Often we come across works of art that create long-lasting impressions in our minds and hearts, something which in the words of William Wordsworth:

“The music in my heart I bore

Long after it was heard no more”

I will put Amitava Ghosh’s Shadow Lines in a similar category. Although it’s highly resistive to categorizations- it can be called a memory novel owing to the myriad of stupendously iridescent shards of memories embedded within its framework. Similarly, it claims a righteous placement right in between the manifold literature on post colonialism. At the same time, it’s a really loud cry against the prevailing nationalistic tendencies of the contemporary world in which Ghosh was writing. The highly definitive and descriptive imagery containing the maps, mirrors, reflections etc are in themselves, reflexive of the narrator’s personalized and depersonalized selves. What’s more, it’s also a great work full with modernist techniques.

The non-linear chronological progression of the novel coupled with the drifts across the worlds via the imaginative precepts of the mind is a fantastic method, to me, to bring out the confusions created by memories, remembrances and recollections. The novel begins in the year 1939 with Mayadebi’s departure with her husband and Tridib, her nine- year old son to England and concludes somewhere around 1970’s with the narrator’s exposure to the final “redemptive mystery” with May Price regarding Tridib’s death. It spans three generations of the Dutta Chowdhuries and the Prices and binds England, Cairo, Ceylon, India etc in a web of cartographic interpretations, transcendence of territorial boundaries and limitations of nations.The core of the story is the death of Tridib Dutta-Choudhuri, the narrator’s uncle, an archaeologist who presents the narrator-child worlds to travel in and

Nationalism in Shadow Lines is pitted against Internationalism. Reading from a gendered perspective, the narrator’s Thamma, a middle class teacher with deep nationalistic tendencies which ultimately are disillusioned towards the middle of the novel, is contrasted with his cousin Ila, the perfect globetrotter who distinguishes countries in terms of the standards and locations of Ladies’ Toilets in airports.

©2010 Sapped. All Rights Reserved.

Racism has “swam” literally from Australia to United States of America. A young Sikh student working part-time as a pizza delivery boy has been reportedly physically assaulted a group of unscrupulous US citizens when he came to deliver a pizza to their house, the Skh Coalition, a community advocacy group said. The attackers neither paid him for the pizza nor were decently behaving with him. They have hurled racial abuses at him. Although the real identity of the student or the attackers or the place of the incident has been withheld, it happened somewhere in Texas.

The student was thrown into the swimming pool and was continually kicked at head and body whenever he tried to escape. This continued for 20 minutes at the completion of which he somehow saved himself and managed to reach his car and drove off.

The SIkh group claims that the accused hurled ausive language at him. “I’m going to **** you up in Iraq, I’m going to **** you up in Afghanistan, I’m going to **** you up over here. The local police neither responded quickly, nor filed the incident as a crime of hate, the group said. “It is clear from the attackers’ references to ‘bin Laden’ and ‘Go back to Afghanistan’ and the fact that they kicked off his turban that this assault targeted not only him as an individual, but his Sikh identity.”

The Department of Justice is looking into the matter presently.

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©2010 Sapped. All Rights Reserved.

Nitin Gadkari, Maharashtra BJP’s leader has been sworn in as BJP’s new President. The politician, right after ascending to the throne, has made open acknowledgements to RSS as one of BJP’s prime supporters. Gadkari, famous for maintaining a really low-profile thus becomes the youngest president for the party. Fearless as he asserts himself to be, the Maratha President echoes the importance of willpower to the credit of the individual: “When there is a strong political will, all problems can be solved,” he was heard saying.

Reminding us once again, the former PWD minister of Maharashtra talks about his previous feats such as the fact that he had built the Mumbai-Pune Expressway in just two years and at a cost of Rs2,000 crore when more expenses is expected in projects such as these in other states. He informed the media that he always is willing to vouchsafe for politics as the most important factor in developing social and economic conditions of the country. Thus he said, ” I don’t work as if I am making a political career. I work for the poor and downtrodden sections of society who don’t have food to eat, house to live in or clothes to wear. I strive to bring about a transformation in their lives.”

