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Modeling, movies, music, television… the players in these glamorous professions are getting younger by the day.  Slouched in front of the television set, watching the latest episode of the Zee TV serial Kasamh Se, you haven’t the faintest idea what goes through the head of the actress who plays Bani whenever she does a bedroom scene. True, as a viewer, you don’t have to know. The actress is an actress after all. She has a job to do, and she must do it well.

And Prachi Desai, who plays Bani in the serial, does do her job well. You see no sign of the fact that she’s uncomfortable doing these scenes. Because, let’s face it: though Prachi plays a 27- or 28-year-old married woman in the serial, she’s actually just 18 years old. The things she must do for the part she plays are things she’s never experienced in her life.

CHASING DREAMS 

Before you call the Child Welfare Board to rescue this 18-year-old from this situation, Prachi would like to make one thing clear. It doesn’t matter if these scenes make her uncomfortable. First, these are not her only scenes. Second - and more important she’s doing what she’s always wanted to do. Act. 

Today, Prachi is just one teenager among many in the several worlds of glamour - acting, modeling and singing. Check out former child star Hansika Motwani, for instance. A lead actress at the age of 16, she romances Himesh Reshamiya, a man perhaps twice her age, in Aap Ka Suroor. Then there’s 17-year-old Abhas Joshi, a class XII student who gave up his family life and school-leaving exams when he left his home town, Jabalpur, to participate in Star’s Voice of India contest. The contest is still on, so Abhas isn’t a star, but his dream was always to make it big in the film and music industry, and he’s single-mindedly chasing that dream. At 18, model Anushka Sharma actually lives her dream.

Why not? She isn’t an inexperienced newcomer. Having started on the catwalk at the age of 14, she’s been in the business for four years. 

For most people, these youngsters are just children. ‘Barely out of their diapers’ would be a bit of an exaggeration, but we’d definitely consider them much too young to make the sort of decisions and live the sort of lives that their chosen professions impose on them.  

“What are their parents thinking of?”

But the glamour industry is about youth, beauty and exuberance. Because youth, by definition, is not timeless, if you’re interested in the world of glamour, you’d better begin when you’re young. 

On an average People who want to model start at the age of 14. The late Nafisa Joseph began when she was 12. This isn’t a new trend in the modeling industry, but of late the age bar in television and cinema has also gone down. At 16 or 17, you are at your youthful best. So if you have the inclination and potential to make it big, why not?” 

AND EDUCATION? 

Why not? That’s a good question. It isn’t as though 16 and 17-year-olds are small children. In many ways, they’re perfectly capable of taking the responsibility for their own futures. And youth in the world of glamour is not new. Look at movie icons Hema Malini, Rekha and Sarika. They started acting when they were very young and here they are, apparently unscathed by the experience. The difference though, is that Hema, Rekha and Sarika were pushed into their careers by their parents to support their families. Most other middle class parents would never have done such a thing. To them - and that attitude persisted till not so very long ago - education was more important than anything else. Get a degree, they exhorted their children, and then do what you want to do.

But that attitude seems to have changed. Where once ‘understanding’ were few, now parents have become less demanding in terms of academics and more encouraging of other qualities. A child’s creative orientation has become important. So has the child’s aptitude and potential to earn. So if a child has no academic a inclinations, but has the opportunity and aptitude to do well in a glamour a or creative profession, does the Class X or XII certificate really matter? 

It’s a point of view, even educationists agree with. In a  world driven by professional qualifications, what sense does it make for a youngster interested in acting of to study history and geography? Isn’t going to an acting or grooming school a better idea?” But that depends on what you mean by an education and what you want out of life.  

We don’t realize it then, but when we meet people outside our limited world, we understand how important those history and geography lessons were simply so that we can have a coherent and intelligent conversation. That’s an attitude few people have.

If academics simply isn’t their thing, what is the point, they say; of forcing themselves to do it? Doesn’t it make more sense to get out there and earn a living? And the living, in the glamour industry; can be a good one. Provided, of course, that you get your break. 

MONEY AND FAME 

Instant fame and money. It is very easy to become a star today. If you are on TV for two continuous weeks, people recognise you. It doesn’t matter whether you can sustain yourself or not. What matters is that you are a celebrity in your neighbourhood, and performing at neighbourhood functions can earn you a good amount of money 

ALL GROWN UP 

Not everyone can be an Anushka, Prachi, Hansika or Vineet with a career on a roll. Abhas, for instance, doesn’t know yet if he’ll get the break he wants. And while 19-year-old Arshpreet, another Voice of India contestant, has passed his class XII exams, he refuses to graduate in any ‘academic’ subject even though this is his third attempt to make it in the music industry. Instead, he’ll do music. 

And can they handle the demands of the industry they get into? 

It is difficult. Kids can’t take too much stress. They can’t take criticism positively. It becomes very difficult to handle a lot of situations. That’s why most youngsters in the world of glamour like to have their parents around 24/7. Supportive families make a wonderful cushion to fall back on when the big bad world becomes too big and too bad. 

And yet, a lot of youngsters do know what they want from life, which is a good sign of maturity. So clear are some youngsters about their careers that they understand that some compromises must be made without a fuss. Actress Jhalak Thakkar (18), better known as Bhoomika, played a married woman on a Gujarati TV show at the age of 14, and though that meant she was perpetually on the sets and in sarees, unlike girls her age who were in jeans and at parties. 

The way they talk and act, I don’t think they can really be considered kids. They know and understand so much.

