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It’s going to be a cold week

Brace yourselves and don’t pack away your sweaters. Weather department estimates that Mumbai’s current chill may last all this week.

The current chill you are experiencing in Mumbai is set to continue over the coming days. The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) contends that the cold breezy conditions that the city is currently facing will remain for a few days owing to cold winds blowing from the North.

In fact, minimum temperatures in the city today are expected to touch 15 Degree Celsius – that’s even lower than last night’s temperatures.

The IMD says that an extra-tropical storm has just passed over Jammu and Kashmir, bringing sudden snow and sleet rain, but though the storm has passed, the cold winds continue to blow. Another cold spell is expected to hit next week, if similar weather conditions hit J&K again. As per the IMD website, maximum temperatures recorded on Sunday were 31 Degree Celsius at Colaba and 30.8 Degree Celsius at Santacruz, while minimum temperatures were 17 Degree Celsius and 12.6 Degree Celsius respectively. No major departures are expected in prevailing weather conditions for 48 hours.

You know what this means. Do keep your winter woollies at hand this week.

(Picture courtesy tcpalm.com)

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Mumbai’s Hockey India League team moved to Delhi

State promises security to Pak players who’ve moved to Delhi following Shiv Sena’s protests against their inclusion in Mumbai game.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

The ongoing fracas between India and Pakistan’s armies at the border has claimed its first victims in far-flung Mumbai. The  Hockey India League (HIL), an IPL-style hockey tournament which was scheduled to have a match in Mumbai on Sunday, ran into security tangles when about 100 Shiv Sena workers started protesting outside a stadium that the Mumbai Magicians team was practicing in. This team has four Pakistani players in its side; there are a total of nine Pak players in the League’s five teams.

Sensing that the protests could escalate and cause security issues for the visitors, the organisers of HIL decided to whisk the team away from the city. The team has been sent to Delhi for practice, and schedules are being reworked to accommodate the Sunday match at Delhi. As things stood, said the HIL, it was too soon to comment on whether other Mumbai matches featuring teams with Pak players on board would be cancelled or held elsewhere.

Following the protests, the Mumbai police reportedly swung into action and announced a security cordon for the team, but the  management conveyed its decision to move to Delhi.

“The players have left Mumbai. Once we hear what the management’s future plans for Mumbai matches are, we can discuss the necessary security arrangements at that time,” said Ravindra Shishve, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone I).

However, the State’s Home Minister, RR Patil, said that the Pakistani players would be given full security when they played in Mumbai and Maharashtra. “We assure them (the Pakistani players) of full protection for their matches so that nobody can disrupt play,” he said.

(Picture courtesy dawn.com)

 

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Aamir Idrisi will represent India at the US

Aamir Idrisi leaves tonight as part of a US Government-sponsored youth leadership programme; he’s the only Indian to be selected.

Aamir Idrisi, President of the Association of Muslim Professionals (AMP), has been selected in a multi-country programme run by the US Government, and he will be visiting the US as one of the special invitees. The 22-day programme is titled ‘American Youth: Inspiring Leadership and Civic Engagement’ and will promote civic awareness and youth leadership, apart from emphasising the importance of pluralism, tolerance, and volunteerism as components of civic life in the US. It will start on January 12 and end on February 2, 2013.

Speaking to The Metrognome, Aamir said, “The process for selecting the right delegate happens for a year, and my participation was confirmed six months ago. As part of the programme, we will be visiting universities, colleges and youth organisations, as well as the Muslim organisations based there.” He said that he was the only Indian to be chosen, and is one of four Muslim delegates – the others come from Egypt, Oman and Afghanistan.

The programme’s goal is to examine the concepts of Democracy, Government and Citizenship, and their importance to US civil society. The major goal is to identify the skills necessary for grooming future leaders and explore methods used to develop these skills in critical thinking, decision-making, communication and organisation, and building leadership capacity. Representatives from 40 countries would participate; their itinerary includes visits to Washington D.C, Maryland, New York, Pensacola (Florida), Houston (Texas), Tucson (Arizona), Salt Lake City (Utah) and Portland (Oregon).

Aamir said, “I am very excited and I feel very privileged to represent my country and community on an international platform.
I hope I will be able to learn a lot from the exposure there and the experience will help me to work in a much better way back here in India.”

