|
|
|
|
|
A meaningful step Cleaning
the Ganga |
|
|
President Putin’s world view
Discreet use of voice
Loud, louder… screeching An intriguing war drama A hollow roar Watch out for this girl!
|
A meaningful step The Central Government’s announcement of a compensation of Rs 5 lakh for the victims of the 1984 riots is a positive measure but it falls short of what is needed. The government puts the number of people who were killed in the violence that followed the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi at 3,325, and it is the family members of these victims who will be compensated by the government. Some other organisations dispute the figure, but that does not matter as much as the fact that the victims have not got justice. Numerous commissions of inquiry have been conducted. The Congress party and its top functionaries have tendered apologies but the biggest complaint of the victims is the perception of lack of justice done to them. Very few were charged with crimes that killed thousands, even fewer have been convicted. Various obstacles came in the way of justice, and thus, it is difficult for many of the families of the victims to move on, even 30 years later. Hardly had the latest compensation been announced when there began an unseemly one-upmanship between functionaries of the BJP and the Akali Dal about claiming credit for the gesture. It must be remembered that monetary compensation of the kind that has now been announced does make a difference, especially since most of the victims were from poor families, which had a very tough time fending for themselves. It can, however, only go so far. In his brief stint as the Delhi Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal had announced a special investigation team to probe the riots. Now there is a fresh demand for such a probe. It is becoming increasingly clear that crimes of the past do not fade away unless there is a feeling of justice having been done and the perpetrators having been brought to book.
|
|
Cleaning
the Ganga Most
sacred practices followed by us are dichotomous. We worship “devis”
and kill our daughters. Rivers are sacred to our tradition, we pollute
them as a birth-right, without an apology. It is also our tradition — till problems acquire gigantic proportions we don’t pay heed. Now the Supreme Court has passed the responsibility of dealing with the pollution of the Ganga, caused by industrial units offloading untreated effluents into the river, to the National Green Tribunal. After the much hyped Ganga Action Plan of the UPA and millions down the drain, and almost the same plan in a different garb presented to the voters of Varanasi by Narendra Modi, growing pollution levels resulting in grave consequences are making the judiciary and the affected population restive. Way back in 1992 India vowed to provide judicial and administrative remedies for the victims of the pollutants during the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio De Janeiro. The National Green Tribunal was established following this promise in 2010 with a statute to apply the “polluters-pay” principle for sustainable development. Everyday 2.9 billion litres of domestic and industrial waste is dumped directly into the Ganga, of which over 80 per cent comes from 50 cities located along the river. It requires enormous work to tackle the river pollution. No single department can handle the work, given the enormity of the problem. It calls for co-ordination among several departments. Even though the green tribunal is empowered to penalise the polluting industries, the river receives pollutants from different sources. For example, the unchecked industrial growth of Kanpur, that dumps untreated waste of tanneries into the Ganga, will require a plan for the relocation of its tanneries. The waters of the Ganga support a large number of organisms beneficial to human beings. The government needs to educate and mobilise the masses; ultimately, it is in the interest of the people that the river retains its glory.
|
|||||
|
Progress is man's ability to complicate simplicity. — Thor Heyerdahl, a Norwegian ethnographer and adventurer
|
|||||
Guru Nanak Dev THE Birthday of Sri Guru Nanak Dev, the great saint and seer of the Punjab, the Puranimashi of the month of Kartik which this year corresponds to Monday the 2nd November, is pre-eminently a day of rejoicing and festivity not to Sikhs alone but to people of all creeds and classes who justly acclaim him as their own. Baba Nanak was essentially the prophet and saviour of the land of his birth. He appealed to the sons of the soil in their own tongue. His activities and interests were not, however, confined to his own province or his own community, but like a great world-teacher he went to different lands and peoples to give them the consolation of religion. Baba Nanak's great title does not rest on what he taught alone. What he taught he practised and that was what told on prince and peasant alike. Baba Nanak's message was one of spiritual enlightenment, of love, devotion and brotherhood of mankind. Born and bred amid the disintegrating forces of his time Baba Nanak brought the olive branch of peace among the warring elements. Let those who own Guru Nanak as their own, as one who belonged to them, and he belonged to all, make it a point that each birthday anniversary of the Guru finds them nearer the ideal they hold fast.
