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E-mail from readers the world over
Date sent: Tue, 03 Nov 1998 11:24:25 +0500 One is amused at the naivete of the NCW to focus the report more on narratives from Indore, and in particular from the palatial surroundings of the Bishop's house. Knowing the mild mannered, amiable but less-articulate Reverend Anathil, the bishop, as a pupil who studied Latin under him, I can well imagine the sequence of narration. Of course, the NCW team and Rediff need to be thanked for bringing to light for the first time the unknown aspects of the villagers' complicity in the matter. And for the first time one is able to gather that the victims have been able to identify at least one of the rapists from his voice, and as belonging to the village of the crime. One would have expected the fact finding NCW team to persist unearthing such hard facts from the scene of the crime, instead of coloured opinions from the headquarters of the church in the state. In fact the bane of the church in India is that its revered leaders like Reverend Anathil, after their cozy 'tertiate' in Rome and abroad, are more busy wining and dining the western way in opulence provided by imported charity. Tragedy is that the missionaries are perceived as the only 'haves' among the 'have nots'! So much for their lives modeled on vows of poverty!! It is in this context, one takes with a pinch of salt your suggestions to the effect that the nuns were very reverently popular in the area and yet no villager dared to come to their rescue! One needs to get at the bottom of the whole stink, especially the provocation, if any, provided by the nuns or their spiritual superiors in fashionable lifestyles. In the past, in Bombay for example, when similar atrocities took place, the real investigations had to be silenced, or rather abandoned, lest some scandalous truth came to tarnish the holy image of the church. The very loud processionists from the church demanding stern actions saw merit in the valour of silence. One prays that a similar fate should not await the horrendous MP rape. It has to be condemned as a heinous crime perpetuated on women first, and on nuns only later. Now that at least one of the culprits is identified, the police can have no excuse to delay and deny justice. An often glossed over fact is that the crime against the church has happened in a state ruled by the Congress, whose president, many may not be aware, is the silent pillar of support and strength for the Catholic Church in India, particularly the Catholic Bishops Conference of India. Hence the church has not hauled up the Congress regime? Imagine what the fate would have been of a government headed by the BJP, if it were in the saddle of MP! The international press would have crucified the sarkar. The BBC, Star and CNN would have gone to town with the fate of minorities under Hindu fundamentalism. And even the NCW would have come down on it like a ton of brick! At the same time, it is also appalling that the home minister of the country, who fancies himself as the Sardar Patel of our era, could not find 'quality' time to make an on the spot assessment if only to stress the gravity of the matter. Even if it is for political expediency, like Indira Gandhi, he was expected to immediately rush to the spot to quell any normal saffron glee over the humiliation of the cross that boasted of many Hindu conquests and converts in the past. To that extent, the nation has exhibited its utter lack of political maturity as the hallmark of present day politics. Travesty of the situation is such that the rape of truth continues. The NCW has not cared to expose it fully. And that can only mean that there is going to be no end to gang rapes on women, even if they are holy nuns!
Perez Chandra
Date sent: Mon, 02 Nov 1998 06:53:41 GMT Yes, it was a deplorable incident and the whole country is rightly enraged. But has anyone at Rediff heard of the word 'perspective'. Enough is enough. Let's move on, can we, please?
Date sent: Tue, 03 Nov 1998 00:45:09 -0500 Isn't this going too far -- dragging fishermen now into the realm of a war that by right should be restricted to Parliament. John Mathew
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1998 16:41:07 +0500 Thank you for a balanced view. The true economics of the current UTI market craze must be loudly carried by all branches of the media. Unnecessary panic has been created by providing a wrong slant to technical terms. Would welcome a regular column from Mr Shanbhag (including his e-mail address) on investment. This should be a down to earth analysis, a form of stock selection guide, that would help small investors understand the value of individual stocks. Unfortunately, we do not have the benefit of a free publicly accessible data base, such as the Value Line Report in the USA. Mina and Jyoti Nandi Bombay
Date: Thu, 08 Oct 1998 17:13:03 -0700 Please stop saying US64 is a good scheme. Don't tell the innocent public that they gave 26% dividend or 20% dividend. All these figures are bogus. What UTI has been doing is giving people their own principal as interest and reducing the repurchase price of the scheme. People feel happy that they received high dividends, but end up eating up their principal when it comes to selling the units. UTI 64 did well in the initial four years of its launch but after that it became a big fund and was basically riding on its popularity wave. When it is finally busted, please tell the truth that the scheme has failed because of x number of reasons.
