I have spent the past couple of weeks in the dungeons of the corporate world, hence the neglect of my blog and all other important albeit commercially non-productive activities.

There are two films that have been coming to my mind in the last few days. In the Company of Men and Company. The latter because I am working for what boils down to gangsters in suits, and the former because the corporate world is as pathological as Neil LaBute portrays it in his 1997 film.

The project I have been on has already cost what a hardworking office person in the company makes in a year, just the sort of person the folks in finance (the folks involved in this particular project) figure out ways to fire with impunity. However, it has been morbidly fascinating to watch the power politics that executives have to play in order to avoid losing their jobs. Enormous amounts of money and resources are being wasted so that people can maintain their positions. Stupidity, mediocrity and fear is the stuff of daily life in these places. I remember being told when I was in school, how this was the “real world,” I suppose they meant, the more dull and idiotic it is, the more you suffer, hence it more “real.”

Whose Children are These is about three Muslim youths and the impact of post 9/11 paranoia on their lives. Now you can watch it online! (unfortunately on Windows Player).

It is up for an audience vote on Cinequest, so please go and take a look and vote. A message from the director:

Out of hundreds of films submitted, “Whose Children Are These?” was selected for this competition.  The top three short films (based on total votes) will earn a spot at the Cinequest Film Festival, one of the premiere film festivals in the United States.  I would appreciate your help!!

 This is also a terrific opportunity to view the film, in the comfort of your own home (I think you need windows media player), if you have not already seen it.  Please forward to interested parties.

Here’s how you do it:

1)   During the period of February 24- March 1, 2005, log onto www.cinequestonline.org
2)   You will have to register with Cinequest Online. There is no fee. 
3) Go to the “Viewers Voice Award Competition” 
4) Under “New Shorts” Look  for “Whose Children Are These?” Watch the film, it is 27 minutes long and vote your opinion of the film.  You can also write a review.  It’s as simple as that! 
5)   Spread the word.  Tell ALL of your friends and family to do the same!!!

 
THANK YOU VERY MUCH, Sincerely, Theresa

Bollywood Terror is going screen at the 2005 United States Super 8 Film + Digital Video Festival as part of Termite TV’s project on Terror.

Sunday, February 20, 2005 at 7:00 p.m.

Scott Hall #123, Rutgers University
New Brunswick, New Jersey

$8=General; $7=Students+Seniors; $6=Film Co-op Friends
Information: (732) 932-8482; www.njfilmfest.com

In the wake of the Kanchi murder scandal and the gun licensing pontiffs in Uttar Pradesh, comes another lurid tale, this time from the Swaminarayan Temple in Gujrat. Times of India reports that a priest has been arrested for trafficking in women:

Among those arrested is Junagadh Swaminarayan temple’s Swami Bhakti Swarup who was reportedly caught having sex with a woman in a CD which got exposed in the media.

Three others have been arrested for making these CDs and for luring married women with the promises of children and material success. The evidence gathered includes (Rediff):

Several books containing nude photographs of women, a copy of Vatsayana’s Kamasutra, condoms, contraceptive pills and sleazy literature…

Like everything else there is a conspiracy behind all this:

The videos were being used by two factions trying to gain supremacy over the Vadtal sect.

Having found temples to be generally unpleasant places where you get pinched and felt up, I am not surprised at all. But I am surprised at how banal all this is. Home porn is the biggest market in amateur photography, where perfectly nice middle class people get their jollies, and most people are insecure enough to need sex manuals. But then a scandal is a scandal.

One of the annoying things about having a cellphone in India was the amount of sms spam one got. However, I am alone in my negativity about text-messaging. The Times of India reports:

Behind every successful man, it is said, there is a woman. But in the case of Karan Sachdev there are a lot of them.

Thanks to the crowd of girlfriends, the overactive Delhi college student is Capital’s champion in an unusual sport: SMSing or Mobile texting.

Sachdev seems to have broken the Guinness record of 67 seconds by typing the following message in 66 seconds:

The razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human.

