VIEW POINT 10
Sunday — Steve Martin
‘Nuclear power is not a viable option’
Lester Brown of the Washington-
based Worldwatch Institute remains a
quietly optimistic man despite the fact
that his warnings over environmental
disasters have for long remained un-
heeded. He was in Delhi this week to
launch the Hindi translation of his new
book, Plan 3.0: Mobilising to Save Civi-
lization. Brown is not your eco-warrior.
He prefers the role of the typical Ameri-
can lobbyist, who will convince you
with facts rather than with shrill
protests and slogans. In
an interview with
Parsa Venkateshwar
Rao Jr, he shares his
thoughts on climate change, curbing
greenhouse gas emissions, and what
emerging market economies like India
and China can do about these issues.
Do you think critical develop-
ments, such as the precipitate
melting of the Arctic ice are hav-
ing an impact on the decision-
makers in the governments of var-
ious countries?
I think they have no option but to
take note of these developments and
SIDE SHOW
Sorry,
objection
overruled
A filmmaker always takes a few
things into consideration before
making a film, including certain as-
pects of the film
that he feels the
censor board
might object to.
But once the Cen-
sor Board of
Film Certifica-
tion considers a
movie worthy of
being watched,
no organisation
or committee has
Madhur the right to raise
Bhandarkar objections. What
use is the censor board otherwise?
Traffic Signal, which won me aNa-
tional award, faced this similar prob-
lem. It was banned in Himachal
Pradesh because the people there took
objection to the use of the word ‘kin-
nar’, which funnily, wasn't even in the
film. We tried to make them see sense.
But they wouldn't budge and we had to
give up eventually. The producers, of
course, had to bear losses. When a film
is made, it's not just money, but also
the effort of hundreds of people who
have toiled on the movie, at stake.
For a filmmaker, it's a fragile situa-
tion. No matter what precautions I
may take to ensure that my film does
not hurt the sentiments of anybody,
no one can guarantee that someone
somewhere won't be agitated at the
smallest thing. There will always be a
few people standing outside the the-
atre, ready to pelt stones. They don't
understand that, in the end, the film is
a work of fiction — just like a book.
That's also why, at the beginning of a
film, we have a note stating that the
film is fictional and any resemblance
to anyone is purely co-incidental.
What's the solution? It's simple. We
have a censor board. Let them do their
job. I was advised to make small
changes in my films, Corporate and
Traffic Signal which I agreed to. I
don't see why a filmmaker needs to
seek ‘permission’ from any committee
when an association set by the govern-
ment of India approves a film. It's not
like we always hurt sentiments. There
are films that propagate harmony too.
Does anyone ever come forward to ac-
knowledge that?
Madhur Bhandarkar is a National
Award winning director. He spoke to
Aniruddha Guha.
POLITICKLE
Vol.3 Issue No. 317 ■ Printer & Publisher: M Venkataraman ■ Managing Editor: R Jagannathan ■ Printed & Published by Diligent Media Corporation Ltd. Printed at EL-201, MIDC, TTC Industrial Area, Mahape, Navi Mumbai 400 705, Phone No: 3980-2200 and published at 1st Floor, Oasis Complex, Pandurang Budhkar Marg, Kamala Mills Compound, Lower Parel, Mumbai- 400 013, Phone No: 3988-8888, R.N.I. No. - MAHENG/2005/15154.
Simply Every father is entitled to have at least one silly and loud shirt.
dna.sunday
Mumbai, June 15, 2008
take the necessary action. If they do ward good old coal in order to get mands to be met without ever bother-
not, then people at the grassroots will away from oil and gas. The argu- ing to look at the supply side. It was
start doing so. For example, when the ment is that there are now tech- assumed that the supplies were there.
