Chatterbox October '06

Here is my October column - hope you enjoy and I look forward to reading your comments on it :)

What's in a name? I would say a lot...

It’s no longer Aishwarya – it’s Ash. And it’s no longer Sushmita – it’s Sush. It’s not Kamala, it’s “K”. And it’s not Barvant, it’s Barry.

This has been bugging me for quite some time now, and this month I’m going to vent about it. What is up with the anglicizing of our Indian names? In other words, why are our Indian names being shortened and abbreviated by non-Indians…just because they can’t make the effort to pronounce it?

We call Jennifer, Jennifer – not “Jen” or “Jenni”, unless of course it’s an accepted nickname by that person. And we call Daylen just that. Not “Dee” or “Day”.

So – just because some Indian names are a bit “difficult to pronounce” is it correct that a new version be given? Of course not! I can’t begin to tell you how many times my name has been mispronounced. For goodness sakes, you say it the way it’s spelt – Sheetal. Shee-till. Some versions of my name include Sheetaaarl. I even remember hearing Shantal once. But – most of my friends have given up and now resort to calling me Sheets. It’s become so common that most people, even my family calls me that too. I suppose it’s shorter than Sheetal and doesn’t require much effort.

My brother, Darmesh, has had a couple of variations of his name. At school, he was known as Daaarm-esh or Daaarm. It stuck so much that sometimes I find myself calling him that too. But now, his friends have resorted to calling him by his DJ name, “Damage” Even my parents’ names have been so anglicized over the years by family friends that it’s actually laughable!

So is it effort to say Kalapana? Of course! That’s why they’d rather say Kay or Kal. And Sameer becomes Sam. It’s like when you’re talking about Sameer to someone, they have no idea who you’re talking about.

But say Sam, and everyone knows who he is! For all I care, Sam can be short for Samantha!

This is all I’m saying: We say Sebastian and Priscilla. So why can’t we say Urmila, without getting our tongues twisted around it?

I’m not saying that nicknames are wrong. They’re endearing. But what grates on my nerves is when people shorten Indian names for pure convenience.

But even Indian people are anglicizing their own names for convenience. Harish may change his name to Harry. After all, when dealing in business, he can save the time when he introduces himself to people and they say, “Can you repeat that?” If “Harish” stays, I bet it will become Hareeeesh.

My friend, Nethan is South African-born, now living in Australia. Pronounced “Knee-than”, he says people he only meets once call him Nathan (Nay-thin) and he can’t be bothered to correct them. To his friends he’s known as “Neth”. Of course there are other variations which are reserved for family and close friends. He’s gotten so used to this that he says he answers to anything these days.

And then there’s my friend Asmita. Asmita – what a lovely name. Pity people don’t appreciate its beauty, because she has become “As-meeee-taah”. It’s the same thing with another friend of mine, Shakeela, whose name has been converted to “Sha-keeee-lah”. I have even heard of a baby’s parents wanting to call him Rohan, but changed the spelling to “Rohern”, just so that people don’t get into the habit of calling him “Ro-han”

When people can’t pronounce my name or don’t even make an effort, I just find it a sign of disrespect. Of course, this is my opinion which I am entitled to it. Readers, I’m interested to know if you go through the same thing. Is your name anglicized by non-Indian speakers too?

UNITED 93 - riveting

Directed by Paul Greengrass

September 11, 2001. Four planes were hijacked. Three of them reached their target. This is the story of the fourth.


I have just seen UNITED 93. Frankly I have no words to describe it. It's not even something that one can crit in deapth, because the happenings that unfolded in the film actually happened.

Right from the beginning of the film, I felt on edge. It's like I was waiting for something to happen, but you just never know when the terrorists were going to strike. I loved the reality of the film - everything was so natural-looking ....from the people's appearances to their mundane conversations. I especially appreciated the passenger's reactions to the attack on board.

There were no 'heroes' so to speak. They were all completely normal and responded to the situation like any average person would (this is, of course only my opinion). In short, I think Greengrass has done a superb job with this film.

Mehndi

A few weeks ago my friend, Asmita applied mehndi on for me. Since I have been so busy over the last few weeks, I wasn't able to upload and post them. But look at how pretty it was!

Mistress of Spices - a disappointment

I've just come back from watching The Mistress of Spices. It stars Bollywood actress, Aishwarya Rai and the dreamy Dylan McDermott and is based on the novel by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni of the same name.

The story revolves around Tilo - a young woman who has a vast knowledge of the world of spices. She has a unique ability to look into people's past and future and with her special powers, she is able to help those who approach her with problems.


