We have read enough stories about how a whizkid named Bill Gates developed a software which was later developed as Microsoft, and how it made him the richest man on earth. The Microsoft family of softwares was copyrighted, but created a paradigm shift that revolutionised the entire software landscape. <img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/images_3_d460cd47f9.jpeg" alt="images-3.jpeg">Richard StallmanAt the same time, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology a visionary called Richard Stallman who believed in users' freedom to study, modify, and share the source code announced the GNU Project (GNU's Not Unix). The timelines are interesting. While MS-DOS was officially released in 1981, Stallman announced the GNU Project in 1983. Since its inception in 1985, Windows 1.0, the first Operating System (OS) of Microsoft with graphical user interface, almost monopolised the software industry. While Gates focused on a historic software product, hacker-turned-software-evangelist Stallman prioritised the fundamental concept of freedom and aimed at steering clear of monopolies.During the fall of 1991, a Finnish software engineer called Linus Torvalds, attracted by the ideals of Stallman and his free software movement, decided to turn his licence for path-breaking Linux prototype kernel into GNU licence. Earlier that year, he had released the kernel with a licence that prohibited commercial usage (Interestingly Linus also authored the hugely popular open-source versioning system, Git). Its open-source model allowed developers to access, modify and distribute it freely under its licence. It attracted a large community of software developers and enthusiasts around the world and gave birth to popular Linux distributions like Ubuntu, Redhat, Debian, Fedora, CentOS and many others. <img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/images_5_1_14d7c1d1c3.jpeg" alt="images-5-1.jpeg">Linus TorvaldsThe operating systems are only base building blocks of software. The next decade saw a tough rivalry between two technology stacks- free software and proprietary software. With the rise of the Internet, the ecosystem of programming languages, web servers, databases, standards and other related technologies began to grow together in both spectrums (Proprietary as well as Free Software). In the enterprise sector, while Microsoft continued with its technology stack proprietary segment with .NET framework, SQL server and windows server, the free software counterparts included Java/J2EE and Apache technology stack and free databases like MySQL and Postgres. With the advent of the cloud era, where softwares, applications and computing were packaged as a service, the difference between these two technology stacks gradually became irrelevant.It is interesting to see who stands where at the moment. Microsoft continues to command a significant presence in the OS market, maintaining over 75% global market share in the desktop/laptop sector. But the enterprise applications and technology sector is hugely dominated by open source software. A staggering 90% of software businesses leverage open-source solutions to varying degrees, as reported by Digital Information World. <img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/ca_1024x641_e6cfe5104c.png" alt="ca-1024x641.png">Source: Digital Information WorldOver the last decade, the mobile application industry has witnessed unprecedented growth in its user base. The proprietary software iOS, developed by Apple and open source Android are the key operating systems in the race. Android tends to have a more substantial presence in emerging markets and have 70% global market share.Fast forward to 2023, Generative AIIn the past couple of years, Artificial Intelligence has risen to prominence, becoming a transformative force across almost all domains. This rise in AI's influence can be attributed to advancements in ML research, increased computing power, and the availability of big data. One of the major milestones happened in November 2022, when the OpenAI consortium unveiled ChatGPT, a cutting-edge language model that took the world by storm. It was designed as a conversational chatbot model which can understand text inputs and produce human-like responses. The OpenAI consortium initially had non-profit beginnings, with backing from the likes of Elon Musk and Infosys soon changed its stance after gauging its potential. After its remarkable success, Microsoft started heavily investing in OpenAI, planning to use these Large Language Model (LLM) foundations in its software products like Bing, Edge, Microsoft 365 and others. Search giant Google, then came up with its own version of generative AI called Bard, which boasts of responses based on real time data unlike ChatGPT. <img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/Screenshot_20230731_104405_Chrome2_a92727495f.jpg" alt="Screenshot_20230731_104405_Chrome2.jpg">ChatGPT Login screenOne can only say that the competition has just started. While ChatGPT has already reaped the rewards for being first in the market, Google, equipped with its superior data search engines and vast data, is expected to catch up swiftly. But one interesting thing to take note is that both are proprietary.Enter Llama 2, the Game changer!When Microsoft and Google made heavy inroads, the other tech giant Meta (former Facebook) launched its own LLM in February 2023. But unlike other two models Meta has released its model under a non-commercial licence focussed only on research use cases. They pledged themselves with responsible AI practices by focussing on known issues like bias, toxicity and misinformation. <img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/images_1_2_9fa13c75b2.jpeg" alt="images-1-2.jpeg">Llama 2 AnnouncementOn July 18th, 2023 Meta came up with a later version, Llama 2, by making the model free and open even for commercial use. Meta's decision to embrace the open-source philosophy can be likened to Linus Torvalds' pivotal move when he declared his Linux operating system under the GNU license. Just as Torvalds released Linux to the world as a open-source software, inviting collaboration and encouraging widespread adoption of the operating system, Meta made its language model, Llama 2, freely available for free research and commercial use. Currently the latest updated model, Llama 2 can be downloaded from Meta, AWS, Azure and HuggingFace. <img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/IMG_20230731_WA_0003_5fce273072.jpg" alt="IMG-20230731-WA0003.jpg">Courtesy: Andre Havro/LinkedInLlama-V2 is getting widespread acceptance from technologists, researchers and academia across the world for its open source approach. Following is a statement signed by hundreds of leading personalities in the field.“We support an open innovation approach to AI. Responsible and open innovation gives us all a stake in the AI development process, bringing visibility, scrutiny and trust to these technologies. Opening today’s Llama models will let everyone benefit from this technology.”<a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.fb.com/news/2023/07/llama-2-statement-of-support/"><em style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Read the full statement here.</a>While AI opens up multiple dimensions in business and technology, it also creates a lot of ethical and social challenges. There are a lot of questions that need to be addressed related to inherent bias, fairness, malicious usage, misinformation and privacy. While making the model public, one can argue that Llama’s claim for “Responsible AI” is one step ahead. Its transparency allows one to scrutinise the datasets for bias and fairness. But this can also be a double-edged-sword, as it is unpredictable when technology reaches malicious hands. But the open-source model has been there for quite some time, survived and thrived. (https://twitter.com/ylecun/status/1681336284453781505)The business scenarios are swiftly changing. The ChatGPT large language model APIs were the toast of technologists across the world until a few days ago. Let me suggest one example from my own experience. agentrunner.ai, a leading AI startup based in London, which primarily focuses on creating autonomous AI agents was largely focussing on OpenAI LLMs till a few weeks ago. It has adapted quickly to the Llama 2-based model which offers better flexibility. Many companies are now following this trend. Why would small or mid-sized startups invest millions in procuring proprietary APIs?Meta's decision to embrace Responsible AI and open-source philosophy with Llama 2 is undoubtedly commendable and has won widespread praise. It also remains to be seen how Meta's move will benefit their own ecosystem of software platforms, including Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads, and Instagram, in the long run. <img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/images_2_4f2112df6a.jpeg" alt="images-2.jpeg">Applications from Meta Inc.It will be intriguing to watch how OpenAI, Microsoft and Google will respond to this challenge. Remember, Microsoft already declared its support for Llama-V2, probably because it has recognised the extreme complexity of ethical and social challenges LLM technology. Collaborating or working in a hybrid mode in this endeavour may prove more effective than facing it alone.References: - <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://ai.meta.com/blog/llama-2/">Meta Newsletter</a> -on LLaMa 2 Wikipedia LLaMa 2 Announcemen Hugging Face &amp; LLaMa 2 Integration Desktop OS Market Share Open Source Software Market share <img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/KSFE_ad_1024x1024_1_a485d571ee.webp" alt="KSFE_ad-1024x1024 (1).webp">

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We have read enough stories about how a whizkid named Bill Gates developed a software which was later developed as Microsoft, and how it made him the richest man on earth.

