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Blood
on that Baisakhi
 On
April 13, 1919, when General Reginald Dyer opened fire on a crowd
gathered to hear political speeches at Jallianwala Bagh, not only was
his action the worst atrocity perpetrated by the British in the 20th
century but it also proved the moral bankruptcy of the Empire. The
Jallianwala Bagh massacre marked the turning point of India’s
struggle for freedom from British rule and became a watershed
experience, often cited as an example of the bestiality of the foreign
rulers. It also became a rallying point for the common people who were
already feeling thwarted by the oppression unleashed by the rulers.
The Butcher of Amritsar
by Nigel
Collett (Rupa) offers a definitive account of the
massacre in this biography of Gen Dyer. Excerpts:
IT
seemed to Dyer when he rose early on the 13th that he and his force
were being steadily and deliberately cut off from the outside world;
rail and wires had again been torn up overnight all around Amritsar,
and more railway track was destroyed on the line to Lahore during the
day, derailing a goods train and forcing communications with Lahore to
be maintained by aeroplane.
Dutt’s
the way to live
 He
was much more than an actor. With an ear to the ground and a hand on
the pulse of the people, Sunil Dutt lived by his convictions and led
from the front.
V. Gangadhar recalls
his association with the indefatigable marcher and Surendra
Miglani recounts the less-known
facts about Dutt Saab
Sunil
Dutt, my best friend in the Hindi film industry, was always marching -
to bring peace to the bleeding Punjab of the 1980s, to halt the spread
of nuclear weapons, to commemorate the Dandi march, to protest against
any kind of injustice.
TRIBUTE
Merchant of
style
Ismail Merchant had a nose
for great stories and knew exactly how they were to be told and sold,
writes Saibal Chatterjee
Ismail
Merchant, Indian at heart but world citizen by disposition, was a man
of immense charm and tenacity. Both these attributes of his
personality imbued the nearly 50 films that he produced in a career
spanning well over four decades.
A
city frozen in time
Sudha
Jhunjhunwala on Bruges, which retains its medieval touch and
old-world charm with its museums and tapestries
Bruges
is fondly called the Venice of the North. It may be a feeble
comparison, yet it is such a charming, totally medieval city, easily
navigable by foot. A 45-minute train journey from Brussels brought us
to Bruges.
Quick-change
artistes
Bollywood actresses are
shedding their glam-doll look in the hope of getting awards.
Bipasha
Basu hasn’t only shed oodles of weight, she’s also ready to do
away with her oomphy image. In Prakash Jha’s Apharan, Bipasha
stars as a salwar kameez clad-girl next door.
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