(Pictures courtesy limo4washingtondc.com and AMP) 

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How we made a movie

A student writes about the experience of being part of a filmmaking team. The film premieres today at Mumbai University.
by Bhagirathi N

The students of Mumbai University’s Department of Communication and Journalism made an in-house film recently. Our team comprised 15 people altogether, including the actors. The film is a romcom and we named it Talaashh: It’s Never The End – and no, our film bears no resemblance to the recent Aamir Khan starrer, apart from sharing a name.

This is the promo of our film:

 

Before I ever thought about being part of a filmmaking team or making a film of my own, in the days when my film experience was devoted solely to watching, criticising or critiquing a film, I had never realised the effort that goes into making a movie. I often confused ‘criticising’ with ‘critiquing’, and realised only later that the first one is about passing judgement on a work while the other one is about a careful judgement considering all the merits and faults of a work.

I learnt all this while and more while working on our film. The credit goes to Riteish Pillai, the film’s editor and director, who thought I could make it, and who I assisted for the film’s sound.

Talaashh: It’s Never The End was written by Prateek Singh. The film’s director and editor, Riteish, was the winner of the Best Documentary prize in 2012 for his entry in the Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI) festival. Sumit S Angne, director in-charge of the making of the film, won the Best Documentary prize in the ‘Young Film Makers Competition, Chennai’ in the same year.

The film Talaashh is about Nasir’s (Nasir Imam), Abhay’s (Abhay Mishra) and Prateek’s (Prateek Singh) talaash in life, with a whole lot of twists and turns by other characters – Riddhima (Riddhima Sishupal), Singham (Brajesh Mer) and Subhu (Subbaiah Moopanar). Romance and comedy rule the storyline.

Other members of the crew are prizewinners, too – Nasir and Prateek had recently secured second place in the Helen O’Grady International ‘Lets Act’ drama competition held at Sophia’s College on January 5, 2012 for their play The Darkest Desire.

Our film’s Director of Photography was Lavesh Dali, who shot the film on a Canon EOS 550D. Believe it or not, the entire film was shot in a week; the post-production, however, took much longer. Our team devoted a month and two weeks to the film’s overall production.

During the course of post production, we decided to record a theme song since we had a composer, Karthik Rao, in our midst. Karthik composed and voiced the song with Sanchita Kale, while Ashay Sahasrabuddhe contributed the lyrics and Noel D’Souza played the guitar.

 

All in all, it was a really fun experience working on this film. Though I have restricted the roles played by crew members by assigning them posts (which we had to do for the film’s credits), the fact is that each of us put in our best in all aspects of pre-production, production and post-production. We are proud and excited that the film screens today at Garware Auditorium, University of Mumbai (Kalina) at 2 pm, with film director Vishal Inamdar and assistant director Suchitra Varma officiating as chief guests.

 

 

 

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A clean juloos this year

A group of volunteers ensured that the recent Arba’een procession was a clean, almost zero-trash one, and were largely successful.
by Shezanali Hemani

Arba’een, meaning forty in Arabic, is a significant day marking the 40th day of Martyrdom of Imam Hussain, the Grandson of The Holy Prophet Muhammad. This day, 20 million mourners gather in Karbala, 110 km from Baghdad, Iraq on the Holy Shrine of Imam Hussain. Commemorated by Muslims all over the globe, this tradition of remembering Hussain on the 40th Day has its significance in historical events which occurred 1,400 years ago, as well as a part of the 40-day mourning period practiced by most cultures in the world.

However, a group of youths including Shias, sunnis and even a few Hindus, numbering to over 100 people, revolutionised the face of Arbaeen juloos in Mumbai this year. The idea to keep the juloos (procession) clean had actually taken root two years ago, but this year, it could finally be implemented.

Today, when we mourn the Prophet’s grandson’s death, for him who stood up in order to support the preaching of his grandfather, it seems very wrong for his followers to create a mess on the street and leave it for the BMC and others to clean. Also, ethically speaking, if we take so much care and effort to keep our own homes clean, why should we treat the city any differently? The city we live in we should retain its dignity, no matter what the occasion.

