Sacred Cows

Fair & Ugly

~By Anu. I've been meaning to blog about this for ages. Talk about a color-obsessed nation! This ad for 'Fair & Lovely' cream says it all. The goal of every Indian woman is to get whiter. As the ad suggests, with the cream, you'll go from wheatish to pale Gori in no time. The market is so lucrative, there's now 'Fair & Handsome' for men.
    And lest you dismiss this as harmless vanity, here's a story that's been making the rounds. The Times of India reported last week that two black cheerleaders from London -- Ellesha Newton and Sherinne Anderson -- were asked to sit out the April 19th match between Mohali and Chennai. The girls claim they were told by Wizcraft, the event management company hired by the Mohali team franchise, that it was because of the color of their skin.
    "The two girls were reported seen sobbing outside the grounds," reports the paper. Ah, but wait. it's not racism, apparently.

Volunteering in India

~By Anu. Read on about India's crusading tree planter. And if you want to volunteer in India, I've included links at the bottom of this post.

Madan Dewan is 86 and reckons, so far, he's planted 300,000 trees in the Himalayan foothills of India. Mr. Dewan, a former UN official, runs HIMCON, a Himalayan conservation trust. Twice a year, during the monsoon, and in the Indian winter, he and his team help mountain farmers increase their land productivity by planting thousands of walnut, almond and apple trees. If you're thinking tree-huggers ala California, forget it. His campaign is a life or death proposition. If the farmers make enough from their land, they'll stay on it. If not, they'll join hundreds of millions of others already scraping a living in the filthy slums of Bombay, Delhi and Calcutta.
    India's countryside is in crisis. Since India opened its markets to foreign imports, farmers have had to compete with subsidized food from abroad. Meanwhile, poor technology and a lack of credit means the odds are stacked even higher against them. Add to that soil erosion, and water depletion and you'll see why most of India's population -- 700 million villagers-- are starving or clinging to survival.

Begging Mafia

~By Anu. In December, 2006, I wrote this post about a beggar boy called Ajay near the BBC's central Delhi office. Recently, I thought about Ajay again when reading and hearing about Delhi's powerful, violent begging mafia.
    I have rarely given cash to beggars in the street here, because I always suspected organized crime at work. Well now, a friend who works as a cameraman for a major Indian channel confirms that he's seen the begging mafia with his own eyes.
    He describes quacks who will deliberately maim children for use in begging. He saw training sessions where people are taught the most efficient begging tactics. He witnessed money being handed over to local and regional commanders for begging rights. Of course I cannot confirm anything he says, as it was all hidden camera, and I have not seen these things myself. But there is plenty of evidence to suggest that begging- across India - is an organized business.

Lonely Planet

Massi plots a wicked carom move:

    We've had a few visitors -- my Massi, who's a carom pro, came and showed all the young whipper-snappers what for in between bridal shopping for her daughter all over sweltering Delhi.
    Tony, our Mexican photographer friend from London got dumped in Dubai on his way to Kabul. So he ended up in Delhi for a day at a sumptuous suite in the Taj Mansingh, which he had to abandon at the ungodly hour of 4 a.m.