Ministry of Bla di Bla

2011-02-11T10:51:00.005+01:00

Foto's inrichting NSO Karspeldreef

2011-01-23T21:27:00.015+01:00

Writers Unlimited

A blind spot in Dutch history

Time for a new post. Visited the literary festival Writers Unlimited last night in The Hague. Formerly known as Winternachten, this year's theme was Great Expectations with a special focus on - surprise surprise - Surinamese and Antillean literature. I went there because the author of The Black Lord, Rihana Jamaludin, was going to be interviewed. Her new book Kuis (Chastity) is out now.

Again it struck me how little the Dutch know about their own history. You tell me, how can you boss around tens of thousands people for some 300 years (read: slavery), be responsible for the displacement of thousands of immigrants from India, China and Indonesia and then basically know nothing about them, historically, culturally and religiously, let alone take responsibility?

Where the Americans and Brits draw inspiration from their past and its black pages, the Dutch have remained very very quiet. Oh yes, there is talk about the VOC mentality and about the heroics of that famous Dutch admiral Michiel de Ruyter (1607 - 1676), but there is an eardeafening silence when it comes to the man's cargo. Ignorance? Some form of collective denial?

In the UK they have the Booker Prize. It was established some forty years ago with the aim to create an English-language Prix Concourt, an award that would encourage the wider reading of the very best in fiction across the UK and the Commonwealth (former British colonies).

Winners of the prize can look forward not only to worldwide recognition but also a place in the history of English literature. Contenders over the years have ranged from well established authors to first time novelists. To name but a few: Arundhati Roy for The God of Smalls Things, Aravind Adiga for The White Tiger, Kiran Desai for The Inheritance of Loss, Michael Ondaatje for The English Patient, Salman Rushdie for Midnight's Children. The list goes on and on and on.

Is it then that Surinam does not produce quality literature? No, of course not. Don't even embark on that train of thought. It is just that this quality is unknown to a wider audience. I guess it was Cynthia McLeod who put Surinam really on the literary map with her books, especially The Cost of Sugar which is being made into a film. One might argue about the literary quality of McLeod's books, but no such argument would hold up in the case of The Black Lord, which in my humble opinion is a much better more mature book that should be made into a film (see my earlier post).

Mrs Jamaludin's second novel is out now: Kuis (Chastity) and again an amazingly intriguing cover. This time with a chastity belt. Now, according to Wikipedia a chastity belt is a locking item of clothing designed to prevent sexual intercourse. They may be used to protect the wearer from rape or temptation. Some devices have been designed with additional features to prevent masturbation. Chastity belts have been created for males and females.

This is where it becomes interesting. The Wikipedia definition continues by stating that the term "chastity belt" is also used as a metaphor in modern English to imply overprotectiveness ... providing unnecessary or unwanted protection.

Protection from what? From the truth? From that other perspective on Dutch history? The perspective where a spade is a spade? Where slavery is slavery?

2011-01-02T10:25:00.001+01:00

Great music. Great vocals

Interesting actor, this vegetarian Shahid Kapoor. Mum from a renown Muslim family. Dad Hindu. Hence the name combination.

2011-01-01T13:42:00.008+01:00

Tips for Travel Destinations 2011

Haagse Markt in The Hague (no need to go to India or Surinam); it is one of the biggest markets in the Netherlands and goes back to 1938.
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The Kaie teur Falls in former British Guyana (next to Surinam). It is located within one of the largest and most deep rainforests in the world and said to be one of the most powerful and spectacular falls on the planet. By air, it is an hour’s flight from Georgetown, the capital of Guyana. I have no idea who took this magnificent picture, but thank you, thank you, thank you.
Turtle Watching in Surinam. The beaches of Surinam are the nesting grounds to mainly four kinds of turtles. Tourists from all over the world flock to the country to have a glimpse of the natural wonder, the huge turtles nesting on the Surinam beaches. The Galibi Nature Reserve is said to be the best place for turtle watching.
Visit Bangalore, not for the IT sector, but for the 65 feet tall Shiva Statue. The statue depicts Lord Shiva who is seated in Padmashan or Lotus position. This is the largest Shiva statue in India. The background has been made to look as if it is Kailash. The River Ganga flows from the entangled rocks. The statute looks majestic during the night when it is lighted.

2011-01-01T13:38:00.002+01:00

Happy New Year with Rahat Fateh Ali Khan

Yes, he is indeed related to the master himself: Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Enjoy.

2010-11-20T19:24:00.002+01:00

Interview by OHM about the Sarnamihuis.

Of bekijk de flash versie.

2010-10-26T06:26:00.005+02:00

Indus III

You can say many things about Victorian England, but when it comes to their naval history they have kept excellent records. Thus I was able to track down a picture of the ship that took my great grandfather to Surinam: Indus III.

The ship's original name was the HMS Bellerophon. One should keep in mind though that four ships of the Royal Navy had been named HMS Bellerophon after the hero Bellerophon in Greek Mythology. The most famous HMS Bellerophon was the one that particpated in the Battle of Trafalgar (21 October 1805) and taking none other than Napoleon Bonaparte to his second exile Island of Saint Helena following the battle of Waterloo.

That HMS Bellerophon was NOT the one my great grandfather travelled on. His was a Victorian central battery ironclad battleship of the Royal Navy built in 1865 (a hundred years prior to my birth in the Netherlands). At the time, she was a major step forward in design technology as compared to previous classes in terms of engine power, armament, armour, hull design and seaworthiness.

She was commissioned at Chatham, and served in the Channel Fleet until 1871. She was flagship on the North America station until 1881. She was re-commissioned as port guardship at Pembroke until 1903. Bellerophon was converted into a stokers' training ship in 1904, and re-named HMS Indus III which eventually brought my great grandfather Ramran Ali to Surinam in 1908. When sold in 1922 she had completed 56 years service.

Photo © Copyright Bellerophon Alumni 2010.

2010-08-29T00:33:00.006+02:00

Sarnami House

From 1873 - ten years after the abolishment of slavery - until 1916 some 34,000 Indian contract labourers came to Surinam to take over the work on the plantations. This is how my ancestors ended up in Surinam. My great grandfather boarded the Indus III in October 1908 and arrived in his new motherland on 5 December of that same year.

The Sarnami House has a permanent exhibition which tells the story of these immigrants, backed up by painstaking research and excellent photo material. Anyway, for the next couple of months the Sarnami House will host a great programme related to this Indian diaspora, or more precise, they have invited various well-known writers in diaspora to give lectures on the various diaspora issues and how they have translated this in their own literary works.

The kick-off was last Friday with none other than Dutch-Iranian writer Kader Abdolah. Naema Tahir, Anil Ramdas and Amal Chatterjee will also be honouring the Sarnami House during the next couple of months. For the full programma, check out Sarnamihuis.net.

2010-08-29T00:02:00.009+02:00

KIT celebrates its centennial in 2010 And it so happens that I was there. Okay, I'll admit, by coincidence. The Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) in Amsterdam is an independent centre of knowledge, consisting of a renown museum and theatre. Mum and I actually went there to visit the permanent exhibition 'Rondom India', which proved an excellent choice. A very skilled display and explanation of Indian history, religion, culture and the way these all come together in various forms of art. Even room for the Indian diaspora.

Do check out the story of Shri Ram in the Ramayana. You might also want to immerse yourself in the Mahabharata and find out about how Arjun and his four brothers married Draupadi.

Photo credits: from Wikipedia but probably put there by the Tropenmuseum.

2010-05-31T20:07:00.018+02:00

Devi Dhaam lost ... ?

No! No! No! I was there yesterday. I can testify to the fact that Devi Dhaam still is very much alive. True, not where it used to be, but still a worthy safehaven for Hindu worshippers. The temporary new address is Grubbenhoeve 32, right in the heart of Amsterdam Zuidoost. Below some pictures.

2010-05-16T22:12:00.002+02:00

In search of Meer ...

'Meer Taqi Meer is a legendary name in the field of classical Urdu poetry. His soothing poetry has a peculiar tinge of sadness.' Also sprach the Times of India ... Kaash ke dil do to hote isqh me is such an incredible gem from Pankaj Udhas' album Talaash-e-Meer - In search of Meer. For R in TLF.

	www.songs.pk - Kaash Ke Dil Do Do Hote Ishq .mp3

	Found at bee mp3 search engine

2010-04-05T08:59:00.013+02:00

The Black Lord

Drum roll, please ...

It would probably be the understatement of the year to say that I liked The Black Lord, while in fact, it knocked my socks off. But what is the book about?

In a nutshell, we have this penniless Dutch governess who decides to try her luck in Surinam and accepts a teaching post, thinking she is doing her bit for civilisation. Her pupil is not some spoilt white Dutchie, but Walther Blackwell, a rich, free and coloured young man who turns out to be a Creole version of Mister Dandy himself: Oscar Wilde. And not just in terms of intelligent and sharp witted oneliners ...

Slowly, governess Regina, or Reggie, as she is affectionately called by her friends, transforms from a nobody into ... into what? In the meantime, tensions in Europe are rising. The abolitionist movement is gaining strength and in France people are taking to the streets to demand more rights. Slave owners in Surinam feel the growing pressure. Regina, too, has to face unexpected demons in her closet and make some tough decisions.

With The Black Lord, set against the backdrop of slavery in 19^th century Surinam, a former Dutch colony in South America, Rihana Jamaludin has written a debut novel that would give Mister Charles Dickens a real run for his money. To begin with, there are these many exciting Dickensian twists and turns. Nothing is what it seems.

These cliffhangers are one thing. The theme of social reform is another. Dickens was known for his fierce criticism of poverty and social hierachy in Victorian society. In fact, in his second novel Oliver Twist (1839), the man shocked his readership with gruesome images of poverty and crime and children being victims rather than culprits. He humanised his characters.

This is exactly what Jamaludin has done in her novel The Black Lord. True, Cynthia Mcleod paved the way, but Jamaludin has taken it to a whole new level, molding and shaping her characters in great detail. They come alive on the page, as do the sights, sounds and smells of Surinam.

Through Jamaludin's characters we become witness to countless seemingly trivial examples of how deeply Surinamese society is immersed with and impacted by slavery. What's more, we get an insight into the delicate and intricate mechanisms of the underlying roots of slavery, namely the prime notion that one single race or one particular culture is actually better than the other.

Given the present political situation in the Netherlands with immigrants increasingly bearing the brunt for everything that is supposedly wrong in this country, it is not difficult to see certain parallels in 19^th century Surinam versus 21^st century Holland and the prevailing ideas in both societies. There is this cliche saying that history repeats itself and it is only a cliche, because we make it so.

Ladies and gentlemen, it seems we here have the perfect ingredients for a motion picture! The superb plot, the delicate themes, the crafty sentences. What can I say: sheer magic and a mind-blowing experience. Don't I have anything negative to say then? Oh well, if needs be: not enough pages! In my humble opinion, Rihana Jamaludin should be ordered by Dutch law to write at least one novel a year.

Wish to know more? Tune in later today on the site of Radio Stanvaste- Easter Monday 5th April - when Rihana Jamaludin will be interviewed in the programme Beautiful Words. The interview will be aired live through a webcam and viewers/listeners can ask questions via Stanvaste's chat channel.

By the way, wouldn’t it be great if some cash-rich visionair would stand up, draw his wallet and order an English translation of this intriguing novel De Zwarte Lord. For the time being, should you wish to know more about The Black Lord and/or its writer, please go to www.rihanajamaludin.com

More info about the book or where to order:
Kit publishers
Bol.com
Selexyz

Book cover
Courtesy Rihana Jamaludin

2010-04-05T01:10:00.006+02:00

Bondage - enslavement - serfage - confinement

I wish I could remember all their names. My 20,000 ghosts. They all had names. Beautiful African names. We were apes, they were human.

Remember those gripping w ords? Quoted them before. In December 2008 to be exact. They are John Newton’s, a former British slave ship captain. It was this very captain who eventually composed the song ‘Amazing Grace’, thus triggering thousands of people to fight this injustice called slavery, amongst them William Wilberforce a leading British abolitionist who spent his lifetime trying to get slavery abolished.

At the time British parliament would not hear of it. After all, why end such an incredibly lucrative trade that had been integral to the West Indies sugar cane plantations filling the bank accounts of British merchants and literally pouring sugar into millions of cups of so-called English tea. Britain eventually abolished slavery in 1807. The US followed suit in 1808. It took the Dutch until 1st July 1863 to do the same, thus ending some 250 years of bondage, confinement, serfage or any other word you may prefer to slavery.

The 21st century
If World War II - only 65 years ago - has left a huge mark on western society, one cannot begin to fathom the impact of 250 years of slavery. In both cases the ideology of some sort of supremacy prevailed, giving food for thought for future generations. The long shadow of war, of slavery.

Ever since the early eighties of the last century various writers of Dutch and Surinamese origin have tackled the topic of slavery. In this respect, one of the most famous writers is Cynthica McLeod who recently had various of her novels translated into English, amongst them the much acclaimed Hoe duur was de suiker? – which has appeared under the English title The Cost of Suger.

With her fascinating novels Mcleod kickstarted a renewed interest in Surinam’s colonial past, this time from the perspective of the Surinamese themselves. And Mcleod ruled until ... Stay tuned.

2010-04-05T00:49:00.002+02:00

Sand in my shoes - Dido

2010-03-19T23:08:00.007+01:00

Friday night - Sexy Love

And again Romania hits the jackpot. First with David Deejay and now with Residence Deejay ft Frissco.

Not exactly high brow lyrics, but hey who cares. If the beat is good ... Enjoy this Track of the week.

Sexy Love

Look what you started
Look in my eyes
Rainbow after the rain
And then the blue sky
Follow me after midnight
In the club
Baby I wanna feel
Your sexy love!

2010-03-07T14:31:00.004+01:00

Family snapshot

Who : Ramadhin family
Where : Surinam
When : early seventies
Camera : Sony Ericsson mobile phone, shot at TLF in December 2009

2010-03-07T12:03:00.009+01:00

BBC Awards speaking contest 2010

And the winner for the semi finals is: Steven van Dalen (left). Congrats. Robin and Yosiane should have been there as well, but that is my subjective opinion of course, all the more given the arguments the jury voiced and their surprising choice accordingly.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the event yesterday in Nieuwegein. Picture one: my boys: Steven and Robin supposedly doing some last minute preparations.

The boys were in heat I, while Yosiane was in heat III - in a different classroom (see pictures 3 and 4).

Picture 5: Steven collecting his first prize in his heat.

Picture 6: Robin posing for a Facebook picture.

More info about the BBC Awards, click on this link.BTW, the semi finals will be held at the James Boswell Institute in Utrecht, part of Utrecht University, on 20 March. Be there to support Steven!!!

Oh and if you think I was the only teacher present ... My fellow English teacher André Janssen was there was well. And to top it all, team manager Dick Barkey decided to come along as well, giving one of the jury members one of his famous stern looks to show his disapproval of some of the results. ;-)

2010-02-28T19:20:00.006+01:00

Ding dong the witch is DEAD ... Subh Holi.

www.orkutfun.com | Send Colourful Scraps to your friends

As we speak, Hindus all over the world are igniting bonfires and thus commemorating the death of the witch Holika.

To understand this, let us go back in time. The following story knows quite a few variations, but hey this is India with 1.2 billion people and a religion that is considered to be the oldest in the world. So in a colourful time as Holi one should allow for an equally colourful array of stories regarding the story of witch Holika.

Once upon a time there was the brutal King Hiranyakashyapa. He wanted to be revered as a God himself and establish his own supremacy everywhere. However, his own son, Prahalad refused and continued to pray to Lord Vishnu instead.

Out of frustration and anger, the demon king then decided to kill his son. Despite all his efforts, Prahalad remained safe by the blessings of Lord Vishnu. Finally, the Hiranyakashyapa called in the help of his cruel sister Holika. Legend has it that Holika was blessed with a drape which protected her from burning into fire. As per the plan made by the brother and sister, the demon princess Holika sat with young Prahalad in a huge bowl of fire wearing the drape over her body.

But this time, due to heavy wind the drape came over young Prahalad, saving him from burning and as a result Holika was burnt in fire and thus died on the spot.

This incident thus re-established the faith of people in the ultimate divine power and is thus celebrated as the day of eternal love, devotion, blessings and the victory of Good over Evil.
Holi is also the time of vibrant Love, such as the one between Lord Krishna and Radha.

Picture credits: press agency Reuters

2010-02-25T17:16:00.008+01:00

Shiva Art

Oh no ...

... not another career switch... , but hey this is what happens when Pakistani-Indian Shahzad Ali Khan leaves his instruments unattended during the radio programme Oba Live: me having a go at the tabla.

And now some real music, not the noise I was supposedly making. The next track is from Rumanian David Deejay. Sexy Thing or Somebody told you how much I love you. Enjoy.

