2019-09 Sydney (1)

PUBLISHER

Pawan Luthra

EDITOR

Rajni Anand Luthra

DEPUTY EDITOR

Sneha Khale

SOCIAL MEDIA

Suruchi Sehgal

MELBOURNE COORDINATOR

Preeti Jabbal

CONTRIBUTORS

The 34-year-old migrant

BY PAWAN LUTHRA

ADVERTISING MANAGER

Shriti Sinha 0410 578 146

ADVERTISING ASSISTANT

Charuta Joshi 02 9279 2004

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

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Email: info@indianlink.com.au

The experiment of multiculturalism, it can be said, has largely worked well for Australia. The European migrants who came Down Under after the Second World War have built safe and happy lives for themselves here, as have the first Vietnamese boat people who came ashore in 1976, and the Indian migrants who trickled in the last century and those that flooded in the last 15 years.

Over the years, multiculturalism has stamped itself in strongly, strengthening the fabric of the wider society. The reason why multiculturalism has worked, is without doubt that most Australians do believe in the idea: yes, the outliers who dog-whistle and bring out the negatives will always stick out of the masses, but the majority of Australians enjoy the dayto-day offshoots of a diverse population - be it the Eid festival in Lakemba or the Dragon dances in Chinatown. From their side, the new migrants - particularly those that may not have experienced this before - enjoy the democratic traditions of their new home, the freedom of speech and movement, as well as religious freedom.

There is dignity of labour and an overall respect for fellow Australians. One only needs to look at countries with a one-party rule, or where women are denied the same rights as men, or where gun violence is not uncommon, to appreciate what Australia has to offer in terms of security and quality of life.

Just over a year ago the Australian Bureau of Statistics confirmed that 33 years ahead of schedule, the Australian population reached the 25 million mark, and that the last 10 years contributed to 62% of the growth.

Those from India constitute 2.4% of the population: an astonishing number of 592,000 Indians now call Australia home. Their average age, 34 years.

How exciting is this number 34 (to borrow a phrase from our prime minister).

It is an age when one is old enough to be responsible and young enough to be greedy, to build on the opportunities provided in this new country. Professionally, chances are that this 34-year-old Indian migrant is well educated, in a professional position and ambitious to succeed. By 34, their value systems are well-established and they are strong contributors to their social and professional environments.

The needs of this young Indian migrant include schools, infrastructure and support, but importantly, they are themselves contributing towards the

fulfilment of these needs through the taxes they pay to government treasury.

With their average age of 34, the new Indian migrant is also slowing the aging of the overall Australian population, and with their contributions, making clear cut economic benefits to the nation.

For this 34-year-old migrant to advance personally and professionally, one option is identify a mentor from whom they can seek counsel. While in India there may have been a family elder, university or workplace mentor who played the role of guide, that connection is missing here. And while it is always exciting to discover new opportunities by oneself, there is no harm in being able to sound board with a mentor.

Master the art of conversation – this will allow you as a new migrant to learn about and understand your new compatriots, over and above the bubble wrap comfort that people of your own ilk provide you.

Be passionate about an Australian sport, over and above your religion of cricket. It creates more avenues for relationship-building at work, in your street, at your child’s school.

And yes, learn the words to your new national anthem.

It’ll be like adulting all over again, and in a new country: rather exciting, to make 34 your new 21.

Khushboo Patodia Gupta, Shikha Chandra, Vishnu Makhijani, Dhanya Samuel, Minal Khona, LP Ayer

YOUR SAY

DIASPORA AND DISSENT

In the wake of the Hong Kong protests spilling on to the streets of Australian cities, PAWAN LUTHRA wrote his editorial ‘Diaspora and dissent’ about the less divisive ways in which migrant communities could bring attention to issues from their motherland.

@jayshahIN wrote: There are too many assumptions in the article. Happy to write a counter with facts if given opportunity. Problem is that the torchbearers of dissent cannot handle dissent against them and their own fraternity.

Indian Link replied: We would welcome your views @jayshahIN; please email us at info@indianlink.com.au

Kalyan Ram wrote: May I congratulate you once again for your editorial Diaspora and dissent. It is time the diaspora realised its potential for meaningful contribution to public discourse on issues affecting it.

MY INDIA BUCKETLIST

In our Indian Independence Day feature (Aug-1 2019) we presented a photo spread of some of the interesting tourist activities/experiences in India.

Ruth Campion wrote: From my short trips to India, I can proudly claim to have experienced some of the activities you list in your feature: I have relaxed on Kovalam beach; spotted many peacocks; seen many lotuses but alas not plucked them; had a banana leaf meal in Kerala but missed the musical pillars you mention; have driven down the Worli Sea Link in Mumbai; bought some pashminas, seen the dabbawallahs (fascinating enterprise), but no, did not seek a Bollywood role in a daily soap(!) or take in a cricket match at the Wankhede.

What I would like to do on a future trip: all the Kashmir-related activities on your list (the skiing, the Ladakh lakes, the glaciers, the frozen river trek, the Pak border at Wagah); visit the Kohima War Cemetery (apparently there are some Australian soldiers buried there); see the Taj by moonlight; learn about the erotic sculptures at Khajuraho; see some more of your wildlife, and maybe try the Palace of Wheels.

If I have an extended holiday, although somewhat unlikely, I would love to visit the monasteries in Himachal, sit at the feet of the Dalai Lama, visit the IITs/ IIMS, see the Ganesh procession in Mumbai, and help clean the Ganges – all top suggestions.

Not particularly keen, though, on riding on your yak safari in Sikkim. And as for showering in the outdoors, maybe not – not even in the Taj Vivanta!

INSTA-HAPPY

Send us a photo or Instagram one of Indian Link in your daily life using the hashtag #indianlink. We’ll pick on to feature in this column.

INDIAN LINK POLL

Do you think the idea of Ms. Marvel, Disney’s Muslim superhero, is a good one?

(63%) No. Because superheroes should be above religion.

(38%) Yes. It stresses on inclusivity and feminism at the same time.

SAY IT AGAIN

Waah re google. #Amrita Pritam. Ian Woolford Hindi academic, on Google’s tribute to the Indian writer on her 100th birth anniversary

Prit Pal wrote: Ticking off the things I’ve done on your #IndiaBucketlist, #indianlink.

Jasprit Bumrah is a once in a lifetime talent.

Ian Bishop Sports Broadcaster and former WI cricketer

Watch devotees carry Lord Ganesh to his watery end in the sea in Mumbai.

Visit Sydney Opera House’s cousin in Delhi, the Baha’I Lotus Temple.

Hear the roar of the Asiatic Lion at Sasan Gir Forest, Gujarat.

Propose to your loved one at the monument of love - Taj Mahal.

WHERE IN OZ

This place truly makes Australia "Down Under".

Readers Babita Lal, Charmi Kapadia Shah, Prabhu Kiran, Sonal Wahi, Anita Sam Robert, Ani Paulose and Bhanu Kothari identified this spot as Coober Pedy, SA.

This image is of the Serbian Orthodox church, Church of Saint Elijah the Prophet built in 1993.

Rohit Bajpai wrote: We visited this underground church this Easter.

CAPTION CONTEST

What's the chitchat between Ayushmann Khurana and Nushrat Bharucha?

Rachna Gupta Khurana wrote: Ayushmann to Nushrat: "Aayushmaan bhav."

Tejas M Vaidya wrote: Ye babu, Shona, baby Aaryan tak theek thaa, AYUSHman nahi karega! I have options, you see.

Arti Asthana wrote: Swap outfits?

Arix Bishnoi wrote: Nushrat: Hey Anshuman you do know that your T-shirt doesn’t match your saree?

Anshuman: I know, but it does go with my sunnies!

Rishabha Chitalia Nayak wrote: Now this is what I call gender equality.

Kerren Lumsden wrote: In this instance, less is definitely more....

Poonam Mehra wrote: Look at how well I have covered myself - because that’s what is expected from a lady still.

Vandana D'souza wrote: You may not know how to wear a sari, sweetheart, but I do.

Charmi Kapadia Shah wrote: Nusharat to Ayushman: “Ayushi,” you are everyone’s dream girl on screen but I am your dream girl.

Urmila Sumeet Kumar wrote: Abe, humari saadi ka he chura ke pehnliye…

Sa Ne wrote: Chal ab maine sari bhi pehen li promotion ke liye, ab apni film ko hit hone se koi nai rok sakta.

WHO WORE IT BETTER?

KANGANA RANAUT OR KARLIE KLOSS IN PRABAL GURUNG?

53% Kangana Ranaut

WHERE IN INDIA

The huge dome of this architectural wonder is the second largest in the world, next only to St. Basilica in Rome.

Readers Vineeta Bajpayee and Tejas M Vaidya correctly identified it as Gol Gumbaj, Bijapur (Vijaypura)

Arun Jaitley was a reforming Minister for Finance and a great friend of Australia. He will be missed in India and by friends of India around the world. Vale. #ArunJaitley

Chris Bowen ALP leader

47% Karlie Kloss

One of my favourite things about Mumbai is the food. #swatisnacks dahi sev puri and panipuri – outstanding!

Tony Huber Aust Consul General in Mumbai

An insightful examination of The Anarchy by Will Dalrymple on @indian_link Bloomsbury Australia

I just became myself in Hindi

an early exposure – and Bihari folk music – brought Ian Woolford to

centre of his life and work.

BY PREETI JABBAL

When Ian Woolford feels stressed, he takes a walk in the bush and recites Hindi poetry.

He looks at the Hindi letter ksha and is reminded of a koala.

When prime ministers ScoMo and Modi meet and felicitate each other in their own lingo, his tongue-in-cheek comment is: Har har ScoModi, ghar ghar ScoModi.

It receives much love on Twitter, among his 51,000 followers.

Ian Woolford’s love for our matrabhasha, his near native fluency as well as his pedagogical experience has won him many fans not only in Australia but across India as well.

Today, as Hindi lecturer at La Trobe University, the language continues to be at the

His first exposure came at the early age of nine during a trip to India with his mum (it was when he picked up his favourite Hindi phrase Koi baat nahin). It led to a lifelong love, not to mention a full-fledged career which saw a PhD and a proliferation of literary works.

“It was a slow coming actually,” Ian revealed to Indian Link, recounting his journey with Hindi. “I was originally at university in America studying music. I was a singer and I thought maybe I would even be a performer. When I travelled to Bihar for a research project on Bihari folk songs, I realised I could combine these two things in my life that I love, and I think that's when I decided that I want to follow this language path.”

The Bihar sojourn introduced Ian to regional languages like Maithili, Angika and Bhojpuri and he studied the literature, folklore and oral tradition of Eastern Uttar

Pradesh and Bihar. It went on to form the basis of his 2012 doctoral dissertation.

Ian’s current book project Renu Village, Hindi Literature and North Indian Oral Traditions draws on his fieldwork there, as he learnt to sing Bihari songs with the surviving members of a troupe formed by Hindi writer Phanishwarnath Renu.

Yet it is the legendary Premchand for whom Ian has a special regard.

“Premchand’s stories were the first ones that I read in Hindi,” Ian revealed. “I have a sentimental attachment to them as I cut my Hindi literary teeth on his work and it opened up the door to so many other writers both from past and present.”

Among more contemporary writers, Ian lists Jnanpith award winner Krishna Sobti.

“I am fascinated - and stunned - by Krishna Sobti’s work, because it spans so many decades. She passed away recently. She has been a writer from a very long time yet she wrote another novel recently, giving a

modern perspective on India, South Asia and on language and the way we use it to create landscapes and autobiography. She is a writer that is very much on my mind.”

As the coordinator of the Hindi Language Program at La Trobe University, one of the few universities in Australia offering Hindi language studies, Ian oversees all levels of Hindi. The three-year course incudes advanced classes in literature, cinema and media. The classes are open to undergrads, majors as well as PhD students

“La Trobe has a decade long relationship with India,” Ian described. “We have partnerships with universities in India including research collaboration. We send students there on internships. We also have a partnership with the Indian Film Festival so there is a deep and long-standing partnership with India at many levels.”

“The Hindi language program has been an important part of this,” he continued. “Students can start from complete scratch;

How

fall in love with Hindi

students with no background in the language can start from the very beginning by learning the Devnagiri script. With the completion of six semesters they can also go all the way to advanced level.”

