What defines Indian culture today is the context in which we look at our history, traditions, folklore, customs, story telling and various cultural narratives, both historical and modern. Culture includes social behavior of the society. What we require today is a holistic approach as we argue the case for Indian ethos and its impact on society at large.
In the past few decades, culture as a subject has got trapped in the annals of power and lost in files. The debate around culture has also been torn apart by varied ideological differences between selfappointed cultural pundits. So, when we talk of state patronage of the “arts”, do we mean investing in the future of the country or is it an attempt to preserve a culture by turning it into a most watched performance.
It is high time an integrated and comprehensive policy on culture is drafted and implemented. All political parties should be brought across the table to decide upon a common minimum agenda on cultural issues connected with the Vedas, languages, folklore and tribals; joining the dots, bringing culture into contact with the ‘education revolution’, with technology and innovation, and with its role in binding the social fabric of the nation.
The British left us with a policy of doles and support to “ethnic tribal art” and sadly that has continued even today. This in itself is highly erroneous as a thought as it is distinctive only as an anthropological definition and not a sociological one.
What’s the responsibility of the state? Yes, it does have the responsibility to preserve and promote culture and all art forms alike, but the patronage does not have to limit to financial support alone. The state can go beyond providing mere financial support to cultural bodies, firstly, by introducing cultural education in school curriculum across the nation and thus inculcating in the young, impressionable minds a sense of pride about their roots and heritage. Secondly, the need is to take debates on dying arts out of seminar rooms and resurrect and preserve lost folk and ethnic forms by creating a narrative that is new, an idiom that can be understood by the young.
We also need to encourage and preserve institutes that undertake research and appraisal of both theory and practice of forms that face extinction – like languages – which have been lost over long periods. In a country where every thirty kilometres the language, food, customs and traditions change dramatically, it may sound like a tall order but then we also have the resource of those many millions that can become an asset value to this process.
As market economies make everything commercial, culture increasingly brinks on being hinged on state investment – both financially and structurally – making things more complex. The many grants that are given to various academies, culture centres and directorates need a review in context of a monitoring mechanism to make this support more meaningful.
In a globalised world, we tend to forget the beauty of the nuanced artists far away in a village of our vast country. So, what we need is a convergence of the patronage that culture requires or receives and the real situation of carrying forward the tradition that’s intrinsic to our spirit. Yes, the state will support it but so will the people if only we could bridge the gap between the performer and the viewer, after all dialogues will only occur between them.
It is said that when culture declines, art flourishes. Writers and artists silently revolt against the corrupt system through the medium of their art and attempt to bring about a cultural change. For any intellectualised society, varied and enriched social and cultural activity is an essential condition. This, in other words, means not only giving preference to societal intellectual achievement rather than the individual intellectual attainment, but also denoting an acceptance and admittance of plurality of ideas.
Intellectualising a society means the willing participation in various debates and discussions in an attempt to assess and evaluate the veracity and efficacy of traditionally-held opinions and beliefs.
This further means the evaluation and revaluation of a living tradition from time to time. Intellectualising a society also means the acceptance of the belief that social change is desired and that such a change is possible to achieve through human endeavour. It means increasing socio-cultural and political awareness by creating a public space for everyone in the society with a view to making one ultimately a responsible and concerned citizen of the society. Even philanthropy for public causes is part of that intellectualising process. Such awareness in the end results in creating and strengthening a civil society through previously-established as-well-as newlycreated organisations and thus, leading the society into becoming a civil society with a civic culture. A civil society with a civic culture generally results in the blossoming of public life in all its aspects. A policy on culture will surely ensure this. Or all we will be left with is, as said in theatre, “Between God and the audience no one knows…”
Amongst people around, you will notice two kinds of people, the energisers and the enervators. You feel automatically drawn towards the former, while even the thought of the latter tires you! All of us like to avoid those who are a drain on our energy – listless people with melancholic thoughts, singularly lacking in energy or life force. These are the names you avoid on your cellphone and in your social engagements diary. They are a drain on your resources and after having met them, you feel you have lost, rather than gained anything. On the other hand, have you noticed how one person bounding with energy can change the vibes of an entire room? All eyes are drawn towards someone who is full of dynamic ideas and a spirit that strives to do newer things, achieve greater heights. There is no time for depression here because all thoughts are taken up with present action and the thought of further action. You feel energised just meeting such a person and get carried away on a wave of goodwill and the fervour to do something. These are the people who seem to carry the world forward and most of the time you will find those at the top in all fields are the ones blessed with loads of energy.
There’s a buzz around such people, their minds are whirring with ideas that spill over and inspire others. The secret to movement is creating energy. Any vehicle, before it moves, floats or flies, has to necessarily create a spurt of energy that propels it forth. In order to fly, a bird creates energy by flapping its wings and taking a shot leap; to pounce on its prey, even a lion needs to regroup its energies and focus them on that one deadly leap. So, why then should it be any different for us? Those of us whose minds buzz and whirr with ideas are bound to take flight sooner than those who lack the requisite buzz. It is important to create an energy field around anything we do, a vital Life Force – be it prayer, work, charity, or even just plain good old fun. The only time to relax, go quiet and meditate is when you need to recoup your energy sources, think through and give them the right direction.
