Sepia Mutiny

The end of the flying Beefeater

abhi — 2008-05-11T12:27:05-05:00

In a rather surprising move, British Airways announced this week that it will no longer be serving beef aboard its (often Hindu-filled) flights in economy (a.k.a. "cattle") class:

What will become of me now? What will they pay me in if not in beef?

British Airways has ditched beef for economy class passengers this summer in an attempt to appeal to a more international passenger base.

The familiar cabin crew inquiry of "chicken or beef?" will not be heard in economy after the airline ditched the national dish in favour of what it calls a lighter, healthier option.

Critics will suspect that the relentless pressure to cut costs that all airlines are facing is behind the move, although BA said cost was not a factor...

"We can only serve two options and beef and pork obviously have religious restrictions," the spokesman added. BA's second-biggest long-haul market, after transatlantic routes, is to India. [Link]

As might be expected, many Brits were not happy about this. For one thing, what the hell are all the Beefeaters going to do?

The decision to scrap the nation's favourite fare was described as a "great shame" by the English Beef and Lamb Executive, formerly part of the Meat and Livestock Commission.

A spokesman said: "It is regrettable that Britain's flag carrier is not proposing to serve Britain's national dish.

"It is a meal we are rightly proud of. Roast beef and beefeaters are symbols or Britain used to promote tourism.

"Our beef is also much in demand overseas. It is predominately grass fed and highly praised for its flavour. [Link]

What is really regrettable, in my opinion, is that moves like this, made under the guise of multicultural sensitivity, more often than not backfire and may increase resentment of Hindus living in England. "Just another British tradition being erased by the immigrants." In reality, British Airways did this to save money, not to be sensitive:

... as any Jew, Muslim, Hindu or vegetarian knows, meals that conform to religious belief or personal choice can be ordered in advance. That is why bacon sandwiches are handed out on early-morning shuttle flights without causing a riot.

So something is fishy and it is not just the pie. No, what we have here is space-saver wheel syndrome, or another example of the way the consumer is hoodwinked under the guise of efficiency, health, safety, security or conservation, while the reality of big business is always bottom line, bottom line, bottom line. British Airways may dissemble, but beef being available to those who wish to pay means that better living and religious sensitivity do not enter into it. Beef prices have risen from £2,500 per tonne to £4,000 per tonne in the past three months. If BA was upfront with its public, the announcement would read: if you can't afford it at home, you ain't getting it on us. At least then you would know where you stood. [Link]

For British Airways it is easier to "blame" the loss of beef on Hindus than to admit that cost cutting is necessary. A third way of looking at this is that getting rid of the beef on BA flights is actually good for the environment and will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This is how British Airways should have justified the decision:

Meet the world's top destroyer of the environment. It is not the car, or the plane,or even George Bush: it is the cow.

A United Nations report has identified the world's rapidly growing herds of cattle as the greatest threat to the climate, forests and wildlife. And they are blamed for a host of other environmental crimes, from acid rain to the introduction of alien species, from producing deserts to creating dead zones in the oceans, from poisoning rivers and drinking water to destroying coral reefs. [Link]

abhi at 12:27 PM in Aviation, Economics, Food, News, Religion

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Dancing in the Family

cicatrix — 2008-05-09T20:30:12-05:00

He is tall, slim, and strikingly long limbed. Dressed in jewel-colored silk tunics and antique ornaments that are family heirlooms, he looks more like a handsome young maharaja than a traditional South Indian dancer. Newsweek

Yes, I know, vomit, it sounds like more exoticizing pablum from a mainstream media source. But getting past the opening drivel, this article (posted in the news tab, thanks Brij01!) turned out to be about a rather fascinating family:

Aniruddha Knight is the ninth generation heir of a 200-year-old family of professional dancers and musicians from Chennai, India. He is also half American. His father, Douglas Knight, married into this artistically rich family when he studied classical drumming on a South Indian mridangam at Wesleyan University, where Aniruddha's late grandmother--T. Balasaraswati, India's prima danseuse--and her two musician brothers had taught since 1962.

Aniruddha followed his mother and grandmother, continuing the family's bharatanatyam tradition:

Knight is fluent in Tamil, his mother's language, and spends half a year in India, performing and learning from aunts and cousins who had worked with his mother. He has established a school and an archive of family history in Chennai. (The Smithsonian boasts an archive of Bala's performances, too.) It houses all the records of his grandmother's performances.

About his mixed parentage:

"It's isolating to identify with two cultures, it creates a split personality. I can never be just one or the other, it's a heartwrenching lonely process. But then, what I have, many don't have."