“We also have quite a few students from India who may be comfortable, even fluent in the language but are interested in further studies. Maybe they have studied in the English medium and are interested in looking at the literature, at media or maybe look at their own fields through Hindi languages.”

Students, friends and fans got to see him flying the flag for La Trobe beside a star visitor recently, Indian actor Shah Rukh Khan, on whom the university bestowed a special honour. Ian admitted to followers beforehand that he was excited to be meeting SRK.

“I got to chat with him briefly and I just said, in Hindi, congratulations on your honorary degree,” Ian recalled as he reflected on the packed out event attended by students who came in droves to catch a glimpse of their favourite Hindi film star. “I also quickly let him know about what we do and the Hindi program at the University. The students learn from watching scenes from his films so it was quite special to have him here. I think he was quite overwhelmed with the whole day; it must have been quite an experience for him to have a University honour his lifetime achievements in such a way.”

What aspect of Hindi has sustained his own personal interest over time?

“Music and poetry absolutely”, said Ian without hesitation. “I enjoy reading, teaching and thinking about poetry. I start thinking in the language better and suddenly I just become myself in Hindi, if that makes sense. It’s interesting I did not really enjoy poetry as much when I was reading it in English. However, learning how to read Hindi poetry in my early days when I struggled with it

UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL WITH IAN BABU

making efforts not necessarily to promote the languages but to ensure that their platforms are more open to Indian languages because they are realising that people want to use those platforms to communicate. (This is true) not just in Hindi but in all Indian languages.”

Ian’s social media is an affirmation of his ability to engage his digital audience, particularly young students. Indeed, he might well be single-handedly promoting the language and its poetry in Australia. What is the intent behind his content, we ask him.

“I have no intent other than if I am working on a poem or idea, I let people know what I am doing, and it cheers me on,” he replied with a smile. “I have a huge amount of support and encouragement from people online, in India and around the world. It makes me feel very cheered on that people care about these things and it is important to them.”

It is with similar modesty that Ian makes light of the diverse cultural perspectives in his life, a UK-born American who lives in Australia and works in India.

“You’re right, my story does involve quite a few continents but it is not that unusual in the world especially in a place like Melbourne. It’s not that uncommon even in terms of language in a place like Melbourne as this is a huge diverse city with so many people who speak so many different languages. I like to think that is not much to reconcile, and just like everyone else, I am just living my life.”

actually made me learn how to enjoy English poetry as well. That’s my main call these days and I try and share that with my students as well. I find that a lot of students would enjoy reading poetry, listening to music and thinking on those terms.”

Ian attracts quite a fan following with his video recitations of Hindi poetry on social media.

Waah re Google, #AmritaPritam he tweeted recently, as the daily doodle marked the illustrious Indian writer’s 100th birth anniversary. He followed it up, as expected, with a rendition of his favourite lines from Pritam’s works.

It was but the latest in a series of Twitter tributes to kahaanikars, upanyaaskaars and aalochaks on their janamdiwas and punyatithis. Set against that familiar backdrop of his book-lined office, these short tributes are delivered straight from the heart, packing such feeling in them that you are left not only in awe of the personality he is felicitating, but you also make a mental note that you must go back and read them all over again.

It makes you marvel also that new technologies and new media may be helping the cause of languages.

Ian, not surprisingly, is passionate about this idea. “Computers and cyberspace actually give life to languages. With Hindi, one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, a large number of people communicate using the Devnagiri script, and that is why technology companies have had to follow suit. Google, Facebook and Twitter are

About the potential of the language to aid in bilateral ties between Australia and India, Ian is careful not to exclude other languages.

“English is certainly enough to get a foot in the door in terms of trade relations or bilateral relations, but for people-to-people relationships, training in an Indian language is the way to keep the door open to have long standing and deep ties. I think it's important to stress that all of India’s global languages for example Tamil, Gujarati, Punjabi and more are equally important.”

The same attitude is evident as he talks about the upcoming Hindi Diwas, celebrations for which have taken on increased significance in Australia’s Indian community in recent years.

“Hindi Diwas is a wonderful day to remember that Hindi is one of many great languages in India. If your mother tongue is Hindi or if you are learning it as a second or third language, celebrate it because it’s a beautiful language. But I think Hindi Diwas is a very good day also to remember that all languages in India are beautiful and they have traditions tracking back to generations.”

Thank you, Ian babu, for that last thought.

All-time favourite book Maila Anchal by Phanishwarnath Renu

Currently reading Krishna Sobti

Favourite poem Naach by Agyey and Jo tum aa jaate ek baar by Mahadevi Varma

Favourite song Tu kisi railsi guzarti hai (Masaan)

Favourite muhavra Jiski laathi uski bhains

Photo: Matto Lucas

Hindi from Bollywood

Lawson Tanner: How a love for Hindi films led to a love for Hindi

When Lawson Tanner sings Galliyan teri galliyan (the Ankit Tiwari number from the film Ek Villain), you might as well believe he means it as a tribute to Hindi, and to India. Mujhko bhaavein teri galliyan…

Lawson first stumbled on to Hindi as a high school student when he googled “Bollywood” with a friend – while in science class. The search took them to a clip from the blockbuster hit Hum Saath Saath Hain. It proved to be much more interesting than the lesson that was on, and Lawson was hooked.

He saw his first full-fledged Bollywood film shortly after – Karan Johar’s Student of the Year. An Indian friend translated and explained aspects of culture. “I loved the surprise aspect and unpredictability in Bollywood. Every movie will break down into song and dance and that's regardless of the actual genre!”

Lawson’s proficiency in the language increased as he watched more and more movies and music videos.

He began doing “killer renditions” (his own words) of Bollywood hits, but it is his translations of Bollywood lyrics that will have you in splits. Guess the song from these Lawson translations: My body is so hot that it’ll light up your cigarette and Stick

my photo to your heart with some superglue. Today, an assistant editor at a television production company by day and a Hindi music bathroom performer by night, Lawson’s interest in Hindi has led him to communicate in the language with fluency.

The 22-year-old has just returned from a year-long trip to India, where his favourite

trick on unsuspecting locals was to catch them off-guard by saying “Mujhe Hindi aati hai, yaar”.

Of course his knowledge has Bollywood has refined as well: his current favourite is Vidya Balan as opposed to his early favourite Kangana Ranaut (thanks to Queen), and he appreciates that special

effects have improved considerably.

Lawson views Hindi as a gateway to truly understanding Indian culture. “Being a Hindi speaker enables you to learn a whole lot about the culture that you just don't really get when you're looking at it through the lens of the English language. Hindi actually carries with it a whole lot of meaning that just can't be translated.”

Currently studying an online Hindi course at ANU, Lawson acknowledges that learning the grammar and literature are beneficial, but immersing oneself in the culture and asking questions is key to learning the language.

“Get out of your tourist bubbles and become explorers,” he advises western visitors to India. “I know people who have lived in India for five years, and didn't learn a word of Hindi. And I’m fine with that, but of course they really don't know anything about the deeper significance.”

Equally he is amazed at Indian-origin friends who can’t speak the language, or pretend they don’t. His advice to them as well, would probably be, travel to India! He happily concludes, “India mein Hindi seekhna lajavab hai.”

Check out Lawson Tanner on Indian Link’s YouTube channel (www.indianlink.com.au)

Raphela Jude

A family affair

Diana Sinha: friends' Hindi helped family life

Melbourne’s Diana Theseira Sinha learnt her Hindi by simply being around native speakers.

“At uni I had many Hindi-speaking friends, and they would frequently break out in their language,” the Singapore-born told Indian Link. “I didn’t understand, and I wanted to understand.”

Through the years, she slowly began to “catch a few words”to understand what was being communicated, and even string together some words into coherent sentences.

“Initially I developed my skills mostly through conversation, picking up on key words, and then Bollywood films taught me some fancy words, which people don’t use in everyday life,” she revealed.

That initial exposure came in handy when she met and married Vishal Sinha, a native speaker whose family originates from Bihar and whose primary language is Hindi.

Struggling to find a happy medium of communication with her new family, Diana’s skills in Hindi have allowed her to communicate effectively with her in-laws.

“It has definitely strengthened my communication especially with my mother in-law,” she said.

As she continues to find herself immersed in the Indian community and

Indian culture, Diana has made concerted efforts with her Hindi proficiency.

“I know now that each character in Hindi has a different sound, and some of these sounds don’t exist in the English language,” she observed. “I still struggle with certain sounds such as the ‘gh’ in ‘ghar’. So I’ll say it as ‘grr’! I would just go forwards and backwards with it when I was learning!”

Although this has improved, she disclosed that there are “still some sounds” that trip her up.

“If I say it fast and mumble, then it’s okay!” she laughed.

Despite not being fluent in Hindi, when in the “right frame of mind” Diana is able to have full conversations, however other days she struggles to “get out one word.”

“I hope my young daughter Zara will be able to learn Hindi as she gets older, although it's currently a completely foreign language to her.”

Originating from the Persian word Hind, meaning ‘land of the Indus River’, Hindi is spoken by an estimated 425 million people as a native language, according to the BBC. However, through family, migration and admiration for the language, approximately 120 million people now speak Hindi as a second language.

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The placing of identity

BY KHUSHBOO PATODIA GUPTA

It’s rare to find an entire exhibition devoted to South Asian artists - not only those who live and work in the Subcontinent, but also expats who live here in Australia.

The ongoing exhibition at Melbourne’s Bunjil Place, Continental Shift: Contemporary Art and South Asia, is a welcome initiative, bringing together the work of fourteen artists.

The title itself is a wonderful play on ideas, suggesting not only the origin of the artists and thinkers whose works are on display, but refers also to the swings that are taking place in identity.

The works are explorations about the self; equally, they are statements about the societies in which we live – South Asia, Australia, the world at large.

Right at the outset, in the piece Sangeeta and Fuji, we see the issue of identity as made up of a number of different components. Durga - the warrior goddess, the invincible, and the undefeatable - gets a contemporary avatar in artist Kate Beynon’s work.The piece represents Beynon’s friend and fellow artist Sangeeta Sandrasegar as a modern day Durga who, according to Beynon, symbolises ‘positive, feminine creative energy and a protective force’.

First exhibited at the Archibald Prize in 2014, the work seamlessly combines elements of Australian, Indian and Chinese cultures. Look closely and you’ll notice Sandrasegar holding painting tools in her left hand while the right symbolises the Chinese gesture of greeting. Durga’s official rider, the tiger, gets a catty makeover to become Fuji, the painter’s pet cat.

Grappling with her own sense of identity, Fiji-born artist Shivanjani Lal’s fascinating video art is titled Kala Pani (literally ‘black water’, a term that describes how crossing the seas to foreign lands leads to a loss of social respectability). Through the visual metaphor of hands, spices and water, Lal reimagines Kala Pani as a site of healing and reforming imagined identities. The work represents the artist’s internal dispute about the identity of her community, that she feels will always the bear the mark of India, the motherland of her forebears.

In Speak No?, Australian artist Texta Queen presents a self-portrait that reveals both discomfort and disconnect. In a rich amalgamation of colours, an urban monkey covers the artist’s mouth, and beautiful dupattas float in the background. Is our colonial history the proverbial monkey on the back that seems to be keeping us from flowering to our fullest?

Our sense of identity is inextricably bound with the place from which we come. Karachi-born artist Adeela Suleman, in

South Asian artists presents explorations of the self in terms of who we are, and where we are

Richard Goodwin: ‘Charpai’

Kate Beynon: ‘Sangeeta and Fuji’

her hand-beaten stainless steel sculpture

The Warrior, draws parallels between childhood narratives and local mythologies in Northern India (where she grew up) and Pakistan (where she currently lives). Peacock feathers that morph into spears draw attention to the painful presence of violence in current day Pakistan.

Sounds of circuit boards and transmitters echo across the length and breadth of the room emanating from the exhibition’s centrepiece, Mumbaibased Reena Kallat’s Woven Chronicle

A magnificent in stallation of a world map made with plastic coated cables that refer to barbed wire, this is a contrasting reminder of impenetrable fences as well as a symbol of connectivity. The crisscross mesh of wires traces migration routes taken by various groups of people including refugees, contract workers, indentured labourers as well as professionals travelling for work; the speakers represent a constant transmission of ideas, information and people transcending boundaries.

In another work, a vibrant blue Vespa

scooter attached to a colourful woven charpai (bed commonly found in rural India) inevitably catches your attention.

