it has been covered by the international media.

Boat To Nowhere begins disarmingly but then takes a sudden, dramatic turn, becoming quite a dark piece by the time it ends. Remain The Sea has a passionate monologue by Vanessa Redgrave. A rap segment by M.I.A. plays on a loop in Jump In (Cross the Line)

On stage accompanying Shankar are renowned percussionist and hang player Manu Delago - who also co-wrote this album along with Shankar - bass and keyboard player Tom Farmer and shehnai player Sanjeev Shankar (who was a student of Ravi Shankar).

Delago’s skills as a percussionist stand out. The way he plays hang, modulating its sound to the extent that at times it has the effect of the tabla and at other, more docile moments, it also has the affectation of a jaltarang, is something to behold. Having shehnai in the setup is also a beautiful arrangement. The instrument has such a distinct sound quality that you can’t help but be drawn to it. The shehnai sections in Secret Heart will melt you and then by the time you get to the jugalbandi of sorts between Anoushka’s sitar and Sanjeev’s shehnai in Reunion, you really start to wonder why don’t you get to hear the shehnai more often in musical arrangements.

refugee crisis

BY VIRAT NEHRU

It’s been eight long years of waiting to witness Anoushka Shankar perform live once more on Australian shores. She was last here on tour in 2010, along with her father, sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar.

A lot has changed in these eight years - for example, Australia has changed way too many Prime Ministers - but Anoushka’s creative ingenuity in experimenting with the many ways in which Indian classical music can be presented to the world has remained not just steadfast, but seems to have increased with time.

Since 2010, Anoushka has released four albums, each markedly different in tone, sensibility and how Indian classical music is fused with global musical styles to give a truly unique offering. Traveller (2011) mixed Indian classical with Spanish flamenco, exploring how these two traditions so different on paper, might actually have the same spiritual DNA. Her next album, Traces of You (2013), brought about a memorable collaboration with her half-sister Norah Jones, with Norah lending her vocals to three tracks on the album.

However, if you are a ‘purist’ when it comes to Indian classical music (which you really shouldn’t be, but that’s a debate for another time), then Home (2015) might just be the album for you. I wouldn’t necessarily call it a return to her classical roots - because I don’t believe she ever left - but yes, it is an unadulterated display

of what magic Indian classical music can create on its own. The raga khamaj in that album is to die for.

And this brings us to Land of Gold, her latest album, that she drew material from on her return to Australia. Continuing in her journey to give audiences different entry points to Indian classical music, this album has a very different sound and sensibility to her previous efforts.

One of the more important elements that sets Land of Gold apart from Shankar’s other work - not disregarding

Tom Farmer (who looked ravishing in a kurta, just as an aside) comfortably switches back-and-forth between keyboard duties and the double-bass. You wouldn’t imagine that a sitar, shehnai, double-bass and hang would make for a complimentary musical sound, but not only do these very different musical sounds fuse and glide over each other seamlessly, they each let the other flourish and take the audience to a musical high. A lot of this is possible because of the calibre of the musicians on stage, each masters of their craft. But a special mention would go to co-writers Shankar and Delago, for having the vision and imagination to write pieces that could envision such different musical elements working together in harmony.

Witnessing the ensemble on stage performing is an ethereal experience. It might have been eight years since we last saw Anoushka Shankar in Australia, but trust me, it’s been well worth the wait.

Anoushka Shankar brings to Oz her new album Land of Gold, a touching response to the global

Each track is like a window into the ongoing ordeal of the refugee experience and how it has been covered by the international media

Air India adds one more Delhi flight

Flying nonstop to India is set to get easier. Starting 31 March, Air India will launch another nonstop flight to New Delhi from Sydney. This will increase the frequency of the Sydney-New Delhi flight to five times a week. The new flight will operate on Saturdays, whereas the existing ones fly out on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.

Speaking at the formal announcement event at India Cultural Centre on 15 March, Air India’s Australia Manager Sujoy Kishore said, “The morning service from Sydney and return mid-morning flight departing Delhi will ensure convenient connections to and from India and international destinations.

The new Saturday services continue to be operated by a two-class state-of-the-art, Boeing 787 Dreamliner, with 18 Business Class seats and 238 in Economy.”

The timings for the Sydney-Delhi flights are 10.45am on Tuesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays and 11.10am on Wednesdays. Air India also operates thrice-a-week nonstop services from Melbourne to New Delhi and back.

Kishore said that Air India was the overwhelming choice for Indians, especially families, those with young children or senior citizens. “With Air India, there is a level of comfort and trust, apart from our world-class service and onboard amenities,” he said.

The official said that a generous baggage allowance of 30kg in economy class and

40kg in business class, a fleet of very young Boeing Dreamliner aircraft, a wide variety of entertainment and cuisine selection, top-of-the-line amenities and reliable timings all made Air India the top option to travel to and from India.

“What makes flying to India with Air India even better is that we offer connections for free or at a nominal cost of around $50 to several cities within India,” he said. The free connections are between Delhi and Bengaluru, Mumbai, Kozhikode, Kolkata, Coimbatore, Kochi, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Chennai, Trivandrum and Vishakhapatnam, an Air India media release said.

Apart from the flight announcement, the event seemed an earnest effort to project Air India at par with other airlines. While it is true that several Indians prefer Air India over other carriers, there are also many who have less-than-charitable things to say about India’s soon-to-be-privatised national carrier. Calling on people to change this perception, Chandru Appar, Consul (Trade and Commerce) Head of Chancery, said, “The effort should begin with us Indians. There are many who have speak negatively about Air India without even experiencing it first-hand. If those of us living in Australia promote it among our wider social circle, we will see more and more non-Indians choosing Air India.” He added that things were already changing for the better as he had observed that 10-20% non-Indians travel by Air India, whereas earlier, the flight would have

Indian passengers almost exclusively. With 147,000 Indian tourists visiting NSW alone in 2017, Air India would undoubtedly be eyeing a large slice of the inbound travel pie. Equally importantly, some 293,000 Australians visited India in 2016. Air India will hope to cast its net wider to attract some of these tourists too.

A way to do this would be to introduce daily flights, said Anil Kaul, Air India’s new Regional Manager, Australasia. He said efforts were on to secure prime time slots at originating airports. “Our other priority is to make the Melbourne-Delhi service five times a week, too,” he said.

He added, “With the fifth flight (from Sydney), we are the strengthening the connectivity over Delhi to international points including the UK/Europe, Indian subcontinent and the latest addition, Tel Aviv that commenced on 22 March.”

Air India also organised a function at Manjit’s At The Wharf to introduce Kaul to key members of the local travel industry. Apart from networking with representatives of various associations and organisations, Kaul outlined thoughts on expanding Air India’s presence in Australia and expressed interest to work with the industry to move forward.

From 31 March, AI will fly to Delhi from Sydney 5 times a week. HARSHAD PANDHARIPANDE and SANDIP HOR report

The Air India Australia team at the flight announcement event

WHAT’S ON

STAGE

Sitaron Ki Mehfil

Sat 24 March (7:00pm) Chesterhill

RSL Club 20 Chesterhill Rd, Chester Hill. Details, Hema 0423 464 517

Sydney Dance Festival of Classical

Indian Dance

Sat 7 April (2:00pm-8:00pm)

Madhuram Academy of Performing

Arts presents dance festival featuring Odissi recital by Sanatani Rombola, Bharatanatyam by Praveen Kumar, Kuchipudi by Sailaja Narayanaswamy, Kathak by Gauri Diwakar. Bryan Brown Theatre, Cnr Rickard Road and Chapel Road, Bankstown NSW.

Details 0411 015 396

Tribute to Rafi

Sat 7 April (7:00pm-11:45pm)

Rakesh Maharaja & Heavens Sydney Productions’s live orchestral concert, a special tribute to Mohd Rafi. Bonnyrigg Sports Club 610 Elizabeth Dr Bonnyrigg. Details 0416 025 675

Indian Stand-up Comedy Festival

Sat 24 March (7:00pm) Featuring Mahdeep Singh, Manish Tyagi and Gaurav Gupta. 632 Old Northern Rd, Dural. Details gumberv@yahoo.com

FESTIVAL

Holi Mahotsav

Sat 14 April 10:00am to Sun 15

April 7:00pm Tumbalong Park, Pier St, Sydney, Australia 2000. Details: www.holimahotsav.com.au

Colorfest Sydney

Sun 8 April (11am-4pm) One-of-akind colour festival that will fuse all elements of EDM. St Ives Showground, 450 Mona Vale Rd, St. Ives. Details 1300 338 368.

COMMUNITY

Punjabi & Bollywood Touch

Fri 6 April (7:00pm) Vodafone

Presents Punjabi & Bollywood Touch live concert. Parramatta RSL Club, Cnr of O’Connell St & Macquarie Street Parramatta.

Details Amit 0433 211 986

Mela Vaisakhi Da

8 April (11:30am-5:30pm) A family, non-alcoholic event with Jazzy B, Miss Pooja and more. Free entry for kids under 10. Castle Hill showground, Castle Hill.

Details Ginna 0402 931 000

Boishakhi Mela

Sat 14 April (11:00am-10pm)

Bangabandhu Council Australia’s event. Bengali New Year Festival on the first day of Boishakh. ANZ Stadium Edwin Flack Avenue, Sydney.

Details 0433 351 662

ENTERTAINMENT

Teen Patti competition night

Sat 7 April (7:00pm) Full-on entertainment with Sydney’s best DJs. Live food stall, live singing and entertainment. Dezire Function Centre 107-109 Main Street Blacktown.

Details 0477 777 548

provides

SPIRITUAL

Events at Regents Park Sai Temple (25 Rose Crescent Regents Park)

Fri 23 Mar Mata Chowki 9:00pm to 12 midnight.

Sun 25 Mar Ram Navami 9:00am to 9:00pm, with Ram Janam celebration at 12:00 noon.

Details 1300 524 724; www.shirdisai. org.au; Facebook.com/saimandir

Life enrichment program (Fortnightly) G.O.D. Australia Sydney Chapter invites school children to Gopakuteeram, A life enrichment program imparting universal values through stories from Indian scriptures, slokas, bhajans, choir, games, drama, art festivals and more. These twohour, fortnightly classes start from 4 February at 4.00 p.m. Namadwaar 44 Oakes Road Winston Hills. Details Jayashree 0420 522 629

Simran and Meditation Diwan

Wed 28 March, 4 April and 11 April (6:30pm-8:30pm) Waheguru Simran. Gurudwara Turramurra Sikh Temple Sydney 81 Kissing Point Road, Turramurra. Details 02 9449 8253

The Journal of Dharma Studies http://www.springer.com/ philosophy/philosophical+traditions/ journal/42240 (previously, the International Journal of Dharma Studies) through Springer Publications, has been launched under the editorship of Rita D Sherma and Purushottama Bilimoria. For submissions and details ldunn@ses. gtu.edu

Paada Yatra

3:00am) Club Crystal event. Roma Function Centre 167A Northumberland Street, Liverpool, NSW. Details 02 9600 8888

Sikh Games

30 March 7:00am-1 April 10:00pm McClean St, Bass Hill NSW. Details australiansikhgames.com.au

The Great Khali meet and greet Sat 31 March (7:00pm) Meet wrestler the Great Khali. Dezire Function Centre, 1/107-109A Main St, Blacktown NSW.

Details 0431 871 002

Bollywood Night

31 March (6:00pm to April 1

2:00am) Easter Long Weekend Party. Canyon Restaurant 96 Phillip Street, Parramatta, NSW. Details www. rivercanyon.com.au

SENIORS

AASHA at Hornsby

Every second and fourth Friday of the month, 11.00am - 2.00pm. Venue Hornsby Youth and Community Centre, cnr Muriel and Burdett Sts, Hornsby, close to Hornsby Station. Programs feature yoga, music, dance, games health and tech presentations, health checks, and light lunch. Details Bijinder 0412 786 569

Crows Nest

Every third Wednesday of the month, 10.00am - 11.30am. Venue 2 Ernest Place, Crows Nest. Social event with free morning tea.