Llama 2: Unleashing the Open-source Generative AI model

<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">The sub-prime crisis upended the U.S.&nbsp;economy in 2007. President George W.&nbsp;Bush found it convenient to arraign the&nbsp;credit&nbsp;rating&nbsp;agencies for the fiasco. They&nbsp;had a harrowing time facing the crisis of confidence.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Jharkhand-born Deven Sharma had just moved in to head Standard &amp; Poor (S&amp;P) in the U.S. Four years later, Standard &amp; Poor found it appropriate to downgrade the U.S. Government’s long-term debt rating from AAA to AA-. Barack Obama was at the helm then. He too fumed and fretted against the rating agencies. Senator John Kerry chose to dismiss it as “Tea Party Downgrade”. Damned if you, damned if you do not! Deven Sharma resigned from S&amp;P after 18 days of piloting this rating downgrade, which was the first of its kind in 70 years. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) went after Deven Sharma. Has the Enforcement Directorate in India taken a leaf out of this witch-hunting?<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Deven’s&nbsp;team found the debt ceiling stand-off as the reason for this downgrade. This announcement was on a Friday. The markets tanked&nbsp;next Monday. S&amp;P 500 lost 6.5% on first day after the downgrade in 2011.&nbsp;The benchmark U.S.&nbsp;ten-year sovereign bond yield, ideally, must have climbed. But it dropped, possibly at the intervention of the U.S.&nbsp;Federal Reserve.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Twelve years later, Paul Taylor, CEO of Fitch Ratings, decided to bite the bullet. His agency had sent out a downgrade warning in May. It too downgraded the U.S. from AAA to AA+. This announcement was made after the markets closed on Monday. Will he last the next 18 days? The ides of August need to be watched. Deven of S&amp;P could not withstand the 18-day war of Mahabharata! Beyond the debt ceiling standoff, deteriorating governance concerns and fiscal profligacy have combined to press Fitch to effect the downgrade.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">A&nbsp;day&nbsp;after the downgrade in 2023, S&amp;P 500 shed 1.38%, NASDAQ Composite Index lost 2.17% and&nbsp;the&nbsp;benchmark U.S.&nbsp;ten-year sovereign yield rose by 2.4% to 4.08%. On the second day,&nbsp;the yield&nbsp;was&nbsp;further up at 4.11%. A rating downgrade reflects heightened default risk. But&nbsp;the credit&nbsp;default&nbsp;swap&nbsp;levels have remained unmoved.&nbsp;Perhaps, a&nbsp;one-notch dip&nbsp;from the top&nbsp;is too far away from default.&nbsp;If the safe haven theory should hold good, gold&nbsp;price&nbsp;must have gone up. But it dropped by 0.5% to $1934 per ounce, as in 2011. Down the line, will any rating agency downgrade&nbsp;the&nbsp;rating for&nbsp;gold!<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Just like the market, reactions of people who matter have been on predictable lines. Janet Yellen, the Secretary of U.S. Treasury and Jerome Powell, Chairman of Federal Reserve, have rebuffed the rating action, accusing Fitch of relying on inaccurate data. Are they questioning their own data? While Fitch is now aligned with S&amp;P on U.S. debt rating, Moody’s is still maintaining the AAA rating.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Globally, ten economies still retain the AAA rating by Fitch and 11 by S&amp;P. Of the 11, Canada is rated AA+ by Fitch. Australia, Denmark, Germany, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden and Singapore make up the rest of the ten. (<a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.tradingeconomics.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1691653641233000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3Gpzon2CBq7cUoAL7ccqor">www.tradingeconomics.com</a>) India too can boast of a double A in its rating, albeit with a “B” at the front and 3 at the end, making it “Baa3” with astable outlook, pecking it at the lowest of investment grade rating.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Let us look at the following data across&nbsp;the&nbsp;U.S.&nbsp;(AA+), Australia (AAA) and India (Baa3) to&nbsp;understand&nbsp;if such rating divergences really reflect underlying weaknesses or perceived strengths. Data is as of March 2023, sourced from&nbsp;<a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.ceic.data.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1691653641233000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1GkBAcS29auPQ6qURFN3rU">info.ceicdata.com</a>.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/image_2023_08_09_141331714_1_d4d939a500.png" alt="image_2023-08-09_141331714 (1).png" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_image_2023_08_09_141331714_1_d4d939a500.png 245w" sizes="100vw" width="245"></figure><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;display:inline !important;float:none;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:center;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Investment Grade Ratings/Source: <a style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;font-family:Manjari;font-size:15px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:center;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.ceicdata.com/en">CEIC</a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;display:inline !important;float:none;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">With the government debt to GDP remaining at 121%, the U.S. economy is puffing along on borrowed money. The next table will reveal that the holding of this debt by the U.S. is negligible, bracketed with others at 2%. This is also corroborated by the high external debt to GDP ratio of 96%. Yet, the U.S. perceived itself to be safe for more than eight decades! At 7%, the U.S. has the highest fiscal deficit to GDP among the three. Fitch has rightfully expressed heightened concerns on fiscal profligacy. U.S. citizens appear to have been so pampered with social security and health benefits that they forgot to save for themselves. Their gross savings rate is at negative 18%. “Yatha Rajah, thatha Prajah”. Just like the government, the citizens are also enjoying living on borrowed funds. Yet, US claims to be safe haven!<figure class="image"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/image_2023_08_09_141447561_2_9ec2a8151b.png" alt="image_2023-08-09_141447561 (2).png" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_image_2023_08_09_141447561_2_9ec2a8151b.png 245w" sizes="100vw" width="245"></figure><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;display:inline !important;float:none;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:center;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Foreign Holders of U.S. Debt/Source: <a style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;font-family:Manjari;font-size:15px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:center;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.federalreserve.gov/">US Federal Reserve</a><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Asia (led by China) holds 70% of U.S. debt. The U.S. is bracketed with others and still comes to less than 2%. Clear examples of leveraged economies that preach to the corporate world on high gearing!<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">It is high time U.S.&nbsp;citizens made themselves aware of the sixth verse in Bhagavad Gita Chapter 3.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">karmendriyāṇi&nbsp;sanyamya&nbsp;ya&nbsp;āste&nbsp;manasā&nbsp;smaran indriyārthān&nbsp;vimūḍhātmā&nbsp;mithyāchāraḥ&nbsp;sa&nbsp;uchyate&nbsp;(Chapter 3:6)<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Those who restrain the external organs of action, while continuing to dwell on sense objects in the mind, certainly delude themselves and are to be called hypocrites.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" dir="auto">The mention of the “mithyachara” by the Lord is about the hypocrites, who find it convenient to huff, puff and rebuff as per their convenience.&nbsp;The ones who extoll the&nbsp;“façade” in Johari Window need to remove their facades fast.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/KSFE_ad_1024x1024_1_efada5f369.webp" alt="KSFE_ad-1024x1024 (1).webp">

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The sub-prime crisis upended the U.S. economy in 2007. President George W. Bush found it convenient to arraign the credit rating agencies for the fiasco. They had a harrowing time facing the crisis of confidence.

Huff, Puff and Rebuff at the Rating Downgrade

This is a French-Tunisian writer’s reflections on France’s Bastille Day.
People often think about Christmas, Thanksgiving, or other religious holidays as their favourite time of the year. Usually, it involves family, food, and a spirit of communion. For me, it has always been Bastille Day, celebrated on 14 July in France to mark the 1789 storming of the Bastille prison in Paris. 
Since I was a child, I remember waiting gingerly for the military parade that would be broadcast live on television. I listened to the presenters sharing their notes, hours of trivia on military schools and units which sounded like gibberish filler to the mesmerising images which drew me most, but I liked it all the same. I often heard fighter jets piercing the sky from our home west of Paris moments before they appeared on TV. Then the ground troops. The horses. The motorcades. The distinctive uniforms of the pioneers of the légion étrangère, with their beards, axes, white gloves, and leather apron.
<img alt="Champs-Elysees-Paris-France.jpg" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/Champs_Elysees_Paris_France_339fda4859.jpg" />
 Champs-Élysées, Paris, France
On these images, the Champs Elysées looked mighty, powerful, strong. It was the Paris of history books, luxury brands, and tourists, of De Gaulle and Catherine Deneuve, far from the greyness of the banlieue where I lived. After the military parade, the President addressed the nation. That, too, I would watch religiously, because it became a tradition. And then we would eat. 
“Bastille Day,” as it is called in English, was named Fête de la Fédération when French people first celebrated the day in 1790. The name itself underscores a desire and need for unity. It’s always been about concord and cementing common affinities. 
During that first celebration, the festivities centred on the union of the King with the new representative assembly, and his people. Given the upheavals of the French Revolution, the rise of Napoleon, the return to monarchy, and various regime changes, Bastille Day has been variously commemorated through time. 
Yet it became enshrined, so to speak, when the day was declared a “national day” in 1880. From then on, Bastille Day was to be observed annually in codified festivities that included, for instance, the famed military parade. That year, the Republican motto “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” was also displayed on all public buildings. 
This timing corresponded to an important shift in the way that France would look at itself and negotiate contestations, first as a republican nation, and second, as a colonial empire and postcolonial society. In many ways, official festivities represent a mirror of society, crystallise public image-making, and shape a contemporary mythology that affirms identity.
As such, Bastille Day is not about celebrating a specific political figure or the constitutive differences that make up France. Rather, it is about a homogenous expression of Frenchness in its proud, patriotic display. Two bodies are celebrated: the army and the broader citizenry. 
But when people celebrate an aggrandised version of France; they do so on the back of a very historical event that highlights recent contradictions. The storming of the Bastille was brutal and deadly; witnesses reported instances of cannibalism and vile desecration of bodies. It shocked and marked an acceleration of the revolution, which by now, the king had ruefully underestimated. Because of this violence, the celebration of that day hasn’t always been consensual. The politicisation of the French Revolution meant that the memory of Bastille Day was often pulled between two camps and two diverging historical narratives—the monarchists and the republicans. 
But in the collective psyche today, the storming of the Bastille has melded with France’s political emancipation as these earlier dichotomies no longer take hold. It is a “good riot,” a turning point that upholds noble values of resistance and courage as well as embodies a fight for an honourable cause. The rioters of summer 1789 considered that the revolution was in danger. They wanted to seize gunpowder and weapons to protect it and stormed the Bastille, a medieval fortress that symbolized arbitrary arrests and tyranny. 
The event elevated the notions of sacrifices and personal integrity. On that day, I can’t help but think of other moments of grief when the celebrations turned to horror, such as the Bastille Day of 1953, when a peaceful march for the independence of Algeria was disrupted by the police. Seven people were killed, among whom Algerian nationalists and a labour unionist. Most people have forgotten it but they remember Bastille Day, 2016, when a terrorist drove a cargo truck into the crowd in Nice, killing more than 80 people.
The recognition of the storming of the Bastille as a good riot for more than 140 years contrasts with what French political elites have characterised as bad riots, a negative qualifier often assigned to riots led or involving Arabs and Africans. I watched, helplessly, the footage of 17-year-old Nahel Marzouk, killed at point-blank range by a policeman on June 27. He looked like a brother, a cousin. Like him, I hail from North Africa. Like him, I’ve lived in a differentiated space where my face allows the police to racially profile me. 
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 Storming of the Bastille
Young men like Nahel are “killable,” a term used by French sociologist Kaoutar Harchi. Their ardour must be tamed. Unlike the depreciated non-white masculinities, my female body descends from 19th-century odalisque Orientalist paintings—servile, seductive, worth sexually conquering. My face will never be Marianne, the bust that personifies chaste France, the portrait of the goddess of Liberty. 
Following Nahel’s killing, youth from low-income estates protested police brutality. Although statistics on race are not allowed in colour-blind France, the police ID-checks people passing as Arabs and Blacks disproportionally more than the rest of the population. Seventeen people die every year in police custody or during arrest in France, a figure higher than its neighbouring countries. 
Over several days then, youth vandalised property, looted, and confronted the police in tense exchanges that erupted like wildfire throughout France. Quickly, the questions of who (Arabs and Africans) and what (illegitimate violence) supplanted why (decades of racial discrimination, targeted police checks, humiliations, and broken social ladder). The main police union described the rioters, who are overwhelming French citizens despite being extraneously labelled as migrants or descendants of migrants, as “hordes of savages.” 
What these young people denounced in their raw expression is a two-tiered reality. They rejected the growing fracture between French people for whom the words Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity correspond to a daily exigency, and themselves, for whom the same words represent empty and broken promises. The lack of belonging they have encountered also stems from France’s refusal to embrace a multicultural, postcolonial trajectory that would love all its children equally, without questioning the Frenchness of some. 
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Narendra Modi at Bastille Day Parade in Paris, 2023
As this year’s celebration unfolds, I feel a growing sense of dissociation. I watch the armed forces parade with their ready-to-buy military equipment, people being arrested for booing the president, and the theatrical accolades of our president with Narendra Modi. A fundraiser for the family of the policeman involved in Nahel’s killing has reached over EUR 1.6 million. Many people see this as a booty, a reward for killing an Arab boy. 
Sometimes, I wonder if we are returning to two camps when the elites accuse minorities of being “separatists” when they point out to shortcomings in the social contract or when they want to live their faith unimpeded. Issues of systemic racism are still ignored and minimised. Justice and equity ring as urgently in 1789 as they do today, but this Bastille Day tells me that some riots are more legitimate than others because some voices are more valid and valued than others. My favourite holiday is a flawed one I realise. France’s mirror needs to be repaired—urgently.

