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People's
Voice
 If
he had a chance to go back into the past, Lucknow's Pankaj Patel, 21,
would like to be a better human being ... but only that "the world
doesn't let goodness foster". Mohammed Rafi, 45, a shoe shop owner
in Mumbai, feels that even if people have different beliefs, there is
only one religion. The deal? Folks from a wide spectrum of Mumbai life
(and those who wouldn't normally log on to Internet pools) like washerwomen,
bangle sellers, sex workers and migrants, had a chance to spout quotable
quotes on everything from religion to sex. The exercise was a part of
the ambitious 3Com Corporation Planet Project and queries were simultaneously
being put to millions across the globe over four days between November
14 and 18 to compile a more realist "world digital mirror".
Some of the interesting results on planetproject.com-93 per cent of Indians
said they were proud to be Indian and 28 per cent thought having children
out of wedlock was acceptable. The upshot: now you even know what your
Eskimo counterpart thought about the same thing.
-Natasha
Israni
Acting
For A Cause
When Hollywood
headliner Susan Sarandon arrived in India to raise awareness about HIV
(as a representative of the unicef), she had in mind some stock images:
Calcutta, Mother Teresa, the Kamasutra, slums, poverty. "But now
my views are changing," she says while in Mumbai, "I'm amazed
by the drive of the women here." Sarandon visited Ashreya, a home
for HIV infected people in Mumbai, the SNDT slums where unicef runs a
project and a Women's Nutrition Programme in Vellore district, down south.
But it wasn't all work-Sarandon also got to chat with some Bollywood counterparts,
including Shabana Azmi, Javed Akhtar, Manisha Koirala, Kiron Kher, Shyam
Benegal and Sunil Dutt. She confesses she hasn't watched Indian films,
but plans to. Just as well-Sarandon's now slated to be in Mira Nair's
latest film, Mother's Recompense, and the shooting begins sometime next
spring. Sarandon insists she doesn't know a thing about it at the moment
but let's hope Nair does ... otherwise it might end up like another Kamasutra
-Natasha
Israni
College
Call
Cross-border
reunions are easily more emotional than others. So when the grand ladies
of the 87-year-old Kinnaird College in Lahore, only the second women's
college to be established in the subcontinent, thronged the seminar room
of the India International Centre, Delhi, nostalgia exceeded moderation.
About 30 of them had specially flown down from Pakistan alone on the reciprocal
goodwill visit and said they were having a "great time hugging old
classmates, shopping and sight-seeing". The current principal, Mira
Phailbus, at the helm since 1972, sent a message about "building
bridges between the countries" but it was ex-Kinnaird Jamila Verghese
who struck the right chord: "Remember Aunt Dotty who taught theatre
... and Zohra Segal who taught dance? And beloved Kamala Sood, the sports
incharge, still young and spry." Much like the rest of them.
-Anshul
Avijit
Home
Dance
At 21, California-based
Yasmen Mehta spurned a career in hotel management to begin ballet training.
And the same lady, now touching forty, was in Mumbai recently with her
group, the California Contemporary Dancers, to celebrate its 10th anniversary.
Despite the trans-Atlantic origin, the group's themes are rooted in Indian
heritage and what made the sequences special was the sight of five Americans
dancing in tribute to Mother Teresa ... with a lot of yoga poses and rubber-spine
antics. What was it like? Says Karen Ouse, the rhythm keeper of the group:
"All themes are universal ... and for me it is the music with which
I develop a personal equation." For Yasmen it was an occasion for
"narrowing cultural gaps." This time it worked.
-Natasha
Israni
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Orthodoxy in economic thought is as odious as obscurantism in the socio-religious context. INDIA TODAY Associate Editor, V Shankar Aiyar, offers a contrarian take on the stock markets and the cause and the impact of policy and practice. 