THE BOX OFFICE REPORT CARD OF MAJOR RELEASES:

No single hero or heroine could claim to have had a fulfilling affair with the box office in the first six months of 2007. If Amitabh’s Cheeni Kum at least brought a smile to people’s faces, his Nishabd and Eklavya made his fans a tad sad. ShahRukh Khan, Aamir Khan and Hrithik Roshan were busy shooting and lucky not to have had a single release during the bad phase of the industry. Or maybe, the period was bad because the three superstars did not have a single release. Let’s have a look on for how the first half of 2007 turned out for the stars whose films did hit our cinema screens this year

BHEJA FRY: The sleeper hit of the first half of 2007 was the non-starcast, small budget Bheja Fry. It came almost out of nowhere and took the city multiplex audience by storm, in the process making Vinay Pathak an overnight star. Made at a very modest budget, the comedy earned almost six to seven times that money as net profit. Bheja Fry worked big time in the small-capacity multiplex screens of  big cities, but bombed in the big-capacity single screens of big cities. As for smaller towns, the film fared so poorly that most of the cinemas in ‘B’ and ‘C’ class centers refrained from even releasing it. A classic example of one man’s Bheja fry being another man’s poison! Comedies generally work better in the cities, but the jokes in I were so sophisticated that the masses in cities that still have single-screen cinemas, could not appreciate them.

Aap Kaa Surroor: The film which was least expected to find favour with the audience gave the industry reason to smile and those associated with it, reason to laugh all the way to the bank. Himesh Reshammiya’s debut film as hero, Aap Kaa Surroor, was the film that changed the half-yearly report card of the industry. But for this film, the first six months of the year would not have boasted of a single universal hit.

NAMASTEY LONDON: Katrina Kaif wasn’t half as lucky as Abhishek Bachchan. Even after proving that she could act in Vipul Shah’s Namastey London, Salman did not jump to tie the knot with her. Although hot as successful as Guru, Namastey London managed to keep its distributors in good spirits though world distribution rights holders Eros Multimedia didn’t make money. Blame it on the high price (reported to be Rs 34 crore) at which Eros picked up the Akshay-Katrina starred from Vipul Shah and Adlabs. But the fact remains that the film, though it did well, didn’t turn out to be a cash cow for Eros.

 

GURU: Frankly, the first half of 2007 was quite disappointing for the public and, consequently; for the film industry too. Mani Ratnam’s Guru was the only universal success but even that film, loosely based on Dhirubhai Ambani’s life story; did not do ‘hit’ .business. Yes, it proved a hit in the Bombay circuit, but its business in most other circuits did not qualify it to be termed a universal hit. Never mind if Amitabh Bachchan said that his son Abhishek had surpassed him in the film. That must have been fatherly love! But the audience didn’t love the Ash-Abhishek starred enough to make it a hit, even though A R Rahman’s songs in Guru became chartbusters.

But Guru got a lot of critical acclaim and, after Yuva, also directed by Mani Ratnam, it proved conclusively that Abhishek is capable of delivering the goods. Is that why Ash accepted Abhishek’s marriage proposal two days after the release of Guru?

CHEENI KUM: Released in the same week as Shootout was the much smaller Cheeni Kum. While giving a new, talented director, S Balakrishnan, to the industry, the Amitabh-Tabu starrer appealed to city folk. The romantic story of a 60-year-old man and a 30-plus woman made it to the UK box office Top 10 in its first week. It was, perhaps, the aesthetic handling that made Cheeni Kum, with a storyline similar to Nishabd; work at the box-office even though Nishabd was rejected by the audience. While Ramgopal Varma’s film projected the lusty side of love, Cheeni Kum concentrated on the fun side of romance, completely ignoring the physical aspect.

APNE: The three Deols’ first film together, Apne, could not !’ manage an impressive initial in I the last week of June 2007 but it I consolidated its position as days progressed, at least in North India which has always been the Deols’ stronghold. It cost around Rs 21 crore to make and it is expected to do a business of almost a similar amount in India and overseas.

METRO: Another medium-budget film, like Cheeni Kum, which won the audience’s hearts, at least in the metros, was Anurag Basu’s Life in a Metro. But contrary to all expectations, after Shilpa Shetty’s victory in the Celebrity Big Brother reality television show in the UK, her Metro opened to dismal houses there.

THE NAMESAKE: Mira Nair’s The Namesake worked in the major cities of India but more than that, it appealed to Indians and Asians living abroad.

 

SHOOTOUT AT LOKHANDWALA: The makers of Shootout At Lokhandwala may have shouted themselves hoarse that their underworld flick had hit the bull’s eye but the only circuit in which it actually worked big time was, quite understandably, Bombay. In many other circuits, distributors didn’t lose money but then, they didn’t make money either

TA RA RUM PUM: Frankly, Yash Raj’s Ta Ra Rum Pum, released only a few weeks prior to Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, was also not appreciated by audiences, but the Saif-Rani starrer at least grossed decent collections in the Bombay circuit. Had other circuits behaved as well as Bombay, the film would’ve been classified a hit or, at least, a semi-hit. But that was not to be! Still, after the Jhoom Barabar Jhoom debacle, Ta Ra Rum Pum seems like a ‘”Sholay!

EKLAVYA: The audience gave thumbs down to Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s Eklavya. They simply couldn’t accept superstar Amitabh Bachchan as a mere royal guard in this film, shot largely in Rajasthan. But quite surprisingly, the Rs 20 crore Eklavya caught the fancy of critics like no other film did in the first half of 2007.It was reminiscent of Omkara last year. Omkara, Vishal Bhardwaj’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s Othello, had also won rave reviews but lost out in tl)e box office race. The fate of Chopra’s Eklavya was worse than that of Omkara. All-India distributors lost around Rs 5 crore in the film.