Those against mixed marriages often cite fear of waning traditions, culture, language, etc., as a reason to date within one's own ethnic community. So it's heartwarming to see this family's artistic legacy continuing on, and even thriving, under the stewardship of its youngest, half-desi member. But do other half-desis feel the same sense of loneliness and isolation?

Most that I've known feel as though they have a deeper connection to both, not an alienation from either, but it's clearly a personal path. I'm curious to hear any stories readers might have to share on this topic.

Also, I watched a bit of his performance here, and I'm not sure what to make of it. I'm a rank ignoramus about bharatanatyam, so perhaps I'm just used to the more typical form:

However, the version that Knight dances is stylistically unique. It originated as a temple offering performed by young women who were dedicated to serving God by retelling ancient Hindu myths through music and dance in the temple courtyard.

He sings while dancing as well, which threw me off a bit. But, again, this could be entirely due to my own lack of knowledge. His hand movements are beautiful though...I encourage anyone with a bharatanatyan background to please take a look and share your thoughts.

cicatrix at 08:30 PM in Dance, Identity, Profiles

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"Vote Both": Sam Arora

amardeep — 2008-05-09T10:03:38-05:00

Many people have been dismissive of a Democratic "dream ticket," with Barack Obama as the presidential candidate and Hillary Clinton in the VP slot. For example, DailyKos, which is strongly pro-Obama, has been sharply dismissive of the idea, for a number of reasons. First, Obama has been putting himself forward as the "change" candidate, and the Clintons represent the opposite of "change." Second, as a Senator from New York, Clinton doesn't deliver "geographically" the way someone like Governor Bill Richardson (New Mexico) might [but what about Arkansas?]. Third, she is way too big a personality to be comfortable sticking to whatever message and strategy the Obama campaign is likely to devise. Fourth, all this talk of Hillary supporters defecting to McCain seems rather suspect -- when it comes down to it, are committed Democrats really going to vote for someone who is pro-Life, pro-Iraq War, etc.? And finally, most people presume the two of them, by now, can't stand each other.

Sam Arora thinks otherwise. He was, until recently, a spokesperson for Hillary Clinton, and is still described as a "Hillary-ite," though he is no longer with the Clinton campaign. He and some other Hillaryites have started a site called "Vote Both," to promote the idea of a Democratic dream ticket, with either of the two candidates on top. Their project has gotten some media attention, and profiles in articles like this one. Sam Arora was also interviewed on TV here (check it out -- he's a pretty smooth talker!).

SM had a post on Sam Arora (the same Sam Arora?) here, when he was a contestant for a reality TV show. Sam was also one of the "50 Most Beautiful People on Capitol Hill" a couple of years ago (see this). (I will leave it to others to ascertain whether Sam Arora really is, in fact, "hot," as he has often been described.)

I was earlier skeptical about the joint ticket idea, but now I'm starting to think it could work, as long as the two of them can come to agreement on strategy and message (and agree that Bill should go back to Chappaqua, and stay there until January 2009). Obama is still a "change" candidate, but after Reverend Wright, he no longer seems quite as fresh or revolutionary as he once appeared, and I don't think working with Clinton will tarnish his image. Finally, any personal bitterness the two of them might feel for one another would undoubtedly go out the window if they were to win the election in November.

amardeep at 10:03 AM in Politics

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I.C.E.D better than GTA-IV

abhi — 2008-05-08T23:50:15-05:00

I really wish I could have been playing the new video game Grand Theft Auto IV this week. Unfortunately I don't own a gaming system. I used to be an obsessive gamer as a kid so its best that I don't go near one now that I have real responsibilities (like blogging). I can however, get my fix online. I've been trying my hand at a game that looks similar to GTA-IV. Instead of smacking hos and jacking cars, I've been learning about "my" rights as an immigrant child. The game is I.C.E.D. (I Can End Deportation):

Breakthrough's video game, ICED, puts you in the shoes of an immigrant to illustrate how unfair immigration laws deny due process and violate human rights. These laws affect all immigrants: legal residents, those fleeing persecution, students and undocumented people.

ICED has been featured in overwhelming amounts of press including: MTV News, Game Daily and has been covered on popular blogs including, Gothamist and The Huffington Post. To get a full list of media, please look at the left-hand tool bar.

How do you play?