Photography: Shiva art by me,God's photographer.
Tabla photo: Abdellah Dami and his inseparable i-Phone.

2010-02-20T23:14:00.023+01:00

Awesome Dance Tracks

If ever I should decide on career switch number ... ;-)

Ameerah: Sound of missing you ... TLF iovj

And do crank up the volume!!! OMG, it is almost 03.00 in the morning and while most sensible Dutch people are probably sleeping like a baby, yours truly is still wide awake. Should be living in Bombay where Sunday 21st February is already well under way.

Anna Grace: Love keeps calling / Let the feelings go

2010-02-20T19:07:00.013+01:00

Which religion is true?

An age-old question leaving a trail of blood throughout the history of mankind.

The question also lies at the heart of the famous German play by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing: Nathan the Wise (1779). Nathan - himself Jewish - tries to bridge the gap between Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Then sultan Saladin asks him which religion is true?

In answer to this question Nathan tells the story of the magical heirloom ring handed down from God to mankind. Whoever wears the ring has the love of God.

At some point the ring ends up in the hands of a father who has three sons whom he loves equally. So, he promises the ring to each of them. Looking for a way to keep his promise, he has two replicas made, which are indistinguishable from the original, and on his deathbed he gives a ring to each of them.

The brothers quarrel over who owns the real ring. A wise judge admonishes them telling them it is impossible to tell, the original one supposedly having been lost at some point in the past. Yet this is a magical ring and in order to find out which of the sons has the real ring, it is up to them to live in such a way that their ring's powers are proven true.

In other words, the brothers should live a life that is pleasant in the eyes of God and mankind (rather than expecting the ring's miraculous powers to do the trick).

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing did not include Hinduism in Nathan the Wise. Not that it matters, for the ring parabel would still hold its ground. Religion is about God and God has many names and faces.

Judaism; seven divine names, such as: Yod-Hei-Vav-Hei, Elohim, El Shaddai and Adonai.

Christianity: Emmanual, Alpha, Carpenter, Everlasting Father

Islam; the 99 names of God, e.g. al Aziz, al Malik, al Gaffur, An Nur, Al Rashid.

All those divine names usually represent virtuous qualities. And believe it or not, Hinduism is not that different. Hindus, too, glorify and praise the thousands of qualities of the One God in his thousands of manifestations (avatars). Thus Lord Krishna, an avatar of Vishnu, symbolises Love. Lord Rama, another avatar of Vishnu, stands for Virtue. Hanuman is all about Power and the Goddess Saraswati represents Wisdom.The Bhagavad Geeta (Song of the Lord) has many verses that cleary mention the Oneness of God. The same book acknowledges others paths of worship, for instance through images of clay, stone copper, bronze, gold, silver, glass deities.

We bow. We worship. We do this in churches, temples, mosques, synagogues. We read holy scriptures. We rever Mary, Joseph, Jesus, Shiva, Vishnu, Laxmi, Shiva Linga, images of imam Ali, Husain, even the prophet Muhammad. And let us not forget what is inside the Kaaba: an ancient sacred black stone. Ring a bell?

2010-02-15T22:48:00.004+01:00

Shiva-ji

In His most hypnotic form: the Dancing Shiva.

2010-02-14T14:49:00.011+01:00

God in colour

2010-02-14T14:36:00.005+01:00

Dilruba

My latest discovery: Azam Ali and her mindblowing track Dilruba, here mixed by Junkie XL. The track contains Hindi, Urdu and Farsi words. Not surprising given the fact that Azam was born in Teheran and raised in India. This year she will be doing the soundtrack for the film Prince of Persia.

2010-02-14T09:53:00.002+01:00

Coup Verdonk

Rita Verdonk komt bij de kapper. De kapper vraagt: 'Hetzelfde als de vorige keer?'
Rita antwoordt: ''Nee, doe maar iets wilders ...'

2010-02-14T01:20:00.004+01:00

Shivatri, Shivaji, Shiv Bhagwan

Two days ago, it was HIS day, the one who listens to a thousand and one names. For me, simply Shiva. Should have written about this on Friday, but I was desperately trying to get things right for the one who catapulted me into Hindu action in the first place. Who? That is for me to know and for you to wonder. Om Namah Shivah. iovj

2010-02-13T19:42:00.006+01:00

Lebanon: never a dull moment

Some of you may know that yours truly chairs the Dutch - Arab Friendship Association (Amsterdam chapter). We organise all kinds of activities, from a cooking workshop to lectures and films on all things related to the Arab world.

A couple of weeks ago, we had a very renown speaker. None other than the lebanese writer and journalist Melhem Riashy, the anchorman of Arab News Network and not linked to any political party in Lebanon.

Riashy is a busy bee, not only is he senior advisor to Elias Murr, the Lebanese Defense minister, in between he teaches Strategic Communication at the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik and he has published numerous books.

Riashy gave an on stage interview to Dutch journalist Arthur Blok regarding the socio political situation in Lebanon. His presence drew quite an audience, even including the Lebanese Ambassador to the Netherlands.

2010-02-13T18:01:00.011+01:00

Fair is foul and foul is fair (Macbeth)

Thick fog. Three crooked witches blessed with equally crooked noses fill the auditorium with their eerie voices. And out comes one of the most famous quotes from Will's Macbeth:

First Witch

When shall we three meet again?
In thunder, lightning, or in rain?

Second Witch
When the hurly burly's done,
When the battle's lost and won.

Third Witch
That will be ere the set of sun.

Why dedicate a post to this famous opening scene? Well, I saw the play last Wednesday at Het Baken, a secondary school in the Dutch city of Almere, where I teach English - or at least try to. The actors? Fourteen, fifteen and sixteen-year-old gifted students in kilts, whose mother tongue is Dutch, while they performed the play in near perfect English! A tremendous feat, I dare say, and one that deserved a much higher turnout. Yet this being Holland, let's blame the weather.

Nonetheless, I hope this will herald a new annual tradition at Het Baken: performing a classic like Macbeth in a foreign language.

Below, some pictures I took with my brand new Nikon D5000 (still practising...). The last pic has my esteemed colleague Teresa on it, who not only teaches English, but also directed this play.

2009-09-20T11:58:00.005+02:00

In honour of Navratri

An awesome bhajan Aayi Navratri - Maiya Ka Jagrata - sung by Anuradha Paudwal. And do switch off the music player first.

2009-09-19T20:28:00.015+02:00

Nine Holy Nights

This morning I hardly knew how to write it, let alone pronounce it, but all that changed after receiving a text message from a very special friend in Surinam, South America. Her words: Subh Navratri.

Ah, you decided to stick around. Well, good for you, because this short post is all it takes to quickly brief you about the Nine Holy Nights. For that is what Navratri literally means in Sanskrit, Nava meaning Nine and Ratri meaning nights.

These nine nights are filled with worship and a vegetarian diet. Some even forego on food and drink as well, or abstain from using salt. That is sofar as the stomach is concerned. Back to the worship itself. During these nine nights the nine manifestations of Durga are worshipped. Durga is considered to be an embodiment of the creative feminine force (Shakti) and the fiercer, demon-fighting form of Lord Shiva's wife, Goddess Parvati.

Now why worship Durga during those nine nights? What did she do to deserve these nights of worship in honour of her? Well, my dears, she saved the world, by slaying an asura, a demon, called Mahishasura. He had unleashed a reign of terror on earth, heaven and the worlds below. None of the gods could defeat him, so Durga was created instead. Thus, she has come to represent the motherhood of God. Durga is the warrior aspect of the Divine Mother.

It is said that when Mahishasura met her, he seriously underestimated her, thinking "How can a woman kill me - Mahishasura the one who has defeated the god trinity". However, Durga gave a roar of laughter which caused earthquake on the earth and this woke Mahishasura up to her powers.

The terrible Mahishasura rampaged against her, changing forms many times, from buffalo to elephant, lion, man and so on. When at one point Mahishasura had half emerged into his buffalo form again, he got paralyzed by the extreme light emitting from the goddess's body. The goddess then resounded with laughter before cutting Mahishasura's head down with her Khorgo. Thus Durga slayed Mahishasura.

As for Shiva-dear, in mainstream Hindu religion, Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva represent the three primary aspects of the divine, and are collectively known as the Trimurti. Brahma is the creator, Vishnu is the maintainer or preserver, and Shiva is the destroyer or transformer.

Subh Navratri.

2009-07-16T02:39:00.007+02:00

Ray Neiman. Ray who?

Call it pidgin. Call it Patois. Call Ray a new-born star

Once you've figured out the main features of the Xperia for which I heavily advertised one blog entry ago - and should really be getting paid for - do you get yourself a Bose headphone, plug it in the cell phone, surf to youtube and look for music by Ray Neiman.

Ray who? Ray Neiman, a rising star in the French music scene. His music, a perfect blend of reggae, dancehall, pop, rock, r&b and zoukh, all jazzed up with local spices, is bound to turn every wall flower into a too-hot-to-trot dance miracle.

I bet you did not know, however, that Neiman's history started some 25 years ago in Surinam, in a settlement very near to the Marowijne river. He comes from a big family (ten children and a father who was hardly in sight). Remarkably enough, he considers his first family to be the Amer Indians and regrets never having learned their language.

Soon Surinam proved too small for his ambitions, so he decided to move to the Netherland. Yet after a while he became restless again and moved on to France and the UK.

At the same time slowly but surely his musical identity has begun to take shape. He features on a remix of Shy' m's super hit Femme de Couleur and is doing gigs in France, Belgium, the UK and Switzerland, winning many awards on the way.

And don't you for one moment think Neiman has forgotten about his Surinamese heritage, as his songs breathe the spirit of the Aucan language. Okay, teacher Sharida delves into Wikipedia: Aucans are descendents of Maroons, runaway slaves in the West Indies, Central America, South Ameria and North America who formed independent settlements together.

Now, you should know that slaves frequently escaped within the first generation of their arrival from Africa and often preserved their African languages and much of their culture and religion. The jungles offered food, shelter, and isolation for the escaped slaves. Maroons survived by growing vegetables and hunting. Individual groups of Maroons often allied themselves with the local indigenous tribes and occasionally assimilated into these populations.Maroon/Marokon settlements often possessed a clannish, outsider identity. The language that they spoke has various names, but one such Maroon Creole language, in Surinam, is the Aucan language, Neiman's language.

In the years to follow, many of the vernacular forms of English, and Dutch for that matter, spoken in the Caribbean changed into different, broken languages, also referred to as pidgin languages or Patois. Jamaican Patois for instance is comprised words from the native languages of the many races within the Caribbean including Latin, Spanish, Hindi, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Amerindian, and English along with several African dialects. Some islands have creole dialects influenced by their linguistic diversity; French, Spanish, Latin, Hindi, Arabic, Hebrew, German, Dutch, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, and others. Often these Patois are popularly considered "bastardizations" of English, "broken English", or slang.

Of course, you are now dying to listening to a few of his songs. Check out the songs Viens, Fais Moi Danser and Shake it. And try and discover how many different languages are incorporated in the songs. Neiman has a hyves page and can be found on MySpace.

Mister Ray Neiman's songs are a classic example of the cultural and linguistic richness of his background. Call it Patois. Call it Creole. Call it anything you like. I prefer to call it musical magic.

Photo credits
- First two photos from Neiman's Hyves and MySpace, as is most of the textual info on Neiman.
- Maroon photo from Ted Hill, Suriname River in 1955. Wikipedia

2009-07-16T01:24:00.008+02:00

The Xperia Experiment

Surprise. Surprise. No matter how many sheep I tried to count, it is now half past three in the morning and the fact of the matter is that yours truly can't sleep. Insomnia. So, why toss and turn, while you could have a go at the brand new Sony Ericsson Xperia X1. It is such a sleek and sophisticated device with amazing features. It is equipped with a gigantic 3.0-inch LCD Touchscreen and comes preloaded with Microsoft Applications including Words, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Internet Explorer, and Mobile Media Player Mobile, allowing insomniacs like me to work and relax at anywhere anytime.

And it's ultra fast because of its 3G data connectivity support. There is also this built-in 3.2-megapixel digital camera, and a GPS navigation system (so no Tom Tom for me).

Yet in IMHO, one of the most alluring features is undoubtedly the QWERTY keyboard, having an arc slider design. Eat your heart out.

That said, you practically need a Ph.D to get them all to work for you instead of against you. I finally managed to access the Internet without much ado. All's well that ends well, as the Great Bard once said. ;-)

2009-07-11T14:56:00.006+02:00

Existential pain

For those who think the following is going to be completely beyond them, stop reading right now. For all others who can do without no brainers, do continue. Checked my email and Facebook inboxes an hour ago and was surprised to see two messages about scorned love. The email had grief written all over it. The Facebook comment was cynical to the bone.

This only goes to show that pain has many faces and is just as much part of life, as is for instance, breathing. Therefore, some call this pain existential in nature. And we all deal with it in our own ways, whether you are a famous Dutch playwrite or a student about to enter university.

My dear student, you are the one who studied Greek or Latin, I forgot which one. So, know your classics, for languages considered dead might not prove so dead after all . . . Try not to be afraid of the future, because the future might actually bring wisdom and renewed happiness.

"And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God." - Aeschylus

2009-07-11T08:10:00.016+02:00

So who the hell are you?

You can be a William Shakespeare. Or perhaps you are a Wolfgang Mozart. Oh you may prefer to model yourself after Rembrandt van Rijn.

Perhaps you are none of the above, but rather a disoverer and admirer of all those beautiful treasures called art.

According to a silly Facebook test I did recently, I was a Christobal Columbus, because of a daring and adventurous streak I seemingly possess. Columbus wanted to explore the corners of the world. Or did he, as there is a 'slight' difference between discovering and taking over, and not just in maritime or military terms for that matter ... How about the field of love? Are you the Disoverer or the Conquerer?

This is where Ethics enters the scene and why reinvent a brilliant train of thought if some chap already said it before? So here goes:

'Ethics, too, are nothing but reverence for life. This is what gives me the fundamental principle of morality, namely, that good consists in maintaining, promoting, and enhancing life, and that destroying, injuring, and limiting life are evil.' - Albert Schweitzer

There is no particular need to immediately sail out and discover the world. Start by exploring and expanding the corners of your own mind. Academic studies will broaden your mind only so far. But poetry, or poetic prose or prosaic verse ... aahh my dears, poetry will allow your soul to switch back and forth from being a hedonistic pleasure dome to a temple of grief and sensing, breathing, living all the motions in between.

'We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.' - from the 1989 motion picture Dead Poets' Society

And on this brilliant bombshell, I bid thee farewell. Or to rephrase this: later mate.

picture credits
London: Anthony Blond, 1968 (English translation), Warminster, England: Aris & Phillips, Ltd., 1990 (Spanish version)

2009-07-06T08:04:00.010+02:00

What came first:

human beings or human rights?

And a very good morning to you, too. Were you there yesterday, in the pretty Dutch town of Middelburg in Zeeland, to commemorate the abolishment of slavery (1st July 1863)? While listening to all the stories and watching all the visible reminders of this past, another story came to mind, the story told in a poem by Kenneth Patchen (1911 – 1972).

‘Nice Day for a Lynching’

The bloodhounds look like sad old judges
In a strange court. They point their noses
At the Negro jerking in the tight noose;
His feet spread crow-like above these
Honorable men who laugh as he chokes.

I don’t know this black man.

I don’t know these white men.

But I know that one of my hands
Is black, and one white. I know that
One part of me is being strangled,
While another part horribly laughs.

Until it changes,
I shall be forever killing; and be killed.

Photo credit: NAACP announcement that a man was lynched yesterday

2009-07-06T07:35:00.007+02:00

Monday morning . The sunlight forced itself through my curtains, melting away the dreams I did not wish to dream, making way for a new day of doing things I might never have done before, making way for ... new dreams.

2009-07-06T07:14:00.004+02:00

John Frederick Nims' Love Poem

Came a across this 'forgotten' extraordinary love poem from the American poet John Frederick Nims (1913 - 1999). Usually such poems mention the good qualities of your other half, your better self. Not with Nims who starts off this poem by telling the reader that the woman he loves is no good at all. The second stanza explains why: she is an expert in much more important things in life. She helps people that are not helped by others. Nims is not trying to change her. In fact, he is willing to change himself.

'Love Poem'

My clumsiest dear, whose hands shipwreck vases,
At whose quick touch all glasses chip and ring,
Whose palms are bulls in china, burs in linen,
And have no cunning with any soft thing

Except all ill-at-ease fidgeting people:
The refugee uncertain at the door
You make at home; deftly you steady
The drunk clambering on his undulant floor.

Unpredictable dear, the taxi drivers' terror,
Shrinking from far headlights pale as a dime
Yet leaping before apopleptic streetcars—
Misfit in any space. And never on time.

A wrench in clocks and the solar system. Only
With words and people and love you move at ease;
In traffic of wit expertly manoeuver
And keep us, all devotion, at your knees.

