Sacred Cows

Homebirth! Here we come!!!!

There's nothing quite like waking up to contractions in Week 39 to start the day! For ages, I've been trying to get everything organized: birth pool, hose, tap adapter, waterproof sheets, where to put the pool... etc etc etc.  My husband, inundated with work despite his very best efforts, has been helping where he can. But we haven't managed a single day of just being READY!

Til this afternoon...

Today at dawn, I woke up with crampy, wavy pain. By 7 a.m., the pains were coming every 16 minutes... then 10... then just 6 or 7. We called our midwife, thinking, 'Holy cow! This is IT!!!!' She seemed to agree and came over by 9.30.

By which time, everything had... well... stopped. Six hours later, there are still no contractions, but it's definitely focused everyone's efforts! As a result, we've managed to rummage a birth pool from a neighbor, complete with various pumps and some hilarious pre-birth stories. As you can see above, if all goes well, baby will come into the world in a room filled with the fragrance of a fresh Christmas tree! (And our son may enjoy an indoor swim once it's all over!)

I'm wondering if my feeling of just not being ready actually stopped labor? They say a woman's emotions can have a dramatic impact on birth - both positive and negative. Well, I'll never know for sure, but I'm grateful for the early warning... as well as for the chance to get ready, physically and emotionally, however last minute!

Having the pool - whether I end up using it or not - has given the whole home birth experience some ritual. When the contractions started coming regularly this morning, I felt deflated that there was no focal point for the birth... no room ready to welcome the new baby. And a bit panicked too, that my husband and I haven't even managed a serious discussion about a name! Or just had a few moments to savor what's coming...

Between work, moving, the sale of a flat, and our 2-year-old... this year and this pregnancy have just whizzed by!

Last time, with my son, I developed pre-eclampsia and the birth became very much about managing a medical emergency rather than the arrival of our first child. Having been chemically induced and hooked up to multiple monitors, I was so mentally strained and physically diminished by the time he was born, that I was barely able to respond.

Today, after all the initial excitement and scurrying, I'm relaxing in our bed... listening to music...having bits of cheese and orange popsicles and feeling relieved that I don't have to rush off anywhere, or be confined to a hospital smelling bed with nothing decent to eat or watch. And both my husband and son can relax at home too.

More importantly, I feel the contractions this morning forced us to focus on the imminence of our baby's arrival... and to push everything else aside, something I'm sure many of us fail to do even when it's really, really important.

We might even manage to agree on a name before baby comes! 

Our midwife has gone off to watch her local football team play on a cold, drizzly day with her family... but at least I know when things kick off with me again, she's just a phone call away!

C'mon baby!!! Mama and Papa are as ready as we'll ever be!!!!

Beautiful hand-made baby gifts

Just a quick post to share a couple of fabulous, unique baby gift sites! The first is a charity based in India, but their gorgeous hand-made quilts are available in the US and UK as well! Not all the designs are shown on their website (this 'baby' sized one above, for example, which I recently bought in Delhi). Another to ask for is the 'Underwater' quilt with fabulous sea creatures.

Just look at the fabulous hand-stitched detail! And they're a steal at about £30 or $48.

Another exquisite baby clothes maker (for girls and boys) is Charlotte Denn of Pituc. I came across her at Columbia Road Flower Market in east London and was bowled over by the lovely hand-made dresses, overalls and stunning vintage clothing. The dress above is newborn size, but can still be worn as a top for up to a year, so great value, especially at £22 which would barely buy you the materials alone! Charlotte will custom-make clothing too with your child's measurements. Well worth it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Who do you think you are? Tracing my Hindu ancestry

Haridwar at evening prayers. Anu Anand Hall

As dusk fell over the holy Hindu city of Haridwar in northern India, the glassy green waters of the Ganges River turned amber. Reflecting the light of hundreds of flames, some in small clay pots, others in towering candelabras circulated by saffron-robed priests, the river became alive and luminous. 

Thousands of Hindu pilgrims who’d come to wash away their sins in the sacred river or to perform last rites with the ashes of their loved ones, gathered on the banks to join the chanting of evening prayers.

My own pilgrimage to Haridwar was for a different reason. Seven months pregnant, I’d travelled an entire day on rutted, grinding roads to find my past.

