India

The Indian Spiderman

Sophie Team Observers — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 17:41:54 +0200

This Indian climber, who says he takes his inspiration from monkeys and Spiderman, is leaving tourists flabbergasted.

Jyothi Raj spends much of his time climbing the walls of Chitradurga Fort, in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. He was never taught to climb, but he has been scaling walls since he was four years old and can climb up to 100 metres bare handed.

Posted on Yahoo by Marco.

Posted on YouTube by "Djhiphopking".

Posted by "vinaykariappa".

Posted by "jayarammv".

"Curry bashing": Indians the new scapegoats in Oz?

Sophie Team Observers — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 18:47:57 +0200

The following CCTV footage has outraged Australia's Indian community, which in the past few years has fallen victim to a record number of brutal attacks.

Melbourne, 9 May 2009. The victim: 21-year-old Sourabh Sharma.

According to the police, just under 1,500 Indians were attacked in Victoria State alone in the twelve months to July 2008. On Saturday yet another student was assaulted, this one stabbed in the neck with a screwdriver. It was an attack that drove the Indian community to take action, with thousands of demonstrators taking to the streets of Melbourne on Sunday. Tensions were further aggravated after a police intervention was lambasted by the Indian press.

This footage, broadcast by several Indian channels and websites, sparked protests in the country, where demonstrators insist that the attacks are racially motivated. The authorities in Australia however deny the charges, saying that most attackers target Indians because they often travel alone late at night due to unusual shifts and are known to carry expensive electrical equipment with them.

Another violent attack on Tuesday, however, has added weight to the demonstrator's argument, and increased worries for the authorities, who are well aware that the country's 93,000 Indian students bring in an enormous amount of revenue each year.

"Savita Bhabhi", the sexy sister-in-law driving India crazy

Sophie Team Observers — Thu, 21 May 2009 18:45:23 +0200

There's a new Indian website that's not quite like the others. Welcome to "Savita Bhabhi", the first porn comic strip "made in India". A fine mix of sex and tradition that's managed to both tantalise and traumatise the country that gave birth to the Kama Sutra.

Many websites have fallen victim to an X-rating in India, but one that's yet to be branded is homemade comicstrip Savita Bhabhi. The formula is simple (a voluptuous young woman who finds herself in compromising situations), but the social implications are slightly more complicated. Savita Bhabhi is an experimental mix of both old-fashioned values and modern concepts. The leading character is a married woman - particularly evident because her the part in her hair is died deep red and she wears a gold pendant (equivalent to a wedding ring). She also wears the traditional sari and the red dot between her eyebrows (the bindi).

Savita's husband is often away, so to escape the boredom she sleeps with various passers-by. For this bhabhi (which means sister-in-law), nothing is taboo, not even incest - which is a subject that Indian webusers seem to be particularly fond of. One page of this volatile saga is published every day and translated into nine national languages. The site has already provoked complaints, according to the Information and Technology minister, and could soon face censorship. No doubt its 30,000 subscribers won't be too pleased.

Cartoonists revel in India's mammoth election

Julien — Tue, 12 May 2009 16:51:30 +0200

India is looking for a strong leader to guarantee its security, by Ajit Ninan

As the world’s largest democracy approaches the end of its month-long electoral drama, local cartoonists offer their take on a wide-open contest.

More than 700 million voters are summoned to the polls in a country rattled by terrorism and the global economic crisis. The results of the mammoth general election will be unveiled on May 16. With the country’s two mega-parties – Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party – both struggling to drum up support, the election’s outcome will no doubt rest on the performances of India’s myriad regional parties. Close to one thousand parties are taking part in this democratic marathon. And with over a quarter of voters aged between 18 and 35, the “youth” factor could well make the difference.

For the biggest election in the world, Bollywood shows the way

Sophie Team Observers — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 17:04:14 +0200

The biggest democracy in the world is heading to the polls on Thursday. And for those competing for seats in the Indian Parliament, appealing to 714 million eligible voters is not an easy job. This year the leading campaigns come in the form of cartoons, Bollywood clips and 'Slumdog Millionaire'-style mini films.

India's electorate makes up over 700 million of its 1.2 billion inhabitants - that's bigger than the US, Russia, Japan and the Philippines combined. The marathon five-stage elections, which are spread over a month (16 April - 16 May), will utilise 800,000 polling stations and a workforce of six million electoral and security employees. There are around 1,000 political parties in the country, but analysts expect a tight race between the two major parties: the right wing BJP (India People's Party) and the ruling Congress party.

The latest victim of a shoe-hurling

Sophie Team Observers — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 11:10:27 +0200

In launching his shoe at Gerorge Bush in January, journalist Mountazer al-Zaidi also launched a global trend. China's Prime Minister Wen Jiabao was subjected to a similar attack in February in Cambridge. This time, it's Indian Interior Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram. The weapon - a trainer. The assailant - a Sikh journalist.