THE OBJECT OF THE GAME IS TO BECOME A CITIZEN OF THE UNITED STATES

Game Play:
As an immigrant teen you are avoiding ICE officers, choosing right from wrong and answering questions on immigration. But if you answer questions incorrectly, or make poor decisions, you will be detained with no respect for your human rights. [Link]

Is your knee jerk reaction that you think this game might exaggerate the plight of immigrant kids, especially those brought over by undocumented parents? Think again. More about that later, after the fold.

I picked the character of Suki to make my way through this cruel world:

I tried to apply for a job at a restaurant (I needed money because I was hungry). They denied me because I didn't have proper documents (I used forged ones). Then I tried to jack a car because I was feeling hopeless. I ended up in a detention center because of that. A man there offered to join me in the shower. Even in the video game detention was a pretty sad place and I ended up being deported. In real life it's worse:

Another lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security was filed in Federal court today [April 30th, 2008], this one is over prison conditions for detained immigrants. The plaintiffs are former detainees and several advocacy groups who say conditions in immigration prisons are wildly variable and too often inhumane. So, with help from Yale Law School, they're asking a federal judge to force the government to create new regulations and hold itself accountable. WNYC's Marianne McCune has more.

REPORTER: The harshest treatment of immigrants in detention has made big news in recent years: harassment by dogs at Passaic County jail in New Jersey; the death of an immigrant who went untreated for more than 20 minutes after suffering a hard attack in Louisiana; or the physical abuse of some immigrants held in Brooklyn after the September 11th attacks. But the lawsuit being filed today is more focused on the everyday. Paromita Shah of the National Lawyer's Guild's National Immigration Project says complaints range from inflexible visiting hours to inadequate medical care.

SHAH: Even today I had two calls from friends and family members who said this person had fallen down and he'd been taken to the hospital. But when he came back he said his back was swollen his leg was swollen. It's been a week now and they haven't checked up on him. He wasn't sure what was happening, he was very agitated and he didn't know what to do. [Link]

Some of these detention centers are run by corporations for profit. Yes, a subsidiary of Haliburton is involved in this business in case you even had to ask. More to come on this soon.

abhi at 11:50 PM in Arts and Entertainment, Issues, Kids, Law, News

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Hell in the time of the Junta

abhi — 2008-05-08T22:30:49-05:00

The news out of Myanmar/Burma keeps getting worse. On Thursday evening the British paper The Sun is blaring the following headline: THE death toll in cyclone-ravaged Burma could hit 500,000 - more than TWICE the total killed by the Boxing Day Tsunami. The biggest problem right now is that the effort to fly in precious water and food are being thwarted by the paranoid military junta that runs the country and is too suspicious and inept to grant visas to aid workers:

With up to 1.5 million people in Myanmar now believed to be facing the threat of starvation and disease and with relief efforts still largely stymied by the country's isolationist military rulers, frustrated United Nations officials all but demanded Thursday that the government open its doors to supplies and aid workers...

"The situation is profoundly worrying," said the United Nations official in charge of the relief effort, John Holmes, speaking in unusually candid language for a diplomat. "They have simply not facilitated access in the way we have a right to expect..." [Link]

The Tsunami was unimaginably bad...BUT at least the rest of the world wasn't as impotent then as we are now. Considering the massive devastation in 2004, the world actually responded relatively quickly to minimize deaths after the actual event (certainly faster than the Hurricane Katrina response). This however, is just frustrating. Children are dying of thirst because visas aren't being granted! For my part I am doing what I can. I found out that the relief organization CARE International was one of the first to have boots on the ground in Myanmar since they had an office there. They are actually disbursing aid. I also know that the first of the checks that our Uncle Sam is sending our way to help with the U.S. economic recovery will be hitting our bank accounts this week. I know it flies in the face of a sound economic strategy to send money meant to boost our economy straight overseas, but I'm willing to upset those "elite" economists. I just sent a chunk of change to CARE. I'll just pretend there was no rebate. UNICEF is a good bet too.

Part of what is so aggravating about this situation is that India actually gave Myanmar a warning about the cyclone. If the junta had simply communicated that warning effectively then at least some lives could have been saved.

Indian meteorologists have said they had given neighbouring Myanmar 48 hours' warning before a cyclone slammed into the country, killing more than 22,000 people and leaving over 40,000 missing.

The comments from the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) came amid US allegations that Myanmar's military junta failed to warn its citizens of the impending storm.

"Forty-eight hours before (tropical cyclone) Nargis struck, we indicated its point of crossing (landfall), its severity and all related issues to Myanmarese agencies," IMD spokesman B.P. Yadav told AFP Tuesday.

