Sparsh

1- Great compilation of cultural article at BBC Hindi : Enjoy Reading about Hindustani Tahzeeb 2- ऑन स्‍क्रीन ऑफ स्‍क्रीन : बहुरुपिया का माडर्न अवतार आमिर खान 3- Death by Dialogue By Trisha Gupta : What does it mean for the future of Hindi cinema if most films are now in fact conceived, thrashed out and largely executed not in Hindi but in English? Will filmmakers only tell the stories of a minuscule section of the population? 4- National Film Awards : The absurdity of censorship - An open letter to Hon’ble Minister for Information & Broadcasting on July 14, 2005 by Rakesh Sharma , a prominent Indian documentary film-maker. 5- Paradoxes of memory by Helmut König : Lasting peace agreements after wars and civil wars were for a long time considered to be conditional upon damnatio memoriae – the deliberate and reciprocal forgetting of violence and injustice. However, the established amnesty clause is only realistic where certain rules were not broken during war. The First...

1- How China reports the Arab world :- In a post made to his Chinese-language weblog on April 15, Ezzat Shahrour, chief correspondent for al-Jazeera Arabic in Beijing, voiced his frustration with Chinese state media reporting on the upheaval in the Arab world this year. 2- The rules of entrapment :- The noise against Tehelka after last week’s cover story was to be expected. Much more surprising was the confusion over the ethics of political baiting. 3- Haaretz prides itself on being the conscience of Israel. Does it have a future? :- by David Remnick 4- James Gosling joins Google, what can startups learn? :- Cultivating talent is not about hiring only those people who will work on assignments or wait on benches for projects that are in the sales pipeline. You also require people who are not in the thick of daily grind; those who can think up new paradigms and new ways to doing things without the pressure of how it will impact the company's next quarter's bottom-line. ...

The real apathy and indifference lies in the awareness of the complexity of the problem. Slogans and emotions can never replace facts. The clearer awareness that the world is more than mere a construction of words is lacking all around. The education model needs to be transformed from teacher-centric to a learning-centric. The student navigates through a process in learning model that recognizes these two basic truths: the universe is connected, and every student is unique. The dire need of texts that make children excited about the social and cultural diversity that they encounter in their ethos gives an idea of monumental crisis. The education that fails to impart the urge to read as a matter of habit leads to the irrational reasoning in public debate and abysmal government policies. The good thing about a democracy is that you avoid major disasters since every issue is discussed and debated quite a lot. But, an uninformed public, press and their representatives may fall in the...

1- Media and mobs – Arundhati Roy versus the terrorists by Razarumi. 2- Fables of Nationalism by Razarumi. 3- Why Marxism Has Failed , And Why Zombie-Marxism Cannot Die & Zombie-Marxism : What Marx Got Right by Alex Knight. What Marx Got Right : Class Analysis, Base and Superstructure, Alienation of Labor, Need for Growth, Inevitability of Crisis and A Counter-Hegemonic World-view. What Marx Got Wrong: Linear March of History, Europe as Liberator, Mysticism of the Proletariat, The State and A Secular Dogma. 4- Copyleft and the theory of property : A bitter battle is underway between the supporters of intellectual property and those who defend the notion of the commons. Legal historian Mikhail Xifaras traces the history of the concept of "exclusive rights" and evaluates the emancipatory claims of the copyleft movement today. 5- Unlikely Stories, or the Making of an Afghan News Agency :Reporting is a challenge in Afghanistan, where power brokers are skill...

1-  One grey issue needs our attention :  The real tragedy of the media’s surrender to the state is that journalists have stopped reading books, especially history books. Speaking at the Fifth Al Jazeera annual forum Robert Fisk laments the state driven semantics that take over and alter grave debates:  Journalism and 'the words of power' ; 2- Media does not act out of grief or out of some sense of compulsion at the death of any celebrity. Media is merely pandering to the lowest common denominator for commercial considerations as the stories that combine sex, glamour and death find a ready market. So its like justification of drug peddler for giving drugs to victims as given by media on defencing its coverage of sensational gossips and celebrity lifestyles. 3- Let me remind you, there is a public service broadcast also in this mob of news channels for serving citizens of this  nation. That is called Prasar Bharati. B G Verghesse covers necessity of publ...

