South India has had a long heritage of goddess worship. The Shakta traditions that hail the divine feminine has been in vogue since time immemorial. She is the only deity worshipped in the three modes of Hindu ritual of Mantra or the chanted word, Tantra or the coded ritual and Yantra or advanced esoteric geometrical diagrams that connect energy lines.

Across the landscape of South, you find ancient temples dedicated to the goddess in one of these three forms. In addition to these are the numerous artistic tributes to the Devi. In poetry, sculpture, temple architecture and classical music and dance, the goddess has been worshipped since undated times.

In fact, through all these artistic ventures one can trace back the history of human evolution in South India. While it is impossible to enumerate all the spaces and their details in South India, we take a look at some of the most significant artistic odes to the Devi in sculpture, poetry and architecture.  

Starting from the famous cave temples of Mahabalipuram constructed during the rule of the Pallava king Narasimha Varman (630-70 AD). Here we see Devi as Mahishasura Mardhini or the slayer of demon Mahisha. This is a common motif of representing the Devi from the Devi Bhagawatam. You can find this in several other heritage sites across the country.

What is exciting about the sculpture is the depiction of Mahishasura. In many places you normally find a buffalo body and the head of a demon. Here it is the other way round. You find a perfectly sculpted body of a well-built human figure with the head of a buffalo. The whole panel is filled with fascinating details. The central figure being Devi slaying Mahishasura.

Devi is shown with eight arms and riding a lion. She is equipped with all the weapons and can be seen pulling the bowstring all the way to her ear. The demon Mahisha is seen with a club in his hands standing in a position of combat observing the Devi. Around these two main characters are Ganas and Yoginis who are witnessing this war. This is one of the finest representations of plastic art for students of arts studies. Across Tamil Nadu you will find some of the biggest temples dedicated to the Devi. She is worshipped as Meenakshi in Madurai, Kamakshi in Kanchipuram and in many more forms.

Durga as Mahishasuramardhini in Mahabalipuram caves

From there to Kerala, the land of the famous 8th century philosopher and revivalist of Sanathana Dharma Adi Shankara. In his short lifespan of three and half decades, Shankara wrote some of the most seminal works of Vedic philosophy. He traveled extensively and toured the country end to end. Every sacred space or Kshetra he visited, he composed a new song with the inspiration he derived from the respective deity of that Kshetra.

Out of the hundreds of compositions ascribed to Adi Shankara, one of the most famous ones is the Mahishasura Mardhini Stotram.

One does not know when and where Shankara composed this. Filled with esoteric meaning hidden in highly complicated Sanskrit language, in powerful words known as "Beeja Aksharas" this highly energizing composition is a favourite during the Navaratri festival.

In the 1980s this composition gained great popularity with the recordings of Carnatic vocalists C Lalitha and C Saroja who are known as "Bombay Sisters". Till date no one has ever been able to match them in their rendering of this composition. Listen to it here.

Adi Shankara began traveling at a very young age. As he crossed the borders of what is current day Kerala into parts of Karnataka, he visited the ancient temple of Sharada Devi in Sringeri. Sringeri was known as Rushyasringapuram and became famous as the place where sage Rushyasrunga performed his penance to bring in rains.

Looking at the richness of foliage in the western ghats even now, you feel it could be the fruits of that penance that continue till date. Shankara decided to establish the first of his monastic schools or Peethams in Sringeri. He appointed his disciple Sureshwaracharya as the head of this school. This is the only monastic school of Shankara that has had an unbroken lineage from that time till now.

In Sringeri, the Devi is worshipped as Sharada, the goddess of knowledge, an incarnation of goddess Saraswati. Originally it was a small shrine with the central idol of Sharada made of sandalwood, installed over a Sri Chakra Yantra that Sri Adi Shankara carved on a rock. Subsequently the Acharyas built a temple in Kerala style, with timber and tiled roof. Later the original idol was substituted with the present golden idol. Lakhs of pilgrims throng to Sringeri to seek the blessings of the goddess all throughout the year.

Sringeri Sharada Devi as shown in calendar art

From there to the Telugu speaking regions of Andhra and Telangana. The region is dotted with numerous ancient temples dedicated to the Devi. She is worshipped in the famous Shakti Peetha of Jogulamba in Telangana, as Bhramarambika Devi in Srisailam, Kanakadurga in Vijayawada and Gnana Saraswati in Basara.

However she has been immortalized as Bala Tripura Sundari in the village of Kuchipudi. The undated classical dance-drama tradition of Kuchipudi was recreated and revitalized by Siddhendra Yogi in the 17th century.

Narayana Theertha (1650-1745 AD), a composer wrote the magnum opus "Sri Krishna Leela Tharangini". Each of these songs are called Tharangams and are integral to the Kuchipudi dance repertoire. While many songs are on lord Krishna, a few are on other gods. The Durga Tharangam is on the mother goddess.

Watch it here being performed by Sita Prasad and a young Pasumarthy Mrutyunjaya Sharma who comes from one of the traditional Kuchipudi families.

There are many more songs in celebration of the Devi. One cannot possibly list all of them out here. Navaratri or Dusshera is already here, even as you read this. What better way to welcome the blessings of the goddess into your homes than visiting some of the most ancient spaces she has been worshipped at.

One cannot deny the presence and importance of a mother in their lives, irrespective of your religious beliefs and ideologies. According to our rich ancient tradition, the Devi is worshipped as the mother goddess, always compassionate and ever giving. Welcome the goddess energies into your home through art. A happy and holy Dussehra.

Images courtesy : Krishnamurthy, Selva Kumar 

(Veejay Sai is an award-winning writer, editor and a culture critic. He writes extensively on Indian performing arts, cultural history, food and philosophy. He lives in New Delhi and can be reached at vs.veejaysai@gmail.com)

Also read:

The Master Puppeteer: Bengaluru queen who owns India's largest puppet collection

Remembering the magic of Lalgudi Jayaraman, a genius musician and composer

How Munshi Premchand made his way into south Indian cinema

How Krishna is celebrated in south Indian classical music and dance

L Subramaniam- The doctor who became the international face of Carnatic violin

For a long time, literature and drama have been considered cathartic. For the women who performed the play “Positively Shameless” about sex abuse inflicted on them as children in Bengaluru, it was literally so.

With the show, staged at the Rangsthala auditorium on MG Road on Friday, directors Maitri Gopalakrisna and Shabari Rao aimed at starting a conversation on child sexual abuse and how a lot of survivors carry the trauma and the anger, the guilt and the shame into their adult lives.  

"Apart from the abuse in itself, I noticed how all the stuff around it, a lot of it was social and public," says Maitri, who is pursuing a Ph. D in Drama Therapy and facilitated a drama therapy group last year for women who had gone through sexual abuse as children.

Maitri approached them with the idea of a theatre performance and a few of them agreed to it. Shabari and she wove together experiences of CSA into a play. Some of the actors underwent such ordeals as children.  

The multitude of emotions - sorrow, gratitude, anger, pain- can be felt all at the same time and can be suffocating. 

"There's a sense of shame that people who've faced child abuse feel and they may have body image issues. They feel fragmented and find it difficult to reclaim their selves. There's also conflicted relationship with parents. There's lots of complexities too, like relating to sex and sexuality," the directors said.  

One of stories enacted was about a woman who was abused by her cousin when she was a child. And while her father was oblivious to the happenings, it is he who made her cousin drop her home one day even though she did not want him to.

Was she to blame her father? He did not have any clue about it. Was she to be angry? He was supposed to have protected her. Was she to be more appreciative? After all her father made sure her sisters and she got a good education. The voices in her head only kept growing louder.

In a majority of CSA cases, the culprit is someone known to the victim which also leads to trust issues. Disclosing the violence and abuse can be difficult, even when we share it with people most close to us.

At one point during the performance Sathyam AP, an engineer and sex educator by profession, is seen trying to divulge to her mother what had happened to her. But is quickly shushed. Or the woman whose counsellor asks her to be "confident" because she is an independent woman now. 

But putting the past behind is easier said than done.  

It catches up and creeps in in moments when we could be least expecting it, or when we are most vulnerable. 

