A Polish border guard assists Ukrainian refugees as they arrive to Poland, on February 26. / Image: AP
Over 156,000 residents of Ukraine have entered Poland since the beginning of hostilities in the country amid Russia’s military operation, the Polish Border Guard said on Sunday.
“Since the beginning of hostilities, the Border Guard officers have registered a total of 187,800 people at border crossings with Ukraine, including over 156,000 people in the direction of entry into Poland,” the agency said in a statement.
According to Warsaw, a record number of 88,400 people have been registered on the Polish-Ukrainian border over the past 24 hours, with 77,300 seeking to enter Poland. On Thursday, Russia began a special operation to demilitarize and “denazify” Ukraine, responding to calls from the Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics for help in countering the aggression of Ukrainian forces.
The Russian Defense Ministry said the special operation is targeting Ukrainian military infrastructure only and the civilian population is not in danger. Moscow says it has no plans to occupy Ukraine.
Kathak is one Indian classical dance form that has captivated the minds and hearts of people all over the world, this dance form is today a part of almost all Indian dance festivals and one can see its presence on the international dance festival platforms as well.
There are a few artists who have dedicated their entire life to take the legacy of this dance forward and Shila Mehta is one such kathak exponent who tirelessly works towards taking Kathak to a global platform.
Recently Ms. Mehta organized Sanskriti Mahotsav a festival of exclusively to promote Kathak, but what was unique about this initiative was the presence of all the Gharanas of Kathak. This dance festival was especially curated by Shila Mehta to bring awareness about the differences and similarities within each kathak gharana. I spoke with this talented lady in regards to the same and this is what she had to say:
How did the Sanskriti Mahotsav tribute come about?
Shila Mehta
This festival was a tribute to celebrated the contribution of Padma Vibhushan Pandit Birju Maharaj ji to the field of Kathak, homage to Guru Pandit Vijay Shankar ji who passed away a while back and in loving memory of dance scholar and critic Padmashree Dr Sunil Kothari ji who passed away due to Covid. Our Sanskriti Mahotsav was a nine days festival spread over five weekends. And I believe that we as artist should contribute to the society too so we joint hands with charity of autism.
What made you think of a festival with various Gharana of Kathak?
I believe the beauty of dance lies in connecting the past to the present and preparing the future. Past is not old, rather old is gold. Gharana is a lineage and if that is kept strong and if its origin and source is kept it alive only then creativity can be enhanced. There is a beautiful saying “The deeper the roots taller the shoots” that is where gharana plays an important role. At the same time Gharana is not dividing a kathak dancers it is a way to show that kathak has many fragrances and flavors and each has their own beauty. Festival had four gharana showcased at the festival.
How difficult was it to bring the biggest names of different gharana together on one platform?
Oh my God, it took me nine months to get it ready, it was almost like delivering a baby. First phone call I made was to Maharaj ji and he praised my initiative and stood for me that gave me the encouragement. Due Covid many were not in the right frame of mind but constant follow up did the trick and I finally got great support from artists like Rajendra Gangani, Prerna Shrimali, Durga Arya, Prerna Deshpande and many more came forward. Younger artists like Vishal Krishna, Sauvik, Shivani verma and others were a delight to have. Having the presence of Ram Lal Barit ji and his students were something very special. But yes, I must admit many of my contemporaries did not care to reply to my calls back but I guess the situation is such that all are not in the right circumstances.
You did join dance and the cause of autism together, what made you do that?
Nupur Jhankar is my NGO which uses art to raise awareness about different problems in the communities around the world, we have branches of Nupur Jhankar in India, USA, UK and Belgium and every time we bring spotlight unto various society issues and this time it was autism. I felt awareness and understanding of what autism really is, is very low all over the world so I decided to link it to the festival and we even presented some autism theme based kathak performances too. It was an online ticketed show, we did not get anyone in for free and every penny was given to the charity. We also had talk from Flamis organization of Autism USA and Autism society of India which brought more light to the cause.
Out of all the gharana talks and presentation which one was most well received?
The Mahotsav showcased in-depth interviews, talks and performances of the four different Gharans in Kathak, mainly: Lucknow Kathak Gharana, Jaipur Kathak Gharana, Banaras Kathak Gharana and Raigarh Kathak Gharana. What was most well received were the talks and thoughts by the legends of each gharanas. Different films of “Gharana Tree” were something all loved, performances of the masters were a big hit too. The high energy and zeal of the younger artists was something audience took back with them.
Where do you think today an artist is lacking?
