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An auction and a film search engine

Neville Tuli launches the first Osianama Series Auction for antiquities, modern and contemporary fine arts, apart from vintage film memorabilia.
by Humra Quraishi

Neville Tuli, founder Chairman, Osian’s Connoisseurs of Art, is known for hosting big-budget, futuristic film festivals in the country’s capital city. With his newest endeavour, Tuli’s going back to the past – earlier last week, he launched the Osianama Series Auction, in the backdrop of the opening of the Osianama Art and Film Museum in New Delhi.

This Auction series is supposedly the forerunner to the upcoming Museum. Speaking to The Metrognome, Tuli says, “With the opening of the Osianama Art and Film Museum in New Delhi imminent, it is important for the public to have a sensibility for India’s fine and popular arts, film-related art forms, crafts and antiquities on many levels. This Auction presents a unique combination of antiquities, modern and contemporary fine arts and vintage Indian film memorabilia.

 

It is important that the collectors’ fraternity begins to view and study Indian arts and culture in a more holistic and integrated manner. The comparability between different art forms is minimal, whether from a historical or economic context, let alone the aesthetic.”

Among the highlights in the cinema section are Hindi cinema’s forgotten and silent era memorabilia from the Zafar Aabid collection, such as pre-independence rare stills including the cast and crew from Himanshu Rai’s 1928 classic silent film Shiraz, a signed year 1930 portrait of the silent era actress Sulochana, photographic stills from 1937’s Gangavataran, the first and the last talkie by the Father of Indian Cinema, Dadasaheb Phalke, one of the first artworks for Kamal Amrohi’s Razia Sultan made many years before the film was completed, an extremely rare and possibly the only existing six sheet poster of the 1980 Amitabh Bachchan and Shashi Kapoor starrer Do Aur Do Paanch, a rare poster in excellent condition of the Shammi Kapoor starrer Raat Ke Rahi, designed by the famous poster designer of the 1960s, Pradyuman, who also designed the famous BR Films logo.

Apart from these gems is the rare complete set of Pandit RaviShankar’s original LP records of the music he composed for five Indian films – Anuradha (1960), Godaan (1963), Pather Panchali (1964), Meera (1979) and Gandhi (1982).

Tuli is also launching a library and archival collection on Indian arts and culture and the many ‘worlds of cinema’. He says, “We are launching theosianama.com, a dedicated online search engine and educational content for Indian and Asian arts, culture and the worlds of cinema, universally in its beta version before March 14 this year. In its first phase, the online search engine will focus primarily on Hindi and Bombay cinema and the history of Indian modern and contemporary fine arts.”

In this art object-centric site, there is a vast cinematic imagery, covering all forms of film publicity material and memorabilia including more than 2,50,000 original artworks, such as  lithographic and offset posters, lobby cards, show-cards, song-synopsis booklets, photographic stills, handbills, hoardings, glass slides, scripts, costumes and the like, dating back to the silent era.

“Close to 95 per cent of all Hindi films produced have been covered in some form or other, and efforts are on to represent those remaining,” Tuli informs. “As of today, memorabilia representing iconic personalities such as Orson Welles, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Marx Brothers, Laurel and Hardy, Clark Gable, Marlon Brando, Marilyn Monroe, Alfred Hitchcock, Elizabeth Taylor, James Dean, Clint Eastwood, James Bond, Robert De Niro, Tarzan, Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Akira Kurosawa, Satyajit Ray, Fellini, Stanley Kubrick, Francis Ford Coppola, and a host of others will enjoy prominence in theosianama.com,” he adds.

 

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Rs 5 crore to replace court officials’ laptops

Existing laptops are five years ‘old’, will be replaced by Rs 37,800 Acer Travel Mate laptops with Ubuntu Operating Systems.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

A total of 1,581 court officials in the State of Maharashtra will receive new Acer Travel Mate laptops from the Government, to replace their old laptops that are not working well – their laptops are five years old.

