Boris Johnson resigned as Conservative Party leader on July 7, and would stay as a caretaker Prime Minister until Autumn when a new leader is chosen
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LONDON (TIP): Even before Boris Johnson stepped out of 10 Downing Street on Thursday,July 7,to deliver his resignation speech as Conservative Party leader and triggering a leadership race for a new British prime minister,at least one Indian-origin candidate is already lined up to compete for the "best job in the world".Goan-origin thetheBraverman,currentlySuellaAttorneyGeneralinUKCabinet,isamong the early Tory members ofParliament to formally declare her leadership bid,with other Indian-origin colleagues Cabinet minister Rishi Sunak and Home Secretary Priti Patel also seen as possible contenders for the top job.The 42-year-old barrister and the government's seniormost legal official is likely to command some support within the proBrexit wing ofher party.
VOL 16 ISSUE 27 ● NEW YORK / DALLAS ● JULY 08 - 14, 2022 ● ENQUIRIES: 646-247-9458 ● info@theindianpanorama.com # 1 Indian American Weekly : Since 2006EVER TRUTHFULtheillustrINDEPENDENCEwww.theindianpanorama.newsDAYOFINDIA(August15)SpecialEditionWillbringoutaprofuselyatedspecialeditiontomark75thYearofIndependenceDayofIndia,beingcelebratedbygovernmentofIndiaas"AzadiKaAmritMahotsav". Articles and advertisements are invited for the historic occasion. All material-whether articles or advertisements- may please be mailed to salujaindra@gmail.com by August 2, 2022. FOR ANY QUESTIONS, PLEASE CALL 646-247-9458.
WASHINGTON,D.C.(TIP): The United States welcomed 661,500 new citizens as ofJune 15 in the fiscal year 2022,with India the second largest country ofbirth for naturalized American citizens in the first quarter after Mexico."Throughout our nation's history,the promise ofboth life and liberty,and the freedom to pursue happiness,is what has drawn millions from across the globe to call America their home," US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director M Jaddou said on Friday,July 1.
"I am putting myself forward because I believe that the 2019 manifesto is fit for purpose,presents a bold and inspiring vision for our country and I want to deliver on the promises contained in that manifesto.I want to embed the opportunities ofBrexit and tidy up the outstanding issues… and cut taxes," said Braverman.
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THE RACE TO SUCCEED JOHNSON HAS ALREADY STARTEDI.S.SALUJA
MOSCOW (TIP): The detained American basketball star Brittney Griner pleaded guilty to drug charges in a court near Moscow on Thursday,July 7,her lawyer said. "I'd like to plead guilty,your honor.But there was no intent.I didn't want to break the law," Ms.Griner said in English, which was then translated into Russian, Reuters reported.Ms.Griner has been detained in Russia since Feb.17,accused by the Russian authorities ofhaving a vape cartridge with hashish oil in her luggage at an airport near Moscow. Aleksandr Boikov,her lawyer,said cartridges appeared in Ms.Griner's luggage "because ofcarelessness."
Boris Johnson resigns in the face of a virtual revolt in the government and Tory Party
Indian-origin Attorney General Suella Braverman is an early contender for UK PM race
Among the top countries of birth for persons naturalizing in 2020, Mexico was the leading country (13 per cent of the total), followed by India (7.7 per cent). Photo foronlyrepresentation
Suella Braverman is among the early Tory members of Parliament to formally declare leadership bid File photo
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INDIA SECOND LARGEST COUNTRY OF BIRTH FOR NATURALIZED US CITIZENS
LONDON (TIP): Boris Johnson would have completed 3 years as Prime Minister ofUK on July 24.But that was not to be.A man who rode to power with an 80-seat majority three years ago as charismatic leader fell from grace as a host ofhis Ministers,including those who were appointed days earlier,publicly called for his resignation on Wednesday, July 6.Johnson,a journalist-turnedpolitician who rose to the pinnacles of power riding the Brexit wave,tried to cling on to his position till the last minute.But despite Downing Street's fightback,the intra-party rebellion spread like wildfire,engulfing even the loyalist inner circle.
Brittney Griner Pleads Guilty to Drug Charges in Russia
Brittney Griner arrived at a court hearing near Moscow , July 7 , where she pleaded guilty to possession.drugFilephoto
Lots ofsmall restaurants serving Malayalee vegetarian cuisine dot Palakkad.Freshly steamed vegetables with spices,cooked in coconut milk,with hot freshly steamed idlis are available at most roadside dhabas.The food at the high profile hotels is only for the gastronomically adventurous who like greasy food.Vegans can opt for fresh tropical fruits including water-melons, papayas,tender coconuts,pineapples which are available at the local market.
