She came like a breeze...

Raju Korti

It is seldom that celebrities, especially those from the tinsel town, land at your doorstep. So I was completely unprepared one afternoon as I reclined against my chair, lost in those forty winks. A very feminine, delicate voice, sounding almost like a musical chime said "Excuse me", shaking me out of my reverie. I woke with a start, thinking my editor had caught me yet again sleeping in the office.
Instead, I was looking at a tall, handsome man accompanied by a pretty and petite woman. The man drew a blank but there was something familiar about the lady who looked extremely elegant draped in a chiffon sari.
Quickly getting into the niceties, I offered them both a chair, racking my brains hard on where I had seen her before. And then the nickel dropped. "Baby Nanda", I exclaimed, hardly trying to control my excitement, which was more out of pleasure than surprise. "You are right minus the Baby part', she riposted with the infectious smile that often lit up the  screen.
As professional journalist, I have had enough brush-ins with most celebrities and dignitaries but I guess professional objectivity goes for a toss when you meet someone for whom your affectations are specially reserved. It therefore took some time to sink in that one of my favorite actresses was in front of me -- in flesh and blood.
Apparently, she had accompanied brother Jayprakash who wanted to meet me in connection with a film he was planning to make. As it turned out, he remained a bystander for most part of that interaction as I diverted all my focus on the lady who with her hour-glass figure looked every inch sensuous without being in-the-face. For that matter, Nanda herself watched my flustered demeanor, that dazzling smile never leaving her face. Probably, she was as elated. Or so I believed.
After the small formal talk with Jayprakash, who remained in touch until early nineties, I broached an informal conversation with her and she listened to my bluster, her responses mostly in appreciative nods and smiles. Her smile that reached right up to her eyes got to me.
At the mention of the 1957 AVM family entertainer Bhabhi, she lapsed into nostalgia. "Yes I was called Baby Nanda then because I was barely in my teens. And my hero was Jagdeep who later specialized in playing bumpkin-buffoon kind of roles," as I remembered how she brought out the diametrically opposite nuances -- first a bubbly young girl and later as a young widow --of her character.
Beautiful without having the trappings of a conventional female lead, Nanda somehow seemed to be tailor-made to play the role of a sister. Chhoti Behen (1959) earned her a permanent place in the people's psyche but it was the supporting role that she excelled in. Recall Kala Bazaar (1960), Hum Dono (1961) and Dhool Ka Phool (1962) where she left her own mark though pitted against Waheeda Rehman and Mala Sinha. There was something about her personality that made her character stand out no matter who else was in the film.
"My best period was from 1956 to 1966" Nanda expectedly told me, "when I was customarily paired with baby-faced Shashi Kapoor and the ever so handsome Dev Anand." And then she went on to tell me how Dev Anand was convinced that he wouldn't settle for anyone else than her as his conscience-stricken sister in Kala Bazaar. It was a measure of her self-confidence that she didn't hesitate in the least serenading him in an out and out flirtatious Teen Deviyaan where a sobered Dev Anand sings to her in the voice of Kishore "Yahaan wahaan fizaa mein awaara, abhi talak ye dil hai bechaara."
Her films were an invariable musical delight. Usne Kahaa Tha, Aaj Aur Kal, Nartaki, Mera Qasoor Kya Hai, Kaise Kahoon, Jab Jab Phool Khile, Gumnaam, Bedaag, Akashdeep, Neend Hamari Khaab Tumhare, Mohobbat Isko Kehte Hain were a veritable treat to the ear.
"I got to lip-synch some of the best songs in the films but to this day, my most exhilarating experience remains sharing the recording room mike with the legendary Mohammed Rafi. We were recording Ek tha Gul Aur Ek thi Bulbul and so endearing and silken was Rafisaab that I almost fell in love with the man. So enamored I was of his voice that I fervently wished the rehearsals would never end," said Nanda, adding "it was an experience of a lifetime to be with the great man." When I told her that Lata Mangeshkar had once said to me that Nanda along with Sadhana, Saira Banu, Waheeda Rehman, Mala Sinha and Asha Parekh did full justice to her voice, she was thrilled to bits. "Is it," she asked incredulously, not hiding her glee at all.
Though with Shashi Kapoor she made among the most popular pairs in Hindi cinema, she was perfectly at ease with bigwigs like Rajendra Kumar, Dev Anand, Dharmendra, Sunil Dutt and second-line rung like Vishwajit and Manoj Kumar.
Daughter of successful Marathi actor-director Vinayak Karnataki, Nanda had to struggle after his death and grew up from a child artiste to a polished heroine, but very few know that it was this metamorphosis in real life that made her the peerless but rather under-rated performer who could essay a sister and lady love with the same aplomb.
I never met Nanda thereafter but spoke to her brother a couple of times, one when the Perry Cross Road in Bandra was renamed after father as Master Vinayak Cross Road. An unsavory row followed the renaming as residents were staunchly opposed to renaming the road which was address to another legendary singer Talat Mehmood.
Jayprakash, who lived with his sister on Perry Cross Road until 1992, before moving to Santa Cruz, pointed out that he had  been correcting people on the official name of the road for a long time. He even claimed to have met Sachin Tendulkar at a function organised by the Mumbai Police. Tendulkar had recently moved into a bungalow in that locality. “I introduced myself to him and he recognized my father and sister. So I told him, ‘You don’t live on Perry Cross Road. You live on Master Vinayak Road. Please, use your postal address accordingly’.” The cricketer apparently said he would correct his error.
After the death of Director Manmohan Desai to whom she got engaged in the latter half of her life, Nanda became a sort of recluse, moving out only occasionally with close friend Waheeda Rehman and Asha Parekh. In an intense recall of those moments spent with her and as a tribute to this wonderful actress, I write the first two lines of the haunting Suman Kalyanpur song that could have been composed only for her dignified visage:
Jo hum pe guzarti hai tanhaa kisey samjhayein
Tum bhi to nahi milte, jaaye to kidhar jaayen...

