Tidbits of the region’s media

INDIA TODAY publishes several editions in the ´vernacular´, and some are said to be better than others. Recently got to compare an Hindi issue with the original English, and found the following key differences: There is more gratuitous Occidental ´skin´ delivered to the Hindi audience (bad), a short story (good), a photo-montaging on an article titled "The Changed Evenings of Avadh" (see picture) not found in the English edition, and the use of more gruesome pictures of a murder/suicide in the Hindi version. The rest were faithful translations of the original delivered to the English-speaking classes, including a ´people´ piece of a certain Amrita Jhaveri of whom it is reported in Vanity Reports that she made off to India with the controversial ex-chief of the Christies auction house. Well, well..

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SPEAKING OF photo selection, we all know of the editorial biases on Kashmir the Pakistani press prints pictures of Indian security men beating up Kashmiris just as often as the Indian press refrains from doing so. Both are so wrong. Things must not be overdone. As in the case of this article on the costs of doing trade with India printed in The Nation of Islamabad, which carries a picture captioned, "A view of Indian atrocities in Held Kashmir".

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THE INTERNATIONAL Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) is a Kathmandu-based organisation which covers the Himalaya-Hindu Kush region, and even at one time it was meant to do justice to all the world´s mountains. Just received the organisation´s newsletter, which boasts of its Training Centre, a trial and demonstration site. I am happy to hear of this, but unhappy that the organisation considers it necessary to indicate its proximity to the Himalayan ranges by bringing the distant snows to the training centre´s doorsteps, through computer manipulation.

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Headlines like this, from The Kathmandu Post, I sincerely hope that South Asia-savvy editors will ´eschew´ (a favourite term of South Asian columnists that, have you noticed?). Too many deaths coming out of the emerald isles for me to take consolation upon reading ahead that this was the death of the one and only lioness of Nepal´s Central Zoo.

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QUITE A few air crashes doing the rounds lately, what with the Air Alliance in Patna, a Royal Nepal Twin Otter in West Nepal and the Concorde in Paris. But in all these cases, one can be reasonably sure that, for the crash to happen, the aircraft definitively lost height. We did not need the official to say this to us, in this instance regarding the Boeing crash in Patna, the paper being The Hindu.

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BACK TO the Patna crash site. Picture shows Indian Minister of Civil Aviation Sharad Yadav visiting one of the few survivors of the crash at a hospital in the city. Does the minister think he is doing the injured and the families a favour by his visit? Why do newspapers and magazines allow photo opportunities such as this to politicians who are more voyeuristic than the rest of us in rushing to the scene of the crash and then being photographed with the wounded? All over South Asia, let editors and photo-editors be more careful before allowing politicians such a free run out of the tragedy of others.

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CHHETRIA PATRAKAR must be really ´out of it´ as no one but him seems overly perturbed by this advert, in the Indian architecture and decor magazine, Inside Outside, which shows a water spout titl-ed "Sensual Serenade" balanced-on/emerging-from the lower region of an unclad female model. One more example of how advertising has arrived before the sensibility to define the social arena—globalisation, this is it.

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WRITES ´KARACHIAN´ in his column about his city in Dawn: the three pre-monsoon months brings to the streets of Karachi sattoo-sellers who at other times of the year sell lemonade or rabri. During the hot months, they sell sattoo, "a predominantly Punjabi drink, made of barley and sweetened with gur, to keep you from the blistering loo". This drink has become a hot (cool!) favourite among the Karachi urbanite of late, writes Karachian. Which gets me thinking—such a drink is not found on the streets of Delhi, which is mostly a Punjabi city. Another legacy of a closed border, for even sattoo drinks travel to adjoining cities slower when there is less and less cultural interaction. The fact that a cool remedy for the loo which has been tried and tested in Karachi does not travel to Delhi or Amritsar, in a way, indicates the cultural divide that is all too real in South Asia.

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KAIFIAZMI, the ageing Urdu believer, was happy that through the lobbying efforts of actor Dilip Kumar,  the Delhi state government of Sheila Dixit decided to recognise Urdu as the second official language of the capital. What he said at the occasion is noteworthy for the narrow-minded on both sides of the Urdu-Hindi divide, in India and Pakistan: "Urdu is a secular language and this is an award for secularism".

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THE CHIEF Executive of Pakistan has said that his view of the future of Pakistan is as a country which is "Islamic, forward looking, dynamic and progressive". Now how to bring this about? Through improving the quality of education, increasing literacy, bringing ´religious nurseries´ into the mainstream and stress on vocational training in schools. As far as the madrasas are concerned, Pervez Musharraf said that ("in some of them") focus is on rituals, and not enough on scientific education. Then, warming the cockles of Chhetria Patrakar´s heart, he said that the important subject of geography has been completely neglected for quite some time. The CE was speaking extempore, and my recognition goes to any head of state/government who can bring "progressive" into a speech.

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THE EARLIER criteria to be a nation-state was: territory, population, sovereignty. Add to that Test status. For, that is what Bangladeshis obviously believe, from the fireworks and jubilation which greeted the decision of the International Cricket Council to grant the country full membership. Writes The Independent, "Bangladesh became an associate member of ICC in 1977, applied for full membership and won the one-day status in the same year". The expectation of becoming a full member got heightened after Bangladesh´s ICC Trophy victory in Malaysia, and hence their qualification for the World Cup. So, with Bangladesh in, who´s next from South Asia? Nepal? Dare weexpect?

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CREDIT REQUIRED to be given to the Pakistan Tobacco Company and the Lakson Tobacco Company for this ad in The News, with the message: "STOP! We do not sell cigarettes to youth under 18. As responsible corporate citizens, PTC and LTC, firmly believe that smoking is an informed adult choice. We remain committed to preventing underage smoking throughout Pakistan. In line with this commitment, we have launched a retailed education campaign and introduced on-pack inscription to prevent underage smoking".

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WE ALL need to welcome the fact that there is an additional linkage between two South Asian capitals. Colombo and Dhaka are now connected by a twice-weekly flight (Monday and Saturday) of Sri Lankan (formerly Air Lanka). Now only if that Dhaka flight could be extended to Kathmandu…

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SOMEONE IS faking in the name of Mr. Dadabhoy D Sethna´s letter to The News, which must have something to do with some intra-Parsi fighting in Karachi. Writes Mr. Sethna in the letter column of the newspaper of 5 June, "There are only 2,300 Parsis in Pakistan and from the copy for the director of Zoroastrians in Pakistan, it is clear that I am the only Dadaboy D Sethna in Pakistan. The letter thus published on 29 May has been engineered by the miniscule Cowasjee/Bhandara group, who are against Mr. Byram D Avari, as I did not write that letter." Of course, I will not illuminate you as to the details of the misdoings of the Cowasjee/ Bhandara group as it relates to Mr. Byram D Avari.

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DOES THE fact that a housewife fled with her lover in Nilphamari in Bangladesh deserve even two column-inches in The Independent of Dhaka? I think not.

– Chhetria Patrakar

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