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US drive against Iran
From betting front in IPL |
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Girls harassed
Worsening conflict in Syria
A friend indeed!
CINEMA:
NEW Releases humour less: Dharmendra, Sunny & Bobby Deol A creepy attempt out of sync: Jaden Smith
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US drive against Iran
In
its drive to force Iran to abandon its controversial nuclear energy programme, US President Barack Obama has imposed fresh sanctions on foreign financial entities that facilitate business transactions in the Iranian rial. India, China and seven other countries have been granted a six-month waiver as these nations have reduced their oil imports from Iran. Interestingly, the latest US sanctions have come a few days before the scheduled presidential elections in Iran when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will be trying his luck for another tenure as President. His rigid policy on Iran’s nuclear ambitions has led to crippling sanctions by the US and the European Union, besides those imposed by the UN. As a result, the Iranian economy is passing through a very critical phase with a back-breaking price rise, an acute shortage of employment opportunities and many other difficulties being faced by people. That is why Ahmadinejad’s popularity rating has come down considerably. He is likely to become more unpopular with the latest US sanctions on Tehran. If Ahmadinejad loses the coming battle of the ballot, his successor is unlikely to be as rigid as he has been on the nuclear issue. The new head of government in Tehran may try to satisfy the international community to prove that Iran’s nuclear programme has nothing to do with weapons of mass destruction. There is a large constituency of people in Iran who would prefer their country to leave the nuclear path if it strengthens the Iranian economy. The US, too, cannot go beyond a limit in its attempt to punish countries doing business with Iran. The strategy of imposing sanctions may also hit the American economy. The six-month waiver granted to India, China and seven other economies on the Iranian nuclear programme-related sanctions should be seen against this backdrop. China has been included in the group of beneficiaries despite the fact that the reduction in its crude imports from Iran is marginal. Pakistan’s name does not figure in the list though it has entered into a deal with Iran for a gas pipeline project in which China, too, has evinced keen interest. The world will be waiting with curiosity for the next move of the US after the outcome of the coming presidential polls in Iran.
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From betting front in IPL
The
police say that Raj Kundra, part-owner of the troubled Rajasthan Royals cricket team, has confessed to betting in the Indian Premier League. According to Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar, Kundra used to bet on IPL matches through a businessman associate of his, Umesh Goenka. These revelations should have shocked people, but the credibility of the IPL has sunk so low that no one is really surprised or shocked. Kundra’s case is a curious one — he is not an Indian citizen and could have easily placed his bets himself in the United Kingdom, where betting is legal. Why, then, did he place bets through Goenka, as the police claim? Possibly because the money he bet with was of dubious origin and not accounted for. There is another reason — as an IPL team owner, he was morally and legally in the wrong when he placed bets in this tournament. Team owners betting in the tournament is emerging as a bigger problem in the IPL. When it was revealed that Gurunath Meiyappan of the Chennai Super Kings had been betting on matches, the team dissociated itself from him. N Srinivasan, his father-in-law, claimed that Gurunath was merely “enthusiastic” about the sport. Kundra, though, provides a second case of a team owner/official betting in the tournament. In India, betting is unlawful, of course, even though it is legal in many countries. However, a team owner or official indulging in betting is against the rules across the world. The constitutions of different sporting leagues around the world bar officials or employees of a team from betting. The Football Association of the United Kingdom, which runs the Premier League there, bars everyone connected with a club from betting — including doctors, directors and agents. The reasons for these bans are not difficult to find: team owners or officials have inside knowledge about personnel, tactics, injuries and so forth. Then, they are in a position to alter any of these factors to maximise the earnings from the bets they place. A crooked owner/official could, eventually, end up on the slippery slope toward match-fixing. If Kundra is proved to have bet on the IPL, he deserves exemplary punishment.