By train: PalakadRailway Station is the nearest railhead to reach Karripode.From Palakkadprivate buses ply to Karripode. All trains going to Kochi and Thiruvanthapuram via Coimbatore stop at Palakkad. Where to stay? Homestays are the only option for tourists who want to visit Parakund.A family offour can avail a homestay at Rs. 500/- per night,exclusive offood. Breakfast,lunch and dinner which includes traditional Kerala delicacies like idlis,dosas,injipuli (ginger with tamarind) ,rice and elisseri (pumpkin) can be home delivered from the small eateries at Karripode. Where to eat?
By air: The nearest airport to reach Pallaad is at Coimbatore.Coimbatore is connected by direct flights from most Indian cities.Karripode is a 45 km.drive from Coimbatore airport which takes approximately 60 to 90 minutes.
Traditional Kerala food at Karripode served on a plaintain leaf. Sunset over Karripode Village. Agiant tree at Karripode Village.
Visit to Karripode village in God’s own country
Murli Menon One has just returned after a close encounter with nature at Karripode village in Kerala State.Karripode is a 30 minute drive away from Palakkad,on the fringes ofthe "Neliampathy Hills". One passes the historical village of Chitoor along the way.We are welcomed by a group ofcattle egrets flying in formation ,as soon as we enter Palakkad. We start our jungle safari in an open jeep and soon find ourselves in the middle of thick evergreen forests with no habitation in sight as far as eye can see. After thirty minutes ofdriving through the jungle,one sees a large water body in the distance.We are informed by our guide that the water body is not a lake but a fresh water spring surrounded by rocks.The water is crystal clear and transparent and surrounded on all four sides by small rocky hills. We come to the edges ofthis giant lake to find hundreds ofbirds.It is a pleasure to watch a multitude ofcolourful birds at close quarters,as they flock to the edge of the water.The water is shallow and swampy and boating is not possible,so one has to be content watching the birds from a distance.However,the deep blue sky,reflected in the crystal clearness of the waters is a joy to behold.Watching the crimson sunset over the Parakund (Malayalam for Rocky lake) is memorable.Afterabriefstop to watch the birds, one goes deeper into the jungle to spot the Giant Malabar Squirrel.After an hour ofdriving through the jungle one can see a glimpse ofthis magnificentcreature.Giant Malabar Squirrels are black incolour but have two large elliptical brown spots one on each side oftheir body which makes them look incredibly attractive to behold.Giant Malabar Squirrels are shy creatures and disappear atat great speed on hearing the sound ofapproaching humans.Hence the ideal strategy to spot these gentle and shy friends,is to alight from the tree a kilometer away and stealthily trek towards them in a non menacing way and shoot with the zoom lens as I did.Giant Malabar Squirrels live on the peepal trees and use their sharp teeth to eat mangoes,papayas and jackfruits.Karripode,situated on the border with Tamil Nadu is a sanctuary for the Giant Malabar Squirrel and several other colourful birds.This extraordinary area gets partly inundated by about 2 feet of water in the monsoon months (JulySeptember).Once below sea level,this area was raised by earth movements which cut it offfrom the Eastern Ghats. It was broken up by later earth movements into flat farmlands (where people can be seen growing rice) and higher grounds with sandy,salt-free soil. The Giant Malabar Squirrel depends on the thorny scrub ofthe higher ground area for its feed.The other wildlife atKarripode includes blue bull,wolves, hyenas,desert foxes,jackals,wild-cats, and caracals. How to get there? Karripoide is 15 km.away from Palakkad Town.The non-stop drive from Palakkad to Karripode should not exceed thirty minutes. By road: Visitors traveling by road have to drive from Palakkad to Karripode which is approximately15 km.
(Murli Menon,is a travel writer,stress management consultant and authorbased at Ahmedabad,India.He is the author of"ZeNLP-Learning through stories" published by The Written Word Publications,"ZeNLP-the power to succeed" published by Sage publications and "ZeNLP-the power to relax" by New Dawn Press.He can be reached zenlp@rediffmail.com)at The lush green paddy fields at Karripode.
TRAVEL THE INDIAN PANORAMA FRIDAY JULY 8, 2022 36
Travel expression of culture and art 17th Issue Free online edition Naxos: An island of hidden treasures Exploring Malta in the summer Hope Kennedy: How I travelled all 7 continents before I was 30
Visit VillagKarripodeeInGod’sOwnCountry by Murli Menon INDIA
I have just returned after a close encounter with nature in the village of Karripode in the state of Kerala Karripode is located 30 minutes drive from Palakkad, on the fringes of the “Neliampathy Hills”.