Today’s generation of dancers are absolutely brilliant, the skills of a young dancers are immaculate and they all are very well polished as a performer too but the I feel that the personal thirst of dance connecting it with and to spirituality is totally missing. Dance has become more of an entertainment, well I don’t deny the fact that it is a medium of entertainment but that is for the audiences, for the ones who see the dancer but, for the artist who is presenting it, the art needs to be get deeper and connect the soul to the art and in turn link the divine to the art of dance.
What is next for you?
The Sanskriti Mahotsav response was tremendous is over but its recorded shows are going to be taken ahead. As of now we are screening the show at event being held at Embassy of India in Belgium, UK and USA. Nehru Center UK is also going to be showcasing the festival along with live panel discussion with few eminent dance personalities from UK. I also wish to make more films on this same topic of Gharana as it is a very huge topic to explore. At the same time, I also have my Vande Mataram festival that is coming up soon. I am a Gujarati so, garba and dandiya is in my blood so I wish to also bring and keep alive the folk-dance tradition too, the energy of folk dance is what keeps me alive.
Shila Mehta is an artist with a heart that keeps beating for the love of dance, each of her shows and festivals are meant to not just entertain but to even educate its performers and as well as the audience.
BMC aims at making Terrace Gardens mandatory for new buildings 6
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is planning to make terrace gardens mandatory for all new buildings having a plot size of more than 2000 sq. m. The move is aimed at increasing green cover in the city.
Soon the BMC will hold discussions with builders’ associations such as the Maharashtra Chamber of Housing Industry (MCHI), and National Real Estate Development Council. The draft policy by the Gardens Department recommends making it compulsory for every builder/developer to do vertical gardens at least on the main road-facing sides during construction to reduce air and noise pollution.
The draft policy states that the stability of the structure should not be compromised nor should the waterproofing suffer. The rooftop gardening should be made with an irrigation facility. “While approving plans for the construction of buildings or such structures, care should be taken that sufficient earthen/soil space should be left for proper growth of big trees. Also, if possible permeable Tiles should be made compulsory at ground level for percolation of water,” it reads.
BMC trees and garden superintendent Jitendra Pardeshi told Afternoon Voice, “The land shortage causes lack of greenery in Mumbai among residential areas, it just looks like concrete jungles. This policy will help in the cumulative green cover which is facing hurdles due to land shortage. Within the framework of Development Control Regulations (DCR), the development plan department should see the viability of making it mandatory to provide podium gardens for big projects. Some native tree varieties having shallow root system or medium size canopy can be planted at podium level for increasing green cover ensuring structure stability too.”
The Idea of making rooftop gardening compulsory was first proposed by former mayor Dr Shubha Raul in 2019. Following her demand, then Municipal Commissioner Ajoy Mehta had assured that such rules will be incorporated in DCR.
Russian troops enter Ukraine's Kharkiv: Ukrainian official 8
Ukrainian forces were battling Russian troops on the streets of Ukraine’s northeastern city of Kharkiv on Sunday, said regional governor Oleh Sinegubov.
“The Russian enemy’s light vehicles have broken into Kharkiv, including the city centre,” Sinegubov said. “Ukraine’s armed forces are destroying the enemy. We ask civilians not to go out.”
Videos published by Anton Herashchenko, adviser to the interior minister, and Ukraine’s State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection showed several light military vehicles moving along a street and, separately, a burning tank.
A power outage was reported from some pockets in central and south Mumbai on Sunday morning, resulting in the halting of the local train services on one rail line, officials said.
Train movement halted between Andheri and Churchgate railway stations as the power supply stopped, Western Railway’s chief public relations officer Sumit Thakur said.
The local trains, considered as the lifeline of the country’s financial capital, were moving on the Central Railway route after a brief disruption, but the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus was facing a blackout, officials said.
Earlier, residents of Sion, Dadar and Matunga areas in central Mumbai reported a power outage. There were also similar reports from parts of south Mumbai, said Nehal Shah, a municipal corporator.
The exact cause of the power outage has not yet been determined and efforts are on restoring the supply, officials said.
The Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport, a state undertaking, distributes power in the island city and depends on producers like Tata Power.
A spokesperson of Tata Power did not immediately comment on the outage.
Earlier, Mumbai had faced a massive power outage on October 12, 2020, which lasted up to 18 hours in certain pockets.
Maharashtra - Total unemployment rate 4.22 per cent in January 2022 11
The unemployment rate for Maharashtra was 4.22 per cent in the month of January 2022. Though Maharashtra’s unemployment rate fluctuated substantially in recent months, it tended to decrease through the February 2021 – January 2022 period ending at 4.22 per cent last month.
January 2022, the rural unemployment rate for Maharashtra was 3.06 per cent. Though Maharashtra’s rural unemployment rate fluctuated substantially in recent months, it tended to decrease through the February 2021 – January 2022 period ending at 3.06 per cent last month.
