Piecing it together

Angela Nashaat’s mosaics and collages reveal the extraordinary life of an extraordinary artist

me was my teacher herself.

BY JYOTI SHANKAR

Iwas at the Bower Reuse and Repair Centre for a workshop on reusing plastic bags recently and my teacher was a lovely woman by the name of Angela Nashaat. She sounded very Australian but looked very Indian in a ghagra and kameez with a dupatta draped elegantly over her head. Angela had made beautiful purses out of plastic fabricated by ironing different coloured plastic bags together and there were lovely bags crocheted out of yarn created by cutting plastic bags. Not a scrap was wasted and I had good fun learning about giving a new lease of life to the muchmaligned plastic bag. But what intrigued

Angela agreed to speak about her story to Indian Link, sharing it with such candour that I felt privileged to be a listener. Though the story is sad and unfortunate in many ways, it is also a story of endurance and grit and how a little girl realised her dreams.

Angela’s foray into art was both calculated and accidental. She recognised at a young age that art was what she wanted to do. However many tragic events happened in her early teens and she decided to leave home. Various circumstances brought Angela from New Zealand to Australia. She says, “I was 17 then and all I wanted was to drive a truck and paint walls!”

It was a struggle to make a living by herself and pursue her passion. She juggled both by working as a cleaner in hospitals and doing art when she could. She did drawings for people for free or little money. “One job I did was in exchange for a camera and I started building up a visual portfolio with that. This got me more work,” she revealed, speaking of her career beginnings.

Life went by and she was soon the mother of five children. Unfortunately, one of her boys was diagnosed as terminally ill with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy which necessitated regular visits to the Sydney Children’s Hospital. It was here that she met Marily Cintra, of Health & Art Research Centre (HARC) who commissioned artists to do art with community for hospitals. Angela was trained in mosaics for a project. This started the ball rolling. “I was soon selfemployed, figuring out how to get an ABN, learning about contracts, sub-contracting people, how to use computers, essentially picking up skills along the way as needed, all while raising six kids, including one of my sister’s,” she described.

She was happy to be part of projects where art is used as a means to make people healthier in a holistic way. The tug of India was strong but dormant for a long time. Her parents had divorced when she was only four and Angela had met her father only three times in her life before he passed away. When applying for a passport, she saw that her birth certificate mentioned that her father was from Secunderabad and soon she found out this was in India.

In 2016 Angela made a decision to go to India. She connected with a charity online who invited her to do painting with kids they worked with. Once in Jaisalmer, she ended up painting a big restaurant and teaching sewing and painting to many more kids. India felt immediately like home. Explaining why, Angela says, “When I got to there, I felt everything was so normal, everything was like they were supposed to be - people were kind and caring. They had so little but were content. People around were in tune with nature.”

Angela, who loved to work with her hands, was delighted to see the desert women also busy sewing, crocheting and making things by hand. Even when she thought that India was manic with regard to noise, smells and sensations, she felt a “humaneness” in life around her and a sense of things operating on a different level - “a heart level”.

Having returned to India eight times since, Angela feels a sense of belonging in the villages of Rajasthan. She has painted art in hotels in Jaisalmer and taught sustainable art and craft to marginalised children. With a tinge of sadness and acceptance, she says, “Growing up as a troubled teenager and feeling rejected time after time, I didn’t trust adults. Here

I found a family. Now I feel torn between Australia and India. I much prefer to be in India but my children are all in Australia.”

From a troubled child who lived off the streets for a while, to being a respected community artist, Angela Nashaat is now a beautiful and calm person who loves gardening, growing food, recycling, upcycling, teaching permaculture, art and craft and writing poetry. Now having met many more family members from her father’s side, through chance and social media, Angela has reconciled to and embraced her roots wholeheartedly. “I feel more whole than ever before now,” she said with a smile. Nurturing the talent she had has taken her places. Very soon, Angela is off overseas to volunteer on an organic farm and share her creative and sustainable craft and art.

When you visit Blacktown Hospital next, look out for Angela’s lotuses which adorn the walls of the birthing unit, and kites and landscapes featured in the waiting areas, all crafted from thousands of pieces of paper torn from magazines, atlases and sheet music.

Government advises Indian students in the US to stay back

With American universities shutting down indefinitely as a preventive measure against the coronavirus, the government has asked Indian students to avoid international travel. Many students have bought tickets to come home during these difficult times. Most campuses are offering online classes because of the unpredictability of the situation.

The Consulate General of India in New York put out an advisory asking students to either stay put in on-campus housing or move in with friends if necessary.