It may need some work, but reclaiming ourselves is possible. "We wanted to break the silence around the issue. The shame is not mine, and whoever's it is can take it," said Kavya Bose, one of the performers who is a trainer and "intentional relaxer". 

Christian Schroeder, University of Stirling

Mars is the future. It’s after all NASA’s current overarching goal to send humans to the Red Planet. But even as early as the 1950s, aerospace engineer Wernher von Braun, had published his vision of a mission to Mars in his book The Mars Project. We’ve also heard visions of settling the Red Planet under the leadership of a private organisation before. So why does Elon Musk get so much attention? And how feasible are his ideas?

Musk has too much business acumen, cash and technological know-how to be dismissed as a dreamer. He built a rocket company, SpaceX, from scratch – now contracted by NASA to deliver cargo to the International Space Station. It is also going to transport astronauts into space from next year. Musk has a proven track record of making things happen, so perhaps we can learn from his plans to overcome the two major obstacles that face anyone planning to send humans two Mars: funding and the health of the crew.

Under current scenarios a journey to Mars takes about six months. The crew would therefore be exposed to the effects of long duration space flight where muscle and bone loss occurs under the prolonged exposure to micro-gravity. These effects appear to be largely reversible though. Of more concern is the radiation exposure when the crew leaves Earth’s protective magnetic field. There is currently no shielding technology that would keep the increased cancer risk for the crew below legally accepted limits. And this does not take into account the need to protect astronauts from solar flares, too, in the short term. Musk offers no real solution here other than using the spaceship at the best angle for protection.

Elon Musk.Heisenberg Media - Flickr: Elon Musk - The Summit 2013, CC BY-SA

With the help of in-orbit refuelling, Musk does plan to reduce the transit time from six months to 80 days initially and maybe 30 days eventually, which would significantly decrease these risks. Otherwise he admits that the first missions in particular will pose real risks and anyone signing up basically has to be “prepared to die”. However, more than 200,000 people signed up for the astronaut selection for Mars One– a rival mission to create a permanent human settlement on Mars in the 2020s – which offered only a one-way ticket to Mars. So the threat is unlikely to be a show-stopper, considering also that Musk’s plans do include a return option.

Your heading here

Musk estimates that, with the traditional approach like NASA’s Apollo programme, the cost of sending humans to Mars will be about US$10 billion per person. He plans to reduce these costs by several orders of magnitude to US$200,000 per person – the average price of a home in the US and comparable to the amount charged for a suborbital flight with Virgin Galactic. His aim, he says, is to make it affordable for anyone who wants to go.

To lower the costs, Musk is designing a fully reusable system that will be refuelled in orbit with a new kind of propellant that can also be produced on Mars. We’ve seen these ideas before, and Musk has credibility here by successfully demonstrating controlled landings of rocket boosters for reuse.

Refuelling in orbit provides increased propulsive power, which shortens the transit time to Mars and allows larger spaceships to be sent to Mars that can carry more people and cargo. Mars One plans also include an orbit refuelling option, whereas NASA is designing a new rocket, the Space Launch System , that is supposed to eventually provide enough power to send astronauts to Mars in a single shot. NASA’s approach avoids the upfront costs of the additional hardware and infrastructure for refuelling but it limits its options to the small number of about six astronauts and a long transit time.

And here is the point where Musk’s plans become truly ambitious and out of touch with his projected timeline of sending the first ship to Mars as early as 2022 (he admits he is bad at timelines). His transit ships are supposed to take 100 people in one go. SpaceX has yet to successfully take its first astronauts into space, starting with a modest number of two to fly in its Dragon capsule. To upscale this to an interplanetary cruiser transporting 100 people and keeping them alive on their journey to Mars seems a tall order, even for Musk. An audience member at Musk’s presentation asked about the small matter of sanitation, for example. The explosion of his Falcon 9 rocket on the launch pad at the beginning of September shows that it is not called rocket science for nothing.

The SpaceX rocket approaching the landing platform.SpaceX/flickr

Notwithstanding the significant technological challenges to achieve the grand scale of Musk’s plans, the maths of lowering the costs only works if the ships will be reused often and if all seats on board are sold. The prospective Mars settlers would not only have to accept the risks but also find a way to pay the US$200,000 price tag.

Even with this buy in, there are enormous upfront costs to develop and build the necessary infrastructure and put it into place around Earth and on Mars. Musk admits that raising the cash is his biggest challenge and that it will have to be some kind of public-private venture in the end. Success of his plans ultimately will come down to whether he can find enough like-minded people who will put all of their own assets on the line for the greater goal of making humanity an interplanetary species, as well as to secure government buy-in and private investors who will demand some kind of a profit.

Christian Schroeder, Lecturer in Environmental Science & Planetary Exploration, University of Stirling

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

By Laurie Gough

Although I used to be a travel writer, I took my most frightening journey only recently, with my family, without ever leaving our small Quebec village.

After my father died in 2012, my son was so shattered that he transformed from a regular, bright, happy-go-lucky, soccer-loving ten-year-old into a near-stranger dominated by bizarre rules of magical thinking all designed to bring his grandpa back to life.

For such an even-keeled kid, my husband and I were alarmed that losing his grandpa would plunge our son into an existential crisis. Unable to grasp the finality of death, a tidal wave of grief was forever smashing him down and he couldn’t find his way to the surface.

But as winter turned to spring, I started noticing his grief easing up a little. He was no longer crying into his pillow at night and had started laughing again. Except, now he was doing something else that I found peculiar.

One evening I was sitting beside him in our living room while he seemed to be unconsciously tapping each elbow onto the back of the couch. Four taps of the left elbow, four taps of the right. A few tap-less minutes would pass and then he’d start the routine again.

Over the coming weeks, what we called “making things even” became more complex, seemingly full of complicated rules. One day he started turning his head as far as it would go over his shoulder, then he’d turn his head to the other side over the other shoulder. But it didn’t stop there.

He’d go back and twist his head twice on the first side, then twice again on the other side. It looked like an exercise for old people. “Do the kids in school notice you doing that?” I asked him one day while he was building a Downton Abbey-esque estate on Minecraft.

“Yeah, sometimes,” he said, not looking up from my iPad.

“Don’t they find it weird?”

He shrugged. “They just think I’m stretching my neck.”

One evening I decided to Google, “kids making things even”. I doubted my search would lead anywhere since those words together seemed so arbitrary. But I was shocked to find link after link with that very phrase, including one that led to something called “symmetry rituals.”

That’s exactly what Quinn was always doing, performing rituals to make everything symmetrical on both sides of his body. How could something seemingly so random be so ubiquitous?  I looked at the link. It was a website for obsessive compulsive disorder.

At what point, I wondered, did Quinn’s mourning morph into OCD? Was it a single indecipherable instant or more gradual, like the day you realize one season has finally surrendered to another and you didn’t see it happen?

Why had he stopped crying for his grandpa and started wanting everything to be symmetrical instead?  Perhaps death had simply been too overwhelming for his young mind to comprehend and his brain found these behaviours the best available coping mechanism for unfathomable loss, loss that triggered fears about future losses and his inability to prevent them. Was he trying to control the uncontrollable? Physically save himself from drowning in his own grief?

I spent hours researching OCD and was relieved to discover that with advances in brain science, where scientists have learned that the brain isn’t rigid after all, but malleable and ‘plastic’ (the science of neuroplasticity) a revolution has taken place.

Cognitive behaviour therapy alone actually causes chemical changes in the brain and by changing your behaviour, you change your brain wiring, finally getting relief from OCD. By performing ‘exposure’ exercises, the brain re-circuits itself until the obsessions and compulsions lose their appeal.

It’s hard work but it’s pretty much the only option. My husband Rob and I started Quinn on the exercises (called ERP—exposure response prevention) immediately.  We were also advised to give him anti-depressants to lower his anxiety for the ERP to work. We said no to the drugs. I’d read too many horror stories about their effect on kids. 

The more I read the more puzzled I became by the compulsive behaviours themselves. Where did they come from? A new behaviour I’d noticed was that Quinn had to leave a room by the exact route he’d used to enter it, sometimes even walking backwards, retracing his steps.