MCCIA spokesperson said, “There is still some effect of the pandemic on the informal sector, as well as Tier III or IV suppliers in the market. Their recoveries have been slow due to multiple factors, including the pandemic and commodity prices. But various indicators, such as the low unemployment rate in Maharashtra, or the FDI inflows, or a steady rise in demand for electricity, point to real signs of recovery.”
According to the July-September 2020, quarterly report of the periodic labour force survey (PLFS), which estimates labour force indicators in the current weekly status (CWS) for urban areas alone, Jharkhand had the second-highest unemployment rate in the two quarters since the outbreak of the pandemic at 32 per cent and 19.8 per cent, respectively.
Urban Maharashtra was the worst hit by the pandemic in terms of loss of employment. The rate of unemployment in the urban areas of the industrialised state were 35.6 per cent and 22.6 per cent, respectively, in the April-June and July-September quarters of the last year at 35.6 per cent and 22.6 per cent, far higher than the national averages of 20.9 per cent and 13.3 per cent.
Russia says willing to talk to Ukraine once their military "lays down arms" 13
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday that Moscow would be ready to hold talks with Kyiv, but only once Ukraine’s military had laid down its arms.
He also said that Moscow did not want “neo-Nazis” to govern Ukraine.
Russia launched its invasion by land, air and sea on Thursday following a declaration of war by President Vladimir Putin, in the biggest attack on a European state since World War Two.
Unemployment is a soaring issue in India, youth are under stress 15
Do you remember how Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised to create one crore jobs to eradicate youth unemployment in the country? More than seven years through his term, only a few lakh jobs have been added according to the official labour bureau data. Indian politics has squandered its narrative in recent times. Modi and BJP flipped their sides from development to blame the opposition by most of the time digging graves of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. People have voted for Modi expecting some change by believing his development promises.
Unfortunately, since he came to power, he is much more focused on his PR activities with lavish photoshoots and media cameras hanging around hyping everything that he does. No news anchor or journalist ever spoke about unemployment, lack of educational budget, misuse of powers, survival struggles of youth, growing crime due to lack of job opportunities and those promised hundred smart cities. Furthermore the ‘Make in India’ project’s utter failure. Make in India was supposed to promote new start-ups, but demonetisation and unplanned long lockdown forced many small businesses to pull down their shutters.
Hundreds of unemployed youths committed suicides or got killed in brainwashed Hindutva riots or took to the self-declared Gow Raksha jobs (save cows) by venting out frustration beating people to death. In return, they get a badge of honour from right-wing supporters, and one day they perish. Even if there is no job, they feel pride in indulging in such waste because that gives them undue attention.
The pandemic has stormed for more than a year, reducing the government into a confusing mess. It has taken a ghastly toll, caused the largest surge in joblessness, many companies dropped their employees. Other countries too have suffered and failed, but not as the Modi government botched citizens on vaccines, testing kits, oxygen, and hospital beds, jobs assurance and above all failed policies, securing jobs for people. This government withered people’s survival.
Lack of skill is just a new tool to devalue young aspirants so that they could be hired in way lower salaries than the standard one. It’s a business. And all blame is put on the education system. Every organisation has their way of systems and procedures to keep its organisation running. Education will provide you with basics and deep-rooted knowledge upon which you can understand and build your skill when you work for organisations. Every organisation equips their employees and new entrants with the requisite training to build workable skills. Employers are bosses because they know they are in demand and everyone will bow to them. They said educated youth have no skill, we accepted because they are bosses.
A large percentage of Indians view only Government Jobs as employment. We constantly keep seeing how thousands and lakhs of candidates keep applying for every available Government job — a lot of them are educationally overqualified for the requirement. This scenario is not going to improve, as we have the population growth, equivalent numbers of government jobs are not created. Creating an environment of prosperity and making everyone grow is what we expected from PM’s speeches.
Prime Minister talked a lot about the type of these jobs in his concluding speech in the Lok Sabha no-confidence motion held in July. There is no dearth of those kinds of jobs, he means making Pakora and Bhajiya or having tea stalls, but he ignored the fact that how can anyone afford to buy Pakoda and tea if the buyers have no job? Even to run those pakoda stalls they need purchasers. Despite having the attitude and open-mindedness to take up such jobs, there is no clientele. Small and medium businesses going through tough times are the reason they fail to create jobs, the unorganised sector also limiting the jobs. Modi really needs to get this reality check.
