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Figuring it out
Breast cancer |
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Seeking NRI grooms
Afghanistan 2014
Comforts of curd-rice
CINEMA: NEW Releases
Christmas gift
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Figuring it out
It
is good that Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal has chosen to use figures to claim in the Assembly that it is the ‘safest state’ in the country. However, he did not realise that the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) — the data of which he has cited — does not compile the figures of actual crime that takes place but the crime as registered and reported by the state police. It is widely known that the Supreme Court direction that an FIR be registered on every complaint is perhaps the most ignored order. Most SHOs will register only the cases they feel can be solved, or when they are forced to. The Deputy Chief Minister claimed Kerala had the highest incidence of cognisable crime, whereas Punjab was 25th among 28 states. As police forces worldwide are liable to avoid registering cases, the standard measure adopted to assess the crime level in a particular area is counting the cases of murder, a crime hard to keep under covers. Kerala, which has a population of 3.33 crore as per the 2011 Census, registered 365 cases of murder in that year. On the other hand, Punjab, with a population of 2.77 crore, had 842 murders the same year. Of these murders, firearms were used in only three in Kerala and 75 in Punjab. These are figures from the same NCRB as cited
by the Deputy Chief Minister. The high registration of other crimes in Kerala is, in fact, a reflection of the higher responsiveness of its police and greater social and political awareness of its residents. It is as important to prevent crime as it is to make people feel safe. When people see goons have a free run in their streets, they do not need to refer to figures. Haryana had cited figures recently to claim rapes were down over the past year. That’s not what the people felt. After the shocking incidents of attacks on Punjab police personnel themselves by ‘non-state actors’ — it’s hard to avoid borrowing that phrase — in recent months, residents of the state are struck with a mixed sense of fear and helplessness, for they are not sure who to turn to for security.
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Breast cancer
It
is indeed unfortunate that cases of breast cancer, which kills lakhs of women every year, have been on the rise world over. Over the past decades there has been a staggering increase in the number of patients of breast cancer in India too. According to the Indian Council of Medical Research studies, the incidence has almost doubled in the past two and a half decades. Closer home in Punjab and other neighboring states, a study conducted by the Department of Pathology, Government Medical College, Amritsar, has indicated that there has been a 5 per cent rise in the incidence of breast cancer in the past decade. These figures as well as the dismal projection that one in 22 women in India stood at the risk of breast cancer are serious causes for concern. Blame it on new mores and western lifestyles that have led to obesity and change of the reproductive cycle, the rising incidence in developing nations is more worrisome. According to a study published in Lancet, the developing world not only accounts for 51 per cent of new breast cancer cases but also more deaths due to the disease. The reasons for more deaths are not far to seek. For both early detection, the key to fighting the battle against cancer, and advanced treatment are missing in such countries. Though mammography screening is known to reduce fatality, the percentage of women opting for it is abysmally low in India. According to the WHO, less than 5 per cent women, aged 50-69, underwent screening by mammography in India between 2000 and 2003. While several cancer awareness campaigns in India have been initiated, their efficacy is still in doubt as 80 per cent of patients are in the advanced stage of breast cancer when they seek treatment. Though there is a need to guard against the risks of too much awareness and unwarranted overtreatment as is happening in the West, in India social taboos and a sense of denial prevent women from going in for early screening. Thus, the message that breast cancer does not lead to death and is curable, especially if detected early, has to be driven home loud and clear.
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Seeking NRI grooms
Taking
a serious note of the increasing cases of fraudulent marriages by NRIs, the Chief Justice of India has rightly advised marriageable girls and their parents to thoroughly check the antecedents of the would-be grooms. Thousands of brides are left in the lurch in Punjab, where migration of young men in search of greener pastures is a common practice. Most of these men, who migrate illegally to foreign countries have to invest heavily in paying the touts, travel agents, etc. The only way to come out of the vicious circle of illegal travel agents and other exploiters is found in the dowry money. In this structure of greed, a bride becomes a pawn. Once the dowry money is consumed, to pay off the loans and other expenses incurred, she is left to fend for herself. Many steps have been planned to stop this menace like making the registration of the NRI weddings mandatory. In fact, the Punjab government is awaiting the consent of the Union Government in this regard. Also to strike at the root of the problem — the illegal migration of the young — the state government has also been seeking to invoke the Human Trafficking Act. The Ministry of Home has allowed District Revenue Officers and Naib Tehsildars, besides Tehsildars, to register the marriages of NRIs to avoid fraudulent marriages and save lives of innocent wives. Despite these preventive steps in the offing, the number of wife deserters does not seem to decline. It works both ways. If the greedy grooms dupe would-be brides, the NRI fixation among the community is also to be blamed for the growing number of these tragic marriages, which do not seem to have a happy ending. The brides’ family gets duped by its own greed for sending its sons and daughters abroad. As the CJI rightly observed, there are plenty of opportunities available in our country to make a good life. And to avoid such tragedies.
