July 24, Chennai: A government primary school at the Thoraipakkam junction could be demolished to make way for a radial link road to connect Old Mahabalipuram road and East Coast Road. The link road will span only 1.4 kilometers, thereby reducing the time taken to travel the stretch. As per plans the new road will begin at Neelankarai on ECR and join the radial road at the Thoraippakam junction.
This announcement has raised concerns on the future of the primary school. The headmistress said that the plan has been making rounds for the past five years and there have been no major problems till date. Whereas T.C. Govindasamy, municipal head of 193rd ward assured that, “The school will be shifted to a nearby building in the same area when the plan will be implemented. It will be made sure that the students do not suffer”.
“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.” –Mother Teresa
Gaza Bombings
My heart goes out to those hundreds who have lost their lives in the bloody conflict that has ripped apart Gaza. Our ilk has lost a sense of humanity, wars are just numbers, strategies, victory, defeat and politics. Palestine has been at the receiving end since 2008. What started with Operation Cast Lead has now just been renamed as Operation Protective Edge, as far as the people are concerned. We, the supposed ‘International Community’ are just watching, hoping that there will be a stop to the violence.
Let us explore facts as they have been presented. Israel is recognized as the occupying power in Palestine since 1967, though they have ‘withdrawn’ forces from the Gaza strip in 2005, they still have full control over airspace, territorial waters, land crossings and borders. These, surely, by any means of logic qualify Israel to be the ‘de facto’ occupying power. This simple fact ensures that the ‘two sides are involved’ argument is null and void. Israel is bound by the international occupation law to protect is ‘citizens’. Israel on the contrary is on its worst ever offensive mode.
The Israeli version says that they were forced to ‘retaliate’ because three Israeli youth were kidnapped and killed in West Bank during early June. The Economic and Political Weekly editorial of this month titled “Once more in Gaza” states that- ‘the government of Israel uses its propaganda machinery to manufacture “facts on ground” and spins tales of action, reaction and self-defense’. The article further states that this attack could also be to quell internal discontent in Israel over the huge revenue allocation towards military. The ‘war’ would now justify the spending. Another possible theory suggests that this act could also be a retaliation to the coming together of Hamas and Fatah to form a Palestine government after 2007. According to Israel, Hamas is still a “terrorist force”.
The US has always stood resolutely behind Israel even after the 2009 UNHRC Goldstone report clearly said that the Israeli actions in Gaza amounted to crimes against humanity.
Whatever be the reason, Israel has certainly wronged humanity by wiping off hundreds of innocent lives. The pictures of dead children, razed buildings, grieving mothers that have flooded the social media make a heart wrenching watch.
When I see a heavy cloud, the first thing comes to my mind is that it's heavy smoke #GazaUnderAttack
The international community has to strongly condemn Israel and put sanctions on, if necessary, to put an end to this saddening violence. Ruthless offensive is not the answer for a territorial dispute. Maybe it’s time to put differences behind and deal with the issue on discussion tables rather than the battlefield.
I personally feel that India has to act swiftly and take a resolute stand on the issue rather than beating around the bush. India is seen as the ‘coming of age’ super power and a meek stand is the last thing India should have. It is just not India’s international reputation at stake, it is the lives of a million people. I think it is high time we let borders, politics and trade vanish and just solitarily stand together for humanity. I do not want to repeat it again, but then, PEOPLE ARE DYING.
Source:
Once more in Gaza- Economic and Political Weekly editorial, page 8
India and the Israeli war on Palestine- Economic and Political Weekly, page 28
Krishna, you have said that you wait and long for the day when a dalit will perform at the music academy. Are you suggesting that the world of Carnatic music is not inclusive enough?
Oh! I am not suggesting, that’s a fact.
This is an excerpt from the interview conducted by T.S. Sudhir of Headlines Today with T.M. Krishna on 3 January after the release of Krishna’s book ‘A Southern Music-The Karnatic Story’. This interview left me thinking on whether the music world I adore and grew up with was after all not all that pure and divine. T.M. Krishna is one of the most loved performers in the Carnatic scene. His mellifluous voice, deep understanding of the ragas and his experiments with them have garnered him accolades and respect. So, to hear the above statement from him was indeed shocking. I mulled over this for a while but then other commitments kept me busy and I had completely forgotten about it.
