My Model of the Moment

"It is difficult to define what sexy is. Each person has his own look and their own sexiness. Someone might not be sexy in their looks but sexy in their character and with their communication. It is different from person to person." Ricky Tang

Okay, I'm answering Susie Q's question as to who my model of the moment is, and I'm saying it's Ricky Tang.

He began modelling in 2007, and now he's on the top of my rather exhaustive list of favourite male models.

"Five things I can't live without? Family, my partnership, friends, my iPod, and sports" is what he says. BTW, in case you've heard about a model called Jeremy Tang : that's his cybertwin.

During a Paris shoot last year, Ricky encountered a very challenging shoot concept, "The photographer asked me to jump for the photo and I did it for 3 hours. After that I could not walk anymore because my muscles were quite sore the next day."

Since I love food, guess what, we share the same passion "I love prawns. Whenever I go to a seafood buffet, my friends are amazed that I can eat up to 4 plates of prawns and keep on eating even though everyone else finished."

As an experienced model, Ricky knows that there are no shortcuts in Modeling, Ricky shares some pieces of advise for new models, "Models should always try to understand what the photographer wants to achieve and show the respective feeling with the pose. They have to take care of their looks and body because this is their livelihood, even when it means to take a diet. Most importantly is not to be shy with the camera"

Pretty Exhausting, I might add

Well, my beauties, as you already know, I'm having the time of my life teaching these kids video production at Kilkari, the Bihar Bal bhawan.

Apart  that climate change has hit us with a sledgehammer, and that the April sun beats down with like a Maniac in mid-May, things are really cooking at the workshop.

The kids are full of enthusiasm, and pranks as well. And there are just five more days left.

 Five hectic days with a lot of ambitious planning ... and then reality gets in the way!

The children have learnt to make their caption cards, they've completed one on-camera editing exercise. And now, they're doing their small two minute projects.

These two guys are busy discussing the finer point of their script, and they can't seem to agree on something!

And as for these two, they're devising an impromptu wrestling match so that the other kids can get some camera practice!

And yesterday, I was so bushed that I could barely hobble up the stairs to my flat!

Wonderful Housewives

"Desperate Housewives" is one of my favourite television shows. It's not as over-the-top and totally pointless like 'Ugly Betty' [which, by the way, is majorly Camp]. In fact, the five Desperate Housewives get into all sorts of bizarre situations [not entirely unbelievable], and inspite of all their fumblings and stumblings, learn a lot about life along the way [and so do we viewers].

You may not agree with me off the bat, but if you look beyond the surface, it's a wonderful series, with several layers, and a lot of good old value education wrapped up inside. It helps me as an individual to recignise that everyone is different, and that people who may seem a little srange, are in fact, like the Lobo Song "a little different from you, a little different from me, but a lot like the man who walked through Galilee."

Desperate Housewives is all about going beyond the stereotype, and realising what a wonderful world it is when we have people of all shapes, shades, sizes  living in our neighbourhood. It doesn't matter whether they are strippers, or on the run, or old crackpots who don't recycle. there's potential for being an angel, and a devil in each one of us!

 

Lights! Camera! Action!

On the 25th of March, twenty four kids from 'Kilkari' Bihar Bal Bhawan [Bihar's House of Children : a government initiative to promote creativity among kids] got together to experience their first 'video film making workshop'.

These childen, between the ages of nine and sixteen will spend ten days handlig cameras, writing scripts, learning composition, and finally, coming up with short projects of their own.

It's a joy working with these kids from working class families. 

It's my first experience working with a government organistaion, and it's amazing how well run Kilkari is. The staff went especially out of their way to ensure that the 'red tape' was kept at a minimum.

There are two very helpful ladies at the workshop site who ensure that even the minor details and requirements are taken care of, and that my team is supplied with lots of tea!

The kids are wonderfully refreshing. The reason why I do these workshops is that they leave me greatly enriched, and absolutely, excruciatingly, exhausted at the end of the day!

Anything but Gay

The love that daren't speak its name in Malawi...

When 26-year-old Steven Monjeza and 20-year-old Tiwonge Chimbalanga celebrated an engagement ceremony in the African nation Malawi, it was symbolic of their love. Then, they were arrested under the country’s 'decency laws' and kept confined for months in a maximum-security prison.

As the case has dragged on, Malawi has become yet another African nation making headlines for its anti-gay laws, along with Uganda, which has  proposed a barbaric law for the death penalty for those with same sex orientation.

