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| Odia Daily Nirbhay, 30.11.2020 |
Sunday 29 November 2020
Saturday 28 November 2020
Column in English | Window Seat 29.11.2020
Window Seat | Mrinal Chatterjee | 29.11.2020
Future of Media in India
By
mid-2020, India’s Media World has more than 190 million TV households, 900 TV channels- half of them are news channels, more than one hundred thousand publications
including more than 12,000 dailies, 1000 Radio Stations, 2000 + multiplexes,
about 100 Cr. mobile handsets, 650 million internet users out of which 420
million are mobile internet users.
Growth
in media in India has been impressive. Consider the numbers in 1947. Newspapers and Periodicals: 3000 including 300
dailies. Television began in 1959. In 1962 there used to be two-hour
transmission in a day on ONE channel and there were just 41 TV Sets in the
country. India had 150 movie-theatres in 1921. There was one AN Radio channel in 1947, and there were 11 radio
stations. During partition, four remained in newly created Pakistan.
Proliferation
of media has already created a problem of what experts say: Attention Deficit
Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). It has affected children across the world when
they are exposed to too many choices. As a result, they are increasingly
distracted and unable to concentrate, since their attention is consumed by more
than one thing at a time. In order to hold their attention, newspapers are becoming
more visual, television is becoming more dramatic and sensational. Depth often
is causality. This will only increase in coming years. There could be a
reaction against this and some media houses can latch on to this as their usp
(unique selling proposition).
Online
newspapers or e-versions of the newspapers will be the order of the day in the
next five to ten years across the country. The paper-based newspaper will
gradually recede. Therefore newspapers have to take to new media technology in
a big way. Online there would a mix of print, audio and video format.
More
internet-based or on social media platform based television channels and radio
stations will be set up. With the growth in digital technology, setting up a
Television and/or radio station will be easier and cheaper. Then there will be
a shakeout and the number of newspapers, television channels, radio stations
will come down from the present number. Reduction of government patronage in
the form of advertisement will hasten this process. The number will stabilize
at a point.
Stop Deforestation
Simon O Rourke a Wales-based wood carving artist did the wood
sculpture out of a storm-damaged Pine tree that you see in the accompanying
photograph. It has become a symbol of anti-deforestion protest.
Rourke
was a trained Illustrator; specialising in children’s books. However, he
became, what he calls 'a tree surgeon' for a company called Acorn ArborCare as
he needed a full time job.
He
carved for two years under the banner of Acorn Furniture and set up his own
business in 2005. Rourke now lives in North Wales, with his wife Liz, and has
worked in a wide variety of public places and private gardens.
To
see more of his works, surf: https://www.treecarving.co.uk/portfolio/
Wood
sculptures like this could be installed in public parks using damaged logs.
Market Story
A lot of monkeys used to
live near a village. One day a merchant came to the village to buy these
monkeys!
He announced that he will
buy the monkeys at Rs 1000 each. The villagers thought that this man is mad.
They thought how can somebody buy stray monkeys at Rs 1000 each?
Still, some people caught
some monkeys and gave it to this merchant and he gave Rs 1000 for each monkey.
This news spread like
wildfire and people caught monkeys and sold it to the merchant. After few days, the merchant announced
that he would buy monkeys at Rs 2000 each. The villagers ran around to catch
the remaining monkeys!
They sold the remaining
monkeys at Rs 2000 each.
Then the merchant
announced that he will buy monkeys at Rs 5000 each!
The villagers started to
lose sleep! ... They caught six or seven monkeys, which were all that was left
and Rs got 5000 each.
The villagers were waiting
anxiously for the next announcement.
Then the merchant
announced that he is going home for a week.
And when he returns, he will buy monkeys at Rs 10000 each!
He asked his employee to
take care of the monkeys he bought and went home.
The villagers were very sad as there were no more monkeys left for them to catch and sell at Rs 10000 each.
Then the employee told
them that he would sell some monkeys at Rs 7000 each secretly. This news spread
like fire. Since the merchant promised
to buy monkey at Rs 10000 each, there was a chance to make Rs 3000 profit for
each monkey- without even taking the pain of catching one.
The next day, villagers
made a queue near the monkey cage. The employee sold all the monkeys at 7000
each. The rich bought monkeys in big
lots. The poor borrowed money from money
lenders and also bought as many monkeys as they could!
The villagers took care of
the monkeys and waited for the merchant to return.
But nobody came! ... Then
they ran to the employee. But he had already left too !
The villagers then
realised that they have bought the useless stray monkeys at Rs 7000 each and
unable to sell them!