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Passing through the historic village of Chittoor on the way, we are greeted by a group of Cattle Egrets flying information as we enter Palakkad We begin our jungle safari in an open jeep and soon find ourselves in the middle of thick evergreen forests with no dwellings insight as far as the eye can see. After thirty minutes of sailing through the jungle, we saw a large body of water in the distance Our guide informs us that the body of water is not a lake but a freshwater spring surrounded by rocks. The water is crystal clear and transparent and is surrounded on all four sides by small rocky hills We reached the edges of this giant lake to find hundreds of birds It is a pleasure to observe a multitude of colourful birds up close, as they fly to the water’s edge. The water is shallow and marshy and it is not possible to navigate, so one must be content to watch the birds from a distance However, the deep blue sky, reflected in the crystal clear waters, is a joy to behold. Seeing the crimson sunset over the Parakund (in the Malayalam language for Rocky Lake), is memorable.
Kerala, India
After a brief stop for bird watching, one heads deeper into the jungle to see the Malabar giant squirrel. After an hour of driving through the jungle, a glimpse of this magnificent creature can be seen Malabar Giant Squirrels are black in colour but have two large elliptical brown spots, one on each side of their body, making them incredibly attractive to look at Malabar giant squirrels are shy creatures and quickly disappear at the sound of approaching humans. So the ideal strategy for spotting these friendly and shy friends is to climb down from the tree a mile away and sneak upon them in a non threatening manner and shoot with the zoom lens as I did Malabar giant squirrels live in peepul trees and use their sharp teeth to eat mangoes, papayas, and jackfruit.
Karripode, situated on the border with Tamil Nadu, is a sanctuary for the Malabar giant squirrel and various other colourful birds. This extraordinary area is partially flooded with approximately 2 feet of water in the monsoon months (July September). Once below sea level, this area was uplifted by earthworks that cut it off from the Eastern Ghats It was divided by subsequent earthworks into flat farmland (where people can be seen growing rice) and higher ground with sandy, salt free soil. The Malabar giant squirrel depends on the thorny thickets of the higher ground area for food Other wildlife on Karripode includes blue bulls, wolves, hyenas, desert foxes, jackals, bobcats, and caracals
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By highway: Visitors travelling by road have to drive from Palakkad to Karripode, which is about 15 km away
Karripoide is 15 km away far from Palakkad city The non stop journey from Palakkad to Karripode should not exceed thirty minutes
Karripode also offers cultural experiences which will transport you to a mystical world Getting dressed in a traditional Kerala saree for girls with jasmine flowers in the hair Watching a traditional Kathakali dance. Learning the Kanniyarkali dance from local villagers. Traditional bathing at the village pond, fetching drinking water from a well or learning how to dehusk coconuts and rice using traditional methods How to get there?
By train: Palakkad Railway Station is the closest railway station to reach Karripode. From Palakkad, private buses go to Karripode All trains going to Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram via Coimbatore stop at Palakkad
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By air: The nearest airport to reach Palakkad is Coimbatore. Karripode is a 45 km drive from Coimbatore airport, which takes approximately 60 to 90 minutes
Homestays are the only option for tourists who want to visit Parakund A family of four can avail of a homestay at very affordable prices. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner, including traditional Kerala delicacies such as idlis (a preparation made from husked and fermented black lentils and rice), dosas (a preparation, made from a semi liquid fermented mixture of rice and beans, to which spices are added), injipuli (tamarind ginger), rice, and elisseri (pumpkin), can be home delivered from the small eateries at Karripode
Where to stay?
Where to eat?
Murli Menon ZeNLP ZeNLP learning through stories 28
Lots of small restaurants serving Malayalee vegetarian cuisine dot Palakkad Freshly steamed vegetables with spices cooked in coconut milk, with hot freshly steamed idlis are available at most roadside dhabas (roadside restaurants) The food at the high profile hotels is only for the gastronomically adventurous who like greasy food Vegans can opt for fresh tropical fruits including watermelons, papayas, tender coconuts, pineapples, which are available at the local market
www.nationalheraldindia.com www.facebook.com/nationalheraldindia/ @NH_India www.navjivanindia.com, www.qaumiawaz.com New Delhi • 28 November 2021 • Pages: 12 • National • `20 RNI: DELENG/2017/73913, Postal Reg. No. DL(C)-01/1410/2020-22, License To Post Without Pre Payment No. U(C)-126/2020-22 pg6,7 pg9,10 MVA@2 M A rquee pg4,5 spectru M PM Modi’s chilling charMs did the PM ever attempt to persuade the farmers? if yes, how? shawl weavers left in the cold why Pashmina ‘Kani’ shawls artisans are calling it quits
BooK: unshacKling india will india be able to steer clear of the middle-income trap by 2047?