Earlier this month, the trial of Monjeza and Chimbalanga was postponed. The judge agreed to allow the defense to use the additional time to gather witnesses. Although the postponement allows the defense more time, Chivuli Ukwimi of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission criticized the court’s decision, as the 'most recent in a line of deeply troubling decisions and actions by the Malawian authorities in this case', including the decision to deny bail to Steven and Tiwonge. The government claims that their continued incarceration is for their own 'safety.'

Meanwhile,  the men have been forced to undergo intrusive physical examinations for authorities to 'determine' whether they have engaged in anal sex.

A protest that took place March 22 in London condemned the months that the men have spent in prison since their arrest late last December. Gay Malawi refugee Edi Phiri spoke at the protest, saying, "I urge my President and government to intervene to release Steven and Tiwonge. These two men don’t deserve the way they are suffering in jail. It is unfair to treat Steven and Tiwonge like this." Noted Phiri, "Malawi’s anti-gay laws are not African. They were imposed by the British colonizers nearly two centuries ago."

From their prison cell in Malawi, Steven and Tiwonge sent a message to me in London, urging international pressure to secure their release.

Tiwonge and Steven have been arrested, prosecuted and held in jail solely because of their sexual orientation.. All civilised people want them released and  all charges dropped. It's time to  repeal Malawi’s anti-homosexuality laws. These laws violate the equality and non-discrimination provisions of Article 20 of the Malawian Constitution and Articles 2, 3 and 4 and the African Charter of Human and People’s Rights, which Malawi has signed and pledged to uphold.

Tiwonge and Steven love each other and have harmed no one. But they could be jailed for up to 14 years" under Malawi’s decency laws.

International pressure has been mounting on the men’s behalf. Amnesty International has "adopted" the two as "prisoners of conscience". The director of AI’s British branch, Kate Allen states that Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga have committed no criminal offense and that it is vital that as many people as possible join in writing to the Malawi authorities calling on them to release the two men."

Members of the British Parliament’s House of Commons have signed a motion that calls for the men’s release. International monetary supporters have also warned that rights abuses in Malawi--including abuses aimed at gays--could impact aid revenue.

Malawi’s GLBT advocates have been energized by the case, but public sentiment in Malawi also seems to be hardening against gays, according to a Feb. 3 article posted at Voice of America’s Web site VOANews.com. Malawi journalist Watipaso Mzungu was quoted in the article as saying, "Malawi has its own values and structures, which should be respected. So we don’t necessarily expect MPs from Britain or anywhere else to dictate to Malawi on what they should do."

The article noted that human rights advocates who had spoken out on behalf of Monjeza and Chimbalanga had also been allegedly taken into custody by police, in one case for the possession of "pornographic" material related to sexual health. The article also noted that the Centre for the Development of People had come under pressure from the Malawi government, as well as various religious factions, including Muslims, Christians, and Hindus.

It is suggested that the repudiation of Malawi’s anti-gay laws may lead to the possibility that laws against homosexuals will be made even more stringent.

The trial’s delays may be over soon. Following two attempts by the defense to have the case dismissed, and two occasions on which the men have been denied bail, Magistrate Nyakwawa Usiwa Usiwa has ruled that the trial will commence on April 3. "In the balance of probability the State has established a prima-facie case against the two as charged," Usiwa Usiwa ruled, according to a March 22 Reuters story.

Outdated and discrminatory Colonial laws, fashioned by the Victorian values of the time still operate in many colonial countries, and the situation in India is not very different. there exist enough and more 'law given' opportunities to harass and demean sexuality minorities: Gay, lesbian, transgendered, Bisexual. and Queer people in South Asia as well.

India: too conservative to change!

The last major problem in India is an old problem and can be divided into two parts that've been two sides of the same coin since government was invented: bureaucracy and corruption.

It take triplicates to register into a hotel.

To get a SIM card for one's phone is like wading into a jungle of red-tape and photocopies one is not likely to emerge from in a good mood, much less satisfied with customer service.

Getting train tickets is a terrible ordeal, first you have to find the train number, which takes 30 minutes, then you have to fill in the form, which is far from easy, then you have to wait in line to try and make a reservation, which takes 30 minutes at least and if you made a single mistake on the form back you go to the end of the queue, or what passes for a queue in India.

The government is notoriously uninterested in the problems of the commoners, too busy fleecing the rich, or trying to get rich themselves in some way shape or form. Take the trash for example, civil rubbish collection authorities are too busy taking kickbacks from the wealthy to keep their areas clean that they don't have the time, manpower, money or interest in doing their job.

 Rural hospitals are perennially understaffed as doctors pocket the fees the government pays them, never show up at the rural hospitals and practice in the cities instead.