Details 02 9439 5122

EXHIBITION

Keeladi exhibition

State

Open Monday to Sunday 9am to 7pm by appointment Appointments welcome on SUNDAY X-RAY DENTAL

Fri 30 March (5:30am for 6:00am start) A divine walk to three temples in Sydney. Three walks: Sydney Murugan Temple Mays Hill to Shrdi Sai Mandir Strathfield; Shirdi Sai Mandir Sydney to Sri Venkateswara Temple Helensburgh; Full walk from Sydney Murugan Temple Mays Hill to Sri Venkateshwara Temple Helensburgh. Event starts at Sri Murugan Temple, Westmead. Details walk2temple@gmail.com

and veneers

We are committed to you & your family to provide the highest standard of personalised care at every appointment.

nib provider

NOW practicing at Dentistry on Solent

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Welcome to Dentistry on SolentWhich provides State of Art Service in Dentistry. We are committed to you & your family to provide the highest standard of personalised care at every appointment.

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Shri Hanuman Jayanti

Sat 31 March (6am onwards) Shri Shiva Mandir, 201 Eagleview Road, Minto. Details Urmila Daya 02 4268 6956

TECH FOR KIDS

Sat April 7 10:00am to Sun April 8 at 4:00pm In 2015, an archaeological excavation at Keeladi in India unearthed an ancient Tamil civilisation on the banks of the Vaigai river. This indicated that a highly literate society existed at this place 2300 years ago. This photo exhibition would showcase the facts of this excavation, unraveling one of the most fascinating finds of mankind on this planet. Streetsmarts Travel 26 Iron Street, North Parramatta 2151.

Details 0420 483 044

LANGUAGE

Hindi Classes

Saturdays 2.30pm to 4.30pm

CHECK UP, CLEAN, 2X DIGITAL X-RAY AND FLUORIDE TREATMENT

CHECK UP, CLEAN, 2X DIGITAL X-RAY AND FLUORIDE TREATMENT

Annual Code Challenge: Your school is invited! DXC Technology Foundation

PRIVATE FUND ONLY CHECK UP, CLEAN, 2X DIGITAL X-RAY AND FLUORIDE TREATMENT

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Located at the Indian Cultural Centre, Level 1, 265 Castlereagh St, Sydney. Hindi classes are $5 per one hour class or $40 for ten classes. Registration is essential as there is a maximum of 20 people per class. Paid parking is available in the vicinity. Details email icc2.sydney@mea.gov.in

BSK/SVP classes, Saturdays A local initiative of VHP Australia, Bala Samskar Kendra (BSK) holds weekly Sanskrit language lessons as well as a culture and heritage program at Oran Park School, 390 South Circuit, Oran Park. Details Akila 0450 117 372

announces its Annual Code Challenge using Scratch, a fun and free coding platform for beginners. Free event, open to all children aged 10-14, groups and schools welcome to join. All that is required is access to a computer, an internet connection and an imagination! Teams will have until April 27, 2018 to develop and submit an online project.  Entries will be evaluated by our panel of judges for creativity, originality, technical merit and accuracy and good programming practices.

Details dxc.technology/dxccodes or email dxcgivesback@dxc.com

$95 SPECIAL OFFERS: Braces starting from $4800 Crown and veneers from $850 Tel: 02 9836 5625 After hours: 0434 825 448 Disable and Access Parking Available

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B1 12-14 Solent Circuit, Norwest, Baulkham Hills, 2153 Tel: 02 9836 5625 After hours: 0434 825 448 Disable and Access Parking

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MISC

RM2743968 Dr. SEJAL RAI - FAMILY DENTIST

Fijian Bollywood party Sat 24 March (9:30pm to Mar 25

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

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DENTALBENEFITSSCHEDULE Dr.SEJALRAI-FAMILYDENTIST NO GAP BULK BILL AppointmentswelcomeonSUNDAY $95 SPECIALOFFERS: Bracesstartingfrom$4800 Crownandveneersfrom$850 Address:B112-14 SolentCircuit,Norwest, BaulkhamHills,2153 Tel:0298365625 Afterhours:0434825448 DisableandAccessParkingAvailable RM2737230 Providing State of Art Services in Dentistry.

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DO IT ANYTIME

Even if you couldn’t volunteer for World’s Greatest Shave between March 14-18 when the initiative was underway, don’t sweat it. You can do it any other time of the year, just like 27-year-old Smit Shah, who plans to sit in the hairdresser’s chair in May this year. Smit, a Senior Analyst at Deloitte in Perth, says the event seemed like a really fun way to do more charity work. If you’d like to donate to Smit’s cause, click http://my.leukaemiafoundation. org.au/smitshah

If you too want to donate on another date, all you have to do is call the Leukaemia Foundation on 1800 500 088 to discuss a time that suits you.

Hair for care

Sydney couple Parul and Varun Batra do their bit for cancer research . NEHA MALUDE reports

It was a cut with a cause. Sydney couple Parul and Varun Batra on 14 March took part in the World’s Greatest Shave (WGS) initiative to raise money for cancer research.

Having taken the brave decision to shave their heads, the couple has raised over $4,000, but is keen on raising at least $6,000 for the cause.

As you might know, volunteers get sponsored and the money they collect goes towards research for finding better treatments for leukaemias, lymphomas, myeloma and other related blood disorders. In Australia, a staggering 60,000 people are diagnosed with blood cancer and related disorders, the third most common cause of cancer death.

Varun tells Indian Link that his wife is the reason they finally took the plunge this year. “Parul has wanted to do this for sometime now, so this year we decided to go for it together. We thought the collective focus would increase support for the cause,” he says.

Going bald, especially for an Indian woman, is a big step. For most women, hair is more than just a part of their looks, it’s a part of their identity. Did Parul feel that she would lose a part of her identity or change her persona in a significant way?

“The only change,” Parul replied, “is that we feel a lot colder!” She added, “Did it feel strange? Of course. But to be honest, excitement was the over-riding sensation!”

The money they have managed to raise has boosted their confidence. “This has definitely motivated us to do more to

make a difference. But the movement needs far more support. Parul and I are certainly going to try and find more ways to contribute to this event, not just in cash but in kind too,” Varun says.

Did they face any resistance or backlash from family? “Our families were a bit stunned at first, sure. But they came around, and when we told them why Parul and I were participating in this event, they were immensely proud of us,” Varun said. “Of course, Parul and I supported each other right from the beginning.”

In the past, Indian Link has reported on how two Sydney-based women, Deepa Hariharan and Vani Chandra, stepped up to the challenge and shaved their heads as part of WGS. While Deepa decided

support the cause by raising $3,000 after a dear friend lost her life to brain cancer, Vani raised more than $5,000 for the Leukaemia Foundation by shaving her locks on her birthday.

This year marks 20 years since World’s Greatest Shave was started by the foundation in 1998.

What’s more, the foundation recycles ponytails into wigs and turns hair clippings into compost or floating booms to absorb oil spills at sea. Not only do you end up helping improve the life of a cancer patient, but also the environment. It’s a win-win all the way.

Check out https://worldsgreatestshave.com/ to know more.

How the money helps Volunteers earn badges depending on how much money they can raise.

Here’s what the badges mean:

Helping Hands Badge $250.

Enough to enable a family to attend a support program specific to their blood cancer.

Sleep Easy Badge $560. Enough to give a regional family a free place to stay close to treatment in the city for one week.

Beep Beep Badge $1200.

Enough to provide free transport for people who are too ill to drive after chemotherapy treatment, for two weeks.

Breakthrough Badge $2000.

Enough to aid future breakthroughs by funding a major blood cancer research project, for one week. Discover Badge $4800. Enough to fund 3 months of lab costs for a research project to discover better treatments for blood cancer.

Life Saver Badge $10,000.

Enough to provide emotional support to help 300 families overcome the initial shock and stress of being diagnosed.

Smit Shah

Government confirms death of 39 Indians in Iraq

All 39 Indian construction workers kidnapped by the Islamic State in 2014 from Iraq’s city of Mosul have been killed, the government said on 20 March, confirming the worst fears after keeping alive hopes over their survival for the last nearly four years.

The confirmation came in the form of a suo motu statement External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj made in the Rajya Sabha after a limited truce was struck between the government and the opposition in the chamber of the House Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu.

Sushma Swaraj, who had earlier made statements, including a 22 July 2017 answer in the Lok Sabha that “as per the latest information from multiple third party sources, they are all safe”, on Tuesday rejected the lone survivor Harjit Masih’s claim that the 39 Indians were shot dead as a “cock and bull story which wasn’t true.”

After questions were raised over the government’s confirmation, the minister held a press conference to say that the government cannot declare any person dead without concrete proof and it was her duty to inform Parliament first about their death rather than tell their families first.

“I refused to close the files (of the 39 Indians) till we had concrete proof in hand (about their death),” she said.

She informed the Rajya Sabha that Indian efforts to search for the missing led to a mound near Badush village in Mosul where a local resident said some bodies had been buried by the Islamic State under a mound.

She said deep penetration radars helped find 39 bodies buried under the mound. The bodies were exhumed and DNA samples from relatives of the missing workers were sent to Iraq.

The minister said DNA samples matched with 38 bodies and the 39th was yet to be fully confirmed because the DNA sample sent was from someone else in his family as his parents are dead.

“The first sign was that the bodies were

exactly 39, plus strands of long hair and a ‘kada’ were also found. So we started conducting DNA tests.”

The victims - 27 from Punjab, four from Himachal Pradesh and six from Bihar and two from West Bengal - were construction workers employed by an Iraqi company in Mosul. The victims were taken hostage when the Islamic State took control of the second largest city in Iraq. They were trying to leave Mosul when they were abducted.

She said Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh will go to Iraq to bring back the mortal remains of the Indians. “The plane carrying the bodies will first reach Amritsar, then Patna and then go to Kolkata.”

She dismissed the claims of Masih, the only survivor who escaped from Mosul. “He was not willing to tell me how he escaped,” she said.

He had escaped along with Bangladeshis with the help of a caterer with a fake name Ali, she said.

Briefing media persons later, Swaraj said her government did not believe in declaring a missing person as believed to be killed.

The lone Indian wondered why the government didn’t believe him all these years after having “spoken the truth”.

“I had been saying for the past three years that all 39 Indians had been killed by ISIS militants,” Masih, 28, a resident of a village in Gurdaspur district, told reporters.

He said they all were killed in front of his eyes.

Narrating the incident, Masih said the Indians were kidnapped by the militants and after some days they fired indiscriminately at them.

“I was fortunate to manage to escape from the clutches of the militants despite getting a bullet injury,” he said.

Reacting to the confirmation of deaths, Swaran Singh, whose kin was among the 39 dead, said Sushma Swaraj should have informed the aggrieved families about the deaths before “exploding the bomb on us” in Parliament.

ANJALI OJHA

China’s growing imprint through building of infrastructure projects in South Asian countries is proving to be “not so useful” for them and New Delhi is finding “cold comfort” in the fact that China’s aid was being relooked at by many of India’s neighbours, the government has told a parliamentary panel.

According to a report by the Parliamentary Committee on External Affairs, headed by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, the panel was informed by the government that “experiences” with Chinese infrastructure projects in neighbouring countries like Bangladesh, Myanmar and Sri Lanka were leading these countries to give “at least some pause for thought.”

In “oral evidence” to the panel on February 16, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said that China had been a “net exporter of capital infrastructure technology in last five years.” China has said for many years that it did not intend to do this because it was very typically a Cold-War construct which the Americans had done, Gokhale pointed out.

“The logistics base at Djibouti is the first one where Chinese President Xi Jinping, wearing combat fatigues, addressed the soldiers in October, thereby removing even the veil of some ambiguity whether or not this is a military base,” Gokhale said.

He said China has begun a number of projects in every South Asian country with substantial commitments. “The experience has been that while initially the appearance of free money or cheap money as well as quick execution of projects - which we have to admit is very much a part of the Chinese modalities - was attractive to a number of these countries... there have been some experiences in some of our neighbouring countries which are now giving at least some pause for thought,” he said.

Giving examples, he said it was generally accepted that Sri Lanka’s Hambantota port, for instance, had proved to be an “economic

burden” for the Sri Lankan government. “In case of Bangladesh, the general sense we got is that President Xi committed $23 billion when he went an official visit two years ago, but it now transpires that a large amount of this money is actually commercial credit and at interest rates which are comparable to international commercial interest rates, but they are also insisting on buying Chinese equipment rather than tendering on international basis,” he said.

Similarly, in Myanmar, there had been some rethinking on the Kyauk Pyu - a deep sea port which was to be a part of China’s One Belt One Road initiative - because the sheer size of the port did not appear to be something that the Myanmar government was going to utilise.