Date: Fri, 23 Oct 1998 12:46:41 -0400 What a great success story! Let there be more such news items to balance out the usual unpleasant stuff. Good work.
Date: Wed, 21 Oct 1998 11:22:36 -0400 (EDT) I just read your article on Rediff on the lack of Indian contemporary novels and the one on the ten best Indian novels (Ulysses and Midnight's Children.) I have a few points to raise about them. There are of course, differences in views. First of all I agree that Ulysses is unreadable to most people. It's place in the literary pantheon is not only because it became an symbol of freedom of expression, but also because it breaks the literary mould of what a novel should be. And that may the reason why it is unreadable. You have written about the list of the top 100 works of fiction this century. I have gone through it and have concluded that most of it is so much nonsense. This list was drawn up by academics in the US and UK, mostly university professors of English at the Harvards and the Oxbridges, and it reflects their collective biases for the favourites of the literary establishment of these two countries. These books are read, admired and criticised, many times, for reasons other than strictly literary merit. I read with interest your list of ten best Indian novels. I know that you have been restricted to those works which have been translated into English, and which you have found. But in every language in India, there are writers who have written good stuff: Thakazhi Sivashankaran Pillai, Vaikkom Mohammed Bashir (both Malayalam) and Mohan Rakesh (Hindi) come to mind. Lastly, I would like to strongly disagree with the title and the views of your article. I believe that Indian fiction in English is alive and kicking strongly, in terms of output and prominence. The tragedy is that for a writer to become famous in India, she/he has to have the endorsement of the west or of the Indian literati, who tend to ape the West in the standards they set. We don't have a strong, discerning and independent market for Indian writing among Indians and hence Indian writers in English write for western markets which looks for 'quaint' and the 'exotic', to add masala to their product line. But at the same time, the successes of De, Roy and Seth will encourage other writers. There will no doubt be many copycats, but I believe that a good work of fiction comes from the heart and soul of the writer. And who knows, someone who has lived through and was imprinted by the turbulent 80s and 90s in India will record those events for posterity.
Roopesh Mathur PS: If you get the time, please have a look at A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry and Kanthapura by Raja Rao.
Date: Wed, 21 Oct 1998 13:50:38 -0400 I enjoy reading your column. Thanks for the articles. What do you think of Ruskin Bond as one of the prominent Indian authors? I am interested to know. Subrato
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 1998 15:10:30 -0700 (PDT) I recently read your article on Rediff on the ten best Indian books of the century (published in English). I think you have missed the number one book of the century by an Indian. (I would not hesitate to put it on the top ten list of the world too.) It is: All About H Hatterr by G V Desani. Vikas V Gupta
Date sent: Fri, 30 Oct 1998 12:28:40 -0800 I was pretty surprised when I read your review on this film. At a time when Hindi cinema is slipping from bad to incorrigible -- I thought that KKHH was decent -- at least it was a sincere effort and was watchable. It does not deserve the greatest of praise but neither does it deserve to be shredded to pieces as in your review. The viewers' response to the film is a clear case for my point of view. What were you expecting, some kind of classic?