I could go on for quite some time about my perception of India and its problems, but in all seriousness, I don't think anyone in India really cares. And that, to me, is the biggest problem.

India is too conservative a society to want to change in any way.

Mumbai, India's financial capital is about as filthy, polluted and poor as the worst city imaginable in Vietnam, or Indonesia- and being more polluted than Medan, in Sumatra is no easy task. The biggest rats I have ever seen were in Medan!

One would expect a certain amount of, yes, I am going to use this word, backwardness, in a country that hasn't produced so many Nobel Laureates, nuclear physicists, imminent economists and entrepreneurs. But India has all these things and what have they brought back to India with them? Nothing.

The rich still have their servants, the lower castes are still there to do the dirty work and so the country remains in stasis. It's a shame. Indians and India have many wonderful things to offer the world, but I'm far from sanguine that India will amount to much in my lifetime.

Now, have at it, call me a cultural imperialist, a spoiled child of the West and all that. But remember, I've been there. I've done it.. And I've seen 50 other countries on this planet and none, not even Ethiopia, have as long and gargantuan a laundry list of problems as India does.

And the bottom line is, I don't think India really cares.

Too complacent and too conservative.

Bihar Day

Bihar celebrates a 72 hour long State Day for the first time. I don't recall a Bihar day being observed in the past 15 years, or may I say in living memory!

The kids of the Bal Bhawan were all dressed up and were as eyecatching as ever in their installation art effort, and I daresay that the Kilkari pavilion was by far the most interesting.

Here are some pictures.

Nobody gives a sh*t?

India reflections from Sean Paul Kelly: part 2

The second issue, infrastructure, can be divided into four subcategories: roads, rails and ports and the electrical grid.
The electrical grid is a joke. Load shedding is all too common, everywhere in India. Wide swaths of the country spend much of the day without the electricity they actually pay for. With out regular electricity, productivity, again, falls.
The ports are a joke. Antiquated, out of date, hardly even appropriate for the mechanized world of container ports, more in line with the days of longshoremen and the like.
Roads are an equal disaster. I only saw one elevated highway that would be considered decent in Thailand, much less Western Europe or America. And I covered fully two thirds of the country during my visit. There are so few dual carriage way roads as to be laughable. There are no traffic laws to speak of, and if there are, they are rarely obeyed, much less enforced. A drive that should take an hour takes three. A drive that should take three takes nine. The buses are at least thirty years old, if not older.
Everyone in India, or who travels in India raves about the railway system. Rubbish. It's awful. Now, when I was there in 2003 and then late 2004 it was decent. But in the last five years the traffic on the rails has grown so quickly that once again, it is threatening productivity. Waiting in line just to ask a question now takes thirty minutes. Routes are routinely sold out three and four days in advance now, leaving travelers stranded with little option except to take the decrepit and dangerous buses. At least fifty million people use the trains a day in India. 50 million people! Not surprising that waitlists of 500 or more people are common now. The rails are affordable and comprehensive but they are overcrowded and what with budget airlines popping up in India like Sadhus in an ashram the middle and lowers classes are left to deal with the overutilized rails and quality suffers.
 No one seems to give a shit.
Seriously, I just never have the impression that the Indian government really cares. Too interested in buying weapons from Russia, Israel and the US I guess.

Now Queer Nazaria!

International LGBTI Film Festival, Mumbai in collaboration with Majlis


02 - 04 April 2010

Good Heavens! It's raining Queer Film Festivals!

My peepers practically popped out of their sockets as I discovered  yeat another announcement for a Queer Film Festival, this time called Queer Nazaria!

"Much has changed in the years since Mumbai last saw an international LGBTI film festival. The queer scene here is flourishing, with activist groups and social networking sites, parties and cultural events, two successful Queer Azadi Mumbai marches, the opening of the city’s first queer store…and, arching over it all like a brilliant rainbow, the recent historic Delhi High Court judgment that brought - to all who look or dress or feel or desire differently from the majority - recognition, dignity and hope", say the organisers.

That hope was the starting point for Queer Nazariya. Nazariya implies a way of seeing: so other perspectives, then, to tell unknown and rarely told stories that look at the world from the vantage point of queer – of those who are, because of their gender expressions or sexual preferences, treated as invisible or made to feel their identities are inappropriate and their lived experiences invalid. This continues to be the case everywhere, but legally things are changing and culturally, too, there are welcome shifts. Queer Nazariya 2010 aims to foreground these changes and shifts, through vibrant cinematic works from around the world that affirm rather than deny, enable conversation rather than impose silence, celebrate rather than negate.

