Desicritics News

Changing The Mindset - From Scientists To Entrepreneurs

Ashoka Chakra — Mon, 9 Mar 2009 22:33:52 EDT

There are many reasons for the United States' dominance in science. Freedom to operate, (relative) lack of seniority and sycophancy, and availability of funds are among them. Another reason the US has been in the forefront of technological innovation is that it allows scientists to be entrepreneurs. Take a look at the cluster of innovative companies coming out of Universities in California and Massachusetts and you get the picture. Companies span the gamut of fields, ranging from software to biotechnology. In most countries, this dual role is frowned upon, if not forbidden outright.

Such was the case in India as well. For example, in 2001, Swami Manohar and three colleagues at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore invented the Simputer, a simple and cheap hand-held computer. However, being employees of a public entity, they could not commercialize their invention. So Manohar and colleagues left and founded their own company, which was in turn bought out by Geodesic. If they had been in the US, they would have had many options including being on the SAB or even a senior executive of the company while still retaining their academic post.

Indian scientists will now have a similar choice. On 24 February, the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research issued regulations that permits researchers at government-funded institutions to hold equity stakes in scientific enterprises and spinoff companies.

Approximately 400,000 scientists, about three-quarters of the scientific work force, are employed at public institutions. By bringing India in line with the United States and other Western nations, the new rules should create an attractive environment for talented faculty. The new rules also permit research institutes to hold equity stakes in commercial enterprises. To facilitate this process, the government will encourage the lateral mobility of researchers between institutes and industry. This would also be good of institutions who could reap tremendous financial rewards from successful spin-offs.

So a talented scientist who comes up with a novel idea won't have to play office politics or be sycophantic to his/her boss any more. They can keep their position and at the same time, start a company.

In this instance, it is good that India is following America's lead.

Disabled Children Wait up to Two Years for Wheelchairs

Dr Bhaskar Dasgupta — Sat, 7 Mar 2009 00:22:04 EST

You know I keep on moaning about the fact that the ways of meeting children’s needs here in this country are strange? We are doing something for our long term sick children’s education by providing them by computers but i suppose you can say that that’s sort of optional.

But how about children who are unable to walk and need a wheelchair? If we have a fully funded NHS, surely they should be getting a wheelchair immediately? Well, no, unfortunately no. Read this and weep. I quote:

The NHS was told today to stop relying on charities to fill funding gaps after figures revealed many trusts would not pay the full cost of electric wheelchairs for disabled children.

Why on earth is this situation allowed to happen? Why aren't they given a wheelchair immediately? This is mental child abuse. And then not only people have to pay their taxes, but also give charity? Talk about being inefficient.

Statistics from 54% of NHS trusts in England and Scotland revealed that disabled children in England are forced to wait five months on average for a wheelchair.

5 months. Can you imagine? If you aren't disabled, think about this, you are forced to wait for 5 months for shoes. You dont have shoes. You cannot just go and buy them but are waiting to get them. Not for 1 day, not 2 days nor wait till the weekend so that you can purchase it, but for 5 months, 20 weeks, 140 days. 140 days without any shoes. Can you imagine what that will do to your feet? Now think about the poor disabled child. 5 months without a wheelchair.

The worst performing primary care trust (PCT), East Lancashire, in the north-west of England, had an average wait of two years for an electric wheelchair.

5 months was average across the country, but this area had an average wait of TWO years. And if you think that manual wheelchairs are possible, remember we are talking about children who are unable to control their muscles, so they cannot literally move about without assistance. Electric wheelchairs allow them to do so. And this is average 2 years, means 50% of the children in that area would have spent much more than 2 years waiting for an electric wheelchair.

The survey showed 58% of children in England had to wait at least three months for an electric wheelchair and 14% waited more than six months.

It gets worse. We are indeed a 3rd world country if this is how we treat our children in need. And then apparently we have sunk tons of money into the NHS.

Overall, 50% of the PCTs that responded said they did not fund the full cost of a powered wheelchair for a disabled child. Westminster PCT made an average contribution of only £700 towards the cost of a child's powered wheelchair, it said. Almost all PCTs contacted by the charity said the cost of a wheelchair was around £2,000 but in fact the true cost of a basic electric wheelchair would be around £3,000.

Holy crap. And rest of the money comes from charity, eh? typical.

A separate patient survey of 237 children found one in three did not receive any funding at all for their wheelchair.

And 1/3rd of the children dont receive any help whatsoever. Wonderful, you silly twits in the government. Do something!, get off your fat backsides and give this money to the kids. Or else, we will take the money for your shoes and give it to the kids. I bet that then the money will be found very quickly, no? And then when you read something like this, you feel so sad. I quote:

Family doctors are failing to provide improved services for patients, despite being paid tens of millions of pounds to do so, a report claims.