When given a project at work, for the required period of time, make it your main focus, work up a lot of energy and enthusiasm around it, whip your co-workers into a frenzy of creative energy and action. Involve everybody in the creative force, explore a few extra ideas, consult more people than you need to, listen a bit more carefully, discuss a little more intensely. Become attuned to all the energy that starts building around the project and go with the flow. Not only does your work become more pleasurable but it gives you back the energy you gave it, manifold!
What is the idea of doing a project as well as the next person does it? You should not rest easy till you have energised every last atom in your body and let your creative juices flow to ensure that what you added to the work is something nobody else could have given it. A simple task like cooking may bore you; how about bringing a new energy to it by looking up a few extra recipes, bringing in new elements, mixing ingredients, experimenting? The new energy you bring to the task not just makes it interesting for you but also leads to a newer, more exciting dish for your table.
Spur yourself on by throwing selfchallenges. Gardening? Why just limit yourself to watering plants and weeding out overgrowth? Up the antenna and challenge your creativity to create a special corner in your garden. Landscape it, dedicate an area to a special kind of a plant you like, coax the plants to grow the way you want them to. Become one with the creative energy of nature and see where the flow takes you.
Fengshui rides on the principle that everything around us is energy and there is a constant flow and exchange of energy between us and all around. So, Fengshui teaches us ways of creating happy energy in all things around us, so that we gain from that energy flow or qi. The Greek technical term for qi, coined by Aristotle, is energeia, loosely translated as something “being at work”. French philosopher Henri Bergsen’s term for the “vital impetus” was Elan vital. In Vedantic philosophy, the Sanskrit term for Prana as the vital, life sustaining force of living beings, is comparable to the Chinese qi.
In literature, Romantic poets have yearned to be a part of the process of Nature, looking upon the creative life process as something apart from them. George Bernard Shaw too spoke of a “Life Force” that directs evolution toward ultimate perfection by trial and error. As you give free rein to your energy and whip up the force of a tornado or the deadly focus of a whirlpool, no matter how small you consider a task, you will witness the chaos that precedes creation, the driving force of progress, of life, of development – the only way to move ahead and avoid stagnation. And you would have internalised it. And become an energiser!
It’s been over a year since I read an interesting story in Time magazine about “The minimalists”. And the story has stayed with me since. The story was about people who say they live more consciously and meaningfully. So the focus is less on material possessions and more on the important things: experiences, friends, travel and so on. Steve Jobs was a minimalist.
Interestingly, the movement seems to be catching the world over. USA led the way and now the trend is definitely catching on. China, and now Japan joins in as well. An interesting story in Reuters in June this year spoke about how the minimalistic movement in Japan in catching up.
A simple Google search on the topic will not just lead you to many minimalists but will also guide you on how to start living like one, to the various benefits of it all.
The idea, like most, of course, can be cultivated and moulded to suit oneself. For there are hard-core minimalists and then there are the ones who are merely interested in it.
Mahatma Gandhi, whose birth anniversary we celebrate on October 2, spoke of aprigraha, non-collection, several decades ago. After all, he was a visionary — a man whose vision and life values made not just India, but the world sit up and take notice. This frail-looking man had immense strength of thought and action.
But I’m not advocating minimalism here. I would, however, like to use this opportunity and gently urge you to focus on what is important in life. With the festive season around, let’s focus on experiences rather than possessions. I would say, go on a holiday with your family rather than burn crackers worth thousands. Or, before you buy something new, ask yourself if you really need it and if you do, give away something to someone that you haven’t used for the past four months. If you haven’t used it for that long, most times it means you can spare it.
Aparigraha can be answer to many problems in the society indeed.
Taking Bapu’s thoughts ahead we have our columnist, the very experienced, Air Commodore Prashant Dikshit (Retd) and his understanding of Bapu.
On our cover this time, we have the very talented Anushka Shankar. A brilliant performer and a young woman who lives life on her terms. Our take on the power of pink.
Focus on what is important and drive away the fluff!
A MAN IN New York City stands in a corner at a busy street intersection wearing a T-shirt that reads “If you give me $1, I won’t vote for Trump.” He makes quite a few bucks every day.
Amusing, but it gives a glimpse of the current political scenario in America. Trump is very unpopular. So is Hillary Clinton.
A political scenario marked by negativity. People are talking about how bad Trump is. And they are talking about how bad Hillary is. Many remain undecided or unsatisfied with the two major- party candidates. Many are reluctant to vote for either.
“I think in general, this reflects the high unfavourability ratings that Clinton and Trump have,” says Baldwin Wallace College political scientist Tom Sutton. “It’s almost as if people are hoping for one of them to dramatically change or someone else to show up, neither of which is going to happen”.
Many Democrats who wish Hillary was “better”, won’t vote or vote for Trump. And many republicans who hate Trump are going to vote for Hillary.
Supporters of both candidates are rather subdued and quiet. Hardly a month before the November 8 polls, neither yard signs nor car bumper stickers supporting either candidate are not visible this time.