Indeed, I’d travelled a lifetime for this moment.

I grew up in a leafy cul-de-sac in Raleigh, North Carolina, with hot summers spent swimming under fragrant pine trees; yellow school bus journeys in autumn; and an abiding love for the annual State Fair. Yet, unlike my classmates, many of whom could trace their ancestors in public records or family Bibles; or whose family histories were inextricably linked to the Civil War we studied at school... my own Hindu ancestry was completely lost.

Don't let the wonder of pregnancy pass you by

©Asya Verzhbinsky

Google the phrase 'wonder of pregnancy' and you either get details for all the bodily changes that occur... or sarcastic comments about the 'joys' of heartburn, fatigue, nausea and water retention. I'm now seven months pregnant and I'll be the first to admit that most of my time is spent battling cycles of light nausea and hunger... trying to get a tiny bit of work done to boost my fragile career confidence... or thinking about how I'm going to get through the birth and the transition back to a job. Pregnancy is hard work! And we're taught to focus on the most practical, material, aspects.

Yet, last night, just as I had settled into a deep sleep, the little creature inside me delivered five sharp kicks worthy of a black belt to my side and I jolted awake, ever so slightly annoyed... and completely awed.

It was a lovely, mystical, life-affirming reminder that there is a whole person growing inside me. I don't know him/her yet... but that doesn't mean there isn't a intact personality just waiting to emerge and make its own destiny.

And the entire experience will be over in the blink of an eye. (Ok... in some ways, thank goodness!)

Before I know it, this little one will be half my height, doing puzzles and running off to play with friends, much as my joyful 2-year-old son already does.

Do I wish my husband could also experience the wonder of carrying new life first-hand... oh undoubtedly! What a different dimension we would exist in if MAN could carry a baby just like WOMAN. If I were God, this is the first thing I'd change! After being pregnant, I've no doubt whatsoever that sexual equality ends with pregnancy. Until men have periods and experience the vulnerability of being pregnant, giving birth and breastfeeding, equality will always fall by the wayside.

But never mind. Here's my wish for all you pregnant mothers out there: just for a moment, just today... close your eyes... lie down... put your hands on that giant, gorgeous, vexatious belly... and  bask in the beauty and sensuality of being pregnant. That ripe, round tum holds a whole world of youth and happiness ... and you'll only be its sole custodian for a few short months!

This gift of womanhood is unique and mustn't be diminished by the artificial demands of so-called 'sexual equality' ... nor by the banal pressures of the job market. Hold them off as long as you can and don't feel guilty or de-valued just because you're not out there doing deals, running a business or climbing the career ladder right now!

Sleep... dream... indulge yourself... be grateful that your pregnancy is safe and healthy unlike so many poor mothers out there... enjoy the hormones (if you can)... and enjoy the quiet closeness of life and the immortality that nine months of mere inconvenience are granting you.

Ummmmm....now please excuse me while I go lie on the sofa like a beached whale and allow my poor, crushed stomach to process that horse-pill of a pregnancy vitamin that's making me belch!

Teaching your child Hindi in an English-dominated world

Maurya's first story book was a delightful one called 'Lama Lama Red Pajama' in which Mama Lama reads Baby Lama a story and then goes downstairs, leaving him in the dark. The rhyming bedtime tale has some great lines, like this one:

"Baby Lama, what a tizzy, sometimes Mama's very busy! Please stop all this lama drama and be patient for your Mama!"

Thanks to the fabulous English children's literature available - with its exquisite illustrations, charming stories and a sense of humor that appeals to us hapless parents who have to read them ad nauseum, Maurya is now addicted to books! Julia Donaldson's 'Rosie's Hat' and 'Room on the Broom' are the current super-hits!

But you'd think living in India also means he's absorbing Hindi like a sponge and serenading us with classic Hindi songs like 'Chanda Mama.'

Sadly, no.

Some of you multi-lingual parents will already have figured this out, but it makes no bloody difference what country you bring your child up in. If they don't consistently interact with a language - all day everyday - they will not speak it. It doesn't matter what language you speak with your spouse. The trick, apparently, is for each parent to stick to ONE language with the child. I'm now using Hindi exclusively with Maurya, and it is making a big difference. He's still choosing to answer back in English, given that his ability to express himself in English is racing ahead. But I am beginning to notice an increased willingness to use Hindi words as well as a definite increase in his understanding of Hindi conversation.

