Veteran reviewer Meetu trashes it
The story got left behind, far behind. What story, you may ask? And a good question it would be. I can’t find a single nice thing to say about a film. Not a line, not one joke. What can you do when the maker’s aim is to make an awful film? It runs literally dead slow and has not as much as an iota to savor.
(Update: The YouTube link was removed due to copyright issues. Channel 4 has made the documentary available on its site, but only for certain geographic areas)
Dan Reed’s much-talked about documentary on the 26/11 terrorist attacks on Mumbai is now available on YouTube. The documentary is part of his Dispatches series and was aired in UK a few days ago.
Dilip says – today gives reason for every Indian to celebrate:
Well, the best news of I don’t know how long is what transpired in the Delhi High Court today. The judges there did overturn Section 377. No longer are our gay brothers and sisters breaking the law by doing what the rest of us do with not even a thought of the law.
Gaybombay says the next step is to party!
Its a not just a victory for gay rights, but even more its a victory for human rights. If we divide the society, we remain JUST ABOUT. Just about children, just about women, just about men. All collectively make the society - this decision accepts the need to respect the basic dignity of all individuals and for people to lead their own lives on their own terms, in their own way. It is a victory for common sense over unreasoning prejudice. That makes it a victory for all Indians.
mssnlayam says the entire judgment is awesome! He has also posted a link to the ruling and a few ‘nuggets’ from it:
In the run up to the court case there was a lot of discussion about homosexuals accelerating the spread of HIV/AIDS, and that was one argument for same-sex intercourse to remain illegal. I was always baffled by such discussion and to me the issue was about privacy and individual liberties in a democratic society. It was clear to me as day, that Section 377 is unconstitutional. I am glad that the Judges spoke about civil liberties in no uncertain terms.
Prabin tells you why he is proud of Mayawati’s statues:
So I believe, what is disconcerting to the political parties about the statues that Mayawati unveiling and the Memorials she is constructing is not the wastage of precious resource - there are a lot many instances of govt. squandering revenues and tax payers money- but the fact that by doing so she is fortifying a political space which will be inaccessible for them for a long time. The space she is creating for the Dalit icons, if not opposed and embroiled into some sort of controversy, will not only be a testimony of Dalit pride but also an indictment of Hindu parties of their indifference to Dalits. And by creating such grandiose structures with huge expenses Mayawati is ensuring BSP is not outfoxed in its own political battlefield in future by those who are crying wolf now.
Strong argument.
Jan Arogya Abhiyan, an NGO working to defend and foster people’s right to health care in Maharashtra addresses a Petition to the Minister for Public Health and Family Welfare, Maharashtra, urging the Maharashtra government to adopt the Standard Charter of Patients’ Rights:
We believe that in Doctor-Patient relations, patients are inherently vulnerable. Hence they need to be protected with the help of a legally enforceable Standard Charter of Patients’ Rights. Establishing patient rights will impact our health care system in a significant and positive way.
Rights are correlated with both duties and responsibilities. All hospitals should adopt such a Standard Charter of Patient’s Rights, display it in the local language(s) in a prominent location in the Hospital, make copies available on demand, ensure its observance, and orient their staff for the same. Patients should know how and where to report any denial of these rights by a doctor, nursing home, hospital or other health facility We suggest a participatory redressal mechanism in the form of district level committees, with representatives from the government, hospital owners, medical practitioners, and consumer and health organisations, that any aggrieved persons could approach if required. Medical staff or institutions found to be violating these rights should be subject to a fine or cancellation of registration following the norms stipulated in the Amended Bombay Nursing Home Registration Act.
E-Campaign for Patient Rights urges you to sign the petition so that patients approaching any health provider in the State do not have to face situations such as the ones illustrated in this post. The Charter has evolved over consultations between health rights groups, doctors, health providers and other stakeholders and its goal is to promote accountability among providers and protection for patients and its adoption could accelerate the process of similar policies being adopted elsewhere in the country- please sign the petition.
FeministsIndia breaks the news about the death of Prof. Neera Desai, who seems to have been an amazing woman.
One of the pioneers of Women’s Studies in India, Prof. Neera Desai, passed away on 25th June 2009 in Mumbai. She was 84.
Prof. Neera Desai was the Founder Director of Research Centre for Women’s Studies (1974) at the SNDT Women’s University in Mumbai, India. She was among the first few women academicians in India who raised their voices against the invisibility of women within academic disciplines.