Smriti Nevatia & Sophie Parisse , the curators of this festival, bring you engaging documentary and fiction films from 13 countries, and chosen to represent a wide range of queer issues. A highlight of the festival is a specially curated package of films from South Africa. "You don’t have to be L or G or B or T or I or Q to attend our screenings and talks, but you do need to be an FWW (Friend and Well-Wisher!) – this festival is quite full up already and has no room at all for any airing of prejudice or hate," says the brochure.

Queer Nazariya 2010 is happy to welcome Nodi Murphy, Director of South Africa’s Out In Africa Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, along with other friends from Bangalore, Delhi, Pune and Bombay who will facilitate interesting and important discussions.

There are some 'challenging' photo exhibits by Kabi, memorabilia from last year’s march, and an installation by the queer feminist group LABIA on the milestones in yhe LGBTcollective struggles and journeys towards a better future.

Frankly, India's a mess

Sean Paul Kelley is a travel writer, former radio host, and before that an asset manager for a Wall Street investment bank that is still (barely) alive. He recently left a fantastic job in Singapore working for Solar Winds, a software company based out of Austin to travel around the world for a year (or two). He founded The Agonist, in 2002, which is still considered the top international affairs, culture and news destination for progressives. He is also the Global Correspondent for The Young Turks, on satellite radio and Air America.

I'm posting excerpts from his 'Reflectons on India' here, because I wish I had written this piece: 

If you are Indian, or of Indian descent, I must preface this post with a clear warning: you are not going to like what I have to say. My criticisms may be very hard to stomach. But consider them as the hard words and loving advice of a good friend. Someone who's being honest with you and wants nothing from you. These criticisms apply to all of India except Kerala and the places I didn't visit, except that I have a feeling it applies to all of India, except as I mentioned before, Kerala. Lastly, before anyone accuses me of Western Cultural Imperialism, let me say this: if this is what India and Indians want, then hey, who am I to tell them differently. Take what you like and leave the rest. In the end it doesn't really matter, as I get the sense that Indians, at least many upper class Indians, don't seem to care and the lower classes just don't know any better, what with Indian culture being so intense and pervasive on the sub-continent. But here goes, nonetheless.
India is a mess. It's that simple, but it's also quite complicated. I'll start with what I think are India's four major problems-the four most preventing India from becoming a developing nation-and then move to some of the ancillary ones.




First, pollution.
In my opinion the filth, squalor and all around pollution indicates a marked lack of respect for India by Indians. I don't know how cultural the filth is, but it's really beyond anything I have ever encountered. At times the smells, trash, refuse and excrement are like a garbage dump. Right next door to the Taj Mahal was a pile of trash that smelled so bad, was so foul as to almost ruin the entire Taj experience. Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai to a lesser degree were so very polluted as to make me physically ill. Sinus infections, ear infection, bowels churning was an all to common experience in India. Dung, be it goat, cow or human fecal matter was common on the streets.

 In major tourist areas filth was everywhere, littering the sidewalks, the roadways, you name it. Toilets in the middle of the road, men urinating and defecating anywhere, in broad daylight. Whole villages are plastic bag wastelands. Roadsides are choked by it. Air quality that can hardly be called quality. Far too much coal and far to few unleaded vehicles on the road. The measure should be how dangerous the air is for one's health, not how good it is. People casually throw trash in the streets, on the roads.

The only two cities that could be considered sanitary in my journey were Trivandrum-the capital of Kerala-and Calicut. I don't know why this is. But I can assure you that at some point this pollution will cut into India's productivity, if it already hasn't. The pollution will hobble India's growth path, if that indeed is what the country wants. (Which I personally doubt, as India is far too conservative a country, in the small 'c' sense.)

More after the jump..

Calcutta's original LGBT film festival

Siddhartha Gautam Film Festival 2010

Siliguri (March 21), Kolkata (March 26, 27)

 

Job Charnock's City [The city of Calcutta ] has always been the most cosmopolitan at heart, and thankfully remians that way. One of the events in the annual calendar in recent years has been The Siddartha Gautam Film Festival.

 

The festival is organized  in memory of the pioneering activist Siddhartha Gautam and seeks to generate awareness and dialogue on gender, sexuality, HIV, sexual and reproductive health, and human rights issues. It was inspired by the annual festival organized by The Friends of Siddhartha group in New Delhi each year from 1993 to 2003. It came to Calcutta in 2003.  Over the years, the festival has become a multi-venue, week long event. It reaches out to audiences in both urban and rural areas in West Bengal and Orissa. It includes theatre-based and mobile film screenings.