This comes on the heels of universities asking students to leave on-campus housing, not accounting for international students who often don’t have another place to go. “If the universities are not accepting applications or have not approved applications for continued housing, ask friends if they will be able to host for the period for which the university has shut down,” the advisory said.

The consulate asked students to check with their respective universities about how to avail of health services, international student services, and any other essential services which are impacted in case on-campus services are suspended.

The consulate has advised students to avoid all non-essential travel internationally and domestically. “In case students do plan on international travel, they should check with designated school officials how any possible future international travel restrictions may challenge their F1 or J1 visa status,” the advisory said.

The government also told students that they may be put in quarantine for a minimum of 14 days, in case they plan to return home in India and will be subjected to medical screening upon arrival.

‘Work from home’ computers attract hackers

With several organisations across India implementing ‘work from home’ for their employees due to the coronavirus pandemic, hackers are turning their attention to company networks and personal computers with few firewalls and security solutions.

Over 20 lakh employees are likely to work from home in the next few weeks, but the confidentiality of their data remains a concern, according to leading experts.

“Threat actors are lurking into this phenomenon as an opportunity. Multiple instances of malicious, automated emails have been reported in several continents, including India, that are getting spooled with 'Coronavirus' as a theme,” said Sanjay Katkar, Joint Managing Director and CTO, Quick Heal Technologies.

Businesses that are unprepared for work from home scenarios are likely to have employees using personal devices that don’t have the same level of security as their corporate devices. In such scenarios, businesses and their employees must ensure the security of their data.

According to a recent survey, nearly 40 per cent of people around the world said they don’t receive technological support from their employer when they work from home or a public place. A reported 28 per cent of Indians are unaware of their router’s web administrative interface.

Jaya Baloo, chief information security officer at Avast, said that employees should use preapproved laptops and smartphones to access corporate materials.

"These devices should have business-grade security solutions installed on them and be controlled by the company IT department, if applicable," she added.

According to Devashish Sharma, CTO, Flock, the workplace collaboration and communication platform, the first step is to use a secure workplace collaboration platform that enables seamless communication across teams.

“The next step is to build awareness among employees about the risk and repercussions of a security breach, for this the top leadership has to educate themselves first about security practices,” said Sharma.

It is often a misconception that large enterprises are more at risk when it comes to data breach. “Small and medium enterprises too should take steps towards educating every individual in the organisation. Additionally it is extremely vital to empower the IT team to take decisions around security by helping them undertake training and courses that are relevant to their profile,” Sharma said.

Railways cancels 85 trains over COVID-19 crisis

Following the coronavirus outbreak, the Indian Railways has cancelled 85 trains due to low occupancy in different zones from 18 March to 1 April.

Central Railway has cancelled 23 trains, South Central Railway cancelling 29 trains, Western Railways 10 trains, northern Railways five, North Western Railways four, East Coast Railways five and South Eastern Railways nine trains.

The railways even increased the prices of the platform tickets at over 250 stations from Rs 10 to Rs 50 to stop the crowding at the railway stations, as a temporary measure.

Taj Mahal closed, annual Shah Jahan Urs cancelled

The annual three day Urs of Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, builder of the iconic Taj Mahal, will not be held as scheduled from March 21, as the historic monuments including the Taj in the city have been shut down till March 31, in the wake of COVID-19.

This will be the first time in the history of the Taj, that the annual Urs will not be held.

During the three day Urs, entry remains free and a series of functions are organised. Work on the 365-metre long chadar, to be offered, had begun. The spectacle of it being carried into the monument has traditionally been a photographer’s delight.

A member of the organising committee said convention would indeed be disrupted, but the safety of the country was more important.

The area around the Taj Mahal currently wears a deserted look. On 17 March, a pall of gloom descended as guides, photographers, taxi drivers, hoteliers were left with no work.The once crowded parking areas were vehicle free.

Agra Mayor Navin Jain had asked the Central Government for closure of the monument a fortnight ago.

Visited by around 30,000 people daily, there has been a steep decline for the past one month. (The Agra Development

Authority earned around Rs 14 crores daily from ticket sales alone).

The city’s eleven five - star hotels and around 25 three - star hotels, plus countless guest houses, dharamshalas and smaller hotels are largely without guests.

The Taj was closed on two occasions only in recent memory: during the 1971 war with Pakistan when it was shot for more than a week; and during devastating floods in 1978, when its gates closed for two days.

