Kusum Choppra

interesting sidelight at the Woman rising event at Gujarat Vidyapith, ahmedabad on thursday. tells us a lot about both male and female attitudes. as the crowd broke up into garba circles, a young woman invited a young man she obviously knew well to garba in her circle. he indicated the backpack he was carrying around. when she pleaded, he promptly slipped the pack off his bag and handed it to her and started to dance, leaving her struggling to place it on her back before getting back into the circle!! if she could do garba with back pack, why not him? these are the attitudes that need to be changed, both the young women and the young men, right? Jai Ho

interesting sidelight at the Woman rising event at Gujarat Vidyapith, ahmedabad on thursday. tells us a lot about both male and female attitudes. as the crowd broke up into garba circles, a young woman invited a young man she obviously knew well to garba in her circle. he indicated the backpack he was carrying around. when she pleaded, he promptly slipped the pack off his bag and handed it to her and started to dance, leaving her struggling to place it on her back before getting back into the circle!! if she could do garba with back pack, why not him? these are the attitudes that need to be changed, both the young women and the young men, right? Jai Ho

Last week at the Jaipur Literature Festival, I met up with my former paper, Rajasthan Patrika and a little piece was done on Mastani, how it came about and the role of Mastani in the politics of those times and in Baji Rao's life. Plus inevitable questions about JLF. Wonderful to see young people so cued in on national interests and issues and asking such perceptive questions which has some of the panelists stumped too!! O ne thing came thru loud and clear. here we are all full of the development happening in Gujarat and how far we have come. JLF was a national festival with plenty of international analysts as well expounding on national issues, political, social, economic and literary. Sadly we gujjus dont figure anywhere. in development they talked of UP and Bihar racing ahead. literary and politically, gujarat drew a blank. sad but true. L

The Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF) 2013   presents a modern manthan, of ideas and ideals, opinions, books, fashions, what have you.   With six issues being taken up per hour from 10 am to 7 pm, the choice is incredible, whether one wants to just hang out with a cup of tea or coffee or any of the other delicious eats on offer, watching the latest in winter wear on display   or partake of more serious offerings in any of the panel discussions. In one of his less controversial statements, Ashish Nandy pointed out   India’s   four favorites:   films, sports, crime and politics. All were present at Jaipur, so footfalls were obviously heavy.   It was during the same discussion, after Tehelka’s Tarun tejpal offered a different view of corruption that Ashish let fly.   When Tejpal suggested that the ‘corruption’ be looked at as a way of means of equalizing equity, offering a pick me up to the have nots,   Ashish Nandy let fly his missile ab...