Desicritics

Why is Billion Strong India a Laggard in Sports?

Sandeep Bansal — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 02:21:54 EST

A few days ago, I wrote a post on India’s chances to host the 2020 Olympic Games. I disgusted to see the reactions of people who laughed at this mere suggestion. They mocked the Indian Sport persons. This post is for those morons who have no idea to Sports and perhaps don’t watch any sport other than Cricket. They have no idea how much sports has changed.

I am starting this article by covering some of the sports which I follow.

Hockey

Hockey is the national game of our country and India has won the Olympic Gold and World Cup several times. However, field Hockey moved from playing on grass to synthetic surfaces in the early 90’s.

India does not enough of these which are costly. Moreover each surface has only a fixed life. No wonder, India has hardly done well at either the World Cup or in Olympics. The lowest point came when the mens team failed to even win a medal at the 2006 Asian Games. They even lost to China. Infact the Chinese went on beat Pakistan as well and finish second on Mens Category and won the gold in Womens - can you imagine that!!! Indian eves however saved some grace for the national sport by winning the bronze medal. I suppose by that logic sooner Chinese might even win the Gold in Kabbadi as well.

Chak de India, a Bollywood sport movie based on Indian Women’s Hockey clearly showed the difference. While Australia’s coach was strategizing based on video footage and printouts, India’s coach was merely encouraging his players.

India’s current Hockey coach, Brasa from Spain is realizing this lack of facilities. According to him, India badly needs a sports psychologist, GPS system, heart-rate monitoring machine, a software to analyse matches and some laptops for the coaches. Till date he has only received promises. (Source)

Tennis

Vijay Amritraj (former World no 16) is perhaps the only singles player (of good quality) that India has produced. Though he never won a Grand slam, he defeated John Mc Enroe four times. Sania’s best rank was 37th and even she has hardly defeated any top ranked players. On the doubles circuit though, Leader and Mahesh have been a dominant force.

The reasons are not hard to guess. It is a herculean task for any Indian player to rise in the ranks. Top ranked Tennis players usually prefer to compete in tournament in the Europe and the US. This is because of the higher prize money. This means that the local talent gets to see and play higher ranked players thus improving the standard of play. An Indian would have to spend a lot of money just to travel and compete. Better training and coaching facilities abroad further aggravates the gap. As a result, higher ATP points are given for winning a tournament in Europe than a one in India. It is no wonder that generally the top ranked players hail from Europe, US and Australia.

Ten years ago there were just 8 Indians among the top 2000 men and women. Today there are 50. But just one woman is among the top 100 while none in case of men. Yuki Bhamri, the number one junior player essentially trains abroad. Prakash Amritraj also has a US passport and play there.

Mahesh Bhupati in partnership with Apollo Tyres launched the Apollo 2018 mission with an aim to produce singles Champion by 2018. It aims at selecting young talent and providing them with the best training. However, this has run into financial troubles due to recession.

Badminton

This is surely an upcoming sport in India. This sport is dominated by the Chinese. In the past Prakash Padukone and Gopichand have won the prestigious All England Cup. Saina Nehwal, perhaps the best Indian singles talent, has been doing a great for the past couple of years. She reached the last eight in the Beijing Olympics.

But even this sport is not without any fiasco. Recently Saina had to miss a major international event because the Badmintion Association officials didn’t send her entries. As a result her rankings dropped from World No. 6 to World No.8.

Not long ago, she had almost missed out on participating at the Yonex Sunrise World Super Series Masters Final in Malaysia because she hadn’t received her passport in time from the regional passport authorities of Hyderabad. Only when The Times of India intervened on behalf of the teen did she receive the documents from the Chief Passport Officer in New Delhi. It took him just a few hours on Saturday, which is usually an off day. (Source)

Shooting

Shooting is perhaps the most promising non-cricket sport of all. We have producers winners like Rajwardhan Rathore, Abhinav Bindra, Gagan Narang, etc. We have got a realistic chance of producing many more Olympic medals in Shooting.

But all is not well. For instance, at a major international event, India performed exceeding well (as compared to the previous edition of the Games). Soon after the team lands, the Chief Coach resigned because he was sick and tired of delays in ammunition.

Abhinav Bindra, India’s lone Olympic Gold medal winner comes from an affluent Sikh family and his father had setup an indoor shooting range at their home in Punjab. He was someone who got the right training. Sports have moved beyond the sport fields and into the research labs. For instance, Shooting at the highest level involves controlling your heart beat. Not many Indians can afford this.

On back of their strong performance, National Rifles Association of India(NRAI) recently got Sahara as its sponsor. Top 15 shooters got Cricket styled graded contracts. “ Abhinav Bindra’s absence in the National Rifle Association of India’s (NRAI) graded contracted system is just the most apparent lapse, it’s hardly the only one. Kynan Chenai, who won a gold at the Youth Commonwealth Games in Pune last year, has more national and international accomplishments than Shresyasi Singh. And yet the latter is placed in the higher slab — Rs 12 lakh per year — while Chenai gets Rs six lakh per year. Shresyasi also happens to be the daughter of the NRAI president Digvijay Singh. ” (Source)

Cricket

Cricket, the most popular game in India is played in just a handful of countries. There are just nine Test playing countries. Of this, we all know the standard of Bangladesh Cricket while West Indies Cricket has been struggling for quite some time now. That leaves just seven countries that play good standard of Cricket. Yet there is immense popularity of the sport in India. There two reasons for it – first Cricket is a team sport which makes it much more interesting to watch, second, unlike other sports India has in the past has won all the major Tournament (World Cup, World T20, and Champions Trophy).

Now just picture this, India’s population every year increases by an amount that is roughly equal to the current population of Australia. Yet our team (of which most of us ardent supporters) is thrashed by a team that was essentially composed of Australia’s reserves.