“That is the cold comfort to us,” he said, adding that the Indian government’s aim was to try to build infrastructure projects which were of interest of the countries in our neighbourhood.

“Our infrastructure projects are different from Chinese infrastructure projects in that they are largely demand-driven. In other words, we wait for governments of our neighbours to tell us what projects are required and then we proceed to do it,” he said, adding that prominent among these were India’s projects in Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh.

Gokhale also told the panel that India had raised concerns with China at the “highest level” about the proposed projects under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), and a constant vigil was being maintained.

During Xi’s visit to Pakistan in 2015, several bilateral cooperation agreements, including those on hydroelectric and nuclear projects, highways, motorways, ports, export processing zones, agriculture, and financial arrangements for projects were signed. Most of these agreements were for projects proposed under the CPEC, and some of the proposed projects were in PoK.

“Government’s consistent position is that Pakistan has been in illegal occupation of parts of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir since 1947. Government has conveyed to the Chinese side, including at the highest level, its concerns about their activities in PoK and asked them to cease these activities,” the report says.

“Government keeps a constant watch on all developments having a bearing on India’s security and takes all necessary measures to safeguard it,” the report quoted the foreign secretary as saying.

Hubris is letting down BJP

AMULYA GANGULI

If one explanation has to be given for the BJP’s electoral ills in the Hindi heartland and nearby states, it is arrogance.

Even more than the Narendra Modi government’s failures on the employment and agricultural fronts, it is the party’s and the government’s haughtiness, reflected in the Vice-president M Venkaiah Naidu’s characterisation of Modi as “God’s gift to the nation,” which has been undermining the party’s standing.

Ever since the BJP came to power, it has been dismissive of everything that happened in the past and vowed to start on a clean

‘Cold comfort’ for India as neighbours give ‘pause for thought’ on Chinese aid

A woman participates in a rally to celebrate Maharashtrian New Year in Mumbai on 18 March. Photo: AP

slate after eradicating 1,200 years of slavery under the Muslims and the British.

The reaction against the BJP’s hauteur was slow to take shape presumably because the people, especially youngsters, retained their faith in the Prime Minister’s Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas or ‘development for all’ promise. It still works in states like Tripura which has seen little economic growth under prolonged communist rule.

But, elsewhere, the Modi magic has palpably started fading. The first sign was available in the Gujarat assembly elections where the BJP escaped defeat by a narrow margin. After that, the setbacks for the party in the Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh by-elections substantiated the anti-BJP mood.

Now, the Uttar Pradesh by-polls have provided resounding confirmation of the slide in the party’s fortunes in mainland India.

For Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to lose in his redoubt of Gorakhpur, where he is the head priest of the Gorakhnath temple, is far more indicative of the way the cookie is crumbling than the fall of the former chief minister Manik Sarkar’s government in Tripura, which was a cause of elation in saffron ranks.

For the BJP, the monk-politician’s electoral defeat is stunning for two reasons. One is that the elevation of this saffronrobed votary of “love jehad” and fake encounters to the Chief Minister’s post was intended by the Modi dispensation to show how much is changing in India as it marches towards a Hindu nation.

Adityanath’s ascent was meant to be a kick in the teeth for the “secular” camp which could not believe that a Hindutva hawk would be made the Chief Minister of India’s largest state.

The other reason why the BJP would be stupefied is that it will now have to shelve its decision to field Adityanath as the third main campaigner for the party after Modi and party president Amit Shah. Till now, the Chief Minister had been deputed to election-bound states to boast about the “developments” that were taking place in Uttar Pradesh.

Now, he will be an “unstarred” campaigner as a Congress minister in Karnataka has mockingly said. It is not unlikely that Adityanath will be derided on the next occasion when he addresses an election rally. His admission that overconfidence led to the BJP’s defeats in Gorakhpur and Phulpur is only partially correct, for it was not so much selfassurance which undercut the party but supercilious pride of being saviours of the nation from its “enemies”.

This scornful outlook towards its political adversaries was starkly evident in Bihar where Union minister Giriraj Singh warned voters that Araria will become a “hub of terrorism” if the Muslim candidate was elected. This crude display of communalism did not deter the voters.

The three or four “captive” television channels of the BJP have also been ringing alarm bells about the caste-based combination of the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), as well as the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), bringing

down the “nationalist” BJP in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

Even then, it is clear that the successes of these parties have sent out the message to the Congress and other opposition parties that the ground is ripe for unseating the BJP by a united front.

Till now, the BJP’s only hope of staying afloat was the disarray in opposition ranks. It may have also placed considerable faith in the machinations of cynical old-timers like Mulayam Singh Yadav to create fissures in the non-BJP ranks of the kind which enabled it to win big in Uttar Pradesh last year.

But times are changing. Young leaders like Akhilesh Yadav have shown that it is possible to overcome the earlier twodecade-old enmity between the SP and the BSP to bring the BJP to heel. The RJD has also demonstrated that its M-Y (MuslimYadav) base of support has remained intact despite Laloo Prasad Yadav’s incarceration. Besides, the Bihar outcome has shown that the latter’s son, Tajeshwi, has found his political feet.

There are now several relatively young leaders - Rahul Gandhi, Akhilesh Yadav, Tajeshwi, Jignesh Mewani - who are in the field. As Rahul Gandhi’s recent meeting with Sharad Pawar showed, they are now taking the initiative along with elders like Sonia Gandhi to bring the opposition parties together on a common platform. If they succeed, the BJP’s chances of repeating 2014 in the next general election are dim.

Indian GST system among most complex globally: World Bank

VISHAV

The Indian Goods and Services Tax (GST) system is among the most complex in the world with not only one of the highest tax rates but also one of the largest number of tax slabs, the World Bank has said.

It added that India has the highest standard GST rate in Asia, and second highest in the world after Chile.

“The tax rates in the Indian GST system are among the highest in the world. The highest GST rate in India, while only

applying to a subset of goods and services traded, is 28 per cent, which is the second highest among a sample of 115 countries which have a GST (VAT) system and for which data is available,” the World Bank said in a report.

What makes the Indian GST system even more complex is the number of different GST rates applicable on different categories of goods and services.

India currently has four non-zero rates: 5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent. Apart from that, several items are taxed at zero per cent while gold is taxed at 3 per cent. To make things worse, petroleum products, power and real estate have been kept outside the GST ambit.

According to the World Bank’s biannual India Development Update report, most countries in the world have a single rate of GST: “49 countries use a single rate, 28 use two rates and only five countries including India use four rates,” it said.

Apart from India, the countries that use four or more GST rates are Italy, Luxembourg, Pakistan and Ghana.

While the government has said it would bring down the number of rates once the new taxation system stabilises, it has repeatedly ruled out a single GST rate.

“Luxury goods, sin products, and products hazardous to the environment and health can’t be taxed at the same rate as ‘common-man products’. Wheat, rice, sugar can’t be taxed at the same rate as a Mercedes car or a yacht or tobacco,” Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said, while ruling out the possibility of a single GST rate.

When reached for comment, a World Bank spokesperson said that India is unique in terms of its size and scale of implementation when compared to other counties that have introduced GST. “The difference with other countries in design is therefore to be expected,” he said.

But it is not just the tax rates that distinguish India’s GST system from the rest of the world. According to the World Bank report, the fiscal threshold for businesses to fall under the full GST impact is also the

highest among all comparable countries. In India, businesses having annual sales above a threshold of Rs 1.5 crore fall under the full GST, and are thus liable to remit GST and eligible to deduct input tax credit.

India started with a threshold of Rs 75 lakh, but in a span of a few months doubled it to Rs 1.5 crore, mainly to ease the cost of compliance of small and medium enterprises, the report said. “India’s new threshold is the highest among all the 31 comparator countries,” it added.

The report also took note of the disruptions in the initial days of the introduction of tax reform, but added the introduction of GST should be considered as the start of a process - not the end.

“There have been reports of increased administrative tax compliance burden on firms and a locking-up of working capital due to slow tax refund processing. High compliance costs are also arising because the prevalence of multiple tax rates implies a need to classify inputs and outputs based on the applicable tax rate.

“Along with the need to apply the correct rate, firms are required to match invoices between their outputs and inputs to be eligible for full input tax credit, which increases compliance costs further,” it said.

The World Bank spokesperson said the introduction of the GST is only the start of the process that government has undertaken to implement “this bold reform.”

“Drawing actively from user-feedback, the government has been very alert to implementation challenges and continues to take steps to make GST compliance more simple and efficient,” he added.

The World Bank said while international experience suggests that the adjustment process can affect economic activity for multiple months, “the benefits of the GST are likely to outweigh its costs in the long run”.

“Despite the initial hiccups, the introduction of GST is having a far-reaching impact on reducing tax-related barriers to trade barriers, which was one of the primary goals of the introduction,” it said. IANS

An Indian activist from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals bodypainted as a tiger during a protest, on the eve of International Day of Forests in New Delhi on 20 March. Photo: EPA

Masala-wallahs

BY SHIKHA CHANDRA

You could call me a Parramasala veteran. I’ve been attending it since its inception in 2010, and on two occasions, even participated in the street parade. Decked up in my pink sari I joined scores of my sisters in the Pink Sari campaign for breast cancer awareness, showing off my moves to Disco Wale Khisko while at the same time urging women to go and get screened. This time round, I chose to marinate in the (Parra)masala all three days, deciding to see as much of it as I possibly could.

I’ve got to say, I did enjoy myself as I immersed myself in these aspects essential to this festival:

• Culture: learnt much about other cultures

• Food: tried new cuisines at reasonable prices

• Dance: saw the work of many talented dancers, in fusion as well as contemporary styles

• Theatre/Film: watched a thought provoking panel discussion and movie

• Music: enjoyed the samples of traditional, folk and contemporary genres

But my personal favourites? I pick my top five here for you.

Parramasala Welcome Opening Ceremony Parade

Some 500 performers from 40 cultures set off from Town Hall at 6.30pm, armed with drums, cymbals, flags, flared skirts, some groovy dance moves, thumping music and plenty of colour. They were belly dancers, drummers, classical Indian dancers, Chinese

performers, Bollywood artists. Marching along, in a show of unity, were politicians, led by none other than the Premier of NSW Gladys Berejiklian, who smiled and waved and chitchatted her way through, stopping to pose for selfies with anyone who asked, and a cuddle for the little ones. The parade made its way slowly through Church Street as onlookers on either side cheered the performers on, and finished off at Prince Alfred Park. It marked the beginning of Parramasala, with its characteristic explosion of colour, movement and sound. A special mention here to the sea of volunteers and staff who joined in.

Dream Girls of Bollywood

Swag se swagat, Parramasala! On opening night, the razzle dazzle of Hindi film dance was brought home to us in a Mumbai musical. It showed the evolution of the hybrid dance form that is now known as Bollywood, taking us the from the era of the gentle Pyaar kiya to darna kya and Inhi logon ne through the unforgettable ilk of Salaam-e-ishq, to the peppy Baby Doll and Swag se swagat, and of course the very latest Ghoomar, without which no Bollywood musical can now be complete. But can Bollywood be complete without Sridevi, you ask. Fitting to have a special Sridevi tribute section - hey, we almost expected it - even as we come to terms with the recent loss of a legendary Bollywood diva. Kudos to Swapna who coordinated the 20-strong cast of dancers and musicians, and her daughter Shruti who sang those upbeat tunes.

Jyotica and Kushal

Zee TV Sa Ra Ga Ma Pa sweethearts

Jyotica Tangri and Kushal Paul have their own fan followings among millennials after their appearance on the talent show, and it was wonderful to see them on a Sydney

stage. Jyotica is well known for recent hits such as Pallo latke (Shaadi Mein Zaroor Aana), Ishq de funniyaar (Fukrey Returns), Tere bina (Tere bina) and Tu hi hai (Half Girlfriend), besides Punjabi pop. Kushal Paul at only 17 years old has all the markings of a true rockstar, Haan main jaanu! (Sorry, couldn’t resist that!) Both had their Sydney spectators swaying to their peppy numbers as they built a great atmosphere in the Main Stage surrounds. The duo balanced each other off superbly in what turned out to be a perfect night for this kind of music.

