ISSUE 28 August 15, 2015

News In Brief Google aptly searched SundarSananya Datta

Another blogger bites the dust

Sundar Pichai is the glowing beacon of hope who has successfully achieved the great American dream that we Indians harbour deep in our hearts since birth. But Pichai, the first Indian born Google CEO, is also a living example of rise from mediocrity to millionaire. The lanky CEO hailing from Chennai was born in a middle class Indian family living a mediocre life in a small two room apartment in Chennai. But from a very early age Pichai showed signs of being a genius which later proved to be right when he outdid all competition at IIT Kharagpur and got himself a scholarship at Stanford

University.In 2004 after completing his studies abroad Pichai joined Google only a decade later to head it and make all Indians around the world proud. Pichai had been looking after the day

to day operations at Google since October 2014 but it was only this August that the company decided to bestow the mathematical genius with the title that matched his responsibilities. Within Google, as apparently he is quite a favourite contender for CEO openings at other tech companies.Pichai started his career at Google as a product manager . It was on his insistence that Chrome browser was launched, which later became a dominant choice of browser all over the world. Larry Page, former CEO and mentor of Google had nothing but praise and appreciation for

Pichai on his new appointment, “I have been spending quite a bit of time with Sundar, helping him and the company in any way I can, and I will of course continue to do that. Google itself is also making all sorts of new products, and I know Sundar will always be focused on innovation - continuing to stretch boundaries. I know he deeply cares that we can continue to make big strides on our core mission to organise the world’s information. “Pichai’s rise in Google proves that not all of our Indian tech talents vanish away due to lack of support and mentorship. Merit over status is all that is needed.

Subhasish Mitra“Defenders of Islam” in Bangladesh published a hit list in 2014 comprising of 84 bloggers and said that they would be executing anyone who poses a threat to or opposes Islam. If already the three killings this year was not enough to make a mockery out of the whole ‘freedom of expression’ in Bangladesh, the attackers armed with machete, has claimed another life going by the pen name of Niloy Neel, who was like others, a secularist, a free thinker and one who dared to raise his voice against the killing of the previous three.Religious fundamentalists and fascists have been the mainstay headline providers for world news courtesy of ISIS and other groups. They adhere to specific rules and norms, which if avoided or not abided by can and have resulted in the killing of thousands. Extremists have

taken up the stance to protect or rather spread fear in the name of

religion, causing mass panic and genocide. A progressive culture is one where people are free to choose the path they believe in the most. Unfortunately for Neel, the path which he believed the most in was the reason of his demise. Before Neel, secular

bloggers Avijit Roy, Washique Rahman and Ananta Bijoy Das

were hacked to death by the same group of attackers w i e l d i n g machete as their weapon. The assailants broke into the house of Neel, pushed his wife and one of his friends aside and then hacked him to death. Bangladeshi

group Ansar al-Islam, an al Qaeda group has claimed the responsibility of the murder.The irony that has presented itself onto the situation is that the ‘atheist’ who was murdered by the so called religious group was doing something that was

not only beneficial for the society but for the whole of mankind. It is a matter of personal choice to believe or not to believe in the existence of God. Even though Neel was an atheist, he was a member of a non-governmental organization and a voice of secularism. He was a voice against fundamentalism and extremism and was also a voice for minority rights, especially women’s rights and the rights of indigenous people.The people practicing religious fundamentalism use religion as a means to spread terror amongst the mass and to control the mass. Rather than unity, the fundamentalists seek segregation of mankind so as to bring into fruition the policy of divide and rule. The recent killings of Neel and the people alike has to be taken as a wakeup call to strike at the very root religious fundamentalism.