Court officials had been provided laptops by the State in 2007, under the National e-Governance Project (NeGP) – the project aims to digitise courts in Maharashtra – and a corpus of Rs 43.99 crore has been set aside for it this year. However, the State finds that the working life of these laptops has now ended, and each unit is to be replaced by a new Acer Travel Mate laptop costing Rs 37,800 each. The new laptops are going to cost the State Rs 5,62,46,400.

A Government Resolution (GR) to this effect was passed on Wednesday, January 30. The laptops will be purchased from a Mumbai-based dealer.

(Picture courtesy deviantart.net)

 

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What really happened in Dhule?

A Citizens’ Fact Finding Committee alleges that timely police action could have prevented the incident from escalating out of control.
by Humra Quraishi

Former DGP of the Gujarat Police, RB Sreekumar once said, “Rioting cannot go beyond two hours without police connivance.” Why is it, then, that the police machinery takes days to control and settle communal clashes and riots?

A recent report put together by a group of the country’s well-respected activists on the recent rioting in Maharashtra’s Dhule sheds light on the events that actually transpired there. Says Ram Puniyani, former IIT Mumbai alumnus-turned-full time-activist, “Dhule has been in the news for the past 10 days. It has been reported in the media that a small altercation in Dhule led to an event leading to violence between Hindus and Muslims. As such, the deaths of six innocent youth and injuries to several more, and massive loss of properties, burning of houses has taken place.”

Others say that the worst part of the episode is that all this allegedly took place with the police force being present. Contrary to official reports, the people in the area stated that the behaviour of the police was very biased against the Muslim community. “In the light of these disturbing reports from local activists, we decided that a citizen fact-finding committee should visit the Dhule, to investigate and present the facts objectively,” says Ram.

The Citizens Fact Finding Committee comprises Shabnam Hashmi, social activist, ANHAD Delhi, Professor Ram Puniyani of the All India Secular Forum, Professor Apoorvanand of Delhi University, Advocate Nihalsing B Rathod of the Human Rights Law Network, Manan Trivedi, Dev Desai, Tanvi Soni and Arma from ANHAD, Gujarat and Azhar from Jalgaon. The Committee visited  Dhule on January 13 and 14, 2013.

The detailed report puts forward the Committee’s crucial findings. “ This violence could have been prevented had the police acted in time,” says the report. “While stone pelting was done by members of both the communities, police action was selective and directed against Muslims only. The police did not follow the prescribed protocol to control the mob. Police firing was excessive and was done with an intent to kill.

All bullets were fired above the knee, a majority of the bullets were fired above the waist, many of them in the chest, neck and face. All six deaths were because of police firing.     Majority of the victims of the police firing were left unattended by the police and were taken to hospitals by friends.”

Furthermore, the report says, “159 police personnel were taken to the hospital out of which only 18 were admitted is evident from the record of the civil hospital (attached with the report). All the injuries suffered by the police were minor in nature due to stone pelting… No relief camps were set up for those Muslims and Hindus who lost their houses (approximately 40 Muslim families and four Hindu families), no immediate relief was provided by the State. Some food grains were distributed by the Red Cross.  The victims were threatened when they tried to register FIRs and no FIRs were registered.’

(Picture courtesy dawn.com)

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BMC will help poor women set up businesses

The women organise 20 per cent capital, BMC will examine the business and put up the remaining 80 per cent.
by Krishnaraj Rao

It was a meeting that gave several possibilities for livelihood among the city’s poor and marginalised, and especially its women. “Citizens are not generally aware of many schemes that the BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation) has initiated to empower economically weak sections, especially for womenfolk,” said Assistant Municipal Commissioner (P-South) Ramakant Biradar yesterday, speaking at a large public meeting held at Somanigram, Oshiwara, Goregaon West.

The meeting was held to motivate and assist the locals to form cooperative enterprises for their own economic upliftment, and also to manage their localities. “If you can manage 20 per cent seed capital for starting your own enterprise such as tailoring, the BMC will assist you with the balance 80 per cent,” he said, addressing the women in the gathering.