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People often think about Christmas, Thanksgiving, or other religious holidays as their favourite time of the year. Usually, it involves family, food, and a spirit of communion.

Good Riots, Bad Riots

Milan Kundera was part of my youth and growing up, and I toted his works and held on to them as if my life depended on them. During my post-graduation, I lived through his novels, empathized with his female characters, and slipped into the glum of existential angst throttling me from my imagined reliving of his books. Often, I walked under the shadow of his graphomania, entangled or surrounded “with his own writings as with a wall of mirrors cutting off all voices from without.” Significantly, Kundera often talked about being immersed in ‘alien cultures’ and the theory of two civilizations and the essential conflict between them. While he argued for the cultural significance of then Czechoslovakia in the contemporary age, he believed that his country was “culturally in the West and politically in the East” and resented being bundled off as part of the Western civilization. I, too, weighed under the heaviness of cultural alienation, a small-town Malayali girl, weighed down by the distant gloomy chimes of the death knell of the Prague Spring in a far-away time; and, almost intellectually titillated by it, I was enamoured with a novelist who defied all categorizations thrust on him. In an interesting anecdote, when The Joke (1967), his first novel, was simplistically dubbed as “an epitome of the utter denunciation of the Stalinist regime,” Kundera protested with his razor-edged vehemence. “Spare me your Stalinism, please. The Joke is a love story!” 
Incidentally, I picked up The Joke from a lending library, misled by its title. I searched for the joke throughout the book as I realized it was the story of Ludvik, who was still a grudging fan of the ‘still-young Communist regime.’ During his summer break, a girl in his class wrote to him about “optimistic young people filled through and through with the healthy spirit” of Marxism; he replied, “Optimism is the opium of mankind! A healthy spirit stinks of stupidity! Long live Trotsky!” It is evident that Kundera pursued laughter and humour rigorously and persistently in many ways than one. In The Joke, The Book Laughter and Forgetting (1979) and Laughable Loves (1974), he explored the gruelling semantics of black humour, piecing together the jarring elements of history, philosophy, broken love affairs, unconsummated sexuality and personal reflections, through the narration of social commentary and existential contemplations. In these novels, as in most of his other works, through individual and collective memories, the complexity of relationships, memory and forgetting, political repression, love, and the nature of laughter flock together as reflections on human conditions. 
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<pre><code>Milan Kundera’s Books
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Ironically, in his extended treatise on modern aesthetics, Testaments Betrayed (1993), Kundera observes, “If I were asked the most common cause of misunderstanding between my readers and me, I would not hesitate: humour”. Referencing Octavio Paz, he believed, humour is the great invention of the modern spirit” and by claiming that this humour’s birth, coinciding with that of the novel in Rabelais and Cervantes, is absolutely fundamental to modern European culture. Milan Kundera believed that his stories led to a fresh approach to specific knowledge of life. On the other hand, he also argued that “the novel doesn’t answer questions” but leads the reader to reread and find new surprises every time she reads.
The novel never provided an absolute truth for him. Instead, he defined the genre as “the great form in which the author thoroughly explores some great themes of existence, using experimental selves (characters).” But he often wrote them as “wisdom of uncertainty”, especially like many other writers like Kafka, Broch and Hasek, who were ardent adversaries of totalitarian truths, and peppered their writings with ‘irreverent truths.’ Kundera was also obsessed with the concept of betrayal, both in literature and in real life became manifested in artistically different forms, such as political, artistic, and personal betrayals. Kundera examines various historical events and figures, drawing connections between their actions and the theme of betrayal. 
<img alt="WhatsApp-Image-2023-07-13-at-09.58.54-204x300.jpeg" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/Whats_App_Image_2023_07_13_at_09_58_54_204x300_4837e07edf.jpeg" />
 The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Interestingly, while Kundera loosened the knots of conventionality, he simultaneously rebuilt nihilistic, self-destructive meanings with the same vigour. Sometimes, inter-genre interference of music can be read into many of his works. The Book of Laughter and Forgetting and The Unbearable Lightness of Being can be read as polyphonies or musical interfaces where the narrator’s and the characters’ voices fuse into a mixture creating new strains of non-linear meanings. 
Kundera’s treatment of ‘sexuality in his novels’ had elicited strong and unfavourable responses over time. For him, sexuality is a microcosm of power struggles, almost always involving the dominance of one person over another, of strength over weakness. There’s nothing personal or pleasurable in sexuality; in The Joke, Ludvik’s pursuit of Helena is an expression of his desire for revenge against Zemánek, but his sexual tyranny is equated as brutal as that of the Communists, and the reader becomes increasingly uncomfortable about Ludvik’s obsession with violating women. Kundera’s outspoken sexual narratives satirize the taboos and individual prejudices regarding sexuality. He effaces the spaces of sacred and profane with his erotic descriptions and non-apologetic violence in sexual engagements and, sometimes, collision. Out there, the personal and political are closely knit, and the comic sexual faux pas are tied to the extensive struggles of the state, where the state suffers a similar, ridiculous predicament. Interestingly, since the same impulses and ambitions underlie public and private life, Kundera argues that the personal and the political cannot be separated as distinct entities. In his words, “Politics unmasks the metaphysics of private life; private life unmasks the metaphysics of politics.”
Milan Kundera has been criticized for the excess of violence and misogyny in his novels. Critics like John O’Brien exposed the strands of misogyny in his novels in caustic terms. He wrote, “Kundera might see himself as a paradoxical, post-structural, or an eroticist exploiting the taboos proliferated by cultural stereotyping”, and at the same time, he critiques Kundera for ‘types’ of women portrayed ad-nauseum in his novels. His vignettes of women are often fragmentary and often couched in the patriarchal idealism that is unconsciously built into his works. The erogenous bodies of women and the brutal violence perpetrated on them in his novels were also subjected to bitter criticism. 
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 Church of Our Lady before Týn, Prague, Czechia 
Kundera consistently rallied laughter and satire against the grim realities of the history of persistent repressions and subjugations Czechoslovakia had undergone for ages. Before the World War, the country wilted under the iron boots of the Austro-Hungarian empire and was eventually invaded by Hitler during the Second World War. Once liberated from German occupation by the Red Army in 1945, the country formed alliances and fell apart under the instability of the coalition till the Communist Government completely took over in 1948. After twenty years of an oppressive Communist rule, Czechoslovakia saw the brief dalliance of liberalism and humanity in the euphoria of the “Prague Spring” whipped up under the leader Alexander Dubcek, the General Secretary of the Community party, in 1968. But the uprising ended disappointing, as Dubcek and his followers were under duress and forced to sign a treaty which meant the end of reform. Along with the moment begins “the struggle of man against power”, which is synonymous with “the struggle of memory against forgetting.” (The Book of Laughter). He adds that the Prague streets were haunted by the ghosts of “moments demolished – demolished by the Czech reformation, demolished by the Austrian counter-reformation, demolished by the Communists.” In an autobiographical account, “The Angels”, Kundera confessed his entrapment in the initial days of Communist euphoria. “I, too, danced in a ring. It was the Spring of 1948. I took other students by hand… and we took two steps in place, one step forward… and we did it just about every month., there being always something to celebrate, an anniversary here, a special event there, old wrongs righted, new wrongs perpetrated, factories nationalized, thousands of people jailed… and we smiled the smile of happiness.”
Exiled to France in 1975 for forty years, the writer never hesitated to fathom the deep and existential questions — “the lightness/weight opposition is the most mysterious, most ambiguous” — and wrote with a relentless indictment against totalitarianism, “The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.” Interestingly, his writer’s journey, hemmed into interesting phases, voiced the totalitarianism of the state (The Joke), unleashed a direct attack against the Communist regime (The Book) and slowly metamorphosed to political narratives under the gossamer veils of allegorical subjectivity (Identity, Immortality). However, his last novel, The Festival of Insignificance (2014), talked about four men bumping into each other, recounting anecdotes, their mothers, narrating philosophical and playful conversations, and received mixed reviews. 
Years later, in1990, following the Velvet Revolution and the fall of the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia, Kundera was invited back to his home country, though he declined and remained in France. At ninety, in a touching, symbolic gesture, his Czech citizenship was revoked, eliciting the author’s tongue-in-cheek response. “”All I know is that before I left, I was terrified of ‘losing home’ and that after I left, I realized — it was with a certain astonishment — that I did not feel loss, I did not feel deprived.” 
Twenty-five years later, at the news of Kundera’s death, I was again taken back to memories of my small-town world where I was grieving the rise of a totalitarian regime and the fall of liberalism and human rights in a distant country. Back home, though I was deluded by the ideals of democracy, Kundera’s novels evoked the horrors of fallen optimism and the stories of totalitarianism where oblivion aces over memory as the only strategy to survive. The red flags of human suffering swept over the borderlines of the nations and reached out to me and the readers worldwide echoing Kundera’s words, “The Czech anthem begins with a simple question: ‘Where is my homeland?” The homeland is understood as a question. As an eternal uncertainty.” The world’s tribute to the great writer is in remembering the fact that between the effaceable lines of certainties and uncertainties, laughter and tears, memory and forgetting – some great stories were told, pickled in the horror of laughter.

Kundera-1.jpg

Milan Kundera was part of my youth and growing up, and I toted his works and held on to them as if my life depended on them. During my post-graduation, I lived through his novels, empathized with his female characters, and slipped into the glum of existential angst throttling me from my imagined reliving of his books. Often, I walked under the shadow of his graphomania, entangled or surrounded “with his own writings as with a wall of mirrors cutting off all voices from without.” Significantly, Kundera often talked about being immersed in ‘alien cultures’ and the theory of two civilizations and the essential conflict between them.

