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Amphi Adda,the discussions held at the Indian Institute of Journalism & New Media amphi-theater every week.

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IIJNM Beats - Magic Box or Tragic Box...

As part of our coursework at the Indian Institute of Journalism & Media, we are required to shoot, edit and produce stories on our own,for the in-house bulletins.

This particular beat story is about the Magic boxes which are coming up in Bangalore. Experst and motorists alike feel that they don't really serve a purpose. They say that it is just a waste of money, as it is too narrow and hence beats the purpose.

It's Not Perfect but...

A little less conversation, a little more action please

Dilraz Kunnummal

The Indian media faced a lot of criticism following the broadcasts of the 26/11 Mumbai terror Attacks. The question now is how it can be regulated. And if the government steps in to regulate the Indian media, will we be giving in to censorship. Other instances where the media has behaved irresponsibly include the Arushi murder case and the Gujjar agitation.

During the Mumbai attacks, every channel had an exclusive of how the NSG was working to solve the crisis. It even gave away hideouts of hostages and the terrorists were able to wait at the exit points and kill them. Every move taken by Indian commandoes were telecast live. It was called ‘TV terror’. The channels seemed to be in a constant struggle for TRPs and were aggressive, to the point of making factual errors and being melodramatic.

"One of the ill effects of unrestrained coverage is that of provoking anger amongst the masses," said K.G. Balakrishnan, the chief justice of the Supreme Court of India, during a conference on terrorism in New Delhi.

In her defense, Barkha Dutt defended herself and other channels by saying that they were not neither prepared for such an attack nor were there any directives given by the government. She also said that media would welcome a framework for coverage of sensitive events.

In June 2007, police of four states, Delhi, Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh filed affidavits in an effort to appease the Supreme Court, blaming media for repeated telecast of certain clippings which worsened the Gujjar-Meena quota reservation agitation and led to more violence. Rajasthan DGP AS Gill said that the television media could have helped spread the violence to far-flung areas. The Deccan Herald quoted him as saying, “The manner of telecast by the 24X7 news channels was also perhaps a contributing factor to the spread of violence to places beyond those where blockade calls were given”. Gill also asked the court to ask the Indian government to “issue direction to the government to rein in the audio-visual media in the better interest of society”. According to him, the telecasts did not help in anyway to bring about peace or harmony.

This also brings about the question of what should be telecast. Are gory images acceptable during prime time news, when children can be watching? Or should warnings be given in case the images are gruesome.

There should also be some regulations to decide what’s breaking news. It should be made unacceptable if a channel broadcasts a fight between bollywood starlets as breaking news. Similarly, in this age of fight for TRPs, every channel makes every issue an ‘Exclusive’. This needs to be checked.

The News Broadcasting Authority set up a News Broadcasting Standards [Disputes Redressal] Authority to act as an independent regulator. It will be chaired by former chief justice, JS Verma and has started operating since October 2, 2008. Other members include eminent personalities like Kiran Karnik [former NASSCOM president], Nitin Desai [economist], Dipanker Gupta [Sociologist] and Ramachandra Guha [Historian]. It will also include prominent editors like Vinod Kapri of India TV, B. V. Rao of Zee News, Milind Khandekar of Star News and Arnab Goswami of Times Now. They revealed a new set of rules and guidelines for broadcasting channels. The guidelines ban broadcasting of footage that could reveal security operations and live contact with hostages or attackers.

This is more acceptable to the channels as peers are doing the review and also because impact the credibility of a channel. According to Annie Joseh, NBA’s Secretary, the government cannot be allowed to censor what is being telecast as most include lapses of the government. She also added that any interference from the government would "imperil not just independent journalism, but the very process of investigation itself.” So, it is imperative that the guidelines are set down by the members of the media and that they themselves are the watchdogs.

Government cannot be allowed to interfere in the fourth estate, but there definitely is a need for some sort of regulators for the Indian broadcast industry, especially in a country like this one where illiteracy rides high.