The department is mandated by the United Nations World Meteorological Organisation to track cyclones in the region.

"Our job is to give warnings and in advance, and we take pride in saying that we gave warnings much, much in advance and there was enough time to take precautionary measures such as evacuation," he added. [Link]

Not only will untold thousands die in Myanmar, it will also virtually wipe out their precious rice exports sending already high prices even higher. Thus, to some extent, hunger will radiate outward from the Myanmar tragedy:

Cyclone damage to rice crops and inventories in Myanmar's Irrawaddy delta and other areas may impair its exports of the grain in 2008 and further tighten the world rice market, the U.N. food agency said on Wednesday.

The storm, which battered five states accounting for 65 percent of the former Burma's rice output, may trigger "localised food shortages" and require imports from neighbours, it said. [Link]

NASA has posted some satellite imagery which shows the region before and after the cyclone hit.

Just what is Than Shwe, the "leader" of Myanmar thinking? Unfortunately, he may be getting advice from his fortune tellers:

A fortuneteller's warning that blood would spill in the city of Yangon prompted the general in 2005 to shift the country's capital from there to Naypyidaw, a jungle outpost 300 kilometers (186 miles) inland, said Irrawaddy News, a weekly that covers Myanmar from Thailand....
"The amount of superstitious beliefs, the following of soothsayers make it difficult to understand why they act in a certain way," said Christopher Roberts, a post-doctoral fellow at Singapore's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies who specializes in Myanmar politics. [Link]

If any readers have other suggestions for how one can aid the people of Myanmar, let's here it.

abhi at 10:30 PM in Issues, News, Non-profits

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The Strange, Twisted Tale of Priya Venkatesan, PhD

vinod — 2008-05-08T02:22:10-05:00

The blogosphere is alight with the story of a (former) professor at Dartmouth named Priya Venkatesan. Teaching is a tough job and I have the highest regard for some of the amazing teachers I've had the privilege of learning from over the years. Priya, however, is apparently not quite in that class (pun intended).

The WSJ provides one summary of the case -

Priya Venkatesan taught English at Dartmouth College. She maintains that some of her students were so unreceptive of "French narrative theory" that it amounted to a hostile working environment. She is also readying lawsuits against her superiors, who she says papered over the harassment, as well as a confessional exposé, which she promises will "name names."

The trauma was so intense that in March Ms. Venkatesan quit Dartmouth and decamped for Northwestern. She declined to comment for this piece, pointing instead to the multiple interviews she conducted with the campus press.

What praytell were these unruly students doing to our poor teacher? And, aside from her personal ethnicity, is there a desi angle to the story?

First, it appears that the students in her class shared a good chunk of my aversion to the PostModernist deconstruction of Science -

Ms. Venkatesan lectured in freshman composition, intended to introduce undergraduates to the rigors of expository argument. "My students were very bully-ish, very aggressive, and very disrespectful," she told Tyler Brace of the Dartmouth Review. "They'd argue with your ideas." This caused "subversiveness," a principle English professors usually favor.
Ms. Venkatesan's scholarly specialty is "science studies," which, as she wrote in a journal article last year, "teaches that scientific knowledge has suspect access to truth." She continues: "Scientific facts do not correspond to a natural reality but conform to a social construct."

In my book, folks like this deserve much of the same scorn as Creationists. One finds a benevolent God having begat a weird brand of science; the other a malevolent Rich / White / Old / Male power structure. All the while, neither seem to have problems with the products of said science ranging from airplanes, to the Internet, to medicine.

A few students' course evaluations are online and highlight a toxic classroom environment -

If she teaches here... don't take this course. Period. She defines a terrible prof, she is offended when people ask questions about her lectures and does not grade/give feedback on papers. Grade based solely on if she likes you/ you writing reflects her "sophisticated" ideas.

...Aside from the fact that I learnt nothing of value in this class besides the repeated use of the word "postmodernism" in all contexts (whether appropriate or not) and the fact that Professor Venkatesan is the most confusing/nonsensical lecturer ever, the main problem with this class is the personal attacks launched in class. Almost every member of the class was personally attacked in some form in the class by either intimidation or ignoring your questions/comments/concerns. If you decide to take this class, prepare to NOT be allowed to express your own opinions in class because you have "yet to obtain your Ph.D/masters/bachelors degree".

And, one particularly brave student sounds like he had enough. Priya - to her credit - tells the tale in a blog interview -

[Priya:] I made the argument that in many cases science and technology did not benefit women, and if women were benefiting science and technology, it was an aftereffect. It was not the goal of science and technology.