BJP has been long since missing a real thrust at the fore front ever since Atal Bihari Vajpayee stepped down as the Leader of Opposition. As we have been seeing for quite a few years, BJP, despite repeated efforts, has not been able to resurface after the parliamentary overthrow by UPA government. When the furore over Yashwant Singh’s controversial book regarding the role played by Nehru and Jinnah in partition took place, people looked up to BJP Leader L.K. Advani to pacify the agigated followers of BJP but only the man in question could tell his self-imposed isolation from the issue. Right now, the party is in a bad state, thanks to Liberhann’s report on the demolition of Babri Masjid where he points to former Prime Minister, BJP’s Atal Bihari Vajpayee as being instrumental in the riots that burnt the country down back in December 6, 1992.

How far these shifts in the party work up to the party’s advantage will be seen in near future.

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©2010 Sapped. All Rights Reserved.

As Telangana stands suspended, Pranab Mukherjee ensured while meeting a delegation of Congress MPs from the state’s Andhra and Rayalaseema regions in the Parliament House that the statehood of Telangana will not be discussed in Lok Sabha unless and until Andhra Pradesh passes  a resolution keeping into view the wishes and demands of the leaders for another separate state of Telangana.

“He (Mukherjee) assured us that the resolution has to come from the state assembly first. Till then, there cannot be a discussion of the issue in the Lok Sabha,” Congress leader and Andhra Pradesh MP K.S. Rao told the media today.

“We want a clarification as early as possible to prevent division among people of different regions in the state,” Rao said.

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©2010 Sapped. All Rights Reserved.

Its time to tighten security. The metros are under alert. Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata have gone under scanner after rumours and hints about the presence of LeT militants loomed over the cities. Apparently, the terror groups have already installed their men for suicide bombings across the metros.

Sources have confirmed that trained suicide squads have been sneaked into India to carry out these suicide bombings and terror activities. This comes few weeks after India silently observed the infamous 26/11 anniversary.

All the coastal areas across the country are being repeatedly searched for possible threats.

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©2010 Sapped. All Rights Reserved.

After FBI’s revelation of David COleman Headley being one of the voice commanders present in LeT control room when Mumbai 26/11 attack took place last year, comes another crashing exposure that has long since been a prick to the Indian security system. FBI has apparently confirmed that a “section of serving Pakistan army officers”  have been secretly serving chosen terror groups such as LeT and JeM against India. This confirmation was conveyed to India when a special FBI team visited India to interrogate suspects.

Headley a.k.a Daood Gilani has confessed  that these officers have been working with Lashkar on ‘Karachi project’ against India that as a major objective, works in recruiting Indian Muslims to spread Jihad in India.These young men after being trained Pakistani army officials return to India and breed terror as home-spurn and thus, save Pakistan from any involvement.

Many fugitive and a number of absconding terrorists, agencies have found out — Aamir Raza Khan, Mufti Sufi Patangiya and Rasool Parti and the remnants of Shahid Bilal gang from Hyderabad — have played an instrumental part in recruiting and training youth to become Jihadis. On same ground has the Indian Mujahideen been designed.

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©2010 Sapped. All Rights Reserved.

Perhaps Andhra Pradesh splitting into two states is acting as a catalyst to haste the formation of smaller states. For Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister has written to the Prime Minister of India to consider the trifurcation of Uttar Pradesh. She has requested Dr. Manmohan Singh to let the rise  of independent states of Bundelkhand and Harit take place.

This decision has been taken to tame the “Unmanageable” state of Uttar Pradesh. “I have written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urging him to give us clearance for creating independent states of Budelkhand and Harit Pradesh out of a giant-sized and unmanageable Uttar Pradesh.”

Talking about the move, Mayawati told at a press conference that she was always in favour of smaller states as they are more organized and manageable. “Since the centre has already given its nod for carving out the state of Telangana out of Andhra Pradesh, there was good enough reason to follow the same exercise in case of UP, where the demand for an independent Bundelkhand in southern UP and a Harit Pradesh in western UP was being raised for a long time,” she said.

She emphasized that “these views have been expressed by me on several occasions in the past as well.” Addind a triumphant note to the discussion, Mayawati said, “In the past too, on March 15, 2008, I had sent a letter to the prime minister, urging him to consider the demand of the people of Bundelkhand and of western UP for giving them independent statehood.” She argued further, “Still earlier on October 8, 2007, I had expressed these view at a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) rally in Lucknow.”