A lost cause for Advani

BJP: The war within!

Raju Korti
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has become grammarless these days. The party that never stopped throwing it in the people's face that it was a "party with a difference" has turned into a "party with differences."
While the party is harboring dreams of capturing power at the Centre -- a distinct possibility endorsed by surveys and an inept Congress extending its mite to the cause -- its is also lending itself to ridicule the way the old guards are regularly taking swipes at each other and making a public spectacle of their disenchantment.
To even the most politically naïve, it is becoming increasingly apparent that it is actually a prestige war being played out between the new generation leaders and the old timers. There are no prizes for guessing whose gambit has triggered this cold war between Narendra Modi and the party's patriarch Lal Krishna Advani.
Advani, a known hawk and an astute politician, almost came whisker close to being the country's prime minister when the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) was swept to power but it was the moderate face of Vajpayee as the unanimous choice. There was a talk, not entirely unfounded, that Advani nursed an ambition to be the PM. Given that he was majorly responsible for the upsurge of the party in the country, it was a case of paradise lost for the veteran leader after the NDA dispensation lost in spite of the "Feel Good" and "India Shining" factors.
There is no doubt that Modi has captured the imagination of the new generation with his no holds barred aggression and making out a grand case of his home state's revival and growth. Advani, however, with all his political acumen was unable to see what was itching behind the Gujarat CM's greying beard. If Modi was a potential threat to the Congress, he was as much so for Advani who could see the political ground slipping from beneath his feet. It was a lost cause when he fired his first salvo, not attending the party's conclave where Modi's leadership was upheld without many murmurs. The Modi "juggernaut" had rolled on already. If the Advani saga is to be serialized in this game of one-upmanship, it must be said to his discredit, he has blinked first. His anguish at being cold-shouldered first and then not given the constituency of his choice (Bhopal) has given way to two different interpretations. First, his influence in the party --for right or wrong -- is waning and second, his frustration stems out of the inevitable writing on the wall that it is the end of the lifetime's ambition for the 86-year-old avowed RSS man.
While Modi at 63 may look like a schoolboy in comparison, veteran Jaswant Singh at 76 is also being effectively marginalized -- that is considering he hasn't quit the party by the time this blog surfaces on my Facebook wall. But while Advani only kept sulking, Singh was more forthcoming and actually threatened to contest as an independent if he was not offered the party ticket. From all available indications so far, his threat hasn't got him anywhere.
At a personal level, I feel genuinely sorry for Advani. I have known and met him enough number of times to know that the man has polish, charm and articulation unlike a patent rabble rouser like Narendra Modi. When I last met him at the release of his biography "My Country My Life", the man who gave political connotation to the Rath Yatra, Advani, among other, things told me "The limits and boundaries of the party should not be crossed." He cannot be accused of not practicing what he has preached.
It is altogether another issue what signals Advani or for that matter Singh are sending to the bewildered people except that they are nursing their personal ambitions -- an argument also extended to others of their ilk in other parties including the incumbent Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at 81.
It is also not germane to the issue labored over here just how much this show of disgruntlement will affect the party's chances at the hustings. The Indian voter has reconciled to the proclivities of the country's politicians long back.
Yet, one hopes ageing politicians gracefully concede the reins to the younger brigade. It would be no less a master-stroke. But grace and politics? That's asking for the moon. 