1- Who pays the price for paid news? : In mid-June, the Election Commission of India directed Chief Electoral Officers of all states and Union Territories to enforce the law against "paid news" during elections. The institutionalised racket has been running into hundreds of crores of rupees. Ammu Joseph brings you up to speed. 2- Lokayukta stand on illegal Bellary mining has put Government of Karnataka in trouble. Santosh Hegde, the Lokayukta (ombudsman) for Karnataka gives first hand account to Tehelka Magazine . 3- Why you must read this censored chapter : Raman Kirpal reports, When the truth about the flouting of tribal rights in the Red Corridor struck home, the government dropped a whole chunk of damning material from a report it had itself commissioned. 4- Living with the Enemy : Applying the ideas of Holocaust survivor Jean Améry to present day Rwanda, our author argues that reconciliation after genocide is just another form of torture. 5- How Goldman gambled ...

I am not interested in sensationalism in these sensitive times. I talk about phenomenon in the state of cultural stagnation and political apathy. Reading and education is do ours bit to build democracy as effectiveness of democracy depends on the awareness of its citizens. 1- Indianhomemaker tells us: What do men need liberation from ? 2- Half of India doesn’t even have access to the judiciary. what do courts mean to them? Lawyer Prashant Bhushan speaks to Amit Sengupta of Tehleka on Who is a public intellectual, who can pass for one in India? 3- Amrita Preetam Imroz : A love Story of a Poet and a Painter . Just read to understand the intimacy of the love and poetry. 4- Dubai for a common purpose : to make money as smoothly and painlessly as possible, even if that means turning a blind eye. 5- Greg Satell explains: The Difference between Social Media and Social Networks. 6- From fields to a BPO in 6 months : A first-of-its-kind women-only BPO started by 'Harva' ...

Hours of crisis at both national and international level. Naxalite, artificial food scarcity, communalism, border problem with aggressive china and disintegrating Pakistan; It would be far better for India if its government gets off those commanding heights of the economy, and addresses basic problem like health care, illiteracy etc. How to make accountability of the corrupt, self-serving political and bureaucratic elite to ensure social and economic justice for those it had claimed ? Cut the services provided to officers and make them managers. Its time for Inclusive and Integrated development. I had faith in the people. They had good wishes for upheaval of everyone but the path design requires merit not popular support. Hence, I fear populist democracy as sometimes behave like celebrity culture. Looking for guidance towards west is hopeless. The uniqueness is in individual not in the society. A group is diverse with its unit having own characteristic. Hence westernized concept of...

Porn is entertaining for few of us. But, the question here arises that can entertainment be served as porn ? Reality Shows: "A participant performs the ultimate act of pornography as he disrobes himself in full public view of all that he considers most intimate, stripping himself of not only dignity and self-respect but dismantling in the process, the trust he evokes from those he loves most. We watch in voyeuristic disbelief, with a combination of fascination, horror, guilt and smug superiority at someone's else's misery. It is a spectacle only when participants disclose something scandalous." Santosh Desai ( Source ) Society has been constructed in the manner in which relationships are not based on absolute honesty. In fact they are based on insulation of an individuals real feelings from all. A little privacy is given to each of us so that intimacy can be hidden for the greater good. If a person needs to confess to his beloved ones, he / she should tell them in pr...

Two News affected me in this 24 hour.Just want to capture the big news in summary and small news in descriptive way. Feel free to read and choose importance of them. Deccan snatch title in tense finish. My views: The fortunes have reversed. Desi team and videsi captain strategy works for winning this year also. Previous year 2nd last team is runner up and 1st season's last team gets championship of IPL season 2. Akon with Katrina instead of Gilly and jumbo after the match disappoint me. But the most discussed name among all of us was of fake IPL player blog . He has showed the power of blog and anonymity to the media giants in gossip/news coverage. For fun, surely KKR will be hoping to win tournament next year after this turnaround of DC. For more usual stuff, follow the grand story coverage on cricinfo. OR Supreme Court grants bail to Binayak Sen: It took just 30 seconds. And five words: “Bail is granted on personal bond.” But these numbers pale when confronted with another, 24...

Jean Cocteau once reportedly said " Mirrors should reflect a little before throwing back images ". Cocteau would have replaced 'mirrors' with 'media' had he been alive after looking at the homogeneity with which global media - print, electronic, independent - represent any event today, thereby often masking the 'truth'. India is a country of paradox or paradigm. The relief work in bihar floods was well covered by media. Citizen Journalist and Zindagi Live on IBN7 were only two programs worth watching these days. IBN7 is first Indian media company to start official blogs for journalist and editors. This step is worth welcome. A phrase is much popular in India: "Fame makes everyone an expert in everything." Our media reports only these experts on any issues. Drama, Tantrum and TRP ratings play huge role in content of news channel. The English news channel are much better in content and mode of presentation. NDTV 24x7 provides quite balanced cov...