Seeta Patel

The UK-based dancer, choreographer and film-maker Seeta Patel was in full Bharatanatyam mode as she presented two beautiful numbers at Lennox Theatre. The first performance presented Krishna and his glorious playfulness, but it was the second that truly stunned. A young devotee waits to see her Lord, Shiva Nataraja, and give him a letter describing her feelings. But as Shiva walks past in a procession she cannot catch his attention. Disappointed but not dejected, she waits for another time. This time round, she is successful. Seeta nailed the anticipation, the early frustration and subsequent fulfilment with her bhavam (expressions)you felt as though Shiva had passed you by and you missed your chance at a meeting with him, and later that indeed you shared that special moment with him. Simply stupendous. And moments later, we saw Seeta on screen, playing the modern powerful woman in the award winning short dance film The Art of Defining Me (2013). In this film Seeta explored the experience of artists of colour who feel boxed in as they continue to be seen as people of colour, with expectations that their work will be influenced by their

cultural roots. What, Seeta asked, is our USP (unique selling point)? How do we define ourselves as artists?

Gayatri: Singing for the Divine Beloved

Carnatic and Khayal vocalist Nadhamuni Gayatri Bharat presented the work of age-old Indian women poets. Typically, their compositions are devotional, and as Gayatri sang from Andal, Kamali, Kanhopatra, Meera, and from Gangasati, Vengamma and Janabai, she attempted to explore divinity through the feminine. I was engrossed as I watched the full set of the show. Gayatri was mesmerising as she sang in various languages. The full ensemble of accompanying musicians was a feast for the eyes and delight for the ears. I wish she’d stayed longer: although she did 5-6 songs that were long pieces, I felt I wanted more.

*

Worthy of mention also were a panel discussion on ‘How South Asians are shaping the next great city’ presented by Sydney’s Nautanki Theatre Group.

In other fare, stand-outs for me were indigenous singer MiKaisha Masella, the Pacific heritage of the Matavai Cultural Arts, Classic Flow Yoga Live, and Annalouise Paul’s flamenco.

Things that needed a little more work at Parramasala this year? The workshops could have been better organised; ATMs needed to be more accessible as most places were cash only except one or two that offered pay-wave; more tables were needed at seating areas to eat, and possibly more areas to eat; some shade for performers and spectators; Riverside Theatre to look more decorated and a part of it all, and perhaps more staff to help around and explain what was happening where.

Top of the pops at Parramasala 2018

Dream Girls of Bollywood

Gladys Berejiklian during the opening parade;

Jyotica Tangri Kushal Paul

Seeta Patel

A refined debut

Although dubbed as an arangetram, the solo Bharatanatyam recital by Priya Murali exhibited dance maturity beyond one normally witnesses for debut events. Priya, a disciple of Hamsa Venkat and her Samskriti School of Dance, performed at the Science Theatre UNSW on 3 March with live music accompaniments.

Right from the first item, a mallari, one could notice sheer confidence and grace in Priya’s dance. Mallari is usually played as an accompaniment to temple processions when the temple deity is brought out. Rendered in different speeds in the lengthy misra triputa (11 beat) tala, it provided a sprightly start to a performance and a good alternative to the customary pushpanjali or alarippu. The way Priya ushered Lord Ganesha to the stage exhibited a grand beginning for the evening.

In the jatisvaram, Priya demonstrated complex korvais effortlessly while illustrating Nature’s five elements. Here, her footwork stood out and was closely matched by the deft mrudangam strokes provided by the talented Pallavarajan Nagendran. In Durge Durge, Priya’s abhinaya (art of expression) came to fore. Traditionally in the traditional Bharatanatyamm repertoire, abhinaya is only introduced during the varnam, but here it came in the form of Goddess Durga. We saw the myriad hues of the goddess - from the fierce Parashakti to the gentle Akhilandeswari.

For the main item of the evening, Priya took up Prof TR Subramaniam’s varnam, Vanajakshi. Set in Telugu in the raga behag, Priya used the opening lyrics to detail the story of how Lord Vishnu prays to Lord Shiva at the Mannikandeswar temple (near Vellore, Tamil Nadu).

Having damaged his sudarsana chakra (discus), Vishnu offers a daily offering of 1,000 lotus flowers to Lord Shiva. One day, Shiva puts Vishnu’s devotion to the test and hides two flowers. When Vishnu cannot find the last flowers, he uses his

own eyes in their place. Pleased with such devotion, Shiva blesses Vishnu with his own chakra and replaces Vishnu’s eyes with lotuses. Priya’s demonstration of this scene was vivid and memorable.

During the varnam jatis, Priya displayed a natural flair with precise aduvus (basic steps) and crisp teermanams. She seemed well within her limits and perhaps could have attempted slightly more complex jatis. The other stories narrated remained with the Vishnu theme and included tales of Andal, the contrast between the anger of sage Bhrighu and the compassion of Lord Vishnu, and the enlightenment of Purandaradasa.

Kudos to Priya’s guru Hamsa Venkat for her choreography for the varnam

which incorporated such diverse and interesting stories around a central theme. Special mention here should also go to the vocalist, Sai Vigneshwar from Singapore and violinist Bhairavi Raman, for bringing the lyrics and sancari scenes to life through their musicality.

Since this was a tana varnam (as opposed to a pada varnam), the second half was more an exhibition of nritta (pure dance). Lines from Vallabhacharya’s Madhurashtakam were taken up as a coda to the varnam and provided a serene end to a breathtaking item.

In the second half of the performance, a new approach to the theme of vatsalyam (motherhood) was explored. Priya compared a young mother to a female

kangaroo and introduced the Aboriginal Dreamtime story of how the kangaroo got its pouch. An apt metaphor for a performance in Australia, Priya cleverly depicted the kangaroo’s characteristic hop with ease. In Bharatanatyam we are used to seeing deer, monkeys and other animals found in India, but a kangaroo was something new. Here, Bhairavi’s skill in violin improvisation shone as she wove together various ragas for the scenes.

Next, Priya took up two javalis with contrasting reactions of the nayika (heroine). In the epic Natyasastra, Bharata mentions eight types of nayikas In the first javali, Priya demonstrated the kalahantarita nayika as one deceived by her lover while in the second, she demonstrated khandita nayika as the enraged lover. Such pieces are difficult for younger dancers. However, Priya showed her maturity in being able to clearly reveal the differing characters through evocative emotion.

In the abhang Pandhariche Bhoot Mothe, Priya juxtaposed the fear of the devotee against the devotion to the Lord. Sai Vigneshwar did full justice to this captivating piece with a haunting rendition.

The penultimate item of the evening was Poochi Srinivasa Iyengar’s tillana in raga Poornachandrika. Another popular item in Carnatic music concerts, this was another opportunity for Priya to exhibit her finesse with brisk footwork and stunning poses. The evening concluded to the peaceful bhajan, Vaishnava Janato

As revealed in the closing speeches, Priya Murali first started learning dance in her teens. Over the years, she has taken a leading role in many Samskriti dance productions but never had a formal arangetram. Some twelve years later, under the watchful guidance of her guru and with a clear passion for Bharatanatyam, she completed an amazing solo performance. We look forward to many more of her performances in the future!

MOHAN AYYAR witnesses an arangetram that displayed maturity beyond years and even incorporated an Aboriginal story

An apt metaphor for a performance in Australia, Priya cleverly depicted the kangaroo’s characteristic hop with ease

Yojo Photography

BY HAMSA VENKAT

Angikam bhuvanam yasya Vachikam sarva vangmayam, Aharyam chandra taradi Tam numah satvikam sivam.

“We bow to Him the benevolent One, whose body encompasses the entire universe.” So goes the Dhyana slokam or verse that dancers hold close to their heart.

The duet arangetram by Aniita and Shreya Vytheeswaran on 10 March at The Science Theatre, Kensington, in addition to starting with this prayer, reflected this devotion towards the art form through the performance.

With resounding ankle bells, both Aniita and Shreya presented the Natesa Kauthuvam, describing the dance of Lord Siva. The close intertwining of sahitya (lyric) and sollukattu (rhythmic syllables) not only set a brisk pace for the performance but also gave it an auspicious start. The majesty of the kauthuvam was followed by the lyrical beauty of a shabdam on Lord Muruga.

Aniita and Shreya kept the audience engaged throughout, alternating their presence on stage with carefully choreographed exits and entries by guru Manjula Viswanath, a seamless flow of enchanting interpretations, tracing a story from the time Lord Muruga toddled and crawled as an infant to the time when he stood, all-pervading, as the protector of the universe. Special mention has to be made to the way in which they narrated the story of how Lord Muruga - in the guise of an old man - tricked and won the hands of the gypsy princess Valli.

Talking about the cordination and extra hours invested in achieving this in a duet arangetram, Aniita said the experience undoubtedly brought the siblings closer to each other. “Shreya and I have never

Sister act

Dancing duo delve into a deep passion for bharatanatyam

really worked as a team or performed as a duet in Bharatanatyam over the years. This experience brought us closer as sisters since we had to really work together as a team. We talked about the meanings of the lyrics and what type of emotions we wanted to bring out. We also had so much to learn from each other.”

The varnam for the evening made its grand entry in raga Shanmukhapriya, on Lord Nataraja, the lord of dance. This provided the dancers with ample opportunity to explore the stories from mythology. Nandi playing the maddalam and the Lord’s dance was captured with a stately jathi (rhythmic sequence) recited by guru Manjula Viswanath, which saw the dancers showcasing their flexibility and grace. The evergreen story of the devotee longing for a glimpse of the Lord as Nandi blocked his vision was portrayed with intensity. Powerful abhinaya dominated the presentation of navarasa (nine emotions) in the next line. All the sancharis were beautifully and aptly supported by vocalist Balasubramanya Sharma, flautist Narasimha Murthy,

mridangist Janakan Suthanthiraraj and special effects on rhythm pad by Jeiram Jagatheesan, highlighting every emotion expressed by the dancers. The piece de resistance finished with a plea from the nayikas (the dancers) for the grace of the lord to remove all distress.

The second half of the performance showcased solo pieces. In the javali, Aniita chose to delve into the king of all rasas, Shringaram. Portraying the character of a woman pacifying her beloved who has been lured by another woman, Aniita demonstrated with ease the varying shades of love, scorn, pining and relentless enquiry into the twists and turns of fate that grip two people in love. Shreya chose to present the beauty of goddess Devi in the kriti, Kanchadalayadakhsi that rose to a climax with the battle between the goddess and the demon Mahishasura, representing the perennial conflict between good and evil. Dashavataram, the ten incarnations of Lord Vishnu, gave the dancers an opportunity to rise to the challenge of depicting a multitude of stories and emotions in quick succession, interspersed

with brisk nritta in the swara passages. The evening concluded with a thillana in Sumanesa Ranjini followed by a natyarpanam to Sri Ramanujacharya, the guiding light of not just the dancers but also their entire family. “We were so lucky to have the endless support of our family and friends which motivated us to work harder and let us know that our limit is only something we set ourselves,” said the sisters, with gratitude to one and all.

Young Sagarika Venkat and Sindhu Ganapathy, the comperes, introduced the items and the stories to be presented in detail, setting the mood for the dance to follow. “An arangetram is an opportunity to show not only other people our passion, but a time to challenge ourselves and see how much we could grow,” said Aniita and Shreya. “It was an important event that doesn’t represent the peak of our dancing but rather the beginning of many more years.” With this attitude, it is certain that Aniita and Shreya are on the path to learn and gain from the fountainhead of knowledge and spirituality that is the core of the art form of Bharatanatyam.

Because SERVICE YOU CAN TRUST.

which there are no winter crops. Whatever water flows during this time is wasted while during the sowing season, there is hardly any water available because natural glaciers, situated some 5,000 feet above

Pocketful of India

Craig Jeffrey ’s book on India packs a quick punch

BY RAKA SARKHEL LAHA

Modern India: A Very Short Introduction by

Craig Jeffrey. Oxford University Press, 2017

Apart of Oxford’s Very Short Introductions series, Craig Jeffrey’s Modern India is a short and serious account of present-day India. Jeffrey, who is director and CEO of the Australia India Institute, takes keen interest in India - focusing his research on youth, education and everyday politics in India, and has six books related to these themes under his belt.

This book, Modern India: A Very Short Introduction, begins and ends on a hopeful note - the first chapter called Hope narrates an incident of a traffic hold-up by a group of school children in Uttarakhand, demanding a better maths teacher at their school. “Sitting in a circle on the bridge with their arms locked together they chanted their main demand and sang popular Garhwali songs,” he says. Three weeks later, a new Maths teacher arrived at the school.

better employment opportunities.