Stoking Unbearable Memories against Forgetting: Reading Kundera’s Works from a Different World

Television tells you many things even in an era of untruth, if you know what to look for. As a practised viewer and reporter, I’m lucky. I know to look past the text of Modi’s speech at the U.S. Congress and listen to the applause.The first thing that struck me is how the claps kept coming at regular intervals in exactly the same strength, as if exactly the same number of hands were clapping at the same intensity to the ministering of an invisible conductor. The sound came from the upper section of the hall in the Senate, where an occasional camera positioned at a wide angle threw a glance at pliant Indians in raptures as their leader spoke.Modi was rolling out a speech with trademark Indianisms, which is a polite way of saying that it was replete with stock phrases and homilies that brought on one round of applause after another.“Standing here, seven Junes ago…” said Modi with a dramatic flourish, “…the hesitations of history were behind us.” Whatever that’s supposed to mean, you or I may ask, not the professional clappers.Encouraged by the sounds from above to say more, Modi kept the gems flowing.“Through the long and winding road we have travelled, we have met the test of friendship.” You could almost hear the heaving Indians ushered in to the top benches of the Senate shouting ‘sixer, maar diya!’<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/images_5_2_fab04cdd5b.jpeg" alt="images-5 (2).jpeg"> Narendra Modi is US CongressThen, an extraordinary thing happened. Modi quoted from the Hindu scriptures in Sanskrit, as he is given to doing.“Ekam Satta, Vipra Bahudha Vadannti.”This was followed by the same ecstatic applause before he read the translation in English. It was amazing that an entire section of the U.S. Senate could now understand Sanskrit.The translation was read while the claps were in progress.“The truth is one but the wise express it in different ways,” Modi explained.Could I be imagining this? Was I a hyperactive viewer? But it happened again.<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;display:inline !important;float:none;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">“<a style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.nbcnews.com/video/watch-indian-pm-modi-s-full-address-to-congress-184163909824">Our vision is, sabka saath, sabka vikaas, sabka vishwaas, sabka prayaas</a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;display:inline !important;float:none;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">” (See 20:36 mins)This time, our multilingual Senate understood Hindi before Modi could follow through with the English version.There were other observations I made, less about the semantics, more about the troubling substance of Modi’s speech. There was the spinning of the usual Hindu nationalist yarn that India has overthrown a thousand years of slavery, implying that India was unfree under Mughal and pre-Mughal medieval rulers.There was the blatant and cruel joke of the Prime Minister talking of cooperative federalism at a time when back at home, Manipur burned because of the lack of precisely the kind of federalism Modi was pontificating about and the Delhi government was protesting against the constant attempt by the Centre to snatch away autonomy from a government by an opposition party.This made me raise bigger questions of the farcical performance at hand. Where is the word democracy in this show, if a Senate in search of money and an Indian market has to kowtow to a visiting dignitary in this way. The upper stalls were reverberating with war-cry like gasping chants of `Modi-Modi’ peppered with whistles.If America calls itself the world’s oldest democracy, where does it hide itself after such a display? On the one hand, America is replete with government-funded think tanks acting as self-appointed arbiters of democracy. It creates storied telling the world where it stand on the democracy index.On the other hand, Americans are well aware of how capital can twist and distort democracy into an ugly mobocracy that can literally rip the insides of their White House to shreds. They are barely back from precisely such a precipice so they know what a megalomaniac who likes to preen in public can do. They’ve seen it. The Senate that clapped and allowed clapping has seen it.But all of us glued to our television screens watching the speech could also see Vice President Kamala Harris keep a steely stoicism as she sat directly behind the Hindu dictator, her Indian roots called into play as part of the programme.We ought to know how to read the signs. The same tropes play out whether it is the pre or post-Trump regime. Biden, Obama, Trump are all conflatable into one big business ball prepared to pay the price, any price, any act to run their local markets and keep local voters happy.While this show runs to full house, let us now call into play the last such choreographed act when Obama was at the helm. Circa 2016, Modi’s rock-star type show at New York’s Madison Square Garden. Cameras hovering over the audience rows showed people in skullcaps all sitting together. That must have taken some doing. It was another level of absurdist theatre where you would need to imagine what would have had to play out if indeed all Muslims entered Madison Square at the same time and booked seats next to one another.Google the video. Then let’s imagine what we are supposed to.Says one Muslim to another in this imaginarium: “Hey, do you know Modi is coming to town? Let’s book tickets together and oh don’t forget your skullcap. And listen, let’s get all our friends to come watch how much we love Modi and let’s show him we care by entering the hall together sitting in one place.”“Yes, let’s all do that, what a good idea.”If world politics is about which leaders are shunned and who is feted, if America sits in judgement on who is democratic and who should be in a G 8 group or the United Nations Security Council, then it has a lot to answer for. And we, the enraptured viewers have even more to think about, as we sit eyeballs and ears peeled for this display.Should we stop looking in the official places for holding up the image of liberty equality, fraternity? Where should we turn to instead to understand the true value of freedom and dissent? If the 99 percent matters, if Black Lives and Dalit Lives Matter, can we stop using vacuous references to the democracies like world’s largest and world’s oldest? Also, should we turn our gaze elsewhere for a freedom index?Can we look at how Taiwan is fighting the monolith that is China? Can we look at aboriginal movements in Australia and New Zealand? Can we ask the LGBTQi in Brazil how they bent the votes against Bolsanaro? Can we look at a post-apartheid South Africa? And the next time when someone uses hyperboles such as ‘the world’s biggest’, ‘the world’s oldest’, greatest’, ‘fastest’, and ‘fattest’, can we collectively agree that these are salesman-politicians in Teflon democracies and look away?This article was first published in The Wire. <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;display:inline !important;float:none;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">The article can be read <a style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://thewire.in/politics/us-senate-modi-applaud-sanskrit">here</a><a style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">.</a>

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Television tells you many things even in an era of untruth, if you know what to look for. As a practised viewer and reporter, I’m lucky. I know to look past the text of Modi’s speech at the U.S. Congress and listen to the applause.

The Amazing Grace of the US Senate That Clapped When Modi Spoke in Sanskrit

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“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, 

COP27; Hopes and Despair

Right from the first day of Qatar World Cup, the world is witnessing the use of technology and artificial intelligence on an unprecedented scale. Never before in the history of the football World Cup was technology used with such finesse and to such effect. This has simultaneously paved the way for very strict safety measures, accompanied by amazed public response about the manifold facets of new technology. From electronic match tickets that cannot be handed over to others to cutting edge CCTVs that individually capture each spectator it is cutting edge technology all the way.The gate opening feature in the match tickets only become active once the spectators are in a hundred meter radius of the stadium. Entry into the stadium is only granted once the Hayya smart card that is specially made for Qatar World Cup is verified and found to be in sync with the electronic match ticket. This new technology will certainly help in controlling the football hooligans who have created problems in previous world cups and in football matches that have taken place around the world. Even senior media professionals and journalists who have witnessed and reported on several past world cups have called this a welcome move.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/FTR_3_768x432_821fb584b7.jpg" alt="FTR-3-768x432.jpg">The English fans who are infamous for their boorish nature have often caused mayhem in the stands through their sledging, jostling and fisticuffs. There is little doubt that this unenviable track record was the reason for Qatar authorities taking extra precaution and strict security facilities wherever English fans could possibly gather. But in the first match where England utterly demolished Iran with a 6-2 win, the English fans also turned a new page in history by being on their best behavior. Normally fans of the rival teams are seated behind the goal posts at two ends of the gallery, segregated with clearly defined boundaries. But during the England-Iran match, the world witnessed a peaceful and pleasantly surprising sight of fans from both teams intermingling while seated all over the stadium.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/FTR_1_min_2_768x432_15badf8538.jpg" alt="FTR-1-min-2-768x432.jpg"><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Qatar also set the stage by displaying a culture of consideration and care for fans of different teams. There was a gift package from the Qatar government waiting for each and every spectator in the seat that was allotted to them. This special inaugural day gift was an extension of the culture of hospitality and gift-giving often implemented by Middle Eastern rulers, especially the rulers of Qatar in the past. Japanese fans who are famous for their cleanliness led a coordinated cleanup effort after the opening match that raised the reputation of their country even higher. They picked up all the flags, decorations and waste materials that remained in the gallery and field after the inaugural match, and proceeded to carefully dispose of them outside the stadium.<hr><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">2022 FIFA ലോകകപ്പുമായി ബന്ധപ്പെട്ട സ്‌റ്റോറികൾക്കായി,&nbsp;<a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theaidem.com/category/sports/">ഇവിടെ ക്ലിക്ക് ചെയ്യുക.</a><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">For FIFA World Cup 2022 related stories,&nbsp;<a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theaidem.com/category/sports/">click here.</a><hr><h4 style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.2;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Subscribe to our channels on<a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(247, 168, 16);display:block;margin:0px;padding:0px;text-decoration:none;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.youtube.com/c/THEAIDEM">YouTube</a>&amp;<a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(0, 0, 0);display:block;margin:0px;padding:0px;text-decoration:none;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://chat.whatsapp.com/ELqD1D1bImgAP6MrG8jskq">WhatsApp</a></h4>

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Right from the first day of Qatar World Cup, the world is witnessing the use of technology and artificial intelligence on an unprecedented scale. 