Does this story sound
familiar?
Tailpiece: Lucky
She is confused. She goes to an
astrologer, asks: "Anil and Sunil are both in love with me, please tell me
who will be the lucky one?"
Astrologer: "Anil will be the
Lucky One....!! Sunil will marry you ..... !"
***
Journalist turned media academician
Mrinal Chatterjee lives in Dhenkanal, Odisha. He writes fiction and translates
poetry. mrinalchatterjeeiimc@gmail.com
***
Column in Odia | Pathe Prantare 29.11.2020
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***
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Friday 20 November 2020
Column in English | 22.11.2020
Window
Seat | Mrinal Chatterjee | 22.11.2020
Marriage Age
What
should be the minimum age for marriage, especially for girls? This has been a
contentious issue for centuries.
Currently, the law prescribes that the minimum age of marriage is 21
years and 18 years for men and women respectively. The minimum age of marriage
is distinct from the age of majority which is gender-neutral. An individual
attains the age of majority at 18 as per the Indian Majority Act, 1875.
There
has been a growing demand to reconsider the minimum age of marriage for girls.
A task force has been set up by the
Union Ministry for Women and Child Development to examine a host of matters
pertaining to the age of marriage. The issues include the age of motherhood,
imperatives of lowering Maternal Mortality Ratio and the improvement of
nutritional levels among women. The task force will examine the correlation of
age of marriage and motherhood with health, medical well-being, and nutritional
status of the mother and neonate, infant or child, during pregnancy, birth and
thereafter. It will also look at key parameters like Infant Mortality Rate
(IMR), Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR), Total Fertility Rate (TFR), Sex Ratio at
Birth (SRB) and Child Sex Ratio (CSR), and will examine the possibility of
increasing the age of marriage for women from the present 18 years to 21 years.
Increasing
the age of marriage of girls has been one of the important social reforms in
the nineteenth century. It took long years of struggle and advocacy led by
reformers like Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar. Subramanian Iyer
to do so.
The
Indian Penal Code enacted in 1860 criminalised sexual intercourse with a girl
below the age of 10. A legal framework for the age of consent for marriage in
India only began in the 1880s.
The
provision of rape was amended in 1927 through The Age of Consent Bill, 1927,
which declared that marriage with a girl under 12 would be invalid. The law
faced opposition from conservative leaders of the Indian National Movement, who
saw the British intervention as an attack on Hindu customs. In 1929, The Child
Marriage Restraint Act set 16 and 18 years as the minimum age of marriage for
girls and boys respectively. The law, popularly known as the Sarda Act after
its sponsor Harbilas Sarda, a judge and a member of Arya Samaj, was eventually
amended in 1978 to prescribe 18 and 21 years as the age of marriage for a woman
and a man respectively.
There
is no reasoning in the law for having different legal standards of age for men
and women to marry. Women’s rights activists have often argued that the law
also perpetuates the stereotype that women are more mature than men of the same
age and, therefore, can be allowed to marry sooner. The international treaty
Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), also
calls for the abolition of laws that assume women have a different physical or
intellectual rate of growth than men. In fact from bringing in
gender-neutrality to reduce the risks of early pregnancy among women, there are
many arguments in favour of increasing the minimum age of marriage of women.
Early pregnancy is associated with increased child mortality rates and affects
the health of the mother.
However,
despite laws mandating minimum age and criminalising sexual intercourse with a
minor, child marriages are very prevalent in the country. UNICEF estimates
suggest that each year, at least 1.5 million girls under the age of 18 are
married in India, which makes the country home to the largest number of child
brides in the world — accounting for a third of the global total. Nearly 16 per
cent adolescent girls aged 15-19 are currently married.
Jaipur
Jaipur in Rajasthan,
arguably the first planned city of India celebrated its 293rd birthday on 18
November 2020. It was founded by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II, the ruler of Amer
on November 18, 1727. The city was named after him. The chief architect and
planner of the city was Vidyadhar Bhattacharya, who hailed from Naihati of present-day
West Bengal. He was working in the Amer state as Junior Auditor when he was approached
by the Maharaja to build the city.
 |
Photo: Tabeenah Anjum Quereshi |
Maharaja Jai
Singh II recruited architect Vidyadhar Bhattacharya who was already employed in
his court and working as an Auditor.