But then time has strange ways to connect us to the past, and that’s how I found myself waiting for T.M. Krishna’s arrival on 24 July at MIDS, Adyar (3:30 PM, to be precise). And obviously you guessed it right, the topic of his lecture was- Imbalances in Carnatic music. Over the next hour and a half he left the audience spellbound with his scholarly insights into the many problems that plague the classical scene.
He started with how various instrumentalists are placed on the stage and stressed the fact that hierarchy decided where one sat. The lead singer was centrally placed, the Pakhavadyams i.e. violinist to his left, mridangist on his right; the ‘upa’ pakhavadyams- Kanjira, Ghatam and tambura were behind the main artist. This hierarchy according to him is the sacred rule of stage placement, none changed his ‘sthnam’ for the other as it is taken as an insult to their mastery, thereby making them inferior to the other instrumentalist. This hierarchy determines the payment of the various artists too. The ‘lower’ one is, the lesser he/she gets paid.
The talk then shifted towards gender bias, but beware, this is not your usual man vs. woman debate, this bias operates on a whole new level. Tackle this fact for starters- Many woman singers DO NOT want a woman violinist to play for them. T.M.K believes the reason for strange phenomenon could be the fact that the woman feels ‘powerful and dominant’ when men surround her and ‘play to her tunes’. The question now arises- What about female mridangists or ghatam players? But then ‘tradition’ has an answer. It is considered to be ‘visually vulgar’ for a woman to play a mridangam or a ghatam. Such is the sorry state that we have locked ourselves in.
It does not end there, T.M. Krishna also took on caste to make his point. He reminded the audience that the two main dominating castes in music were the Devadasis and the Brahmins, but now, only the Brahmin style of music has survived, thanks to the patronage of various sabhas to this particular style. Krishna strongly believes that we have lost a great deal of musical knowledge because of the ‘Devadasi’ loss. He even explained that the role of other castes has never been acknowledged. For example, the Christian Dalits who fabricate the mridangam are hardly ever given their due.
The Brahmins are all dominant and yes, there is no proof to say that they have stopped people from other caste or religion from entering the musical scene. But then it is the perception and tradition that we have to break. To the practitioner’s credit, many of them have tried their level best to take classical music to the wider audience, but the perception still lingers- you have to be a ‘high’ caste to sing. Maybe breaking these traditional biases and barriers and encouraging upcoming artists from all sections will do us a whole lot of good. At the end of the day, music is what matters, not who sings. We are all born equal and art is for all. Kudos for that invigorating lecture T.M.K and hopefully a day will come when your dream will come true.
“Sweetness and strength, pleasure with surprise, an energy of conception which seems at every moment about to break through all comely form, recovering, touch by touch, a loveliness found usually only in the simplest natural things- ex forti dulcedo.” This is what Walter Pater had to say about Michelangelo’s art in his book ‘The Renaissance- Studies in art and poetry’, way back in 1873. Maybe it holds true for classical music too.
July 23, Chennai: The CMRL (Chennai Metro Rail Limited) has confirmed that the fares for the metro have not yet been fixed. The metro between Koyambedu and Alandur is expected to begin in October. A CMRL official said, “The fares will only be fixed a day or two before the start of the service after a consultation with the state officials.” He went on to add that the service will begin as soon as the finishing touches are given to the stations on the trail route.
The stations on the trail route areKoyambedu, CMBT, Arumbakkam, Vadapalani, Ashok Nagar, SIDCO and Alandur. A consultant firm hired by the CMRL has done an in-depth study that includes local demand, travel pattern and probable customer base. The study is expected to help the authorities decide a nominal rate for the metro services. The price is expected to take the rates of the MTC buses along the same route into account so as to provide the commuters a viable option.
The CMRL is also trying to provide ‘door to door’ connectivity so as to facilitate world class access to its users. The access might include shuttle services between stations and the surrounding areas.
Passions 