object of desire: PM Modi before before boarding the shinkansen bullet train in japan with japanese counterpart shinzo abe in 2016 I will make BJP pay heavily for every hour Deshmukh spends in jail. I will ensure that they are decimated sharad Pawar What is more important, spending Rs.10,000 crore on a new parliament building that is not needed, or saving lives of the people? sanjay raut the city an overtly Gujarati flavour. Morarji Desai had wanted Bombay city for Gujarat's capital in case of a bifurcation of the bilingual Bombay state because he felt the city was built by Gujaratis. The Gujaratis had migrated to Bombay after the British had shifted their main commercial port from Surat to Bombay. Bombay until then was just a naval command and a fishing hub of the original inhabitants, the Kolis. The fishermen were unlikely to have turned themselves into the kind of entrepreneurs that the Gujaratis were. Shifting the port city from Surat, which the Mughals too had used for trade, was a loss for Gujarat, which lost some of its traditional significance.Narendra Modi, suggest these conspiracy theories, was determined to reduce Bombay/ Mumbai to its former insignificance. The best way to do this was not just to alter its demographics but also to destroy all its British era and post-independence institutions that made Mumbai the commercial capital of India.Accordingly, his earliest attempt soon after 2014 was to try and shift the Bombay Port Trust to Porbander. It was fiercely resisted by the Shiv Sena, which had a robust
Mumbai Bristles even as the Maha vikas aghadi government completes two years in office on sunday, its relations with the union government are getting frostier. while the state’s former home minister remains in jail on charges levelled by a former police commissioner who remains ‘absconding’, enforcement directorate’s summon sent to the chief secretary of the state is another pointer to the breakdown. sujata anandan traces the historical faultlines dropped the project but Modi saw in it just the weapon to crush all opponents including an industrial house whose head in 2002, as a member of the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), had had the temerity to say to Modi’s face that riots like the one that happened in Gujarat did not make for a conducive atmosphere for investment. It was Maharashtra Navnirman Sena president Raj Thackeray who first spotted the game that was afoot and warned the people. During his 2019 Lok Sabha campaign he warned his constituency that if they did not resist the project, they stood to be rail-roaded by the Bullet train. The UPA had dropped the project because there were too many buildings across the train route in crowded Mumbai and a superfast train like the bullet train needed a straight run without too many twists and turns to avoid derailments andButaccidents.Narendra Modi decided to bulldoze all the buildings on the mapped route of the Bullet train, most of which were occupied by middle and lower middle-class Maharashtrians. Affluent Gujaratis living in posh areas away from the train route would have continued undisturbed but the demographic balance in the city between Marathis and Gujaratis, it was feared, would get altered forever. On the train route was also some private land belonging to a business house, which had earmarked it for a future project. They offered to buy the government a bit of adjoining land that would have merited a shallow “S" diversion of the Bullet train. But Modi was not having any of that. He had a score to settle with the business house and its head. The business house resisted and found the Devendra Fadnavis government stalling many of their projects. They went to the Bombay High Court. Shortly thereafter the Maha Vikas Aghadi government was sworn in. The new chief minister Uddhav Thackeray decided Modi could run his Bullet train in Gujarat but it would not cross the threshold of Maharashtra. But the business house continues to be at the receiving end of Modi and Shah’s wrath. The Bullet train was, some sections in Mumbai believe, a diabolical plan to rid Mumbai of native Maharashtrians and give workers’ union there. They would not have moved to Gujarat unlike the white collar staff. Had they lost their livelihoods and returned to their villages, it would have devastated the Shiv Sena. That is when the cracks in the BJP-Sena alliance first widened.TheSena was in power with the BJP at the time but Subhash Desai, a close confidant of Uddhav Thackeray, who was Maharashtra industries minister then wrote to Modi bitterly protesting the move. It did not happen because all the commercial stakeholders too resisted, finding it easier to do business from Mumbai rather than Porbander. But Narendra Modi held the Sena leadership responsible for instigating them. What would have happened to the vast acres of Bombay Port Trust –the largest tract of institutional land in Mumbai?Unionminister Nitin Gadkari, who was also the surface transport minister, was believed to be ready with a huge redevelopment plans involving malls, amusement parks, high end housing etc. Who would have benefitted and who could have afforded all that? Not the displaced port workers certainly, who may have ended up scrubbing utensils in the rich homes there, thus realising the role that Morarji Desai, the first Gujarati who set off such distrust and resentment between the two communities, had visualised for Maharashtrians years ago! Modi has also tried to shift the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to Ahmedabad but failed again as it was a well thought out postIndependence strategy to link it to RBI in Nagpur which holds all of India's gold and mint reserves -- so placed to prevent easy raids by air or sea. Ahmedabad does not have the same strategic value. He was also foiled in his attempt to shift the diamond bourse from Mumbai to Surat by fellow Gujaratis themselves. It is a business based on trust and the most important part of this trust are the angadias or couriers who move crores worth of diamonds across and to other cities without losing even a single gem. It is a family tradition for the traders as well as angadias, a significant number of whom are Muslims. During the 1992-93 Mumbai riots many of them had escaped to their ancestral villages, bringing the diamond business to a standstill for months--
