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What a
relief! WhatsApp,
really? |
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Living
with censorship
Those
hills are not that old now!
Biodiversity
of short films at Vatavaran
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WhatsApp, really? A
company
that did not exist five years ago has been bought for $19 billion by Facebook, which celebrated its 10th birthday recently. The mobile-messaging juggernaut WhatsApp Inc has just 55 employees, including IIT graduate Neeraj Arora. However, it has 450 million monthly average mobile phone users who text, chat, and share media, including voice messages and video, with each other, especially in Europe, India, and Latin America, where it is most popular. It allows users to avoid text message or SMS charges, albeit at the cost of internet charges, which are generally minor. Phone companies in the US reacted to the threat of free messaging apps by making SMS free, a move that shows the disruptive power of such apps, and explains why they lack the numbers in the US. The huge consumer base of WhatsApp made it attractive to Facebook, as did the fact that the app has a tremendous hold among smartphone users, who are increasingly the focus of the social media giant. That Google, too, was courting WhatsApp made it even more coveted. Facebook has launched its own messenger, which has been reasonably successful, but that’s nothing like the reach and the potential of WhatsApp. However, the two companies have a different approach to privacy. Generally speaking, Facebook uses information from its customers to focus advertisements for them, whereas WhatsApp avoids impinging on the privacy of its customers, a rarity these days when most companies look at monetising information that they gather in the course of providing services to their consumers. How the two companies will work out potential clashes on this issue remains to be seen. Besides the success of WhatsApp in this cyber hyper- connected world, the personal story of how its co-founder struggled to make a life as an immigrant in the US is an inspiring one. This is one American success story that has set cyberspace abuzz.
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As we grow older, our bodies get shorter and our anecdotes longer. — Robert Quillen
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Woman’s medical service
AN interesting suggestion was made to the Public Services Commission at Bombay on the 17th instant by Miss A. Benson, representing the lady doctors of Bombay. She was not satisfied with what had been done by Government to provide lady doctors in Indian hospitals and wanted a separate service to be created for providing medical aid for women. Her object was to raise in India a professional class of highly trained woman doctors and she said that at present facilities for obtaining the requisite training was altogether wanting. If this training was provided in due time Indian women would be qualified to hold the highest positions. Miss Benson further said that there should be some protection and guardianship of medical women of India while going through their college course as was done in many English institutions.
The good side of the Pathan
THE Pathan has seldom a good reputation in India, but those who have seen him more closely do not describe him as a complete brute. In the January number of the Journal of the United Service Institution in India, Major E.W. Costello writes explaining some of Pathan ways. He is described as “most democratic” and acknowledges no authority but his own. In his own country he avoids crimes except under very great temptation. He gets on very well without courts and police. “Each individual considers it due to his manhood to maintain a certain semblance of order in his immediate circle and in this way becomes in himself both policemen and judge.” Laws of hospitality are rarely violated. The system of life across the North West Frontier, says Major Costello, “develops powers of decision and independence with the result that the Pathan is extremely quick-witted and clever.” But when he murders, “he is in exactly the same position as a hangman who has to execute a criminal.” There is one thing which Major Costello does not say. That is why the Pathan raids on Hindus are so frequent, mysterious and beyond British resources to prevent.