Uncommon, of our own making!

Raju Korti

Way back in 1975 I was occasioned to meet one of the most affable and genial personalities that I can ever vouch for. In a long-winding chat over issues relating to environment and ecology, Sunder Lal Bahuguna, the architect of the path-breaking Chipko campaign (Hug the Trees) told me "there is one simple yardstick to know the status of ecology around you. If you don't hear the chirping of a sparrow and the croak of a frog, it means the ecology is headed for an unmitigated disaster."
The tiny little friendly bird once an integral part of a peaceful cohabitation between Man and Nature has become so sparse now that people exclaim with surprise "Oh! that's a sparrow! when they actually see one. This rather taken-for-granted bird, because of its believed familiarity, is hardly seen flitting in and out of the balconies of houses any more. And unless conservation measures are rigorously pursued the common sparrow will soon become fabled. Out of sight and out of mind! The saddest part of this story is not only from cities, these little but powerful symbols of bio-diversity are exiting even from the rural scene. The Nature Forever Society which is spearheading an aggressive campaign for the cause of the sparrow feels, although it may sound far-fetched to some people, that "Sparrow and conservation should be an election agenda." Sensibility and wisdom should second that. While events like Sparrow picnics, Sparrow Contests and Sparrow Walks do promote the cause, what is actually needed is solid action on ground.