My favorite part of the story is where the parents come in:

Karan’s fascination with cell phones were a great cause of worry to his parents. “My father couldn’t believe it. We always got into arguments every month end when my father had to clear my bills. “He thought I neglected my career. Hopefully the fights would take a backseat for a while,” says Karan

Karan changes his mobile every two months. His current handset, Nokia’s N-Gage QD, which has 25 games, is his latest obsession.

Ah! for a middle class Indian adolescence, where your parents foot your bills, and you don’t have students loans.

Charles Sobhraj has a new lawyer:

Controversial French lawyer Isabelle Coutant-Peyre, who represented Carlos (known as Carlos the Jackal), one of the world’s most wanted terrorists before people had heard of Osama bin Laden, and then married him, has a reputation for defending unusual cases.

Coutant-Peyre was hired by Sobhraj’s wife, whom she refused to name.

A bill is being proposed in New Zealand to prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity:

The member’s bill would protect hundreds of inter-sex New Zealanders - those born hermaphrodite but reassigned the wrong sex - and thousands of transgender people, Ms Beyer said. The member’s bill would protect hundreds of inter-sex New Zealanders - those born hermaphrodite but reassigned the wrong sex - and thousands of transgender people, Ms Beyer said. The bill would halt any barriers to welfare, justice, education, health and employment for the “minority within a minority” section of New Zealand.

The bill has been proposed by Georgina Beyer, possibly the world’s first transgendered member of parliament. Georgina is a Maori with a largely rural, white, conservative constituency.

Last year, PBS aired a documentary on Georgina Beyer. It chronicles her remarkable journey from being a farm boy to performer, prostitute, the mayor of her town and finally member of parliament.

Opposition MPs are vigorously protesting this bill on a sartorial basis:

“I think it is bizarre in the extreme to contemplate that cross dressing will be an approved form of dress in the military, in the police and in the prison service.”

With a state of emergency having been declared in Nepal, the Nepalese media is thankful to have a non-political story to follow, according to New Kerala:

In its search for “safe” stories ever since King Gyanendra declared an emergency Feb 1, the media has rediscovered Charles Sobhraj who has been serving a life term in a Kathmandu prison since last year.

The Himalyan Times reports that Sobhraj’s lawyer filed a petition at the United Nations Committee on Human Rights in Geneva accusing Nepali authorities of violating her client’s rights.

One of the few books I managed to pick up in India this time was the graphic novel Corridor by Sarnath Banerjee. Its jacket says:

“In the heart of Lutyens’ Delhi sits Jehangir Rangoonwalla, enlightened dispenser of tea, wisdom, and second-hand books. Among his customers are Brighu, a postmodern Ibn Batuta looking for obscure collectibles and a love life; Digital Dutta who lives mostly in his head, torn between Karl Marx and an H1-B visa; and the newly-married Shintu, looking for the ultimate aphrodisiac in the seedy by-lanes of old Delhi.”

The book pretty much delivers what it says it will, including, “….the alienation and fragmented reality of urban life through an imaginative alchemy of text and image.” In effect, as we follow the different characters, the threads of their narratives create a gestalt without really impacting each other. A strength if you are aiming for a composite portrait. But not so good if all the threads must somehow create a progressive narrative. Not a failing, as far as I am concerned.

What was striking for me was how the novel captured the sense of being a Bengali in a very Northern city. Its a very particular experience, being a skinny, short Bengali in a city full of people who are bigger boned and earthier than one’s family. Generally it results in neurosis of one sort or another, which the book captures very well.

I am sure Banerjee has no intention of speaking for me, or that the book should be read in such essentialist terms, but its just how specific the book feels to me as a short, Bengali (not so thin) reader. Perhaps its because it describes all the spots I loved in the city, the bookseller on the outer circle of Connaught Place, the area around Jama Masjid, and the ads for Sablok clinic as one went into Daryagunj, which brings me to my favorite parts in the novel, which are about all the gupt-rog hakims (hidden disease doctors) who can cure anything from impotence, to syphilis and the lack of a male heir.