Forgetting your coffee spreading on our flannel,
Your lipstick grinning on our coat,
So gaily in love's unbreakable heaven
Our souls on glory of spilt bourbon float.

Be with me, darling, early and late. Smash glasses
I will study wry music for your sake.
For should your hands drop white and empty
All the toys of the world would break.

2009-07-03T00:04:00.024+02:00

The days after ....

July 2 has gently eased into July 3. It is still stifling hot outside and The Famous Unknowns are again giving a brilliant performance in my living room. Me is once more burning the midnight oil, until I am so tired that all I can do fall in a dreamless sleep, with no risk of being haunted by that nagging anguish of the last ten days.

The good part about July 2 was that I saw so many of my former students at Het Baken this afternoon, from the geniuses of Hugo, Dominique, Laura and Judith to golden boy Jesper a.k.a. Mr Hystorectomy, to Bollywood Sana, to DJ Joa, to funny Wesley, to so many other lovelies, all receiving their A-level diplomas. Well done and a very deep bow from thy former teacher! A whole new world is about to unfold for you, taking you wonder by wonder. Explore, my adventurers. Be inquisitive. But most of all, be you.

Other good things on July 2? Well, how about having dinner with friends at Gandhi, a fabulous newly opened Indian restaurant in Hilversum. The owners are the Indian couple Mr and Mrs Gupta who have several restaurants and take aways in the Netherlands. As an extra advantage: eating out proves an effective remedy to forcefully drive out unpleasant thoughts and memories, especially if you choose extremely spicy.

And then the early hours of July 3 arrived. Should have been in bed a long time ago and in a few hours the hot eye of heaven will replace the crescent moon, meaning it's time for me to get up again and prepare for another day at the office. Well, I have to anyway, since July 3rd will be all about the preparation for next Tuesday's radio broadcast, this time not at the public library in Amsterdam (OBA), but at Desmet Studio (near Artis Zoo).

That last broadcast from OBA led to some nice pics taken from the video stream. BTW, Tuesday's broadcast will feature a very special main guest: Khadija Arib. So stay tuned to that radio (5) and join some 20.000 other listeners.

Yes, those glasses conceal more than simply lack of sleep, but who would know... Only the observing reader and/or viewer? Or the ocassional passer-by who actually dares to fathom the dark corners of my soul...?

p.s. Laura, you honoured me greatly with your entry in the year book. Thank you so much, although I really do not deserve this.

2009-07-01T23:35:00.003+02:00

Djamal

Wesley

Sana

Djamila

Jesper

2009-06-21T09:59:00.002+02:00

Linking words

There are roughly speaking five categories of linking words. I have given examples of each category.

Giving examples
For example /For instance /Namely

Adding information
And /In addition / As well as /Also/ Too /Furthermore / Moreover / Apart from /
In addition to / Besides

Summarising
In short / In brief / In summary / To summarise / In a nutshell / To conclude
In conclusion

Sequencing ideas
The former, … /the latter /Firstly, / secondly, / finally /The first point is
Lastly/ The following

Giving a reason
Due to / due to the fact that /Owing to / owing to the fact that /Because /Because of Since /As

Giving a result
Therefore /So /Consequently/ This means that/ As a result

Contrasting ideas
But/ However /Although / even though /Despite / despite the fact that /In spite of / in spite of the fact that /Nevertheless/ Nonetheless /While/ Whereas /Unlike /In theory… /in practice…

2009-05-10T20:13:00.013+02:00

A thousand humble apologies . . .

. . . for those random readers who actually bother to visit this blog. Got some complaints lately regarding the radio silence. No particular reason, just been very busy. Anyway, new post, new picture. This new profile photo of yours truly was taken by Dutch senator Anja Meulenbelt who actually came by to check out Oba Live herself. She was pleasantly surprised and came back a second time and wrote two detailed reports. To go to one of them, click here. And it's thumbs up for Oba Live, even though I am as inexperienced as can be.

For those of you interested in India and living in the Netherlands, Oba Live will be doing an India special on Tuesday 9 June. The first reason being the parliamentary elections in India and how the results will affect the position of India's 140 million Muslims.

The second reason is the commemoration of the 136th anniversary of the Indian arrival in Surinam. In the 19th and early part of the 20th centuries over one and a half million Indians went overseas, to exotic places like Burma, Malaya, Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific islands. They went to earn a living as indentured workers on the many sugar cane plantations. Over 34.000 ended up in Surinam, including my great grandfather.

Hope to go back to Surinam this August to find out more about my Indian lineage. I know my great grandfather came from Kamanpur, some village or small city in the Indian state of Andra Pradesh. That in itself is quite remarkable, because most Indian immigrants came from Northern India. Not my ancestors, so it seems.

But how about my great grandmother? The good news is that I actually met her in 1971. That said, I was only six years old and hardly remember anything about this meet and greet. It was my first time ever in Surinam. I even have a picture of her taken by one of my uncles (oom Henk). Her name: Subhagia Ramzan.

I have her DNA, but what do I know about her? Where did she come from? From the north, the middle, the south? What is her story? Did she come of her own free will or was she tricked into boarding that ship? How old was she when she left India? On which plantation did she work? More answers than questions, hence my second trip to the Caribbean, to Surinam.

P.S. I did find out though that Kamanpur is about 200 kilometers from Hyderabad, the very beautiful capital of Andra Pradesh. Hope Hyderabad has a decent night life... ;-)

2009-04-06T21:22:00.007+02:00

Phir wohi Raaste

Just a very meagre post this time and it is about the first track of my present playlist: Phir Wohi Raastey. It is from the film Ramchand Pakistani (see an earlier post on my blog), starring one of my favourite actresses Nandita Das.

It so happens that as part of the Amnesty International Film Festival 2009 they are screening two of her films: Ramchand Pakistani and Firaaq. That's the good news. The bad news: it is already sold out.

2009-04-01T15:28:00.025+02:00

From India to Surinam to Holland

Some hundred years ago a tiny Indian man of only 19 years old left his village Kamanpur in the Indian state of Andra Pradesh. He was almost certainly recruited by the Dutch colonial government to work on one of the plantations in some far away country in South America.

Ramran Ali Mohamed Jousief boarded the SS Indus III in Calcutta on 27th October 1908, heading for a new future in a new country. On 5th December of that same year he set foot on Surinamese soil.

He started working on the plantation Meerzorg. Somehow Surinam did not work for him, even though he married and got one son. So, one morning on 5th March 1920 – he was in his early thirties by then - he called it quits and returned to the Motherland India, leaving behind his wife and child.

That’s where most of the information as found in the Historical Database Suriname, stops and where Ramran’s family left behind in Surinam, takes over. As said, Ramran had only one son: Rafiek Mohamedjoesoef, the very man who would later become my grandfather from my mum’s side of the family.

I was in Surinam recently when I decided to visit my mum’s birthplace. First, we drove through Pad van Wanica. Then we took a left entering the Tout Lui Fautweg. After about 15 minutes or so, we hit a sandy road full of potholes. We had finally arrived at Bergers Hoop, an out of the way place that was once the heartland of many British Indian immigrants. That’s where mum was born, nearly seventy years ago.

To be continued...

2009-03-06T20:41:00.003+01:00

De Nederlands-Arabische Kring (NAK) Amsterdam presenteert

zondag 29 maart om 14.00 uur in de levante, Amsterdam

Marokko vandaag en morgen

Een lezing door Paolo de Mas

Marokko. De samenleving gist, bruist en uiteenlopende opvattingen en sociale categorieën schuren of botsen tegen elkaar. Hoewel er onmiskenbaar veranderingen ten goede plaatsvinden, zorgen toenemende tegenstellingen in leefstijl, welvaart en gekoesterde normen en waarden voor sociale spanningen.

Paolo de Mas, voorzitter van de Nederlands-Arabische Kring, is terug in Nederland, na bijna drie jaar leiding te hebben gegeven aan het Nederlands Instituut in Marokko (NIMAR). Dit is zijn derde langduriger verblijf sinds hij in 1974 voor de eerste keer in dat land kwam om de effecten te onderzoeken van wat toen nog gastarbeid werd genoemd. Zijn onderzoekservaring en bemoeienis strekt zich uit over meer dan drie decennia, en zijn bevindingen zijn vastgelegd in een groot aantal publicaties over het land.

In de lezing zal vooral aandacht worden geschonken aan de huidige situatie in Marokko, die zich kenmerkt door buitengewoon contrasterende en boeiende ontwikkelingen en contrasten van politieke en sociale aard.

Locatie
De Levante, Hobbemastraat 28, 1071 ZC Amsterdam

Datum / tijd
zondagmiddag 29 maart 2009 / van 14.00 tot 16.00 uur.
Entree EUR 2.50, NAK-leden gratis op vertoon van lidmaatschapkaart

Bereikbaarheid
De Levante is te bereiken via trams 2 en 5, halte Hobbemastraat, langs het Rijksmuseum tot het water (Hobbemakade), op de hoek rechts naast het Zuiderbad.
Reserveren verplicht i.v.m. de beperkte ruimte.

Reservering verplicht
sharida mohamedjoesoef / s.mohamedjoesoef@planet.nl -
de levante info@delevante.org / 020 - 671 5485 – http://www.delevante.org/

2009-02-23T08:24:00.010+01:00

'Slumdog' bags 8 Oscars

Slumdog Millionaire has turned out to be the big winner at the 81st Academy Awards, with the Mozart of Madras, AR Rahman, bringing home two awards with his Jai Ho... composition. The film won in the following categories

- Best Adapted Screenplay

- Best cinematography

- Best Sound mixing

- Best Film Editing

- Best Original Score

- Best Original Song

- Best Direction

- Best Motion Picture.

The best part is that the little ones were also there to share in the fame, including my absolute favourite: adorable Ayush. Now that's a far cry from that squat toilet scene. The boy is such a sweet sight for sore eyes.

I say Mr Bachan, eat your heart out.

Photo credits: AP

2009-02-21T11:16:00.011+01:00

Real 'Slumdog' heroes off to Hollywood

As two children from the Indian slums of Mumbai - Rubina Ali and Azharuddin Ismail - who shot to fame in the film Slumdog Millionaire are on their way to the Oscars ceremony in the US, controvery surrounding their pay grows stronger.

Living legend Amitabh Bachan criticised the film on his blog, but now claims the remarks were only meant to stir a debate. Right ... Fortunately, another Bollywood legend Shah Rukh Khan lashed out at his fellow countrymen and feels 'Slumdog' does portray India in an appealing way.

And then there is the controversy regarding the wages. Azaharuddin's parents feel their son - who plays the youngest version of Salim - was exploited and claim they know nothing about any trust fund. Azaruddin's father said he has already all the money. Reports about what these kids earned vary. In the BBC video Azhar's dad says that all the money they were given has already been used up. And they want more.

Rubina Ali, who plays the youngest version of Latika, and her family seem more content. The two kids are said to visit Disneyland after rubbing shoulders on the red carpet with the posh and pampered of Tinseltown.

Oh well, probably a story to be continued.

Do see the BBC videoclip which shows where these two gorgeous kids live.

Photo credits
Azaruddin Ismail, from movies.indiatimes.com
Rubina Ali, by Gautam Singh, AP

2009-02-15T21:52:00.016+01:00

And the winner is ...

Ayush Mahesh Khedekar, the adorable eight-year-old boy who plays the youngest version of Jamal Malik in Slumdog Millionaire and who jumps into a latrine - filled with shit - just to get an autograph of his idol Indian actor Amitabh Bachan. Of course, it was chocolate they made Ayush jump into ;-)

Rewind. Just got back from Rotterdam where I saw the film Slumdog Millionaire. For what it's worth, this film rocks from beginning to end. The fabulous musical score. The story line which in itself is practically a fairy tale. The vibrant colours - whether from the awesome Taj Mahal or the unspeakable squalor of the slums - bringing to life the magic of India.

Much of Slumdog's sparkle must be credited to Ayush Mahesh Khedekar (youngest Jamal), Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail (youngest Salim) and Rubina Ali (yougest Latika). And they are good!!! No acting experience whatsoever. The latter two are simply two kids from the slums of Mumbai. No worries. These lovelies have now been put into schools and a trust fund was set up for them so that when they finish school they can pursue their studies and hopefully thus ensure a better life. In my humble opinion, a far better investment than simply giving the parents a lump sum of money.

True, not everyone is happy with Slumdog. For one thing, legendary superstar Amitabh Bachchan has criticised Slumdog Millionaire for portraying India as a “Third World dirty underbelly developing nation”.

If you are really desperate for some Bollywood song and dance... well, then you had better wait until the closing credits, for the best is saved for last.

Photo credits

courtesy Imdb.com and Goldderby LA Times

2009-02-14T18:54:00.015+01:00

Update back and forth

14 February 1989: fatwa for Salman Rushdie due to the Satanic Verses
14 February 2005: the killing of former Lebanese PM Rafiq Hariri
14 February 2009: Valentine's Day

So sorry for the radio silence, the reason being that Sharida got tricked into presenting a two hour LIVE radio talk show called Oba Live (major gulp)!

I have been doing this since January and believe you me, the first time I was so incredibly nervous, I hardly took in anything the guests were saying. The jitters are getting less, but still...

Oba Live is broadcast every Tuesday evening from 19.00 to 21.00 hrs by NMO/NIO (Radio 5). And if you thought this was radio, well think again mates, because you can actually watch this live on the net. What's worse, the internet streams remain available for eternity. So if you can't wait to see me stammering away through the programme, simply go to NMO.nl.

Anyway, back to my favourite topic: my teenage students at Het Baken. Saw most of my lovelies last Thursday and felt utterly happy afterwards.

And the happiness continues. First, I finished reading the Dutch translation of a wonderful book called Dewey - The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched The World. This is the story about Dewey, an abandoned kitten from Spencer, Iowa, who transforms a sleepy library, inspires a classic American town, and captures the hearts of animal lovers everywhere.

Unfortunately, Dewey died a couple of years ago, but he's got his own website if you want to know more about this cute ginger cat.

And from Dewey to Slumdog Millionaire, the film I am finally going to see tomorrow. Slumdog Millionaire is a 2008 British drama film directed by Danny Boyle, co-directed by Loveleen Tandan, and written by Simon Beaufoy. It is an adaptation of the Boeke Prize-winning novel Q & A (2005) by Indian author and diplomat Vikas Swarup.

Set and filmed in India, Slumdog Millionaire tells the story of a young man from the slums of Mumbai who appears on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (Kaun Banega Crorepati, mentioned in the Hindi version) and exceeds people's expectations, arousing the suspicions of the game show host and of law enforcement officials.

Slumdog Millionaire won five Critics' Choice Awards, four Golden Globes and seven BAFTA Awards, including Best Film, and has been nominated for ten Academy Awards. The film is also the subject of controversy concerning its portrayal of India and Hinduism as well as the treatment of its child actors.

Source: Wikipedia

2009-01-01T09:32:00.007+01:00

Happy New Year . . .

. . . to all those faithful readers who kept track of my silly posts and thus know that Sharida's 2008 was mostly the year of job switches.

A recap. Let's see, after about one and a half year I decided to call it quits at Dagblad De Pers and take up a post as a teacher at a secondary school in Almere to teach the Queen's English. Did that for barely four months. Yet due to all kinds of question marks (read: my own uncertainties such as will I manage to do this fulltime?) I let my doubts get the better of me.

I went back to the employer that introduced me to journalism in the first place, the Dutch Muslim Broadcasting Corporation.

That's where I am now, physically that is, for mentally I never actually left those 240 lovelies a.k.a. students. They gave me the time of my life and eventually made me realise where my true calling lies. I owe them so much!

And let's not forget about my teacher colleagues at the English department, the ones who patiently put up with my love for the ultimate classic Clarks desert boots created in 1950 by Nathan Clark who got the idea from crepe-soled, rough suede boots which officers in the Eighth Army were in the habit of getting made in the Bazaar at Cairo.

Those very colleagues allowed me to go on about Paddington Bear, especially the gorgeous illustrations by R.W. Alley with Paddington wearing his famous blue duffle coat. A British institution if ever you saw one, as are the classic whodunnits such as Poirots, Inspector Morse, The Saint, Sherlock Holmes, Midsomer Murders, Miss Marple, Inspector Lynley, Silent Witness and so on and so forth.

Who knows what 2009 has in store for me, but if I might make a wild guess - pause whilst I locate my mug of steaming cocoa - my final destination could very well be related to - drum roll please - Teaching, perhaps even in combination with a touch of journalism. For all I know, India might also be in the cards for me...

2009 will also be the moment of truth for many of my A-level students who will have to take their final exams this year before embarking on new paths of education. You will succeed, my dears. You will. God speed.

P.S.
Who knows, with a bit of luck we shall be spending some last quality time in London right after your exams.