Pic courtesy Shekhar Bopardikar and ThirdEye Reflections  

Mumbai has been particularly uncharitable to the common sparrow. The haphazardly growing metropolis' urban landscape punctuated by unbridled urbanization, greedy concretization, mobile towers, changing lifestyles, excessive use of chemicals and pesticides, lack of food and little empathy towards nature have contributed generously to the decline of this petite bird. Mercifully, the sparrow can still be spotted in the western suburbs beyond Goregaon towards Virar, thanks mostly to some forestation that obtains in the stretch. But the picture on the other side up to South Bombay is dismal to the extent that even children know about it only through books.
The BNHS findings are telling. The sparrow population has shrunk to almost half in the last decade. Since 2005, there has been an almost 60% decline in the big sparrow clusters. Areas with no sparrows have also gone up by 50%. The survey compared sparrow spotting by people before and after 2005.
The Bombay Natural History Society survey found that sparrows are seen in fewer places now than they were before 2005. Where they are still found, the numbers are lower than earlier and fewer nests are seen as well. This suggests that the number of sparrows has indeed declined and the low number of nests might mean that they are continuing to decline.
Mr Shekhar Bopardikar, a friend and an ardent conservationist points out as do other environmentalists: "The most obvious reason is destruction of sparrow habitat. Their nesting places have disappeared with rampant urbanization. But all is not lost. Things can be turned around by creating conditions conducive for the sparrows to thrive and multiply."
The Nature Forever Society has a more clarion call. "We don't want our future generations to see sparrows in photos and books. Sparrows are among our last hope to stay connected with what remains of nature in our cities. With sparrows will end human civilization itself."
Let's save this Nature's splendid icon. In it lies our future hopes and well being. I recall a lovely,
rib- tickling song that often use to be played on the radio during my childhood:
Bhookh lagi to chidiya rani
Moong ki daal pakaayegi
Kawwa roti laayega
Laake tuze khilaayega..
Chun chun karti aayee chidya
Mor bhi aaya, kawwa bhi aaya chuha bhi aaya Bandar bhi aaya...
May the chidiya rani's tribe grow.



 

My vision NASA's gain!

NASA snap of the Earth's view.

Raju Korti
All truth, howsoever profound, carries little weight when it comes from lesser mortals. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in its new-found wisdom has come out with a "revelation" that I had been shouting from the rooftops ever since I can remember. But who is inconsequential Me compared to a superpower's civilian space program?
According to a scientific study funded by the American agency, modern civilization is heading for collapse within a matter of decades because of growing economic instability and pressure on the planet's resources. The NASA has not clarified how many decades.
Civilization experts from the times of Samuel Huntington have been at pains to explain the rapid corrosion to human civilization. Over the last decades, the planet's dwindling resources riding mainly on human greed and pelf have become talking points with activists and those with a futuristic vision. Nations across the world have reported degenerating economies for more than three decades now.
It is apparent that the NASA has stumbled upon this deteriorating scenario by using theoretical models to predict what will happen to the industrialized world over the course of the next century or so and have come to the unimpeachable conclusion that even with conservative estimates things started to go very badly, very quickly.
Surprisingly, the NASA has leaned on past parameters -- referring to the past collapses of often very sophisticated civilizations -- the Roman, Han and Gupta Empires for example. Its observation that the elite of society have often pushed for a "business as usual" approach to warnings of disaster until it is too late" has come at a time when the inhabitants of this planet have started feeling the heat long back.
Economy and culture cannot be separated. They thrive on each other and without giving the slightest of hint as to my serious lack of knowledge on the issue, I will still take the liberty of saying that the decay of civilization is not a new phenomenon at all. But the humankind probably needs someone as authoritative as the NASA to make that point.
NASA researchers are obviously flogging a dead horse by exploring factors they believe could lead to the collapse of civilization -- from population growth to climate change. Anyone with a sense of history and civilization will zero in -- if one has already not -- on how the two can amalgamate to "stretch resources" and "the economic stratification of society into 'Elites' and 'Masses".
Economists have long back painted that while civilization has been elastic enough for eons, the decline is gradual but sure even at the optimal rate. It is only a natural corollary that although much less in numbers, the Elites eventually will consume too much, resulting in a famine among the Masses that eventually causes the society to  disintegrate.
The NASA earnestly believes that "collapse can be avoided and population can reach equilibrium if the per capita rate of depletion of nature is reduced to a sustainable level, and if resources are distributed in a reasonably equitable fashion." The million dollar question is who will control the population and how do nations arrest depletion of natural resources when the powers that be are the first culpable in this universally manifest crime? And "reasonably equitable distribution" is understood and interpreted by the political and social class on its own terms.
Prophets of doomsday have been painting a bleak picture of the Globe for some time now. Physicist Stephen Hawking has already notified the catastrophic low-risk (but high-impact) events that could devastate the world.
I will cap it now that I have staked claim to my vision coming much before the NASA did. The civilization came because of the humans. They should also take the credit for its decimation.