SALAAM-E-ISHQ: Even worse than Jhoom Barabar Jhoom was Nikhil Advani’s multi-starcast disaster, Salaam-E-Ishq. If only the makers had spent money on an editor; it may have inflated the budget by a few lakhs but it would have reduced the losses by a few crores. Yes, Salaam-E-Ishq appeared to be a film sans an editor, so lengthy and boring was it! One felt sorry for Govinda because his was a truly sincere performance in an otherwise mindless enterprise. Even the super-hit songs of Salaam-E-Ishq could not salvage the film with multiple love stories. Because of its fate at the box-office, it was nicknamed Salaam-E-Risk in the industry.

NISHABD: Amitabh Bachchan also faced rejection- Ramgopal Varma’s Nishabd,

The story of a 60+ man falling in love with his own daughter’s best friend. Nishabd evoked disgust in many viewers and there were reports of people walking out of the cinemas mid-way through the film. Even bachchan’s sterling performance couldn’t save from ruin. How important success is for a newcomer was exemplified by Nishabd.

After it’s debacle, its debutante heroine, Jiah bad to sit at home, twiddling her thumbs.

Even mentor Varma did not repeat her in his next

JHOOM BARABAR JHOOM:

What hit the industry very badly this year was the flopping of Yash Raj Films’ Jhooom Barabar Jhooom. Before its release, the film had everything going for it - a rocking title track, the Yash Raj label, a multi-starcast comprising Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Preity Zinta, Bobby Deol and Lara Dutta and an enviable promotion campaign. Despite all this, the film took an initial that was far from exciting or encouraging. It was as if audiences had smelt that the film was not what it promised, because it didn’t meet with their approval anywhere. It is the first flop from the Yash Raj stable in 15 years!

WHAT IS WRONG WITH INDIAN CRICKET?

Ever since Australia and England started playing Test matches, cricket has travelled a long way. Since then, a number of changes have also taken place in the structure as well as in the format of the game.

The game of cricket took its birth in India when this country was under the British rule and thus, like English language, cricket too can be rightly called the legacy of the Raj. Right from C.K. Naidu to Mohd. Azharuddin and Sachin Tendulkar to M. S. Dhoni, Indian cricket has seen many ups and downs and has long since come of age. It was way back in 1932 that India had made its first official tour to England. But during all these years, Indians have never been recognised as good tourers of the game.

During their foreign tours, Indian teams of yesteryears, as also of the present day, could never quite muster the confidence that they could ever play on equal terms with their foreign competitors. It was only in the year 1971 that a miracle occurred for the Indian team when Indian players, under the leadership of Ajit Wadekar, defeated both the West Indies and England on their home turfs. These were some of the great victories that the Indian team had ever managed to win abroad. There have been some great names in Indian cricket right from Lala Amarnath to Sachin Tendulkar-the men who have really dominated the Indian cricket scene during their heyday.

Down the decades, Indian cricket has never been able to present a picture of strength and integrity for long. It is, therefore, quite natural for millions of thinking Indians to ask the billion-dollar question, “What is wrong with Indian Cricket?” Every now and then, the Indian cricket team has been accused of lacking in the killer instinct and mettle to pull it out at the right time. Many Indian cricketers are accused of playing individual cricket rather than playing for the team. During some of the events one gets the impression that various Indian participants in the event are competing with each other in winning individual laurels at the cost of their team-mates rather than winning the match for their country by defeating the opposite team- even the one from Pakistan. It is clear that Indian cricket is marred by individual rivalries leading to internecine quarrels. Who can forget the slanderous remarks made by Mohd. Azhamddin, after their victory in England in 1990, that the Indian team did not need any coach?

Everyone knows that there were rumours in 1983 that the Indian team would have to qualify from the next time to play in the World Cup and that rumour nearly seemed to have come true in the match against Zimbabwe in 1983 when Indians were 17 for 5. Thanks to Kapil Dev’s swash-buckling knock of 175 which saw India through and they went on to win the World Cup at Lord’s on 25thof June. Perhaps that was the only golden achievement in Indian cricket. From then on, Indian players have so far failed to come up to the expectations of the nation.

So much hype and bonanza was given to the World Cup 1999 cricket team of India the anti Indian team was referred to as strong contenders for the Cup. But soon the dark clouds of misfortune soared over the Indian team when they lost to Zimbabwe at Bristol, which ultimately led to their exist from the World Cup at super-six stage. As they say, history repeats, India lost a simple match to Bangladesh which led to their exit from this world cup as well.

One of the most important factors responsible for the receding team spirit is the question of captaincy. The problem here is that whoever is made the captain of the Indian team, his output becomes negligible whether it is Mohd. Azharuddin or his successors Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid.

Azhar was a nice, unquestioning guy with many records to his credit and the Board of Control of Cricket for India (BCCI) was very happy with him. But his uninspiring leadership and hands-off style did not go down well with the players and the spectators. Poor form let him down further. Also, he never blamed himself for a defeat. A captain must accept responsibility for the entire team. Moreover, Azhar’s bony language was a disaster. He could not communicate well either with the team or with the BCCI. Players need constant guidance. A motivating personality is, therefore, required as captain of the team. In this context, we have to see how far the new blue-eyed BCCI boy Sachin Tendulkar goes. So far, his second innings as skipper seems no better than his first.

Next to blame is the long ‘tail’ attached to our short batting line-up.