The most striking and surprising thing about this election campaign season is indeed the rise of Donald Trump, although he still is the most hated and ridiculed candidate. He is being made fun of for his hair style, his outrageous statements, and his style of campaigning. He often makes insensitive or factually wrong statements that in the past would have destroyed a candidate’s prospects.
Yet, the more Trump is criticised, the more popular he seems to get. Latest polls show Hillary Clinton’s nationwide lead over Donald Trump has narrowed down to single digit. Voters on both sides increasingly see a Trump win as a possibility.
There are many reasons for Trump's popularity.
The first factor for the rise of Trump is Hillary Clinton. Although she’s liberal on most social issues, it’s a hard-sell to portray her as the candidate of change. Voters are in a populist mood and in a mood to turn to an outsider. That helps explain the appeal of Trump. Hillary Clinton is nearly as unpopular as Donald Trump, and she has yet to convince voters she is trustworthy.
People are sick of the political establishment. Polls show people don't like politicians, and Trump, as a first-time candidate, isn't a standard politician.
He isn't asking people for money because he can self-fund his campaign, unlike most politicians. Bradley Crate, who worked as chief financial officer for the Mitt Romney campaign in 2012, said: “The Trump campaign has changed the traditional campaign model.
Trump is confident, and Americans love confidence, even if it isn't backed up with substance, Stanford psychologist Jeffrey Pfeffer told The Washington Post that Trump "does it with more force. He does it with more energy. Energy is contagious."
His anti-illegal immigration stance is popular with people, especially the Republicans, who also tend to dislike illegal immigration, according to many polls. During the Republican National Convention in Cleveland in July, people chanted, "Build the wall! Build the wall!"
With wages stagnant, people are worried about their economic prospects. Trump's business success makes some voters feel confident about the future.
Many see the Trump family as a picture of the American Dream. When Donald Trump says that he wants to make America great again, they believe him.
Trump speaks at a 4th Grade level, which makes it easy to understand his message, wrote London’s The Independent.
His initial proposal to block all Muslims from entering the US found many supporters, although later he changed his stance, saying it was just a suggestion.
A fearful nation, watching Islamic terrorist attacks in Europe and America, is looking for someone who will be tough and unrelenting.
Toughness has been Trump’s brand, and in a tumultuous political season, transgression is his method. He had already promised to water-board terrorist suspects and “more than that”, despite international treaties against torture. He has vowed to “bomb the sh-t” out of the Islamic State fighters in Syria and elsewhere.
”He says what everyone wants to say but are afraid to say,” said a political commentator.
With terror attacks making headlines across the world, Americans feel uneasy and want to trust someone. They think Trump can fight Islamic terrorism more aggressively and effectively than Hillary can.
In other words, people believe he can take the bull by the horns.
His anti-trade remarks are popular in swing states such as Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Trump could win over independents who don't like Clinton. With only 43 per cent of voters saying they will back Clinton, Trump can win with undecided voters without having to take any of her votes, polls show.
Many voters are trying to grasp, as they believe, an unprecedented menace a Trump presidency could be.
Many Americans are so frustrated that they say, if Trump wins, they will move to Canada. Many Canadians have already joked that if Trump wins, they will put up a wall, and make Americans pay for it.
Increasingly, I find that labels don’t matter. I am just me. I have a heritage. I have a culture. I have a background. I am not an Indian, or a woman, or woman in her mid-30s, or this or that," says Anoushka Shankar, musician and daughter of late Pandit Ravi Shankar, the legendary musician.
But there is one which is hard to escape even for her -- that of being the daughter of her father, the famous musician. For Shankar, her father was also her teacher. “I can’t dissect the two. Someone doesn’t stop being one person to become the other. He was both,” she says emphatically.
Shankar has taken her father’s legacy forward. Last year, she was nominated for a Grammy Award for a fifth time for Home, the word related more to a musical homecoming. Shankar was making a classical album after many years as opposed to the collaborations that she has done in the recent past. “The experience was similar to what someone who has lived in a foreign country and has been speaking a second language for a long time would feel while slipping into her mother tongue. It felt natural and free,” she says. The album was homecoming in another sense as well. She played with her long-time collaborator Tanmay Bose. She was also recording in her newly set-up home studio.
Playing in tandem
Shankar also released her new album, Land of Gold, earlier this year, which was different from the other albums that she has done so far. “It is my most political album. The theme is predominantly influenced by the refugee crisis that has been in the news so prominently.” This album was also partially influenced by Shankar's previous album, Home. She found the contrast unjust and disparate that while she was talking about home, millions were fleeing wars and trying to take their babies to places of safety. “And it was this experience that seeped into the music and thematically dealt with aspects of a journey and search for a place of safety,” she adds.
While Home might have been an album of pure classical ragas, Shankar is known for many of the varied collaborations — with the likes of Lenny Kravitz, Thievery Corporation, Herbie Hancock and A R Rahman. The artist who lived and grew up in Delhi says: “Every time you work with someone you learn something. And when you are working with a legend they bring something that you can't bring. I take each one as a learning opportunity and also to have some fun.”