[This appeared in the in-house newspaper of the Indian Institute of Journalism & New Media, on January 22 2009. It came as a news-analysis piece on the opinion & editorial page]

Dirty Tricks

Is India turning into a banana republic? How could a former prime minister of India not know of constitutional propriety? Janata Dal (S) chief HD Deve Gowda sent private letters to the chief justice and other judges of the Karnataka High Court challenging an infrastructure project that he opposed while his party was in government. The case is being currently adjudicated so Deva Gowda’s action amounts to contempt of court, or a disregard for the due process of law.
From the time the project was sanctioned by his predecessor and arch-rival S M Krishna, Deve Gowda has been trying to scuttle it. His argument is that 2,289 acres of land sanctioned by the Congress government is in excess of that required for the Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor Project (BMICP). Deve Gowda authored a booklet, BMICP - A case study in fraud and collusion to defeat the ends of justice and defraud courts, copies of which he sent to the judges.
Deve Gowda has a legitimate argument that there are several defects in the BMICP project, but how could he have not known that it is a violation of judicial procedure to privately lobby judges on a matter under adjudication? Chief Justice P.D Dinakaran pointedly asked, “When the matter is pending before this Bench, how can he write such a letter?” He added that Deve Gowda should have come to the court or filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) if he was aggrieved.
The Supreme Court has, in principle, ruled in the favor of the BMICP and handed the case over to the Karnataka High Court. Although the High Court has converted Deve Gowda’s letter into a PIL, and the case will be heard on February 2, the court expressed shock at his naivete. It does not speak much for him that despite being a former prime minister and chief minister, Deve Gowda has such little understanding of the law of the land. The rough and tumble of Indian politics is fraying the Constitution at the edges. The Supreme Court has become increasingly wary of this. Perhaps the Karnataka High Court should not have been so lenient.
[This appeared in the in-house newspaper of the Indian Institute of Journalism & New Media on January 15, 2009. It came as the leader on the opinion & editorial page. Picture courtesy - Google images]

Dance Me to the Moon

Salsa sweeps Bangalore and with it so much hypocrisy out the door

By Dilraz Kunnummal

For thousands of years, the temples of Khajuraho and Konarak have displayed the most sexually explicit sculpture in the world. Yet India is reknowned as the world capital of prudery and denial. The Bollywood formula is driven by lust, but not a kiss allowed.

So what is Salsa doing here? In typically contradictory fashion, the sensual Latin dance form is big if not getting bigger as the first annual Salsa festival hits Mysore, South India's citadel of conservatism.

The first World Salsa Championship Qualifiers in India were held in Bangalore between August 15 and18 this year, putting the country square on the world Salsa map. Bindhu Prasanna & Madan Kumar won the competition, and will represent India at the ESPN World Salsa Championship 2008 in Orlando, Florida in December.

Salsa, Spanish for 'sauce' is fun, flirty, lively and sexy, making it popular with couples, and it's also a good excuse to get dressed up in colourful traditional costumes. It's also a pretty decent workout.

Salsa is the latest fad to hit the dance studios of Bangalore, though it was first introduced on the subcontinent in the late nineties. Today, the dance has taken off, evinced by the numerous training centers popping up all over the country thanks to publicity generated by events like August's world qualifiers.

Aside from the many new studios in the city dedicated to Salsa, Bangalore's nightclubs have caught on to the trend with special Salsa nights, where debutantes can show their stuff after school lets out.

"Everyone seems to be joining Salsa classes these days," says Sonam, a 21 year old student, who has recently joined the fervor. "It's a fun form of dancing and is a nice place to meet new people and make new friends."

Lourd Vijays Dance Studio (LVDS) is one of the most popular dance studios in the city. Lourd Vijay, a dancer whose first performance was at age 3, opened the studio about ten years ago, when the dance was still largely unknown in India.

"I was fascinated by this unique Latin American dance form," he told The Hindu, a newspaper. "Initially, I used to practice it on my own. Later, while studying for an MBA in Vancouver, I enrolled for classes and enjoyed it a great deal."

Sneha Kapoor & Richard Tholoor are two well-known faces on the Indian Salsa circuit. They have been on a winning spree not just in India, but abroad as well. They won the Australian Salsa Classic 2007, the European Salsa Masters Championship in the UK, and were the first Indians to qualify for the world Salsa Championship 2007 held at Orlando.

For Sneha, Salsa started out as a hobby, but she soon began to take it more seriously, and has been dancing professionally for the past three years. She is also Vice President of Operations for Lourd Vijay's dance studio.

"The flavor of Salsa reflected my personality. I felt free and I could express myself freely while dancing it," she says. Aside from the dance itself, the opportunity affords her to travel for shows, meet new dancers form around the world and make new friends in the process.

Sneha says people now are more interested in doing something different from their 'regular routine' and many of the students come from the IT industry. She says there is no age limit for those wishing to get a taste of the fiery Latin groove, and LVDS teaches students as old as 65-70.