Reasons are not hard to guess. There are 27 teams in the Ranji Trophy (at least one for each state). These are divided into two divisions – Elite (10 teams) and Plate (17 teams). This number was even higher in 2007 when there were 12 teams in the Elite division. The number of reduced following India’s humiliating exit from the 2007 World Cup. Ideally this number should be further reduced to eight (something that is hard to do). Dhoni who played for Jharkhand( a Plate division side) made it to the Indian side shows that the systems is well equipped to promote talented players even from the Plate Division. Only difference is that, Had Dhoni played for a bigger Ranji team like Mumbai or Delhi, he might have made his debut by time he was 19. He eventually made his debut at an age of 23.

Compare that to Australia which has just six teams in its domestic structure. This means every Australian has to fight hard just to keep his place in the state side, forget the national side.

Infrastructure has improved compared to the past. But picture this; UP an Elite-division team has been very well for past few seasons. Some of the top player like Suresh Raina, Praveen Kumar and Piyush Chawla hail from here. But until very recently they did not have a full time physical trainer. You can surely imagine what would be the condition of the Plate division teams.

IPL has brought in the money, but has it really improved the quality? Earlier this year, IPL tournament just preceded the T20 World Cup, seemingly an ideal preparation for it. The defending Champions were badly beaten. One of the obvious reasons is that there are as many as eight teams in IPL. Most teams have just one or at max two good bowlers. As a batsman you would try to play out these bowlers and attack the rest.

You all can imagine what would happen to the standard of Cricket when the number of teams is increased in 2010. Domestic T20 tournament in Australia has six teams with each team allowed just two overseas players as opposed to four in IPL. And what I find really hard to understand how people can support any of these teams? I asked some of my colleagues who hail from Hyderabad, why were they support the Team. That team hardly had any players from Hyderabad or AP for that matter. Other than the foreign recruits most of the Indians in the team hail from other states.

Inefficiency and Corruption in cricket is even higher at junior levels which are by and large outside the media glare. IPL has addressed this to a certain extent but it has also made players less enthusiastic of playing for India, since they can make enough money even if they never get to play for India. Most of the support staff around the world are Australians. There was time when there were as many as five Australians as National Coaches – Greg Chappel (India), John Bucchannan (Australia), Tom Moddy (Sri Lanka), Dave Whatmore(Bangladesh) and John Dyson(West Indies). The best umpire till very recently was also an Australian. Surely there is something in the Australian setup.

Our Sports Administrators

Most of the times, it is the sportsmen who face the ire of the fans. The public is completely oblivious to what happens behind the scenes.

• National Games to be held in Jharkhand in 2007 have been delayed four times and still no dates as to when they will be held.

• Our Commonwealth Games preparation is going shamelessly slow. Though IOA has assured that they will be done on time for the Games, Indian sportsmen would not get any home advantage because lack of practice and thus would cost us lot of medals.

• A certain Monica Devi missed out on the Beijing Olympics because the Indian Olympic Association withdrew her name after she tested positive during a drugs test. When she asked for another test, it was found that she was, in fact, innocent, but by then it was too late for the Manipuri to participate at a competition that just about every sportsman dreams of. (Source)

• PT Usha, the doyen of Indian athletics was denied proper accommodation at the National Athletics Meet in Bhopal. The 'sprint queen', as she is known as, was asked to share her less than spectacular room with five others. The room did not even have hygienic conditions or running water. (Source)

Forget the money, if we can just remove these inefficiencies, a quantum jump in performances can be achieved. With improved performance money will come as is shown by the recent contract won by Vijendra Singh.

The way forward

If money alone would have been the issue, then Africa or North Korea would never win medals at the Olympics. Surely they have something right in their sporting structure and it is not marred by the corrupt and inefficient practices. Perhaps this is not just the story of Indian Sports alone, this is a story of all Indian Systems across the board, be it civil administration, police, judiciary, etc.

Sports are a way of life. Sports can also play a major in raising nationalistic feelings. In India, the North-East and in particular Manipur has a sporting culture. In the last National Games, Manipur and Assam were at second and third spot respectively in the overall medals tally, quite disproportionate to their population size. This region is capable of producing Olympic Champions. Cricket is not the only sport in this region. More encouragement and better facilities could produce better results. These regions are also insurgency prone and sports could act as a means to integrate them with the rest of the country.

BCCI is perhaps the only Sporting organization in India that has loads of money. It has recently started supporting other games. It has promised 25 crore to help the Indian Football over the next two years. However, it can surely be more innovative and invest in long term projects that can produce lasting results. For instance, it can invest in an Institute of Sports Science.

Sport science is a discipline that studies the application of scientific principles and techniques with the aim of improving sporting performance. Human movement is a related scientific discipline that studies human movement in all contexts including that of sport. The study of sports science traditionally incorporates areas of physiology, psychology, motor control and biomechanics but also includes other topics such as nutrition and diet, sports technology, anthropometry kinanthropometry and performance analysis. (Source).

Andrew Leipus, India’s physio during 2003 World Cup had a Sport Science degree from an Australian Institute. If we could have a local institute to produce physios, most Ranji sides could have a physio and thus India’s perennial problem of fielding could be solved. Fitness in other sports would also greatly improve. Likewise, Indian sports need Sports Psychologists.

If Indian sportsmen still manage to win so many accolades, it is not because of the system, it is despite the system. Let us not mock these sportsmen who bring glory to our nation.

India's 3G Saga - A Bad Bollywood Movie!

jay — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:58:49 EST

India's 3G story (the auction of 3G spectrum to Wireless Service Providers) is playing out like a bad Bollywood masala movie.