...But there was one student who really took issue with this--and he took issue with this, and he made a very--I'd call it a diatribe, and it was sort of like, well--science and technology, women really did benefit from it, and to criticize patriarchal authority on the basis that science and technology benefited patriarchy or men, was not sufficient grounds for this type of feminist claim. And he did this with great rhetorical flourish; it was very invective, it was a very invective sort of tone. And I think what happened afterwards was that some people--I can't name them, and I don't know how many there were, but it was a significant number--started clapping for his statements. It was a very humiliating moment to my life; it was extremely humiliating, that my students would clap against me,

Priya goes on to describe how that student caused her to have some sort of breakdown that sent her to the (womyn-friendly?) hospital and miss a week of class. Personally, if I could find that student, I'd contribute to his college beer fund.

What took the crap to a level beyond a run-of-the-mill student teacher disagreement, however, was Priya's truly bizarre response. She threatened a lawsuit in widely circulated emails to her class -

Dear Student:

As a courtesy, you are being notified that you are being named in a potential class action suit that is being brought against Dartmouth College, which is being accused of violating federal anti-discrimination laws. Please do not respond to this email because it will be potentially used against you in a court of law.
Priya Venkatesan, PhD

And she's already promised a tell-all book -

[I'm] writing a book detailing my experiences as your instructor, which will 'name names' so to speak. I have all of your evaluations and these will be reproduced in the book."

The Desi angle? As Harvard's Crimson reports, that card was introduced by Priya -

Last week, a few students in the Dartmouth writing class "Science, Technology, and Society" received a nasty shock. When they checked their inboxes, they learned that their professor, Priya Venkatesan, was planning to sue them for discrimination. Later investigations revealed that she also planned to sue the College and several faculty members, not referring to any particular episode, but mentioning the "hostility" she felt during her time as a professor and saying that "maybe it has something to do with my ethnicity or my gender."

Let's be clear - there absolutely are real instances of ethnic and gender discrimination in the world. However, Priya's screed is a fantastic example of the "race to the 3rd rail" caricature of the argument. When racism/sexism becomes a reflexive, defensive rush for cover, it raises the burden of proof for other folks in other cases where the argument might actually hold merit. Still, I suppose for Priya Venkatesan, PhD, there's a certain consistency in claiming ethnic/sexual victimization when so much of her teaching is basically about... well... victimization.

[PS - it's worth noting that the lawsuit appears to have been dropped...]

vinod at 02:22 AM in News

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Fareed Zakaria's Latest: "The Post-American World"

amardeep — 2008-05-07T09:38:13-05:00

Though I've often disagreed with Fareed Zakaria on specific policy questions, I've always been challenged and interested by his way of thinking about big issues. Like some of my colleagues here at Sepia Mutiny, I found his book The Future of Freedom stimulating, if imperfect. Zakaria seems to be especially good at synthesizing complex issues under the umbrella of a signature "big idea," without choking off qualifications or complexities. He still may a little too close to the buzzword-philia of Thomas Friedman for some readers, but in my view Zakaria's book-length arguments are a cut above Friedman's "gee whiz" bromides. (Zakaria's weekly Newsweek columns do not always rise to this bar.)

Zakaria's latest big concept is The Post-American World, a just-released book whose argument he summarizes in a substantial essay in this week's Newsweek. The basic idea is, the world is becoming a place where the U.S. is not a solo superpower, but rather a complex competitive environment with multiple sites of power and influence. Even as China and India ("Chindia"?) rise, it's not clear that the U.S. or Europe will fall; rather, everyone can, potentially, rise together -- or at least, compete together. Zakaria argues that despite hysterical anxieties figured in the mass media regarding the threat of terrorism and economic crisis, the world has rarely been more peaceful -- and that relative peace and stability has created the opportunity for the unprecedented emergence of independent and rapidly expanding market economies in formerly impoverished "Chindia."

There's more to it (read the article), but perhaps that is enough summary for now. There are a couple of passages I thought particularly interesting, which I might put out for discussion. First, on India:

During the 1980s, when I would visit India—where I grew up—most Indians were fascinated by the United States. Their interest, I have to confess, was not in the important power players in Washington or the great intellectuals in Cambridge.