Jarnail Singh is a reporter for Hindi daily Dainik Jagran. On 7 April, he attended a press conference given by the interior minister. The subject at hand was the acquittal of Jagdish Tytler, an Indian National Congress party member and one of those accused of the Sikh massacre of November 1984. The riots, in which 3,000 Sikhs were killed, were in retaliation to the murder of the then Prime Minister of India, Indira Ghandi, who was killed by her two Sikh bodyguards.

The new shoe-hurling journalist, Sikh himself, is reported to have thrown his shoe after he become exasperated by the minister's alleged dodging of questions over the responsibility of the massacre. Palaniappan Chidambaram says he has forgiven the journalist for the act.

"Fritzl of Mumbai" arrested

Sophie Team Observers — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 15:53:44 +0100

A man arrested on Tuesday has hit the Indian headlines as "the Josef Fritzl of Mumbai". Under the watch of his wife, the businessman raped his teenage daughter for nine years, apparently following orders from a tantric.

Published by Sakaaltimes.

One of our Indian Observers, Arnab Das alerted us to this story.

Businessman Kishore Chava is from a relatively wealthy area around 50 km from Mumbai. He was arrested after his 21-year-old daughter, who he had been sexually abusing since 2000, broke her silence about her ordeal. She decided to confide in her grandmother (on her mother's side) after her father began targeting her younger sister, who is 15.

The police also arrested a practitioner of black magic, Hasmukh Rathod, and the wife of the rapist. According to The Times of India, the guru advised the father that raping his daughter would make him rich. The tantric also regularly abused the girl.

The story is clearly different from that of Josef Fritzl, who has just been sentenced to life imprisonment in a psychiatric institution for having imprisoned and raped his daughter for 24 years. But as long as the Austrian trial dominates international headlines, the Indian press will talk of their own "Fritzl", who is both fascinating and revolting the country.

The 'festival of colours' in photos

Sophie Team Observers — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 14:30:08 +0100

Photo: Jitendra Singh

Last week was Holi festival for Hindus. In the name of the coming of Spring and of good overcoming evil, Hindus take to the streets to cover each other in colourful paints. An opportunity not to be missed by photographers...

The Rang Barse party, which literally means "rain of colour," takes place on the day of the last full moon before the start of springtime. It's not real paint that gets thrown, but dry gulal powder, which has a similar consistency to talcum powder.

The Bollywood clip with an Israeli objective

Sophie Team Observers — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 16:31:03 +0100

It is hoped this clip will promote Israel's military might in India. An unusual way of going about it... the Bollywood-style clip has not gone down well with everybody.

A contribution from one of our Israeli Observers, Roi Ben-Yehuda.

An Israeli government-owned arms company, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, produced the Bollywood-esque video in aims of strengthening Israeli-Indo defence ties. The clip, which was recently showcased at the Aero India exhibition in Bangalore, features a man (Israel) who promises to defend and shield a woman (India) asking for protection and security. Dancing on a stage flanked by flower draped missiles, the actors jointly sing: ‘Together, forever, I will hold you in my heart. Together, forever, we will never be apart'.

According to Assy Josephy, the Director of Exhibitions for Rafael, the idea of the video came about as a result of Israel's familiarity with Indian culture. 'In Israel we have Jewish people from India', explains Josephy, 'so we know about Bollywood and the song and dance numbers. Israelis are generally aware of Indian culture. This video is to help build familiarity between India and Israel and Rafael'.

Josephy further explains that making a locally flavoured defence videos is not unusual for his company. 'In Brazil we did a video of football. Football is very big there. In Paris the video had a theme that included Napoleon and the Renaissance. In Poland our video had themes of Chopin and Copernicus. In England it was about Shakespeare.'

The blogosphere, however, has not been so kind to Rafael's culturally-sensitive promotional video. The security-centred Danger Room has claimed that ‘every element of the promotional film is just plain wrong'. Over at the Dew Line, Stephen Trimbles calls it a ‘catastrophic collision of Bollywood and the arms industry' And at MensXP.com, India's largest men's lifestyle portal, the film's lyrics are lambasted as representing ‘everything that is wrong with arms and defence equipment marketing campaigns'."

Attack on Sri Lankan cricketers: the Indian lead

Julien — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 16:19:12 +0100

One of our Observers in Pakistan, Awab Alvi, has published a note by the security services warning local authorities about the probability of an attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team. The note, dating back to January 22, pointed to an Indian lead.

Who ordered Tuesday’s attack on the Sri Lankan national team in Lahore is anyone’s guess. The Taliban? Tamil Tigers? A document leaked to the press on Tuesday evening has opened up another lead. The memo produced by the security services of Pakistan’s Punjab province warned local authorities about the possibility of an attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team masterminded by the Indian secret services (RAW). The note even mentioned the transfer from the hotel to the stadium as a possible timing for the attack: which is precisely what happened. But who might have had an interest in leaking a document that directly accuses India and underlines the negligence of the government in place?