It has all the ingredients. There are the usual heroes and their sidekicks (TRAI and Pranab Mukherjee), an allegedly corrupt villain (A. Raja), the henchmen (the Defence ministry), lasses-in-waiting pining for the wedding day (the Mobile companies) and the usual emotions and the song and dance.

About two hours of the movie have passed and the audience is still scratching their heads to see where the plot line is heading. It is still not clear whether the henchmen will give up on the spectrum that they are occupying. The hero (Pranabda) has been quite forthright in demanding they do so and even has had clashes with the sidekicks like the Defence Minister. The corrupt villain is currently mostly out of sight as it happens in most movies. Mogambo is usually in his lair and shows up only when absolutley necessary.

Meanwhile the bride(s) are still hoping that the wedding will indeed take place on January 14th 2010 even though it has been postponed so many times in the past. As any Bollywood fan knows, there is only one person who can ultimately salvage the situation. That would be the "Ma". She needs to get into the ring, get the warring factions to see reason - prove to them that they are actually brothers - and allow the wedding to take place. Ma has not yet shown up until now, so there is still time for the climax. Until she shows up, the shenanigans will continue and the movie may even go into the 3rd hour.

Ma Sonia, please get us out of this mess!!!!

3G is so vital for the nation that it is criminal for the politicos to be messing it up like this. Every self respecting nation has moved to 3G including China. Japan and South Korea are already looking at time tables to implement 4G. 3G is not simply TV on mobile, or more opportunity for playing games on mobile. Having 3G means faster internet access leading to better productivity and efficiency in the business place which we cannot afford to ignore. It might take a while for Indians to latch on to high end smartphones in order to use 3G. But the faster it is introduced, the faster it will be accepted by the populace and sooner it will become popular.

Given the uncertainty in the spectrum allocation, most Wireless companies are now loathe to invest in the required equipment for 3G. They are rather looking at the new spectrum as a way to provide more 2G connectivity. And that is a shame!!

Movie Review: Kurbaan

Kaushik Chatterji — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:43:14 EST

While watching the brilliance of Rang De Basanti unfold on the screen, it was almost impossible to imagine that the same person was also responsible for the extremely stylish crap that was Aks. Of course, Delhi-6 earlier this year put things into perspective. So far so good. Then in the past couple of months or so, we have been inundated on our trips to the cinemas with trailers of a film called Kurbaan directed by Rensil D'Silva. Rensil who? Oh, he was the guy who along with Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra co-wrote RDB. As things stand now, that gem definitely seems to have been a fluke.

The director's name apart, going into this one I was expecting a predictable combination of Fanaa and New York, with a hint of a criminalized Prof Geelani (remember that Delhi college professor who was implicated in the Parliament attack case?) thrown in for good measure. As it turns out, in almost every situation in a typical Bollywood flick such as this, it is either this way or that - so chances are half your guesses about the plot will turn out to be true. In a stunningly distasteful and utterly negative portrayal of Islam, every Muslim is shown to be a radical fundamentalist who wants to avenge the massacre of innocents in Afghanistan and Iraq and who genuinely believes that the bloodshed and carnage is the will of God (The only exception - and thereby a good Muslim - is the one who claims to be an American first and a Muslim later). Each one of them is either actively involved in terrorist activities or at the very least is a sympathizer. Most of these Muslims haven't read the Quran or even if they have, haven't understood it. Oh, and every Muslim teaching at any college in Delhi is part of an Islamic terrorist network.

From the very first scene, the glaring inaccuracies leap in front of your eyes. No one - and I mean no one - can take such liberties while driving down Raj Path. How a car that has withstood a flash flood of bullets can, with just one carelessly aimed shot, explode into a ball of fire is inexplicable, while the build-up to this scene is equally inane - the writer seems to have mistaken the stereotypical trigger-happy drug addicts found in every shady by-lane of New York for Islamic terrorists. Admittedly, there are some scenes which, wholly or partly, seem quite real - the scene where Avantika (Kareena) tends to Ehsaan's (Saif) bullet injury is an example of partly real. The visuals are compelling to say the least, but Saif's accompanying reactions of controlled pain are laughable. Thankfully, there are a couple of other such sequences which are somewhat believable, including parts of the final chases.

The dialogues are trash, be it the initial romantic bits or the done-to-death rhetoric about 9/11, US war on terrorism, jihad, et al - seriously filmmakers, move on! If you can't handle such sensitive issues, offer a new line of thought or depict the real anguish then please stop making such films and pretending that mainstream Indian cinema is maturing, because it is not. Everything still boils down to one and only one thing - love. No, not metaphoric love for an inanimate object, a thought process or a living creature. Romantic love. Its depiction may or may not be explicitly sexual, but it still remains the sole reason for anything - in this case, the hollowness of the terrorist's ideology. Since it is Bollywood (not to mention Dharma Productions), you know that the bad guy will go down at the end. As to how, well, it is either this way or that.

If you like your films to be formulaic, go for this because you'll find this gritty and what not, and in all probability will love this one. Here's an FAQ which should help you decide: How do you woo a girl? How do you get into USA legally? How does a female obtain secrets from the enemy who's a male? If you think you know the answers to these, skip this old K-fest in a new bottle. Else, go for it, and be prepared to brave what is an out-of-place editing style - almost every scene in the first half ends with a slow fade-out, followed by a fade-in to begin the next. Braced yourself? Still interested? Head to the nearest cinema now. It's not my money at stake, is it?

Book Review: The Story of My Assasins

Amarjit Sidhu — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:30:31 EST

“As a master shadow yourself, you made them afraid of every shadow. You never took the police to them but you kept their eye on the door through which the police would come soon.... You maimed the mind. You shrank the heart. You provided no certainty: of freedom or of serfdom. Of death, or of life.”