The beautiful collaboration with singer Norah Jones, her famous half sister in Traces of You is one major example of two people from completely different music traditions bonding over music. “We did have a relationship even though not a musical relationship. But on the day of the rehearsals we had a really organic, natural playing experience,” she remembers. She also attributes it to the fact that both of them collaborate a lot with other people. “So we both listen and we both find our own space. And since there is a relationship there is already some trust and ease,” she adds.
Shankar marked her debut at 13, and was accompanied by tabla maestro, Ustad Zakir Hussain. “Of course I was nervous. I was a teenager. It was Siri Fort. There were 2,500 people there. It was a big day. It was terrifying. But that was 20 years ago,” she speaks staccato sentences while remembering the experience which seems to be strongly etched in her memory.
From a stage debut, she went on to record her first album Anoushka when she was just 16. “It was surreal to stop school for a week and make a record or even to go on tour and then return to school as a normal kid. Going back in time, maybe I would not have done it in the same way. If it would have been my kid I would have let him be a kid a little longer,” she says as the protective parent in her comes to the fore. But in hindsight she admits that the unusual experiences taught her and made her who she is. “Moreover, once you do something by choice, there is a different understanding and commitment to it,” she adds.
Some right notes, some off key
The world of music (and generally as well) has changed drastically, since her debut in 1995. “When I played there were still concert reviews and music journalists who commented on how I had played a raga. I don’t think that there are so many music journalists with newspapers any longer. The report reads more like she wore a red salwar kameez and this celebrity sat in the front row,” she says with a laugh
Another change is, of course, the almost complete collapse of the recording industry. When Shankar marked her debut, she recalls it was the last few years of the old way of doing things. “There were major labels, conventional system of CDs and even cassette tapes,” she says.
But changes have also lead to positive effects. She likes the direct relationship that she now has with people through social media. “Listeners directly hear what I am saying and that seems to have its lovely side.” And it also has other benefits. During a tour, Shankar's tanpura broke in Paris. She shared it on her FB wall and within a minute, there were a 100 responses linking in Indian musicians or just people who had a tanpura. “We had a tanpura within three hours,” she says with a smile.
However, the changes also mean that mediums such as Youtube and Spotify share performances that have hit many artists hard. “My concert from Spain has 2 million hits on YouTube. But I didn't get any money from that. It would be great to sell my CD two million times,” she says.
While the collapse of the music industry meant that many of the artists are constantly on tour, Shankar on the contrary has cut down on touring in the past four-five years, thanks to her children. While her children travel with her, she says it is more because she doesn't want to leave them. Her tours are not more than two weeks long; earlier she was often on the road for two to three months.
But the UK-based artist does incorporate some amount of touring in her calendar. In December last year she was on a fourcity tour in India along with her director husband Joe Wright (director of films such as Pride & Prejudice and Atonement and two sons, Zubin and Mohan. In August, she performed at different festivals, including the Helsinki Festival at Helsinki, Shambala Festival in Diseworth and at CarFest, Freefolk — the last two in the UK. This October, she would be touring Europe and the US giving as many as 16 different performances at different venues.
Looking back
Shankar recounts some really amazing experiences while on tour. She performed at the Boom Festival in Portugal to an audience of 40,000 people in 2014. “I sometimes play at festivals but I don’t always get the audience that is dancing while I play — which is really beautiful when it does happen.”
At the other end of the spectrum is her experience at the Globe Theatre. “It is an intimate, beautiful, small venue where one can play to the back of the room,” she says. Shankar had designed and curated a festival around Rabindranath Tagore as she felt this was the obvious, appropriate theme for Shakespeare’s Globe.
Shankar alters the tone of the music based on venues. There is a marked difference while playing at a very intimate chamber hall as compared to a festival. During Boom Festival, which is an outdoor location, she changed the percussion and set it a bit high.
However, she does not change her music to cater to different countries. “This implies that audiences all over one country are the same — which is not true. If I play at the Dover Lane Music Conference, for instance, versus if I play a corporate concert in a hotel banquet hall, the audience is different. There is a really knowledgeable audience in one place and a less knowledgeable audience who are listening to have fun and enjoy it. Neither is wrong. But they are different,” she says.
An essential part of any musician's life is a lot of riyaaz. But Shankar does not have any fixed number of hours for the same. So in between riyaaz, tours, and creating albums, how does a musician achieve work-life balance? She is quick to retort: “Do you ask any men that question? Do men answer it? I don’t think there is anything as balance. Every day is different as a parent has to know that everything has to be flexible. I make a plan and an agenda but then that has to turn upside down completely. A good support network is the key,” she says as she walks off to join her children, slipping seamlessly from a musician into the role of a parent. Yes clearly, she doesn’t want to be boxed into a label.
With the festive season around the corner, it makes good visual sense to capture these images for posterity. It is true that with smartphones that have decent quality cameras, we can capture that quick image. But if you are looking for a better and more professional picture quality then read on…
I am reviewing the Nikon D5200 DSLR camera. Now by DSLR I mean digital single-lens reflex camera (also called a digital SLR or DSLR) is a digital camera that combines the optics and the mechanisms of a single-lens reflex camera with a digital imaging sensor, as opposed to photographic film. Basically an all digital camera with the quality and ease of digital.