Technorati Tags: Children, Charity, United Kingdom

WorkExp.Com Goes Offline - The Whisper Board for Bad News

Aaman Lamba — Sat, 7 Mar 2009 00:17:55 EST

People have an innate need to share information about things that are important to them in their every day lives. There is also an insatiable curiosity about one's jobs, friends, and family. This explains, in part, why the most heavily trafficked stories online are often the kind that deal with sensational topics. While Dr. Vijay Mallya might be the flavor du jour, a more persistent trend these days is the state of the economy, and more specifically, jobs. Job losses are rising globally, engendering a rising sense of uncertainty.

The need to know, in part, if one's job was relatively safe, is typically fulfilled by asking around. As the saying goes, "If your neighbor loses his job, it's a recession. If you lose your job, it's a depression." The Internet helps drive the dissemination of the state of affairs, and one website, WorkExp, found itself dealing with a surge in traffic from nervous Indians. The site was originally set up with the objective of sharing work experiences, equally positive and negative, but as with the bear market, trafficking in bad news soon overwhelmed the slim sliver of good news. Everything from layoffs to bad managers became grist for the mill, and the site became a must-check site. It even found itself being blocked in various company networks, understandably so, from the perspective of the HR departments as nothing was spared by the anonymous commenters/posters. It became a safety valve, in part, for the stressed employee, serving to reinforce, negatively, his feelings about his company. The Alexa Rank, a poor enough measure as it might be, indicates an occasional surge of attention, such as when the Satyam fiasco broke out.

As leading HR blogger, Gautam Ghosh, put it when he encountered the site:

Today I came across WorkExp , which is primarily a blog consisting of submitted posts by Indian techies about their organizations.

So as a HR person are you ready for the flipside and downside of this kind of transparency. Yes, it'll be messy and not easy to deal with. But this is going to be the new pub where people will share stories, only difference being it will be archived and search-able for posterity.

Unfortunately, this transparency or the 'pub culture' appears to have been contrary to the owner's expectations. They took all content offline, promising a redesign, and declaring they were disappointed with the negativity that had violated the site's founding principles. They posted the following:

This site was started with a view of helping people learn and share experiences, but sadly in its current state it has been reduced to a board where only stones are thrown. Except for one from CTS & one from Bharthi Airtel, NOONE shared their positive experiences :( Which was indeed very sad for the editorial team back here! We are re-designing this site and will be back soon!

But Guys! As much as it is your right to complain and share your bad experience it is also your responsibility in a way to tell what good your company has done for you!

We are over for now! But not out yet!

The retirement of the site will no doubt lead to the disappointment of many vicarious thrill-seekers, but the stance of the editors is to be commended, as they put principles before traffic. Even so, they could have gone with the flow, and become the Yelp.com for the job-hungry. Perhaps a clone will spring up soon enough, one that will satisfy the need to crib about your manager, your company, your work experiences.

The God Who Was Lost!

Dr Bhaskar Dasgupta — Tue, 3 Mar 2009 01:00:24 EST

Buddhism and I have a strange relationship. I grew up listening to the stories of Emperor Ashok and later on when I could, reading about Gautam Buddha in the old Amar Chitra Katha books. Reading about Ambedkar’s conversion to Buddhism and how Buddha was actually considered to be part of the Hindu Gods' pantheon, because the 'Enlightened One' was considered to be a reincarnation of Vishnu. Growing up in Bhopal, I was also exposed to Buddhist artifacts in various tourist locations, as our local area has an ancient history of Buddhist kingdoms and pilgrimage sites (more on this later). But this was a strange journey for me and this essay is another weird combination of a book review, a photo essay and some thoughts about Buddhist history.

But typically, history in India is not taught from the perspective of the historians, the archaeologists, numismatics, the linguistic experts and so on and so forth. There are many reasons for this. For one, for most of India’s history, history has been a battle ground (if you excuse the pun). What the war of independence is for somebody, is the great mutiny for another (a previous essay on this). Then the fact that for a very long period of time, India was ruled by foreigners and history is usually written by the rulers, for the rulers. So if you wanted to know about Buddhism, it was a bit difficult.