Why are we as a people so afraid to acknowledge, applaud, or even simply express an honest opinion? Earlier this year, a rather remarkable work of fiction was published, but where is the discussion or debate – about the substance, about the style, about the language – it should have generated? The Story of My Assassins is a book that merits attention beyond an initial review, and should continue to attract brickbats and bouquets for a long time.

Tarun J. Tejpal must be one of the few thinking men we have left, who still have spine, gumption, and spleen. In Assassins, he gives us a multi-layered, literary, new-generation whodunit, delivering a hard-hitting indictment of the socio-political culture we live in and learn to survive in.

There has been an attempted assassination. Or has there? There are the would-be assassins. Or are they? Was the whole thing a set-up? By whom? To what purpose?

Who is behind it all? Could it be that dreaded – hold your breath – “foreign hand” that Mrs. Gandhi constantly cautioned us on all these years ago? The narrator walks us through this charade of smoke and mirrors inhabited by whirling gurus, cops and robbers, feudal landlords and rural folk, urban rich, businessmen, and, journalists. Most characters bear their personal crosses with dignity and support it with their versions of personal philosophies. Tejpal gives us a narrator who sneers. Thankfully, he is not above sneering at himself either.

Ultimately, the book is about victims: Chaaku, who flees the fields of Haryana, Kabir M., who cannot escape his identity, Kaaliya, Chini, Hathoda Tyagi, are all victims twice over – first of an environment and predilection that drives them inexorably to the choices they make, and finally of the ruthless culture of “political power, money and the gun”. Jai, the manipulator, Sara “nailed to the wall”, Dolly/folly, C-N-P (go figure!) the Kuchha King, Kuchha Singh and Frock Raja, notwithstanding their social standing and status, are also mere pawns taking the reader back to Sara’s incomplete quote from Auden early in the book. What the author leaves for the reader to infer from the quote is the subsequent reference to Breughel’s Fall of Icarus, and significance (or insignificance) of people, actions and events. This is a theme that is reinforced discreetly with skillfully handled references from the Gita and Mahabharata.

What is particularly disturbing about Assassins is that there is no love, compassion or even hope for redemption. All is harsh reality – no matter how lightly handled. While those better off continue to be survivors of sorts, the author allows the likes of Chaaku and Kabir M. –created obviously with much love and care -- to follow their dark destinies.

There is no superfluity in Assassins, no fluff. Every sentence matters, Tejpal has an intuitive feel for language (and not just English either!) and his rendering of Hindi gutter speech into English can probably have no parallel – it is done with feeling and flair. Who would have thought we were such a creative people with profanity. Poverty is not pretty, and neither is the language it spawns.

There are few Indian writers who are able to raise a smile, let alone make an audience want to go back and re-read passages for sheer pleasure. While the issues Assassins raises are dark, the narrative voice is compelling, whether in passing reference to the beating of wives: “The women took it well – fate could have been more cruel: left them unmarried, son-less, widows….”; or the idiom of Bhupi’s screams on being stabbed, or that of Bhatiaji; or of Tope’s mother, grandmother and Chacha’s wife huddled together: “One face, one voice and three pairs of outstretched arms, hands clasped in abjection. A many-armed goddess fallen on bad times.”

Assassins is not for the faint of heart who would do well to stick to the safe commercial fiction dumped daily in bookstores by the tonne. This is a book for the serious, thinking reader who is able to recognize that, really, it is not just the characters of this book that are victims of the system, it is all of us. And were we to recognize that, chances are we ourselves would respond with some of Tejpal’s choice phrases from the gutter. If you haven’t yet, go ahead -- dare to read it; dare to step outside the box and join the conversation.

Mxolisi Nyezwa: Winner of the Thomas Pringle National Award for Poetry, South Africa 2009

Amitabh Mitra — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:40:18 EST

The Thomas Pringle National Award for Poetry is given by the English Academy, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. This is the highest award given to a poet of South Africa on alternate years. The award may be compared to the Sahitya Akademi Award given in India.

The vision of the English Academy of Southern Africa is of a democratic society in which effective English is available to all who wish to use it, where competent instruction in the language is readily accessible and in which the country’s diverse linguistic ecology is respected.

The English Academy is concerned with all forms and functions of English. It interests itself in English in education, promotes research and debate, organizes lectures, makes representations about language matters, rewards excellence and fosters the creative, critical and scholarly talents of users (and would-be users) of English in Southern Africa.

The English Academy prides itself in bestowing awards to deserving poets and writers but also organising lectures by eminent personalities. India’s first High Commissioner, Gopal Krishna Gandhi is one of them.

Thomas Pringle (January 5 1789 – December 5 1834) is considered the Father of South African English Poetry. A contemporary of Sir Walter Scott, he came to South Africa and settled down at Cape Town. Being lame, he himself took to literary work in Cape Town rather than farming, opened a school with fellow Scotsman John Fairbairn, and conducted two newspapers, the South African Journal, and South African Commercial Advertiser. However, both papers became suppressed for their free criticisms of the Colonial Government, and his school closed.

His books African Sketches and Ephemerides proved to be very popular.
He died of Tuberculosis in December 1834 at the age of forty-five.

To Sir Walter Scott

From deserts wild and many a pathless wood
Of savage climes where I have wandered long,
Whose hills and streams are yet ungraced by song,
I bring, illustrious friend, this garland rude:
The offering, though uncouth, in kindly mood
Thou wilt regard, if haply there should be,
'Mong meaner things, the flower simplicity,
Fresh from coy Nature's virgin solitude.
Accept this frail memorial, honoured Scott,
Of favoured intercourse in former day --
Of words of kindness I have ne'er forgot --
Of acts of friendship I can ne'er repay:
For I have found (and wherefore say it not?)
The Minstrel's heart as noble as his lay.