For those who are good enough, Salsa can lead down paths beyond the classroom. Salsa dancers are often invited by corporations and clubs to perform at their events. Some lucky Bangaloreans can even make a living out of it.

Aside from LVDS, studios like Prithvee & Rees, Dance Studio Inc and Salsa Bangalore all offer training with flexible schedules.

So no more procrastinating, put on your dancing shoes and head to any of Bangalore's Salsa studios, spice up your weekly schedule and get saucy with the latest dance craze to sweep the subcontinent.

[This was printed in the in-house newspaper of the Indian Institute of Journalism & New Media, on 17 November 2008, in the Arts & Culture Supplement, Image Courtesy - Sneha Kapoor, LVDS]

INDIAN PREMIER LEAGUE!!

I am actually wondering how a particular friend of mine would react when he opens this page, to see me out of all people blogging about cricket. The last time he tried to explain some detail, I shushed him and said don’t bother ‘cause its all Greek and Latin to me.

But IPL goes much beyond cricket. See, honestly, I haven’t seen a single match and don’t want to either. Cricket just isn’t my can of coke [which happens to be the soft drink I’m addicted to]. The way I see it IPL is India’s new Bollywood, the new phase of the entertainment industry of our multi-faceted multi-cultured country. It’s like a movie, something that is appealing to all the people of India and abroad of course without the barrier of language or cast or any such.

The IPL reminds me of a circus of sorts, and that too not just any circus, it’s more like cirque-de-soliel, or like a composition showcased at Broadway or a dance-drama of sorts choreographed for Julliard. There is a lot of melodrama, action, storyline, locations, the hot women, the sturdy macho men, the sorrow of loss and the jubilance of victory which means that at least one team always has a happy ending. And before I forget, there is the also big money involved. Pretty up everything needed for a potboiler masala flick.

There is not one newspaper or magazine or channel that is not hyping the IPL. And it all began much before the actual cricket, the publicity, the drama, the controversies. Players from around the world were auctioned off, and the amounts paid almost made me faint. The owners are all characters by themselves, movie stars, business tycoons and a beer baron with a golden stud. Right from day one, it was evident that this was going to unfold to be interesting and amusing and entertaining to say the least.

Then I believe came the names if these teams and media hype. Shah Rukh and the Kolkata Knight Riders, Mallya and the Bangalore Royal Challengers and what not. The credit must be given where its due and so kudos to those who coined these names, ‘cause they’ve managed to invoke enthusiasm and gusto just by hearing a name. Lets not forget to mention the billboards, hoardings and the other advertisements that were used to announce that the teams have arrived and that the INDIAN PREMIER LEAGUE is almost upon us.

Now pardon me, but since I’m not much of a follower of the game, I don’t know the minute or major stuff that happened in the build up to the event. But once it did start the tamasha was awesome. If I am nit mistaken, the hullabaloo started with our very own Bhajji and Sreeshanth. Both team-mats at the national level but on opposite side of the fence, field rather for the IPL, one said something, the other slapped him and they got punished, but the one who meted out the punishments was not really doing the right thing and the person investigating the case is appalled by the video and so forth.

Then came the whole Shane Warne-Saurav Ganguly fiasco. Now I don’t quite know who said what to whom and why and all but, I am aware that there was hungama, something to do with the third umpire and the unspent tempers of the aussie& the desi.

And how could I not mention, the hot pulsating women. Gimme a this and gimme a that, the cheerleaders. There’s nothing left to say about them, I guess. About how they are reducing the standard of the gentleman’s sport with their pompoms and how they are adversely affecting the Indian men and how they polluted the Indian morals and values. But really, don’t these politicians have anything better to do than try and cover up these women who are only trying to do their job, of adding a little spice to the game?

And then there’s Shoaib Akhtar, the banned now, but suspended till the last date of IPL dude, who will be joining Shah Rukh and his knights, adding to the hype of the IPL.

And of course, I do believe there’s good cricket too, you know. That too, it has succeeded in bringing rivals together, to play in one team, to work together , to plan together and to play together. If not for anything else, then definitely at least for uniting gifted players and beginners from around the globe, IPL deserves applause.

Controversies may come and go, but we have to all unanimously agree that the Indian Premier League is a triumphant enterprise. It has the formula for success. Glamour, game, power, publicity and a cricket hungry following. It has written history as the new era of cricket as well as entertainment. I do believe that the Indian Premier League is here to stay.