This piece by Sydney-based Richard Goodwin called 1- √2 charpai for Mumbai showcases the artist and his friends Ishan Khosla and Trent Jansen’s socio-cultural and economic observation of Mumbai over three weeks. Here Goodwin creates a

‘high-rise bed on the move’ pondering on the lessons that Mumbai slums can offer 21st century architecture and society. The installation also addresses the challenges of ever-expanding megacities like Mumbai. Meanwhile, there is also room for a bit of Australian history and identity.

Peter Drew’s Monga Khan is an image that the Indian Australian community is well acquainted with, given we’ve seen it on the walls of city buildings for some time now. The image of this early settler from the subcontinent, a hawker by trade, and its proliferation in recent times, is a powerful statement of the early diversity of Australian culture.

At the very essence of it, the exhibition throws light on our evolving identities as individuals as well as communities. It prompts the question to ourselves, what continental shifts have shaped our own narrative?

Continental Shift: Contemporary Art and South Asia is currently on at Bunjil Place, Narre Warren, until 22 September. Visit www.bunjilplace.com.au for more details.

The works are explorations about the self; equally, they are statements about the societies in which we live – South Asia, Australia, the world at large.

Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran: ‘Thinking about Kali’

Reena Kallat: ‘Woven Chronicles

Peter Drew: ‘Monga Khan’

Shivanjani Lal: ‘Kala Pani’ Texta Queen: ‘Speak No?’

AIBC NSW: New challenges

A newly elected executive welcomes a new Consul General

BY PAWAN LUTHRA

"There is such potential to increase trade between New South Wales and India, that it is slightly disappointing that we are not capturing these opportunities," Sameer Arora, the newly appointed President of Australia India Business Council (AIBC) for NSW, told Indian Link.

"We seem to have dropped the ball in the recent past and now is the time to correct that," he added.

On the AIBC website, Arora is described as an insightful, results-driven, commercially astute and seasoned Sales and Business Development professional, and by the looks of it, he will need all his skills and more to get traction forward in the trade and commerce relationship with India.

What he will also need, are some strong management skills, as his newly elected team bring together a wide range of experiences, but none at senior levels in multinational businesses or corporates. Yet what may be missing in a few areas, is certainly made up in the enthusiasm of the team and their desire to contribute to trade opportunities.

This was clear evident at a high quality, professionally organised event at Deloitte's to welcome the new Consul General of India Manish Gupta and his wife Nimisha to Australia. Arora, as President of AIBC NSW spoke about his desire to encourage more businesses and professionals to engage with the AIBC.

“We want our chapter to be open and transparent to all our members - and we have already started on that journey with our monthly newsletter which will connect and unite our members. We are keen to encourage innovation and start-up opportunities between the state of NSW and India.”

India is NSW's seventh-largest

merchandise export market, with exports valued at A$1.9 billion in 2016-17. Though this figure has been increasing (up from $1.8 billion in 2015), the challenge is to accelerate this number.

Consul General Manish Gupta also showed his eagerness in increasing the two-way trade. “There is so much potential in enhancing the trade and investment opportunities,” he told the gathering of about 60 professionals. “All are aware of India’s growth story, and the requirements in India are huge. The economy is growing at over 6% and the growth story of India is consumption driven. The median age in India is 28 years and over the years, the work force for the world will come from India. The needs for upskilling the Indian worker are huge and Australia is in the right position to take this area forward. Recently, a large Australian superannuation fund has invested $1 billion in India and yes, they did so only

because they were confident the returns would be good. India can also engage with NSW in the smart city options. Incubations can be done here but low cost manufacturing can be done in India. The good thing is that there have been recent elections in both India and Australia, and with a clear mandate of the newly elected governments, it is a good opportunity for both countries to take the relationship further.”

Sameer Arora built on this connection, adding that even NSW has had elections recently, and that AIBC NSW will engage with the state’s Trade and Investment Department to drive the relationship further.

“Many small steps need to be taken so we can consolidate and grow,” he said, sharing his vision. “I have a great team and am excited about the next two years of contributing to the relationship between AIBC NSW, the state of NSW and India.”

Rahul Lachman Commercial Law

Sharon Ramsden Criminal Law

Krystle Wolthers Estate Planning Vayshali Chandra Family Law Joe Bonura Personal Injury Amit Kumar Property Law

Simon Kumar Dispute Resolution Law

Gandhi at my school

A tribute to the Mahatma on his 150th birth anniversary at Darcy Road Public School

Eighty nine years after Mahatma Gandhi performed his Salt March in defiance against the oppressive regime of the British in India, a small school community in Sydney’s west got a good feel of the sacrifice and the fortitude involved in the endeavour.

Students, teachers, parents and special guests at the Darcy Road Public School in Wentworthville huffed and puffed as they followed a bunch of students round the school campus, imitating the Mahatma’s game-changing walk.

They were led by a group of Indianorigin students, all of them dressed as Gandhi – in white robes and Gandhi caps. The main Gandhi for the day, wore a bald head cap and the trademark glasses.

They said, “This salt is made by the Indian ocean and air and water. It’s our birth right to have our salt. Let’s march with non-violence for our freedom.”

They were re-enacting Gandhi’s famous breaking of the Salt Law laid down by the British, which required Indians to buy salt from the British at hefty prices rather than produce their own.

The simple ceremony was not only a history lesson, but also a lesson to the kids that protest can be made by peaceful nonviolent means.

It is an important message and one that will be reiterated many times the world over as the Indian diaspora marks the 150th birth anniversary of its best known citizen.

The event at Darcy Road Public School also featured a photographic exhibition of the life of Mahatma Gandhi, organised in association with Mala Mehta of the IABBV Hindi School.

Presented also, was poetry recitation in Hindi, by students under the care of teacher Ekta Chanana. Kindergarten student Shivaga impressed with her poem based on freedom. Senior student Devi’s poem, another highlight, was about the Tiranga (India’s tricolour flag): she swayed her hands expansively, mentioned Ahimsa (nonviolence) in her poem and finished with a loud proud “Jai Hind”.

A roughly 40-strong choir comprised of students from Kindergarten to Year 6 sang the national song Vande Mataram with

great gusto under the guidance of their teacher Kulwinder Kaur.

A group of about 12 students staged a projection of interview style quotes from Gandhi, with their teachers Ekta and Kulwinder.

Principal Trudy Hopkins said in her address that she would like the school to channel Gandhi’s ideals, and to teach its students to respect others’ opinions.

Hindi has been offered at Darcy Road Public School for two years now. Of the 27 nationalities present in the school, the majority of students are of Indian background.

Indian Consul Chandru Appar in his address observed to the students that they were polite and respectful, and were thus already following Gandhi’s ideals. He also urged the students to do their bit to protect the environment, by adopting behaviours such as reducing the use of plastic.

Mark Taylor MP was shown around the photographic exhibition, its salient points explained to him by the students.

Mala Mehta in her speech spoke about the need to introduce Hindi in more schools.

Ekta Chanana told Indian Link later, “I think it was a wonderful experience that introduced Gandhi to all our students. They have now learnt that he was a leading world figure of modern times, and that his ideals still hold a place in our lives today. I am very grateful to our Principal Trudy Hopkins and Deputy Principal Amanda Dippneaar for organising this, and to Mala Didi for her guidance and for the exhibition.”

She added, “I am very proud of my students who presented on the occasion. We worked together on their poems and songs for a month, and they truly impressed with their level of involvement and keenness to learn.”

The photographic exhibition, entitled ‘Mahatma Gandhi: My life is My Message’ is produced by India’s National Gandhi Museum and the Government of India’s Ministry of External Affairs. It was presented to IABBV School by the former Consul General in Sydney Amit Dasgupta in 2009. As an exhibition on the move, it has been seen by students in nearly 20 schools now.

Shikha Chandra and Rajni Anand Luthra

Photo: Darcy Road Public School

Economic outlook cloudy in FY20: RBI annual report

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said on 29 August that the overall economic outlook of the country appeared clouded for 2019-20 and advised to priorities the revival of consumption and private investment and structural reforms.

The central bank also expressed concern over falling rural demand amidst some surge in indices. An RBI report noted, “Rural demand, however, was affected by moderation in agricultural growth as reflected in tractors and two-wheelers sales. Indicators of urban demand revealed a mixed picture in contrast. Air passenger traffic recorded its lowest growth in the last five years.

“Passenger vehicles sales were the lowest in five years on account of increase in insurance costs, volatile fuel prices and lack of financing options due to the liquidity stress in the nonbanking sector. The production of consumer non-durables slumped to its lowest level in the past three years,” the report highlighted.

The central bank in its review said that external demand operated as a drag for the second successive year while deficit south-west monsoon and depleted reservoirs dented the performance of the agriculture sector. The rate of gross domestic savings had increased marginally to 30.1 per cent of gross national disposable income (GNDI) in 2017-18 from declines in the previous two years.

The household financial savings - the most important source of funds - had increased by 0.3 percentage points of GNDI, though it had remained much lower than 7.3 per cent during 2011-16. The rate of gross domestic investment in the Indian economy, measured by the ratio of gross capital formation (GCF) to GDP at current prices, had risen to a peak of 39.8 per cent in 201011 before a prolonged slowdown set in, taking it down to 30.9 per cent in 2016-17.

A modest recovery was seen in the following year. Although data on gross domestic investment are not yet available for 2018-19, movement in its constituents suggests that the uptick could not be sustained. Growth in fixed investment collapsed to a 14-quarter low in

Q4 of 2018-19 as production of capital goods registered a sharp contraction while imports nosedived in a coincident manner.

However, the industrial sector posted resilient growth, mainly driven by manufacturing in the first half, while the momentum in construction and financial services sustained the healthy growth of the overall services sector, the RBI said. “Going forward, priority should be accorded to revive consumption and private investment while continuing with structural reforms,” the RBI said.

On job creation, the RBI said that official estimates suggest more regularisation of employment in 2017-18 and the various initiatives undertaken by the government are expected to create avenues for employment.

Auto sales continue to decline in August

The automobile industry continued to be in the slow lane in August with all major players reporting significant declines in their respective sales.

Tata Motors reported a 49 per cent slump in its domestic sales on a year-on-year (YoY) basis at 29,140 units. The commercial vehicles’ sales dipped 45 per cent to 21,824 units, it said. It sold 7,316 passenger vehicles in August, decline of 58 per cent from 17,351 units during the year-ago month.

Maruti Suzuki India reported a 32.7 per cent decline in its vehicle sales last month YoY. The company sold 1,06,413 units, including exports, compared with 1,58,189 vehicles in August 2018.

Of the total off-take, domestic sales fell nearly 36 per cent to 94,728 automobiles. Domestic passenger vehicle sales were down 36.1 per cent at 93,173 units from 1,45,895 during the corresponding month last year, Maruti Suzuki said in a statement.

Similarly, Mahindra and Mahindra’s (M&M) local sales declined 26 per cent YoY. It sold 33,564 vehicles during the month against 45,373 units in year-ago month.

“The auto industry continued to be subdued in August due to several external

factors,” Veejay Ram Nakra, Chief of Sales and Marketing, Automotive Division, M&M.

Hyundai Motor India, sold 38,205 units, lower by 16.58 per cent from 45,801 units in August 2018.

The sector has been going through a slowdown for the past few months due to several reasons including, high goods and services tax (GST) and liquidity crunch.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the GST Council would take the call on reducing the tax on motor vehicles. “One of the suggestions was the reduction of GST for the automobile sector, that of course will have to go to the (GST) Council,” she said.

To help revive the sector, the Minister on 23 August had announced that the government departments would be allowed to buy new vehicles, automobiles purchased till 31 March 2020 could avail the benefit of additional depreciation of 15 per cent, with total depreciation up to 30 per cent, and BS-IV vehicles bought till March 31, 2020 would remain operational for their entire registration period.

WhatsApp helping Indian entrepreneurs write success stories

Ice cream lover Aarti Laxman Rastogi decided that not all indulgences need to be sinful and, in March 2018, started Artinci to provide ice creams with premium, all-natural ingredients. Running a business has its own challenges and she also had to go through hardship till she joined the WhatsApp Business app.

“I have a hearing disability. WhatsApp has become a great communication enabler for me. I text my way through the planning and execution of any business day. It helps give and receive instructions in writing too, and leaves no room for misinterpretation,” said Rastogi who now has a 14-member team with five outlets in Bengaluru, and two more coming soon.