Prasad Jayaraman
Date: Sunday, November 01, 1998 4:13 PM I totally agree with your analysis of the match against the West Indies. Azhar seems to be a rather thoughtless captain, no strategies or plans seem to be made before hand. He might be the most successful captain but he surely lacks a good cricketing brain. Since the West Indian team has a lots of left handers, he should have picked Nikhil Chopra and should have done that all the more because Kumble looks like a lollypop bowler against left handers. In fact, what I've been saying about Rahul Dravid is turning out to be right. He only excels (that is manages some respectably decent scores) if a Tendulkar is batting at the other end! Geoff Boycott too reinforced my view that he is not convinced about Dravid being a one day player. First of all, he goes into a shell, brings down the run rate, frustrates the batsman at the other end by not giving him strike as he cannot place the ball between fielders and then manages to get out. He should be removed from the Indian team. Khurasia or Kambli should have been chosen, even Kanitkar would fare better than Dravid. In fact, when I say that Nikhil Chopra should have been taken, he could have replaced Dravid. Surely he can do better than a measly 20 of 54 balls!!! And would have been an asset as a bowler. Vidhika
Date sent: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 00:22:11 -0500 (EST) I must sympathise with you. For as the age-old saying goes, "Hang the messenger that brings home bad news." No wonder then, that you've been at the receiving end of some nasty emails. Like most of your other readers, I am an e-mail addict too (but then... aren't you one too?!). I present my opinion on the Harbhajan Singh episode. I'd love to get some hate mail in reply. Won't you publish it? Rajesh Chauhan and Harbhajan Singh have been inexplicably "chucked" out of the Indian team. Maybe, it isn't all that fair. But it has become an unpardonable sin that the BCCI didn't stand-by its chuckers, when the Sri Lankan board merrily defied the cricketing law to stand by its sole matchwinning bowler, Muthaiah Muralitharan. The Sri Lankans remind me of Robin Hood and his merry band of men dressed in lincoln green. They are brave, they are cheeky, they are skillful .... and most importantly, they are the best! Would Robin Hood have been a hero if he couldn't shoot a cross-bow and wield the staff like nobody before him? The warriors from Sri Lanka have successfully withstood the ravages of intimidation and come-uppance. Meanwhile, their Indian contemporaries have bowed like the gentlemen they are to the very law that destructs their sense of stability. I do not know which of the two cricketing boards are righteous in their actions. But I do know for sure that the mighty Sri Lankans are the world champions, while the not-so-mighty Indians haven't gotten close to being one for fifteen years. You cannot become Robin Hood if you followed the law! Who is the ICC? Do they have the right to interfere? I think the question is analogous to the one about the president's right to interfere with the Supreme Court's order. Yes, they can and must interfere to protect the law and the way it is interpreted. Every faux pas by subordinates must be brought to the book. If Harbhajan Singh chucked and needed his action to be corrected, then so be it. Remember, Muralitharan was rested for a couple of matches, his action studied by doctors and experts alike and he was approved. Henry Olonga has gone through similar rehabilitation. Umpires are fallible and human. I bet it is a mountainous job to watch out for chucking, no-balls, bouncers, lbws, snicks and count the balls all in the space of one second (if the bowler was Allan Donald!). Surely, the match referee has the right to observe the bowler's action in leisure on his television and submit his report. If the law doesn't allow him to do so, don't blame the match referees, I say, blame the law instead! I have a ten year old brother. He keenly studies the bowling action of his cricketing heroes and faithfully imitates each and every one of them in trying to break through our compound wall. He does a great job of it. But believe me, he actually chucks when he imitates Harbhajan Singh!
Anandam Mamidipudi
Date sent: Sat, 31 Oct 1998 10:52:47 -0800 Love your articles! Keep it up and thanks on behalf of many avid cricket lovers out there. To me Sachin is no less then what Mozart was to the piano and Einstein to science. To say that god has something to do with each of these individual genius only makes me happier as in to say even god loves this game. And what a game! Thanks again. ZR How Readers responded to Saisuresh Sivaswamy's last column How Readers responded to Pritish Nandy's recent columns
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