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Girls harassed
Girls
outshine boys. Boys harass girls. There is nothing startling about this. In a survey conducted by a District Elementary Education Officer and 60 teachers of Rewari district of Haryana, this predictable fact reinforced itself. As many as 70 per cent of the 30,000 government school girls surveyed had experienced sexual harassment at home, markets, public functions and even at schools. The more startling fact that emerged out of the survey should shock the way schooling is managed in our country --- a majority of girls did not know what spells harassment. Though they felt uncomfortable about certain indecencies they experienced, they did not know when and how to say “no”. Another and more unfortunate fact that came to the fore is that they have no one to turn to; their mothers are equally ignorant and weak-willed about opposing sexual harassment. To begin with, schools must introduce sex education to help girls handle harassment. Two, this education should be introduced at the right age so that the scars of sexual harassment and molestation do not affect the rest of the life of a girl. Sex education should be supported with lessons in legal rights and socially acceptable behaviour so that they are able to discern what is acceptable and objectionable in male behaviour. Ideally, each school should have a visiting counsellor with whom girl students can share their experience, without the fear of being judged. The rising crime rate against women, sexual harassment at the work place, domestic violence, etc, result from an assumption that women are weak --- they do not speak up out of shame, particularly in rural areas and small towns. In a study conducted by Neelu Kang in 1997 on “Indian women activists”, it was found that of the 80 respondents, 59 had had personal experience of sexual harassment -- a whopping 73.75 per cent. These women mostly belonged to the urban educated class. Such trends are not uncommon across the country and, therefore, it is welcome news that the surveys will be conducted in other districts of Haryana too. But they should be followed by some concrete action.
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Great tranquillity of heart is his who cares for neither praise not blame. — Thomas a Kempis
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Worsening conflict in Syria
For
a distressingly long period the Indian media — most TV channels and some newspapers — have been so obsessed with the disgraceful Big Fix in Indian cricket that the country has been denied other news, no matter how significant. Shockingly, even the Maoist massacre in Chhattisgarh had to take a second place to the shenanigans of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Almost completely ignored was foreign news, particularly alarming developments in the Syrian conflict. Since that country is an important part of India’s extended neighbourhood and the egregious violence there could easily set the entire West Asia (Middle-East, according to the West) ablaze, we ought to know and understand always what is going on there. An important witness to the state of the bitter Syrian struggle between the rebels against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad and his supporters is the Republican Senator, John MacCain, the most powerful voice in the United States for American military intervention in Syria. Only the other day he virtually infiltrated into Syria from Turkey to confer with the motley combination of rebel groups many of which are heavily at odds with one another. Al-Qaeda’s presence is both substantial and ominous, and it has jihadi and extremist agenda to pursue. The assessment of the current Syrian situation the senator gave his countrymen was bleak. Opposition fighters, he said, were being “massacred” and Bashar al-Assad, with “growing outside support, was tightening his grip on power”. And he added, for good measure, that over the last two years everyone was saying that President Assad’s fall was “inevitable”. This could not be said now. “Tragically, we sit by and watch”, declared Mr MacCain, a staunch advocate of a no-flying zone in Syria and “creation of an area for rebels and refugees”. But he and his cohorts know that the Obama administration is wary of “inserting itself too directly” in a complicated Middle-Eastern conflict at a time when President Assad’s forces are well-armed and America cannot be certain about its allies. Consequently, President Obama wants to confine American aid to Syrian rebels to “non-lethal material support”, whatever that might mean. In contrast to the Obama administration’s policy, the European Union has already lifted the arms embargo on Syria and, at the instance of Britain and France, has even agreed to supply arms to “responsible groups” among the Syrian rebels though it has not yet decided to start these. In any case, it is not going to be easy to determine who among the rabble of rebels is responsible. To arm Al-Qaeda and other extremist Islamists would be fatal to Western interests. As for the carving out of a no-flying zone in Syria, there should be no illusion that UN Security Council would sanction it. This is