Tidbits of region’s media

"As Neeli writhed her way to some kind of climax in Sajjad Gul´s Jo Dar Gaya Woh Mar Gaya, the journalist from Nepal cringed. It took him some time to get over the film. After mulling over it for a couple of days, he was finally able to discuss it: ´I have never,´ he said, ´seen anything so crude, so vulgar. I have seen a lot of films that are considered bold or obscene. But this was something else. Not erotic, not pleasurable to watch. Just crude.´" That was the lead paragraph in an article, "Clothed Crudity", on film censorship in Pakistan in The News on Friday. Funny thing is, 1 have watched Jo Dar Gaya, and remember feeling exactly as the Nepali journalist did.

Guess what the custodians of Lumbini, the birthplace of Lord Buddha, have decided to do at the place where misguided archaeologists recently ran amok, digging into the Mayadevi temple and supposedly identifying the very rock on which the Sakyamuni was born? Well, with the blessings of the custodians of the hallowed ground, no doubt, the Hotel Association of Nepal has decided to celebrate Lumbini Festival ´96. This sounds like a crass attempt to merchandise the sanctified birthplace, and we could do without it. Just take a look at the hideous logo they have just unfurled. Buddha eyes with the Ashoka Pillar serving as a nose, reaching up like a phallus, all on the back of a dove of peace with no eyes, fronted by the worst fonts that any desktop computer programme could come up with. Festival? Lumbini is about to be desecrated.