Her works include: ‘Women in Modern India’ (1952) and ‘Feminism in Western India’ (2004). She was a member of Status of Women in India Committee that produced TOWARDS EQUALITY REPORT. in 1974, and was nominated for 1000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005.
Aditya’s 3 year old son was prescribed a drug overdose by a pediatrician for the recurring fever. This led to very severe consequences and the child needed ICU care for 3 days and a painful process of recovery due to this excessive medication. Aditya wanted to register his complaint against the pediatrician and the hospital but finds out that there is absolutely no framework for grievance redressal and there is a systemic unwillingness to have one. The prevalent attitude with the people managing the health care set-up’s is that such human errors are an inevitable artefact of the Indian landscape and there is not a need to address them and the hospitals do not have a legal or a moral responsibility to address them..
65 yr old widowed Chitra was admitted for a by-pass surgery in a leading multi-specialty hospital. She gathered information about the treatment costs and was given an estimate of the cost involved with the treatment and decided to go ahead with it. But the hospital stated in the middle that due to unexpected complications that came up during the surgery charges have become significantly higher than what she was told in the beginning. Neither she nor the ones who were caring for her were even briefed of such a possibility at any point in time before the start of the treatment. The difference in the rates were so significant that Chitra may not be able to meet that expenditure, which puts her in an un-enviable position of having to choose whether to continue the treatment or not in that hospital.. for not being able to afford it..
Does any of this sound too familiar an experience to relate to what you or your loved ones face while dealing with the health care set-up? Then you have certainly hit upon a web-page, which makes an earnest attempt at addressing one of the fundamental aspects of the complex issue, which has led the health care system to what it is now.
Abhay Shukla and Ramadoss Magesh had launched E-campaign for Patient Rights with the belief: to ensure that patient’s interests are best served in the existing healthcare system in India, we need a well defined regulatory mechanism that is defined to the minutest details on its implementation and larger consumer participation towards ensuring its implementation.
Their efforts need your support- please go check the web page and find out how you can help.
Shivam is critical in his review of “Khairlanji: A strange and bitter crop”
All Teltumbde wants to talk about is Shudra oppressors, neoliberalism, Naxalism and the State—Khairlanji being a mere symbolic peg on which to hang all these ‘larger’ issues. Which is why you are surprised to read, on the second-last page:
Khairlanji soon got transformed into a symbol — a symbol of atrocity —shorn of reality. Dalits ceased to see any other caste crime beyond Khairlanji. This tendency to create symbols out of reality, and to discard reality thereafter, can be easily seen among dalits.
There’s another problematic symbol used here. The book is part of a series on atrocities called ‘HoloCaste’. This is not just a bad pun; it devalues both the Holocaust and violence against Dalits. It is time to use our own idioms, to tell our own stories, because the Dalit movement is still waiting for its own Abel Meeropol and Billie Holiday.
Amrit asks if it is right to mourn celebrities to the extent we do-
There surely are deaths that are far more tragic and painful than the deaths of celebrities who mostly die due to their own personal follies (most). Remember this Pulitzer-prize-winning photograph? The photographer committed suicide because he simply left the place after clicking the photograph, leaving the child at the mercy of the approaching vulture.
…
Celebrities like Michael Jackson become personal despite the seemingly unsurpassable mental and physical distance. You may have put up his posters in your room, danced to his songs, idealized him or tried to imitate his steps.
After filing for an RTI, now it’s compensation or insurance claim. Ajay at
कोर्ट कचहरी explains us the details needed to claim for a compensation in an accident case.
ऐसे दावों में पंचाट पीड़ित व्यक्ति को चार विभिन्न मदों में भुगतान करने का आदेश प्रतिवादी को देती है. इलाज, यात्रा भत्ता, पोषाहार देतु तथा प्रभावित दिवसों में हुए आय का नुकसान .इसलिए पीड़ित व्यक्ति को चाहिए वो इलाज से सम्बंधित प्रत्येक कागज़ .दवाइयों की रसीद,अस्पताल आने जाने,रहने में लगे खर्चे की रसीदें तथा तथा पोषाहार हेतु लिए गए विशेष भोज्य पदार्थों पर हुए खर्च का सारा ब्यौरा संभाल कर रखे एवं गवाही के समय अदालत में उपस्थित करे.
Gaybombay is happy that India media is focussing more on LGBT issues- find a compilation of recent news stories in this post.
You want to know why or on what basis some decisions were taken or not taken by a public authority. In other words you want to exercise your right to seek some information but do not know how.