No doubt, the Indian top order and the middle order are among the-best in the world. But the Indian batting ends at number six. In a ‘fast-pitch’ situation, the top half collapse easily and the bottom half must contribute solidly. But in the Indian team, once the top order is creamed off, the tail fails to wag. This problem can be easily tackled by including good all-rounders in the team. A good team must have at least two all-rounders.

By having more all-rounders, we can have depth in batting and variations in bowling as well. But India does not possess a sufficient number of all-rounders. That is why the team is not consistent in its performance.

Another problem is that of a sturdy and dependable wicket-keeper batsman. A capable wicket-keeper has always done a tremendous job in gathering the ball well, but his failure with the bat has annoyed all fans of the game. Today, when all the top teams have all-rounders along with a wicket-keeper-batsman, India lags a decade behind them.

One important part of the game which can turn a close match in a team’s favour is the way it fields the ball.

Sadly, the Indians have not kept pace with the spectacular improvement in the fielding that other cricketing nations have achieved. The runs saved through energetic and intelligent fields give us an advantage; it is like having an extra batsman in the team. On an average, fielding can save 30-40 runs in an innings. It is ironic that even as the game becomes more popular, standards of Indian cricket are rapidly declining. It can be directly related to badly managed domestic circuit. Indians also do not play professionally abroad to improve their skills because they are busy too much with international cricket. This could kill the goose that lays the golden egg.

To top it all, the country is emotionally involved in the game. While there are many spectators, there are not many players of the game. Commercialisation has further led to deteriorating standards. Eat Cricket; Drink Cricket at the Cost of Cricket seems to be our motto. The corporate unabashedly exploits the cricketers to sell its products to the gullible consumers-everything from blades to cars-leaving little time for the players to practise and polish their game. The team is consistently distracted owing to its extra-curricular activities. Money has become more important than honours for the country.

“Play the game in the spirit of the game,” said Jawaharlal Nehru while inaugurating the first Asian Games in New Delhi way back in 1951. Indian cricketers neither play the game in the spirit of the game, nor do they possess the killer instinct to win. They must remember that in any endeavour in life, nothing succeeds like success. If we have to become world-beaters again, we must create an environment conducive to the creation and nurturing of outstanding cricketers.

HISTORY IN SPICES & SPICES IN HISTORY

IF you’ve read histories of the colonial period then you’ll know that European traders first came to India because they were looking for spices to take back to their countries. In those days, any Indian spice was so highly valued in Western markets that traders found it worth their while to spend years at sea in inhospitable conditions just to return with a consignment of cloves or nutmeg.

And Europeans, in turn, prided themselves on possession of the spices of the East. If a man had a fistful of nutmeg, he was probably a millionaire! To serve any kind of Indian spice was regarded as a mark of great prosperity and social accomplishment.

As we all know, the Spice Route became the stuff of legends (and the subject of many contemporary books) and led, almost entirely; to the birth of colonialism. The Europeans first came here as traders (as in the case of John Company; better known later as the East India Company), then settled down to wage war with the local rajahs and nawabs and then took over great swathes of land.

In most colonies, the traders were then replaced by governments themselves and 19th century imperialism was created: In India, for instance, the East India Company ran the show till 1857 when the violence of the Mutiny/Revolt/First War of Independence (pick your option according to your political perspective) led the Crown to intervene and Queen Victoria proclaimed that her government would administer India henceforth.

Why am I giving you a history lesson? Well, because two things about this story have always intrigued me - more so, now, as we celebrate the anniversary of the battles of 1857. First of all, do we realize that the foundation of Imperialism - and certainly; of British rule in India - was food? If the East India Company had not arrived here in search of spices, there would have been no British Empire.

But it’s the second thing .If the British came here looking for spices and the ones they took back to their country were so valued, then why is all European food (and English food in particular) so lacking in spice?

Think about it. When you consider the diet of the average Brit, or even the rich Brit, in that era, do you imagine him eating anything other than joints of lamb, meat pies and the like?

What use did a nation fed on bland stodge have for the wondrous spices of the East? Why did sailors spend years at sea in pursuit of nutmeg? Who would buy this stuff? And how would they use it? Surely not as a seasoning for roast lamb!

If there was a Spice Route, then there must have been a demand: of for spices. But the cuisines of the countries that sought these spices were so bland that it is hard to see why they would have required them.

Is there a solution to this mystery?

Apparently, yes. What we now regard as bland European food was not always so. Nor are we right to regard the British palate as hostile to spice. As far back as the 18th century, Englishmen loved a good curry. And the current British obsession with spicy Indian food has its roots in a relatively ancient tradition where curry was made regularly at Buckingham Palace.

We think now of French food as being based on butter and cream. But butter was a poor man’s food. Rich people tended to use lard and animal fat. We imagine that the French ate chicken, beef and pork. But in fact, the upper classes never ate pork .

We think of steak and chips as classic French bistro fare. But actually, the French took to beef only in 1735 after a chef who had worked in London introduced the nation to steak.

So, what was European food like when the traders set out in search of the spices of the East?

Well, it wasn’t very different from the food of the Middle Ages.

Traditional banquet fare included such birds as peacocks in preference to chicken. Nobody bothered with sole or trout. Instead they ate whale, porpoise or seal. In those days, bigness was everything: big fish, big birds, and big meals.

It was in this era, long before the great sauces of European cuisine had been invented, that the demand for spices was huge. Traditional cooks would use the strongly flavoured spices of the East to add zing to peacock or to boost the flavour of seal.