Indian-origin Chancellor abolishes ‘tampon tax’

In his first budget, the UK’s new Indianorigin Chancellor Rishi Sunak, has abolished the much-debated value-added tax (VAT) on sanitary products. While unveiling the budget, he announced that it would be implemented once the UK formally leaves the European Union.

Sanitary products are currently taxed as luxury products rather than essential products in the UK. This move has been highly praised by campaigners and rights groups across the country.

“Today’s scrapping of the tampon tax is a landmark moment in the fight against period poverty, and it comes not a moment too soon,” said Rose Caldwell, CEO of Plan International UK, a human rights orgsnisation. “The cost of period products remains one of the leading causes of period poverty alongside period stigma and a lack of education for young people about periods.”

A survey by Plan International UK revealed that 40 per cent of girls in the UK struggled to afford period products and were forced to rely on toilet roll.

The VAT on sanitary products as luxury goods dates back to 1973 when a standard rate of 10 per cent was applied. It rose to 15 per cent in 1979 and to 17.5 per cent in 1991.

Racist cartoon of Indian-origin British minister sparks outrage

The Guardian, one of Britain’s most prestigious newspapers, has sparked outrage for printing a racist cartoon about UK Home Secretary Priti Patel. Pictured next to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Patel is depicted as a bull with horns and a nose ring.

The cartoon, published on International Woman’s Day, has drawn fire for mocking the first ethnic minority woman to hold the office of the second most powerful cabinet post. It is also labelled offensive for antiHindu sentiments, mocking the sacred cow.

Former Chancellor and senior Conservative leader Sajid Javid called it “incredibly offensive” while the British Tamil Conservatives said that it “may constitute a hate crime”. Trupti Patel, president of the Hindu Forum of Britain, accused the newspaper of “crossing the boundary from legitimate reporting into blatant racism.”

“The Guardian have just lost any crumb of credibility they had left,” tweeted Conservative MP Steve Double.

The cartoon was created by popular artist Steve Bell. It was published related to allegations of Patel bullying her staff. She is currently facing inquiries of breaking the ministerial code while a spokesman said that she categorically denied these allegations.

Punjabi language after-school classes to begin in California

Students enrolled in public schools in Fresno, California will now be able to learn the Punjabi language through an after-school program. This is part of a new Global California 2030 Initiative by the Fresno Unified School District (FUSD). Other languages offered as part of the program include Spanish, Frenchand Arabic. Through this, the California department of education wants to equip students with world language skills and cross-cultural competencies and prepare them to succeed in a global economy.

Currently, the languages are being taught in five elementary schools with one language taught in each school. They are at a beginner’s level, but the syllabus is planned to expand to three years of language skills.

The initiative hopes to triple rates of biliteracy in the state of California, established 100 state-approved bilingual teacher preparation programs, and double the number of teachers authorized to teach in two languages.

Indian-origin researchers in Australia and the US develop COVID-19 risk checker apps

Two Indian-origin researchers have led their teams in Australia and the US to develop coronavirus-specific risk checker apps to counter the fear and confusion caused by the pandemic.

Abhi Bhatia, CEO and co-founder of Medius Health, an AI digital health company based in Sydney, launched his platform in the first week of March. It can be used to educate the public, deliver accurate information regarding symptoms, and quell fears. Meanwhile, Arni SR Srinivasa Rao and his team from Augusta University in the US will be launching their platform shortly.

In the app, individuals fill up detailed questionnaires, then an AI uses an algorithm to assess their information and provide a risk assessment of either high risk, no risk, minimal risk, and moderate risk. It also alerts the nearest facility that a health check is required. The app gives users easy accessibility to important coronavirus related information and helps in early intervention.

Uber data shows Mumbai is India’s most ‘forgetful’ city

According to Uber’s 2020 Lost & Found Index, Mumbai is India’s most ‘forgetful’ city followed by Kolkata and Allahabad. Predictably, phones, wallets, and bags topped the list of common forgotten items.

Delhi was #4 on the list with Bangalore ranking at #5. The top 10 most forgetful cities were rounded up by Kanpur, Mangalore, Agra, Varanasi, and Patna.

Some of the most unique items lost in an Uber in India were an artificial tooth, a teddy bear, balloons, exam notes, a bottle of Dettol, a broom, and a game of Tambola. According to the index, people were most likely to forget their lunch in the cab on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays while they were most likely to forget their business card holder on Mondays and Fridays.

Last year, the most ‘forgetful’ day was August 3, 2019. Other‘forgetful’ days included July 6, August 31, June 30 and July 27.