Berlin Wall fell in 1989 and the East nologies which make clean coal Now a point has been reached when
European communist governments possible through processes like the oil supplies can no longer be tak-
crumbled, no one expected that there coal gasification. en for granted.
would be that kind of a sudden There is nothing like clean coal. It What do you think of the explo-
change. But it happened. A similar is not my view alone. It is the view on sion of the automobile market in
thing will be happening with regard Wall Street as well. The Bush Admin- India?
to climate change and the environ- istration had planned for 17 coal-fired Such growth will be difficult to
ment as well. There will be sudden power plants. But no one from the sustain in countries like India. For
changes in policy. Wall Street was ready to back the proj- every thousand cars, an acre of land
Is nuclear power a ects with money. So, even the federal has to be paved for parking and driv-
INTERVIEW viable alternative to government has backed off. ing purposes. If there are millions of
LESTER BROWN fossil fuels? Is the automobile industry a big cars, then millions more acres of land
It is not. The costs of hurdle in tackling the climate has to be diverted. It is unsustainable.
a nuclear power plant will have to in- change crisis? There is no alternative to an efficient
clude not just the commissioning of Days of the gas-guzzlers are over. It public transport system.
it, but also that of disposal of the nu- of Texas in the US, 23,000 megawatts tries. So, it is also commercially vi- is not possible to sustain consump- Do emerging economies like In-
clear waste, of the plant's decommis- of electricity is produced through able. Already Algeria is exporting tion of oil at those levels even if there dia and China have to make a
sioning, and the possible accidents. wind power. The local people have re- 6,000 mw of power to Europe through are people who can afford to pay the trade-off between development
Nuclear power is not economically vi- alised the need to switch to alterna- an under-sea connection. In countries high prices of gasoline. Oil produc- and environment protection?
able compared to wind and solar pow- tive sources of energy. Three states — like India, which has a long coastline, tion has reached peak levels, or near- Emerging economies have an ad-
er. The last nuclear plant set up in the Texas, North Dakota and Kansas — it is possible to harness wave power. ing it. It is going to decline in the vantage. They do not have to make all
US was in 1979. have wind power potential to meet the India is already generating impres- years to come. There are no inex- the mistakes that the old industri-
Have the non-conventional or electricity needs of the whole of the sive amounts of wind power. There haustible sources. All these years the alised countries have made, and then
renewable sources of energy be- US. Similarly, Algeria has the poten- are technologies now available to har- Paris-based International Energy turn back. They can take short-cuts to
come commercially feasible? tial to generate solar power that could ness alternative sources of power. Agency (IEA) and the US department solar and wind power because the
Yes. They have. In the oil-rich state meet the needs of the European coun- Many people seem inclined to- of energy had been projecting the de- technology is there.
SHOUTS & WHISPERS
Sorry, wrong Tendulkar Murder she
‘NEW INDIANS’ ARE DIVORCED FROM ANY GREATNESS THAT ISN’T FLASHED ON TV
Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay
wrote
L ast month on the day Vijay Ten-
dulkar died, a sizeable number of
active professionals in the news tele-
vision industry — undoubtedly to-
T
here was a donald's burger-eating, mobile
time not so phone-using corpses, who all lived
long ago when the middle class Indian dream…
day's dominant medium — couldn't
have cared less. For them, after hav-
ing grown up on dreams of becoming
the routine until an ex-lover's ire caught up
way to end a with them.
love affair And we as a public are subject-
a star anchor, there is only one Ten- gone awry was ed to the minutiae of murder like
dulkar — and he was only suffering for the couple never before: weapons, forensic
from a recurring groin strain. This in question to evidence, motives, passion,
generation is totally detached from snub each oth- parental remorse, subterfuge and
Malavika
the past or greatness that is not er. You fell out keyhole voyeurism.