But some aspects have rekindled the interest I have in Buddhism. The Dalai Lama is obviously somebody who is the apostle of non-violence and a hero to me (not least for his enchanting giggle) which obviously has emerged out of Buddhism. Second was another hero, namely Ambedkar.Ffor all his faults, he was a brilliant man who created a constitution which all Indians can be proud of. We do not give sufficient credit to that document. In my opinion, it is much more important than all the religious books. He obviously converted to Buddhism as a reaction against the Hindu Caste System (a previous essay here). But there is now a strand of Dalitism. This is not the place to go into the rights or wrongs of this, but it primarily is against Hinduism and its caste system (don't worry, it is seriously incoherent and I have never read anything that makes any less logical sense). But for example, many Dalit intellectuals have relied on colonial historians such as Arnold Toynbee to make their argument that Hinduism is bad (see here, here and here).

This concept that Hinduism is a civilization and is doomed to failure is wrong on both counts. The concept of civilization as a social identity construct is seriously flawed. Man draws his identity based upon several strands (see Amartya Sen's argument here), gender, language, religion, region, country, sports club, and so on and so forth. So for somebody to even think that there is something called as a Hindu civilization is seriously one dimensional. Second, think about the 5000 odd years of history of this religion, one of the oldest religions. It has evolved so much that one would be hard pressed to identify today’s Hinduism with what was there in say 2000 BC or 1000 BC. And finally, even if you do consider that it is one and the same, the fact that Hinduism has survived for 5000 years tells you that its actually in no danger of collapse, so this basic intellectual framework of Toynbee is not really advisable for the Buddhists to rely on.

But there were a bunch of other British and Colonial historians, linguists, archeologists, military personnel and the like, who from the 1700’s, have been poking around in India to determine where and how Buddhism emerged. For a very long period of time, the west and India as it so happens (with the incorporation of Buddha into the pantheon of Hindu Gods) there was no distinction between Buddhism and Hinduism. On the western front, the great Buddhist Kingdoms of Afghanistan were overpowered by the arrival of Islam and now its rubble (remember the dynamiting of the Bamiyan Buddha’s by the Taliban and the persecution of the Hazaras who were reputed to be Buddhists before converting to Shia Islam?)

Anyway, between the Muslim invasions and the Hindu resurgence, nothing was heard or known about Buddhism in the west. Charles Allen, in his lovely book, The Buddha and the Sahibs, describes how a band of often lonely white men (and a couple of females), over 250 odd years, started to dig, decipher, investigate and uncover the history of Buddism lost in the mists of time. From Afghanistan to Sri Lanka, to Burma to Nepal to Tibet and all inside, Charles Allen writes a fascinating story about these orientalists, their associations (The Asiatic Society and the Theosophical Society) and how their struggles gave the world so much information about Buddha and Buddhism. Taking a well deserved potshot at that incomprehensible tome, Orientalism, it has seriously rejuvenated a body of work which is currently very popular. Mind you, the large sections of corpus of western scholarship in this area is totally aghast. The very idea of somebody actually claiming that it took orientalists to actually study and bring forth knowledge of the orient is shocking to them. Hence this book is not reviewed to that extent nor referred to that much.

Anyway, not that important, because besides arcane corners of the academic world, these worshipers of Edward Said are ignored. For anybody who wants to break out of that stultifying cult, you can't do better than to read this book. For one, it supports my argument that all history, science and knowledge is open to all, without worrying about the age, sex, religion, race of the researcher. Moaning about Orientalism is about as stupid as moaning about Jewish Intelligence or the fact that Hindus had invented Zero or it was a Christian who first noticed gravity.

Now returning to the book/ It is very good. It talks about how these white men struggled to piece together this giant multi-dimensional mystery, taking clues from old sanskrit books, talking to religious leaders in various temples and monasteries, deciphering and then translating old sanskrit and pali books to make them available to the wider public. They decoded and cracked the variants of the Brahmi language, one of the oldest languages in India, dating back to the 6th century BC. Don't get me wrong, this is not about Buddhism the religion, but its about the men who investigated the history of its birthplace. While I found his assertion that the Gita was part of the Ramayana rather than the Mahabharat a bit confusing, the book has lots of wonderful photographs and descriptions to make those little issues immaterial.

But reading it finally gave me another view of how widespread Emperor Ashok’s empire was. Absolutely massive and wide ranging. In some ways, it was even bigger than the Mughal Empire.

Can you see the bottom-most text called as Sanchi? That’s just next to my hometown of Bhopal. A couple of years back, we were enjoying a winter vacation there. As you would appreciate, if you are in your hometown, you end up visiting the local attractions hundreds of times and you never end up appreciate them. It's like my mother in law, she grew up in Agra and for her, the Taj Mahal is very commonplace, as she has visited it literally hundreds of times. It was the same for me with Sanchi.