In addition to connecting Rastogi with customers, WhatsApp Business app helped the company launch a limited edition ice creams made with jaggery. “We sold out half

Ganesh Festival: Indian artists give finishing touches to an idol of the elephant-headed Hindu God Ganesha, made with coconuts, in Bangalore, 31 August 2019. The giant coconut Ganesh is 30ft high and 18ft wide. 50 artisans used 9000 coconuts, working for 21 days to finish the idol.

of this batch through WhatsApp exclusively,” she added.

Several such success stories are being written via WhatsApp in India. Many Indian entrepreneurs have built something from scratch and are seeing it thrive and expand with support from the Facebook-owned app which has 400 million users in the country.

In a recent survey of Indian small businesses on WhatsApp, 77 per cent said that it helps them connect with customersincluding in other cities - while 62 per cent said WhatsApp helps them increase sales and is essential for running their businesses.

According to Abhijit Bose, India Head, WhatsApp, small and micro-enterprises are providing the majority of jobs in the country and driving economic growth.

“We’re excited to play a role in helping to match the enormous talent and ambition of Indian entrepreneurs with the opportunity of a very strong domestic consumer baseand to make it easier to tap a vibrant global market,” Bose told IANS.

Poonam Bir Kasturi has made home composting a habit for thousands of people globally with Daily Dump, India’s first home composter for urban spaces, which she designed in 2006.

Daily Dump offers pioneering solutions for decentralised waste management. Its range of composters, segregation products, books, services and awareness material enable people’s change in behaviour to harm the environment less.

The company has a dedicated WhatsApp Business number for customers to connect for any queries, support, information and other details, and also use WhatsApp Business groups to connect as a team internally and with partners in different parts of the country.

“We have many customers who reach out on our helpline with photos and we give them live demos on what to correct,” said Kasturi.

According to Will Cathcart, Global Head of WhatsApp, India is producing a new generation of small businesses and micro enterprises that are shaking up markets, growing economies and boosting jobs.

“We’re excited to see what more people are doing with WhatsApp, particularly in India, to grow their business and support their local communities,” he said during his India visit in July this year.

Publishing is another arena that has had success with Whats App Business. Amid the comic book craze, TBS Planet is working to bring Indian superheroes into the spotlight

“When I started TBS Planet in July 2016 with comic book Ved, it was a hobby,” said founder Rajeev Tamhankar.

“Soon, we got contracts from Balaji Motion Pictures and Ajay Devgn Films to create comics for their movies ‘A Flying Jatt’ and ‘Shivaay,’ respectively. That’s when I quit my job and started this venture full-time”.

Jabalpur-based TBS Planet which develops comics in six languages - Hindi, Telugu, Kannada, Bangla, Marathi, and English - is on WhatsApp Business app.

“Since almost everyone uses WhatsApp, it

Photo: AP

helped us scale distribution quickly. No one needed to download a new app to read our comics,” said Tamhankar.

Since they started using the WhatsApp Business app, the company has seen high growth rates, up to 40 per cent month over month. TBS Planet has approximately 14,000 subscribers - some from as far away as Dubai and the US.

Many Indian entrepreneurs, said Cathcart who launched “Gateway to a Billion Opportunities” - a collection of impactful user stories from across India, have built something from scratch and are seeing it thrive and expand with support from WhatsApp.

When WhatsApp Pay becomes a reality soon in India, these small and micro-businesses will thrive more as peer-to-peer (P2P) payments will be done within WhatsApp, keeping transactions simple and secure.

Tinsukia in Assam becomes India’s 4000th WiFi-enabled railway station

Tinsukia Junction in India’s northeast region this month became the 4000th railway station in the country to have free public WiFi.

Indian Railway has on average been rolling out WiFi in 83 stations per day. 1,000 stations became WiFi equipped in a record time of 12 days, according to Rail Tel. The last 1,000 stations were completed in 15 days.

Rail Tel CMD Puneet Chawla said, “The journey started from Mumbai Central in January 2016 and in the coming few weeks all railway stations over Indian Railway (except the halt stations) will have fast and free Rail wire WiFi.”

Designed to offer rail passengers the Internet experience, RailWireWiFi will be available to any user who has a smartphone with a working mobile connection.

Indian Railway is the largest public transport of the country, while free WiFi is a pro-passenger initiative of the Ministry which in line the Prime Minister’s ‘Digital India’ programme.

Trump nominates IndianAmerican to federal judgeship

US President Donald Trump has nominated Shireen Mathews, an Indian-American lawyer, to be a federal judge.

She is a partner with the elite law firm Jones Day, where she specialises in whitecollar crimes.

Before that, she was an assistant federal prosecutor in California serving as the coordinator for criminal healthcare fraud cases. Her nomination to Southern California Southern District federal court in San Diego was announced by the White House and her appointment has to be approved by the Senate.

Mathews is the sixth Indian-American nominated to the federal judiciary at various levels by Trump.

South Asia Bar Association (SABA)

President Aneesh called it “a historic nomination” and urged “the Senate to quickly confirm her, adding another deserving South Asian voice to the judiciary.”

Amazon's newly inaugurated building in Hyderabad, is built to support more than 15,000 employees. The new campus is Amazon’s first fully-owned office building outside the US. Taking up 3 million sqft in construction area, this is Amazon's single largest building in the world in terms of total area.

Mathews has served on SABA North America board of directors.

According to Jones Day, while she was a prosecutor, Mathews uncovered a multimillion dollar fraud in stolen medical equipment and also won one of the highest restitution awards for the Social Security (general public pension) trust fund.

Neomi Rao is the most prominent judicial nominee of Trump, who named her to the federal appeals court in Washington to succeed Brett Kavanaugh, who was elevated to the Supreme Court.

Based in the nation’s capital, that appeals court is considered the most important one after the Supreme Court and a nominee of former President Barack Obama Sri Srinivasan also serves on it.

Amul Thapar was nominated by Trump to an appeals court in Ohio that has jurisdiction over four states.

Rao and Thapar, along with federal court nominee J. Nicholas Ranjan received Senate confirmation.

Two other nominees for federal judgeships, Diane Gujarati and Anuraag Singhal are awaiting Senate action.

Taj Mahal will soon open every night for all

The glimmering Taj Mahal, said to be at its aesthetic best in moonlight, could now be thrown open after sunset for all tourists.

So far, night access to the globally renowned monument was allowed at a premium only for five nights in a month - on full moon night and on the two nights preceding and following.

Union Tourism and Culture Minister Prahlad Singh Patel told IANS that the Taj Mahal will remain open even beyond its 10.00 a.m to 6.00 p.m. public access time.

“We have been receiving a lot of requests to keep the monument open during the night hours. We are dedicated to make this a reality,” Patel said.

The Tourism Ministry is also planning to illuminate the area around the monument and develop other infrastructure required to deal with night rush.

Only 400 tourists - 8 batches of 50 people - are allowed on the 5 special nights so far, for which Rs 510 per adult is charged, while a single child ticket costs Rs 500. Foreign nationals have to pay Rs 750 each.

The Tourism Ministry is currently engaged in getting clearances for the new plan from various departments.

Taj Mahal sees an average of 22,000 visitors a day, with the figure running into millions annually.

The government has decided to extend the visiting hours of 10 popular monuments across India from sunrise till 9 p.m.

The monuments are Rajarani Temple Complex (Odisha), Dulhadeo Temple, Khajuraho (Madhya Pradesh), Sheikh Chilli Tomb (Haryana), Safdarjung Tomb (Delhi), Humayun’s Tomb (Delhi), the group of monuments at Pattadakal and GolGumbaz (both Karnataka), the group of temples Markanda, Chamursi (Maharashtra), Man

Mahal, Vaidhshala (Uttar Pradesh) and Rani Ki Vav (Gujarat).

Meanwhile, there’s some good news also for new mums visiting the Taj: an airconditioned baby feeding room has been opened at the premises.

“It is the first baby feeding room to open at any Indian monument,” Vasant Kumar Swarnkar, Superintending Archaeologist at ASI, told IANS.

The nursing room at Taj Mahal could be the first of a series of such centres at other monuments.

An ASI official said a similar baby feeding room is getting ready at the Agra Fort, and within a month, another such centre could come up at FatehpurSikri monuments.

Munshi Premchand’s legacy

‘untraceable’ in Varanasi

He is an immortal writer whose writings live on in millions of hearts across the world. However, for one who is known as among the most celebrated writers of the country, Munshi Premchand’s legacy is almost untraceable.

In July, the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation disconnected the power supply at Premchand’s ancestral home in Lamhi during his 139th birth anniversary, over alleged non-payment of dues.

Durga Prasad Srivastava, a Lamhi resident and an active organiser of the Lamhi Mahotsav since 2011, said that the power supply to the house was disconnected for almost a week.

“We made preparations for the celebration of the late master story teller’s 139th birthday on July 31 amid candle light and lanterns. It was only when the media raised the issue that the power supply resumed,” he said.

Varanasi District Magistrate Surendra Singh, however, denied that the power supply to the legendry writer’s ancestral home was ever disconnected. “The power line was snapped due to ‘carelessness’ of some labourers engaged in the painting of the tworoom house of the late writer,” he said.

There are two houses in the village linked to Munshi Premchand - one is his ancestral house and another is a museum named after him.

“The museum is managed by the state’s Culture Department, the house is a private property, which has not been visited by even the distant kin of the legendary writer,” said Singh.

The Varanasi administration, after seeing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s interest in Munshi Premchand, has been trying to locate the family of the legendary writer.

“There are no papers to ascertain the ownership of the house and no one has ever visited the place. The local people also have no clue about the whereabouts of his family,” said an official of the Varanasi administration.

Premchand had two sons, Amrit Rai and Sripat Rai, who lived in Allahabad and a daughter Kamla. The sons, according to sources, never returned to Lamhi.

“Munshi Premchand’s life has been full of irony. His original name was Dhanpat Rai Srivastava but he was always bereft of money. People here say that his family life was also disturbed and that could be one reason why no one has claimed his legacy till now,” said Srivastava.

Munshi Premchand was born in Lamhi on July 31, 1880, and died in Varanasi on October 8, 1936.

The Varanasi Development Authority, however, has undertaken the repairing and painting of the building.

The renovation of the writer’s ancestral house began in 2015 when a Hindi teacher from Bengaluru, Vinay Kumar Yadav, met the then Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and asked him to preserve the memory of Premchand.

Writers and literateurs now want that the government should create a befitting memorial for Munshi Premchand in Lamhi.

“Munshi Premchand’s house should be converted into a museum. There should be a library of his works and a research centre for Hindi scholars. Munshi Premchand’s works are as relevant today as they were in the early 1990s when he lived,” said noted Hindi writer Vandana Misra.

She said that the memorial should be such that it becomes a tourist attraction for literature lovers.

IANS

Photo: AP

Ganesha in 108 ways

Photo: pexels.com

28. Gadadhara

One who has the mace as his weapon

29. Gajakarna

One who has eyes like an elephant

30. Gajanana

Elephant-faced lord

31. Gajananeti

Elephant-faced lord

32. Gajavakra Trunk of the elephant

33. Gajavaktra

One who has mouth like an elephant

34. Ganadhakshya

Lord of all Ganas (Gods)

35. Ganadhyakshina

Leader of all the celestial bodies

36. Ganapati

Lord of all Ganas (Gods)

37. Gaurisuta

The son of Gauri (Parvati)

38. Gunina

One who is the master of all virtues

39. Haridra

One who is golden coloured

40. Heramba Mother’s beloved son

41. Kapila Yellowish-brown coloured

42. Kaveesha Master of poets

43. Krti Lord of music

44. Kripalu Merciful lord

45. Krishapingaksha Yellowish-brown eyed

46. Kshamakaram The place of forgiveness

47. Kshipra One who is easy to appease

48. Lambakarna Large-eared lord

49. Lambodara The huge bellied lord

50. Mahabala

Enormously strong lord

51. Mahaganapati

Omnipotent and supreme lord

52. Maheshwaram Lord of the

WHAT’S ON

FESTIVAL

Ganesh Festival

2 – 12 Sept Western Sydney Ganesh Festival Inc presents Ganesh Festival at Swaminarayan Mandir, 1/44 Bessemer St Blacktown. Cultural Program on Sat

7 Sept at Model Farms High School from 5:30 pm onwards. Details 0402 961 758

AHIA Diwali

Sat 19 Oct (7.00pm onwards)

Australian Hindi Indians Association Inc presents its annual Diwali gathering at The Sapphire Room, Croatian Club, 921 Punchbowl Rd, Punchbowl. As AHIA marks its silver jubilee this year, the theme for the evening is: Silver.