uddhav’s BaPtisM BY fire no cM before him has faced so many challenges in so short a time resource crunch a challenge Maha govt forced to juggle priorities amid financial constraints
ative
Maharashtra cM uddhav thackeray calls on the prime minister the traders trusted no one else; they wouldn’t trust couriers in any other city. These are some of the resentments that have clouded Centre-state relations between Maharashtra and Delhi as Prime Minister Modi and the Union Home Minister are unable to resist turning the political into the personal and the personal into the political. Chief ministers of Maharashtra have in the past complained of stepmotherly treatment to Maharashtra, but mostly for economic reasons. Not quite understanding the devolution of finances, they have cribbed about the low share of taxes when Bombay’s collections are the highest. The state has complained in the past for proportionately receiving less funds than Uttar Pradesh and Bihar from the Planning Commission. Even after the abolition of the Planning Commission, the grievances of the state have“Itremained.isasthough we are being punished for being richer and more progressive,” more than one CM has complained in the past. But now MVA grumbles that the state is being punished for political reasons. Besides holding back GST dues and other GST related issues, faced by all states, New Delhi has sought to punish Maharashtra by starving the state of funds and by delaying clearances and permissions. Nothing has come to Maharashtra in recent years from the central road funds, despite the Union Minister for Roads Transport & Highways Nitin Gadkari being from Maharashtra. Environmental clearances have been withheld and much needed funds for disaster management after excessive rains were not provided – though New Delhi had given Kerala such funds, demanding it back later!The situation at one time got so bad that Shiv Sena warned that if the Centre did not course correct and maintain proper federal relations with states, there could be a danger of states separating from the Indian Union on the lines of the break-up of the Soviet Union.
d elhi cold & co
“What is more important, spending 10,000 crore rupees on a new parliament building that is not needed or saving lives of the people?” asked Sanjay Raut, Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP. Instead of spending so much money on an unnecessary building, the nation would have been served better if the amount had been spent on improving health services, Raut added. The Modi government has been unable to break or topple the Maharashtra government nor has its use of central agencies yielded results. Yet they have cooked up a case against close Sharad Pawar acolyte Anil Deshmukh and slammed him behind bars. Pawar recently said, “I will make BJP pay heavily for every hour Deshmukh spends in jail. I will ensure that they are decimated.” Added Raut, “Why just make them pay for every hour? We will make them pay for every second.” The statements indicate a complete breakdown of relations. Rajya Sabha MP Kumar Ketkar says, “Had relations been businesslike, Sharad Pawar is not one to jeopardise Centre-state relations. He has sensed it is time for the final battle. And it would be a grim and bitter fight, it seems.
looKing BacK to the roots cinema has so much more to show of the indian ‘reality’ today MB s ujata a nandan Mumbai Mumbai aahe aamchi. Naahin konacha baapchi! (Mumbai belongs to us. Not to anybody else's father) the aggressive claim was directed at Gujaratis in Mumbai by the Samyukta Maharashtra Sangathana as they agitated to retain Bombay as Maharashtra's capital. The retort was swift in coming. Burra. Dila Mumbai tumchi. Ata bhaandi ghasaa aamchi!” (OK, Given Mumbai to you. Now get back to washing our utensils!), snapped Morarji Desai, the then chief minister of the bilingual Bombay state that included parts of Kutch and Saurashtra. Desai's condescending and somewhat contemptuous response implied that Gujaratis owned Bombay and Maharashtrians were only fit for scrubbing theirThatutensils.bitter exchange of acrimonious words, the subsequent morcha against Desai, his orders to the police to fire on people and martyrdom of 106 protestors had set the tone for Marathi-Gujarati relations and distrust over the Whiledecades.Desai’s jibe at Maharashtrians being unequal or inferior was contained by the statesmanship of towering leaders like Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Y.B. Chavan, six decades later the bitterness and rivalry seem to have been resurrected by Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. Both are perceived to have misused their absolute power at the Centre and brute majority in Parliament in defiance of all Constitutional norms in Centre-State relations. Most states not ruled by the BJP have had cause for a complaint in this regard but Maharashtra has been receiving exceptionally stepmotherly treatment from the duo. But it goes beyond even the stepmotherly. It has to do with the very survival of Mumbai as a Maharashtrian city and its asmita (pride in its existence). Even before the Maha Vikas Aghadi government came to power in Maharashtra, Devendra Fadnavis, the previous BJP chief minister, was accused of quietly signing away Mumbai’s assets to Gujarat. Fadnavis (he hailed from Vidarbha and in any case did not care much about Mumbai) neither had the heart nor the stomach to stand up to the duo in NowDelhi.itis different. Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray belongs to Mumbai and the raison d'etre of his party is the Mumbaikar. He is clearly opposed to allowing any decimation of the Marathi soul and essence of the city (Maharashtrians are around 45% of the population, North Indians being another substantial group, Gujaratis a smaller portion of the larger whole). let us begin with the much-hyped bullet train project of Narendra Modi. It was not originally Modi’s idea. The UPA under Dr Manmohan Singh had ordered a survey and found the project was not feasible and was not commercially viable. They then
Ever since cinema was invented at the turn of the 19th century, there has been an ongoing debate whether films must cater exclusively to that abstract notion of ‘entertainment’ or whether they must reflect at least a vestige of the reality. As it happens, the most unerasable films have sought to present both elements, outside the world of documentaries of course. Currently, the Indian reality is the unnecessarily prolonged time of over a year taken by the central government to answer the protests of farmers and repeal certain laws. According to guesstimates more than 60 percent of the nation’s 1.3 billion people still depend primarily on agriculture for their livelihood. For years now, debts and bankruptcies have been driving farmers to high rates of suicide. Uncannily, in November this year, Tamil film Jai Bhim directed by T.J. Gnanavel, proved to be prescient, vivifying the age-old exploitation of the Irulu Dalit tribe labour force, hired at a pittance by landowners to control the infestation of rats and poisonous snakes in the farm and fields. Culled from the true life-story of Justice K. Chandru (enacted in a younger avatar by Suriya) who strove for securing justice for the workers, the dramaturgy focused on the helplessness of a pregnant woman (excellently portrayed by Lijomol Jose) whose husband has been arbitrarily imprisoned. Fashioned in the conventional framework of mainstream cinema – with melodrama, stirring dialogue and shock tactics – Jai Bhim highlighted the potential of populist endeavours to blast the lid off deeplyentrenched social inequities. The question is whether there will be many more such exposes, given the hopefully reformist repercussions of the farmers’ protests. Clearly, documentaries are already in the works, an ideal reference point for which could well be journalist P. Sainath’s documetary Nero’s Guests (2009), which discussed the tragedy of farmer suicides. Fortuitously there have been recallable attempts to focus on rural unrest, right from the pre-Independence era. Two prominent examples: are Moti Gidwani’s Kisan Kanya (1939), on debt-burdened farmers derived from a story by Saadat Hasan Manto, and K.A. Abbas’ debut-making Dharti Ke Lal (1946) which tracked the Bengal famine of 1943. Unfortunately, these have been largely forgotten since they didn’t find a receptive audience during the tumultuous final phase of the freedomPost-Independence,struggle. with optimism high, the attempt was to emphasise that the traditional rural system could co-exist with the Nehruvian ideal of industrialiastion. There would be insurmountable obstacles but they could be overcome with resilience and pragmatism, as best exemplified by Bimal Roy’s Do Bigha Zamin (1959), in which a farmer family played by Balraj Sahni and Nirupa Roy, aspired to save their little acre from a mill Influencedowner.byVittorio De Sica’s neo-realist The Bicycle Thieves, here’s a certified classic which still rings true. Two years before that, Mehboob Khan had premiered his epic Mother India, in which a single mother combated a lecherous money-lenderCharacters had to be either white (virtuous) or black (evil) then. Going against the norm, Khan presented one of the sons (Sunil Dutt) of the eponymous mother in strong grey shades, thus investing a certain complexity and depth. The director had never been quite satisfied with his earlier offering Mother (1940), and vastly improved the original with Mother India –incidentally its plot premise was to be rejigged within an urban backdrop by the Salim-Javed scripted Deewaar (1975), which created the ‘angry young man’ sobriquet for Amitabh Bachchan. Literary sources were tapped by Heera Moti (1959) directed by Krishen Chopra. Inspired by a Munshi Premchand story, it narrated the plight of a farming couple (Balraj Sahni-Nirupa Roy) who must save their oxen from a tyrannical zamindar. And there was Trilok Jetley’s Go-Daan (1963), with Raaj Kumar and Kamini Kaushal, also adapted from a Premchand story, which sided with the tillers of the land, embellished with music by Pandit Ravi Shankar. There is scant information, however, about Hindustan Hamara (1950), featuring Dev Anand and directed by the German filmmaker Paul Zils. It is doubtful whether the print still exists. As the years rolled, farmers for a considerable length of time were presented as heroes with an indomitable never-give-up spirit. The public favourite turned out to be Manoj Kumar’s 1967 colourful musical Upkar (which amplified prime minister Lal Bhadur Shastri’s ‘Jai Jawan! Jai Kisan’ slogan). After this there was a lull, with the 1970s focusing on vendetta and showdowns, packed if not with Bachchan then with the most