 Later in the year, the festival will be organized in Bhubaneswar and other places in Orissa, and may also make its debut in Shillong, Meghalaya.

 

This year the festival aims to highlight and support legal efforts to protect the rights of people living with HIV and decriminalize same-sex love in India . The films will be seen by a diverse audience of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersexed, Kothi, Hijra and other queer people; people infected or affected by HIV; social workers; health care providers; government officials; college and university students; and media persons. Families and friends of queer people and people living with HIV will be especially welcome.

 

The festival is being co-organized by Koshish – Ek Asha, Northern Black Rose, People Like Us (PLUS) and Solidarity and Action Against The HIV Infection in India (SAATHII), Kolkata Office on behalf of the Coalition of Rights Based Groups (CRBG), a state level advocacy forum to advance the health and rights of sexual minorities and people living with HIV in West Bengal.

 

For enquiries:Phone: 033 2484 5002 (SAATHII), 0 98305 10527 (Agniva Lahiri), 0 98312 88023 (Pawan Dhall). E-mail: saathii@yahoo.com

What's a Dalit?

Following a few posts on Bhumihar Brahmins in 2007, which have been consistently accessed by readers even now, I have been asked to do a series on the Dalits.

This is the first of a series, which I will update from time to time and post more on request.

What is Dalit?

The present usage of the term 'Dalit 'goes back to the nineteenth century, when a Marathi social reformer and revolutionary , Mahatma Jyotirao Phule (1826-1890), used it to describe the Outcastes and Untouchables as the oppressed and the broken victims of India's caste-ridden society. Under the  leadership of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar (1891-1956), this term gained greater importance and popularity.

Probably the person who should be credited with campaigning for this 'term' should be a South Indian gent called VT Rajshekar, a journalist with the Indian Express who later on founded a publication called 'The Dalit Voice'.

In 1983, Rajshekar wrote:

" ... Not only the militant Dalits but even some Hindu press have stopped using the hated word, Harijan, a Gandhian humbug, and switched on to Dalit. This awareness of their identity is itself a big step forward in the Dalit liberation struggle. The word Dalit symbolises the mood of this explosive commodity and connotes and denotes their protest. Hence the switch- over to this new word is itself a great improvement indicating a big leap in the search for their roots. Only three years back people[ barring those in the Hindi belt] did not even know this word. It was not in their vocabulary. But as soon as they came to know this word and discovered its intrinsic value, its magic, its melody, they readily adopted it. Literally embaraced it. "National" newspapers like the Times of India are using this word even in headlines. Even the Malayala Manorama, the largest circulated language daily of Kerala, has started using this word . If the English and language dailies start using the word 'Dalit' in headlines it will soon catch up. Therefore, Dalits and their co-sufferers must go to newspaper offices and meet journalists and prevail upon them to use 'Dalit' instead of 'Harijan' or SC/STs. We will suggest the Oxford, Webster, Cambridge and other dictionaries to include it."

[Dalits prepare a corpse for burial]

The root word of this word Dalit is 'Da'l. The adjective of dal is Dalit. We find the word 'dal' on page 471 of the Oxford Sanskrit English Dictionary, new edition, 1964, edited by the Sanskrit scholar, Sir Monier Williams.

"Dalit" is found in many Indian languages and even a Dravidian language. The meaning given to `Dalit' in the dictionary is: burst, split, scattered, dispersed, broken, torn as under, destroyed, crushed.

The word, `Daridra',which is popular in many Indian languages, is derived from `Dalit'.

"All these English words sum up the exact position of the Indian Untouchables and also tribes. We are crushed and cramped and made mincemeat by the Hindu religion. That is why we are Dalits," writes Rajashekhar

The first to popularise this word were the militant Dalit Panthers of Bombay. Their manifesto  defined this word. Though this word has now come to mean Untouchables, the Panthers have included Tribes, Muslims, Women and all ' persecuted minorities..'

Names of the Dalits

The Dalits are called by different names in different parts of the country. These names were given  as expressions of contempt. They include: Dasa, Dasysa, Raksasa, Asura, Avarna, Nisada, Panchama, Chandala, Harijan, Untouchable. Each of these names has a history and background.  

Besides these names, there are a number of other titles or names which have been given to them at the level of the regional language. For example, Chura in Punjab (North West India), Bhangi or Lal Beghi in Hindi (North India), Mahar in Marathi (Central India), Mala in Telugu, Paraiya in Tamil and Pulayan in Malayalam (South India). These names carry within them the two-term contrast of "we-the pure" and "you-the impure". In response to these  labels, the Untouchables have chosen to give themselves a name and this is 'Dalit', which refers to the hardship of their condition of life. This name is a constant reminder of the age-old oppression. The term is also an expression of their hope to recover their past self-identity.  By the British, the Dalits were named 'the Depressed Classes' and 'the Scheduled Castes', in the Scheduled Caste Act of India, 1935. Mahatma Gandhi named them 'Harijans' which means 'children of God' : but this term was not welcomed by the Dalits because it did not adequately describe their condition.