The first Gurkha score ALL efforts of the Allied artillery to dislodge the German heavy batteries near Slype had failed. But aviators having located the German ammunition store three and half miles behind the German entrenched line, a Gurkha detachment was despatched at nightfall to blow it up. The skill and daring of the Gurkhas in successfully accomplishing this difficult job will be described in our telegraph columns.
|
President Putin’s world view Mr Putin was making several seminal points. First, the West led by the United States had taken the break-up of the Soviet Union as its victory and had decided to play the world according to its own rules. Second, to cement its primacy, Washington had brought the Cold War alliance, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), to Russia’s very borders. The Russian President reminded the US that conducting international affairs was a two-way street, implying that the days of Moscow’s weaknesses, symbolised by Boris Yeltsin, were over. He pointedly referred to American interventions in third countries without United Nations approval. This was, in a sense, a rebuttal of Western criticism of the Russian annexation of Crimea, which was once part of the Soviet Union. Mr Putin did not give a direct answer to Russian intervention in eastern Ukraine — officially, Moscow does not acknowledge it has sent its soldiers there — but elaborated at length on how an elected president of Ukraine was dethroned in what amounted to a coup. It was only last Sunday that Ukraine voted — without the rebel-held enclaves in the east taking part - for an elected parliament expectedly won by pro-West parties. Beyond making his points, the Russian President was offering an olive branch in the form of talks on a new basis for East-West relations. This is now being analysed in Western capitals because the situation in the Middle East in particular, with the ominous rise of ISIS, now morphed into the Islamic State, needing essential Russian inputs. Besides, resolution of the Iran nuclear issue and the implied threat of regional proliferation, requires Russian co-operation. The earlier American “pivot” to Asia has been overshadowed by US President Barack Obama’s decision, however reluctant, to re-engage militarily in Iraq and Syria. The dangers represented by ISIS were simply too great for the West and the world to ignore. Despite the fact that the US prefers to deal with China as the emerging great power in a changing world, Moscow remains an important element in the world, particularly in Europe, but also beyond it. Western sanctions on Russia following its policy towards Ukraine have hurt Russia as it has Western interests, but as Mr Putin choreographed the issue, it is part of the broader picture of how the West has treated Moscow after the Soviet break-up. One Russian criticism one can infer from Mr Putin's exposition of the current malaise is that the United States cannot play the world by its own rules while denying the same privilege to Moscow. On the one hand, the West claims the right to expand its Cold War military alliance to Russia's borders in what it declares as a new world order. On the other, it denies Russia the room to safeguard what it sees as its vital national interests by co-opting the adjoining mass of a country closely tied up with Russia. At least some of the Western participants in the Sochi dialogue thought anti-Russian sanctions were counter-productive and the sooner they were withdrawn, the better. But there are no immediate signs of a Western change of direction because the underlying feeling, piquantly voiced by Mr Putin, was that the West had won the Cold War. However, for much of the world, President Putin has put the present turmoil in the world in perspective. What he is seeking is a new East-West entente in which the Cold War concept of who has won or lost should be given a burial. Much of the emerging world will agree with his hypothesis, which is less ideological than what Washington seems to believe in. Perhaps the BRICS countries, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, can play a part in an East-West rapprochement because continuing bad blood between Washington and Moscow will make it that much harder to resolve the world’s problems. Many analysts in the West have surmounted the first hurdle in going beyond President Putin’s buster to look for the underlying message. The next stage will be to convince Western governments to test Moscow on how far it is willing to go to try to alleviate genuine concerns. The Middle East is the first place to try to evolve a new East-West equation. To begin with, the rise of extremist forces is a common danger. Of course, Russia and the West are on different sides on issues such as opposition to the Syrian Assad regime and how Iran should be treated. But the dangers represented by ISIS are greater. Ideally, Washington should take the first step in breaking the stalemate. Instead of aiming for something as dramatic as an Obama-Putin meeting, the situation calls for low-key meetings of sherpas of the two sides. One obvious place to start would be the dilution of sanctions. Any basis of a future accord has to be based on an American understanding of Russia's vital national interests. Any impartial observer will understand that Moscow will not tolerate Ukraine's absorption by the West, given the history, religious affiliation, shared Russian language and kinship between what was once Soviet Union. Despite the victory of pro-West parties in the parliamentary election, Washington and Berlin must restrain their enthusiasm in “westernising” Ukraine. For the former Communist countries in Europe, the bright lights of the West are a natural attraction. Indeed, Russia itself has moved towards some Western values. But despite the efforts of the so-called Islamic Caliphate, the world is still peopled by the Westphalian model of nation states and each country has its interests to protect. Frustrating these interests is asking for trouble.