Details 0411 967 374

HCA Diwali

Sun 20 Oct (10.00am - 8.30pm)

Hindu Council of Australia presents its annual Deepavali Mela at Bella Vista Farms.

Details www.hinducouncil.com.au

EXHIBITION

Archibald Prize 2019

Until 8 Sep Check out Australia’s most extraordinary art event that awards the best portrait artists for their paintings. South Asian artist Ramesh

Mario Nithiyendran and Young Archie finalists Lakshman Nitish Ramesh and Anupama Pangeni are hung in this year’s event. Also hung is a lovely portrait of iconic restaurateur Anant Singh who opened the famous Jasmin restaurant in Adelaide in 1980. Venue: Art Gallery Rd, Sydney NSW 2000. Details 1800 679 278

TENDER HEART: An exhibition of photos from India

Opening Fri 6 Sept (6.00pm8.00pm); continues Sat 7 and Sun 8 Sept (11.00am - 5.00pm). A fundraising photographic exhibition by Katy Fitzgerald in support of the Tender Heart School in the small village of Bhatola, Haryana, India.

The images in the exhibition feature the gamut of daily life in India, from the unexpected and quirky to the transcendent, all captured with Fitzgerald’s kind and light-hearted gaze. Gallery 371, 371 Enmore Road Marrickville.

Details 0418 447 600

COMMUNITY

Hindi Diwas

Sat 14 Sept (1.00pm – 4.00pm) The Consulate General of India (Sydney) in association with Indian Literary and Art Society of Australia Inc and with the support of Bharatiya Vidya Bhawan Australia celebrates Hindi Diwas at the Consulate, Lvl 2, 265 Castlereagh St, Sydney.

Details 02 9223 2702

Indian Women Empower

Fri 20 Sept (6.00pm – 9.30pm) Indian Women Empower presents its launch and first fundraiser event at Parravilla Function Centre, 42 Campbell St, Parramatta.

SEMINAR

Sujan Chinoy at USyd

Mon 16 Sept (4:00 pm - 5:30 pm) The University of Sydney’s China Studies Centre presents Sujan Chinoy, Indian diplomat and Director General of the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi, talking on IndiaChina Relations. Venue: ABS Case Study Lecture Theatre 2080, Level 2, Abercrombie Building (H70), The University of Sydney, Sydney.

Details 02 9114 0837

Public Lecture at UNSW:

Mathematician Philip Maini

Tue 22 Sept (5.30pm onwards)

-- Professor Philip Maini, from the Mathematical Institute, Oxford University, will deliver a public lecture entitled “Using Mathematics to Understand Biology”.

Venue: Matthews Theatre B, UNSW. Details www.maths.unsw.edu.au

Special Public Lecture:

Mathematician Akshay Venkatesh Mon 30 Sept (7.00pm – 8.00pm)

Australian mathematician currently at Stanford, and 2018 Fields Medal winner, will present a talk entitled “Two centuries of prime numbers”.

Venue: Eastern Avenue Auditorium, University of Sydney Free and aimed at the general public, no registration necessary. Details www.maths.usyd.edu.au

CLASSICAL

Carnatic music: Vignesh Ishwar

Sun 15 Sept (4.00pm – 7:30pm)

Pallavi Sydney presents Carnatic vocalist Vignesh Ishwar, accompanied by K Praveen Kumar on mrudangam and L Ramakrishnan on violin. Venue: Ermington Community Centre, 10 River Rd, Ermington NSW. Details Mohan Ayyar 0407 398 267

In Movement: Interactive Dance

Sat 14 Sept Sydney Sacred Music

Festival presents Bharatanatyam

dancer Aruna Gadhi’s new work Pingala, (vocals Sumathi Krishnan, cello John Napier), featuring seven different cultures inclusing Aboriginal Australian, in a fast-paced, non-stop show of unity.

Dance workshop: 12 noon - 3pm

Dance Spectacular: 3.00 pm5.00pm.

Details www. sydneysacredmusicfestival.org

Rhythm Workshop: Uplifting

Rhythms of India

Sun 15 Sept (1:00 pm – 2:00 pm)

Sydney Sacred Music Festival presents Indian rhythms in its Universal Rhythms Workshop. Learn the basics of Carnatic and Hindustani Indian music. Learn & perform the rhythms with your hands and with your voice. No experience necessary, this workshop is uplifting and is accessible for everyone.

Workshop facilitator: Abhijit Dan Venue: Ashfield Town Hall, 260 Liverpool Road, Ashfield. Details www. sydneysacredmusicfestival.org

Bharatanatyam Solo Sat 21 Sept (6.30pm onwards)

Shivam School of Dance presents Harinie Jeevitha in a Bharatanatyam solo at Bryan Brown Theatre, Bankstown. Details 0415 066 252

Bhoomi: Woman & Earth

Sun 22 Sept (4.00pm – 5.30pm)

Ancient South Indian art meets contemporary Australia. Indian and Sri Lankan artists from NSW and VIC explores pressing themes of contemporary Australian society and diaspora. Outdoors at Old Government House Parramatta. Details Indi Balachandran 0413 063 527

Abhijnana Shakunthalam

Sat 12 Oct (6.30pm onwards) To celebrate Diwali this year, charity organisation Vision 2020 has organised a grand ballet based on the great Indian poet Kalidasa’s immortal drama Abhijnana Shakunthalam. Exclusively choreographed by Sydney’s renowned artist Hamsa Venkat and presented by Samskriti School of Dance, it will be a rich cultural experience for all age groups. Venue: Performing Arts Centre, Pacific Hills Christian School, 9-15 Quarry Road, Dural. Fresh food and free parking available. This year Vision 2020 is supporting a unique organisation REHOBOTH (Shelter) Paraniputhur in rural Tamil Nadu, which has been providing shelter and rehabilitation facilities to destitute women with mental health issues. Details www.Vision2020.org.au

Krishnaarpanam

Sun 20 Oct (5:00 pm - 8:00 pm) Marking its 10th anniversary, performing arts organisation Silambam Sydney, presents Bharatanatyam production Krishnaarpanam, based on the lilas (playful pastimes) of Lord Shri Krishna. Venue: UNSW Sydney, Entry Gate 14, Barker St Kensington. Details www.arunagandhi.com/ silambamsydney

ENTERTAINMENT

Garba Night Devang Patel

Sat 7 Sept (7:00pm onwards)

Blacktown Leisure Centre, Stanhope Parkway and Sentry Drive, Stanhope Gardens.

Details Shah 0425 188 199

Fashion Show: Royal Indian Rendezvous

Sat 21 Sept (12:00 noon to 05:00 pm) Bowman Hall, 35 Campbell Street, Blacktown.

Raas Leela with Parthiv Gohil

Sat 14 Sept (6:00pm – 11:00pm) Blacktown Leisure Centre, Stanhope Parkway and Sentry Drive, Stanhope Gardens. Details 0411 964 506

Dandiya Night with Fashion Show

Sun 29 Sept (5:00pm - 9:00pm) Team India present a Dandiya night with live band and traditional fashion show, with indoor activities for kids. Venue: Young

St, Parramatta. Details 0470 130 891 or email teamindia.au@gmail.com

Rasotsav with Dev Bhatt

Sat 28 Sept Gujarati Samaj of NSW announces Rasotsav with playback singer Dev Bhatt. Blacktown Leisure Centre, Stanhope Gardens.

Details 0449 996 962

Shah Rukh Khan tour: Temptation

Reloaded

Mon 7 Oct Allphones Arena, Sydney Olympic Park. Details www.temptationreloaded.com.au

New Gokula Farm urgently seeking donation

New Gokula is a not-for-profit organisation, nestled in the heart of the Hunter Valley, dedicated to serving the community through sustainable agriculture, cow protection, spiritual courses and retreats, and providing free, organic vegetarian meals every day of the year.

New Gokula grows organic produce, which is also used in its nutritious vegetarian cooking. It also has more than 70 cows and bullocks. It is committed to sustainable practices and has been self-sufficient in many areas including water usage and food production until the impact of the drought.

Millfield, where New Gokula is located, has been severely struck by the 2017/2018 drought. Because of this, it now has barren pastures, dry lakes and hungry animals.

The lack of rain has left New Gokula Farm struggling as it battles the worst drought in the hundred years of recorded history.

Unrelenting hot weather has ripped moisture out of the ground and the once luscious pastures have turned brown, the grass is dead, and the animals have no feed.

As the drought continues, New Gokula is in urgent need for help. It is struggling financially with the increased electricity costs involved with pumping water to stock troughs and the increasing costs of purchasing feed to keep the animals alive. New Gokula is now kindly seeking your generous support to help continue our activities.

Donations can be made to:

Bank: Westpac Account name: ISKCON Farm BSB: 032164 Account no: 110819

OR for making a tax-deductible donation, please donate to:

Bank: Westpac Account name:

Hare Krishna Food For Life Hunter Valley Inc. BSB: 032516 Account no: 182462

Your donation will significantly assist New Gokula with purchasing of hay bales, supply of clean water for the animals, keeping them fed until spring, and assisting with other overheads.

Details 0469073918 or email newgokula@gmail.com

Life after stroke

In National Stroke Week (2-8 Sept), SUNIL RANADIVE, IT entrepreneur and stroke survivor, recounts his journey as he works through his remarkable recovery

How would you describe your health now?

My health, though there’s a fair amount of issues, is quite stable now.

My right side is weaker. I was a righthanded person. I manage to sign my name but I struggle to hold a pen. Fortunately, with technology, we don’t need to write much these days, but it does require one to type. My typing speed is slow.

Temperature sensation has returned to some parts of my left side but it is still absent in other parts.

I am now able to walk independently with a walking frame. I am still learning to walk with a quad stick and walker, where one person has to support me.

I am able to talk now since the tracheostomy is removed. The sound is low and somewhat broken so listeners have to make an effort to understand me. I do not normally attempt phone conversation.

I am on a PEG (Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy) feed, nil by mouth.

What medications/treatments are you still on?

There are no stroke related medications except for Asprin. It is basically given as blood thinner to avoid any future occurrence of stroke. Then there is medication so this body does not reject PEG feed.

I go for a physiotherapy session once a week, dental physiotherapy once in three weeks, speech therapy once a month and occupational therapy as required.

What is your normal day like now?

My carer comes at 8:00 am daily. She measures my body temperature and blood pressure. She then checks my appointments for the day and puts my morning feed on. After feed I complete my daily routine of brush, shave, shower etc. If I have an appointment, she drives me there, else we go for a walk etc. She then puts on my afternoon feed, finishes it and leaves at 1:00 pm.

The afternoons, I normally spend on my computer.

The afternoon carer comes at 4:00 pm. She puts on my feed. Then either we go out or work through my exercise routine between my computer work. She then puts on my last feed of the day before finishing at 8:00 pm.

My wife Manjusha then helps me to my bed and we watch television till about 11:30 or 12:00.

To what extent are your normal activities back – driving, work, housework, shopping, socialising, travelling, leisure activities?

The day I suffered the stroke, my driving license was cancelled as per rules. I now have to go through Occupational Therapy (OT) Off Road driving assessment, a medical certificate stating I am fit for

driving and an OT On Road driving assessment. I passed the OT Off Road driving assessment. It was pretty tough. One of the test sinvolved an image that appeared on screen for 3 seconds. One had to note all the objects in the image and explain to the examiner what moves each object is expected to take. I got 30 out of 32 correct. The two I lost out on had 4 or more objects in the image and I missed one in each!

Since I got a high score, I got the comment from my occupational therapist that I could be an over confident driver!

My GP and neurologist are currently organising my medical certificate. In the meantime Ihave arranged for a bicycle assessment.

House work and shopping were never my thing, so I do not miss them!

I was not able to talk at all for an entire year. After the initial rush of visitors receded, there were a few who kept meeting. Then again there was a rush when

the tracheostomy was removed. Because of my nil-by-mouth condition, and socialising is always associated with drink and food, my friends started feeling uncomfortable drinking or eating in my presence. I have therefore limited my socialising to mainly electronic media.