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We build statues out of snow, and weep to see them melt. — Walter Scott Walter Scott
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Afghanistan 2014
THE US and NATO have finalised their plans to pull most of their troops out of Afghanistan, but no major player on the scene is certain that the strife-torn country will see peace and stability after the foreign troops have gone home. Even if the US chooses to leave behind 10,000-odd troops, plus drones, there is no guarantee that the Taliban, which it has been fighting for over a decade, will let peace prevail in Afghanistan until its aim to rule over the country has been achieved. Accounts filtering out of the contacts between the US and the Taliban in Turkey and the Gulf countries and those between President Hamid Karzai and the Taliban are hazy and do not promise a political settlement about a post-pullout dispensation. The major supporter of the Taliban — Pakistan — which has been keeping its cards close to its chest has until recently been reluctant to be of help to the US mainly because the relations between Washington and Islamabad have remained strained after the US captured Osama bin Laden from his sanctuary in Abbotabad. Judging from the latest statements made by Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar after a meeting with Hillary Clinton, relations between the two countries seem to be on the mend and there are indications that Pakistan may now agree to lend the US interlocutors some help to facilitate talks with the Taliban leaders, most of whom are in Quetta. Hamid Karzai has been making his own efforts to have Pakistan on board and his recent meeting with President Asif Zardari has led to the release last week of Mullah Nooruddin Turabi, and the latest press reports emanating from Pakistan suggest that Mullah Baradar may also be released soon by Islamabad. Whatever the quality of improvement in relations between the United States and Pakistan, and the promised release of Mullah Baradar as a confidence-building overture to Hamid Karzai, the likely transition from the present situation to a post-pullout Afghanistan is fraught with acute uncertainty. It is mainly because the aims of all major players are different and apparently not reconcilable. The end-game being played in Afghanistan may turn out to be less painful than the agony suffered in the US pullout from Vietnam and, to some extent, in Iraq. This is notwithstanding the reality that the US has not accomplished all its tasks it wanted to in Afghanistan. President Barack Obama had in his first term made it clear that his future policy would aim at pulling the US troops out of Afghanistan. His decision to get out of Afghan engagement was clearly the outcome of the slowdown in the US economy and the growing unpopularity of the war being fought faraway in the mountainous terrain at the cost of nearly $ 3 trillion and enormous loss of lives of American soldiers. In the second term, the Obama Administration has stepped up its efforts to secure a smooth and honourable exit from Afghanistan. His critics had faulted him for announcing much in advance the 2014-deadline for the pullout. This was bound to make the Taliban more difficult to deal with. Hence, the US attempts to persuade Pakistan bring the Taliban leaders to the negotiating table for a political settlement of the conflict. The Taliban has one aim: It wants to be a part of any future government in Kabul. Pakistan is also keen that a post-pullout government in Kabul should be headed by someone who is willing to do Islamabad's bidding. Whatever the public protestations, Islamabad — certainly the Pakistan Army — has not given up the desire to acquire strategic depth in Afghanistan. The US wants to evolve a political settlement in which all sections of the Afghan society are a party. Any settlement with the Taliban, which is mainly Pushtoon in composition, will not endure as those who were the members of the Northern Alliance, backing the US drive against the Taliban, will not accept an accord reached only with the Taliban. President Karzai, who understands this problem of managing various sectional demands more than any other Afghan leader, is retiring by 2014 when the US troops will be leaving. The post-pullout situation can lead to an outbreak of fresh hostilities familiar to Afghans. The Northern Alliance at some stage might get revived and a civil war can break out which the 10,000-odd troops the Americans want to leave behind might not be able to prevent. Although the Taliban is unlikely to give up its objective of gaining power in Kabul, the possibility of the Taliban establishing its hold on southern and south-western Afghanistan cannot be ruled out as soon as the US troops have left. Not that this will lead to a division of Afghanistan as once predicted by Robert Blackwill, a former US Ambassador to India, a few years ago, the Afghans being essentially nationalistic in mind irrespective of varied ethnicity. However, the kind of peace