|
|||||||||
Discreet use of voice “Active voice … draws the reader in, lets them share in the story, and involves and excites the emotions. It SHOWS what happens ... Passive voice … makes them sit in their chair while being TOLD what happened.” Though voice has much to do with verb forms, it is a grammatical category by itself influencing other elements of the sentence too. In the sentence “Peter dropped the glass”, Peter, the subject, is the agent of the verb’s action “dropped”. The “glass” is the “object”, affected by the action. The sentence can be converted into passive voice following three simple steps. Step1: Peter, the subject, becomes the object and the object, glass, becomes the subject. Step 2: The verb “dropped” takes the “be” form “was”. Step 3: Preposition “by” gets placed before the agent Peter. The sentence reads as “The glass was dropped by Peter”. Each voice performs distinct functions, as can be seen below: Not every sentence using active voice can occur in the passive form. Words like “possess, have, become” and “resemble”, as stative verbs, show possession or mental state and do not take the passive form. Therefore saying “A computer is not possessed by Manisha” is inappropriate. Similarly, “My daughter resembles me”, if converted into the passive “I am resembled by my daughter”, sounds awkward. 2. The data on women’s literacy was valued a great deal. Many kinds of writings prefer the passive to the active voice. It supports the impersonal note we wish to project in some textbook lessons, research reports and scientific papers. It is used to distance ourselves from the content. Historical truths and official rules are often stated in passive voice. For instance, “Stock verification will be conducted by the staff”. 3. The exhibits were displayed beautifully by the secretary. Here, the “secretary” is the agent of the action the verb phrase “were displayed” denotes. The “exhibits” occupy primary importance making the role of the agent incidental. Whether it was the secretary or the peon who arranged the exhibits is inconsequential. In such cases, we can drop the agent from the sentence which can read as, “The exhibits were displayed beautifully”. 4. The architect can design the auditorium. Structurally many sentences can change from active to passive and vice versa, but they do so by effecting a semantic change. If we rewrite the sentence above in the passive, its focus will change. While “The architect can design the auditorium” indicates the architect's ‘capability’ to carry out the action, “The auditorium can be designed by the architect” establishes the 'possibility’ of the auditorium being designed. The agent becomes less important, which is deliberate. We foreground a certain piece of information to capture the reader's attention to it. Commenting on what makes good writing, George Orwell observed: “Never use the passive where you can use the active”. The passive is believed to obscure the agent of the action by pushing it to the end or dropping it. As users, we can be discreet in giving each voice its rightful place.
|
|||||||||
CINEMA: NEW Releases Ratings: ***** Excellent | ****very good | ***good | **Average | * poor Loud, louder… screeching
Remember the sati savitri bhartiya nari of Hindi cinema. Well, in 21st century India you thought she had been banished forever, at least from the silver screen. In case, you have been missing her presence in Hindi cinema that has over time turned a new leaf as far as portrayal of women go, well, congratulations she is back again. With a vengeance. Are you kidding? Silly, such negative words do not exist in her dictionary. Revenge you know is not in her bhartiya gene pool. Forgive and forget has always been her motto and mantra. So there she is, sugar and syrupy Bharti who can't think beyond her family and their welfare. And who better than evergreen Rekha to essay the part that was once upon a time the staple diet of most family dramas. Only helming the drama is the king of melodrama Indra Kumar of over-the-top films like Beta. And make no mistake, he lives up to his reputation. Right from the beginning, he goes for our lowest emotional quotient. Or shall we say the jugular. The film begins with a mini-tribute to maa as dutiful son Maan (Sharman Joshi) makes a short film to evoke the feeling of reverence for her. Soon enough, he is reminded of maa ki maa, nani. So off he goes from New York to Mumbai where nani ma is being treated like, as he rightly puts it, a doormat. Not that Rekha is not in her element. Given the constraint of her role, she does manage to hold her own even in outright ludicrous scenes where she does a take on other greats like Madhubala and Nargis. Sharman Joshi, who we all know is a talented actor, sails through smoothly enough. But Randhir Kapoor as the uncaring, unsympathetic husband gets a raw deal. There is no substance or depth in his character. One not only fails to understand his antipathy towards his wife, but much less that he does, including cheerily supporting daughter dearest's decision to go in for
live-in-relationship with a much married man. The other members of the family are anyway no more than cardboard cutouts. Not surprisingly though, while you do somewhat empathise with Bharti and many more like her out there, the feeling is no more than cursory. Of course, it's not just our poor Bharti and her grandson Maan who remain teary-eyed for most part of the film, the chances are it will induce a few tears in you too. But that, sadly, is the only strength of the film that conveys a message alright but in a rather tacky, almost sermonising way. Watch it only if you are a die-hard Rekha fan. Or better not, for cherishing fond memories of the lovely actress is a far better option.