The meeting was organised by RTI activist Sulaiman Bhimani on behalf of the Maharashtra Societies Welfare Association (MSWA), on the theme ‘Kaise Badhayen Aamdani Sahakari Udyog Ke Saath’ (How to increase income with cooperative enterprises). MSWA chairman Ramesh Prabhu spoke about how the 97th Constitutional Amendment passed in January 2012 enabled much-needed reforms to the cooperative sector. “If anybody wishes to start a cooperative enterprise, he can approach us for free guidance, mentoring and assistance,” said Prabhu.

As Somanigram is a poor people’s locality full of SRA colonies, the main objective of the meeting was to enable the increase of people’s income by coming together in cooperative societies. “If a dozen onion and potato pheriwallahs (hawkers) form a cooperative enterprise, they can increase their income by Rs 500 per day, while making onions more cheaply available to the residents,” said Bhimani. “Unemployed youth, housewives, senior citizens, autorickshaw and tempo drivers, plumbers and other service providers can all benefit by forming a cooperative enterprise. We will help them in various ways and make their jobs easier.”

The MSWA has 30,000 member cooperative societies in Mumbai, to which it provides legal advice, accounting services, assistance in deemed conveyance etc. It has a decade of experience in the cooperative sector, which is being leveraged for the CSE initiative.

 

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Nikam will get Rs 25,000 per result-oriented hearing in Jundal case

Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam will also get other expenses, such as Rs 5,000 hotel stay and Rs 7,000 hourly consultation fees.

In recent times, Ujjwal Nikam has become the go-to man in high-profile legal cases. And why not, the man’s successfully argued for the State of Maharashtra v/s captured 26/11 terrorist Ajmal Kasab, who was given the death sentence by the Bombay High Court (and which was later upheld by the Supreme Court), apart from officiating as prosecutor in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts, the Pramod Mahajan murder trial and the Gulshan Kumar murder.

In a GR (Government Resolution) dated January 24, 2013, the Home Department of the State Government of Maharashtra said that while the State had appointed Nikam as the Special Public Prosecutor in the case against Indian Mujahideen’s Abu Jundal, it was also sanctioning official fees for Nikam to fight the case in court. Jundal is accused of being the Hindi tutor and handler of 10 Pakistani terrorists who carried out the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai – Ajmal Kasab was one of them.

In the GR, the Home Department has sanctioned result-oriented hearing fees will be Rs 25,000 (per hearing). Additionally, Nikam will also get Rs 7,000 per hour as consultation fees (discussion of the case and exchange of opinion) and Rs 5,000 per day as hotel and lodging expenses.

In 2011, the Home Department had sanctioned Rs 50,000 as result-oriented fees for Nikam, when the latter was appointed by the Government to fight for Kasab’s execution in the SC. At the time, his per hour consultation fees were Rs 10,000.

The GR further mentions that Nikam is not to be paid any fees on the days that no result-oriented hearing takes place in court.

Nikam’s most high-profile cases:

The 26/11 trial

Pramod Mahajan murder trial

Nadeem extradition case, London

Gateway of India blasts, 2003

Mumbai serial bomb blasts, 1994

Kherlanji Massacre, 2006

Marine Drive police chowky rape case, 2005

(Picture courtesy ibnlive.com)

 

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Why children must be (cyber)smarties

Three Mumbaikars are teaching school children in the city and outside it to be safe and responsible on the Internet.
by Vrushali Lad | vrushali@themetrognome.in

Renuka Sharma (name changed) met a boy on Facebook and decided that she was in love with him. A few months later, the 16-year-old ran away from home to be with him. Fortunately for her, the boy, who did not know that she was a minor, did not take advantage of the girl; instead, he escorted her home and explained the entire situation to her distraught parents.

Most children are not as lucky. Drawn to social networking and gaming sites that also help them stay connected with their friends and strangers over chat windows, young children are increasingly falling prey to Internet predators, or being drawn into unsavoury bullying online. Often, unsure of how to deal with the situation, and afraid to talk to their parents for fear of censure or being misunderstood, they allow the problem to escalate out of hand.

All of this can be remedied by children knowing how to behave online. But who will teach them Internet etiquette, and what constitutes bad online behaviour?

Cybersmartie will.