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Living with censorship
While
it is heartening for Wendy Doniger, the writer of the book on Hinduism, The Hindus: An Alternative History, to receive the support of so many Indians berating her publisher Penguin for compromising to agree to pulp the book in an out-of-court settlement, nothing will change in India’s approach to banning books. The problem is simple. All political parties agree on a frame of reference that stymies dissent if a writer falls foul of the growing list of no-go areas touching on religious, ethnic or communal sensitivities. Reservations were initiated for a transition period in India's republican Constitution out of the noblest of motives. But that transition has stretched to infinity. In the meantime, reservations have been made for caste or sub-caste considerations or to appease the sensitivities of minorities. In the present instance, Penguin's action was the result of a fringe right-wing Hindu group subscribing to a majoritarian view of India and the world and Hindus' place in it. Those sympathetic to the views of the Bharatiya Janata Party and its mentor, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, rightly assert that critics of Penguin's action are being selective because many of them had nothing to say about the ban on Salman Rushdie’s “The Satanic Verses”; it was alleged to hurt Muslim sensibilities. Nor were they equally vocal in the banning of Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen's books. As far as respecting Muslim sensitivities is concerned, we are still paying the wages of the subcontinent’s bloody partition. One of the tenets of Nehruvian India was to make Muslims who stayed on feel at home because, unlike Pakistan, this country was secular. The problem with the organisations spawned by the BJP and the RSS is that they have a particularly restrictive agenda and view any candid discussion of Hinduism through their distorted prism, which is inimical to academic freedom. Indeed, the RSS long ago appropriated its view of Hinduism as the only path to truth and has been propagating it ever since. We have seen during the six years of BJP rule at the Centre under Atal Bihari Vajpayee how the Sangh Parivar sought to saffronise education as far as it could. And a new wave of saffronisation would be initiated were the BJP to return to power, this time without the healing touch of Mr Vajpayee. India has many achievements to its credit in making a bewilderingly diverse country with a low per capita income work as a democracy. But this success has come at the cost of accentuating religious and caste distinctions. Initially, caste as the badge of one's identity was marketed in the South with a bonanza for the Dravidian parties. But the North refined the system further by subdividing castes until the political scene reads more like an alphabet soup. A section of Indian society — let us call it liberal for want of a better word — lives somewhat distinct from the rough and tumble of Indian politics and its legions. But it is important to remember that there is a common theme cutting across political parties of respecting the prejudices of each sizeable community distinguishing itself by caste, sub-caste, ethnicity and religion. Thus we have reached the familiar road taken by Penguin in bowing to a fringe Hindu organisation to cut legal costs, instead of taking the matter to the highest court in defence of freedom of speech. The publisher justifies its action by the nature of Indian laws making it impossible to contest a ban legally. Consequently, we have the anomaly of a free-wheeling media few countries in the emerging world enjoy living in an environment in which anyone can form an agitating group and raise the banner against a writer or artist to have his or her work banned. It was not so long ago that Hindu organisations hounded out of the country one of the most important of modern Indian artists, M.F. Husain. Where do we go from here? Liberal sections wring their hands and sign petitions. Politicians are either shame-faced or justify the unjustifiable. And another book or work of art is lost to the public. It is a dialogue of the deaf because neither side is prepared to listen to the other. It is as if liberals and others were living in two distinct worlds. There is one difference, however. The age of the Internet and modern technology, especially social sites, have empowered the individual in ways that were not possible before. For those seeking to find out diversity of opinion, there are new avenues of exploration. Despite the digital version of Doniger's book being reportedly taken off the Net in India, there are ways of getting around such hurdles, as millions of netizens in repressive and dictatorial societies have shown. The authorities, however, succeed to the extent of making it more difficult for people to acquaint themselves with dissenting opinion. There was a time in Nehru's India when we were proud to belong to a newly freed country that was setting new standards in the emerging world. Some six decades later, we are suffering the stigma of being a nation with little tolerance for unorthodox views if they affect one's religion and identity. Will there be a new resurgence that can sweep away prejudices and make us less sensitive to criticism of others? It is an open question. Prevailing trends are going in the other direction. In the Sangh Parivar’s view, truth is uni-dimensional. But respected scholars of Hinduism of many lands over decades and centuries have admired a central tenet of this unique religion, the variety of ways one can achieve truth and salvation. Are we then to lose the richness of Hinduism in the service of a narrow political philosophy and identity politics? Succeeding generations of Indians will need to answer this question. The ban on Doniger's book is yet another reminder that harnessing religion - any religion - in the service of politics is a dangerous game. This game becomes even more troublesome by promoting castes and their parochial interests.