Ankur tells you how to file an RTI.
it makes them accountable to the public and makes it hard to cover up for any bad governance, corruption or simple carelessness.
Step 1. Research on your grievances. The more information you have gathered on the topic (formally or informally) the stronger you can make your case.
Watch out his space, for, he is going to write another post on how to respond to the possible reply/inaction on the RTI.
Two interesting poetry blogs: Khahish-E-Sang is Raza Yaseen’s Urdu ghazal blog and The Tree of Voice features his English ghazals. An excerpt from one his English ghazals:
I FEEL THAT DEATH WILL TIGHTEN ITS SKIN
WAITING FOR ME TO SHAVE THIS WORLDFOR GOD’S SAKE DO NOT BELIEVE IN GOD
OR ELSE HE WOULD ENSLAVE THIS WORLDWHEN YOU LEAVE ME DO NOT WAVE YOUR HAND
INSTEAD OF YOUR HAND JUST WAVE THIS WORLDLET SHIVA DESTROY WHATEVER HE WANTS
AFTER ALL VISHNU WILL SAVE THIS WORLDRAZA WHY DO WE INHABIT IT
IN THE END IT’S ONE BIG GRAVE THIS WORLD
Avinash thinks Kapil Sibal is progressive:
Kapil Sibal, the new HRD minister of India, seems to have taken a stand completely contrary to that taken by his predecessor, Mr. Arjun Singh - he seems to actually be interested in the development of the human resources in India… ;) I am impressed by the reforms Mr. Sibal seems to be proposing in this regard, as seen in one of his interviews. For starters, Mr. Sibal says that the tremendous pressure on the children as well as the parents due to the huge number of exams that the kids have to take up could be reduced - class 10 board exams can be scrapped when the students are moving to class 11 within the same institution. Overburdening the child with the pressure of board exams traumatises the entire family, which could be avoided by this proposal. The other drastic measure he seems to have introduced is the grading system, instead of marks, for classes 9 and 10, and he wants to extend this system to classes 11 and 12. This is an efficacious, utilitarian system where the child is evaluated not based on a single day of the exam, but over the year. The same system seems to work perfectly well in the US.
How are all those and other measures relevant to improving access to education for probably more than 70% of Indian children who never reach class 10?
Adrienne looks at an NGO which provides education to children from low-income families in Ahmedabad:
At first glance, particularly for me, paraskilling looks like a panacea!
But upon further thought, I have one main concern. You all may completely rebut me, and, in fact, I hope you do. But doesn’t this model lose sight of the bond that forms between student and teacher, especially in younger age groups? I still remember that bond with my first and second grade teachers, Mrs. Scharf and Mrs. Stevens. And that was almost 20 years ago! They taught me to read and to write in cursive script – but most of all, even from that young age, they made me want to always learn more.
A line from the concluding part of her post sums up the philosophy of those who advocate paraskilling, or vouchers or other private efforts in school education:
The needs are different in low-income markets.
Abi reacts to Kapil Sibal’s plans to make school level Board exams ‘optional’:
Thus, Sibal’s plan, even if it becomes a reality, is likely to benefit only a small number of students who get guaranteed seats in Class XI in their current schools. The alleged benefit of removal of exam-related stress is thus available, ironically, only to those who really thrive in the current system of ’stressful exams’.
Chris Rodgers clicks amazingly beautiful pictures of tigers at Ranthambhore. You have to see it to believe it.
Anu explains that silence doesn’t mean the absence of resistance:
This on the face of it seems like pretty sound explanation, so with a magic wand if we push the upper caste down the ladder, upper caste men lose their ‘manhood’ when their women are appropriated and humiliated, right? Any caste that finds itself at the bottom of things, will experience it, any human aggregation that finds itself stripped of its protection from civil society; such as during war and unrest, experiences this.
Substitute caste in that paragraph with war, and nothing changes.
The uniqueness of caste being that the forces keeps it in a war like exploitative situation. It must be the longest war in the history of mankind, and with that -the longest history of resistance. Dalits did not die out, that is the proof of their resistance and also proof of the pace at which the aggression keeps evolving.
Veracious finds some feminist glitches in Chak De India:
The thing is, I adore this film to bits. It’s refreshing, it’s gripping, it’s got a cast of absolutely terrific characters and some rare, fascinating female-female dynamics that are usually reserved for relations between the sexes or just between men in Indian cinema. And yes, it is awesomely feminist — boldly, explicitly saying, girls should be able to go out and do stuff, and they can do all stuff as well as men. So what I’m about to say is not to undermine the film’s obvious achievements, it’s more to examine it more closely.