Understandably, the post-lunch lull between 1 PM and 3 PM was the most common time of day to forget items.

Indian-origin researcher leads team developing robots that can complete chores

A research team led by an Indian-origin scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are working on developing robots that can learn how to do basic chores. Their system gives robots the human-like ability to weigh ambiguous and contradictory requirements to meet an end goal. They compiled datasets of information about how eight objects - a mug, glass, spoon, fork, knife, dinner plate, small plate, and bowl - could be placed on a table in various configurations.

“The vision is to put programming in the hands of domain experts, who can program robots through intuitive ways, rather than describing orders to an engineer to add to their code,” said Ankit Shah, a graduate student in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AeroAstro) and the Interactive Robotics Group.

A robotic arm first observed randomly selected human demonstrations of setting the table with the objects.

Then, the researchers tasked the arm with automatically setting a table in a specific configuration, in real-world experiments and in simulation, based on what it had seen.

To succeed, the robot had to weigh many possible placement orderings, even when items were purposely removed, stacked, or hidden.

Normally, all that would confuse robots too much. But the researchers' robot made no mistakes over several real-world experiments, and only a handful of mistakes over tens of thousands of simulated test runs.

Robots are fine planners in tasks with clear "specifications," which help describe the task the robot needs to fulfill, considering its actions, environment, and end goal.

The researchers' system, called PUnS (for Planning with Uncertain Specifications), enables a robot to hold a "belief" over a range of possible specifications.

“The robot is essentially hedging its bets in terms of what's intended in a task, and takes actions that satisfy its belief, instead of us giving it a clear specification,” Shah noted.

The researchers hope to modify the system to help robots change their behaviour based on verbal instructions, corrections or a user's assessment of the robot's performance.

“Say a person demonstrates to a robot how to set a table at only one spot. The person may say, 'do the same thing for all other spots,' or, 'place the knife before the fork here instead,'” Shah added.

Disney Junior reveals India-inspired new heroine

Disney Junior is set to debut its newest CGI-animated, mystery-adventure children’s show titled Mira, Royal Detective inspired by Indian culture. The show is about a resourceful eight-year-old girl named Mira who is appointed as royal detective by the Queen and travels across the kingdom to solve mysteries and help people.

The show will feature plenty of South Asian voice talent like Kal Penn, Freida Pinto and Jameela Jamil. Mira is voiced by 16-year-old Leela Ladnier in her professional debut.

According to executive producer Sascha Paladino, “The biggest piece in terms of authenticity was making sure (they) included as many South Asian voices in the process as possible.”

He is previously known for the hit show Doc McStuffins about an African-American girl who aspires to be a doctor, using her stuffed toys as potential patients.

To ensure authenticity, the show included many South Asian voices in the creation process, including writers, designers, and even a cultural consultant.

Kal Penn, who voices Mira’s sidekick mongoose and is the son of Gujarati immigrants, is excited to introduce this cultural diversity to a new generation.

“They don't carry the emotional baggage or institutional memory of what it was like for us growing up with a lack of content on TV, they just don't have that,” he said. Mira, Royal Detective has already been renewed for a second season prior to the first season’s debut.

Indian student develops jasmine variety for all seasons

An Indian student in Prayagraj has developed a variety of star jasmine flower that can now withstand the cold weather conditions of north India. Extensively used in temples and worship rituals, jasmine flowers traditionally did well solely in warm weather.

The new jasmine variety has been developed by Chandra Shekhar, a M.Sc student of Sam Higginbotham University of Agriculture, Technology and Science (SHUATS) in Prayagraj. In north Indian states like Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh which witnesses temperatures as low as 3 to 4 degrees Celsius, the plant has not survived.

“After 10 months of trial and error, we were now be able to harvest the flowers in extreme winter, besides peak monsoon seasons too,” said Chandra Shekhar.

The new 'all-season star jasmine' has a long stem and bold buds with a pink tinge.

The buds bloom into a white star-shaped flower with usually 10 petals that are leaner and longer. The flowers are mildly fragrant and the leaves are dark green and glossy.

Dr S.S. Saravanan, associate professor of horticulture at SHUATS, and Chandra Shekhar's guide in the project, said that the longer life span and shelf life of the star jasmine could now promise round-the-year income for farmers.

“(It) can certainly change the pattern of flower cultivation here and revolutionize the agriculture sector. It can also replace the common jasmine because it is more affordable,” he said.

There is also a high demand for fragrant jasmine that is also used to make essential oils for a wide range of cosmetic products. IANS