I have not travelled since the strokes but would like to soon.

Are you still seeing the doctor?

Generally no. If I feel the necessity, I take an appointment like everyone else.

What have you learnt about stroke?

Mainly there are two types of strokes, Haemorrhagic and Ischaemic. Haemorrhagic stroke is when a vein bursts open and the brain fills with blood. Ischaemic stroke is when a blood vessel gets blocked by a clot. Ischaemic stroke is the more common of the two. This is the type of stroke I suffered. It occurred in the brain stem, hence it is called brain stem stroke.

The brain stem is where nerves cross over. It also controls vital functions like breathing, heart beats, swallowing, balance etc. The stroke itself may not kill a patient but the effect of it may be fatal. Hence there are only 114 known survivors of brain stem stroke. Generally, a brain stem stroke is known as a killer stroke.

What have you learnt about yourself in this whole process?

More than myself, I have learnt a lot about the functioning of the human body. The

FACTS ABOUT STROKE

Did you know that there is one stroke every nine minutes in Australia? And that more than 475,000 Australians are currently living with the impact of stroke. Stroke can strike anyone at any age - even babies can have strokes

This National Stroke Week (September 2-8) Stroke Foundation is encouraging Australians of all ages to learn the most common signs of stroke - F.A.S.T. You can be a F.A.S.T. hero and save the life of a loved one, a colleague, a stranger or even yourself by understanding the F.A.S.T. message and calling an ambulance straight away if you suspect a stroke.

Using the F.A.S.T. test involves asking these simple questions:

• Face Check their face. Has their mouth drooped?

• Arms Can they lift both arms?

• Speech Is their speech slurred? Do they understand you?

• Time is critical. If you see any of these signs call triple zero (000) straight away.

movements that one makes routinely, may appear simple and normal, but I know how complex they can be.

I learnt that you can actually forget how to move your arms and legs, and you have to retrain the body. As a child, your bones are flexible and it is easy to train yourself, but as an adult, it is much more difficult, especially with a fear component added. I also learnt how easy it is to get misunderstood when one cannot speak.

Describe the day it happened. It was morning of 6th June 2017. I was woken up by a dull headache on the left side.

I walked to the study and turned on the laptop. I found the letters difficult to read. I switched off the lights and went back to bed. The dull headache persisted.

I woke up later and started my daily routine. While shaving I noticed that there was something not normal about myself, besides that dull headache.

I went to the GP who referred me to an ophthalmologist. The ophthalmologist asked me to go to the hospital Emergency Department, as she suspected I was getting a stroke.

I presented myself to the Emergency Department at Blacktown Hospital. A series of events then occurred, and I ultimately collapsed on the floor on the morning of 7th June. I was helped back to bed by the nurses and the ward person. Later, I was discovered by my wife in a significantly deteriorated condition, and she raised an alarm.

Sunil Ranadive with his wife Manjusha

Commerce and colonisation

VISHNU MAKHIJANI on William Dalrymple’s tome to perils of corporate power abuse

Historian, writer, art curator, awardwinning broadcaster and critic, William Dalrymple has quite exceeded himself with his latest book.

The towering 522-page tome, which was in the making for six painstaking years, thoroughly dissects the machinations of the East India Company (EIC) that began as a trader but gradually became an occupying power before it was cut to size.

The East India Company today remains history’s most ominous warning about the potential for the abuse of corporate power — and the insidious means by which the interests of shareholders can seemingly become those of the state. As recent American adventures in Iraq have shown, our world is far from post-imperial, and quite probably will never be.

Instead, the Empire is transforming itself into forms of global power that use campaign contributions and commercial lobbying, multinational finance systems and global markets, corporate influence and the predictive data harvesting of the new surveillance - capitalism rather than - or sometimes alongside - overt military conquest, occupation or direct economic domination to effect its ends.

“Four hundred and twenty years after its founding, the story of the East India Company has never been more current,” Dalrymple writes in The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, And The Pillage Of An Empire (Bloomsbury).

To explain the “loot”, the Hindustani slang for plunder and one of the very first Indian words to enter the English language, the author graphically transports the reader to the 13th century Powis Castle, a craggy fort in the Welsh Marches, which houses the treasures that Robert Clive brought home from India.

“Powis is simply awash with loot from India, room after room of imperial plunder extracted by the East India Company in the 18th century. There are more Mughal artefacts stacked in this private house in the Welsh countryside than are on display in any one place in India - even the National Museum in Delhi,” Dalrymple writes. He then provides a fresh perspective.

“We still talk about the British conquering India, but that phrase disguises a more sinister reality. It was not the British government that began seizing great chunks in India in the mid-18th century, but a dangerously unregulated private company headquartered in one small office, five windows wide, in London, and managed in India by a violent, utterly ruthless and intermittently mentally unstable corporate predator - (Robert) Clive. India’s transition to colonialism took place under a for-profit corporation entirely for the purpose of enriching its investors,” the book says.

“The Company’s conquest of India almost certainly remains the supreme act of corporate

violence in world history. For all the power wielded today by the world’s largest corporations - whether ExxonMobil, Walmart or Google - they are tame beasts compared with the ravaging territorial appetites of the militarised East India Company.”

The Company had been authorised by its founding charter to ‘wage war’ and had been using violence to gain its ends since it boarded and captured a Portuguese vessel on its maiden voyage in 1602. Moreover, it had controlled small areas since the 1630s.

Nevertheless, the defeat of Mughal emperor Shah Alam in 1765 “was really the moment that the East India Company ceased to be anything even distantly resembling a conventional trading corporation dealing in silks and spices, and became something altogether much more unusual”.

“Within a few months, 250 company clerks, backed by the military force of 20,000 locally recruited Indian soldiers, had become the effective rulers of the richest Mughal provinces. An international corporation was in the process of transforming itself into an aggressive colonial power.”

By 1803, when its private army had grown to nearly 200,000 men, twice the size of the British army, “it had swiftly subdued or directly seized an entire subcontinent. Astonishingly, this took less than half a century. The first serious territorial conquests began in Bengal in 1756 (culminating in Robert Clive’s victory in the Battle of Plassey a year later); 47 years later, the Company’s reach extended as far north as the Mughal capital of Delhi and almost all of India south of that city was by then effectively ruled from a boardroom in the city of London. ‘What honour is left to us’ asked a Mughal official, ‘when we have to take

orders from a handful of traders who have not yet learned to wash their bottoms’,” the book states.

As for Robert Clive, with a “good proportion of the loot of Bengal” going “directly’ into his pocket, he “returned to Britain with a personal fortune then valued at 234,000 pounds that made him the richest self-made man in Europe”. After Plassey, he transferred to the EIC Treasury “no less than 2.5 million pounds (262.5 million pounds today) seized from the defeated rulers of Bengal - unprecedented sums at the time”.

“No great sophistication was required. The entire contents of the Bengal Treasury were simply loaded into one hundred boats and floated down the Ganges from the Nawab of Bengal’s palace in Murshidabad to Fort William, the Company’s Calcutta headquarters. A portion of the proceeds was later spent rebuilding Powis,” the book states.

To this extent, the book has attempted to study the relationship between commercial and imperial power, as Dalrymple himself states.

“It has looked at how corporations can impact politics and vice versa. It has examined how power and money can corrupt, and the way commerce and colonisation have so often walked in lock-step. For Western imperialism and corporate capitalism were both at the same time, the dragons’ teeth that spawned the modern world,” Dalrymple writes.

“It was not the British government that began seizing great chunks in India in the mid18th century, but a dangerously unregulated private company headquartered in one small office, five windows wide, in London, and managed in India by a violent, utterly ruthless and intermittently mentally unstable corporate predator, (Robert) Clive.” WilliamDalrymple

DESIROUS

BY RAJNI ANAND LUTHRA

Aman Pal has been moving house, and is a bit tired. He talks at some length about how he has been carting his musical instruments around - the sound system, the microphone stand, the harmonium, the cajon, the seven sets of tablas.

Clearly these are some of his most prized worldly possessions.

That doesn’t surprise - given this young man has built himself a reputation of sorts as a musician to watch in Sydney’s Indian community.

His band DZYR - which boasts an entire gamut from classical, semi classical, Bollywood, ghazals, qawalis, pop rock and heavy metal - is ushering in a breath of fresh air in the community entertainment scene.

It all started not so long ago.

“It was July 2018,” Aman recalls. “We met as competitors at a music contest for singers. We got along well despite the competition, and when it all ended I invited everyone over to my place. The intention was simply that our newfound friendship shouldn’t die now that the contest was over. So we gathered at 5.30 on a Friday night. One thing led to another, the musical instruments came out, and we began to jam. When we finished, it was 5.30 am the next morning!”

With the unusual connect that the group had discovered, the logical conclusion was the formation of a band.

Shortly thereafter, the new band DZYR hit the streets: videos of their private jam sessions began doing the rounds of social media, and they were soon strutting their stuff at community events, private functions and on radio stations.

“What struck me the most about us as a troupe, was that we were a massive pool of trained and talented musicians, covering a broad range of genres,” Aman recounts.

Equally, he notes, they vibe well together on stage. “We do gel well; our stage

interactions are filled with fun. We meet so regularly that there’s mutual bondingwe’re basically family, the ten of us - so it always ends up being a magical experience in performance, and we can all look back at it with much artistic satisfaction.”

That unique combination of skills is no doubt coming in handy as the band look to entertain a vastly varied community. As such, they come off just as good at a Deepti Naval tribute night as at Nach Le Sydney dance competition, two of their recent appearances.

How did the name DZYR come about?

“We mulled over our name a fair bit,” Aman smiles. “The suggestions poured in, but we decided to keep away from the usual music-loaded terms. We wanted something different - not related to music alone, to make it memorable. In the end it was my wife Shom, herself heavily involved in this passion, who came up with the name. It reflects our very deep desire to devote our lives to music.”

The same desire is seen in DZYR’s lead guitarist Mayank, trained in the western style.

“I worked as an executive in the financial industry, in this very building actually,” Mayank reveals as we meet at Indian Link’s city offices. “Music beckoned to me throughout and at some stage I thought I have to give it a go properly…”

He left it all behind to go perform with and manage a rock band, until Aman brought him to DZYR. (By coincidence, Mayank’s wife, also called Shom, is herself deeply involved with DZYR.)

Aman, born and bred in London, belongs to long line of musicians. “My family were kirtanis,” he reveals. “My father played the tabla too, so I guess it is

There’s a new flavour in the community’s entertainment space

Mayank Singh

in my genes. I did learn from him, yes –family folklore is that I would watch him and then go to the kitchen to grab a utensil as my own tabla!”

But his guru was the illustrious Ustad Tari Khan, of Mehdi Hasan and Ghulam Ali fame, even though the tutelage was quite unorthodox, not unusual in the Hindustani music scene.

“It was a unique method of instruction - no pen and paper,” Aman recounts. “He would talk about a particular piece of music with its particular taals etc, and then would say, try adding this bit to it at the end. My homework would be to go home and do what he said. In the end it would be like I had created something of my own - he’d give me the seed, and I would make a guldasta out of it.”

But it was his dad who was at the bottom of the drill if it all – practice, practice, practice. “He had my brother and I on the tablas at 5pm, after school, often finishing up at 9 at night.”

No doubt it has all paid off, and London’s loss, is Sydney’s gain. Even though, Aman acknowledges, the music scene is quite different, if not a bit old fashioned, here.

“London audiences are open to experimentation, in fact they don’t want to hear the original. Whereas here, the feedback I got was always, ‘don’t spoil the song’. I felt like it was downplaying the creativity: I wanted to say, the original’s great, but you’ve heard it for eons, let the musician express his creativity now! For instance, you should hear our Inteha… it’s totally different, upbeat, heavy metal. I’m sure the audiences will warm up to our innovations. Thing is, the audiences here, they’re engaging, but not used to diversity: it’s been same old same old, Kishore Kumar - Mohd Rafi - Lata Mangeshkar nights and Jagjit Singh tributes in Bollywood style. Sufi and qawaalis have been missing… we want to change that perception.”

Part of the innovations DZYR are desirous of making, are broader than just

performing. They are currently wrapped up in launching a YouTube channel and creating their own works. “Mayank and I are in the studios at the moment, writing and composing,” Aman reveals.

