Sacred Cows

Three great links

Anand Giridharadas has nicely summed up the ambivalence towards 'Slumdog Millionaire' by India's elite in his latest letter from India.

Two other articles, not pleasant to read over breakfast, but vital for anyone serious about changing their own basic living habits to help mitigate environmental damage:

The first is about Americans and their deep, abiding love for the softest, plushest toilet paper and what it's doing to the forests.

The second, related article, which your 10 year old might find disgusting and embarassing, is about the mechanics of sanitation. Or more precisely, about a new toilet system that separates poo & pee to great ecological benefit.

I know... but someone's gotta think about this stuff...

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.

Delhi Headlines

2 infants burn to death in incubators

A newborn baby was charred to death in a government hospital in Delhi late Tuesday, reports Metro Now. The baby, born on March 7, was admitted to the ICU nursery, after being born premature. At 2a.m., a surge in the power supply (a common occurrence in India) caused the incubator to catch fire. The baby's mother saw the blaze, but could not rescue her child because doctors and nurses had locked the nursery's doors and left. By the time security guards and nurses arrived, the child had perished.

Meanwhile, in Gujarat, in western India, another 3-day-old infant died in an identical blaze, after an incubator short-circuited.

Top hospital short of cotton wool

The Times of India reports that Delhi's top government hospital, Lok Nayak, has been without cotton wool for the past ten months. The hospital is not short of funds... and there is no shortage of cotton in India. The story is murkier than that. It seems last year, the hospital's administrator cancelled the cotton wool  contract because the supply was of poor quality. Since then, no other supplier has been willing to sign a contract because of threats by the blacklisted contractor who runs, perhaps, the world's only cotton wool mafia.

Meanwhile, patients are being asked to bring their own surgical gloves, plaster, medicines, bandages, and cotton wool from nearby medical shops, which are making a killing. Rinku, 24, who fractured his right leg in an accident came for treatment, but had to wait while his family ran across the road to buy lots of bandages and cotton wool.

Farmer Suicide

11 Suicides in 48 hours by farmers in western India.

Is it 'cause I is black?

~By Tarquin. A few days ago, I had to renew my Indian visa and found myself standing in line in the appropriate Delhi ministry behind a Nigerian.  When it came his turn to approach the ‘incharge’ and make his application, the treatment he received was shocking.  The lady official’s demeanour changed from moderately friendly to downright hostile.
    Her face took on a contorted expression of someone who’d smelt a whiff of something rancid.  The Nigerian spoke English with a heavy accent and she told him to come back with a translator.  An argument ensued which culminated in the ‘incharge’ shouting at him to, “Go back to your country!”
    Afterwards, the Nigerian, who is studying at an Indian university, told me that he has faced virulent racism here.  ‘People often shout monkey at me in the street,’ he said.  ‘I’m always being harassed by the police.  Many times I’ve been asked if I live up a tree.’ (Photo: Shilpa Shetty, Bollywood actress)

Once Upon a Time in India

By Tarquin -- There was a fascinating item on BBC World Service's World Today yesterday about a Palestinian storytelling tradition that I'd never heard of. It's called Hikaye, a form of narration told by women for other women and children.  According to UNESCO: 'The tales are fictitious but deal with real concerns of Middle Eastern Arab society and family issues. In this way, the Hikaye offers a critique of society from the women’s perspective and draws a portrait of the social structure that directly touch the lives of women. The majority of conflicts narrated in the tales often describe women torn between duty and desire.'
     The oral tradition is thriving here in India as well.  Recently, we were in West Bengal to watch a Jatra, a play performed by a travelling theatre group. Traditionally Jatras are morality plays drawn from the Hindu epics. But in recent years their producers have started drawing inspiration from international news. Plays about 9/11, the London bombings and the Tsunami have all been staged. The production we went to see was about the life and trial of Saddam Hussein. The writer told me that villagers come to see his plays because they can't really relate to TV news. They need to have the characters and the plot acted out for them. (To read more about this, check out my piece in the Sunday Times on Dec 24th).

Jessica Effect

    Today's papers in India are filled with stories about how Jessica Lall's murderer was brought to justice after 8 long years. There have been reams already written about the case. Basically, Jessica was shot at a party, in front of several eye-witnesses by the drunk son of a politician when she refused to serve him more drinks. She died en-route to hospital.

    Earlier this year, Manu Sharma, whom several eye-witnesses at the party identified... and who fled from police initially... was acquitted. 
    What followed was unprecedented in India's modern history. This country has 38 news channels and many of them campaigned to have the case re-opened. Around the country, people emailed & texted their outrage directly to India's Prime Minister. According to the Hindustan Times, a poll conducted at the time showed public confidence in law enforcement was a pathetic 2.7, out of a possible 10.
 

One of our temples is missing!

Here’s a roundup of today’s news from the Hindustan Times:

Former coal minister Sibhu Soren was sentenced to life imprisonment by a Delhi court on Tuesday. He had his private secretary murdered in 1994 in a jungle in eastern India. According to The Hindustan Times, he is the ‘first sitting cabinet minister to be convicted of murder.’

Saddam Joins Indian Travelling Threatre

Saddam is a good guy and the real power behind the throne in Washington DC is Powell, who is white and bald, and eggs on a power-hungry ‘W Bush’ to invade Iraq.
    That’s how events are portrayed in Saddam at the Gallows, an Indian play that opened to a crowd of several thousand in the Indian state of West Bengal over the weekend.
    We caught up with it a few hours west of Calcutta on Saturday.
    Saddam at the Gallows is the latest offering from one of dozens of travelling Indian theatre groups calls Jatras. With a caste of dozens and an army of technicians, make-up artists, dancers and set builders, they travel from village to village, erecting tents and bamboo stages in different localities every other day.

Bovine News

Here’s a roundup of the latest bovine news:

The Indian Express reports (Nov 19) that three people were injured when a bull went on a rampage in the streets of Delhi.
    ‘According to eyewitness accounts, the bull first entered a marriage tent, where it was stoned by the people. This reportedly irked the animal,’ the paper said.
    The article goes on to give details of another attack three days earlier in which a blind boy was gored to death in west Delhi.
    It adds that last month an 85 year-old woman was killed by a bull in another area of west Delhi.