On January 3, the rest of the volunteers and I tied big trash bags at several spots along the juloos route, so that visiting pilgrims could throw such waste as glass, paper etc. The trash bags were laid all along from JJ to Mazgaon. More than one lakh people are believed to be present in this juloos from all over Maharashtra every year, most of them dressed in black clothes. The procession starts at 4 pm from Mogul Masjid near Bhindi Bazaar and ends at Rehmatabad Cemetery at Mazgaon.

Every year, a lot of waste is left behind on the road after the juloos ends. But this year, people noticed the difference. The owner of Greenfield restaurant (which falls on the route) said, “The waste this year have gone down by 80 per cent, compared to the previous juloos. This is a very good thing and it should continue. People think well about this kind of work.”

Aliraza Namdar, well known TV and theater actor also appreciated the hard work done by the volunteers and wished them luck for future projects. Owais Rizvi, Tabish Mehdi, Mohsin Fallah, Akeel Abbas Naqvi, Sohel Ajani, Ahmed Rizvi, Ali Miya, Asad Mirza, Rohan Gopalan and others were part of volunteer group.

Arba’een  is marked on the 40th day of the martyrdom of Imam Hussain.  Prominent religious scholars and leaders from the community participate in the juloos.

(Pictures courtesy Shezanali Hemani)

 

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It’s a Mirakle!

This courier company employs hearing and speech impaired persons, thus giving them a good shot at building a stable future.
by Nidhi Qazi

It’s a pleasant morning. Mumbai is in its usual busy mode – office-goers rushing to their respective workplaces, food vendors  serving breakfast, taxiwallahs ferrying people to work, youngsters chirping at kiosks. A lot of early morning energy that the city bustles with is at display. Amidst all this, there is another place that’s as busy – the office of Mirakle Couriers.

Cut to its Churchgate branch office and one finds all the employees busy sorting couriers, Googling destinations for delivery. These are employees busy making their lives meaningful and busy building their lives by overcoming their physical weakness: hearing impairment.

Started in 2010 with just one employee, Mirakle Couriers today employs around 44 hearing and speech-impaired adults in its centres at Andheri and Churchgate. While men are allocated areas for delivering in Mumbai, women look after the sorting, data entry and record-keeping. Although there is no qualification needed, the company looks for those with a basic understanding of English.

I meet Rinku, a young chap who hails from Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, who is in his late 20s. Rinku’s designated area of delivery is Nariman Point. So I set off with him on his rounds.

The moment we step out of the office, he uses sign language to explain the surrounding areas. After his explanation, I now know the LIC building, the Air India office, Nariman Point, Fort city, the various public parks, prominent office buildings, and other landmarks. In between, I offer him a pen and paper when I’m unable to understand certain things, but he makes it a point to not use the proffered materials. Instead, he tries and succeeds in expressing his point using sign language.

We reach our first destination. The receptionist and Rinku exchange smiles. The former accepts the package from Rinku, and we move to the next destination. Rinku walks swiftly, and it becomes difficult to keep pace with him. I take a deep breath and follow him. “You like Mumbai?” I ask, and Rinku nods an excited ‘yes’, explaining, “I can’t go back to my village. There is nothing to look forward to there.”

The company follows Indian sign language for all its daily transactions, ranging from pick-up, sorting according to pin codes, and delivery. The management and operations are also sign language-based.

An arts graduate, Rinku works with Mirakle six days a week. How has Mirakle changed his life? He smilingly replies, “I am confident now. I feel good about what I am doing.”

From there, we walk to some more places in the Nariman Point area, amid the hustle bustle, amid the sound of silence between Rinku and me. “When do you plan to get married?” I ask, and he chuckles. Using the signs which spell out ‘love’, he expresses, “When I find love.”

We reach some more destinations with ease. At one point, Rinku gets stuck, but only to find help in the Google Maps. He takes out his mobile phone and finds the directions to an office where he has to deliver the last courier.

Done with all the deliveries, we now head back to the office. And it’s time to say goodbye to Rinku and his colleagues.

What about the competition in the market when big players like Blue Dart, DHL exist? “We do have a very strong competition,” says Nimesh Pawar, Operations Manager, Churchgate branch. In fact not all is hunky dory when it comes to dispelling clients’ cynicism towards deaf and mute. “People do doubt if deaf people can deliver on time; whether they can deliver at all,” he adds.

But all this cynicism is countered and myths are broken as Mirakle does what it really stands for – Delivering Possibilities.

(Picture courtesy Nidhi Qazi)

 

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