Do we have a Tibet in India?

"Free Tibet" slogan is in. Boycott Beijing games, do not carry the Olympic torch..

So Girish Shahane asks in Times of India today: "Free Tibet. And What about Kashmir?"

I found many of the arguments made in the article interesting, and it is true that "the problem of Jammu and Kashmir is the elephant in the room which Indians debating Tibet are doing their darndest to ignore" and that In India, "there is no public or political pressure" to resolve such issues that plague us. Below are some more lines from the article for those who do not have time to read all of it.

"..those who support the idea of an independent Tibet are misguided, and Indians who do so are hypocritical to boot.."

".. The former foreign minister Yashwant Sinha argued we should intervene to secure Tibet's freedom: "We want good relations with China. I am not saying let's have war with China. But if we reach a point of conflict over Tibet, we should be prepared for that eventuality.."

"..Kashmir exacts a toll even when it is not in the headlines. There are hundreds of thousands of refugees displaced from their homes. There's the daily harassment of ordinary citizens fomenting resentment. And there's the expense of maintaining a massive security presence in the region.

The Siachen misadventure alone costs us some 1,500 crore rupees a year, and has led to the death of perhaps 2,000 Indian army men.."

".. Pakistan, which in the past has played a largely negative role, favouring insurrection over negotiation, has altered its stance, and offered a number of creative options for the state's future.

Our neighbour is looking beyond the binary of victory and defeat, and so should we.."

[This is not the first time parallels are being drawn between the two issues. There was a game of words between Pakistan and India about five years back but the context was different. It was at a time when Vajpayee said on his visit to China that Tibet was an integral part of China.]

Tingya among awards

We had talked about a small Marathi film titles Tingya earlier on this blog [old post: Tingya does it..].

Now that Tingya has won the best Indian film award and critics award in the international category at the Mumbai International film festival (news : TINGYA pips CHAK DE INDIA, TZP) in addition to best Marathi film award at Pune film festival, the Aravindan award and Lankesh award the best first film by a director, Tingya is not a small film any more. Director Mangesh Hadawale received the Aravindan award today at a function held at Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala.

Cheers to Tingya, cheers to Mangesh!

When Kottayam woke up in the night

Here is another one on women's day. Pictures of Malayali women reclaiming the night hanging out in the city and doing streetplays and songs. Keralatthil mathramalla Kottayatthu polum orupakshe aadyamaayi:-)



To view them closer, visit this album.

Chengara and Deshabhimani's turn as Manhappathram

It was not long ago that one prominent CPM leader in Kerala, himself the general manager of the party's Malayalam newspaper Deshabhimani, called Mathrubhumi a yellow journal (Manhappathram).

Now it is Deshabhimani's turn to do some real yellow journalism. After Kairali and People TV channels (they claim not to be party channels, and let us buy that) spied on some men and women late night at a vigil extending support to Chengara land struggle and aired some hot clippings that featured some of my friends, Deshabhimani today carries on its front page scenes from those clippings.

The news piece also claims that it was found that those who came for the struggle are Naxal, Maoist activists feigning themselves as human rights activists.

CPM knows that it may not be too long before Chengara becomes another Nandigram so this could be just a frustrationary measure. If they really think they have won some points with this one, I can only wish them get well soon.

[The news is available on their web edition right now here].

Below is a trailer of a video on Chengara struggle, for those who did not know about it.

Women's Day Dance

Nadia and Sreejitha celebrating Women's day. Nadia's mom Pushpa handles the camera. Aadil makes a guest appearance.



Another one, shot by me.

"Was this film funded by ISI?"

That was what one TV journalist asked to P T Kunhi Mohammed, the director of Malayalam film `Paradesi' at a meet the press program organized in connection with a screening of the film.

Could be he was trying to act smart, or just being stupid. But it kind of explains the film's absence from Indian Panorama at Goa festival.

(Paradesi illustrates the fate of the partition's in-betweens who face continuous torture from both Paki and Indian states. Escorting the guys all the way to the border and leaving them in No Man's land and all.. We have seen many partition films -- recently 1947 Earth and Khamosh Pani -- but this post-partition film set in 2007 is not a repeat of those. I remember newspaper reports about one Pak citizen dying in our district a few years back after running between the countries for decades. As Mohanlal said at the screening, this could happen in any place in the world where there's conflict. . The film has a haunting effect, despite dragging at some places. And some good music.)