Conceived in 2011 and set up in 2012 by three Mumbaikars – Shekhar Tripathi (24), Sayantan Sen (30) and Neha Doshi (37) – the company aims to educate children on responsible Internet behaviour, in an environment known to them (their school) and in a way that engages them. Speaking to The Metrognome, Neha (in pic on right) said, “The thing is, today’s children get access to the Internet at a really young age. Soon, they spend long hours online, signing up for Facebook or playing virtual reality games. There comes a stage when children find it difficult to differentiate between their real and virtual lives.”

The first problem area is cyber bullying, says Shekhar. “It starts off as a fun activity, with several children ganging up on one child. But it soon crosses acceptable limits of social behaviour. The interesting thing is, several children do not know that this is cyber bullying and that it is wrong,” he adds.

What Cybersmartie does is impart this knowledge in an interactive manner. “We hold workshops for four different topics – cyber bullying, digital responsibility – what to post and what not to post, sexting and online predators – and make them really interactive. We cite current examples when we speak to them; for instance, there is no point discussing what email is and what it means, because children today have email accounts only to sign in to Facebook. We talk about the technologies they use and address their online behaviour patterns, so that the workshop becomes relevant to them,” says Shekhar.

Why Cybersmartie?

Shekhar and Sayantan first decided to embark on this project after they accessed the latter’s nephew’s FB page in 2011. “There was a child with glasses who was being bullied online,” Shekhar remembers. “We saw that eight comments had been posted at 2 am. By the time we checked again at 8 am the next day, there were over 40 more comments, which meant the kids had been at it all night on a weekday. And the comments were mean and abusive.”

The two friends – they used to work together at at Pricewaterhouse Coopers – started researching this behaviour. “We learnt that it was called ‘cyber-bullying’ and that it could have far-reaching repercussions for the victim. We realised that nobody taught children about this, and there was no discussion on preventing it or dealing with it. Our schools, even our Government, does not have a policy on Internet bullying,” Shekhar (in pic on right) explains.

Neha came on board the project a bit later. “We met clinical psychologists, teachers and school principals to understand what schools needed. After researching and interacting with experts, we designed a curriculum for the workshops we would conduct,” Shekhar says. Their very first workshops happened at Lilavatibai Podar Senior Secondary School, Santacruz.

The workshops include a short video on cyber bullying, and the trio make sure to get the children to talk and share as much as possible. “They are very receptive and quick to share their experiences. However, when dealing with older kids, we engage in role playing and a quiz game-like scenario to first get them involved, then to get them to share,” says Neha.

Some problem areas

Most teachers are not even aware of their students’ Internet habits, says Neha, who is a teacher herself. “Which sites are the students accessing? When they say they are on Facebook, what are they doing on it? What is the communication like on Whatsapp? Teachers must be involved in these things, so as to be able to help a child who is being troubled by his peers or a predator,” she explains.

She adds that a lot of children operate multiple FB accounts, apart from posting such information about themselves that can be exploited by miscreants. “We teach them not to declare their holiday plans, or reveal their whereabouts all the time. If a child comes to us and tells us that he/she is facing a problem, and several children have already done so during the workshops, we take the problem to the school authorities so that it can be resolved.”

Shekhar adds, “We must update ourselves all the time, because cyber bullying may also change its form every three months. Besides, we must recognise and accept that children will be exposed to pornography and violence on the Internet, but that they should possess the knowledge to deal with bullies or tricksters.” He cites the example of a boy who befriended another ‘youngster’ – who was actually 30 years old – and soon began confiding everything to him on FB. “The man started blackmailing the child, and started extorting money from him. Finally, the child was forced to tell his mother when the man demanded Rs 20,000 from him. Children must be made aware that they should inform their parents or teachers at the first instance of such blackmail,” Shekhar says.

What they teach

The workshops deal with such topics as plagiarism and how to use others’ material for project work, how to use FB’s privacy settings, hacking, why passwords should not be shared and what to do when you’re being bullied, among other things. “We send a family ‘tip sheet’ after the workshops are over, for parents to look at. We have a module for teachers and schools too,” Shekhar says.

For more details on the Cybersmartie programme for school children, write to shekhar@cybersmartie.com or call at +91- 96193 22618.

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