Picture credit: Nelson Figueredo

2008-12-16T14:08:00.006+01:00

‘I wish I could remember all their names. My 20,000 ghosts. They all had names. Beautiful African names. We were apes, they were human.’

Gripping words from an equally gripping film called Amazing Grace (2006). Went to see it last night and was completely taken in by Albert Finney’s superb performance of John Newton, the very man whom I quoted above and also the same man who composed the world famous song ‘Amazing Grace’.

The song was inspired by Newton’s repentence as a former slave ship captain. Newton in turn inspired someone else: William Wilberforce. And it was this very Wilberforce consumed by his conviction of inhumanity of slavery, who eventually managed to abolish slavery. That was in 1807. The US followed suit in 1808. It took the Dutch until 1863 to do the same.

Wilberforce spent his lifetime trying to get slavery abolished, but the British parliament would not hear of it. After all, why end such an incredibly lucrative trade that had been integral to the West Indies sugar cane plantations filling the bank accounts of British merchants and literally pouring sugar into millions of cups of so-called English tea.

Wilberforce received support from men like the PM William Pitt and Josiah Wedgewood. Yes, the founding father of the famous Wedgewood pottery. It was Wedgwood who copied the original medallion design by the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade as a cameo in black and white.

The inscription 'Am I Not a Man and a Brother? ' became the catchphrase of British and American abolitionists. Medallions were even sent in 1788 to Benjamin Franklin who was then president of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society.

‘Amazing Grace’

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound

That sav’d a wretch like me!

I once was lost, but now am found,

Was blind, but now I see.

’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,

And grace my fears reliev’d;

How precious did that grace appear,

The hour I first believ’d!

Thro’ many dangers, toils and snares,

I have already come;

’Tis grace has brought me safe thus far,

And grace will lead me home.

The Lord has promis’d good to me,

His word my hope secures;

He will my shield and portion be,

As long as life endures.

Yes, when this flesh and heart shall fail,

And mortal life shall cease;

I shall possess, within the veil,

A life of joy and peace.

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,

The sun forbear to shine;

But God, who call’d me here below,

Will be forever mine.

By John Newton, Olney Hymns (London: W. Oliver, 1779)

Picture: the Offical Medallion of the British Anti-Slavery Society, 1795 Josiah Wedgwood

2008-11-29T11:09:00.016+01:00

Bombay Jazz

'invented by the devil for the torture of saints'

In the Motherland it premiered under the title Jazz. That was last year. In Amsterdam it was dubbed Bombay Jazz. And I went to see it two days ago. The play - which is more than a musical - pays hommage to Indian jazz musicians from Goa who ended up playing a vital part in creating Hindi film music. They needed to, because the pay was much better than what they earned doing gigs at for instance the Taj Mahal Palace. Yes, the same prestigious hotel that was under attack two days ago, as Mumbai fell prey to fierce terrorist attacks.

Confession coming up: I am not really a lover of theatre, nor of jazz. So why then go to this stage production? For starters, because the Dutch organiser Marijke de Vos is a friend of mine. In fact, she made it possible for me to interview Naseeruddin Shah last year. The other reason for going is because I was mesmerised by the magic title Bombay Jazz. For what it's worth, I am so glad I went.

What is Bombay Jazz about? The following synopsis was taken from their own promotional leaflet:

There's jazz, there's rock n roll.

There's sax, there's violins.

Slipping in slivers of Dixieland stomp,

Portuguese Fados, Ellingtonesque doodles,

cha cha cha, Mozart and Bach themes.

There's Mumbai, Bombay, India.

There's egos, failed futures, alcoholism.

There's love, passion, bounced cheques.

There's show-biz, razzmatazz.

And some of the biggest names

in popular culture from C Ramachander to

Laxmikant Pyarelal to Shankar Jaikishen to RD Burman.

In layman terms, the play is about a jazz music teacher and his student. In a smoky, raw voice the teacher tells his student about yesteryear's jazz and how he and his jazz mates from Goa bastardized their love by taking up regular jobs in Hindi cinema in Bombay, simply to make a living. Althought the lines are witty, the subtext is definitely melancholic.

Since I am no expert on either theater or jazz, I decided to leave the glowing reviews to others

“The play weaves the past into the present with gravelly-voiced Bugs Bhargava Krishna embodying the bitter-sweet stories of the musicians, actors on video playing their friends, fellow-musicians and wives, and Rhys Dsouza, grandson of Sebastian Dsouza, showing us what the saxophone can do.”- Shanta Gokhale, MUMBAI MIRROR"

Bugs Bhargava Krishna has you bewitched, bothered and bewildered and having hit the right note never goes off it... [He] delivers a performance that would make ‘em say, he’s got chops."- Pragya Tiwari, MUMBAI MIRROR

"A play so scathing and mercilessly funny in its indictment of Bollywood.Ramu’s script – with its iambic rhythms and cunning rhymes – is well exploited by Bugs Bhargava Krishna. His sense of timing and exuberant delivery brings to mind the frenzied, swinging beats of classic Jazz… Heaps of intelligent humour call for a memorable theatre experience. "- Ankit Soni, mumbaitheatreguide.com

BTW, Marijke did tell me they are considering to organise a tour. Wah wah.

Photo credits: promotional picture from Stagesmith Productions.

2008-11-29T10:15:00.006+01:00

India: 80 percent Hindus and 14 percent Muslims

'A very large minority that cannot be ethnically
cleansed without provoking a wider conflict.'

The above was taken from an article by historian and novelist Tariq Ali about the recent Mumbai attacks. It was published in the American political newsletter Counterpunch. Ali explains why India should look closer to home when it comes to finding the people behind the assault on Mumbai.

In Ali's opinion Pakistan may not play a role at all, since the Lashkar-e-Taiba, 'not usually shy of claiming its hits, has strongly denied any involvement with the Mumbai attacks.'

He continues by saying:

'Why should it be such a surprise if the perpetrators are themselves Indian Muslims? Its hardly a secret that there has been much anger within the poorest sections of the Muslim community against the systematic discrimination and acts of violence carried out against them of which the 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom in shining Gujarat was only the most blatant and the most investigated episode, supported by the Chief Minister of the State and the local state apparatuses. Add to this the continuing sore of Kashmir which has for decades been treated as a colony by Indian troops with random arrests, torture and rape of Kashmiris an everyday occurrence. Conditions have been much worse than in Tibet, but have aroused little sympathy in the West where the defense of human rights is heavily instrumentalised.'

Those who think Ali is justifying terrorist attacks ...?

'None of this justifies terrorism, but it should, at the very least, force
India’s rulers to direct their gaze on their own country and the conditions that
prevail. Economic disparities are profound. The absurd notion that the
trickle-down effects of global capitalism would solve most problems can now be
seen for what it always was: a fig leaf to conceal new modes of exploitation.'

About Tariq Ali
Tariq Ali was born in Lahore in 1943. He was educated in Pakistan and later at Oxford. His opposition to the military dictatorship in Pakistan prevented his return to his own country and he became an unwilling exile in Britain. No, he is not a Muslim, but an atheist and has declared this at many a public occasion.

Tariq Ali has his own website: http://www.tariqali.org/.
Photo credits: Steven Siewert

2008-11-22T23:40:00.003+01:00

Kiran's magic

A snowstorm was raging outside. Inside the church, over a hundred visitors witnessed an awesome performance by Ms Kiran Ahluwalia. Want to experience this fabulous eargasm yourself, then check out the first three tracks of my playlist.

2008-11-21T21:10:00.014+01:00

Fado + Ghazals = Kiran Ahluwalia

And I am going to meet this vocal gem from the Punjab ... tomorrow, in Amsterdam's Noorderkerk and in the precious company of dear dear friend Koosje and her daughter Roos.

Kiran will be touring a few other Dutch cities and then go back to New York.

"If yearning had a musical form it would be ghazals, the Indian and Pakistani sung poetry about unrequited love. If longing was a genre, it would be fado, the melancholic Portuguese song form also based in poetry. Singer Kiran Ahluwalia—a musical wanderer, who was born in India, raised in Canada, and now lives in New York City—unites the two on her latest recording, Wanderlust (Time Square Records/World Connection Records).
Source: Kiran Music

One of the first ghazals penned in Urdu in 15th century India appears on Wanderlust, “Tere Darsan,” written by Quli Qutub Shah. This sultan ruled over the city of Hyderabad, -- the place where Kiran received much of her ghazal training from one of the last living court musicians, Vithal Rao. “I’m constantly reading poetry in Urdu and Punjabi. That’s the way I live my life,”
Kiran explains.

Her passionate reading brought her to Qutub Shah’s words, crafted when Urdu was still emerging as a language. “The Urdu language of these ghazals is not the same dialect as we speak today, and so I felt a certain freedom to go further in my experimentation with other influences.

This feeling of freedom led Kiran to incorporate a bluesy feel and groove reminiscent of Saharan Africa, for another of Wanderlust’s serendipitous successes. It also marks the first time she has used the sounds of electric
guitar.

About Ghazals
The Indian sub-continent, now India and Pakistan, has given many things to the world's culture: Hinduism, Buddhism, the Taj Mahal, tea, to name but a few. The region has also given the world some of the most accomplished celebrations of human love. One of these is the Kama Sutra, an epic description of physical love, named after the Hindu god of love - Kama.

Another is the poetic song form known as the ghazal. Ghazals are like polished diamonds - a single stone with many facets. Each ghazal is a single poem containing within itself a myriad of passionate smaller poems. When held up to the light they offer insight into much about the human condition.

painting by Navneet Parikh on Exotic India Art

Ghazals came to the Indian sub-continent from Persia in the 14th century. Unlike the physical love depicted in Indian erotic art, ghazals operate on the plane of poetic imagery and metaphor. They explore the many moods of love, from the ecstatic to the despondent. Ghazals also use human love as a mask to address many other aspects of the human condition.

For over six hundred years the finest poets of what is now India and Pakistan turned their talents to writing them and the finest singers and musicians used all their skill and training to interpret them.

Source: Kiran Music.com

painting by Navneet Parikh on Exotic India Art

Longing ... and ... yearning

2008-11-21T07:33:00.018+01:00

Were you there?

Did you sing? Did you dance? The Concertbouw normally filled with lovers of western classical music, was now seemingly shaking hands with the devil. Guess what. Full house, Indians, non-Indians all swept off their feet by Bharati the show. Missed it? Try your luck on the following dates:

20-21 November in Zoetermeer
22 November in Zwolle
26-27 November in Utrecht

Prefer Paris or London, check out their own site.

Want to get a sneak preview of what the show looks like? Then click here and don't forget to switch off the tracklist of my blog.

2008-11-19T12:23:00.012+01:00

They came.

They saw.

And conquered!

Text as published in the Amsterdam Weekly

That pretty much sums up the success story of Mr and Mrs M.L. Gupta in a nutshell. In the early eighties they swapped New Delhi for the Dutch capital city, setting up various takeaway restaurants in the Netherlands, creating their own Indian version of the American dream, here, right in the heart of Amsterdam.

No one would have believed that behind the facade of their shabby-looking takeaway called Indian Express, unfolds an unexpected story. The story of Mr and Mrs Gupta. It was, in fact, the much feared culinary critic Johannes van Dam who, in 2005, shot their tiny little business to stardom.

'Did you know our cook initially refused Mr van Dam?,' laughs Mrs Gupta when reminiscing of that moment. 'He didn't recognise the man.'

Luckily for the Guptas, Mr van Dam eventually got in, was granted a look in the kitchen and ordered some of the dishes. Result: a glowing review in Het Parool.

That was three years ago. The tiny place has not changed much since, it seems. There's the Indian flag hanging on the wall, and every now and then, when the kitchen door opens, you get to see the chefs at work, while popular Bollywood songs play in the background. And there's still the bronze elephant-head pegged on the wall, resembling Ganesha, the Hindu god of success.

The magic of Ganesha seems to have paid off indeed. For Indian Express enjoys an enormous clientele and it's chop chop for the bustling delivery boys. Yes, the Guptas clearly have what it takes to run a highly successful catering business. In fact, the Indian couple recently landed the order to do the catering for the Amsterdam India Festival. But despite their Midas touch, they have remained their humble self.

Congratulations. So what's on the menu at the festival launch?
Mr Gupta: I'm not going to give away everything, but this much I will tell you: we have to cater for roughly 250 guests. They are in for chicken tikka grilled on a tandoor--an Indian clay oven which you burn by charcoal--jazzed up with Indian spices. Lamb curry is also on the menu, as is fresh spinach and paneer--a type of Indian cheese. All of this is served with saffron basmati rice.

Who is doing all the cooking?
Mrs Gupta: We have hired help, but the cooking itself is done by our two cooks at the Indian Express. One is our senior cook. The other his assistant. All Indian restaurants, from India to the UK have two cooks. One specialises in tandoor and the other in curries. And don't forget our helpers. They do the cutting and grinding.

Cutting. Grinding. I thought you were an accountant?
Mr Gupta: [breaking into a laugh] That's right, I was working as an accountant in India, but in the catering business. Numbers are my thing, as is food. I guess it was only a matter of time before I would combine the two.

And when did that happen?
Mr Gupta: Not until 1991. When I first came to the Netherlands in 1981, I started working as a manager for one of the biggest Indian restaurants. We catered for KLM, the Indian embassy, other embassies, the Indian film festival and so on. But after some ten years, I had enough. I wanted to start my own business.

Why?
Mr Gupta: I had already made quite a name for myself. So, I knew I would have enough customers. I believed it was possible to offer good quality food at reasonable prices. I began various restaurants, in 's-Hertogenbosch, Hilversum and Amsterdam. We were even a regular supplier for Media Park in Hilversum. Yet due to my declining health, everything came to a standstill. Or so we thought. Then, some five years ago, we came across this appalling rundown place on the Pieter Langedijkstraat. My wife and I decided to fix it up and start a new takeaway. It heralded the birth of Indian Express.

No beef on the menu?
Mrs Gupta: Correct. We are Hindu, so no beef. We draw the line there. Muslims need not worry either. All our food is halal.

Indian cuisine has become quite popular over the years. Why is that?
Mrs Gupta: Here in Amsterdam, you have many British people who are used to Indian food. And lots of Dutch people have British colleagues, which is how they were introduced to Indian cuisine in the first place. Then they develop a taste for it.

What is the secret of Indian Express in particular?
Mr Gupta: What can I say? It's in our blood. We Indians are businessmen. I got myself two of the very best cooks from India and we use original Indian spices, not the imported stuff from countries like Indonesia and Sri Lanka. But our best ingredient is the love and care we have for our customers.

Mrs Gupta: My parents used to say, 'Jaisa khaye ann waisa hoye mann,' which is Hindi for 'your food influences your way of thinking'. I do believe that food does have influence on man's behaviour. Good food gives vitality, contentment, resulting in relaxation.
And last but not least, don't forget our portions. Ours are much bigger than the competition while prices are low.

Any chance of opening up another branch?
Mrs Gupta: Actually, we might. We are thinking of opening up another takeaway in Amstelveen, where we have a lot of fans as well.

http://www.indianexpress.nl/

2008-11-13T20:33:00.012+01:00

Neither man. Nor woman. All Human

Photo credits: Firoze Shakir , http://hijdaeunuchblog.wordpress.com

Text as published in the Amsterdam Weekly

Laxminarayan Tripathi: once a social outcast, now the face of India's third-sex community.

'Laxmi' (28) travels around the globe, going out of her way to fight for the rights of hijras, a sexual minority on the Indian subcontinent with an own traditional infrastructure embedded in Indian history. She holds the credit of being the only transgender in the UN's Civil Society Task Force on HIV/AIDS. There are no exact numbers on how many hijras there are in India. Some say 50,000; others claim it is closer to two million.

When interviewing her, one cannot help being completely mesmerised by those pitch-black eyes. Her sensual lips. Her nasal twang a la Fran Drescher. And that's only the outside. Diving beneath the surface is equally intriguing: she's witty, well-versed in religion, has an unmistakable flair for the dramatic, and is obviously a social butterfly who really cares.

Until 30 November, she is hostess of the Mumbai Direct Salon at Lloyd Hotel where she will address many aspects of Indian culture in India and the diaspora. In the evenings, there is live music played on traditional instruments and dance by a five-member dance troupe.

You are a hijra. What does that mean?
There is no exact word to describe the hijra community in India. But it all begins with the soul. One must have a hijra's soul, in other words, someone who is feminine but not a woman, masculine but not a man. You go beyond the boxes of man and woman and end up with the so-called Third Gender. That is the hijra.

Some define hijras as eunuchs.
Oh I know! [She gasps dramatically]. Here, look. [She holds out her passport] 'You see, it says eunuch. I told them this is a wrong word. You can be a castrated man and still be a man. You can be a non-castrated hijra and still be a hijra. In my passport I have three sexes: female, eunuch and transgender. I prefer the latter, because it is the closest English word to the term hijra.