marketable actors on the Intermittently,scene.there have been Dulal Guha’s Dharti Kahe Pukaar Ke (1969), Ashutosh Gowariker’s Lagaan (2001), Anusha Rizvi’s Peepli Live (2010) and Nila Madhab Panda’s Kadvi Hawa (2017). In the off-mainstream sphere, the two most striking films on the conditions of the rural have-nots, are Satyajit Ray’s Ashani Sanket (1973), a throwback to the Great Famine of 1943 in Bengal during World War II. Ray’s most strenuous work, it has been listed in the New York Times Guide to the Best 1,000 Films. Shyam Benegal’s Manthan (1976) is also enshrined in memory, with Smita Patil’s bravura perfomance in the retelling of the story of the setting up of a milk cooperative in Anand, Gujarat. It was crowd-funded by 50,000 people who donated Rs. 2 each. To be sure, there are scores of films on the ‘haq’ of farmers. My aim is not to make a listicle at all. Neither is it humanly possible to access them all. The point is that with the repeal of the farm laws, there’s so much scope for relevant content, today, be it in cinema or on streaming platforms. Honestly, it’s time to return to the roots. (The writer is a veteran film critic based in Mumbai)
Coined by O. Henry in a 1904 collection of short stories, the term ‘Banana republic’ referred to the central American country of Honduras, which exported bananas to the US. The term denotes a small country hopelessly dependent on the export of usually a single natural resource and allowing it to be controlled by foreign interests. The craze for the tropical fruit in the United States created Banana bar ons and magnates, who controlled the politics and economics of Honduras and exploited the people. Two American companies, Cuyamel Fruit and United Fruit, fuelled the craze. Cuyamel was one of the ancestors of Chiquita Brands International, which still sells bananas. Those who wish to replace all ‘alien’ words in Hindi with Sanskrit words, may be upset to learn that the Sanskrit word for a ‘holy’ fruit like banana: Mocha and Kadali (father of the Hindi term Kela) are not from the Vedas. They are from the tribal Mundari language. Mundari was spoken by tribal inhabitants of India long before Vedic Aryans made their way into the northern hinterland.Thetropical Kela must have been a new fruit for them. Anyway, they loved all three varieties, the sweet, brackish (Kashay) and the slightly bitter. The Mundari names, Kadali and Mocha became part of the Sanskrit lexicon and gradually came to be associated as a fruit dear to godTVishnu.hename Banana came from Africa, meaning a single finger or toe. This term arrived in America and Europe with slaves and colonisers and banana seeds. The (British) word plantain is adopted from Spanish colonisers. Plantano in Spanish means planta or a spreading leaf. In India the Musas species of bananas came from Malaya and Australia. By the 15th century bananas were also being cultivated in Cyprus, courtesy the Portuguese. Spanish traders from Africa introduced it in Spain in the 16th century while Portuguese sailors took it to the South Americas. As they colonized tropical countries starting from Jamaica, the Portuguese started cultivating bananas in Latin America in large farms using slave labour. Till as late as the Victorian period, bananas were not widely known in Europe or US;but today bananas grown in the USA have international brands like Chiquita and Dole.
MrinalKathaFoodPande Tropical 'Kela' must have been a new fruit for Aryans travel Banana, but not from the vedas Murli Menon The shapad at Palakkad railway station is the best food I have ever eaten at a railway cafeteria in India. After enjoying the red matta rice with injipuli (ginger curry with tamarind), I boarded a local bus to Karripode village 15 kilometres away. I always prefer to take the Konkan Rail rather than fly to Coimbatore airport, as nostalgic memories of olan, kalan, ishtu (stew in Malayalam) remind me of my childhood train journeys and food memories of the famous Olavakode railway cafeteria at Olavakode junction, rechristened Palakkad Junction in recent years. I checked into Anthure Homestay at Karripode as it is the only option for tourists, who want to visit parakund. We enjoyed a vegan breakfast of idlis with coconut chutney tempered with curry leaves and mustard seeds. I dug into traditional Kerala delicacies like elisseri (pumpkin cooked in a coconut gravy) and sambar with hot dosas at withendlessriceevergreenmyselfformation.groupwayvillagefromHillsfringestheaatbeforethattukadaManikutty'satAdicherra,trekkingtothehilltopKunnankaduforestsforbird’seyeviewofgreenery.KarripodevillageontheoftheNeliampathytooklessthan30minutesPalakkad.IpassedthehistoricalofChitturalongtheandwaswelcomedbyaofcattleegretsflyinginIsoonfoundinthemiddleofthickforestsandverdantfieldssurroundedbyrowsofcoconuttrees,nohabitationinsightasfar as eye couldAftersee.thirty minutes of cruising through the jungle in an open jeep, I saw a large water body in the distance. I was informed by my guide that the water body is not a lake but a fresh water spring surrounded by rocks. The water was crystal clear. I drove to the edges of this giant lake to find hundreds of birds. It is a pleasure to watch a multitude of colourful birds at close quarters, as they flock to the edge of the water. The water is shallow and swampy and boating is not possible, so one had to be content watching the birds from a distance. However, the deep blue sky, reflected in the crystal clearness of the waters was a joy to behold. Watching the crimson sunset over the parakund (In Malayalam 'para' means rock and 'kund' is pond) was equally memorable. Iventured deeper into the jungle to spot the Giant Squirrel.MalabarAfter an hour of