Dalit Definitions and  Politics 

There's a fairlyrecent entity started in 2002 called the Dalit Freedom Network.  The  DFN claim is that Dalit comprise a staggering 25% India's total total population. These 250 million people are the “outcastes” of Indian society – the “untouchables” – those called the “unborn”, as it would have been better for them had they never been born.

The DFN  defines The Dalit  as being  'among the poorest of the world’s poor'; stripped of their 'basic humanity,' are denied 'basic human rights', and 'entrenched in a system that gives them no freedom'.

DFN claims: "The ruling caste tells them they are Hindu, yet they are denied access to the temples, cannot become temple priests, and due to lack of education, cannot even read their scriptures. Dalit women are sold into bonded prostitution. Even finding a place to bury their dead is a problem."

A very intersting angle is taken by those campaigning for the 'rights of Dalit Christians'. On one of their websites, it says:

Dalit does not mean low caste. Dalit does not mean any religion. Dalit refers to some unique people with distinct culture and traditions.

Going through Changes

The good ol' exclusive boys' schools were regarded as places that prepared boys to become men.

The elite and the upper middle class preferred to send their kids to boys' boarding schools and girls' boarding schools. There were valid reasons for this: boys will be boys and girls will be girls.

There was a time when the best boys' schools in India were the ones that had a strong currriculum and lots of space for the boys to learn boxing, gymnastics, swimming, rugby and contact sports. 

Boys' story books were full of great adventure, valour, honour, and manly stuff. Girls' stroy books were full of aventure, honour, cleverness, bravery, ettiquette, and  wit Now school libraries hardly stock children's literature any more. Except, perhaps,  for flights of fancy.

Sadly, with all these new fangled ideas of co-ed schools, and  schools shutting down their boxing programmes [no 'violence'], and hesitant to have swimming pools [  'no drowning'], and with teachers who are basically nerdy wimps, what do we get from the teaching shops of today?

Defective products : men with  no sense of honour, no sense of sortsmanship, who cannot settle their differences man-to-man and then shake hands over a beer. Oh yes, they have a lot of text book knowledge, but little social graces.

It's interesting to see how the concept of 'education' has changed over the years, and what it brings to society at large.
In the old days, anybody who crossed the line expected to get a couple of whacks on the backside, accepted the punishment with equanimity, and got on with life.

The school tradition of 'Six-of-the-best' kept many a lad on the straight and narrow. Parents expected schools to discipline their kids, and produce 'men'. Today, many parents  neither discipline their own kids (they don't set examples of discipline themselves, have you ever seen an orderly queue in Bihar?) and now, by law, 'six-of-the-best' is banished!

'Spare the rod and spoil the child' has been overturned.

Hurrah! the new code will be 'Bribe your child and have peace of mind.'
Let's see how robust lads of fifteen [who are actually eighteen] intent of destruction of school property are going to be 'handled' in schools since neither the rod nor removal, nor 'punishment that denigrates the child or gives mental agony'  are allowed in schools from April 2010. Can students who break the rules be asked to clean toilets and do other menial but essential tasks - or will this to be seen as 'torture by teachers'?

Modi, Say Sorry!

"AHMEDABAD: The Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) has summoned chief minister Narendra Modi for questioning regarding the murder of ex-Congress MP Ahsan Jafri and 68 others in the Gulbarg Society massacre of February 28, 2002.

Modi has been asked to present himself before the SIT on March 21. The questioning will be on the basis of the FIR filed by Zakia Jafri, Ahsan's widow, who has accused Modi and 62 others, including ministers, bureaucrats and police officers, of complicity in the Gujarat riots that killed nearly 2,000 persons. "

NAZI-RENDA MODI?

A person told me that if you wanted to look at the  Fascism and Hitler reborn, visit the Gujarat Chief Minister's office.

The man who presided over the Gujarat genocide in 2002 will in all probability emerge unscathed from the latest, ham-handed, 'investigation'.

What is so terribly sad about this is that some people believe that everything would be all right if Modi just said the word 'sorry' and expressed 'regret' about the systematic progrom that took the lives of over 2000 Indians.