Hijras have been part of Indian culture for centuries. How do you explain the stifling social climate nowadays?
Hijras are mentioned in various classic works, like the Manu Smriti--an ancient Hindu book of law. We rose to high positions in Mogul times. But when the era of the British Raj began, things took a turn for the worse. Laws were passed in which hijras were described as 'sodomites' engaging in 'homosexual offences'. And we have become more vulnerable ever since.

Aren't you protected by Indian law?
The Indian constitution stipulates that one cannot discriminate on the basis of sex, cast, creed, religion, blah, blah, blah. But what is in the books is one thing, what is practiced another. As a hijra you do not have many employment or education possibilities, and usually hardly any support from parents, siblings or friends. All you have is your hijra community to fall back on. There is this notion that since we cannot procreate, we serve no purpose in society. How silly, because we can be productive to society by our art, music, dance, our ethics.

How do you survive?
We have three possibilities. To begin with, we do blessings at births, weddings and other auspicious ceremonies. We sing, dance and clap. These are intended to bring good luck and fertility. The second possibility is to beg and then there is the third option, sex work. I only danced and clapped. No begging or soliciting for me. The third option in particular poses a problem for our community, as there is a lot of unsafe sex going around. HIV/AIDS is rampant amongst hijra sex workers.

Don't you ever tired of the discrimination and want to leave India?
Oh no, I could never ever think that. There is a huge stigma regarding our hijra community and my parents have always stood by me--and that took guts in such a conservative society. I may leave India after my parents are no more. But even then, there is still so much work to do and empower the hijra community.

Empowerment? Do tell.
I joined Dai Welfare Society, a Mumbai-based NGO, which works for the community, especially on HIV/AIDS awareness. That didn't do the trick for me, so I started Astitva, an organisation for the support and development of sexual minorities. And before long I was joined by many others. But it doesn't stop there, since we hijras are also to blame for the stigmas. We have to stop thinking along the lines of 'Can't do this. Shouldn't do that.' If that were the case, I would not be here in the Lloyds Hotel in Amsterdam. And why shouldn't I? Am I any less than you?

Info
Mumbai Direct Salon, until November, Lloyd Hotel: http://www.lloydhotel.com/indiafestival

2008-10-28T20:30:00.003+01:00

Happy diwali

2008-10-23T19:10:00.009+02:00

‘There’s no point in going into a movie like this without making an effort to make it different. To make it a seperate entity than the previous one.’ - Daniel Craig

Quantum of Solace

Only two more weeks before the worldwide release of the 22nd James Bond film: Quantum of Solace. The sequel to the 2006 film Casino Royale, it is directed by Marc Forster, and features Daniel Craig's second performance as James Bond.

In the film, Bond battles Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric), a member of the Quantum organisation posing as an environmentalist, who intends to stage a coup d'état in Bolivia to take control of its water supply. Bond seeks revenge for the death of Vesper Lynd, and is assisted by Camille (Olga Kurylenko), who also wants to kill Greene.

The title was chosen from a 1960 short story in Ian Fleming's For Your Eyes Only, though the film is not expected to contain any elements of the original story. Location filming took place in Panama, Chile, Italy (Sienna!) and Austria, while the sets were built at Pinewood Studios.

PS And what a great Bond track by Alicia Keys and Jack White.

2008-10-17T15:36:00.018+02:00

Time out for India! Whoever thought yours truly had stopped being under the spell of the Motherland . . .

Think again, for despite my ramblings about Paddington Bear, Muslims in the Netherlands and my darling ex-students in Almere (how great this sounds in English), I am still very much in love with that magical magnet called India.

So here goes. Every year in November the Tropentheater Amsterdam hosts the Cinema India. Yet this time things will be slightly different. Think more. Think better. Think bigger. Think the Amsterdam India Festival.

From 12 up to and including 30 November 2008 Het Concertgebouw, together with a number of cultural organisations in Amsterdam, will organise a spectacular festival devoted to India. Their main reason for doing so is the significant role India is playing in the world, while in the Netherlands this fascinating country is relatively unknown.

The Amsterdam India Festival proudly presents a huge cultural array of events in the field of music, dance, fashion, photography, theatre, arts, architecture and multi-media, all revolving around the theme of Blended Cultures - referring to the large variety of the different cultures in India.

Below, you will find a selection (my selection) of dance, music and film. Of course, the festival has much much more to offer, so please check out their website, but not until you've browsed through my selection.

A music selection
Nitin Sawhney. Wednesday 12 November 21:00 hrs, Melkweg The Max. Sawhney is regarded as one of the pioneers of the Asian Underground music scene. He combines a variety of musical styles such as jazz, drum and bass, hiphop and flamenco.

Amjad Ali Khan & Niyazi and Nizami Brothers. Monday 17 November 20:15 hrs, Het Concertgebouw, Kleine Zaal. Discover the mysticism of India. Qawwali is the music of the mystical brotherhoods as performed at the shrines of the Muslim saints.

The Niyazi and Nizami Brothers, who belong to the Chistiya Brotherhood, usually perform the virtuoso vocals during devotional gatherings and can captivate a concert audience with their ecstatic song.The first part of the evening is dedicated to the classical art of Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, one of India's foremost masters of the sarod, a plucked lute.

Bharati the Musical. Wednesday 19 November 20:15 hrs, Het Concertgebouw, Grote Zaal. Imagine yourself transported to India when you attend this extraordinary performance. Temple dancers, exhilarating music from the deserts of Rajasthan, sounds of the holy Ganges river, and the sophisticated echoes of the palaces of the Maharajas. An effervescent spectacle that takes the audience through the various facets of Indian dance and musical culture.

Dhroeh Nankoe (bhaithak gana) & Anup Jalota (bhajan). Thursday 20 November 20:15 hrs, Het Concertgebouw, Kleine Zaal.

When Hindustani field labourers left the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar for the plantations of Surinam in the 19th century, they took with them their musical baggage, baithak gana. Dhroeh Nankoe learned the genre from his grandfather. Baithak gana's land of origin is also the birthplace of the nirgun bhajans. These devotional songs by the great Hindu saint and poet Kabir will be presented after the interval. At 7 pm Narinder Mohkamsing will give an introduction to Indian music and the diaspora.

Burmania: Bollywood's funky genius. Thursday 20 November 20:00 hrs, Paradiso. During the seventies, a fresh wind of mini-skirts, garish shirts and rebellion blew through Bollywood. Sex and drugs and rock and roll entered Indian cinema. And cinema sound systems blasted out the revolutionary music of R.D. Burman. Two of his famous albums/films are Hare Rama Hare Krishna and Yaadon ki Baaraat. His experimental drive was not bound by musical genres: he mixed traditional ragas with Latin percussion, Bollywood violins with wah-wah organ, sitar with big band.

It was singer Asha Bhosle who made his sexy, breathy songs world famous. Since his death in 1994, Burman has become a legend in India. Bombay Connection revives Burman's funky genius in Paradiso, including strings, Indian percussion and a sexy Indian singer. Arranged and updated by Gerry Arling.

Dhrupad from Pakistan. Saturday 22 November 20:00 hrs, RASA, Utrecht. Dhrupad is the oldest surviving style of classical music on the Indian subcontinent. It is a modal vocal style - with a single melodic line and no harmonic parts - in which the characteristic contours and the rasa (sentiment) are presented note for note, first in the low register and then in the upper register. The resonant sound of the drum (pakhawaj) drives the tala, the time-cycle that rhythmically organizes the raga melodies, toward the final sa, the ground tone.

A film selection
Lage Raho Munnabhai. 11 - 12 November, Tropentheater, Kleine Zaal. An Indian comedy about a maffia boss who falls in love with the presentor of a popular radio programme. He pretends to be a professor in order to impress her. The plan works, but he is invited to give a lecture and lands himself in all sorts of awkward situations. Director: Rajkumar Hirani, 2006, 165 minutes, Hindi with English subtitles.

Apu trilogy. 13 November - 2 December; Filmhuis. Three films by the Bengalese filmmaker Satyajit Ray (1921-1992). His Apu trilogy caused a sensation in the 1950s, a triptych based on the everyday, often laborious life of the Indian. The Filmmuseum presents the entire Apu trilogy: Pather Panchali (1955), Aparajito (1956) and Apur Sansar (1958), with music by the Indian composer Ravi Shankar.

The Last Lear. 20 November; Tropentheater, Kleine Zaal, with the legendary Amitabh Bachchan playing an aging stage actor who takes a dim view of cinema. He believes that film is unable to create anything that comes close to Shakespeare. A film about ageing, power and losing control. Director: Rituparno Ghosh, 2007, 130 minutes, in English

Gay cinema. 22 - 23 November; Rialto Cinema. Gay India will examine the key question of what it is like to be gay under difficult, repressive circumstances. The film My Brother Nikhil, to be shown on Saturday 22 November, was the first Bollywood film to portray homosexuality openly and to broach the subject of HIV/AIDS, an awkward topic in India. Director Onir will be there to answer questions about the film.

The film The Journey (Sancharram), in which the young and beautiful Kiran falls in love with her best friend Delilah, will be shown on 23 November.

A dance selection
Sadanam Balakrishnan dance. Wednesday 12 November 20:15 hrs. Het Concertgebouw, Grote Zaal. Sadanam Balakrishnan presents one of India's most spectacular dance forms.

He comes to Amsterdam with this renowned kathakali dance company to treat the audience to this colourful and musically rich interpretation of two episodes from the Mahabharata (the longest epic poem in the world, telling the story of the genesis of India). Video screens will enable the audience to follow the characteristic facial expressions and gestures of the performers close-up. Surtitles will make it easier to keep up with the story. Get acquainted with India's finest on this spectacular evening.

Bharata Natyam dance by Leela Samson; Friday 14 November 20:15 hrs, Het Concertgebouw, Kleine Zaal. Leela Samson The devotional temple music of southern India is a source of inspiration for diverse performing arts.The padams are the musical framework for the stylised temple dances of bharatanatyam dancer Leela Samson in the second part of the evening.

Note that some events are preceded by various introductions for which an extra admission price is charged. For 7 pm: Introduction to bharatanatyam dance by Leela Samson. Admission € 5,-

2008-10-12T19:30:00.005+02:00

An exclusive interview with PB

The last remaining British eccentric

Your name, please?
Paddington Brown

Age?
That's something you don't ask a bear.

And what is your favourite form of transportation?
A shopping basket on wheels.

Do you have a favourite soap?
Bubble bath mixture. I often wonder how they get them inside one small pot.

Which is your favourite other TV programme/character and why?
The man who says, "That's the end of broadcasting for today".

What was your first ever job?
Painting my room (it was also my last job).

What one job/role would you have loved and why?
Lighting the blue touch paper on the first moon rocket.

Who is your favourite movie star?
The dog in the Tom and Jerry cartoons.

And your favourite Royal?
Royal Honey.

How would you describe yourself in five words?
Talk, dark, handsome, good imagination.

What is the worst item of clothing you ever bought?
A non-shrink shower cap. I couldn't get it off afterwards.

What do you wear in bed?
Pyjamas, plus a hat in winter to keep my head warm.

Who is your all-time hero/heroine?
Tarzan. He must have been very good at opening jars.

What is your most disgusting habit?
Mrs Bird says it's getting marmalade chunks stuck to everything.

When was the last time you cried and why?
I bit into a 'chocolate' coin and it turned out to be real!

Who or what is the great love of your life?
Marmalade.

What have you got in your wallet right now?
A moth.

What is the most expensive treat you've ever bought yourself?
A triple ice-cream cone with double chocolate sauce.

When was the last time you were in hospital and why?
Last Christmas. I was testing a boomerang ...

Where in the world would you live apart from the UK and why?
Darkest Peru. It was where I was born.

Who are your dream dinner guests?
The Roux Brothers (then they might ask me back!).

Which is the untidiest room in your home?
The kitchen. Mrs Brown doesn't know it yet, but I was looking for something to eat.

How do you relax?
I do lots of press ups, then I lie where I am until I recover.

When and why were you last angry?
When Mr Brown was told he couldn't go into a restaurant because it was closed for lunch.

Interview source Harper Collins Children

2008-10-12T10:46:00.020+02:00

My favourite bear

He usually wears a blue duffle coat, a rather shapeless red hat and, on occasions, Wellington boots. His favourite food is marmalade and he orginally comes from Darkest Peru. His name: Paddington Bear, the polite immigrant bear from Darkest Peru and a true classic English children's literature icon.

Tomorrow the world's cuddliest bear will be celebrating his 50th birthday. Author Michael Bond recalls in his own words how Paddington first came into being:

"I bought a small toy bear on Christmas Eve 1956. I saw it left on a shelf in a London store and felt sorry for it. I took it home as a present for my wife Brenda and named it Paddington as we were living near Paddington Station at the time. I wrote some stories about the bear, more for fun than with the idea of having them published. After ten days I found that I had a book on my hands. It wasn’t written specifically for children, but I think I put into it the kind things I liked reading about when I was young."

Michael Bond sent the book to his agent, Harvey Unna, who liked it and after sending to to several publishers it was eventually accepted by William Collins & Sons (now Harper Collins). The publishers commissioned an illustrator, Peggy Fortnum, and the very first Paddington book "A Bear Called Paddington" was published on 13th October 1958.

Bond's invention proved a huge success, as the Paddington books have sold more than thirty-five million copies worldwide and have been translated into over forty languages.

About Paddington

Paddington is an anthropomorphised bear. He always addresses people as "Mr.", "Mrs." and "Miss" and very rarely by first names. He inflicts hard stares on those who incur his disapproval. He has an endless capacity for getting into trouble. However, he is known to "try so hard to get things right".

In Bond’s first story, Paddington is found at Paddington railway station in London by the Brown family, sitting on his suitcase (bearing the label "WANTED ON VOYAGE") with a note attached to his coat which reads, "Please look after this bear. Thank you."

Bond has said that his memories of newsreels showing trainloads of child evacuees leaving London during the war, with labels around their necks and their possessions in small suitcases, prompted him to do the same for Paddington.

Paddington arrives as a stowaway coming from "Darkest Peru", sent by his Aunt Lucy (one of his only known relatives, aside from an Uncle Pastuzo who gave Paddington his hat), who has gone to live in the Home for Retired Bears in Lima.

He tells the Brown family that no one can understand his Peruvian name, so they decide to call him Paddington after the railway station in which he was found. Bond originally wanted Paddington to have "travelled all the way from darkest Africa", but his agent advised him that there were no bears in darkest Africa, and thus it was amended to darkest Peru, home of the spectacled bear.

They take him home to 32 Windsor Gardens, off Harrow Road between Notting Hill and Maida Vale. The stories follow Paddington's adventures and mishaps in England.

About the creator

Paddington bear was created over half a century ago by the English writer, Michael Bond. Michael Bond was born in Newbury, Berkshire, England on 13th January 1926. He was educated at Presentation College, Reading. During World War II Michael Bond served in both the Royal Air Force and the Middlesex Regiment of the British Army.He began writing in 1945 and sold his first short story to a magazine called London Opinion. This experience helped him decide that he wanted to be a writer.

Michael Bond never thought of writing for children but, after producing a number of short stories and radio plays, his agent suggested that he adapt a television play for children.His first book, A Bear Called Paddington, was published in 1958 by William Collins & Sons (now HarperCollins Publishers). At the time, Michael Bond was working as a television cameraman for the BBC.

After the first Paddington book was accepted, Michael Bond went on to write a whole series and by 1967 his books were so successful that that he was able to give up his job with the BBC in order to become a full-time writer.In 1997 Michael Bond was awarded to OBE for services to children’s literature. He is married with two adult children and lives in London, not far from Paddington Station.

More info: http://www.paddingtonbear.com/
Shop online: http://www.paddingtonbearshop.co.uk/

Or go to the London shop right in the middle of Paddington mainline railway station! Here you can actually buy clothes for bears.

2008-10-10T22:41:00.013+02:00

Muslims need a good laugh

Long curly black hair. A very bushy beard. And let’s not forget about those big piercing brown eyes. Meet Azhar Usman, the massive co-founder of the Allah Made Me Funny tour.

Sharida Mohamedjoesoef
As published in the Amsterdam Weekly
photo credits: America Abroad Media

The Ayatollah of Comedy. Bin Laughin’. Those are but a few of the qualifications former lawyer Azhar Usman has earned himself as a stand-up comedian. The co-founder and star of the Alla Made me Funny comedy tour has performed in over a dozen countries on five continents, including the US, the UK and a handful of Arab countries. The Chicago-based comedian was recently in the Netherlands to jazz up the Ramadan Festival 2008. Don’t worry. The man will be back in April 2009 to do some more gigs.

