Rastey- an anthropological view of civil works

We Indians have humility
Is it philosophy?
Is it our tradition?
I think not,
what rot.
Cause if we don't look down,
we will disappear
down the holes down that road..
Our bodies-the full load..
and appear all bloated,
if not broken,
at the next sequential manhole
or pothole

Its the end of the Road!

An Ode to Whiskey

I don't know if its whiskey or whisky, but i like it with the e
So here goes:

I see the filth around me
I see the beauty
I see the lies around me
Truth abounding
Its a see-saw, hee haw
It's the economy, Stupid!
But hark, comes a day when,
bile rising in my throat,
head spinning
a smile on the face
pleasantly stupid,
cheap lobotomy
With a whisky jar in my hand
I dream on,
of a neutral universe

P.s- show me the way..to the next...

A review of Dharam

I saw Dharam, a film which has quite a sterling performance by Pankaj Kapur, who plays Pandit Chaturvedi, not to mention Supriya Pathak, who plays his wife.
Set in Varanasi, this film explores the mindset of the Hindu Brahmin, and the conflict that he faces in terms of accepting people from another community, specifically Muslims.
The story takes off with the priest accidentally touching a Dalit sweeper, on his way back from bathing in the Ganges, as a part of his morning ritual. This accidental touch results in the Dalit person getting beaten up by the onlookers, since he has defiled the priest. A rival priest, who happens to be there, says that even the shadow of a Dalit is not supposed to fall on a Brahmin.
The film then goes on to portray the priest's family life, which consists of an obedient wife, who is happy to accept everything which her husband says. He also has a daughter, who obeys his dictates, from education to not watching television! In the middle of all this, there is the beautiful young daughter of a patron, who falls in love with an American, Paul. She is supposed to be the embodiment of an Indian woman, who knows her status in society (which is nil without a husband) and quotes from the Manuskriti.
The film really takes off when an abandoned child is bought home by his daughter, and due to circumstances, the priest decides to adopt the boy, and this child becomes the son he never had. Again, it is problematic, because it presupposes that only the son can take the ideals of the priest to the next generation. And it is the wife who gives him this motivation!
Anyway, cut to eight years later, when they discover that the boy is actually Muslim. So the priest goes to great lengths to atone for his "sin", and performs various rituals for cleansing. However, he finds that he cannot get this child out of his mind, because of course, he has bonded closely with the child, and all the times he has spent teaching the boy, the rituals of a Brahmin, keep flashing in his mind.
Now the patron's son, hates the priest, because, he seemingly encourages the daughter, his sister to study, and therefore spoilt her, and encouraged the decline of culture in her. So he partners with the rival priest to remove Chaturvedi from the main priest post. In the meanwhile communal riots break out, and the child, who is now living with his real mother, comes to the priest seeking for safety, while the riots are going on. The priest and his family turn him away, only to repent. The climax is where the priest stops the mob, gives a speech about how Dharam or karma is about humanity and not duty of a particular caste. It is about accepting differences. The last shot is where the priest hugs the Muslim boy and walks away in to the sunset.

As an aesthetic exercise, the director gives us some wonderful footage of Varanasi, and there are some memorable shots of Chaturvedi bathing in the Ganges, with his students in the moonlight. However, as a film, which attempts to explore a serious issue of communal divide, I think it fails to do its job, and only asks more questions than it gives answers.

Firstly, the film is distinctly sexist in the way it portrays women characters, and the script itself relegates all the women to the sidelines. Worse, the film suggests that the role of women is just that of keeping, bearing children and sustaining the family. The girl who dared to marriage ends up being widowed, and says, it is tough to sacrifice love. Its an extremely puzzling attitude.

Secondly, the film takes on too much. The scene of Dalit Vs Brahmin is entirely wasted, and is not related to the Hindu Muslim issue at all. Even when the film explore the divide between the two religions, it dilutes the issue by playing up the internal politics in Varanasi where rivals are trying to usurp Chaturvedi from his post.
The most problematic thing in this film was the reasons given for the change of heart in the priest. He only intervenes when the child's life is at stake, and not for anything else. The film tries to simplify the whole issue, by trying to have us believe that when he says that our duty is humanity, the entire mob suddenly sees sense, and all are ashamed of their violent acts.
Throughout the film, he is made to look like a living saint, which is again very unrealistic.

All in all, its a commendable effort to make a film which differs from the run of the mill stuff. However, we must realize that sometimes, in our intentions to do good, we make things worse than they already are. Watch out for some good music, and some good vocals by Sonu Nigam.
The rest of the cast pretty much hams it throughout the film. 6/10