When the entire official machinery of the state had been subverted to protect the murderous hordes who carried out a progrom against a section of ts own citizens-- pillaged, burnt, raped and desecrated -- all in the name of 'anger', it's sickening to think that the ends of  justice' will be served by saying sorry'.

From Gandhi's Gujarat to Modi's Gujarat .. Namak andolan to Nano

So what if Modi is  a 'good administrator' - the CEO of a very successful company may be able to ensure that you have the highest salary and the best perks in the market, but if he and his pals kill your wife and rape your six year old daughter, will you let him get off with a 'sorry man, here's a Nano in compensation'? 

Think Again India...

Think Again

Even More Festivals

I'd like to spread the good word about festivals of interest happening around us. I think it's utterly wonderful to know how many interesting issues are being recorded on tape, film, or digital media.

The Cairo -Chinh Children's film festival has just about come to an end.

Chinh is an organisation that's all about films made by children and films made for children.

March 18 to 20, 2010: THE CENTRAL Institute of Educational Technology (CIET), a constituent of the National Council of Educational Research and Training, is organising the 15th edition of the All India Children's Educational Audio-Video Festival .


The 3-day festival, to be held at the NCERT headquarters in New Delhi, is aimed at exhibiting the best educational audio and video programmes produced for children and teachers. In addition to showcasing and appreciating films made by children for children, the event will also encourage exchange of creative ideas between audio and video producers, researchers, writers, camerapersons, editors, other technical persons and educationists.

Winners will be awarded cash prizes in various categories, including the best audio and video programmes produced by the students. Eminent Actor Padmashree Mohan Agashe will inaugurate the festival and noted educationist and film critic Professor Vijaya Mulay will be the guest of honour on March 18, 2010. On the concluding day, March 20, 2010, eminent Director Padma Vibhushan Adoor Gopalkrishnan will give away awards to the winners in various categories.

'Talkies' a National Short Film Festival will be happening from 26th to 28th March at Jaipur

A Reservation for Women?

Uncle SAM called me the other day. 'What's this I hear about Indians sending off fifty percent of their women to a reservation?', he sniggered. Uncle Sam seemed a tiny bit perplexed. He had no reservations about sending Indians to reservations a few hundred years ago, but Indians sending off their women to reservations was a new one, he said. "I'm not gonna beat about The Bush, you Indians need a shrink, a good one," he said.

There are a lot of economists and family welfare people who also insist that the Indian population needs a good shrink or two, but that's beside the point.

On International Women's Day, Sonia Gandhi wanted to send off half the women to the reservation and asked the House to pay the Bill. Now, Lalu Prasad and a few others had deep seated reservations about the reservations and so they performed an embarassment in the Highest House of the land, in full public view, and had everyone on the Angrezi-speaking channels wringing their hands and shaking their heads in red faced mock horror.

Seriously, this idea of forcing the Indian public to vote a particular gender into its house of reprersentatives is a very bad idea. It perpetuates the dynasty in politics, because in many cases,  the strong local leader will just get his wife elected and still 'rule by proxy' . In other words do a Lalu Prasad to his electorate.

[Okay, for my international readers, Lalu Prasad was the chap who got his dutiful wife elected as Chief Minister of Bihar and virtually ruled the state for two terms].

We've had many women in Parliament who are there because they are leaders in the true sense and not just eye-candy. They are taken very seriously by the electorate and by the house. Having women in Parliament on a quota basis  - is like having them there for eye candy , it's cosmetic and condemnable. The Women's reservation bill demeans women. And having a quota for dalit women inside the quota for women is taking this absurdity to ridiculous lengths.

I say, if  the Indian Woman thought this one through she would oppose this brainless Bill!

Celebrating Diversity - Again!

The All Bihar Low Cost Video Festival, Abhivyakti 2010, happens on April 30 and May 1,2.

For these three days, documentaries and short films from Bihar, Jharkhand, and elsewhere in India will be watched, discussed, and appreciated.
The videos shown at this festival in the past have delighted and disturbed scores of discerning people who make it a point not to miss out on the festival.
Entries are being accepted at the moment.
This is a grass roots festival - and that means we have a special place for videos made by students and non-professional people as well.
Abhivyakti is about everyday people, as well as people on the margins. It also means that the festival goes beyond the screening room. You are invited to be a part of this festival. Students from Media institutions and those interested in the Mass Media as a career are especially welcome.

How? By sending us your short film. By signing up for the Abhivyakti Media Workshops. By coming over to Ravi Bharati, Seva Kendra Campus, Kurji, Patna, Bihar, India between 4 and 8 pm to watch the films and take part in the discussions.
If you're a student or a film maker who wants to come over to Patna, we can arrange for basic accomodation if you contact us before April 15. Send an email, with 'Abhivyakti' in the subject line to fk.bihar@gmail.com for more information.

