A dosa at 10 paise since ‘80
Inflation has touched a 44-month high of 7।83%, but a dosa vendor in Andhra Pradesh has held his priceline at 10 paise a piece for more than two decades now।
For years, a cross-section of customers, from students to teachers to daily-wagers, started their day with the 10-paise dosa served with three types of chutneys — tomato, chilli and ginger — at Narappa Reddy Muni Reddy’s breakfast corner in Kadapa city of Rayalaseema.
Reddy’s mother Subbamma had started the Masaipeta centre five decades ago, selling a dosa for an anna — 6 paise. But the family hiked the rate to 10 paise in 1980 due to the shortage of one-anna coins. Reddy hasn’t raised it since — the size of the dosa has “shrunk a little bit” though.
“Yet the morning crowds haven’t reduced,” says his wife Ramalakshmi. And people don’t have just one but gobble five to ten dosas each, says Reddy, adding “the price and quality we offer is still the best”.
Reddy’s recipe is a major hit. But the family has started feeling the pinch of spiralling prices. Ramalakshmi says they sell 2,000 dosas a day and make 15% profit — Rs30, just enough to make both ends meet.
And though Reddy has added other items — cigarettes, biscuits, samosas and candies — to his merchandise, his sons Mallikarjun and Shiv Shankar, who help him out with the business, aren’t very happy.
“It was OK when the price of rice was low and we could afford it. But now we are finding it difficult to meek both ends meet,” says Shiv, the elder of the two who plans to set up a cycle shop.
But Reddy would have none of that. “Our dosa business will continue till my last breath,” he says, offering his specialty.
Things have been particularly difficult for the Reddys for the last one year. His elder brother separated and asked for his share in the family’s property.
“He wanted the dosa corner but I preferred to part with a small piece of land instead,” Reddy said. It was a wise decision as he sold off the land and is a pauper now, Reddy
(डीएनए)
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
विजय तेंदुलकर चले गए
इंडियन एक्सप्रेस में श्याम बेनेगल ने विजय तेंदुलकर को जो श्रद्धांजलि दी हैं, वह एक दोस्त की श्रद्धांजलि से ज्यादा है। यह एक सृजनकार की दूसरे सृजनकार को दी गई श्रद्धांजलि है। पर यह विनम्रता के साथ कहना पड़ेगा कि विजय तेंदुलकर, श्याम बाबू से फलक में ज्यादा बड़े सृजनकार थे। चूँकि, श्याम बाबू के जिन रूपों को हम उनकी फिल्मो में देखते हैं, उन्हें विजय तेंदुलकर ने ही रचा था। शायद श्याम बाबू वह सिनेमा रच ही नही पाते अगर विजय तेंदुलकर या सत्यदेव दुबे जैसे लोग न होते। विजय तेंदुलकर नाट्य के उन रूपों के रचयिता थे, जिन्हें सिनेमा से आगे की चीज़ माना जाता है। ख़ास बात यह है कि अतीत और आधुनिकता के बीच उन्होंने गजब का सामंजस्य बना कर रखा था। उनके रचे हुए में अतीत को खूबसूरती के साथ पिरोया गया था, लेकिन मजाल है कि उसमें पुरानेपन की गंध आए। इसी तरह नयेपन की ठसक और अपनी बात जोर से बोलने की ताक़त भी उनमें थी। तभी उन्होंने गुजरात हिंसा के बाद यह कहा था कि अगर उनके हाथ में पिस्तौल होती तो वह नरेन्द्र मोदी को मार डालते। कभी फांसी के विरोध में खड़े रह चुके तेंदुलकर के लिए ऐसी बात कहना अजीब जरुर था लेकिन वह ख़ुद भी मानते थे कि यह गुस्सा जायज़ था।
विजय तेंदुलकर में जितना गुस्सा था, उससे ज्यादा चुप्पी भी थी। उनके नाटकों में संवादों के बीच लम्बी चुप्पी होती थी। कई नाटकों में तो संवाद से ज्यादा चुप्पी है। पर जहाँ संवाद नहीं वहाँ उनके परिवेश बोलते हैं। आज विजय तेंदुलकर ने फिर चुप्पी धारण कर ली है। पर उनकी चुप्पी भी बोलती है। उस युग की कहानी दोहराती है, जिसे उन्होंने ख़ुद ही रचा था। बस, उसे समझाने की जरुरत है।
किशन महाराज के बाद विजय जी का जाना, एक और युग का ख़त्म हो जाना है। जाहिर बात है, हर युग का एक अंत होता है। पर उस बीते हुए युग से क्या चुना जा सके, यह महत्व रखता है।
