SANKARSHAN THAKUR
New Delhi, Aug. 26: Between television and the real thing lies a deceptive parallax. That insistent image — a portly frame shifting, screaming at the bottom of a cinemascope Gandhi, almost an appendage to the plastered muse of his mesmeric ventriloquism — is barely even accessible to the naked eye at close range.
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Friday, August 26, 2011
Monday, August 22, 2011
Disabled professionals to travel India in 81 days to audit accessibility and change mindsets
New Delhi, Aug 11: It’s a desi Zindagi Na Mile Dobara with a
difference. Four professionals- a TV network owner, an offshore
construction company director, a tax accountant and a businesswoman-
will travel to 40 cities across 28 states in India, by road, on a trip
they’ve been planning for a decade. The difference is that all of them
are confined to wheelchairs. Apart from having the time of their
lives, they will also write a report on how disabled friendly India’s
tourist facilities are and will also sensitise tourism officials and
professionals to makes Incredible India inclusive too.
The Beyond barriers Incredible India Tour, which will take place from
September 28 to December 20, was formally flagged off by union tourism
minister Subodh Kant Sahai today. Sahai, who seeks to use their audit
to make India’s tourist facilities accessible to the disabled, dubbed
their trip as a “daredevil mission.”
“Incredible India (his ministry’s punchline) must have credible means
for the handicapped,” said the minister. “Their report will be an
asset for us as we are committed to implement UN Convention on the
Rights of Persons with Disabilities.”
He added that his goal is that disabled tourists in India should get
the same amenities as their counterparts in developed countries.
Throughout this year his ministry would focus on this aspect, he said.
The four travelers Arvind Prabhoo, Nishant Khade, Sunita Sacheti and
Neenu Kewlani are all from Mumbai and are associated with the Vijay
Merchant Rehabilitation Centre for the Disabled. At every stop they
will be liasoning with local NGOs and state tourism departments for
carrying out the access audit. They will also try to meet Chief
Ministers and Disability Commissioners of every state to sensitise
them on the travel needs of the disabled.
“We will collect data and will write to hotels, ministries and other
(tourism related) organizations with our findings. We will also follow
up the progress on the reforms we suggest to them,” said Prabhoo, who
is quadriplegic.
The four will be driving in three cars with drivers and care-givers.
Their journey will take them to all the corners of India from Silvassa
to Imphal and Sawai Madhopur to Cooch Behar. People can follow their
daily updates of facebook and twitter and regular video uploads on
youtube.
By the end of the 16,000 km drive they will publish a comprehensive
report which will also serve as a guide for the disabled. “Despite
being disabled we still have the will to travel. Being in a wheelchair
is not going to stop me from seeing Incredible India,” Prabhoo added.
difference. Four professionals- a TV network owner, an offshore
construction company director, a tax accountant and a businesswoman-
will travel to 40 cities across 28 states in India, by road, on a trip
they’ve been planning for a decade. The difference is that all of them
are confined to wheelchairs. Apart from having the time of their
lives, they will also write a report on how disabled friendly India’s
tourist facilities are and will also sensitise tourism officials and
professionals to makes Incredible India inclusive too.
The Beyond barriers Incredible India Tour, which will take place from
September 28 to December 20, was formally flagged off by union tourism
minister Subodh Kant Sahai today. Sahai, who seeks to use their audit
to make India’s tourist facilities accessible to the disabled, dubbed
their trip as a “daredevil mission.”
“Incredible India (his ministry’s punchline) must have credible means
for the handicapped,” said the minister. “Their report will be an
asset for us as we are committed to implement UN Convention on the
Rights of Persons with Disabilities.”
He added that his goal is that disabled tourists in India should get
the same amenities as their counterparts in developed countries.
Throughout this year his ministry would focus on this aspect, he said.
The four travelers Arvind Prabhoo, Nishant Khade, Sunita Sacheti and
Neenu Kewlani are all from Mumbai and are associated with the Vijay
Merchant Rehabilitation Centre for the Disabled. At every stop they
will be liasoning with local NGOs and state tourism departments for
carrying out the access audit. They will also try to meet Chief
Ministers and Disability Commissioners of every state to sensitise
them on the travel needs of the disabled.
“We will collect data and will write to hotels, ministries and other
(tourism related) organizations with our findings. We will also follow
up the progress on the reforms we suggest to them,” said Prabhoo, who
is quadriplegic.
The four will be driving in three cars with drivers and care-givers.
Their journey will take them to all the corners of India from Silvassa
to Imphal and Sawai Madhopur to Cooch Behar. People can follow their
daily updates of facebook and twitter and regular video uploads on
youtube.
By the end of the 16,000 km drive they will publish a comprehensive
report which will also serve as a guide for the disabled. “Despite
being disabled we still have the will to travel. Being in a wheelchair
is not going to stop me from seeing Incredible India,” Prabhoo added.