(Spices should not be confused with chillies though: those were discovered in America and brought to India by colonial traders. When we talk about spices in that era, we mean pepper, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, saffron, cardamom etc.)

But all this changed with the invention of modern French - and therefore, European - cuisine. The big birds disappeared to be replaced by chicken and duck. Whale and seal were struck off the menu in favour of turbot and langoustine: Beef and pork became staples. The first sauces were invented and food shifted away from bigness in size and flavor.

Instead, the new generation of chefs began to use herbs which, unlike spices, were locally available. Out went nutmeg and cardamom. In came basil, parsley and thyme. European cuisine suddenly became sauce-based and herb-based.

By the 19th century; the new innovations had not only spread all over Europe but they had crashed the class barriers. Poor people did not necessarily make hollandaise at home but they had been weaned away from the strong flavours of big meat (such as whale and peacock) and the pungency of spices. Instead, they ate a blander (some would say; more delicately flavoured) cuisine.

When the East India Company first got here, its officers took to Indian women and Indian food with gusto. Many took Indian “wives” or concubines and nearly all ate Indian food at home. It was only in the late 19th century when their “wives” began ‘coming over that they gave up on the women, and the food at their homes became bland British fare.

But the British love for strong Indian flavours endured even if it became a masculine thing. The shops of London were full of spicy Indian chutneys and Worcester sauce was first made by Lee and Perrin to a recipe for Indian chutney.

History is full of ifs and buts. Sadly, few of these have to do with food. But often wonder whether we underestimate the role of cuisine in shaping the destiny of nations.

PRIVATISATION 

For the last four decades, India has been pursuing a path in which the public sector was expected to be the engine of growth.  But now, it is accused to have failed miserably in achieving its goal and so disenchantment is growing. 

THE PRINCIPAL CHARGES AGAINST THE PSU’s: 

The principal charges against the public sector are: low rate of return on investment, declining contribution to national savings, poor capacity utilization, over-staffing and bureaucratization leading to excessive delays and wastage of scarce resources. 

Performance of PSU 

It was stated in various plan documents that PSUs should earn a rate of return of 12 per cent per annum. But gross profit as a percentage of capital employed ranged between 4 to 8 per cent till 1980-81. During the seventh plan period the gross profit was 12 to 13 per cent. This was because the petroleum sector which accounted for 18.4 per cent of capital employed provided 40.5 per cent of total gross profit earned by all public sector undertakings. The performance of all other sectors was well below the targeted level of 12% gross rate of return. The operational efficiency of state government enterprises revealed that they were perennial loss makers. The chief culprits among them’ were: State Electricity Boards, Irrigation Works and Road Transport Corporation. The situation is distressing and is the cumulative result of the poor performance and absence of any remedial action taken to alleviate the situation. 

The failure of public sector is glaring in respect of savings. After 39 years of planning, the public sector contributes only 8% of the- nation’s saving: that also in part, through heavy taxation and semi-fictitious profits of reserve bank. The remaining 92% of the nation’s saving came from the private sector. 

The PSUs show a mixed record judged by the criterion of capacity utilization. There are high performates like Indian Oil Corporation, National Textile Corporation and in news-print who can equal any private sector undertaking in terms of efficiency, absorption of advanced technology and even in surplus generation along with a better deal for its employees.

There are of course scores of low performates who bring the overall standing of PSUs down. 

Causes of non-performance: The major problems faced by public sector enterprises could be summed up as under: 

The freedom for decision-making by PSU managers was extremely limited because of political interference. Consequently inordinate delays resulting in inefficiencies, lack of capacity, utilisation and low productivity took place. 

Pricing policies in a number of public sector enterprises are not guided by rational economic consideration. Social and political constraints compel public enterprises to charge uneconomic prices resulting in losses. This being the position especially in PEs catering to infrastructure like power, irrigation, ‘public transport, etc. 

Public enterprises can afford soft budget options because their losses can be met out of the general revenues. In view of the availability of this option and absence of competition, the pressure to take bard economic decisions is conspicuous by its absence. 

The managers of public enterprises tend to become procedure oriented rather than outcome oriented.

As a consequence of all these factors the element of subsidisation of the public sector assumed intolerable proportion.

As a reaction to the inefficient working of state owned enterprises, the wave of privatisation has spread all over the world. 

India, in order to lift its lower rate of growth of3 percent per annum to a sustainably higher one, abandoned its reliance on the public sector and shifted attention to privatisation. 

Meaning and Scope of Privatisation 

Privatisation is the general process of involving the private sector in the ownership or operation of a state owned enterprise. Thus privatisation covers three sets of measures: 

(a) Ownership measures: The sets of measures which transfer ownership of public enterprises, fully or partially, lead to privatisation. The higher the proportion of transfer of ownership to-the individual, co-operative or corporate sector, the greater is the degree of privatisation. This can take three forms such as total denationalization, joint venture and liquidation. Management buy-out is a special version of denationalization.

It implies sale of assets to the employees

(b) Organisational Measures: A number of organizational measures are conceived to limit the state control. A holding company structure may be so designed that the government limits its control interventions to apex level decisions and leaves the operating companies within the arrangement to a sufficient degree of autonomy in decision-making within the framework of the market forces. Sometimes a very big monolithic organisation is split into smaller units without loss of economies of scale. Although the smaller units comprise of a family, but they become independent in certain product lines or regional operations. 

A public enterprise while retaining ownership may lease out to private bidders for a specific period for use. The government enjoys the right of obtaining profits as per agreement; on the other hand, tenure ownership is expected to lead to improved efficiency or lower costs of operation. In case a particular bidder fails. To come up to the expectations of the government, the latter reserves the right to replace him with a more promising bidder. 