However, primary education in schools is in a dire state, with “25 per cent of teachers absent from classes during spot checks across India… The Indian state has failed to raise spending on education, which remains roughly at 3%, well below the expenditure in many Western equally dodgy. Vocational learning suffers

the colonial period and how the East India Company filled Britain’s coffers by impoverishing India, and the nationalist movement that drove them out. The need for a new identity for a newly independent nation and the debatable notion of caste is also succinctly handled.

Hope again resurfaces in the chapter, Making India Work, with Jawaharlal Nehru’s speech on the eve of Independence on 14 August 1947 - “A new hope comes into being, a vision long cherished materialises.”

Post-independence, reimagining and rethinking India was the main agenda for those at the helm. Jeffrey notes three major changes between 1989 and 1992. The first one relates to that of caste, where leaders from backward groups and classes became more active in politics. At the same time, another major change took shape in the form of Hindu nationalism with the formation of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 1977. The third major

shift in the early 1990s was economic reforms that paved the way for substantial liberalisation through private sector participation, increased foreign direct investment and freeing capitalists from unhelpful bureaucracy and regulations. While the reforms reduced poverty, they deepened urban-rural and gender divides and aided religion and caste-based inequalities.

However, hope survived.

And strengthened itself through social revolutions that made a place in people’s conscience through the reach of technology and education, and the notions of citizenship and civil society. These have also played a big part in encouraging aspirations and cultural expression.

Apart from hope, Jeffrey also points out the country’s inherent conflicts and contradictions in its social and cultural fabric. It is perhaps difficult to qualify India under one single epithet, given her many contradictions. The wonder, however, is in the fact that she continues to thrive in her contradictions.

Uniting Indian students

Starting

Why the name Ekansh?

The founders wanted a name that demonstrated the ability to come together as one. So Ekansh best represents what we want the society to be about: unity. It’s a way for students transitioning from high school to Uni, or international students, to have a home away from home.

When was your organisation formed?

We’re not sure when exactly our organisation was formed. However, it initially had a different name, and the name was changed to Ekansh in 2010.

What is the motto of your organisation?

Our motto is the meaning of our name: one union, or unity. The one thing we really try to push in all our events and all our marketing is that Ekansh isn’t just for Indian people, it’s for everyone of Indian descent or anyone interested in Indian culture.

What does your calendar of events usually look like?

Last week was our meet-and-greet, which is always at the beginning semester one and two every year. It’s a way for everyone to meet each other over free pizza and soft drinks. Then we have sports meet-andgreets and performing arts meet-and-greets for people with similar interests. We also have small events throughout the year like dance workshops, food stalls,

henna stalls, and we’re thinking of starting a yoga session for this year.

Then our big events are the Holi celebrations, Desi Bash and Diwali Cruise/ Ball. So basically, just a lot of dancing.

What are some other things you do besides social events - help needy students?

Charity for needy people outside campus?

Our dance group performs for charity events which is something we try to do every year. We don’t have much funding so it’s hard for us to give money, but we try to help out in other ways. Hopefully this year, we can start a fundraiser to send some stationary over to India. We also hold information evenings every semester for international students. The information evenings are for them to be able to familiarise themselves with Sydney, including information about transport, accommodation, where to find Indian grocery stores close to Uni, etc.

What are some highlights from past years that still talked about?

The biggest thing that people talk about are our major events. They’re usually the reason people come back every year. Back in 2015, we joined up with PakSoc and threw the Desi Bash together. In 2016, we did the ball with a cool Casino Royale theme where everyone got to play cards, dance and interact.

Do you have any fond memories from

these events?

Our Holi event in 2016 had a massive crowd. We held it at Coogee Beach, and it was so big that people that weren’t even part of the societies decided to join us. This Mum and Dad were dancing around and throwing colours at everyone. It was great!

What’s special in 2018?

We really want to push charity work this year. We want to give back to India and other places who need help, and then continue that yearly. We also have plans to have many collaborations with other societies at Sydney University, as well as Indian societies from other universities.

What’s your membership process like?

It is a Sydney University requirement that in order to become a member of a society, you must have an access card. Once an access card is purchased, our members are able to join our society ($5 membership fee) at O-Week, as well as at any of our events.

What benefits do your members get?

Members get discounted tickets to our events, as well as a monthly email updating them on our events and the latest regarding university life. We also have special competitions and lucky draws for our members. But, by far, the biggest benefit is being able to make a group of friends that you’ll constantly see, and be able to make memories with throughout Uni.

How is the executive formed? And who is on the executive this year?

Every year in September, we hold an AGM in which people are able to nominate themselves or others for executive positions for the following year. The positions are then voted on by all those in attendance at the AGM. This year our executive team consists of: Anjali Israni, President, Bachelor of Science; Selani Adikari, Vice President, Biomedical Engineering; Nandini Dua, Secretary, Bachelor of Science; Aryan Arora, Treasurer, Bachelor of Commerce; Neelam Patel, Marketing Coordinator, Bachelor of Science (Honours); Nischeta Pethi, Sports Officer, Bachelor of Commerce; Sonali Dewan, Co-Performing Arts Coordinator, Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) and Bachelor of Arts; Revati Venkatesh, CoPeforming Arts Coordinator, Bachelor of Social Work; Khushboo Dhiman, General Exec, Bachelor of Liberal Arts and Science; and Srishti Patil, General Exec, Bachelor of Information Technology

Finally, if you had one goal you wanted to achieve as an organisation in 2018, what would it be?

Making people more aware of Indian culture is a massive thing for us. We want to make it known that we’re open to everyone! We also want to make Ekansh a comfortable place for members. We want to make it their home away from home. As told to Sahibnoor Singh

this edition, we will feature Uni student societies, what they do, their history and their future. We’re kicking things off with Ekansh Sydney University Indian Cultural Society

Thank G.O.D

VANDAN RAISINGHANI recounts his experience of attending workshops on mindfulness and eco art

Anew year, new school session, but the inertia caused by the loooong summer break was not easy to shake off. My mother found a perfect way to get us in the swing of things, before the busyness around school work kicked in.

She registered my sister and myself for a weekend of workshops. The Global Organisation for Divinity (G.O.D) Australia had organised a fun-filled weekend for children, pre-teens and teenagers at Dundas Community Centre, Telopea. A workshop on Mindfulness and Building Resilience on 17 Feb was followed by an Eco Art Fest program on 18 Feb. I attended the workshop as a participant and was a facilitator at the Art Fest.

Let’s start with the mindfulness workshop. I was apprehensive of the

12 were divided into four groups. Students in various groups learnt about the damage to sea creatures due to human pollution and intervention, especially to the habitat of the Great Barrier Reef, the alarming ill-effects of deforestation and the need to plant more trees. I felt very responsible, talking to the younger audience about seasons and climate change. The timer on my phone stopped me from getting carried away. The older children discussed how every purchase, every movement and every bite we take has a carbon footprint that comes with it.

dry solemnity of the topic. The formal registration, name stickers and seating arrangement added to my unease. I felt slightly better when I saw a few familiar faces from the Life Enrichment Program, Gopakuteeram. The young adult facilitators of the Youth Group did not waste any time and we were soon on our feet playing a rather interesting game called Bip Bop Bang. It was the perfect icebreaker and soon all of us were laughing and involved. Now that we were in a receptive mode, we started conversing about our thoughts and how our thoughts play such an important role in our everyday lives, learning capacity and capabilities. Without even realising, we were discussing about positive thoughts, effect of technology, gadgets and social media on our thoughts.

We seem to be doing things on auto-

pilot. It was rather scary to know how our brain slows down with information overload and no longer processes meaningful information the way it should for learning to happen.

Very cleverly and seamlessly, we were taken into the session on mindfulness. Simple breathing techniques were taught to help us reconnect with our core. I am practising these every day to become mindful and not mind full!

After the session on mindfulness, we were primed up and ready for the workshop on building resilience. This was facilitated by Dr Janani Vasudevan, Event Architect for G.O.D India for youth programs, who was visiting Australia. The workshop started on a serious note, but soon became involving when we did roleplays in pairs on everyday situations between our parents and us. The idea was

to drive home the point of differentiation between responding and reacting; attempting to listen to our conscience and reduce the noise around us; and leaving excuses and making choices. This reminded me of the stereotypical situation of ‘the dog ate my homework.’ I enjoyed the contents of the workshop and was impressed by the delivery of the program by Dr Vasudevan.

The purpose of the Eco Art Fest program was to create awareness of the implications of climate change for humanity and to inspire children and youth. I am fascinated by the topic of human effect on climate change as there is so much discussion and scepticism around it. Either way we are affected by it!

I am not an arts person, so I decided to join as a facilitator for a group of younger children. Children from pre-school to Year

The two youngest groups tried to understand the jargon but they were itching to get to work - colouring-in and creating their collage masterpieces. I was amused by some of the colouring-in sheets and collages, whilst others were pure reflection of attention to detail and meticulous handiwork. Some of the poster art brought out the deep thinking in my younger peers. I was in awe!

The senior students presented their thoughts on climate change and the simple yet effective solutions, in the form of a rap song, drama and public speaking. All this in a preparation time of only 40 minutes. Young parliamentarians in the making, or what?!!

On the formal side of the day’s events, Dr Phil Bradley and Sameer Pandey, Councillors from Parramatta City Council, were the chief guests for this program. Both the Councillors expressed their happiness about G.O.D Australia organising such programs for children and youth and recognised the need for discussion to continue at all levels.

All participants received an eco pot with soil and seeds for them to grow at home. My sister’s plant is already 7” tall!

Hit and run

BY MOHAN DHALL

If there are cracks in the bridge, does the structural engineer say, “Do you mind driving your car through the river instead?”

When you go to the doctor, does the doctor say, “Go home and fix it yourself?”

This is the time in the academic year when there are parent-teacher nights, and many thousands of parents will hear words which may be called ‘hit-andrun’ comments. Hit-and-run comments are those made by some teachers when disclosing or revealing a student’s behaviour to parents or carers. A distinguishing feature of these comments is that the teacher provides no follow-up or suggestion as to what they themself, as a paid professional, are intending to do to assist in ameliorating the concern they have identified. The hit-and-run comments typically take the following form:

“Your son is very distractible and talks a lot.”

“Your daughter is not focused.”

“Your child has not completed his homework.”

“XYZ needs to practice more written responses.”

These comments are then followed by silence. If the child is present, the usual response is for the parent to turn to their child and get them in trouble. The child is told they must focus or do homework, or study, as the parent somehow has taken this feedback as criticism of their parenting. Accordingly, they feel the need to prove they are in fact parenting properly.

But, where in this scenario does the professional educator take responsibility to effect the changes they seek?

How educators present information, and respond to challenges, lies at the heart of whether to characterise them as professionals or quasi-professionals. When professional practitioners in any field see an issue or a problem, they seek to remedy it. To do otherwise would be counter to their professional training. Why then should educators not be held accountable to the same standards?

Should teachers be allowed to identify issues to parents but not have a remediation plan?

Consider this feedback, delivered at a parent-teacher night. “Your child has trouble listening”. This comment generally has the effect of a parent going home and criticising their child for talking. The teacher, in this instance, has outsourced the management to the parent. Ask, as a parent or carer, how different it would be if the teacher said the following: “I

have noticed that your child has trouble following the instructions I give. Have you noticed this behaviour at home?”

The teacher could see what the reply is. Assuming the reply is “yes”, the teacher could say the following: “In order to help your child learn to listen to instructions better, I have asked him/her to repeat them to me prior to us starting a task. I have also started writing sequential steps down so that multistep problems are clearer and require less working memory. I shall be monitoring the effect of these strategies to see how effective they are. I can give you some examples to use at home too.”

However, if the reply is “no”, a professional could say the following: “This is not something I expected with your child and I have a plan for what I will do. First, I will name the behaviour and state what I expect. Your child will be asked to clearly state back to me what is required in the task. Included in this is what will happen if instructions are not followed. If this does not work then I will do my best to find out why my instructions are not being followed. It may be a classroom positional issue, a friendship issue, a difficulty in focus, a lack of clarity from me, or a range of other possibilities. I may introduce a visual system to supplement what is said. If neither of these strategies works, I will meet with you again with your child and we will get to the bottom of this. I expect to do this and get back to you within three weeks.”