Radio Days

I don't know if too many people have been watching the media closely, but it appears to me that radio is making a comeback. Not enough to kill the video star, but definitely on a comeback trail.
Now those of us living in major cities like Bangalore or Mumbai, know how popular FM has become, with all the radio stations belting out the latest hits day in and day out.
So how did this happen? Why only now? Where has radio been all these years? Just what is the inside story? Ladies and Gentlemen, the facts to the best of my knowledge:
Ever since 1924, when the Madras Radio Club was formed, radio hasn't looked back. Ever since then All India Radio has been pretty much the face of radio in India as we know it.
But things changed drastically in 1994. Private companies were allowed to broadcast commercial radio programmes on FM. Firstly, the question, why FM? Unlike AM, FM does not need expensive transmission towers, enables a great degree of localization and helps bring interactivity and local flavor to the programming.
This paradigm shift really took off when the Government started auctioning off frequencies in 1999., for 32 Indian cities. Although many players perished in this game, an equally large number of private companies have been able to consolidate their media empire by owning these stations. Today revenues from Mumbai alone are in excess of 50 crore rupees for the Government. Consequently, only media conglomerates with really deep pockets, and the ability to absorb losses over a period of time, have kept their stations going, i.e. groups like Reliance, Times Group, Tata etc
Now a really tiny group of people were also making a few noises around the same time. They said, radio is cheap to produce and to listen to, allows illiterate people to participate, and as a medium has a long history of listenership in India (remember 1924!). So why should only AIR and private companies be allowed to start FM stations? FM radio would be perfect for rural people who can use the medium to express their views and address issues which have been hidden under the surface, unscratched, waiting to explode, i.e. things like marginalization of women, Dalit's struggles, senior citizens' issues, HIV/AIDS, etc and God knows, the list runs a mile.
The truth is radio and in fact all broadcast media is governed by the Indian Telegraph Act of 1885, an Act which was put in place by the Raj, when Marconi was a mere 11 years old, and years away from pioneering radio or as it was called in those days- "telegraphy without wires"!
Finally, the Indian government relented and in November 2006, a policy for what is now called "Community Radio" was drafted. However, this policy also allows only NGO's, educational campuses or Krishi Vigyan Kendras to apply for a community radio license. They are only eligible for 100 Watts ERP. NGOs have to be registered for a minimum of three years- these are only some of the restrictive conditions.

Today, in 2007, there exist three levels of radio in India (FM Radio)- AIR, i.e. Public Radio; Private Radio and Community Radio.
However, we are still a far cry away from realizing the huge potential of this medium to really make a difference in our lives, be it through entertainment, or bringing out hidden , suppressed information and participation from the masses. Whether our sleepy Ministry of Information and Broadcasting will wake up one day to this reality is yet unknown.

The Panchayat Andolan in Karnataka

I've mentioned this topic in a previous note, but I've always wanted to write in more detail about it, since it seems to be such a non issue in the public domain. I guess I'm really irritated about it being a non issue as much as i'm concerned with the Andolan itself...
Anyway, I work for a media advocacy group, which is quite specific in its interventions and as it happened, my organization was not in a position to participate in this Andolan.
So I decided to do it outside working hours...and in partnership with my girlfriend who was already involved with the Andolan.
I hate to make my life public, but at the same time, I want to make public some the things i'm working on, and its really irritating when these two overlap...so i'm not going to be too specific but more like a record of what we did just for memory and documentation.
Basically, E was already in touch with the one of the co-organizers of the Andolan, and was in charge of preparing audio and video material for the Andolan. Now before this, I need to explain what the Andolan is about. In short, I quote, Nandana Reddy, " the hurried passage of amendments to the Panchayat Raj Act by both houses of the legislature. The amendment gives MLAs powers over grama sabhas and panchayats - the separate tier of local goverment into which citizens directly elect representatives"
For a more detailed write up on the issue, one can go here

Anyway, this is more about what E and I did in this Andolan, which is also fascinating from a mediaperson's point of view, and not so much directly involved in this activism. Another thing which i think is irritating is that a media person is always watching these amazing events unfold and yet this burden of objectivity forces the media to sit on the fence...its strange that i choose to call it a burden...anyway getting back to the point;

Now for a simple explanation of the Andolan itself: Basically a few NGOs in Bangalore got together and managed to get about 1500 (at best) Panchayat members and villagers to come to Bangalore to protest against this Amendment to the Panchayati Raj Act. Of course, the people who came were quite politically conscious and had come to Bangalore on their own, without taking money for accommodation, travel, food, or any other cost. Usually these NGO programmes are such that the community participates only if costs are taken care of...reminds me of how elections are conducted!
So it was quite remarkable that even 1500 people turned up...although at this point, i must admit that it was so funny and ironic to see that about 3000 people from only Bangalore, turned up the following week to protest against some obscure VSNL policy!!!!

So, these 1500 people who assembled in Bangalore on the 5th of July, were coming in from almost all parts of rural Karnataka, and this meant that they would be quite tired. So to energize them again and to fire them up, to remind them about why they are in Bangalore, the plan was that we would play an amalgamation of patriotic songs, speeches by national leaders talking about democracy etc...
So when we met this senior freedom fighter for an audio byte, he said that it would be better to get audio bytes from the ordinary people themselves as they are the Gandhis of tomorrow..which we thought was a good idea..and that's when, we both sat in front of a speaker phone, called these people from various districts of Karnataka, and my god, were they eloquent!
they all spoke about the role of the Gram Panchayat and more importantly the role of the Gram Sabha, which is perhaps one of the most democratic mechanisms in India, allowing people to directly and physically interface, interact and participate in decision making along with the local government body. What makes this issue particularly political, is the fact that one of the decision making powers being taken away, or at least the threat of it being taken away, is that of housing, and anybody who has worked in a village for some time will know just how much money is there to be made in these housing schemes. Of course, most of the people were genuinely concerned about the blow to decentralization and democracy if Gram Sabha becomes ineffective but I'm quite sure that not all Panchayats were protesting only for the sake of democratizing the political process.

So we got the bytes, mixed in some really patriotic songs, and burned a CD for the Andolan..came the 5th of July, CD was used, protest went off peacefully, and followed up by a series of protests...in the coming days where each district individually protested...
the upshot of the matter is that the proposed amendments went to the Governor, who took his time,