Moreover, the developed nations of the world, which are doing well, were earlier totally based on agriculture. India has this huge employment problem because it directly shifted from an agriculture-based economy to a service-based economy, skipping industrialization. With the advent of the industrial revolution, they showed tremendous progress in the manufacturing field. After that, they are slowly switching to the service sector. We don’t have an employment policy which is a requirement for all the International Labour Organisation member countries. The government has mainly relied on information technology and special economic zones to create jobs but the real potential lies somewhere else. The Modi government has not only failed to create new jobs but has also failed to keep existing jobs intact. Demonetization has undone every good thing that had happened to our country in the past.
Money flow in the market has decreased since Demonetization and other various factors and its effects are seen slowly now. Therefore, the purchasing power of people is reduced, resulting in lower demand for supplies and services. The companies need to produce x amount of goods (food, cars etc.) in a day and should have demand for it. If there is no demand, they tend to produce less than x amount of goods in a day – thereby increasing the production cost, increasing the price and not making profits. To keep the prices and profits balanced, production is reduced. So eventually companies end up requiring fewer people to produce a decreased amount of goods to keep the balance. This is one of the possible reasons employments in the market has decreased. Other factors that affect this – taxes, subsidies, export! We all have seen how income tax offices are behaving. The Government has not provided the job as required but also decreased jobs in various sectors like Telecom, IT, Construction, Labour, Pharma list is long. Government Sector jobs are on hold due to disputes in courts or due to scams.
Modi just made promises after promises but hardly fulfilled any of them. Whenever youth questioned about the jobs, the government and their machinery diverted the topic showing them danger from Pakistan, how Nehru damaged India, how Ram Mandir was built and most importantly how Hindus are in danger. What can we expect from these brainwashed youth? There is no point in talking about spineless sold-out media houses because they have become the mouthpiece of Modi.
Any suggestions, comments or disputes with regards to this article send us at feedback@www.afternoonvoice.com
Is it a gift or Pandora's box, asks China on US grant aid to Nepal 17
China has again accused the US of employing coercive diplomacy against Nepal over the ongoing controversy on the “Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC)-Nepal Compact” that awaits Parliamentary ratification by the Himalayan nation.
On Thursday, the scheduled Parliament meeting was postponed until Friday, as the government sought to ensure the required numbers to pass the MCC grant agreement in the House, The Kathmandu Post reported.
The deal, under which Nepal will get the USD 500 million grant from the US, was tabled in the House on Sunday, after it was registered in July 2019. The 500 million US Dollars grant assistance to the Himalayan Nation has become a subject of protest as reports have claimed it to be a military pact.
Dozens of protestors were injured on Thursday in the clash near the Parliament with some reported to have sustained serious injuries. At a press briefing on Wednesday, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying stressed the earlier remarks made by the US State Department spokesperson that “Nepal’s failure to ratify the MCC compact will affect bilateral ties.”
In response to this statement, Chunying said, “The US Embassy in Nepal described the USD 500 million MCC grant as ‘gift from the American people to Nepalis’. I wonder, since when does a gift come with the package of an ultimatum?” “How can anyone accept such a gift? Is it a gift or Pandora’s box? I’m afraid it will turn out like a Nepalese saying: It looks good, but you will find the meat difficult to chew,” she further asked.
The Chinese spokesperson went on to add that “there should be no interference in any country’s domestic affairs, no political strings attached, no coercive diplomacy, and certainly no infringement on other countries’ sovereignty and interests for selfish gains.”
Priyanka says the situation in Ukraine is 'terrifying', calls for support 19
Actor Priyanka Chopra Jonas on Friday dubbed the Russian military attack on Ukraine as ”terrifying” and said it was difficult to understand how the situation has escalated to a ”catastrophic point”.
Russian troops launched their anticipated attack on Ukraine on Thursday, as President Vladimir Putin cast aside international condemnation and sanctions and warned other countries that any attempt to interfere would lead to consequences they had ”never seen”.
Chopra Jonas, who is a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, took to Instagram and shared a news clipping of the Ukraine crisis. ”The situation unfolding in Ukraine is terrifying. Innocent people living in fear for their lives and the lives of their loved ones, while trying to navigate the uncertainty of the immediate future,” she wrote. The 39-year-old actor also attached a UNICEF donation link in her bio to help the children of Ukraine.
”It’s difficult to comprehend how in the modern world this could escalate to such a catastrophic point, but this is a consequential moment that will reverberate around the world. There are innocent lives living in this war zone. They are just like you and me. Here is more info at the link in my bio about how to assist the people of Ukraine,” she added.
Chopra Jonas is the latest Hindi film personality to show solidarity with Ukraine after filmmakers Onir, Rahul Dholakia, actor Tillotama Shome condemned Russia’s special military operation, which President Vladimir Putin claimed was intended to protect civilians. Big explosions were heard before dawn in Kyiv, Kharkiv and Odesa.