Once a lawyer, now a stand-up comedian? Why this career switch?
‘I was practising law for a brief time. Badly. And I was doing stand-up comedy for fun. Also badly. But I got better and I began to fall in love with stand-up comedy, because of its raw and organic fashion. Eventually, it reached a point where there was enough interest, enough demand for my artistic work to sustain a livelihood. Who doesn’t want to pursue their dreams and tell jokes for a living. I decided to shut down my legal practice. Around that same time, I would say by the design of God, I met with Preacher Moss, who is the founder of the Allah Made Me Funny Tour. We hit it off immediately. After that we never looked back.’

You began your stand-up career after 9/11. Coincidence?
‘Not really given the fact that stand-up comedy is an art of protest that was born out of the angst of the forties, fifties and sixties. In the US in particular it has always been used by disenfranchised groups such as African Americans, Jewish Americans and gay Americans. These groups have taken up the mantle of stand-up as an art form, because it is such a raw and unadulterated speaking of the truth. After 9/11 the American Muslim community felt like they were being pulled in two directions insofar as their loyalties were concerned. Can I be a Muslim and be American? My act is an exploration of those anxieties. I talk to them in a way that is hopefully constructive, and I shine a light on not only what’s wrong with America and some of its policies and attitudes, but also on what is wrong with us as Muslims. We are not saints or angels. We have our own faults, our own flaws.’

photo credits: http://www.realsa.co.za/press.php

Muslims can respond highly sensitive when jokes are made at their expense. What is your take on this?
‘Muslims need a good laugh, like anybody else. The rest of the world needs to hear Muslims laughing, and Muslims being able to joke about the tensions of the world, but also about themselves. What I notice is that Muslims like to express themselves at protests and rallies, which in my view often achieves nothing more than increasing Muslim blood pressure.’

Are jokes about Muslims solely the prerogative of Muslims?

‘There is an underlying power dynamic at play here. You see, the problem with doing comedy that is self-deprecating, is that you are part of the in crowd. You are in on the joke. If others – non Muslims - are making fun of you, laughing at you rather than with you, it can be easily considered demeaning in nature. The fact of the matter is that Muslims today are at the shorter end of the stick when it comes to the power balance, whether on a political, social or cultural level. I would challenge non-Muslim comedians to come up with material that people can laugh at together.’

Are Islam and humour compatible?
‘Islam is a religion that teaches you how to raise your moral character. But that doesn’t mean you stop being a human being. Humor is a part of being a human being. In fact, prophet Muhammad was known to be a humorous man who loved a good laugh. But if your underlying question is whether I can do blasphemous jokes or engage in dirty language at the expense of my religion. The answer is ‘no’.

So do you censor your own work then?
‘It is the mark of a free society that it should have free exercise of speech. If you don’t like a book somebody has written, the more intelligent and effective answer is to respond by writing your own book rather than resort to book burnings in the streets or try to prevent publication and all this nonsense. That said, I am not a shock comic. I am not interested in offending people. And of course being a Muslim who takes his religion seriously, there are some moral parameters that I observe. I don’t do heretical of blasphemous jokes, nor do I use foul language, which in my opinion is not only unbecoming anyway of somebody who ought to be expressing himself more intelligently, but also a copout. So yes, I do filter my own material.’

Foul language a copout?
‘Stand-up comedy has become littered with the use of foul language, thus losing some of its artistic value. Jerry Seinfeld, a stand-up comedian whom I respect tremendously, doesn’t really curse on stage, he calls cursing and blue jokes the great shortcuts of stand-up comedy. If you resort to these types of humour, than maybe you are not as good a comedian as you thought you were.’

More info: http://www.allahmademefunny.com/

Photo credits: the Nasheed shop

2008-09-30T11:38:00.002+02:00

Eid Mubarak

2008-09-28T19:44:00.005+02:00

Well, well, well, do let it be noted that I outlived Elvis who died at 42 in 1977. And here I am starting my 44th year on this earth today.

Loads of emails, krabbels and phone calls from far away places and my sweet mum spoiling me rotten with mouthwatering Surinamese delicacies. The whole day was oozing with love.

Yet how I miss the voices of my cousin Faisja and dearest 'tante Mien'. Neither will know about these darling students of mine, my returning to NMO or whatever else life has in store for me.

In your light I learn how to love.

In your beauty, how to make poems.

You dance inside my chest,

Where no one sees you.

But sometimes I do,

And that sight becomes this art.

Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi (Afghan poet 1202 - 1273)

2008-09-26T09:42:00.008+02:00

Ramadan Round-up, part IV

Cheery chitchat in Amsterdam Slotervaart

As published in the Amsterdam Weekly, volume 5, issue 37

Most people flocking to Amsterdam usually only get to see cultural hotspots like the Rijksmuseum, Madame Tussauds, the famous canal houses, and - in a worse-case scenario - head for a joint at some local coffee shop. There is little chance they would visit areas that are considered ethnic trouble spots.

A prime example is Mercatorplein nicknamed Meccaplein, because of its relatievely high concentration of men and women donned in typically Islamic attire. And if you pop by you are either a Muslim yourself, a lost journalist, or in the mood for a cheap but first-rate kebab.

Okay, these exaggerations aside, for the last three years De Baarsjes has really been making an effort to reach out to non-Muslims during Ramadan. And, what’s more, it is one of the few neighbourhoods in the city, where you won’t be bumping into political bigwigs or be forced to listen to politically correct speeches. To be brutally honest, in the case of your Ramadan reporter, there was no speech at all, not even a welcoming one when she visited the the ROC Karel Klinkenberg in Amsterdam Slotervaart.

Yep, for those in the know, this edgy neighbourhood made headlines only two years ago when a policeman got shot. It catapulted neighbours and community representatives into action, organising all kinds of social events. And what better way to do this than through a lecture about the nuts and bolts of the Muslim fast, hand in hand with a delicious Ramadan iftar. Well, that was the idea anyway.

Time for a reality check. Yes, there was food, but the lecture got mysteriously cancelled and the whole idea behind a mixed seating arrangement did not work out quite well either. But of course there are always exceptions, like this one Dutch student: ‘Quite honestly I don’t know much about Muslims. That’s why I decided to come in the first place. And with all that political pressure that we should integrate … Well, here I am.’

And so, thanks to the lack of a lecture, Mr Student engaged in merry conversation with fellow table guests about the do’s and don’t of fasting, about the sudden popularity of working night shifts during Ramadan, but also about the differences to the Catholic fast.

After roughly half an hour more visitors finally began to trickle in, from elderly Dutch people who had been living in De Baarsjes since the 1960s, to veiled Moroccan mothers with their young ones. But still, no mixing whatsoever.

Then, at around a quarter to eight, something happened. People returned from the buffet table with plates laden with all kinds of oriental delicacies. And instead of returning to their original seats, Muslims and non-Muslims alike finally plucked up the courage and walked over to their neighbours. No tough speeches about integration. No harsh words about segregation. No crude remarks about the lacking organisation. Simply cheery chitchat about everyday life in Amsterdam Slotervaart.

2008-09-18T18:43:00.017+02:00

Ramadan Round-up, part III

Mocro Pride Parade

Text as published in The Amsterdam Weekly, volume 5, issue 36

Once upon a time, way back in the fifties and sixties, Islam was regarded as something exotic, something exciting. And the first Muslim immigrants from the former Dutch colonies Indonesia and Surinam were treated with a great deal of respect.

This was still the case when Moroccan and Turkish immigrants arrived. They worked in factories, were usually poorly housed in B&Bs and every once in a while they would roll out their prayer rugs in the factory cafeterias.

Yet contrary to expectations, these Muslim newcomers did not return to their countries of origin. They stayed. Islam stayed. And all of a sudden words like Ramadan, Hajj and Koran made their way into the Dutch language. The country began to see a gradual increase of mosques. Still, everything was very much A-okay. Or so we thought…

For somewhere along the way things took a dramatic turn for the worse. ‘And now the word ‘Moroccan’ has become practically synonymous with crime or Islamic radicalisation,’ says Abdou Menebhi, while sipping his hot iftar soup at the Moroccan youth centre Argan in Amsterdam, where some sixty Dutch Moroccans gathered for a special Ramadan dinner party. The intention was to spur ideas on how to properly commemorate the fact that next year it will be exactly 40 years ago that Morocco and the Netherlands signed a treaty, enabling the Dutch to recruit Moroccan labourers.

The spirited Menebhi himself came to the Netherlands in 1974. He lashes out to Amsterdam mayor Job Cohen who in his opinion made matters even worse by telling the Moroccan community to take responsibility and reign in Moroccan troublemakers. ‘In case Cohen didn’t notice, we have been doing that for ages.’

While most of the guests are enjoying their food, listening to traditional Moroccan music and engaging in small talk, Menebhi gets even more worked up about the seemingly ignorance ‘regarding the role we played in Dutch trade unions, how we battled against far-right wing politicians like Jan Maat, how we took to the streets in the eighties to mourn the racial killing of Kerwin Duijnmeyer. This, too, is part of Dutch social history, yet people don’t know or don’t care.’

Menebhi’s views are shared by many dinner guests, including well-known Labour MP Khadija Arib and Mohamed Rabbae, a highly respected figure in the Dutch Moroccan community. Yet how to turn table talk into practice?

‘Well’, says Nadia Bouras, a migrations expert from Leiden University, ‘ this evening has brought on some very interesting ideas that need further exploration. We need to create a better awareness of our own Dutch-Moroccan history. A book or a museum perhaps. We need to have something that will make second and third generation migrants proud of who they are. Something that will rub off on the entire Dutch society forever.’

Photo credits

Khadija Arib

Abdou Menebhi

Mohamed Rabbae

2008-09-13T17:09:00.006+02:00

Ramadan Round-up 2008, part II

Food for thought

As published in The Amsterdam Weekly, volume 5, issue 35

So what will your rambling Ramadan Reporter serve for dinner this week? For what it’s worth, you were this close to receiving a detailed account of the opening of the Polder Mosque on the first Friday of Ramadan.

But I decided against it. For one thing, the mosque in Amsterdam Slotervaart it is not half as unique as Dutch media make it out to be. Its major selling point is that men and women are allowed to pray together in the same room and that and the sermons are in Dutch instead of Arabic.

True, for the majority of Sunni Muslims it is perhaps a first, but for the roughly 10.000 followers of the Dutch chapter of Lahore Ahmadiyya Muslims– a reformist offspring of Sunni Islam that came into being around at the end of the 19th century, this really is very old hat indeed!

So where did your reporter go to then? Think a Moroccan host family el Filali. Think a very special dinner guest. Think Mrs Ella Vogelaar -our very minister of Integration. The meet, greet & eat, more aptly coined ‘hospitality dinner’, was set up by the organisers of the Ramadan Festival who launched this idea some three years ago. And this year more than a hundred Muslim families – and still growing - have already expressed their willingness to host a Ramadan evening for non-Muslims.

Sitting on a red leather sofa near a crackling fire Mrs Vogelaar was literally warming up for the iftar meal, while babbling away about the Dutch word ‘gezellig’ and the fact that there seems to be no proper English word that captures the essence of ‘gezellig.

At around 8.20 pm it was time to break the fast, and as custom requires, Mrs Vogelaar sank her teeth in dried dates and drank some cold milk, thus acting in accordance with Prophet Muhammad’s own iftar rituals.

As the evening got underway, Mrs Vogelaar explained she had never fasted before: ‘I come from a Protestant background, and we don’t have this tradition of fasting like for instance Catholics or Muslims have’.

Both Vogelaar and the Filalis believe in the concept of hospitality dinners as a way of getting to know each other on a much more informal basis. That said, I can’t help but wonder whether the elegantly furbished living room with an eastern touch of class, the wafts of mouthwatering Moroccan delicacies, and a CD of the legendary Egyptian singer Oum Kalthoum playing in the background would also work their magic on, say, Geert Wilders?

Vogelaar frowns and pauses a bit before answering with a twinkle in her eyes: ‘I am not sure whether it would be such a pleasure for the hosts to have him over as a guest, but why not, it would be a great idea indeed.’

Want to see it yourself? Then do watch NMO, Nederland 2, every Sunday at 14.30

2008-09-06T20:48:00.006+02:00

The kick-off -your Ramadan Reporter returns

As published in this week's edition of the Amsterdam Weekly

Loads of delicious meals. Titilating music. Hilarious comedy. Captivating lectures. And all that for 30 days on end across the country. But here's the best part - drum roll, please - most of it is free of charge.

Yep. That's Islam for ya and probably a side most of you are not so familiar with. True, it only happens once a year and this it is: Ramadan 2008. To jog your memory about Ramadan, this is the name of the holiest month in the Islamic lunar calendar, as it was in this month that the Koran was revealed. For 30 days Muslims are not supposed to eat, drink, smoke or have sex between dawn and sunset, while staying away from impure thoughts, sights and sounds. It is a cleansing of body and soul, or at least in theory.

The kick-off for the Ramadan Festival was at the Westergasfabriek in Amsterdam West. More than 500 people attended, including staatssecretaris Ahmed Aboutaleb who opened the event. Like the previous ones, this year's festival is once again about dialogue, but this time the organisaton really made an effort to also invite the volk in the street, from representatives of the neighbourhood communities to students from Leiden University.

As Ramadan slowly moves up towards the summer months - due to the lunar calendar - it is getting harder and harder for Muslims every year to keep up the fast. And it showed. When the gong sounded at roughly 8.30 pm, heralding the breaking of the fast, it was almost like feeding a pack of hungry wolves. And that's where the organisation slipped up a bit. There was enough food, tons of it, but there were only ten, twelve waiters at best ... you do the math.

Other than that, it was a great first Ramadan night jazzed up with a performance of non other than Azhar Uzman a.k.a. The Ayatollah of Comedy, and one of the stars of the American tv-show Allah Made Me Funny.

But the Ramadan Festival has more to offer. You might want to check out the so-called Hospitality Dinners, where Muslim families treat non-Muslims to a typical Ramadan meal. Who thinks Muslims lose weight during Ramadan? Well, um, confession coming up ...: They don't! This may seem like a far cry from the essence of Ramadan, which is after all about frugal living, that said, Ramadan is also about giving a new dimension to the word 'hospitality'. So enjoy.

Ramadan Kareem

2008-08-31T23:53:00.006+02:00

Ramadan Kareem, Happy September, Happy Birthday

A few more minutes to go before the birth of the new moon, thus signalling the start of the month of Ramadan, before August finally fades into September, before she celebrates her birthday, heralding a new year filled with promises.

Ramadan kareem!

2008-08-30T20:48:00.014+02:00

Almere celebrates 50th birthday of king of pop

"Darkness falls across the land. The midnight hour is close at hand. Creatures crawl in search of blood to terrorize your neighborhood. "

"No mere mortal can resist the evil of the thriller." Hahahahahaha.

glitter-graphics.com

2008-08-28T21:58:00.007+02:00

Lots of things about to happen. A few more nights and then the month of Ramadan kicks off.

Me is going to see DJ Joa in the flesh. Yes, the one with the beautiful watch.

And I managed to arrange an interview with none other than Azhar Usman also known as the Ayatollah of Comedy or Bin Laughin. Yep. From the comedy show "Allah made me Funny". He will be in the Netherlands to jazz up the opening of the Ramadan Festival 2008 in Amsterdam this coming Monday.

photo credits: Google images

2008-08-26T23:02:00.006+02:00

Moon River

Dedicated to all dreamers who can't sleep. And God knows, we have plenty of those around lately. Lost loves. New loves. Feverish little ones. Hyperactive ex-teachers who found out too late they are totally addicted to teaching the Queen's English to A-level students.

Moon River, wider than a mile,

I'm crossing you in style some day.

Oh, dream maker,

You heart breaker.

Wherever you're going,

I'm going your way.

Two drifters off to see the world.

There's such a lot of world to see.

We're after the same rainbow's end,

Waiting 'round the bend.

M huckleberry friend,

Moon River and me.

(music by Henry Mancini, lyrics by John Mercer, performed by Frank Sinatra)

2008-08-18T21:37:00.005+02:00

Disturbia: holidays are over

Bumming around. Having loads of lazy days on the beach abroad - from Costa Rica to Greece, Italy and Croatia, or at home. And then, just when you are are about to become an expert couch potatoe, it is time to go back to school. Sorry guys, but that's life. Yep. Life is hard and then you die. ;-)

2008-08-14T19:43:00.022+02:00

Happy birthday to the Motherland India

Swagat and Namaste for all my Indian visitors. Sixty one years old tomorrow. Wah wah. Many happy returns and definitely shame on me for having missed every birthday party, well 42 anyway ;-)

Despite the 150-year-old gap (due to immigration flows from India to Surinam to the Netherlands), there are actually people out out there, in Hindustan, in Bharat, in India, whose blood is running through my veins.

Anyway, I hope you have a great birthday party and I hope that one day all Indians, from the widows in Vindravan to the slumdwellers in Dharavi, will be able to sink their teeth in the birthday cake which is getting bigger and bigger every year thanks to the enormous economic growth you are experiencing.

