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Sunday, December 1, 2002
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Shackled to communalism
Is “the secular Indian” an oxymoron?
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The communal clashes that accompanied our Independence enforced the belief that secularism was the only viable means of forging an India that would be vibrant and democratic. But has it really worked out the way it was envisaged,
ask A. N. Wadehra and Randeep Wadehra
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Words
don’t live in dictionaries, they live in the mind!
R. K. Murthi
THAT the English language is
undergoing rapid changes, I don’t deny. Nor do I question the wisdom
latent in the quotable quote, The
old order changeth, yielding place to new. I
accept the changes in my stride. Nobody, who is progressive, by
temperament, ever gets rattled by changes. I add, as an after-thought,
that I am a progressive, not a dyed-in-the-wool conservative. I turn
that phrase around and gain a gut feeling that modernism and I are two
sides of the same coin.
French
connection endures
Anand Jha
MADAME
Khantamma de Condappa epitomises the spirit of Pondicherry — feisty
and elegant. At 86, Madame is a storehouse of information, having been
witness to the ups and downs of French rule since the beginning of the
century. Over 400 years of a colonial regime in Pondicherry has left a
sizeable brown-skinned French population in this 30-sq. km area on the
coast of southern India. Local Tamils in Pondicherry who opted for
French nationality when France relinquished its control in 1954 enjoy
all the rights extended to French citizens.
Movie
releases in a chaos
Subhash K. Jha
WITH
the ongoing season of Ramzan, the holy Islamic period of prayer and
abstinence, the Mumbai film industry has put all its major releases on
hold until Id. But the question being asked by the troubled industry is:
how long can the backlog be kept away from the turnstiles? Impatient yet
wary of the incessant whiplash of flops, film producers have lined up a
battery of biggies for the next two months. December 6 after Ramzan, is
the Friday likely to see a glut with as many as six big releases lined
up.
An
actor and a gentleman
HE is the sophisticated and
suave face of Hindi film industry. Jimmy Shergill doesn't believe in
mixing his personal life with professional. Mere Yaar Ki Shaadi Hai,
Dil Vil Pyaar Vyaar and the just-released Kehtaa Hai Dil Baar
Baar may not have set the box-office ablaze, but they have one
feature in common: outstanding performances by Jimmy Shergill.
In the spotlight
Manisha goes
places
Asha Singh
ALL
those who thought that the controversy kicked up by Manisha Koirala on Ek
Chhoti Si Love Story would permanently cripple her already flagging
career, are now doing a rethink. Far from being bogged down, the actress
is actually going places. She is just back from the USA, where she had
addressed a congregation at Harvard University as a "cultural
ambassador of the subcontinent".
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