Afghanistan badly needs for economic and social development will elude the country for quite some time. Pakistan has a price for helping the Americans who have lately shown understanding of its keenness to instal a government convenient for Islamabad. It also wants the US and Britain to give an undertaking that they would accept the Durand Line as the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan — a proposition that has been a sore point with the Pushtoons. The Americans are keen that the Taliban leadership agrees to work within the framework of the new constitution, gives up violence and does not support Al-Qaida. From Pakistan it wants a commitment that it will not allow safe havens for the terrorist groups on its territory from where they have been launching attacks into Afghanistan and on US troops. The precarious state of the Pakistan economy and the need for another tranche of money from the US and international agencies might compel it to be of help to the Americans arrive at a settlement with the Taliban. On their part, Americans may ultimately pay that price, as they have always been doing, considering that they have generally considered Pakistan a front-line state — earlier against the Soviet Union and now against the Taliban and terrorism. What if the Taliban — “Good Taliban”, as President Obama once innocently described — agrees to these conditions now, but after sharing power in Kabul for some time return to the old ways, ignoring all the commitments made. Also, Pakistan may not be able to prevent the use of safe havens even if it wants to be of help to the Americans. History does not repeat itself every time a transition is attempted. But it could be going back to the drones Pakistan and the Taliban hate so bitterly. The year 2014 may not end up on a positive note for Afghanistan as being planned by the international chess-players. Endgames are generally difficult to play as Afghan history has proved in the
past. The writer, a senior journalist, is now a Member of
Parliament
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Comforts of curd-rice “When
hassled, eat thayir sadam”, it really works!”, a homesick friend who lives in Bangkok but hails from Chennai posted this piece of advice on a social networking site. Soon a few Punjabi friends asked, “What is ‘thayir sadam’?” My cousin, Jayashree, the cookery enthusiast, translated: “Curd rice!” She helpfully posted a picture from a cuisine website, showing a silver plate set on a banana leaf. Its contents — curd-rice with its seasoning of black mustard seeds and green chilli rings, topped with dry fruits — looked delicious. Stepping up the exotica, Jayashree added, “This tastes so heavenly that even the gods want it for lunch. When offered as prasad we call it dadhyannam.” I recalled receiving dadhyannam as prasad at the Ranganathaswamy temple in Trichy and in the Balaji temples elsewhere in the country where priests specially brought in from Andhra Pradesh or Tamil Nadu would prepare the prasad with the same scrupulous adherence to detail as their counterparts back home. It is the sheer simplicity of curd-rice that adds to its enduring appeal. Mixing boiled rice with yoghurt takes no special skill other than a few strong stabs with the back of a ladle. The consistency must be mashed but not-altogether-paste-like. When the rice is cooled, it is time for the seasoning. Fine bits of green chillies, slivers of ginger and whole curry leaves are the green items needed, while the dry items are mustard seeds, urad seeds and cumin or zeera seeds. The green seasoning is tempered in a spoonful of cooking oil and mixed into the curd rice, with the dry seasoning to follow, sizzling in oil on an iron ladle. For added spice, a pinch of asafoetida is added into the sizzle. The resultant fragrance can be experienced all the way to the entrance of the house, and even in the lane beyond, if the quantity of curd-rice being prepared is large. Dress it up with chopped cashews, pistachios and peanuts, or make it fruity with pomegranate, grape and orange for a special occasion. If it is a homely meal, it can be accompanied by oorgai or mango pickle in oil and fried thayir molagai or curd-dipped and sun-dried whole chillies. But an absolute no-no is poppadum or papad with curd-rice, which we, as children, were told was the surest way to go deaf. I can vouch that it is an empty threat, for I have always paired curd-rice with poppadum and am none the worse for it. It is a standard cure for stomach-related problems and an antidote to summer rashes. It is among the first meals a toddler is introduced to and often the only one that a nonagenarian can hold down. It is the Delhi Malayali’s trusted packed meal as he boards the train for the long journey home. It is the fabled cause of the South Indian corporate honcho’s legendary work ethic and analytical brilliance. As one of the constituents of a wedding feast or the subject of nostalgic outpourings by techies deprived of Amma’s cooking, thayir sadam is an unparallelled comfort
food.