She has urged agitated protestors “not to indulge in any activity that is likely to disturb law and order in the state.” and has assured to “extend full support to the popular demand of the people”.

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©2010 Sapped. All Rights Reserved.

Union home secretary G K Pillai hinted that Hyderabad will be the capital of Telangana, the proposed state to be cut out of the state of Andhra Pradesh. “Hyderabad, I think, will always be the capital of Telangana, Pillai stated at a press meet today.

This statement comes a day after atleast 130 MPs have threatened to resign in a protest against culling out the state of Telengana. “I’m sure that in the coming days, as people understand the real implication of what is meant, I think the agitation would die down and the process for formation of the new state would continue,” Pillai said.

Pillai’s remark has been termed “Provocative” by many.

The crisis has  deepened as more and more political patriots deciding on resignations. The MPs led by K.Sambasiva Rao said that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has assured them that no hasty decisions will be taken to bring into effect the new state. Rao said that  “The prime minister has assured us that no hasty decision will be taken on this issue. He said the matter will be discussed in the Congress core committee meeting expected later Friday.”

L. Rajagaopal, a Congress MP, warned the government that he will start a fast if Telangana is ever designed out of AP. Out of the 130 MPs who have already submitted their resignations, 76 legislators belong to the ruling Congress, 40 of the opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and 14 of the Praja Rajyam Party (PRP). They have all accused the UPA-led government of not consulting them when making decisions on Telangana. The Congress has a total of 156 legislators in State Assembly. Chief Minister K. Rosaiah although denied that the possibility of a minority position in the assembly if supporting legislators resign, but said that he received neither written nor oral directions from the central government to move a resolution in the assembly  and pointed out that such resolutions can be passed only after consensus.

The proposed bifurcation of the state has already agitated the masses. People ran down on streets setting buses ablaze and robbing an HDFC bank. Protesters blocked national and state highways and stopped or delayed trains at various railway stations. Amidst this, the man who played it all, Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) chief K.Chandrasekhar Rao, whose 11-day hunger strike forced the government to agree to his demand for a Telangana state, got his discharge from the hospital where he was being attended to.

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©2010 Sapped. All Rights Reserved.

In a historic moment of India’s history of controversial amendments or suggestions for the previous laws, the Supreme Court today asked the government to legalize prostitution in order to monitor and thus avoid trafficking of women and providing alternative means for such women’s future.

Justices Dalveer Bhandari and AK Patnaik told Solicitor-General Gopal Subramaniam that “When you say it is the world’s oldest profession and when you are not able to curb it by laws, why don’t you legalize it? You can then monitor the trade, rehabilitate and provide medical aid to those involved.”

The judges emphasized the immediate implementation of the legalisation procedure for sex trade as no country has ever been able to totally curb this by legalisation.

The bench that was hearing a PIL filed by NGOs Bachpan Bachao Andolan and Childline who  complained about large-scale child trafficking in the country and seeking directives to contain it, said child trafficking and sex trade can not be contained unless poverty be eradicated in rural areas.

Currently, more than 37% of the population is still under poverty line. “Growth of GDP does not mean some four or five families have developed. If this is the state of development, we can’t help it,” the bench said. This makes ignorant and desperate parents push young girls towards sex trade.

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©2010 Sapped. All Rights Reserved.

Farewell, thou worthy mates! Yes, it seems like “Hamaara Bajaj” to looking up to motocycles now. Bajaj will not produce any more scooters from now and has decided to concentrate upon developing their bike ranges. “We want to become a motorcycle specialist and do not want to distract ourselves by scooters and mopeds… we cannot get greedy and try to do everything,” Bajaj said. “We are not developing scooters. We have no scooter on the drawing board.”

There are although, apparently not many reasons to continue the scooter segment, says Bajaj Auto. This is because sale of scooters from the company has actually decreased hundreds per month. For motorcycles offer more mileage, apart from style and comfort.

Bajaj Auto managing director Rajiv Bajaj cheerfully added after announcing the company’s decision to end scooter productions, ‘‘We have an opportunity to shoot for something… to be the largest motorcycle maker in the world.’’

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©2010 Sapped. All Rights Reserved.