Naved is not a Pakistani

NIMD welcomes Ms. Michelle Schaner as Guest Faculty to teach the students of Media Sciences the art of journalistic writing. Sessions with Michelle promise students an hour of interactivity and learning journalistic know-how through modern lesson design. This fresh and fun approach is sure to spruce up the student’s skills and aide a better understanding of journalistic writing.Ms. Michelle Schaner is an Education & Media development consultant working in Myanmar for the past seven years. She completed her B.A Journalism from Ohio State University; she further pursued MA Intercultural Relations from Lesley University. While in the US, she has worked as an editor, an ESL trainer and teacher, and as project manager. Starting out as a daily newspaper journalist, she matured into a freelance writer and editor of articles, reports, proposals and other communication-related projects. She has been associated with CARE Australia (Myanmar), IFC - International Finance Corporation, Myanmar Consolidated Media, amongst others. In April 2010, she led the

effort to develop an Annual Report for the Human Development Initiative in Myanmar for the United Nations Development

Programme, Myanmar wherein she consolidated, edited and authored content for 50-page deliverable.Michelle thinks it would be her mission “to help support the staff and students at NSHM improve their program in any way she can think of.” She is excited about her journey in NSHM who she perceived as “experts in their field”. “They all have more experience and training in India that I could possibly have, so I am just here to learn and offer whatever resources they think they need to improve and enhance their program.”NIMD proudly embraces interdisciplinary thinking and once again warmly welcomes Michelle Schaner.

Pakistan denied Mohammed NavedYakub to be a Pakistani national who has been caught alive after the ambush on a BSF convoy in Udhampur. It also asked New Delhi not to make “accusations” without proof.

Impartial flood reliefRefuting allegations of partisan politics in flood relief distribution levelled by Oppositions, West Bengal Panchayat Minister Subrata Mukherjee hailed the relief work by the government and said it was done using administrative channels only. He said about 100 people lost their life in the flood in south Bengal and the situation arising out of it is presently under control.

‘‘England win beyond belief”England captain Alastair Cook said his team’s resounding Ashes triumph over Australia was “beyond belief”. Cook’s pre-series underdogs completed a second straight three-day victory over their opponents at Trent Bridge to take an unassailable 3-1 lead in the series.

World BadmintonSaina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth will be at the forefront as a strong Indian badminton contingent look to create a flutter at the World Championships, starting in Jakarta.

NIMD greets Michelle Schaner! NIMD welcomes the 2015 batch

With pumping beats of excitement coupled with apprehension, a bunch of fresh minds boggling with new ideas have stepped in the campus of NSHM . This batch of nearly 210 under graduate and 40 post graduate students squeezed themselves to garner some preliminary knowledge about the respective courses they have opted for - Media Science, Animation and Fashion Designing.

It all started with an introductory speech by the portal director, Dr. Buroshiva Dasgupta, followed by some interesting insights from the director of the Management and Technology portal, Dr. Krishnendu Sarkar. An institution gets an identity because of the students and the faculty

members here play a vital role in shaping up their personality traits for becoming better future media professionals. With the introduction of the professors by the NIMD portal director, the session was followed by a student interaction programme where generally, the freshers get a hang about their seniors through a complete informal session.

One also needs to remember, the college has always been catering to the students with direct insights from the industry pioneers and this time, they had invited guest speakers like Mr. Ashoke Vishwanathan, Mr. Mir Afsar Ali, Mr. Anjan Bandopadhyay, Mr. Sumit Roy, Mr. Anindya Chatterjee, Mr. Subrata Nag Chowdhury, Mr. Praveen Sethia (RJ Praveen) and Ms. Rita Bhimani to share their extensive experience in the field of diversified domain of media. But would it be worth to step in this tough media business without a fresher’s welcome? Frolicking energy oozing out of the juniors as they watched their seniors performing for them, had surely enhanced the amiability among the batches, marking the initiation of a new chapter.

Sreetama Karmakar Madhushri Banerjee

ISSUE 28 August 15, 2015

The Team: Anirban Mondal, Bhavna Yagnik,Indrajit Bhattacharjee, Koustabh Das, Lahari Basu, Madhushri Banerjee, Poulami Bhowmik,Sananya Datta, Santanu Ghosh, Sreetama Karmakar, Shubhasish Mitra, Tapatrisha Das Design Team: Abhishek Bhattacharjee,Banhishikha Ghorai

Chief Mentor: Dr Buroshiva Dasgupta Mentors: Debanjan Banerjee, Reshmi Naskar, Bhaswar Bhattacharyya, Sourav Basu, Barnali Ray,Ankita Ash