The beauty around is appreciated best when it is captured perfectly in a frame. The Nikon D5200 DSLR camera allows you to do that (though a little bit of a ‘photographer’s eye’ would be an added advantage).
The camera has the ability to shoot images at 24.1MegaPixels with the help of its AutoFocus-S 18-55 mm VR II Kit Lens.
With a good low light sensitivity it has a ISO 100 to ISO 6400 range which is fine as this is a entry level DSLR, It also has a inbuilt — 39-point AF system, the camera is simply the best option to bring your artistic endeavors to life.
The Nikon D5200 Digital SLR Camera has 3-inch vari-angle in high resolution, LCD monitor, that helps you to compose your shots perfectly, even if you are planning to take it from difficult and unusual angles.
The camera has a built-in 5fps burst shooting mode and the latest image processor, Active D-Lighting, 3D Focus tracking, High Dynamic Range mode, 2.016-pixel RGB metering sensor and 7 different options for giving special effects to still photography as well as the video that you shoot. A next-generation Graphic user interface design among others is also there to help you capture your composed picture.
It also has additional accessories such as a remote trigger so that you can take pictures through the remote and get into the family portrait at ease.
The camera body is available in black and red, which is quite striking, if I may add.
As you go along using your camera more often for portraits, landscape pictures, it will be a good investments to buy some more additional lenses to give you more zoom and framing options.
It comes with a good camera bag but you may want to upgrade to a bigger one soon to keep your additional lenses too. I would suggest Lowe pro camera bags which are very well designed and sturdy.
In all at about a price point of 39000 + taxes. The Nikon D5200 is a good entry level DSLR.
Happy clicking! And a great festive season!
ON AUGUST 15, 1947, the headlines of the Bombay (now Mumbai ) Edition of The Times of India read “Birth of India’s freedom”. On the same cover page a small box had also intoned “Mr Gandhi to fast today”. In the midst of an all-pervasive frenzied enthusiasm engulfing the city of Bombay, in hindsight, this act by the Mahatma may appear as a paradox. But we need to look at the construct of the great man. On August 15, Gandhi had marked the day with a 24-hour fast, prayer, and spinning yarn. “My way of celebrating great events, such as today's, is to thank God for it and, therefore, to pray,” he had written to his Quaker friend Agatha Harrison later. When C Rajagopalachari visited and congratulated Gandhi for restoring peace in the city of Calcutta (now Kolkata) where Gandhi was fasting, he said he will not be satisfied “until Hindus and Muslims felt safe in one another’s company and returned to their own homes to life as before.” Only a year ago in 1946, he had said “It is not the fast itself, but what it implies that matters”.
Gandhi firmly believed that “There can be no room for selfishness, anger, lack of faith or impatience in a pure fast....Infinite patience, firm resolve, singlemindedness of purpose, perfect calm, and no anger must of necessity be there. But since it is impossible for a person to develop all these qualities all at once, no one who has not devoted himself to following the laws of Ahimsa should undertake a Satyagrahi fast”.
Professor Nagindas Sanghvi had seemingly tried to explain the conundrum when he said that “Whilst He (Gandhi ) chose to call his biography “My experiments with Truth,” it is very difficult, if not impossible, to project Gandhi in few minutes. Sixty (nearly eighty now) years after his death, he still remains a sort of enigma. The flood of copious literature on Gandhi does nothing to solve the mystery”. The Professor was addressing Jewish Services Association. Madison [WIS.] US on “Understanding Gandhi” at Lechayim USA,
But Gandhi had said “My life is my message”.
The world today hails him as a Mahatma — a great soul — a Saint. Gandhi always resented the title and found it intensely painful. He never cared for any beatification and insisted that he was an ordinary man who was trying his level best for the realisation of the divine presence.
Gandhi was not born a saint but chiseled himself into one by intensely agonising experiments in austerity and discipline.
Unlike most of us, Gandhi continued to grow and change until the last moment of his life and he never worried about contradicting himself. “In my search for truth, I have never cared about consistency.” Like Emerson, he rejected consistency as the virtue of small minds. He was bold enough to proclaim that, “If my readers find any inconsistency in my views, they should reject the older ones and believe in the later as my views might have changed.”
Then why are we typecasting him now? We must find a meaning of his messages in the contemporary world. Some of his quotes are deep and profound and most likely to show the Gandhian way. I produce them for our benefit.
• “Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning”.
• “The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world's problems”.
• “If you don’t find God in the next person you meet, it is a waste of time looking for him further”.
• “When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it...always”.
• “I will give you a talisman…Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man whom you may have seen and ask yourself if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him”.
• “As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world... as in being able to remake ourselves”.
• “If we are to teach real peace in this world, and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with the children.”
• “Whatever you do may seem insignificant to you, but it is most important that you do it”.
• “It’s the action, not the fruit of the action, that's important. You have to do the right thing. It may not be in your power, may not be in your time, that there’ll be any fruit. But that doesn’t mean you stop doing the right thing. You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result”.
• “Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment. Full effort is full victory”.
• “Consciously or unconsciously, every one of us does render some service or other. If we cultivate the habit of doing this service deliberately, our desire for service will steadily grow stronger, and will make, not only our own happiness, but that of the world at large”.
October 2 is the Mahatma’s birthday. It is time to remember him and what he said.