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Those hills are not that old now! Our first experience of being in the hills was at Mandi. Although nestled in mild hills with the Beas meandering past, the town looked an interesting stepping stone to the much higher Rohtang Pass and Solang Valley. We were then surprised to see a couple of foreigners smoking beedi while sitting on the bus stop. 'Hare Rama Hare Krishna' still dominated the crazy wave amongst the youth then. The nearby big park was as if a green carpet. The next stop was at Bhuntar. The name sounded so weird that we used it for a classmate who was otherwise meticulously dressed all the times but was a dud — if that is the right connotation for ‘jhalla’ in Punjabi. We then headed for Manikaran, a place of Sikh pilgrimage which Guru Nanak visited in 1574. ‘Langar’, including ‘kadhi-chawal’, was prepared in hot water springs. There is also a temple closeby. Our next destination was Naggar, a dreamy town then. Down below it was a picture postcard vision. Dark gray slated roofs dominated a canvas of yellow and green crops like boxes placed artistically. The Naggar Wood Castle, now a heritage hotel, fascinated us. A level walk up to the Roerich Art Gallery made the singer in each of us come alive. The wonderful trek to Naggar and back to Bhuntar had beautiful pauses and passages. None felt the strain of the journey. In Kullu we visited some temples and the famous Dussehra ground. The Beas became narrower here. It was to further devolve into a thundering stream uphill in Manali. Manali had a small market having not more than a dozen shops. The thrill to be in cedar and pines up to Hidimba Temple was spiritually rewarding. The next day was the turn of Vashisht Bath and Rohtang Pass where we touched and felt the snow for the first time. Flash forward to our 2014 visit: “Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive but to be young was very heaven!” Now it's all shabby, cabbie, concrete, garbage, leftovers, stink, smell, hotels, motels, huddles, puddles, tea and Maggi! The long cherished and savoured nostalgic memories of our trip to once-a-magical-land, which sustained us all these years, are blotted. I will never visit those hills again for they are now new and
not the proverbial old.
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Biodiversity of short films at Vatavaran If
the students of a reputed school in the capital city express their understanding of biodiversity as “dogs and donkeys,” it is a cause of concern. It also dispels the myth that the youth have better awareness of ecology related issues. Though there has been growing concern among the young about the more “sexy” environmental issues like possibility of extinction of the royal Bengal tiger, or poaching of the one horned rhinos in their habitat, they have little awareness of biodiversity and its relevance in the ecosystem. A still from Rajendra Srivathsa Kondapalli’s “Ladakh’s Artificial Glaciers” The theme of this year’s Vatavaran Environment and Wildlife Film Festival held over five days was Mainstreaming of Biodiversity Conservation. With several schools and young people participating in the Delhi festival from January 30 to February 3, one hoped it resulted in better understanding of the myriad life forms and their interdependence on each other and nature, films being a medium least resisted by youth.
Prithvi Ratna Award
A heart-warming story
Catching them young Initiated by the Centre for Media Studies in 2002, India’s one and only environment film festival, held bi-annually, has been growing over the years attracting film makers from India and abroad. This year there were 541 entries and 86 films were short listed and screened—52 from 14 Indian states and 34 from 16 other countries. A large number of entries were from Delhi and the NCR, the North East and Kerala. Awards ranging from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1,50,000 were given in 13 categories to Indian film makers. The presence of Bollywood actor, director Amol Palekar and the premier of Hind feature film “Jal” by Purab Kohli and Tanshta Chatterjee added to the attraction of the festival. The film was released internationally at Cannes. The best of the festival awards for an international film went to the “The Last Lions,” directed by Dereck and Beverly Joubert and for an Indian film to “Char— The No Man’s Island,” directed by Sourav Sarangi. The biodiversity award in the international section was won by director Erna Buffie for the film “Smarty Plants.” In the Indian section, the award was shared by Shekar Dattatri and S Nalamuttu for “Chilika—Jewel of Odisha” and “Tiger Dynasty” respectively. Water — not a drop to drink For the residents of north India, films like “Pristine Waters” made by Gurgaon based Niyati Sengar and Amaresh Kumar Singh and “Ladakh’s Artificial Glaciers” by Rajendra Srivathsa Kondapalli, producer and director of New Delhi’s Pulse Media were of great interest for