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War of
Memory
DEAD
OR ALIVE
Even 35 years after the
India-Pakistan war ended on December 17, 1971, the families of 54
soldiers who were declared ‘missing in action’ do not know the
fate of their kin. Simmi Waraich reports
on the trials and trauma of the affected families.
"If the cause be just
and mind be strong,
No force is great, No distance long,
If selfless souls with such a strength,
Face hazards all, they win at length."
This
is a diary noting in Dr R.S. Suri’s diary, father of Major Ashok
Suri, captured in the 1971 war. The Army had declared Major Suri as
"Killed in action".
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A letter sent by Maj Ashok Suri to his father in 1975
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Relative
Anxiety
The goal of the
Missing Defence Personnel Relatives Association (MDPRA),
formed in 1993 with R.S. Suri as the Founder President, is to
collect evidence and present it so that the Ministry of External
Affairs could work on it as a single file. In the last year,
they have met the Prime Minister and the Deputy High
Commissioner of Pakistan asking for help in tracing the men by
visiting Pakistan and going through jail records. They also
wrote to the Army and Air Force Chiefs asking for a separate
cell to work on the cases of missing persons which could provide
regular updates to the family members. In addition, they asked
for a separate Missing in Action Day and want that these men
should be recognised as "missing" rather than
"killed in action".
Inspired by the group, Supriyo
Sen is working on a documentary film on the subject. It is due
to be released soon. Also in the pipeline is a book on the
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Tribal art goes
global
Every Bastar carving is unique
because it carries the individual impression or signature of the
artist. It is this exclusive trait that has made them popular the
world over, writes Pradeep Chandra
PARIS
is a long way from Bastar. For artisans of this predominantly tribal
district in central India, the distance is multiplied manifold, given
the differences in cultural upbringing, religious beliefs, social
status as well as financial and economic standing.
Amritsari petha a
big draw
Ravinder Singh Robin
Amritsar,
which is famous for the Golden Temple, is also known for its sweetened
white pumpkin or, the petha in common parlance. The Amritsari
petha is prepared in the narrow lanes of the centuries-old Pethawala
Bazaar in the walled city.
Volcanic find
A
Rutgers geologist at the State University of New Jersey, has come up
with evidence that Earth practices recycling on a grand scale. In his
report in the journal Nature, Prof Claude Herzberg offers new
evidence that parts of the Earth’s crust that long ago dove hundreds
or thousands of kilometres into the Earth’s interior, have
resurfaced in the hot lava flow of Hawaiian volcanoes.
Polyester Parades
One of the first cities to use
polyester or fibreglass animal figures to liven up its streets was
Zurich in Switzerland. Many towns in the US have followed suit. With
the variety of animal life we have, this is a great idea for civic
bodies in India to take up, writes Lalit
Mohan
IT
was funny in a surreal kind of way. A pink polka-dotted lion reared on
its hind legs next to a mannequin on Zurich’s Bahnhofstrasse. A cow
with zebra stripes and pink udders walked coyly on Chicago’s
Michigan Avenue. A moose looking like a roadmap stood by in the main
square of Bennington, Vermont. And now, park benches painted with
bizarre messages beckon in downtown Freeport, a small town in
Illinois.
Dr Kotnis Ki Amar
Kahani
The recent visit of Chinese
President Hu Jintao to India has refreshed public’s memory about Dr
Dwarkanath Shantaram Kotnis, the most revered Indian in China. Rajesh
C. Bali pays tribute to the man who went on a mission to China
and stayed on to serve the locals
DR
Dwarkanath Kotnis is still being remembered and loved in China and we
shall never forget him for his services, the Chinese President Hu
Jintao told the family members of Dr. Kotnis when he met them in
Mumbai on November 23, 2006.
Price of
Breakfast at Tiffany’s
Audrey Hepburn’s dress was
recently sold for £ 467,200, writes Cahal Milmo
Audrey
Hepburn once told an interviewer: "My look is attainable. Women
can don sunglasses and the little sleeveless dresses." And, she
might have added, by having the small matter of £ 467,200 to spend on
historic couture.
Films high on
quality
The recent IFFI, despite the
pervasive presence of Bollywood, was an opportunity to see some
exceptional cinema, reports Ervell E Menezes
The
curtain came down on the 37th International Film Festival of India (IFFI)
or the third one to be held in Goa and that its management was the
worst of all three there is little doubt. Delegates by the thousand, a
surfeit of Bollywood stars, little room for parallel cinema and the
neglect of international filmmakers are the straws in the wind and
they seem to increase with each passing year.
Frames of
identity
The Spinning Wheel Film Festival,
held annually in the US, has finally come of age. Reema
Anand describes some of the films screened there
The
venue is Los Angeles, the dream venue for any important film festival.
In the background are the fireworks of Disneyland, and in the
foreground are prominent Sikhs from around the world, who have
gathered to watch the Spinning Wheel L.A. chapter unfold. Sardar Dya
Singh and his troupe have been flown from Melbourne, Australia,
specially for a concert at the opening of the film festival.
Notes that
linger on and on
Surendra Miglani
Meri jaan meri jaan pyaar
kisi se ho hi gaya hai, hum kya karaen, vayee vayee vayee vayee
IN
this beautiful number in the film Yahudi, composer Jaikishan
had inserted the words vayee vayee vayee vayee while his
senior partner Shanker wanted the song to be without this
"encroachment". Jaikishan stuck to his guns and managed to
retain them in the final version.
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