The Goods and Services Tax (GST), slated to be implemented from 1 April 2017, is looking like on its course for a timely enforcement with the GST Council showing signs of maturity and agreeing on a couple of thorny issues. The meeting of GST Council, comprising of the Union finance minister, MoS finance in charge of revenue department and finance ministers of all the states, was expected to be stormy given the diversity of opinions and interests of states. However, it turns out the first couple of meetings — on 22nd and 23rd September — were more cordial than expected.
There was consensus on at least three issues — subsuming of cesses under GST, fixing threshold for businesses to come under GST and demarcation of administrative control. The Council has agreed to subsume all (indirect tax) cesses under the GST. That means come 1 April 2017 (this deadline still remains in doubt despite the promising early signs), cesses like Swachh Bharat Cess, Krishi Kalyan and numerous other sector-specific cesses on excise duties may cease to exit. However, a substantial amount of cesses that are levied on petroleum products — Cesses on petroleum products alone account for Rs 88,000 crore of around Rs 2 lakh crore that the government collects from different cesses — may remain untouched as petroleum products have been kept outside the purview of GST.
Nonetheless, subsuming of other cesses under GST not only ensures that the industry is spared of the additional burden but also lesser number cess means more equitable distribution of revenue between states and the Centre. It must be mentioned here that the amount collected through cesses goes exclusively to the Centre’s coffer and is not shared with the states.
The second important issue on which the Council has reached a consensus is on avoiding dual control over assesses. As per the agreement reached in the Council, the states would have the sole jurisdiction of assesses with Rs 1.5 crore or less turnover in a year while the Centre would have control over those whose annual turnover is over Rs 1.5 crore. Another important decision taken in the Council meet is the Centre retaining the administrative control over service taxes. Though this could be a temporary arrangement, this is important given the fact that it would save services companies from registering separately with all the states and Union Territories. Besides, it also takes care of the fact that state government tax officials are not familiar with taxing services and that could lead to a lot of disputes in future.
Clear demarcation of administrative powers of states and the centre would not only save businesses with dealing with two sets of tax officials, but also ensure smooth transition from the current regime to the GST regime. The third and probably the most contentious of the three was fixing the revenue threshold for businesses to be under the GST. The government’s initial proposal was to fix a threshold limit of Rs 10 lakh for the businesses to come under the GST. However, many states later had suggested Rs 25 lakh as the threshold saying it would save many small traders from the pain of GST compliance. But few states like Uttar Pradesh were opposed to increasing the threshold as they feared losing out on revenue.
The Council, after deliberation with all the members, finally settled for Rs 20 lakh — call it the middle ground that the council finally settled for. So far so good!
The final act
However, the toughest challenge ahead for the Council is to build a consensus among members or the rates and slabs. Going by early indications, it looks like there would be not be just three rates — 12 per cent on merit goods, 17-19 per cent standard rates and 40 per cent demerit rates as recommended by the GST Committee—but more rates. The government has given an indication that the GST to begin with could be 4-6 tiered structures with rates ranging from 8-50 per cent. While the government is calling it just a stop-gap arrangement to ensure that inflation does not shoot up with the advent of GST. It has indicated that the aim would be to move to a uniform standard rate but with a time lag.
Whatever the rate structure the Council decides, it would be a painstaking process, and may see a lot of negotiations and bargaining. The process itself could be messy given that the council needs to also decide the categorization of the goods and the rate of tax to be levied on them. They also have to decide the number of exempted goods — there are over 300 exempted goods under the existing regime.
Fixing the law
Fixing the Model GST law would itself take some time given the number of the ambiguities and flaws experts have pointed out. Without addressing these gaps the government cannot expect a seamless transition to the new system. There are many issues that need to be addressed. For example, the Model law says that the input credit to a taxpayer would be available only on a matching concept basis, which means that unless each player in the chain — from raw material supplier to the consumer — pays its taxes, others in the chain cannot get the input credit for the tax paid.
This has been done apparently to ensure compliance at each level and stop leakage and avoidance, but it necessarily means that entities in the chain would get their tax credits after a time lag and therefore, could face working capital issues.
Another issue is that of taxability of supplies even without consideration. This means that supply of goods and services, say, between two branch offices of a bank, would also be taxed under the GST. This should create a lot of concern for businesses.
Industries and businesses are hoping that these issues are resolved before finalizing the GST laws. Now all eyes would be on Council meetings slated on October 17, 18 and 19, when the Council would befinalising the rates and slabs. Although many challenges remain before implementation of GST, the most heartening fact is that the state governments and the Centre have put forward the right steps and given the right signals for a cordial resolution of issues at hand. What is even more heartening is the fact that the government is going by the roadmap it had laid down after the passage of the GST Bill in Rajya Sabha. If the government continues to move at this speed, we might as well be able to see GST being in place by April 1, 2017.
Keeping trim during Diwali would seem to be a paradox because mithai and Diwali go hand-in-hand. You exchange sweets as gifts and they certainly aren't low in calories. Keeping fit is also difficult because shopping trips, traffic, and fatigue disrupt your regular fitness routine. Does this mean you should give up and resign yourself to gaining, on an average, seven pounds every year? Not if you consider these suggestions for a healthy and guilt-free festival season.