People would often ask me about … Donald Trump. He was the very symbol of the United States—brassy, rich, and modern. He symbolized the feeling that if you wanted to find the biggest and largest anything, you had to look to America. Today, outside of entertainment figures, there is no comparable interest in American personalities. If you wonder why, read India's newspapers or watch its television. There are dozens of Indian businessmen who are now wealthier than the Donald. Indians are obsessed by their own vulgar real estate billionaires. And that newfound interest in their own story is being replicated across much of the world. (link)

This last insight seems dead-on to me, and it's the kind of thing I think Zakaria appreciates precisely because he was raised in India (no matter how many times he says "we" when talking about American foreign policy, he still carries that with him). This is one of the spaces where Zakaria's status as an "Indian-American" is a real asset, as it gives him a simultaneous insider-outsider "double consciousness" -- he has the ability to see things from the American/European point of view, but also know (remembers?) how the man on the street in Bombay or Shanghai is likely to see the world. [Note: I did an earlier post on Zakaria's complex perspective here]

(As a side note -- for the academics in the house, isn't the narrative Zakaria is promoting in the passage above a "pop" version of what postcolonial theorists have been talking about for years -- what Ngugi called "The Decolonization of the Mind"?)

Secondly, another passage, which I think addresses what might be the biggest hindrance to the multi-nodal global society Zakaria is interested in:

The rise of China and India is really just the most obvious manifestation of a rising world. In dozens of big countries, one can see the same set of forces at work—a growing economy, a resurgent society, a vibrant culture, and a rising sense of national pride. That pride can morph into something uglier. For me, this was vividly illustrated a few years ago when I was chatting with a young Chinese executive in an Internet café in Shanghai. He wore Western clothes, spoke fluent English, and was immersed in global pop culture. He was a product of globalization and spoke its language of bridge building and cosmopolitan values. At least, he did so until we began talking about Taiwan, Japan, and even the United States. (We did not discuss Tibet, but I'm sure had we done so, I could have added it to this list.) His responses were filled with passion, bellicosity, and intolerance. I felt as if I were in Germany in 1910, speaking to a young German professional, who would have been equally modern and yet also a staunch nationalist.

As economic fortunes rise, so inevitably does nationalism. Imagine that your country has been poor and marginal for centuries. Finally, things turn around and it becomes a symbol of economic progress and success. You would be proud, and anxious that your people win recognition and respect throughout the world. (link)

Will resurgent nationalism turn out to be the biggest hindrance to the "smooth" globalization Zakaria is talking about? How might this play out? Will there be a new generation of wars, or will it be expressed in subtler ways (like, for instance, what happened with the nuclear deal within the Indian political system). In the Newsweek article at least, Zakaria doesn't really explore the downside of emergent (insurgent?) Chindian nationalisms in depth; perhaps we can do so here.

amardeep at 09:38 AM in Economics, News, Politics

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Blurring Borders in Ramchand Pakistani

Sandhya — 2008-05-06T08:38:59-05:00

In their book Borders and Boundaries, editors Ritu Menon and Kamla Bhasin write: “As an event of shattering consequence, Partition retains its pre-eminence even today, despite two wars on our borders and wave after wave of communal violence. … Each new eruption of hostility or expression of difference swiftly recalls that bitter and divisive erosion of social relations between Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs, and each episode of brutality is measured against what was experienced then.”

This statement speaks directly to the premise of Pakistani director Mehreen Jabar’s debut film Ramchand Pakistani, which recently premiered in NY at the Tribeca Film Festival. Based on a series of true events which took place in 2002—during a period where India and Pakistan were on the brink of war—it is the story of one innocent Hindu Dalit family which became a victim of the national hostilities that have permeated Indo-Pak relations since partition. The story begins in a small, dusty border village in on the Pakistan side of the Thar desert. Ramchand (Fazal Hussain) is the willful, naughty son of a Hindu Dalit farmer Shankar (Rashid Farooqi) and his wife Champa (played by Nandita Das). One morning, when Ramchand gets into an argument with his mother, he skips school and goes for a walk in the desert terrain bordering his father’s farm. Without realizing it, he crosses over into Indian territory. His father follows him to bring him back, but it’s too late. Indian patrol officers, suspicious of their motives (“Are you Pakistani spies?”) take both of them into custody.

For the next five years, Ramchand and his father are trapped in a bureaucratic prison system in India, where despite the lack of evidence that they did anything wrong, it is impossible to release them because of a longstanding battle of wills between the Indian and Pakistani governments. The film follows Ramchand’s coming of age in a prison where he and his father share a cell with Indians and Pakistanis, many of whom made the mistake of “crossing over” and have gotten lost in the shuffle.