Baul who made it big, after fleeing the CPM, wants to return to Mamata’s Bengal
New Delhi, June 23: East Bengal had retained the Calcutta Football League Super Division title and the Left had had won the assembly polls for a third time in Bengal, the previous year. Solidarity had not won in Poland and Tiananmen protests had not yet taken place. Partybaazi seemed like a safe career option for Madhusudan Baul- who had dropped out of Surendranath Law College to look for work in 1988.
He was staying at the YMCA Students’ Hostel, occasionally doing accounts for doctors and singing in trains to make a living, when the SFI called him to speak at a students rally against computerization in Scottish Church.
“They said I was a Baul and I could sing and make people understand why computers are bad. But I didn’t know anything about computers. I went on stage and asked that computers don’t eat our rice, dal, fish or milk like us so how could they harm us. I heard vehicular pollution could make us sick but I didn’t know if computers could,” says Baul who is now a renowned performer.
He adds, “The SFI was enraged that I went on their stage and spoke against their beliefs. They gave me the thrashing of my life and forced me to vacate the hostel. I roamed around the streets of Calcutta for two months looking for work until a friend called me to Delhi. I reached here on the Republic Day of 1989. It was no longer safe in Calcutta.”
Baul landed up at the Mahamukti Dham- a Baul hub in Lakshmibai Nagar in Central Delhi. The singer, who now stays in a temple near Thyagaraj Sports Complex with six other Bauls, says many of them came to Delhi for a better income.
“We Bauls are not accustomed to comfortable living, but we never starve as people always contribute. I have never got as much respect as I get in Delhi, when I was in Bengal. Delhiites had never seen singing and dancing babas,” said the singer who hails from Burdwan district.
Baul has made a name for himself here and has been sent on many tours abroad by the government. The artiste is associated with the Indian Council for Cultural Relations and the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts.
In Delhi, he met the late Guru Byomkesh Banerjee and began his formal training in music under Banerjee and his wife Neelima. For the first two years in Delhi he worked in factories, offices and schools, until he realised that he would only be happy being a Baul musician.
He began hanging around mendicants to learn scriptures and tapasya. “To sing from the heart you must understand the meaning of birth, life and death. The main thing to realize is that you are nothing, the person before you is everything. That is the essence of sanatana dharma,” he says.
He also met filmmaker Muzaffar Ali, who started the Jahan-e-Khusrau sufi music festival in Delhi in 2001. Baul says Ali’s son Murad helped him a lot and put him in touch with Sufi singers in Ajmer and other shrines. Now, he regularly sings along with sufi singers in Nizamuddin in Old Delhi. Known as the Bangali Baul Dada, he’s appeared in Ali’s 2002 film India, Garden of Saints.
“I met didi (Mamata Banerjee) when she was an MP sometime in the mid 90s. I used to land up in front of Bengal MPs houses and sing. Usually they ignored me. When I came to didi’s residence, I heard her tell someone on the phone that she had not come to Delhi to beg, but to fight for the rights of the people. I was impressed,” says Baul.
Mamata gave him letters of recommendation that helped getting him more calls for government functions in India and abroad. Soon his popularity grew and earnings stabilized. He’s married to another Baul singer now and his daughter is back home in Burdwan learning the traditional music.
“Bengal is filled with violence now and we can’t make music amidst violence. I never wanted to back to Bengal after I escaped because the CPM now controlled everything, even the life in my village. They don’t believe in God or tradition or the value of work. But now I miss the fields and jungles and I want to go back. After didi has won I am making plans to return.”
Mixed response to culture ministry scheme to fund participation in book fairs
New Delhi, June 16: A central scheme to fund organization of and participation in book fairs, exhibitions and publishing events is being both welcomed with glee and dismissed with cynicism by the intended beneficiaries- publishers and libraries.
The objective behind this culture ministry scheme is to popularize Indian culture and encourage more people to buy and read books. Focused on non-profit organizations and small publishers, the scheme is open to varsities, book trade bodies and trusts which have been registered and functioning for at least three years.
“We didn’t have a scheme particularly for smaller publishers to participate in book fairs in India and abroad. Small publishers don’t have the resources nor the scope to raise more money to participate. By this scheme we hope to not only promote the book trade but also enrich our libraries,” a ministry official said.
While the ministry would finance 75 per cent of the cost, up to a ceiling of Rs. 10 lakhs per event, the beneficiary needs to prove it can afford the remainder 25 per cent and should preferably have prior experience in the field. While the advertisement for availing the scheme would be made once a year, the application can be submitted any time- with a recommendation from any of the national or state Akademis and government culture bodies.
Shakti Malik, honorary general secretary of the Federation of Indian Publishers, explains that most renowned bookshops largely stock books of foreign or multinational publishers. “We believe that every book has a buyer and every bookseller can sell at least 2 to 3 copies of any book. But if Indian publishers don’t get exposure our books will not sell.”