Tryst with the heroesTapatrisha Das

Parade- the red fort- flowers- Jana gana mana- and obviously ‘The National Flag’.It soars high. Right hands perpendicular to your forehead, and eyes squinting under the sunlight to see waves formed by the passing air on the tricolor fabric.And then what? You get home, do a few posts on your Facebook to let your ‘friend list’ know that you are aware of what the heck this Independence Day is all about. And get back to whatever you were doing. Oh and right, you do a few intellect-clad debates on Gandhiji and Netaji.What about the other freedom fighters? Masterda Surya Sen is not just a metro station, nor is ‘Shahid Khudiram’. Ever cared to know who these Binoy Badal

Dinesh are? BBD Bagh is named after whom?Or who is Matangini Hazra?You know Matangini Hazra marched with the flag held tight, even after being shot thrice. Even after falling down, she refused to let go of the national flag; clutched on it tightly with her last breath.You know Khudiram Bose was hanged when he was only 18 years old; younger than most of us.Benoy, Badal and Dinesh (Yes, The two Bs and D of B.B.D. Bag) preferred to take a cyanide pill and shoot themselves than surrendering to the British officials.With Bhagat Singh, Sj. Shivaram Rajguru and Sj. Sukhdev were hanged, who had equal contribution in the Indian independence movement. Abadi Bano Begum

was the first Muslim female to address an audience, speaking from behind a purdah. Velu Nachiyar, the former princess of Ramanathapuram, was the first queen to wage a war against the British, even before the sepoy mutiny.Tirupur Kumaran, was found dead holding the national flag, in his last protest march against the colonial government in 1932. A decade later, Kanaklata Barua was shot down for proudly holding up the national flag.Gour Hari Das, fought against the British rule, and then had to fight for 30 more years to get his freedom fighter certificate. A perfect way to repay someone who gave us our independence, isn’t it?How ironic, that we often admire

revolutionists of other countries, as style icons, but forget about our own country people. And the list continues. I don’t know how we can ever repay them, expect remembering them with pride and tears.So, how about doing something unconventional this Independence Day?How about finding out whom this ‘Independence’ actually belongs to, that we claim to be our own?Happy Independence. JAI HIND!

The National Flag of India was first adopted in it’s present form on 22nd of July in 1947.It was designed by the Pingali Venkayya using tri colours .However India’s Tricolor natioanal flag underwent several changes before it’s final adoption since it’s inception. The history of the Indian flag dates back to pre-independence era. It was during 1904-06 that the first Indian flag came into being. It was made by Sister Nivedita and after some time this flag came to be known as Sister Nivedita’s flag. This flag was coloured red and yellow. Red signified the freedom struggle and yellow was a symbol of victory. It had the words “Bonde Matoram” in Bengali written on it. Along with it the flag contained a figure of ‘Vajra’, weapon of god ‘Indra’, and a white lotus in the middle. 1906: After Sister Nivedita’s flag, another flag designed in 1906. was a tricolour flag with three equal strips of blue (top), yellow (middle) and red (lower). In this flag the blue strip had eight stars of slightly different shapes. The red strip had two symbols, one of sun and the other of a star and a crescent. The yellow strip

had ‘Vande Mataram’ written on

it in Devnagiri script. In the same year another version of this flag was created which was also tricolour but its colours were different. It had orange, yellow and green and came to be known as ‘Calcutta flag’ or ‘Lotus flag’, as it had eight half opened lotuses on it. It is believed to be designed by Sachindra Prasad Bose and Sukumar Mitra. It was unfurled on 7 August 1906 at Parsi Bagan Square, Kolkata. It was a “boycott day” against the partition of Bengal and Sir Surendranath Banerjee hoisted this flag to mark the unity of India.

1907: Saw Madam Bhikaji Rustom Cama’s flag. The flag was collectively designed by Madam Bhikaji Cama, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (Veer Savarkar) and Shyamji Krishna Varma. The flag was unfurled by Madam Cama on 22 August 1907 at Stuttgrat, Germany, and attained the status of the first Indian flag to be hoisted at the foreign land. From this event onwards it was also referred to as ‘Berlin Committee flag’. The flag consisted of three colours- the topmost being green followed by golden saffron in the middle and the red colour at the bottom

1916: In 1916 Pingali Venkayya, a writer and a geophysicist designed a flag with the intention to bring the whole nation together. He met Mahatma Gandhi and sought his approval. Mahatma Gandhi suggested him to incorporate a charkha as a symbol of economic regeneration of India, in the flag. Pingali made the flag out of the hand spun yarn ‘Khadi’. The flag had two colours and a ‘Charkha’ drawn across them..