But - ah, there’s always a but, isn’t there? - as the movie was winding down, and we see the last of Shahrukh Khan’s character Kabir’s journey, my friend commented, “But the girls couldn’t have done it without a man, huh?”.
Fëanor translates Afanasii Nikitin’s fifteenth century memoirs of his travel to India (Journey Across Three Seas):
Who was Nikitin? He was a merchant of Tver, a principality abutting the Mongol domains in Russia. He set out down the Volga sometime in the 1470s with some merchandise, was robbed by Tartars, and decided that he could not return to Rus without making some money at least. Having heard that there was much demand for horses in India, he took a colt with him over the seas to the Deccan, where he spent much of the next two or three years. He made detailed observations about the peoples he encountered - both the wealthy nobility of Persian origin in the Bahmani Sultanates, and the indigent commoners - often repeating descriptions of their dress and economic conditions, beliefs and legends. He noted that the Bahmanis waged constant war with the neighbouring Hindu kingdom (Vijayanagar), but that its capital was never captured, and the fortunes of war were fickle, with the Muslims sometimes winnning and sometimes losing.
Very interesting.
Tarunabh, of the Centre for the Study of Social Exclusion, writes to the Ministry of Minority Affairs, to further the public debate on equality of opportunities.
Seems to me more like an attempt to start a private, exclusive debate among a select group of elites in the academia, lawmakers and the enforcers, among others.
Alankrita doesn’t understand why a democratic nation would want to impose a dress code:
The veil , however confuses me. I find the basic idea of covering up to prevent others from getting tempted, unadulterated nonsense. But there are those who choose to. I might find that choice stupid, or ill-informed or even regressive. But then so do I find Stay at Home Mothers or Beauty Queens. But their right to remain that way, that I completely agree with. Just as I do not prefer their personal opinions about how I should live my life dictate me, I cannot let my tastes dictate their chices , however poor they seem to me.
The biggest problem of a woman entrepreneur is the social attitude and the constraints in which she has to live and work. Despite constitutional equality; there is discrimination against women. In a tradition-bound society, women suffer from male reservations about a woman’s role and capacity. In rural areas, women face resistance not only from males but also from elderly females who have accepted inequality. The overbearing presence of elders restrains young girls from venturing out. Rural women have the potential but they are not properly trained. It is believed that a skill imparted to a girl is lost when she gets married. Therefore, girls continue to be helpers in agriculture and handicrafts and do not become entrepreneurs. In a male-dominated society, women do not get equal treatment and male ego puts barriers in their progress.
From inadequate access to capital to low mobility, Sameer draws up a broad list of problems that women entrepreneurs in India face.
Ajay Govind spends what seem to be ten not-so-ordinary days in Kashmir:
But the words that caught my attention were from the title of that piece. ”I’ve learnt how ordinary crime becomes an issue”. Here were his ‘exact’ words from the interview itself “…It’s a case study for me to understand how if not handled right, an ordinary crime may become an issue in Kashmir”.
Ordinary crime. A school going girl and her pregnant sister-in-law raped and killed.
When I saw those words first, I got disturbed. Ordinary? And then I stepped into the Chief Minister’s freshly polished golf shoes and realized ..ah! he means in comparison with other More heinous crime that are just as common and ordinary in his State.
But I’m sure he would’ve been more careful about using words like this in a local newspaper. InIndia, people would understand. (Sorry, it’s probably just a hangover from that trip which is why I am apparently making a distinction between India and Kashmir).
If you actually think about it, this Is an ordinary crime. Considering it’s not rare.
Keshaw Bhardwaj has jotted down some interesting notes on child labour in India.
Aparna reviews Tarquin Hall’s The Case of the Missing Servant:
The Indian class system and treatment of servants, rural poverty and the exodus to urban India, the stark contrast between slums and gleaming urban palaces, the tortoise-like pace of the Indian judicial system - all these become part of the case of the missing servant, Mary, that Puri is called in to investigate and must solve if he is prevent an innocent man from being convicted of murder. All this while he continues to handle his ‘routine’ cases, the screening of grooms before arranged marriages are conducted. The novel flits between Delhi and Jaipur with an occasional detour into the rural hinterland, as Puri pits himself against an ambitious police officer who’s made up his mind minus evidence, and sees no problem with that.
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