|
|||||||||
|
An intriguing war drama
For a war movie to succeed these days, it has to break ground for we seem to have seen them all, heard them too! Fury does that even though it is set towards the end of World War II, the autumn of 1945. The action is focused on an M4A3EB Sherman tank named Fury and its five-man crew. It is the European theatre of war and in Germany itself. Headed by Don "Wardaddy" Collins (Brad Pitt), there's Gunner Grady "Coon-Ass" Travis (John Burnthel), "Bible" Swan (Shia LeBeouf), Trini "Gorda" Garcia (Michael Rena) and greenhorn assistant driver Norman Ellsen (Logan Lerner). "I learned to type 60 words a minute, not to kill…," he says. With the Nazis retreating, there is also a graphic sequence of higher-ups committing suicide after a wild night of revelry. New ground again. Director David Aiyer does well to sandwich the war with the peace. Aiyer's screenplay is precise with actions speaking louder than words. But he tends to get indulgent in the last quarter and the five-man army doing the impossible — like cowboys and Indians. But that is forgivable in the context of the overall picture. Brad Pitt does well to underplay the lead role and he is ably supported by established cameo players like Shia LeBeouf and Michael Rena. Newcomer Logsn Lerner has the talent to go places and Alicia von Rilberg shows enough emotion in a fleeting role. Fury is well-worth watching.
|
|||||||||
|
A hollow roar A
revenge story set in the Sunderbans, the story is about a slain photojournalist's brother going back to the scene of the killing to avenge his brother's death at the hands of a white tigress. Really? It's an incredulous story idea — one that wouldn't warrant a film on a normal night. But Bollywood producers are by no means stricken by that bug. The struggle for survival in a fish-out-of-water-situation doesn't appear all that appealing either. Mainly because the plotting is quite uninteresting, the screenplay lacks bite and the characters just plod around shaking in their boots or looking fearless and antagonistic whenever required. Not much directorial skill is on display. Cinematographer Michael Watson goes over-the-top with angled shots but the overall visual effect is one of awe-inspiring regality, much like a NatGeo film. Unfortunately those well-meaning shots can't really make up for c(l)ub-footed story and clueless acting!
|
|||||||||
|
Watch out for this girl!
Gone Girl is a good mix of suspense, crime, detection and a complex relationship. The Gone Girl of the title is Anne Elliott Dune (Rosamund Pike), but the curtain rises to Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) and his twin sister Margo Dunne (Carrie Coon) meeting at their jointly owned bar. It is July 5, Nick's wedding anniversary date. Soon he finds out that his wife Anne, already famous for her Amazing Anne TV show, has gone missing and it doesn't take long for Nick to be named as prime suspect. But where's the body? The missing girl gets wide media coverage and an award is named for the one who finds her. But the cops are already milling around. May be a tad long, but it is absorbing nevertheless and a scathing comment on today's duplicitous society. Rosamund Pike is absolutely brilliant, quite eclipsing Ben Affleck. There are also good cameos by Carrie Coon and Neil Patrick Harris in this not-to-be-missed movie.