Bhattacharya was a
brilliant architect. He used the holistic principles of Shilpa Shastra and
Vaastu Shastra to create a grid-based model of the city. He researched on the
ancient Indian literature on astronomy, the journals on Ptolemy and Euclid
while planning the city. Finally, he designed a blueprint for Jaipur around
1727, dividing the city into nine squares, each symbolizing the nine planets of
the solar system. Two of these divisions were reserved for state buildings and
palaces while the rest was reserved for the general public.
The city was planned
so meticulously and scientifically, that each street went east to west and
north to south. There were covered porches in the markets that would protect
the merchants from the sun in summers and cold winds in winter.
Called pink city for its
trademark building colour, the old city area is a UNESCO world heritage site
now. The city is also
home to the World Heritage Sites Amber Fort and Jantar Mantar.
Jaipur has been a major
tourist draw. Along with Delhi and Agra- it forms the Golden Triangle which
attracts a large number of tourists in India.
Photo: Tabeenah Anjum
Tail piece: Happy Deepavali
Shashi
Tharoor sent me his Deepavali wishes:
Let this
iridescent, opalescent, incandescent festival of fervour sink the tenebrosity
into ravishing radiance, filling everyone's life with cornucopia of joy, peace,
health and fine fettle...
Evil
elements be incinerated in a sparking show of lights and coruscation...
Mera puri Diwali saam dictionary dekhte dekhte bit gaya. (My Diwali evening was spent in looking at dictionary.)
(Courtesy:
Social Media)
The problem is…
The
problem, you know, with us here in India is that we are expected to support
either an Arnab or an Udhav! One is not allowed to dislike both!
***
Journalist-turned
media academician Mrinal Chatterjee lives in Dhenkanal, Odisha. He writes
fiction and translates poetry from Urdu, Hindi and Bengali to Odia and English.
***
This column is published every Sunday in Gangtok based English daily Sikkim Express and www.prameyanews.com
Saturday 14 November 2020
Column | Window Seat
Window Seat | Mrinal Chatterjee | 15.11.2020
Kali Puja
Kali
Puja, also known as Shyama Puja is dedicated to the goddess Kali or Shyama
(literally meaning dark). It is celebrated on the new moon day (Dipannita
Amavasya) of the month of Kartik especially in the regions of Bengal, Bihar
(Mithila), Odisha, Assam, and part of Maharashtra.
 |
| Photo: Utsav Basu. Location: Kumartuli, Kolkata. |
Mark
the unique plurality of India. Half of the country worship the Goddess who
ferociously slays the demon and even drinks his blood, while half on that very
day worships the goddess who brings prosperity. Both the goddess represent two
different sects- Shaktism and Vaishnavism. And they are the same entity.
As
per the Kalikula sect of Shaktism, the supreme celestial Mother goddess
Mahakali took 10 manifestations to slay evils on the Earth, which are
collectively known as Dasa Mahavidyas. Each Mahavidya has a day of incarnation
in the Hindu calendar of 12 months. Out of those 10 Mahavidyas, the last
goddess is Kamalatmika, whose day of incarnation is celebrated as Kamalatmika
Jayanti, falls on the day of Deepavali. She is often recognized as 'Tantrik
Lakshmi'.
Photo: Utsav Basu. Location: Kumartuli, Kolkata
Moulana
Abul Kalam Azad
Indian celebrated National Education Day on November 11, the
birth anniversary of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad – a great scholar, Islamic
theologian, freedom fighter, politician and a firm believer in the unity of
India. He was the first Education
Minister of independent India. He remained Education minister from 15 August
1947 until 2 February 1958. He died on 22 February 1958. Every year since 2008,
November 11 is celebrated as education day to commemorate his birth anniversary.
 |
| Add caption |
Born
in Mecca in 1888, his family moved to Kolkata in 1890. He was self-taught and
never went to school. He started teaching at the age of 16 and continued his
scholarly pursuits even while in the thick of national politics. He wrote
poetry, translated the Quran and authored several books.
Young
Azad was influenced by revolutionaries and was deeply impressed by the writings
of Sri Aurobindo. In 1908, he visited
Iraq, Egypt, Syria and Turkey and was pained to find that while in these
countries Muslims were fighting for freedom and democracy; Indian Muslims were
favouring the British, keeping away from the nationalist movement. To change
the mindset, he started a journal, Al-Hilal (meaning Crescent moon) in July
1912. he used as a weapon to attack and question British policies. The
publication gained immense popularity among the masses. It became a mile stone
in Urdu journalism. British administration banned it in 1914.
Undeterred
by this move, Azad soon started another weekly, Al-Balagh (which means Delivery
of a Massage; Another Name for the Quran). It ran until he was externed under
Defence of India Regulations in 1916. Despite censoring, he found ways to rebel
against British activities through the power of his pen.