This in itself wasn’t any more unusual than his other baffling behaviours, but what I found intriguing was that this one, like making things even, seemed so common for people with OCD. Quinn called it erasing. According to the OCD Foundation, erasing, cancelling, and undoing are all common OCD compulsions. For Quinn, everything had to go back to zero, to be symmetrical.

I wondered what was happening in the machinery of people’s brains. Did this need for symmetry trace back in our evolutionary history? And if so, why? None of my books on OCD discussed this nor could I find anything online.

It wasn’t until I happened to read a book on a completely different topic -Riveted- by cognitive scientist Jim Davies, a book about what makes things compelling, that I found a possible answer. In the natural world, being able to pick out the face of a living thing hiding in the forest could save your life.

Faces of living things -humans, snakes, cougars, tigers- are symmetrical. We’re programmed to pay attention to symmetry, to be on alert for things being even. Finally I had an answer for why Quinn might crave symmetry.

 And not only are we always looking for existing patterns, our brains have adapted to see patterns where no patterns actually exist.

Science writer Michael Shermer, author of over a dozen books including Why People Believe Weird Things, writes about how we’re descended from early hominoids who were most successful at finding patterns. Patternicity is the tendency to find meaningful patterns in both meaningful and meaningless noise.

For those with OCD, this primal tendency of being hyperaware of patterns is in overdrive. It’s an adaptive behaviour—one that has kept our species alive—gone rogue.

Something else I found compellingly odd in my OCD research, and in observing OCD in my son, was that OCD rituals seemed strangely religious. No matter how many times my husband and I told Quinn that nobody comes back from the dead, the goal of all of his behaviours was to bring his grandpa all back to life.

I was reminded of this every time Quinn placed his hand on his heart, looked up at the sky and started chanting, “Please come back, please come back, I love you, please come back,” over and over. Where did he get this hand-on-heart, heaven-gazing chant behaviour? Certainly not from his non-religious upbringing.

Even though we were working on the ERP, Quinn was still engaging in a storm of magical thinking rituals that debilitated his entire day. He couldn’t even read anymore since he had to read all his sentences backwards. We decided to take him out of school temporarily. Rob proposed that he and Quinn work on the ERP exercises every day instead of school work.

Weeks before, Rob and Quinn had made an Excel chart to rate all his OCD behaviours on a scale of one to five, like a Richter scale of anxiety. In the beginning, Quinn rated every single behaviour as a five, meaning not doing those things would cause him the highest possible anxiety. You’re not even supposed to work on the fives.

But Rob finally discovered one behaviour—retracing steps—that Quinn could work on not doing because there was a way to reverse it if he had to. Quinn could walk into the living room and try to remain there as long as possible without backtracking. He knew that if his anxiety got really bad, he could just retrace his steps.

The first try, he lasted 45 seconds without backtracking, which was a triumph. Rob told him that if he lasted a full two minutes the next day, they could play with toy cars together. Quinn loved that idea. Rob thought they’d cracked the code. ERP was working.

It was true that we were seeing gradual improvements with the ERP, but sometimes, Quinn didn’t respond to it at all. I wondered if the giggly little boy who Quinn had been would ever come back. As the weeks passed, Rob and I became so hollowed out we were like ghosts you could see through.

Rob and I realized we needed to tell all our friends, everyone we knew. Until then, only a handful of friends had known. We hadn’t meant to keep it a secret. It had just become that way on its own because we’d been so preoccupied with it.

I sent an email to all our friends and neighbours explaining why they hadn’t seen Quinn around on his bike lately, or us out on our street or in our village of Wakefield. After writing that letter, the phone began ringing almost immediately. Emails flooded my inbox. People started knocking on our door and as it turns out, the OCD Monster hates visitors.

An astounding outpouring of love and support began to flow into our lives from friends, neighbours and fellow Wakefielders. Some sort of sublime community healing power was at work.

One day, I couldn’t find Quinn in the house. I went outside and thought I heard singing. The singing got louder as I walked down our laneway. When I got to the end of our laneway, I looked up. Quinn was at the very top of our pine tree. When he saw me he stopped singing and called out, “Hi, Mummy!” and started climbing down.

He jumped off one of the lower branches and landed in front of me. His face was flushed pink. I asked what he’d been doing. In a steady strong voice, looking me in the eyes, he said, “I sang ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’ to Grandpa and I let him go.”

I stared at him. A blue jay squawked nearby. “You what?”

“I sang the whole song. Then I let him go.” He said this matter-of-factly. He was smiling. There was a calm in his face I hadn’t seen in weeks. He began walking up the lane, saying he wanted to go to soccer practice. I stood there watching him as he made his way up the lane kicking a stone like a soccer ball. Could it be true? All I could do was whisper a hushed prayer up into the tree: Please.

I’d realize later that letting his grandpa go up in the tree that day healed something that was broken in his heart. The OCD Monster was still quietly slithering in the pathways of his brain, but the fight was now on.

The way our brains work is the direct result of millions of years of evolution. And who knows how many of our ancient ancestors might have experienced what we now call OCD? If only they knew then what we know now: OCD can be successfully treated, without drugs, and even disappear altogether, as has been the case with Quinn.

It has been three years and the OCD Monster has never made a comeback.

(Laurie Gough is an award-winning author and journalist whose latest book is Stolen Child: A Mother’s Journey To Rescue Her Son from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. She can be contacted at www.lauriegough.com)

Towards the end of 2015, Siddharth Mohan Nair was selected for the Jagriti Yatra, a two-week long train journey across the length and breadth of the country.

The 25-year-old law student had to skip it as he could not arrange the funds. Siddharth, who hails from Palakkad in Kerala, decided to embark on a journey on his own.

During one such trip, he came across khadi denims from a Khadi Bhandar outlet in Mumbai. "I've been wearing khadi for quite some time now, but I didn't know about khadi denims," he says. 

In April he started DesiTude, a khadi denim brand after taking a Rs 30,000 loan from his mother.

“Customized, made to measure, hand-spun hand-woven Khadi apparel. Proudly hand-crafted in India,” is how the brand has been described on Facebook.

“Many people have never heard of khadi denims. So when they place orders with me without seeing the product or having touched it, it is totally amazing,” he says.

DesiTude is a one-man organisation currently. Siddharth personally buys fabric rolls from Ahmedabad, washes them multiple times and then hands over the material to a tailor in Mumbai. The finished garments are delivered via India Post.

Siddharth says that one of the main reasons that people don’t buy khadi is because it is time-consuming and expensive to maintain.

Ordinary khadi requires starching to increase life of the fabric and need to be hand washed to preserve quality.  

"Not only does it increase the cost of maintaining it, but people also do not have that much time. This is one of the main reasons people don’t buy khadi," he says. But khadi denim does not need starching, ironing or whitening, he says. 

At Rs 3,500, prices of DesiTude’s products are higher because khadi denim fabric is more expensive than mill made material, and because he doesn’t manufacture in bulk.

Most of his customers are from Bengaluru and Chennai followed by Bombay. He has also received two orders from France and Singapore. Investments have come in and Siddharth plans to first get the company registered and build a website.

Siddharth did not expect his idea would pick up the way it has and is still not quite sure about its future. Through his brand, he practices his beliefs. Among them is using his business to help other causes- he has pledged to plant a tree sapling for every jeans he sells and is also supporting CodeRed, an initiative to provide underprivileged women sanitary napkins.

"What I am doing is not charity,” he stresses. “Though some people seem to have that impression. I am making a livelihood here and khadi promotion is also an aim.”

DesiTude will soon introduce handprinted eco-friendly khadi labels for its jeans. 

For the love of Khadi

Though in the business of jeans, Siddharth doesn't wear denim pants himself.

While studying to obtain his degree in energy and environmental engineering, Siddharth was like another student. “I was lean, used to sport spiky hair and wear low waist pants. I also took to body building for a while.”

All that changed after he volunteered in the India Against Corruption (IAC) movement in 2012, and was deeply inspired by the likes of Anna Hazare and Prashant Bhushan.

That’s when he switched to the mundu, a traditional dhoti like garment worn by men in Kerala, after reading C. Rajagopalachari's biography. He lives a Gandhian way of life "not only because of Gandhiji but also because leading a simple life is good".