so because in Libya, the western allies, led from the rear by the US, had stretched, exploited and misused the UNSC sanction for a no-flying zone to start the disastrous war on Gaddafi who they later killed. What happened at the Security Council over the weekend speaks for itself. The council was informally discussing the two inter-connected and extremely worrying aspects of the Syrian conflict: First that it has started seeping into smaller countries in the neighbourhood, a telling example of which is to be found in Lebanon. Secondly, the historic Shia-Sunni antagonism is becoming a part of the Syrian civil war and this is drawing the whole region into a conflict that was supposed to be only a revolt against the Assad government. Hezbollah, the Shia militia in Lebanon, is fighting in support of Iranian-backed President Assad while the Sunni Lebanese have joined the battle on the side of the rebels. The result has been a deadly fight between the two sectarian groups over driving out the Syrian rebels from the Lebanese border town of Qusair where 1,500 wounded people are said to be trapped for two weeks. According to diplomatic sources at Turtle Bay, on Saturday Russia blocked a Security Council move to raise an alarm over this situation, arguing that the council had done nothing when the town was first occupied by anti-Assad fighters. If Iran, Hezollah and Shiites in general are supporting President Assad, the Sunnis, led by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey are out to hit the Assad regime as hard as possible. Thus, the sectarian war that both fuels and is fuelled by ancient antagonism that could shake the foundations of the states created after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire is now intermixed with the geostrategic interests of the rival sides. The result is the constant power struggle between Saudi Arabia and Iran, the confrontation between Iran and the US over the Iranian nuclear programme, and an alliance between the rabidly Shiite Hezbollah and secular Syria against America-backed Israel. For quite some time, Israel had been striking at Syria and Hezbollah, but Mr Assad’s warning that, armed with Russian S-300 missiles, he would not hesitate to strike Israel seems to have had some effect so far. Yet, some are speculating that Israel would destroy the Russian missiles on arrival in Syria. Meanwhile, the US Secretary of State, Mr John Kerry, in a constructive move, is trying hard to organise a second conference at Geneva to promote peace talks between the Syrian government and the rebels. Wisely he has dropped the insistence of his predecessor that Mr Assad’s exit was a pre-condition for the talks. Even so, there is yet no agreement on the dates of Geneva II. One important reason is that the Syrian opposition remains hopelessly divided and in disarray despite repeated pleas of its Western backers to unite. They had asked the main umbrella organization, the Syrian National Coalition, to expand its membership, elect a new leader and decide whether unconditionally to go to the Geneva talks. It has failed on all three counts. Yet some hope that the conference would take place in July, if not in June, while others are betting that it would never be held. Senator MacCain’s take is: “Why should Assad go to Geneva, when he is prevailing anyhow?”n
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A friend indeed!
Our
pet dog, Om Prakash, who died a few years ago (God bless his soul), had arrived at our doorstep one day with a collar around his neck. At first, we thought he was somebody’s pet who had lost his way, but later we heard that he may be one of the many dogs our university chowkidar had adopted. And thus began our search for the dog’s master. We asked many people around and soon obtained a fascinating history of this man. Sooraj, a bachelor, now dead, was a great lover of dogs who spent his entire salary on his 32 canines. The number had kept growing. Sooraj was supposed to keep guard at the Law Department each night. One night, when his immediate boss went on his rounds to make sure all the men were at work, he was attacked by Sooraj’s many faithful companions who guarded the Law Department zealously while their master dozed in his chair. Sooraj was transferred to the Main Administrative Office and with him went his herd. Right from the Secrecy Branch to the Registrar’s office, one had to take wary steps. Sooraj lived in a little hut on the outskirts of the campus. When he was allotted better accommodation within the campus, which comes with seniority, he refused to part with his dogs. So, they went with him. All his disgruntled neighbours treated him with awe and fear because he was a figure of both admiration and trepidation. We found out that Sooraj always kept a piece of soap in his pocket. Wherever he found a stray dog, he would adopt it but first give it a good scrub. When Sooraj died, his pets would not allow anyone to approach his body, and it was with sticks and stones that his relatives and friends had to shoo them away so as to cremate him. Sooraj’s body was accompanied all the way to the crematorium by his dogs that howled and wept to see their master go. Darwin was indeed right when