Holi Lent

The Bacchalian festival of Holi has just rolled over us.

All ancient civilisations of note have their one festival of revelry and ribaldry. India is no exception. So why do we have to get ants in our pants if some mama's boys  get boisterous, drive drunk, eat meat,  feel up the aunty next door, wallow in the mud and display porcine tendencies for 24 hours?

Blame it on the West. The Renassiance followed by Victorian Prudery. I believe when the Brits landed in India, they started queering the pitch, in a manner of speaking. You soon had a whole lot of Natives trying to be more White than the Sahibs themselves, and that I suppose is where the social schizophrenia began to set in. Now you have the educated North Indian bunch  trying to sanitize Holi, and weave in all kinds of contexts and meanings to suit their particular brand of  pseudo-secular prudery.

The much maligned Bhojpuri songs on the occassion, with their double and double-chinned entrende are more honest by far than the banal Bollywood music that smacks of hypocrisy. Holi is the time to go absolutely mad, to let your hair down for one single day - get tipsy, do a bit of pot, indulge in sanctioned horseplay. So what if the village lads run out of mud and take to a bit of shit-slinging! It's no big deal, one gets to witness that  everyday on Indian news channels. Jai Ho!

Yes, it's easy for me to sit on my chair and pontificate, but I do suspect there's a foreign hand in the origins of Holi . Not Italian, Greek!

Holi is something that may have come in with Alexander the Great .. a feast in honour of Bachhus, the Lord of the Good Times. (And I'm not talking about Vijay Mal-wallah). And that's when the Ma-ka-ladla went the wayward way .. he tippled,and toddled  and toppled, right down the ladder of evolution.. if only for a day. Many a guy lives it up the one day, and lives it down the rest of the year, specially if  he wakes up out of a Holi hangover to find there's an 'eve teasing' charge slapped on him by the (female) human hippo who lives next door! Holi Smoke!

Holi invariably falls during the season of Lent, when pious Catholics try their best to become Puritan. At least the Latinos struck the right balance. First go absolutely berserk in three days of Carnival that lasts from Sunday to Shrove Tuesday... and then repent in dust and ashes from Ash Wednesday onwards.

And then we'll wait for the Bunny forty days later... Not the Playboy Bunny, silly... the Easter one!

Kashish: Subaltern Image Fest

April will experience yet another Queer Film Festival, this time it's Kashish in Beautiful Bombay. Or as some call it the Magical, Mad, Much-maligned, Metropolis of Mumbai. It's the Mumbai International Queer Film Festival 2010 : Kashish.

More power to cultural diversity, is what I've always said.

Films from India: documentaries, features, shorts as well as from around the world will be exhibited, and there's to be seminars, exhibitions and other stuff as well.

Manoj Khiyani who designed the logo has some interesting thoughts to share about the logo's symbolism -

Red - The color of Love, Passion & Excellence. The Brighter Warmer side of Gay/Lesbian/Trans. people.

Why Butterfly ? - In its lifecycle, a butterfly goes through tremendous changes. It cocoons itself and finally comes-out with great struggle. Once out, it sees the brighter side of life with lovely shades of its wings. The same applies to many of us from the LGBT Community.

Different butterflies with Rainbow shade - represent different people from LGBT community, just like no two fingers are alike.

How does it relate to Kashish - Kashish means attraction. Butterflies are attracted to the flowers. The theme goes well with the name too. Love of everything thats beautiful.

Why no LGBT logos? - circle arrows or M-F signs or rainbow flag. We are all one. Why show m2m, f2f or why divide between gay or lesbians etc. We have shown all 7 colors as different butterflies. To Each its own.

How could this theme be okay?  Its bright, it's relevant, it speaks for itself. It doesn't have any potential to create problems from various anti-gay or religious groups.

The theme shows gardens emerging, butterflies flying high.. happy n gay.. as the country slowly embraces LGBT Community with its acceptance and understanding. The color of love - red adds warmth. The white text shows peaceful acceptance to the Kashish between same sex people.

The festival promises to be one of note, backed as it is by Indias's pioneering Queer rights activist organisation HumsafarTrust and has Solaris Pictures - producer of several of India's Queer films as co-organiser.

If you're in Mumbai in the last week of April, get to the festival, it is bound to be an educational experience, and one that any really modern, secular [or pseudo-secular]  liberal Indian shouldn't miss!

The dates April 22 to 25. 
Here's a link for more information