DZYR is also reaching out to new audiences such as kids, and poets out in the community who are seeking to transform their works with music.

Showing star power in their talent and in their mannerism, Aman and Mayank are leading DZYR to a desirable position

“The audiences here, they’re engaging, but not used to diversity: it’s been same old same old, Kishore Kumar - Mohd Rafi - Lata Mangeshkar nights and Jagjit Singh tributes in Bollywood style. We want to change that perception.”

Aman Pal

Aman Pal

Preetam Telugu

Sowmrita Sarkar Seemanto Nath

Sirisha

Vikas Pawar

Sanket Tiwari

Photos: Binu’s Photography

Home-made cookies

They’re

BY DHNAYA SAMUEL

Every time I open a pack of storebought biscuits or cookies, I feel guilty. The list of ingredients read a mile long, most of them chemical agents that have no business to be in my food at all. But we can’t complain about it because that’s the price we pay when we purchase packaged and processed food.

And this was the motivation to start baking cookies at home.

Buying the occasional packet of yours or your child’s favourite biscuits or cookies is not a crime. It’s a treat, an indulgence that has its place. The problem begins only when it becomes an everyday food.

Most baked goodies that we purchase from a supermarket are not made from pure butter but from margarine, palm oil etc that are not just bad for our health, but also not sustainably sourced. So we end up harming our health and the environment when we consume these in large amounts. Also these goodies contain a lot more sugar than necessary.

The first thing you realise when you bake cookies at home is that very few ingredients are actually needed to create these delicious treats. And above all, the

AND CASHEWNUT COOKIES

choice of ingredients is entirely yours - the kind of flour to use, amount of sugar or added ingredients like dry fruits, nuts etc.

These Date and Cashewnut Cookies are a favourite at my household: easy to make, simple ingredients and flavours we absolutely enjoy. Moreover it’s easy to make a large batch which means you need not be baking every week.

These cookies are made using a mixture of whole wheat flour and almond meal, sweetened with date puree and embedded with crushed cashewnuts. Avoid the nuts if your child’s school does not permit nuts in the lunchbox. Also feel free to replace cashewnuts with any other kind of nuts that you like; there’s no hard and fast rule.

This recipe is a no-brainer. So don’t be discouraged if you have never baked cookies before. I am sure you can pull this one off.

But one of the common mistakes most beginners make is with the oven temperature. I find that a lot of recipes only mention the temperature and not the setting like conventional, fan-forced etc, which makes a difference.

If you have a fan-forced oven, then the temperature required is often less than that in a conventional oven. The temperature mentioned in this recipe is for a fan-forced oven so adjust as mentioned in the method if you are using a conventional oven.

This one’s definitely a keeper, a recipe you will be happy to re-visit many times.

INGREDIENTS

(Makes about 16-18 cookies)

n ½ cup dates (roughly 8-10 depending on size); deseeded and coarsely chopped

n 3 tbsp cashewnuts; crushed/ chopped and lightly toasted

n 1 cup whole wheat flour

n 1 cup almond meal

n 100 gms butter (room temperature)

n 4 tbsp raw sugar

n 1 tbsp cocoa powder

METHOD

n In a pan, add the chopped dates and 1 cup water. Bring to boil and then simmer for 10 minutes or till the dates are completely softened and mashed to a puree consistency. Keep aside to cool.

n Lightly toast the cashewnuts and keep aside.

n In a bowl, add the flour, almond meal and butter. Mix with your fingertips till it resembles bread crumbs.

n Add the cashewnuts, date puree, cocoa

powder and sugar; knead into a semi soft dough.

n Cover and refrigerate for 15 minutes.

n Preheat the oven to 160°C (fan-forced; 180°C if conventional).

n Form small balls from the dough and lightly flatten on top to resemble circular discs.

n Place in a tray lined with baking paper and bake till the cookies are crisp (takes about 20-25 minutes).

n Cool completely and store in an airtight container.

healthier than store-bought stuff, and better for the environment too

cineTALK

narrative finally leads an extravagant action climax that comes long after you have lost interest in the storyline.

Saaho is the sort of formula overload that isn’t necessarily raising audience curiosity over what is going to happen in the end. It was always about how much can be stuffed into the film’s nearly three-hour runtime before it ends. Which is where the film crashes. The big bang it tries setting off simply goes bust as the plot falls all over the place.

SAAHO

STARRING: Prabhas, Shraddha Kapoor

DIRECTOR: Sujeeth

H H

If it is true that mainstream Indian cinema comes off best with a dash of South Indian flavour, Saaho tries reiterating that fact. Although Prabhas’ latest blinds you with the spectacular polish of a Hollywood action blockbuster, it is intrinsically a product manufactured in the Telugu film factory. The film reminds once again that, when it comes to serving loud desi commercial entertainment, nothing can quite out-shout vintage Tollywood masala.

We are back on the formula highway again here, where an eightminute uncut action scene that cost Rs 70 crore (some say it is Rs 90 crore) seems more significant than a

screenplay that, by the look of it, took less than seven minutes to lock in. Keeping with formula film tradition, don’t look for logic here. What’s more, despite trying to unfold with the urgency of a thriller, Saaho is mostly predictable and often convoluted. It sticks to a very basic good-versus-evil script that lets Prabhas play the field as a fighter, dancer, cool lover-boy and angry young man - in short, the complete package.

Saaho was always all about Prabhas: director Sujeeth and his crew never for a moment lose focus from that fact. They have tried preparing a foolproof parcel that aims solely to cash in on the tremendous star power Prabhas garnered post Baahubali. It is a tailor-made script where every scene plays to the macho star’s strength, and Prabhas is effective, too, carrying the film on his shoulder with a hulk of a screen presence. If the sole

intention of this film was to showcase a very different side to his glamour, Saaho does adequately.

This time, however, the Prabhas impact wholly misses the Baahubali magic.

Without giving away spoilers, the film tries banking on a core crafted out by mixing the quintessential action thriller with the distinctly flashy idiom of the Great South Indian Potboiler. The clichés don’t change. Only, they are reorganised to suit new-age tastes.

A non-cohesive first half sets up an excuse for a plot. There are high-profile robberies happening all around the city, and we learn about a box that could be worth a fortune. Where there is an empire at stake, the villains can’t be far away. Saaho supplies a battalion of baddies, each one snarling in various proportions to exude varying degrees of villainy. The

Since the film belongs to Prabhas, Shraddha Kapoor’s responsibility is more or less cut out. She looks good with the hero in the insanely gorgeous landscapes as they sing love songs, and she looks good in the odd highoctane action scenes as they kick butt. It’s a different thing she looks awfully out of place trying to act the investigative cop she was signed up to play.

Most of the film’s prop cast overacts, including Neil Nitin Mukesh, Jackie Shroff, Mandira Bedi, Evelyn Sharma and Mahesh Manjrekar. No one in particular stands out, in a script wholly set up to regale Prabhas fans.

Saaho tries being a wanton tribute to classic commercial cinema at a time when there is a growing buzz that the genre is headed for a gradual, inevitable fadeout. The film however repeats the same mistakes the masala movie has forever been accused of making.

Vinayak Chakravorty

The BUZZ

THE NEW MAVERICKS GAME CHANGERS IN BOLLYWOOD

In recent times, Gen Now actors have been redefining the genre of masala entertainment. With their unconventional approach and roles, not to mention styles, Ranveer Singh, Ayushmann Khurrana, Vicky Kaushal, Rajkummar Rao and Ranbir Kapoor have erased the line between credible actor and saleable star.

‘Actor’ and ‘star’. Sometime in the seventies, Bollywood filmmakers, fans and the film press alike created a distinction between these two job profiles. The actor was someone who would win the accolades and awards for his histrionic skills, not necessarily guaranteeing hits. The star was the industry's prized possession, because he raked in the big revenues for the film trade, cashing in on an image that triggered off mass hysteria. There were a few who managed to blend the two - think Amitabh Bachchan or Aamir

RANVEER SINGH:

CHAMELEON SUPERSTAR

Ranveer Singh made clear his intention of serving entertainment with a difference with his very first film. Band Baaja Baaraat, his debut film in 2010, was a slice-of-life rom-com about two wedding planners. Ranveer's guy-nextdoor charisma worked well with the film's breezy yet realistic mood.

VIDYA AS INDIRA

At a time when most in Bollywod want to jump on the BJP bandwagon to please the powers-that-be, Vidya Balan has just announced she will be bringing Indira Gandhi back to life on the silver screen.

Ask her why she wants to get into the shoes of India's first female Prime Minister and Congress mascot, Vidya will reply, “Because hers is the first name that comes to mind when I think of powerful women.”

She’ll add that she’s “party agnostic” and that she doesn’t want to have anything to do with politics. Well, we do know she’s after a good kahani…

This kahani apparently will be a web series, based on Sagarika Ghose's book Indira: India’s Most Powerful Prime Minister, the rights of which were bought by Vidya not so long ago.

The project though has been slow

to take off, Vidya will admit. “I didn’t realise a web series is a completely different format and involves a lot of work. Also, there’s so much material when it comes to someone like Indiraji, and we are going through a lot of it.”

The series will be helmed by Ritesh Batra, director of the critically acclaimed The Lunchbox and Photograph

Meanwhile, Vidya will soon be seen as Shakuntala Devi in an upcoming biopic of the renowned mathematician. On working in the film so soon after Mission Mangal, she said, "From science to maths, my best dream comes true this year. Most South Indians pursue science and maths, and I am sure my parents will now be satisfied that I traversed both worlds within the one year!"

Scientist or artist, Vidya can rest assured the fan numbers will continue to grow.

Over the years, his stature has risen and, after consecutive blockbusters, Ranveer today is perhaps Bollywood's biggest new-age hero. His gameplan, however, remains the same. His focus seems to be on signing up to a role that lets him surprise his audience, be it Khilji in Padmaavat, Bajirao in Bajirao Mastani, Sangram Bhalerao in Simmba or morphing into Kapil Dev in the upcoming 83. Indeed, his choice of roles make it obvious that he is Bollywood's most enigmatic chameleon of this generationreadily donning a new skin for a new film.

Khan - but by and large, Hindi mainstream cinema's idiom was so radically divided down the middle that no one went to see the stars - in many cases, the superstars – for their acting skills, just as no one expected the actors to score blockbusters. The changing syntax of Hindi cinema has accommodated a new breed that has carved a niche with talent, and yet can assure profitable returns for producers pumping in the money. Ranveer Singh, Ayushmann Khurrana, Vicky Kaushal, Rajkummar Rao and Ranbir Kapoor may represent varied flavours of contemporary Hindi cinema, but they stand for one thing: in an industry that is learning to create commercially viable films that bank primarily on content, these actors are all malleable enough to fit into a wide variety of roles. In short, none of them bank on a specific image.

His only failure in recent times has been the romantic drama Befikre, and the poor show of that film perhaps underlined the truth - when it comes to Ranveer Singh, regular stuff won't do. The audience has somehow come to expect something beyond the ordinary whenever he hits the screen, besides, of course blockbuster box-office shows. Balancing that larger-than-life expectation with the not-so-simple deal of a good performance every time, will be Ranveer's big challenge in the future, even as he enters the brightest phase of his career.

AYUSHMANN KHURRANA: MASTER OF SURPRISES

This one is literally the story of a rise from the ashes. Ayushmann Khurrana, it seemed, had the world at his feet with his debut role in Vicky Donor in 2012. Then came the slump. Although he did deliver Dum Laga Ke Haisha in between, most of Ayushmann's films over the next five-odd

RANVEER SINGH

AYUSHMANN KHURANA

years simply failed to leave an impact.

The turnaround that started with 2017's Bareilly Ki Barfi was a quiet but steady one. If the law of averages is indeed a reality, Ayushmann’s poor phase is long gone. Since 2017, he has been on a roll of five consecutive hits - Bareilly Ki Barfi, Shubh Mangal Saavdhan, Andhadhun, Badhai Ho and Article 15 have all been hits.

Ayushmann's box-office USP, however, lies not just in his newfound power to deliver hits. It lies in the fact that the actor has made it a habit to portray a very different role in each new film. The audience has come to expect something new from him every time. At a time when Bollywood cinema is changing, and young filmmakers are out exploring fresh concepts and characters, that puts Ayushmann in a position of huge advantage - not to mention the fact that the National Award he just won raises his stakes by a huge margin.