He
joined the Indian National Congress and became its president in 1923 at the age
of 35. He was the youngest President of Congress. He always advocated for
Hindu-Muslim unity and opposed the division of the country.
As first education minister of the country, he advocated for free and compulsory primary education for all children up to the age of 14 as he believed it was the right of all citizens. Later, he went on to establish the Jamia Millia Islamia in Delhi and contributed to the setting up of the IITs. He was also one of the brains behind the University Grants Commission, India’s higher education regulator, and played a key role in the establishment of other educational institutions.
The Bengal Conundrum
Sambit
Pal, my student turned colleague at the Dhenkanal campus of Indian Institute of
Mass Communication (IIMC) has covered Bengal politics as a journalist for over
a decade. His maiden book on contemporary Bengal politics has just been
published by Bloomsbury.
It maps Bengal’s political history from late
1980s till the present times. This is the period of the rise of right wing
Hindutva-focused BJP.
From being
inconsequential to turning into a dominant force - the journey of BJP came full
circle in Bengal 2019 LokSabha election. The fish and debate-loving 'Left
progressive' Bengali seemed to have finally shifted their loyalty to the BJP.
So how did this shift take place and what did it take for the BJP, largely
viewed as a 'North-Indian party' to become such a 'force' in the East?
The Bengal Conundrum engages
with these questions and examines how
this shift to the right might change Bengal politics forever.
If you are interested in Bengal Politics or interested to know why and how BJP as a political party is gaining traction- read this book.
A nice afternoon story
A boy in college
loves a girl. He writes her a love letter. "I love you. If you love me,
then tomorrow come wearing a red dress."
He keeps that love
letter in a book and gives it to her.
On the appointed
day she comes wearing a yellow color dress and returns his book back.
Seeing the girl in yellow dress, the boy feels very bad. He goes into depression, takes to drugs and shifted to a rehab centre.
Over a period of
time, that girl gets married.
After a few years
......
While cleaning his
house, the boy finds the book, the girl had returned. Out of curiosity he
glances through it … and a small folded piece of paper falls out .... It was a
note from the girl.
In that note was
written: "I like you too, ...but
first meet my family ...and ask for my hand. Even if my family doesn't accept
you, I would still marry you .... And
yes ... I am a poor girl ...I do not have a Red dress ...SORRY ...!!!
After reading this,
the boy held his head in disbelief...
Moral of the Story:
Open the subject books at least once in a year.
Note for oldies:
Now you do not sit filtering all the old books. Your time has passed. Look
after your grand-children's studies.
Or…
Breathlessness, Palpitation, moist
eyes… you are either in love or in Delhi.. or infected by Corona.
(Courtesy: Social Media)
***
Journalist-turned-media academician
Mrinal Chatterjee lives in Dhenkanal, Odisha. He also writes fiction and
translates poetry.
mrinalchatterjeeiimc@gmail.com
***
This column is published every Sunday in Gangtok based English daily Sikkim Express and www.prameyanews.com
Sunday 8 November 2020
Column | Window Seat | 8.11.2020
Window
Seat | Mrinal Chatterjee 8.11.2020
Death of two
rock-stars
In the last three months, two rock-stars of cinema and journalism born in
different parts of Great Britain breathed their last.
Sean Connery, arguable the most definitive James Bond died on 31 October.
He was age of 90. Sir Harold Evans arguably one of the
greatest editors we have had in recent times died on 23 September. He was 92.
Besides
the age and agility, they had many other things in common. Both rose to the
pinnacle of glory from a humble background. Both struggled hard to reach the
top. And both suffered a dramatic downturn in their career- when they were on
the top. Both married twice.
Sean Connery was born on 25 August 1930 in downtown Edinburgh, Scotland in a
poor family, He dropped out of school, joined Royal Navy and was invalidated in
three years. He scraped a living any way he could. He drove trucks, worked as a
lifeguard and posed as a model at the Edinburgh College of Art. He spent his
spare time bodybuilding.
Connery made the
first of many appearances as a film extra in the 1954. There were minor roles
on television too, including a gangster in an episode of the BBC police drama
Dixon of Dock Green. In 1957, he got his first leading role in Blood Money, a
BBC reworking of Requiem for a Heavyweight, in which he portrayed a boxer whose
career is in decline.
And then came Bond. Producers Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman
had acquired the rights to film Ian Fleming's novels and were looking for an
actor to portray 007.