Still, the biggest problem I face as the sole parent charged with imparting Hindi, is the competition from English-language games, songs, television, movies... and books. It's pretty tough to beat Toy Story or Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed! (Although I discovered that our Toy Story DVD has a Hindi language option! 'To infinity and beyond' becomes 'Anant se bhi agay!')

The X Chromosome

Christmas Baby

What a momentous year! After half a decade of unexplained infertility (i.e. stress!)... I am pleasantly shocked to be expecting a second baby. I confess that in moving to India and attempting to get back to work, this sudden pregnancy did slightly pull the rug from under my feet. But the idea that by Christmas, there will be another child in our lives - a sibling for my son - is so delightful and sweet! And now that the nausea is gone, I couldn't be more content.

Boy or girl?

Any expecting couple is curious to know. And we're no different. The thought of buying little dresses... brushing a little girl's hair... watching her grow into a beautiful, strong, intelligent woman... and sharing all I've learned with her, regularly brings tears of joy to my eyes.

But here in India, that microscopic thread of X chromosome can prove deadly for a baby girl:

10 million missing Indian girls

I did the above report for BBC World TV back in 2006. And believe it or not, the problem is actually getting worse. Latest statistics show that the number of wealthy, educated Indians aborting baby girls is growing. Sex ratios are now so skewed, experts are predicting a breakdown of society within a generation.

"If sex ratios stay the same, 600,000 missing girls this year will become, in 18 years’ time, over 10m missing future brides. Robbery, rape and bride-trafficking tend to increase in any society with large groups of young single men." - The Economist, Apr 7th 2011

It's already happening in places like Harayana state, where female foeticide has been rampant for decades.

So why on earth does a girl engender such loathing in some prospective parents?

Whose party is this anyway?

Ahhh, the vagaries of expat life. I find myself pondering the challenges of having a birthday party for rambunctious but still unaware 2-year-olds in tropical summer heat. In case you're interested, here's what I learned.

If you're going to make your own cake, beware that it's difficult to find extras like shaped cake tins and food coloring. I still managed to pull off an elephant shaped cake for Maurya, but not without several last minute crises. I found food coloring after three shopping trips (black at that, what luck!) but on the day, the pan wouldn't fit in my oven!!!! A friend saved the day by volunteering the use of her oven, but still, because a 13" x 9" pan barely fits in an Indian oven, the cake ended up lopsided. Amazingly this worked to my advantage, as it gave the elephant's face a more life-like anatomy! Whew (not that 2-year-olds notice this stuff anyway).

But here's my main lesson from organizing this party: expect a lot of ayahs. And expect to cater to them as much as the kids. A few parents were able to come given that the party was in the afternoon, which was nice.

I knew the ayahs would be coming- I know most of them and they are a really lovely bunch. What I didn't count on was the ayahs plonking themselves like a solid, silent mass in the sitting room which we'd turned into a children's play area. They sat, so the kids sat too.

Needless to say, not what I'd had in mind.

So if you organize a kiddie party in Delhi, either make arrangements for ayahs in their own space... make sure you have someone in charge of games or activities... or leave the ayahs out entirely by only inviting a few kids whose parents can attend. One of my friends told me that some caterers in Delhi even provide 'ayah boxes' for parties - a takeaway carton that contains a samosa, kachori and a sweet!!

Yes, I know, what a pain having full-time, affordable child care....!

Finally.... justice for one Indian.

Four years ago, an Indian pediatrician working in one of the country's poorest areas, was arrested for aiding local insurgents.

In December 2009, the Indian state of Chhatisgarh sentenced Dr. Binayak Sen to life in prison on flimsy evidence, ignoring the pleas of forty nobel laureates, the EU, India's most respected lawyers and scores of human rights activists.

Today, justice prevailed.

India's Supreme Court released Dr. Sen, saying that the mere possession of Naxalite literature did not make him a criminal.

DUH?!

I just spoke to one his life-long friends - a man who's dedicated his own life to preventing gendercide in India. Needless to say, he and all the other brave friends and activists who campaigned for Dr. Sen's release will enjoy a good night's sleep tonight!