The prison cell is a metaphor for communal relations – in a tiny space, men of different regions and religions are forced to coexist—and, in the process, come to realize what they have in common—a desire for freedom—far outweighs their differences. In the prison, we have the expected characters—the mad man, the gentle old man, the mullah, the pimp, the pervert, the local politician, as well as the surprising character of the female security officer Kamla (Maria Wasti) who becomes Ramchand’s teacher (and first crush) and learns a little something about her own caste prejudices. These characters make for interesting conflicts and challenges to the young Ramchand and shape his development into a young man whose main goal is survival … just like his mother Champa, who is struggling to go on with her life. The movie switches gracefully between the Pakistani village where Champa’s “life must go on” and the Indian prison, showing us the passage of time, the pain, and the helplessness that this small family must confront.

Director Mehreen Jabar’s father Javed Jabbar is a well-known Pakistani writer and producer. He came up with the idea for this film, after reading a series of newspaper articles about a father and son who were kept in India after an accidental border crossing. What drew Mehreen Jabar to this film? “For one, it was the simplicity of it: a family separated for no fault of their own and forcibly put into a situation where they have to deal with circumstances not of their making,” she says in the director’s statement. “With this simple story came layers upon layers of subtext—about relationships, discrimination and the politics of the region—told not in a propagandist way but rather through the eyes of a child and a woman.”

A memorable soundtrack by Shubha Mudgal and Debajyoti Mishra, both Indian musicians, one of my favorite lead Indian actresses, a largely Pakistani cast, and shooting in Pakistan make this a film whose very collaborative making broke down some of the borders and barriers it speaks of. Nandita Das had to get special permission from the ~~Indian~~ Pakistani (thanks for the correction Chachaji) government to star in this film, for example. The music was recorded in Mumbai. And, the prison set in the film was based on the main jail in the town of Bhuj, Gujarat, close to where the original father and son were held as prisoners. Director Mehreen Jabar and her producer visited this prison and subsequently recreated it on the outskirts of Karachi. “It was the only location in Pakistan other than the Indian High Commission in Islamabad, where the Indian flag flew at full mast for about 3 to 4 weeks,” Jabbar says.

The result is a moving and poetic film which brings an ongoing issue into our line of vision without being overly dramatic or cliched. A quick search of news reports shows that the grim predicament of Indian and Pakistani prisoners is still a reality. See this news of a recent release of two young Pakistani boys from an Indian prison.

Ramchand Pakistani is on its way to the Seattle Film Festival later this month, and hopefully, will arrive at a city near you soon.

Sandhya at 08:38 AM in Film

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Hot Breads = Teh Yum

amardeep — 2008-05-05T10:31:16-05:00

A few weeks ago we were in North Jersey, and went with friends to a new restaurant called "Hot Breads," in Parsippany. I thought the idea of a cafe style restaurant along these lines was great, and I immediately thought, "hey, someone should open one of these down in Philadelphia!" When I got home, I hit Google, and discovered there are already two within 20 miles of my house, not to mention numerous franchises in California, Georgia, Maryland, Illinois, New York, Texas, and Virginia. [UPDATE: Abhi also gave his own take on this place two years ago, in this SM post]

Hot Breads specializes in stuffed croissants (tandoori chicken, paneer, etc.), but also offers a menu of other light foods (wraps, chaat, desi-style pizza) as well as dessert pastries. (See a typical menu here [PDF].) The format itself is a nice change from a typical Indian restaurant -- with the year-round Christmas lights and sometimes shoddy service.

After the Parsippany experience, we went to the one in Lansdale/North Wales, and liked it even better. I particularly liked the Dabeli, a kind of Gujarati version of Vada Pav. I also found my Chicken Tikka wrap quite satisfying, and the chutney free version of the "Bombay Sandwich" we got for Puran was also good. We got stuffed Croissants to go, though perhaps they suffered a bit by being not quite as fresh when we actually ate them the next day. Next time, I'll be curious to try the "Alu Chilli Pizza" -- or perhaps the "Pav Bhaji Pizza."

Oh, and everything tastes better with Limca!

amardeep at 10:31 AM in Food

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"The Age of Shiva" -- a Review

amardeep — 2008-05-05T10:17:31-05:00

I was surprised by how much the others in my book group didn't like Manil Suri's The Age of Shiva. The biggest complaint was from the mothers in the group (including my better half), who didn't like Suri's use of a first/second person narrative method (the novel is written in the voice of a woman named Meera, addressed to her son, Ashvin). Several people said they didn't think Suri really pulled off the trick of writing about the intimate space of family life from a woman's point of view.