The Bushman

The Bushman sleeps within his black-browed den,
In the lone wilderness. Around him lie
His wife and little ones unfearingly --
For they are far away from 'Christian Men.'
No herds, loud lowing, call him down the glen:
He fears no foe but famine; and may try
To wear away the hot noon slumberingly;
Then rise to search for roots -- and dance again.
But he shall dance no more! His secret lair,
Surrounded, echoes to the thundering gun,
And the wild shriek of anguish and despair!
He dies -- yet, ere life's ebbing sands are run,
Leaves to his sons a curse, should they be friends
With the proud 'Christian-Men' -- for they are fiends!

The English Academy gave me this rare honour to be the Chief Adjudicator and selector for the National Thomas Pringle Award for Poetry, 2009. It was a difficult task and I was helped by two well known poets, Kobus Moolman and Graham Vivien Lancaster from Petermaritzburg.

Selecting poetry is subjective, each with a varied belief of the very concept of a poem, one that surpasses and becomes an element of ecstasy.

We looked at works of individual poets, students of English Literature and Creative Writing of various universities and poetry published in A Hudson View, New Coin, New Contrast, Carapace and Chimurenga, all of them being South African literary journals.

Mxolisi Nyezwa’s work showed the excellence that we were looking for and proved to be far above all the poetry that is being written in South Africa at the present time.

The announcement was made by me, at the Book SA Ban’quet , 14 November 2009 at Cape Town to a standing ovation.

MXOLISI NYEZWA was born in 1967 in New Brighton, Port Elizabeth and still lives there at 4 Madala Street. He is the editor of Kotaz, the multilingual literary magazine based in the Eastern Cape. Of the magazine, Darryl Accone has written: “Kotaz does more than liberate the arts. It frees space for public discourse, space that no longer exists in newspapers, as well as freeing hearts and minds to engage with what it means to be living, feeling and thinking in post-apartheid South Africa.”

Mxolisi works in language & writing projects in the rural and township communities in the Eastern Cape to help build a reading/writing culture. In 2000, his debut poetry collection, Song Trials, was published by Gecko Poetry, a book of “associative poems which move rapidly through multiple dimensions. They encompass the spiritual, the political and bleakness of the everyday with the fluency of language and a compelling deftness of image””.

Commenting on his life as a poet in South Africa, Mxolisi says, “I realized perhaps much too early during my school years that I was fated to be powerless, vulnerable to the world completely. Maybe as clear proof of this fate I am not able to free myself from the physical and psychological restrictions imposed on me by the life in the townships. The life here is always a fierce war, merciless like the wind. I am fascinated by the sea, in its patrimonial re-enactment of life’s birth and life’s re-burial. For me in the townships, where I’ve always lived, nothing happens without the silent consent of the sea stoning our human hearts.”

Mxolisi’s second collection of poetry, New Country, was published by the UKZN Press in 2008.

“Poetry is a simple way to remind us of our humanity. It guards against placing blind faith in the sciences which are constricting to the human spirit. In poetry we discover our basic selves.” Mxolisi Nyezwa.

In his citation, I wrote:

It gives us great pleasure to award the Thomas Pringle Award 2009 to Mxolisi Nyezwa. He is a a poet who is not influenced by a certain style of writing or literature but has evolved his unique poetry in his own special way giving us a rare insight to a sensitive human being created out of pure personal experiences.

The poetry of Mxolisi Nyezwa is purely South African in the context of imagery and words , its flavour wafts and stays in the minds of whoever reads them

Mxolisi Nyezwa is a poet of refreshingly honest insight and outstanding linguistic ability. Uninhibited by a particular style or correctness, but his own truth of a distinctly South African flavour and passion, Mxolisi is well deserving of the 2009 Thomas Pringle Poetry Award.

Graham Lancaster writes:

My participation in judging the Thomas Pringle Poetry Award this year was a great privilege and honour for me.

The general standard of poetry presented was high, which is indeed gratifying and bodes well for poetry in South Africa and South African poet’s integration with the world.

Mxolisi Nyezwa’s poems published by New Coin, “My Friends Who Lived With Me” and “8 Poems from Malikhanye” rose above others with his clarity of voice in layered depth, refreshingly honest insight and outstanding linguistic transmission. Perhaps with certain influences, yet uninhibited by a particular style or correctness his own truth emerges in a distinctly South African voice of flavour and passion and I believe Mxolisi is well deserving of the 2009 Thomas Pringle Poetry Award.

Other poets I found impressive and shortlisted are Sarah Frost for “Chaise Longue” and Katy Kilalea for “The Vineyard” and “Goodbye is a semi-circle”.

Kobus Moolman writes:

It was an honour for me to participate in this year’s Thomas Pringle award.
I would strongly nominate the following two poems by Mxolisi Nyezwa published in New Coin magazine: “My friends who lived with me” and “8 poems from Malikhanye”.

The writing of Nyezwa is intensely lyrical, evoking strange and powerful landscapes, which are both literal and at the same time deeply imaginative. He writes with a natural intuitiveness that finds expression in complex and arresting imagery. In this sense, Nyezwa has clear affinities with Spanish poets such as Lorca and Vallejo. But the beauty of Nyezwa’s poetry is the way that he has forged a unique voice for himself. Like all poets he has influences and literary forebears. There is no writer who does not have such influences. But Nyezwa has been able to implant this tradition in the South African soil, and to make it his own. His work deserves this award.

At the same time too, I must make mention of the extremely high standard of the other poems which we evaluated. Although, Nyezwa’s work stood out for me from the rest, it was nevertheless enormously gratifying to read work of such quality. Mention therefore must be made of the following poets whose writing impressed itself upon me:

Katy Kilalea for “The Vineyard” and “Goodbye is a semi-circle”; Gail Dendy for “Q&A: Please fill in the blanks”; and Sarah Frost for “Chaise Longue”.