The question parents must ask is why this is not standard practice. The image of the imaginary engineer asking people to drive through the river, rather than addressing the problem, is professionally instructive.

Parents should respond to hitand-run comments as follows: “Thanks for the feedback. How are you addressing this issue in your class? If it continues, what will you do next? How would you like us to support you in this?”

This should then be confirmed with a diarised request for a followup meeting to see how the teacher is getting on in addressing the concern they have raised as a professional.

If this approach to issues involving students were adopted, then it is highly likely that parents can work with teachers for the child’s benefit. They will come to experience all teachers as professionals who take ownership to manage their workplace issues and who are prepared to work with families in the best interest of their child.

How educators present information, and respond to challenges, lies at the heart of whether to characterise them as professionals or quasi-professionals

Don’t accept a teacher’s feedback that identifies your child’s problem but doesn’t offer a solution

PEOPLE, PLACES, PARTIES

SEND YOUR EVENT SNAPS OR PARTY PICS TO MEDIA@INDIANLINK.COM.AU

UniversitySydneyIndian Cultural Vice-PresidentSocietySelani

Lim Kim Hai, Chairman of Branksome Hotels and Residences (front row, 3rd from right) and Commercial Director Ben Chandwani (last row, left) at the launch of Branksome Hotels and Residences in Mascot

Indian Link writer Preeti Daga marries Vishal Raizada in a beautiful ceremony

Guests at Harman Foundation’s second annual fundraising dinner in Blacktown

Birthday girl Kalyani Wakhare and husband Sachin, both Indian Link contributors, raise a toast

Ekansh

Adikari (left) and Secretary Nandini Dua celebrate Holi

MATRIMONIALS

SEEKING GROOMS

Suitable match for Australian citizen, Sydney-based Sikh girl. 1991 born, 170cm, qualified chartered accountant, working for Australia’s leading bank. Parents highly educated and well-settled in Sydney. Please respond to hs52216a@gmail.com

Looking for a good-looking, well-settled, professionally qualified boy PR or Australian citizen for a 24-year-old, 5’4” tall, fair, beautiful Hindu Khatri dentist girl. Australian citizen from a family of doctors. Email delhimelb2018@ hotmail.com

Match required for my sister, Australian citizen, Hindu Punjabi (non-vegetarian), 5’0”, slim, fair, beautiful, 1988-born, Masters of Professional Accounting, working in Melbourne. Australian citizen/PR required. Email melbournejodi@yahoo.com

Suitable match for a never-married Saraswat Brahmin vegetarian female. 46 years old, look much younger. Fashion designer based in Mumbai. Please contact for more information on phone 0412911611 or by email sunilrampal09@gmail.com

Brother based in Sydney seeks suitable match for a 39-year-old Mumbai-born, never married Gujarati girl. 5’4”, well-cultured medium-built, B.Com and working for international shipping company in Dubai. Hindu grooms please contact on 0416475948 or komaldxb@gmail.com

Seeking a professionally qualified, settled match for a Sydney-based never married Australian citizen. Hindu, Punjabi Khatri, 45, 5’3” slim, fair, attractive girl. The girl is a postgraduate and is working on a good position in a government organisation. Please send details with photo to indsyd2016@gmail.com

Looking for a match for a young, unmarried girl, 31 years old, born and brought up in Sydney with Hindu Indian family values. Working as an education professional in Sydney. Boy must be educated, professional, born and brought up in Sydney. Please call 0452382751 or email to rtmkh8064@gmail.com

Seeking professionally qualified, well-settled (having PR) match in Australia for Gujarati Brahmin (caste no bar) girl. 30, 5’6” and Bsc, IT qualified and working. Currently living in Mumbai. Enjoys both Australian and Indian culture. Please send details with photo to bhagu.trios10@gmail.com and/or 0420734004

Well settled family in Australia invites alliance for a beautiful 31-year-old, 5’7”, Sood Punjabi girl, working as a lawyer for the Australian Government. Please send biodata and photos to soodaust2018@gmail.com

Seeking professionally qualified, well-settled (having PR) match in Australia for Gujarati Brahmin (caste no bar) girl 36, 5’2”, slim and qualified fashion designer and working. Currently living in Dubai. Enjoys both Australian and Indian culture. Please send details with photo to ritsididsi@yahoo.com and/or 0420734004

SEEKING BRIDES

Well settled Sikh Khatri family in Sydney seeks alliance for their Australian citizen son (clean shaven), 35, 6’ 1”, CA Qualified, teetotaller, working in a reputed MNC, legally divorced and issueless after a brief marriage. Professionally qualified girl preferably from Australia/NZ please respond with particulars on harrybedi@hotmail.com

Easter indulgence

ELIZABETH GAETE’s chocolate treat that’s as much fun creating, as eating

When it comes to food at Easter time, most of us are very familiar with the big role that chocolate plays over this holiday period. Easter egg hunts in the backyard for the kids are a regular occurrence. But why should children have all the fun?

Many of us will have a social gathering with friends and family over this holiday period and what better way to indulge the adults with a decadent chocolate Easter cake. It will not just serve as the crowning glory of your Easter feast, but will satisfy the cravings of even the most fervent chocolate fanatic!

COLOURED EASTER EGG S

DECADENT

Ingredients

For the chocolate mud cake

CHOCOLATE EASTER CAKE > Makes 4 serves

to lukewarm.

250g chocolate (125g dark chocolate, 125g milk chocolate)

250g unsalted butter

1 tbsp instant coffee granules

¾ cup water

1 ½ cups caster sugar

225g plain flour

100g self-raising flour

30g cocoa powder

Sift together the self-raising and plain flours, cocoa powder and bicarbonate of soda in a large bowl.

If you want to impress your guests while entertaining over Easter, make your own edible Easter eggs. They make a great table display and add a savoury touch to your meal.

Ingredients

Hard boiled eggs

Food colouring

¼ cup vinegar

Water

Small bowls

Method

Fill each bowl with water and ¼ cup of vinegar. Add different food colours to each bowl – the more you add the more intense the colour.

Dip each egg, into the bowl, removing with a spoon when they reach the desired colour.

Leave the eggs to dry on paper towels.

Tip: You can place round or star stickers or tape around the egg before placing into the bowl of food colour, to create lovely patterns on your eggs. Allow to dry thoroughly before gently removing the stickers.

½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

4 large eggs

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

½ cup buttermilk

Chocolate ganache

150g milk chocolate

150g thickened cream

Easter nest

75g fried noodles

150g milk chocolate

Method

For the mud cake

Preheat the oven to 150 degrees for a fan forced or 160 degrees Celsius for a normal oven.

Grease an 8in/23cm round cake tin. Line the tin with baking paper, extending it a few centimetres above the tin.

Put chocolate, butter, coffee, water and caster sugar in a medium saucepan, over low heat. Stir occasionally, until the chocolate and butter have melted and the sugar has dissolved. Remove the saucepan from the heat and allow to cool

In a separate bowl place eggs, oil, buttermilk and vanilla, and whisk together until well combined. Add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients and stir until well combined. Then add the chocolate mixture to the flour and egg mixture. Do this in two batches, stir after each addition until well combined. Use a whisk to stir the mixture instead of a wooden spoon.

Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tin, through a sieve. This will give you a lump free cake mixture and the results will come through with a lovely textured cake. Bake the cake for 1 hour and 30-45 minutes. Insert a cake skewer or a knife through the cake and if it comes out clean, the cake is cooked. Remove the cake from the oven and place a sheet of baking paper on top of the cake. Then wrap the cake, still left in its tin, in an old towel. Leave overnight or for a couple of hours until completely cooled. Once the cake has cooled remove it from the tin. The cake will be unlikely to be level, so cut it straight across the top, and place the levelled cake on serving dish upside down. The bottom of the cake will be level and will create that straight finish. While the cake is cooling make the Easter nest.

For the Easter nest

Melt the chocolate in a small saucepan

over low heat. Once the chocolate has melted remove saucepan off the heat and stir through the fried noodles. Do this gently so that the noodles don’t break and hold their shape. Spoon the mixture onto a baking tray, lined with baking paper. Shape the noodles into a nest. Use your fingers to form the mould of a nest shape. Make an indentation in the centre, so that it can hold the Easter eggs. Place the tray in the fridge to set.

For the chocolate ganache

Put the chocolate and cream in a medium saucepan on a low heat, stirring continuously. Remove from the heat once the mixture is smooth and the chocolate has melted. It is important not to heat the mixture any further as the chocolate can burn. Allow to cool slightly.

For the assembly

Pour the ganache over the cooled cake and spread with a palate knife evenly over the top and sides of the cake. Take the Easter nest out of the fridge and carefully run a knife under the nest to lift it off the baking paper. Place it on the centre of the cake, while the ganache is still runny.

Put the cake back into the fridge. This will set the ganache and allow the nest to stick to the top of the cake.

Take the cake out of the fridge and allow it to come to room temperature before serving. Place an assortment of solid and ‘birds eggs’ Easter eggs into the nest. Jelly beans can also be used to add a splash of colour.

Indian films, Aussie critic

YouTuber Corrie Hinschen reviews non-mainstream and regional Indian cinema

BY EMIE ROY

What does it take for the English-speaking world to realise that Indian movies are not just about Bollywood? Well, here is a step in the right direction.

Corrie Hinschen, a Brisbane-based Australian movie critic, has decided to look largely beyond the song-and-dance films from India and explore parallel cinema and regional cinema, especially from South India.

Masala Bollywood films captured the attention of the Western world long ago. The best outcome of this was that the films changed the perception that India was a country of elephants and snake charmers. Having said that, there is no denying that regional cinemas in India have a huge following of their own, particularly because of the quality of these movies. However, outside India, they have not had the same kind of reach that mainstream Hindi movies enjoy.

This is where Corrie comes in. He is a YouTuber, who reviews Asian movies

from South Korea, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Taiwan and India. He broadcasts the reviews on his channel, Pieces of Work, which has around 35,000 subscribers. South Korean films, he says, are his bread and butter. “However, I adore Indian films as well,” he says.

Of the 51 videos on Indian movies Corrie has made so far, 29 are Hindi film reviews (very few of these are the mainstream type), nine are on Malayalam films, three on Tamil, four on Telugu and two on Kannada films. “It is the necessity of regional cinema to compete with the multimillion dollar industry called Bollywood,” Corrie says. “This requires them to make these extraordinarily good movies.” The best part is that Corrie reviews these movies in English, which introduces them to an English-speaking audience as well.

Living in Australia, and not speaking any of the Indian languages, how does he decide which movie he should review?

“My keen audience plays a part here. I take suggestions, and sometimes even run polls to determine which movie I should watch next,” Corrie explains.

Asked to pick his favourite movie from all the Indian movies he has reviewed so far, his choice is Mumbai Police, a thriller in Malayalam. Quite familiar with the actors and actresses from these movies, he

picks Prithviraj, a Malayalam actor, as his favourite. On a lighter note, it takes Corrie a lot to even try and pronounce his name; but he has no trouble endorsing his acting. But his reviews aren’t just full of high praise. “I do have very strong opinions about what happens in India in reference to the movies that are made there,” he says. Corrie’s recent review on Padmaavat is a great example. He does not shy away from stating that the movie lacks soul, and as he does it, touches upon some pertinent social issues. It is interesting that someone who has never been to India, and hasn’t had first-hand experience of its culture, has formed an idea about the country’s way of life and society just by watching many of our movies. And that includes some grim realisations as well.

Yet another relevant issue that he addressed recently was the plagiarism in Indian movies. In his video titled India, We Need To Talk About Plagiarism, he rips apart some plagiarised Indian movies. “This inadvisable trend of plagiarisingeuphemistically referred to as ‘inspired by’ - will undermine the value of the great movies that are made in India. I will continue reproaching this trend unless it is discontinued,” he says in the video.

Corrie may well be the only Australian who reviews South Indian movies in English, and these reviews have been viewed between 10,000 and 56,000 times.

For good regional films, this could serve as a launch pad to the English-speaking audience in Australia, and thanks to the power of the internet, to the wider world.

The inadvisable trend of plagiarising will undermine the value of the great movies that are made in India

Corrie Hinschen, movie critic

The making of Dickens

Indian-origin director Bharat Nalluri ’s film on the celebrated author is set for online release

BY JYOTI UTTAM

Only a handful of Indian or Indian-origin directors have made it big on the English language movie scene. They include Mira Nair, Gurinder Chadha, Shekhar Kapur and M ‘Night’ Shyamalan. To add to this short list is a name not many would have heard of, but Bharat Nalluri is slowly but surely making a mark in the film industry with an eclectic repertoire of films and TV shows - Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, Tsunami: The Aftermath, Life on Mars, MI-5 and Emily Owens M.D., among others.