The transformation, which occurred in his early 20s, shocked people. "They asked me if I had a freedom fighter in the family. Some people think I am old, some see me as a nut. Once I was travelling in the Delhi metro, and two girls started singing lungi dance. People tease me. But I am cool (with it),” he says.

By Kaushik LM

Tamil actor Sivakarthikeyan is on a high. His much talked about film “Remo” is all set to release on October 7. The posters with Sivakarthikeyan dressed as a woman have generated a lot of curiosity and interest.

Sivakarthikeyan is one of Kollywood’s fastest rising stars. How did he manage to make the switch from being an anchor on Star Vijay TV to a popular hero?

Speaking to The News Minute, Sivakarthikeyan says, "I would attribute my success mainly to my connect with the people. From my TV days, they have been receptive to my work and when I got into films, that response continued. I also make sure I deliver what they expect from me, which is clean entertainment.”

Sivakarthikeyan is conscious of his audience and believes in giving them what they want. He adds, “My directors pack my films with the necessary elements. For example, director Ponram knew that kids have taken a big liking towards me and he made me dance with a group of children in the title song of “Rajini Murugan”."

On “Remo”

“Remo”, directed by Bakkiyaraj, will see him in a dual role. How comfortable was he with the idea of cross-dressing?

Sivakarthikeyan says, "After director Bakkiyaraj's narration, I didn't open up to anyone for a few days as I couldn't visualize myself as a lady. I thought people would discourage me from taking this up. I finally shared this idea with my friends, including Sathish and Arunraja Kamaraja, and narrated the script to them for about 45 mins. They responded positively and laughed at the very same moments which appealed to me as well.”

Sivakarthikeyan then discussed the idea with his family and other than his mother, who was a little shocked, the rest were encouraging. He listened to the script once again and gave it the nod.

Speaking of his experience on the sets of “Remo”, the young actor says, “Cross-dressing is the biggest challenge in cinema and I've given it my all for “Remo”. I don't see myself taking up such an experiment again."

Sivakarthikeyan recalls the many makeup techniques that were used when filming “Remo”: “I couldn't afford to look hefty in the nurse look and had to become really lean. I stopped gymming for about 7 months and lost up to 9 kilos. I had to look cute in this look and match Keerthy's age, too.”

Initially, Sivakarthikeyan says, they tried out prosthetic makeup but that made him look too old. He laughingly adds that he had to go through the pain of waxing and threading as well.  

On the female character he’s playing

Tamil cinema hasn’t been particularly sensitive when it has portrayed cross-dressing characters. Will “Remo” be any different? Sivakarthikeyan asserts that the focus was to show the nurse (the female character that he’s playing) in a “pleasing manner”.

He says, “We haven't portrayed her in any derogatory way. Also, for these portions, I dubbed for just five minutes of footage each day. I took about 4 to 5 hours each day in the morning to complete this. I used to shuttle from my house in ECR to Prasad Labs daily. It was tough, as my voice needed ample rest while dubbing for the lady portions."

On Keerthy Suresh

Keerthy Suresh, who paired up with him in “Rajini Murugan”, is the heroine in “Remo” too.

Sivakarthikeyan speaks of his co-star: "We initially approached many heroines but for some reason or the other, they backed out. But cameraman PC Sreeram sir was clear from the beginning that Keerthy was the apt choice for this film.”

Sivakarthikeyan wasn’t very keen on repeating the heroine but believes that Keerthy was perfect for “Remo”. “We needed an innocent face as she has to be oblivious to the hero wooing her, dressed as a nurse. Keerthy fitted the bill very well,” he says.

On the social responsibility of cinema

What does he feel about his films coming under criticism for glorifying and validating stalking, this method of “wooing”?

Sivakarthikeyan doesn’t think this is a problem. He says, "Stalking has been a constant phenomenon in Tamil cinema since long. In all my films, I pursue the girl that I like, fall for her and ultimately marry her unfailingly. There is nothing wrong with that and I am not putting forth any wrong messages or ideas. I don't see it as stalking.”

Stating that this kind of love, where a man is relentless in his approach towards a girl to make her reciprocate, can be considered “pure” because he doesn’t have “any other intentions”, Sivakarthikeyan dismisses the criticism as “negatives can be found in every film and it's all about perspective."

Director Pa.Ranjith recently spoke of the social responsibility that film-makers should have when making a film. Is this something Sivakarthikeyan agrees with?

The actor responds: "It's his personal stance. He is someone who makes socially-inclined films and it's easy for him to have such an outlook. But, all films needn't be the same way and audiences want all kinds of films. There needs to be a mix of the socially responsible flicks and the commercial fare. The way I see it, I would be happy if my commercial films deliver some good social messages here and there."

On his inspirations

Sivakarthikeyan, who is a big Rajini fan, says that the latter’s films groomed his interest in cinema. After “Rajini Murugan”, the Superstar even called him and spoke for a brief while.

“I was so nervous and literally shaking while speaking to him,” Sivakarthikeyan recalls.

But it isn’t only the big stars who inspire him, anyone who crosses hurdles every day to get to the top makes an impression on him, Sivakarthikeyan says, perhaps remembering his own journey to the top.

Stuart Thompson, University of Westminster

A new book, The Hidden Life of Trees, claims that trees talk to one another. But is this really the case? The simple answer is that plants certainly exchange information with one another and other organisms such as insects. Think of the scents of newly mowed grass or crushed sage. Some of the chemicals that make up these aromas will tell other plants to prepare for an attack or summon predatory insects to defend them. These evocative smells could be seen as cries of warning or screams for help.

When plants are damaged by infection or by being eaten, they release a range of volatile molecules into the air around them. After exposure to some of these chemicals, nearby plants of the same species and even other species become less vulnerable to attack, for example by producing toxins or substances that make themselves harder to digest. These changes don’t usually happen straight away but the genes needed turn on much more quickly when they are needed.

There is also evidence that the chemicals released by plants in a particular location are subtly different from those released elsewhere by the same species. Consequently, it seems that if plants talk, they even have languages or at least regional accents.

Talking plants?

But is this really communication, as humans understand it? It really isn’t clear whether a plant releasing chemicals intends to pass on information to another plant by doing so. I respond to the chemicals released by frying onions but that doesn’t mean that the onions are talking to me. So are these really messages or just the opportunist use of chemical information in the environment?

It seems more likely that these signals started out not as a way to send information to other trees but to get messages quickly and efficiently to other parts of the same plant. Pests or infections will often jump from one branch of a tree to the ones closest to it. But a warning telling those branches to prepare for an imminent attack might have to travel most of the way through the tree and then back up it if the message had to move through the body of the plant. This could be a journey of tens of metres in a tall tree.

A signal that can travel through the air, meanwhile, can go directly to the branches closest to the attack. A consequence of these volatile signals, however, is that they can be “overheard” by any plants the chemicals reach. So when other trees respond by also beefing up their defences, is it communication or eavesdropping?

Perhaps it is a bit of both. Maybe an internal messaging system became co-opted to help plants close enough to “listen in” as they would often be related to the tree sending the message in a classic example of evolutionary “kin selection”. However, releasing chemicals into the environment is indiscriminate and other plants and organisms can take advantage. Sometimes these chemical “messages” can attract pests or parasites. The smell of crushed sage doesn’t protect it from humans, for example … rather the opposite.

Going underground

Not all transfer of information between plants is through the air. The vast majority of plants live in symbiotic relationships with soil fungi. We tend to think of forest fungi as mushrooms and toadstools above the ground but these only pop up after sexual reproduction. The real fungus is a mat of elongated cells spreading through the forest floor.

Fungi: nature’s Facebook?Shutterstock

The trees provide the fungi with sugar and the fungi help the tree to gather water and soil nutrients. And many plants can be joined underground by cells of the same individual fungus. Sometimes when one plant suffers damage, other plants connected to it through their soil fungi protect themselves against future attacks while other plants equally near that aren’t “plugged in” don’t. This fungal network is another carrier for information, a true Wood Wide Web.