विजय तेंदुलकर में जितना गुस्सा था, उससे ज्यादा चुप्पी भी थी। उनके नाटकों में संवादों के बीच लम्बी चुप्पी होती थी। कई नाटकों में तो संवाद से ज्यादा चुप्पी है। पर जहाँ संवाद नहीं वहाँ उनके परिवेश बोलते हैं। आज विजय तेंदुलकर ने फिर चुप्पी धारण कर ली है। पर उनकी चुप्पी भी बोलती है। उस युग की कहानी दोहराती है, जिसे उन्होंने ख़ुद ही रचा था। बस, उसे समझाने की जरुरत है।
किशन महाराज के बाद विजय जी का जाना, एक और युग का ख़त्म हो जाना है। जाहिर बात है, हर युग का एक अंत होता है। पर उस बीते हुए युग से क्या चुना जा सके, यह महत्व रखता है।
Monday, May 19, 2008
A TRIBUTE TO VIJAY TENDULKAR
The many worlds of Vijay Tendulkar
Vijay Tendulkar transcended the cultural boundaries of Maharashtra. There is no other Marathi literary icon today who is not only well known all over India, but is also respected among the elite. There is an establishment elite and an equally prestigious anti-establishment elite. Tendulkar moved from one to the other, with no one questioning his right to do so. But his heart was on the anti-establishment side. That showed in his themes as well as the way he crafted and presented his plays...
All of us, the equivalent of the so-called Beatles Generation, enveloped by the ideas of protest and rebellion, by the anti-war movement, were his followers. For this generation, defending Tendulkar meant being anti-establishment. Marx and Che, Ho and Mao defined the ideological contours of the period. As for us, we had Tendulkar. Not that he was Marxist or Maoist. But he had his sympathies with them. He has never defended communism or the Soviet Union or Mao’s Cultural Revolution. He never studied seriously the Marxist theories or the New Left versions. But he was familiar with the ideas and that was enough for him. He was not an intellectual nor an ideological polemicist. He was a creative writer and saw the world around him as a living theatre. He saw that violence ruled from Vietnam to Naxalbari, the JP movement to Emergency. He wanted to show the nexus between violence and power.
Later, he became more anti-establishmentarian, not only in theatre, but also on public issues. He became part of the movement for democratic rights and civil liberties, participated in the Narmada agitation, supported dalit movements. But by nature and creative instincts he was an artist, a playwright, and could not remain straitjacketed. He would write something that would go against the conventional Left or he would publicly say something that would hurt liberal sensibilities.
However, he never lost contact with the young and those experimenting with different forms. In hospital, in his last days, he asked a young admirer of his to read out to him Terry Eagleton’s piece in The Times Literary Supplement. He was obviously tired as he turned 80 and could not bear the pain of the chronic muscle disorder, but he never thought of retiring. He was a colossus, and no one can take his place with that maverick style in confronting the establishment
Kumar Ketkar
Thursday, May 15, 2008
The myth of Muslim support for terror
(By Kenneth Ballen)
Those who think that Muslim countries and pro-terrorist attitudes go hand-in-hand might be shocked by new polling research: Americans are more approving of terrorist attacks against civilians than any major Muslim country except for Nigeria.
The survey, conducted in December 2006 by the University of Maryland's prestigious Program on International Public Attitudes, shows that only 46 percent of Americans think that "bombing and other attacks intentionally aimed at civilians" are "never justified," while 24 percent believe these attacks are "often or sometimes justified."