Some of his poems that we are publishing in ‘A Hudson View’

before the child destroys the world

i have a few things to say
before the child rises like the morning
and destroys the world
before the bread rises from the table
and the axe falls to the ground –
bread that rises from the ashes
into your grave.
days now appear slanted like the sun
the rain begins from your body
a new prohibition begins –
your body clings to the earth
like fire over the burning sky.

for days i looked for my poems

for days i looked for my poems in the streets,
and since i could not find them,
light fell like a flower on the lonely square.
the light sounded the drum of a thud.
beauty came grovelling forward
begging,
and children went for days
without food.
*

city

i have lived to discover a city, an open road,
a bucket of milk, and two gentle doves.
i have discovered in myself
two frightened birds with miles of dirt road to fly.
in the forest hills spiders and black dogs clamoured.
in the corpses of yellow flowers
a rainbow spun across a darkened sky.
i lived in a street where girls with dark eyes sang,
birds with their wings welcomed a harsh rain.
*

At the end I can only say that culture and healing go side by side. My colleagues in the hospital would not appreciate my vision of medicine. Black townships of South Africa has languished in its own terms, but have at certain times come out victorious. Political controversies continues to eat the very soul of this vibrant culture. By giving this award to Mxolisi, I have brought his voice into the open, ringing all the way through many continents. Thomas Pringle would surely have been proud of him.

India's UID Project: Leaked Working Paper

Ruchi — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:17:11 EST

On November 13th, Wikileaks released the confidential working paper for India’s UID number project. The paper discusses UIDAI approach and provides high level numbers for enrolment, costs etc.

In its ideal implementation, there are many benefits of a UID number; however given the scale of the program and its potentially invasive use, there is need for discussion in the civil society in the planning and design stage. Extracts from the paper and questions/concerns for discussion below.

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) was established in February 2009, attached to the Planning Commission. The purpose of the UIDAI is to issue a unique identification number (UID) to all Indian residents that is (a) robust enough to eliminate duplicate and fake identities, and (b) can be verified and authenticated in an easy, cost effective way (Page 5)

The UIDAI envisions full enrolment of residents, with a focus on enrolling India’s poor and underprivileged communities. The Registrars that the Authority plans topartner with in its first phase – the NREGA, RSBY, and PDS – will help bring large numbers of the poor and underprivileged into the UID system (Page 6)

The stated agenda throughout the document is pro-poor/pro-rural; however, the impetus for the UID project came after the November 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. In January 2009, the Center issued notice to maritime states and two UTs to issue identity cards to all coastal residents. In an interview in the aftermath of the terror attacks, Chidambaran said that the Government had decided to set up the UID authority. The UIDAI was established within three months of the attacks in February 2009; Pranab Mukherjee allocated Rs. 100 crore for the project in the interim budget (side note: overall cost of program is estimated to be over Rs. 3000 crore). Given that there is at least in part an anti-terror agenda, there is need to safeguard against potential harassment of undocumented individuals, esp. poor migrants (the enrolment strategy for migrant workers is irrelevant for seasonal migrant workers).

In India, an inability to prove identity is one of the biggest barriers preventing the poor from accessing benefits and subsidies (Page 5)

The UID method of authentication will also improve service delivery for the poor (Page 6)

The UIDAI is only in the identity business. The responsibility of tracking beneficiaries and the governance of service delivery will continue to remain with the respective agencies – the job of tracking distribution of food grains among BPL families for example, will remain with the state PDS department. The adoption of the UID will only ensure that the uniqueness and singularity of each resident is established and authenticated, thereby promoting equitable access to social services. (Page 26)

Service delivery in rural communities is hampered less by the inability of resident to prove identity (population size is small; everyone knows each other) than by defalcation and corruption. Two of the biggest government outlays for social security are NREGA and PDS. In NREGA, there are two avenues for misappropriation: labour (fake names, over/understated days worked) and material (overstated amounts, fake bills). UID will not address the latter and will address the former only if the worker physically clocked in/out using automated biometric readers, and if money could be taken out of bank accounts only after positive biometric proof. The simplest fingerprint readers cost $50 (Rs. 2000) and it’s financially unviable to put one in each of the 600,000 villages in India (or even ~300,000 Panchayats). Likewise in PDS, eliminating defalcation using UID will require positive biometric proof before grain disbursement otherwise what is to stop the FPO from making fake entries, or not opening the ration shop etc? In addition, the problem in targeted welfare schemes is of eligibility and not of identity. The varying numbers of BPL families in the country is not a problem of inability to identify the uniqueness of an individual but of his/her eligibility based on different criteria such as income, nutrition (calories), other wellness indicators.

By providing a clear proof of identity, the UID will also facilitate entry for poor and underprivileged residents into the formal banking system, and the opportunity to avail services provided by the government and the private sector. The UID will also give migrants mobility of identity (Page 9)

The UID number will only store name, DoB, gender, parent's name, address (permanent and current), photograph and biometric info (Page 7), the benefits in case of mobility will be contingent on the systems used by the various organizations, which should allow transfer of benefits on proof of identity instead of requiring the beneficiary to prove eligibility all over again. E.g., ration cards for migrating family

Enrolment will not be mandated: The UIDAI approach will be a demand-driven one, where the benefits and services that are linked to the UID will ensure demand for the number. This will not however, preclude governments or Registrars from mandating enrolment (Emphasis added) (Page 7).

If any organization mandates UID number before providing social security services, then the onus of enrolment should be on the organization as opposed to the beneficiary, which implies at least that non-enrolment cannot be treated as illegal; and service cannot be unreasonably withheld due to non-enrolment. In addition, the estimated cost of each card is Rs. 20-25 (Pg 19), which should not be taken from the outlays of social security schemes without clear explanation of consequent benefit in service delivery.