To bring public sector enterprises under market discipline, it would be desirable to go in for two forms of restructuring: 

(i) Financial restructuring can be affected in the sense that accumulated losses are written off and capital composition is rationalist in respect of debt equity ratio. 

(ii) Basic restructuring may be affected by redefining a set of commercial activities which the enterprise will undertake henceforth. 

(c) Operational Measures: To improve efficiency of the organization, even when full denationalisation has not been undertaken, operational measures can be taken. The measures include grant of autonomy to PEs in decision-making, provision of incentives to blue collar as well as white collar employees consistent with increase in efficiency or productivity, development of proper investment criteria and permitting PEs to go to capital markets to raise funds. The basic purpose of these measures of operational privatisation is to bring about a drastic reform and reduce government control over the enterprise. 

The upshot of the list of measures enunciated above is that while privatisation is more often equated with transfer of ownership, the critical manifestation of privatisation is the transfer of managerial control to private hands, individual or co-operative. 

The Indian Experiment 

Though it has been long felt that some amount of Privatisation is to be injected into the public sector to make them viable, it was not until 1991 that anything worth noting happened. The Government announced 20 per cent disinvestment in public sector undertaking as a first step towards privatisation. In the industrial policy 1991; the Government limited the priority areas for public sector and hence allowed competition in the fields where public sector was enjoying monopoly previously. 

Some Public Enterprises which are chronically sick and which are unlikely to be turned around are planned to be referred to the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) for the formulation of revival/rehabilitation schemes. 

Voluntary Retirement Schemes (VRS) have been floated to get rid of labour from the overstaffed PEs. During 1993-94 budget the government allowed selected public sector banks like SBI to raise funds from capital markets by floating equities. The boards of public sector companies are being made more professional. 

The Difficulties of Privatisation 

Although there is a strong rhetoric in favour of privatisation, in reality it is becoming increasingly difficult to push through proposals of privatisation. 

Firstly, in India with the emergence of strong trade unions, privatisation in the sense of denationalisation is not considered possible. Strong resistance by worker’s union is being organised against privatisation proposals from time to time. In a democratic set-up it would not be possible to carry out privatisation in blatant disregard of the interests of workers, because privatisation involves pruning of labour strength. In doing so the welfare motive of the government is questioned. 

The workers who loose their job especially through closure have had in almost all cases, nothing to fall back on. The absence of social security system in India, as against well organised social security systems in the developed countries is the potent reason why the trade unions are against schemes of retrenchment or voluntary retirement. 

A relevant question that may be raised is : why would the private sector be willing to take a loss making sick unit? It is only an excuse to appropriate the real estate attached with these units that it would make use of the land and other physical assets to start fresh undertakings. This implies that the principal objective of privatisation which is to infuse the commercial spirit in PSU may not be achieved and revival of the sick unit may not be the priority for the private sector. 

The point is that there is a serious crisis of management that has plagued the public as well as the private sector. Privatisation of PSUs would not be of any help so long as there is this crisis of good management. And if we succeed in evolving an efficient management culture and practices probably the issue of privatisation will be irrelevant since in that environment both the public sector and the private sector would be working efficiently. 

In India, privatisation is not considered as a panacea f, the present ills of the economy. Neither do people have -excessive faith in the market forces. In view of the historical background of public enterprises in India, it is inconceivable that privatisation in the country will be accepted by the society as an end in itself. The real issues center on alleviation poverty and upgrading of technology in a highly differentia’ society of continental dimensions. Ibis implies that privatisation will have to be viewed essentially as the best possible mea achieving pre-determined ends, and ensuring that it does distort the parameters of such ends.

The real culture of a people lies embedded in their customs, folk dances, folk lore, traditional beliefs, and the folk songs. No country of the world is an exception to it. We can easily compile a cultural history of a people of specified class after we study their customs, traditions, folklore, dances and songs. Invariably all the communities have this great wealth of their intangible culture, which does find expression at the time of their festivals or festivities. India being a vast country has a rich treasure of folk songs which obviously exhibit the culture of various communities inhabiting this vast land.

Indian folk songs are interwoven around some legends or traditional tales which are presumed and passed on to the next generation through the same. These folk songs may be laden with joy or sorrow or some historic event or legendary myths.
Folk songs of the Himachal Pradesh are distinct from those of the Punjab or Haryana. The love stories or traditions of Heer-Ranjha, Shirin-Farhad, Laila- Majnu can still be found on the lips of the people even in the remote countryside of the Punjab. These songs are accompanied with dance or music.

The folk songs from Rajasthan are still inspiring and they speak of the valour shown by the Rajputs or their women folk in the face of heavy odds. Even a most cowardly person would be transformed into a courageous or brave person after listening to the folk songs of Rajasthan.

If one wishes to have the glimpses of Lord Krishna and his Radha and the Gopikas, one should visit the Uttar Pradesh where in the Brijbhumi these folk songs are still heard more frequently and especially at the time of certain festivals like Holi, Diwali, Dussehra and Raksha Bandhan.

If you go to deep South, there you shall come across the South Indian folk songs which, even if you do not follow, you would definitely enjoy, for their sweet and melodiously modulated voice. So is the case with songs from the interior of Assam and Nagaland besides Orissa and Bihar.

But one thing which speaks through all these folk songs from different parts of the country in Indian culture is so subtly embodied in them that only a man with keen insight can decode and decipher them. But one thing which every lay man can understand is that they are quite sweet and are almost identical in many ways.

