chakravarthy

[ Based on a news item published in The Times of India dated 23rd November, 2017 (Thursday) ]. Kausar Parveen struggles through tears as she remembers the blood-soaked pants of her 9-year-old son, raped by a religious cleric. Each time she begins to speak, she stops, swallows hard, wipes her tears and begins again. The boy had studied for a year at a nearby Islamic school in the town of Kehrore Pakka. In the blistering heat of late April, in the grimy two-room Islamic madrasa, he awoke one night to find his teacher lying beside him. "I didn't move. I was afraid", he says. The cleric lifted the boy's long tunic-style shirt over his head, and then pulled down his baggy pants. "I was crying. He was hurting me. He shoved my shirt in my mouth", the boy says. Parveen reaches over and grabs her son, pulling him towards her, cradling his head in her lap.  Sexual abuse is a pervasive and long-standing problem at madrasas in Pakistan, an AP investigation has fou...

[ Based on a news item published in The Times of India dated 23rd November, 2017 ]. Just days before Pixar's 'Coco' is set to hit theatres, Pixar co-founder and Walt Disney Animation chief John Lasseter announced he is taking a six-month leave of absence citing 'mis-steps' with employees. The boisterous, Hawaiian shirt-wearing personality behind some of the most beloved children's films of the past thirty years like 'Toy Story' is the latest entertainment titan to be exposed for claims of sexual harassment and inappropriate conduct in the workplace. In a vaguely-worded memo obtained by The Associated Press on Tuesday, Lasseter says he knows he has made some employees feel disrespected and uncomfortable.  "I deeply apologise if I have let you down. I especially want to apologise to anyone who has ever been on the receiving end of an unwanted hug or any other gesture they felt crossed the line in any way, shape, or form", Lasseter wrote. ...

After tasting success with Sarathchandra Chatterjee's cult classic, Devadasu, Vinoba Pictures boss Dronacharya Lakshminarayana (D.L.) had set his eyes on Gurajada Apparao's hugely popular 1890's satirical play, Kanyasulkam . Despite the fact that by 1950s the menace of bride price (Kanyasulkam) has given way to another social evil, dowry (Varakatnam), as a stage play Gurajada's Kanyasulkam still drew crowds. D.L. approached P. Pullaiah to direct its movie version. Writer Vempati Sadasivabrahmam and Pullaiah compressed the nearly eight hour drama into a three hour movie script, taking cinematic liberties. Top actors of the time did not shy away from taking up characters with shades of grey, if they offered challenge. N.T. Ramarao's jackal like Girisham and Savitri's portrayal of the harlot Madhuravani are fine examples. The Story : Girisham (NTR) the cunning bluff master lives at the expense of pootakoolamma (Chaydevi) who runs a mess. He befriends a wench Ma...

Kareena Kapoor is flaunting her pregnancy and we can't get enough of it. Bipasha Basu gets married and we lose our minds. This isn't startling news, India promotes a woman's right to marry and bear children. No, I take that back - we don't promote it, we glamourise it. And I have no problem with that. What I have a problem with is how we refuse the same support to women who wish to get a divorce or an abortion. And what is even more despicable is how the law supports this. The Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act is so old-fashioned it even treats married women differently from all the single ladies (hey Beyonce) - or as we backwater irritants like to call them "unmarried women". Per the Act, if you are single you don't get an abortion unless your doctor determines that a pregnancy puts you in grave physical or mental danger. If you are single you don't make choices about your physical and emotional well-being, your doctor makes them for you. But i...