Meanwhile, here's a sobering thought. According to a BBC News report, official figures show that more than 30 million cases are pending in Indian courts - some since 1950. At the current rate, it will take 466 years to clear them.

So one down... 29,999,999 to go...

Dastangoi: The Return of Urdu Storytelling

Listen to my piece on the revival of an ancient Indian storytelling tradition, as aired on the BBC's From Our Own Correspondent.

Read the extended piece here.

India's 'Tahrir Square'?

Can 1.2 billion Indians achieve a revolution?

Tonight, riding home from the BBC offices in central Delhi, I saw scores of young Indians, some waving flags (bizarrely, some wearing devils' horns - maybe to represent corruption) as they marched towards Jantar Mantar, the 18th century observatory where Anna Hazare is holding his fast. All day, Indian TV channels have been showing angry, motivated Indians, from movie stars to students to grandmothers, marching in Delhi, Jammu, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bangalore and other towns and cities, demanding an end to corruption in public life.

Anupam Kher, the veteran Indian actor, looked visibly upset as he told supporters how his head  hangs in shame when he travels abroad because his country is so often associated with shambolic infrastructure, poverty, corruption and incompetence.

A schoolboy in Jammu, who couldn't have been more than five, became almost hysterical as he shouted, "Anna, we are with you!"

A grandmother in Bangalore told a TV reporter, "From today onwards, if someone asks me for a bribe, I will slap them. I am Anna Hazare."

There is absolutely no doubt the aging soldier and social activist has set a powerful example for millions upon millions of Indians stifled by the endemic greed and graft in this society. He's given them all a voice, as well as a rare, incandescent hope that they can change the abysmal status quo.

 

 New Corruption Laws?

So what are Mr. Hazare and his supporters seeking? Broadly, they want an unelected ombudsman (ie not a politician) to head an anti-corruption body which would have the power to charge and try any public official, including the Prime Minister, for wrongdoing. Convictions could carry sentences of up to life in prison. He wants, at the very least, for the government to include non-politicians on the advisory board which would help draft the new law.

But while he may have the support and encouragement of millions of his countrymen, it's also being argued that what he's suggesting violates the Indian constitution by creating an extra-judicial body which could end up being unaccountable to anyone and outside the current legal system.

Tahrir Square?

I have no doubt that hundreds of millions of Indians (the ones who don't even own a roof above their heads, much less speak English or tweet) would join the demonstrations if they could afford to. I suspect they will do so in limited numbers given that they can't afford to leave their children at home alone; can't afford the transport into city centers and can't afford to take a day off the meager jobs that keep them one step ahead of starvation.

That alone makes a revolution unlikely.

And unlike Egypt or Syria or Tunisia or Yemen, India's protestors are so far not calling for their government -- tainted by several extremely big corruption scandals -- to resign. They are not marching on the grand colonial bungalows of ministers, who never suffer water shortages, power cuts, crime or lack of income. At this point, their own expectations are pretty low.

Rare Unity

Even so, no matter what the outcome of this campaign, it's fascinating for one reason alone: he's brought together Indians from different castes, social classes, political persuasions and religions  onto the streets united by a single, epic cause.

If that's all Anna Hazare's fast achieves, it would be a shame. But he'll still have achieved something utterly rare and valuable in India: a moment of unity in a deeply and perpetually self-segregated society.

India's modern Mahatma

Funny that my last post and all the headlines in India this past week have been about India's World Cup cricket champions, when it's been rightly pointed out here that Indian cricket is an absolute hotbed of corruption and ugly nationalism. Nor was the victory, according to Manu Joseph, writing in the International Herald Tribune, a moment that united India.

So for an antidote to corruption and skin deep national pride, look no further than this diminutive man, Anna Hazare, an Indian war veteran who's begun a fast unto the death this week. He's campaigning, along with India's other brave, committed patriots to get Parliament to pass a bill to establish an anti-corruption ombudsman who will have the legal power to pursue corrupt public officials.

That's rather like suggesting to a pack of wild, rabid dogs that they elect a reputable dog catcher.

Mr. Hazare seems to have captured the nation's imagination, with thousands massing at the spot in central Delhi where he's holding his fast and tens of thousands signing up to support his campaign online, in scenes reminiscent of recent protests across the Middle East. One of Bollywood's most powerful and popular stars, Amir Khan, has even suggested that Indians ought to extend more support to Anna Hazare than they did to their victorious cricketers.