driving through the jungle I could see a glimpse of this magnificent creature. Giant Malabar Squirrels are black in colour but have two large elliptical brown spots, one on each side of their body which makes them look incredibly attractive to behold. The squirrels live on peepal trees and use their sharp teeth to eat mangoes, papayas and jackfruits. Giant Malabar Squirrels are shy creatures and disappear at great speed on hearing the sound of approaching humans. Hence the ideal strategy to spot these gentle and shy friends, is to alight a short distance away and stealthily walk towards them in a non- menacing way and shoot with the zoom lens. Karripode, situated on the border with Tamil Nadu is a sanctuary for the Giant Malabar Squirrel and several other colourful birds like the Malabar Hornbill. This extraordinary area gets partly inundated by about two feet of water in the monsoon months (July-September). Once below sea level, this area was raised by earth movements which cut it off from the Eastern Ghats. It was broken up by later earth movements into flat farmlands (where people can be seen growing matta rice) and higher grounds with sandy, salt-free soil. The Giant Malabar Squirrel depends on the thorny scrub of the higher ground area for its feed. The other wildlife at Karripode includes blue bull, wolves, hyenas, desert foxes, jackals, wild-cats, and caracals. I took a dip in Therukolam, the golden lake, where all temples of Karripode hid their gold underwater, after Karpaswamy (family diety of the village) protected the gold from Tipu Sultan’s army by dropping the gold into the middle of the lake in large treasure chests, protected by bhutatans (ghosts), who are rumoured to protect the treasure to this very day, as narrated by the locals. (Murli Menon is a travel writer, stress management consultant and author based in Ahmedabad)
Umpteen number of songs have been sung and composed about bananas even as failed republics have come to be known as Banana Republics(majority of them being Latin American ones). Bananas are an inalienable part of traditional Indian life. Weddings to the recitation of Hari Katha or Satya Narayan Katha are incomplete without the Kadali Stambh (banana tree trunks serving as pillars for a canopy). But in Thailand it is believed that ghostly spirits reside in a banana tree and manifest themselves as beautiful women. To prevent them from appearing, a silk cloth is tied around banana trees. In Uttarakhand the autumn festival season is kickstarted by the fair to the hill goddess Nanda Devi, protectress of the area. Legend associates her with banana groves where she and her sister sought shelter from a predatory demon buffalo. They later killed the demon Durga-like, but as a gesture of thanksgiving to the grove, each year the local artisans craft their images from banana tree trunks which are immersed after being worshipped for nine straight days at her temple in Almora.TheMahabharata also talks of a kingdom high up in the Himalayas called Kadali Vana. It was ruled entirely by women who had barred entry to men. Legend has it that Matsendranath, a great Yogi and musician, somehow gained entry into this exotic feminist heaven and got completely enraptured. It took his disciple Gorakhnath a long journey from the plains into Nepal before he was prised away from the enticing Kadal Desh. (The writer is Group Editorial Advisor of National Herald)
Bananas arrived in India early. Buddhist monks were permitted to eat the green bananas, not the ripe ones which might have had insects hiding within. Indian Ayurveda classifies banana as healthy but cold food that controls bileForeign(Pitta).visitors to India were struck by the widespread use of bananas of various varieties, especially in Kerala, where as in Caribbean cuisine, bananas are used for both sweet and savory dishes, fried into chips and fried in batter. Kerala style plantain chips fried in coconut oil and fresh banana fritters are popular snacks and desserts from south east Asia to England today. Banana hearts are used as an exotic vegetable in Bengal and Assam. There are references to great mystic seer Chaitanya Mahaprabhu being served ‘Thod’ a delicacy prepared out of the heart of the banana stem. The flavour is said to be close to artichoke hearts and considered a great delicacy in Bengal. In Bengal Mochar Ghonto, curried heart of banana flower, and fish steamed with mustard paste and juice of Gondhoraj variety of lemons are also Bananadelicacies.leavesbeing large, flexible and waterproof, make for ideal and disposable food plates. They are traditionally used in India for serving food, particularly on holy occasions and within temples. Being biodegradable and available everywhere in plenty, washed properly, they are also a more hygienic way of serving cooked food than badly washed dishes in eateries. While in the north bananas are eaten mostly as fruit or as offering to gods, down south the green varieties are used to make various delicacies like Avialand a sweet dish called Koaleputtu, a mash of ripe bananas, roast rice powder, jaggery and wedges of coconut all steamed together in banana leaf packages, to be eaten hot or cold. The tender core of the banana tree trunk is also used in curries in Kerala, Burma and North Eastern states in India.
rural unrest time to look back to the roots haven’t we had enough of outer space gremlins, assor ted ghosts, mafia dons, terrorists, media creeps, disco deewanes and smalltown smarties? Cinema has so much more to show of the indian ‘reality’ today
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Miscellany10 www.nationalheraldindia.com 28 noveMber 2021
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