It's perhaps when you get older, that you get a chance to appreciate those local attractions more. I whined and moaned till the family decided to humour me and we all piled into two cars and off we went. It's about a 50 km drive on a pretty good road actually. Quite surprising as it happens. On the way, we crossed the Tropic of Cancer which is signposted.

On the way, one of the main north-south railway lines are crossed and the railway crossing was closed. So we were forced to wait. And one of the most typical Indian sights was on the left. Here’s a gentleman, having a nice nap on one of the Milestones on the State Highway. I just find this image so evocative. Welcome to India!

The actual stupas are up on a hillock. At the bottom between the town and the hillock, there is a neat little museum with a nice small park. Here’s a pipal tree with a sign in front, called as Creation in time wheel. Obviously, the connection is that Gautam Buddha attained enlightenment while meditating under a pipal tree. We were not allowed to take photographs of the museum artefacts so that was a bit of a shame. Also, it was disappointing, why on earth can't the Museum authorities put in more explanation of the various sculptures, ornaments and other nice pieces?

But as you come out of the museum, you can see the tip of the stupa in the background in the middle.

Also, on the side of the road, guess what I found? spicy chanas. Before anybody could tell me off, my hand was inside my pocket, money exchanged hands and I quaffed a rather large quantity of chana. Ah! Heaven! Beyond this is a papad seller and across the road was a guava seller. Needless to say, I checked out ALL of them. (oink oink). There is something just brilliant about eating road side food, it's the awesome combination of dust, dirty oil, smoke and spices. Nowhere else, does it taste anything like it, I tell you. Anyway, we piled back inside the cars and drove up the hillock and parked.

Right outside, you can see a memorial temple made by pilgrims from Colombo and on the right, you can see another pipal tree, surrounded with the typical Buddhist railings and with prayer flags fluttering in the wind. Did you know that the prayer flags are not meant to carry prayers up to the Gods? But they are meant to use the wind horses to scatter the printed mantras and prayers for goodwill and compassion across the surrounding place. Interesting, no? And as it so happens, this concept of prayer flags is very Tibetan, not Indian nor Sri Lankan at all.

Below are some photographs of the very intricately carved gates. The Great Stupa, the big one, was made by the great Emperor Ashoka way back in 250 BCE (approximately). This amazing emperor is supposed to have built about 86,000 temples and stupas across the country. One of the greatest men of India indeed. Somebody was joking when I said that India owns Afghanistan. As it so happens, Ashoka ruled over a kingdom which extended up from Afghanistan down to deep Deccan and as far east as Bangladesh. But anyway, the carvings show the history of Buddha and lots of carved jataka tales

If you observe the central pillar closely, you will see an inscription on it in a strange language, Ashoka Brahmi. Most of the horizontal or vertical pillars have these inscriptions. They are nothing profound, but are in fact donor cards. Just state who gifted that bit. And check out the sculptures on the right, they resemble me - rather my potbelly.

The above and below photographs show the intricate carvings. One has to remember that these are well over 2 millenea old and are still crisp and clear. They have been restored a bit, but still. Amazing work!

Here’s a story of the tree (the tree stands for Buddha) and even monkeys worshipping the sacred tree. Remember the monkey tale from the Jatakas? I was not able to take a photograph, but here’s the story with another photograph of the particular panel.

On the left, one can see the second Stupa with its solitary gate (the Great Stupa has 4) and on the right, a load of smaller stupas.

But this completely bewildered me. It was the first time I ever heard about Buddhists worshiping the Naga Gods. Can you see the statue of the Naga God in the left photograph? The temple itself is of Buddha, as can be seen from the right hand side photograph. So what’s the connection between Nagas and Buddhists? That too in the middle of the country? As it so happens, Nagas were considered to be the guarantors of adequate rainfall and agricultural productivity. Hence, the Buddhists would go about merrily worshiping them. Here’s a good reference site if you wanted to check out dams, irrigation, Nagas and the rest in Sanchi

Two more temple ruins, faintly Grecian in nature, but I did not find sufficient background to really investigate.

As you enter any gate, you are faced with a statue, well a headless one. Somebody got very upset sometime in history and lopped off all the heads. Bloody vandals.

And finally, you have the middle corridor and one of the staircases to climb up to the middle corridor which encircles the stupa.

Then you move up the hillock where there is a monastery which is practically in ruins. They have stacked up the stone work columns in rows. Can you see the checkerboard pattern on the right? Pretty impressive, no?

There is a temple up in the monastery, also pretty much a ruin, but one can still see some exquisite carvings on the doorways and columns.