1917:The Home Rule League formed by Bal Gangadhar Tilak adopted a new flag in 1917, as at that time status of Dominion was being demanded for India. The flag had the union jack et the top, near the hoist. The rest of the flag contains five red and four blue strips. It had seven stars on it in the shape of ‘Saptarishi’ constellation which is supposed to be the sacred one for the Hindus. It also had a crescent moon and a star at the top fly end.

1921: As Mahatma Gandhi wanted all the communities of India to be represented in the flag of the nation, a new flag was designed. This flag had three colours. At the top was white then green and at the bottom was red colour. In this flag the colour white symbolised minority communities of India, green was for the Muslims and the red one was for the Hindu and Sikh communities. The ‘Charkha’ was drawn across all the bands symbolising the unification of these communities. The pattern of this flag was based on the flag of Ireland.

1931: Some people were not at all happy with the communal interpretation of the flag. Keeping all this in view, a new flag was designed which replaced red with ochre. This colour signified combined spirit of both the religions as saffron was the colour of Hindu yogis as well as Muslim darvesh. But the Sikh community also demanded a separate representation in the flag or the complete abandonment of religious colours. This resulted in another flag by Pingali Venkayya. This new flag had three colours. Saffron was at the top followed by white in the middle and green being the lowermost. The ‘Charkha’ was at the center of white colour. This flag was passed at the meeting of Congress Committee in 1931 and was adopted as the official flag of the Committee.

When India got independence in 1947, this flag of Indian National Congress, with a chakra (wheel) substituted the charkha proposed earlier.

Author- Khushwant SinghPublication Year -1956Pages-181Price- Rs 322Publisher - Chatto & Windus “In the summer of 1947, when the

creation of the state of Pakistan was formally announced, ten million people—Muslims and Hindus and Sikhs—were in flight. By the time the monsoon broke, almost a million of them were dead, and all of northern India was in arms, in terror, or in hiding. The only remaining oases of peace were a scatter of little villages lost in the remote reaches of the frontier. One of these villages was Mano Majra.”It is a place, Khushwant Singh goes on to tell us at the beginning of this classic novel, where Sikhs and Muslims have lived together in peace for hundreds of years. Then one day, at the end of the summer, the “ghost train” arrives, a silent,

incredible funeral train loaded with the bodies of thousands of refugees, bringing the village its first taste of the horrors of the civil war. Train to Pakistan is the story of this isolated village that is plunged into the abyss of religious hate. It is also the story of a Sikh boy and a Muslim girl whose love endured and transcends the ravages of war.If groups of people are examined on a closer level than their religious attachments, a more detailed social structure emerges. Government officials were corrupt, manipulative of villagers, and could arrest anyone they chose for any reason, more often than not for their own benefit. They did

just enough in terms of dealing with the dispute so that nobody could say that they did not do anything. The law enforcement was completely at the whim of the local government, meaning that in practice, there was no law. Also, small amounts of educated people trickled in and out of villages. When one such educated man was speaking to a villager about freedom, the villager explained,“Freedom is for the educated people who fought for it. We were slaves of the English, now we will be slaves of the educated Indians—or the Pakistanis” To better understand the situation surrounding of the partition of India, Khushwant

Singh provides information about both religions involved. The book sheds light on the various religious practices of both Sikhs and Muslims in rural India. He describes daily life for individuals from both practices. Khushwant Singh does not describe the politics of the Partition in much detail. This is mostly because his purpose is to bring out the individual, human element and provide a social understanding, two aspects of historical events which tend to be either ignored or not covered effectively in texts. In the Partition, the major change was political; Britain’s splitting of India into Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan. -Bhavna Yagnik

On the occasion of India’s 69th Independence Day, here are some interesting facts related to Indian independence...

Book Review : Train to Pakistan

The Journey of India’s Tricolour National Flag Anirban Mondal

- Lord Mountbatten attended both the ceremonies in Karachi and New Delhi to avoid controversies.

- The border between India and Pakistan was drawn by Sir Cyril Radeliffe who never actually visited the sub continent before his appointment.

- Lord Mountbatten choose 15th August as the independencec day since it was the second anniversary of Japan’s surrender to allied forces in World War –II