Eat only those foods you really enjoy: Special (usually high calorie) foods are a part of this special season. Food plays a big part in holiday celebrations and parties. It would be miserable to have to gnaw on carrot sticks while watching everyone else descend on the food-laden family table. Let yourself go and join in the festivities. However, limit yourself to eating only those foods you really enjoy. Do not use the season as an excuse to over-indulge in everything else.
Use the same control when it comes to all those food goodies you receive as gifts. If you don’t really like cakes, you don’t have to eat them. Give them away at the office or to charitable institutions. Keep and enjoy only those gifts you really like to eat. Don’t waste your calories.
Watch out for emotional eating: Diwali can be a very stressful time. Watch out for stuffing your mouth to relieve that stress. Use other means to relax such as cleaning and decorating the house.
Get enough sleep: It’s easy to lack sleep during the festival, especially if you are a card or party freak. Some studies have shown that people who are short on sleep, eat more. It’s as though the body is trying to obtain energy from food that was meant to come from rest.
Have realistic expectations: Diwali is not the time to try and lose weight. Consider yourself successful just to maintain your weight.
Beware the “all-or-nothing” attitude: Diwali time can be deadly if you have the “all-ornothing” attitude towards food. So what if you succumbed to mithai? It’s not the end of the world. Balance it in your next meal.
Create lower calorie versions of high calorie favorites: Consider modifying some of your favorite recipes to make them lower in total calorie content. Lessen the amount of sugar by one-fourth of what is required. Most people will not even notice the difference. Or use skim milk instead of full-cream milk in your preparations.
Eat low-calorie at home, high-calorie when eating out: To enjoy all the rich food that is served at parties without putting too much weight, eat low calorie meals at home to even out the total damage.
Modify your fitness routine: You need exercise now more than any other time during the year to manage stress levels and to burn off all those excess calories that come disguised as gifts from well-meaning friends. Instead of not exercising at all, try modifying your usual routine by cutting down on either the frequency or the duration of your workouts. Not only will this maintain your fitness, but it will also help calm your frazzled nerves.
Instead of not exercising at all, try modifying your usual routine by cutting down on either the frequency or the duration of your workouts. If you are used to working out daily, try cutting it down to two to three times a week. If you are used to one-hour workouts, try doing only thirty minutes. The whole point is that you should continue to do some exercise instead of none at all. Not only will this maintain your fitness till the end of year, but it will also help calm your frazzled nerves.
“Lamha lamha kisi jadu ka fasana hoga...” wrote eminent poet and lyricist Jan Nisar Akhtar about his son when he was born, giving Javed Akhtar his pet name (“Jadu”) and also prophesying the talent of the eminent scriptwriter, lyricist and poet.
Padma Bhushan Javed Akhtar, whose lineage can be traced back to seven generations of renowned Urdu writers, poets and freedom fighters, is also a respected social commentator and activist admired for his secular, liberal and progressive values, who has written a large number of poems against communalism, social injustice, national integration and for women’s rights.
Just like his films and lyrics, Bollywood veteran Akhtar has had a well-rounded life, peppered with moments laced with all the makings of one of his blockbusters — emotion, comedy, romance, drama, ennui and resolution
The beginnings
Javed Akhtar’s grandfather was the formidable Muzter Khairabadi and another famous Urdu poet, Majaz, was his mother’s brother. His parents were also professors at the Hamidia College in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. As a young lad, Akhtar went to Cambridge School, Bhopal. He graduated from Safiya College, Bhopal in 1964. "Please allow me to revel in the glorious tradition of poetry that runs in my family. In my teens, I could recite thousands of couplets of several writers. There was so much wizardry with words at home, that by the time I was 18 or 19, I was aware I could write. And yet, until the age of 31 or 32, I never wrote at all!” reveals Akhtar.
When Akhtar arrived in Mumbai in 1964, he was a homeless man without any food or shelter. He struggled to find work in the Hindi film industry. He used to sleep under trees, or in corridors, until he took shelter in Kamal Amrohi Studio in Jogeshwari. He got his first major break in the year 1969 in the movie Seeta aur Geeta. It was on this set that he met Honey Irani and later married her.
“I came to the film industry when I was 19, after my graduation. I wrote my first film when I was 20. From 20 to 35, I was a scriptwriter. But at 36, I was more interested in lyric writing. And for 34 years I wrote lyrics and poems,” says Javed Saab, summing up his career. But there are several events that changed the course of Akhtar’s life.
The unbeatable pair
Salim Khan met Akhtar for the first time while filming Sarhadi Lootera. Akhtar recollects how the film was a turning point in his own life.
“Salim was an actor and I was a clapper boy who was later made the dialogue-writer of the film as director S M Sagar was unable to find one,” informs Akhtar.
He also recounts the tale of his first-ever script narration. He had gone to a producer called Baboobhai Bhanji, having got an appointment with many recommendations. “He listened to the script without interruption. After finishing, I was very nervous and respectfully enquired what he thought. ‘Darling, your story is good, but there is a big risk involved...this hasn’t been used in any film yet.” Adding a jocular post-script, Javed Saab says, “Actually, I never wrote a story that has not come before. I do not believe there is any story that does not derive from something older, except the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Originality is the art of concealing the source.”