Can you see the notches on the flagstones? Those were for iron staples which would lock the flagstones together to make it into a pucca floor. On the right, you can see a stone work window and a narrow passageway which would allow one to circum-perambulate the temple. There is also a little imp trying to hide from Baba.

There were two statues of Buddha, an outside statue, which had lost its head and the second one inside the sanctum which was better preserved. Unlike the first statue, which was made out of sandstone, the second one was made out of granite.

I am not sure if you can see the carvings on one of the flagstones but it's supposed to be ancient graffiti. Apparently this part of the monastery was for the trainee monks and they, the little rascals, would spend their time carving into the stone floors. Glad to see that things do not change, eh?

Here is an example of a doorway to one of the side shrines. The guide told us that those two figurines at the bottom were of Ganga and Jamuna, the two sacred rivers of Hinduism. When I gave him a skeptical look and asked, why on earth would you have river goddesses from Hinduism being depicted in a Buddhist temple? I did not get a good answer. Also, I have to admit that the smaller carvings were quite risqué. The guide said that they were offering and accepting votive offerings, but hey, I can identify a couple in love and flirting when I see one. Anyway, we headed back down to the mid layer.

Here’s the Great Stupa. The archaeological department has done a good piece of work to maintain the surroundings, I must admit. It is well maintained with a broad pavement around the stupa. Here’s grandpa the engineer who suddenly decided to calculate the amount of materials required to construct the Stupa with his grand-daughter assistant.

Heading down to the Stupa 3, you can see a rock hewn water tank on the left and another monastery in the distance. Also one of the monastery cells on the right hand side.

Heading down, there is a strange boulder on the way. It is cut in half and hollowed out. Apparently, with a very straight face, the guide said that this was Buddha’s cup. Some cup and some lips, eh? Anyway, belting down a rocky path, we soon spotted the third stupa.

And here’s the famous Ashoka insignia. Can you recognise the images shown? The circle on the top with the 24 spokes is the Ashoka Chakra. While the Ashok Pillar below it is topped by the Emblem of India. That is how well India respects one of its most illustrious ancestors. This stupa is not as richly decorated as the previous two, mind you. It also does not have any gates.

There is a modern Buddhist temple just outside the fence which surrounds the Stupas. I found it deeply ironical. The temple architecture, its detailing, the scupltures, the paintings were like comparing chalk and cheese. The modern architecture was simply unsuitable for the surroundings. It felt awkward, as it was shabby, manky, and really very disappointing. To consider that this Chetiyagiri Vihara actually contains the remains of Buddha’s two disciples, Sariputra and Mahamoggallana, is rather shocking. But as a factoid, do you know that certain elements of Buddhism believe that Sariputra was reborn as Laxman to Buddha’s rebirth as Ram? Now that’s an interesting turn for the books. So the next time, a Buddhist complains that the Bhagwat Purana is claiming Buddha as an incarnation of Vishnu, you can comment mildly that it is difficult to keep track of incarnations and you are simply following Buddhist tradition :)

Anyway, looking back across the valley, its a very peaceful place. You can see a train haring down to Bhopal. One can really imagine to be actually back in Ashoka’s time, sitting on the blocks and meditating, while overseeing the peaceful work of God. It is indeed a beautiful place.

But all good things come to an end and just like the birds in the sky, we were following the power lines back home in the evening. And that’s where the rumination started. What a wonderful place this is. I could sit back and think of the white men digging through the dirt to uncover our history. The hundreds of thousands of men who built the tens of thousands of Buddhist monuments across this country. How ideological battles have been fought between Hinduism and Buddhism, between Orientalism and Occidentalism, between Dalitism and (not sure what…). In the end, you end up with such wonders in front of your eyes. If you can, do visit Sanchi and read Charles Allen’s book. Gives you such peace of mind.

Full slide show here.

Technorati Tags: India,History,Buddhism

Terrorists Attack Sri Lankan Team In Pakistan

Deepti Lamba — Tue, 3 Mar 2009 00:22:32 EST

Twelve masked gunmen in Lahore targeted the Sri Lankan cricket team which was on its way for a match at Gaddafi stadium. Samaraweera was shot in the leg.

Chaminda Vaas was seen taken on a stretcher. Thilan Tharusha, Paranavithana, Kumar Sangakara and Ajanta Medes are also injured. However the Punjab Governor said the Sri Lankan players are safe in terms of not being in critical condition.

Visual footage was taken of terrorists opening fire. Five police men were killed and weapons including a rocket launcher have been found at the scene of crime.

According to Pakistani police there were twelve gun men and their operation seemed similar to the 26/11 attack. The assailants attacked with guns and hand grenades.