Technology keeps Football Hooligans at Bay

On November 20,2022 , the Italian referee Daniele Orsato blew the first long whistle of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. The first international match to have been played inside a tent came to an end, with Ecuador edging hosts Qatar by two goals in the inaugural World Cup match. Al Bayt, ‘the home’, stadium erupted in thunderous cheers, not just for the winners, but for the country of Qatar. Such was the experience of watching a football match in the 60000-seating capacity, weather-controlled stadium, built in the shape of an Arabian traditional tent.By the time the match ended, the people inside the stadium and those millions who watched the match in their homes, had some sense as to how this tournament will play out in the next 27 days in the small country of Qatar. Those who came in person to the venue were enthralled by the opening ceremony, the way the proceedings were conducted, particularly the convenience with which they could&nbsp; enter the stadium and watch a match without any hiccups in such a large stadium. Not surprisingly, the players and fans of different teams who had already arrived in Doha for the event had nothing but praise for the arrangements made by the host country.Football afficionados of all races, colours, genetic and ethnic streams have claimed for ages that this game is the only culture universally present in every nook and corner of the world. Not a misplaced claim one may say, looking at the popularity of the game around world. Whatever&nbsp; be the cultural and linguistic differences, this game has always been played with the same fervour, following the same rules in countries across the globe. Every kid with a ball these days may be thinking of himself as Messi or Ronaldo, but of course, these legendary icons of football&nbsp; change from time to time and from&nbsp; generation to generation. Any open space, however small it may be, will be considered as a stadium by these kids . And, indeed the number of&nbsp; players on the field may not always be the mandatory eleven, but may increase and decrease based on the situation.Due to several factors, including historical circumstances and track record, economy related constraints and anatomical differences between races, this magical game has been dominated by teams from certain parts of the world. But with the progress made by different countries in sports and science, more and more players from previously less represented areas of the world have come on to the world stage. For example, look at the number of African players in the European leagues these days. Equally interestingly, more and&nbsp; more Asian players are also appearing on the world scene than before. Along with all this,&nbsp; domestic leagues in many other countries have become more competitive in the course of time. It could well be that players from less privileged regions, in terms of football history , are expressing their pent-up historical discontent against the dominant countries in a uniquely creative manner.It is in this larger context that one needs to look at and analyse the trenchant criticism of FIFA and the 2022 World Cup in Qatar by some sections of the&nbsp; agenda driven media across the globe, supported by their own football greats of the past. Since the day Sepp Blatter opened the envelope and announced Qatar’s name, in the year 2010, as the host city of FIFA WC 2022, these people have tried to find fault with everything Qatar did. The first accusation was that, Qatar does not have a football history. As of today, we know that Qatar has won AFC cup, GCC and Gulf cup. And their domestic club championship showcases fiercely competitive football skills, so much so that some of their clubs participate in international club championships and their players have been named Asian players of the year.Then they said the country is too small for such a big event and did not have the infrastructure to accommodate the huge influx of fans during the event. But Qatar proved them wrong, literally proving why small is beautiful, by constructing 8 beautiful world class stadia within one hour of travel distance between them. And yes, connected them all with top class road network and metro services. This, the Qatar authorities pointed out, helps the spectators who otherwise had to spent hours travelling between stadia, like how they were constrained to do in Russia. In Russia the stadia were thousands of kilometres apart and many who travelled to Russia ended up watching just one match.They also raised the issue of immigrant bonded labour used to construct these facilities. Qatar challenged them by putting in place strong labour rules in favour of the workers and brought in international labour organisations other than FIFA to inspect the labour facilities and their condition. All these institutions reported in favour of Qatar, but the nay-sayers were still not happy. One must remember, all these people were sitting in countries where organised human trafficking happens on a daily basis. While pointing one finger at Qatar, they forgot that the other fingers were pointing at themselves.Meanwhile, some of the more self-styled liberal groups ended up siding with the far-right in criticising Qatar on the issue of women’s rights. This too, completely overlooked many recent&nbsp; developments that have happened in Arab countries paving the way for the emergence of women as ministers and social leaders . These “new-age women”&nbsp; were practically guiding their people to the world stage.&nbsp;People who look at biassed and&nbsp; half-cooked reports by the western media, find fault with the way the Arabs conduct their day-to-day affairs. Arab world has progressed and moved forward from the days of Lawrence of Arabia, but these arm chair critics refuse to accept that. Just to add an interesting fact, many leading beauty brands sell more in the Arab countries than in many European countries put together. Women in this part of the world are competing in world sports and fly fighter jets and these uninitiated people ask whether they can drive cars! In Qatar, we will see in the coming days, that many of the World Cup departments are run by proud young Qatari women.Just before the World Cup kicked off, controversy also broke over the manner in which Qatar society looked at LGBTQ affairs. In pure practical terms, Qatar holds&nbsp; the very same views as a majority of the countries in the world. Even a country like India acknowledged LGBTQ rights only a few years ago , but complaints still exist amongst the community that the authorities are merely paying lipservice to this concept.Does this mean that these critics would oppose all having views similar to Qatar on this issue ? What would be their stance when such countries hold the World Cup in future, we doubt. Many of these countries have strict anti-abortion laws based on their religion, will those countries be stopped from holding sports events in future? We can name countries where marrying a widow is a crime, will that be held against such countries from participating in world events? There are definitely many cultural differences in countries around the world, and people are changing but will take time. If you look at Qatar or any other country, they are not the same as in 2010.Another accusation has been about the availability of alcohol inside the stadium. Some in Indian media too took this up, forgetting the fact that there are whole States in India where they don’t sell liquor! But there are scores of countries where alcohol will not be allowed inside a stadium. Many such countries exist in Europe too and were these people&nbsp; bothered about that? The fact that alcohol will be provided in designated areas around the country should be the end of the discussion, but the rancour, clearly, was never about the drinks.In the last one week we heard new accusations that Indians are celebrating as Argentinan, Brazilian, Portugal fans. What kind of an argument is that? Everyone knows Qatar population has a large number of Indian citizens working in that country. And majority of them are from Kerala, who are passionate about football. Recently FIFA tweeted highlighting the football frenzy in Kerala as reflected in the popular cut-outs of football heroes raised in the middle of a river in the State. That alone should have shut up these people. But no, they have a different agenda dictated by a different slant and pattern of arguments. As FIFA President Infantino said two days back in Doha, this was nothing but racism and have no place in this beautiful game and elsewhere.Another lie that the western media , including some celebrated ones, sought to propagate was that many foreign teams were not happy with the rules and regulations prevalent in everyday life of Qatar and hence were staying outside the country during the tournament. Some economic pundits say, the media became a part of European cartel trying to get natural gas from Qatar, with the current Ukraine- Russia situation threatening the future of cheap gas from Russia.What stood out the most in all these cases, was the response from Qatar. They kept quiet all these years focusing on their job on hand. Once they were ready, they went all out blazing with forceful words and hype . They minced no words when they asked why this sudden opposition to Qatar. When Arab money was used by European clubs to stand on their legs, when the same currency was used to support the troubled banks in the west, when Qatar’s infrastructure projects were awarded to Western companies, no one complained about the culture, then why now? It all shows signs of lack of respect and unjust judgements . Certainly, Qatar and the Arab world have said these will be vehemently opposed in unison.It was as if these people wanted a free for all kind of event, which would have helped them substantiate their stories about the “boorish, bullying, racist antics in Qatar stadia.” But, sorry that was not to be. Qatar has clearly said their policy was one of tolerance and respect. And if one goes by the early responses of the real football fans from the world around after the first game, they all have clearly said, Well done Qatar, we are with you!<hr>ഈ ലേഖനം മലയാളത്തിൽ വായിക്കാം, <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theaidem.com/fifa-world-cup-qatar-battle-of-the-nations-before-kickoff/">ഗോളിന് വെളിയിലേക്കുള്ള പന്തുകൾ</a><hr><h4 style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;line-height:1.2;margin:0px 0px 15px;padding:0px;text-align:left;">Subscribe to our channels on<a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(247, 168, 16);display:block;margin:0px;padding:0px;text-decoration:none;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.youtube.com/c/THEAIDEM">YouTube</a>&amp;<a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(247, 168, 16);display:block;margin:0px;padding:0px;text-decoration:none;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://chat.whatsapp.com/ELqD1D1bImgAP6MrG8jskq">WhatsApp</a></h4><div class="mdp-liker-box after-content two-buttons style-border-fill row-right" style="--mdp-liker-bg-color-active:rgba(255, 33, 40, 1);--mdp-liker-bg-color-hover:rgba(255, 33, 40, 1);--mdp-liker-bg-color:rgba(255, 33, 40, 1);--mdp-liker-border:1px;--mdp-liker-radius:50px;--mdp-liker-text-color-active:rgba(255, 255, 255, 1);--mdp-liker-text-color-hover:rgba(255, 255, 255, 1);--mdp-liker-text-color:rgba(255, 33, 40, 1);box-sizing:border-box;font-size:initial;font-weight:initial;margin:0px;padding:0px;" id="mdp-liker-19551" data-memory="on"><div style="align-items:center;box-sizing:border-box;display:flex;justify-content:space-between;margin:0px;padding:0px;"><div class="mdp-liker-description" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:medium;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;max-width:60%;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">&nbsp;</div></div></div> &nbsp;

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On November 20,2022 , the Italian referee Daniele Orsato blew the first long whistle of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. 

The Games Outside the Stadiums in Qatar

<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/fifa_1_1728x2048_09eca8b469.jpg" alt="fifa-1-1728x2048.jpg">The AIDEM presents you the complete 2022 World Cup Fixture. This unique fixture contains not only detailed information regarding every match to be played in the 2022 FIFA World Cup but also match timings in 6+ timezones, so that you don’t miss your favourite matches wherever you are in the world.Save it, Share it, Bookmark it so that you don’t have to go on searching for it over and over again. May the best team win.For high quality Image Download, <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SAK498LTjiGffjVtzd9ij70O_vJmmhmM/view?usp=drivesdk">click here.&nbsp;</a>For high quality printable PDF, <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1S8vItrXNhvZsMLK1yHK3RS4n-a6JUdGG/view?usp=drivesdk">click here.</a><hr>&nbsp;<h4 style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;line-height:1.2;margin:0px 0px 15px;padding:0px;text-align:left;">Subscribe to our channels on<a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(247, 168, 16);display:block;margin:0px;padding:0px;text-decoration:none;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.youtube.com/c/THEAIDEM">YouTube</a>&amp;<a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(247, 168, 16);display:block;margin:0px;padding:0px;text-decoration:none;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://chat.whatsapp.com/ELqD1D1bImgAP6MrG8jskq">WhatsApp</a></h4><div class="mdp-liker-box after-content two-buttons style-border-fill row-right" style="--mdp-liker-bg-color-active:rgba(255, 33, 40, 1);--mdp-liker-bg-color-hover:rgba(255, 33, 40, 1);--mdp-liker-bg-color:rgba(255, 33, 40, 1);--mdp-liker-border:1px;--mdp-liker-radius:50px;--mdp-liker-text-color-active:rgba(255, 255, 255, 1);--mdp-liker-text-color-hover:rgba(255, 255, 255, 1);--mdp-liker-text-color:rgba(255, 33, 40, 1);box-sizing:border-box;font-size:initial;font-weight:initial;margin:0px;padding:0px;" id="mdp-liker-19507" data-memory="on"><div style="align-items:center;box-sizing:border-box;display:flex;justify-content:space-between;margin:0px;padding:0px;"><div class="mdp-liker-description" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:medium;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;max-width:60%;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">&nbsp;</div></div></div> &nbsp;

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The AIDEM presents you the complete 2022 World Cup Fixture. This unique fixture contains not only detailed information regarding every match to be played in the 2022 FIFA World Cup but also match timings in 6+ timezones, so that you don’t miss your favourite matches wherever you are in the world.