A while ago, on a research trip with my pal Lalit Vachani, for some reason we came across several vaids and hakims in Uttar Pradesh. On talking to one of them, it turned out that they were all related. Interestingly they liked to advertise via graffiti and the backs of two rupee “General Knowledge” books, published by the sexologists themselves. These were books that had tenth grade level information that could help you pass low level bureaucracy exams, and were basically cribbed from their kid’s text book. (This connection between general knowledge and sexual problems will become clear in a moment) Our sexologist friend told us that most of the patients had some form of impotency, or they wanted a pill that would give them a male child (interestingly most of the patients were male). Now, this problem of impotency was quite interesting, it seems that most of the men really just needed some form of sex education, “don’t look for it under the armpit” kind of thing. On that trip I got interested in Hindi porn, and was even able to buy a few magazines without drawing too much attention. Most of the pictures were more or less from biology textbooks! a lot of the “scenarios” in these magazines were very clinical and usually involved relatives, a brother-in-law, a third cousin and so on. Unfortunately I had to ditch my nascent collection when I moved to the States.

One of the most interesting characters in the book, not mentioned in the blurb, is the narrator’s ex-girlfriend, Kali, who lives in a South Extension barsati and hangs out with the NGO crowd and makes serious films. Unfortunately we don’t really get a lot of her, and the narrative almost seems uneasy with this character. Somehow, a familiar Delhi experience as well– the peculiar erasure that male colleagues and friends exercise on their female counterparts. So if the novel reproduces this erasure, it shouldn’t surprise one, even if it disappoints, it is kind of a “guy’s” book. After all one of its iconic images uses this piece of poster kitsch (on the right via Boing Boing). The book may not be completely aware of its male privilege, but it is certainly aware of its bourgeois privilege, and its very accurate in its depiction of it, even as it spends a lot of time with the more interesting marginal characters who people the streets of Delhi. Perhaps another male privilege, since its not really okay for young women to spend time chatting with street-corner sexologists, damn!

The novel seems to have done well in India, and the Hindu has an interview with Banerjee, via Chapati Mystery. Finally, Corridor is a great read, so support it by buying a legit copy!

As the proud editor of this award winning film, I urge you to go to this event at the Asia Society:

Creating An Underclass?: The Impact of Immigration and Antiterrorism Laws on Immigrant Communities

Thursday, February 17, 2005, 6:30 – 8:00 p.m.
Asia Society and Museum, 725 Park Avenue at 70th Street, New York City

 
While special registration, deportation and detention have become common concepts in our post 9-11 world, what may be less known is that in 1996, the federal government signed into law the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRAIRA) and The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) that impact immigrant populations in many ways. 

The evening event will include a screening of “Whose Children Are These?” an award-winning documentary by Theresa Thanjan that gives an in-depth and gripping view into the post 9-11 world of three young Muslims impacted by the federal policy of Special Registration.  The filmmaker tries to capture the tragic and untold story of thousands of immigrant youth who are struggling in a post 9-11 environment to redefine a life, livelihood, and a country that they no longer recognize.

Panelists include:
Cyrus Mehta, Cyrus D. Mehta & Associates, PLLC

Megan L. Brackney of Kostelanetz & Fink, LLP, a former Assistant United States Attorney, Civil Immigration Bureau

Mallika Dutt, Breakthrough (Moderator)

 
Advance registration or ticket purchase is highly recommended. 

$5 students w/ID;  $7 for members/NGOs;  $10 for nonmembers

For tickets, contact the Asia Society Box Office at 212-517-ASIA, or send complete information by fax at 212-517- 8315, or email BoxOffice@AsiaSociety.org.  Credit card required for advance registration or reservation.  Cancellation required at least 24 hours in advance to avoid charges.  Reservations that are not cancelled/claimed will be charged.