In order for her remedies to work, Tilo must obey three rules:

1. She must only use the spice to help others.
2. She must not touch another person.
3. She must never leave her store.

There is hardly any surprise when her temptation, in the form of Doug, enters Tilo's store after being hurt in a minor accident outside her store. As he visits the store on a regular basis, Tilo wonders if there is more to her life than merely helping others. She begins to fall in love with Doug, and because of this, the spices punish her - by making all the people Tilo has helped, suffer. So she has to choose between her calling in life - spices, or Doug.

The director, Paul Mayeda Berges is married to Gurinder Chadha - one of my favourite filmmakers. She brought us films like Bend it like Bekham and Bride and Prejudice - also an Aishwarya-starrer, and will soon be presenting us with the film version of the popular TV series, Dallas. I was a bit disappointed by Mistress of Spices. I have the novel which the film is based on, sitting at home waiting to be read, so I can't really comment on whether the filmmakers did justice to the original story.

I have never been much of an Aishwarya fan. No doubt, the lady has beauty and although she was dress in plain sari's throughout the film, she remained beautiful - especially towards the end when she wore the red sari trying to seduce Doug. However, I found her to be weak in emotions throughout the film. Her facial expressions hardly indicated that she was a lonely Indian woman stuck between her traditional beliefs and 'forbidden' passions.

Other area's which confused me was each time we heard a noise outside Tilo's store. Was it a gun fire? Was it a car backfiring? And what about Doug's flashback to his childhood? I may have drifted away for a few seconds, but I lost the plot when his mother took him to what I assume was a Mexican family. Then one of Tilo's loyal customers - Harun and the girl who lives next door. Why didn't we see a relationship develop between the two? We assume that they will be married, as Tilo gives Harun something which she says he must put on her on their wedding night. But as I've said - we don't see a relationship between the two. All I took from it was that they were neighbours.

Anumpam Kher, who appeared in Chadha's previous films like Bend it like Bekham and Bride and Prejudice was, I think, wasted...as with Shaheen Khan - who played the mother of gangster-turned Jagjit. Khan and Kher played Parminder Nagra's parents in Bend it like Bekham and also had a role in one of Chadha's earlier films, Bhaji on the Beach - as did Zohra Segal, who played Tilo's mentor. I was surprised to see Padma Laxmi playing Kher's granddaughter in the film, and thought she was a bit weak for her part.

Many people may disagree with me, but it seems as though Berges made the film entirely about Aishwarya. No doubt, she is the central character, but it appears as though she is there just for her flawless beauty. The script had so much potential, and it's a pity that the essence of the story fell through the cracks.

On the other hand, I enjoyed the cinematography. I suppose being a TV student, I appreciated the stunning, colourful shots of the various spices. Besides that, I think the filming was straight forward and nothing to write home about.

In short, I was looking forward to watching the film, and I'm disappointed that I was let down.

MY DOCUMENTARIES ARE ONLINE!

My 6min documentary and 24min group documentary that I have been working on for the past few months is complete and online!

• To watch my 6min individual documentary, click *here*
  Then click on "I will not go quietly - High Res"
  
  
• To watch our 24mingroup documentary, click *here*
  and click on "Searching for Existence - Low Res"
  

Please feel free to leave comments at the bottom of both pages :)

Back "home"

After spending a week at home, I am back on campus for the final term of my degree. It's a scary thought, but... I'm ready to kick ass!

ATTENTION: History Buffs

If anyone knows about any of the following, please let me know... I will appreciate any help on any of these topics.

I have to 1) Say what it's about 2) Elaborate on it / put it in context 3) How it fits in to the world crisis as we know it today. I have about ten lines to write about under the given headings.

Here are the topics:

• The age of Homo sapiens relative to the age of the earth
• Concepts of time of pre-agricultural humans compared to ours
• The clock
• The nation state
• Imperialism
• Factories and railways
• Three phases of industrial capitalism
• The growth imperative of capitalsim
• Mass education
• The electrical revolution
• The Harber-Bosch process
• Barbed wire
• Osip Mandelstam and the Stalin poem
• The Yezhovschina
• Uranium and Lise Meitner
• The Gernam euthanasia programme and Auschwitz
• "It is my judgement in these things that when you do something that is technically sweet you go ahead and do it and you argue about what to do about it only after you have had your technical success" - Robert Oppenheimer
• Edward Teller and Mike
• The Golden Age
• The contraceptive pill and the liberation of women