The Authority plans to cover 600 million people within 4 years from the start of the project (Page 9)

In the absence of universal coverage (target enrolment at ~50% population four years from launch), there will always have to be alternatives to the UID to obtain service, verify identity etc. Since, enrolment in UID will not be mandated, but "demand driven" to "access the benefits and services associated with it", the benefit (one identity to prove identity for life) will need UID to be accepted as preferred proof of identity by all significant private and public organizations. Since this method of verification will be chargeable (up to Rs. 10 per verification, Page 28), private organizations may at times prefer other forms of proof of identity.

Fingerprint authentication is not fool-proof : The quantity and direction of the pressure applied by the user, the skin conditions and the projection of an irregular 3D object (the finger) onto a 2D flat plane introduce distortions, noise and inconsistencies in the captured fingerprint image. These problems result in inconsistent, irreproducible and non-uniform contacts and, during each acquisition, their effects on the same fingerprint results are different and uncontrollable. The representation of the same fingerprint changes every time the finger is placed on the sensor plate, increasing the complexity of the fingerprint matching, impairing the system performance, and consequently limiting the widespread use of this biometric technology.

Book Review: Welcome to Advertising! Now, Get Lost.

Saurin Parikh — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:20:57 EST

For decades, the Indian advertising industry has heralded Ogilvy on Advertising as its bible, for the lack of an Indian equal. Not anymore. What Alyque Padamsee or Piyush Pandey or Prasson Joshi or other Indian advertising gurus haven’t done, Omkar Sane has.

Now, don’t start imagining Omkar Sane as a gray-haired intellectual past his prime. Sane is actually a 24-year-old advertising novice who was written Welcome to Advertising! Now, Get Lost, and that too after having quit advertising after just a few weeks. But from his observations – hilarious, satirical and oh-so-true – one might be forgiven for assuming that his tryst with advertising was probably decades-long.

Welcome to Advertising! Now, Get Lost is the story of an advertising agency pitching for a client. The storytelling isn’t conventional, but it works. There’s humour in every line and the Sane makes you guffaw, snicker and smile with each page. Every section and aspect of advertising has been ripped wide open and made a mockery of. I enjoyed the jibes on Copywriters (because I was one) and Servicing the most.

For me, the best thing about the book was that Sane has hit the head on the nail. As someone who has been a part of the ad industry, I can vouch for almost everything that Sane has written. The tantrums thrown by the creative, work days starting at 7pm, the endless nights, the overworked and underachieved art directors, the ‘can’t-do-with-or-without-them’ clients and the need for better chairs – Sane has portrayed everything beautifully.

Welcome to Advertising! Now, Get Lost is an essential must-read for everyone in advertising and everyone wanting to get into advertising. The book is cool because the former will laugh, with it and it will make the latter itch more to be a part of the world it describes.

And for everyone else who has nothing to do with advertising, they should read it for the humour and to once again feel bad about not being a part of the world’s coolest industry.

Omkar Sane unravels Indian advertising like never before and it’s a non-stop laugh riot.

Sachin Tendulkar - God, In All His Glory

Ankur Bhatia — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:48:21 EST

: Source: Cricinfo, Getty Images

Most people today get bored of doing the same thing in about 20 weeks. Some go on to complete 20 months before the feeling of monotony grips them. Yet Sachin Tendulkar shows no signs of stopping even after 20 years. People around the world are writing, speaking out, and congratulating Sachin for this remarkable feat but that is not the purpose of this article. This write up tries to bring out the love, respect, and admiration people have for him.

On 5th Nov, India took on Australia at Hyderabad. At that time this particular boy was taking on his MBA classes. After his classes finished he sat at the dhaba next to his college for a cup of tea. He called his brother and enquired about the score only to be disappointed as Australia had scored 350 runs. He finished his tea and went to meet a friend. As soon as he reached his destination ( food court in a mall) he got to know that Sachin is batting well and India are off to a good start. As he entered the food court, there were a lot of tables placed outside in the open and all the people sitting there had there heads turned towards one direction. As the boy moved inside he also turned his head to see what everyone was looking at and was pleasantly surprised. The match was being projected on a big screen and everyone was glued to it. The boy couldn't control his smile and did a little hop skip dance not bothering about the people looking at him. He was getting a chance to see Sachin bat on a big screen while sitting under the stars, he wasn't bothered about anything else.

It was a perfect evening, one he thought he would remember forever if India won the game. Sachin soon completed his half century and the boy stood up and bowed down to his god. Soon after, Sachin unleashed his full array of strokes and was in the nineties within no time. The boy folded his hands under the table and silently prayed for his idol's 45th hundred. Sachin got to it without any problem and looked up to thank the almighty and probably wish that his Dad was there to see it. The boy also looked up and secretly hoped for the same, as it was his dad who introduced him to the world of Cricket. As India got closer and closer to the impossible target the boy wondered if what he was watching was actually happening and even said to himself "Yeh kaisa match jita raha hai Sachin?".

The friend sitting on the other side of the table was new to this world and was amazed at the reactions and expressions the boy had while following the match. At times the friend became non existent for the boy, all he saw was Sachin and his strokes. But never before had the friend seen such love, devotion and fellowship for an outsider and so was not complaining. As the match got closer and closer, Sachin batted better and better. Every cover drive for four and every six over the bowler's head was poetry in motion. It was as if nothing would stop Sachin(or so the boy hoped). The boy let out a gasp when Raina got out, only to follow it up by saying that India still had a chance till Sachin was there. Sachin got to 174 and the boy like many others started hoping that this would be the day when Sachin scores a double hundred in ODI. Sadly it was not to be as Sachin got out on 175. As the ball went up in the air, the boy's heart went into his mouth and he hoped that the ball would not go to a fielder, but it did. Sachin walked back towards the pavilion filling the stadium with silence and the boy's eyes with tears.