The Indian government looks nervous, but has offered nothing substantial to Mr. Hazare's supporters except limp offers of talks and suggestions that he is an opposition stooge.

And irony of ironies -- one of India's ministers who is accused of massive corruption himself and had been appointed to a ministerial ANTI-corruption body resigned today. Sharad Pawar, a former head of the Indian cricket board as well as the International Cricket Council quit voluntarily.

So are we to understand that the honourable minister agrees with his chief critic that corrupt ministers really shouldn't be allowed to police themselves? Mr. Pawar has, so far, not seen fit to comment.

They did it!!! Hooray for India!!!

THEY DID IT!!! India beat Australia in the World Cup, breaking a 14-year-losing streak to the ever-dominant Aussies!

Just got back from a club where exuberant Indian fans erupted in a spasm of joy as they watched India win it!! There was a tense moment just before the final bat that put them over the top.... but they came through!!!! Anyone got any spare tickets for Mohali??????!!

The excitement has been electric today. All across India, in shops, offices, schools and homes, the cheers and groans of cricket fans watching the World Cup  has been impossible to miss! India was favored by a lot of bookies to win, given that they were playing at home, surrounded by wildly enthusiastic Indian fans... Never mind the fact that they hadn't beat Australia in a World Cup match since 1987! This time, the payoff is even more exciting... India will face Pakistan in the semi-finals in Mohali, in the Indian state of Punjab... Balle balle!!

Indian Summer on its way!

Ooooh, I can feel the heat building now in Delhi. Suddenly in the last few days, the blankets have all been kicked off... the fans are on ... the coconut oil in the bathroom has turned from a thick, milky solid to a clear, oily liquid... and the light outside is much harsher... You break into a sweat going up the stairs and the plants are getting thirstier more quickly!

It's nearly Holi, when water balloons mysteriously start landing on you from above as you walk along. Suddenly, I'm wondering if our air conditioners work and noticing all the gaps in the windows and doors from which that vital cool air is almost certainly going to leak out, inflating our electricity bill!!

Meanwhile, I'm turning the little, cemented, piss-yellow-painted bit of our roof into what I hope will be a lush tropical terrace garden. It's not much now... just a few tall, unruly Ashoka trees (actually, just looked it up and they're NOT Ashokas! The latin name is Polyalthia Longifolia and they are called Mast trees or false Ashokas. Here's the real Ashoka.)

The main challenge is going to be keeping it all alive through the scorching heat of summer. Just to give you a point of reference: delphininiums and hollyhocks -- those stately staples of an English cottage garden which mark the height of summer -- are considered early spring flowers here!

I'm also determined to compost... not sure why. Ecologically it's not an imperative, as I'm pretty sure all our rubbish is manually sorted after it's collected. I suppose I'm curious to see if the habits we've cultivated in London can be transplanted here. The Altitude Store and Dubden Green in Delhi provide all our organic peelings, eggshells, tea bags, etc.

So here's my composter... It's basically a tandoor oven. But instead of making naan and chicken tikka in it... yup... I'm going to make dirt! (There is a plan to add a tandoor oven for cooking on the terrace too! But then someone's gotta be willing to work over it!!) I'll let you know how it goes... I've got to wrap some insect screening at the bottom to keep everything from spillling out before I can start, which means another trip to Bhogal Market!

For the uninitiated, I wish I could say that Bhogal is a lovely, exotic fruit or clothes or jewelry market... alas, while it is useful (you can get tandoor ovens there, terracotta pots, toilets, electrical supplies, plastic buckets, bamboo ladders, rope, plywood, trucks for rent...as well as computer classes, cotton mattresses, hospitals, churches, fruit/veg, garden supplies and welding services)... it also has the singular distinction of being home to the most idiotic drivers the world has ever seen! It has to be seen to be believed. Everytime I go, I get stuck for about 20 minutes while maybe 6 vehicles try to get past each other around double parked cars, cycle rickshaws, pedestrians, wheel barrows, scooters and giant trucks! The more stuck traffic is, the more you can bet that people and motorcycles will try to squeeze through, making the whole situation worse... In short, Bhogal is useful if you can face its honking, crazyness every single day of the week!!!