India, As I See It

I haven’t yet decided what to call this blog or what exactly this is about but I guess I’m more or less going to talk about the contradictions within a country like India. Honestly where else in the world will you find such a cornucopia of languages, religions or race, where else in the world will you find the richest of the rich and poorest of the poor living together, where else will you find human demi-gods like Amitabh Bachchan uniting the populace to enjoy a movie or function and in other parts people killing in the name of thier God, where else will you find such a weird blend of technology and tradition, we even have Sadhus carrying cell phones these days...where else will you find normal people being true philanthropists and the people in power being so corrupt...which other country can create hype and enjoy both a movie like a touching Taare Zameen Par and a nonsensical Om Shanti Om with equal fervor..

You know the best place to watch life in India has to be in a Mumbai local train. One of my professors used to say that people think the space inside one of our local trains is infinity, and mind you, people do pour in like that… I remember the last time I went, oh my God, squeezed in one corner, it’s not like I need much space but still. In the Mumbai local train, you can see all sorts of people, from all walks of life, all ages, all religions and casts, male and female, from the rich brat to the street children, people who are so comfortable hanging onto the railing confidently and using their new iPods or phones and even people who are too scared that they hold on tight to their handbags. It’s a funny experience to watch how the people change from sane normal calm people to the total opposite while boarding or exiting the compartment because it barely stops for 20-30 seconds at each station. And the Mumbai local train sure has commendable spirit, just hours after the blast in July 2006 where 175people were killed, the train was back to life and in full swing. Kudos to Mumbaikars for that !!

Mumbai has to be one of my favorite cities of the world, not that I’ve travelled much but nevertheless, Mumbai is so, I quite don’t get the word for it, but full of life, the city is so alive, always buzzing with activity. No matter what time of the day or night it is, there is so much life, so much hustle bustle. It is amazing that Mumbai has Dharavi, the largest slum area in the world and in its vicinity it also has The Hyatt, the 5 star hotel. Imagine that the slum and five star hotels existing side by side, people who cant afford food for their children and people who can afford to buy the world if their child demands it, people who cant afford to buy food and clothes and side by side, people who rain money for one serving and who’re dressed in Armani and Gucci, that too from the posh locales around the world. It’s a plethora of opposites, rich and poor, old and the new, the modern high rise buildings and malls, Inorbit being my favorite, and the lovely old architecture and buildings like at the VT station, the exorbitantly prized stores and the much cheaper shopping areas like Linkin Road, Crawford Market etc, of bullock carts on the same roads as an BMW or Mercedes, the beautifully constructed buildings and the ugly pot-holed roads.

The other places which I totally adore in India have to be Goa and Kerala. I’ve had my best and worst holiday in Goa. Goa is a magnificently beautiful. It definitely is a blessed place. It is so serene and peaceful. Everyone should make it a point to visit Goa at some point of their lives, it is true that the booze is very cheap and you get all sorts of other ‘stuff’ too, but the place is just right to relax and de-stress. It definitely is a heaven on earth, the golden sands, the blue sea, the starry nights, the works. It definitely is the just the perfect place to unwind and let your hair down. One amusing incident that is still clearly etched in my mind is when we went to the flea market. The natives who had come to sell their wares there had an accent which really surprised me and my friends, they had a very good American accent and we were in awe actually, because the way they looked, you’d think they wouldn’t even know the language. But they had a very good American accent and knew more than enough English to sell their goods to make their living. It shows both their adaptability as well as a sharpness of mind, ultimately the need to survive is the most prominent, innit?

Kerala or God’s own country as its also known is glorious; the story goes that Kerala was born at the spot where Lord Parashuram threw his axe. The extensive coast line, the soaring coconut trees, the luscious green fields, the mouth watering delicacies, the tongue twisting language, all in one package. These are some of the things I love about the place. I love being in Kerala, apart from being there just to visit my family, I love sitting on the rocks and listening to the waves, walking down the shore with the waves nibbling at my feet, and just enjoy being one with nature. I used to come to Kerala for my holidays back when I was in Bahrain, and I used to love the feeling of it, slow, steady, relaxed, tranquil. No hustle-bustle no hurry just let your hair down, enjoy life, enjoy nature.

Mumbai on one hand and Goa and Kerala on the other, one a city which enjoys life at a maddening speed and the others, serene and calm, two ends of a spectrum but both, wonders within one country.