Contrast those numbers with 2006 polling results from the world's most-populous Muslim countries – Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nigeria. Terror Free Tomorrow, the organization I lead, found that 74 percent of respondents in Indonesia agreed that terrorist attacks are "never justified"; in Pakistan, that figure was 86 percent; in Bangladesh, 81 percent.
Do these findings mean that Americans are closet terrorist sympathizers?
Hardly. Yet, far too often, Americans and other Westerners seem willing to draw that conclusion about Muslims. Public opinion surveys in the United States and Europe show that nearly half of Westerners associate Islam with violence and Muslims with terrorists. Given the many radicals who commit violence in the name of Islam around the world, that's an understandable polling result.
But these stereotypes, affirmed by simplistic media coverage and many radicals themselves, are not supported by the facts – and they are detrimental to the war on terror. When the West wrongly attributes radical views to all of the world's 1.5 billion Muslims, it perpetuates a myth that has the very real effect of marginalizing critical allies in the war on terror.
Indeed, the far-too-frequent stereotyping of Muslims serves only to reinforce the radical appeal of the small minority of Muslims who peddle hatred of the West and others as authentic religious practice.
Terror Free Tomorrow's 20-plus surveys of Muslim countries in the past two years reveal another surprise: Even among the minority who indicated support for terrorist attacks and Osama bin Laden, most overwhelmingly approved of specific American actions in their own countries. For example, 71 percent of bin Laden supporters in Indonesia and 79 percent in Pakistan said they thought more favorably of the United States as a result of American humanitarian assistance in their countries – not exactly the profile of hard-core terrorist sympathizers. For most people, their professed support of terrorism/bin Laden can be more accurately characterized as a kind of "protest vote" against current US foreign policies, not as a deeply held religious conviction or even an inherently anti- American or anti-Western view.
In truth, the common enemy is violence and terrorism, not Muslims any more than Christians or Jews. Whether recruits to violent causes join gangs in Los Angeles or terrorist cells in Lahore, the enemy is the violence they exalt.
Our surveys show that not only do Muslims reject terrorism as much if not more than Americans, but even those who are sympathetic to radical ideology can be won over by positive American actions that promote goodwill and offer real hope.
America's goal, in partnership with Muslim public opinion, should be to defeat terrorists by isolating them from their own societies. The most effective policies to achieve that goal are the ones that build on our common humanity. And we can start by recognizing that Muslims throughout the world want peace as much as Americans do.
(Kenneth Ballen is founder and president of Terror Free Tomorrow, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to finding effective policies that win popular support away from global terrorists)
(By Kenneth Ballen)
Those who think that Muslim countries and pro-terrorist attitudes go hand-in-hand might be shocked by new polling research: Americans are more approving of terrorist attacks against civilians than any major Muslim country except for Nigeria.
The survey, conducted in December 2006 by the University of Maryland's prestigious Program on International Public Attitudes, shows that only 46 percent of Americans think that "bombing and other attacks intentionally aimed at civilians" are "never justified," while 24 percent believe these attacks are "often or sometimes justified."
Contrast those numbers with 2006 polling results from the world's most-populous Muslim countries – Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nigeria. Terror Free Tomorrow, the organization I lead, found that 74 percent of respondents in Indonesia agreed that terrorist attacks are "never justified"; in Pakistan, that figure was 86 percent; in Bangladesh, 81 percent.
Do these findings mean that Americans are closet terrorist sympathizers?
Hardly. Yet, far too often, Americans and other Westerners seem willing to draw that conclusion about Muslims. Public opinion surveys in the United States and Europe show that nearly half of Westerners associate Islam with violence and Muslims with terrorists. Given the many radicals who commit violence in the name of Islam around the world, that's an understandable polling result.
But these stereotypes, affirmed by simplistic media coverage and many radicals themselves, are not supported by the facts – and they are detrimental to the war on terror. When the West wrongly attributes radical views to all of the world's 1.5 billion Muslims, it perpetuates a myth that has the very real effect of marginalizing critical allies in the war on terror.
Indeed, the far-too-frequent stereotyping of Muslims serves only to reinforce the radical appeal of the small minority of Muslims who peddle hatred of the West and others as authentic religious practice.