The writing partnership between Khan and Akhtar, which began in 1971, managed to redefine the course of Hindi cinema in a single decade. The innovation they are usually credited with is thematic: the figure of the Angry Young Man, whose intense rage against the system had a starkly different tenor from an older Hindi film hero, whose disillusionment was in a more soulful register (think of Pyaasa). Salim-Javed's influences were many — from James Hadley Chase novels to Ibn-e-Safi’s Urdu detective stories. "The script for Majboor, for instance, was an emotional reworking of a thriller called Zig-Zag, in which a dying insurance executive frames himself for a murder in such a way that his wife and daughter can benefit from the reward money. Instead of a wrong diagnosis, as in Zig-Zag, Amitabh Bachchan in Majboor is dramatically cured by an operation, but the resolution is very similar,” confesses Akhtar.
Even with Sholay, the most famous film that Salim and Javed wrote, the duo have never shied away from speaking of their sources of inspiration. “The coin toss scene to decide the course of action was inspired by a card scene in a film called Garden of Evil; the massacre of the Thakur's family was inspired by Once Upon a Time in the West; while Viru’s famous tank scene drew on an Anthony Quinn film called The Secret of Santa Vittoria. The main idea of convicts hired as vigilantes to defend a village wasn’t new either — Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai , reworked into The Magnificent Seven, had already spawned such Hindi films as Mera Gaon Mera Desh.
As a script-writing duo, Salim ideated stories and Javed helped him with dialogues. Javed wrote his scripts in Urdu which were then written out in Hindi by his assistant. Another assistant would type out a one-line summary in English. SalimJaved also took it upon themselves to ensure that their contribution was publicised, often putting their money where their mouth was. They were, perhaps, the first screenwriters to pay for trade advertisements in their own names. “After the success of Zanjeer, we decided to increase our price to Rs 2 lakh and did not sell a script for nine months.” But eventually they did and by the end, their fee matched that of the top-grossing star in the film, Amitabh Bachchan.
His own person
After his split with Salim Khan, Javed Akhtar was not sure the direction his life would take. Recalling those days, Akhtar says, “I was a closet poet and never got my poems published, except for once in DharamYug, that also thanks to Dharamvir Bharati. I never went for mushairas. I recited poetry for my friends, one of whom was Yash Chopra and he was the one who pushed me to write the lyrics for Silsila. I on my part tried my best not to do it, but Yash Chopra would not take ‘no’ for an answer." And thus, Javed Akhtar wrote Dekha Ek Khwaab for Silsila. A new phase had begun.
“A script for a film is tedious work. It is akin to running a marathon. A verse or a lyric is like a 100-yard run. But what gets me going is that any kind of writing is not lonely. It is either the characters of the story or the thoughts that race in your mind that keep you good company," says Javed Akhtar. That was the beginning of his first published work of poetry, Tarkash.
Writing, above all else
Javed Akhtar says he has always been inspired by great poets and lyrists such as Shakeel Badayuni, Sahir Ludhianvi, Shailendra and his father-in-law, Kaifi Azmi. “I like all of them, but I like Shailendra and Sahir (Ludhianvi) the most. They are my favorites. Sahir was the first writer who brought thought to the film song. There is no big gap between his literary poetry and and his songs. Many of his songs are pure literature.”
Of the several hats that Akhtar dons, the one that allows him to be a writer, a poet is closest to this wordsmith's heart. And more his verses, than his lyrics. “While I remember all my poetry, I don’t remember most of my film songs, perhaps, because that is work that I am paid for. It is art yes, I have done it, and yet I do not feel that attached to it,” confesses Akhtar.
So is there any favourite work? Javed Saab is quick to reply, “One can draw a certain amount of satisfaction that your work was appreciated, but I cannot revel in the fact that I have done it all.”
There, perhaps, has not been someone as prolific in literature as well as mass culture as Javed Akhtar. “I don't intend to be boastful, but Shabana had once written in the preface of one of my books that if my producers come to know how quickly I can write, they would probably stop paying me!” laughs Javed Akhtar, who also insists that the source of his inspiration is “mostly terror.” With a straight face, and in all earnestness, he says, “When I'm frightened and I won’t be able to do something, and there is no time left, it is only then my mind works. Ek ladki ko dekha was the toughest song I wrote. I brought the situation upon myself when I suggested that a song where the boy catches a glimpse of a girl on a bus can be created. I was asked to go ahead and write the song. I forgot all about it when I was asked to meet R D Burman. A thought came to me - that maine aisa socha hai ki ek ladki ko dekha to kaisa laga. This was pathbreaking because I had suggested we use only similes. R D Burman asked me to write a stanza immediately. And to my surprise, it was easy and once he had composed the tune of the first stanza in less than a minute, he asked me to go back and write the full song. That took time. Because I did not want any obvious similes that would convey an admiration that was tinged with any kind of objectification. I wanted it to be pure, almost like devotion. That song has 21 similes — that was my real test.”
Masses or classes, this wordsmith appeals to all groups!