Nalluri’s latest movie is The Man Who Invented Christmas, slated for online release on 28 March. It is the story of how the author Charles Dickens came about creating and self-publishing his iconic novella, A Christmas Carol. The movie is based on a critical part of the life of Dickens when he is 31, a literary rockstar on a downward trend. Three of his books had failed in a row, debt was looming and his wife was pregnant with their fifth child. To make matters worse, he had hit writer’s block. Bringing out a successful book was crucial for him. He had an idea for a new book about a miserly man who is redeemed after meeting the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet To Come.

The lavishly illustrated volume turned out to be more than just an instant moneymaker. The spirit of Christmas, as we know today - charity, gifts, parties, the

tree and its secular tone - was non-existent until the book came out. Christmas had degenerated into a drunken festival. The slim, 70-page book, which went into seven reprints in six months, revived the meaning of Christmas as a time for reflection and began a host of customs that are popular even today.

In The Man Who Invented Christmas, Nalluri hasn’t portrayed Dickens as the bearded serious-looking elderly man we usually see in photos. He is a dashing young man in his thirties, captured from his portraits of that time. Important scenes from the book are recreated in the movie and deftly interwoven into Dickens’ own life story and his creative journey.

Nalluri, who was in Sydney in December last year to promote the film, spoke to Indian Link about his cinematic journey.

Having moved to the UK from Andhra Pradesh at the age of five, Nalluri grew up watching Bollywood movies. “Sunday viewings were Sholay, Amar Akbar Anthony, Pakeezah and such classics accompanied with mum’s dosas. The films were in Hindi which I did not understand, but I loved the songs and drama. They have, without a doubt, influenced me,” he said. One can certainly see that in The Man Who Invented Christmas. Though there is a dramatic way of conveying the emotions of Charles Dickens that seem larger than life, these are conveyed without being over the top.

Asked if he would be interested in taking up a film project based in or on India, Nalluri said he would love to but “I want to find something that has some connective tissue to my experience so that I’m not pretending to be something I am not. I want to make sure I’m not just

skimming the surface of the subject.”

A project in the pipeline is Tip Top Taj Mahal about Indian immigrants coming to New Zealand in the 1980s, a subject close to his own immigration experience.

The director also praised the huge renaissance in Indian cinema. “The new directors are amazing. Lunch Box is such a beautiful film. Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Manoj Bajpai and Irrfan Khan are some of my favourite actors. Such trained, controlled and powerful film-makers and actors!” he said admiringly. He himself started the journey with his father’s Super 8 camera, making small films with his friends. “I won some awards, went on to make bigger films, set up a company and it all somehow happened,” he said, recollecting how his career evolved. “Film making is lightening in a bottle. It is stunning whenever you get it right. So many people are involved from the beginning to the end, right up to making the poster. Every one of them has to get it right,” he said, sounding relieved that his movie turned out well and has been well received the world over.

Bharat credited the film’s success to the “copper-bottomed” script by Susan Coyne and the wonderful crew and actors. Handsome Dan Stevens of Downton Abbey fame plays the young Dickens well,

capturing both the humour and energy of the personality. Christopher Plummer playing Ebenezer Scrooge is fantastic as usual.

You won’t have to read The Christmas Carol again to enjoy the movie, but Nalluri has certainly become a Dickens fan from the experience. “He is brilliant at telling a wonderful, exciting adventure story. He gives you all this fun but underneath there is something to think about,” said Nalluri, referring to the way Dickens brings out social issues of child labour, poverty and inequality in his books. As a director, Nalluri has captured this brilliantly in the movie and woven a fascinating story where Dickens’ real family and imaginary family of characters from his book come in and out of the movie scenes beautifully.

Dickens is one author who has never been out of print and with this movie Bharat has created a lovable movie that will never be out of date. Certainly no ‘Bah, humbug’!

I did not understand (Hindi films), but I loved the songs and drama. They have, without a doubt, influenced me

Icon

Film Distribution

cine TALK COMBATING CORRUPTION

narrated political thrillers are his forté Aamir and No One Killed Jessica had proved it. Raid proves it again.

So welcome back, Mr Gupta. Here’s your deal. An honest-to-goodness income tax officer, played with incorruptible smoothness by Ajay Devgn, who gives away nothing (at least, nothing that we can see on his face) is pitched against a burly swarmy corrupt seedy politician in the hotbed of Lucknow’s politics.

What happens when Amay Patnaik (Devgn) takes on Rameshwar Singh (Saurabh Shukla) on the latter’s home turf? Strongly imbued in the spirit of social reform, the Idealistic Bureaucrat as revisited in this film, is a bit of an anomaly. Devgn’s Amay fights that very system which has created him. Idealistic heroes tend to come across as singleminded implacable determined bullies. Devgan is all of this. It is remarkable how willingly he lets Saurabh Shukla chew up every scene in which they’re together.

Editor Bodhaditya Banerjee slices across the large canvas of characters to capture people in their most anxious moments. It’s a narrative of tremendous tension and nervous anxieties but never surrendering to a frenzied cutting-away of the material to play on the urgency of the moment.

RAID

STARRING: Ajay Devgan, Saurabh Shukla, Ileana D’Cruz, Gayathri Iyer, Ajay Singh, Amit Sial

DIRECTOR: Raj Kumar Gupta

HHHH H

Just when you think the Bollywood thriller is running out of steam there

comes Raid, a film so taut and clenched, so caustic and brimming with political sarcasm that you wonder where was director Raj Kumar Gupta hiding himself for so many years?

So yes he made Ghanchakkar. We all make mistakes, okay? Not that I minded Gupta’s unexpected swing into zany comedy. But smartly-spun, tautly-

It’s done in the spirit of a predetermined moral battle in the pursuit of a Good versus Bad tale where the winner often appears to be a loser because he is so one-note in his determined idealism.

Saurabh Shukla has all the fun. And Devgn lets him. It is this spirit of passive resistance that makes Raid a riveting watch. The more Devgn’s goodness shines, the more Shukla’s decadent corruption showers its reeking beneficence down on the plot that

ironically gets its sustenance not from Devgn’s Rama-like heroism but Shukla’s Ravan-esqe rhetorics.

While Devgn and his raiders of the lost assets pool their talents to create a moribund army of wealth retrievers, the film’s fuel surcharge comes from the heated exchanges between the bureaucratic hero and the political renegade. The two actors play against one other with brilliant brio.

The supporting cast is largely credible and sometimes remarkably engaging (Shukla’s antiquated yet alert mother is a howl). But Ileana D’Cruz brought in for the sake of romantic glamour sticks out like a sore thumb with her patently Lakhnavi chikan-attired performance. Not her fault, though. What can she do when the plot is almost uniformly focused on its frenetic fight against wealth stealth with loads of savage humour and unexpected pauses to consider what makes corruption such a thriving industry in our country.

By the time the raid on Rajaji’s illgotten wealth is over, the director has made a darkly humorous telling point on what it takes to call a dishonest politician dishonest.

Your job, perhaps. But hell, someone has to do the dirty job before another Jessica is killed randomly by a wealthy wayward reveler in a bar. Don’t miss Raid. One of its many pleasures is to watch the two principal actors in full control of their characters, even as the director guiding their exchanges, stands back to let the plot grow hot without burning itself out.

It takes a lot of will-power to stand back and let the corrupt steal the thunder from the incorruptible. Raid tells us virtuosity may be boring. But it is still a rare bird worth capturing in the palm of your hand.

Subhash K Jha

FEMME FATALE SHINES IN THIS REVENGE SAGA

HATE STORY IV

STARRING: Urvashi Rautela, Vivan Bhatena, Karan Wahi, Ihana Dhillon and Gulshan Grover

DIRECTOR: Vishal Pandya

For a change, this fourth edition of Hate Story series is a pleasant surprise. It is not a noir film but it certainly has a femme fatale who is impressive and who holds her own against characters that are bad.

Keeping with the theme of the franchise, revenge remains the core issue at the heart of this tale too. And there is ample skin show and frothy music which unfortunately does nothing to propel the narrative.

The story by Sameer Arora revolves around business tycoon Vikram Khurana’s two sons Aryan (Vivan Bhatena) and Rajvir (Karan Wahi). While Aryan is happily married to Rishma (Ihana Dhillon), Rajvir is a flirt whose girlfriends don’t last for over six months.

Rajvir stumbles upon Tasha (Urvashi Rautela) after he is assigned to find a fresh face to model for their company.

Tasha is a dancer at a local club who aspires to be a model. And she certainly fits the bill for not only does Rajvir fall for her, but also his older brother Aryan and their father Vikram

MEDIOCRE TALES NARRATED CRAFTILY

3 STOREYS

STARRING: Richa Chadha, Pulkit Samrat, Renuka Shahane, Sharman Joshi, Masumeh Makhija, Ankit Rathi and Aisha Ahmad

DIRECTOR: Arjun Mukherjee

HHHHH

Debutant director Arjun Mukherjee’s 3 Storeys, with a misleading title, is a craftily narrated tale of characters living in a three-storey chawl in Mumbai.

Set in a middle-class dwelling in the heart of Mumbai, the setting plays a significant part in portraying the social fabric and astutely intertwines the lives of the people living there.

The first act starts on an intriguing note but soon crumbles. The narrative, with its twists and turns, is on-the-nose and proceeds with reckless abandon. And the characters really need to “get it” if the story is to have its triumphant third-act liberation, which they do. Their tales are exciting, absorbing yet clichéd.

Renuka Shahane, with prosthetics and gaudy make-up as the Goan, Flory Mendonca, is a tad over the top. Though she performs to the best of her ability, she seems to be a misfit in her role. She plays a pampering mother who spares the rod and spoils her son Anthon.

Masumeh Makhija and Sharman Joshi pair as star-crossed lovers; Varsha Joshi a Brahmin girl and Shankar Verma the ace embroider, who land up living in the same building. Their on-screen chemistry is palpable.

Similarly, debut actors Aisha Ahmed and Ankit Rathi as Malini and Sohail make a cute pair caught in an interreligion love story. Their romance, though underplayed, creates a ripple and you root for the two.

Among the others in significant roles are Himanshu Malik as the bachelor police officer Ganpat who lives alone and Richa Chadha, the seductress-cumnarrator. Though wasted in miniscule parts, they have their moments of onscreen glory.

The film, mounted on a moderate scale, is technically sound. Will Humphris’ camera work is good in parts. His frames capture the locales and emotions sharply, but some of his frames are shaky and the lighting a tad poor.

Clinton Cerejo’s music blends well with the narrative and elevates the viewing experience.

Overall, an intelligent viewer would initially dismiss the film as a lazily penned plot with banalities and plot-

holes galore, but then the writers cheekily and astutely wrap up the film. At some points, it makes you say, “Ah, I did not see that coming.”

And, if you are in a good mood, you will leave the film on a positive note or

(Gulshan Grover) - who too has a roving eye but keeps it in check owing to his forthcoming mayoral elections - find her very attractive.

While Rajvir genuinely falls in love with Tasha, Aryan hoodwinks his brother to get closer to her. But what it results in is a web of manipulation, doubt, blackmail and ultimately revenge.

The plot, narrated in a non-linear manner, is skilfully crafted with a taut and neat screenplay. The first half of the film is racy and keeps you hooked and the second half gets into a preachy tone.

The dynamics between the actors are rock solid. With her oomph and floss, Urvashi Rautela as the femme fatale Tasha is impressive. She is the star attraction of the film.

Of the two male leads, neither Vivan Bhatena nor Karan Wahi have the onscreen charisma to counter-balance Urvashi. They deliver, but perfunctorily. Gulshan Frover, on the other hand, is slack and wasted in a stereotypical role.

The production quality of the film is superior and the visuals by cinematographer Sunita Radia are appealing. While the locales and scenes are matter-of-factly layered, the songs are cut like music videos. None of the songs stand out.

Overall, Hate Story IV is an engrossing tale despite its predictability.

Troy Ribeiro

else you will feel cheated for investing in the characters that were just a figment of one’s imagination.

Nonetheless, climb the 3 Storeys and find out for yourself.