The terrorists are still at large and one may have been shot down.

Fake Charities and Real Charities

Dr Bhaskar Dasgupta — Sun, 1 Mar 2009 12:51:51 EST

We are working on the technology for a long term sick and disabled children charity on a shoe-string. There is a bunch of about 50 odd people, part and full time, who are working on a shoe string salary and mostly free. We have to force our CEO to take a minuscule salary. But we manage to keep on going and have managed to get more than 5000 pieces of technology to individual children over the past so many years.

What does that mean? It means that we are actually improving disused pieces of equipment, saving companies money which would have gone to recycling the equipment. This improvement is done by long term unemployed kids who have been in trouble with the law or long term unemployed or what have you and they get training on PC repair and maintenance. The equipment goes to the hospital schools, or special needs teachers or kids who are at home on long term illness cover. We are struggling every year to get pc’s and laptops. Laptops specially are important as the kids cannot use big pc’s when they are bed-ridden.

While government departments offer us with equipment which we actually take away, refurbish and recycle on our costs (we actually save taxpayer money), we do not get any assistance from the government in terms of equipment or funding. And in these days/times of recession, it has further dried up. So it was a a joy to love and behold when I read that there are fake charities out there which are hitting the existing charities hard.

What do they do? take a look at these charities and their background:

Alcohol Concern—an anti-drinking lobby group that receives less than 1% of its income from public donations
Campaign for Better Transport Charitable Trust—strong opponents of road building. Funded by the Department of Transport
Christian Aid—anti-free marketeers, campaigning for "justice on climate change and tax" on your pennies.
Action on Smoking and Health (ASH)—the original fake charity, formed by the government in 1971. It receives just 2% of its funding from public donations.

And then there are many more. What really gets me going are two things. (1) why on earth are taxpayers monies being paid to these charities? (2) what’s the point of the government giving charities money to lobby the government? Can somebody explain this?

Well, seems like this blogsite tried to explain this. Just read the article, you will find the amount of hypocrisy and stonewalling gobsmacking. One wonders what these people are doing? How can they do it? By taking monies away from legitimate charities and misallocating public monies, the government is actually stealing twice.

I agree, any charity which accepts government funding is fake. Period. The situation is much more horrible, take a look at this proposal. The proposal is good, but Barnardo’s (78% state funded); NCH (88%); and Leonard Cheshire (88%) are pokes in your eyes. One weeps, on seriously weeps at the tremendous waste of resources done by this government and the fake charities, the scabby leeches on the body of the state.

Women Assaulted In Bangalore For Wearing Jeans

Deepti Lamba — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 08:40:01 EST

Miscreants are targeting women in jeans in Bangalore. Hard to believe, isn't it?
The women were hounded, assaulted and threatened for being in 'Western attire'. What is happening in Bangalore? After being perceptually on my guard in Delhi- a city best known for its crimes against women I find Bangalore too heading down the same dangerous route.

A few weeks ago a group of women and men had been badly injured by a group of thugs at a pub and the night shift police allegedly tried to hush the matter up. The incident made news and then the matter easily slipped the mind of laidback Bangaloreans.

But the bully is still out there trying its best to subjugate the Bangalore spirit of -live and let live.

Is it time we civilians began to bear arms? The gun culture has never been part of the urban Indian society but more and more people are now wondering how they can best protect themselves against these miscreants.

Those against the gun culture are quick to say that more accidents and crimes of passion are caused by gun possession than actual self defense but I ask how do we protect ourselves when these thugs ambush us and even if they are caught the law enforcement watches from the sidelines and worse still turns on us?

Two out of the three victims of these hate crimes have registered complaints against the men who assaulted them. The police should take caricatures of the thugs out in public, our chief minister (highly unlikely) should offer harsh condemnation of the acts and we women should have some form of protest put up as quickly as possible against this sort of bullying by impotent thugs.

Here are a couple of safety tips that women should follow:
• Do not roll down your car window even if someone asks for direction.
• Always keep your car doors locked.
• Always keep your cell phone charged.
• If you are being chased while in a car try to remain in a crowded area and keep a look out for police.
• Avoid lonely roads and parking lots, listen to your instincts.
• If someone grabs you scream your head off
• Try getting a pepper spray
• Learn basic self defense techniques
• Always be aggressive. Bullies generally lay off bullies. A vulnerable looking woman is an easy prey.

These thugs are obviously individuals who have taken inspiration from the Mangalore goings-on. This has nothing to do with religion but a nasty chauvinistic mind set that is intimidated by emancipated women. This is not the time to give in to cynicism or indifference. We have to voice our protest.