|
|||||||||
|
Saturday November 1 Slumdog Millionaire is a British-Indian drama film directed by Danny Boyle, written by Simon Beaufoy, and co-directed in India by Loveleen Tandan. It is an adaptation of the novel Q & A (2005) by Indian author and diplomat Vikas Swarup. CINEMA TV 11:30AM Anth 4:30PM Agyaat: The Unknown 8:55PM D-Day MOVIES OK 11:25AM Bhagam Bhag 2:40PM Damini 5:40PM Hero The Action Man 8:00PM Dabangg 2 10:35PM Phir Ek Most Wanted SONY PIX 9:12AM WALL-E 11:28AM Slumdog Millionaire 2:05PM The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 4:30PM The Terminator 6:52PM The Expendables 9:00PM 2012 STAR GOLD 8:40AM Hukumat Ki Jung 10:30AM Kaalo 12:15PM Chup Chup Ke 3:40PM Jo Jeeta Wohi Baazigar 9:00PM Humshakals & PICTURES 11:22AM Kambakkht Ishq 2:10PM Namastey London 5:02PM Army 8:00PM Main Tera Hero 10:43PM Heroine HBO 9:50AM Daddy Day Camp 11:37AM Pacific Rim 2:15PM Battle Los Angeles 4:27PM The Great Gatsby 7:16PM Bad Teacher 9:00PM Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen STAR MOVIES 9:00AM The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn: Part 2 11:30AM Jurassic Park III 1:00PM Predator 3:30PM Angels & Demons Sunday November 2 The Wolverine is a superhero film featuring the Marvel Comics character Wolverine. Hugh Jackman reprises his role from previous films as the title character. CINEMA TV 11:30AM One 2 Ka 4 4:30PM Chala Mussaddi... Office Office 8:55PM No Entry MOVIES OK 11:25AM Wanted 2:35PM Dhamkee 4:25PM Agneepath 8:00PM Jeene Nahi Doonga 10:55PM Maine Dil Tujhko Diya SONY PIX 12:26AM The Blue Lagoon 2:01AM Resident Evil 3:03AM Valkyrie STAR GOLD 9:40AM Main Balwaan 12:05PM Fukrey 3:00PM Jigar Kaleja 4:40PM Mr. & Mrs. Khiladi 9:00PM Ready & PICTURES 12:00PM Godzilla 2:40PM All The Best 5:36PM Dum 8:23PM Shiva: The Super Hero 2 11:22PM Don 2 HBO 11:35AM Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen 2:35PM The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 4:37PM Bad Teacher 6:21PM Star Trek Into Darkness 9:00PM Red 2 11:19PM Mortal Kombat STAR MOVIES 10:00AM Evolution 12:00PM Fast Five 2:30PM The Mummy Returns 5:30PM Mr. Bean's Holiday 7:00PM Despicable Me 2 9:00PM The Wolverine 11:30PM Curse of Chucky
|
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
W
1. Manisha doesn’t possess a computer.
He decides to take matters into his own hands and the rest is to borrow a cliché — picture abhi baaki hai. While it unfolds, we are treated to a film that is regressive and progressive in equal measure. Certainly, the premise is not bad even realistic and a tad sensitive …indeed, who spares a thought for the poor hausfrau? But as the film does and shows a way out, what we get is a concoction that is loud at best and jarring all through. There is much screeching and shouting, most of it without provocation and even normal conversation between family members comes at high-pitched decibels. Yet the woman of the house doesn't protest at all. That is not to say that such women do not exist. Almost every other family and home in India has such a selfless devi (no offence meant) keeping the family together no matter what. However, it's the melodramatic and high-pitched tenor, as also the unrealistic turn post-interval that makes you cringe. Whoever heard of a woman turning supermodel at 60? Sure, we understand this conjecture has been invented to do justice to the diva that Rekha once was. But if one has to meet the Rekha, the enchantress of yore, why not catch up with classics like Umrao Jaan?
But Don Collins soon takes him under his wing. "Ideas are peaceful, reality is violent," goes a line to elucidate. Ellsen is blooded into killing his first Kraut, kneeling/waiting to be shot with Collins virtually squeezing his finger and the trigger in all of two/three minutes. This is surely breaking new ground. The others are also characters, one holy and hence "Bible" and another foul-mouthed and therefore "Coon-Ass." Most of the action is in the German countryside with civilians in the mix. 
Man-eating tiger hunts have been traversed in mainstream efforts like Kaal and The Forrest. This one though has very little purchase and more so because the 'real tiger sightings' are limited to fractiously digitised efforts that conforms to requirement but doesn't arouse as much awe as required. 
If Anne is seeing her ex-boy-friend Dezi (Neil Patrick Harris), Nick is having a liaison with someone else. Director David Fincher goes about the narrative in typical style. And if in the second half credibility suffers, it is the author-scriptwriter Gillian Flynn who must take the blame. But there are others who would side with her essay of a 'modern marriages' in the name of rat-eat-rat realism that seems to be the new Hollywood genre. 
11:28AM
9:00PM