Reading as a man, I didn't notice anything implausible or false, though obviously I can't be the judge. Certainly, some of the intimate passages regarding things like Meera's breastfeeding of her son are quite risky (starting with the opening paragraphs of the novel; you can hear Suri read them aloud here). I find the opening a bit stylistically overwrought (the novel quickly shifts to a more conventional style), but it's still, I think, plausible.

(Chandrahas Chowdhury, reviewing the novel in the Guardian, wasn't bothered by this aspect, but by the novel's use of Indian history. Jabberwock, whose opinion I respect greatly, loved the novel, and found Suri's attempt at a woman's point of view convincing. Then again, both reviewers are men. The only review of the novel by a woman I've come across is by Caryn James, in the New York Times -- and she doesn't take issue with Suri along these lines. Still, I wonder what readers thought?)

Though I suspect some other readers may share my book group's distaste, I did think The Age of Shiva had some real strengths.

My friend "SN," for instance, liked the psychological complexity of the bond between mother and son in the novel, something I also appreciated. The Age of Shiva is, more than anything else, a novel about the overwhelming, consuming love a parent can feel for a child, especially in a situation where the parent feels she has little else to live for. With this as its central theme, the novel is actually somewhat unique (most contemporary Indian writers tend to balk at this much psychology -- where 'nothing really happens').

A second theme will be more familiar: the changing circumstances and possibilities for Indian women in the years after independence. On the one hand, some major cultural transformations seemed to be underway, symbolically represented by Indira Gandhi's rise to power. In the novel, the main agent for "progressivism" is actually Meera's father, who champions what the Congress party says (it takes time for him to learn that there is a big gap between what Congress says, and what it does). But for ordinary women, even in cities like Delhi, not much had really changed through the 1960s, and even "progressive" ideologies can come across as coercive -- especially since the ideals don't always have space to work (it is one thing to espouse women's independence, but it's quite another to imagine living happily as a divorced mother in Delhi in the 1960s -- a time when, among other things, men almost always got exclusive custody of children in divorce cases). To illustrate what Suri is after regarding gender relations, here is a representative passage from shortly after Meera's marriage into the Arora family, as she's observing the customs practiced by her much more conservative in-laws:

Each morning after her bath, I would see Sandhya [Meera's sister-in-law] in the courtyard, performing her pooja of Arya [Sandhya's husband]. She would swirl an earthenware lamp resting on a round metal thali in a circle before Arya's face, as one might in front of a picture of a shrine. She would mark his forehead with ash from the platter, and sometimes dab on some vermilion and a moistened grain of rice. She would bend her head and wait for him to color the parting in her hair with a line of the vermilion. Then she would bend even lower to touch his feet--first the right, then the left. She would run the same hand over her head to bless herself as she began to rise.

The first time I saw this pooja, I stood in the kitchen transfixed. The touching of feet was a ritual strictly forbidden by Paji [Meera's father] in our house. 'All this scraping, all this servility--hasn't anyone in this country heard of human dignity? Aren't there enough gods in the temples already to satisfy this national hunger for groveling? We spent two centuries licking the boots of the British--did you ever see them prostrating themselves at anyone's feet?'

Meera's father, referred to in the novel as Paji, is a "reformer" who sharply limits the role of religion, specifically these kinds of religious rituals, in his house. Clearly, part of his distaste at the type of pooja Meera witnesses in her in-laws' house derives from a kind of colonial hangover -- the British didn't do this, so why do we? On the other hand, quite separate from the British, isn't he right about the insidious effects of "servility" and "scraping"?

Interestingly, Paji's character turns out to be coercive and sometimes flat-out cruel. By contrast, the kind of deep devotionalism embodied by Sandhya in the passage above is linked to being utterly disempowered, but it is at least honest. The tension between the two ways of thinking -- the two ways of being -- is really the central tension in Meera's mind, as she attempts to survive her unhappy marriage and limited prospects.

There are other things to appreciate in The Age of Shiva. Meera's husband Dev, for instance, is a singer who tries to make a go of it as a playback singer in Bombay in the 1960s. His idol is the great 1940s icon, K.L. Saigal, ~~who is perhaps best known today for singing the hopeful, mid-tempo classic "Mere Sapno ki Rani," though back in the day he was~~ best-known as a singer of mournful romantic ballads like this one ("Jab Dil Hi Toot Gaya"). The tragic image of K.L. Saigal is a kind of running leitmotif in The Age of Shiva, and adds somewhat to what is a somewhat elegiac tone overall.

What did readers think of this novel?

amardeep at 10:17 AM in Fiction

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