Richard Burton, Cary Grant and Rex Harrison were all considered,
even Lord Lucan and the BBC's Peter Snow.
It was Broccoli's wife, Dana, who persuaded her husband that
Connery had the magnetism and sexual chemistry for the part.
Connery made the character his own, blending ruthlessness with
sardonic wit. Many critics didn't like it and some of the reviews were
scathing. But the public did not agree.
The action scenes, sex and exotic locations were a winning
formula. The first film, Dr No, made a pile of money at the box office. More
outings swiftly followed - From Russia with Love (1963), Goldfinger (1964),
Thunderball (1965) and You Only Live Twice (1967).
Playing Bond was
exhausting and occasionally dangerous.
There was other
work though, including Alfred Hitchcock's Marnie, and The Hill, a drama about a
wartime British Army prison in North Africa.
But by the time You Only Live Twice was completed, Connery was
tiring of Bond and feared being typecast.
He turned down On Her Majesty's Secret Service, with the role
given to Australian actor George Lazenby, whose career never recovered.
Saltzman and Broccoli lured Connery back for Diamonds Are
Forever in 1971, meeting the actor's demand for a huge fee. Connery used it to
set up the Scottish International Education Trust, supporting the careers of
up-and-coming Scottish artists.
Sean played many other roles. But playing Bond was the
high-point in his career and though his Bond is a museum piece now- he will be
remembered for that.
Harold
Evans was born on 28 June 1928 in Greater Manchester, England. An
Engine-Driver’s son, his career
began as a reporter for a weekly newspaper in Lancashire at 16 years old. After
completing his national service in the Royal Air Force, he entered Durham
University where he graduated with honours in politics and economics and
subsequently earned a Master of Arts degree for a thesis on foreign policy. He
became an assistant editor of the Manchester Evening News and won Fellowship in
1956-57 for travel and study in the United States. On his return he was
appointed editor of the regional daily The Northern Echo, where one of his
campaigns resulted in a national programme for the detection of cervical
cancer.
Evans was at his best during his 14-year tenure
as editor of the Sunday Times. It was here that he refined his crusading style
of investigative reporting. It became a kind of template for investigative
reporting, which many good newspapers including The Statesman and Indian
Express in India tried to emulate with varying degree of success.
When Rupert Murdoch acquired Times Newspapers
Limited in 1981, Evans was appointed editor of The Times. However, he remained
with the paper only a year, resigning over policy differences relating to
editorial independence. Evans wrote an account in a book entitled Good Times,
Bad Times (1984).
This was a turning point in the life of Harold
Evans. From this point, Evans the great crusading editor gradually pushed to
oblivion. Instead emerged Harold Evans, the writer-editor and husband of Tina
Brown, his second wife, who later became editor of New Yorker.
Caricature by Jayaraj Vellur
Tailpiece: Why God cannot sue the Engineer in Hell!
An Engineer dies
but lands in Hell.
He’s talking with
Satan & says, “What a terrible place! It’s very hot, dark, smoky”
Satan says, “Well,
what did you expect? this IS Hell!”
The engineer says
“Do you have a compressor, some tubing, and wire?
Satan says, “Yeah,
we might have some of that stuff around, I’ll check and see what I can find for
you.”
Satan finds the
stuff & the engineer starts designing improvements. After a while, Hell has
air conditioning, iced water, good lighting, flush toilets &
escalators. The engineer is a pretty popular!
One day God calls
and tells Satan, “Say, we had a mix-up. I was checking records &
discovered that by error an engineer got sent down to you. He should have
come to Heaven. All engineers go to Heaven. You need to transfer him up
here.”
Satan says,
"Why, things are going great. We've now got air conditioning, iced
water, flush toilets, great lighting, and escalators, and there's no
telling what this engineer is going to come up with next. We like him!
We’re going to keep him.”
God is horrified.
"That's clearly a mistake! He should never have gone down there in
the first place! Send him up here immediately!"
Satan says,
"No way! I really like having an engineer on the staff. I'm keeping him.”
God says, “Send him
back up here or I'll sue you!”
Satan laughs,
“Yeah, right, Good luck on that. Where are you going to find a lawyer?!"
(Courtesy: Social
Media)
***
Journalist turned media academician
Mrinal Chatterjee lives in Dhenkanal, Odisha. He also writes fiction and
translates poetry from Urdu and Hindi to Odia and Bengali. mrinalchatterjeeiimc@gmail.com
This column is published every Sunday in Gangtok based English daily Sikkim Express and www.prayemanews.com
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