: Source: Cricinfo, Getty Images

What followed was one of the biggest heartbreaks in the boy's life. India lost needing only 19 more to win after Sachin's dismissal. The boy couldn't help but think back about the chennai test against pakistan where Sachin got out and the rest were not able to make 17. He was numb and couldn't hear anything. He couldn't believe that he saw Sachin's best innings in one days, for a losing cause. He said good bye to his friend with a heavy heart and continued his journey back home on his bike. But throughout the journey he kept thinking of Sachin and how he would be feeling. He was sure that people will again not see the manner in which Sachin batted but instead see that he didn't take India to victory. Tears rolled down his eyes as he drove against the cool breeze. A strange feeling hit him as he made his way back, the feeling was like being lost without a map because he thought of cricket without Sachin.

It was an extremely sad end to the day for the boy who only hours before couldn't control his smile and thought this day would be one the best days of his life.

Today when Sachin completes 20 years, it is incidences like these that truly describe what he means to the people. This was the story of one boy watching one innings of Sachin, but there are millions more like him who would have shed tears for Sachin and who today stand and salute this genius. He has given millions of us so many reasons to smile, to cry, and most importantly, to Believe.

The (Sur)real World of Indian Television

Arundhati Thapar — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:39:32 EST

Have any of you recently tried to watch soap operas on Indian television channels? If so, you will probably have complete empathy and sympathy with me and understand why I’m still tortured by the memories of what happened.

Here’s what happened: We’d driven off to London for the weekend (on one of our-‘let’s just drive off somewhere’whims). I have to say the weekend went by very well – we managed to catch We will rock you- the musical and had some fabtastic Indian food which is always the attraction on a trip to London (God bless the Gujjus).

On the way back, we decided to stop by at one of Rohit’s old friends, Neha. She is not just a devout fan of Indian TV soaps but in fact eats, talks and breathes television.

She told us of this exciting new reality(?) show which has a bunch of guys staying together (No, don’t let your imagination run wild- that just does not happen on Indian television, yet!), a bunch of girls staying next door with their mothers (the guys’ mothers, silly) and they are supposed to assess each others’ compatibility - the guys and girls with each other and the girls with their prospective mothers in law. Needless to say there was a lot of bitching, sobbing, outrageous statements a la Big Brother (or is it Bigg Boss?) and generally everyone seemed to be terribly stressed about leaving the TV show, having made a lifelong commitment or found their soul mates. Watching it, we went through a complete whirlwind of emotions in rapid succession - disbelief, amusement, puzzlement, frustration, and then downright rage… Rage at the way producers of these shows take the Indian audience to be made up of part cretins and part masochists. There is this complete dumbing down of TV shows and the audiences don’t know to expect any better.

What is particularly frustrating is the portrayal of female characters: if she’s not running a corporate powerhouse in a sexy mini, she must be a stay at home bahu, indulging in politics of the most complex nature (move over Mayavati and Rabri, the Indian bahu is soon going to overtake you), all the time bedecked in tons of jewellery with, of course, a pallu over her head. She wakes up in the morning with more jewellery than most of us manage to wear in a lifetime.

We thought we’d had enough when she insisted there was this other reality show (!!!!) featuring the newly engaged Rakhi Sawant and her partner showing their parenting skills - with other people’s children! The idea is to have celebrity couples staying in a swanky Goa resort with successively older children every week, starting with toddlers. To judge what? How these smooth actors and actresses cope with the stress of being around other peoples’ kids for a few weeks?

I would not even like to venture into what the repercussions could be of one of these ‘celebrity’ parents abusing their proximity with other peoples’ children (Yes, despite 24 hr camera surveillance). What kind of parent leaves his/her child with some fake TV parent to have a showdown on national television?

One good thing to come out of the ordeal was that it reaffirmed our views that we do not need television for entertainment. Looks like the news is all I can watch anyway - as long as its not Star News reporters screaming down my throat, that is!

P.S.- Interestingly my spell check suggested changing Mayavati to Amravati (I didn’t know that was part of MS word repertoire) and Rabri to Rabbi (If only!)

Illness, Morbid Thoughts and Lack Of Sun

Deepti Lamba — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:33:28 EST

Last week I fell sick and then was deprived of cable and Internet as well. The landline was dead and the cable bill had to be paid and to top it all my help went off on his usual one month leave. It seemed as if the gods were conspiring against me. Between the nasty coughs, short breaths and general low feeling, I woke up at the crack of dawn, cooked and packed tiffin for the kids and did my nasty mundane chores.

Each day seemed like the day before - lousy to the core and the nights were the worst when I had to put two pillows under my head and still felt like a fish out of water - gasping, choking and unable to sleep.

It felt as if I was the only one manning the castle. The truth couldn't be further than that. I suffered the downside of living in a nuclear family - there is no support structure to fall back on. Initally the kids fell sick, then Aaman and finally me. We were one sick family and between the chest racking coughs, watery eyes and desperate painful breaths I remembered the movie Secret Lives Of Dentists where illness brought the couple back together.

Yes, nothing like feeling like death warmed over to re-ignite the dying embers of passionate love. But for me, love was the last thing on my mind. I could hear loud coughing noises from the kids' room and from my hubby lying next to me on the bed.

We coughed and we suffered and even as the kids bounced back and so did Aaman, I remained my whiny exhausted self. Life seemed miserable and days became gloomy as well.

There was no sun for a week and it rained tirelessly. I didn't enjoy the sound of water feeding my garden, nor the cool winds but wanted the Bangalore sun to heat my muscus-ridden chest and stuffy nose.

I was one miserable chick then and even now with the occasional cough I continue to feel a bit morose. Illness does that. It takes time to get back to one's usual self after a battle with germs and viruses and more so if one happens to be an exhausted parent of a nuclear family.