Sanghhvi
flashed on television day-in and day- with a para- Welcome to the Balaji films ver-
out. It is not just the television indus- mour, you stonewalled him at sion of a nation as a work in
try where knowledge of history is in your next encounter; if he persist- progress — vamps who scream,
short supply — it has permeated al- ed in contacting you, you got men who cheat and things that go
most every profession that plays a friends and family to make excus- bump in the night. A deadly cock-
role in nation building. This has re- es about your whereabouts; if tail of rapidly changing social
sulted in a situation where the major- more drastic measures were mores, the breaking down of com-
ity of tomorrow's leaders are com- called for, you changed your munities, a transient society, new
pletely divorced from India's history. phone number — and in the direst money and the ghastly, lurid influ-
The lack of knowledge as reflected circumstances, you moved to a ence of TV soap operas and Bolly-
in the indifference to the passing new location. wood plots.
away of Vijay Tendulkar, is sympto- —AP
But if one goes by Think about it:
matic of narrowing interests of peo- present trends, it Today's India is What else can a na-
ple on the fast track of personal the UPSC interview panel being seems none of these tion that consumes
growth. From being a society where The lack of knowledge as forced every year to select people for options are viable. indicating that the the facile, cynical,
knowledge or information was not reflected in the indifference to premier services of the country even Today's India is indi- best way to end immature and self
only of paramount import, but also a
the passing away of Vijay
though they know that the candidates cating that the best an affair is — serving output of TV
prerequisite for going up the social do not come up to expectations. way to end an affair and film screen writ-
ladder, we have become a 'skill-orient- Tendulkar is symptomatic Francis Fukuyama in his con- is murder! You don't murder. You don't ers do but internalise
ed' society. Depth of knowledge, clari- of the narrowing interests of tentious ‘End Of History’ essay ar- like the way a ro- like the way a what they see and ap-
ty of thought and ability to foresee gued that the events leading to the mance has turned romance has ply it to their own
ahead has been replaced by just one people on the fast track of end of the Cold War and the collapse out? Poof — you get lives?
yardstick of evaluation — technologi- personal growth. Depth of of the communist order meant that rid of your ex-lover! turned out? Poof Where have ideas
cal capability. knowledge and clarity of the history of evolution of social sys- Everyone seems to — you get rid of of doing away with
Well-paying professions have come tems ended with Western liberal be doing it: MBA stu- your ex-lover irritants in one's
up that require little skills beyond thought has been replaced by democracy emerging as victor and dents, BPO employees, lives with mithai-
pressing a few buttons on the key- just one yardstick of the perfect political system. private airline crew, laced arsenic, or
board and speaking a few pre-or- evaluation — technological In India there is no victor among TV actors, defence personnel, politi- stashing bodies in garbage bags
dained sentences in accented tones. political systems or parties as the cians, middle class housewives… I come from but TV and films?
Lucrative professions that required capability democratic model of polity has can't remember a time when we When there exists an all- pervasive
little capacity beyond 'fixing' things lurched from the era of single party have woken up each morning to so culture of cliffhangers, TRP rat-
existed even before the symbolic wa- coming out every year from factories dominance to one where coalitions many crimes of passion. ings, box office figures and eyeball-
tershed years of economic liberalisa- masquerading as institutes and cannot be avoided. It continues to bat- I come from a generation when grabbing plots, is anyone sur-
tion but there were always question weighing all options while being con- tle with contradictions both self-cre- the Nanavati case involving a prised that the outcome is lurid
marks about their social acceptability. scious that a job in a call centre is a ated and naturally developed. Fis- Mumbai-based Parsi naval officer plots where murder is the in-
This has changed. Today's jargon guaranteed last calling. sures on the surface are visible when- shooting his wife's alleged Sindhi evitable — and mandatory — end
gives a veneer of respectability to The high attrition rate and lack of ever the anger of sectarian groups lover brought the chattering to a failed love affair?
what was considered down-market the quality is something that plagues boils over on to the streets. classes in India to a standstill. As What happened to counselling?
other day. There are no telephone ex- managers in every industry. This But below the surface, fault lines kids we sang ‘Hang down your To good old ‘let's be friends’, to ‘for-
changes anymore, we only have BPOs means that the market has burgeoned exist and these are bound to widen head, Nanavati’, to the tune of a give and forget’, to ‘hey — it didn't
and call centres. Similarly, the insur- without adequate thought on expand- as 'visible India' becomes more di- popular song. The papers wrote work out but it's time to move on’?