The power of public outrage is the best defense against hooliganism. Speak up and be heard!

Oscars 2009: Slumdog Tops The Grade

Aaman Lamba — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 07:31:12 EST

The Oscars have a certain glamour that outstrips most other award ceremonies. Much of this allure is deliberately cultivated, of course, and given the large number of film awards events, one wonders why the Oscars should particularly matter. They do matter, though, and the nominees and winners are treated with far greater recognition than those of many other awards.

The pop-culture effect of Hollywood is fading fast, though, being replaced by a variety of media sources - from the 'long movies' of television dramas to Internet webisodes. The Oscars don't reflect this, treating only the feature-length films and shorter vignettes as deserving of Academy recognition. Their American bias seems to be giving ground to some extent, with recent nominees and winners in the mainstream category being more representative of global cinema trends.

This year's Academy Awards were pretty much along expected lines, from the presentation to the winners. Many great films of 2008 were not even recognized, ranging from the Swedish teen-vampire tragic romance Let The Right One In to the great Western Appaloosa.

From the films that were nominated, the odds-on favorites were The Strange Case of Benjamin Button and Slumdog Millionaire. Apart from Best Foreign Film, most of the other awards went along expected lines. Slumdog Millionaire picked up eight awards, notably in the technical departments and the big two, Best Director and Best Picture. Benjamin Button took three awards, and Dark Knight two, including the sureshot Best Supporting Actor for Heath Ledger.

Smile Pinki, a feel-bad-feel-good film, bagged Best Documentary, throwing further light on the Indian contribution to this year's Awards. A R Rahman and Rasool Kutty took their place in the spotlight for Best Score, Best Original Song, and Best Sound Editing.

The dark horse was the Japanese film Departures which was not well-known and not a strong contender for Best Foreign Film, where it was up against fine films like Waltz With Bashir and The Class. Conspiracy theorists will no doubt see the fell hand of the Elders of Zion behind this non-event, too bad for them.

Sean Penn and Kate Winslet received the acting awards for Milk and The Reader, shutting out the fine performances by Mickey Rourke and Meryl Streep.

Fake Art - The Bane of the Art Industry

bCA Galleries — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 07:39:23 EST

They say that imitation is the best form of flattery, while this may hold true in some situations, this adage is blasphemous in the art circles. Throughout history, whenever an artist through his perseverance and talent has made a name for himself, there have been others lurking in the shadows waiting to piggy-back on his success and make a quick buck through rip-offs.

The monster of fake art has constantly raised its ugly head to plague contemporary Indian art. It does not even spare the new kids on the block ! One prominent ‘victim’ was none other than Subodh Gupta who has made a name for himself both in India and internationally, he who some regard as "Damien Hirst of the East!"

The perpetrator of the crime was a hole-in-the-wall operation – Sahil Art Gallery, which is owned by Shyamsunder Desai. This gallery not only sourced the fake artwork but also doctored evidence to show that it was a genuine painting, they had a certificate of authenticity, and even had a photograph that showed Subodh looking at the painting in the gallery, which had obviously been tampered with.

The matter was brought to the attention of the authorities by Anubha Jayant Dey, director, Bodhi Art Gallery, New Delhi. They had been alerted to the issue when Sahil Art Gallery announced an exhibition of 82 artworks by "12 renowned artists", Subodh Gupta is represented by Bodhi and so they investigated the matter. In a covert operation with the help of the police they recorded the transaction of the sale of the fake work for Rs. 80 lakh on hidden camera. The price range for an original work runs into crores. The police have arrested the owned of Sahil Art Gallery and have confiscated all the 82 artworks pending further investigation.

However, scandalous this heinous crime may seem, it is not the first time that Indian contemporary art has had to grapple with the problem of fakes.

In 2007, Mukul Dey Archives "Chitralekha" who are regarded as authorities on important documents, printed information and images of early 20th century Indian art, declared two works by Jamini Roy which were to be auctioned by Bonham’s auction at San Francisco on 18th June, 2007, as fakes. These works were then withdrawn from the auction.

In 2006, another auction house – Christie's, had to withdraw six works of Indian contemporary artists due to doubts regarding their authenticity. Sotheby’s too had in earlier auction in the same year chosen not to auction some works displaying "a better to be safe that sorry" attitude.

In 2004, Anjolie Ela Menon had her assistant, who had been with her for 20 years, Hamid Safi, arrested for producing fakes of her paintings and selling them off. Safi claimed that he had a recording showing that he completed most of the artist’s works anyway, a claim that was denied by the artist.