But who is in control? The messages are relayed by the fungus and perhaps it is the one really using the information, gathering it from one of its host plants and passing it on to the others to protect its “revenue”. The fungus helps the plants to communicate but may do it for its own purposes, and that might include preferentially helping its best producers, whether they are related to the tree sending the message or not. Information intended for family and friends may end up being passed on to unrelated third parties to profit the carrier of the message. In this way, fungi is a bit like a social media company, listening into and benefiting from its users’ posts.

So we return to the question of whether any of these examples are communication in the sense that we would mean it. Anything that makes people think more about plants is good, but perhaps making trees seem more like us can lead us to overlook their essential nature. As a slightly hippy student, what attracted me to plant science was the way that trees and other plants fluidly adjust to their environment. Perhaps using the chemicals that reach them to shape their adaptation is just another facet of this. Worrying about whether trees communicate actually says more about us than them.

Stuart Thompson, Senior Lecturer in Plant Biochemistry, University of Westminster

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

To say that the aftermath of the Uri attack has created friction between India and Pakistan would be an understatement. What followed was a diplomatic battle at the United Nations, a surgical strike conducted by India, a ban placed on Pakistani artistes in Bollywood and plenty of war-mongering on social media.

But amidst the calls for blood, there were a few voices still asking for peace and condemning the celebration of death and destruction. One such voice belongs to Alizay Jaffer, a woman from Pakistan who wrote a Facebook post on September 29 about the rising tension between the neighbours.

She writes about how people across the border in both countries have a "strange affinity" with each other, much like fighting siblings who often exchange roles and enjoy cultural similarities despite themselves. 

Here is the text of her post, reproduced in full.

***

It’s strange, this affinity with India. I find myself getting increasingly upset at the abuse and hatred tossed from one border to another, with little rationale apart from the 69 year old chips on our shoulders. These chips have, over time, turned into boulders, and who doesn’t crumble under the weight of those?

It’s very strange, this affinity with India. When Amitabh Bachchan is in the hospital, we pray for his good health; when Ranbir Kapoor’s film is a hit, we’re prouder than Neetu and Rishi; we never deny that no one brings romance to life like the voices of Kishore and Rafi; they are in unanimous agreement that their local music scene is not a patch on ours; if we happen to interact abroad, they’re the only pardesis we include in the ‘desi’ category; their monuments carry our history; our language carries their roots.

It’s far too strange, this affinity with India. Like siblings, we retaliate to each other’s provocations. Ultimately, we both share the label of being impulsive and emotional in our responses to one another – ‘Look at what you’re doing in Kashmir’ ‘Hah, look at what you’re doing in Balochistan’; ‘You attacked us first in Uri’ ‘Have you forgotten about Kargil’?; ‘You started it!’ ‘No! You started it!’

Like orphaned trust fund babies, we feel entitled yet have no idea how to cope. They neither acknowledge nor respond to Muslims being massacred for eating beef in Gujrat, for instance, and we? We turn a blind eye to Christians and Hindus being physically assaulted for eating before Iftar in Ramzan. They’re destroying Kashmir, we say, Kashmiris have a right to be independent (or choose us, of course), but we forget how we throttled Bangladesh – why should a Bengali speaking majority not accept Urdu as its national language? We never speak about that, do we? Too soon, perhaps.

When I think about some of my best days and nights in the last ten years, more than 50% of them were spent with my brothers and sisters from across the border; sharing a meal, listening to music, discussing politics, or anything but; laughing, dancing, singing; but most importantly, completely aware yet in vehement passive rebellion against the lines that keep us apart.

Come to think of it now, it isn’t strange at all, this affinity with India. Our proverbial Lord and Master, the gargantuan power that rules us, ‘The West’, is an absentee parent; one we’re constantly trying to please but one who never really loved us anyway. If there is anyone for us, it’s each other. What’s strange is our reluctance to acknowledge this.

What’s strange is the burden we carry of decisions made in our pasts, based on an entirely different socio-political context, when a common, exploitative antagonist made sure we saw each other as the aggressor, and boy, did we fall for it. What’s strange is our prolonged blindness to the immense opportunities that lie before us as a unit, and the vast desolation that lies before us as enemies.

The strangest thing about our relationship, in fact, is our propensity to change roles. To the world, most of the time, we are siblings; constantly at loggerheads, trying to get into daddy’s good books so that he may buy us a toy, or take us for a drive, or better yet, increase our allowance. Other times, we are like a divorced couple, sharing space, constantly bickering over who lost out in the settlement, unable to finally come to terms with the fact that we are no longer together. It seems the scars of our separation are still so ripe, so painful, that they can’t accept that we left, and we can’t accept that they let us leave. In an event like this, we only find solace in making sure the other is just as hurt as we are, so we put in our all our resources, our best efforts, to do exactly that.

I read today that India claimed they carried out a surgical attack in Uri. Ridiculous. I immediately read several, equally ridiculous Pakistani reactions; some hitting below the belt, others claiming that one shouldn’t expect more from mass murdering politicians, like the ones we have across the border. Somehow, suddenly, we are all too forgiving of our own ‘glorious’ politicians. It’s strange how quick we are to forget how much trouble governance is in, on both sides, when we jump up to point fingers.

I’m sure this news will leave me in a month’s time. What hasn’t left me is the news about a Pakistani Head of State’s arrival in Delhi for a test match, ultimately averting the threat of war; or an Indian politician putting his hand forward to greet his Pakistani counterpart, to curb tensions; or that time when Ganguly acknowledged that there’s no one greater than Wasim; or when Shoaib Malik married Sania Mirza; or that image of the guards in the most beautiful fraternal embrace I have ever seen, on Holi at Wagah Border. I suppose it’s because some of us look for peace, we hanker for it, while others, they look for war.

I suppose what I’m trying to say is, in 20 years’ time, Uri will be just another event in the text books. It will be labeled as yet another period in our collective histories when our ‘cold war’ with India almost turned into ‘hot war’. It will be just another opportunity for me to pick on my Indian friends or vice versa. It will be just another event our older uncles will discuss when they try to feel better about Pakistan’s failures and convince themselves that partition was the best thing that could’ve happened for us and that, without India, ‘we’re better off’.

What will never be ‘just another event’ is one we never address. The fact that we are now divorced; the fact that our separation is painful for both of us; the fact that where there is now hate, there was once unity and a common pride; the fact that we allowed an external power to come in and manipulate us, and we fell prey; the fact that no one will know us like we know each other, because after all, we were once but one.

It is comforting somehow, that when I messaged one of my closest friends across the border, expressing concern over the destructive megalomaniac tendencies of our governments, he responded and said, ‘It doesn’t matter what they do, you know I will always love you’. It is comforting somehow, that in 20 years’ time, if you look away from the textbooks, and turn to your ancient scriptures or your holy books, it won’t take you long to see that since time immemorial, there is only one message they are trying to convey, only one message we should be paying attention to; and that message is Love.

***

Alizay's post went viral on social media and has been shared more than 2,700 times. Unsurprisingly, there were hate comments on the post but there were many who expressed solidarity with Alizay's sentiments as well.

Earlier on Monday, Alizay posted another status on Facebook, responding to the overwhelming reception that the previous one had received.   

She countered the people who had told her that she did not know what it was like to lose someone in a war. "Their solution to that is, (wait for it), more war. How does that make any sense?" she wrote.

Alizay also said that she had been approached by a few TV channels but had refused to express her opinions on air because she lacked expertise. She reiterated her appeal for peace and pointed out that this does not translate to being unpatriotic:

"There are people on either side who want war. That is their opinion; that is their notion of patriotism; that is their nationalism. BUT there are people on either side who want peace; those who feel that patriotism does not mean war, but instead that no more people should die. That is the side of history I'd like to be on. Love." 

Natalie McCreesh, Sheffield Hallam University

For years, style bibles such as Vogue and Elle have found their exclusivity undermined by bloggers, who – with huge numbers of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram followers – have won over the designer brands that would normally only deal with major publications. Inevitably, this tension occasionally breaks the surface, as when Vogue editors recently lashed out at fashion bloggers in their Milan fashion week round-up column.