32 Teams, 64 Matches, 1 Schedule

Following the murder of Kurdish youth, Mahsa (Jina) Amini, by Iran’s infamous morality police, news has come now of the killing of the independent journalist, researcher and Kusdish liberation activist, Nagihan Akarsel. For the past few years, Nagihan, a Turkish national, had been living in Bakhtiyar, in the city of Sulaymaniyah, which comes under the Kurdish autonomous region in the northern part of Iraq. That is where she was shot dead as well. The identity of the murderers, now arrested, is yet to be revealed. After the fall of Saddam Hussein, the importance of the Kurdish regional government within Iraq and its autonomy became more relevant. During this period even the President of Iraq has been chosen from the Kurdish community. It is Kurdisthan’s own military named the ‘Peshmerga’ that protects the boundaries of this nation within a nation. The Amna Suraka museum in the city of Sulaymaniyah has a special memorial display area dedicated to Kurd fighters who are at war with the Islamist terrorist organisation ISIS. This section, which has been named the museum of martyrs in the defense against ISIS, is the first of its kind in the world. The Kurds consider themselves a community attacked by everyone in the world. Their history tells a story of them being pawns who are regularly attacked and murdered in the complex game of geopolitical chess.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/96f6e8af_52c3_4cb9_99e7_26ca67579c14_0777c6cfe7.jpg" alt="96f6e8af-52c3-4cb9-99e7-26ca67579c14.jpg"> From Amna Suraka Museum, Saeed Kaban St, IraqThey believe they have nobody except the mountains. There are some who think that the very word ‘Kurd’ means ‘people of the mountains’. Even though they constitute 20% of the population, the changing Turkish governments over the years do not even recognise or accept the Kurdish people. The Turkish government officially labels the Kurds as mountain Turks. There is a ban placed on Kurdish names, attires, rituals and even languages. Teaching in Kurdish language is an impossibility in government schools even today. It is possible to learn in Kurdish only at a few private institutions. In 1978, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) was founded under the leadership of Abdullah Ocalan with the goal of establishing a self-governing nation within Turkey. In 1999, Abdullah Ocalan was arrested and he is still in prison. The PKK is also involved in armed resistance. Almost half a lakh people have lost their lives in the conflict with the government. Tens of thousands have lost their homes and are roaming round as refugees. The PKK’s ideology is a melting pot of Marxism, Leninism and Kursh nationalism.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/61ddd0b0_52b4_4320_95dd_c05a37954713_768x343_8eddab10f0.jpg" alt="61ddd0b0-52b4-4320-95dd-c05a37954713-768x343.jpg">A Kurdish star risesWorld-renowned filmmaker Yilmaz Guney, who is considered the father of Kurdish cinema, is a Kurdish descendant and a Turkish national. As a leftist intellectual who had also starred in several films, Yilmaz was accused of murdering a judge. But he continued directing films from behind bars. After finishing the shoot of the film Yol (Road), he broke out of jail, clandestinely crossed the national borders and finished the post production work of the film in Paris. He made an appearance alongside his wife at the next year’s (1982) Cannes film festival. Yol shared that year’s Palm d’Or (best picture) award with Costa Gavras’ Missing. Yilmaz was never able to return to his home country after this. And soon after, he fell and died. This brought Kurdish cinema to the attention of film lovers the world over. One of the important slogans of the Kurdish struggle for liberation is: ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’. As part of tribal ways of life and socio-traditional conditioning, patriarchal mindset is dominant in the collective Kurdish consciousness, as it is in other third world countries.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/Yilmaz_Guney_Cannes_1982_1024x717_1_768x538_f0c273fbc8.jpg" alt="Yilmaz_Guney_Cannes_1982-1024x717-1-768x538.jpg"> Yilmaz Guney (center) at Cannes in 1982Nagihan Akarsel was a central figure in the full-fledged effort of Kurdish thinkers for the liberation of women and activists in the fields of culture, education, literature and art. This effort has been happening alongside the fight for an independent Kurdish nation or a self-governing region within nations like Turkey (similar to those in Iraq and Syria). Nagihan Akarsel, who was a sympathiser of the PKK, was also a promoter of and an expert researcher in the ideology called Jineology or science of women, which was created by Abdullah Ocalan. On October 4, 2022 she became a martyr at her residence in Sulaymaniyah in the Kurdish region of Iraq, after being shot multiple times. On that same fateful evening, at Mawat, in Sulaymaniyah, an unknown drone attacked a vehicle in which PKK members were traveling. Among the other fighters who died in similar attacks in the same year were Saki Chalabi and Sasuhail Kurdesh.The light of WomanhoodAkarsel was born in the Turkish city of Konya. Due to the threat to her life in Turkey, she was living in Sulaymaniyah for the last many years. The adherents of Jineology consider Nagihan Akarsel the light, consciousness, hope and beauty of the humane phenomenon of womanhood. To stand in support of her meant to stand in support of beauty, goodness and freedom. They hope that her passion for life and her enthusiasm will guide them in the difficult path ahead as well.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/8f226003_ac23_4470_ab2e_f4c63a6e0594_768x452_2ba347fca9.jpg" alt="8f226003-ac23-4470-ab2e-f4c63a6e0594-768x452.jpg"> Nagihan AkarselNagihan Akarsel was born in 1976, in Golyazi district of Cihanbeyli in the city of Konya. Celikan is the Kurdish name for this town. It is a town where primarily Kurmach, a subgroup of Kurds, reside. The people of Celikan, who consider it a sin to wake up after sunrise, do not pour water over ash. Nahigan, who went in search of the origin of these traditions, found their cultural similarities with the Yazidi Alvi traditions. Right from childhood she was interested in hearing stories about women. She knew the importance of food grains clearly as she had spent her childhood in a town full of wheat fields. To her, wasting even one grain of wheat was as painful as spilling blood. She never forgot the games she played barefoot in the freshly son-drenched soil. Even in her youth she realised that her destiny was to take part in the fight against patriarchy.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/3409257e_1d32_4992_a4a6_359542f6e02a_efec9498a3.jpg" alt="3409257e-1d32-4992-a4a6-359542f6e02a.jpg"> Protests over the killing of Nagihan AkerselAfter finishing her high school in her hometown, she joined Gazi University in Ankara, the capital city of Turkey. Everyone who met her fondly recollects her simplicity, her glowing face, and the undying curiosity that she exuded. Following this, she became a supporter of PKK after being attracted to its ideology. After her arrest in 2001, she was in jail until 2007. Between 2008 and 2014, she worked as a reporter and an editor at a news agency named Dicil. In the same period, she completed her Master’s degree in Gender Studies from Hacetteppe University in Ankara. Soon after, Nahigan and her comrades established a women’s news agency called Jinha. But the government banned it on October 29, 2016. Nagihan Akarsel was a teacher, friend, comrade and a prominent internal figure of the Kurdish media. She also tried to create friendly relations with women from other walks of life during the same time.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/e2ee18e2_e3c7_4846_b2b6_aa5c46e177b5_768x432_d8fb8fd7a8.jpg" alt="e2ee18e2-e3c7-4846-b2b6-aa5c46e177b5-768x432.jpg"> Demonstration by Kurdistan Workers’ PartyLater on, Nahigan spent most of her time deeply studying and promoting Jineology. She was a member of the Jineology Academy, which was established for research on the ideology. She was also part of the editorial board of the journal named Jineology and has written several articles in it. Nagihan Akarsel strived to develop Jineology into a platform for women’s liberation, going beyond its political orientation. Nagihan Akarsel conducted field studies and educational activities in the Kurd regions of Bakoor, Basur and Rojavaf. She educated thousands of people from different age groups. She wrote articles in several newspapers, magazines and portals. She was the center of attention for young people wherever she went. She had even conducted several studies in the oral traditions of Kurdish women and was preparing to set up a Kurdish women’s library in Sulaymaniyah. The literature festival in the city of Sulaymaniyah, which is among the UNESCO cities of literature, is famous.Nagihan is a symbol of the loss and the grim reality of Kurds, who are unable to go where their heart longs to go and are forced to live lives that are torn apart by national boundaries and fences. The fight led by Nagihan and the Kurds will certainly not be a futile one.References:<ol><li>Sin (Novel) – Haritha Savitri/Mathrubhumi Books)</li><li>Jinha Women’s News Agency</li><li>RUDAW.net</li><li>Reporters Without Borders (rsf.org)</li><li>Genealogy.org</li><li>Kurdish Institute</li><li>BBC and Wikipedia This article was originally published in&nbsp;</li></ol><hr>This article was originally published in Malayalam on The AIDEM and can be read&nbsp;<a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theaidem.com/kurdish-activist-and-feminist-nagihan-akarsel-shot-dead-in-iraq/">here</a>.Translated by Nirmal Madhukumar.<hr><h4 style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;line-height:1.2;margin:0px 0px 15px;padding:0px;text-align:left;">Subscribe to our channels on<a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(247, 168, 16);display:block;margin:0px;padding:0px;text-decoration:none;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.youtube.com/c/THEAIDEM">YouTube</a>&amp;<a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(247, 168, 16);display:block;margin:0px;padding:0px;text-decoration:none;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://chat.whatsapp.com/ELqD1D1bImgAP6MrG8jskq">WhatsApp</a></h4><div class="mdp-liker-box after-content two-buttons style-border-fill row-right" style="--mdp-liker-bg-color-active:rgba(255, 33, 40, 1);--mdp-liker-bg-color-hover:rgba(255, 33, 40, 1);--mdp-liker-bg-color:rgba(255, 33, 40, 1);--mdp-liker-border:1px;--mdp-liker-radius:50px;--mdp-liker-text-color-active:rgba(255, 255, 255, 1);--mdp-liker-text-color-hover:rgba(255, 255, 255, 1);--mdp-liker-text-color:rgba(255, 33, 40, 1);box-sizing:border-box;font-size:initial;font-weight:initial;margin:0px;padding:0px;" id="mdp-liker-19040" data-memory="on"><div style="align-items:center;box-sizing:border-box;display:flex;justify-content:space-between;margin:0px;padding:0px;"><div class="mdp-liker-description" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:medium;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;max-width:60%;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">&nbsp;</div></div></div> &nbsp;

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Following the murder of Kurdish youth, Mahsa (Jina) Amini, by Iran’s infamous morality police, news has come now of the killing of the independent journalist, researcher and Kusdish liberation activist, Nagihan Akarsel.