Terror Free Tomorrow's 20-plus surveys of Muslim countries in the past two years reveal another surprise: Even among the minority who indicated support for terrorist attacks and Osama bin Laden, most overwhelmingly approved of specific American actions in their own countries. For example, 71 percent of bin Laden supporters in Indonesia and 79 percent in Pakistan said they thought more favorably of the United States as a result of American humanitarian assistance in their countries – not exactly the profile of hard-core terrorist sympathizers. For most people, their professed support of terrorism/bin Laden can be more accurately characterized as a kind of "protest vote" against current US foreign policies, not as a deeply held religious conviction or even an inherently anti- American or anti-Western view.
In truth, the common enemy is violence and terrorism, not Muslims any more than Christians or Jews. Whether recruits to violent causes join gangs in Los Angeles or terrorist cells in Lahore, the enemy is the violence they exalt.
Our surveys show that not only do Muslims reject terrorism as much if not more than Americans, but even those who are sympathetic to radical ideology can be won over by positive American actions that promote goodwill and offer real hope.
America's goal, in partnership with Muslim public opinion, should be to defeat terrorists by isolating them from their own societies. The most effective policies to achieve that goal are the ones that build on our common humanity. And we can start by recognizing that Muslims throughout the world want peace as much as Americans do.
(Kenneth Ballen is founder and president of Terror Free Tomorrow, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to finding effective policies that win popular support away from global terrorists)
Thursday, May 1, 2008
मेरे लोग
(आज मई दिवस है। मजदूरों का दिन। मजदूरों ना कहें, कामगारों का दिन। पर अपनी अपनी दुनिया में रमने वाले हम में से बहुत से लोग इस दिन को भूल चुके हैं। जिस लौ को ले कर, ज़िंदगी की, सब की ज़िंदगी को ख़ूबसूरत बनने के सपने देखे थे, वह लौ मरे नहीं, यही कोशिश करनी है। जिस दिन मुक्तिबोध के आत्म की तरह, अपना रास्ता बदल सकूंगी, उस दिन शायद ये अपराध बोध कम हो कि क्या करने चली थी, क्या कर रही हूँ)
गन्दी बस्तियो के पास नाले पार
बरगद है
उसी के श्याम तल में वे
रम्भातीं है गायें।
कि पत्थर ईंट के चूल्हे सुलगते हैं।
फुदकती हैं वोही दो-चार
बिखरे बालो वाले बालकों के श्याम गंदे तन
व लोहे की बनी स्त्री-पुरूष aakritiya
दलिद्दर के भयानक देवता के भव्य चेहरे वे
चमके धुप में
मुझको है भयानक ग्लानी
निकजे के श्वेत वस्त्रों पर
स्वयं की शील शिक्षा सत्य दीक्षा पर
निरोधी अस्त्र शस्त्रों पर
की नगर के सुसंस्कृत सौम्य चेहरों से
उचटता मन
उतारू आवरण
यह साफ गहरा दूधिया कुरता
व चूने की सफेदी में चिकलाते से सभी कपड़े निकालूँगा।
किसी ने दूर से मुझे पुकारा है।
- मुक्तिबोध
गन्दी बस्तियो के पास नाले पार
बरगद है
उसी के श्याम तल में वे
रम्भातीं है गायें।
कि पत्थर ईंट के चूल्हे सुलगते हैं।
फुदकती हैं वोही दो-चार
बिखरे बालो वाले बालकों के श्याम गंदे तन
व लोहे की बनी स्त्री-पुरूष aakritiya
दलिद्दर के भयानक देवता के भव्य चेहरे वे
चमके धुप में
मुझको है भयानक ग्लानी
निकजे के श्वेत वस्त्रों पर
स्वयं की शील शिक्षा सत्य दीक्षा पर
निरोधी अस्त्र शस्त्रों पर
की नगर के सुसंस्कृत सौम्य चेहरों से
उचटता मन
उतारू आवरण
यह साफ गहरा दूधिया कुरता
व चूने की सफेदी में चिकलाते से सभी कपड़े निकालूँगा।
किसी ने दूर से मुझे पुकारा है।
- मुक्तिबोध
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