he said that the emotional life of a dog is far more developed than that of any other animal. I would add that dogs feel more intensely than human beings and their joys and sorrows are unambiguously without any deception. We did not need to think twice before adopting the black-and-white large dog at our gate. We called him Om Prakash or Omy but wished we had known his real name. Until the day he died, we tried to be ideal substitutes for the master he had known so well. He brought unbounded, pure joy into our lives for over a decade and I remember how sad he used to be days before we would leave for England, and how exuberant and delightful were his squeals when he would see us on our return. It saddens me today to think how his brief span of life was spent waiting on our doorstep, perhaps for us or for his earlier master. Overwhelming me with a wag of his tail or the joyous scampering into the bushes while on a walk, or slumbering peacefully at my feet while I sat for long hours on my writing table, Omy was a consciousness that tangibly remains with me endlessly, reminding me how to enjoy the simple pleasures of life as well as optimistically face up to life like he did in his last days.n
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CINEMA:
NEW Releases
It's purely monkey business Many
Bollywood films defy critical appreciation but are fun as long as these last. Alas, Yamla Pagla Deewana 2 will not only baffle the critic in you but won't leave the viewer in you entertained either. Even though it puts out all stops, tries every trick in the trade, it falls flat and hollow. As it moves from Varanasi to UK the father-son duo who earns a living by conning people hope to strike the biggest deal of their lives. In the streets of Varanasi the son has already captured the heart of a millionaire heiress. In London the relationship is to be sealed where the righteous super sardar son (Sunny Deol) of the family, who wants them to mend ways, lives too. From there on the film takes contrived twists and turns before the errant father son find their conscience and the film its predictable rather uninteresting conclusion. As it chugs along at best it has a few moments that are amusing mostly involving an orangutan (ape) but none that will bring the house down. Instead the comic house crumbles and all the director's comic men and women can't put it back together. Even the presence of Johnny Lever and Sucheta Khanna can do little to up the comic quotient. That the intelligence quotient of the film is missing or rests with an orangutan (an ape named Einstein and rechristened as Happy) who not only reads books on humans but even ends up painting a masterpiece, goes without saying. But logic be damned….. give us some laughs at least. Somehow, despite several attempts to infuse humour and elicit laughter the magic of the trio doesn't quite work. Dharmendra is in earnest but oh you so miss the Dharam of yore, of films like Sholay and Chupke Chupke where his comic timing enthralled and floored. Here he finds the comic chemistry only now and then mostly in his dialogue with orangutan and a few one-liners. Bobby's role has some spark but one that never flares up to the right degree of entertainment. Sunny does little but flex his muscles. In a film driven by the Deol khaandan heroines surprisingly are apt, even if they don't have much to do. Anupam Kher as crazy Dude Armstrong who wants to create the eighth wonder of the world by way of a shopping arcade in space evokes no mirth or interest. What a waste! Annu, however fares better than Anupam. But nothing can redeem the film that continues to nosedive into meaningless humbug. And all the crazy capers that it adds up never measure up to hilarity unlimited. Ludicrousness ad infinitum… is more like it. What's worse the joyless ride may not end here. In one of the interviews Bobby shared how with the Deols moving into third generation, Yamla Pagla Deewana's sequels could actually go on forever and forever. God help us. For now save yourself the trouble… unless you are a diehard Deol khandaan fan. That you might end up liking the orang-utan Happy better is of course an altogether different matter. Hey, if you didn’t get it... that was a joke. In a film so short on genuine ones we have little option but to invent a few of our own.
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A creepy attempt Sci-fi films seem to be coming out of Hollywood's ears. But the fare has been so hopeless that one is afraid to sample any. With Indian American film-maker M Night Shyamalan doing the honours, one would expect something good. Maybe, his reputation has suffered a bit after The Sixth Sense but with his inherent talent one expects hope but this is totally belied. The rest are a plethora of animals, creepy, crawly creatures, and some unrecognizable giant beasts with the thick wooded forest as the backdrop. Maybe it was the Black Forest in Germany and cinematographer has a good time panning on these wild creatures. As for the story, after the earth (hence the title) was finished due to a cataclysmic catastrophe, the survivors were relocated to a planet called Nova Prima where the Ranger Corps is a peaceful organization meant to