Light, Consciousness, Hope and Beauty of the Kurdish struggle for the liberation of a nation and its women

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<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/IMG_20240930_WA_0007_770x470_d5062615d1.jpg" alt="IMG-20240930-WA0007-770x470.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_IMG_20240930_WA_0007_770x470_d5062615d1.jpg 245w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_IMG_20240930_WA_0007_770x470_d5062615d1.jpg 500w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_IMG_20240930_WA_0007_770x470_d5062615d1.jpg 750w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><div class="post-body clearfix single-blog-header single-blog-inner blog-single-block blog-details-content" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;"><div class="entry-content clearfix" style="box-sizing:border-box;counter-reset:footnotes 0;margin:0px;padding:0px;">Communication is an art that many struggle with, but few realize it can be learned. Whether you’re talking to a friend, colleague, family member, or stranger, mastering this skill is within reach. Ever struggled to start a conversation or keep it going? Finding common topics of interest can be tricky, and navigating differing social or political views can feel like a minefield. But with the right approach, you can turn any interaction into a meaningful exchange.&nbsp;How do you find the right approach? More importantly, can you learn the required skills?“<a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:0.4s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.charlesduhigg.com/supercommunicators">Supercommunicators</a>,” written by Charles Duhigg, is a book that teaches you to learn the skills to convert a conversation into a connection. It distills the art of conversation, any conversation, including the ones with your friends and family, into actionable steps that you can readily practice and improve.<a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:0.4s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.charlesduhigg.com/">Charles Duhigg</a> is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist and author of bestselling books. I read his first book, “The Power of Habit,” which is a constant presence in many bookstores, and liked it. I read it in 2013, and it convinced me about the importance of habits. Last year, I read his <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:0.4s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/12/11/the-inside-story-of-microsofts-partnership-with-openai">article</a> on the ChatGPT saga and liked it for its reporting breadth and depth.<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;clear:both;display:block;height:auto;margin:15px auto;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:middle;width:629px;" id="attachment_30055" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-30055"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/811bz_Oshn5_L_AC_UF_10001000_QL_80_F_Mwebp_7ad3ac888f.webp" alt="811bzOshn5L._AC_UF10001000_QL80_FMwebp_.webp" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_811bz_Oshn5_L_AC_UF_10001000_QL_80_F_Mwebp_7ad3ac888f.webp 98w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_811bz_Oshn5_L_AC_UF_10001000_QL_80_F_Mwebp_7ad3ac888f.webp 314w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_811bz_Oshn5_L_AC_UF_10001000_QL_80_F_Mwebp_7ad3ac888f.webp 472w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-30055">Cover of the book ‘Supercommunicators’</figcaption></figure>This book starts by breaking down every conversation into three types: Analytical, Emotional, and Social. Every conversation is essentially one of these three types. In analytical talk, the conversation is a transaction where facts and details matter. In emotional talk, the conversation is all about the feelings. In social talk, the conversation is about an identity. Now, listing the types helps in nothing. You still need to know what to do with this information.Suppose you argued with your father in the morning over a trivial issue. You reach the office and share the incident with your friend. Are you looking for a solution? Do you want to be listened to intently, get advice on who was wrong, or would just a hug do ? Suppose you differed with a colleague about a work issue. Another colleague, a friend, was listening. What do you want to hear from your friend? Advice or silence or just a hug? Suppose you hear about the sudden death of a friend’s loved one. What do you say to your friend? Advice or listen or a hug? As situations differ, so does the conversation, hence the importance of its type.After breaking the communication into its types, Charles goes on to break it into a step-by-step process of turning every conversation into meaningful, often joyful interactions, and in some cases, less stressful ones, even with a person with contrasting views. He uses psychological studies and instances of experts’ communication to establish the rules of effective communication.Stories form the backbone of narration and writing style, making it easy for everyone to understand, relate, and remember the content. Charles has used his recommendation to write the book as the writing oscillates between personal anecdotes, stories, and facts, often combining all three. As you turn the pages, you gradually get convinced about the process.<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;clear:both;display:block;height:auto;margin:15px auto;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:middle;width:767px;" id="attachment_30056" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-30056"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/high_rez_duhigg_headshot_20160720afmduhigg0082_thumb_1536x1536_1_53a5660a0f.jpg" alt="high-rez-duhigg-headshot-20160720afmduhigg0082-thumb-1536x1536-1.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_high_rez_duhigg_headshot_20160720afmduhigg0082_thumb_1536x1536_1_53a5660a0f.jpg 245w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_high_rez_duhigg_headshot_20160720afmduhigg0082_thumb_1536x1536_1_53a5660a0f.jpg 500w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_high_rez_duhigg_headshot_20160720afmduhigg0082_thumb_1536x1536_1_53a5660a0f.jpg 750w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-30056">Charles Duhigg</figcaption></figure>If you have read books on personal growth, they tend to follow a pattern. Every chapter makes a proposition supported by academic research or theories, followed by a story that establishes the usefulness of the proposition. Stories of failures are not part of this scheme. This book is no exception to this formula. However, this conformance should not take away the usefulness of this book.A few days after finishing the book, I took a train journey to New Delhi. The train starts at 6 in the morning from Varanasi, requiring me to get up at 4 AM. I always travel with a book, sometimes 2. If it is a mid-noon journey, I prefer reading books to talking to a co-passenger. But, early in the morning, I like a slow warmup to come to my full senses before picking a book. Opening a conversation with a co-passenger who is perhaps also in the same state has always been a nervous affair. But I had read this book, so at least I knew a theory I could test.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/images_2024_09_30_T164448_607_ee3a11384b.jpeg" alt="images-2024-09-30T164448.607.jpeg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_images_2024_09_30_T164448_607_ee3a11384b.jpeg 245w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_images_2024_09_30_T164448_607_ee3a11384b.jpeg 500w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_images_2024_09_30_T164448_607_ee3a11384b.jpeg 750w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined">Charles suggests starting a conversation with a question that doesn’t have a 1-word answer. He calls them Deep questions. For example, instead of asking questions like, “Where are you going?” or “Are you from Varanasi?” you may ask, “What do you like about early morning train journeys?”. I started with a similar question. However, a few minutes into the conversation, the person said, “I do not like the Congress party (India’s principal opposition party).”Now, I like the Congress party. Had I not read the book, I would have gone on to list several reasons to prefer the Congress party. I would have given one argument after another, countering his response with facts and figures. I would have transformed myself into an evangelist, on a mission to reform this man and make him fall in love with the Congress party. After a few minutes of conversation, he would have silently waited for me to drain all my energy and stop. We would have withdrawn into our shells for the rest of the journey, talking only to ask for a way to leave the seat. Thankfully, I had read this book, and none of this happened.I instead said, “They give many reasons to people to dislike them.” It opened him up to offer his reasons for this blanket statement, which allowed me to steer the conversation to his upbringing, parents, childhood, values, work, motivations, etc. When I shared about my organization’s work with school children from economically underprivileged families, he shared his wife’s efforts of sheltering orphaned street dogs. We agreed on several issues, including the complete failure of the current central government, despite opposing political preferences. Neither did I contradict his personal experiences, nor did he contradict mine. Moreover, we agreed that our experiences shape our views, which are bound to change if we remain open.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/images_2024_09_30_T164615_165_ec71a30e5a.jpeg" alt="images-2024-09-30T164615.165.jpeg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_images_2024_09_30_T164615_165_ec71a30e5a.jpeg 245w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_images_2024_09_30_T164615_165_ec71a30e5a.jpeg 500w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined">“Supercommunicators” book taught me to treat every conversation as a learning opportunity. It taught me not to approach a conversation as a right vs wrong battle but to connect by sharing stories and anecdotes more than the facts. Ultimately, you can convince a person more by listening than by speaking. In a world getting more polarised, we all need to learn to talk to each other and listen better. Thankfully, we have this book.</div></div>

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Navigating Difficult Dialogues: How 'Supercommunicators' Can Help in a Polarised World"