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CINEMA: NEW Releases  Riding on Salman’s shoulders Nonika Singh
And now instead of feuding family Chulbul cuts a happy family picture where his relationship with dearest stepfather (Vinod Khanna) is as sugary sweet and teasing as the one he shares with his wife Rajjo (Sonakshi Sinha). Lest we forget there is his affectionate stepbrother Makhi played by Arbaaz Khan who happens to be the director of the film this time over. That Arbaaz understands in a Salman Khan movie audiences want to see Sallu and Sallu alone, goes to his credit and so he has not bothered to hog the limelight himself. The focus remains on Salman's funny antics and above all on his death and action defying stunts that defy logic too. Actually from scene one the movie is high on hi-octane action where this one-man-army of the police force takes on the goondas and the others sip chai. But while his police compatriots sit pretty when Chulbul is reducing the baddies into pulp they are only too eager to shake a leg with him. Like any pot-boiler there are very many songs one picturised on the director Arbaaz Khan's wife Malaika Arora Khan and of course there is Kareena Kapoor Khan in the song Fevicol Se that has been touted as the item number of the year. In the movie it works despite the utterly ridiculous lyrics for the tune is peppy. So is the movie high spirited and feel good which despite the inevitability of it all, despite the déjà vu predictability factor keeps you there. Not the least because it clocks around two hours and is reasonably well edited. But most of it for Salman Khan is at his quintessential best. The part becomes him as did in the first Dabangg. He carries off the unconvincing act, including the shirtless bout in the climax, with conviction and just the right degree of chutzpah. Others, including the heroine Sonakshi and Khanna, are mere satellites that hover around this superstar planet with the sole purpose of adding to the sheen of his larger than life persona. So there he stands the Indian superman who can with one punch bring the jail door down, with one step create a crater on earth and with one swish send a dozen odd men flying. Call him Robinhood Pandey or Kungfu Pandey as the film refers to him…he rides the film like a colossus and takes it to the predictable conclusion and makes it immensely watchable if you are his fan and time-pass if you are not.
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Christmas gift
In
the old days film companies made it a point to release family/children's fare for the X-mas season. Alas, today for all the marketing wizards working overtime there is only one such release Rise of the Guardians 3D. Based on The Guardians of Childhood by William Joyce and the Man in the Moon by Joyce and Rael, it is about the forces of good and evil, light and darkness, battling each other in order that children retain their ability to well, be children. The curtain rises to Nicholas St. North, better known as Santa Claus (voice of Alec Baldwin), picking up the Spirit of Winter, also known as Jack Frost (Chris Pine) and taking him on Mission: Possible and though reluctant at first, after being in the wilderness for centuries, agrees and ever so gradually we the viewer is enlightened about his past. But the establishing shots are decidedly weak with a surfeit of fireworks, even slapstick, which stems the flow of the narrative, harking back to the silent movie days when it was absolutely necessary. But then thankfully, by accident or design, director Peter Ramsey pulls back to delve on the well-crafted guardians and though the screenplay is at best fair, it establishes a flow with the pedal on the gas as it gathers pace toward the climax. There is also a bit of banter like the rivalry between Santa and the Easter Bunny for pride of place. The 3D effect is at best fair but the fairytales come alive (hopefully today's children are aware of them) and it's fun and games with the occasional jabs of humour. It is especially racy after the intermission to end on a decidedly high note and keeping everyone in good humour for the festive season. This is just what it is supposed to do.
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Saturday
December 22 Bhool Bhulaiyaa ZEE CINEMA STAR GOLD FILMY SET MAX STAR MOVIES HBO Sunday December 23 Ladies vs Ricky Bahl is a 2011 Indian romantic comedy film directed by Maneesh Sharma and produced by Aditya Chopra. The film stars Ranveer Singh opposite Anushka Sharma in lead roles, seen together once again, after their last hit Band Baaja Baaraat, along with Dipannita Sharma, Aditi Sharma and debutant Parineeti Chopra (Priyanka Chopra's cousin) in supporting roles. In the film, Ranveer Singh plays a conman named Ricky Bahl who cons women until three of these women unite to con him back. INDIA TALKIES SET MAX ZEE CINEMA STAR GOLD STAR MOVIES MOVIES OK FILMY
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Chulbul
The major enemy is Pitch, the Bogeyman (Jude Law), though he makes his appearance well into the film, one who converts dreams into nightmares, but in the meantime Santa acquaints Jack with other fairy creatures like the cute Tooth, the tooth fairy (Isla Fisher), the gregarious Easter Bunny (Hugh Jackman) and the electric Snowman (Sandy) and a merry gang they form, ready for action.