Troy Ribeiro

the BUZZ entertainment

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

RANI MUKERJI: 40 IS THE NEW 20

The talent powerhouse Rani Mukerji turned 40 recently - she definitely doesn’t look it - only to announce that her time in Bollywood is far from over.

Rani, who’s making a comeback to the silver screen after four long years with Hichki, says she wants to cherish the foundation years of her two-year-old daughter Adira with husband and filmmaker Aditya Chopra.

“I want to treat my 40 as my 20,” said the actor. “And I want to do a lot of work... more and more movies. I want to enjoy bringing up Adira. It is going to be the most important years of her life, so I think it’s going to be a really, really nice decade.”

She added, “I was so consumed with motherhood that I thought I might just do Hichki and that’s it. But I think I was born to be an actor - it is just something I love doing.”

The Sidharth Malhotra directorial, which explores the life of a person suffering from Tourette Syndrome, is just another example of a film where Rani will let the story shine rather than her star persona.

“Because for me, the story is that connect... Stories that are human, which have a strong emotional connect or the stories that connect with me or resonate with me as a person. I give more precedence to that,” said Rani.

The actor, however, doesn’t feel comfortable spending time away from her daughter. “But I guess I have to do what I have to do. But I am looking forward to spend time with her after all this settles down.”

That’s right, Rani - women have always been showing that motherhood is no hichki to their careers!

AND THE INSTAGRAM AWARD GOES TO…

They are India’s favourites alright: one’s a star on the cricket field, and the other shines brilliantly on the silver screen. Yes we’re talking about Virat Kohli and Deepika Padukone. For the very first time in India, the duo have been awarded Instagram’s ‘Most Engaged Account’ and the ‘Most Followed Account’.

Kohli, who’s got 19.8 million followers, generated the biggest number of engagements with likes and comments from his scores of fans in India and abroad.

As for the long-legged beauty, unsurprisingly, Deepika beat Priyanka Chopra’s 22 million followers with a staggering 22.4 million. We adore PeeCee, no doubt, but that’s the beauty of showbiz: no one can rule the roost forever, right, Piggy Chops?

Deepika said in a statement, “Staying connected with my fans and loved ones is extremely important to me. I value the love, support and connection I share with them and I hope I continue to remain true and authentic.”

And remember Shahid Kapoor’s half-brother, Ishaan Khatter? Most of you might remember him as a child actor in the 2005 film Vaah! Life Ho Toh Aisi! Ishaan has been named as India’s ‘Emerging Account’ for growing his fan base on Instagram significantly throughout 2017.

“It’s a nonstop source for inspiration from people and personalities all over the world. I find it especially enjoyable because it’s about connecting through pictures and videos. On a more personal note it’s almost like a time machine for your memories and a way to immortalise your favourite moments,” said the actor who’ll be seen opposite Sridevi’s daughter Janhvi in Dhadak.

Alia also got a ‘milestone plaque’ with Shraddha Kapoor in recognition for building a community of 20 million followers.

Which other stars do you think are on their way to make Instagram stars? We’ve got our money on Janhvi Kapoor!

SOHA ALI KHAN DOLES OUT EXPERT MOMMY ADVICE

New mum on the block, actor Soha Ali Khan has come up with some pretty good mummy mantras for all the mothers out there. Soha, who’s married to actor Kunal Kemmu, gave birth to baby Inaaya last September.

The actor says she has learnt not to stress over things when it comes to her five-month-old daughter. “The one thing I have learned from my daughter is not to stress. Kids are very resilient. They grow up and become their own individuals. They have their own personalities, so as much as you try to force your ways, they will rebel. You have to learn to be calm,” said Soha.

Looks like you’ve got motherhood down pat, Soha. Now, if only we could say the same for your movies…

MADHURI TAKES SRIDEVI’S PLACE IN ABHISHEK VARMAN’S FILM

After superstar Sridevi’s tragic and unexpected death last month, her place will be taken by actor Madhuri Dixit in Abhishek Varman’s new directorial.

Madhuri has been cast in a role that was to be played by Sridevi, the late actor’s daughter Janhvi Kapoor announced recently.

Diehard fans of both would confirm that these two ladies were archrivals. Madhuri made a grand entrance into Bollywood at a time when Sridevi was already being touted as India’s first female superstar. Although they never made their professional rivalry public, entertainment magazines never missed an opportunity to pit the two against each other.

Janhvi, however, warmly thanked Madhuri for taking over the role.

“Abhishek Varman’s next film was very close to Mom’s heart... Dad, Khushi and I are thankful to Madhuriji for now being a part of this beautiful film,” she posted on her Instagram page, along with a picture of the two actors together.

HERE’S WHY KATRINA THINKS MOVIES ARE ‘AMAZING’

Although she’s pegged for just another pretty face, Katrina Kaif does talk sense most of the time. The actor recently said that movies are an amazing way to get a message across.

Katrina, who joined the international award-winning non-profit organisation ‘Educate Girls’ as their ambassador recently, was asked what she thought about a movie being made on educating girls. She responded, “I don’t believe you need to have a movie to take this cause further or spread the awareness about this cause. There are many ways we can do it, although with a movie on it, sometimes a message comes across in a non-judgmental, non-forceful or organic entertaining form.”

Kartrina added, “A movie is an amazing way to get the message across. A movie on this (issue) would be outstanding.”

DEEPIKA PADUKONE

Citing the example of Secret Superstar, the film starring Amir Khan and Zaira Wasim that received critical acclaim for its subject and the treatment of it, Katrina said, “That movie had that message. That was definitely the message that got across - a young talented girl is being stopped from fulfilling her dreams because the society and world around her (think it is unsuitable). So, there are movies being made like that. You don’t necessarily need a movie just about the classroom.”

“Our movies are a great way to take the message further in our society. We all love movies and that is a great way to get people’s attention on the topic,” added the star, who’s currently busy with Zero, starring Shah Rukh Khan, and Thugs of Hindostan.

CHITRANGADA REVEALS WHY SHE NEVER MADE IT TO THE TOP

Actor Chitrangada Singh, who dazzled many with her debut performance in Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi, has finally talked about why she could never become a top actor in Bollywood.

“Taking breaks took a toll on my career, I guess,” Chitrangada said. “You know, from when I started, my life has gone through phases where my priorities changed. I debuted and then took a break for four years, and then I came back and again took a two-year break. In the film industry, if you are not present

when opportunity is coming your way, it will surely effect your career. That is what happened to me.”

A former model, Chitrangada went on to act in films like Sorry Bhai!, Desi Boyz and Gabbar Is Back. She said that perhaps she did not push herself “enough to shine like a star”. “I think being talented is not enough to get work. Being available at the right time makes all the difference.”

How true! And Chitrangada isn’t the only actor to have not been in the right place at the right time – look what happened to Gracy Singh, Preeti Jhangiani, Shamita Shetty, Bhagyasree and Ayesha Jhulka from the older crop of actors.

JUHI CHAWLA, BADDIE

It’s hard to picture Juhi Chawla as a villain - the actor has won millions of hearts since her younger days as a cutesy and bubbly actor. Juhi, however, thinks she was the best villain ever, especially after her performance in Gulaab Gang beside Madhuri Dixit.

In fact, she was surprised that no one ever approached her again with similar roles. “After Gulaab Gang, believe me, I thought I was the best villain ever! I had such a fun time portraying that role that I would have loved to do some more of that but strangely not many people came up to me to say let’s do something

black like that,” Juhi said.

Although she was praised for her antagonistic role in the film, Juhi says she would love to experiment with more such characters. The 50-year-old actor says she is playing a role close to it in a yet-untitled film where she is essaying a dark grey character. “I’m quite enjoying it,” said Juhi, who has also ventured into the digital world with the web series The Test Case.

Well, here’s hoping you get more of those negative roles, Juhi because as much as we love the goofball from Ishq, we would love to watch you in an edgy role like the one in Gulaab Gang.

SLB GETS A PAT FROM LATA MANGESHKAR

We all know that Sanjay Leela Bhansali is a director extraordinaire, but legendary songstress Lata Mangeshkar believes that even his music sense is as sharp as late Raj Kapoor’s.

“I have always loved the music of his films. Earlier, it was Ismail Durbarji who would do the music. Now Bhansaliji is doing his own music, which is a very good thing,” said Lata.

“I believe Bhansaliji has a music sense as sharp as Raj saab (Raj Kapoor). Raj saab was a complete musician. He played the tabla, the harmonium and the piano. He composed songs and sang them in his own voice before handing them over to professional playback singers. He could have easily scored the music in his films. But he chose not to take credit for the music in his films,” she added.

NUSHRAT BHARUCHA ON A HIGH

Chances are you know the name, if you’ve seen the new film Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety. Actor Nushrat Bharucha seems to have won many a heart with her performance the new-age love triangle set with a ‘bromance’ twist, which has crossed the Rs 100 crore mark.

The 32-year-old says people in the industry are now looking at her in a new light. “Industry has already started looking at me differently. And that difference is of belief. I can feel a sense of belief in me,” Nushrat said.

Given that this the film is only the second film to have crossed the 100-crore mark this year (Padmavat was the first), we’d say the Pyar Ka Punchnama is on the right track, eh folks?

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NUSHRAT BHARUCHA

KATRINA KAIF

CHITRANGADA SINGH

right to happiness

DEAR AUNTYJI

I have a question to ask that has my entire family divided. On one point we agreed, however. That Sridevi was a great actress and we were deeply saddened by her death. But Auntyji, while we were all in mourning, a week later, we were all exposed to pictures of a smiling Janhvi on her 21st. How could she look so happy and smiling when her mother had died only a week earlier. I was outraged and upset by this, and we have had many debates at home about the vulgarity of these pictures. How cheap and common to smile and look happy after the sudden death of a mother. What are your thoughts on the subject, Auntyji?

AUNTYJI

SAYS

I agree with you on one point. Sridevi was a wonderful actress, a living treasure, a national legend. She made millions, if not billions, happy with her work. And because of that, we all wish her eternal happiness, wherever she is. Now, back to your point about Janhvi’s smiling birthday pictures. Okay, her mother died a week earlier. Now, do you think that perhaps Sridevi raised her children to embrace all of life’s possibilities, and to honour and acknowledge her motherhood by being authentic? Or do you feel Sridevi raised insincere young woman who wallow in the loss of their mother and let this stop them from continuing their lives? Clearly, all the scriptures tell us to live life to the fullest, to appreciate what we have, and to acknowledge and give thanks for our blessings. Perhaps Janhvi felt that she would be doing her

mother’s memory a disservice by moping on her 21st. Perhaps she understood that her mum would have wanted her to continue with life and be grateful that she had a mum who was so special. In any case, Janhvi and her sister Khushi have lost their beloved mother. You have no right to cast aspersions on anything that they do. Their dear mum brought laughter, joy and wonder into our lives. We have no right to demand anything of the daughters. So let it be.

debate amongst us about on whether we should give money to beggars. Most people said that Centrelink gives these beggars money, so why should we and that they will waste it on cigarettes and alcohol. The people said that each time we give money to beggars, we are simply enabling bad habits. I am not so sure, Auntyji. Surely giving someone some coins doesn’t hurt in any way, does it? Why can’t we just give money and think nothing of it? Do we need to be so precious about it? Aap ki kya raay hai?

AUNTYJI SAYS

DEAR AUNTYJI

Today, we went out to lunch with our work colleagues, and a beggar came up to us and asked for some money. One of our colleagues gave him some coins, but this started a

Arre my little laddoo, aap kitne samajhdar hai to ask me this interesting question. Here is the baat. We live in a very rich society, and in fact, anyone who is living in this wonderful country has practically won the lottery of life. Now let’s just say society is a bell curve - of very rich people on the extreme right of the curve, and most

people in the middle on the curve. Then, you have poor and disenfranchised folks on the extreme left. Now, living in a well-to-do society like ours, it becomes our duty to look after those members of society who are not doing so well. If you spare a few coins, it won’t make a difference to your day. What the beggar chooses to do with the coins is up to them. You have a choice to part with your coins. That choice is not conditional on you deciding what the money is spent on. You are not the Sarkar, collecting taxes to dispense at your discretion. You are just a member of society choosing to give some alms to a beggar. Give it freely, give it willingly and give it without attached conditions. Keep it simple. If you have issues with any of that, then don’t give your paisa. Simple, nah?

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