Those who have witnessed the 26th January Republic Day Parades in New Delhi and in various State capitals can very well feel the richness of these folk songs. India is so rich in this field that she can definitely export this art to other countries. There have been many cultural exchanges among the countries of the world and India is one of them. Her cultural ambassadors can tell the world about the cultural treasure which India holds and which she can gladly share with the countries of the world for the purpose of spiritual uplift and recreational gain, because these folk songs, besides being recreational, are also instructional at the bottom. They delight while they instruct and instruct while they delight. It is keeping this in view that folk songs have been included in the cultural activities of the Indian youth to make their life enjoyable and livable.

WE SHALL never know if K.Asif visualized his Salim in a green vest swooning over a reclining Anarkali swathed in turquoise and sea green or if Guru Dutt would approve of his classic brooding Pyaasa being infused with colour. But we do know that Dev Anand is pleased with both his roles in the colourised Hum Dono and that B R Chopra has watched Naya Daur twice after it’s been coloured, and is also rather pleased with the outcome.

A NEW LEASE OF LIFE

Fifty years after its theatrical release in 1957, B R Chopra’s Naya Daur; with actors Dilip Kumar and Vyjayanthimala, will release all over India in its colour version with Dolby digital surround sound. Chopra’s son Ravi has called it a “tribute” to his father. Ravi teamed up with West-wing Studios, USA, and the restoration of the film was completed in four months by Prasad EFX, Chennai, with technicians working round the clock to restore the only surviving composite dupe negative. Daddy Chopra was not very happy with the idea initially, and was persuaded of the possibilities after seeing Naya Daur in colour, with Vyjayanthimala in a purple blouse and pink sari and Dilip Kumar in a green kurta with a pink scarf. But he intends to colourise all seven of his father’s black and white films with Gumrah being next on the list.

 

GURU DUTT’S LAST WISHThat might sound like blasphemy to historians and purists, but besides a strong commercial opportunity, there is also a pragmatic strategy behind the trend of colourisation. Arun Dutt, son of legendary filmmaker Guru Dutt, is currently working towards colourising Sahib Biwi Aur Ghulam followed by Chaudhvin Ka Chand, Pyaasa and Kaagaz Ke Phool.

COMMERCIAL SENSE

So far the only case study available to these producers and print owners is Mughal-E-Azam, released in 2004 in colour, 44 years after its original opening. K Asif made the film on a budget of Rs 1.5 crore and made a profit of Rs 3 crore in 1960. In 2004, coloured, in Dolby and Cinemascope, it made Rs 10 crore nationally.

It was a success nationally, in spite of a mediocre release since it came with other big films. The success of Mughal-E-Azam has encouraged other filmmakers to try the same route but not all stories that clicked then can appeal to the youth now. Business opportunities are huge for a re-mastered, restored, reinvented existing film. Besides theatrical nationally, there is the overseas audience, DVD and home video rights and satellite sales. Classics sell well, especially abroad. There is no possibility of loss.

About the return on investment and whether Mughal -E-Azam’s success encouraged, this is an experiment. The colourisation of Mughal-E-Azam was not that great. It looked painted.” Goldstone Technologies, which has acquired the rights to re-release the Dev Anand hit Hum Dono (scheduled for December 2007), estimates the value of the colourisation market at approximately Rs 150 crore in the next three years. Before colourisation comes restoration, and that sector alone is expected to grow to Rs 100 crore in the next three years.

Jagan Mohan, Business Head Media, at Goldstone Technologies explains the process. “Along with Legend ends Films, we have undertaken colourisation, restoration, sound upgrade to Dolby and conversion to Cinemascope. We first acquired the s worldwide negative rights to 12 Telugu films and realized the vast potential of this market. We chose Hum Dono because it is Dev Anand’s only double role, it was his last black and white film (then came Guide) and it has great music. Just showing the coloured songs on TV would be profitable,” says Mohan.

So imagine millions of colours seeping into the black, white and grey frame of Dev Anand and Sadhana singing Abhi Na jaao chhod kar. Colour existed during Hum Dono but it was very expensive then. And Dev Saab’s reaction? No problem, just ensure good quality.

Mohan concurs with Chopra that Mughal-E-Azam looks painted. They had a maximum of 32-64 colours per frame, but technology can give more than one million colours in a single frame.” Navketan Films and Goldstone are t jointly re-releasing Hum Dona, but Dev Anand had one precondition, besides colour quality, before agreeing to the venture: the film could not be cut or tampered with. Similarly Chopra has not edited or touched the songs in the original black and white films though the sound is being mastered by music director Aadesh Srivastav to make it more contemporary.

GREAT RESULTSI

“I am very happy with the result. It is as if I shot the film in colour,” says Anand. “It was a challenging film for me as an actor in a double role and as a producer. Yes, black and white films have their own charm and some genres lend themselves to black and white, like mysterious dark films. But all the great musicals and romantic films can be coloured, after all romance is colourful.” Among the films he would nominate for pigmentation would be Tere Ghar Ke Saamne, Taxi Driver, Kaala Paani, Kaala Bazaar and Nau Do Gyarah.

Very average films need not be coloured. This could start a new era with possibilities of greater revenue, wider viewer ship, encouragement for the filmmaker and prestige.

Critics panned the repainted Mughal-E-Azam. And the fate of the slew of films coming off the colour palette of digital technicians remains to be seen. But hopefully Dev Anand’s point of view will win over a young audience without access to the works of Vijay Anand, Guru Dutt, B R Chopra and others. As he says, “Black and white or colour, the emotions are the same.”