ance executive is the agent of yore. ing infrastructure. Since everything vorced from its past, while the 'invisi- about nothing else for days. The Does anyone out there remem-
The growth of the service industry is increasingly market driven, organ- ble India' becomes more conscious of court trial changed the face of ber a time when to signal the end
is in a way responsible for the new- isations make do with what is avail- its present and what it is missing out courtroom procedures. Its impact of a love affair you went out and
found economic prosperity of the able. This is becoming true about on. After all, however much it ex- was unprecedented. bought an Archie's card to send —
middle classes. This should have every industry and profession. pands today's growth-oriented indus- Today, urban murder for mat- or horrors — dedicated a syrupy
made other professions steer clear of A nation that is increasingly be- tries will never be able to provide ters of the heart seems to be one song on a Saturday night radio
its limitations. But leaders of other coming intellectually bankrupt is not space for one billion plus. That is more facet of reform India — like programme to your ex-paramour?
industry — be it the media or educa- far away from the malaise striking — when history will come back to haunt multiplexes and caramelised pop Today, unfortunately, it seems
tional institutes, the two most impor- or is already setting in — govern- those who are trying to escape it at corn. the card is replaced by arsenic
tant industries contributing to opin- ment. The desertions in the bureau- the moment. And there are corpses strewn and the song by a gun.
ion building — have not been able to cracy or armed forces in the middle everywhere. Attractive, upwardly
erect a dividing wall. Witness for in- level will soon spill over to entry-level Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay is a mobile, Japanese car-driving, Mac- Email: _malavika@dnaindia.net
stance, the number of youngsters positions. One shudders at thought of media analyst based in New Delhi.
manjul@dnaindia.net
I believe change is good phones had not made their pres- as a gift. I was ecstatic as now I
BOTTOM’S UP ence felt and PCOs were the pri-
mary mode of communication
could carry most of my precious
hoard with me.
Archita Wagle when outside. I have had many Just last week I was running
fights with friends and family late and caught a cab to office.
I fell in love for the first time
when I was around two years
old. My first love was beautiful
over my unwillingness to hand
over my hoard even after receiv-
ing promises of being paid back.
After reaching my destination I
discovered I had forgotten my
wallet at home. Frantically
— a smooth shining tiny disc. Why couldn't they understand searching in my bag for some
Though I didn't know it then, it that a lot of effort went into tucked-away note, much to the
was a 25 paise coin. My mother gathering each and every one of growing irritation of the cabbie,
still recalls how I made a grab those coins? Those were not just I came across my trusty coin
for it, almost leaping out of her any old coins. purse. I counted out the entire
arms. I grew up, and with me, A few years ago I suffered cab fare amounting to Rs70 from
my fascination for those tiny from constant shoulder pain. my beloved collection of shiny
shiny little discs continued to Tests revealed nothing wrong. new five-rupee, two-rupee and
grow. The doctor suggested I should one-rupee coins and paid the by
My pastime has landed me in use a lighter bag for my college now grinning driver. His parting
plenty of strange situations. Un- books. But the pain continued. shot of “Madam kya aaj Sid-
like other hobbies, such as phi- Finally my mum took matters dhivinayak gaye the kya” left me
lately or rock collection, mine into her own hands. She emptied feeling deeply mortified.
involves a current, usable com- my bag and the culprit was re- Maybe it is time I gave up my
modity and is a source of 'chhut- vealed. My shoulder pain was be- childish hobby of collecting
ta'. Soon my friends and family ing caused by the nearly 1 kg of coins and moved on. Probably di-
found out that wherever I went I coins I used to carry around with amonds are a good idea; I am told
had a ready supply of change. In me. After this incident I received they are a girl's best friend.
those prehistoric days cell a beautiful (but small) coin purse Email: w_archita@dnaindia.net