Below some pictures I found regarding the partition in 1947 when at least 10 million Indians were forced to flee. Needless to say I also included some pics of the stars who made it all happen: Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (a.k.a. Mahatma Gandhi), Jinnah, Nehru and Lord Mounbatten) and of course a couple of hundreds of thousands of Indians daring to defy the English and march towards freedom.

And the first track you are listening to is from the film Earth 1947. This 1998 film directed by Deepa Mehta is based upon Bapsi Sidhwa's novel Cracking India, originally published as Ice Candy Man. Earth is the second part of Mehta's trilogy Fire, Earth and Water. And of course it stars Nandita Das. Enjoy the pics and the song.

Photo credit: Life Magazine, August 1947

photo credits: Martin Frost's website

2008-08-06T20:40:00.007+02:00

Hyves crap

Used to think Hyves was utterly crap, but that was before I discovered it was hotspot number one for my teenage darlings from Almere. The song you are supposed to listen to right now - Jody Wisternoff with Nostalgia - is from none other than DJ Joachim with the beautiful watch. Thanks for sharing this with me.

PS Tracks like these are the very reason I keep getting speeding tickets. ;-)

PPS My dance instructor:

2008-08-06T10:51:00.002+02:00

Finally made my way into the NRC Handelsblad, me being of course the one of the far left.

2008-08-01T21:19:00.012+02:00

Teaching from a Genghis Khan perspective

Friday, 1st August. Lots of things happened today. To begin with, as of today I am officially no longer their teacher :-( I hope they know though that I shall still be at their service 24.7 for as long as it takes. No empty words, even though I started my new job today. Okay, I stand corrected, because it is not an entirely new job. In a long forgotten past (read: some three years ago) I did work for NMO (Dutch Muslim Broadcasting Corporation) before. Loved the job. Yet after having taught for just four months I wonder whether journalism can be as fullfilling as teaching. Perhaps, in due course, I should combine the two. To use but a cliche: time will tell.

Ramchand Pakistani no Valentine to India
Whoever thinks Indian cinema is all about Bollywood and that all else is uninteresting, then don't bother to read the next bit which is about Ramchand Pakistani. A film that was released in both India and Pakistan today. Even before its release it already stirred quite a buzz. For one thing it stars one of my all-time favourites, Indian actress Nandita Das (Fire, Earth and Provoked), the rest of the cast coming from Pakistan.

Over a black screen, the words appear: adapted from actual events. The world is full of mad facts, but among the maddest is that in 2002, when Indian and Pakistani troops massed against each other on the countries' border. Ramchand Pakistani is the true story about an eight-year-old boy named Ramchand who wandered over the invisible line separating his own side of the desert from that of India's and was taken prisoner. In search of Ramchand, his father too crossed the invisible border and he too was thrown in jail. For five years father and son were held in an overcrowded Indian jail.

Poignant detail is that Ramchand's family is part of a Hindu tribe of untouchables, making them both suspect and powerless in Pakistan. Nandita Das thus proves doubly brave for taking the part of Ramchand's mother: Ramchand Pakistani isn't exactly a valentine to India.

Playing the younger Ramchand, Syed Fazal Hussain proves one of those miracle discoveries-he's a real kid, all piss and vinegar and shaking vulnerabilities-and director Mehreen Jabbar does well to dwell on his face as much as she does. The world is, after all, full of mad facts-but full of beauty, too.

Singh is Kinngh; Snoop Dogg goes gaga over India

Recently bombay star Akshay Kumar and Snoop Dogg shot this video clip in Chicago for the film ‘Singh is Kinng’ with Snoop dressing up in full Indian attire. The song is a mixture of Bhangrra and hiphop. Rumour has it that Snoop Dogg now wants to enter Bollywood to shoot a motion picture.

The video release is slated for release this coming Wednesday, two days before the premiere of the film Singh is Kinng. In the Netherlands you can go and watch the film in the Pathe Theatres de Kuip; Spuimarkt and Arena as well as the BiosWollf theaters Mustsee Groningen, Plaza Nieuwegein and Cinestar Enschede. For more info, do go to Bharat Entertainment International. Enjoy.

2008-07-21T20:53:00.005+02:00

For .... in A.

Home

by Chris Daughtry

I'm staring out into the night,
Trying to hide the pain.
I'm going to the place where love
And feeling good don't ever cost a thing.
And the pain you feel's a different kind of pain.

I'm going home,
To the place where I belong,
And where your love has always been enough for me.
I'm not running from.
No, I think you got me all wrong.

I don't regret this life I chose for me.
But these places and these faces are getting old
So I'm going home.
Well I'm going home.

The miles are getting longer, it seems,
The closer I get to you.
I've not always been the best man or friend for you.
But your love, remains true.
And I don't know why.
You always seem to give me another try.

So I'm going home,
To the place where I belong,

And where your love has always been enough for me.
I'm not running from.
No, I think you got me all wrong.
I don't regret this life I chose for me.
But these places and these faces are getting old.

Be careful what you wish for,
'Cause you just might get it all.
You just might get it all,
And then some you don't want.
Be careful what you wish for,
'Cause you just might get it all.
You just might get it all, yeah.

Oh, well I'm going home,
To the place where I belong,
And where your love has always been enough for me.
I'm not running from.

No, I think you got me all wrong.
I don't regret this life I chose for me.
But these places and these faces are getting old.
I said these places and these faces are getting old.
So I'm going home.
I'm going home.

2008-07-01T11:10:00.014+02:00

Broken chains

Today it is 1st July. An important date in Dutch history as on that day in 1863 slavery was finally abolished in the overseas Dutch colonies Surinam and the Netherlands Antilles. It took a great deal of pressure from Dutch abolitionists and slave resistance, but there it was. No more slavery. In Surinam, this 1st July is known as Keti Koti (chains cut or broken chains).

Wish to know more about this black chapter of Dutch history? Go to: http://www.suriname.nu or http://www.schooltv.nl/slavernij. Or check out THE book on slavery in Surinam: Wij Slaven van Suriname by Anton de Kom. Want to make life a tad easier, then you should try and get your hands on De Geestbewaarder by Ton van der Lee, which makes for a far more pleasant and brilliant read ... yes even during the holidays.

The painting on the right-hand side is from the famous Flemish painter Rubens called "Negerkoppen". The original can be found in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels.

Now that was all way back in 1863. Exactly 32 years ago, again on this very 1st July, my dearest cousin Faisja was born. An extra happy day today one would think. Alas, due to a horrific accident she died last late last year. It catapulted me back to Surinam for the funeral. This six-day trip prompted a 100 per cent rethink my life, eventually indirectly leading me to Almere where I met them.

Would my students know or rather realise that my teaching them is indirectly related to this very abolishment of slavery? Would they know that the Dutch got people from India, China and Java (Indonesia) to replace the negroes so that the work on the plantations would still be done? Would they know that that is how my Indian ancestors ended up in Surinam and subsequently the Netherlands? A variation on the Butterfly Effect...

2008-06-27T21:15:00.007+02:00

Judith H.:
"Sommige leerlingen zien school als een sociale activiteit, waarbij wij docenten alleen maar storen in een goed gesprek."

Christie:
"Vanuit mijn studie en zo wil ik wel geinteresseerd zijn in The Other Boleyn Girl, maar ik ben het niet."

Leonie:
"Je hoeft niet bang te zijn dat Pietje niet slaagt, dat is nou typisch een seizoensarbeider."

Onbekende wiskundeleraar:
"Leerlingen zijn te vaak en te gemakkelijk absent. Je grieperig voelen is geen excuus om thuis te blijven. Desnoods trekken ze maar een slijmspoor naar school."

Moor en Astrid
Moor: "Heb je dat nieuws nog meegekregen over Marcouch en de lijfstraffen op islamitische scholen?"
Astrid: "Nee, maar helpt het?"

Onervaren docent a.k.a. joors troelie
"Hoelaat kun je morgenochtend de toets inhalen? Of wil je soms eerst even uitslapen?"

2008-06-27T17:25:00.016+02:00

Londinium - London - Londen - Londres

photo credits: Sitki Tarlan

“ When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.” – Samuel Johnson, English Poet, Critic and Writer (1709-1784).

“When it's three o'clock in New York, it's still 1938 in London.” - Bette Midler, American Singer and Actress, b.1945.

“Nobody is healthy in London, nobody can be.” - Jane Austen, British Novelist and Writer (1775-1817).

“This melancholy London- I sometimes imagine that the souls of the lost are compelled to walk through its streets perpetually. One feels them passing like a whiff of air.” - William Butler Yeats quotes, Irish prose Writer, Dramatist and Poet. Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923 (1865-1939).

2008-06-27T17:06:00.004+02:00

School's out...

And I conveniently forgot to give back my key - wink, wink. This morning I was there for the last time, witnessing all kinds of speeches - varying from highly boring to a-okay. Typically, I was not joining my adult colleagues but sitting next to one of my students, Thomas, him BTW being the only student present. He was kicked out in the end though.

So there you have it. The end of my very short-lived school career. Aaaaarggggh.

P.S. London is calling next year!!!

2008-06-21T18:46:00.022+02:00

Food for thought

Used to think adults were much more interesting. I was so very wrong. These past few months were like living a dream. What can I say. They are an amazing bunch. We - adults - could really learn a thing or two from these youngsters.

For one thing 'my kids' are far better dancers. Also, according to themselves they smell much more pleasantly ;-). One student told me she usually sits in the back of the classroom except in my classes. Phew, sigh of relief, but why? 'Quite a number of teachers suffer from bad breath or bad body odour.' Ouch ...

That's teenagers for you. Their disarming humor, their brutal honesty. Their unconditional warmth. No hidden agendas. The holidays have yet to begin and already I miss them so very much. What have I done.

The Storm

Impetto V Jerry Ropero ft. Cozi

Living a dream
Places that I've seen
It's nothing without you

Searching my soul
Don't know if you know
I'm nothing without you

Remember when we
We were young and free
Innocent virtues

Searching my soul
Little did I know
I'm nothing without you

And the storm is calling yeah
I miss the sunlight on your face
The rain is falling yeah
Since you left without a trace

The storm is calling yeah
It's all the seasons in one day
You hear me calling
Long to feel your warm embrace.
---

2008-06-16T21:45:00.023+02:00

To my fourth and five graders at Het Baken

From G5a to G5f and G4a, c and f

I greet thee with the deepest respect

I met most of them on Monday 3rd March. My throat dry. Hands sweaty. Slightly nauseous. I was peering into what was going to be my classroom for the next couple of months ... and thirty pairs of curious eyes staring right back at me.

What would the new teacher bring? Was I going to bite their heads off? Was I going to be overly sarcastic? Was I going to be a real pushover?

You would have to ask them. Today is probably the day I shall see most of them for the last time. Three months under their belts and their pretty teenage heads crammed with the basics of accepted English pronuncation, the unavoidable grammar. And let's not forget about the great bard from Stratford-upon-Avon. I poured my soul into them. En jullie zijn nooit verder gekomen dan dichtbij. Big group hug!

Three months that might best be described as an incredible emotional rollercoaster, one that I enjoyed tremendously and one that I will cherish and miss for sure. Our lives connected for this one brief moment. They will go on with their lives, becoming tough businessmen or women, teachers, journalists, housewives, photographers, famous actors and what have you not.

Thank you so much! I wish you all the very best life has to offer.

Love you and leave you all with this short post.

Yours,
Sharida a.k.a. Mfs

Sonnet 18

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate.

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer's lease hath all too short a date.

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd.

But thy eternal summer shall not fade,

Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest.

Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou growest.

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

So long lives this and this gives life to thee.

From William Shakespeare, the Renaissance man from Stratford-upon Avon

2008-06-15T20:23:00.008+02:00

Shakespeare a Renaissance man?

Not according to one of our students, who claimed that Shakespeare was born in 1962. Another one said that he spoke Iambic? Oh yes, yet again two other brilliant examples we teachers came across whilst marking students's answers on their Shakespeare tests.

2008-06-08T13:03:00.012+02:00

Stressed out ...

Whoever thought journalism was a hectic line of business, think again. Try teaching a couple of hundred teenagers the Queen's English at a secondary school.

I am in the midst of checking their work on poetry. Some answers are simply hilarious.

Mention another Elizabethan theatre in the vicinity of The Globe. Answer: Picadilly Circus. Mention some of Shakespeare's comedies. Answers: Beth Mac, the Merchant of Verona.

Yep. These are my adorable fourth-graders, only two years away from taking their A-levels. So, quite understandably I need some time out and listen to world music, from the Buddha Bar, to come to my senses.
And still, I love them to bits, including my five-graders.

2008-06-03T22:50:00.009+02:00

Hezbollah: de Libanese kameleon

woensdag 4 juni om 20.00 uur in de levante, amsterdam

Hoe Hezbollah minder sjietisch en meer nationalistisch werd.

EEN LEZING DOOR JOSEPH ALAGHA

Begin juli 2006 ontvoerde Hezbollah twee Israëlische soldaten met het doel deze in te ruilen tegen Libanese gevangen die in Israël werden vastgehouden. Israël trok fel ten strijde tegen haar oude vijand Hezbollah in de hoop de organisatie zowel militair als politiek ongevaarlijk te maken. Israël gokte erop dat als de hele Libanese bevolking zou lijden onder de oorlog en de bombardementen, Hezbollah en haar leider Hassan Nasrallah de schuld zou krijgen en dat de bevolking zich tegen de ‘Partij van God’ zou keren.

Het liep anders. Ook toen Hezbollah zich de afgelopen maand gewelddadig roerde in de straten van Beiroet, werkte dit uiteindelijk minder nadelig uit voor de sjiietische partij dan door menigeen gedacht. In een boeiend betoog legt Hezbollah-deskundige Joseph Alagha uit hoe Hezbollah begon als een protestbeweging met een sji’itisch en militant gedachtegoed, en zich geleidelijk ontwikkelde tot een brede partij met een eigen politiek programma.

Joseph Alagha

Alagha doceert Islamic Studies aan de American University of Beirut en woonde ten tijde van de laatste oorlog in Libanon. Alagha, zelf Libanees en christen, promoveerde een half jaar voor de oorlog uitbrak op onderzoek naar Hezbollah aan de Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam.

Locatie De Levante, Hobbemastraat 28, 1071 ZC Amsterdam
Datum / tijd woensdag 4 juni 2008 / van 20.00 tot 21.30 uur.
Voertaal Engels
Entree HEUR 2.00, NAK-leden gratis op vertoon van lidmaatschapkaart
Reserveren verplicht i.v.m. de beperkte ruimte.

Reserveringen & info

sharida mohamedjoesoef / 06–481 84 228 – www.nederlandsarabischekring.nl

de levante info@delevante.org / 020 - 671 5485 – www.delevante.org

Bereikbaarheid

De Levante is te bereiken via trams 2 en 5, halte Hobbemastraat, langs het Rijksmuseum tot het water (Hobbemakade), op de hoek rechts naast het Zuiderbad.

2008-05-26T20:54:00.031+02:00

Chill with Will

Wee uw gebeente als u een onvoldoende haalt...

To study or not to study the bloody reader, handout and this long, long post, that my dears, is the question ...

Vooral de beginperiode van Elizabeth I kenmerkte zich door veel geweld dat religieus gekleurd was. Denk hierbij Henry VIII, de vader van Elizabeth, die brak met de moederkerk in Rome om te kunnen scheiden van zijn eerste vrouw Catherine of Aragon. Catherine schonk hem namelijk maar geen mannelijke troonopvolger.

En dus wilde Henry hertrouwen en wel met vrouw nummer 2, ofwel Anna Boleyn. Rome weigerde in te stemmen met een scheiding, waarop Henry besloot te breken met de Paus en Rome en zijn eigen Protestantse kerk op te richten, The Church of England. Hij ruimde veel van zijn politieke tegenstanders uit de weg, inclusief een aantal van zijn zes vrouwen. Hij liet ook veel van de Rooms Katholieke geestelijken uit de weg ruimen en maakte kloosters met de grond gelijk.

Toen de dochter van Henry en Catherine, Mary Tudor, op de troon kwam, deed zij het omgekeerde en liet juist veel protestanten om het leven brengen door verbranding. Vooral de vorm van executie – de brandstapel – leverde haar de bijnaam Maria de Bloedige, ofwel Bloody Mary op. Dan te bedenken dat haar vader Henry en haar protestantse halfzus Elizabeth I eigenlijk veel meer doden op hun geweten hadden, maar in tegenstelling tot Mary’s voorkeur voor de brandstapel kozen Henry en Elizabeth voor dood door onthoofding.

De mensen in die tijd hadden weinig kaas gegeten van een goed dieet en hygiëne. Zelfs de koningin ging tenslotte maar een keer in de zoveel weken in bad. Door dit gebrek aan hygiëne heersten er allerlei ziektes. De beruchtste being the Plague ofwel de Pest die vooral door ratten werd verspreid; (pagina 5 van de Reader).