He adds, “We had approached Culture Secretary Jawhar Sircar saying that its becoming increasingly expensive for us to participate or organize book fairs. Strictly speaking this comes under the HRD ministry, but books also sell our culture to other countries. Literary works are more than commercial commodities. He then agreed to bring a scheme for us.”
This scheme will not only encourage more publishers to exhibit but also market Indian books better through literary events, he stated.
While Baldev Verma, Vice President (North) of the Federation of Publishers and Booksellers Association of India, welcomes the ministry’s manna, he expressed doubts over the way book fairs are run. “There’s no authority to supervise the way book fairs go on. The rentals for stalls go up every year at the World Book Fair in Delhi and now they want to have it from February 26 to March 4 next year- right in the middle of exam season. Which parent will bring their child now- subsidy or no subsidy.”
While Verma says that the scheme will definitely help publishers go for book fairs abroad, he was skeptical about getting the grant- which he fears may be caught in red tape.
It’s a fear that’s shared by varsities too. The Dr. Zakir Husain Library, of Jamia Millia Islamia university here, houses rare manuscripts. The scheme also covers exhibitions of manuscripts, but University Librarian Gayas Makhdumi prefers small in-house activities.
His reasoning is blunt: “Who will spend so much time and do the paperwork to get this grant to go for book fairs. We use our own resources. Besides, there are issues of security if we send manuscripts outside.”
Shakti Malik though is confident that once the word spreads, publishers will line up for the dole. The ministry’s also roped him in to publicise the scheme. The question however, from most small publishers was, “Will the ministry really subsidise us to go for book fairs. Can they afford it?”
A senior ministry official assured this paper that applicants would be screened and only the best would make it. If money runs out, more could always be transferred from other heads where it is unspent. If there are still deserving publishers, the finance ministry is always kind to culture.
The objective behind this culture ministry scheme is to popularize Indian culture and encourage more people to buy and read books. Focused on non-profit organizations and small publishers, the scheme is open to varsities, book trade bodies and trusts which have been registered and functioning for at least three years.
“We didn’t have a scheme particularly for smaller publishers to participate in book fairs in India and abroad. Small publishers don’t have the resources nor the scope to raise more money to participate. By this scheme we hope to not only promote the book trade but also enrich our libraries,” a ministry official said.
While the ministry would finance 75 per cent of the cost, up to a ceiling of Rs. 10 lakhs per event, the beneficiary needs to prove it can afford the remainder 25 per cent and should preferably have prior experience in the field. While the advertisement for availing the scheme would be made once a year, the application can be submitted any time- with a recommendation from any of the national or state Akademis and government culture bodies.
Shakti Malik, honorary general secretary of the Federation of Indian Publishers, explains that most renowned bookshops largely stock books of foreign or multinational publishers. “We believe that every book has a buyer and every bookseller can sell at least 2 to 3 copies of any book. But if Indian publishers don’t get exposure our books will not sell.”
He adds, “We had approached Culture Secretary Jawhar Sircar saying that its becoming increasingly expensive for us to participate or organize book fairs. Strictly speaking this comes under the HRD ministry, but books also sell our culture to other countries. Literary works are more than commercial commodities. He then agreed to bring a scheme for us.”
This scheme will not only encourage more publishers to exhibit but also market Indian books better through literary events, he stated.
While Baldev Verma, Vice President (North) of the Federation of Publishers and Booksellers Association of India, welcomes the ministry’s manna, he expressed doubts over the way book fairs are run. “There’s no authority to supervise the way book fairs go on. The rentals for stalls go up every year at the World Book Fair in Delhi and now they want to have it from February 26 to March 4 next year- right in the middle of exam season. Which parent will bring their child now- subsidy or no subsidy.”
While Verma says that the scheme will definitely help publishers go for book fairs abroad, he was skeptical about getting the grant- which he fears may be caught in red tape.
It’s a fear that’s shared by varsities too. The Dr. Zakir Husain Library, of Jamia Millia Islamia university here, houses rare manuscripts. The scheme also covers exhibitions of manuscripts, but University Librarian Gayas Makhdumi prefers small in-house activities.
His reasoning is blunt: “Who will spend so much time and do the paperwork to get this grant to go for book fairs. We use our own resources. Besides, there are issues of security if we send manuscripts outside.”
Shakti Malik though is confident that once the word spreads, publishers will line up for the dole. The ministry’s also roped him in to publicise the scheme. The question however, from most small publishers was, “Will the ministry really subsidise us to go for book fairs. Can they afford it?”
A senior ministry official assured this paper that applicants would be screened and only the best would make it. If money runs out, more could always be transferred from other heads where it is unspent. If there are still deserving publishers, the finance ministry is always kind to culture.
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