INDIAN CULTURE IN DAILY LIFE
“A nation without a cultural heritage is like an orphan who has nothing to fend upon”, said Emerson. Indian culture is deeply rooted in her past-the glorious and the not so glorious past. Indian culture is essentially religious and spiritualism is the breath of its nostrils.

Religion is our soul and philosophy. It is our blood, our very life. If you take out religion from India, nothing remains. India is the motherland of our race and Sanskrit is the mother of the Indian and European languages. It is the mother of our philosophy; mother of our mathematics; though our mathematics were taken abroad by the Arabs, she is the mother through the Buddha of much of the ideas embodied in Christianity; mother through the village-community of self-government and democracy. Mother India is in many ways the mother of us all. The traits of culture, which India gave, can be seen in a number of foreign countries.

The continuity and vitality of Indian culture is amazing, indeed.It is a very powerful, all absorbing and all embracing process. In the past, it has received, adopted and digested the elements of many different cultures-Indo-European, Mesopotamian, Iranian, Greek, Roman, etc. With each new influence, it has somewhat changed, being influenced by the foreign culture and influencing it in return. But it has retained its peculiar traits. India has never lost the pride of her cultural sublimity. Indian culture has proved its strength and maintained its vitality throughout.The enduring quality of Indian culture represents the happy synthesis of worldliness and renunciation. Indians are developing materialistic attitude and wish to enjoy all the amenities of life, but at the same time, they are not neglecting the moral aspects of life; they are equally conscious of treading on the path of Dharma. India, a virtual continent, is the land of many people who profess to different religions and have, to an extent, a very large variety of sub-cultures. Yet unlike Europe, India continues to be a common home for all her people, practising “a rich unity in diversity”. Another remarkable aspect of Indian culture in our daily life is its firm belief in peace and non-violence. Gandhiji simply highlighted the value of Non-violence through his practising what already had been preached for ages in our country.

The old way of Indian life has, however, ceased to remain affected by the new forces unleashed by the machine age. Western civilistaion is so powerful and so uniform in its character that it is bound to influence every national culture by affecting its external way of life. Indian people are being increasingly influenced by the machines.They are acquiring new rhythm of the machine, its punctuality, its speed, its cold metallic nature, and its uniformity. The study of arts like music, poetry, painting, sculpture and architecture, even of dancing makes up the aesthetic culture of man in which most of the Indians are indulging. The aim of aesthetic culture is the appreciation and enjoyment of art. Art adds zest to life and enlarges human, sympathies.The strength and vitality of Indian culture is amazing, indeed. Pandit Nehru once stood on a mound of Mohenjodaro in the Indus Valley and there seemed to him something unique about the continuity of a cultural tradition through five thousand years of history, of invasions and upheavals, a tradition which was widespread among the masses and had powerfully influenced them through the ages.

 

Due to a number of different societies in various parts of India, there is a large variety of cultural heritages. Still the basic Indian culture is the same throughout the length and breadth of the country. What is basic culture? May be that the Indian are God-fearing people. In every house people pray to God each day for their well-being and for the well-being of everybody else. Most of their acts are reflection of their fear of and respect for God. People of this country have inborn respect for elders and love for life.

This love for life is apparent in festivals that people participate in, like Baisakhi in Punjab; Pongal in Tamil Nadu and Onam in Kerala, etc. These festive occasions are more than just occasional gatherings. On these days people settle down for better relations with friends and relatives. This, they don’t do intentionally but it happens, instinctively.

It is the spontaneous outburst of Indian culture-the culture of peaceful co-existence.

In India, people have a lot of respect for their elders and the learned. There is a tradition of showing warm regards for teachers and elders by touching their feet. This may sound very crazy to an Englishman. But the touching feet of teacher, Guru, etc., just implies a student’s deepest regards for all that the Guru or teacher preaches.

Indians date their days according to the movements of planets, moon and position of constellations and the Sun. When a baby is born in a Hindu family, the astrologers or Pandits make a birth calendar according to the time of birth assessing positions of constellations and planets. This birth calendar has the capability to foretell the future life, events of the child. Thus Indians are very much ahead of others in the science of astrology. The Jantar Mantar at New Delhi is an example of this. The importance of Indian astrological technique has lately been realized by scientists all over the world and astrology has won a large acclaim all over the world. The proof of this is that scientists have studied this technique and its mathematical formulations have been used by computer now-a-days to create what is popularly known as the computerized life calendar (Janam Patri).

The beauty of Indian culture has inseparable relationship with women of India. It is not an exaggeration but a fact. Indian culture has not ‘only assigned special honour to the spiritual make-up of the Indian women but also to their elegance and self-consciousness. If only the mysteries of child birth had been a wonder to ponder upon them to reverence to her outlook would have been lost in the development and research of life studies. Her elegance enjoys great respect in broad Indian culture, in the visions of Mother India, in the personalities of Radha and Sita, in worship of the creator, Lord Brahma. So the women in India can never have a separate outlook in development stages of Indian culture.

Indian culture has a rich heritage, some of which has been discussed above. But in course of time many anomalies have also got introduced into Indian culture. Politically and economically also, there are many problems and no one cart forecast its future. After all, the past has contributed some of the greatness which civilisation and culture have built up in the history of mankind. But it is safe to predict that, whatever the future may be, the Indians of coming generations will not be unconvincing and self-conscious copiers of European culture, but will be men, rooted in the!: own traditions, and aware of the continuity of their own cultural heritage. Though the whole face of India is changing daily yet our rich cultural traditions continues and it will never be lost.