exploring the environmental concerns of the region. In fact Kondapalli’s film won the climate change and sustainable technologies award. The award was shared with Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh for their film “Timbaktu.” “Pristine Waters” deals with dying of the Yamuna river, known for centuries as jeevandayini or life giver. The river is an open sewer now, so heavily polluted that it has been declared clinically dead. The story of the Yamuna is told through the people who live around it and depend on it for their sustenance. There is the diver who has become an expert at collecting coins tossed into the river by the faithful, a national swimmer who learnt his first strokes in the river and the boatmen who ferry people across the river for a livelihood. All of them have a special bond with the river. Kondapalli’s film on the Ladhak’s artificial glaciers shows how one man’s vision and fundamental engineering guidelines can transform lives of 113 villages of Ladhak where receding glaciers had left the landscape barren and desolate. It was in 1987 that miracle man Chewang Norphel created a small artificial glacier for the first time. In his eighties now, he still runs up and down the hilly terrain looking for good sites for making glaciers and teaching the local population how to trap streams and rain water with head rocks and embankments.’ Water freezes in these catchments in winter like huge glaciers and in summer they melt and the water is directed through funnels and channels into fields. It takes four to five months to create a glacier and the cost of making each varies from Rs 3 lakh to Rs 10 lakh, which is a huge amount for the farmers to bear. Fortunately the Department of Science and Technology and the Army have been supporting the artificial glaciers project and close to 1.5 lakh gallons of water is released from a glacier in summer, which is used judiciously and given to crops twice in the summer months. Snakes and ladders Punjab Biodiversity Board (PBB) that comes under the Punjab Council for Science, participated in the festival by putting up a gigantic board, over 25 sq feet on which children played snakes and ladders on the basis of their knowledge and efforts to conserve biodiversity. So children who had documented local biodiversity went up the ladder, as did children who visited wildlife sanctuaries near their city, planted a native tree species on their father’s birthday, identified the oldest tree in their locality, bicycled to market or campaigned for conservation of biodiversity and encouraged farmers to adopt sustainable farming practices. Those who tied dragon flies on a string, asked the gardener to cut down trees and plant winter annuals, threw a pesticide container in a local pond or used plastic plates and glasses on a picnic were stung by the snake and had to come down. The snakes and ladders board on biodiversity has also been travelling across the country on the Science Express and when the train stops, the board is laid out on the platform so that children can play the game and brush up their knowledge on biodiversity. The festival theme on Mainstreaming Biodiversity Conservation is significant because at the eleventh Conference of Parties (CoP) to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity held in Hyderabad in 2012, India became the President. Of the 20 biodiversity targets identified at the earlier CoP in Japan, India has identified and fixed 12 targets to achieve. The Ministry of Environment and Forests has been the principal partner of the CMS since its inception but the Wildlife Institute of India, the knowledge partner at the festival, shared targets and steered discussions around biodiversity. Stars of the environment The sub themes of the festival were Blue Agenda, Forest Biodiversity, Mountain Biodiversity and Inland Water and Wetland Biodiversity. Close to 50 interesting talks, films and discussions were held around these themes by Amol Palekar, Shabana Azmi, Belinda Wright and Vivek Menon of Wildlife Protection Society of India, Sunita Narain of Centre for Science and Environment, Dr Raghuwat Chundawat, conservation biologist, Kartikeya Sarabhai of Centre for Environment Education and others. A retrospective of the eminent French film maker Yann Arthus-Bertrand was screened including “Planet Ocean”, shown at Rio + 20. His other master production “Home” is composed largely of aerial shots of various places on earth. Award winning films from various film festivals across the world were also screened. Titled ‘Best of World Biodiversity Cinema,’ there were films from the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film festival – USA, Green Image- Global Environmental Film Festival, Japan, Wildlife Vaasa International Nature Film Festival, Finland and Sisak Eco Film Festival, Croatia. In all 34 foreign films were screened over five days. The writer is a well-known environment journalist.
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