I have been living in India for about 3 years now, yes I am an Indian citizen and quite a proud one at that, just that I have been born and brought up outside the country, I used to come here for about a month every 2 years, just to meet family and it used to be fun. Anyways, living here is totally different from visiting once in a while, the country humbles you, it teaches you very many lessons in life, compassion, hope, humility to name a few. Somehow, this country makes a human being out of everyone who lives here. The truth be told, I was freaked out about living here especially since the first sight I got as I exited the Mumbai airport is the slum area. But it wasn’t that bad, the whole experience of living alone in India is enriching to say the least.

India, a country which has a woman president, something which hasn’t even happened yet in the so called great nations like the United States, a country which has given birth to great women visionaries like Mother Teresa, to great businesswomen like Indra Nooyi and yet at the same time it’s a nation where evils like dowry and female infanticide are still prevalent. A nation where the women play equally important roles as wife, mother, sister, daughter, teacher as well as a bread earning member of the family. A nation where the woman will suffer abuse from her in-laws or even husband, in dignified silence, in order to protect her family and her tradition. A nation where the woman’s priority is not her self, but her family and her tradition. A nation where the child starts learning values even before the alphabets.

As far as I see it there are three main problems with the country: the bas abhi teek hai, the satisfied and content attitude, the need to poke noses into other’s business and of course, the government system which gives power in the wrong hands. Let us examine it one by one, from the last.

The government system, India is a democracy , the largest democracy there is and that sounds so amazing, but when you get into the nitty gritty, it isn’t a pretty picture. India is country with a population of more than 1,129,866,154 people, and it is a democracy. The problem lies in the lack of awareness, about the leaders who they are voting for, the problem lies in illiteracy and poverty. And even if the people are aware, we Indians somehow always believe in giving one more chance, we always hope that the next time they will be better leaders, hope that the net time they are elected they will be less corrupt and actually keep their word. Corruption is a sad truth that is prevalent at every level of Indian governance. Most of the voting crowd is illiterate, how many college students actually go out there and vote? Hardly if any. We should start and start soon, to right the wrong judgments made. Analyze each candidates portfolio and vote for the right reason, not because he’s from your caste or religion but because you believe he can make a difference.

The second problem is that we are always nosy, we are always wondering what is happening in the neighbors house rather than our own. We will criticize and comment on others way before judging ourselves and this has given rise to a fear of society, a fear of what other people will think, this stops us from giving ample opportunities to the children to develop their talents and what they desire. Thanks to this attitude we push and push to make engineers and doctors and toppers out of them, but not give heed and help develop what they are born with, drawing, dancing, singing, all come secondary. We should learn to be strong enough to help the children develop their God given gift.

Indians are very complacent people. It takes very little for us to be content as a matter of fact and the problem lies in that. We stop working to better ourselves once we reach that line. We stop aiming for the stars; we just aim at like 24^th floor of a building, so to speak. And this nature makes us find temporary solutions which again will not help us in the long run. Like I said earlier, not everyone votes as they believe somebody else will. We don’t take things into our own hands, not even our own lives’ decisions, we let others, parents, peers, and society to make those decisions. We blame others but not attempt to make it right ourselves, and because of that nature, we are still where we are and not one one among the developed nations where we have the potential to be.

To conclude, I quote [with a little editing] a dialogue from Namastey London in which this was said to a Englishmen, ‘When we greet one another, we fold our hands in Namastey because we believe that God resides in the heart of every human being; we come from a nation where a lady of Catholic origin, stepped aside for a Sikh to be sworn in as prime minister, by a Muslim president, to govern a nation of over 80% Hindus; It may also interest you to know that many of the origins of English words come from Sanskrit, for example Maatre becomes Mother, Jamitri became Geometry and Thrignomati becomes Trigonometry; we have 5600 newspapers, 35000 magazines in over 21 different languages with a combined readership of 120 million; We’ve reached the moon and back but yet you people feel that we’ve only reached as far as the Indian rope trick; we have the third largest pool of doctors, engineers and scientists; that was about brains, now lets talk about brawn, we have the third largest army in the world and even then I fold my hands in humility before you because we don’t believe that we are above or beneath any individual’

India, the land of rich culture and heritage, the land of values and traditions, the land of the Himalayas and the Ganga, the land of Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore, the land of the Taj Mahal, the land of picturesque locales and breathtaking scenery, the land of gorgeous women, the land of the Ambanis and Mittals, the land of divinity and superstitions, the land that is blessed by the Lord, India, the land of contradictions.