Criticising fashion bloggers for the practice of being paid to wear certain outfits, the Vogue journalists called the bloggers “pathetic”, accused them of “looking ridiculous” and decried the whole affair as “all pretty embarrassing”. Scathingly, Vogue’s creative digital director Sally Singer wrote:

Note to bloggers who change head-to-toe paid-to-wear outfits every hour: please stop. Find another business. You are heralding the death of style.

This is not the first of such broadsides from fashion writers. In 2013, the New York Times’ renowned fashion journalist Suzie Menkes berated the “poseurs” gathered outside fashion shows, waiting for keen street-style photographers to take their picture. It was the first of many slaps in the face for fashion bloggers, who were branded “wannabes” desparate for attention.

Yet since then bloggers have only gained in popularity, with the Spanish edition of Vogue even featuring the Italian model and blogger turned fashion designer Chiara Ferragni on its cover in 2015. For a blogger to reach the cover of Vogue, the very pinnacle of style, suggested that the fashion bloggers had been finally accepted. It seems not.

Perhaps Vogue’s biggest bugbear is that bloggers are invited to sit on the front row at fashion shows – an honoured position previously reserved for celebrities and editors of glossy magazines. Yet bloggers have become a hybrid of the two – part editor, part celebrity – and thanks to their enormous social media presence they have developed the style-influencing selling power built to match both.

Fashion blogging is hard work

Certainly, fashion designers and brands were quick to recognise the power wielded by bloggers. If offering a blogger an invitation to sit on the front row wearing their latest designs encouraged sales, why wouldn’t they?

It’s grossly insulting to suggest bloggers don’t work hard for their position. Bloggers often style themselves, take their own photos, attend fashion shows, write their own copy and design and edit their websites as well as provide the constant updates to their social media channels required to keep their audience engaged. Especially when starting out, they will have to do all this for themselves.

Standing in the cold for more than an hour in sky-high heels (because being photographed is part of your job) before sitting on a dusty floor or trying to catch a glimpse of the runway from behind 15 rows of people is a due all true fashion lovers have paid. How much easier it must be to walk straight in from your warm company car with no queue to face – and no heavy camera to carry as your publication will have sent their own photographer. A whole team brought in to report on a single day’s events.

And let’s not forget that running a blog is essentially an unpaid role, and how – or if – the owner chooses to make money from it is up to them. One way of making it pay is to work directly with fashion brands. A brand might gift or lend a blogger some items to wear. The blogger gets to create a new outfit and something to write about, and the brand gets exposure – surely a mutually rewarding relationship?

Dispersing fashion

Something Vogue’s writers forget is that the price of the garments we see on the runway make them unobtainable for most people. They are displayed in the glossy pages of Vogue as “aspirational” items. For most, the only experience of the latest fashion designs will be in the trickle-down version produced for the budget-friendly high street. This is how the fashion cycle works – and magazines have played a huge role as gatekeepers. The rest of the world only sees those designer pieces from the runway that magazine editors chose to include.

Fashion bloggers have worked around this filter, by publicising the looks from the shows they choose and by wearing borrowed (or gifted or purchased) garments from the show. The insular walls of the fashion industry have been shaken – and fashion has became more democratic.

With the growing power of bloggers came a decrease in power of the fashion magazine. The magazines now attack the bloggers for the same things that in effect magazines and magazine journalists have always done – albeit not so publicly. In the UK, under Advertising Standards Authority rules bloggers must disclose any working relationships they have with brands or if they are wearing a gifted item. Yet magazines are not required to play by the same rules.

It is well known that magazines give editorial coverage to advertisers in addition to attending advertiser’s shows. The prestige of magazines like Vogue is jealously guarded, because it is prestige that brands will pay for – and advertising income is increasingly precious as more and more readers move online. This works well for salaried editors and brands with huge marketing budgets, but what about smaller fashion brands or newcomers? Speaking to the New York Times, Philip Oh, Street Peeper blog photographer, made this clear.

Most young designers don’t have the resources to hire high-powered PRs or have access to important editors and stylists. So lending their clothes to friends and supporters who will get photographed is a great way to get noticed by both the industry and consumers.

It was bloggers and street-style photographers that were credited with helping up-and-coming London brand Ostwald Helgason get its break in 2012 when its trademark bold striped pieces were snapped and pasted across street style blogs during London Fashion week. “For us, as a small brand, we would never be able to get that kind of exposure [otherwise],” Susanne Ostwald said.

Vogue is still the fashion bible for many. Countless newcomers to the industry aspire to work for the magazine one day – but, until then, starting a fashion blog is a way to tap into the industry and share a love for fashion. The question must be asked why Vogue would not nurture and celebrate this enthusiasm and talent.

If “style” is an individual’s innate sense of dress, can an edited magazine such as Vogue ever really reflect style? Style is not fashion – and fashion is only ever style when taken and made personal by an individual, something more likely found on the street than in the professional, paid-for pages of a magazine.

Alexandra Codinha, fashion news editor for Vogue.com, said: “The fashion world can all too easily feel like an impenetrable bubble.” An impenetrable bubble indeed – one created by the likes of Vogue. Is it any surprise to see the bloggers revolt, staking their claim and right to fashion?

Natalie McCreesh, Senior Lecturer in Fashion Marketing & Communication, Sheffield Hallam University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Twenty years after "God of Small Things" critically acclaimed author and renowned social activist Arundhati Roy will publish her second work of fiction, "The Ministry of Utmost Happiness", which is set to be published in June next year.

The announcement was made by publisher Penguin India in a Facebook post on Monday.

The post quoted Ray saying, “l am glad to report that the mad souls (even the wicked ones) in The Ministry of Utmost Happiness have found a way into the world, and that I have found my publishers.”

“Only Arundhati could have written this novel. Utterly original. It has been 20 years in the making. And well worth the wait,” David Godwin, Roy's literary agent said, according to the post.

Roy who was awarded the Booker prize for her debut novel in 1997 has since written on a variety of issues including politics and social issues in India and abroad.

One of her recent works include "Things that Can and Cannot be Said" (published in March 2016), an account of when she along with American actor-producer John Cusack wrote about their well-known meeting with fugitive and American whistleblower Edward Snowden in a Moscow hotel in December 2014.

Daniel Ellsberg, another American whistleblower was with the duo in the Ritz Hotel suite in Moscow.

In November 2015, Roy returned her national award for Best Screenplay in 1989 for TV film  "In Which Annie Gives it Those Ones" starring Shah Rukh Khan, protesting against the growing intolerance in the country. 

She had declined to accept the prestigious Sahitya Akademi award in 2005. 

Susan Schneider Williams, the widow of renowned actor Robin Williams, has spoken up about the disease that left her husband devastated and pushed him to take his own life.  

In a special editorial, titled "The terrorist inside my husband’s brain", in the journal of the American Academy of Neurology, Susan shares "a personal story, sadly tragic and heartbreaking". 

Robin, an Oscar-winning actor and stand-up comedian, was suffering from Lewy body disease (LBD), a neurodegenerative disease for which there is no cure. 

In her piece, Susan writes how Robin "died from suicide in 2014 at the end of an intense, confusing, and relatively swift persecution at the hand of this disease’s symptoms and pathology."

"Although not alone, his case was extreme. Not until the coroner’s report, 3 months after his death, would I learn that it was diffuse LBD that took him. All 4 of the doctors I met with afterwards and who had reviewed his records indicated his was one of the worst pathologies they had seen. He had about 40% loss of dopamine neurons and almost no neurons were free of Lewy bodies throughout the entire brain and brainstem."

She continues, "Not only did I lose my husband to LBD, I lost my best friend. Robin and I had in each other a safe harbor of unconditional love that we had both always longed for. For 7 years together, we got to tell each other our greatest hopes and fears without any judgment, just safety. As we said often to one another, we were each other’s anchor and mojo: that magical elixir of feeling grounded and inspired at the same time by each other’s presence."

In 2013, during their second wedding anniversary, Robin had already been struggling with physical symptoms- constipation, urinary difficulty, insomnia to name a few- which at the time seemed unrelated. 