Finally, a lovely Delhi gardener's blog to share with you this week as India heads into blazing summer!

 

10 Indian Ayahs get First Aid training

It's not saving the world or anything, but I'm quite proud of the first aid session today at our house, where 10 ayahs (child-carers) got the opportunity to learn basic first aid. Many of them are semi-literate, which is a fancy way of saying that they are robbed of the opportunity to pick up vital information just by glancing at things, in the way most of us do all day, everyday. They are robbed of being able to casually glean opportunities to make their lives more comfortable, equitable, healthy and fun.

This lack of literacy is akin to a physical disability -- like being partially blind... except that no one takes pity on you or insists on giving you a hand. The inability to read is something best keep hidden lest you be taunted by others, or irritate your demanding employers. No wonder Indian workers sometimes don't seem to comprehend the most basic information. You can write down an address, but they can't interpret it! You can give them instructions, but they'll have to rely on memory and trial and error to carry them out! The lack of literacy also means a blindness in understanding some of the most basic concepts we all take for granted: citizenship, rights, nationality.

In short, you're blind to ideas... most of them!

I cannot imagine how much less productive America or Britain would be if the people who worked in offices, shops, schools and hospitals could not read.

So what a joy to witness a small opportunity for disadvantaged Indian women to be allowed the dignity of attending a class!

The ayahs all had the opportunity to practice choking maneuvers, CPR and basic bandaging on babies and children. They also learned about dealing with burns, seizures, cuts, fevers, heavy bleeding and how to assess why a child might be unconscious. They were given material in Hindi which summarizes what they learned as well as emergency numbers - some of which I didn't know of. They were all great sports and seemed to really appreciate and enjoy the session. It was lovely to watch!

Thanks to East West Clinic here in Delhi for providing the excellent class -- which is on par with the paid first aid training I received in the UK as part of a hostile environments class for journalists a few years ago. Highly recommend it!

Japan...

I was going to blog about visiting the gardens at Rashtrapati Bhavan - the Indian President's House today. (In a nutshell, great summer flowers, nice fountains, no water/cameras/food allowed inside; and fascist security men who bark at children).

But then I came home and saw the images of Japan on TV. I covered the aftermath of the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004... scenes of devastation and displacement. Sad to see it again - but heartening that Japan was so incredibly well prepared! I was explaining to Kavita, our ayah, what had happened...  the earth's tectonic plates, earthquakes, how the Himalayas were formed... tsunamis, Japan... She took it all in wide-eyed, asking questions. Finally, she said, "Didi, please switch off the news or I won't be able to sleep tonight."

If only everyone in Japan could switch off the images too....our prayers are with them. 

Hurray for positivity!!!! Even when there isn't much around...!

One of the wonderful things about living in India is to be reminded everyday just how lucky we are... and how much we can do to help others. It's all too easy to whinge about this place - god knows I've done it! - but being here constantly puts into sharp focus how much we have to be thankful for. It sounds trite- but not being hungry, being able to read and write, having opportunity and money to spare, not to mention travel, access to credit -- is rather priceless!

In the past few days, I've been reminded of this endlessly: while sitting in a bicycle rickshaw watching the rickshaw-wallah pedal up inclines none of us could manage, especially on their obviously sparse diets... saying goodbye to a good friend who's spent 4 years here, but never wasted a moment whinging about ANYTHING (instead she's channelled her energy into endlessly helping others and sharing her good fortune!) Or just chatting with my child's nanny or the cleaning lady about their desire to learn to read or speak English, or get their kids into schools with toilets and teachers!

It isn't always easy to maintain a positive outlook here. As I write this, the Indian government is arbitrarily blocking all TypePad blogs, so I can't even see what I'm publishing. Small potatoes compared to the corruption stories in the headlines... the Supreme Court told the Prime Minister he shouldn't have hired a corrupt guy to head India's ANTI-corruption watchdog! A monumental tax-dodger is finally being investigated by the government. India has child-malnutrition levels to rival Sudan, but this past week, two Congress politicians spent millions marrying off their children to one another, complete with a gift helicopter and bundles of cash for the guests.