VICKY KAUSHAL: BELIEVABLE FACE OF THE HERO

No one expected the lanky boy of Masaan (2015) with undoubted artistic skills to deliver one of the biggest blockbusters of the year, four years into his career. Vicky Kaushal did just that when his latest release Uri: The Surgical Strike gave Bollywood its most unlikely commercial star of the season. The blockbuster Uri has raked in over Rs 240 crore since release, and Vicky is now part of the A-list.

Vicky's phenomenal rise, along

WHO WORE IT BETTER?

BELLA HADID

OR JAHNVI KAPOOR IN DAISY?

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with Ayushmann Khurrana, perhaps signals the shape of things to come for Bollywood stardom. In an era when realism has crept into entertainment cinema, the hero will also have to be someone who can effortlessly shed all larger-than-life pretences.

Vicky's National Awards win as Best Actor for Uri marks a new high, but the actor is taking things cautiously. Despite Uri he has only two films coming up: the horror drama Bhoot: The Haunted Ship and the patriotic biopic Sardar Udham Singh where he essays the title role.

RAJKUMMAR RAO: IRRESISTIBLY VERSATILE

Not many actors in Bollywood can claim to have never repeated the same act, and won over fans despite never bowing to stereotypes. If Rajkummar Rao fits that bill, he has also carved his niche by defying every cliché that normally defines the Bollywood leading man.

Indeed, Rajkummar has defied all odds in Bollywood. He shot to fame doing a bit role in an art film (2010's Love Sex Aur Dhokha) and sustained on supporting acts for three years. And then, when he had his first prominent leading role (Shahid in 2013), he won a National Award as Best Actor for it! He doesn't hesitate signing up for heroinedominated subjects (Queen, Stree, Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga, Judgementall Hai Kya).

Perhaps the key to his survival and thriving lies in that last bit. With Rajkummar Rao, there is no casting

hassle. He can easily fit into any role as long as there is scope to perform. If versatility is increasingly becoming an asset in Bollywood, Rajkummar is indeed looking at a busy career ahead.

RANBIR KAPOOR: THE THINKING ACTOR-STAR

Being born in Bollywood's first family was an advantage, of course, but it does come with its woes, too. Ranbir Kapoor's decade-plus career in Hindi films has overwhelmingly been dictated by one question: can he live up to the legacy of his father Rishi Kapoor and grandfather Raj Kapoor?

Ranbir's strategy to survive the harsh glare that question brings in its wake, is to by and large portray a cool-dude image, on and off the screen. It is an image that, driven by expert PR, has let him play the field as a ladies' man, and some of his biggest hits have also been films where he has been the affable youngster.

The going has been rough for Ranbir lately because, barring last year's Sanju he has no clear winner at the box-office since 2013's Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani. His ambitious upcoming Bhrahmastra has been pushed back, and his other film is a period drama, Shamshera. Lately, he has been more in the news for rumours pertaining to his romance with Alia Bhatt.

Still, no one is writing Ranbir off. For the simple reason that, beyond his obvious advantages of innate glamour and proven acting skills, Ranbir is a thinking actor-star.

Vinayak Chakravorty

What’s the chitchat here between Karan Johar and Malaika Arora as they pose on a Melbourne street?

What's the chitchat between Ayushmann Khurana and Nushrat Bharucha?

Nusharat to Ayushman: “Ayushi,” you are everyone’s dream girl on screen but I am your dream girl.

Charmi Kapadia Shah

Congrats Charmi you win a movie ticket

For more caption entries, see YOUR SAY Page 09

VICKY KAUSHAL RANBIR KAPOOR

RAJKUMMAR RAO

September 2019

BY MINAL KHONA

Minal Khona has been reading tarot cards for the last two decades. She uses her intuition and connect with the cards mostly to help people.

ARIES March 21 - April 19

TAURUS April 20 - May 20

You stay busy with self-assertion, your own business, and being social but alone. Don’t shut others out, and let them know how you feel. Business improves; a new relationship or marriage proposal is on the anvil. A new project keeps you mentally engrossed; and money will come through new or repeat orders. Tension headaches could besiege you. Though you are self-reliant, help will be provided. Your decision regarding a matter will settle your future path. Success comes through new ventures.

A tough month for Taureans and a lot could go wrong. Separation, divorce, financial problems and difficult times could get you down. But, the worst is over and things will improve. Those on the verge of a break-up will do so and a divorce is imminent. A sudden loss of income is predicted. Rest before you start a new project. Medical expenses could be incurred. Discordant relationships end, bringing peace. What looks hopeless is not the final result, so have faith.

VIRGO

Aug 23 - Sep 22

The card drawn for you represents the Zodiac sign of Cancer, suggesting moody Leos could go into their den and hibernate. If single you will look for romance: many opportunities come your way. Self-promotion at work could face hurdles. If you wish to be self-employed and independent, chances are you soon will be. You feel ill and cranky so visit the doctor if you feel the need. A disagreeable situation comes to an end. Success comes from personal integrity.

SAGITTARIUS

Nov 22 - Dec 21

TAROT

GEMINI

May 21 - June 20

If you have important paperwork to deal with, do not rush through. Changes can be expensive so make sure they are worth it. A sudden advantage in your love life or finances is foretold. Problems with breasts, aches and pains indicate you need a check-up and some rest. A friend will help you overcome the current problems you face. A business associate or lover could let you down, but things will work out. Maintain balance and take things slow.

LIBRA

Sep 23 - Oct 22

Self-doubt, confusion, difficulties in dealing with loved ones and financial hardships could come your way. A tough month, as you might even need medical attention for a health problem or an injury. Possible losses at work and disagreements over contracts could make your job a chore. A clandestine love affair is foretold. Money will come eventually even if you are strapped for cash now. Avoid getting into a poverty-of-spirit frame of mind. Spiritual guidance will see you through your hurdles.

CAPRICORN

Dec 22 - Jan 19

The card drawn for you represents the sign of Leo so the gregarious Sagittarian could go a bit wild this month, following their passion. You have a busy social calendar, get-togethers, love affairs, family matters etc. You are also in a mood to share your good fortune and help those who need support. A passionate romance is on the anvil. Spiritual matters intrigue you this month. Good news on the work front is foretold. You attract what you need to succeed.

If in a new relationship, it will be stress-free but no fireworks. An existing relationship could get hostile due to pent up pressure. Business expands but watch out for losses on the personal front. You might even decide to end a relationship and move on. Eye infections could occur and money is tight so be prudent with expenses. A sacrifice of some sort will have to be made – let go and let God. If fighting a lawsuit, you will win.

CANCER June 21 - July 20

You could get an unexpected financial or career opportunity, a job offer and even support from your boss. The new assignment could lift your spirits. Nostalgia for the past overwhelms you even though you don’t want to go back. More money than you anticipated could come your way. If you are tired or depressed, take a break. Recognition in your career will come. Cultivate your intuition and faith to everyday life. Things will work out better than you expect.

SCORPIO

Oct 23 - Nov 21

You might find yourself pushed into a corner over something: hold your own and don’t give in. In a relationship, you seek clarity and commitment even as unexpected problems come up with business plans and family. But, you will handle work and finances well even though your focus is currently on your love life. Don’t take on more than you can handle and be careful about what you eat. Singles could soon be in love. Be true to yourself in everything.

AQUARIUS

Jan 20 - Feb 18

The focus is on emotional turbulence due to difficult schedules, discouragement or business loss. Tension related health issues and aches and pains could besiege you. Disappointing elements make you lose incentive to work. The internal conflicts that analytical Aquarians keep having will come to an end. Success comes through a new career direction or a romantic change of heart. Good will prevail so hang in there, positive changes are coming. Maintain a calm demeanour and things will settle down.

A Leo could be a major influence this month. There could be challenging situations in matters related to business, family or finances. A new relationship faces a block due to your attachment to the past. At work, persevere and get the job done; recognition will follow. An unexpected event leads to more money and you will clear debts if any. If someone is being difficult, you can use love and kindness to win them over. Spiritual forces at work are on your side.

PISCES

Feb 19 - March 20

Threes indicate group activities; delays with the promise of success. This month you choose to heal yourself, spiritual awakenings and time with pets. To love others, you need to nurture yourself first. A personal dilemma works out quicker than expected. You toy with the idea of looking for less taxing work. Avoid bingeing on food or liquor. Money owed to you comes through. Be clear what you are striving for and take the risk of failure. Don’t let others intimidate you.

It's all in the head

Modern-day political leadership and its relationship to hair

BY LP. AYER

Seldom has the world seen a crop of so many powerful figures ruling different parts of the globe at the same time as now. When someone in authority behaves in an autocratic manner it is said that power has gone to his head. Even with a casual look at each one of theruling strong men – yes, all of them are men at present - you will realise that much more than power has gone to their head. A good crop of hair; and on top of that, everyone with a unique style.

What has hair got to do with power? A lot, it would seem.

Let me start from America, a super power for so many decades but now somewhat sliding. The Commander in Chief of the US has an unUS ualcombover coif that resembles a thick sheaf of hay yanked towards his forehead. However, pics from his younger days, currently played on the TV covering the dark deeds of Jeffrey Epstein, show that

Donald used to have a thick mop of dark hair combed like any other guy. How did that turn into a sort of golden hue? Looks like whatever this wheeler-dealer touches turns into gold except, of course, his unsolicited offers of mediation to other world leaders.

Moving on to the county that lays claims to the next superpower status, supremo Xi Jinping has such wellgroomed and neatly partitioned radiant dark hair that will be the envy of anyone half his age. If he wasn’t occupied with his day job of being the PRC’s long-term president, he could easily have become a red hot poster boy for Brylcream (remember this famous hair-cream of yore) ads and rule the global media scene. He still pervades the media world

though, as he and Trump try to get the other by the short hairs in their tariff war.

However, Xi’s neighbour and the nemesis of North America, Kim Un Jung, has the ultimate crowning glory with the most unusual mop on his head. Although no one would dare to mimic him in any way, his hair-brained idea is copied all over the world. There won’t be any hairsplitting argument as to who holds the trump card in the style stakes, since his has become a fashion statement. His first head-to-head meeting with Trump in Singapore gave hopes of an agreement only a hair-breadth away but ultimately it turned out the gap was much wider than a hairline crack.

In contrast, Narendra Modi with grey

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top and matching well-trimmed beard presents a picture of saintly poise and scholarly look mixed in a modified proportion.

Closer to home, former PM Kevin’s ‘nerdy’ hairstyle gave him a head start in 2007 over John Howard who was the only second prime minister to lose his head in an electoral battle. His successor Julia Gillard’s red hair, besides her association with a hairdresser, attracted more than a fair share of comments from every quarter.

The latest heir to the throne to join the chorus is Britain’s Boris Johnson who looks like he wears a bird nest on his head. Perhaps he should wear a hat while in a wooded area, to avoid a winged creature taking refuge up there. Brexit is ok but not bird-sit.

There is now a group of winners in all this - cartoonists. They’re having a heyday as they let loose their creativity on each of their subjects’ crowning glory.

It may be worth a doctoral thesis to analyse if there is any link between hair and power. There is at least a mythical example to start with - Samson, who lost his power once he lost his hair.

Hear, hear.

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There is now a group of winners in all this - cartoonists. They’re having a heyday as they let loose their creativity on each of their subjects’ crowning glory.

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Year 5

Sunday, 8th September 2019

Australian Selective Achievement Test

How will the ASAT competition be organised?

ASAT test papers mirror exactly the same format of the actual Selective High School Placement Test. ASAT is highly valued and distinct from other practice exams in producing up-to-date questions and upgrading exam information to parallel that of the Selective High School Placement Test. ASAT provides parents with the most relevant information regarding their school choices based on the most reliable database built upon the biggest comparison group.

The 25th ASAT Competition Schedule

> Eligible Students

Students who will sit the Selective High School Placement Test in Year 2020

> Test Date & Time

Sunday, 8th September 2019 (9:30am - 1:30pm)

> Test Subjects

Reading, Mathematics, Writing and General Ability

> Test Centre Location

Buring Pavilion (Exhibition Hall 3&4) at Sydney Olympic Park (Riverina Avenue, Homebush Bay)

> Registration Fee

$80 per applicant (not refundable)

> Registration Closing Date

Saturday, 31st August 2019 (5:00pm)

Registration will close on Saturday, 31st August 2019 (5:00pm)

Australian Selective Achievement Test