However, on that specific weekend, Susan says, he started experiencing gut discomfort. "Having been by my husband’s side for many years already, I knew his normal reactions when it came to fear and anxiety. What would follow was markedly out of character for him. His fear and anxiety skyrocketed to a point that was alarming. I wondered privately, Is my husband a hypochondriac?"

Over the next 10 months, the symptoms increased in both frequency and severity. Robins was now experiencing "paranoia, delusions and looping, insomnia, memory, and high cortisol levels". 

He was also seeking regular psychotherapy and other medical help constantly by that time. 

"How I wish he could have known why he was struggling, that it was not a weakness in his heart, spirit, or character," she states. 

During the filming of "Night at the Museum 3" Robin was facing problems in remembering even one line for his scenes "while just 3 years prior he had played in a full 5- month season of the Broadway production Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, often doing two shows a day with hundreds of lines—and not one mistake. This loss of memory and inability to control his anxiety was devastating to him."

And he would often say, "I just want to reboot my brain."

Susan Schneider Williams serves on the Board of Directors for the American Brain Foundation. 

Read the full essay here. 

The good thing about social media is that no matter how loud the dominant discourse gets, it almost always provides alternatives. So while news anchors are harping on retribution, a social media campaign called "Profile For Peace" has resurfaced, with people posting selfies with a message saying that they do not hate the other country.

Started by Mumbai-based ad-filmmaker Ram Subramanian, the campaign invites people "to participate in this campaign, write a similar message on a post-it or a piece of paper, take your selfie with it and make it your profile picture" accompanied by the hashtags 'Kill Terrorists Not Talks' and 'Profile For Peace'.

Ram Subramanian

Bollywood celebrity Mahesh Bhatt also joined the campaign, posting a picture with the message.

pic.twitter.com/WKxVXCWO3g

— Mahesh Bhatt (@MaheshNBhatt) October 1, 2016

However, not everyone agreed with the campaign this time and an army veteran, Major Gaurav Arya, posted a response on Facebook, implying that the support for Pakistan was unfair to the soldiers who worked to protect India. 

"Its easy to ask for peace when you are a thousand miles away from the Line of Control, and your primary concerns are which party to attend this evening and where to get financing for your next film. Peace is not a punch line. It is the end result of war," he wrote.

But despite opposing voices, responses have come from both sides of the border with men, women and children posing with messages of peace.

The pictures havebeen uploaded by the Facebook page 'Voice of Ram' in an album. These are a few of them.

Ajmad Abbas, Pakistan

Ex navy chief admiral Ramdas, with his wife Lalita Ramdas, India

Masood Khan, Pakistan

Jyoti Sharma, India

Syeda Jasmine Jaffer, Pakistan

Neha Rastogi, India

Rida Chandio, Pakistan

Rajesh Souran, India

Talat Islam Khan, Pakistan

The campaign was also carried out last year in light of Shiv Sena threatening Pakistani actors against working in Bollywood. People on both sides of the border had responded by posting selfies and expressing their desire for peace.

In the age of social media, the game of Chinese Whispers takes on a new dimension. Distorted information flies fast and rumours are spread in a matter of minutes.

The number of stories regarding Tamil Nadu CM Jayalalithaa’s health that have been circulating on social media is a recent example. From taking a photograph of a female patient in Peru and claiming it to be that of the CM to making cryptic statements about “riots” that are about to break out in Chennai, there has been plenty of irresponsible rumour-mongering in the state.

What’s worse is that the public finds such unverified information more believable than official news communicated through authorized sources. But then, a rumour is more interesting than the staid truth.

Here are some popular rumours from the past: some harmless, some with consequences.

Delhi’s Monkey Man

The Monkey Man was a “monster” who supposedly roamed the streets of Delhi and attacked people in mid-2001. Eyewitnesses could never agree on what the creature looked like. Some said that it was about four feet tall and covered in thick black hair with metal claws, a metal helmet and glowing red eyes. Others claimed that it had a snout and was as tall as eight feet!

Since this was before smartphones flooded the market, there were no pictures of the Monkey Man.

But there were mobile phones and the rumours flew fast and thick. The police received numerous fake calls from people who claimed that they had spotted the Monkey Man. Due to the sheer panic that gripped the city, a few persons even died when they leapt from buildings or fell down stairwells, thinking that they’d seen the attacker.

The police believed that anti-social elements were making use of the hysteria to loot people or play pranks. To date, the existence of the Monkey Man remains a mystery.

Aarushi Talwar was adopted

 There were several rumours about the sensational double murders that took place in Noida in 2008, but the one that Aarushi Talwar was adopted had to be among the strangest.

The rumour was propounded by a number of people, from the UP police to writer and socialite Shobhaa De, turning the public mood decisively against Rajesh and Nupur Talwar, Aarushi’s parents who were later convicted of the murder of their daughter and domestic help Hemraj by a special CBI court.

Nupur, who appeared on a television show soon after the murders and did not cry, was especially targeted for her “lack of emotions” which was seen as unnatural.

The rumour that Aarushi was not their biological daughter was discussed on social media forums as a possible “motive” for the murders. The Bollywood film “Rahasya” which is loosely based on the double murders also went with the theory that Aarushi was not Nupur Talwar’s biological daughter.

NASA has released an image of India on Diwali day

This photograph went viral on social media. It first appeared in 2011 and continues to resurface every Diwali since!

So popular was this rumour that NASA released an actual picture of India on Diwali day the next year to put an end to the story. But tough luck, NASA, this is one rumour that refuses to die down no matter how many times it’s exposed as a fake. 

Swathi’s murder was “love jihad”

The brutal murder of Infosys techie Swathi by her alleged stalker in Chennai earlier this year, sent tongues wagging and there were numerous rumours and conspiracy theories doing the rounds on social media.

The ugly face of communalism rose in the midst of the tragedy, with several people, including celebrities like actor Y Gee Mahendra accusing a Muslim friend of the victim’s to be the murderer. The murder was termed an act of “love jihad”.

The accused, Ramkumar, was nabbed by the police and he recently committed suicide when in prison – an incident that has once again stirred the cauldron of rumours. It was Swathi’s birthday last week and her sister wrote a moving letter of remembrance which also mentioned the trauma that the family has faced because of rumour mongers.

UNESCO’s Best National Anthem and Best Prime Minister

A hoax email which claimed that UNESCO has declared India’s National Anthem to be the best in the world first emerged in 2008 but keeps resurfacing every now and then despite attempts to quell it. WhatsApp messages entreating Indians to be proud because of this “achievement” appeared even towards the end of 2014.

Another fake UNESCO award that many Indians celebrated was the “Best Prime Minister in the World Award” which was reported to have been won by Narendra Modi. Even billiards champion Pankaj Advani fell for it and tweeted his congratulations to the Indian PM!

National anthem is a salutation to the British

While Indian people celebrate UNESCO’s non-existent award for the Best National Anthem, many also believe that “Jana Gana Mana” is really a song that praises Emperor George V.

This is not a new rumour and was around even in Tagore’s time. In fact, he was asked about it and this was his reply, “I should only insult myself if I cared to answer those who consider me of such unbounded stupidity as to sing in praise of George IV or George V as the Eternal Charioteer leading the pilgrims on their journey through countless ages of the timeless history of mankind.”

However, with the Internet and social media, this old rumour has got new life and continues to circulate among the new breed of “nationalists”. In reality, Tagore was asked to sing a song in praise of the monarch and he flatly refused to do so.

Crocodiles escaped during Chennai floods

While fish, frogs and even snakes entered the homes of people during the Chennai floods of December 2015, crocodiles did not make an appearance. However, there was a rumour that crocodiles had escaped from the Madras Crocodile Bank.

Fake images like this one were circulated on social media, adding to panic and confusion in the city.

In the ironically titled “23½ Ways to Make A Girl Fall for You”, TV anchor Cyrus Broacha takes aim at the dating skills of the Indian male, who he says, “has no game”. Taking on the role of agony aunt, Broacha gives his readers a list of basic dos and don’ts for dating and relationships, with the don’ts occupying the predominant place. In this excerpt, Broacha takes on the question of consent and the fine line between wooing and being a creep in his own inimitable style.