protect the people from Ursas (monsters) who use fear as their key weapon. Hence it gives Cypher enough scope to expound on his take on fear. He says it is in the mind and the only thing real is danger but he voices it in many more words. Actually Cypher is very distant from his son and the mother wants to bridge that gap. And he is therefore sent on this deadly mission. That his sister Senshi died in another mission means that we see her in flashback. So, it is one "Holey Family" there to bore the viewer to death or almost so! Jaden always afraid, Cypher dazed or drugged or both and the women marginally better. How they overcome dangers isn't too clear. Everything is supposed to be by remote control. One can hardly imagine that Shyamalan is in charge. After 100 minutes (which seem endless) the story grinds to a halt. Maybe they ran out of raw stock. Need one say more? Recommending it is like asking for the moon on a New Moon night. |
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Movies on tv
Angels & Demons is a 2009 American thriller film directed by Ron Howard and based on Dan Brown's novel by the same name. It is the sequel to the 2006 film The Da Vinci Code, although the book was published first in series chronology. Filming of Angels & Demons took place in Rome, Italy, and the Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, California. ZEE CINEMA 7:00AM Janta Ki Adalat 10:10AM Agent Vinod 1:35PM Viewers Choice 4:55PM Return of Chandramukhi 8:00PM Sholay INDIA TALKIES 9:30AM Kishen Kanhaiya 1:00PM Money Hai to Honey Hai 4:30PM Khoobsurat 8:00PM Aan SONI PIX 8:10AM The Glass House 10:05AM Transporter: 12 Hours 11:05AM The Forbidden Kingdom 1:30PM 2012 4:15PM Angels & Demons 6:50PM StreetDance 3D 9:00PM The Pink Panther 11:00PM Slumdog Millionaire FILMY 9:00AM Blackmail 12:00PM Astitva 3:00PM Robbery at Bangkok 6:00PM Raaj Tilak 9:00PM Sherni ZEE ACTION 7:00AM Laat Saab 10:30AM Gaddaar 1:30PM Phool Bane Angaarey 5:30PM Kudrat Ka Kanoon 8:30PM Aaj Ka Arjun ZEE
STUDIO 8:00AM Hostel 10:05AM Goal II: Living the Dream 1:00PM National Treasure 3:20PM Inglourious Basterds 6:45PM Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind 9:00PM The Sorcerer's Apprentice 11:30PM The Mummy Returns STAR MOVIES 7:42AM American Reunion 9:57AM The Front Row with Anupama Chopra 10:27AM The Hulk 1:03PM X-Men 2:43PM Baby's Day Out 4:50PM Tangled (2011) 6:53PM Rise of the Planet of the Apes 9:00PM The Big Year 11:07PM Ghost Rider MGM 7:30AM For Better or For Worse 9:00AM Just Between Friends 11:00AM The Dust Factory 12:45PM O.C. and Stiggs 2:45PM Troll 2 4:30PM Just Between Friends 6:30PM Knightriders 9:00PM Eureka 11:15PM O.C. and Stiggs Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam is a Bollywood film directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali. It was released in the English-speaking world as Straight from the Heart. The film stars Salman Khan, Ajay Devgan, and Aishwarya Rai. The story is adopted from Maitreyi Devi's Bengali novel Na Hanyate, and is based on a love triangle. ZEE CINEMA 7:00AM Deewane Huye Pagal 10:15AM Aankhen 2:10PM Hum Saath Saath Hain 6:00PM Sholay 10:15PM Kasam Hindustan Ki INDIA TALKIES 9:30AM Aan 1:00PM Salaam-E-Ishq 4:30PM Chalte Chalte 8:00PM Mela FILMY 9:00AM Sandwich 12:00PM Ram Aur Shyam 3:00PM Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam 6:00PM Gair 9:00PM Indra: The Tiger FIRANGI 7:00AM Dragon Returns 10:00AM Strangers 1:00PM Jurassic City 4:00PM Dragon Returns 7:00PM Jurassic City 10:00PM Dragon Returns ZEE ACTION 7:00AM Kaala Samrajya 10:30AM Paap Ki Duniya 1:30PM Baazigar 5:30PM Phool Aur Angaar 8:30PM Khalnayak ZEE STUDIO 8:00AM Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen 10:00AM The Sorcerer's Apprentice 12:30PM TV Products 1:00PM Shanghai Knights 3:10PM The Rock 4:50PM The Mummy Returns 9:00PM The Lion King 11:00PM STAR MOVIES 7:03AM Stuart Little 2 8:14AM The Big Year 10:25AM Johnny English 12:21PM Van Helsing 2:25PM Ghost Rider 4:40PM Two Brothers 6:51PM Death Race 9:00PM Wanted 11:01PM The Scorpion King MGM 7:15AM Eddie and the Cruisers 9:00AM Consuming Passions 10:30AM A Man of Passion 12:15PM Eddie and the Cruisers 2:00PM Roadhouse 66 3:45PM
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Sci-fi
A pity for the film not only brings together three handsome Deols with two pretty ladies (Neha Sharma and Kristina Akheeva) in tow but also packs in gifted actors Annu Kapoor and Anupam Kher to complete the show. However, it's more of a no show. From action to comedy and back to action with a tadka of romance and a bit of art talk, what you get is a cocktail that is neither heady nor inviting and gives you a headache-wala hangover. 
Maybe because he is under the thumb of Hollywood superstar Will Smith, who is the producer, storywriter and actor and is boosting his son Jaden by giving him the lead role. Even worse, the film centres on only four individuals Gen Cypher Raige (Will Smith), his son Kitai (Jaden Smith), his wife Faia (Sophie Okimodo and daughter Senshi (Zoe Isabella Krantz). And except for the pretty nurse who can be lost in a blink of an eye, these comprise the rest of the human scenery.
Saturday june 8
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