<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/images_34_770x393_796d24e9a6.jpeg" alt="images-34-770x393.jpeg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_images_34_770x393_796d24e9a6.jpeg 245w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_images_34_770x393_796d24e9a6.jpeg 500w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_images_34_770x393_796d24e9a6.jpeg 750w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><div class="post-body clearfix single-blog-header single-blog-inner blog-single-block blog-details-content" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;"><div class="entry-content clearfix" style="box-sizing:border-box;counter-reset:footnotes 0;margin:0px;padding:0px;">Prolific documentary filmmaker R.P Amudhan’s body of work is unique and striking, especially in the manner in which his creations address issues and concerns of the marginalised sections of society. He is known as a media activist too. Hailing from Madurai, in Tamil Nadu, he founded the Marupakkam Media Activist Group (MMAG) in in his home district. The MMAG produces documentaries, screens films, and conducts workshops. He has over 20 documentaries to his credit. His films primarily focus on caste and labour issues. In this Interview with poet and writer Rashida Nasriya, filmmaker Amudhan RP discusses his craft, concerns and challenges.&nbsp;Rashidha Nasriya: What do you consider as the most significant challenge you have faced during the making of your documentaries?Amudhan RP: The biggest challenges I have faced in documenting the kind of social issues I have chosen to film are threefold. First, identifying a crucial topic which requires in-depth understanding and sufficient data to substantiate the narrative. Once I have a clear understanding of the topic, I would conduct thorough research and convince people, that is the characters in my film and their kith and kin. This has been my approach from my very first film, Leelavathi, a documentary on a Communist Party of India (Marxist) – CPIM- cadre killed in Madurai in 1997. I was relatively young at that time and the task of persuading her family and the district CPIM committee took a lot of effort. I finally did get their consent. It was a difficult task to get their trust.The second challenge – although a joyful one – is researching and gathering credible information, while the third is securing funding. As a solo filmmaker, I have learned to be self-sufficient. But still finding funds is a challenge. Any filmmaker would go through these challenges in varying degrees.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/images_35_721e230496.jpeg" alt="images-35.jpeg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_images_35_721e230496.jpeg 208w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_images_35_721e230496.jpeg 500w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined">Nasriya: Did your activist background influence your decision to become a filmmaker?Amudhan: During my MA studies, I attended a workshop in Madurai organised by Center for Development of Instructional Technology (CENDIT), an organisation based in New Delhi. Here, I was exposed to several powerful documentary films. This experience opened my eyes to the significance of political documentaries. I was introduced to the concept of using film as a tool for social change, and I immediately knew I wanted to become a documentary filmmaker and an activist. This workshop sparked my passion for creating and screening films that inspire critical thinking and trigger meaningful conversations. It was a turning point that led me to merge my interests in social activism and filmmaking, ultimately shaping my identity as an activist-filmmaker. Activism and filmmaking are deeply intertwined for me – they’re two sides of the same coin. My filmmaking is an extension of my activism, and vice versa; the two are inseparable.Nasriya: Your film “My Caste” examines the intersection of caste, hegemony, and consensus in Indian society. What has driven your focus on caste in your activism and filmmaking?Amudhan: I wanted to take on the Caste issue from the perpetuator point of view rather than from the victim’s or survivor’s point of view. I wanted to get into the minds of the people who either follow or negotiate or negate caste in their lives. I wanted to know what happens in people’s minds when they deal with caste matters. That’s why I made the film ‘My Caste’ ‘recording the views of various people on caste related questions.<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;clear:both;display:block;height:auto;margin:15px auto;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:middle;width:951px;" id="attachment_30033" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-30033"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/IMG_20240927_WA_0021_d0a7a9b78c.jpg" alt="IMG-20240927-WA0021.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_IMG_20240927_WA_0021_d0a7a9b78c.jpg 154w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_IMG_20240927_WA_0021_d0a7a9b78c.jpg 495w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_IMG_20240927_WA_0021_d0a7a9b78c.jpg 743w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-30033">Amudhan speaking at an event</figcaption></figure>Nasriya: Can you give some details on how you investigated labour exploitation in Tirupur’s garment industry for your documentary “Dollar City”?Amudhan: Many of my films focus on labour issues, with a considerable number exploring labour practices. For my trilogy on hegemony and consensus, I chose Tirupur as a case study. This city exemplifies how consensus is manufactured to prioritise the industry’s interests.In Tiruppur, a tacit understanding exists among industries, trade unions, workers, NGOs, and political parties to protect the industry at all costs. The prevailing narrative is: ‘Without the industry, we cannot survive.’ This consensus leads to widespread compromise and adjustment, perpetuating the exploitation.<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;clear:both;display:block;height:auto;margin:15px auto;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:middle;width:739px;" id="attachment_30028" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-30028"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/images_36_2e37ef3154.jpeg" alt="images-36.jpeg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_images_36_2e37ef3154.jpeg 245w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_images_36_2e37ef3154.jpeg 500w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-30028">During production of Amudhan’s documentary</figcaption></figure>I want to capture this complex dynamic in my film, highlighting how Tiruppur’s industry-centric consensus affects labor rights and social justice.&nbsp;Nasriya: How did you approach exploring the complex and sensitive topic of manual scavenging in your film “Pee (Shit)”?Amudhan: I wanted to make a Tamil version of Lesser Humans – a documentary on Manual Scavenging in Gujarat by Stalin K. Although I wanted to make a similar comprehensive film about Tamilnadu, my encounter with Mariamma, a sanitary worker in Madurai convinced me to make a short documentary which practically covers every aspect of the work.I realised a shorter format could powerfully convey the urgency of this issue, making a compelling argument against manual scavenging. This inspired me to create the film titled ‘Pee’ (Shit) [Watch Below], highlighting the harsh realities of manual scavenging.<div class="raw-html-embed"><iframe width="640" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/a0eWOHAvVn4" title="Shit - a documentary by Amudhan R.P." frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div>&nbsp;Nasriya: What inspired you to create a documentary about Mercury pollution in Kodaikanal?Amudhan: The film ‘Mercury in the Mist’ was initiated by workers from the Kodaikanal thermometer factory, who had been fighting against the company’s harmful practices. They sought my help to create a documentary supporting their cause, highlighting the devastating health effects of mercury exposure and their ongoing court battles. It was partially funded by the workers and their well wishers like Nityanand Jayaraman and others.&nbsp;Nasriya: Do you think the documentary can contribute to the border understanding of the challenges facing Indian democracy?Amudhan: Documentary watching is, in my opinion, one of the most engaging and intellectually stimulating activities. It offers a unique blend of education, art, and social awareness, empowering individuals to become responsible citizens. By watching documentaries, we gain perspectives on the world around us, exercising our right to informed decision-making and participatory governance. Through my screenings, I aim to create opportunities for social and political education, fostering a culture of critical thinking and civic engagement. Documentaries provide a valuable platform for raising awareness on critical issues, making meaningful conversations and inspiring social change.&nbsp;Nasriya: How crucial is creative freedom in documentary filmmaking for fostering critical thinking and public debate?Amudhan: In documentary filmmaking, merely reporting or recording is not enough. It is an opportunity to critically examine any subject, sparking meaningful discussions. We must be courageous enough to ask difficult questions, amplify marginalized voices and confront uncomfortable truthsUnlike commercial cinema, documentary filmmakers must take risks, challenging the status quo and pushing boundaries. By doing so, we humanize overlooked stories, Inspire critical thinking and foster empathy and understanding.&nbsp;Nasriya: How did your initiative “Marupakkam” come about…?Amudhan: Marupakkam is a network of people collaborating to promote documentary filmmaking and social change. We invite participation from individuals across India in various capacities, including funding, research, topic development, filmmaking, screening, and documentary workshops.&nbsp;<figure class="wp-caption alignright" style="border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;display:inline;float:right;height:auto;margin:5px 0px 20px 20px;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:middle;width:1080px;" id="attachment_30029" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-30029"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/Screenshot_20240927_1713542_bec309fa73.png" alt="Screenshot_20240927-1713542.png" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_Screenshot_20240927_1713542_bec309fa73.png 245w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_Screenshot_20240927_1713542_bec309fa73.png 500w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_Screenshot_20240927_1713542_bec309fa73.png 750w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/large_Screenshot_20240927_1713542_bec309fa73.png 1000w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-30029">Homepage of Marupakkam [Visit <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:0.4s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://marupakkammadurai.blogspot.com/?m=1">Here</a>]</figcaption></figure>Our activities involve screening documentaries, researching social issues, making films on relevant topics, teaching documentary filmmaking, and showcasing films made by others. Through these efforts, we aim to foster a community that inspires social change through documentary filmmaking.&nbsp;&nbsp;Nasriya: As a prolific documentary creator what advice would you give to emerging filmmakers?Amudhan: To young and upcoming filmmakers, I say: read widely, travel extensively, and cultivate an open-minded perspective. Listen to diverse voices, even in everyday settings like markets, where numerous perspectives converge. If you don’t have an open mind, you will only hear the voices that confirm your existing views. But with an open mind, you will identify and appreciate the varied voices, even within the same marketplace.</div></div>

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Amudhan’s Craft, Concerns and Challenges

<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">The victory of Marxist leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake in Presidential election in Sri Lanka has been described as a political Tsunami by international politicians and observers. Sri Lanka based Independent policy analyst and writer Amita Arudpragasam analyses the context of the results in detail and points out that it was the economic mismanagement and corruption of earlier, dynasty oriented, regimes as well as Anura’s clean image that propelled significant sections of voters towards the Leftist JVP leader.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">She also points out that while the victory does indeed signify the emergence of new hopes in the country, it would be too early to predict dramatic policy and ideological shifts, including in the island nation’s orientation towards India and China. Watch the interview here.<hr><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">ഈ വിഷയത്തിൽ പരിസ്ഥിതി പ്രവർത്തകനും എഴുത്തുകാരനുമായ കെ സഹദേവൻ എഴുതിയ കുറിപ്പ് ചുവടെ നൽകുന്നു:<h2 style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:25px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.2;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">അദാനിയും ശ്രീലങ്കയിലെയും ബംഗ്ലാദേശിലേയും ഭരണ വ്യവസ്ഥയിലെ വമ്പൻ മാറ്റങ്ങളും</h2><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">ശ്രീലങ്കയിലെയും ബംഗ്ലാദേശിലെയും എന്തിന് ഓസ്‌ട്രേലിയയിലെപ്പോലും രാഷ്ട്രീയ ഭരണമാറ്റത്തിന് പിന്നിലെ പൊതുഘടകത്തെ കണ്ടെത്താൻ ശ്രമിച്ചാൽ ഗൗതം അദാനിയിൽ ചെന്ന് മുട്ടും. ഉഭയകക്ഷി ബന്ധങ്ങളെ വ്യവസായി താൽപ്പര്യങ്ങൾക്കായി ഉപയോഗപ്പെടുത്താൻ ഭരണകൂടങ്ങൾ തുനിഞ്ഞിറങ്ങിയാൽ അതിന്റെ അനിവാര്യഫലമെന്നത് ആ രാജ്യത്തിന്റെ സാമ്പത്തിക സുസ്ഥിരത തകർക്കപ്പെടുക എന്നതായിരിക്കും.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">ബംഗ്ലാദേശിന് വൈദ്യുതി വിൽക്കുന്നതുമായി ബന്ധപ്പെട്ട കരാർ അദാനിക്ക് ലഭ്യമാക്കുന്നതിന് ബീഗം ഹസീനയ്ക്ക് മേൽ സമ്മർദ്ദമുയർത്താൻ നരേന്ദ്ര മോദിക്ക് യാതൊരു മടിയുമുണ്ടായിരുന്നില്ല. 2015ലെ മോദിയുടെ ബംഗ്ലാദേശ് സന്ദർശനത്തിന്റെ മുഖ്യ അജണ്ടതന്നെ അദാനിക്ക് വൈദ്യുതി വിതരണക്കരാർ നേടിയെടുക്കുക എന്നതായിരുന്നു.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">ഇന്ന് ബംഗ്ലാദേശ് ഭരണകൂടത്തിന്റെ മുന്നിലുള്ള പ്രധാന അജണ്ട അദാനിയുമായുള്ള കരാറിൽ നിന്ന് എങ്ങിനെ രക്ഷപ്പെടാം എന്നതാണ്. ശ്രീലങ്കയിൽ 400 മില്യൺ ഡോളറിന്റെ ഗ്രീൻ എനർജി പ്രോജക്ടുകളാണ് അദാനി നേടിയെടുത്തത്. 225 മെഗാവാട്ടിന്റെ കാറ്റാടിപ്പാട നിർമ്മാണ പദ്ധതി നേടിയെടുക്കുന്നതിനും നയതന്ത്ര ബന്ധങ്ങൾ ഉപയോഗപ്പെടുത്തപ്പെട്ടു.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">ഇതിനുപുറമെ 700 ദശലക്ഷം ഡോളറിന്റെ കണ്ടൈയ്‌നർ തുറമുഖ പദ്ധതിയും നേടിയെടുക്കാൻ അദാനിക്ക് സാധിച്ചു. ഈ രണ്ട് പദ്ധതികളും ശ്രീലങ്കയുടെ ദീർഘകാല താൽപ്പര്യങ്ങൾക്ക് വിരുദ്ധമാണെന്ന ആരോപണം പാർലമെന്റിലും പുറത്തും ശക്തമായി ഉന്നയിക്കപ്പെട്ടുകൊണ്ടിരിക്കുകയാണ്.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">ഓസ്‌ട്രേലിയയിൽ അദാനി നേടിയെടുത്ത കാർമൈക്കൾ കൽക്കരി ഖനന കരാറും ഇതേരീതിയിൽ അതിശക്തമായ രാഷ്ട്രീയ എതിർപ്പ് ക്ഷണിച്ചുവരുത്തിയ ഒന്നാണ്. ഒരു ദശകക്കാലത്തെ കൺസർവേറ്റീവ് ഭരണത്തിന് അറുതിവരുത്തിക്കൊണ്ട് ലെഫ്റ്റ് ചായ്വുള്ള ആന്റണി അൽബനീസ് ഗവൺമെന്റ് അധികാരക്കസേരയിലെത്തിയതിന് പിന്നിലും ഗൗതം അദാനിക്കെതിരായ പ്രതിഷേധത്തിന്റെ വേരുകൾ കണ്ടെത്താൻ കഴിയും…

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