*****

By Cyrys Broacha

Dear Cyrus,

I love a girl from my college. We know each other for ten years. She never had the same feelings for me. I tried expressing my feelings for her on several occasions, but she made fun of it and ignored. Last year, she started texting and chatting with me. I thought of proposing to her for marriage and I did. She got a hang of my intentions and then started ignoring me. But I did not give up. I have been trying to be friendly with her. I am waiting for her to make up her mind and accept my proposal. But four months ago, she blocked all communication channels between us. I don’t know what is going on in her life. How do I communicate with her?

Ace

ACE,

I’ll tell you exactly what Jimmy Bharucha, ‘ACE’ dog trainer, told my Beagle Figaro, when Figaro tried to steal food off the table. ‘NO!!’ The word is ‘no’, and it means basically a negative result as in you can’t, won’t, shan’t, mustn’t. She made fun of you, rejected you, and now cut off all communication with you. If one pigeon had done the same to another pigeon, the rejected pigeon is not known for its brains and intellect. If it can understand… we Indian men have to understand the meaning of ‘NO!!’ If you’re having trouble still, I can recommend a suitable dog trainer.

Yours sincerely,

a Cyrus

*****

Dear Sir Cyrus,

I have a very interesting question for you. I would like to know what the prerequisites for attracting a mate are. I am five foot five years old and weigh sixty-two kilos. I have a steady job at an insurance firm, but I lack the confidence and experience in the area of attracting members of the opposite sex. Could you guide me with a few contrite steps in the right direction in simple English please? I have asked this question to many agony aunt columns but am yet to get a satisfactory reply. So please look at this letter as a personal challenge to yourself. You come highly recommended, so while I don’t want to put unnecessary pressure on you, I do need to clarify that I’m expecting something special, thanks to your outstanding work in the field. Now I turn the mic over to you.

Yours gratefully,

Soorjit Sarkar

P.S.: Let me also inform you that I’m fifty-four years of age, and have never had a girlfriend.

Soorjit,

From your self-evaluation I can see that you should have been a long distance runner. Which, by the way, is a profession that attracts many members of the opposite sex in droves. First, thanks for understanding the pressure we writers go through daily. An agony aunt has a huge responsibility. You can’t just drop a shawl over your shoulders, powder your hair, and then turn up. You need to help impressionable minds through a whole gamut of life changing decisions—from waxing their legs, to downloading naked pictures of oneself. So your empathy is very well-received by my minor, but proud community of men, who double up as helpful aunts. However, after being so sensitive, you then exert overbearing pressure on me by saying you are expecting something extra special from me! This is causing me to sweat and break out in hives. So please un-send that last request as soon as possible.

Now, coming to your question, which is how to attract members of the opposite sex? My boy, simply put there are many routes you could take. For instance, you could become a famous film star or sportsperson. Apparently girls will then flock to you. You could also simply attract attention by wearing outlandish clothes like a beekeeper’s outfit, or an astronaut’s spacesuit from the 1980s. This also is a hit with the ladies, ask any beekeeper or astronaut friend of yours. Lastly—and this is only in the event that the first two routes have failed you, after exhausting them completely—you can try an old-fashioned, largely untested option of promoting yourself in an un-zealous like fashion, whereby your best qualities are highlighted in a charming and non-overtly manner. In other words, the opposite of a matrimonial ad that gives height, weight, complexion and profession as the greatest qualities of the candidate.

You need to perhaps spread yourself around. Avail of opportunity. But there’s a fine line between availing and being a creep. So avail carefully. For instance, you meet a colleague in a lift which is crowded, please don’t avail. That would freak her out. You can’t ask her out on a date in this claustrophobic, public environment. Also, gauge when you can steer a conversation towards socializing. Discuss a movie that you’ve seen, if she’s enthusiastic you may get an opportunity to ask her out for another movie. Again, don’t do this in a crowded elevator, or a ladies toilet, or a colleague’s funeral.

Soorjit, your height and weight are inconsequential, unless you want to become a jockey. You need to find the ‘YOU’. The ‘YOU’, you like, i.e., the ‘YOU’ you like that’s you. Then avail away.

Yours faithfully,

Sir Cyrus

Excerpted with permission from “23 ½ ways to make a girl fall for you” by Cyrus Broacha and published by Rupa Publications

You can buy the book here

"At the wedding ceremony, many guests told me that even my mother and her sister looked fairer than me.”

When Kochi-based make-up artist Priya Abhishek Joseph got this distressed message from one of the brides she worked with that morning, she realized that this was only the tip of the iceberg.

Because that was not the first time that her clients had approached her, requesting that she not only make them look beautiful on their wedding day, but also fair.

“People in Kerala are terrified of being dark, or being told that they are not fair enough,” says 36-year-old Priya, who has been a make-up artist for nearly two years.

Rejecting the fair, glowing and whitewashed face of the Malayali bride that has been the standard for many years, Priya insists that brown-skinned Malayali women need to wear their skin unapologetically.

“I just don’t understand the Keralite’s obsession for fair skin. To begin with, the majority of our women are brown-skinned. The whole idea of make-up is to even out one’s skin tone and not to entirely change one’s skin colour. But some brides tend to have this obsession for looking fair on their wedding day. This is the result of social conditioning - that anything dark is undesirable and not pretty, and that fair is what is beautiful,” says Priya.

Priya was working in market research for a few years in the UK and later moved to Kochi in 2013 with her husband and child. When her sister got married a few months later, it opened up new possibilities for Priya’s career.

“It hit me, how the marriage industry is so huge in Kerala. But I did not want to open up a boutique or an accessories store, since I felt the market was saturated. So I didn’t want to follow the status quo and decided to apply my creative skills through makeup, ” Priya says.  

She tried helping out her architect husband at work but when that didn’t gratify her, she went on to pursue hair and make-up training at Fat Mu Academy and in the Marvie Ann Beck Academy in Mumbai in 2014.

It was as part of a photo shoot at one of the academies that she first chose to work with a brown-skinned model.

“One of the rounds was bridal make-up and I was particular that I wanted to work with a brown-skinned model. However, though nobody voiced their disapproval explicitly, I could sense from the other students’ expressions, how alarmed they were at seeing a dark-skinned bride,” Priya recollects.

On returning to Kochi, she shadowed a popular make-up artist for a brief period, but was alarmed by what she encountered.

“The artist would use the same foundation on every bride he worked with, irrespective of whether it suited their skin tone or not. The idea was to lighten their skin tones, and while the same foundation worked on some brides, it clearly did not work on some others. One cannot hold the artists alone responsible for doing so. They are only catering to the market demand. Look at popular magazines and one would see the same skin tone everywhere,” Priya says.

She fondly remembers the first bride she worked with, who had approached her on hearing about her work. The bride being confident about herself and certain about her needs was a relief for Priya. 

"I didn't have to go convince her that she ought to be comfortable in her own skin. But this had not been the case with other brides, many of whom decided not to go with me after their engagement ceremony. Some would look at the mirror and wonder whether I have made them look darker than their original skin tone. Some others would go back satisfied with the look, but later call to say that their family disapproves of the look." 

In August this year, she conducted a "Brown Beauty" photo shoot featuring Shaun Romy, the actor who shot to fame for her performance in the Malayalam film “Kammattipadam”. Shaun was the heroine of the film and did not disguise her dark skin tone.

"I had been following Shaun even before her appearance in the film. I had seen many photographs of her in which she looked beautiful in her natural dark complexion. I wanted a popular face, somebody whom the people would be able to relate to, as my model. Everything fell into place when Shaun agreed to do the shoot," Priya explains. 

Priya believes that make-up artists can bring in considerable change to the way people see and treat skin tones in the state. So much so that the logo of her official Facebook page features a smiling brown-skinned bride. 

Though many Kerala women have begun to accept their brown skin tones, Priya feels that Kerala has a long way to go.

"We are not there yet. Not unless we stop looking up to fair skinned celebrities as a benchmark of beauty...not unless the media stops glorifying lighter skin tones. We see brown-skinned models on fancy magazine covers, but what do we see in regional magazines? The same fair skinned faces. I feel our celebrities and the magazines can be pivotal in changing this wrong perception," Priya says.