These are just some of the scams that have grabbed media attention; there have been many others where unscrupulous art dealers have tried to pass on fake art to unsuspecting buyers. Sharan Apparao, owner of the Chennai-based Apparao Gallery, estimates that "every year, about 20-30 fakes of important paintings and 50-100 fakes of (less) important paintings get released for the markets globally."

There are essentially four ways in which these forgeries are created:

* Copy the work exactly without the signature.
* Change the medium, for instance, if the original work is in oil, the fake would be executed in watercolours or acrylic.
* Change the direction of key elements in the composition - for instance place the tree on the left rather than the right as in the original.
* Carry different elements from different works of a single artist and incorporate them in one artwork

There have been rare instances where the family of an artist who has passed away has authenticated fake works for pecuniary reasons.

It is reported that Kolkatta is fast emerging as the main centre for producing fakes where out of work art graduates make a living by working for these ‘fake factories.’ They are proving to be so successful because more people these days are into the purchase of ‘names’ without having much knowledge of the artist’s style and preferred medium, for them purchasing an artwork at less than market rate appeals as a ‘good deal’. It’s after all a matter of pure demand and supply.

India lacks an institutional mechanism for certifying artworks. While the Indian art market is becoming more transparent it still has miles to go before the first time art buyer can be assured that he is buying an original.

For most buyers and collectors, it is advisable not to purchase from shady art dealers. If the work is being priced much lower than the artist’s current market rate, that alone should set the alarm bells ringing, as was the case of the Subodh Gupta work being scalped by Sahil Art Gallery. It still remains to be seen if any of the works being sold by Sahil Art Gallery are originals.

Besides, it is also advisable to purchase the works of young, talented artists whose works are assuredly original and who have an immense potential for appreciation. Also, galleries like bCA Galleries, who follow the international norm of having artists being officially associated with them, can guarantee that you are purchasing an original work.

Till such time that India has some regulatory authority and benchmarking in place for art, all art buyers – Beware!

Celebrating Love - The Desicritics Valentine's Day Contest Winners

Temple Stark — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 11:41:51 EST

Twenty-one entries discussing, attacking, welcoming love and Valentine's Day. The Desicritics Valentine's Day Contest was also a celebration of diverse writing.

What I found most surprising was this strong animosity toward Valentine's Day written about or felt by the authors.

My focus is quality writing and a good story told; whether that's fiction, opinion or news (AJ's Free Hugs: The Triumph of Love and Peace. As one of the judges, tasked with reading them all - most of them to read again - there were a few who stood out immediately.

Top 5

5. Happy Valentine's Day by Hardik Ruparel --- For deft use of sarcasm in asking, WTF to making people marry to protest India's "adoption" of Valentine's Day.

4. Valentine's Day 2006 --- Deep tension, slightly broken by those who knew she was married but still, a behind-the-curtain peek into what happened to cross the cultural divide - through her fiancé's parents.

3. Poornamadah Poornamidam - You Can't Give Love Away by Meenaksh / Blokesablogin --- Putting the St. Back into St. Valentine's. Ok, not quite, more the author puts a heavy dose of tradition about love and those infamous and famous as a result of how they handled and discussed love themselves. Extremely well written!

2. Valentine, Schmalentine by Deepa Krishnan --- This piece laid out in a very gentle way the discussion surrounding Valentine's Day and its role in India and Desi culture. We fall in the middle of a family conversation and the picture at the end, clearly shows, if we needed any evidence, that love exists without Valentine's Day.

1. My Funny Valentine - Sweet Comic Valentine by Aditi Nadkarni --- A pondering rumination through the river of great stories from her life, everything from a farting dad to, well a farting Valentine's Day card and friends staying up late unknowingly mourning fictional characters. Ms. Nadkarni wrote a piece of friends occupying the love space not yet filled by one person, with a great riff on Platonic Love.

And that was before I saw all the comments, which pulled off the rarest of rare feats; comments numbering above 10 without one being negative. Turns out we all have friends.

Note: Given Aditi's status as an editor, the first and second prizes will be awarded to Deepa Krishnan and Meenakshi/Blokesablogin. Thanks Aditi, we owe you six cents:)

Honorable mentions:

Joseph Thomas (Jo) for a song - yes a song!!! (Valentine Day's Song - Let Them Sleep - that he arranged and sung himself. Top effort. It's not quite my speed of music but inspiration clearly hit him right between the ventricles.

Deepti Lamba, for her volume of posts and for touching on so many different angles - humor, familial love, eternal, dark - of the unfathomable but irresistible.

All the entries for the Valentine's Day contest can be found here. Winners will be mailed their coupons. Congratulations and thanks for expressing your views.