And closer to home, two of my staff have been the targets of malicious police intervention. This is shockingly common in India (I've had it done to me). Someone doesn't like something you've said or done, so they go to the police and make a complaint against you. The next thing you know, the police are intimidating you with threats of legal action and low-grade violence. At least we were lucky enough to use our connections to meet the right authorities and clear things up. My cleaning lady is facing a legal bill of half her monthly salary to fight a case against her husband. Another staff member had to pay off her neighbors with twice her monthly salary when they lodged a false case against her son.

So here's to the bonanza of good fortune most of us enjoy! Share it as often as you can!

Why BBC Hindi matters.

Excellent piece in the Guardian by former BBC journalist Sam Miller and author of an excellent book on India's capital, Delhi, Adventures in a Megacity, on why the BBC's Hindi Service matters...

 

 

BBC World Service gutted...drinks are on the UK Foreign Office

The BBC World Service is facing massive cuts and the shutting down of several language services, as part of budget cuts by the British government. In order to keep its foreign and commonwealth office budget intact (soirees and all)... as well as to EXPAND its international aid budget (really, does India need British aid??).... the government has taken the easy way out: cut the world's most unique, impartial and truly global news service.

If you value listening to the BBC World Service, please please take a moment to sign this petition.

Here is what the cuts mean for millions of listeners around the world:

• BBC Hindi service goes online - even though most of its tens of millions of listeners don't have electricity, never mind internet.

• BBC Russian service is being axed.

• The closure of five language services; Albanian, Macedonian, Portuguese for Africa and Serbian, as well as the English for the Caribbean regional service.

• The end of radio programmes in seven languages, focusing those services on online and new media content and distribution. These include: Azeri, Mandarin Chinese (note that Cantonese radio programming continues), Russian (some programmes will be distributed online only), Spanish for Cuba, Turkish, Vietnamese, and Ukrainian.

• Reduction of most short-wave and medium-wave distribution.

• In World Service English, the schedule will become simpler and some programmes, Europe Today and Politics UK will be decommissioned. There are other changes to the schedule.

Here's the SOS BBC World Service's Facebook public page. Please join!

Corporate women - benchmark for progress?

~By Anu Anand Hall

I have a major objection to the way India is covered in the international news media (I have a real problem with domestic Indian news too, but that's entirely a different story!) Nearly every story sings the praises of India's booming economy... few can be bothered to qualify those impressive figures with a dose of reality. The biggest culprit, in my view, has been the Economist, though reporting recently has changed for the better... and the biggest hero (ie overall best, balanced coverage) is The New York Times, which consistently devotes many column inches to a wide variety of aspects of Indian life.

    But I have to take issue with a recent column in the NYT. The Female Factor, by Nilanjana S. Roy, appeared in December in the paper's sister publication, The International Herald Tribune. While I agree with its overall premise (that the current crop of female corporate bosses in India are the products of immense privilege and connections) ... I do wonder why the news media seems to equate corporate success with progress for women? Does selling Pepsi (or Coke or shoes or pizzas) really represent the pinnacle of achievement? I'm sure it does to some degree, but why aren't we more often reading about women in other walks of life who are celebrated as objects of emulation and envy?

So I'd like to propose an alternative list of inspiring Indian women (hopefully some whom you've never heard of). This is by no means a complete or exhaustive list!! And I've purposely left out the likes of Ela Bhatt and Arundhati Roy (love her or hate her, she has the courage to speak up) since they're already so well-known:

India's 'FBI' can't solve the murder of a 14-year-old girl

Indian television is engaged in yet another media frenzy tonight, on the closing day of 2010, because India's Central Bureau of Investigation has closed the file on the murder of 14-year-old Aarushi Talwar, found with her throat slit two years ago at her parents' middle class home in a suburb of Delhi.

The case is bizarre, and yet for India, alarmingly ordinary. The original policemen called to the scene completely missed the presence of a second victim, the Talwars' manservant, proclaiming him as their chief suspect instead. They wasted an entire day looking for him. If they'd followed the trail of blood up the stairs to the roof, they would have found him all too easily. News reporters were allowed to trample through the crime scene, which they gleefully did, destroying precious evidence in the process. Objective?

Two and a half years on, critical DNA evidence has gone missing. Aarushi's father has been arrested and then released. A third and fourth suspect have been named. And now the CBI says it just can't figure out who killed her... so they're giving up.

This Indian Express editorial hits the nail on the head.