Veel executies hadden het karakter van volksvermaak. Gelukkig waren er ook nog normalere vormen van vermaak, zoals toneelstukken. Deze werden vaak opgevoerd in kroegen, op marktpleinen, en pas later de speelhuizen (pagina 8, Reader). In die zin was het theater dus heel toegankelijk. Ook het taalgebruik was aangepast. Voor het gewone volk werd vaak platvloerse proza gebruikt en om de aristocratie te bedienen, werd vaak in vers geschreven. (pagina 17 van de Reader). De onderwerpen varieerden van het religieuze verhalen tot volksvermaak en historische vertellingen.
Het beroep van acteur genoot weinig aanzien. Acteurs werden gezien als nietsnutten. Landlopers. Ze werden uitgejouwd, weggejaagd en waren beslist niet altijd hun leven zeker. Om het beroep toch met enig fatsoen uit te oefenen werd vaak de bescherming gezocht van een edelman, de patron. Deze vorm van adoptie van een toneelgezelschap heette ‘patronage’. Shakespeare's toneelgezelschap had zelfs de bescherming - patronage - van niemand minster dan de eerste hofmeester van Elizabeth I, Lord Chamberlain (pagina 8, Reader).
Ten tijde van Shakespeare werd het land geregeerd door Elizabeth I, de dochter van Henry VIII en Anna Boleyn. Elizabeth I bleef haar hele leven ongehuwd en kreeg de bijnaam Virgin Queen, vanwege de maagdelijkheidscultus die zijzelf had helpen mee ontwikkelen. Voor een monarch was het immers een plicht om te trouwen, enerzijds om voor een mannelijke opvolger te zorgen en anderzijds om invloed te kunnen uitoefenen op potentiële bondgenoten. Vanuit het parlement werd sterke druk op haar uitgeoefend om hoe dan ook te trouwen en de opvolging te verzekeren, maar die weerstond zij. Ze zag zichzelf getrouwd met Engeland. Wat ongetwijfeld mee zal hebben gespeeld in haar besluit om niet te trouwen is de patriarchale samenleving waarin ze leefde. De man was de baas. Trouwen zou betekenen dat ze haar macht, haar autoriteit zou verliezen. (pagina 26 tot en met 33 van de Reader).
Door te kiezen voor een superimago van de heilige maagd, hoopte Elizabeth niet alleen een deel van katholiek Engeland aan zich te binden, maar zette ze zichzelf op een enorm voetstuk, waarmee haar onschendbaarheid toenam. Ze ontnam zichzelf als het ware haar seksualiteit, haar vrouw-zijn, wederom met als doel niet langer partij te zijn voor allerlei huwelijkskandidaten. Daarnaast zal ze behoorlijk ontnuchterd zijn door het idee van huwelijk na alle huwelijken van haar vader Hendrik VIII.
Elizabeth heeft altijd volgehouden maagd te zijn (aan het woord van een koningin werd niet getwijfeld), wordt toch wel vermoed dat zij een heftige relatie had met Robert Dudley, graaf van Leicester; (zie handout over Elizabeth).
Een dochter had in die tijd weinig te zeggen bij de partnerkeuze. Het was een zaak die de ouders – veelal de vader – voor haar beslisten. De vrouw moest eerst de gehoorzame dochter zijn en in het huwelijk de gehoorzame bescheiden vrouw (zie wederom Reader pagina 26 tot en met 33). Denk in dit opzicht ook aan opdrachten 1 en 2 en krantenartikel 60 Second Star: the scene from Romeo and Juliet. Paris dingt naar de hand van een nog hele jonge Julia bij haar vader. Die vindt haar nog een beetje te jong. Toch was dit in die tijd heel normaal om jong te trouwen en gewoon blindelings te doen wat je vader zei. Liefde was vaak een ondergeschikt gegeven. Het ging om verstandshuwelijken. In die zin was Julia’s besluit om de weg van haar hart te volgen heel tegendraads, rebels.
Mensen van de adel hadden vaak een enorme fascinatie met het toneel vanwege het herkenbare theatrale karakter. Daarbij kwam dat men op deze manier toch goed op de hoogte bleef van alle spanningen en tegenstellingen in de maatschappij. Er bestonden in die tijd immers nog geen kranten of tv. (Reader pagina 8)
Shakespeare werd op 23 april 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon geboren. Hij stierf op 23 april 1616. Moest op jonge leeftijd trouwen met Anne Hathaway omdat ze in verwachting was geraakt. Hij schreef 36 toneelstukken en 154 sonnetten.
Shakespeare genoot in zijn eigen tijd weinig aanzien, omdat zijn werk door de critici uit zijn tijd vooral werd gezien als populistische schunnige pulp, dat als a-moreel, onfatsoenlijk werd beschouwd. Hij lapte de klassieke toneelregels – eenheid van tijd en plaats aan zijn laars. Hij wordt om al deze redenen zelfs wel eens Shockspeare genoemd.
Toch wordt de man nu mega-bejubeld vanwege drie factoren: a) wereldberoemde stijlfiguren (pagina 41 van de Reader) b) psychologische achtergrond van de karakters met gevoelens zoals wraak, lust, trots, jaloezie, liefde, haat – Macbeth - maar ook de uitgebreide vocabulaire, c) hij voegde 3000 woorden toe aan de taal, veel ervan worden nu nog gebruikt.)
Leer pagina 41. Hier staan alle stijlfiguren op een rijtje.Tearing off tights with my teeth - alliteration. No release, no peace (assonance: ea, ea and consonance: se, ce.)

Hoe kon William Shakespeare die in Stratford-upon-Avon de plaatselijke dorpsschool had bezocht zo’n fabelachtige kennis hebben van het Frans, Italiaans, Latijn en Grieks? Hoe kwam hij aan alle kennis van retoriek, poëzie, schilderkunst en wetenschap? Vanwege dit soort vragen doen er allerlei theorieën de ronde dat andere mensen verantwoordelijk zijn voor de werken van Shakespeare, zie pagina’s 21 – 22, plus 49 en 50. Mensen als Sigmund Freud, Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Friedrich Nietzche en Henry James hadden zo hun twijfels. Er zouden andere mannen verantwoordelijk zijn voor de werken van Shakespeare:
Christopher Marlowe (1564 – 1593) = Shakespeare
Bewijzen: Hetzelfde geboortejaar. Dezelfde rijmtechniek: jambisch pentameter. Geleerd. Fysieke gelijkenis met Shakespeare. Toen Marlowe stierf – hij zou zijn vermoord, omdat hij een spion was en een ketter, maar daarover bestaan veel twijfels - begon Shakespeare’s ster juist te rijzen. Toeval????
Marlowe was een jonge dichter en toneelschrijver die tijdens zijn studie aan Cambridge Universiteit furore maakte met zijn literaire inspanningen. Zijn dood wordt omgeven met veel geheimzinnigheid. Is hij vermoord? Heeft hij zijn eigen dood in scene gezet? Reader weblink for more info.
Sir Francis Bacon (1561 – 1626) = Shakespeare
Bewijzen: Zeer geleerd. Vergelijkbare thema’s over manners and morals in de toneelstukken. Veel overeenkomsten met het leven van Bacon in de toneelstukken. Er is geen bewijs van Shakespeare's vroege werken, terwijl Bacon al op jonge leeftijd toneelstukken schreef. Bacon was een excellente wetenschapper en vooraanstaande academicus die rechten aan Cambridge studeerde. Zijn familie had nauwe banden met het hof. Zijn vader was zelfs Minister van Financiën. Ook Bacon kreeg later deze post. Bacon werd geroemd om zijn kennis en sublieme taalgebruik. Reader weblink for more info.

Edward de Vere, de 17^e graaf van Oxford (1550 – 1604) = Shakespeare
Bewijzen: Diens enorme kennis van de adel, het leger en recht. Veel overeenkomsten tussen zijn leven en de toneelstukken. Hij moest onder een pseudoniem schrijven omdat het tenslotte not done was voor een aristocraat om zich te verlagen tot het schrijven van toneelstukken. De Vere was naast dichter en toneelschrijver ook de beschermheer van maar liefst tachtig toneelgezelschappen. Zeer geleerd en een man die wat van het leven had gezien. Zo werd zijn schip eens gekaapt door piraten en zat hij zelfs kort gevangen in de Tower. Reader weblink for more info.

William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616) = William Shakespeare
Stel je voor dat we twee, bijna drie weken lang van alles en nog wat over Shakespeare hebben geleerd en het blijkt misschien de grootste literaire leugen ooit. Do not cry your hearts out, for there is plenty of proof that the man actually lived and wrote wonderful plays and sonnets. (Reader, page 49/50)!!!

Bewijs 1: het is het een gedocumenteerd feit dat ene acteur William Shakespeare bescherming – patronage - genoot van Lord Chamberlain, de belangrijkste hofheer van koningin Elizabeth I. Een dergelijke prominente bescherming zal uiteraard niet onopgemerkt de geschiedenisboekjes zijn ingegaan. Door deze bescherming kreeg het toneelgezelschap de naam The Lord Chamberlain’s Men (zie ook pagina 8 van de Reader waar Patronage wordt uitgelegd).

Bewijs 2: Shakespeare heeft bestaan en was een man van aanzien. Zo wilde de vader van Shakespeare heel graag een familiewapen hebben. Dat werd hem aanvankelijk geweigerd, maar toen zoon Will beroemd werd, vroeg pa het nog eens aan en ja hoor, de familie mocht voortaan ‘gentleman’ achter de naam zetten en kreeg het felbegeerde familiewapen.

Bewijs 3: Shakespeare schreef wel degelijk zijn naam op zijn gedichten en toneelstukken. Vóór 1600 was het niet gebruikelijk dat dit gebeurde, omdat toneelstukken uit die tijd niet als literatuur werden beschouwd. Hierdoor stonden mensen nauwelijks stil bij het auteurschap, laat staan de autenciteit. Bovendien weet je ook dat het beroep van acteur weinig aanzien genoot. Ze werden uitgejouwd en weggejaagd. Dat was ook vaak de reden dat ze bescherming bij de adel zochten - patronage, weet u nog.
Veel anti-Shakespeare-mensen voeren dit als bewijs aan Shakespeare niet heeft bestaan en dat er iemand anders verantwoordelijk was voor de gedichten en toneelstukken.

And for Shakespeare diehards: Sonnet 18 on youtube, sung by David Gilmour. Some think it is way too cheezy. Others think it is absolutely brilliant. You judge for yourselves. Of deze, met Hugh Laurie (van House) en Rowan Atkinson.

AND DO STUDY THE READER!!!

2008-05-23T20:58:00.006+02:00

Cold feet in New Delhi

With 29 degrees Celsius it is actually cold in India's capital, that is when compared to some ten days ago when it was over 40 degrees.

Political temperatures have also dropped in Beirut. So Eva, Samira, my twins they are all safe... for the time being.

At school temperatures are rising, however, as the final exams have just started. My own classes are supposedly slaving their spare time away learning everything about the Great Bard a.k.a. Shakespeare. Well, for their sake I hope they've hit the books, particularly their reader 'Chill with Will'. In the meantime, my fourth graders are having a hard time dealing with the passive. Go for it.

2008-05-10T08:19:00.033+02:00

Good morning Samira, Eva, Hassan and Hussain!

Or is it? While I slept soundly in the saftey and comfort of my house here in Hilversum, you guys you were faced with the rattle of gunfire and the thump of exploding rocket-propelled grenades. So far the violence in the city I love so very much has left dozens of people dead.

Yet I can't say I am really surprised. After all, we are talking about a country that has faced a brutal and bloody civil war fought along sectarian lines.

The war stopped almost overnight, leaving the country traumatised. But hey this is Lebanon. No fingerpointing. No guilt question. Just pick up the pieces and get on with it. But get on with what? The country has again become a ticking timebomb, with many parties - in and outside Lebanon - vying for power.

So far it seems Hezbollah came in first. The Hezbollah drums of victory could be very shortlived though, for even though the party still has a lot of support resounding through all walks of life in Lebanon, the group might very well be on the verge of overplaying its hand.

It flexed its muscles thereby using its magical and favourite word 'resistance', but what happened in the streets of Beirut these last few days brings back haunting memories of old-fashioned militia fighting in the days of the civil war rather than images of Super Nas (Hezbollah's charismatic leader Hassan Nasrallah) doing his so-called bit for God and country.

And now we are getting closer to the real root of all evil in Lubnan. As BBC journalist Roger Hardy pointed out in one of his articles: Is Lebanon an Arab or a non-Arab state? Should it look to the East or to the West? How should its mosaic of Muslim and Christian communities - officially 18 in all -share power?

In 1943 the political elite attempted to solve this power-sharing problem through the National Pact which stated that the president would be a Maronite Christian, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim and the speaker of parliament a Shia Muslim.

Over time, however, the consensus that underpinned this power structure has eroded because of the changing demographic make-up of the country. The Christians, originally a majority, became a minority due to migration factors. The dominant Maronite-Sunni alliance came under challenge from the historically marginalised Shia - the largest minority in a nation of minorities.

Throw in the Palestinian element in the delicate religious equation and you have all the ingredients that - in 1975 - eventually led to an all out civil war. It is estimated that more than 100,000 were killed, another 100,000 maimed, and approximately 17,000-20,000 people are still unaccounted for.

Eighty per cent of the killed, injured, and missing were civilians with no militia affiliation. During sixteen years of war, both Christian and Muslim militias killed thousands in massacres, usually in retaliation for attacks carried out by the opposing side.

So where does that leave my friends in Lebanon- Christians and Muslims? I have no idea. For the time being they are all A-okay. I know because I spoke to Samira earlier. That said, this is still Lebanon we are talking about. The tables can be turned at the speed of light. So, please be safe Samira, your mother, Eva, Ahmad, H&H, Rose, the singing colleague...

2008-04-18T22:59:00.013+02:00

Vikram Seth’s A Suitable Boy ...

... finally in available in a Dutch translation

‘You too will marry a boy I choose,’ said Mrs Rupa firmly to her younger daughter.

This is the opening sentence of Vikram Seth’s brilliant novel A Suitable Boy, first published in 1993 and instantly becoming a world bestseller. Now, 15 years later, the book will finally appear in a Dutch translation - De Geschikte Jongen - that is slated for release in Amsterdam on Friday 25^th April.

It took Seth some ten years to finish his magnus opus, and with over 1400 pages Seth’s magnus opus does not exactly qualify as a short story ;-)

Vikram Seth himself will be in the Netherlands to celebrate the occasion. On Thursday 24th April he will do a reading and signing session at De Duif, Prinsengracht 756 in Amsterdam. He will be interviewed by renown Dutch journalist Jeroen van Kan. It all starts at 20.00 hrs. Want to be there? Please order your tickets through www.aub.nl

If 24th April does not suit your schedule, you get a second chance on Friday 25th April. At nine o'clock in th evening, Seth will give a lecture in the Public Library of Amsterdam as part of the International Literature Festival. And no, it is not for free. You do have to pay € 7,50.

So who is Vikram Seth?

Vikram Seth was born in Calcutta (now Kolkata) in 1952. He took his A-levels in the UK and was trained as an economist at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. Seth presently lives near Salisbury, England.

Dad Seth, was an executive of the Bata India Limited shoe company who migrated to post-Partition India from West Punjab in Pakistan. Mum-dear Leila was the first woman judge on the Delhi High Court as well as the first woman to become Chief Justice of a state High Court, at Simla.

His younger sister, Aradhana, is a film-maker married to an Austrian diplomat, and has worked on Deepa Mehta's controversial movies Earth and Fire (yes the one with Shabana and Nandita).

Seth has always been candid in acknowledging that many of his fictional characters are drawn from life; he has said that only the dog Cuddles in A Suitable Boy has his real name — "Because he can't sue". Justice Leila Seth has said in her memoir On Balance that other characters in A Suitable Boy are composites but Haresh is a portrait of her husband Prem.)

A Suitable Boy

A Suitable Boy centres on Mrs. Rupa Mehra’s efforts to arrange the marriage of her younger daughter, Lata, with a “suitable boy”. At the heart of the novel it is a love story, set in a young, newly independent India. The fictional town, Brahmpur, along with Calcutta, Delhi, Kanpur and other Indian cities, forms a colourful backdrop for the emerging stories.

Lata is a 19-year-old college girl, vulnerable, yet determined to have her own way, and not be influenced by her strong mother and opinionated brother, Arun. Her story revolves around the choice she is forced to make between her suitors, Kabir, Haresh and Amit.

The novel is not simply based on one story. This epic novel covers the various issues faced by post-independence India, including Hindu-Muslim strife, the abolition of the Zamindari system, land reforms and the empowerment of Muslim women.

PS Rumour has it that the book is being made into a film ...